Would you commute by bicycle if..

[Treatment]

A splendid idea, provided a Limousine could be provided to carry my briefcase.

[Squiggs]

A tip I picked up from Cycle Chat is to take a spray bottle (the cheap gardenijng spray bottles from wilkos) with some soapy water and a microfibre towel for a quick "freshen up"

 

A change of clothes in my pannier worked for me getting from Nether Edge to Neepsend via Long Line, Ringinglow and Fulwood.

 

Yes, I did it for fun. Well, to try to convince myself that it would be fun.

 

If you are reasonably fit (that includes being classed as obese) in the sense that you don't have any health/mobility issues, then you can make it up any hill in Sheffield. Getting off and walking is quite acceptable if you need to, after a while you'll find that you don't.

 

Talk of ski-lifts and such..ell, on a serious note if you NEED assistance, electrically assisted bikes exist for just that.

 

So come on, for most people, be honest, it's not "Well, I would but (excuse)", it's "I'd rather not" Or if you genuinely believe that the reson for not cycling is stopping you then have a think again - there are all kinds of solutions.

 

Understand completely if its a fear of traffic, but that has been addressed in an earlier post re: training

 

On the issue of fumes - on a spring day with air vents open but not hot enough for the air con, you get more fumes in your car than you do on an upright cycle

[nerd]

I think the thing that stops me using a bike in the city is definitely fear. I see so many threads on here about cyclists complaining about soem idioit or other who has nearly killed them on the roads, and then so many comments from other road users, mainly drivers basically joking about it, as if people who cycle deserve to be injured and to be honest it terrifies me.

I used to live out in the sticks when I was a kid and cycled a lot on quiet country lanes and loved it. But nowadays I am often too scared to even walk to town and back, having seen so many drivers who fail to indicate, who run red lights, who speed in residential areas. I realise that it is partly me being overly scared but there does seem to be alot to fear.

I think I would take up cycling (if my health were to permit it that is) if there were designated cycle routes, or maybe even some kind of "cycle bus", like the little kids have for walking to school, where a few cyclists group together, something like that might gve me the confidence.

I think the big thing would be a safe cycle lane, or if you could cycle on the pavement.

The OH wants to start cycling to work but I have begged him not to, the things I have read on here mean I would be terrified every day when he left for work.

[vwkittie]

What about idiot cyclists though as well?

 

A few months ago we were just starting to turn left at a give way - correctly positioned on the road and indicating as normal when a cyclist suddenly decided to race down our left hand side (on a hill so he was going quite fast) and go straight on at the junction

 

Honestly if he had been 2 seconds later he would have been skittled and it would have been his fault! And I bet he wouldn't have been insured to pay for the damage to our car.

 

AND when we beeped at him to draw his attention to the fact that he was being a complete pillock who was going to get himself killed, he gave us the rods!!

 

Talk about giving cyclists a bad name!

[Tony]

Agreed, that's not good but that's the sort of thing that can be sorted with training. To be honest there are good, bad and indifferent cyclists just the same as motorists and we don't worry about dopey motorists giving the rest a bad name. Obviously if there were more cyclists and less motorists we'd all get around better.

 

You shouldn't have beeped him though - if he was an idiot it served no purpose. One thing that I find when I'm on the bike is that I'm much more relaxed when I get to my destination.

 

Do you think that cycle training might help you to overcome any fears? Would more cyclists on the roads encourage you to join them?

[InTheUK]

Nerd,

 

These forums are a really poor measure of the true state of cycling in Sheffield. The fact is there are a lot of car drivers on here who love to hate and so you do get constant complaints of cyclists running reds or otherwise abusing the roads, the road tax nonsense and so on. The truth is that the vast majority of drivers are considerate towards cyclists / pedestrians / horse riders and the idea that someone would exclude themselves entirely from participation in these activities because of the perceived threat is a terrible waste, and a loss.

Sheffield Council offers free cycle training as I posted earlier - this is really high quality individual training and this is the best way forward, I think, for someone in your position.

Regarding group rides, there are four or five groups in Sheffield that offer rides at a range of levels - hit google or try here (see links on left).

[0114owl1867]

I'm still waiting to find out how you cycle from stocky to town in 25 mins... not sure I could average over 20mph the whole way on a bike myself!

 

i'm still working out how you get to town from stocky in 25 minutes on a push bike anorl (unless your name is chris boardman that is)

[vwkittie]

I think we've established that there is No Way!

 

Anyway I will beep at anyone who rides or drives like an idiot, as they often don't seem to even notice what they are doing otherwise, like they are away in la-la land or something.

[Squiggs]

when we beeped at him to draw his attention to the fact that he was being a complete pillock who was going to get himself killed

 

[PEDANT]Misuse of the horn, then?[/PEDANT]

[vwkittie]

No, the horn is to 'warn others of your presence' i.e. if they are blindly and stupidly careering towards a collision with my car.