Commute-tastic

UPGRAYEDD

Have recently started commuting from home in the foothills of the Mendips to work, in Bristol. Thought it would be a bit of a nightmare, but even when leaving late (8.30pm), it's still not too bad on the home stretch. Really really chuffed that have started to do this - means that exercise becomes a (near) compulsory part of the commute and now I don't have to use up my free time going to the gym. Plus, I seem to be able to eat like a pig yet it makes no difference!

All I can say is:

(1) thank you to Hope for making decent lights (Cat-Eye - you miserably failed me on unlit country roads - meh); and

(2) Highways Agency - spend some bloody money filling in the moon crater-sized potholes in the Chew Valley before somebody comes off and seriously injures themselves FFS.

Hopefully can keep this up - has massively improved quality of life.

laughingboy

UPGRAYEDD wrote:

Have recently started commuting from home in the foothills of the Mendips to work, in Bristol. Thought it would be a bit of a nightmare, but even when leaving late (8.30pm), it's still not too bad on the home stretch. Really really chuffed that have started to do this - means that exercise becomes a (near) compulsory part of the commute and now I don't have to use up my free time going to the gym. Plus, I seem to be able to eat like a pig yet it makes no difference!

All I can say is:

(1) thank you to Hope for making decent lights (Cat-Eye - you miserably failed me on unlit country roads - meh); and

(2) Highways Agency - spend some bloody money filling in the moon crater-sized potholes in the Chew Valley before somebody comes off and seriously injures themselves FFS.

Hopefully can keep this up - has massively improved quality of life.

I think that this is the message that the UK needs to hear. Commuting by bike improves your quality of life. It makes you fitter, happier, richer and - hell, yeah - smugger.

Oh, and cyclists live longer than non-cyclists. So that smug self-satisfaction lasts.

As a country, we have some distance to go before the majority of the population realises that, by not cycling, they are missing out on living.

waddlie

UPGRAYEDD wrote:

Have recently started commuting from home in the foothills of the Mendips to work, in Bristol. Thought it would be a bit of a nightmare, but even when leaving late (8.30pm), it's still not too bad on the home stretch. Really really chuffed that have started to do this - means that exercise becomes a (near) compulsory part of the commute and now I don't have to use up my free time going to the gym. Plus, I seem to be able to eat like a pig yet it makes no difference!

All I can say is:

(1) thank you to Hope for making decent lights (Cat-Eye - you miserably failed me on unlit country roads - meh); and

(2) Highways Agency - spend some bloody money filling in the moon crater-sized potholes in the Chew Valley before somebody comes off and seriously injures themselves FFS.

Hopefully can keep this up - has massively improved quality of life.

Aha, I see another potential victim for the Brizzle Social Club.

Re the potholes, these are an issue for the local council; the Highways Agency are only responsible for maintaining motorways and major a-roads. If there are serious potholes that need filling, contact the local council which *I think* is BANES, preferably with photographs and a sob-story about how you rode into one, fell off your bike and suffered some sort of personal injury.

Cafewanda

@ laughinboy

"I think that this is the message that the UK needs to hear. Commuting by bike improves your quality of life. It makes you fitter, happier, richer and - hell, yeah - smugger."

That only works if you stay away from Wiggle, CRC, Probike, Evans etc...............


or is that just me?

laughingboy

Cafewanda wrote:

@ laughinboy

"I think that this is the message that the UK needs to hear. Commuting by bike improves your quality of life. It makes you fitter, happier, richer and - hell, yeah - smugger."

That only works if you stay away from Wiggle, CRC, Probike, Evans etc...............

or is that just me?

No, it's not just you. I commute on a 1980s six-speed tourer and think of myself as slightly ascetic, but over the last month or two I have bought:

some lovely Gilles Berthoud stainless steel mudguards to replace the old ESGE ones that dramatically failed on my commuting bike (sod asceticism, I couldn't resist the matching GB leather mudflap);

a nice Busch and Muller IXON IQ front light (bright enough for really dark darkness, and a nice bike-specific beam pattern);

I then got carried away and bought some Carradice Carradry panniers to replace my old cordura (non-waterproof) Altura Orkneys.

So, that's a lot of dosh (£200 all in) just to set me up for the winter.

But the key thing is that I expect to be using all of these things for many years, and it equates to - what? - four tanks of petrol. Ahhh, happiness...

Initialised

There's also knowing you had way more fun on the daily commute than the poor sods stuck in gridlock. I guess you could file that under smugness, but it's more than that.