Words + Photo By: Ian Ganderton
Today, for the first time since I moved to the UAE, I commuted to work on my bike and it felt great. I live just outside Arabian Ranches and Global Climbing Towers is in Dubai Investments Park (DIP). In the pickup, it’s a 15-minute tootle along the Outer Bypass Road (611). On the Moonlander (fat bike), it’s a 45-minute, 15km cycle ride through the desert along disused sandy tracks.
Bikes have become a recreational toy, but they are at their best as a mode of transport. Wikipedia says bicycles are the most efficient form of transport, twice as efficient as walking and an equivalent of 879mpg, or 373.701 km/l.
Today, while riding to and from work, I could feel this efficiency. The extreme fat tyres of the Moonlander don’t feel as efficient compared to a fast road bike on the blacktop, but on the sandy stretches they make light work of this low-grip surface and make cycling easy in places all other bikes would flail.
The route I’ve found is mainly on sand and sandy tracks with just a bit of closed road to a postponed golf development and the last kilometre or so in DIP to the office. No traffic, no fear, no faff, just me and my bike moving with purpose, going somewhere.
The reason I’ve finally got off my backside, recced the route and started commuting is because I’ve always found that I’ve been at my fittest when I’m cycling back and forth to work (in London and North Wales). The commuting miles hardly take any time out of your day and that daily mileage soon racks up into significant fitness gains. I need these fitness gains because there are some big projects on the horizon. I’ve decided to participate in the TransHajar MTB Race in Oman and there are two big fat bike adventures in the pipeline. All of these are going to be epic and will need all the endurance fitness I can build in the run up to them.
Now the game is to turn these mind-clearing morning commutes through the desert into a habit. I know from experience the first three weeks are always the tough ones. The last day of 2012 feels like a pretty good time to be making this resolution.
Ian Ganderton
