Viewing 30 posts - 1 through 30 (of 30 total)
  • Commuting – addictive?
  • druidh
    Free Member

    Since getting this part-time job in the bike shop, I've had to re-think my commuting strategy. Whereas previously I had a from a 6 mile jaunt along reasonably junction-free roads, the potential to use a private car park, I now have a 9 mile charge across central Edinburgh with only expensive on-street parking or a 60+ minute bus ride with a 10 minute walk at each end. A no-brainer then – bike it is.

    When I wake up in the morning, I can feel myself already looking forward to the ride. ZIpping past rows of stationery cars at traffic lights, looking for the inside or outside for overtaking, timing arrival at the ASL to get there (just) before the lights turn green.

    Is this normal? I'm a bit worried that I'm becoming addicted to the adrenaline rush and will start doing stupid stuff like running red lights, jumping up on kerbs etc.

    Or should I just avoid having a coffee before I set off?

    dmiller
    Free Member

    Commuting – addictive?

    I would say so.

    I get pretty grumpy if I am ill / injured and cannot commute. The wife reckons I am addicted to it (properly withdraw systems addicted).

    I also don't feel like a cyclist if I don't commute – if its been more than three days since I was on a bike I feel guilty…

    But then I do get a bit OCD about things…

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Bike is the fastest way for me as well. Train is 30 mins with a 20 min walk at the work end. Car can be anything between 40 – 90 mins. Bike is a consistent 50mins and even though it's a busy road I still look forward to it.

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    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    nahhhhhhhh……….

    you should try doing a 15 mile commute on deserted b-roads in a midget 🙂 made riding the same way feel slow and booring 🙂

    soobalias
    Free Member

    avoid the coffee and avoid undertaking.

    set off a bit earlier and have your breakfast when you arrive.

    ski
    Free Member

    ZIpping past rows of stationery cars at traffic lights

    Got to be one of the best feelings there is when commuting, if done safely 😉

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    I absolutely love my commute and really look forward to it morning and night. It's not the quickest way for me to get to work but it's certainly the most enjoyable of the options I have. Probably right on the addiction thing, when winter comes and there's black ice and you think, 'I'll ride anyway, it'll be fine' then you know you're not thinking straight.

    There are worse things to be addicted to.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    Commuting is fab I like the way I am often very tired before getting on for the way home and always end up at home on some endorphine high. 25 mile round trip for me and as fast as the car and more fun.

    zeus
    Free Member

    One of my favourite things about commuting (in London) is the endless entertainment I find in the crazy commuters with zero road sense, who somehow feel it's okay to put their lives in the hands of others (others who are driving way bigger, heavier, deadlier things than bicycles, I mean)! Oh and beating the skinny-tyred roadies up the hill riding my twice-as-heavy fat, knobbly-tyred mtb 🙂

    Addictive? Definitely, but just be safe dagnammit, is what I say!

    ==========================
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    http://www.iRideAfrica.com

    cpon
    Free Member

    I like commuting, apart from when it's pissing down.

    No other options for me however, the wife takes the car and the bus is rammed full of school kids.

    I certainly feel more awake when I arrive at work compared to the odd occasion when I've had a lift in.

    If you can and you don't you should give it a go, for at least two weeks – you won't feel a benefit if you just do it for a day or two.

    Chris

    MrTall
    Free Member

    I really miss my old London commute (don't live there now), i never felt like i was going to work, just going for a bike ride. My route was like a tourist trip as well, Marble Arch, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St James Park, Parliament Square, County Hall, London Eye then South Bank. Lovely.

    Quicker, cheaper, healthier (sooo glad to get off the tube). Loved it in all weathers, just made sure i had the proper clothing. Only missed a dozen or so commute days in 2 years and saved me over £2000 in tube costs (i won't mention how much i probably spent on bike related purchases during the same period though!).

    If i did it now in the midlands it's a big hill followed by 7 miles of duel carriageway. No thanks…..

    thefettler
    Free Member

    It was pi$$ing down on my commute this morning(NSW/OZ)

    still cracked a smile when somebody stopped to offer me a lift

    people still don't get that i ride cos i wont to /not because i have too !!

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    I have been commuting in London a couple of days a week evenry other week since June.

    It Rocks!

    Fast and adrenaline filled ride and in the entire time I have been doing it I have only been rained on once which was coming home about 30 yards from my front door.

    acjim
    Free Member

    I think it's the "free" exercise that's addictive. I've got a cold at the moment *snivel* and so I'm using the car for a week – I already feel fatter and slower and it's only 3 days in!

    OT: is it always when you're feeling at your fittest when you get a cold or is it just in my head? 🙁

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    OT: is it always when you're feeling at your fittest when you get a cold or is it just in my head?

