Category: Bike

Five years ago this month, I posted about my ‘small on the outside, big on the inside’ local town shop. 

Regrettably, ‘Cyclops’ in Syston are closing down this year – but the Serfas ‘True 250’ rechargeable bike light that I bought five years ago has been used week-daily through five winters, being used for ~2 hours a day, the charge still last all week.

Alas, due to the council not clearing leaves on supposed bike paths, I came a cropper this week but the only significant damage was my True 250’s bar mount! It fractured on pavement impact. The local shop’s closing; so I searched t’interweb and Serfas in Phoenix, Arizona replied within an hour and put me onto Leicester based Walkers, who stock Serfas lights etc! New bracket in the post, bingo, let there be light. Thanks Walkers!

It’s been a while since I banged on about the benefits of riding a bike – people must be bored of the media’s soundbites, but as my house (and family) is taken up with Saturday night’s BBC ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, I’ll write again about why I ride a bike.

This week I was scanning Momentum mag’s online news. They’re a Canadian bike mag – they’re about ‘people that ride bikes’ not ‘cycling’. It’s good stuff – I’ve not found a comparable UK publication. I was reading Danyel Jones‘ story – “her motivations for getting back on a bike as an adult“, and thought I’d repeat some of my own ‘motivations’.

What is the spark that inspires someone to get around by bicycle?

For me, now 48, Leicester UK, it was March 2011 – At the time it was a combination of lack of exercise, an extremely sedentary job, and a desire to save money and get out of the daily “sitting in the traffic” commute. I remember it, sitting there in the car burning £s, waiting for the steady stream of traffic (of which I was part) to nudge forward and my turn at the next junction.

When someone suggested why don’t you ride your bike to work, I didn’t even entertain it, “crazy idea”, who’d want to ride home after a day’s work? But Spring 2011 I tried it one Friday, and after a while I was doing it daily.

It took months, perhaps years, to really find my way amongst the options. There’s the whole cycling subculture that tells you to buy this and that, most of which you do not need! There’s the move from riding with the mindset of a motor vehicle driver to that of a more pedestrian person on a bike. It really is hard to shake the culture of ‘gotta get there, gotta get there’. In a motor vehicle, ‘the journey’ is neutered and the joy of the places and people you pass is smothered in new-car-smell clown-infested radio or comforting playlists.

The health benefits of riding a bike are perhaps immeasurable – Riding a bike you’ll see good aerobic activity twice a day. The daily endorphin hits are invaluable. The daily experience is arguably also more constructive than a similar trip in a car/bus and cerebrally, thoughts and feelings get a more intense workout. The experience is arguably exhilarating and elevating, depending on your psychological position/attitude to the road-space social-class struggle – this does need to be kept in check.

Over the years I have moved from road cycling and the driverly mindset, to riding a bike on separate (ideally segregated) cycle ways. No matter what the stats say, sharing with motor traffic is a nerve-wracking experience. If that’s your thing then good luck to you, but for me the daily dice with close passes, speeding idiots and irresponsible attitudes from people in charge of machines equipped with bumpers, airbags, roll-cages etc is unwise. My experience is that the rules of the road are generally unenforced and where action is needed authorities are under resourced, under funded and not greatly accountable. Even with video evidence, you’ll be in for the long haul through months or years of red tape and bureaucracy.

Once one realises that there is another way (ahead of most UK local authorities who still have no long term visions or balls) the separate routes can be found. Ideally, there will be routes separate from motor vehicles. Either on segregated bikeways, on shared bike-pedestrian paths, or on alternative routes for bikes. My nine miles has shared paths, segregated paths, alternative routes and a few sections where you have to share the road with motor vehicles. White lines on the road telling bike riders to ride in the gutter are useless, dangerous and patronising.

There is a lot of work to be done as facilities for people in bikes are often badly maintained and poorly designed, but don’t let that get you down. There is a real viable alternative to the motor vehicle. My 9 miles in takes me 45-50 minutes – In rush hour traffic a car takes not much less. My fuel is a banana a day, a car would cost more than £2 in fuel. The health benefits are significant; physically, mentally and spiritually. The thought of going back to commuting by car is a dark thought.

