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Commuting 'Transitions'

Daily Commuting Tips | 2nd December 2009 | Eddie Allen

More: Daily Commuting Tips Archive

I was watching this footage of top cyclo-cross racer Paul Oldham practicing his craft and, as well as being able to ride his bike pretty darn quick, the thing that makes him a race winner is the fact that he never stops moving.

If you're not familiar with cyclo-cross racing, it's a form of off-road racing that's practiced on skinny-tyred dropped handlebar machines, which involves a lot of getting on and off the bike, running and carrying. Riders who do best at the event are the ones who can handle the ‘transitions', the ‘inbetween bits' smoothly. Watch the best riders in action and they seamlessly make the transition from cycling to running to carrying and back to cycling again.

When you think about it, it's the same story when it comes to commuting by bicycle. When you look at the big picture, the stakes are just as high in commuting as in top level sport. If you're a competitive bicycle racer and you don't win, you don't get paid. If you're a bicycle commuter and you're late for work, you get fired.

However, as a bicycle commuter you can save valuable time by being prepared for your commuter ‘transitions'. Let's take my commute as an example, a bike-train-bike commute from home to work which takes about 1hr 30mins in total each way.

Starting at home, my first transition is getting out of the door quickly. So this means that the bicycle (of the folding variety) is ready to go under the stairs. So I've already saved at five minutes getting it out of the shed. It's a bicycle with flat pedals and mudguards - a bicycle that doesn't beg to be ridden fast, which means I can wear normal clothes, which means no changing at either end of the journey and no need to shower. If we figure on 10 minutes per clothing change, multiplied by four changes, I make that another 40 minutes saved.

The next transition is at the railway station. Because I'm riding a folding bike I can catch any train and get on any carriage - I don't need to wait for a train with bike spaces. More time saved by being prepared.

Transition number three is when I get off the train. A few minutes before I get into the station, I put books, newspapers, phone and ipod away, unfold the bike, don the coat and gloves (if weather dictates), get my train ticket in hand and I'm ready to roll through the ticket barrier with no delays.

Transition number four comes at journey's end. I've already left my shackle lock on the bike rack at work so I don't have to rummage in my bag for it. My office building has an ID pass entry system but I'm all over that because I hung it around my neck before I got off the train. So no wasted time rummaging for that either.

All in all, being prepared and ahead of the game saves about an hour per day. Even if I was an Olympic champion (which I'm most certainly not) I could never make that time up on the bike.

However, you can apply this ‘perpetual motion' philosophy to the riding component of your journey as well, by choosing a route that minimises starting and stopping, circumnavigates busy road junctions and allows you to make maximum forward progress with minimum effort. Looking well ahead while riding allows you to anticipate hold-ups, meaning that you're not wasting time and energy speeding up and slowing down.

It's all common sense stuff, but everyone knows that common sense is one of the first things to go down when you're under stress. The key is to be prepared, plan ahead and don't rush. I've tried to avoid the Tortoise and Hare comparison throughout this piece, but that be-shelled chap really did have a point...