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Cycle Commuting

Surely, not another article about cycle commuting?

You bet. As of August 2007, there were only 1.8 million, so I thought I'd better throw my view into the melting pot, and other such inane clichés.

It's all a bit silly really, writing so many words when so many others have made far better jobs of it. There is a really good collection of links to resources and articles about the subject on bikeforall.net, such as Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips, and Bike Commute Tips Blog, all of which are excellent places to find out about it all.

What is cycle commuting

As the name suggests, cycle commuting is commuting, upon a bicycle (though my 3 year old daughter sometimes asks if I'm going to work today in my bicycle!)

What's the point, you loony green lefty?

Well, there are many points. I'll type from my own completely biased point of view - here are what I consider to be the benefits I have found from commuting upon my two wheeled pedal powered vehicle:

1. Health Benefits:
   • Cycling is good for you. Cycling is a nice gentle exercise, which doesn't involve lots of repetitive high impact movements, like running, or hitting yourself on the head with a hammer.
   • Cycling is great for your heart. If you do lots of cycling, you will be able to amaze your friends, colleagues and facebook groupies with just how low your resting heartbeat is.
   • Cycling can make your legs muscly. This is useful if you want to wear a tiny pear of shorts and prance about, showing them off.
   • Cycling regularly can make you live longer, and prevent you from being dead sooner than you would like.
2. Financial Benefits:
   • I don't ride to work every day. I don't even do it every other day. Generally I ride twice a week, 22.5 miles to work, and 22.5 miles home again (hey, they match!). If I did that in the car, it'd cost me about £5 in diesel, and probably if I included wear and tear on the car, and car tax and MOT, it'd be more than that. So each time I ride to work, that saves me £5.00.
   • Since January 2001, until now (August 2007), I've ridden to work (Middlewich to Chester) about 300 times. So I've saved about £1,500 in that time. That sounds like a lot of money. Maybe that's because it is.
3. Avoiding-the-jams Benefits:
   • When I cycle out of Chester of an evening, it's always a thrill to find that the road is clogged up with cars. I like to ride past them, and try to commit some of the cars and vans to memory. If the road is busy, heading out on the A51 out of town, through Littleton, past the Little Chef, I can skip out on the right hand side of the lines of traffic, and power along. Often the traffic is stop-starting all the way to the turn off by the Shell Garage, where the road goes off left to Great Barrow. And then on up the A51 to the roundabout at Tarvin.
   • On a traffic filled night, I can get to that roundabout before the cars I passed in Chester town centre about 5 miles earlier. O! What a thrill. What an egotistical cycling i-beat-the-cars buzz. After that, the cars blast past me, and leave me for dead. When I drive home, I leave the office at 1700, and get home at about 1750. On a good, fast ride home, I can be home on my bike via a commute at 18:05. That's only 15 minutes slower than a car. Whooopee. Says something about what an energy efficient mode of transport cycling is...
   • On the road into Chester, at the 5-miles-to-go point, at the Tarvin roundabout, until the Shell Garage, there is often a long queue of traffic. It's a bit of a buzz going past all the Audis, VWs, BMWs, Mercedes and Chelsea Tractors on my pretty basic bicycle...
4. Nature Benefits:
   • My first real cycle commute was when I cycled from Lichfield to the old Lucas car parts place at Fradley Aerodrome. That was about a 3 mile ride down the lovely and beautiful Curborough Lane. I worked in an old aircraft hangar all day, stacking boxes and car parts. Hometime was a wonderful ride down this country lane, seeing trees, and hedgerows, and gallivanting lapwings. It was such a delight, such a bonus, such a part of the working day. I think that's where I got the bug.
   • If you commute all year long, you're out in all weathers, in the heat, in the ear-stinging cold... In March 2007 I was cycling down the A54 into Winsford in the snow, and the road was empty, and snow was settling on the road, and the snow was muffling all the sound, and it was just me, and my bike, and the tracks cutting through the snow, with the orange streetlight glow from Winsford up ahead... It was amazing.
   • Or coming home one time, in dense, thick fog. The moisture clung to my eyebrows and beard - it was like riding through a fine shower, and it felt liberating, to be out in the elements, powered by my own steam, enjoying the weather, not hiding from it, taking part in it, being part of it.
   • Other times, it's been so hot that when waiting at traffic lights, the heat beating up the from tarmac has been really intense, and I've got home feeling completely wilted and worn out. I much prefer the cold - at least you can wrap up against it. You can't do much when it's hot.

Doesn't cycle commuting make you smell?

Funnily enough, no, it doesn't. When I get to work, I'm hot and sweaty, as you tend to get on a 22 mile ride. But I sit down for a few minutes, then wash my face, arms and neck, and get changed into work clothes. Luckily my office is pretty relaxed, so I can put my cycle top on the back of my chair to dry out, and no, that doesn't smell either!

People sometimes say they'd ride to work if there were shower facilities there, but really, you don't need them. Cooling off for a few minutes when you arrive, and then having a quick wash is just as good, and takes a lot less time. Plus you don't need to carry shower paraphernalia with you, and have to sort out a wet towel afterwards.

