The rollercoaster of cycling popularity

[SpokeyDokey]

A few random points:

Fuel is not particularly expensive for many people. On average our household (2 people) spend just £60 pm on petrol. £720 pa is never going to break the bank. We are older, retired and are not inclined to dash about the country on a routine basis.

We are a car-based society, we were early adopters of all things car and I can't see that changing. Even the majority of youngsters, who are allegedly more environmentally aware than oldies, seem to have owning a car as a prerequisite once they start earning a wage. We need to get over car-bashing but bash inappropriate cars instead.

Cycling in some parts of the country is difficult. Hilly & wet sums up the Lake District where we live. It is a beautiful part of the world but is not a popular cyclists paradise. I could do a 30 mile route today and would see just a small handful of other cyclists out and about. People just don't cycle here in large numbers as a default. You see the odd chain gang, groups of muddy MTBers, some red-nosed commuters and summer tourists giving it a go on rental bikes but the terrain and weather is not conducive to cycling for the average person.

 

[Big John]

We're humans. We do whichever is easiest. Get in a metal bubble, warm and comfy and requires no effort, right from your doorstep. Cushty. Get all togged up when it's peeing with rain and blowing a hooly? Nah. And yet I did exactly that for 35 years so you'd think I'd be all for it. I wouldn't commute these days if I was still working for a gold clock and for reasons already mentioned.....pot holes and endless traffic. I'd rather ride out in the lanes for three hours than do a fifteen minute commute on busy roads, which is what mine used to be. Our local road changes have meant the volume has increased dramatically and a bike ride to town scares the crap out of me.

 

[Dogtrousers]

In London, utility cycling is the norm, and if ever you go past Bank station in commuting time you would very much dispute that cycling is experiencing a lull in popularity. There are all sorts, from casually dressed on lime bikes, to Bromptons, to fully lycra'd up roadies and everything in between.

The challenge is replicating that elsewhere. Its very much a case of 'if you build it they will come' in terms of infrastructure and I think Manchester is probably closest behind and they definitely do not have the weather / terrain advantages London does.

For utility cycling to take off - it needs to be the easiest choice of getting from A to B, with no major blockers. Cycling has major advantages over driving, public transport etc in most city centre sub 5 mile journeys so then it becomes about removing blockers. Cycle lanes tackle the safety blocker, hire schemes tackle the storage aspect and once you get past a certain point in terms of usage word of mouth kicks in and usage explodes.

Sport & leisure cycling is a completely different beast altogether and I expect that will always be a bit niche.

"utility cycling is the norm" is overstating things. Cycle commuting into central London is undeniably more popular than it used to be, I agree, but not the norm. It's still a bit of an oddball thing to do.

Anyway, the alternative to cycling for commuting in central London is public transport, not the car as it is elsewhere. London's public transport is excellent, but crowded at peak times.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I’ve flipped the odd bike to be priced at £40 - sometimes I made a profit, sometimes I broke even. My ‘tag-line’ was ‘ride it for work for two weeks, and you’ve made your money back’.

A D&T teacher at the school where I worked for years did that as a hobby/side line

when Poland joined the EU - and we were still in it - people may remember that thousands of Poles came over here to work and send money home
a lot of them came to North Wales to drive buses and work in care homes
and, due to their aims in coming over here, they wanted costs to be minimal.

Well Brian was known locally to fix up the odd bike and he ended up with a stream of Poles walking up his road to ask him if he had any
so he got a deal with the local scrap people and they offered him any bikes that were even a bit recoverable
and he built them up and sold them to Poles

he changed about 10 or 20 quid

more for a really special on - i.e. one with gears!!!

knowing him - I would reckon the Poles got a damn good deal - that bloke had zero clues how to do a job less than perfect!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Truly, I don't know why everyone is still mentioning weather and hills as obstacles to bike commuting.
If one really wanted to cycle commute (where there's a will there's a way) one could get an Ebike, some basic waterproofs, a basic knowledge of mechanics (imo, just knowing about your own bike is enough).
The real obstacles, as mentioned plenty upthread, are:
- where to safely keep your bike and peripherals, both at home and at work
- how to change into your "professional image", this is a major barrier for (some) women that need to wear a certain work attire, makeup, hair do. I am a woman, if I had to wear office clothes I would find it quite difficult to commute exclusively by bike.
- the availability of a safe cycling route to the places one wants to ride
- the need of transporting family members

I also see the problem, as I have right now, nowhere for lots of people to park their bikes safely in their place of work.

