What's The Best Way To Ride To Work? | GCN Commuter Challenge

commuting my bike is awesome yeah it's better for the environment it's better for your health it's cheaper and it's more fun but the question is what is the best bike to do it on we're going to find out a few years ago we did just that but since we made that video a lot has happened tick tock has been invented kim kardashian has become a billionaire and then there was also something called hovid19 which also affected the world of commuting along with e-bikes which have become a thing and gravel bikes too plus the price of the train is now extortionate on that original route it's a tenner per day and rising which for a 12 minute journey makes it per mile one of the most expensive train tickets certainly in the whole of the uk and perhaps on the entire planet so seeing as the global and the commuter landscapes have changed so much we thought it was time for another challenge ripple helping out with this video they make basically every type of bike you can wish for and so we've each been able to choose the bike that we would most like to ride to work on and this one is mine it's the gravel sl fast on the road off the road his first start is fun what's that like a lightweight traditional road bike with mud guards i did not have you down as the tight the only traditional thing about this is the mud guards but it could just as easily be a fast road bike or a fast gravel bike it's the cgr they do it all by firefight this is a doable bike now yeah no no no it's not what do we have here you've changed up on a ferrari ollie yeah yeah i have yeah well i mean it's potentially even faster with me on it this is the ultra slr aero is its middle name well technically isn't sl it's middle name whatever anyway it's clearly the best bike to commute on because it's the fastest which means that i can take a longer route to work or i can have a light is it fast enough to stop you being late to work that's a good question is the question i'm not even the last one here hey guys connor what earth are you wearing you don't even got changed yet what are you talking about where are you i'm already ready one way to work this is what people wear serious people where's the office yeah yeah got a nice shirt i want to prove that you don't need to wear spandex to ride a bike i'm in character today you do realize it's at least 20 kilometers and it's the hottest day on record ever you're gonna need a shower when you get there mate no we'll see about that we'll see off to work we go the challenge is set not connor needing a shower although that will be interesting no it's aerobic versus do-it-all bike versus gravel bike versus e-bike which is the best bike to ride to work on and what does best even mean we don't yet know however we can be fairly sure that we will at least be faster than the crew come on cyclists you don't even pay road tax our start and finish are 20 kilometers apart but whereas in a car you would drive exactly the same way each and every day on the bike you have option after option after option after option after option depending on time weather or just your mood hello guys where are you where you going mate you better not be catching the train that is against the rules this time well exactly right ollie we're going straight here mate that's not the fastest way we doing why is he doing that way you know why those two clowns have gone that way as the guy said i'm riding the cycling equivalent of a ferrari although being british more after comparison is probably a mclaren but this is a road bike that is built for pure speed it's an absolute weapon i mean look at it and when you combine that with this outrageous custom paint job i mean it makes it even cooler and even faster okay man i'm i'm getting left up here i've got some dirt to shroud shout shroud yeah you're definitely not cool enough to say that what that's been hard see ya see ya it's quite a relief to be on my own actually so who honestly rides off-road to work me i do genuinely this is one of my routes to work now i don't do it every day and it does take longer than the direct route but it's almost always worth the effort of getting out that front door 30 minutes earlier it's just so calm like you avoid traffic i almost literally don't see traffic [Music] now riding off-road in the dust is great but sight isn't going to be so smart for the other 360 days of the year when it's muddy now for a commuter bike and it might be a little bit different where you live but i think practicality is key i want my bike to work perfectly keep my bum and feet dry and be nice and comfortable yeah so where on earth am i and what am i doing well you might have guessed i'm on an e-bike i don't need to batter myself to work i'm just chilling getting some light exercise in whilst traveling at 25 kilometers an hour which is the perfect speed because i'm taking the bike path all the way to work it may take me a little longer it's not quite as direct but i'll be there within the hour and i won't see a car while it might seem extravagant for me to ride a bike like this to work why not i mean it has all the aero innovations and features of the top spec model but an entry price of 4 400 pounds which is still a hell of a lot of money