Lighten the tone, why do you commute by bike?

DonDaddyD

We've spent so much time arguing of late I've forgotten why I even like any of you (That was a joke, look at the emoticons! OK Sara!)

Anywho we have been debating over RLJ's, is the Kuota better than the Ribble Sportive, Democracy and how Porgy single handedly caused the tube strike (another joke).

So SCR and following the rules aside what is it about commuting that you love? Why does a Lawyer commute on two Cervelo's, shaves his legs and dresses like a Smurf? Why is Greg T, er... Greg T?

But seriously why do you do it? What got you started and what do you love about it?

Porgy

What a question! I hardly know where to start. This week I've been forced to use public transport and really the fact that cycling is so completely unlike using public transport is what I like best.

I'm in control - route, time, speed
No distractions (apart from the obvious) so I can think
it forces me to wake up - wheras PT sends me back to near-sleep
The otherness - it helps emphasise my individuality
It's a lot of fun!
Don;t need the gym

lost_in_thought

Commuting on two cervelos is excessive, even by Greg's standards. I'm sure most people can only ride one at a time.

I started it because buses suck and I hate taking the disease-ridden, unreliable tube, and continued because I believe it's the best way to get around London and, probably more importantly, I enjoy it.

Roastie

"I like to ride my bicycle. I like to ride my bike. I like to ride my bicycle. I like to ride it where I like..."

I just love riding my bicycle.

Citizen Smith

Fitness, fresh air, getting to see bits of London that I never knew existed and also the architecture, cost, speed, adrenalin!

What got me started: controlling my own destiny instead of using public transport.

bigmat

1. Quicker than the tube
2. Avoids the tube
3. Its free
4. Its good exercise
5. I love cycling
6. Its an extra hour a day in the great outdoors

That's just off the top of my head. I think the main thing is that I now see my commute as part of my free time rather than as part of my job. 8)

DonDaddyD

Me? I do it because riding a bike was one of my earliest passions and it has never stopped being a passion of mine.

Why do I do it

When I was younger (10 - 12) and used to watch the Tour de France on Channel 4
I always wanted to be that guy! When I was out playing (on my green 6-speed Raliegh Even More Extreme mountain bike) and used to see the mythical lycra clad ninjas zooming past on their roadies with wraps, cool looking helmets and funky shoes I wanted to be that guy!

I always had a bike and in some capacity I have ridden to work (namely Virgin Megastores and a Pub back when I worked part time as a Student). Now that I have a disposable income I can afford to integrate cycling proper into my life and relive my childhood everyday.

What got me started
I went to the doctors for a 'fat' test. Didn't like what he had to say, out went binge drinking, smoking, consecutive Friday and Saturday nights out in bars drinking, smoking and kebabs or chicken at the end of each night (2 - 4 takeaways a week takes it toll) and in came the Giant Escape M2 and cycling to work.

What do I love about it
How it makes me feel physically and reliving my childhood every day I cycle.

Cafewanda

No bike as a child (cue violins and appointment with therapist :roll: ). Watched the growth of cyclists in London and thought "safety in numbers, I'll learn to cycle and commute to work". 4 years later, after mucho fear and 9 months commuting, it's a joy (most of the time) even in the rain.

I want another bike!!! :shock:

simon_ramsey

I started cycle commuting about 2 years ago as I was fed up with travelling by tube in the summer - it's disgusting (sorry DDD & Porgy we're not supposed to mention the tube on this new thread )

I love cycling so get to do something I enjoy every day. My commute is free fitness training for my real passion MTB'ing at the weekend.

I MTFU'd up this winter so have kept my fitness all year for the first time - what a difference it made to my riding in the spring.

gtvlusso

DDD, once again the thread of reason is posted by you!

I do it now, because I have done it for 17 years off and on! Aside from a stint on motorcycles as I was going 40 miles each way daily (and traveling for business!) and a few years of working abroad (where I cycle commuted wherever possible).

I have practically given up driving cars nowadays, had too many years of driving all over Europe and America for work, sat in traffic. I cycle everywhere for everything......!

I enjoyed cycle commuting in Italy though - whole new flavour to it! I guess, in a sense I was reborn after a stint in the wilderness.....

I love the lack of traffic congestion, the fitness level and the summer tan lines. Lots of equipment to buy and maintain, for the fellas. And it brings a fresh beginning to the day and lets you take out you frustrations in the evening.

