Once you’ve ridden to work a few times and over the novelty of your achievement, it can be hard to keep your motivation.
Cycling to work isn’t always easy, sometimes there’s headwinds, rain, mechanical issues and inconsiderate drivers to spoil your day. Some days it can feel overwhelming and you may be tempted to go back to the comfort of your air conditioned car or chauffeur driven bus. Don’t sweat it, you don’t need to be a hard-out all-weather commuter and have to ride every day. If it’s pouring down in the morning and it’s not the only way to get to work, leave the bike at home. Go clog up those roads with your car or take the bus and wait for a better day.
To help become a dedicated commuter, you need motivation. It could be the savings you’re making, the free exercise or just getting away from sitting in a traffic jam every day.
Some people are motivated by targets. Ride tracking apps can record your distance travelled, speed and calories burned. The Strava app counts your trips and awards Local Legend status to the person who has ridden a segment the most times over the past 90 days. You could also enter a cycling challenge and use your commute to build fitness. Whatever your motivations, use them to get over the bad days.
The more you ride, the more you appreciate things like the freedom of whizzing down a hill, smelling the scents of the flowers along the way, seeing the sunrise or rainbows or the nod or wave from your fellow cyclists. Eventually, you’ll resent the days you leave the bike at home and be mad at yourself as you ride the bus home on a fine afternoon because it looked like rain in the morning.
Sooner or later you will get wet, but you’ll also get wet walking to the bus or getting from your car park to work (maybe not quite so wet), but as the Dutch say “You’re not made of sugar”.
Check out the rest of the Commute by Bike series
- A series to help start your bike commuting journey
- Choosing a bike for commuting
- You and bike commuting
- What stuff do you need for bike commuting?
- Route planning for bike commuting
- Safety tips for bike commuting
- Motivation when you start bike commuting
- Pimping your ride for a bike commute
- What clothes do you need for bike commuting?
- Maintaining your bike for commuting
- Watch-outs for bike commuting
- Coping with road rage when you commute by bike
- Going electric or going alternative for your bike commute
- So you’re a bike commuter. What next?