to spend on a bike but if you put it into car terms i mean that's like an old second-hand ford focus and i know what i'd rather be riding plus with petrol prices being what they currently are it's not going to take long for you to recoup the cost of a four grand bike in petrol and to be honest i'd rather be riding a bike like this even in the rain than being sat in traffic [Music] i'm off the trails for a little bit back onto tarmac i've got a smidge of main road before the next proper bit of off-road into the hills there's trails in them they're rails kind of bursts you bubble a bit when you pop out the trails onto a road it's not the world's worst road mine but still i cannot find a way to avoid this what two mile section maybe so he's got grim bearing now the cgr is your all-row type of bag that meaning if you were to put narrow tires on you you'd have a road bike but if you were to opt for chunkier wider tires you'd easily have a gravel bike and the versatility on this bike is perfect for most riders i don't know about anybody else but on my commute into the office i want the shortest way there i don't really want to be doing extra kilometers and on this i can [Music] i'm cruising on my e-bike on the bike bath doing gentle exercise right now may seem like a world away from olly or psy but it's just as good for your health there's a raft of scientific studies which say that the health benefits from cycling with a motor on board are still there speaking of which let's have a battery update still going strong [Music] now i truly do believe that my bike is the do it or bike i could be on nice smooth tarmac one minute in a field the next minute or even on some gravel i mean come on ollie is not gonna do that on his ferrari is he [Music] do i mind riding on main roads well it's not my first choice but no i don't mind although there are some sections of road that are worth avoiding which is why i've taken a slight detour here to avoid a particularly scary bit of dual carriageway although just like psy you know if i if i got out the house 15 minutes earlier i could take an alternate route down quiet lanes in the hills and when you're riding a bike this arrow this fast well it's just like going on a normal ride [Music] the best thing about ride and ebike for me is that even on the hottest of days like we have today it's still just so relaxing you're not sweating buckets though like i'm sure cy and ollie are right now last little rise coming into bath come on i must have smashed them you know at 40k an hour hallway what am i supposed to do with that do you think heat makes cows more angry or less angry hopefully less as we all know yeah savage [Music] it's okay little dudes now one of the things that i've learned from observing cows is that i actually hunt in packs so although that lot has sort of lured me into a false sense of security it's quite likely it was a couple of real big ones lurking behind a bush up here and they're the ones that are going to jump out like [Music] complete i want to say mad man but obviously it's a cow okay we have to put the gopro away because if i need to sprint i'm going all in all right coming into the center back now and as always on a commute i always feel so smug going past traffic i don't know what it is but i'm like look i want a bike and i'm going to get to the office faster than you i always feel so good you know there he is four you'd be her first ollie anybody else here nope you're second oh dreams should we get some coffees in i've got smoothies oh nice it's got to be said this is the best way to get to work i definitely have chosen the best bite for the job better than the rest of the other three i'm gonna convince them of that when we get to bars i'm not having it any other way it's perfect i mean i can carry loads of stuff from the panniers i've got the motor to assist me it's also quite lightweight so if i did want to get on a train at any point i've had another important business meeting off in the big smoke i could take a little train journey get it out the other side ride to my destination all the gears i need it's brilliant [Applause] [Music] right last climb which means that that is the last descent and it is a good one this is the point more than any other point where i'm going to be super glad that i've got a proper gravel bike with big fat tires on i reckon actually i'd put even bigger tires on there's plenty of clearance on here to be able to do that a mountain bike i guess you could say is probably a better tool for the job for this particularly rocky descent but then i'd have had to have dragged the mountain bike along for the previous 25 k's and that is the point in which drop handlebars just make the bike feel so much quicker right i think i'm going to be the last one there aren't i probably the one with the biggest grin but i'm probably gonna be last [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] all right i made it to the outside of bath coming into the city getting through the little twisty streets and i made it to work ready for some important business matters little climbs to get up but uh the e-bike is making a light work of them which is definitely the benefit for me looking forward to seeing how the others have got on not bad oh i'm