Am I a cyclist now?
(5 minutes reading time)
In the Before Times there wasn’t much more frightening I could imagine doing in London than cycling on its roads. The exposure of my unarmored, vulnerable body to the psychos in vans, SUVs and Prius is truly terrifying.
I’m astonished to still be in one piece from just driving in a very safe German engineered car.
And then came the first lockdown. I was alone in my flat and watched as the busy junction I lived by that joined onto the South Circular became deathly quiet. The village silence pierced by the alarming frequency of ambulance sirens.
In between the ambulance and lone bus service, the only traffic on the road was the joyful sight of families on bicycles. Able to ride the horribly dangerous road for the first time in their lives. It was an image that I can only relate to snow days, and being dragged along routes that are suddenly, momentarily open to a sledge.
I also knew I wouldn’t be using public transport for a good long while. I’d just sold off my massive hybrid bike as it took up all the hallway.
I put in an order via the Cycle2Work scheme for a Brompton.
First days of Brompton
It was nice having my own bike that I could fit onto a doormat! I zipped around Dulwich Park and followed my cousin around on his evening runs. The biggest adventure was when I got all the way into town. It was very eerie being in a quiet and empty Piccadilly Circus in the middle of the day.
But then I moved to the top of very long a hill and only once did I cycle up it. I felt like my heart was going to explode.
Swytching things up
So I invested in an upgrade for the Brompton. A kit that you fit yourself to your bike, and with a motorised wheel that you order by size. This one specifically for the Brompton, others for almost any other type of bike. On receiving the kit, after waiting for months for its arrival, I was really frustrated that some of the components were missing and worse faulty. It wasn’t off to a good start. But once the replacements came, and I was able to fit the wheel on I was able to whizz away!
And it made my casual cycling all the more do-able. I was zipping to lots of places on this. A couple of trips into the office, and a few more into town. This thing is an engineering marvel. But it does have a flaw. One flaw that became all too apparent on my last rainy journey back from town, across the 15km and hitting some big bumps on the way.
It’s great for multi-modal journeys, jumping on and off a train or out of the boot of my car. But longer trips aren’t comfortable with those tiny wheels. The weight of the Swytch bumped the weight up quite a bit so it’s not as portable as it originally was, plus I added a rear rack and mud guard. So it’s even heavier to lug around (but the wheels on the rack help to move it around).
All that though isn’t the main problem. Yeah when I get to work I can tuck it under my desk, but if I pop to the shops? Head to a restaurant? Lifting that thing past a bunch of seated diners is hard work (side note: I did see one other Chinese middle aged man come out of Bao in Borough with a racing green Brompton with a Swytch kit!). No Brompton owner ever locks up their bike outside. They are almost instantly stolen.
So after payments for the Brompton finished, I had to get one more bike.
A modern classic
I had wanted to get hold of a pretty decent Decathlon road bike, but they don’t support any cycle to work schemes and I couldn’t just plonk a few hundred quid on a new bike. I was also taken by the idea of getting hold of a vintage bike. Thieves are less keen on those, and it’s a hipster staple now. But it’s hard to find a decent one of these too.
Then I happened upon Temple in my research and had zipped past their London shop. A modern classic. Just right for what I want. On a cycle scheme and utterly, utterly beautiful. I love this bike.
Now I have two bikes. They say that the perfect number of bikes is always one more than you’ve currently got. I’ve never in my life owned two bicycles before, and I’m also a paid up member of the London Cycling Campaign.
I think I can qualify myself as a cyclist now. While I don’t enjoy being on the busy roads of London (I go out of my way to stick to the quiet streets as much as I can) I’m certainly less terrified to so.
Lockdowns kicked off a bit of a revolution for cycling. There is still a high demand for bikes, but supply issues are also hampered by the pandemic as manufacturing has taken a hit globally. LTNs have completely transformed residential streets in the places where it’s been done well.
