Just worked out a great shortcut to Richmond Park that doesn’t involve any major roads or (more importantly) going up Richmond Hill.
It means I end up in the lower part of the park – if I want to go to the high part I still have to go uphill at some point – but it’s a short steep (pushable) slope instead of a long slow slog.
I don’t mind hills usually, but I’ve not ridden for a while and just don’t have the energy – I’d be knackered and ready to go home before I even reached the park gates.
That’s one of the nice things about bikes, without the constraints of staying on roads; there’s always another way to where you want to go.
I have not been posting lately as I have not been cycling lately.
I have a wrist injury so I have been unable to ride, and still can’t use the bike for a while yet.
I’m not being a wimp because of the weather, honest!
Also, I am leaving my job soon and don’t know yet where I will be working, so commuting to work by bike may be off the menu for a while too.
In the meantime, here is a photo I took while riding my bike in Richmond Park a few months back.
Can’t wait to get back on the bike!
As I only started riding to work at the tail end of summer I’ve had to start thinking about cold weather clothing almost immediately.
As noted previously I own some tops and have bought some shorts.
I’ve also since bought 3/4 length shorts which cover the knees (strangely enough I don’t seem to mind my calves getting cold) – these have been very good since the mornings started to get really chilly.
Since getting and wearing all this gear, I’d had this growing feeling that I’d been unable to put into words – then I was chatting about keeping warm when cycling in winter to a friend recently who said something like “You can keep warm but you have to dress a lot dorkier”.
That was it, I was dressing like a dork!
Now I’m certainly not part of the day-glow lycra crowd, but I still look unmistakably like a cyclist (and not just because I’m on a bike!).
Even if I remove my helmet and sunglasses and stand away from my bike I still look like a cyclist.
And so, I also look just that little bit silly.
Now it’s OK to look like a bit silly when I am on or near my bike. But as soon as I am away from my bike I really start to stand out like a sore thumb.
I tend to want to change clothes at that point, so I usually do.
The thing is, realising this has been a revelation.
I used to worry about combining certain items of clothing (all in the name of keeping warm of course) and ask my girlfriend “Do I look OK in this?”.
Now, I no longer worry, I just ask “Do I look like a cyclist in this?” and as long as the answer is “Yes”, I’m set.
When I tell people (specifically, non-cyclists) that I ride to work I’ve noticed that I get a fairly common reaction from them.
They usually look at me as if I was mad.
Then I go on to explain my route and point out how most of it involves riding along quiet back streets and by the Thames and the initial “you’re mad” look fades away and they wistfully say something like “That sounds really nice”.
Of course, some still think I am mad.
Before I considered cycling to work I wondered how to do it whilst avoiding the two fast dual carriageways linking my home and my office.
Luckily the free maps I got from TFL are excellent and showed me some great routes.
Without them I may never have considered riding to work as I was (and still am) put off by the speed and amount of traffic on the main roads mentioned above.
I wonder how many more people would ride to work if only they knew how feasible it was.
Confession time, I’ve not ridden to work in almost two weeks (gulp).
A combination of wet weather (I lack wet weather gear and mudguards), going out after work, days off and a bad back have scuppered any bike commuting plans.
But tomorrow will be different.
The weather is going to be dry (it’s also going to be chilly, but that doesn’t massively bother me) and I’m fighting fit and ready to ride!
I’d noted before how energised I felt at work after riding in, and I’ve missed that buzz when I’ve travelled in on the tube.
That buzz will return though, for tomorrow I won’t be hanging around the station having just missed my tube home. These things don’t bother the bike commuter. Oh no.
Tomorrow it will be different.
I shall ride to work!
Assuming I can get out of bed on time, you know, with these cold mornings and my back and all.
This morning’s ride in to work was one of those where everything went just right.
The weather was perfect for cycling, cool but not too chilly.
There were some lovely views of the sun rising over the Thames through the mist.
Traffic was nice and light so I got to ride all the bits where I normally get off and push as it’s too busy.
I even managed to tailgate my way into the carpark at work thereby saving a faff with the security gate.
And I somehow shaved 10 minutes off my time too, I must be getting faster!
One of the reasons I wanted to cycle to work was to do some sort of regular exercise.
I anticipated that if I did it regularly I’d feel a bit healthier and possibly even lose a bit of weight.
Those are all medium-term goals things though, in the short-term I didn’t expect to feel anything other than knackered.
And it’s true, on the first ride in to work I did feel quite knackered.
So, I naturally assumed that as long as I kept it up I’d slowly (and painfully no doubt) move from knackeredness to healthiness.
But what I actually found was that I also felt really energised at work whenever I rode in.
I don’t know if this feeling will go away as I get fitter (I win either way though) but right now it’s proving to be a nice bonus to all the other advantages.
So, Sunday 23rd September was the day of the London Freewheel – an organised mass bike rally event in Central London.
