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TheBikerStig Crazy Courier
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Richtea Trackday Trickster
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i.p.phrealy World Chat Champion
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hmmmnz |
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hmmmnz Super Spammer
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Posted: 16:03 - 28 Nov 2013 Post subject: |
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doing that each day would probably make me buy a big scooter with lots of weather protection, nothing worse commuting in the rain and snow when you a wet,
dont get me wrong i think big scooters are the ghey, but they difinitly have there uses, and long distance commutes is where its at.
ad they get around 70-80mpg so fairly cheap to run,
a belt every year, and a service every 6 months, easy money,
when the weathers nice you could still ride the hornet ____________________ the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches |
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ViniH |
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ViniH Nitrous Nuisance
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Posted: 02:58 - 29 Nov 2013 Post subject: |
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I'll throw my very limited experience into the hat here.
Since June I have been doing a 60 mile commute daily (each way, 120 miles/day total).
I have three options for this commute:
Train, car, and recently, motorcycle.
Option 1: The Train
This involves a 15-20 minute cycle to the train station, a 1h 10m train, followed by a 10 minute walk.
In theory my daily commute time should be a little over 3 hours, which is pretty bad, but the main problem is that the train on the way back is late at least 90% of the time (not exaggerating). Not only that, but it is usually 20 minutes late, and is often 30+ minutes late. It regularly (at least once a fortnight) is either cancelled altogether or terminates at Newport instead of Cardiff, leaving me to wait for another train. It is not unheard of for me to finish work around 5pm, and not get home until after 9pm. On one particularly noteworthy day the 5.36pm train was cancelled, the 6.36pm train was 50 minutes late, it then proceeded to go about a third the usual speed due to an engine problem, frequently stopped to "allow a faster train to pass", eventually got near Newport and sat outside Newport for about 25 minutes, before finally being cancelled on arrival to Newport, forcing me to wait for the next train to Cardiff. Total journey time to cover 60 miles? 5 hours.
I would also say I have to stand for at least the first 15 minutes of the journey home approximately 75% of the time.
How much does this wonderful commuting experience cost me?
£21.50/day, £89.90/week, or £345.60/month.
-----
Needless to say I began exploring my options quite soon (unfortunately moving closer is not a viable option until the summer due to other commitments).
Option 2: The Car
First of all I would need to buy a car (£1000 minimum). Then I would need to pay insurance, and at 33 it's still at least £400, on top of that is the obvious cost of petrol, and in my case (as well as other motoring costs) I would also have to pay a £6.70 daily toll on the Severn bridge, as well as either pay something like £10 a day in parking fees, or park a half hour walk from my office.
This is all before I factor in the small consideration of the horrendous traffic on my only viable route (M4).
Clearly the car is not going to work, and I therefore never even tried it.
---
Option 3: The Bike
The problem was that I did not have a motorbike license, and due to the only viable route containing a motorway, I would have to get my full license in order to do so. Minimum cost of that is theory test (£31.50) + CBT (£135) + step-up day (£160) + training/MOD1 (£195 ) + training/MOD2 (£235) - assuming you pass everything first time (which I didn't, I had to retake the MOD2). Then of course I'd need a bike (£1000), and insurance (£150), and gear (£300-500).
However the cost of gaining my license was a one off expense that I was always going to pay at some point, and once I had the bike the actual cost of motoring would be significantly cheaper than a car, with the added advantage that I would be less affected by traffic as I could filter through. The really interesting part, that made it viable in my case, was that motorcycles are able to cross the Severn bridge free of charge, and there is FREE on-street parking literally at the door of my office in the centre of Bath.
So not only would I be reducing my weekly travel costs by about £20, I would also be saving about an hour a day in time, I would be immune to the stress, annoyance, and unreliability of the train, and I would also be eliminating two cycles and two walks from my journey as the bike would be literally door to door.
So it seemed to me a viable alternative and every time I stood on a very late, very crowded train, listening to whatever bullshit excuse the care in the community experiment was vomiting into the tannoy, staring at my ticket wondering how many gods I had offended to be forced to pay £350 a month to endure this, I got a little closer to booking my DAS.
I finally snapped when I tried to make a compensation claim for a particularly horrific week that included something like 20 hours on a train - and was told, politely, that "First Great Western do not offer compensation to season ticket holders" but that they had included a nice £15 voucher as a "gesture of goodwill".
---
Now my story has some differences... I am single, and I think my bike is probably a bit better suited to commuting, but my journey is longer, and there is no fun option. Also, until February I am only doing this commute once a week, so in theory it is a lot less miles and therefore potential problems than you will experience. However I did my first commute this week, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Maybe it's the novelty of riding, but I wasn't cold (apart from my fingers but I am working on a solution for that) and I didn't really find it boring. I think I will be listening to music (in one ear only) next week - which will also reduce the likelihood of boredom.
So in summary, the bike, in my opinion, is the least annoying of the possibly available travel options.
However, having said all that... I have a lot of commuting experience on both public transport and via car, and I can tell you that it is *FREQUENTLY* a highly stressful experience - it is my naivety with bikes that is probably clouding my judgement about commuting on one, and I can absolutely assure you, whatever the mode of transport, you are far, far better off looking for a solution that eliminates or greatly reduces your commuting distance/time.
I am stuck in Cardiff until the summer, but at the very first opportunity I will be moving closer to work, without question, irrespective of how positive an experience my bike commuting continues to be.
Last edited by ViniH on 03:35 - 29 Nov 2013; edited 3 times in total |
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ViniH Nitrous Nuisance
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suburban myth Spanner Monkey
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Craig_H_94 Two Stroke Sniffer
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Moxey World Chat Champion
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mentalboy World Chat Champion
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Kickstart |
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Kickstart The Oracle
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Posted: 21:07 - 02 Dec 2013 Post subject: |
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ViniH wrote: |
Not disagreeing with you here, but I have a question. In a car, the way you drive makes a huge difference to the life of tyres and such - in fact it makes more difference than the actual number of miles in some cases. If you're ragging the tits off it and braking hard all the time, and throwing it round corners you're going to wear your tyres out a lot faster than if you are more leisurely in your motoring style (even on identical roads).
So, my question: is the way you ride a lesser or greater factor in determining the life of tyres on a bike, than the way you drive is on a car?
I would have thought it would have been an even greater factor, but I am curious as to general opinion. |
While very true, bike tyres tend to be softer and also with a bike if you corner hard you are wearing the edges of the tyres, which is unlikely to be the bit that renders the tyre worn out.
10k is about the best most people manage out of a set of tyres on a bike, while on a car I would expect FAR more than that unless I was running really soft tyres, or thrashing the absolute knackers off the car.
All the best
Keith ____________________ Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing |
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 10 years, 172 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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