Stop. Start. Stop.

One of the things you forget when you constantly ride a bike in London is that it is entirely possible to ride for more then a few metres in some places without getting stopped.

In London the constant traffic lights, junctions, busses, pedestrian crossings and myriad other road obstacles mean that any ride is really a session of quick sprints between fixed points. You stop for the red light and then sprint to the bus stop, and then stop again before another sprint to the next red light. It even gets to the point where a journey when everything works in your favour and you sail through constant green lights is such a surprise that it entirely wears you out. I have been caught out several times where my inter-obstacle sprint pace has had to be extended to a significantly longer section and I’ve found myself quite tired without the convenient constant stops to semi-recover.

As soon as you get out of London there are suddenly much longer sections of riding with no stops. It’s a world of setting in for a steady rumble along, rather than racing hard between the cars. You find a more relaxing form of riding where you can truly get into a rhythm and enjoy the surroundings. What’s even more surprising is that you can even find longer sections of obstacle-free riding in challenging off-road sections, than you find in some areas of the city. A key feature of the riding on the FMFT Big Summer Trip was that the riding seemed endless, and that’s to say nothing of the driving to get there. Rides stretched out in front of us and offered endless opportunities, and stops were a matter of choice, whether that was to wait for someone to catch up, to enjoy the view, or just to check the directions.

Riding in London offers a freedom that not many other forms of transport manage, but that freedom isn’t quite as complete as what is on offer elsewhere. That’s real riding, getting to see places at a faster pace than walking, but still enjoying being part of the landscape, involved with it instead of cocooned away from it in a car. I miss it and I can’t wait to go back for more.

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