Commuting facilities - Wish list

Paul 8v

I'm in the fortunate position to have been asked about what facilities I might want/need for commuting to work for our new office.

At the moment it's pretty much a blank canvas, I'm wondering if there is anything I've missed and if anyone has any funky bits at their place of work I could incorporate in the wish list (Within reason)

We're not in the city, we're out in the stick so at the moment out of about 200 people, only 4 or so ride in regularly but more cyclists is always a good thing as it frees up parking!

My list so far is:

Covered, secure bike storage facility
Some sort of track pump attached to it that is weatherproof
Showers
Kit Storage
Somewhere to dry clothes/drying room/cabinet

When it comes to the drying/storage of clothes I'm pretty clueless, at the moment it is a radiator in the office with my bib shorts etc draped over it, not the best look for your nice new office to be!

Any ideas or products people could recommend would be really helpful as this is basically my chance to have some really nice facilities, not being a city boy I've not really seen what people are doing these days, I'm just grateful we have a shower in our current office as I've never worked anywhere with one before!

Thanks

Paul

bompington

Think that pretty much covers it.

Maybe just need a few signs around the building explaining why it isn't necessarily true that people commuting by bike must be mad, or brave, or keen, fit, etc.

Paul 8v

bompington wrote:

Think that pretty much covers it.

Maybe just need a few signs around the building explaining why it isn't necessarily true that people commuting by bike must be mad, or brave, or keen, fit, etc.

Haha, like the other friday "You must be mad riding in all that snow"
Err no, you must be mad driving in it!

kingdav

I have a wonderful set-up at work that I really appreciate:-

- Card secured, usually manned underground secure bike parking
- bike racks with good locking points
- Shower/changing rooms
- A wardrobe at every desk
- Towel service
- free food, drinks, snacks, energy bars
- regularly visiting cycle mechanics, useful if you don't do your own spannering
- track pump and tools available

The towel service is the most important thing not so far mentioned. We had that at a previous office which was more similar in scale to your setup and cuts down on the amount of kit you end up carting about.

shirley_basso

Lockers to leave work clothes is pretty damn useful.

Currently we have a similar setup to kingdav, except for somewhere to leave my clothes (only a small locker and I wear a suit). I leave a scrunched up tshirt and shorts, come up to my office then change into my suit in the disabled bathroom which is a pain.

Also scope to grow. We have 8 shower cubicles in an office for a building with 45 stories.

Paul 8v

There's some really good ideas here, thanks everyone. I hadn't even thought about the towels and I know a really good bike mechanic who only lives about half a mile away!

thistle_

We have amazing facilities on the face of it, however:

Towel service is helpful to stop the changing room becoming a crusty towel graveyard - When I started there were 5 coat hooks for hanging up towels/kit to dry, we managed. I asked if we could have some more so now there;'s about 30. What used to fit on 5 hooks now takes up 30. People just leave stuff in there, a couple of us chucked out about 20 towels that nobody was claiming a few months back but magically all the hooks are taken up again.
There's only two of us cycling to work at the moment :roll:

Track pump - just buy one from Wilko/Halfords and keep it by your desk. Send an email around to say you've got a pump if anyone needs it. If work buy one and it's left lying around somewhere it will get wrecked/nicked.

Bike stands - Sheffield stands, plenty of space between so you can get to locks and people aren't knocking your bike over to lock theirs up, and offset from any walls so you can get actually lock your bike up.

+1 for ventilation. Put the clothes storage in the draughtiest place in the office. If it rains on the way in, or in the middle of summer I have to go home in wet/sweaty kit because our changing room has zero ventilation. If you can somehow get hooks that let you hang kit off the wall it will help both sides dry

Get the showers/changing rooms on the cleaning rota. It's pretty grim having to walk barefoot through mud which has been there for a week.

cougie

There are some tool stations in car parks at tube stations like blackheath or Greenwich - it's like a bike stand with spanners and alllen keys attached by wire as well as a track pump.

My Changing room at work is a veritable treasure trove of abandoned kit. But almost impossible to keep on top of it as potentially there's 100s of people using it. Seriously there's one teeshirt that's been there for a decade.

Allocated pegs might be a good idea ? Just to Keep things neat.

kingdav

Somewhat draconian, but the security team at our office remove left kit within a day, keep it for a few weeks and then dispose of it if not sought out and collected.

slowbike

I'm reasonably lucky - my bike storage is in my office - next to my desk - I don't bother locking it.
If they were to remove that then I'd like locked "in door" storage for the bike - where I could safely leave it.
I used to keep a track pump in the office - just let others know it was there. Similar for tubes.

We don't currently have a shower and changing facility is just the mens toilet - which is ok as we can lock it so change in private - clothes storage is in our office - so lockers would be nice - along with somewhere to discretely dry cycle kit.

