Lincoln Ross <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:Good for you. I like 3 speeds myself, in addition to the fancier bikes. Too bad you can't get free
transport to here in the USA, as we are drowning in cheap (price, not quality) old 3 speeds and
road bikes. I have a Gitane mixte 10 speed that I can't seem to unload for $25!
Yeah, mixtes are difficult to unload. My particular one was staggeringly expensive by comparison
(although mine did come with mudguards, which i appreciated today, and a rack, which I haven't had
occasion to use *just yet*).
In the style stakes there is nothing that is so naff as a mixte. Especially a big fat man like me
riding a mixte. The idea itself is laughable. I mean, it's a girls' bike!
This helps me somewhat, though. I'm kind of hoping that when I park it in front of my building,
outdoors, the bike-thieving scum of London will nip the nice Ridgebacks and Treks (or indeed, even
the Batavus) on the rack before they think of nicking mine.
Quoted message said:Make yourself as visible as possible, and claim your space. No good running into an opening door.
If I was there I'd forget to ride on the other side of the road and would run into a bus.
Riding in central london traffic is surprisingly effortless. There are enough other cyclists (just!)
to remind the motoring population that two-wheeled traffic exists. Even the notorious White Van Men
have been nice to me, thus far.
(Incidentally, I like black cabs; they seem to know how to react to me a lot better than most
other traffic.)
Buses are a scary proposition in my patch, though; loads and loads of them, and on the Strand and
Waterloo station there are the new 'bendy buses' (articulated buses. bus route 521 for you
bus-spotters out there) which make me nervous, what with their very large blind spots. I will
confess to overtaking them at bus stops, but there's a kind of zen flow to the traffic that you get
into. Motor traffic moves as fast as you in that situation, they're slowing down, you're speeding
up, you match speed briefly and the gaps stay open long enough for you to look, signal, and move (as
i don't have a mirror, I can't Mirror, Signal, and Maneuver, Highway Code fans). On the whole the
sensation one gets, in certain spots, is of surfing on waves of traffic. Once your'e over the fear,
the sensation of hyper-alertness takes over; nothing else I do in my rather boring life compares.
Driving a car is like showering in a raincoat by comparison.
As to riding on the left hand side--I learned to ride in traffic in England, so I'm not too fussed
by that. Big roundabouts are somewhat scary, as I find them tight squeezes--traffic in the
roundabout on the right of you, traffic entering the roundabout to the left of you, buses in front
of you volley and thunder. If I ever get lost doubt my abilities, I get off the road and walk. It's
all about confidence-building.
Right turns still scare me. I tend to confine these as much as possible to stoplight-controlled
crossings, or go all the way round roundabouts to achieve the end. It doesn't help that there are a
lot of intersections where right turns are prohibited to any traffic--never mind cycles!
Being doored--especially by a taxi or a visiting continental--is a worry. But I haven't had this
happen yet. I keep my eyes open and my trust in the Lord.
-Luigi
"Nunquam dormit Londinium-- Tantum sugit: Vitam ex me et denarios ex sacculo meo..."
- Catatonia, "Londinium"
(ex Anglice)
