A Misguided Badge of Honour?

[Cugel]

Or in my case, using the car to get to a quiet spot that I regularly cycle to, whilst recovering (physically and mentally) from a collision with a tipper truck.

Or in my friends case age and infinity prevent his cycling to his favoured spots.

Or in my relatives case, taking their 2 year old out in the bike trailer to the likes of the camel, tarka or peak district trails (all a long way from Brum), carrying bikes/trailer etc in/on the car.

I don't feel that any of us deserve to be referred to in derogatory terms, even if its claimed to be in a humorous way.

In practice, the vast majority of us use the car for all sorts of reasons of convenience, comfort and pleasure. We also stimulate others to drive about for our pleasure by, for example, requiring white van man to deliver us a parcel or two containing a shiny bike bit. Modern life, eh? Full of stinkin' machines that we're all addicted to.

But .........isn't it ironic that the cycling venues of the sort you mention to justify motoring to them all appear to be appealing because of a reduction or complete lack of car traffic when one gets there. So, to enjoy them, you create part of the problem that justifies getting to them by getting to them in the very thing you're trying to avoid!

But its easy for me to chortle at these ironies, since I'm lucky enough to live in a spot where one may cycle out of the door then go various ways to wonderful stuff like The Dales, The Lakes and The Bowland Fells. Mind, I often go through towns requiring a joust with mad motorists. If one limits this jousting to a minimum, it too can become part of the pleasure of cycling. For the little children, it may be a good lesson in why one should ride a bike well rather than with the notion that nothing could possibly go wrong even if you do do a wheelie to impress your mates.

Cugel

[pwa]

Or in my case, using the car to get to a quiet spot that I regularly cycle to, whilst recovering (physically and mentally) from a collision with a tipper truck.

Or in my friends case age and infinity prevent his cycling to his favoured spots.

Or in my relatives case, taking their 2 year old out in the bike trailer to the likes of the camel, tarka or peak district trails (all a long way from Brum), carrying bikes/trailer etc in/on the car.

I don't feel that any of us deserve to be referred to in derogatory terms, even if its claimed to be in a humorous way.

In practice, the vast majority of us use the car for all sorts of reasons of convenience, comfort and pleasure. We also stimulate others to drive about for our pleasure by, for example, requiring white van man to deliver us a parcel or two containing a shiny bike bit. Modern life, eh? Full of stinkin' machines that we're all addicted to.

But .........isn't it ironic that the cycling venues of the sort you mention to justify motoring to them all appear to be appealing because of a reduction or complete lack of car traffic when one gets there. So, to enjoy them, you create part of the problem that justifies getting to them by getting to them in the very thing you're trying to avoid!

But its easy for me to chortle at these ironies, since I'm lucky enough to live in a spot where one may cycle out of the door then go various ways to wonderful stuff like The Dales, The Lakes and The Bowland Fells. Mind, I often go through towns requiring a joust with mad motorists. If one limits this jousting to a minimum, it too can become part of the pleasure of cycling. For the little children, it may be a good lesson in why one should ride a bike well rather than with the notion that nothing could possibly go wrong even if you do do a wheelie to impress your mates.

Cugel

White Van Man delivered a bike lamp to my front door this morning. I placed the order and , along with his other customers, put him on the road. Cateye Volt 400 for my wife's bike, since you are wondering.

[Cugel]

In practice, the vast majority of us use the car for all sorts of reasons of convenience, comfort and pleasure. We also stimulate others to drive about for our pleasure by, for example, requiring white van man to deliver us a parcel or two containing a shiny bike bit. Modern life, eh? Full of stinkin' machines that we're all addicted to.
.....
Cugel

White Van Man delivered a bike lamp to my front door this morning. I placed the order and , along with his other customers, put him on the road. Cateye Volt 400 for my wife's bike, since you are wondering.