USB charging is almost a necessity these days (just doing my back light now) but I suppose you just connect it to your computer - just could be a pain having to remove it all from the bike

graeme_s-2

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

Track pump - just buy one from Wilko/Halfords and keep it by your desk. Send an email around to say you've got a pump if anyone needs it. If work buy one and it's left lying around somewhere it will get wrecked/nicked..

I work on a uni campus and we have one of these installed on campus near a load of the bike racks now:

https://www.cyclehoop.com/product/pumps-stations/pump/

In our building me and one of the other cyclists just bought a track pump and most cyclists know where to find it. We do have decent covered Sheffield stands for 50-odd bikes now, and I have considered asking them to install one of the cyclehoop pumps in the courtyard there

defever

I echo everyone else's valuable comments here, and well done Paul for a good list to start with!

Small practical comments:

Changing room locker, we have one of these mesh typve and ventilated lockers:



Obviously, and literally, your items are visible, but just to hang your bibs & towels, they are very practical. Valuables can be sotored away in the usual concealed locker.

Also re: pumps and tools. As Graeme_S mentioned, we have one of these:



Very useful, IF IT'S NOT VANDILISED or completely exposed outside... The gauge often suffers from condensation (you can't see the gauge obscured by condensation inside...), the pump end is often damaged and us presta valve riders suffer from poor seal / lack of adapter, rendering it pretty useless. The pump does get repaired time to time but soon becomes vandilised again... something to concider about the location and maintenance aspect of investing in one.

We also have one of these (bike repair station):



Equipped with basic set of allen key multi-tool and spanners, they are quite handy and I've used them few times to adjust brake calipers, saddle height, inner tube swap, etc. Again, as above, location and maintenance are the key to making this useful.

Happy cycling!

Paul 8v

Thanks for everyone who has replied, I sent off my wishlist today and I'll see how much of it we can get but there were some great ideas.

I've just got to convince them to do the cycle to work scheme now as I'm meeting loads of resistance to it. I thought it was meant to be minimal input from the company!?

davis

Paul 8v wrote:

Thanks for everyone who has replied, I sent off my wishlist today and I'll see how much of it we can get but there were some great ideas.

I've just got to convince them to do the cycle to work scheme now as I'm meeting loads of resistance to it. I thought it was meant to be minimal input from the company!?

it *is* minimal input. If they can handle childcare vouchers then they can handle cycle to work.

Only other thing that might be worth considering, but it completely depends on your building layout is whether you can re-use the warm dry air from the aircon output units to "blow dry" kit. Ventilation for free, and it might help a business case....

figbat

One more thing, if it's not too late. Will anybody turn up on a muddy MTB? Our work is in the sticks with plenty of byways and bridlepaths nearby; in the car park we have one of those forecourt-style air compressor/water dispenser with decent water pressure - useful to get the worst of the clag off of the mechs etc and cars get to use it too.

Paul 8v

davis wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

Thanks for everyone who has replied, I sent off my wishlist today and I'll see how much of it we can get but there were some great ideas.

I've just got to convince them to do the cycle to work scheme now as I'm meeting loads of resistance to it. I thought it was meant to be minimal input from the company!?

it *is* minimal input. If they can handle childcare vouchers then they can handle cycle to work.

Only other thing that might be worth considering, but it completely depends on your building layout is whether you can re-use the warm dry air from the aircon output units to "blow dry" kit. Ventilation for free, and it might help a business case....

That's a good idea, and eco friendly!

Paul 8v

figbat wrote:

One more thing, if it's not too late. Will anybody turn up on a muddy MTB? Our work is in the sticks with plenty of byways and bridlepaths nearby; in the car park we have one of those forecourt-style air compressor/water dispenser with decent water pressure - useful to get the worst of the clag off of the mechs etc and cars get to use it too.

I will turn up on a muddy CX bike a lot of the time to be fair!

JamesBikes

I think the most important thing is to have the shelter secured, if its outside. I know a few people who didn't bother cycling in because they didn't want to leave their bikes in an unsecured shelter. Spoke to the facilities manager and got one of these:
https://www.urbanfab.com/products.php?p ... er-10-Bike

Literally no reason to not get a secured shelter. I really like that bike pump though!

wolfsbane2k

Looks like a good list above.

It's worth having a look at the local Supplimentary Planning Documents for Cycle Parking if it's a new build - depending on where you are the council can have some very stringent specifications on facilties.

However, have a really good read yourself before you direct your bosses at the standards.. some are, frankly, shocking, and still allow wheel benders for the long term storage of bikes!

richk

My requirements are ;
Sheffield stand / secure bike parking - covered would be a bonus
decent size locker / changing room

Fortunately (for me) I get both