Once again, as with BBB…

YOU THE MAN !! 🙂

+ All that helped build it .

Nice one.

Edukator – Member
How many days have you biked into work in the last year, adi66 and how many km do you live form work?

EVERY DAY fOR THE PAST 61/2 Years, rain, wind, snow, sleet or shine ! !

My “normal” commute to my home site is 5.2 miles if I take the fast route. In the summer (when I’ll add a bit on for fun) the trip in is about 15, and the trip home 25 plus (whatever I feel like – if i’m on the road bike)

If I get posted a “another manufacturing site” as I was from September to February (just gone) my commute was 12 miles…. and that was EVERY DAY in the SNOW – ICE and bitter cold down country lanes (With some big ol – for this part of the country anyway, climbs in there) – starting work at 6am, for a 12 Hours day.

Oh and to add a bit of balance, I’m no super thin roadie ! I carry a few – cough – Extra Pounds 🙂

Just to try and get this thread back “on line” I was looking for things that a small bunch of people with good contacts can influence, to try an get more people active, and ultimately reduce the number of cars that are being used to come to work, and therefore ease congestion in the on site car parks.

Our local council already provide details of the cycle routes all over the city, so there is no excuses there, cycle paths do exists on many (but not all) of the routes to the site.
On that subject the local council are a bit backwards with cycle lanes, they have recently taken out a huge stretch of cycle lane into the city centre (down a very busy main artery) to add “traffic calming” narrow white lined lanes !

As for Jaguars sponsorship or Sky’s Pro Team…. Its none of my business, and I no nothing about that side of the business, and to be quite frank it NOTHING to do with this thread, other than providing a link into the world of Pro Cycling, that I though might be worth possibly getting involved with, not what you know but who you know and all that. Cycling is Cycling, Running is Running.

Loving some of the ideas for free gear, and / or incentives, and the thought of a “company Boris Bike” scheme / loan to see if you like it bike fleet seems like a great idea too.

Keep the ideas coming guys, but please lets not get into any more silly arguments about who’s got the best car, and if the products produced by the company that pays my mortgage are better than the competition ! This thread was NOT intended to be a willy waving competition ! !

Most of the stuff has already been suggested, but the gist of getting people to do something like this is to make it easy for them to at least try it a few times. The showers, changing rooms, borrow bike etc. all help to remove barriers to participation. Once you get a decent amount of people riding, running or walking to work then others will see that it’s actually a sensible method of commuting and will be willing to give it a go. You just need to convince enough of the ‘maybes’ into giving it a go.

If you’re looking to promote the concept then I’d concentrate on a couple of different angles:
Speed and efficiency. In a lot of cases it’ll take no longer than travelling by car or public transport.
Cost. You’ll have more in your pocket at the end of the month.
Health. You’ll feel fitter and more alert, and likely maintain active good health for longer into your life.
Time saving. What use is your commute by car? No need to go to the gym if you’re getting your exercise on the way to work.

All good stuff there, and I agree .

robdixon

Now there’s a good idea, but at a car company’s HQ I doubt it’d work TBH

I’ve got a iron in the fire with regards to the pro riders suggestion…

The occi health suggestions are a good idea, I’m gonna look into that one some more, cheers.

Gusamc …. I like that idea, not sure I could get away with it tho ! Lol

Does anyone have any ideas involving ” team sky” ?

Just realised we can’t do PM’s on here… Can we ?

Edsbike

Drop me a mail to my CDS (asmit130) and I’ll give you a call tomorrow to discuss a few things. 😉

Kids are n bed, so I back on here now.

Thanks to all that have posted so far 🙂

To clear a couple of things up.

The company has already got:

*Semi secure bike shelters with CCTV, security patrols ( as part of the standard route) and on some locked gates during working hours. All of which are under discussion to improve ASAP.
* change facility’s are great, in some areas, others are bad (edsbike) and improving all the time, there is a plan! we’ve got swanky shower / change rooms, that have been kitted out to a standard that our onside cycling group has agreed with “the company”
* local roads are small side trial streets, and a busy main vein into the city centre, with cycle paths from many sides of the site.
* Cleaning rotors are also getting improved so that the facility’s in some areas get a better clean and more often (edsbike – that’s for your area BTW)
* regular meetings are held with cyclists and runners asking for suggestions that can be acted upon ( but obviously not all can be done overnight as they take planning, and in a large company that’s a bit of a mare TBH)
* discounts in local bike shops are being looked into, as are having monthly or quarterly “cycle doctor” visits whose services would be paid for by the company ( bike owners would only have to pay for any parts needed)

So all the facility’s are there, I’ was really after “fun stuff” to encourage people to bin the cars and get active. Although I do like the idea of paying to park on site to discourage people to drive in.

