Commute to London - Bike vs Train
Discussion
Looking for advice from the collective.
Long time biker, have several but they are all nice.
Currently work remotely but a company takeover means I may have to commute to London City (Fenchurch Street) 2 days a week from the Autumn.
Coming from Ashford in Kent, an appropriate season ticket to London Bridge plus parking/petrol cost is around £500/month.
The company has facilites at their office and apparently underground parking for bikes but probably first come first served.
My thoughts are I could buy something like a CF Moto 650 MT for about £5k, probably peanuts on PCP, 50MPG so about £140 per month in petrol few hundred for maintenance, insurance, tax etc. and happily just run it in all weather after drenching it in ACF50.
Alternatively, something secondhand around £5k with similar weather protection etc. NC750? VFR? Older GS? I guess it will need to be ULEZ compliant.
Route would be M20, M25, A2 probably so plenty of motorway.
I get that deep winter will be pretty crap but I can always take the train during the worst spells. I have decent Rukka kit etc. so I understand how to weatherproof myself and genuinly love riding so no drama there. I've done the NC500 in June - I know what wet means :-)
Advice appreciated.
Long time biker, have several but they are all nice.
Currently work remotely but a company takeover means I may have to commute to London City (Fenchurch Street) 2 days a week from the Autumn.
Coming from Ashford in Kent, an appropriate season ticket to London Bridge plus parking/petrol cost is around £500/month.
The company has facilites at their office and apparently underground parking for bikes but probably first come first served.
My thoughts are I could buy something like a CF Moto 650 MT for about £5k, probably peanuts on PCP, 50MPG so about £140 per month in petrol few hundred for maintenance, insurance, tax etc. and happily just run it in all weather after drenching it in ACF50.
Alternatively, something secondhand around £5k with similar weather protection etc. NC750? VFR? Older GS? I guess it will need to be ULEZ compliant.
Route would be M20, M25, A2 probably so plenty of motorway.
I get that deep winter will be pretty crap but I can always take the train during the worst spells. I have decent Rukka kit etc. so I understand how to weatherproof myself and genuinly love riding so no drama there. I've done the NC500 in June - I know what wet means :-)
Advice appreciated.
Edited by Pazuzu on Wednesday 3rd April 21:34
okgo said:
Considering the speed of the train from Ashford I can’t imagine for a second why you’d want to sit on a motorbike for hours a week instead.
We've moved offices - used to take the high speed which is great (if expensive) but now I'd have to get off the other end and sit on the underground anyway.Might as well go straight to London Bridge and for the record, I don't want to commute at all - would much rather stay remote!
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