Why do I cycle to work?
Because I love it. I love being out on the street, alive and active. An unpassive and moving part of the greatest city on earth. It’s hundreds of things:
Seeing the city change. Feeling the season’s change. Being in the weather. Feeling the wind in your hair. The sun on your body, the rain on your face. Being absolutely independent. Knowing to the minute when I’ll arrive. A brilliant start to the day no matter what I was up to the night before. Carrying my bike downstairs, getting on it and just riding all the way. Door to door. Fifty minutes a day of good cardio-vascular exercise without thinking about it. 700 calories a day, not fossil fuel. No tickets to buy. Seven miles in 25 minutes. Rotherhithe to Woolwich. Getting out early on a lovely morning and drifting along the riverside. Deciding not to go straight home but detour. Following the central white line and cutting thorugh the gridlock. I love work but all the nonsense of the worst possible day just falls away as I unlock my bike, and ride away.
It’s great for my self-esteem. I love slipping out of my suit and into a t-shirt. For me too it’s a freedom and lifestyle thing. A statement with it’s own wonderful sub-culture. I’m post-car. Take me, take my bike. I reject car-culture. I do not and will not own a car. I do not like what they’ve done to the air, to our planet, to our communities and to the insulated people that drive them. But that’s just me and the niche I want to occupy. Cycling is a broad church. Almost anyone at work could cycle five miles to work if they really wanted to. Cyclists need to be careful and assertive in the traffic, for me the traffic is part of the buzz. I enjoy my roadskills. I am traffic.
I never stop marvelling that in my spare bedroom rests a simple, clean, machine that will do over a hundred miles a day if I want it to - or get me to Trafalgar Square in 20 minutes, free. Or back from the shops with 2 weeks supplies. Or to the lido when the sun comes out. Or home at 4 in the morning. It needs very little maintenance, costs about £100 a year to run, parks anywhere and is just bliss to be with.
If you’re tempted, go on....contact Greenwich Cyclists and we’ll arrange some one-to-one training for you to give you the confidence to get out there: 020 7232 0444. masonb@supanet.com
Barry Mason