Winter Winds

When I read an article with the headline “3 Reasons Why Winter is Mountain Biking Season I assume several things.

I assume initially that it will be an article about how great mountain biking can be in the winter, and then, from there, I’m surprised they only found three reasons.

Turns out I’m wrong.

The article’s about how you can ditch the road bike in the winter and get on the mountain bike, entirely missing the point, in my opinion. Mountain biking in the winter can be amazing in itself, not as an alternative to riding your road bike. Once the ground freezes it’s like riding in mid-summer, but with significantly more clothes.

With that I can neatly segue to the other story that’s doing the rounds. H&M have teamed up with the hipster end of things at Brick Lane Bikes to make a cycling collection.

Finally it seems to be silly-season on the roads, best summed up by the woman on a bike who swept past me stopped for a zebra crossing and weaved between the pedestrians who were crossing this morning. I was unimpressed, as was a friend of mine with another cycling faux pas.

I’m irritated enough by those riders who think it’s ok to move in front of you at lights, meaning that, as a reasonably quick cyclist, I’m forced to overtake them yet again. However that’s nothing to the tale I heard of a gentleman who did just that, and then proceeded to fart, effectively in the face of the person he’d pushed in front of. That is entirely not cool.

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