As previously stated, this event was one of the reasons I bought a bike so there was no way I was going to miss it.
Some highlights of the day.
- Spending the day with a group of really great friends – they even waited for me when I stopped on London Bridge to take some photos (I shot film so no photos to show yet)
- The free sandwiches which were really quite good – still can’t see myself buying Hovis bread mind
- The general sense of fun and smiles on everyone’s faces – I don’t think I saw a single cross face all day
- Riding along the embankment with thousands of other cyclists, which was amazing exhilarating fun
- Experiencing some extreme close quarter cycling at some of the choke points as it got very busy indeed
- Ringing my bell (not a euphemism) when we went through the tunnels
- Ice creams in Hyde Park after, would have preferred a beer mind
- Riding over a traffic free Westminster Bridge on our way back to Waterloo Station for the train home
A truly excellent day, and I just hope they do it again next year.
Update:
Got my photos back.
See more in my London Freewheel set on Flickr.
Two days after my first commute I did it again.
In the days between I had studied my maps and worked out some shortcuts.
The second time around I managed to shave a whopping fifteen minutes off my first commute time. Get in!
My main route change involved cutting out the “scenic route” along the river and continuing along the pavement for another 5 minutes.
I can still take the scenic route on the way home when I am in less of a hurry though.
The other tweak involved avoiding most of the bad traffic around Barons Court by riding through a nearby park.
So, a win-win then.
Having commuted by bike twice in my first week I wanted to do the same in the second week.
Initially I planned to ride on the Monday morning but that weekend the weather turned and it was a lot chillier so I managed to talk myself out of it and went in on the tube instead.
After a crap day at work and a shit journey home on the tube I resolved to cycle in the next day no matter how I felt when I got up.
So, the next day I got up early and got ready to ride.
It was still chilly out so I put on two long-sleeved layers – I don’t yet have any longer shorts that cover the knees so I wore my (secret!) lycra shorts under my normal shorts to keep me a bit warmer.
The initial shock of walking outside wearing shorts almost made me want to call it off, then I remembered my resolution and pressed ahead.
Once I was a few minutes down the road it didn’t feel so chilly after all and within ten minutes I was nicely warmed up.
With my new shortcut route I did it in 40 minutes (starting to settle into a routine now) – which is still a tad slow but I can put about 10 minutes of that down to crossing roads and waiting at lights (I’ll probably be adding a cycle computer to my gear list soon as I am curious about my timings).
Once settled in at my desk at work I realised how much more energised I felt at work after riding in – the day before I’d felt lethargic and tired – but today I was buzzing with energy – I could get used to this feeling!
I’m now on my 4th commute in two weeks – I’ve not set any targets as such, but it’d be a shame to drop below two days a week now.
Weather looks warm next week though – might aim for 3 days.
So, I had all the gear and had really run out of excuses to not ride to work.
I had the maps, had done a test run of the route on a Sunday morning, and all the rain of July and August had gone away to make for perfect cycling weather.
The route
The most direct route between Richmond and Hammersmith involves two long straight roads that intersect about two thirds of the way there – unfortunately, one’s a 4-lane highway with a 40mph speed limit, and the other is a 6-lane highway, also with a 40mph speed limit.
I was not ready to cycle on those kinds of roads yet (if ever).
But luckily I can cycle on the pavement (legally!) from the end of my street to Chiswick Bridge.
I then turn onto a quiet lane that hugs the curve of the Thames – it’s a scenic route both in that it’s very peaceful and in that it’s very much the long way around.
That lane eventually turns into a mix of quiet back-streets and riverside paths that run along that narrow strip between the A4 and the Thames.
This gets me as far as Hammersmith Bridge before I am on some more back-streets for the final stretch to my office which is just across the A4 (the 6-lane highway) from Barons Court tube.
Setting off
So, one September morning, around 8am, I set off for work on my bike.
It was around 6 miles and I really had no idea how long it would take me.
My main concern was how much busier the roads would be on a weekday morning than they were on my Sunday morning dry-run.
As it turned out it was fine until I got close to Barons Court station – that was when I met the tail end of some backed-up traffic.
I didn’t feel comfortable passing the cars on the left as I’d be squashed up between them and a row of parked cars – and the stream of oncoming cars gave me no room to pass on the right too.
I’m really not comfortable in situations like this that demand high manoeuvrability at low speed – so I got off the bike and pushed it up the street.
Once past the worst of the traffic outside Barons Court I got back on and waited at the lights to cross the A4. The rest of the route from there to the office was pretty straightforward.
Once at work I checked my watch – it had taken me an hour! Oops!
Well, I guess my times can only improve from here!
After locking up my bike and changing (no showers at work unfortunately) I sat at my desk feeling quite knackered but with a massive sense of achievement.
I did it!
