Rider

Tim Holmes


From Godmanchester UK


Commutes 6 Miles RoundTrip for 10 years and months
Five Days a week, I use my bike to travel to and from work Year Round

I have been cycling the short 1.25 miles to my local train station in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire for several years now. The route I take is mostly along dedicated cycle paths before I take the train to King's Cross station, London. Since February this year (2005) I have been using a folding Brompton T3 I bought second hand from Ebay. I now follow my train journey with a 1.75 mile trip down to the Strand utilising quite backroads and occasional dedicated cycle paths.

I work for Vodafone Global in London, a mobile telecommunications company. In addition we have offices in Newbury, Dusseldorf (Germany) and Walnut Creek (California). I have yet to take my Brompton abroad, but thats only a matter of time.

The Brompton has changed my life. Firstly because I keep the bike with me in the office I don't worry about theft. Previously I used a 12 year old rusting wreck which was heavy and slow - but designed not to be 'nickable'. The Brompton is light, quick of the mark and really convenient. Not having to queue to leave the car park was a great advantage and now I don't have to the hustle of the footbridge which use to take me over the train line back to the bike shed - now I just cycle out the far side of Huntingdon station, down onto a cycle path and I'm on my way home before most folks have defrosted their windscreens.

When I don't cycle to work I run. Earlier this year I swapped my Train+Tube season ticket for a Train only. On the 7th July this year my decision to avoid the underground potentially saved my life following the Tube bombings in London. The Picadilly line used to be my regular route to work. Fortunately my only bad luck that day was to have run instead of cycled to work. It meant a 5 mile jog after work to the nearest station since King's Cross was badly affected and had to be closed for the whole day - the next station being Finsbury Park from where they operated an emergency service. Since that date the number of Train/Cycle commuters on my route has grown tremendously - several people have stopped me to ask about my bike, how it folds, how heavy it is how much it was etc. Sometimes I wish I actually had further to travel!

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