Gone are the days when one sidled, with a guilty excitement of anticipation, into the bike shop where various shiny bits were gawped at, fondled and lusted after, before the dosh was dragged from the wallet and placed into the mit of Harry or Hughie the proprietor. The bike shop costs too much these days. It has very few of the vast ranges of parts now available. The "assistant" is often anything but.

So we go off to Wiggle or some such, trying not to impulse-shop as we browse the virtual isles. Soon Father Whitevanman comes to the door with a-one o' them little brown parcels (occasionally a large one). The collies bark then lick him ingratiatingly. The customer also salivates and goes for a small kitchen knife with which to slit the gizzard of the brown box so that the delicious contents can be extracted (and I don't mean the small bag of tooth-rotting sweeties they put in there).

Then comes the fitting-on, hopefully a successful operation which might even stimulate a bike polish followed by a ride.

My most recent shiny-bit purchase was a Crane bell, which tings loudly with a great sustain and tone. The brown box it came in will be re-used to send an e-bay buyer a small woodworking gizmo no longer of use to me but avidly awaited by him ....

Consumerism! What a terrible awful vice it is!! Still, I try to resell what I no longer use rather than stuff it in the landfill. Also, the reselling employs the packaging that encysted the thing I just bought. But in the end, someone stuffs it all in the landfill.....

Cugel

[Cyril Haearn]

One reason one might drive to cycle is because of the danger of motor traffic

Many of the motons are drive-cyclists

Or in my case, using the car to get to a quiet spot that I regularly cycle to, whilst recovering (physically and mentally) from a collision with a tipper truck.

Or in my friends case age and infinity prevent his cycling to his favoured spots.

Or in my relatives case, taking their 2 year old out in the bike trailer to the likes of the camel, tarka or peak district trails (all a long way from Brum), carrying bikes/trailer etc in/on the car.

I don't feel that any of us deserve to be referred to in derogatory terms, even if its claimed to be in a humorous way.

I live on the edge of a large city and can not cycle many different routes, I am glad to accept this, guess I am lucky too

There are parks in Birmingham and lots and loss of canal towpaths, if I lived there I would use them rather than driving all the way to the Peak District, might take up swimming too

[Cugel]

I live on the edge of a large city and can not cycle many different routes, I am glad to accept this, guess I am lucky too

There are parks in Birmingham and lots and loss of canal towpaths, if I lived there I would use them rather than driving all the way to the Peak District, might take up swimming too

My advice is not to swim in a Birmingham canal, for various reasons. Should you wish to wild-swim such a waterway I could offer you The Lancaster Canal. It is surrounded by scenics (outside of Lancaster & Preston at least) and enjoyed each and every day by the collies, who inevitably drink the stuff as well as splashing it about.

I could chuck the stick for you to fetch, although you might have to fight collie Numero Uno for it, as all sticks belong to him.

Don't come riding your bike along the towpath there at 14.7mph in an uncaring fashion mind! I will push you into the canal or perhaps allow a collie to nip your tyre (or worse). Yes, I will.

Cugel

[rmurphy195]

I live on the edge of a large city and can not cycle many different routes, I am glad to accept this, guess I am lucky too

There are parks in Birmingham and lots and loss of canal towpaths, if I lived there I would use them rather than driving all the way to the Peak District, might take up swimming too

These are my regular routes, and some of them are very pleasant indeed and will be more so when the final link to Longbridge (near my home) is completed (its getting there). But after a few years it becomes the same old same old, and something different makes a pleasant change. Maybe I'll try the Lancaster canal - oops, have to get there first ...

As Cugel says, I wouldn't recommend swimming in the canals though, or even the big pond in Cannon Hill park (Garden tearoom is recommended) - too many Canada Geese polluting the place!

