I've almost given up on the Guardian Bike blog due to its incessant London-centricity. However, here's a decent article which poses an interesting question:
Can a different bike make you a different rider?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Can a different bike make you a different rider?
(27 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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That reminds me, they were calling out for non-London freelance writers - a friend of mine very kindly suggested it was something I could do.
But yes, without having read the piece yet, I'm a very different rider certainly between the road/racer bikes and my mountain bike. Still obey traffic laws and so on, obviously, but I'm constantly looking for things to jump off or ride over on the MTB...
Posted 13 years ago # -
When I ride my ladies bike with shopping basket on the front I'm known as Karen....
...err was that not what you meant?
Posted 13 years ago # -
I was taking my mountain bike to the shop the other day. With the knobby tyres, wide bars and the suspension jacked up it feels like a tractor and its much slower than the roady. after about 10 minutes and having been passed by a few people i decided to embrace the slow and just take my time. Didn't hurt (did actually) that i'd just done a big ride with the roady the day before and my legs were hurting. Had a go on Laidbacks paper bicycle which just reinforced this take it easy attitude.
On the other hand my commute forms the basis of my exercise regime (stop laughing) so even if I pass and am subsequently caught by some one slower it doesn't bother me I still ride (fairly) hard to try and get some real exercise in even if it is interval training.
My theory is the reason that in cycling utopia's no one wears "war gear" is because they treat cycling as I treat walking in town as an amble where I can arrive when I arrive (neither early nor late). While I treat cycling (to work any way) as many people treat going for a run and even in Copenhagen i'm willing to bet people put decent trainers and good wicking clothes on when they go running
/novel
Posted 13 years ago # -
Well obviously the answer is yes - if you deliberately buy a heavier bike with a relaxed, more upright seating position you will have to ride it in a slower and more "relaxed" and upright manner. Similarly if you deliberately buy a light and highly geared road bike with a very low head tube and aggresive riding position you will get the opposite.
This doesn't seem to be as much about bike at all though as about "cycling culture", particularly the "lycra bad, tweed good" sort of snobbery that creeps into cycling journalism in non-cycling specific magazines. That he has deliberatley posed the 2 photos as such - one as a "cyclist" and the other as a pipe-smoking 1950s geography teacher - would seem to reinforce this.
Im particular I dislike this line there is something almost pathetically absurd about those frantic urban speed merchants, legs pumping furiously and faces pinched into a grimace. And yes, I'm including me in this.
It's as if there's something wrong and absurd with your commute also being your workout? What's wrong with cycling in a way that gets you sweating and out of breath? And personally I feel safer moving faster and spending more time waiting at the lights that I would bimbling along at what would be my average speed.
Anyway. I do quite like the bike he chose. More about the bike, less about his particular opinions please. I read bike press to find out about bikes, not fashion tips.
Posted 13 years ago # -
It's as if there's something wrong and absurd with your commute also being your workout? What's wrong with cycling in a way that gets you sweating and out of breath?
It's funny, I was pondering this very point while riding this morning. It was prompted by some of my photos the last couple of mornings, and a couple of chaps looking rather stylish and relaxed in their 'normal' clothes sur velo. And then I remembered just how sweaty my, erm, netherlands regions... get when I ride in jeans all the way from home. I could go a lot slower, but some of the benefit I want from a commute ride is physical, and that involves more of a workout.
Just happens to be the way I roll (and while 5 miles isn't far I think it's probably still further than most of Edinburgh's cycling 'fashionistas'?).
Posted 13 years ago # -
That reminds me, they were calling out for non-London freelance writers - a friend of mine very kindly suggested it was something I could do.
Maybe you should? Assuming you have time...
Posted 13 years ago # -
@kaputnik a pipe-smoking 1950s geography teacher
Err... That Twitpic profile picture of yours? Just saying. ;-)
(EDIT - Aha! Said profile now has a lycra clad helmeted cyclist in view rather than a chap in spectacles blowing bubbles through a 'Sherlock Holmes' number).
Posted 13 years ago # -
Undoubtedly it will make you a different rider. It won't magically transform the UK into a relaxed cycling utopia though.
Posted 13 years ago # -
@crowriver Err... That Twitpic profile picture of yours?
Quite, except that is my hanging around in Stockbridge getup, not my commuting getup!
And, for the avoidance of confusion, my vest, undercrackers and socks are all woolen :)
Posted 13 years ago # -
The Paper Bicycle makes for a calm ride. I also empathise with other road users incapable of more than 15mph on the level. So you never go faster than you need really.
Plus I don't need to tuck my trousers in my socks.
Once I get an 8 speed one though that will all change.... !
Posted 13 years ago # -
Last weekend I had to clean three bikes as I am running three bikes at the moment. First an upright Pashley style with Sturmey Archer 3 speed - can be nippy as 700mm wheels but strugggles up hills - quite high up and see different things - also definitely encourages much slowing down and nodding to dog walkers [tho one time I slowed down enough to be told I was going too fast by an outlier of the dog walking fraternity - the rest were silent or expressing gratitude]. Then had my normal tourer commuting bike - clearly in the middle of my personality range and finally been getting up early all this week and going out the Lang Whang for 5-7 miles before heading north then east and getting to work just about on time on my faster road bike. On Monday I was neither Equipe Marmite nor Equipe Tunnocks and couldn't figure why a fellow cyclist going the other way was having a laff. Then realised I was wearing the EBC red and black long sleeved top I won off them in a competition with their own brand black and red shorts. Amusingly I had got myself up as Cadel Evans the day after he won the tour. Unless he was just laffing at my cross chaining, hands down in the drops ludicrous riding technique?
