Beware jeans, avoid the gutter, keep your saddle dry …

Desperate to get the country moving again, the government is promising a new era for cyclists, with pop-up bike lanes, car-free corridors and major investment to make roads safer across the UK. It just goes to show that sometimes you have to be forced to see the light. My own cycling conversion happened back in 2003, when the London congestion charge made it no longer possible to drive for free through the capital. I swore I would never pay it – and I never have.

Given the far bigger incentive of the Covid-19 crisis, this seems a rather shaming admission, except that it makes me an outlier. Most converts quickly fall by the wayside, but – apart from the occasional snowstorm, the odd multi-journey morning – I have never wavered, and that is because I’m not a zealot but a cycling pragmatist. I don’t cover huge distances – around 40-50 miles in a normal working week – but they are miles free from traffic jams and overstuffed tubes, and give me regular exercise while delivering me to my destination at a speed considerably faster than the seven-minute urban car mile.

So if coronavirus is encouraging you to rethink how you get around, here are my top tips for a long and happy life on two wheels.

1. A bike is for life, not just for Christmas
2. Don’t let the scare stories grind you down
3. he simplest precautions are often the best
4. ake visibility your mantra
5. void the all-or-nothing fallacy
6. A pannier is not just for carrying things
7. Never forget your pump
8. Keep a change of clothes to hand
9. Dominate the road
10. … and have a happy holiday

Do not feel you make yourself safer by making yourself small

Source
Claire Armitstead
The Guardian