Just started Cycling to work!

Twisterboy

Well I've started week 1 of cycling to work at long last but abliet not on my bike, my poor virage needs a new rear mec, rim tape, new inner tube and new tyre so I've been using my wifes bike (not a girls frame) and have started to cycle to work with the better weather.

My journey to work is about 6 miles and takes me about 40-50 to complete and been finding it quite hard once I get to the uphill sections, it is mostly cycle path and I only have to use the roads to join the cycle paths.

Yesterday disaster struck I took a diffrent way to work and I had to join the pavement as the roads were heaving full of traffic so I rang the bell to a pedistian to inform him I was coming onto the pavement as the junction is not the best to cycle through, but got no reponse from the pedistian, so I slammed the brakes on to stop quickly and the bike went out of control belted a kerb and I went over the handle bars, the pedistian kept walking and did not bother about me if I was hurt, lucky my skid lid and knee took some of the action but the bike sounded in a bad way.

Later got my friend who likes his bikes and he took one look and basically said my wifes bike was a supermarket special and was not well put together, so he fixed it all and the bike feels much stronger when I cycled today, really enjoying the cycle to work, beats the bus and the car which does roughly about 30 miles a week now if it's lucky as the route from my house is quite scenic going over farmers fields and burns and the queens park in edinburgh and it's all better when I go home in the evening when it's all downhill.

So my question is what is your route to work like if you cycle?

Cheers

David

Nik_B

Is it possible to have a good look at a map and see if you can stay off some of the busier bits of road? Sounds nice anyway.

You may want to put on you flame proof suit for admitting to riding on a pavement though. Best thing in that situation is at the very least make sure both your feet are on the pavement and slowly freewheel or just get off and walk that bit. The pavement is for pedestrians only and there will never be a shortage of officious types to criticise you no matter how tiny the infringement was.

ratty2k

Yer, dont ride on footpaths first.... But away from that, have a look at a map as suggested and see if you can avoid the worst parts. I know I did on my old commute, big roundabout with cars entering at 40mph and a big long round one as well- never felt safe unless it was 06:30 and not many cars about there...

XxxBFGxxX

Hello Twisterboy

I to ride to work been doing it for about 8 month now. Managed to loseabout 2 ish stone but have also tned up on my legs. I ride 20 mile a day 10 mile to and 10 mile from takes me about 45 min on my susser and about 35 to 40 min on my piont reyes. Mine is a very hilly route but i love it i love pushing my self on the hills and think i get faster each time. I rarely get over taken any more witch is god as i hate it.

Right down to the pavment thing not gona have a go coz we have all done it at some piont. I find if i stay of the paths i can get to work faster as i aint stopping and starting.

Any way cap ep up the good work things will get better and i promise yu will love it and get the time down to work

Twisterboy

Forgot to say once I get onto the pavement I do tend to come off and walk the bike, and I only ever do this at busy junctions anyhow.

I will look at a map and see if there is any flater bits that avoid roads and try to keep on a path most of the way, the route I use is the national cycle route 1 from Musselburgh to Edinburgh.

David

soy_sauce

been commuting since Sept last night and is only 2.5 miles each way. mainly on road but i do cycle on the pavement sometimes because i don't do filtering.
don't understand the problem with cycling on the pavement, as long as you are doing it sensibly. (i.e. cycle slowly or just freewheeling, get off the bike when you need to past some people on the pavement)

cat_with_no_tail

henry_ho_yin wrote:

been commuting since Sept last night and is only 2.5 miles each way. mainly on road but i do cycle on the pavement sometimes because i don't do filtering.
don't understand the problem with cycling on the pavement, as long as you are doing it sensibly. (i.e. cycle slowly or just freewheeling, get off the bike when you need to past some people on the pavement)

:shock: TAKE COVER!

soy_sauce

Cat With No Tail wrote:

henry_ho_yin wrote:

been commuting since Sept last night and is only 2.5 miles each way. mainly on road but i do cycle on the pavement sometimes because i don't do filtering.
don't understand the problem with cycling on the pavement, as long as you are doing it sensibly. (i.e. cycle slowly or just freewheeling, get off the bike when you need to past some people on the pavement)

:shock: TAKE COVER!

do wear my Helmet, so should be fine. 8)

Nik_B

I bunny hop any old lady shorter than 5 ft tall.

cat_with_no_tail

Nik_B wrote:

I bunny hop any old lady shorter than 5 ft tall.

Post of the day so far

ratty2k

henry_ho_yin wrote:

been commuting since Sept last night and is only 2.5 miles each way. mainly on road but i do cycle on the pavement sometimes because i don't do filtering.
don't understand the problem with cycling on the pavement, as long as you are doing it sensibly. (i.e. cycle slowly or just freewheeling, get off the bike when you need to past some people on the pavement)

Bar the fact it is illegal... and tars all sensible cyclists with bad feelings from pedestrians. No need for it anyway.

noodleman

Shouldn't ride on the pavement ever. See people doing it a lot though and they expect pedestrians to move out of their way. Best to stay on the road, if you hit and injured someone whilst on the pavement i imagine you would be in deep s**t.

ski-freak

come live in scunthorpe, apart from the fact that the place is an absolute sh1thole full of inbred retards pretty much all of the pavements are double width pedestrian/cycle paths which is amazing to get about on. my commute is just over 2 miles and is mostly all on these cycleways! one thing the local council have got right!

ski-freak

also, what tyres do people use for their commute. ive still got my tioga blue dragons on which are bloody terrible for road riding. ive got another set of rims ready to put new tyres on for the purpose of commuting/ general road/ light gravel riding but just cant decide. any suggestions?

projectsome

Twisterboy wrote:

Well I've started week 1 of cycling to work at long last but abliet not on my bike, my poor virage needs a new rear mec, rim tape, new inner tube and new tyre so I've been using my wifes bike (not a girls frame) and have started to cycle to work with the better weather.

