I have a Pegasus town bike, it is a great all-rounder and I've ridden to my girlfriend's old flat on it before now (30km) and it is nice and comfortable. It has a 15 speed Shimano set-up, with Shimano brakes and a hub generator for the lights.

It is light and easy to ride. My girlfriend has a more traditional bike, with a 5 speed hub gear change, she has to work a lot harder.

I use the bike for short trips into town, when I'm not doing the shopping - getting 40Kg + onto the bike is a non-starter.

I bought mine for 599€, but you can probably get a second hand one for a lot less.

As to the 40 miles, the bike might be able to make it in a couple of hours, the question is how fit are you? No offence, you might need to build up to an 80 mile weekend...

I haven't used a car since I got to Australia, and although I am now looking at getting one, it'll purely be used for weekend trips to the coast or to attend kickboxing that public transport doesn't take me to.

I find walking and/or using public transport has been absolutely fine and I've been quite enjoying the walking and not using a car to get everywhere.

(Although we do have better weather for it here )

Why not get a moped or something similar?

I realise it is definitely something I would have to build up to.

Whilst I am reasonably fit I haven't ridden a bike in years and it uses a whole different set of muscles so I doubt I'll be breaking any records.

My car is parked up all day. I dont use it for work or to even commute to work. I still need a car though for everything else (shopping, transporting a baby, visiting parents....). Shame as it would save a lot of money.

You could possibly get the shopping delivered instead. I am looking at the idea of getting a big shop once every few months of things that will last. The delivery charge will probably be less than a number of car trips to the supermarket.

Living down here, I couldn't contemplate it. To see anyone I consider a friend is at least 35 minutes drive and well over an hour on the bus (when it runs). I'd love to be able to go without, but it's just not practical yet.

To be honest, I love going for a good drive out of Aber, but to do that I need a fair chunk of petrol in the tank if I'm swinging it round the backrounds (which I'm likely to be doing with a bit more gusto now my suspension has had a new lease of life) so I'd much rather walk/cycle where I can and save the fuel for a good blast out once in a while.

If you want to see how fit you are, come to Aberystwyth and try to cycle Cardiac Hill. I'm in much better condition than I was last year (Back down to just over 9st now ) and I died about a quarter of the way up.

I'll second the idea of getting something second hand and hanging on to the car for while. With a bike of such, uhm, quality, I'm not sure how you'd go about fixing a puncture either - my technique on my battered old mountain bike is to grab it by the frame and swing it upside down. But then that bike takes a lot of abuse from me. (It gets a lot of TLC too, but it still has to work for a living)

Narrow tyres are all good, I don't know just how much benefit you get from all the other shiny expensive clap trap. Such as titanium pedals. A lot of it depends on your physical condition, so perhaps get something cheaper for now, look after it, and when you come to sell the car (say, after Winter) sell the bike also and use the combined funds to get something particularly shiny?

Olly I would love to be able to do without driving, if you have a real shot at it and you're prepared to cycle then go for it!! With a 140 mile daily commute to work, 45 minutes to my sister and 1.5 hours to my parents it's not feasible for me, but I envy you the option.

When I first moved to Sheffield I did not have any transport other than public. I bought myself a bike and cycled to / from work mainly to get fitter as the Trams were really good.

I did not miss having a car as
I did day to day shopping and used a rucksack
For larger shoping runs I used the supermarkets delivery system and never had any major problems
I joined a Hire car Co (Sixt if IRC) frequent users scheme so I could hire a car at shortish notice without the hassle of needing to find my full D/L and 64 (ok 2) different bits of ID each time I needed a car.
This was still substantially cheaper than owning a car.

If you play the supermarkets off against each other, you can usually get enough free delivery and discount vouchers that you save quite a lot over actually going to the shops every month.

Sign up, start shopping and then don't process the order. Within 5 days they'll probably email you a voucher. The following month, move onto a different supermarket. There are several to use, so by the time you get round the loop they're begging for your business again.

Sainsbury's is always free delivery on the quieter days for orders over £100

Additionally, Tesco run a free bus service. However, it's during the daytime when most folks are at work.

I'm loving the supermarket delivery idea!

A lot of people have mentioned the dark and bad weather to me.

I have the option of a 5 mile cycle into Leeds City Centre (all down hill) where I can catch the train to Harrogate for £6.

The more I think about it and the more stories I read the more I feel like I want to do this.

Then stop talking about it and just do it. (8+)

Mark

Yeah

I suppose.

Will have to sell my car first and then buy the bike.

Before you do, sit down and work out the running cost of owning a car. Tax, insurance, service, MOT, petrol, breakdown cover, tyres and a few hundred set aside for emergency repairs.

Now subtract the running cost of the bike.

I expect you'll have a large amount left over which should easily cover the cost of some public transport and the occasional taxi.

It's a big commitment though. Once you've sold the car, you have to buy the bike and not look back. It would be a very costly exercise (sic) if you then decide to trade the new bike in for another car.

If you can afford to buy a second-hand bike to run "as a trial" for a bit then that's the more cautious approach.