    If you're doing more exercise it depresses your immune system for a while afterwards thus making you more prone to catching colds. I'm coming down with one now and it's 4 days to go until the Three Peaks CX! Really hoping I can shake it…

    cp
    Full Member

    i find riding in traffic such a buzz – concentrating so hard, I'm across town before I know it!

    acjim
    Free Member

    any tips for avoiding the post training flus?

    Shack
    Free Member

    Totally addictive. I just seem to function so much better at work after the ride in and have more energy of a night time after the ride home. If I dont use the bike just feel sluggish all day. Great when theres heavy traffic to get through, total concentration and real adrenalin rush. If I dont use the bike aleays feel guilty the minute I see a cyclist. Worse time is when I have to lay off due to an injury, just so grumpy!

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    any tips for avoiding the post training flus?

    Well I can only tell you what I do and I've not had a cold for a good few years. Any cold symptoms I do get seem to disappear in a day and never come to anything. And I ride around 150 to 200 miles a week in all weathers. And I work in an office so I would think more likely to get a cold.

    I drink loads of water, limit my alcohol consumption (a few beers at the weekend) and try to get at least 7 to 8 hours sleep a night. My diet is okay but nothing special. I also take cod liver oil capsules but I’ve only recently started taking them. And I always have a glass of milk after a ride. Not really sure what the ‘secret’ is but I’m definitely doing something right. My thoughts are that it’s down to drinking a lot of water.

    Then again my wife doesn’t get colds very often but more than I do and my 12 year old son has had two colds in his life (he also drinks a lot of water) so maybe they just make us hardier in the west of Scotland.

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    echinacea to boos the immune system. i usually take a course through january and maybe march. seems to work*

    *might be snake oil

    dazh
    Full Member

    Another commuting addict here. People at work think it a bit odd when I tell them I really like cycling in heavy traffic. Not sure why I like it so much, guess it's just the adrenalin buzz of having to be super-aware of everything around you and having to make split second decisions whilst at the same time hammering along at 25mph.

    Also it's pretty much the only time I ride the fixie (cue fakenger jibes!), which is probably my favourite bike.

    langy
    Free Member

    Def agree with the feeling better/more awake/more alert after riding in – the train or the car just leave me flat.

    Awesome that it is the quickest door to door option too, so unless really windy or really wet, it's usually the winner unless really low motivation (which is only usually due to illness injury or excessive tiredness)

    acjim
    Free Member

    Gary; I'm a soft Southern type so more likely to be unwell. My 3 yr old son has had more colds than your 12 yr old!

    My lifestyle sounds pretty much the same as yours (similar mileage diet etc) except possibly the 1 yr old and 3 yr old making sleep occasionally haphazard.

    SiB
    Free Member

    Its the best way to start the day, just a shame work gets in the way but then I suppose it wouldnt be a commute if there was no work, more a 'normal' ride. I get a ferry at the end of my commute (River Mersey wirral to liverpool)and although not the most exotic boat trip all passengers seem happy compared to the train/car users, folk actually say hello and smile, seems like the preffered way of commuting for cyclists judging by numbers, no escalators and lifts to negotiate like on the underground, no mersey tunnel to get stuck in, just roll on then roll off the ferry. On the return journey I can see the outline of the wirral and cant wait to ride off the ferry to start ride home along the wirral way – an 18 mile ride along the coast, could be hillier but best way to end the day

    ctznsmith
    Free Member

    "Def agree with the feeling better/more awake/more alert after riding in"

    +1 to this, commuting is fun even when it's terrible (i.e. when the weather or other road users are against you). The last hour at work I'm always half thinking about riding home. 🙂

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    "Def agree with the feeling better/more awake/more alert after riding in"

    Agree completely, it really forces you awake but in a good way. I drove into work this morning but I had an hour or so on the velodrome before I started work so that woke me up sharpish! 🙂

    hitman
    Free Member

    love the commute and am just getting back into it after time away due to injury
    here's one of my favourite forums:
    http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=148

    Airwolf
    Free Member

    I am addicted. My favourite involved riding 12 miles to work (and back again) through the snow earlier this year. Everyone at work thought i was out of my mind.

    It took 1 hour 20 mins to cycle up the canal towpath and i enjoyed every last minute of it!

    it was wonderfully quiet and still apart from the delicious crunchy sound of my tyres on the virgin snow.

    Now i commute through central London, different kind of fun though.

    Keva
    Free Member

    definitely addictive – but I find if I've been doing quite a bit of running Im much more chilled out on the bike. Run six miles then ride to work, I don't feel the need to ride so fast !

    Kev

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    i enjoy zipping past the cars how ever right outside my front door this morning a motorbike was knocked off by a van THEN as im riding down the bus lane (shared bus , taxi and bike lane as per the sign)

    bitch driving a tour bus comes up behind , i hear it – i then hear it closer and closer and closer , i look past my hip and see it near enough nudging my mudguard.

    I look at the driver and she is jesturing to me to get out the way.

    Stupid bitch …

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