Life-cycling

After a while cycling will take over your life.

I don’t mean that you’ll want to do everything on a bike, and never get off (I’m a strong believer in using the right tools for the job, and trying to lug shopping back from the supermarket just takes the fun out of being on a bike in the first place), I do mean that it will ease its way into your life in many little ways.

I’ve chosen flats and rooms in shared houses based on the possibility of storing my bikes somewhere. I’ve been offered a house share with four rich and educated women all underwear models in their part time and looking for someone to live there rent free, but had to turn it down as there was nowhere secure to keep two bikes. Obviously, this, unfortunately, hasn’t actually happened. It’s illustrative, but I have chosen ground floor flats or houses with basement storage rather then other options to allow me to keep and use my bikes.

If I’m choosing a new car, then there’s no point going for the fast, reliable, good-looking and cheap one, if there’s no way of putting a bike rack on it. Without being able to take a bike somewhere there’s almost no point having a car and so the fancy convertible gets passed over in favour of the more sensible hatchback.

Going away and having the option to take a bike along has meant choosing campsites or hotels for their opportunities for securely keeping bikes, and I’ve picked pubs where I can keep an eye on the bikes on the car from a large window, or, even better sit next to them in the beer garden, while I have lunch.

To be honest, even getting my hair cut is often dictated not by how it looks (although that does come into it), but by cycling. When my helmet starts to feel that little bit too tight then it’s time to get a load of hair cut off, or alternatively when freezing winds are blowing through the vents every morning it might be worth holding off on the cut, and keeping an insulating layer.

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