First bike commute today

spurscormac

Hey folks,

Since the nice weather has begun (temporarily, I'm sure), I got off my ass in time to take the bike rather than take the car.
Have to say, while I was lugging a laptop, clothes etc in a backpack, it still felt good to do the 12.5 kms on a bike rather than in the car.

Have to wait and see if I'm fit to collapse tonight once I get back home. :-)

Already came across an artic truck pulling up off the road, over the kerb & onto the cycle lane - luckily I was far enough back to go around him.
And thats in Galway - can't imagine what Dublin is like.

Should at least get me a little bit fitter if I can manage to keep it up.

Anyone else considering it, I can definitely recommend it.

It took me about as long as a very bad day's traffic in the car - should be even closer to normal time in the evening.

Hungrycol

That's great spurscormac. 12.5 miles each eay though! What's serious commuting. Nice to get into work feeling a bit of a buzz. When I started commuting it took me ages to leave the house between faffing with the right clothing and what to carry: brush teeth now or when I get to work, wear work socks or sports socks for ride, helmet fit ok, tighten, mudguards not rubbing, brake block wear ok, Tube and tyre levers and pump, lights- need or not, have work swipe card, etc, etc. Routine bacame quicker and getting stuff laid out the night before helps a lot too.

Enjoy the fresh air and the endorphines.

Vélo

I'm going to be doing the same distance in a while.

I want to up my fitness before I try it, I haven't cycled a bike in years.

Let me know how you get on with the ride home.

Keep up the good work.

portomar

Hungrycol wrote: »

That's great spurscormac. 12.5 miles each eay though! What's serious commuting. Nice to get into work feeling a bit of a buzz. When I started commuting it took me ages to leave the house between faffing with the right clothing and what to carry: bust teeth now or when I get to work, wear work socks or sports socks for ride, helmet fit ok, tighten, mudguards not rubbing, brake block wear ok, Tube and tyre levers and pump, lights- need or not, have work swipe card, etc, etc. Routine bacame quicker and getting stuff laid out the night before helps a lot too.

Enjoy the fresh air and the endorphines.

ha ha ha ha ha!!
sounds like cycling in dublin alright!! seriously though i cycle to my luas stop then luas out to work, then taxi home at companies expense to station then cycle back home! its short both ways but the cycle to work would be hell, way too far. if only i worked in the city centre instead of out here!

spurscormac

Hungrycol wrote: »

That's great spurscormac. 12.5 miles each eay though! What's serious commuting. Nice to get into work feeling a bit of a buzz. When I started commuting it took me ages to leave the house between faffing with the right clothing and what to carry: bust teeth now or when I get to work, wear work socks or sports socks for ride, helmet fit ok, tighten, mudguards not rubbing, brake block wear ok, Tube and tyre levers and pump, lights- need or not, have work swipe card, etc, etc. Routine bacame quicker and getting stuff laid out the night before helps a lot too.

Enjoy the fresh air and the endorphines.

D'oh - made a mistake on the distance, its 12.5 kms, not miles.
Still though, it makes you feel better than being in the car.

Had everything ready to go except to make lunch, then realised I couldn't find my lock, wasted about 15 mins looking for it :-)

kenmc

Fair play, that's a decent commute!
What you might consider is bringing in all the clothes for the week on monday (or friday or whatever, and bring the dirty ones home when you bring the clean ones in) then for the rest of the week you're sans backpack. I started doing that, and all I need to take every day besides the clothes day is phone, keys, lunchbox, all of which fit in my cycle-top rear pockets. Thankfully I don't need to take a laptop very often.
Oh and I leave a lock in work too, so I don't have to transport that each way all the time too.

Hungrycol

portomar wrote: »

then taxi home at companies expense

You know that's a BIK if it's before 10pm?!

(teeth now fixed:D)

Vélo

Do you work in Revenue?

seamus

Good job on the commute. One big thing is to listen to your body and your fitness will improve much quicker. The commute is way more fun if you don't feel like throwing up halfway home
If you're walking up stairs in the evening and your thighs feel tired at the top, then don't cycle the next day, give yourself a rest. If your legs are sore at all, don't cycle the next day.
The rest day is vital for building strength and fitness.

