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Are you a Super Commuter? Freebies on offer from CycleScheme for 12 ride-to-work enthusiasts, plus starring role in Cycle to Work Day

Prizes include all-weather gear & helmet cam. Cape not supplied.

It’s well-established that commuting by bike is a Good Thing™. It saves you money and time, trims your waistline, and gets you to work fresh and invigorated. Cycle to Work Scheme provider CycleScheme is looking for 12 Super Commuters - dedicated bike commuters to be role models for the benefits of riding to work.

Announcing the competition to find Britain's Super Commuters, CycleScheme said: “Over the years we’ve managed to get quite a few people on bikes. We hear stories from people who have lost weight, become fitter, made new friends and spent time on their bikes outside of their commute. Cycling can quickly permeate many facets of your life and become something that you are very passionate about.

“That’s what we’re looking for — passion. We are on the hunt for the nation’s Super Commuters!”

These are people who ride to work every day, no matter the conditions, and can wax lyrical about the benefits. Enthusiasts. Evangelists.

CycleScheme is looking for 12 Super Commuters, one for each region of the UK. Throughout the year they will be set a series of tasks such as writing a blog post on their commutes, reviewing the latest commuter gear, talking about cycle commuting on their Facebook pages or convincing a friend to cycle to work.

CycleScheme added: “There will of course be rewards along the way. Freebies and kit from some big name brands as well as a starring role in our Cycle to Work Day campaign later in the year. To kick things off, our 12 Super Commuters will each receive an Endura Luminite jacket, trousers, gloves and overshoes plus a RoadHawk helmet camera”

Entries close on February 16 and more details are on the competition’s Facebook page

Sounds like fun, but we’re really not too sure about that cape. What would Edna Mode say

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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15 comments

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Nat Jas Moe | 10 years ago
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Well I commute every day, come hail, rain, sleet, snow or blow and have benefited in my wallet as well as having reduced my waist line loosing over one and a half stone in the process. Oh by the way it's a into central London commute, where other road users can be rather challenging, blind and idiotic. But when I arrive I feel great even during this awful weather we've been having. Oh and it's just 18 miles a day. Another plus is I don't have to play sardines on public transport either.

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Cheesyclimber | 10 years ago
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I'm self-employed and work from home so my commute consists of me stumbling from my bed to my desk while scratching my balls. If Cyclesheme are up for seeing this on a daily basis I'm in.

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Simon E | 10 years ago
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I use the car only a dozen times per year, and wind, rain, snow, sub-zero temps etc don't stop me riding so I might qualify, but I don't think anyone would be interested in my blathering.

But if I wrote about my commute I would want it to benefit an organisation with loftier goals*, so I'd write for Sustrans or CTC.

* AFAIK CycleScheme is only a business handling a govt tax break.

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Bedfordshire Clanger replied to Simon E | 10 years ago
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Simon E wrote:

...I might qualify, but I don't think anyone would be interested in my blathering.

1708 posts and counting  3

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alexhamps | 10 years ago
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Free stuff is free stuff. I'm in.

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userfriendly | 10 years ago
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Eh. Have your shift start 20 minutes later. For ... reasons.  22

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duc888 | 10 years ago
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Theres a girl i catch on my route in sometimes who has a nice bum. That would make good viewing. It does for me, but the drawback is i'm 15 minutes late on the mornings i sit behind her.  1

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s_lim | 10 years ago
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I like the idea of this, less so the output from the headcam at me vociferously swearing at lorries/cars overtaking within a hairsbreadth distance.

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parksey replied to s_lim | 10 years ago
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s_lim wrote:

I like the idea of this, less so the output from the headcam at me vociferously swearing at lorries/cars overtaking within a hairsbreadth distance.

Exactly that. Mine wouldn't be broadcastable before 9pm!

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Nick T | 10 years ago
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It's a wonderfully cheap bit of marketing from Cyclescheme though eh, 12 essentially free staff writer-come-salesmen to publicise your services from a talent pool of people who've not yet figured out that commuting by bike is no more interesting than commuting by car or tube or bus in reality.

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BikeBud | 10 years ago
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I would do it, but I don't think CycleScheme are looking for stories about how bloody awful the cycle path is, or me commenting about the number of cars/trucks/buses driving through red or stopping on the pedestrian crossing.

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AyBee | 10 years ago
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When I moved in with my flatmate, he had zero bikes and commuted by bus/train - he now has 4 bikes and commutes by bike daily  4

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lerrup | 10 years ago
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I'd do it as I quite fancy the helmet cam but can't really justify the price.

I won't though as it is through facebook and I don't do facebook..

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Nick T | 10 years ago
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Is there anything as dreary a proposition as forum comments, blog posts and helmet cam videos of someone's commute? They'll have no shortage of people who believe their own particular journey is worth championing though, I'm certain.

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Wolfshade replied to Nick T | 10 years ago
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Do you want to subscribe to my youtube channel and follow me on Strava?  3
Two personal bests on the commute this morning, including a 9th place on Strava, average speed 29.9mph along that downhill segement. Woot woot.

More seriously, though my commute is thankfully very boring, no major disasters, no half-arsed poorly constructed ill concieved cycling infrastructre to deal with. While I do record the commute, I wouldn't suffer anyone to watch it. The only time that I would not just delete the video would be if something intersting happened, like the day I fell over on the ice in comic slow style, or when I become invisible to buses.

I like the idea of using a "normal" commuter to champion it, but I am not sure that this is the best way to do it, but hey, free stuff!

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