Bicycle Queensland members don’t need convincing about the benefits of bike riding. We’re all getting fitter and having fun while saving the planet by lowering our carbon footprints. According to a 2021 article in The Conversation, riding a bike is 10 times better for the planet than buying an e-vehicle.
But one aspect that isn’t often highlighted, but can be a major factor for people making the switch to riding to work is that: riding a bike is the cheapest time-effective way to travel for distances up to 10km. But what does it cost to ride your bike to work?
We did some maths … but we would be keen to have Bicycle Queensland members check our work. We reckon that if you’re careful, commuting by bike costs less than $20 per week, or less than $900 per year. We’ve based this on buying a commuting bike for $1000, and spending $400 on accessories to make your bike more commute-friendly. And because you’re frugal, you’re keeping this bike for five years, sounds reasonable to us.
Cost of commuting by car versus bike
Compare this with the average cost of transport for households in Brisbane, which is a whopping $458 per week. Yes, you read that right.
So let’s say that 25% of trips made are to work. That’s way too low by the way, but let’s say that. The average weekly cost of car transport in Brisbane is $398 (that’s the total cost of transport, minus public transport fares). So let’s just use a quarter of that cost $99, and take those trips by bike instead. Suddenly we are saving $80 per week.
Let’s consider using the additional $80 per week in a way that could greatly benefit us, such as putting it towards our home loan. An extra $80 per week on the average home loan repayment equates to owning your home five years sooner!
Of course the assumptions in this article can be challenged. But you do your maths and let us know what you might have saved by riding your bike to work?
Our Director of Advocacy has been riding to work for 38 years. On 2022 figures this has saved his household $146,000. He just hopes nobody asks him what he did with this money. It can’t all have gone on Campag hubs and lunches.
Everyone thinks that Christmas Day is the time you can feel stressed, depressed or lonely, but for many people the lead up to Christmas can be just as overwhelming.
For a lot of people that means sorting out your plans, who is coming and who isn’t, organise food, buy presents and put up the decorations. These are just the basic, most common stressors. We know that for many people, there is a raft of other, often more complex issues, at play.
Now that the countdown to Christmas has officially begun, here are just a few tips for keeping your mental wellbeing in check:
Stay healthy – eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep can help you cope with Christmas stress. Remember, overindulging in food and alcohol often adds to your stress and guilt.
Plan – Make sure you do up a budget and stick to it. Don’t overspend. Work out your shopping list and get it done early to avoid the crowds and the risk of making last-minute, over expensive purchases!
Be creative – if your money is not stretching as far as you’d like with the rising cost of living, then look at how you can do things differently. Consider a simpler version of Christmas lunch – perhaps a BBQ or picnic and ask guests to bring a plate. Get crafty and make some presents or give the gift of your time – maybe a voucher to do some dog walking or gardening – there’s always something you can do that others need!
Connect – If you’re separated from your family and friends by distance, make sure you stay in touch with them online or by phone. If you are on your own, there are ways to connect with others such as volunteering or attending local community events such as Carols by Candlelight.
Be realistic – Christmas doesn’t have to be perfect or the same as other years. Situations and families change….children grow up, relatives pass away, some parents may divorce. Nothing stays the same forever. Just make sure that you acknowledge and appreciate any feelings of loss or disappointment you may have and realise that its normal to feel that way.
Chill out – Amongst all the Christmas parties, planning and shopping, it is important that you stop and take some time for yourself. Go for a walk, listen to some music, take a long bath or read a book. Even if its just for 15 minutes at a time, it can make the world of difference.
If you feel like it is all getting on top of you, remember its okay to reach out and get some help. Talking to someone can be great to put things into perspective.
Our partner White Cloud (07 3155 3456) can help arm you with some good strategies to help you get back on track and cope with all the Christmas commotion. You don’t need a GP referral or Mental Health Plan, you can access it from wherever you live and, best of all, its free.
