Tuesday 14 October 2014

Losing My Mojo

I'm losing my mojo. Yup, since returning from a relaxing holiday on mainland Europe something within me has changed, no longer am I Mr motivated going out and about on my bike as often as I could, no, since coming home I've started looking for excuses NOT to use my bike. Even for the journeys I've been doing for years like going to work, popping out to the shops, even the quick 10K route I devised for basic excercise. I'd get ready to go, then start messing around looking for keys, patches, pump, gloves oh they're the wrong gloves I need the other style....and so on. Any excuse to just get changed out of cycling gear back into my civvies, something's changed. I've lost my mojo.

So what happened? Let's rewind a couple of weeks. I went on a week long holiday to the north of Italy and found an absolutely vibrant cycling and motorcycling culture. The area I was in was filled with pedal powered tourists on their touring bikes, sometimes even on folding bikes set up for touring. There were bike hire shops all over so naturally I had to persuade my better half that we should hire bikes and head now the coast to x, y, z and explore that way rather than by bus. She commented that she wasn't sure about doing this without safety helmet or any other "cycling gear" other than the shorts and jersey I persuaded her to pack "just in case"... Bikes were duly hired, her first roundabout negotiated with no fuss meant we were now off. The day proved to be the best day out of the week, stopping for drinks, food, shopping, hop back on the bikes cycle down to the next town and repeat and so on. Wow I thought, when we get back I am going to make a concerted effort to stop being a lycra clad cyclist, even at the weekends, and try and just ride the bike for its own sake. My commute isn't that long, jeans, a tee-shirt and jacket will suffice for me from now on when I'm commuting.

Flash forward a week and I'm back in not so sunny Glasgow, a city run by a council that considers it to be a great city for cycling in. I have barely been out of the house a couple of minutes and I'm on Pollokshaws Road, now hang on, I don't usually do this route, I'm usually a quiet back streets kind of wuss who doesn't like the madness of A-roads. Ah but in Italy I was cycling on roads way narrower than this and mixing it with traffic without any problems of status. Back to Monday morning and I'm sitting in with the rest of the traffic including a few other people on bikes, all male, all clad in hi-viz, helmets etc. Remember I've just left home, joined the flow when there was a BIG gap in traffic, no problem, then I become aware of a car close behind me, uncomfortably close; we all have to stop, car behind me revvs a bit, then a bit more, then as I look over my shoulder a final aggressive revving but again has to stop because that's what traffic does. I thought of Italy briefly and was startled out of my reverie not by movement of traffic but by a car horn honking; this was breaking point. Stepping down off the folder, I turned in anger to confront this twat who was behaving like a playground bully only to find that the aggressor was a young girl probably no older than my own daughter sitting behind the wheel of her car completely ignorant of how her behaviour was affecting me never mind other road users, and I include motorists in that statement. I didn't snap, I didn't shout or jesticulate or threaten anything nasty, no I got back in the saddle took the first turn on the left and headed back towards home but then took a decision to carry on to work by a much longer, more circuitous route.

Forward two days to the Wednesday morning. I'm at Cowcaddens on the "Colleges Route", another world class piece of non-infrastructure that we are sold as being a "quiet route". This time my existence was threatened not by a car creeping up from behind but by one being driven out of a side street into my path. This time I had to brake quickly and jesture to the driver that yes, I am actually here, lights flashing and all. The irony this time was that when the car overtook me it was full of kids no doubt being delivered on the so-called "school run". At that moment I thought "f*** this", I may ride a bike to work to stay healthy, keep my fitness up, but I too am a parent and would prefer my kids to have a father for quite a while yet. On the way into work I bumped into a colleague who said "I saw what happened to you with that woman just now, she wasn't giving a f*** about you was she?" Turns out he was in a car waiting to turn into the same street from the other side of the road and had witnessed what happened. A confirmed "bloody cyclists" guy, he was nevertheless shocked by what he had just seen and a long conversation about road safety for bicycles and pedestrians ensued.

