In the lift the other morning….

Them: Did you cycle in in THAT weather?
Me (Smiling): Yep, it was fun, cant beat a cold shower to wake you up in the morning.
Them (feeling sorry for me): Don’t you have a car?
Me: Yes, yes I do, but I prefer to cycle.
Them: (as they get out on the 1st floor clutching a Starbucks cream topped Frappa-corinary-chino and a 1000 calorie pastry )…You are mad!!
Me: (mashing the button for the 6th* floor and rolling my eyes): Yes I must be, ha ha.

Some people just cant seem to understand I cycle through choice not through necessity.

*yes I should have walked the 6 flights but difficult in cycling shoes

“5 miles? that’s a long way”

yes, at least 3 times a week.

(except i get changed and have a shower on the first floor, then get the lift up to the 6th where my desk is)

Why were you in the lift?

But …. what do you do when it rains?

“You drove 4 miles? Don’t you have a bicycle?” 🙂

“What!? You live 3 miles away but you just cycled 17 miles to work? Did you get lost?”

Darn, beat me to it 😉

Them: Did you cycle in this?
*wind howls & hail batters the windows*
Me: Hell no, I took the bus. I’ll ride in tomorrow.

Mine’s usually “Isn’t it a long climb from where you live to here? How much of it do you end up walking?”

A) None of it. It really isn’t that hard, that steep, or that long FFS.

‘my mates into his bikes too, its worth about 5k, carbon fiber, pick it up with one finger’ 😆

“You spent HOW MUCH on a bicycle?”

Or when getting into the lift with my Wolf Ridge, complete with 160mm forks and fat knobbly tyres:

“You really want a road bike”

Nope, never. But I do work for a bicycle company 😆

Why were you in the lift?

I dont get it

Reported poster for not wearing MTB shoes with reassessed cleats on road bike, posting commuter content in MTB forum and taking lift and cycling on road and …….there is nothing wrong with starbucks coffee it is my life blood!

Yep I’ve had these sort of conversations, but then there are other people at workwho are pretty keen on cycling too…

Biggest for me issue is that our office doesn’t have showers and I’ve got a ~14 mile ride to work…

Co-worker – “Don’t you get all sweaty?”
Me – “Yes a bit if it’s hot but their are way’s to deal with that”
Co-worker – “But we Don’t have a shower here, don’t you just sit and stink all day?”
Me – “You tell me, am I stinking up the office? We do have a sink, and water in the toilets and Baby wipes are a modern wonder, deoderant’s are portable also”
Co-worker – “What really?”
Me – “you’re saying you avoid excercise only because you can’t jump directly into a shower afterwards, what about when we move offices (been promised for over a year) if we have showers will you be running or cycling in?”
Co-worker – “I might…”
Me – “But you won’t… Will you?”
Co-worker – “Nah probably not”

But not everyone is into these things are they…

I do love it when someone say’s I’m thinking about getting a new bike, what should I get?

Of course I’ll know, I own and ride a bicycle, of course they don’t quiz me about Car or house purchases I’ve got those too…

“Why don’t you get a mo-ped or an electric bike?”

These are usually the same people who drive miles to a gym to ride a stationary bicycle. And they think I’m weird!

I dated a girl at the back of last year that happened to comment “I really dont understand why you have those bikes when you have a car!?”

….Needless to say she went in the bin the next day 😆

there is nothing wrong with starbucks coffee it is my life blood!

wrong! its shoit.

Gasp Luddite!

i was once asked at a clients office how long my ban was….

folks at the office are quite used to me cycling in now – even in the snow.

I think its nice that people engage me in conversation about cycling to work, at least their showing an interest. I don’t think they’re stupid because of it nor do I roll my eyes.

I would never ever ask someone how their car journey was.

“You spent HOW MUCH on a bicycle?”

This is the classic rhetort 😀

My answer is: “no I made it up”, the look on their face is priceless.

yes I’ve had this convo and they do that sorta filling their cheeks with air and then blow it out when I tell them that I usually take the longer route home so I can cycle 20 miles instead of the direct 14 miles.