I'm off my bike probably till the end of the week. 3 spokes spontaneously snapped on the back yesterday so rather than tempt fate I'm just going to rebuild the wheel with beefier spokes.

macinalli

Good going on the commute; I do a similar one each day and find it a big help to carry as little as possible. Little tricks like keeping a pair of shoes at work are a big help, but you should still always carry lights, a pump, spare tube etc. If you can find a way of ditching the laptop you'll be flying!

It's safe to say you're legs will be tired tonight, and that your ass will dread the sight of the saddle, but give it a couple of weeks - you'll hate the thought of having to drive to work again!

Hungrycol

Just out of curiousity seamus, did they all break on the non-drive side?

seamus

Hungrycol wrote: »

Just out of curiousity seamus, did they all break on the non-drive side?

Why yes, yes they did

I remember hearing a large amount of clinking and clattering when pulling away from lights at one point, but I assumed it was coming from the van beside me.

biologikal

seamus wrote: »

Why yes, yes they did

I remember hearing a large amount of clinking and clattering when pulling away from lights at one point, but I assumed it was coming from the van beside me.

It was Hungrycol in the van with a pair of wire-cutters!

Seriously though, good going on all ye using the bike.

I *had* to use the bike a couple of weeks back with the car in getting fixed, but it wasn't a really good week to re-begin cycling; windy, raining, and darkish going home as it was before the clocks changed. Took me more than 30 mins the first day (very windy) but by the end of the week, it was down to about 20 mins to go the 7-odd kms. Sore ass too at the end of it. But like anything, should get use to it, and fitness should improve. But like someone said, key is to not be doing it every day starting off. If you feel sore in the evening, or next morning, take the car for a day, then go back to the bike when recovered. My aim is to use it 2 or 3 days out of the 5 in a week, at least at the beginning.

RobAMerc

seamus wrote: »

Good job on the commute. One big thing is to listen to your body and your fitness will improve much quicker. The commute is way more fun if you don't feel like throwing up halfway home
If you're walking up stairs in the evening and your thighs feel tired at the top, then don't cycle the next day, give yourself a rest. If your legs are sore at all, don't cycle the next day.
The rest day is vital for building strength and fitness.

Thats really good advice imo - I found that I also loose interest quicker if I am in pain, better to leave a day or two a week off to begin with at least if your a bit sore.

Build up to the everyday ride.

My commute is 10k - Its a much nicer ride than I used to do to the airport as its not country lanes, but I need to be on full alert at all times !

Hungrycol

seamus wrote: »

Why yes, yes they did

I remember hearing a large amount of clinking and clattering when pulling away from lights at one point, but I assumed it was coming from the van beside me.

Check out your frame alignment using Sheldon Browns string method http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html

I cold set an old Raleight Reynolds531 to fit a 9 speed rear wheel and buggered it up. My aligment was out but I cycled it anyway to and from work. I broke 3 spokes on the non-drive side of my rear wheel in the space of 6 months and put it down to the frame draging the wheel although the wheel was centered in the stays the stays themselves weren't aligned! Am I making sense here?!

seamus

Yeah, cheers for that I'll take a look. Everything on the bike is stock, but if something has been loose or misaligned (it's rear-sus, so the rear triangle could be off), it's worth checking out. Nice one

Davittdr

Today I bit the bullet and took my bike to work, the last time I did this was 3 years ago and it was only 10K now I have changed jobs and have a 30K commute each way.

Happy enough with the time 70mins - Dalkey to Citywest (kept out of the mountains) The real surprise was the cyclepaths, from the Beacon Hotel in Sandyford to Tallaght except for a small section of the Scholarstown road and the Ballycullen road there was a decent cyclepath the whole way.

Plan is to do this cummute 2-3 time a week and use it as a brick training session, this morning I did a 5K run off the bike.

BostonB

Very inspiring mate. I've been been building up my cycling so I can commute aswell. Thats my current goal anyway. Been 10yrs since I spent any time on a bike and even then it wasn't that far. Now I'm older and nursing a few injuries, so I'm taking it easy. Over the last couple of months I've been slowly increasing my cycling. My coommute route is about 11-13k, and this weekend I got a couple of decent cycles in, 2hrs one day and 1.15 on another. I expect my route to work will take 50~60 mins taking it easy. Need a few bits and next thing is to work on making a routine of it.

Hard bits are actually getting out the door. Getting used to the traffic (man its a lot faster than I remember) and getting the right bits and pieces together.