Indeed.
When I was working at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, so not a small venue by all means, every obstacle was put in the way of those who wanted to cycle there.
Bike theft was common, taking bikes inside was not allowed, when we finally got a secure staff bike shed, this was made unavailable to us every single time there was a mega event on, either because of "security" or because the access was blocked by some machinery.

cycling is as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it imo as a hobby.

Of course, but if you want to commute to work, you must have a reliable machine and suitable clothing, good lights at the very minimum. A track pump? Spare tubes?
Even for basics, I would say nowadays, you'll need at least £300 to start from scratch, with a refurbished second hand bike plus accessories.

my bike was a cheap bso, I was so clueless I didnt even realise knobbly tyres werent terribly good for riding on roads, yeah blame the cycle shop who saw me coming with that.

Haha, mine was a £30 car boot sale BSO, but it took me to work and back for a good few months until I upgraded to a slightly more upmarket BSO

solve peoples attitudes to driving safely thesedays and youll boost the numbers of cyclists.

I have colleague that don't drive, even them are against cyclists!

For commuting and travelling convenience, we have cars, they are more comfortable and acceptable, cycling is an outlier for the different among us

Acceptable is the issue: how did we end up that it's acceptable to shout insults to folks just because they ride to work instead of driving or taking the bus?
Am I an "outlier" just because I don't like driving?

A road bike especially high end probably takes a lot more attention. My touring do it all bike needs hardly any.

My commuters, to be reliable do need attention, more than I give them.
But that means that once a year, when I get the mechanic to service them, I need to spend more money, which I'm aware of but can't be bothered with bike mechanics.

At times cycling is no fun, even for someone who likes to think of themselves as a cyclist!

Tbh, I don't think driving is much fun either.
Those that drive to work are forever complaining of traffic, road works, parking, cyclist, potholes, costs of car repairs.

Honestly people are not made of sugar.

I can confirm that @Brandane is, the lightest Scottish drizzle puts him off riding

 

[classic33]

A few random points:

Fuel is not particularly expensive for many people. On average our household (2 people) spend just £60 pm on petrol. £720 pa is never going to break the bank. We are older, retired and are not inclined to dash about the country on a routine basis.

We are a car-based society, we were early adopters of all things car and I can't see that changing. Even the majority of youngsters, who are allegedly more environmentally aware than oldies, seem to have owning a car as a prerequisite once they start earning a wage. We need to get over car-bashing but bash inappropriate cars instead.

Cycling in some parts of the country is difficult. Hilly & wet sums up the Lake District where we live. It is a beautiful part of the world but is not a popular cyclists paradise. I could do a 30 mile route today and would see just a small handful of other cyclists out and about. People just don't cycle here in large numbers as a default. You see the odd chain gang, groups of muddy MTBers, some red-nosed commuters and summer tourists giving it a go on rental bikes but the terrain and weather is not conducive to cycling for the average person.

Visiting relatives, I was the "odd city one" who didn't drive and was to be seen cycling in almost any weather. Usually to the nearest shops some six miles away, sometimes further. I'd cycled in similar conditions here, why should being in the country be any different.
Singletrack roads or "busy main roads", maybe a dozen vehicles would pass me on the main roads. But I'd not call them unsafe, as I was often told.

 

[esoxlucius]

Am I missing something regarding commuting?

I don't know about you guys but when I've been out on my bike I sweat quite a bit and I'm pretty knackered after as well. But that doesn't matter because I jump in the shower when I get home and chillax afterwards.

But if that ride would have been a commute to work, with maybe no shower/changing facilities there, then does that mean that a lot of cycling commuters start their day at work all sweaty and knackered!

I wouldn't like to start my day at work like that.

 

[Alex321]

Am I missing something regarding commuting?

I don't know about you guys but when I've been out on my bike I sweat quite a bit and I'm pretty knackered after as well. But that doesn't matter because I jump in the shower when I get home and chillax afterwards.

But if that ride would have been a commute to work, with maybe no shower/changing facilities there, then does that mean that a lot of cycling commuters start their day at work all sweaty and knackered!

I wouldn't like to start my day at work like that.

I commute to work, but I wouldn't if there were no showers. We are in the middle of moving office this week, but the new office is even better provisioned with an indoor secure cycle store in eth basement, and 6 showers plus lockers., so I will continue to cycle commute.

Quite a few of the people who cycle to work, it is only a few miles and they take it steady, so they aren't too sweaty on arrival.

 

[Alex321]

Truly, I don't know why everyone is still mentioning weather and hills as obstacles to bike commuting.

Because they are seen as obstacles to somebody starting out.

We know better, but we are mostly keen cyclists.

