I’d Rather Cycle started life in 2003 as an online cycle community — a not-for-profit forum, events calendar and bike classifieds that spent over a decade encouraging people to get out of the car and onto a bike, and nudging councils and motorists to give cyclists more room.
The original community wound down years ago. In 2026 the site was relaunched with the same conviction and a narrower mission: practical, plain-English guides for everyday cycling in the UK — commuting, the Cycle to Work scheme, choosing and maintaining a bike, and riding through a British winter without misery.
No hype, no jargon. If an article states a number — a tax rate, a scheme rule, a price — it has been checked against the original source first.
What you’ll find here
Everything on the site is built around two things: getting more people onto a bike for everyday journeys, and helping the people already riding spend less and worry less.
- The Cycle to Work scheme — how the UK salary-sacrifice scheme works, what you actually save, and what happens at the end of the hire, with a calculator that does the sums for you.
- Choosing a bike — frame sizing, electric bikes, and working out the real running costs before you buy.
- Keeping it running — the handful of repairs and habits that keep a bike on the road, starting with fixing a puncture in fifteen minutes.
- Commuting — riding to work through traffic, weather and a British winter without it becoming a chore.
How the guides are written
Every guide starts from the primary source, not from other blogs. Tax figures come from HMRC, scheme rules from the providers’ own terms, energy costs from the regulated price cap. Where a number can change — a rate, a cap, a threshold — the year it applies to is stated on the page, and the page is updated when the rules move. If something can’t be verified, it doesn’t go in.
The aim is simply the guide we wished existed when we were working it out ourselves: plain English, no filler, and no advice bent to suit an advertiser.
Independent and reader-first
I’d Rather Cycle is an independent site, not affiliated with any Cycle to Work provider, retailer or manufacturer. It carries advertising to help cover its costs, but recommendations are never paid placements — they reflect what the sources actually support.
Get in touch
Spotted an error, or want a topic covered? Corrections and suggestions are genuinely welcome — the contact page has the details, and you’ll get a reply from a human.