Tips for improving commute efficiency/comfort?

Question

I'm not "a cyclist", but I've been riding to work for 15 minutes or so each way almost every day for the last three years. I've recently moved and am now 30 minutes away and I find that length of ride to be a qualitative change.

I have a Van Moof 5.1 retrofitted with an SRAM Automatix and although it's heavy, it's very practical and I'm not interested in getting a lighter bike or going for clipless pedals. But are there any other tips for increasing my efficiency and comfort on my daily commute?

I've had to start wearing cycling shorts (because... ouch!) but is there any other equipment, technique or training that might be a quick win?

Answer 1

I have found that if you don't want to invest in equipment the best way to improve efficiency is by ensuring you are fitted properly to the bike you have.

For example: Many non-cyclists do not have the optimal seat height set, or their reach to the handlebars is too great or too compact. If you don't want to invest in equipment, invest in knowledge and ensure you're setup correctly.

Your legs should be between 96-98% fully extended when the crank arm is at its lowest position. Your knee should be level with the pedal spindle when the crank arm is horizontal. Sometimes shortening your reach allows you to bend your elbows, arch your back and breathe more easily; sometimes things are too compact and extending your reach improves efficiency.

Even if you think you have things dialed in, if you are feeling flat, I often practice a tip from the Greg Lemond Book of Cycling and move my seat around (up or down, forwards or backwards) about a millimetre or two at a time until it feels better.

Answer 2

There are lots of things you could try:

• Perhaps you could borrow a lighter bike with clipless pedals to see if you like it. Oops, never mind, you vetoed this option ;)
• You could make sure that your bicycle is adjusted for fit as well as possible, and is free of maintenance issues. Professional fittings by experts are available but are quite expensive. If you bought the bike at a local shop then the staff there would surely be glad to assist, or you could try @dafew's excellent fitting advice.
• You could try different tires (or tyres, if you prefer). Generally speaking, narrower tires can be pumped up to higher pressures and have noticeably less rolling resistance. There's some good advice on Sheldon Brown's page about tires and on his page about tire sizing.
• You could add an electric motor and battery to your bike to either help with pedaling or do all of it. There are lots of different conversion kits available, let the buyer beware! This product backed by a Kickstarter campaign has generated a lot of buzz lately, but of course crowd-funded products can be risky.
• You could try training yourself. When I first bought my bicycle in a mostly-flat city I went on rides just for fun, and avoided hills like the plague; I didn't like hills and the slightest incline hurt to climb. Then I moved to a mountainous area and decided to train. I started riding up every (reasonable) hill I could find. The training was (and is) painful at times, but exhilarating. Now I enjoy the challenge of a hill, I sail over hills that seemed difficult before, and I enjoy many other benefits of being more fit. You might not be so inclined of course, but if you haven't tried it then maybe you should. (I'll let you be the judge.)

Answer 3

A simple change might be to get your bike properly serviced. Re-greasing, realigning, re-cabling etc. can all make a significant improvement when combined.

You'll change gear more smoothly, brake better and more predictably, the freewheel will spin more cleanly and without brakes intermittently grabbing because of an untrue wheel, pedals will spin more freely, tyres will be the correct pressure...etc. etc.

As mentioned above, also look to get the seat and bars to the best height for you.

Finally, look at changing tyres to something with a flat centre strip, but grips on the sides. Ideal for road commuting because you get most of the benefits of a smooth tyre when going straight, but grip when you corner. Something like this perhaps https://www.evanscycles.com/specialized-borough-armadillo-wired-700c-commuter-tyre-EV201135

Answer 4

Some ideas:

Find something that annoys you while riding and then work to resolve it, avoid it, or replace it. Example - There's a stretch of road that you don't enjoy. Perhaps its potholed, poor quality, narrow, filled with cars, or something. Find an alternative route that avoids it.

For me - traffic lights are irritating because the effort to get moving again is so much greater than speed maintenance. So I have a route that goes down a one-way street with a 30 km/h speed limit. If I enter the street right I can travel ~5 km through the CBD non-stop. Adjacent roads will have 14 sets of lights and I would generally stop at 4.

Traffic light anticipation - Instead of riding up to a red and stopping, try and predict the upcoming red lights sequence and slow down early so you're not having to stop/start.

Or simply take the long way home on some pleasant evening after work. No stress to get there, just enjoy the trip. You're able to ride for 30 minutes twice every day - so on Friday night try a 60 minute ride home. Pushing your upper bound of endurance helps the average endurance to rise.

Is there anyone living near you who would group-ride to work with you? Talk tends to make the time go faster even if you're travelling a bit slower.

Are you the personality that is motivated by progress? Consider logging your ride distances and go for a monthly total. 30 minutes each way is probably 5-8 miles each way, (or 10-16 a day) which is quite a respectable distance! 20 working days a month is 200 miles a month and that is a lot of travel - I started with 100km/month when I lived 1km from work.

Do you have bike transport on local buses, like this? You may feel more comfortable if there's an out for getting home in the evening without riding, as a fallback plan.

Final serious answer - have you considered an electric assist? This isn't intended to go faster, its to help you by taking some of the load off your legs. Its more similar to the feeling of a good tailwind, not a motorbike-feeling.

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BTW - you ride a bike, and you're asking about improvements for something related to riding....

Welcome!

Answer 5

Two things that increase effort and are easy to fix:

• Feet slipping around on the pedals (you don't need clipless to stop this, not all flat pedals are equal and neither are all shoes);
• Sliding forwards on the saddle (cycling shorts should help but even then you may need to reseat yourself every so often). Fitting is relevant here as having the saddle in the right place should make you less likely to move around.

It's worth dealing with these before considering a fitting, as that's based on the assumption that you will stay in the optimal position the fitting identifies.

For a commuter and especially on flat bars it's also worth doing a self fit, getting used to the conditions and then deciding whether the fit is good enough and whether the bike is suitable including luggage. There's so much more to deal with than if your riding involves picking a nice route and going out on a road bike with just a bottle of water and a banana.

Answer 6

Consider a second bike.

It needn't be expensive, and it can be used for experiments that you don't want to do on your daily drive. Fit clipless pedals to it, for example, and get used to them at the weekend.

Or drop handlebars - I find them much more comfortable when I'm trying to get somewhere - but it took some experimenting to find the right position, then a 10-20 mile ride and it just "clicked" how much better they were for me. Training yourself to move to the drops before you need the brakes is a big part of getting used to them. Is that car about to pull out?

And if your daily drive is off the road one day (tyre went flat overnight or something, or you want to overhaul it) the second bike is better than the bus...