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...

4 comments:

  1. 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.

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  2. Since 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.

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  3. I 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.

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  4. Oh I don't know Mary - Pegasus wings sound rather stylish...
    I 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...

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