Sustainability is understandably a hot topic just now, with governments, businesses and individuals all seeking ways to create a greener future for us all. Commuting became a distant memory for millions of workers during the pandemic, but now, with lots of people making a return to the office, this is the perfect time to reset and adopt better, healthier habits.
Riding to work is nothing new, but more employers and employees are waking up to its benefits. Not only can riding benefit the individual’s health and wellbeing, it’ll also help to protect the local environment. Employers may even stand to benefit, with riding shown to have a positive impact on brain power and productivity.
In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of riding to work in greater detail, and highlight a few ways you can make bike commuting even easier.
What are the benefits of riding to work?
Improve physical fitness and mental health. We’re all aware that riding is a great way to help keep your body fit and healthy, but did you know it can also help to support your mental wellbeing, too? One study reveals that riding is the second best form of exercise for a lower mental health burden, just behind participating in team sports.
Improve productivity. Riding has been shown to improve brain function, with it increasing blood flow to the brain by 28% compared to resting, according to one study. As a result, this can help you to arrive at work in a more positive frame of mind, and help to improve productivity throughout the day.
Helps the environment. If you’re passionate about sustainability, riding is a great way to play your part and help create a greener local environment. By replacing a car for a bike, not only will you be saving on harmful emissions, but if more people chose to cycle, it’d reduce congestion on roads, helping to cut pollution even further.
How to make riding easier
Use an e-bike. E-bikes are gaining popularity across the country, particularly since the 2012 legislation was passed which introduced guidelines around using e-bikes, in line with European standards. An e-bike works like a traditional bicycle, but offers the added thrust of a battery-powered motor, to take some of the strain out of your commute. Read more about e-bikes here.
Be organised! Riding to work will generally take a little longer than public transport or a car, meaning you’ll have to be organised to give yourself as much breathing room in the morning as possible. Be sure to pack up anything you need the night before, and also leave heavy items at the office where possible, to save you carrying them on your commute. You should also make sure to pack some food for the office, to give you the energy for that evening ride home.
Make use of company facilities. You’ll want to arrive at your desk feeling and looking fresh, so particularly after a longer ride in, you’ll likely want to have a wash and get into a change of clothes. If your office doesn’t already cater for active travel, ask your employer whether it would be possible to invest in some equipment and facilities to encourage more people to ride to work. Or, see if there is a local end of trip facility, where your employer could arrange for employees to make use of the changing facilities.
Even small changes like some showers and changing rooms can go a long way. It’s also helpful to consider how or where you’ll keep your bike during the day. Employers should look to include some safe storage facilities on-site, to give their pedalling personnel peace of mind that their bike will be secure during the day.
To sum up
In this post, we’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to exploring the potential benefits of riding to and from work. It may seem like a major lifestyle change, particularly if you’ve been driving or getting public transport for many years. But why not try riding just one or two days a week at first, before building yourself up to a bigger commitment? You’ll likely feel the benefits almost immediately.
One of the first questions I’m often asked is “are you still riding your bike?” That’s usually from people who I haven’t seen for a while and my answer is always an enthusiastic yes! With people who I see more regularly, I’m often met with “did you ride your bike here?” Or the more assuming “I guess you rode your bike”. Or after glancing around and finding no evidence of a bicycle nearby, “not on your bike today?”. My life has become synonymous with riding a bike. It’s a fact that I love but it hasn’t always been that way.
There were years when my bicycle sat unused in the garage. There were years when I didn’t even own a bike. But then there was the year when an unexpected change left my life in need of reshaping.
I needed to do something positive for my life and wanted to be healthy, save some money and have some fun. So, I began a two-wheel revolution. I decided to use my bicycle as much as I could in my everyday life, and I was surprised by what was possible.
As a young girl growing up in Queensland, I learnt to ride in the gravel driveway of our sugar cane farm. Trainer wheels, five years old and soon to start school – learning to ride a bike was essential for transport. Decades later, my bicycle again became central to how I moved around my neighbourhood. Both times, building confidence was key. And the only way I could find out what this bicycle lifestyle could bring me was by having a go.
