F is for freedom: With no other means of transport, except possibly
skiing, can you determine so exactly the path you intend to follow and
arrive there so quickly.
The beauty of cycling is that you can decide, from a distance of 10 yards,
that your front tyre is going to trace a course 6in to the right of that
manhole cover and a foot to the left of that broken beer bottle. And you do
it! It’s about autonomy, man.
G is for gears: At the risk of heresy, I have never seen the point of
the very high gears. Why sit and pump like a maniac when it is so much
easier to stand up and grunt?
Once, my bike was nicked, but because my children had been fiddling with the
gears I was easily able to overtake the thief on foot.
H is for handlebars:The key thing about handlebars is not to shoot
over them. Bear in mind that no matter how spongy your grip is, a lot of
cycling will produce a horniness in your hands.
Next week: indicating and jelly
Extracted from Have I Got Views for You, HarperPerennial, £7.99
"have never seen the point of the very high gears. Why sit and pump ..when it is so much easier to stand up and grunt? "
If yopu're sitting down and pumping you're in a low gear, standing up and grinding is a high gear job, and is bad for your knees.
Mike, St Albans,
Perhaps The Boris School of Cycling Excellence could be established so that cyclists all over Britain could be taught not to ride on FOOT paths, have front and rear lights on their mudguardless contraptions during darkness, stop foul mouthing those not on bikes and obey red lights & one way streets
Phil de Buquet, Newport,
Where's A-E? Can we have a link please?
James, London, UK