Aug 08 2010

The art of commuting Posted 1 years 284 days ago ago by sooz     0 Comments

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The art of commuting

Using your motorbike to do the run to the office is a very practical approach to tackling traffic congestion and enjoying a blast on your toy at the same time. The enjoyment, though, tends to depend on the type of commuting you do.

 

Fair weather commuting is a good way of preserving your constant delight with biking. If your pride and joy is sparkly and maintained with kid gloves, then you’ll no doubt want to avoid the salted roads of winter and the dark journeys.

 

There are many reasons why you might want to be a regular, hardened all-year-round commuter.

 

The positives include:

• Cost – bikes are generally much cheaper to run
• Traffic frustration – if your journey to work is long or on busy roads then there’s nothing quite like the smug feeling of getting to the front of the queue at the lights yet again
• Time – in extreme cases, a 2 hour car commute can be a 30 minute bike trip
• Parking – plenty of offices struggle for parking spots, and parking in towns is easy and usually free for bikes. (By the way, did you know that most airport parking is free and right next to the terminal?)
• Getting to work with a huge grin on your face
• Impressing your work colleagues. Well, they always are impressed and we may as well get a little buzz out of it, eh girls?

There can be a down-side though:

• The elements – cold, rain, fog and frost are unpleasant; flooding and snow will force you onto a train. Don’t try to ride in the snow!
• Riding at night – read the tips section for pointers
• Jealous car drivers will get to you so you need to adopt a forgiving and forgetful attitude towards them
• Filtering isn’t the safest thing in the world. You have to accept the inherent risks if you’re going to do it
• Helmet hair, what a pain
• Clothing tends to be a pain as you either have to take a bag with clothes in and get changed, or be lucky enough to be in an office which allows jeans and casual wear

Equipment

• Top box – I recommend a large (45litre) box which can take a good sized laptop bag or rucksack for the journey, and a full-size helmet and some of your gear when parked up
• Light waterproof trousers for summer – keep them in your top-box or under the seat. Throw them over your armoured jeans or leathers when needed.
• An all-weather waterproof jacket with zip-out removable winter lining
• Earplugs, as regular biking at speed may start to affect your hearing

Equipment for winter

Keeping warm is so very important to ensure that you feel positive about your journey:

• Kevlar protected, water-proof, lined trousers – you can get some great trousers for around £100, and you really need to get some if you can afford it
• Handlebar muffs – the stuff of commuters and they really are great for preserving warmth. It is harder to access to your controls, but you get used to it. I keep mine on all year as I ride at night a lot
• Heated grips are a relief, though I personally feel that they heat the inside of your hands not the bit that gets hit by the cold wind, so you need to team these up with muffs
• Heated inner jacket
• Winter gloves
• Layers of clothing – hot while getting ready, cold after 30 minutes….
• Neck warmer
• Water-proof boots with plenty of sock space
• A Scott-oiler (a piece of kit you fit to your swingarm to trickle a regular flow of lube to your chain - see more details below)
  

Maintenance

It really is best to preserve your pride and joy for weekends and get yourself a run-around hack for the job of commuting if you can afford another bike. Either way the commuter hack needs regular maintenance – this can be reduced if it’s a hack bike rather than your only one. It really is possible to do this on a tight budget if you give yourself a quick and easy maintenance schedule.

 

If you ask a mechanic how often you should carry out maintenance and checks, the answer will always be more than you want to or more than you find time for. Practicality and common sense applied is always good if, like me, you haven’t got the time or the inclination to spend hours fettling in a cold dark garage.

 

This is my maintenance aim, based on using my bike for about 3 hours a week over 180 miles. As an absolute minimum you need to:

• Lube the chain and check chain movement, see the notes below.
  
• Check oil. Keep a small tub of oil to hand for top-ups
• Check tyre pressures. Buy your own pressure gauge, as garage ones tend to be abused so shouldn’t be trusted. They’re not expensive.
• Check lights and indicators every so often
• Batteries don’t like the cold or short journeys. If this is your commute then get a battery optimizer and keep the bike plugged into the mains in the garage if you can. If your journey is longish (more than about 15 mins) you don’t need to worry about this so much.

The rest is down to normal maintenance for a regularly used bike, but increased for winter use, such as:

• Keep to your service intervals
• Clean the bike to ease the salt off (I don’t practice what I preach here...poor dirty ER-5)
• Clean and re-grease pivot points
• Check tyre tread. You need good all-rounder tyres – definitely avoid part-worn ex-race tyres as they are no good in poor weather.

Lubing your chain
YOU NEED TO LUBE YOUR CHAIN EVERY WEEK in wet weather, 2 weeks is the absolute most you should leave it. 

Adjust if needed - this is extremely important with a new chain as it needs bedding in time - plenty of lube and regular adjusting for the first few weeks. Use good quality chain lube. Keep cloths and the right tools to hand and get used to doing this to make it easy.

Think of fitting a Scottoiler - from member, Flyingfemme:

I've had 2 Scottoilers - both installed by the dealers on brand new bikes. Cost was negligible and well worth it. They were both fitted under the seat (varies from bike to bike) and level checking about once a month seemed to be all I needed. The kit comes with a bottle of spare oil for top-up and seems to last foreve

That and a good modern chain seem to take care of everything........ I remember the good old days of chain boiling in tins of Linklyfe and adjustments once a week. Now I just do a "touch check" and listen for the sound of slapping. Of course I only do about 2,000 miles a year now but chain technology has come a long way and I no longer dream of the days of shaft drive because it makes little practical difference.

Insurance

 

Make sure your insurance covers you for pleasure AND commuting – you’ll usually get asked when you set your policy up. If you also intend to use it for site visits and other work related travel then you also need to make sure you have business cover.

 

Fuel consumption

There's a big difference in fuel consumption depending on the type of riding you do. I found this out to my disadvantage as I don't have a working fuel gauge on my ER5.

You will get through least fuel on back roads.

On motorways you may almost double your fuel usage. If you have a pillion it will be even worse. It's sensible to know if you can make the next fuel station before you hit the motorway, as they're a nightmare to find if you have to come off a junction earlier than planned. I've had to do this twice in the wee hours of the morning, not nice - most smaller fuel stations are closed. Since I regularly do an M11 - M25 - M4 stint with NO services, and I have a small tank, I have to be very careful. I have sometimes carried a full petrol can strapped to the bike just in case.

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