Living without a car wasn’t my goal. Driving the car less was. Discovering what I could realistically do by bicycle involved trial, error, persistence, creativity and slowing down. At times I felt frustrated but mostly a surplus of fun. I watched where life took me – to the shops, the local markets, coffee with friends, out to dinner, swimming at the beach, to weddings, parties and holidays – and asked myself, can I ride my bicycle? Can I carry what I need to carry? Can I ride the distance? What type of road, lane or pathway will I be on? Does the weather make riding possible? And, if I chose not to travel by bike, was I being a wimp or being wise?
Full panniers after the local markets.
As I rode through each season, I discovered my limits.
The torrential rains of summer make mudguards and a good waterproof jacket a must. Magpie season means I put my head down and ride fast! Tropical thunderstorms and a wedding in a 25 knot south-easterly have stopped me in my tracks. Getting a tray of mangoes home from the local market gave me cause to get creative.
Eventually, I learnt where my bicycle life can take me and where it won’t. I ride my bike to the beach, to meetings, markets, cafes, shopping centres and parties. I use it for returning books to the library, commuting to work, seeing art exhibitions and live music. When I take my car for servicing, I take my bike with me and ride home. Deciding to use my bike in everyday life brought the positive changes that I wanted – I’m healthier, happier and saving money from using the car less.
Another thing I learnt is that any bicycle lifestyle is unique to where and how you live. Where you live – hills, highways, pathways – will influence how easy it is to ride out from home. What makes up your life – family, work, interests – will shape where and when you can ride. What connects us though is a shared knowing that a bicycle lifestyle is a good thing.
A two-wheel revolution is something worth starting. Whether you start big or small, start somewhere.
Gail Rehbein is a bicycle-riding writer who loves to share stories, information and inspiration about life seen from two wheels on Australia’s Gold Coast and beyond. You can find her work at her website A Bike for All Seasons. She is also an ambassador for Bicycle Queensland.
I was about seven, it was white and neon pink and orange, and had Shimano SIS shifters. I rode it around my house for hours until I found a friend with a bike. It was then that my parents let us go and explore all day. We ran rogue on suburban bike path adventures, my first taste of freedom.
This freedom gave way to the oppressive nature of the high school and requisite angsty-teen sports avoidance. As a musical kid, I wasn’t interested in PE. That was until I found cross country running towards the end of high school and realised that the overwhelming funk I felt could be mitigated with some exercise.
Running continued, I moved interstate and restarted university studies. I inherited my mother’s old Bianchi Avenue town bike, complete with a 7-speed grip shift and a clunking, ovalised headset, but it was perfect for the commute to university.
My brother, who had always ridden bikes, had a friend with a bike shop. Mountain biking seemed fun, so I scrounged some cash up from my multiple hospitality jobs and some pennies from a tax return to purchase my GT Avalanche. Complete with rim brakes, this bike was the gateway to a new world.
I completed several social events on the GT. As a complete and utter squid, everything was SO HARD, yet I loved it. There was a gaping chasm between where I was and where I wanted to be, and it created a drive to bridge the gap.
First I purchased a road bike to take me on further adventures beyond Sydney’s Inner West, then eventually upgraded the mountain bike to a ridgy-didge, proper mountain bike: a Cannondale Rush in white and blue.
Shortly after upgrading my bike, I went all in and raced the Rush at my first national series cross-country event. Racing was SO HARD at this level and I was lacking in fitness, skills and race tactics. Finishing so far behind ‘real’ elite girls was stressful and demoralising but steeled a resolve in me for further progress.
It took many years to put some pieces of the puzzle together, largely doing it uncoached and unmentored. Skills got better by trial and error, making mistakes and being frustrated.
My fitness improved every time I rode, so I kept riding and riding. I put my fitness to good use and became a coach myself to assist others trying to find their way.
From that girl at the back of their first national race, I have now been in the middle, and at the front, in the green and gold stripes and have even lined up amongst other nations at World Championship events. I have been truly lucky to live a life behind bars.
