Bicycling, from hate to love

Since I could have a coherent thought in my mind, I always wanted to move without walking or running. It may come from the fascination that I have with cars, even now, when I’m 26 years old.

Naturally, the first vehicle that I could have used for my own transportation or fun (if you don’t count baby buggies) was a tricycle. I loved it. I could decide where I would go and I had the ability to go somewhere without walking, albeit with a speed only a little greater than walking. Still, it satisfied me for a while.

As I grew older, I lost the third wheel and I started bicycling. I got rather good at it, but I didn’t use it as a commuter vehicle. I just rode it for fun. Sometimes I got a bit over-enthusiastic and one time I rode over some 10 or 20 steps, breaking my bicycle in half. The frame just broke and the bicycle was thrown away. As I didn’t have any income then, from the ages of 15–26, I didn’t ride a bike. Once in a while I took a friends bike for a short spin, just to see that you truly can’t forget it once you learn it. For my commuting, I used public transportation, but after a while I got a car, so I have been using it more often. That as it would turn out, is rather expensive, and more often than not — unnecessary.

This summer, while I was on vacation, me and my girl-friend rented a couple of bikes. We rode a bit by the shore, getting wet from the oncoming waves. I was hooked. I needed to buy a bike. I event swore to her that when we get back, the first thing that I would do would be to buy a bike. And I did.

I went a bit overboard, not by price, but by size. I’m not the tallest guy, but I’m not exactly short. I got a 21" frame with 29" wheels. 21 speeds. It is a pain sometimes, but it is a great cruiser, even if it is a MTB.

I have been riding it for a couple of weeks now, so I want to share somethings that I have learned while biking:

1. Everybody is an idiot — except you

Often while driving my car, some nut on a bicycle would pass me with only inches to spare, or even go between multiple cars. They would even ride behind trams on their tracks, which seemed ludicrous.

But now, when I ride my bike through traffic, that all seems normal and natural. It does not even seem unsafe anymore. You just have no choice in a city with very few biking lanes.

From now on, I have a greater understanding of bicyclists and I understand why the don’t like motorists. They are just natural enemies in traffic.

So, when I take in to consideration that I don’t like other motorists in traffic, but I also don’t like other cyclists, I can only conclude that anybody that is in traffic is in my way, and by that logic — an idiot.

We should all focus on our only mutual enemy — the taxi driver. These people don’t even seem to have a sense of decency, so they act like they are the kings of the road in my town. They are very inconsiderate and they don’t yield way.

2. It’s stupidly fast — in the town center

I don’t live far from the town center, but now and again, I would drive my care to the center when I wanted to meet some friends or if I had stuff to do. That was not only expensive — fuel +parking fees, but was also painfully slow. If it wasn’t gridlocked, I would need to search for a parking spot, sometimes even for 20 minutes. If you take into consideration that I live 25 minutes walking distance from the center, it doesn’t seem logical to park in the center. Even if would find a spot, it would be a minimum 5 minutes walking away from the usual meeting spot. The only good thing was that after 9 pm parking is free, and if it were cold or rainy outside, I had my comfortable car waiting for me.

So, when taking a bike I get to anywhere in the center in about 7–10 minutes. Which is great. But if I need to go to my work, I need to drive 12 km in one distance. By car, if there is not much traffic, I can do that drive in about 20 minutes. With my bike, at a faster pace and taking short-cuts, its a minimum of 45 minutes. And I arrive sweaty. And I can’t take 20 laptops home with me (which is something that I need to do sometimes).

3. There is always an uneasy feeling

When you have your car, you just get out of it when you park it, press a button, and it is locked. If it is in a good part of town, you have no worries about it getting stolen. But even if was parked in a not so good part of town, who would want to steal a 14 year old rusty french car? Well, some people like to steal parts of my car (hubcaps, tankcaps…), but that is not the point here.

With a bike, you need to take a chain with you, which needs to be of a decent quality if you have a relatively nice bike. So, firstly, you have to find a good spot where you can chain it, but also a spot where no one can chain over your bike. It also mustn’t be in the way of anything. After that, you need to take off the parts that can easily be stolen, like lights, bike computers and bells. But that’s possibly only me. Another thing that you might want to take off is the seat, which can easily be stolen, like the front bike which is not screwed in, but has those small latches.

So when you leave your bike out of sight, chained to the wall, you always have this uneasy feeling that someone is going to steal it.

In this country, you can’t even report it stolen, because you cant register it, and you cant even report it as a values theft because it is not above the threshold to be considered valuable.

4. Traffic rules are fluid.

When you are on a bike, sometimes you act like a car, sometimes you act like a pedestrian. That can be rather unsafe and get on peoples nerves, but you can be ways faster is you bend the rules to your liking.

As an example, I took a part of my everyday route. From the start of the ride, I drive on the pavement where pedestrians walk, but when I see a red light on the intersection ahead, I start driving on the road. As I am a lot narrower than cars, I go by their left side, to the middle of the road until I reach the zebra crossing. That is where I act as a pedestrian and cross the road as an pedestrian. After that I continue driving on a pavement for a few meters, reach the other zebra crossing, from where I connect to the other road as a vehicle.

So, instead of waiting on the crossing to turn left, I just go. I don’t need to wait for the signal to change to green, nor do I need to let other cars go before me.

5. I’m gullible and I buy junk

When I first bought my new bike, it seemed a little plain. There was nothing on it except the necessary parts.

Even though lights are mandatory on bicycles where I live, they are not being sold with them. Which seems a bit illogical. That would be like cars needing to have seat belts, but they don’t come with seat belts as standard.

So I bought a rear light. Then a front light. Then a bell. Then a bottle holder. Then a bottle. Then another front light. Then a biking computer and so on and on. The truth: I only need two of those lights. The other things were bought out of boredom. And I have stuff on the way. Some bags. Which I will hardly ever use.