The Tyne and Wear Commuter Thread

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  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    wind doesn't sound quite strong enough :x
  • andy9964
    andy9964 Posts: 930
    WOOHOO :D:lol::D

    A 'slight' tailwind saw me beat my PB homeward, by three minutes.
    Now standing at 24:27, over 7 miles (it took around 40 when I started in January ). Only eight minutes slower than the car
    Once I have a road bike, I'm hoping to get it under 20
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    congrats! I'm pretty much always under 50mins for my 13miles now I'm back on the summer tyres. fastest is 42mins, hoping with some luck, a tailwind and my new bike (whatever I decide on) might see me break into the sub 40mins, that's a average of 19.5mph so definitely possible.
  • Initialised
    Initialised Posts: 3,047
    Andy9964 wrote:
    WOOHOO :D:lol::D

    A 'slight' tailwind saw me beat my PB homeward, by three minutes.
    Now standing at 24:27, over 7 miles (it took around 40 when I started in January ). Only eight minutes slower than the car
    Once I have a road bike, I'm hoping to get it under 20
    Yeah, it helps, tailwind + road bike got me back towards 22 mins over 6.7miles the other day. Not quite a PB but I haven't been close for months and didn't get lucky at the lights.
    I used to just ride my bike to work but now I find myself going out looking for bigger and bigger hills.
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    Well I had an interesting ride home tonight. Came out of work at 4.30 to see dark black rain cloud moving west to east. Looked full of rain. So I set off going as fast as I could to stay ahead as long as possible before getting rained on. I them proceeded to hit every light until I got to the tyne bridge. After that the lights were pretty kind, but up the hill to heworth was slow and it felt like the rain was catching, it really felt like I was cycling away from a storm. I cycled as hard as I could, felling moisture in the air at certain slow points and got home in 40mins 57secs, averaging 18.33mph. Knocking over a minute off my best time. I had time to get in the front door, through the house to the back door to let the dogs out before the rain started. I must have only been a minute or so ahead of it. So chuffed with my time and pleased I stayed dry, well when I say dry I collapsed on the floor in a pool of sweat after letting the dogs out.

    I really feel the magic sub 40min commute is there for the taking if I can get a small tailwind and the lights are kind.
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    deposit left on a Giant Defy 1 8) just need to sort out the cyclescheme stuff, cant wait.
  • Long_Time_Lurker
    Long_Time_Lurker Posts: 1,068
    Working from home yesterday. I went out for a 3 hour ride as it was too sunny to be sat in front of a laptop.
    Riding during the week is brilliant - no sunday drivers, no dog-walkers, no glass-smashing chavs...
    2007 Felt Q720 (the ratbike)
    2012 Cube Ltd SL (the hardtail XC 26er)
    2014 Lapierre Zesty TR 329 (the full-sus 29er)
  • bucklb
    bucklb Posts: 296
    Cycling back late from town (evening at the Stand) to Whitley Bay was similarly splendid - no drivers, no dog walkers and only one chav (near Shieldfield).

    Empty roads and a tailwind was a great combination. :D
    ________________________
    So it goes ...
  • andy9964
    andy9964 Posts: 930
    anthdci wrote:
    deposit left on a Giant Defy 1 8) just need to sort out the cyclescheme stuff, cant wait.
    Applied for mine at 00:05 last night. Cannondale Symapse from Darke Cycles. Apparently they have a similar 'credit" arrangement as halfords, which lets you get the bike quicker...............hopefully
    Did you know there is a finance charge, roughly 10% of purchase price. Because Nissan loan you the money you are using to pay the hire fee every month, kept that bit quiet in the brief :evil:
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    Andy9964 wrote:
    Did you know there is a finance charge, roughly 10% of purchase price. Because Nissan loan you the money you are using to pay the hire fee every month, kept that bit quiet in the brief :evil:

    I didn't pay a 10% charge last year, and was told the deposit i left at cycleworld will be returned when I have the voucher.
  • andy9964
    andy9964 Posts: 930
    Copied this from my agreement

    LoC Amount: £700.00
    Tax Saving**: £12.87
    N.I. Saving **: £7.72
    Net monthly cost **: £43.74
    TOTAL COST OVER 12 MONTHS : £771.96
    TOTAL GROSS MONTHLY REDUCTION : £64.33

    And from the email
    Thank you for your email. Because your company have chosen to run their Bike scheme through the 3rd party funding there will be a small leasing charge to the employees.

    The scheme works by you, the employee, loaning the money to hire a bike through your company. After the 12 months it will be up to your company to choose what they want to do with the bikes.

    Kind regards,


    Might wait till I've got the bike then kick up a fuss about it
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    Ah, it's because your not buying from one of the schemes shops. Which scheme are you using? Is it cyclescheme.co.uk? They have a list of shops on their website.
  • andy9964
    andy9964 Posts: 930
    Aah, might be that. (where's the thumb up smiley when you want one)
    Getting it from Darke Cycles in Sunderland, not sure what the scheme is, I'll have a look at the site
    Cheers
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    i dont know what scheme nissan uses. But there are more than 1. cyclescheme.co.uk being the largest in the UK. But some companies use smaller ones, I know there is one scheme which means you have to buy from Halfords and another where you can only buy from Evans.
  • andy9964
    andy9964 Posts: 930
    What an absolutely glorious ride home this morning at 7:30.
    Sunny, no wind, relatively little traffic, shorts and t-shirt
    If I hadn't just finished night shift, I'd have stayed out for another hour. Roll on tomorrow :)
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    lovely isn't it. I had a baselayer on under my jersey, and it was not needed and wont be worn when I go home. I was melting by the time i got to work.
  • Captain Slackbladder
    Captain Slackbladder Posts: 175
    anthdci wrote:
    lovely isn't it. I had a baselayer on under my jersey, and it was not needed and wont be worn when I go home. I was melting by the time i got to work.

