My September Rides (week 34)

THE AGE OF THE BIKE!!
Will you be on the ride??

It is quite a good time to write about promoting cycling and what we can do to bring ‘pedalling’ into the public eye in a positive way. Tomorrow is the London Skyride. Cynics amongst you will dismiss this as a publicity stunt by media moguls. To some extent it obviously is, but it is perhaps the best opportunity of the year for cycling, as an activity for all, to receive some positive mass exposure.


In the 1970s & 80s I was a cyclist as I have detailed here and elsewhere. Following an accident I gave up for many years at the behest of my wife.


In those days cycling did not enjoy the popularity it does today. Cycle lanes were non existent. No employer worth his salt would even consider providing a cycle rack or shower facilities (took up space better used for car parking and a greasy spoon canteen). Public cycle parking, if provided, was strategically sited where the bike-thief could go about his business unhindered and uninterrupted. People wearing cycling helmets were considered unhinged. Cyclists were at best odd and at worst nutters.

Cycling was something done in the privacy of your own home with the curtains closed.

As a child, a Sunday afternoon treat was for the family to pile into the car - a Hillman Minx or Ford Cortina - and set off for ‘a relaxing drive;’ if you were to suggest this nowadays you’d be carted off to the funny farm for an assessment.

The change in attitudes over the intervening 30 years has been remarkable; it does great credit to those who have kept the faith during these famine years. So what has brought about this change in fortunes?

Somehow, against all the odds, the motor car in spite of its convenience, comfort, practicality, style??, popularity, etc. has managed to force its way to the top of the list of bad boys as far as our efforts to save the planet are concerned.

It has become the hallmark of the unfit, unhealthy, over-weight, obese, over-paid, over-promoted, self-satisfied, bloated and greedy (and that’s just their good points!).

One of the great pluses of cycling is that it is an activity for all; children, adults, the rich, the poor, people of all races, girls and boys, men and women, the able bodied and the disabled. You name the demographic and I’ll show you a group who can cycle. You can do it on your own or in company with others; it is sociable, inexpensive and practical. These are surely some of the major features which are attracting people back onto their bikes. And I use the word BACK deliberately. There are few people who reach adulthood without having learned the art of riding a bike.

I have been on all the Skyrides since they were first introduced as ‘The Hovis Freewhweel’ event in 2007. I have watched the popularity grow and the levels of organisation improve. It is a shame in some ways that Hovis couldn’t hang on to it but I guess it really needed the ‘oxygen’ provided by a media brand to take it to the heights it now occupies. I have seen reports that in 2009 as many as 65,000 cyclists joined the ride; whether or not this is true I have no idea, but there were certainly a lot of folk pedalling their stuff on the circuit - just to add a sense of context the Notting Carnival attracts more than a million people so we have no room for complacency. Personally I thought there were even more people there last year - one of the oft repeated complaints by regular cyclists was that no-one could make any progress because of the numbers. The model has been rolled out to other London hubs and indeed to other towns and cities around the country.

You are reading this because you are a committed cyclist. As such it is your DUTY to spread the gospel. One of the things that you must therefore do is support Skyride which I believe is the single thing that we can all do easily to promote our gentle art.

On the Skyride you wont be able to make progress, it wont be possible to race with your mates, you will find kids wobbling around in your path, you will find families riding five abreast across the carriageway, it will not be the most fulfilling day of your cycling life; but Skyride is not about you its about showing those folk who have hauled their rusty old BSO’s (bike shaped object) out of the shed and struggled into central London, that cycling is popular, fun and for them.

I believe that events such as Skyride are gradually taking us towards a tipping point. We are not there yet. But hey 20 years ago if you had suggested that a future Prime Minister would be a mainstream cyclist people would have thought you bonkers.

There is a Mayor of London – he rides.

Finally my stats:

Rides this week: 3
Rides per week: 3.2
Public transport days: 1
Oyster costs: £6.20
Annual Oyster costs: £577.40*
Commuting miles this week: 70.1
Commuting miles this year: 2739

*includes some non-commuting journeys

The short week coupled with a night out on Thursday has resulted in the rides per week figure ticking back to 3.2 :-(

TyT 3479