Eds bike – drop me a PM with your CDSi-I’d and I’ll get in touch with you tomorrow at work.

As Richpips said.

Keeping the “all time” records is great, gives you something to aim for…. plus you can turn it off if you like.

I’ve just started to use Strava, and i have to say I’m loving it, I commute to work on my mountain bike all year round, and its been awesome to see that I can beat (KOM) some of the guys that work here and ride road bikes to work, on some of the segments…. it’s made me go, and want to go faster, and I even got my leg over a road bike to see just how fast I could go, and KOM’d a couple of the segments that day 🙂

… If nothing else seeing that I’m the fastest cyclist into / out of work is great “locker room ammo”.lol 😀

Shindiggy, er unless the machine is wrong, it is ( as I glance across the table to the print out)

… Like I said, I cycle EVERYWHERE I possibly can, and as fast as I can too!

But hey you know me better than I know me!

I’m not that bothered by it, I just see it as a sign of being fit, I was just curious as to how low a RHR is too low?

And, Faz083 I feel just fine, so no point going and wasting the time of the already over stretched NHS.

Judging by the oh middle picture I’d say nope. Looks like the logs are the wall thickness.

Was there earlier in the year, and there was about 5 lads with one each at the bottom of the “DH” section, made me chuckle as I was hammering it down then blasting back to the top ( powered by my legs) and they whe all messing around trying to fix a flattie on one of em, and none of them had a clue how to do it !!!! Lol dare I say it they looked a bit ” chavvy” and you could defiantly see where there “bikes” had been as sections of the trail where tore up, mainly on the berms.

Can’t say I was overly impressed, and can’t see the point unless you have a physical disability, and being fat and / or lazy is not a disability !!

You either want to ride a light weight (ish) MTB and have the fun of powering your own enjoyment or by a Moto X bike.

Semi-rant over 🙂

DrSwank…. I’ll be having a lil look at that route tonight when i get back from work, cheers.

Keep em coming 🙂

I would class all of Cannock as ” easy to medium red” (‘cos the descents are no where near as big!) but it’s still a blast just hit the up and downs hard and you’ll love it. Once you know the place it’s a hoot 🙂

We’ve got this a Vango Marista 700 and its awesome. Lovely big lounge area with a huge door either dude of the main entrance (with fly screens) … Great for watching the lil uns play whilst relaxing with a G&T 🙂
… A word of warning tho, it is a BIG tent much bigger than it looks in this pic… We’ve found that some campsites “tent” pitches are a tight fit for it .

Wet wipes, it turns out, are the product of choice for pretty much any cleaning task – totally underrated.

+1 on that

They clean ANYTHING from ANYTHING ! scary how there also ok to use on lil un’s too !

Basically what almost all modern lights rely on is the principle that if they’re legal in one EU state they’re legal in all EU states.

Although I seriously doubt that any of the “copycat” Chinese made lights that lots of us use are LEGAL anywhere! lol

Who uses a ‘filament’ light on their bike anymore

Me ! I have a couple of sets of HID lights (and too many LED sets to count)…. they have filament.

I had this very same arguemnt with a Automotive Electrical Engineer here at work the other day – he disagreed with me that a Magic Shine-a-like front light was “legal”. so out came the old BS6102/3

… we came to the conclusion that the regs’ are poorly written, outdated, and open to a lot of interpretation.

I.M.O:

With the mega bright bike lights that are out there now (and the mega Bright car LED running lamps too) Legislation needs to be brought up to date sharpish, and these lamps (Lensing Tech’)made to a defined spec ‘ with a “beam pattern” … which would make them more useful to us cyclists, as the light would be used, and not simply thrown out the front in all directions ! Plus you wouldn’t dazzle oncoming traffic if used on the road, and correctly mounted / angled.