[Cyril Haearn]

I could get to new interesting places to cycle by car but it costs, driving time is not cycling time and I choose to accept less excitement and variety (doing without driving is worth more to me than variety, I do not feel I am going without) the same routes are always different (weather, seasons, encounters) and I do not need a map, but I still find new and better tweaks to my routes

Brocken-Benno from Wernigerode Germany has it right, he has conquered the Brocken 8000 times
- No, it is not boring, there are many different routes, weather, colours, views and seasons change, I encounter many interesting people too, he explained (he is a minor celebrity)

[Cugel]

I could get to new interesting places to cycle by car but it costs, driving time is not cycling time and I choose to accept less excitement and variety (doing without driving is worth more to me than variety, I do not feel I am going without) the same routes are always different (weather, seasons, encounters) and I do not need a map, but I still find new and better tweaks to my routes

Brocken-Benno from Wernigerode Germany has it right, he has conquered the Brocken 8000 times
- No, it is not boring, there are many different routes, weather, colours, views and seasons change, I encounter many interesting people too, he explained (he is a minor celebrity)

One may develop a compromise. Mine is that I go to West Wales via a long car journey, where I stay for weeks at a time, riding the bike about all over in the lost-then-found mode. Eventually I have the long car journey back the NW England.

I would reduce my personal fossil fuel burning footprint even more by picking up hitch-hikers but there are none these days, as the human world has gone all fearful through reading The Daily Frightener and being brought up by "protective" parents.

*****

This doing the same route N times is no good beyond a certain count. On every club ride I spend the first half hour doing my utmost to persuade those with a route-habit to break it via excursions of a 'round-about nature inclusive of lost back lanes and even some tracks. Will they co-operate with my adventurous suggestions? Not ever. Well hardly ever. If they do, they moan. "This is not the right way" and so forth. The right way! Cuh!!

Cugel

[JohnW]

What you do is ride out and back again..................

Yup - that's the way to do it. At least then, you're not poisoning what other cyclists are breathing.

[Cyril Haearn]

I could get to new interesting places to cycle by car but it costs, driving time is not cycling time and I choose to accept less excitement and variety (doing without driving is worth more to me than variety, I do not feel I am going without) the same routes are always different (weather, seasons, encounters) and I do not need a map, but I still find new and better tweaks to my routes

Brocken-Benno from Wernigerode Germany has it right, he has conquered the Brocken 8000 times
- No, it is not boring, there are many different routes, weather, colours, views and seasons change, I encounter many interesting people too, he explained (he is a minor celebrity)

One may develop a compromise. Mine is that I go to West Wales via a long car journey, where I stay for weeks at a time, riding the bike about all over in the lost-then-found mode. Eventually I have the long car journey back the NW England.

I would reduce my personal fossil fuel burning footprint even more by picking up hitch-hikers but there are none these days
..

Plus One for hitch-hiking, I used to do it a lot, even picked people up later when I regressed to driving

Got a book about St Ceridwen of Wales, the author wanted to hitch to Scotland, waited for hours on the M1 in London
The first driver who stopped was going to Aberteifi so he went there instead

Cymru am byth!

[Cugel]

[Plus One for hitch-hiking, I used to do it a lot, even picked people up later when I regressed to driving

Got a book about St Ceridwen of Wales, the author wanted to hitch to Scotland, waited for hours on the M1 in London
The first driver who stopped was going to Aberteifi so he went there instead

Cymru am byth!

That saint had the right idea. The West Welsh are nice and also lovely whereas a Scotsman is just a Geordie with his brains addled. (I should know). As to the climate and landscapes .... Sir Benfro and Ceredigion are kind, even gentle. In Scotland the mountains beetle in a Wordsworth-frightening way, as the rain and snow lash down. Then a Weegie appears and makes off with your last bottle of Bucky. Oh yes they do!

Had the saint given up attempting to better the Londoners? Me too - they are addicted to city life and don't seem to care that the air is made of rot-gas and the fag smoke from outside all the pubs. Perhaps they enjoy the cycling there, which is exciting I believe.

Cugel, heading west soon.