Be Excellent To Each Other

I may well, in the near future, take advantage of my employer's and the Government's generous "Cycle 2 Work" scheme to get a cheap-o bike to cycle to work. My commute is not short ( about 17 miles each way ) so I might not do the whole distance at first, I do aim to cycle most of it eventually, thus saving me huge amounts of dosh and transform myself into a toned Adonis at the same time.

So what should I get? I'd be saving so much on my season ticket that I'd be happy to go to the top end of the available cash ( one whole grand! ). Would proper shoes help? Any useful gizmos or nick-nacks?

The scheme is registered with Halfords, so I may be limited to them.

Thanks all!

Bit more info - I'm thinking a road bike, as I have a knock-about mountain bike for fun stuff. I have locks and a helmet, and a computer gizmo - I'm really after recommendations on the model of frame.

#dtab" class="postlink">Boardman looks nice. Stick some clipless pedals on it, and you'll be at work in an hour and ten minutes.

Ooh, they look shiny. That would actually be about the same speed as my current train commute. That price would leave me cash for cool shades and lycra shorts as well.

I've recently bought a bike for my commute, 13 miles each way.

I bought a Boardman hybrid, as my company doesn't do the c2w scheme so max value for money was important. They're excellent bikes - it's just a shame that, as practially every review I read mentions, you have to deal with Halfords.

Having said that I think they'll order in more or less any make you want on the c2w scheme.

Don't forget to add in at least £150 worth of accessories, clothing etc which you'll inevitably end up buying after you get the bike, I think you can add some bits & pieces into the scheme as well as the bike.

Yeah, I think the scheme allows me to buy as many bits as I like. My current bit list is:

Hi-vis jacket.
Shoes + pedals
More locks
Shorts
Spare tubes and so on
Maybe glasses
Lights
Spoke clackers and a basket for the front

You forgot the streamers for you handlebars, dude. Jesus.

...
...

Er, that's all I have to add. Sorry.

Don't be silly - I've got LOADS of them already.

Cannondale and trek have good reputations, I think.

Whatever you get, the addition of about forty spokey dokeys should set it off nicely.

I had spokey dokeys on my bike when I was a downhill racer.

Get an orange Kawasaki Z1000.



Vroom vroom!

In a "Squirt takes 5 months to actually get something done" shocker, I've actually got my bike now and am ready to ride it home. It's a shiny black Trek 7.3 and my GPS thingy seems to think my trip is 13 miles.

I'm writing a blog about my exciting travels HERE. It will be updated in about 4 hours when I haul my broken body home for the first time.

You should comfortably be able to do that in under an hour on a race hybrid and closer to 45 mins once you're fitter.

Or six minutes if you'd got the Z1000 like what I said.

Very nice.
I got a trek 8.4 a couple of months ago and it hasn't taken that long to get up to ten mile rides from "3.5 nearly killed me"

OK, did the round trip! At the moment, each leg is taking about 1:40, which is a lot longer than ~I was hoping for. However, a fair chunk of this is me stopping to check my route ( and the occasional wrong turn ). I reckon I'll be able to knock 20 mins off that pretty quick, and then down to an hour once my legs start working properly. My GPS thingy reckons I've burnt off an additional 1,500 calories already. I'm going to need to start eating more pies.

Try using both your legs at the same time.

Wow, that's loads of calories burned. Are you enjoying it? That's the main thing.

That's like 7 miles an hour. I'd be checking the brakes aren't binding if I were you...

I reckon the bits where I was moving where a lot quicker than that - stopping to look up my route and a good 1.5 mile detour when lost skew that a touch. Hopefully, when I've got the route sorted in a day or two that'll improve by miles.

Good luck dude - if you've any spare, the weight will drop off after a few weeks of that. And if not, you'll be a leaner, meaner, racing machine(r).

Clipless pedals.