Sneak preview, photo competition starting in the new issue of citycycling (I'll sort out some prizes later, only struck on the idea on this mornings simulated commute) - the theme? Well, what does you bike mean to you...?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
What Does Your Bike Mean to You?
(40 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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You should send that to our shop@ address for our FB picture competition:
http://www.facebook.com/TheBikeChainscroll down to the foodieboxes bit
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ooh, nice!
Posted 13 years ago # -
what does my bike mean to me?
Touch it and find out!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Transport
Posted 13 years ago # -
For the first 6 months I kept my new bike at the foot of the bed (Im not even single) and one day I left it at a friends house as i was drunk and walked home. Got such a fright when i woke up in the morning and it wasn't there! My partner often wishes they had wheels and a handlebar.
Posted 13 years ago # -
so long as your partner has a brooks leather saddle
Posted 13 years ago # -
They?
If the memsahib sees me looking at someone in the street she knows it will be the bike I'm interested in.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I was pulled up for using the pronoun 'she' today in a document. This caused me to relay the tale of the emminent sociologist of the transition [from medieval to industrial] who referred to an individual as 'he' in a lecture in 1983. My very good friends the feminists had a real pop at him for this. He then took time to point out that in the medieval age the individual he was referring to could only ever have been a man. This is the only detail of the lecture series I can recall. Gist - very bad in medieval times if poor, very bad in industrial time if poor. He stopped way before 1890 and the possibility of the working classes getting socially and geographically mobile.
they is the pronoun I was told I should use but I found in my sentence that I was referring to one person so I used some other word inappropriately 'school' I think. I also do not like he/she or s/he etc. Nothing seems to work for me. I do describe my partner as my partner as that is what my pardner is to me. We all have our little pecadillos on this forum (memsab, SWMBO etc etc)_
Posted 13 years ago # -
Over in science we didn't really bother about these things. I did notice Richard Dawkins went out of his way to use "she"
In answer to the actual question asked... "your bike" is tricky because there isn't just one or one answer.
They get me places quickly, cheaply and greenly.
If I'm not on a bike I'm probably thinking about them. The background picture on the computer I've got in school is the internals of an SA X-RD5. One of the reasons I like going to work on a Brompton is being able to keep it beside me all day. We have a garage but I still keep the superlight Brompton in the house.
Posted 13 years ago # -
there are a variety of a-sexual pronouns thease days. Ze, hir, mx etc.
Posted 13 years ago # -
The simplest solution would just be to de-genderise the language altogether, so that one set of words referred to male and female alike.
If we start with 'he/him/etc', that will minimise the relearning required (while still delivering full gender equality)...
Posted 13 years ago # -
All my bikes are my weekday transport, my weekend transport, my exercise, a large accessory to social activities, and the source of inumerable parcels which my postie has no doubt clocked by now.
"White jiffy bag with big black label. Ah, I know where this one goes. Bright blue polythene bag and parcel tape. Yup, I know where this one goes."
All my bikes have well defined pronouns, except my Dahon which probably prefers the neuter forms.
Posted 13 years ago # -
ooh, are 'bents she's or he's? I know my DF is a she but haven't decided about the fuego...
Posted 13 years ago # -
Rugg, I think it depends mainly on temperament, and secondarily on form. Two of mine are girls, while the trike is definitely a boy.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Like ships, my bikes are all hers and shes, but then I've got 5 shelves of books about the Royal Navy so I'm probably biased.
Posted 13 years ago # -
My bike means I sleep longer not having to walk to work. It means saving money not getting the bus or driving. It means reduced blood pressure not getting frustrated with traffic jams. It means a stronger heart and lungs from pushing myself up hills and longer routes home than needed simply to get the off road route. It means I talk to people as I go to and from and in the changing room, people from all levels and walks of life. And last but by no means least - it gives me reason to be on this site and share humour and advice with each other.
Posted 13 years ago # -
" it gives me reason to be on this site and share humour and advice with each other."
+1 to that! :D
Posted 13 years ago # -
sage words amigo!!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ze hir and mx Rugg[xxx]cat - nice but not English language. The sociologist I was talking of Derek Sayer wrote an apparently excellent book in 1991 which was an Excursus on marx and weber. That is not english either.
How old are bike years - you know if a cat year is nine human years?
I think my tricross is an old warhorse and my secteur a young pup
Posted 13 years ago # -
The book Sayer co-wrote with Philip Corrigan (The Great Arch: English State Formation as Cultural Revolution) is quite important, and probably under-appreciated. But, having now just looked at the titles of his most recent stuff, it does look a bit hard to fathom.
Posted 13 years ago # -
SRD - apparently he wrote an autobiography too. Apparently section on spanking. I can't imagine it sold much? He was a good lecturer (my pal Ian McIntosh at Stirling also rated him as a tutor).
Posted 13 years ago # -
I've got a '51 Claud Butler which is older than me. It's 531, bilaminated, pencil stays etc so nothing like a war horse.
More like a Stradivarius perhaps.
Posted 13 years ago # -
My bike means an awful lot to me. He's called Leon and he's nearly three. He's my first ever bike - I only learned to ride a few years ago, at the age of 24, thanks to a very dear friend (and a defiant attitude).
I don't want to seem too over the top, but I feel like you guys will understand, and honestly, the experience did change my life; cycling just made me feel so much more confident, and rising to the challenge of learning as an adult made me feel ready to take the world on.
I definitely see Leon as a trusty accomplice now, or sometimes even as part of who I am, what makes me me. I love the independence of cycling - I don’t need fuel or money or anyone else, it’s just me and my machine and we can go wherever we please.AND ALSO
Hello! This is my first post! I've been lurking a little bit.Posted 13 years ago # -
"I've been lurking a little bit"
That's fine!
You'll know it's welcoming here - and fun.
"cycling just made me feel so much more confident"
A common feeling - but still too many people are put off trying...
Posted 13 years ago # -
Wilkommen onlyalice - Leon's basket is very distinctive and will make for easy spotting
Posted 13 years ago # -
My bikes mean (and can I include my turbo-trainer in the first two?) exercise; setting achievable personal goals; not having to drive to work; a way of coaxing the girls away from the TV (on their bikes); getting back into the country-side (you can take the boy from the bog etc.), contributing something on this forum and a great way to spend money.
Posted 13 years ago # -
My bikes opened a little door into a big world full of a whole spectrum of likeminded people who are all a little (or a lot!) eccentric and in the best possible way.
They also mean that when I get up in the morning I'm actually looking forward to getting ready and leaving the house.
They also mean that my colleagues at work think I'm barking mad but secretly harbour respect for me.
They also mean I no longer have to get a No. 22 bus. EVER AGAIN.
These things are all good.
Posted 13 years ago # -
If I was being smart I'd say I can't make out what my bike means because it uses this weird Taiwanese/Belgian/Italian hybrid language but it may be something along the lines of "get your fat a**e off me before I buckle".
Posted 13 years ago # -
Bike years are measured in miles or neglect :)
Posted 13 years ago #
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