Oct 09 2011
Bike to work
I’ve recently started commuting to work by bike which is both more enjoyable than walking and gets me there quicker. There are a few downsides but they’re small enough that I’m going to continue like this until the weather really forces me off the road.
I was initially quite afraid of the ride through the centre of Glasgow. There are lots of one-way streets, really steep hills and traffic lights. I was even contemplating leaving the bike at the station overnight and commuting through town by subway. But a few more days of the inner-city commute set me at ease. It can be a bit daunting but I know the route now, and I know the tricky points and where to position myself so I’m not trapped by buses and so on.
The train is also good. There’s a bike carriage on every train with six hooks to hang bikes. The biggest problem is caused by station staff who create deliberate bottlenecks (!) on the platform ends during peak commuter times, which cause all the following trains to be late. I honestly can’t believe it’s more worth their while to start off the day behind schedule than to just employ enough conductors for the trains.
My work isn’t the most cycle-friendly environment. There’s nowhere particular to chain up a bike, so mine gets tied to the banister at the foot of a stairwell, next to the mops and Slippery Surface signs. Classy! There’s also no shower/changing facilities and the toilets are a bit of an offence to hygiene, so things could be better. But then who puts an office in an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere anyway?
My next steps are to get some panniers for the bike, to reduce the need for a rucksack (which just makes cycling hotter and sweatier) and get more familiar with maintaining my trusty steed. I would have said “I can probably pump up the tyres without assistance” but since the front inner-tube was involved in a “rapid deflation event” last time I tried to pump it up maybe that’s not true! If I suffer a puncture en route I just have to walk it to my destination as I don’t have the immediate skills or materials to patch things up.
2 Responses to “Bike to work”
Puncture repair is fairly beastly, but as there is no economic equivalent to the AA for bikes, it is a skill which may be worth cultivating, seeing as you are biking regularly. Not necessarily worth sitting down and actually doing it for real, but watching a few videos on YouTube would suffice to pick up handy hints etc (I’m sure there are loads of “how-to” videos out there) A man on the radio said, only yesterday, just follow the instructions in the tyre repair kit APART from the “let the vulcanising solution dry” bit! Apparently it works best if it’s claggy.
That was the correct technical term; it was Radio Scotland, after all