Cycling UK Forum

Tonyf33 wrote:

john.will.wright wrote:I think the biggest problem for cyclists in London is the brain withering disease that's convincing everyone to use single speed or fixed wheel bikes.

How is it a withering disease? Surely if it got people onto bikes who might not otherwise, that's a good thing is it not? Hardly a problem in itself because let's face it fixed and single speed was all there ever was at the early part of the 20thC, gears are just a fashion fad

As it happens London's flat for the most part so no need for more than a couple of gears at most, also due to a fixed or SS being so simplistic there's not much to go wrong, cheap to maintain/fix( ) so it is appealing to those not blessed with mechanical nous.
I must admit when I commuted into & around London by car over 10 years ago there were negligible cyclists on the road, certainly at 6.30-7.30am and not much on the way back around 4ish onwards. Maybe I just arrived and left too early.

Personally I don't think I'd enjoy cycle commuting one iota in a city like London, for one thing the amount of law breakers both in car & on bike alone would do my head in, I hated driving there even at that early hour, on the rare occasion now it is just plain bloody awful.
I count myself lucky that I only encounter tools on wheels once or twice a day, in London my head would explode