Sussex to central London, daily... realistic?
LStacey
31/10/2011
31/10/2011
Sussex to central London, daily... realistic?
Looking to the future, when I've done my CBT and bought my shiny new 125, is my daily commute realistic or should I stick with the train?
By my calculations (which are probably wrong) it's 50 miles each way, which would be the best part of two hours and adds up to around 10,000 miles per year... which I would imagine to be quite a strain on a 125.
Is this realistic?
An expert will answer this question soon. Please feel free to add your own thoughts below
50 miles each way? you must be right down into southern Sussex - Brighton area? Yes that'll be a long hard haul on a 125 and at least 2hrs (remember no motorway on L-plates) is likely.
A modern decent (Japanese) 125 is easily capable of that but the strain on you will be huge. Frankly I wouldn't add 4 hrs stress (top concentration on a bike) to my working day and still expect to be on the ball and safe.
My advice is to up the game a gear, get a full licence and a more capable machine to commute on, then it's a real possibility.
Hope that helps
Nigel
Just checking your calculations of mileage... a 100 mile a day round trip, 261 weekdays in a year... assuming you work 5 days a week then even after holidays are taken into account, your annual mileage would probably be more like 23,000.
My brother does the exact same length of commute daily. Taking his 6 weeks of holidays into account plus the days when the weather is so poor (snow/ice etc), he still clocks up 20k miles per year on his bike. Always bought a GSXR600 every 2 years before trading it in for another new one. Has stretched it to 3 years now and is considering something less sporty as his back bothers him now. Does all his own servicing and repairs to keep costs down, but consumables like tyres still mount up. Says his next bike will be a middleweight like an ER-6F or Diversion as performance is no longer a big deal to him.
Like chnl10 says, a Jap 125 will be perfectly capable but it won't be a lot of fun for you. Why not look for something slightly more capable like a 250 at least to make life more pleasureable? My brother's commute is 60-65 minutes each way every day regardless of traffic conditions and although he's got a car as well, it's only ever used for shopping and taking his garden rubbish to the dump.
You're right, it is more like 20k plus... ouch!
I'm thinking a nice tourer would probably be perfect but it's baby steps for the time being.
Thanks Ken!
I think travelling two hours to your job and back again is far too long on a 125cc scooter specially when you have to be alert on the road after a hard days work and winter will soon be upon us , i hope you find the bike you are looking for and a tourer sounds ok, My bike will be stored away in the really cold winter months .