You know you’re addicted to cycle commuting when…

Last Updated on February 18, 2023

I started cycling to work for lard reduction reasons, but also because I like going weeeeeeeeeeee on a bicycle.  The weight fell off quite swiftly and yet I carried on cycling to work, so I gave some thought to why I would continue to pull my body through heavy weather to work every day when I could borrow a friend’s van and enjoy such modern wonders as heating and protection from the elements.  Here’s my list, feel free to add your own in the comments box:

Signs you’re addicted to cycling to work:

1. You live three miles from work but your commute is ten miles
2. You know exactly how much quicker cycling to work is that driving through traffic to work
3. You tell anyone who will listen (and some who won’t) how much quicker cycling to work is that driving through traffic to work
4. You look forlornly at your bicycle on your days off from work
5. You apologize to your bicycle on days off
6. You know exactly how long it has been since your last puncture
7. There are days when you’d like a few words in the ear of the inventor of ‘puncture-proof’ tyres
8. You love that your colleagues think you’re insane for cycling to work
9. You check weather apps more than social networking
10. You can tell how early or late for work you are according to who you see on your commute
11. It’s not breakfast, it’s fuel
12. Summer rain (on the way home) is a joyous wash
13. You have at least three different types of cycling gloves
14. Strava & Endomondo & other GPS tracking
15. You’re reading this list just because it’s about cycle commuting.

More hints of commuting addiction courtesy of the fine and lovely members of CycleChat.net 

1. Even when it is hissing down, dark, cold and windy you do not even think about using the car(if you have one)
2. You keep getting goods delivered to work and they are building up in a corner as you can’t face bringing the car into work to take them home
3. Your office resembles a bedsit with the spare shirts, wash kit, cycling clothes all strewn all over the place
4. You know the best radiator in the building for drying off your gear
5. You are able to fit an entire crate of Duvel in your panniers at the shop on the way home and you still have room left over for your work clothes, empty sandwich box and repair kit
6. You feel sorry for drivers, bus and train passengers, and pedestrians
7. You look at what every other cyclist is riding and know if it has Sora/Tiagra/105/Ultegra ….
8. You get into arguments on the internet about the relative benefits of hi viz
9. You laugh when trains delayed “due to bad weather” and don the rain jacket and head home and get there normal time 🙂
10. You get up at stupid-o’clock every work day, and it’s still dark when you get to work, but you still love the “morning” commute.
11. You turn down a new job because it’s closer to home
12. If you are forced to take the car to work you get mega jealous when you see people cycle commuting also in contrast to some of the above
13. It takes you longer to cycle to work than to drive but you do it for the love of it
14. Driving could be quicker, could be longer, its just so unpredictable
15. When you can counter argue everything a driving commuter sais about the benefits of driving to work, even when its snowing
16. You’ve placed a set of tools, track pump, spare tubes and a can of lube under the stairs at work.
17. Work colleagues stare incredulously as you cycle off somewhere at lunchtime, ‘But didn’t you cycle into work as well?’ they say
18. You have a “special” place in your workplace to park your bike whilst everyone in cars have to hunt for a space
19. When you buy two brands of detergent – one for your normal clothes and a cheaper brand for your sweaty cycling ones
20. When you alter your route to work based on the wind direction
21. You work in IT and use the backs of server racks to dry your gloves
22. When you most visited web pages are cyclechat.net, wiggle.com…yada yada
23. When the cyclist in front of you no matter their ability/sex/age needs to be scalped….ooosh!
24. You think “I’m saving money by showering at the office”, and don’t mind that the whole office has to spend the day smelling your sweaty clothes, and your wife has to spend the evening doing so
25. When everybody at work points you out as “the cyclist”
26. When you sneak off work 10mins early to get changed
27. When you keep forgetting to take your trousers into the shower/changing room and have to walk to your desk in office shirt and cycling shorts to retrieve them after the shower.
28. You buy baby wipes in catering packs and you haven’t had a baby in the house for ten years
29. When your cycling attire out numbers your normal clothes by 10 to 1 in your wardrobe
30. You plan your packed lunch according to how much the component parts will add to your travelling weight efficiency
31. When you can skillfully fold two shirts and a pair of trousers socks pants and water proofs and load in to a ruck-sack along with a laptop, and food for the day, and it all arrive, undamaged and you still look smarter than someone who’s driven to work
32. When you did not worry about garage security when it was only occupied by a car but it has been transformed into Fort Knox now there are bikes in there
34. When putting on your cold weather gear takes longer than it would to drive home…
35. When you no longer look at the cute young ladies bottom on the bike in front of you because you’re looking at the bike she’s riding
37. You work out how long till you can do the commute again when you have to use public transport when you are ill and a week sounds like “forever”
38. You buy new s/s jerseys for the summer because last years tops just CAN’T be worn
39. When buying new jerseys, you show workmates a pic on your phone first, to get approval
40. You stay up until 2 am wrestling with mudguards and finally admit the front one doesn’t fit
41. You stay up until 2 am wrestling with mudguards and finally fit them, but then it doesn’t rain for a month
42. When getting a puncture is merely a breather stop
43. Not having a VED badge stuck to the bike to slow you down.
44. You spend some of your day telling/preaching/discussing with people you work with with the benefits of cycling to work. You are convinced that the guy who has a round trip of almost 100 miles and has no interest whatsoever in cycling will finally come around to your way of thinking…
45. You laugh in the face of a fuel duty rise!
46. When you do drive, you start going the same way as you cycle. Only to have to turn around as you cant drive on the cycle path.