Also comes back to riding BMX bikes when we were kids, building jumps and digging tracks in out local park. Started cycle racing and TT racing, go into triathlon and rowing, quit rowing, now getting back into TT racing (fixed wheel!) and enjoy mountain biking with Wilma the pup. I did do allot of mountain biking when I was a teen with my mates, but bikes then weighed more than a Jaguar.....so, I went off it pretty quick!

Always had a connection with cycling and unusually large thighs....knew they were useful for something!

will3

MatHammond wrote:

3. Its free

Yeah right that's what you tell 't better half eh? Bikes are free I spend no money on maintenance at all. hmmmmm

Porgy

simon_ramsey wrote:

I started cycle commuting about 2 years ago as I was fed up with travelling by tube in the summer - it's disgusting (sorry DDD & Porgy we're not supposed to mention the tube on this new thread )

I love cycling so get to do something I enjoy every day. My commute is free fitness training for my real passion MTB'ing at the weekend.

I MTFU'd up this winter so have kept my fitness all year for the first time - what a difference it made to my riding in the spring.

I absolutely hate using the tube too. I used to work for a guy who was really anti-cycling - about 15 years ago - and he would rant and rave about cyclists and what he called "tree huggers" regularly. when he found out I cycled he threatened to to take disciplinary action against me!! :shock: I'm not sure on what basis - he was a nutter. He thought that as I had free transport in the tube I should be using it. He wanted to stop me storing my bike at work and using the shower!!

Anyway - in the end I forced him to back the f*ck off.

Aidy

I started commuting by bike pretty recently, although I've done it elsewhere before.

I've always been into cycling though, it's what I do for fun.
Commuting in by bike was always part of "the plan" - I moved a bit closer to work to make this feasible, although I'm still a fair way out

I wasn't blind to the fact that cycling would be considerably cheaper than catching trains, but the main reason was quality of life.
Riding bikes makes me a happier person; even if I do get frustrated by the odd idiot on the road, sprinting off afterwards rids me of that annoyance and relaxes me. Sitting/standing in a carriage full of overstressed people impatient to get to their destinations is not a fun experience. Time on a train feels wasted, time on a bike well spent.

Also, it's a great way of keeping fitness up for my weekend rides

UndercoverElephant

I started on "Earth Day", as a bit of a joke, and to shut the cycle bores in the office up a bit (my commute is longer than any of theirs). I enjoyed it, which surprised me quite a lot. I like being able to say "Good Morning" to people whilst commuting. And once the aches had gone away, I tried it again. Then I bought a better saddle, and have done it three times a week since.

Work is hopefully setting up a cycle to work scheme sometime, so I might get a decent bike, and enjoy it even more. It's good exercise, I like scalping people, and it feels so much better than travelling five miles an hour in a car along packed streets.

Sad thing is, I think I'm becoming a cycle-bore.

il_principe

'Cos I can't afford a car...

lost_in_thought

Porgy wrote:

Anyway - in the end I forced him to back the f*ck off.

Did you go on strike?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Greg T

If I had to train and tube to work every day I would have jacked and done something less well paid but more rewarding in the country.

I'd live in a big house with a nice garden, the Landlord in my local would know my usual, I'd turn out for the Pub rugby team and have a small manageable mortgage that I didn't have to keep on the hamster wheel of hell to pay.

Bike Commuting has ruined my life!!!!!

Chewy Cheeks

Why do I do it
1. Excercise
2. Saves me money
3. I enjoy it

What got me started
Moving to an office with showers and storage in May 2005, wanted to do it for years but facilities have been less than funky.



What do I love about it

Feeling well, sleeping better, eating well, blows away a hangover (not so many these days though), the cycling esprit de corp's and nice bikes..

I dread to think how much I would weigh if I didn't do it.

simon_ramsey

I was worried when I first started that using my bike as a form of transport might have taken some of the enjoyment away from my leisure riding - i.e after 5 days of riding to and from work the last thing I would want to do is go out cycling at the weekend. But I think it did the opposite due to my improved fitness. Probably helped that I had 2 bikes my commute bike & my MTB.

Aidy

Just remembered another reason; the freedeom of being able to leave 5 minutes later.

Leaving 5 minutes late if I'm catching the train can cost me up to an hour.

Porgy

lost_in_thought wrote:

Porgy wrote:

Anyway - in the end I forced him to back the f*ck off.

Did you go on strike?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Ha ha ha! :?

no reason prevailed - i persuaded other rmanagers that he was a nutter - which wasn;t hard.

Roastie

Cafewanda wrote:

No bike as a child (cue violins and appointment with therapist :roll: ). Watched the growth of cyclists in London and thought "safety in numbers, I'll learn to cycle and commute to work". 4 years later, after mucho fear and 9 months commuting, it's a joy (most of the time) even in the rain.