My journey to work is about 6 miles and takes me about 40-50 to complete and been finding it quite hard once I get to the uphill sections, it is mostly cycle path and I only have to use the roads to join the cycle paths.

Yesterday disaster struck I took a diffrent way to work and I had to join the pavement as the roads were heaving full of traffic so I rang the bell to a pedistian to inform him I was coming onto the pavement as the junction is not the best to cycle through, but got no reponse from the pedistian, so I slammed the brakes on to stop quickly and the bike went out of control belted a kerb and I went over the handle bars, the pedistian kept walking and did not bother about me if I was hurt, lucky my skid lid and knee took some of the action but the bike sounded in a bad way.

Later got my friend who likes his bikes and he took one look and basically said my wifes bike was a supermarket special and was not well put together, so he fixed it all and the bike feels much stronger when I cycled today, really enjoying the cycle to work, beats the bus and the car which does roughly about 30 miles a week now if it's lucky as the route from my house is quite scenic going over farmers fields and burns and the queens park in edinburgh and it's all better when I go home in the evening when it's all downhill.

So my question is what is your route to work like if you cycle?

Cheers

David

I too would have ignored you! if you're going on the pavement you should get off and walk.



As for my route to work, it's pretty boring. it's all city. The only good bit is the totty closer to the offices

crrazzzyy

My route to work is 10 mile each way and mainly up hill on the way to work which is a killer at 6.45am, i dont ride every day about 2-3 days a week but intend to ride every day soon i did last year, but feel a ,lot unfitter this year :oops:
There are a few variations i can take which is good mainly bridleways about 20 percent road whichever way i go so cant compliain ...........

Time to work about 45-50 mins Time home is 30 mins just because of the hills

Northwind

I use a wee bit of pavement on mine, but I'd never expect anyone to move for me, I'm riding on their road so to speak. But I reckon you've learned that lesson without being lectured at I use schwalbe marathons on my road bike, punctureproof and a bit heavy but they're pretty fast rolling and do the job perfectly. Nice commute!!

CycloRos

Shouldn't ride on the pavement ever

I have to disagree. Yeah it may be illegal, blah blah but its all down to taking personal responsibility.

My daily commute (9 miles each way) is a mixture of road/cycle paths and canal towpath. A lot of the cycle paths and obviously the towpath has to be shared with pedestrians, its all about acting respecfully and not riding like an a*se.

There are plenty of sections in the city where the cycle lane/path just ends and I'm faced with a choice, 3 lanes of rush hour nutters in tin boxes or a couple of pedestrians on a footpath for 200 yards until the cycle lane reappears.

Daz555

CycloRos wrote:

Shouldn't ride on the pavement ever

I have to disagree. Yeah it may be illegal, blah blah but its all down to taking personal responsibility.

My daily commute (9 miles each way) is a mixture of road/cycle paths and canal towpath. A lot of the cycle paths and obviously the towpath has to be shared with pedestrians, its all about acting respecfully and not riding like an a*se.

There are plenty of sections in the city where the cycle lane/path just ends and I'm faced with a choice, 3 lanes of rush hour nutters in tin boxes or a couple of pedestrians on a footpath for 200 yards until the cycle lane reappears.

The road is the place for cyclists and if they don't fancy the road, (using your example) they should walk the 200 yds.

soy_sauce

ski-freak wrote:

also, what tyres do people use for their commute. ive still got my tioga blue dragons on which are bloody terrible for road riding. ive got another set of rims ready to put new tyres on for the purpose of commuting/ general road/ light gravel riding but just cant decide. any suggestions?

i am using a pair of schwalbe Land Cruiser, they are cheap semi slicks with punctureproof. only bad point is that they are around 800g each so are quite heavy.

BobbyTrigger

been riding the communte rain or shine (or snow) every day for a year now and love it - the only way to travel. Approx 3 miles each way - wee bit of designated cycle path but mainly roads the whole way. Not great dodging the rush hour traffic on the main east route into Newcastle but i cannit stand riding on the pavement so roads it is for me. Plus i get to annoy drivers by passing them stuck in traffic

problem with cycle paths that i have is the council decided to make the pedestrian path the designated cycle path also - nonsense if you ask me. okay if they're super wide and can be marked. these arent though, so i flat refuse to use them.

thebluefox

If i was a pedestrian and even got close to being hit by a cyclist I'd go mental. Bikes belong on the road or on cycle paths, nowhere else.

I'm planning to cycle to work soon, 9 miles there and 9 back, about 4 is road and about 5 is path I think. I can't bring myself to do it on my shit heap though.

CycloRos

If i was a pedestrian and even got close to being hit by a cyclist I'd go mental

As would I, the point I was trying to make earlier is that as long as you're riding responsibly and not treating pedestrians as moving chicanes then I don't see the problem in riding footpaths.

There are plenty of examples where different types of user share the same space like the "right to roam" law in Scotland which is a much better approach as long as "The rights exist only if they are exercised responsibly".

So what does everyone think about street-riding/trials in general then? As mtb'ers there must be a conflict of interest there?

Northwind

Daz555 wrote:

The road is the place for cyclists and if they don't fancy the road, (using your example) they should walk the 200 yds.

Why? If there's a quiet pavement which can be ridden safely without inconveniencing anyone else, why not use it? Other than "Because you shouldn't" or "because it's the law".