2. On how to learn to enjoy cycling

 

I thought of that while riding my bike.

Albert Einstein on theory of relativity

 

Now one thing about our mysterious current homeland (with dikes, channels and windmills, take a guess) is that everybody moves on bikes. So among our bucket list was to get our own, if for no other reason, to save money on public transport.

We had only two requirements; first they should be simple single speeds as they were going to be “stored” on the street at the mercy of the elements, second, they should be suitable for urban commuting. So we got ourselves cheap cruisers, proverbial couches on two wheels. We tested a few and then took the ones which felt nice. What happened next was something of a revelation for me.

Wonders of Speed

With a single speed there’s roughly only one speed to accelerate and to maintain. It was not the typical lung burning sports speed I had come to know from my previous bikes, but a relatively leisurely pace which came naturally like a cruise control on a car. Just a simple acceleration and then you just kept going as long as the trip would take. No more fiddling with gears to try to find the optimum revolution rate, no more pushing the pedals like a maniac. The limiting factors are the bike itself and the ambient conditions such as weather/traffic/road/load. I found very quickly that I actually did not think that I was biking at all, I was just going from place to place without effort and lettting the mind wander or enjoy the surroundings.

Utility

This speed is so effortless that there’s no need for specialised technical clothing to keep the perspiring down, casual normal cloths will do nicely like they would do for walking. So what about it? Well, after a few days I just took the bike off the street to go to downtown as naturally as I would have put the shoes on. No more acute need for public transport nor no need to have change of clothes at the destination. Also, we had no need for specialised detachable equipment, groceries and other things from the city came home without panniers as locals have developed a delightful front carrier that easily hauls anything from kids to fully laden grocery bags with ease. On the following photo you can spot at least different five type of bikes: mamafiets with a front carrier and kid´s seat in the back, bakfiets, three-wheeler cargo bike, folding bike for train commuting and the usual rusty oma/papa fietsers. The better bikes are probably inside and taken out only for sports or for a spin on a nice day. These bikes on the stree are the bikes which people use all the time.

 

 

Change of perspective

Within a ridiculously short period of time we became from reluctant bikers to avid bikers. Even my S.O. who never felt at home on busy intercity streets on a bike went completely local within weeks. Rain and wind was just something you prepared for, it was not an excuse for not using the bike. We just bought the utilitarian 20€ rain gear everybody uses on their casual clothes. Even during the local ”winter” I prefer the bike to public transport as I could get straight to where I wanted without shivering in the cold. All this happened quite naturally and without any concious effort.

A realization that something had indeed changed came to me one late autumn morning, while I was on my way to work. It was probably 6am (dark) and pouring as it often does here. So I just put on the rain gear on and hopped on the bike instead of opting for the tram. Somewhere along the ride when the morning coffee started to kick in, I realized how strange this was and would not have performed such a stunt ever in the past. In the last three years I have not skipped a morning commute, unless there was something fundamentally wrong with the two-wheels or if the weather was outright dangerous. 

The lessons learned?

First  is obvious; I biked for a long time with machines which did not fit me. Why? Because I knew nothing about bikes. A pro cyclist or proper bike shop would have been a good start. Even a simple thing as going for a spin on several different bikes would have given a better idea of what fits and what doesn’t. Instead I tried only the model which had attractive technology on the paper and had a nice price. Twice. Now I know that for me the bike should feel intuitively comfortable from the start. If adjustments on saddle and the handlebar/stem areas do not bring any help, I should go for another bike.

Second, I think I needed to discover the joys of biking again. This means that choosing for the easy cruiser/cargobike was an ideal choice. It was a bike that I started use daily for short rides and simple things. Even better, I became dependent on having the bike and first time in a very long while I enjoyed the freedom it gave me. Once I had a hang of the cycling after the long pause, I started pushing the limits what the bike could do as far as speed and distances go.

Third, people use (and should use) different bikes for a different purposes. If you are just doing under 10k rides in in town for hauling groceries or hopping for movies, there’s no sense to go for a 2k€ roadmonster with dropdown bars and gazillion gears for speed. What you need is a comfort bike which has nice upright sitting position, and which is sturdy enough to take some loading but is light enough to make the biking effortless. If you want to have a long distance commuter, take a bike which does just that.

Now we are finaly coming to a more recent topic. In the past couple of years we have found the limits for our casual rides. They are still good and nice for their purpose but we’d like to start doing longer distances so our bike family is going to have some new members in the near future.  

Which brings me to episode 3: In search for a bit specialized bikes and how this took us to UK and to the world of hand made bicycles…

 

 

Pictures/videos:

Rotterdam streetart

Leiden old town

Duch style front carrier: http://www.hembrow.eu/

Amsterdam Vondelpark bikers: Amsterdamize.com

Cambridge, Trinity college