With all that in mind, I have some words of wisdom from a third of a lifetime spent on bikes:
It’s always hard, but in a different way
Once upon a time, it was hard to coordinate riding over a log on a trail ride. Now, hard is managing the physical and mental output during a race, or second-guessing whether it’s worth it riding today with a scratchy throat. It’s always hard. Some things get easier like that log on the trail, and some things are a constant process of evaluation. That’s part of the joy of bikes: you never get to the final level, there is always progress!
Small steps lead to big things
Sometimes it’s as simple as finding a ride group, setting your alarm, and being brave enough to meet a bunch of other beginners you don’t know for a bike ride. There is a lot of bravery in that one step, this is one part that gets easier. A group ride can lead to another, and another, and skill and fitness will increase to the point where you’re proud of having mastered something you once thought impossible. It all starts with getting out the door and being brave.
The driving pursuit of perfection can be your downfall
Often, A-type people are driven to succeed in endurance sports. After all, endurance sport takes focus, sacrifice and perhaps a bit of a mental blueprint that not many of us have. That drive to ‘have’ to get out and ‘have’ to ride and ‘have’ to win can work. In the short term, it can be incredibly helpful. In the longer term, managing illness and setback or having to deal with the variables that cycling can throw at you, rigid perfectionism can actually end up being an Achilles heel. Learning to be ‘good enough’ and to rest when required will see far more success in the sport (and life) than the black and white of perfectionism.
Enjoy the moments
Whatever type of cycling you’re into – it can be undeniably tough. There can be some very grim moments, like riding through a flash flood or running out of food when you’re nowhere near home. Yep, they totally suck, and it can be hard to remain positive at these times. I now pay particular attention to the good moments on the bike. The beautiful sunrises, soft wind on your face, sense of flow on descent or the joy of introducing a friend to a fresh trail. In the end, you probably won’t remember how many watts you put out for those 4x10min threshold efforts, but you will remember how the bike, friends and environment positively impacted your life.
There are so many popular drink options marketed to improve sports performance. These drinks usually include ingredients like electrolytes, caffeine, protein or just plain water.
With so many on the market, which of these popular drink options are necessary when exercising and what purpose do they provide?
Popular drinks and their purpose
Drink
Purpose
Who is this necessary for?
Water
-Hydration -Assists in a range of body functions
-Everyone! -Water should be the drink of choice for all.
Sports drinks
-Hydration -Provision of carbohydrates and/or electrolytes
-Recreational exercisers and the general population do not require sports drinks, as hydration needs can be met using water and carbohydrate needs can be met through food. -Sports drinks may be useful for those that need to ingest both carbohydrates and fluids/electrolytes at the same time. -Sports drinks are generally designed for use during exercise lasting greater than 90 minutes.
Caffeine-based drinks
-When taken before or during exercise, caffeine can reduce perception of effort and/or fatigue -Can have potential side effects – e.g. increased heart rate, gastrointestinal upset, sleep disturbances etc.
-Caffeine can be used to benefit performance through the reduction of effort and/or fatigue. -However, recreational exercisers and the general population do not generally require caffeine-based drinks.
Protein-based drinks
-Hydration -Provision of protein
-Recreational exercisers and the general population do not require protein-based drinks or protein powders, as hydration needs can be met using water and protein needs can be met through food. -However, protein-based drinks can be a convenient option for someone that struggles to get in protein-rich food post-exercise or has high energy requirements.
Written by Carly Booth, Accredited Practising Dietitian from Nutrition Australia Qld, a non-profit, community nutrition organisation that provides education, support and training to shape the health and wellbeing of our community to make informed food choices.
What you fuel yourself with after exercise is just as important as the exercise itself! Here are a few nutrition tips to consider after exercise.
When thinking about recovery nutrition after exercise, it’s useful to consider the three R’s.
