Monday, 28 November 2011
Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen
I see that over on The Dabbler I'm offering some thoughts on dressing for the country. Commenters have adroitly switched the subject to cycling attire - long a national scandal and offence to the eye. Here's how to dress if you're riding a bicycle - exactly as if you're not riding a bicycle at all, just walking about being effortlessly stylish. Not a trace of Spandex or Lycra here, and not a single helmet. As so often, the Danes show us the way...
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We've already got the silly blue cycle lanes - and, driving through London, you'd think that 37% of our commuters are cycling to work too (especially along Embankment during the rush hour). Curiously, a lot don't seem to wear helmets - or have lights... The most dangerous thing I saw was a lady carrying two children to school on the back of her bicycle, dodging buses on Battersea Bridge.
ReplyDeleteSince we've put in bike lanes everywhere and increased downtown congestion as a result, I've sensed that cyclists have become even more assertive and in-your-face, even outside of their lanes. They make me feel like an old feudal lord pondering the airs his peasants developed after he started feeding and housing them.
ReplyDeleteI have been showing the way for years, Nigeness. I peddle along gently with no concessions whatsoever to the accoutrements of modern cycling. No lycra, no helmet, no assertiveness, no drop-down handlebars. This seems to incur people's wrath: I am perenially lectured on safety. I wouldn't say I am effortlessly stylish though and my one nod to cycling gear, namely bicycle clips, means that I never will be so. Recently, I was horrified to receive a present from a friend - a set of wraparound bicycle clips with Pegasus wings on them. I tried not to sound too lukewarm when I thanked her. I shall have to investigate cutting off the wings, come to think of it.
ReplyDeleteOh I don't know Mary - Pegasus wings sound rather stylish...
ReplyDeleteI agree that you see some scary sights Susan - down my way there's an elderly lady who pedals out laboriously every evening into the traffic, riding an old-fashioned female bicycle, wearing a headscarf and looking for all the world as if she's cycling through the evening mist to communion...
As for assertive, in-your-face cyclists Peter - don't get me started...