So you go further on purpose?

*blooooowwwww

Yes – all the time – usually the same words with the same office jockeys as last time. Then I tell them how far and their silly little heads explode meaning we have to have the exact same conversation again next week.

What really annoys me is when it snows, I cycle in to sit in an empty office knowing full well at least 50% of my collegues live less than a mile away.

“Have you come off again?”
“yes”
“Oooooooo – that looks nasty. Shall I get the first aid kit?”

Had that one a couple of times. Once from the MD of a company I’d been working for for only a week. My legs were absolutely covered in mud and blood. I’d had a slight mishap taking the fun route into the office 😀

I’m constantly amazed by the reaction I get when I say I’ve cycled 15 miles in. Its like I’ve said I’ve just hopped a marathon. Its only 15 miles FFS! When I tell them I often tag another 5-10 miles on, on the way home, this has actually caused peoples heads to explode. Some people (and they’re not difficult to spot) have effectively lost the use of their legs

“Do you ride London to Brighton?” – “No”

“Do you ride the Tour de France?” – “No”

for most of us cycling 10-15 miles is only an hour or so in the saddle, but 15 miles !!!!! “jesus that’s miles”

If someone told me they took an hour to ride 10-15 miles my response wouldn’t be ‘wow you’re a hero’ 🙂

Non riding Friend: “What are you up to tomorrow?“
Me: “Riding in the morning“
Non riding Friend: “How far?” (they always want to know how far….always!)
Me: “About 20 miles, I think“.
Non riding Friend: “Blimey!!! Is that for charity?”

We’re “the office where everyone cycles” There’s 16 of us in total, 3 of us cycle to work and only 2 regularly.

My old commute took 15 minutes on the bike, 20-30 by car, so I always got the same 2 chats- “Oh I couldn’t be bothered to cycle to work” and “Traffic was terrible today!”. Was it? I couldn’t be bothered to sit in a car for hours a week in traffic.

Funny isn’t it, civilians.

When I was super fit I would get asked to do 10k charity cycles at work because “you’re a cyclist”. Always thought I sounded like a right bighead when I explained that it didn’t seem fair to take people’s money for what is essentially the start of a warm up. But what can you say ?

At the workshop:

Rich: Just rode in? how was it?

Me: alright, (nailed) 15miles 1200 ft climbing.

Rich: Yeah ran 25 miles off road yesterday, couple of KOM’s and 2000Ft climbing.

Me: :evil:, puts coffee on sulks at computer feeling like a fat turd 😉

Me standing in my obvious cycling gear – helmet, gloves, the works

Slightly dim female colleague: “Did you cycle in today”
Me (deadpan): “No”

‘I’m thinking of getting a bike………you know, a decent one, what should I buy?’

**mental sigh, positive face on**

‘That’s sounds good, what sort of riding will you do?’

‘Well, you know. Umm, towpath and around the coutry lanes’

‘OK. Well you’ll probably want a hybrid to be honest. What sort of budget have you got?’

‘Oh. Well I don’t want any old rubbish, I reckon about £100, maybe £150 if it’s really good’

**Thought so, ho hum. Do I laugh in their face or let them down gently?**

“Oh, so you’re after a second hand one then”

“No”
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when I used to drive to work I used to sometimes take the scenic route which was longer but more fun.

Not quite work, but along the same lines…
Cycling to Newhaven, having just gone through Brighton, stopped in a shop to get supplies.
Fourbanger: is it much further to Newhaven?
Shop girl: Are you on your bike? It’s quite a way. (Sounding concerned)
Fourbanger: yeah. Roughly how far?
Shop girl: must be a good five miles! Have you come far.
Fourbanger: a little way (smiling with relief at having knocked off 120 of 125 miles).

Singlespeed Banger?

“ooh I don’t cycle: the hill up to the works kills me”

“What hill? Do you mean the gradual incline?”

Mine might, I’m not that fast 😳

My 6 mile commute along the canal takes me half an hour coming in. Going home take 40 minutes as there’s a flight of 16 locks to go up