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D O G
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PostPosted: 13:39 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

What do you both do?

Which towns do you respectively live in?

Why can't she move job?
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TheBikerStig
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PostPosted: 19:27 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

D O G wrote:
What do you both do?

Which towns do you respectively live in?

Why can't she move job?


Are motorcycles really that much less reliable than cars in general? Its not like I dont come across people who have car trouble.
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27cows
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PostPosted: 19:34 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

My current commute is exactly 45 miles each way and I do it on a 2 stroke 100. No bother at all. But my run is mostly on the open road. Might be a different matter if you encounter lots of heavy town traffic.
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Cheeseybeaner
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PostPosted: 20:58 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

45 miles each way entirely on motorway? What's that on a Hornet 600 - maybe 30 minutes riding at a steady 90 (assuming you get a nice clear motorway...) I don't see it should be a major problem, about 450 work miles a week if you're happy to exchange some of your mostly pleasure riding (?) for practical A to B. As said though your maintenance needs and consumables will go up plus the petrol you'll be getting through, if the job justifies it though I don't see why not.
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Richtea
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PostPosted: 21:27 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cheeseybeaner wrote:
45 miles each way entirely on motorway? .


That would be the deal breaker for me. The motorway might be quicker but i find it soul destroying doing mile after mile of motorway driving, be it on the bike or in the car.
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Cheeseybeaner
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PostPosted: 21:32 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Richtea wrote:
Cheeseybeaner wrote:
45 miles each way entirely on motorway? .


That would be the deal breaker for me. The motorway might be quicker but i find it soul destroying doing mile after mile of motorway driving, be it on the bike or in the car.


I like them personally, where else can you trundle along at such and such a speed with so much ease and lack of risk? A few hundred miles can get a bit much but 45 could be done in half an hour or so if you get a clear run.
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Richtea
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PostPosted: 21:39 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cheeseybeaner wrote:
.

I like them personally, where else can you trundle along at such and such a speed with so much ease and lack of risk? A few hundred miles can get a bit much but 45 could be done in half an hour or so if you get a clear run.


Each to their own of course, but I just find it boring. Noisy, and difficult to get the body temperature right, either hot and stuffy in summer or freezing in winter. Although that's more likely down to my poor quality gear than anything else!
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i.p.phrealy
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PostPosted: 22:12 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

I do a 56 mile daily commute (round trip) on a Chinese 125.
i'd love to do it on a half decent bike!
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Wonko The Sane
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PostPosted: 23:17 - 27 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

fatpies wrote:
While a lot of people will say MTFU.

It will cost you loads and burn into your time everyday.

I lived just outside Halifax and worked in Trafford for a while.

On paper this is motorway all the way and it was reasonably fast from HX1 to the M60 and got clogged up. As the M62 joined the M60.

Then it got clogged up to Trafford where the M60 split into the M62 again.

On a good day it took 50 minutes, on a bad day it took 75 minutes each way, as stinky says adding 3 hours a day which utterly kills you. You can do it for a short time before it drives you nuts.


I come down the M66 and join the M60 round to trafford, during the summer it wasn't too bad taking 40 mins to get home (at lunch time it can be done in 20min

It's about 25 miles each way but at the moment is taking the best part of an hour. I've started going into and across Manchester towards Oldham, takes as much time but not sitting in traffic cooking the bike (some very narrow lane sections) as much as it keeps moving.

Some days it's fine, you don't mind it, some days it just pees you off.

If you were thinking of having children your priorities will change with regards how you view the time taken getting between work and your family.
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yen_powell
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PostPosted: 08:53 - 28 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cheeseybeaner wrote:

I like them personally, where else can you trundle along at such and such a speed with so much ease and lack of risk? A few hundred miles can get a bit much but 45 could be done in half an hour or so if you get a clear run.
They do the job, let you cover distance quickly, even when the traffic has come to a stand still filtering is safer and the gaps between the vehicles tend to be more generous than on normal roads, plus you get a choice of routes to thread between.

The only downside is if the old bill shut one up ahead then there's no turning off easily to go round an incident unless you happen to catch a lucky exit at the same time as seeing the back of the queue.
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Sable
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PostPosted: 14:21 - 28 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have commuted long distances and long times. personally, its the time commuting that kills I find. Half hour commutes are awesome and give so much of the day back, an hour commuting per journey is about my resonable limit. I can live with commuting 2 hours per day on bike, train, car or bicycle. any more than though just eats into my free time too much.

have done 4 hours commuting a day. leaving home at 6am and getting home at 7pm left me walking through the door at night, shower, food (often convenience food to save time), laze about cause I was tired for an hour then sleep.

un - manly bit. sex which I'm sure everyone's fond of would eat into my sleeping time. which left me knackered the next day . sex a few days on the trot and I was ready to drop off to sleep on the M25. got moved to a place closer to home in the end.

how long will your commute actually take you? is it a quick bit of motorway or aganozing crawl around the west side of the M25 type motorway?
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hmmmnz
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PostPosted: 16:03 - 28 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
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ViniH
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PostPosted: 02:58 - 29 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
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PostPosted: 03:11 - 29 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

fatpies wrote:
While a lot of people will say MTFU.

It will cost you loads and burn into your time everyday.

I lived just outside Halifax and worked in Trafford for a while.

On paper this is motorway all the way and it was reasonably fast from HX1 to the M60 and got clogged up. As the M62 joined the M60.