Refuel energy and glycogen stores with a source of carbohydrate
Repair muscle with a source of protein
Rehydrate with fluids and electrolytes to replace sweat losses
The advice below is generalised for the recreational exerciser. Specific nutrition requirements will differ depending on the level of intensity and duration of physical activity.
So, what does that look like in terms of a meal or snack?
Well, the amount of food your body needs for recovery depends on the length and intensity of your exercise. If you’re exercising multiple times a day, you need to fuel yourself quickly. The first 60 to 90 minutes after exercise is the most effective time for the body to replace carbohydrate and promote muscle repair. Try using your next main meal as your form of recovery nutrition, including the three Rs previously mentioned. If this isn’t possible, have a small snack until you are able to have your next main meal.
Here are a few carbohydrates and protein-rich suggestions that you might like to choose from:
A small bowl of muesli with yoghurt and a piece fruit; or
Lean meat, cheese and salad sandwich or wrap; or
1-2 eggs or a small tin of baked beans on a piece of toast; or
Some dairy foods can provide each of these key components. They are a great carbohydrate, protein, fluid and electrolyte source. Try a fruit-based smoothie with a piece of fresh or frozen fruit, milk and/or yoghurt
Protein powders are not essential. The general population do not require protein powders, as protein needs can be met through food. In saying this, they can be convenient for people who struggle to get in food post-exercise.
Be sure to rehydrate to replace sweat losses by hydrating after exercise. While water should be the drink of choice for most people, sports drinks may also play a role if needing to ingest both carbohydrates and fluids/electrolytes at the same time.
Written by Carly Booth, Accredited Practising Dietitian from Nutrition Australia Qld a non-profit, community nutrition organisation that provides education, support and training to shape the health and wellbeing of our community to make informed food choices.
Depending on the intensity and duration of your session, you may need to top up on extra fluids and carbohydrates during exercise. Keep reading to find out what you should eat and drink during exercise.
The advice below is generalised for the recreational exerciser. Specific nutrition requirements will differ depending on the level of intensity and duration of physical activity.
If the exercise session is less than 60 minutes or 90 minutes at a low intensity, you won’t need extra fuel to keep you going. In contrast, if the exercise session is more than 60 to 90 minutes, it’s a good idea to top up on a rich source of carbohydrate to fuel the remainder of your session. Once consumed, the carbohydrates will be broken down into glucose to provide your brain and muscles with extra fuel, allowing you to sustain the intensity and the quality of the activity.
Similar to pre-exercise nutrition, carbohydrate-rich foods consumed during exercise should be low in fibre, easy to digest (i.e. not too high in fat) and sit comfortably in your stomach. There is no one size fits all approach to this – see what works best for you and your goals. You also need to consider the practicality of consuming food during the session.
Carbohydrate-rich snack ideas
A piece of fruit – e.g. a banana, a few fresh dates; or
A basic sandwich with a thin spread (e.g. jam, honey, peanut butter or vegemite); or
A muesli bar; or
If necessary, a sports carbohydrate gel or energy bar
Hydration during exercise is extremely important. With that said, each person’s fluid needs are different. Consider your sweat losses during the session, which may also be dependent on the temperature and humidity. If you feel like you need to replace sweat losses, drink fluids to ensure you maintain hydration throughout the session. Avoid becoming dehydrated. Water should be the drink of choice for most people. If water isn’t enough, sports drinks are an option when you need to ingest both carbohydrates and fluids at the same time.
If you are competing, test your nutrition and hydration strategies for the duration of the event before race day. This is important in ensuring they work for you and are appropriate to consume while competing. Trialling the types and timing of foods and fluids during training and practise sessions will help maximise your performance on race day. For personalised and tailored sports nutrition advice, find an Accredited Sports Dietitian near you.
After reading this article, we hope you have a better idea of what to eat and drink during exercise. Stay tuned for next weeks nutrition article!
Written by Carly Booth, Accredited Practising Dietitian from Nutrition Australia Qld. Nutrition Australia QLD is a non-profit, community nutrition organisation that provides education, support and training to shape the health and wellbeing of our community to make informed food choices.
