Curiously, not furiously*

I used to commute 10 miles each way in London, and I used to go relatively fast. Not shave my legs fast, and compared to the elite riders who have spare bikes on the roof of a nearby car, I was positively a tortoise. But faster than the average Joe, and faster than most bicycles in the history of the world.

I learnt a couple of things. Firstly, that if you go really, really fast it only cuts your urban commute by a few minutes.

Secondly, there will be incidents. Once in a while a slow-moving German child might walk slowly under your front tyre, looking in the wrong direction and you are going too fast to stop, but that’s life. He was fine.

I also started to think a lot about speed, capitalism, and bicycle clips.

I noticed that there are no cycle clips for sale in Britain’s biggest bicycle retailer; they are listed on the website, but the item is ‘discontinued or no longer available’. They don’t want you in bicycle clips, man. They want you to buy a whole range of specialist clothing for cycling, special trousers, jackets, special underpants even.

They don’t want you trundling along looking at the sunset in normal clothes. They want you to compare yourself to the world’s top athletes, whose genetic aerobic capacity and muscle density predisposes them to be much better than you - not to mention full time pursuit of goals for which they are financially rewarded.

They want you to feel bad about your comparison with an athlete and buy more stuff. Which is essentially illogical for most people: if I buy a bike for £10k in order to possibly win a race in which I might make more than amount this there is a utilitarian logic at work. But if you are cycling for fun, there seems to be less benefit. This is obviously very personal. But I had this thought almost in the middle of the cycle bit of a triathlon. Why? Why go faster, train harder?

I still go fast, once in a while, mostly downhill.

*fact: cyclists can’t be booked for speeding, in the UK but under the 1847 Town Police Clauses Act, they can be fined for 'cycling furiously'. very few are. In the Diaries, you can learn about some of the countries which have imposed speed limits for cyclists.

Bio

Nick Raistrick has ridden bicycles on all of the continents with the exception of Antarctica; he's photographed them in Beirut, Baghdad and Bristol; and he's written about them, and other things, for the Guardian, the BBC and Boneshaker magazine.

He has worked as a copywriter, journalist, editor, and producer. He is also a trainer and consultant, specialising on humanitarian media projects, and has worked in Somalia, Syria, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Indonesia, Turkey, Kenya, Kashmir, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Moldova, and elsewhere. He has written about gender-based violence for the UN, and wrote the BBC handbook for radio producers in Zambia.

Nick has also taken down tents in France, pulled pints in Middlesbrough, and sold pens in Bromley to make ends meet. He has lived in Prague, Madrid, and Barcelona, but comes from North Yorkshire, and a long line of people with proper, solid jobs, like steel worker and North Sea fisherman.

Nick lives in Brighton with his wife, stepchildren, chaotic toddler and approximately eight bicycles, not all of them his.

For media enquiries, please contact nick.raistrick@me.com