So what, I hear you say. Man up, take the lane and all the other crap that gets spouted about cycle safety is just that, utter crap. The next morning it started, hmm do I need a pannier or rucksack? Oh wait maybe I should change my lights, maybe I should go back to wearing hi-viz, maybe it's going to rain, damn it's getting late, better just get the train... For a few days this went on then I thought about all the times I've travelled in and out of Glasgow entirely uneventfuly; one morning a colleague called "It's raining, do you want a lift?" Why not I figured, and then spur of the moment on my way to the door I took a snap decision, grabbed the folder and chucked it in the back of his car. I've been on the bike most days since but I'm back to using the six mile route rather than the three, it's a bit on/ off, in fact it is mainly crap disconnected back streets and side roads because Glasgow, the city that gives itself awards for its' cycling infrastructure, has in fact no cycling infrastructure. It has little bits here and there all isolated from each other, never joined up that, were they to actually invest some money, COULD be joined up to create something useful. Meantime I'll continue to use the back streets to ride my bike to work because these are the only places I feel moderately safe in this city.

I'll leave you with this YouTube video, about thirty seconds in is about as far as you'll need to go as far as this post is concerned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uW0XnR7QI0

Tuesday 12 August 2014

It's Millar Time

I've always owned a bike, but I still don't consider my self a "cyclist". I mainly ride a bike to get to work, and use it at weekends and holiday times as a great way of keeping fit without having to put in hours of work in a gym. To be honest I can't think of anything I'd like less in terms of exercise than going to a gym, all that protein and creatine (whatever that is) and whatever other paraphenalia that goes with the territory. No, I chose to face my mid-life crisis by revisiting the humble bicycle.

Now, I've always bought magazines. I've played guitar since I was 14 years old and couldn't read enough about the things so I bought into the whole monthly magazine idea and continued buying and reading until I had a family and found I didn't have the time for idly reading and re-reading this months Guitarist, Guitar, Acoustic Guitar etc, etc ad infinitum...

Naturally therefore I started buying cycling magazines. It wasn't such a bad idea at first, I needed a few pointers to get me on my way, but I wasn't about to fall into the Cycling Porn+ / Comic trap though. I very quickly realised that a whole wing of the publishing industry existed to feed the MAMIL in me with a diet of sportives, fitness, and lots and lots of...stuff to spend your disposable income on. One thing I did notice however were the still frequent mentions, often in almost revered tones, of Robert Millar. I now know what an understatement that last sentence was. I've never raced bikes, ever, but I felt compelled to go and find out a little bit more about this name that I remember from back in the day. While I was off touring in an 80's pop/ rock band, Robert Millar was performing feats of unbelievable athleticism in the French mountains, hell he even sported a pop stars' hairdo! I remember seeing the odd snippet of TdF coverage on World of Sport or whatever the Saturday afternoon sports show was called back in the Eddy Merckx era, but Robert Millar was nothing more than an interesting footnote whenever I saw television news, and let's face it pro bike racing until only recently has always been that way in the football obsessed UK.

 I watched some footage of Robert Millar in the 1983 Tour de France leaving Jiminez in his wake on the Peyresourde on the way to his first stage win, and was completely filled with the emotions and feeling I normally associate with hearing a piece of music that moves me. Thus enthused I then read Richard Moore's book In Search Of Robert Millar and became enthralled (and not a little obsessed for a while) with the Robert Millar story, going out on the bike and visiting local places mentioned in the book, riding the same roads Millar trained on...yes total nutjob stuff.

Some mornings I used to sit in the Strathbungo cafe called Cookie gazing out across Nithsdale Rd trying to get my head around the astonishing - to me - fact that the person who achieved this amazing feat of althleticism in the Tour de France lived right across the road in 73 Nithsdale Drive. Hell I even tried to get the then owner, himself a bicycle enthusiast, to invite Richard Moore to do a book reading/ Q&A one evening. How appropriate I thought to have an event such as that right across the road from the Millar family home. Unfortunately it didn't get past the "oh that's a great idea" stage so for a while all thoughts of a Robert Millar tribute were put on the back burner.