Cadel, Andy and Frank are all greeting pusses as they say in Dundee. Actually all pro cyclists moan and whinge. I think it is natural reaction to the rigour of their jobs.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Most of the bieks I have seen here (Detroit) are uprights - some gorgeous Schwinns, Raleighs and Electras.
Pictures coming shortly.
Posted 13 years ago # -
First an upright Pashley style with Sturmey Archer 3 speed
When did you get that then?
Posted 13 years ago # -
All this might make more sense if we lived in Holland......I challenge anyone to do a 10 mile commute in edinburgh within any reasonable time limit, then plonk themselves at their desk or whatever without breaking sweat.
Dont understand the obsession some people have about bike specific clothes (whether lycra or not)? They are designed to wick sweat, keep you warm - and cool, they dry quickly, some are reflective, some have longer backs to protect against rain.......blah blah the list goes on.
....and his alternative is what ? His suit and loafers???
Posted 13 years ago # -
I tend to ride differently due to my fellow riders rather than which bike I'm riding.
I ride to work (when its not raining or windy - I live in fife and the brodge can be a pita) and this differs from when I do a Sunday ride round Fife with friends, where I'm usually playing catchup towards the end.
On the other end of the scale I ride once a week in the summer after work with ex collegues and friends and its usually a slower bimble round the Pentlands/Cramond & S. Queensferry/East Lothian. These eve rides are usually at 1/2 my normal pace, and taken in fair weather with a pub stop at the end. More of a social ride with a meal and a couple of pints before catching the train home.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Nelly - I used to do a 10 mile commute each morning from Balerno to Leith (sometimes on the roads, sometimes down the WoL). Some days in the winter the level of perspiration did not require shower. Largely downhill and mostly with wind behind. On the way home the perspiration was prolific.
Wee Folding Bike - I had The Bike Chain convert my Specialized Crossroads with the despicable (for me) Nexus 8 hub gears into what looks like a rather heavy single speed but which is in fact a 3-spd. Not too bad for down the hill. The saddle creaks a bit with age and when I replace it I will get the Brooks B-17. I think maybe I should have gone for the 5 spd. I need a nut for the drops with the flange as there is only one on the gear side, even that one is thin, when it was a nexus 8 it had two rather thick nuts, one yellow, one brown. The chain is beginning to look a tiny little bit slack, I am therefore going to have to fathom how to disconnect the wee chain and move the wheel back a tad. Looks like it should just come out if I loosen the wheel. I had a great ride home on the WoL the other night it was bombing along, perhaps the wind was easterly.
Dave C. - are you using different bikes for the different rides or the same bike but in different ways?
Posted 13 years ago # -
Gembo, fair point - I guess my commute TO work could be completed sweat free if I slowed down a bit - its effectively downhill from here to the gyle.
However, same as you on way home, different story - and definitely not today - running a temperature, into a headwind, feeling rubbish - bike gear straight into the washing machine.
Might take the car tomorrow - will experiment by doing 20mph along strathearn road (see other threads) to see if the world ends.
Posted 13 years ago # -
there is something almost pathetically absurd about those frantic urban speed merchants, legs pumping furiously and faces pinched into a grimace.
Funny, I might say the same thing about people who *don't* do this, and then end up either fat or having to waste their lives (driving to) the gym to get exercise - pathetically absurd. :-)
Posted 13 years ago # -
Gembo, I have a Tourer which I use mostly, but if we;re heading out to the Pentlands I will take my MTB with road tyres, as we cycle up the WoL ans then up to the reservours befor heading back along the canal. I've done the rides on both bikes before and my tourer with 28 Marathon Plus' can handle most surfaces in the summer.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I certainly ride differently on the folder as opposed to an MTB or a tourer, and my commute can be sweat free normally except for the last big hill going home. That said I'm sure Copenhagenism is easier in a cold/cool climate where sweating is much less likely.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Is Copenhagan flat like Holland?
Smudge, I thought you lived out near Linlithgow? You mustv take all day if you take it easy on your commute in. I take an hour from Dalgety Bay and I blast in.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I live out by Falkirk, but I do the mixed mode thing and jump on the train, so my run is down (a big hill) to Falkirk, train to Haymarket then out to Colinton and the reverse at night :-) roughly half an hour/six miles riding each way (walking on / off stations ruins my average speeds, I normally end up showing about 12mph on the computer)
Posted 13 years ago # -
In Copenhagen a humpback bridge is the closest you get to a hill. An absolute joy to cycle round (not just for this particular reason of course!). Strangely I tihnk being flat actually encourages more relaxed riding.
Interesting point above re. cooler climates being more suitable for Copenhagenisation - that needs more thought.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Never mind a different bike making you a different rider, riding a bike makes you a different person. In the hustle and bustle of a group ride you hear words of encouragement, droll comments, you experience a gentle push if you're struggling on a hill or help with a puncture. Nothing's a problem, every challenge is met and there's a sense of alertness and excitement. But when you get to the cafe stop and people take off their helmets and sit at a table they change back into ordinary people again. It's very odd.
Posted 13 years ago # -
People can be very context specific?
Posted 13 years ago #
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