Bikes, trains, business travel and ditching the car

I’m away for work all week next week, and I’m going to do it by train and bike instead of driving. Bought a rack and panniers so hopefully I’ll be able to fit all my crap in there. Bit worried about the state of my smart clothes though. Haven’t decided if I want to ride to the station (5 miles) in casual clothes, biking gear or smart clothes yet. Stuffing my smarts into panniers will probably render them too messy though.

Anyway – looks like I can’t book my bike online, so I’ve booked tickets anyway and I’m going to hope. I’m reasonably confident I’ll get my bike on the Cardiff to Reading train, but I’m not so confident about the Reading – Basingstoke and the Basingstoke to Farnborough train which is Southeast Trains.. was it them that people were moaning about on here? On the way home I have to take two trains on busy commuter trains.. I can see myself riding to Reading to be honest.

Whenever I’ve booked myself onto particular services, I’ve not been able to book the bike online but was able to do it by phoning up. Though now I think of it, I had to call a couple of times to get through to someone that knew anything about it.

I called FGW reservations: “Due to unforseen difficulties we are unable to take your call at the moment”.

Great.

Smart cloths pack fine in a pannier or rucksack.

Pants and sock as a centre, roll shirt around, starting at the bottom of the shirt working towards the collar.

I was wondering about rolling shirts.. works for you then eh.. hmm..

My trousers are really creasy, so they’ll get trashed rolled up, but for the same reason they get pretty trashed by driving or sitting at a desk so it probably won’t matter.

You can normally book bikes online at http://www.eastcoast.co.uk.
Can be used for any train, not just an east coast one.

Also don’t wear your best suit trousers but some £9 asda basics.

Alternatively just wear your suit on the bike and cycle like a politician.

If you don’t already, fabric conditioner makes a difference in how creasy clothes get. And heat relaxes fabric so creases fade a bit once you’ve got the clothes on. Or buy some proper trousers that don’t lose their structure when touched 😉

Yeah I don’t like the trousers I have, despite them being £40 or something from M&S. Too much fabric up front.. for some reason cheap shirts and trousers seem to be cut for podgy office workers.

We don’t use fabric conditioner but I guess it could well make sense for the weekly work clothes wash.

have look at this.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Documents/Custom/Cycling/Cycle%20by%20train%20L_108_0410%20FOR%20WEB.pdf

Let us know where you have to abandon the bike so we can strip it for spares. I have faith in the rail system not playing your game.

South west trains official line for trains out of ‘Ding was always no bikes at all on comuter trains before 9 am. Bikes that can be ‘stowed as luggage’ (i.e. Brompton) are acceptable if there’s room in the luggage wrack. That said i have seen people take bikes on the quieter comuter services, but i think they still keep bikes out of the busy ones

Why are you going from Reading -> Basingstoke -> Farnborough when the smaller Farnborough North or North Camp stations are on the Reading line ? That line is going to be more bike friendly than the main London line (Basingstoke->Farn Main) I would think.

TT – 🙂

Allthepies – I searched for all Farnborough stations, and the times worked out better for the one with two changes. Although I may regret that…

Anyway, I’m on the train, made it with 5 mins to spare. Only just enough room for the bikes in the guard’s van.

New Ortlieb panniers are awesome, not only did I get my work clothes and running/biking/workout clothes in I also had room for some casual clothes and shoes. The rack is a bit wobbly though on bumpy corners, and the bike’s now extremely rear heavy which makes it quite front-happy and really quite hard to manhandle around stations.

Got pretty hot and sweaty though, had to wear full waterproofs on the way in. Alternative shirts are not ironed either.

I only own non-iron M&S shirts. Theyre lighter weight than faux posh double cuff things from high street tailors. I roll my shirts up (start folded as in a shop, then roll towards the collar with the collar on the outside). They dont wrinkle, reform very quickly when you put them on, and rolled tight they dont take up any room.

PS try and leave yourself more time if youre riding in smarts. I bimble along at 5-10 mph, rather than rag around at 15-20mph to avoid getting a sweat on.

I tend not to use deodorant as I dont find it works very well or antiperspirant (im also not a huge fan of spraying any funny compounds on my skin). But my top tip instead, and I confess it’s a little bit embarrassing, is to shave your pits. It stops any bacterial build up which might cause sweat related stink. It does work, but not very manly 😳

Well I made it, the trains were all ok. Got even more hot and sticky lugging my 60lb bike up and down station stairs though. Shirt’s not creased, but I’m a little concerned about its fragrance.

Then again I work in IT, so I don’t think anyone will notice.

The only trains I’ve had problems with are Virgin – avoid ’em if you have a bike! And a second for rolling clothes. Ain’t Ortlieb “buckets” great?
Oh, and use the lifts at the stations – if they have them of course – I’ve had to carry a fully loaded touring bike up and down station steps a few times!

Well I made it, the trains were all ok. Got even more hot and sticky lugging my 60lb bike up and down station stairs though.

Cool! Check out the Reading line for next time though, will reduce the stair lugging content quite a bit 🙂

You working in F’boro then or where you used to be in Aldershot ?

I’m now in a different job that’ll send me all over. Just co-incidence that I’ve been in F’boro for two weeks. Should be somewhere else next week.

I use on of these[/url] for my shirts when I commute. Shirts come out looking nice and ironed for the most part, although you still get some folded shirt lines. But at least they are nice straight folded shirt lines instead of crumpled-piece-of-rag-I-just-stuffed-into-my-bag lines… Seconded fabric softener – jacket over the top and creases have normally dropped out in about 20 minutes.

Success, good man.