London’s gone cycling mad this week. The official launch of the Velodrome, the first Olympic venue to open – and possibly the only one that will be on budget and on time, caused quite a stir in the press. The building has already won the public’s affection, being nicknamed ‘the Pringle’ due to its cleverly constructed roof, which dips in the middle to save on heating costs.
Then strange blue strips appeared on the roads of Wandsworth overnight. Someone was out painting one of London’s new Barclays Cycle Superhighways. The cycleways, which have been assigned monikers not unlike motorways (CS1 to CS10) take in a random selection of routes, including Lewisham to Victoria and West Hendon to Marble Arch.
Many will be encouraged by the exponentially increasing numbers of Boris bikes and newly designated lanes to cycle through the city for the first time. The CS routes are apparently ‘easy to follow’, with ‘minimized obstructions’ – although bizarrely, they travel through bus lanes and incoporate traffic blackspots like Elephant & Castle and the Wandsworth one way system, which are hazardous enough by car. Surgeons have a word for London cyclists: ‘donors.’
Anyway, not wishing to dwell on the statistics, how about a fun exercise to set the creative wheels in motion? If you were to design a pedal powered London bicycle and have it made to your personal specification, how would you describe your creation?
Above are some designer examples for inspiration, including Willow Pattern and bamboo, bottle-top decorated, neon and feather winged versions, along with pop-artist Gavin Turk’s Bikes de Bois Rond, which aim to turn the activity of cycling into an artwork.
And the benefits of cycling according to Turk : “There is an element of cycling which, while not anti-social, returns you to yourself…Thinking while you are cycling is a bit like reading between the lines when you are reading a book…It is obviously possible to cycle for an amount of time, and then suddenly to go ‘ Oh, I’m cycling!’ That’s because there has been a moment where you have been able to access other parts of your mind.” Probably safer if he sticks to his art…
my bike would be made out of icelolly sticks and bits of baler twine. It would have a cupholder and an anchor.
Cycling in London is very unpleasant
My bike would have steel-cladding, tracks instead of tires (one on each side), an engine and a gun-turret. Cycling in London might become tolerable in one of those.
Your bike sounds like a crafty piece of contemporary design art, Worm. As for your Hummer of a bicycle Gaw, I’m afraid engines aren’t allowed – though a gun turret sounds handy. Just thinking of all the times I’ve been cut up by skip and cement lorries, or intimidated by corner-cutting bendy buses… (thankfully in the relative safety of a car).
I’ve never understood why the good old Penny Farthing fell out of favour. An eminently practical vehicle.
Actually cycling always seems a silly activity, unless you live somewhere very flat and carless. Fraught with stress and sweat.
Cripes- “Oh, I’m cycling” as some bus driver shouts at you or another cyclist passes you on the left side. When I see a cyclist with a noise device in their lugs, I think they are mad. You need all your senses and then some.
I have cycled across London once, from Kings Cross to Victoria. It was utterly terrifying. My design would have Boadicea type scythes attached to the wheels.
Seasoned old cyclists know that you make your bike look as ugly and dirty and lumpy-painted as possible so no-one will nick it.
Rosie, you’re very brave! Interesting that none of the Dabblers seems that keen on cycling – at least not in London. I’d imagined Nige would enjoy pootling about the country lanes on a bicycle, but it seems that is not the case.
Brit, not sure how your Penny Farthing would fare on the roads alongside Gaw’s tank and Rosie’s cutting edge chariot.
To ride a penny farthing you had to be athletic and fearless. It was the skateboard of its day, ridden by young blokes.
I’m a very keen cyclist and commute to work but that is in Edinburgh, which is reasonably well set up for cycling. The council has a policy of discouraging car drivers. Still, other people have told me I’m brave to commute. In fact commuting drivers are not that bad. Bus drivers and taxi drivers are professionals, and habitual commuters know the route and how to drive it in a resigned, careful way. What are scary are the Saturday drivers, when the boy racers have borrowed Dad’s car and are haring about and the yuppie wants to show his girlfriend what his Porsche can do. They are impatient and they accelerate as if poked by cattle prods (which is what I want to do them).