The Telegraph's Anna Tyzack eulogises the Bike Hire scheme this morning, perhaps a bit generously, but is worried about her cyclist status:
"Even though I go to work by bike, I’d be reluctant to describe myself as a cyclist. I don’t wear Lycra...
On several occasions I’ve been hissed at by officious fluorescent-jacketed cyclists at traffic lights. Once I’d forgotten to switch my lights on, another time I’d been going too slowly, and last week a man on a racing bike took umbrage at the bag of books in my basket (“You crazy idiot, get a rucksack!”)."
Anna, don't worry. You're welcome here.
The Telegraph has been surprisingly pro-cycling in the last few weeks. If only we could get the Daily Mail onboard we'd be set.
ReplyDelete'Get a rucksack' ?? A pannier, maybe.
ReplyDeleteCrazy people. As for the idiot suggesting using a rucksack - duh! A basket is 10x more convenient and a whole lot more comfortable.
ReplyDeleteSeems like if those people are "cyclists" then I would not want to be considered one either.
Keep doing what you're doing, Anna. Ignore the "bicycle fashion mafia"; they know not what they say. As the man says, you're welcome here.
ReplyDelete"If only we could get the Daily Mail onboard we'd be set."
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Fail/Wail/Heil had a "chic cycles" article a week or so ago, but it seems that was an anomaly among the general sub-Clarksonian Car Supremacy.
As for how Anna was treated, it seems that, along with the lack of segregated infrastructure, the main barrier to mass cycling in the UK is *other cyclists* :sigh:
And what book to have in that basket? How about John Osborne's classic drama about an angry young man having his bicycle stolen in Essex, 'Lock bike in Ongar'.
ReplyDeleteOn The Road (or the Dutch translation On the Segregated Cycleway) ?
ReplyDeleteSurely it would have been ...“50 quirky bike rides for family and friends, free from freightlining juggernauts and white van road rage, in eco friendly, carbon neutral, naturally blissful thrills and hills, on a hunch over lunch, with winks over drinks, brooks beckon, waves lap, win whizzes – the most thrilling downhilling and appealing freewheeling, on trains, bridges, plains & ridges the odd, unique, eccentric and curious, from flying canals to haunted tunnels to underwater roads the longest, prettiest, bendiest, bounciest, rockiest, twistiest, zingiest, peakiest, prettiest, whizziest, bestest, bestest, bestest bike rides in England and Wales (ever)” :-)
ReplyDeleteGet a rucksack? Get a backache more like...
ReplyDeleteI wonder what angry racing bike man would have made of the bike with a buggy attached to the front on Dragon's Den last night!
ReplyDeletecycling is, like any pastime, distinguished at least in part by the number of people willing to tell you that you're doing it all wrong.
ReplyDeleteI'm a lycra type myself (albeit with Carradice as on bike luggage) but wouldn't dream of presuming to tell someone else how to dress for riding.