Bike to work??

When was the last time you rode your bike to work?

For me that was a long long time ago. Although seldom suited up I still have to look a certain way in my job as it involved interviews and meetings where bike gear would not be acceptable. The hassle and inconvenience of dragging the bike out, changing on arrival etc. combined with my intrinsic laziness kills the idea off every time it pops up. Oh and the fact that for the last decade or so it’s been routinely pissing down with rain!

This morning was different though. For complicated reasons I had to go home (in the car) before going over to see my girlfriend where I would be for the night. The weather was great, I now have a bike with panniers for the office clobber and the commute from her place to my office is a traffic snarled nightmare! I took the bike, admittedly not the SD as that doesn’t have luggage but my ZZR1400.

Nice ride over to her place but it’s this morning that has inspired me to write. The journey from her town (Witney) to my office is about 30 miles and involves going through / round the city of Oxford. The traffic is awful and in a car if I leave before 7.30 I arrive sometime between 8.45 and 9. This morning I left at about the same time, stopped in to pick up milk and chat at the local bakery, unlocked and changed in the office before checking the time. 8.12!!

Realistically that’s 45 mins shaved from a 1.15 car journey – wow. Forget high speed trains, bikes are the answer!!

Moreover it was bloody good fun, a bit of lane splitting, sucking up the gaps like the world is on fast forward, nailing the occasional traffic free bend. All good ways to start the day.

Anyway as you can tell I enjoyed it a lot and I wondered if anybody else here uses a bike to get to work?

I work on an RAF Base.
Whenever i can i ride to work! Love it!

I have a 120 mile round trip to work and commuted for about 3 years, all year round. Mostly shit bikes in shit weather but I enjoyed it at the time. For various reasons I do it in the car now but a couple of times a month, mostly on a sunny Friday, I take the bike. The 60 miles become 75 or so to find some decent roads. Sometimes it's the only biking I have time for so I take it when I can. Only managed twice on the SD this year so far but will try and fit more in.

Every day.............................................

Rode to work everyday for years, in the end I hated it so much that I left my bike sitting in the garage for a year with a flat tyre.
Sold it and gave up riding for 8 years.
Do the occassional commute but very rarely.
Now love the fact that when I ride it is because I want to and not because I have to.

Almost every day for years, loved it as I started very early so not much cars around and the plod still in bed.
No I work from home and I miss the ride in the morning as it cleared my head. Might go out for a scoot before I do some work.

Commuted 60miles a day for years. Summertime I took the looking way home that involved going West and Morth first before heading South and East to go home. Wintertime I took motorways. Bizarrely, over the 30 mile distance, the time difference between my 955 Triumph and my 125 winter hack was only about five minutes at normal riding speeds. The 125 was narrower than my shoulders and I didn't need to slow down much at all for traffic.

These days I slog into my work in a van, grumbling away and envying every bike rider that comes past. I also curse these strange folk that commute on a bike, but still sit in traffic queues. What is the point of using a bike and not using its advantages? I see more and more of this these days, I can only imagine that the "risk averse" generation have started motorcycling. They do tend to be wearing hi-viz clothing. I've got a lot of small jobs on next week's backshift and I am sorely tempted to use my old XJ900

Every day for me, 60 mile round trip with 25 miles of National Park (watching out for the animals!) and only 5 miles of dual carriageway.

every time its dry i ride to work (10 days a year )
have a company car , but i hate it , put 6k miles on my 1190 since November

My bike was my only transport for a couple of years so I rode everywhere!

Nowadays, I am soft and have a car, but still ride to work every day I can during the summer. It's a great way to stay in practice, especially if you're lucky enough to have a good route to work.

100 miles a day mon-fri and I normally do 300-400 miles on the weekends.

The way I get home is the way everyone takes to get to Las Vegas so traffic is fooked every friday. Lane splitting easily saves me 45 minutes to an hour on those days.

I ride the pedaling kind of bike Bicycle to work and run home. Run to work the next day and bicycle home. 8km one way. It keeps me in good shape and no traffic worries....plus you can do all sorts of crazy stuff on a mountain bike and nobody cares.....wheelies,stoppies, rear wheel lockups, going down stairs. I ride a motorcycle maybe 3-4 times a year, and maybe 10 times a year catch a ride with my wife in the car since we both work in the same place. Also I can throw all my work clothes in the car and get them when I arrive. Pretty good system!

Did so for the last 20 years but the 2@'s where I work decided they didn't like where i parked it, (even though I'd used the exact same spot each time). So now there are a couple of dedicated spots which are out of sight and I am not comfortable leaving my luverly SD for some low life to nick it. But I work nights every other week and sometimes do ride in, and wait for Dumb and Dumber to feck off home and then wheel the SD inside until morning

For me it started riding a CL100 Honda everyday to school and work,,,then to my first Yamaha RD350A,,all weather conditions , rain sleet, snow and ice,,didn't have a car license until I was 26,,my winter ride became a Yamaha DT,,,but I always had more than one bike so as every day was a different day I had to make a choice in the mornings it was " nice out",,which for me meant clear skies,,,temp didn't matter,-25F - 100F ,so at one time I could walk out to the garage and pick between my Benelli Quatro,,Morini sport, Ducati 350 MKIII, Guzzi LMI , Benelli 250 SS and my perfect MV 350S,, somewhere else in there was another Yamaha RD350B,Yamaha TX500 and a Morini Strada,,,,,Life was good on my bikes,,,,now riding to work I have so many tools to bring everywhere it's impossible to do so until I do something else for a living,,,,

I honestly can't fathom the logic of some people on my commute. They drive to work with 4 empty seats sitting in jams cursing the ease of which I pass.
I commute and always will, on a bike. AMEN!