My New Job (Was: Social Thurs 8 Jan 2009)

[Piers Cawley]

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 2:56 PM, Jasper <jaspermccrea at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/1/5 Paul Makepeace <paulm at paulm.com>:
>> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Roger Burton West <roger at firedrake.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 05, 2009 at 02:13:48PM +0000, Paul Makepeace wrote:
>>>
>>> >Get a bicycle or a scooter. Do your level best in the meantime to ignore any
>>> >commentary from anyone who hasn't actually ridden in London.
>>>
>>> Seconded. Advice from a relatively new cyclist on request, or distilled
>>> at http://firedrake.org/roger/cycling/ .
>>
>> Cool. As a two-time Strida owner I can assure you they are most
>> certainly _not_ "gimmick" bikes, esp. considering they've won a whole
>> bunch of folding competitions beating Bromptons for folding speed
>> (<2s), maneuvrability, and something else I forget. I rode from West
>> Hampstead to Mayfair (i.e. non-trivial distance) the other night, and
>> can take it on buses, tubes, and trains with never any hassle, esp
>> since they weigh <10kg. The newer Strida 5 is a nice improvement over
>> its already-decent-but-slightly-sloppy previous incarnation.
>
> I used a Brompton solidly for a year, and while it was heavy, and had
> a very close-up riding position, which took a while to get used to, I
> liked it a lot. Until I made the terrible mistake of buying a
> large-ish motorcycle, and each time I get on the Brompton now I am
> utterly terrified. It feels tiny and ridiculously flimsy.
>
> Cycling in London isn't bad, as long as you don't do anything stupid,
> like riding up the inside of a large lorry where the driver can't see
> you. You do get the odd shit of a bus driver, too.

If you're feeling like remaining smart and visible on your bike, you
might consider investing in something like
http://www.dashingtweeds.co.uk/dt/tailoredoutfits/?page_id=43. Haven't
you always wanted go glow in the dark while cycling in tweeds?