It is a long time since I stretched my legs over a cycle to sit on a saddle and pump away at the pedals, as I remember we used to go out in groups sometimes racing and other times just to tour around or ride through Epping Forest ducking our heads from the low tree branches, although one time I did not duck quick enough and came off backwards. Never mind the blood, dust yourself off, get back on and continue riding.
There was no such thing as a cycle helmet. My guess is the technology was not available to produce such things, the only accessory one needed was cycle clips to keep your slacks from getting entwined in the chain, that is if you wore long trousers.
The bikes within the group were normally self-constructed models made from spare parts and all so different, some with drop handlebars and differing braking mechanism of questionable efficiency and no such things as gears, although they came along a little later. In some cases, there was no free wheel mechanism so one had to keep pedalling. If your foot slipped off the pedal, which was still going round propelled by the back wheel, it would give you a nasty chop on the muscle at the back of your leg.
I almost said there were no such things as cycle lanes, but I would be wrong as in the thirties before the Second World War, when most small cars maximum speed was about forty-five miles per hour the Eastern Avenue was built, which was a dual carriageway going East out of London into the Essex countryside. When constructed it included paths for cyclists in each direction. It was a rare event to see them being used as such so eventually through lack of purpose the concrete surfaces broke up.
Hondon de los Frailes is a lovely Spanish village inland from the Costa Blanca nestling in an elongated valley with tall mountains to each side, along its length other similar settlements not much larger than hamlets are within a few miles, or if you like Kilometres, between each other.
Similarly, we have a cycle track on a short part of the road between our community and the next. It was erected on only one side of the road wide enough for a single lane in each direction, consequently the facility is used more by dog walkers than people on bikes who quite rightly, according to the Spanish highway code prefer to ride in lines of two or sometimes three abreast, grinning, at the queue of traffic held up behind them. (the grinning part is not in the code)
Cycle lanes are in many places becoming the in-thing, with glowing indicating signs plus painted marking on the road, they are in some minds the proposed moment of the future waiting for the cyclist to start using them.
In Benidorm and other Spanish cities, they have cycle tracks in the centre of the road, not to the side, marked out in red lines, although I have yet to see someone on a bike brave enough to use them. Then again traffic is legally restricted to 20 kph (12 mph) at that speed they are not going to be held up by someone on a bike, it’s the opposite and the vehicles will be holding the cyclist up.
Let’s talk about trees, which have nothing to do with cycle lanes, but they will lead me back on to them in a minute.
Apple trees are nothing like your oak version and nowhere near as pretty or outstanding, nevertheless if the local council decides they are important to the landscape, then cutting them down is an offence.
A gentleman, Ismail Elmagdoub, who is a business development director and racehorse owner, found this out when he cut three of them down because the apples made his dog sick. He was fined eight thousand eight hundred pounds as the trees were in his garden which is part of a conservation area in the Cotswold’s, perhaps Ismail, would have been better off teaching his dogs not to eat the apples.
Fury as TfL (Traffic for London) begins work to remove Millbank’s beloved palm tree as part of a green scheme to pave over a roundabout and make way for cycle lanes, they are also in the news in another part of London where a sixteen-year-old girl is left in tears after being clipped by a double-decker bus that struggled to squeeze through a road narrowed by them to make way for a new bike path. In Plymouth the City Council has cut down 129 mature trees to replace them with a cycle trail despite opposition by the local community.
Constantly in the news there are stories of more cycle paths being added to the landscape, the question is who is going to use all these so-called facilities, for certain ladies whose habit and way of life is to wear long skirts wont, most youngsters cannot wait to be old enough to apply for a driving license, they do not ride to school anyway as all the cycle sheds have been turned into football pitches, people approaching middle age with the first signs of arthritis are not going to throw their leg over two wheels. Then there are the people who do not ride a bike and do not want the risk of being on one.
With cars being slowly driven from the streets and cycles becoming the norm, where would the storage of these machines be? Imagine the tenants in a block of flats and their need for mobility – they can’t leave their pride and joy outside over night as they will be pinched so they would have the daily struggle of carrying their two wheeled machine up and down stairs to be cherished in the living room.
A very happy Christmas to everyone and a startling, positive New Year. Take care.
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