I was going to attempt to write this post in the style and meter of the Proclaimers hit ’500 miles’, but in the end it was too much like hard work.
Last week I finally achieved one of the targets I set forth in January, namely cycling 1000 miles on my ‘new’ bike. All but a handful of those miles have been done whilst commuting, although I am still a few days short of my 200 days (assuming I’ve been tagging my rides correctly…). Even discounting costs I will have saved over £400 by the end of the year, and I plan to continue with the cycle commuting, even with the longer commute now involved.
Most importantly, I still enjoy it. Sure there are days when it’s cold and rainy, but you’d be surprised how few they actually are considering the reputation of Glasgow. My commute is still 50% cycle path, which is quite relaxing (although when the ice arrives that will have to stop by necessity). Oh, and I’ve (so far) only had 1 puncture the entire year, which is also quite surprising.
I’m hoping to get a new bike at some point in the new year, to save on a long list of things that are likely to need repairing on the old bike that would add up to distinctly more than it’s worth. Given that my mileage is likely to double to 2000 miles next year, this seems like a decent investment. I might get my brakes done first though, as they’re getting a bit urgent (well…. the brakes are actually get less urgent by the day, which is the problem….)
Roll on 2011…
mrBen
Good to hear! It’s rarely awful for cycling, even on my 23mm-tyred racer.
I also am on the 23mm….
All sounds good. Just a few snippets which might be of interest…
(Bear in mind that my annual commute is somewhere in the region of 3000 miles, I think – 70 miles per week, anyway):
- My brake pads need replacing every 3 or 4 months – and this is with a fairly flat journey, so I’m not leaning on the brakes all the way down long hills. If you’re not happy changing the brake blocks yourself, see if you can get someone to fit blocks with replaceable ‘rubber’ only (and get a couple of sets of these rubbers), which is easy to do by hand. No fiddly adjustment needed;
- When replacing tyres, get the puncture-proof ones. They cost about £20 each, but it’s definitely worth. There’s nothing more demoralising than getting a puncture half-way…;
- Assuming you’re going to be biking in the dark quite a lot, get two complete sets of rechargeable batteries of each light and carry them with you, just in case you misjudge the battery lifetimes and they fail half-way (speaking from experience!);
The weather thing always surprises me too. It really never rains as much as everyone seems to think
All in all, bike commuting makes my journeys more predictable time-wise – it’s always within 5 minutes of the average – which is something you rarely get in a city with heavy traffic when you travel by car/bus. It also keeps you fit: this is not why I do it, but it lets me opportunistically take the moral high ground occasionally! And cost-wise, it’s very low: a few cables when they snap, tyres and brake blocks; in theory, you probably need to add the extra food required to fuel your journey too
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