Doesn't cycle commuting make you seem like a nutter?

Perhaps - depends on where you work, and what the people are like who you work with. Most of the time people are fine about it. Sometimes people think you're silly, or over the top, or an exercise addict. But hey, they're probably only jealous of your bulging thigh muscles!

Stuff to consider

If you do decide to commute to work, then there are some standard things you might need to help you along your way. Whether you get all of them is another matter. My "kit" has evolved over the years - I started out basic, and as time has gone by, I have made small changes, like getting better panniers, lights and cycling shoes. That's a cautionary way of saying that you don't have to go out and buy all of the best kit right away.

If you are considering cycle commuting, then start simple, and if you find you like it, and you can build the routine of it into your working life, then you might find that upgrading some of your kit will make things easier for you. Makes more sense than spending a lot of money straight away, only to find you hate it, or that you will only consider cycling when there are no clouds in the sky, and the temperature is between 18 and 23 degrees C, with a south-westerly tailwind...

A bike

Cycle commuting without a bike is quite hard. It turns into walking, and then it all goes wrong, because you can't really contemplate walking 22 miles (or whatever the distance might be) to work, unless you can walk really, really fast.

There are many thousands of bikes on the market. I try not to buy new ones, because I find the amount of choice bewildering. Instead I go for second hand bikes, because I can feel smug about not spending lots on my bike, and even more smug on the rare occasions when I overtake a cyclist on a really posh bike!

I suppose the type of bike you end up getting depends on the state of your finances, and how uptight you are or aren't about spending money on yourself. I'm uptight about it, hence the second hand route.

Mudguards

Some people rubbish the mudguards idea. I can't work out why. They stop you getting a dirty great stripe of water and road-crud and mud up your back, and they help protect your bike. It's not much fun cycling in the pouring rain without mudguards. For one thing, loads of water sprays up from your front wheel all over your feet every time you turn a corner. Mudguards might not be sporty, or cool, or light, or low profile, but they help keep me dry, and make my bike last a bit longer, so they sound like a good idea to me. I normally use the bog standard ones from Halfords, though I understand SKS Mudguards are very posh if you want to get some super-duper ones.

Panniers

On the few times I've ridden with a rucksack on, my back has become very hot and bothered, and I've felt really uncomfortable. Therefore, I prefer to fit a pannier rack to the back of my bike, and then attach a pannier to that. The pannier is a bag which can hook onto the pannier rack. You can then store bits and pieces in the pannier, meaning you don't have to use a rucksack. Great!

As with everything else in the Western World, choice will overwhelm you when it comes to choosing panniers. I started out basic, with some that had simple metal hooks that hooked onto the pannier rack. They were not very good, and I had to wrap a bungee cord around the rack, and then push a D-Lock through that, which then pushed down onto the panniers, to stop them falling off if I went over a bump. Not very elegant.

Another thing to bear in mind when thinking about panniers is whether or not they are waterproof. You can use ones which aren't, and then wrap the contents up in strong plastic bags, to keep your stuff dry. Or you can pay a bit more for panniers which have been designed to be waterproof.

I've been using a good pair of Vaude panniers which cost me about £70 a few years ago. These are made from a similar material to that used on truck tarpaulins, and are really waterproof. Another very good make is Ortlieb, and another classic UK model are Carradice panniers. Look out for panniers which have sturdy clips to connect your pannier bags to the rack. When I got my Vaude panniers, it made a real difference having strong clips which properly fastened the bags to the rack. No more D-lock fudges!

Lights

If you're thinking of commuting all year round, it's definitely worth investing in some decent lights. Once again, there is a huge range of lighting options you can select from - from those powered with standard big chunky "C" batteries, to those powered with rechargeable batteries, to dynamo lights.

For years I used fairly crappy lights, which didn't throw out much of a beam. They were more show-cars-i-am-here lights, than show-me-where-i-am-going lights. A few years ago I spent £50 on some Smart 10w/2.4w Twin Rechargeable Headlights with a Lead Acid Battery. Wow! I was amazed. These lights are so bright that you can really see where you are going on a dark country road. If you have both lights on together, the battery loses all power in about 2 hours. If you have just the 2.4 watt dip beam on, you get about 8 hours use. Having these makes me feel more confident cycling in the dark, because I know that motorists can see me.

I use these in the winter - in the summer I pack them away because the batter pack is pretty bulky, and the lights themselves are too. I also put a flashing LED light on the front of the bike as well, which I keep on all year round. If my batteries go on the twin-beams then I can use the LED front light as a back up, so that at least motorists can see me coming.

At the back of the bike, I use those flashing LED lights that you can get at Halfords and local bike shops.

Clothes

Silly one this - unless you intend to do some cycling minus clothes, then you might want to consider what you wear when you cycle.

