Ugly Bikes

I took this picture a while ago to show how a generally quite attractive bike can be ruined by a home paint-job. The bike is a reasonably elegant bike complete with basket and long-skirt suitable frame. You’d expect to see it all over Hamburg, or Copenhagen, or any of those chic-cycling cities. I’m all for making a bike individual and (to an extent) making yourself visible on the streets, but this is just too much. Badly spray-painting your bike in fluorescent paint is not doing it any favours, and probably won’t help you be seen all that much more than if it had been left in its original colours. I feel that during the day you stand out above the traffic as much as you can and are seen that way – even without a badly fitted flouro-jacket, or badly-thought-through attack with a spray can. At night you need lights, and even this bike won’t be seen without them.

I thought it was the most ugly bike I’d come across for a while until I saw this picture on the Guardian website:



As a cyclist the first thing that struck me was how ugly and ungainly the bike was, but I quickly moved onto the bigger problem. I noticed it had already been picked up in the comments on the article (which is here) but I thought I’d get Four Miles Fighting Traffic involved as well.

What is the journalist doing on a pedestrian crossing on his motorbike-lite? The point has been raised, in the comments, that it might be a toucan crossing, but that seems unlikely, given the size and the lack of cycle paths leading up to it. So where is it? Looking at the evidence there are some distinguishing features. There’s people handing out Sport which makes it likely to be central London, especially when combined with the red route road markings, and where the Guardian is based. I’m guessing it’s near a major station or commuter route. There are also some interesting features in the top corners of the picture. On the left:



What looks like the entrance to a subway or Tube station, and on the right:



A supermarket with trollies waiting outside (and going by the colours I’d say it was a Tesco store).

My early money was on somewhere around Kings Cross, but even with the help of Google Streetview, I can’t narrow it down. Does anyone have any thoughts? I don't want to ignite the anti-cyling lobby, but perhaps a quiet word to the newspaper to not show its journalists breaking the law, if he turns out to be.

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