I hesitate to recommend things, riding a bike should be a personal thing – it can be a very tactile, physical, stimulating and dare I say life changing thing. Perhaps it’s not for you, but don’t take my word for it, think about it. To me, at first, it was indeed without question, a crazy idea!

More bike/cycle stuff here: bike/cycle

Since March 2011, I’d been lucky to make the most of a relatively easy bike commute (7 miles each way) into Leicester, but since I’ve been hung out to dry by my previous employers, the wheels could have been left grumping in the garage – it’s easy to leave them there, as I did for many years before 2011. But thankfully, over time habits and mindsets started to be rewired, and it’s now relatively easy to say “no, I can bike it” here and there.  If you can (and often you can), ditch the car, bike it!

OK (debatably) taking the kids to here and there needs the car and that’s fine, carrying a large-format art print needs that car, getting somewhere in a suit possibly needs a car etc. But many frequent trips can be done on a bike.

Initially, the thought of taking the bike is worse (far worse) than the reality. The preconceptions about riding a bike can be massively negative. Gotta get the bike out, gotta wear a helmet, gonna get wet, traffic, time, it’s a pain in the arse… etc

• The reality (once you’ve done it a few times) is:
  It can be easy to get the bike out.
• You don’t have to wear a helmet**, you DONT NEED ANYTHING that certain stores infer you should have cos they’re shiny, sexy and cheap this week**!
• Yes OK, it rains, and if it is raining the car’s a better option if you need to stay dry. But it rains fewer times than you might imagine and – it’s only water ‘be prepared’ as little boys say. There are things called coats and hats and many employers have showers and changing rooms.
• The traffic is what you’ll often find yourself passing by.
• The time it takes to cycle is surprisingly not as long as you’d think. Especially compared with vehicles at rush hours.
• It’s not a pain in the arse, the pain in the arse is sitting in a queue of traffic, finding somewhere to park, paying for the parking, fuel etc.

We could rabbit on forever about the positive aspects of getting out in the fresh air, getting your endorphins going, passing the time of day with other perambulatists, enhancing your physical, mental and social health etc but the best way of finding this out is to try it.

Try it. It won’t necessarily happen overnight. It took me a year or so to change habits and see things with a new perspective. Some things that without a doubt I initially considered stupid and ‘not an option’, are now default options.

A few trips taken in the last month that would have been made by car:

A trip to Aldi, Tesco & Boots.
4.6 miles, ALL doable offroad*, except a small section through the estate.

I needed some staple goods from Aldi (milk, bread, cereal, coffee, biscuits + plus those things you buy ‘cos Aldi is Aldi), and with a cheap pair of pannier’s it couldn’t be easier. Of course, there’s that one thing that Tesco sells  (such as cooking coco) that Aldi does not. And then a trip to Boots for the family’s routine drug fixes – humf nature!  All sorted without stopping at Syston Hub Cafe for a coffee – although that is always an option!

Some business here and there.
25.7 miles, significantly offroad*.

A trip to a meeting in Birstall, and back home. Then a trip into Leicester for another meeting. The Town Hall Square Bike Park in Leicester is a great facility enabling you to drop your bike off, safe, dry and central – it’s just 50p for less than an hour, £1 for the day.  And of course, Bishop Street Cafe is right there for essential sustenance and mindspace.

Summer time in May.
10 miles, including a 2 mile meeting with the in-laws to discuss ‘stuff’.

This was a trip town for bits ad bobs and a drop-in at Syston Hub Cafe to oversee the installation of some art prints. The a trip to the inlaws for a meeting – which actually occurred over a 2mile stretch around the lakes. And then a return trip via Syston to pick up more bits and bobs.

*These trips are made easier when you accept that you are on a bike not in a car.  The bike is more akin to a pedestrian on wheels and not a car without an engine. The roads where traffic is running at 30mph+ is not a place for people on bikes**.  There are many shared pedestrian / cycle routes and alternative routes through parks etc. One just needs to change mindsets, perspectives, and habits – It is admittedly easier said than done, but it’s doable.

**If you’re predominantly riding off road and not mixing with 30mph+ motor vehicles, then riding a bike is simply that – riding a bike. ‘Cycling’ as a sport, is a different matter; not something that I do and not something I am talking about here.