I make no secret of this, I'm a fair weather biker. Regardless of my original motives when I first bought my bike, it has turned into exactly the sort of machine I always swore it would never do namely, one that spends more time being polished than ridden. I don't have any objection to getting cold and wet per se, it's just the three hours that I spend cleaning the bike when I get it home that I object to. I no longer ride horses for much the same reason, the only good thing is the bike doesn't try to bite you when applying WD40 to its nether regions.
Many years ago, probably around the mid eighties I worked for a company that was based in Leatherhead. Getting there from Kent was no problem, if I could be at the Wrotham Junction of the M25 (reference point: Oakdene Cafe) by 08:30, I could pretty much guarentee being at the office by 09:00. I no longer work there but today on the few ocassions I've made the journey at that time of morning, it's taken the best part of an hour and that on a good day! My definition of Hell on Earth is travelling from Kent to Surrey or points west on the M25 in the rush hour in fact I'd rather chew off my own testicles with a pair of George Washington's wooden dentures than do that journey...
So, imagine my joy at being told I'd been booked on a course in Weybridge for a couple of days this week. Now with most companies that's not a problem, they just book you into a hotel and you can go up the evening before. My lot have a slightly different attitude:
"What's this? You need to go on a course to support the new computer system? The mission critical system that has cost us several million pounds and upon the sucess of which rides not only our corporate reputation but the personal fortunes of the directors and senior managers? Yes, fine shouldn't be a problem... what's that? You need to stay overnight.... Oh well... I suppose we could just keep our fingers crossed and hope the system doesn't break down..."
So I figured it was about time the bike started to earn her keep and off I went on day one. I'd intended to be out by 07:00 and since we weren't going to start till 09:30 I thought I would have plenty of time. As it was by the time I'd managed to pull on all the extra layers, avoid rupturing myself trying to zip up my waterproofs and get the bike warmed up it was more like 07:50. Then I had to stop at the petrol station so by the time I was actually on my way it was after 08:00. Not a promising start.
As things turned out, probably due to half term, the traffic wasn't too bad. I went through the Sevenoaks snarl up in about five minutes, the Clackett Lane snarl up was conspicuous by it's abscence as were the Godstone, M23, Reigate Hill and Leatherhead snarl ups. I only really stopped at Junction 10 where I was leaving anyway and a little light filtering got me through there in double quick time. Even allowing for taking a wrong turning and having the grand tour of the Brooklands retail park I still signed in at 09:10. OK, it took me another 10 minutes to get changed again but all in all not a bad time.
The next day I took my car! (And for the record, the journey time was about the same but the tyre on tarmac segment for the car was rather longer. I gained time by not having to get changed at each end
However, had the traffic been as bad as I feared, I'm pretty sure I would have saved even more time by bike.)
I've done the odd run to work before (unfortunately I need my car), all nine miles of it, usually in the summer and not had to worry about hypothermia. So, to you guys and girls who regularly do a 40 or 50 mile commute each way; Respect!