not last where's psy talking to cows look at those sweat patches well that was a beautiful ride i've got to say there you go i'll just dump this here i'll better not watch a ferrari okay last couple of minutes now looking at the clock i'm either going to be dead last or i might just have beaten connor but that last little bit is always slower than i think the amount of times i've been late to work because i've been up there don't tell work i said that no smoothie oh here he is oh no i'm lost ah to be expected i suppose i have been um well a long the long way to work but still um smoothies did you get me one no oh sorry oh okay all right well we're not here for smoothies we're here to decide the best bike okay have you just have you changed your minds on the way in man on no i'm really happy with mine i think mine's a winner yeah i mean it's good all year round it's got mud guards i'm never gonna arrive to the office with a wet burn or a wet bag i mean you can change the tires it can be a road bike one day it can be a gravel bike the next day it's great and titanium is pretty cool yeah reliable all right come on i think mine's best for sure i'll choose it every time yeah i mean it's got a motor on for one so anyone could have rid of the same pace that i did that is fair yeah it's got the panniers at the back so i could have carried all my shopping home too or office files as well i was going to raise that point too man and i love it i mean you jump on your casual clothes get to work you guys have to go to changing rooms now yeah well did you get sweat patches i don't think i did i can smell something i'm not sure who it's not me i think it's that's cow smell yeah sorry well you do have a sweet outfit on well exactly yeah i'm looking smart my bike is amazing it feels so fast but the more i think about it no i wouldn't want to commute on a ferrari really no well if i had a ferrari i wouldn't commute in it and i feel the same about that bike i'd rather save it for the weekends you know and just have something a bit more you know utilitarian but it's not actually a ferrari so there's no problem riding that monday to friday so you could have that weekend feeling on a monday morning and a tuesday morning and a wednesday morning and it doesn't matter because you could you can still maintain it relatively inexpensively certainly compared to a ferrari it just feels too special okay all right well fair enough i think with this one i'm really tempted really tempted to say this one but i think actually i would probably go with man on cgr because whereas this is more of an out and out gravel bike like realistically i don't need all the bosses for carrying bags and stuff like that i'd want one where for 70 of the time i was riding on tarmac to and from work and so it feels more like a road bike and then 30 of the time i can do my off-road commute and it'll still be amazing even if i can't fit quite such flat tires or go quite so quickly down to rocky descents so i think it i'll probably go yeah i think mine's a winner i think it is what about you then ollie you've pretty much got the casting vote then if you're not going to go with your ferrari i'd go with with either yours or man-ons simply because i prefer to carry my stuff on the bike and not on my back really i can't believe you're not going with mine i've got a motor i'm going to be cruising on 25 kilometers out everywhere all the hills imagine you have a really stressful day at work you just want to kind of cruise home make it there you don't want to suffer you just want to enjoy it to be fair you've had a really stressful day at work sometimes you just want to absolutely slam at home as fast as you possibly can oh no yourself all right i tell you what how about this then so the e-bike is amazing because anyone can ride to work even if it's 20k 25k and that is brilliant if you're more experienced or you're a fitter cyclist perhaps then a do-it-all bike like man on cgr is the one because most of the time realistic you have a road bike most of the time you probably want mud guards on it but then sometimes you can stick wider tires on and then if you are fortunate enough to be able to have two bikes then maybe you go for ollies and mine yeah i'd agree with that yeah i agree yeah okay i i agree to disagree but there you go i think we've ever had a consensus in a video before how cool is that let us know what you think in the comments section down below what is the best type of bike to commute on what do you commute on and if you don't what could persuade you to ride to work let us know in the comment section down below

Channel: Global Cycling Network

Views: 555,769

Keywords: commuting, commute, travel, travelling, work, working, job, ribble, gravel, gravel bike, all road, all-road, all road bike, all-road bike, fast, fast bike, commuter bike, commuter, ebike, e bike, e-bike, best bike, super bike, superbike, titanium, ti, carbon, carbon fiber, GCN, Global Cycling Network, Sports, Cycling, Bike, Bikes, Bicycle (Product Category), Road Bike, Cyclist, Road Bicycle, GCN Cycling, velo, sec-feature, ꗧ, Ղ, ሙ, ସ, ホ, ᠫ, ൱, ዩ, ළ, э, Բ, Ժ, Լ, Ծ, Հ, ፕ15, サ, ኾ, ዮ, ጎ, 4765

Id: Jq2NKKtUFnI

Length: 18min 35sec (1115 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 23 2022