Has Cycling Changed your Life?
Posted: 19 Jan 2008, 12:20
Do a Google search for cycle commuting and it'll pull up dozens of blogs, news articles and features from around the world singing the praises of the bike - how it has transformed the lives of people - from re-envigorating their journey to work, to transforming their bodies and minds, to literally saving their lives. Many will document the difficult early stages of their cycling transformations - from buying their first cheap, totally inadequate bike, braving bad weather, bad clothing and bad roads until they reach the Zen‑like plateau of the cycle commuter. Many of us have made that journey, many of us are just embarking on it now.
My cycling rebirth, like many people's, was enforced by external circumstances. I was skint. I would like to think that my cherished eco-political beliefs were my only driving force but the truth was that I couldn't afford a car, needed to get around and have never had the patience to wait around for buses. So I bought a bike on my credit card, a decent rigid mountainbike which saw me through a year of solid commuting before being destroyed in a rather painful car door/bike interface. The bike was rebuilt around a new frame and fork, and got me through a few more months of commuting to university before being stolen from outside the pub one fateful evening. All of which led to the acquisition of my first proper commuting bike, a hybrid, quicker, more adaptable and low key - seemingly invisible to thieves and impervious to weather. The Trek hybrid has seen me through the last eight years of commuting in all weathers, hauling shopping home, be-decked with kid seats and child trailers. Most memorably carrying a week's shopping in the panniers plus a bag of housecoal bungeed over the rear carrier. Over the years I've honed down the kit I carry from a paranoia induced, 'everything plus the kitchen sink in my panniers' approach to an essential commuter's survival kit that'll fit into a small rucksack, and not encumber me when sloggin up the hills.
My clothing has gone through an equal transformation, from buying everything with 'cycling specific' on the label to the exclusion of all other items, to mixing and matching cycling and non cycling clothes, I've come to find what works on the bike and what doesn't. I find myself shopping for normal, everyday clothes and thinking "will it work on the bike?"
The bike itself has gone through many transformations and distillations, to the point where it's kit and accessories are perfectly honed for the humble, everyday job of getting to work on time. It sits in the hall, ready to go, day or night, sun or rain, at the drop of a hat.
The routes that I frequent have also evolved and lost all vestigial traces of my car driving past. When I started out bike commuting, I defiantly rode to work using the same direct, main road, hardwired routes that I'd take in the car. Quickly I found that the most direct route by car wasn't the safest, or most pleasant route on two wheels. Now the routes I take are all cut-throughs, quiet streets, bike paths, canal towpaths, dipping on and off main roads occasionally, slipping stealthily across the city and seeing a different slice of urban life. Funny thing is I get to work at pretty much the same time, and my journey time is consistent, day in day out.
Even the changing seasons haven't put me off the daily commute. Contrary to what we might think, we very rarely get caught in the torrential rain and when we do, a bit of forward planning, a fresh set of clothes in the office drawer and waterproof bags make a world of difference. The old outdoorsman's adage of 'there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing' is particularly true in the realm of the cycle commuter.
In the last 10 years, I've made the gradual transition from car driver to occasional commuter, to non-car owning, everyday cycling commuter.
There's been highs, there's been lows, there's been lots of punctures and a few mechanical failures, but a whole lot of fun. A mind numbing car journey has been replaced by an hour in my day where I'm doing the thing I love and getting where I need to go, a whole hour where I don't think of anything save for the act of riding, yet invariably solve half of the world's problems by the time I arrive in the office. I could go on about earnest ecological benefits and motivations, but I'd be fooling myself. Riding to work for me is just a logical response to an increasingly thorny 21st century problem. And I love it.
But enough waffle from me. We'd like to hear from all of you. Tell us your stories. We want to hear the highs and the lows, the pitfalls and triumphs. How has cycling changed your life? We can all learn from each other's mistakes and wisdom. Every new everyday story has the capacity to inspire someone to make the quantum leap onto two wheels.
Has Cycling Changed your Life? Tell us about it. Send your stories to info@everydaycycling.com, putting 'Has Cycling Changed your Life?' in the subject line.
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