So where is this going you ask? Simply this, there are little blue plaques dotted all around our city celebrating the famous former occupants of residences such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh or Alexander "Greek" Thomson, but interestingly, in this supposed second golden age of cycling, there is nothing to celebrate the brilliance of until recently our highest placed finisher in the Tour de France and perhaps more significantly to the cognoscenti, the first and so far only UK winner of the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey, maillot a pois rouge. I am certain that in any other European country Robert Millar would be a proper hero and celebrated in his home town, not so here in cycling friendly Glasgow.

And so the bottom line is this; I would like to see Glasgow City Council acknowledge this true cycling great, still a legend among road cyclists all around the world, by erecting a small blue (or pois rouges) plaque to our very own King of the Mountains outside 73 Nithsdale Drive, hell I'd even be happy for them to pay for it out of the cycling budget!

73 Nithsdale Drive on an autumnal August afternoon, sans KOM acknowledgement!

Monday 10 March 2014

Time Marches On



So it was a bit overcast but miraculously it was DRY this morning when I set out for a leisurely spin around and about by bike. There was no plan, no route, no miles target set, just a sociable ride around the southside of Glasgow. What transpired was a really interesting morning out which was at once pleasing (being on my bike) and yet rather depressing although probably not entirely for the reasons a reader may expect of me.

Heading down Pollokshaws Road towards town I decided to cut off at Strathbungo at Nithsdale Road and headed down through Pollokshields, a route I’ve travelled many times over the last few years I’ve been bike commuting. Today though was different in the sense that I wasn’t heading for work so I just took it easy and enjoyed the experience, unlike a commute where even on these quiet back streets and side roads you still need to be vigilant for motorised traffic. Being Sunday there was very little in the way of traffic and for the first time I really paid attention to the sheer width of the streets through which I was passing. There is a lot of talk about “Dutch-style” bicycle infrastructure and how it could be implemented here but “issues” like space for lanes and parking prevent it happening. Yet look at this road, this is the west end of Maxwell Drive; when I looked at the amount of space I figured that surely this is an absolute no-brainer for a segregated bike route.


There is ample room for a lane of traffic in each direction, a lane of parking and bi-directional bike lanes. The road was recently re-surfaced – not before time I might add – and is sitting there like a blank canvas waiting to be worked on. 


Unfortunately I suspect the road will be treated as exactly that by the city council, with applications of paints no doubt in the pipeline. The road previously had “cycle lanes” painted on with green paint that had been worn away and the “path” itself rutted and pot-holed, presumably not by the volume or weight of bikes going over it.

After navigating the mess that is Govan Road/ Pacific Drive caused by the Fastlink project, I decided to check out the path along the Clyde walkway heading into the city centre. There is a lot of work ongoing in this area and it’s still not clear to me if there will be a permeable cycle route from the Clyde Arc bridge into town. At the moment there is a path that is shared use, which afforded me an easy run under the Kingston Bridge straight into town right up to the point behind the casino where you either dismount and carry your bike up stairs or push up the narrow path with its 90 degree turns that are a pain in the backside to navigate.




It did occur to me to cross the new(ish) Millenium footbridge to search for permeability there. I needn’t have bothered. Traffic flows in three hostile lanes heading into the city centre and the one side street escape route is blocked by what looks like fairly long term road works


Yes, it is completely empty on Sunday morning, but imagine how it looks at 8:30 on a weekday morning. Now looking towards city centre, it looks promising but at the very and there is no choice but to join the main carriageway into town or straight ahead to turn into the A77 going out of town.