Then it got clogged up to Trafford where the M60 split into the M62 again.

On a good day it took 50 minutes, on a bad day it took 75 minutes each way, as stinky says adding 3 hours a day which utterly kills you. You can do it for a short time before it drives you nuts.

The M62 wasn't great as people kept jumping off bridges and closing the motorway took me till 1am to get home once.

I burned a LOT of petrol as well and wore out a set of tyres and I did it in a CAR.


Any journey involving the M60 is a pretty bad example. Traffic and delays wise it's probably the worst road in Britain except possibly something around London.

I did Preston to Cheadle for 3 years. It once took me 4 hours to get to work. I would never willingly do that commute again, not even for a 7 figure salary.
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suburban myth
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PostPosted: 06:17 - 29 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're looking into it but is the OH from her side of things as well. Any money you save on a joint tenancy will literally be wasted on both of you commuting. One of you needs to move jobs and pitch up in the other ones home town.
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Craig_H_94
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PostPosted: 12:40 - 29 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

The journey would be on the A1M (the up north section) and speeds at the times I would be using it have never been below 60 in the past (it's usually pretty empty)
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Moxey
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PostPosted: 15:16 - 29 Nov 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Craig_H_94 wrote:
The journey would be on the A1M (the up north section) and speeds at the times I would be using it have never been below 60 in the past (it's usually pretty empty)


Honestly I've only ever known the A1M to get really congested south of Ripon when you get closer to Leeds so i reckon a fair chunk of it should be plain sailing (Off-topic You don't happen to work at Nissan do you? I vaguely recognise the Hornet if its the one in your display pic)
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tsmith
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PostPosted: 19:16 - 01 Dec 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did an 84 mile round trip every day for 2 years on a GPZ500S. No problems at all with the bike and if I was earning a decent salary it would have been an enjoyable blast up the motorway.

Unfortunately I was on utterly crappy wages, so I ended up riding everywhere at 40mph. Fantastic fuel economy on the 500 though, it was returning between 90-100 mpg week after week. I was filling up every 4 days at 350 miles and I usually managed to do this without hitting reserve - that was the "challenge". It cost me around £22 to fill up.
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iooi
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PostPosted: 19:55 - 01 Dec 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

TheBikerStig wrote:

Are motorcycles really that much less reliable than cars in general? Its not like I dont come across people who have car trouble.


You will hit the same % reliability wise.
The issue is a car will go a lot longer between services, than a bike. Consumables last a lot longer.
eg bike tyres 10K, set £200+. Car still going strong @ 30K priced a set @ less than £200
Then factor in bad weather.
Anyone that says they love riding a bike on a M'way in cold & snow for hours is not telling the truth.
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ViniH
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PostPosted: 05:32 - 02 Dec 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

iooi wrote:
TheBikerStig wrote:

Are motorcycles really that much less reliable than cars in general? Its not like I dont come across people who have car trouble.


You will hit the same % reliability wise.
The issue is a car will go a lot longer between services, than a bike. Consumables last a lot longer.
eg bike tyres 10K, set £200+. Car still going strong @ 30K priced a set @ less than £200
Then factor in bad weather.
Anyone that says they love riding a bike on a M'way in cold & snow for hours is not telling the truth.


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.
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iooi
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PostPosted: 10:45 - 02 Dec 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

ViniH wrote:
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.


Of course your riding style has a effect on tyre life. Just the same as your driving style.

My 10K bike tyres is up above what my peers got on the same bike. So I have a pretty soft use of tyres. Far more engine braking, than use of the brakes.
Pretty much the same in a car as well.

As bigger factor is the roads you drive/ride on. Seems people in the highlands wear tyres faster than the rest of the UK. Looks like it is down to the surface dressing on the roads being far more abrasive (granite chippings) that are used compared to the average flat surface we see in towns.

End of the day. In my experience I have yet to have a set of car tyres last anything less than 2x the life of my bike tyres.
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Northern Monkey
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PostPosted: 17:21 - 02 Dec 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

iooi wrote:
ViniH wrote:
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.


Of course your riding style has a effect on tyre life. Just the same as your driving style.

My 10K bike tyres is up above what my peers got on the same bike. So I have a pretty soft use of tyres. Far more engine braking, than use of the brakes.
Pretty much the same in a car as well.

As bigger factor is the roads you drive/ride on. Seems people in the highlands wear tyres faster than the rest of the UK. Looks like it is down to the surface dressing on the roads being far more abrasive (granite chippings) that are used compared to the average flat surface we see in towns.

End of the day. In my experience I have yet to have a set of car tyres last anything less than 2x the life of my bike tyres.


Without getting into some pissy cock waving exercise, the Mitchelin energy savers on the front of my bmw 318 have been on there for 40,000 miles, and I expect them to be on for another 10,000 or so. The back ones I only got 30,000 miles on.

They were < £300ish for 4
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mentalboy
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PostPosted: 17:39 - 02 Dec 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Long commutes can be a PITA but the upside is that you'd spend 5 nights a week less amusing yourself
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iooi
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PostPosted: 21:06 - 02 Dec 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

Northern Monkey wrote:
some pissy cock waving exercise,


What, you hoping Tom Daley will be making a dive for it then Laughing

Nice going by BTW.
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Kickstart
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PostPosted: 21:07 - 02 Dec 2013    Post subject: Reply with quote

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
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