So I bought a bike using the Ride2Work scheme, in short you pay over 12 monthly instalments from your pre-tax/NI income, VAT free. Saves roughly 42% over the year, and gets me £1000 worth of bike and gear for around £600. bargain.
First bit of “new” transport i’ve ever bought, just wish it rained less, and the shower in the office that i have to use on out of hours shifts was less parp. My Fuji Cross Comp:
So – as yet I’ve been doing the 7.1 mile ride in to work, and back again pretty much every day I’m working since acquiring the bike, plus the odd bike-ride. This takes roughly 35 minutes at reasonable speed, and 40-45 minutes if you relax. Easily speeds up my trip to the office, and it’s a lot more fun than the sweaty anti-social tube.
The cost saving is pretty awesome also – normally a tube pass for zones 1-2 is ~£100 a month but the bike is costing me ~£45 or something, saving me quite a bit – plus i sleep for longer, and get fit. win win all round.
I decided on a cyclo-cross bike for the added durability, slightly wider tyres and forks (for improved fork strength, compatibility and the option of semi off-road tyres), plus the extra set of cyclo-cross brakes (in the normal bike position) – which are very handy on London roads.
Oh, and as you’d expect you have a shower on arrival at the office – stops people’s bacon and onion armpits, turns out today storing a shower in the shower’s attached cloakroom is a faux pas according to the building landlord – mine along with ~10 other’s towels were confiscated today. Little do they know i broke in on my way home and got the bastard back.
Now i just need to find the perfect music for cycling in the morning (only one earbud in of course..). So far sad tunes make you go slow, trance you simply cant pedal fast enough to the beat and dnb makes you cycle dangerously – Any suggestions?
but has it aided with the reduction in the size of moobs?
working on it – hope so.