    Cracking, had a couple of lovely rides out on the roadie Sat/Mon.....strava stats of April ended at 763km.....chuffed with that.
    Resting for this week.....CTC in a day on Sat, around 120miles with just a bit of climbing involved....praying for decent weather...not to hot with a nice westerly please.
  • Tony Mc
    Tony Mc Posts: 180
    With the flash of good weather plenty people using Business park/ scotswood road route
    Nice to be back in the in shorts and S/S top + arm warmers

    Looks like its changing for the ride home as long as the rain stays off
    Getting there
  • Long_Time_Lurker
    Long_Time_Lurker Posts: 1,068
    Anyone get caught in the downpour last night?
    Bloody stopped as I got to my front door. I should have taken shelter in a bus stop for 10 minutes.
    2007 Felt Q720 (the ratbike)
    2012 Cube Ltd SL (the hardtail XC 26er)
    2014 Lapierre Zesty TR 329 (the full-sus 29er)
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    not me, i left work after it finished, was tempted to put my waterproof pants on but glad i didnt! waterproof jacket was overkill, it didn't rain at all on my way. Overshoes were a godsend though, nice dry feet when i got home.
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    Has anyone been lucky enough to live east of Newcastle and commute there yesterday and today? I did, and the weather gods were really kind. Roughly a 20mph* head wind all the way home yesterday, followed by it doing a 180degree about turn to give me another 20mph* head wind all the way to work this morning :evil: it better still be there a westerly for my ride home I'm aching all over today.

    (*mph from BBC weather)
  • tuktuk
    tuktuk Posts: 179
    Yeah i thought that. I was trying to convince myself i must have had a tailwind on the way in.

    Thankfully i have been up in Scotland all day today so a 3 day weekend off the bike.
    ReefFishForum
  • Initialised
    Initialised Posts: 3,047
    anthdci wrote:
    Has anyone been lucky enough to live east of Newcastle and commute there yesterday and today? I did, and the weather gods were really kind. Roughly a 20mph* head wind all the yesterday, followed by it doing a 180degree about turn to give me another 20mph* head wind all the way to work this morning :evil: it better still be there a westerly for my ride home I'm aching all over today.

    (*mph from BBC weather)
    Yeah, seemed windy but I didn't really feel it apart from as a headwind while heading south around lunchtime, so it must have been tailwind both ways. :D

    Anyone noticed how useful all the wind farms around are for checking wind direction?
    I used to just ride my bike to work but now I find myself going out looking for bigger and bigger hills.
  • andy9964
    andy9964 Posts: 930
    Initialised wrote:
    Anyone noticed how useful all the wind farms around are for checking wind direction?
    Yes, every day :) my rest area at work is about 100 yards from a windmill
  • Long_Time_Lurker
    Long_Time_Lurker Posts: 1,068
    I use WindAlert on my phone - was shown it by a surfer friend of mine.
    Has readouts from all of the local weather stations.
    It's pretty useful when you want to plan a ride.
    2007 Felt Q720 (the ratbike)
    2012 Cube Ltd SL (the hardtail XC 26er)
    2014 Lapierre Zesty TR 329 (the full-sus 29er)
  • Captain Slackbladder
    Captain Slackbladder Posts: 175
    Well earned rest day today after the CTC in a day on Sat. Weather was terrible until we hit Harside Cafe, thankfully it dried up after that.

    http://app.strava.com/activities/53645576


    Back on the commute tomorrow...
  • anthdci
    anthdci Posts: 543
    Really sick of the wind now, from my ride home on Thursday, to getting in this morning, I have only had 1 ride where I haven't had a huge headwind the whole way. It is really demoralizing.

    Congrats CS, I am hoping to do that this summer sometime.
  • Allez Mark
    Allez Mark Posts: 364
    Captain Slackbladder wrote:
    Well earned rest day today after the CTC in a day on Sat. Weather was terrible until we hit Harside Cafe, thankfully it dried up after that.

    http://app.strava.com/activities/53645576


    Back on the commute tomorrow...

    Great stuff Captain. I'll be doing a slightly shorter/easier version from Siloth to Tynemouth in June.
  • y33stu
    y33stu Posts: 376
    Anyone on here done the Kielder Marathon Run Bike Event??

    I've entered for this year with a team of three.... I'm doing the bike bit - the other lads I'm doing it with are pretty quick runners, so we're hoping to put a good time in. Anyone know how it works? Is it like a big relay? They run to me, then I cycle to last guy?

    Plus any route tips would be helpful. Cheers
    Cycling prints
    Band of Climbers
  • Captain Slackbladder
    Captain Slackbladder Posts: 175
    y33stu wrote:
    Anyone on here done the Kielder Marathon Run Bike Event??

    I've entered for this year with a team of three.... I'm doing the bike bit - the other lads I'm doing it with are pretty quick runners, so we're hoping to put a good time in. Anyone know how it works? Is it like a big relay? They run to me, then I cycle to last guy?

    Plus any route tips would be helpful. Cheers


    No idea but it sounds fun...i'd certainly take the bike section as well.

    Pissing down this morning, more like a February morning than an early Summer one... :(

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