Make adventure part of your daily routine by cycling to work

Many of us lead busy lives and it can be hard to find time to get outside and be active. If we’re lucky, we’ll have a few weeks’ holiday and some free weekends each year in which to seek adventure, and even when you make the most of it, it’s never quite enough.

That’s why we love finding ways to integrate adventure into our daily lives and cycling is perfect for this. Whether you live in a city of many millions or in the countryside, it’s surprisingly easy to turn your daily commute into an adventure by leaving the car at home and taking a bicycle.

Plus, there’s plenty of other benefits: regular exercise, saving money on fuel, reducing your carbon footprint, and the mental wellbeing that comes with starting your day with movement.

However, if you haven’t thought about cycling to work before, it may seem like a daunting prospect.

So, we’ve partnered with Green Commute Initiative to bring you five tips to help you get started on your daily cycling adventures.

Plan your route

Many of us would dread to cycle along the same route as our regular car commute. Busy A-roads, congested roundabouts, narrow lanes: there’s plenty that might put you off cycling along these roads.

However, a key advantage of a bicycle is that there are many alternative routes available. Greenways and cycle paths are fantastic and becoming increasingly common, providing traffic-free routes for cyclists to follow. But you can also get creative: canals are often a great option (especially since they’re flat), or taking a slight detour along a quieter road might add five minutes to your journey but make it that much more pleasant.

Try a cycle route planner (this one on cycle.travel is great) and see what options are available. Also, it’s a good idea to try the route out on a spare day so you know what it’s like before you cycle to work for the first time.

Take a spare set of clothes

If you’ve got a short commute, it might be fine to cycle in your regular work clothes, especially if you’re riding an e-bike. Most people however prefer to cycle in a separate set of clothes and then change once they arrive so that they’re fresh and ready to face the day.

It’s best to cycle in some moisture-wicking clothes to help sweat breathe and evaporate: merino wool is great for this, and it’s very odour-resistant as well.

Pack your work clothes in a pannier, rather than a backpack, because wearing a bag can increase the chance of sweating. Then if you’ve got a shower at your workplace, you can jump in there for a quick freshen-up. Otherwise, a towel or wet wipes can be a quick way to get yourself ready for the day ahead.

It can also be a good idea to keep a set of clothes at work so you don’t have to carry them with you.

Use an e-bike

An e-bike has a battery and electric motor that provides some extra oomph when you’re cycling. If you’re not Bradley Wiggins, a bit of help from the electric motor can make a longer or hillier commute much easier. Or if you’ve got a short commute, an e-bike will help get you to work in no time. Plus, you still get the benefits of exercise and sustainable travel.

Green Commute Initiative helps provide savings on all types of bicycles used for commuting, including e-bikes, trikes, and cargo bikes.

Get a few essentials for your bicycle

You don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds on accessories, but a few ones will make your life much easier, especially if you do plan on commuting on a bike every day.

Front and rear lights increase your visibility to other traffic, which is especially important if you’re commuting in poor light.

Mudguards are also very handy in wetter conditions because they prevent water and mud from flicking up from the tyres and splattering you. A pannier rack and bag also gives you somewhere to store your spare clothes, laptop, and lunch, and takes the weight off your shoulders.

A portable pump, a spare tube and some tyre levers can help get you out of a pickle if you get a flat. It’s pretty easy to do but if you haven’t changed a bicycle inner tube before, it’s worth watching a tutorial. This one is quick and informative.

Finally, a helmet is essential. You only get one head so it’s worth taking care of it. Again, Green Commute Initiative can help you save money on bicycle safety equipment and accessories.

Sign up to Green Commute Initiative to save on your commuting bicycle

Bicycles span the spectrum of price: you can get a used one for under £50 or you can spend £10,000 on a top-shelf e-bike.

Unless you’re planning on tackling the Tour de France, there’s no need to fork out thousands and thousands. But at the same time, it’s worth buying a bicycle that’s going to be reliable, comfortable, and make cycling each day a pleasure.

That’s where Green Commute Initiative comes in. It’s an award-winning provider of the Cycle to Work scheme and can help you get savings of between 28% – 47% on any type of bicycle (including e-bikes), accessories and safety equipment.

The scheme works through a salary sacrifice arrangement with your employer which means they will pay the up-front cost and repayments will come directly out of your gross salary, interest-free, saving you money on the tax you otherwise would’ve paid on the value of the bicycle package.

Spreading the repayments over a period of between 12 and 60 months makes a brand-new bicycle much more affordable, and via the terms of the agreement, so long as the bike is used for commuting the majority of the time, you’re free to take it on adventures any other time, whether that’s mountain biking or weekend tours.

Green Commute Initiative is partnered with over 1,500 bike retailers including direct-to-consumer manufacturers such as Canyon, Cowboy and YT Industries.

You can find out more about the scheme and how it can help fund your next bicycle here.