Big wide paths like this a great for cycling on, but getting onto it coming from the south is a nightmare in the morning, requiring nerves of steel. I’ve done it once and decided never to repeat the experience. There may be a light at the end of this particular tunnel though. Lurking in the list of projects on the Glasgow City Council website is a drawing of a proposed segregated cycle route that makes up the Tradeston route from Shields Road in Pollokshields all the way through to the Millenium footbridge. To me this another no-brainer, but it’s more than just a bike route, this would be a great opportunity to improve cyclist/ motorist relations by demonstrating how easy it would be for all these road users to get on given the right infrastructure. We’ve got a long, long way to go to make up the 41 years of non-investment in non-motorised transport that is the differential between the UK and the Netherlands.

Monday 24 February 2014

My Commute, A Different Take


I thought I might write about my daily commute seeing as how this blog is supposed to be about city cycling and the territory that goes with it. I don’t have a helmet cam; I don’t want a helmet cam. I do stop and take pictures on the odd occasion; I’m sure if I were to take pictures of the state of the roads and cycling “infrastructure” on my route(s) then I would probably take way longer than the forty minutes it takes me on average to get to and from work.

Lots and lots of people write about their commute, and I have to say I don’t think I want to add yet another list of traffic infringements I spotted or list every bit of crap “infrastructure” – yes I really ought to stop using those quotation marks now, you probably get the picture, it’s almost all shit. So what will I write about? How about something nice and simple such as the sheer joy to be had of not sitting in queues of traffic? Or the frustration of riding a bike but having to ignore the desire line and take convoluted back roads that take much longer but at least fill me with some small sense of subjective safety?

Every morning, whether I’m on a bike or on foot, I pass or travel along the A77, if I’m on a bike I tend to cut off it after a mere hundred metres or so and head off either to Victoria Road (the indirect way) or Pollokshields (the scenic way).

Why?

I see plenty of people on bikes travelling along the A77, mostly heading towards the city centre, but though I have joined them on occasion I remain reluctant to do so every day for one simple reason; I feel unsafe in amongst buses, taxis, white van man, people in cars driving up the left hand lane at outrageous speed to try and steal a few yards on the patient people, people texting at the wheel, people talking on mobile phones whilst trying to operate a ton and a half of machinery with one hand, people who ignore amber lights then red lights then oh wait the road’s blocked! This is followed by the incessant blowing of horns in frustration at the idiot who has just impeded their progress. While all this is going on the bikes quietly slip through, not weaving in between cars, just straight through. This goes on from one set of traffic lights to another until the whole sorry mess dissipates around the cut offs for the motorways near the town centre. It’s a very short distance, only a couple of miles, but I personally prefer to reach work with my nerves and body intact, goodness knows it’s bad enough getting through the working day without the stress of feeling as though I could be knocked into oblivion by any one of the aforementioned.

Maybe I am the problem, but the few times I have cycled this route I can honestly say I did not feel safe. And yet…I recently browsed the excellent View from the Cycle Path blog and found an old page that amazed me. It wasn’t the excellent Dutch infrastructure per se; it was a page which showed everyday street scenes in Holland and a comparable UK street. It showed quite simply how easy it is to make a city fit for cycling, and by extension make a city fit. Here is the link. Look familiar? Of course it does, there is a misconception that so-called Dutch infrastructure could not be built in this country because “we don’t have the space to do it” or some such other rubbish. It CAN be done, it HAS been done, it CAN be done again.

How?

Start by putting pressure on our government; let them know that we are far from happy with the current situation. On Saturday April 26 the third Pedal on Parliament takes place in Edinburgh, sure it’s Edinburgh that offers a logistical problem; how do I get my bike there? Well if you don’t want to ride your bike to PoP just take the train and march on parliament instead. Let me finish with a quote from the Pedal on Parliament news page:

“This is the year when Scotland decides its future, but whatever the outcome of September’s referendum we already know the kind of Scotland we want to see: a Scotland where everyone who wants to can cycle, young or old, free from fear. And we want everyone who can to turn out – on bike or on foot – on the 26th of April to help us make that future a reality”.