I was out at Cannock last night for a little blast round the Dog & Monkey.

It was awesome until about 9pm when it started to hack it down with snow, and got REALLY windy… the trails where good as bone dry (apart from a few spots of mud here and there)

… You won’t be cold, if you dress appropriately and the place looks stunning with a dusting of snow !

try my mates company:

Ella Announcements[/url]

Cheers shotsaway, that made for very interesting reading. 😀

Neal

My thoughts exactly…

Hmmm finance option might be the way to go, but surely not as much room to haggle ?

Is anyone on this forum / thread a ford dealer?

I do like the idea of the “take finance then pay it off if the are no early repayment clauses” idea !

Midlifecrashes: it’s about treating myself to a nice family car! Something we’ve missed whilst the kids where young ! But hey thanks for the snide insult / witty comment!

Paying with hard saved cash (or bank transfer, whatever is required, money’s in the bank)

No PX the old car is a 12year old Honda and is off to we buy any car for £700 – we have had our use out of it, so are happy with £700 before you all tell me noooo they’ll rob you!

So it’s me v’s a car salesman with a pocket of cash….

Everything that she read about in 50 shades in the Grey trilogy ! 😀

… Oh and whats the definition of a “business user” ?

Mrs Smith has her own small (VAT registered, and all that) business, so do we qualify as being a business user.

Ta

… do the lease prices on lings include all insurance too ?

And can you put a private plate on the car ? (without loosing the plate to a finance company! ?)

keep bmw and get one of these to meet the car rules?
£121/month

http://www.lingscars.com/Volkswagen/Up/1805753-1.0_i_%2859bhp%29_Take_Hatchback_3dr_999cc-personal.html#models

as long as you use the vw when on compnay business you can drive the bmw the rest of the time..

Holy ball buckets.> That website should come with a health warning.

+1 ON THAT!

Rode to work today on my MTB commuter (12 miles down country lanes & through parks / bridleways) all where covered with a sheets of intermittent ice!

It was the first time i’ve been able to properly test my Schwalbe Ice Spikers…. and I was BLOWN AWAY at how good they are! I could ride “as normal” on all the roads etc… even on sheets of ice i had LOADS of grip!

ICE TYRES FTW
😀

I’ve got some on my commuter & my AM Full susser (when needed)…. 26″ Ice Spiker’.

They are AWESOME!
Off road in the winter when its all frozen, and they grip like nobody’s business, roots are treated with the same contempt as the earth is by the spikes !

You can pretty much ride as you would in the wet with them on, including leaning over onto the edges.

Very noisy though if you have a little on road section – kinda like riding over a road of crisps 🙂

We go to Travella every year…. Love it. Tried hendra last year and it was ok for the kids entertainment innthecevening but was VERY “Butlins” so it’ll be back to Travella again next year 😀

Nice and close to Crantock beach too .

Like it Dibbs 🙂

I started making these lil kits (AMT / ERTL) when the Mrs went back to work on nights, and I had to stay home to look after the lil un’s.

Kindga got carried away buying 70’s and 80’s Kits from the USA on Ebay and ended up buying a *”AT-AT-Ron” from Australia for 1000$Aus He’s the BIG fella at the front (Stands about 18″-24″ high!).

* a AT-AT-Ron is a “kit” in the loosest sense, a guy called Ron (don’t know his surname) was a prop maker on the original films, and made a few “spare” casts from the original moulds when they finished filming, he then sold them on slowly over the years…. so this a “replica” in the truest sense of the word of a ACTUAL screen used AT-AT.

I think that’s Pretty AWESOME 😀

Lap of the Dog & Monkey at Cannock at 9 am on Saturday, at warp speed to get home to make Mrs Adi66 brunch in bed.

Met up with some old (and a few new friends) at Sherwood Pines yesterday… and I loved the new “down hill” run, especially the ride back up (I’m a bit weird like that I love going UP hills as much as I like going down them)

Oh plus my regular 32 mile a day commute, 380 miles last week 😀

Speaking of FRESH fruit n veg, is anyone going to mention HOW LONG the stuff can be (and is) kept “on hold” for in massive cold stores, before it hits the shops ?