Cycling top and shorts

For a long time, I used to wear shorts and a cotton T-shirt in the summer, and in the winter I'd wear a pair of Ron Hill Bikesters to keep my legs warm. However, on longer rides, cotton doesn't work too well. It gets clammy when you heat up, and if it gets wet, it doesn't dry quickly. When I changed to using lycra shorts I found my legs were definitely warmer in the winter (though I still keep the Ron-Hills on over the top).

I also now wear a proper cycling top, because it is made of a light material which wicks moisture away, preventing that clammy sweaty feeling. It's not massively warm, so as the temperatures start to drop, I'll wear a vest underneath the top, adding in layers to keep warm. Plus they normally have 2 or 3 pockets in the back, which are great for keeping food / keys / money in.

Arm warmers

These are really useful - arm warmers are rather like sleeves you can take on and off as you ride. So if it's a bit chilly when you start out, you can put them on. Then as you warm up, you might want to take them off - no need to stop to muck about with coats. Just pull them off and stick them in your back pocket. I wear them in winter too, to add extra warmth. I could pile on layers, but often my arms get more cold, because they're not really "doing" anything.

Cycling overshoes

Cycling overshoes are like big gloves for your feet! If it's cold, or wet, or both, you can pull them on, over your feet. They're excellent for keeping your feet warm on cold days, and dry on wet days. You just pull them over your shoes, and normally you velcro them up at the back. Well worth having, and they don't take up a lot of space, so can be kept in the bottom of your pannier, as a useful addition to your cycling kit.

Warm gloves

It's definitely worth spending a bit more on some warm winter cycling gloves. If you use standard winter gloves, then your fingers will complain a lot when you go out on a cold frosty day. I bought a pair of Peter Storm skiing gloves a few years ago in a Millets sale, and they have been fine. On a few occasions they've not been warm enough, and my hands have felt like blocks of ice by the time I've got some, but I can't justify spending £50 on a pair of gloves I'm only going to use a few times a year, so I've never bothered getting really posh winter cycling gloves. I went for the compromise.

Cycling coat

Another one worth having. I spent years using an old Patrick Tracksuit top I got from a charity shop, with a red kagool / rain coat over the top, plus a reflective workmans bib over them both in the dark. It worked pretty well, but then the Patrick tracksuit top fell to bits, and I bought a £50 Altura Nevis Coat. It's fluorescent yellow, with reflective bits on it. It works well, keeps the rain out, and is sort-of-warm in the winter. I use a cheapo Crane Sports cycling jacket on top of it on really cold days (not that there were many in the winter of 2006/07). It's nice to have a good coat though, rather than having mess about with my previous bodged-together collection.

Cycling shoes

If you cycle in trainers, you might find that moving to a dedicated pair of cycling shoes makes a big difference to your cycling. Cycling shoes have a much stiffer sole, which means you don't lose energy via your trainer soles bending and flexing, and you get a more efficient transfer of force too. Which pedals to go for is another matter - do you go for SPD pedals, or LOOK pedals or ... oh, well, what about, about bicyle pedals for more advice!

Tools

Finally, after all of those other things, you will need some tools and bits and pieces to cover basic repairs and punctures. I'm no expert - this is what I carry around with me, and I think it is probably on the excessive side. Since I don't ride to win races, I justify it to myself that I'd rather be prepared, than stuck 15 miles from home with a bike I can't mend or cobble together so I can get home.

• Spare inner tube - if you get a puncture, it can be quicker to take the flat tube out, remove any sharp items sticking into your tyre, and then put the new tube in place. You can then mend the puncture when you get home, rather than by the side of the road. Spare tubes fold up pretty small, so they don't take up a lot of space.
• Pump - to pump up your tyres... Whether you go for a frame-mounted pump, or a small one you can fit in your pannier - what does it matter, as long as it pumps up your tyres?
• Tyre levers
• A multi-tool - these are like big Swiss-Army knives, and contain a range of tools, such as allen keys, screwdrivers, and, depending on what you spend, other bits and pieces like chain link removers. There are lots to choose from.
• Chain link remover - if you don't have one in your multi-tool, I think it's worth having one - having one with me saved the day on a couple of occasions, when my chain snapped for some reason!
• Puncture repair kit - for when you get a puncture in your spare tube as well!
• A few plastic cable ties - what a useful invention - feature extensively on my bike, for holding things in place, removing annoying noises, and generally keeping things in order

Stuff to consider - conclusion

Okay, so that's a really, really long list. I hope it's not off putting. It's not meant to be, it's just somewhere to start, if you're interested in starting to cycle commute. Like I said, you don't have to get all of the stuff right away. You don't even have to take any notice of what I've written. What I've written applies to me. The man down the road might do things completely differently - just do what works for you.

General conclusion

So I've droned on for 3,600 words about cycle commuting. All I can say is that it is something that I get a lot out of, and I feel very fortunate to be able to do it. I think more people could do it, but are put off by a range of things, such as lack of facilities at work, or being worried about the roads being so busy. If you are nervous about cycling in traffic, then you might benefit from the CTC's Cycle Training lessons, where you can learn about how to cycle safely on the roads...

I hope this is of use to someone anyway...