Chapter seven of Bike Easy is about cycle commuting. Why limit your cycling to leisure rides at weekends and on holiday? Bikes are practical machines, easily able to handle the trip to work. Commute by bike and you’ll save money on petrol, parking and other running costs. If you’re able to forgo your car (or second car) completely, you’ll save an absolute fortune and be able to pay off your mortgage and go on a world cruise every year.
Commuting by bike will keep you fit and save you the cost of gym membership, and that burst of activity morning and evening will help you manage the stresses of the working day. As well as radiating good health you’ll also be entitled to a glow of pride for having done your bit for the environment. If you’ve converted your journey from car to bike you’ve cut pollution, reduced traffic congestion and shrunk your carbon footprint.
Bikes are sometimes portrayed as slow and clunky forms of transport, the last resort of losers. In fact, during peak commuting times, over distances of around five miles, they’re the fastest, smartest wheels in town. Campaigners regularly test this during Bike Week by staging a “commuter challenge”. Volunteers, each using a different form of transport, set off from a given starting point, all heading to the same destination. The bike invariably wins. So, as a cycle commuter, you’re saving time as well as money. You could use the extra minutes for a short lie-in each morning, or to make a visit to your favourite coffee shop on the way home.
Whereas the pootler [see Chapter 6] thrives on spontaneity and delights in the unexpected, the cycle commuter needs to be more organised. Equipment has to be reliable and procedures rock solid. This chapter will help you to plan and prepare. The first few times you ride to work it will probably feel slightly strange. But stick with it for a week or two, get the details right, and you’ll never go back to your old method. More>>>
