Can a Different Bike Make you a Better Cyclist?
Interesting article in the Guardian reflecting on varying cycling cultures in different cities. Noticed one or two of the comments could have come from posters on here!
Not sure why you would have to buy an overpriced, overweight POS butcher's bike in order to become a more civilised cyclist - I seem to manage to be polite to other people on my Kaffenback while wearing Lycra shorts.
Link doesn't work for me.
If it's from the Guardian Bike Blog though it's probably a good thing as I really, really hate it. And I quite like the rest of the paper.
This link should work:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/jul/27/cycling-european-pilen
Its an interesting piece. worth a read.
My dutch nephews on seeing all the folk cycling in Edinburgh said - "are there no normal cyclists here"
Not sure why you would have to buy an overpriced, overweight POS butcher's bike in order to become a more civilised cyclist
Its the attitude it engenders. Drive a sports car you are likely to drive faster than an old fashioned soft top, drive a sports motorbike you will drive faster than a harley
I tried cycling to work in normal clothes in london for a while. My commute was only 4 miles.
But it didn't really work, its pretty difficult to not cycle like a maniac when your trying to safely navigate a 3 lane gyratory system in central london. The whole "vehicular cycling" thing usually requires quite a bit of physical exertion.
overweight POS butcher's bike
they are slower, so one rides them less aggressively, BUT they are also harder to get up to cruising speed so I reckon pashley riders are more likely to roll through red lights - conservation of momentum innit.
But it didn't really work, its pretty difficult to not cycle like a maniac when your trying to safely navigate a 3 lane gyratory system in central london
I couldnt disagree more.
I ride 4 miles in london in my work shirt and trousers. I take it easy, dont get wound up by lights or junctions or RLJs or eejits or MAMILS or boy racers or Hoxton hipsters etc etc.
If your route is maniac, find a gentler one. There's so many ways across that London, that there's always a chilled route to take.
Cyclists around here (Munich) are either trundling along very slowly on city bikes with bars at chest height, on cycleways or footpaths, or they are wearing full TdF team lycra strips on spanking clean high end Cube XC race bikes. On the cycleways or footpaths, going slightly more quickly. It's about 50/50 on weekends!
You seriously hardly ever see anyone showing even a little bit of hustle, and when you do it's usually some bloke in a suit bombing along the pavement like a nutter on his city bike with a laptop bag in the basket, clearly late for something important 
If your route is maniac, find a gentler one. There's so many ways across that London, that there's always a chilled route to take.
There were back routes through Hackney, but they had other dangers...
but they had other dangers...
fred-shaped?
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