I want another bike!!! :shock:

That is a seriously cool story.

I have mates who have ridden bikes as kids, and irregularly go MTBing but think I am bonkers to cycle in London "because it is so dangerous" (and so, instead, use the tube, etc.).

I can only imagine that as someone who didn't even ride as a kid it would be doubly, nay triply daunting. Top marks on ya!

CiB

Cycling is freedom if you live on a farm a bit out of the way, when you’re 9 and want to get to & from school under your own steam, when you’re a bit older and want to go off up to the village to play football & hang about with your mates, or want to knock off the paper round in about 35 minutes instead of an hour or so esp on Saturdays to be back in time for the football scores coming in.

It’s the freedom when you start work and don’t want to be reliant on PT, friends, relatives, work colleagues etc taking you into work, freedom to get to the pub in 10 minutes instead of a 40 minute hike across the fields, not worrying about the DD laws; it’s also the option of still being mobile when you get caught ignoring those same DD laws a few months later and find yourself having an enforced lay off from driving for a year (I was only 17…).

There’s the buzz of being able to do it, 7 miles to work when I was 19 when other kids were driving 300 yards cos lads love their cars, or doing 11 miles across Nottingham in all weathers even though we had a perfectly decent car sitting outside the house, or 20+ miles to this office. It’s not difficult, but it’s making the leap to get out of the car and doing it a better way that I enjoy.

And at then end of all, we all know that we enjoy the banter, the colleague who pokes his head into the office and calls you a nutter for doing it but is obviously impressed at the idea and wishes he could, or being introduced to the new finance manager with the words ‘this is Chris; his bike is worth more than his car* and he’ll keep asking for a shower facility in the building’. Too right I will. ‘Hello – nice to meet you. Can we have a shower facility?’

*It’s not, but it will be soon…

simon_ramsey

jashburnham wrote:

'Cos I can't afford a car...

and this has nothing to do with the fact that you have blown all your cash on bikes ??

Gazzaputt

Fitness and I hate the train.

greg66_tri_v2.0

lost_in_thought wrote:

Commuting on two cervelos is excessive, even by Greg's standards. I'm sure most people can only ride one at a time.

I ain't most people, baby. 8)

Have you SEEN what I can straddle?

Oh yes, the question.

Pretty simple. I started when I lived in Highgate. So the choice: the bike, or the Northern Line.

I didn't have to be asked twice.

It has sort of overtaken me a bit though. When we moved from Norf Lundun to Sahf Lahndan, I restricted how far out we'd go by working out how far I was prepared to ride each way.

Of course, after a few weeks I realised I could have put up with living much further out. :roll:

artaxerxes

For fitness, the sheer joy of crossing the Thames on a glorious summer's day, or a crisp winter morning. Watching my weight and waist remain stable while eating anything I want, while all the non cyclists in the office struggle with expanding waistlines and a never ending series of fad diets.


How I started...my mum taught me and my sister how to ride in our apartment block's garage.
First bike was a heavyweight BSO (well a BMX Shaped Object as this was the 80s), this was stolen after a year, and I didn't touch a bike for 20 years after that.

lost_in_thought

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Commuting on two cervelos is excessive, even by Greg's standards. I'm sure most people can only ride one at a time.

I ain't most people, baby. 8)

Have you SEEN what I can straddle?

No, but I've heard stories

greg66_tri_v2.0

lost_in_thought wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Commuting on two cervelos is excessive, even by Greg's standards. I'm sure most people can only ride one at a time.

I ain't most people, baby. 8)

Have you SEEN what I can straddle?

No, but I've heard stories

Oi! Eyes off that, Pandora!

soy_sauce

Do it because:

1) it save me money for buses everyday
2) it only take half of the time to get to work than by buses
3) can't stand the depressing surrounding on the bus specially in the morning when most people still half asleep on the bus.
4) start work early = leave work early

What got me started:

C2W scheme


I love it because:

1) It's free
2) love spending time on the time in general

blu3cat

Pretty simple. I started when I lived in Highgate. So the choice: the bike, or the Northern Line.

I didn't have to be asked twice.

+1

in summer on a bike, there is only one sweaty B*stard and that's me. On the Northern Line....... :shock:

It gives me an excuse to spend more money than I would otherwise consider spending on a cycle as it is my transport to work and will eventually pay for itself (if only I could stop buying little gadgets and bling for the bike)

You start out with a hangover, and arrive at work feeling alert and ready for the day.