Everyday Cycling? – No Choice
Source: Jo Birch
Feature Posted: 16 May 2007
Above: Life on Sark - Car free and care free
Somebody once calculated that in terms of fuel input - food presumably - and work achieved – mpg in other words, cycling was the most efficient form of propulsion on the planet. I believe it; even when you’ve got ‘flu, you can pedal up to the shops for milk.
Anyway, since we don’t have cars on Sark, we have no choice but to bike it. Tractors with trailers do the carting, horses and carriages do the romantic tourist bit but for everyday getting about, it’s pedal power.
Admittedly the distances are short – the island is only 5 kms x 3 kms – but our roads are not tarmac and are often stony and rough. Without any streetlights winter evenings can seem dark if you leave your yoga class with the mat strapped to the front basket obscuring the torch. It’s easy to miss the bend on a foggy night and land in the hedge opposite.
Above: Parking can be a real issue...
Sark has 600 inhabitants and 543 bicycle licences have been issued this year, £10 each, and you must display your tax sticker. We used to have metal licence-holders but visitors kept pinching them as examples of quaintness. You must also carry a torch at night, otherwise the (voluntary) Constable will insist you get off and push.
Cycling starts young. The moment a child can sit up and hang on they’re strapped into the toddler seat. (Luxury! We used to sit on Father’s crossbar just behind the Sturmey-Archer gear change.) One young mother regularly carried four children on her bike; one behind, one in a backpack, the baby in a front hugger and the fourth in a special handlebar seat. Next stage is mother pulling the child along with a rope attached to the tricycle, “Don’t just sit there, Billy, pedal! Oh, and steer too!”
Playschool always has several tiny bikes parked in the hedge outside and 50 out of 53 children cycle to school; not far for most of them but everybody goes home for lunch. Proficiency cycling schemes don’t happen here but occasionally the Constable goes into school for a chat about left and right.
Above: Gridlock on the school run
Without cars to worry about, children can go off for bike rides or visit friends so easily. True, there are tractors and horses with carriages, we are not traffic-free, but the speed limit is 10 mph (more like 2¼ for a horse) and you can hear them coming. When our young grandchildren visit, they love whizzing up to the shops or going for spin on the bike, it’s such freedom. And you don’t take unnecessary stuff to the beach if you’ve got to get it into one small basket.
It’s amazing what people do manage to carry on bikes though. A man cycling with a ladder needs a clear run and gentle corners, a sheet of plywood needs a calm day and it’s better to overload the front carrier than the back – you notice when things fall off. Half a sack of spuds will fit comfortably on a robust front basket.
I once watched a young father cycling with his leg in plaster, crutch hooked over the handlebars and his small daughter riding on his shoulders. Bicycling definitely encourages physical confidence. A little too much perhaps – a friend came to grief while cycling to work with the dog on a lead when she tried to answer the mobile in the front basket.
Even the elderly can be reckless. Cycling along recently on a dark and rainy night, I was overtaken by a figure in full oilskins. She had twin torches strapped to her handlebars and was a 78 year-old, late for the whist drive.
Above: Most things can be carted around by bike, even a smelly old load of... manure. Well you wouldn't want that in your Mondeo would you?
The ability to ride a bicycle seems not to diminish with age, only infirmity. Our (Dutch) doctor has been instrumental in bringing in a new law allowing the use of an electric bicycle to those who find pedalling uphill tricky – you do need a medical certificate. He feels cycling is healthy, to be encouraged wherever possible and answers most emergency calls by bike himself.
Should you need to be smartly dressed, there’s a wonderful way some of the ladies have of keeping the nice frock clear of the brakes and/or chain. You pick up a bit of hem and bring it up to the handle, the one without the bell, and thus remain very elegant.
A bicycle culture needs trailers; small, strong ones for transporting tools or a case of beer, lighter alloy ones for a couple of body surfboards and the heavy-duty juggernaut used for carrying a load of well-rotted horse manure.
Above: The obligatory cafe stop
With three thriving bike hire businesses in Sark, visitors are well catered-for. £6 a day is the hire charge but there are discounts and deals, tag-alongs or towing trailers. www.atobcycles.sarkpost.com
Many tourists profess not have ridden ‘one of these things’ for years. Seems quite likely as they set off wobbling and over-cautious, or shrieking and on the wrong side of the road. If I meet a cyclist on my side of the road, I just shout tactfully, “A gauche!, à gauche!” Nobody minds being mistaken for a Frenchman and if they are, they understand.
Of course, anyone can come off their bike, it’s easy and many of us do, but the results are rarely serious. I know helmets, knee and elbow-pads guard against gravel rash but who wants to go to the pub wearing all that stuff? A bell is handy; we tend to walk in the middle of the road because we can and one great advantage of a bicycle culture is that people stop and chat in the road – a real pleasure.
Above: The ultimate sport-utility vehicle
Many islanders buy end-of-season bikes, beautifully maintained, from the hire shops, and then abuse them horribly. We leave them outside, cover them in mud or dust, depending on the season, and never clean them. But you don’t have to lock up a tatty bike, which would drive you crackers, using it several times a day as we do. Unsurprisingly there’s not a lot of ‘status’ buying on Sark – probably the mud discourages it.
And of course the absence of cars means an absence of drink-drive laws. This means that any social gatherings can be the jolly affairs they used to be in England. You can still have ‘one-for-the-road’ and if the Sark road home turns out to be a bit wavy, well, ditch the bike and collect it in the morning.
So, efficient, healthy, unpretentious and friendly, all these things make everyday cycling very enjoyable indeed.
For further details on the car free nirvana of Sark go to www.sark.info