If one really wanted to cycle commute (where there's a will there's a way) one could get an Ebike, some basic waterproofs, a basic knowledge of mechanics (imo, just knowing about your own bike is enough).
The real obstacles, as mentioned plenty upthread, are:
- where to safely keep your bike and peripherals, both at home and at work
- how to change into your "professional image", this is a major barrier for (some) women that need to wear a certain work attire, makeup, hair do. I am a woman, if I had to wear office clothes I would find it quite difficult to commute exclusively by bike.
- the availability of a safe cycling route to the places one wants to ride
- the need of transporting family members

All of those are also obstacles, but apart from needing shower/changing facilities at the office, not ones most people who are thinking about cycle commuting (and aren't otherwise already cyclists) are that likely to think of.

Am I an "outlier" just because I don't like driving?

An outlier for preferring cycling to driving,certainly.

I suspect most of those being aggressive to cycles don't actually like driving, and that is part of why they get so angry.

 

[classic33]

Am I missing something regarding commuting?

I don't know about you guys but when I've been out on my bike I sweat quite a bit and I'm pretty knackered after as well. But that doesn't matter because I jump in the shower when I get home and chillax afterwards.

But if that ride would have been a commute to work, with maybe no shower/changing facilities there, then does that mean that a lot of cycling commuters start their day at work all sweaty and knackered!

I wouldn't like to start my day at work like that.

I did split shifts, working outside.
So being willing to cycle to an out of the way location(No public transport) at unsociable hours was seen a plus.
Once the work started, there was little chance of stopping until finished. You might have been able to snatch a drink, but that had to be done without interrupting the work.

 

[mickle]

I have been saying for years that the cycling industry as a whole has been pushing it as a leisure activity for years (and the pandemic created the perfect opportunity for this as you say). Problem is that it isn't really, it is more the preserve of commuting (alternative transport) or serious enthusiasts. There really isn't much middle ground with cycling.

My main gripe is that so many manufacturers used the post pandemic boom to ramp up prices; bikes, clothing, components. The problem was that the short term leisure consumer would always drift away and the long term cyclist (most of us on here I would guess) tend to resent the years of price gouging. As a result we are now seeing an industry with serious long term financial decline in effect.

The UK cycle industry has been selling people the wrong bikes for decades. And I'm as guilty as the next former bike shop employee. When I started the default was either a 'racer' or a 'tourer' (because tourers can do anything). Then mountain bikes appeared on the scene and we sold everyone a mountain bike (because mountain bikes can do anything - if you fit slick tyres). The issue is that 99% of bike industry people, from bike shop workers upwards, are cycling enthusiasts and we wanted to sell the kind of bikes that WE were excited about, not what actually met our customers needs. I feel ashamed of myself actually. We were blinded by out own biases. What most of them needed was a simple, upright, robust, inexpensive 7/8/9 speed with luggage options and mudguards. What we convinced them they needed was complex, racy, fragile, expensive 21/24/27 speeds with knobbly tyres. In doing so I believe we put utility cycling back a couple of decades.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

The trouble is that cycling enthusiasts look for reasons why you can make a bike a practical transport alternative to cars or public transport, but selling that to people who simply don't like cycling other than a spin round to park with kids or grandkids on a sunny bank holiday won't wash. And they comprise most of the population.

 

[blackrat]

Because they are seen as obstacles to somebody starting out.

We know better, but we are mostly keen cyclists.



All of those are also obstacles, but apart from needing shower/changing facilities at the office, not ones most people who are thinking about cycle commuting (and aren't otherwise already cyclists) are that likely to think of.



An outlier for preferring cycling to driving,certainly.

I suspect most of those being aggressive to cycles don't actually like driving, and that is part of why they get so angry.

Out on a walk today chatting to a lady with two rescued dogs which she had found abandoned (just about everyone around here have adopted rescued dogs, me included) we got around to discuss people's attitudes and why they are so anti everything. I remarked that I can't understand why everyone is so angry these days. I suspect anger is a result of not being able to control much about one's life or environment and as an example on this discussion, if you sit inside a car going no where and a cyclist comes along on the outside, anger at that person is the one emotion that is available to you that can actually personify your impotence at everything going on in the world. We are simply the catalyst for desperately unhappy people to unload their frustrations. Think of it as providing a public service.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Am I missing something regarding commuting?

I don't know about you guys but when I've been out on my bike I sweat quite a bit and I'm pretty knackered after as well. But that doesn't matter because I jump in the shower when I get home and chillax afterwards.

But if that ride would have been a commute to work, with maybe no shower/changing facilities there, then does that mean that a lot of cycling commuters start their day at work all sweaty and knackered!

I wouldn't like to start my day at work like that.

On the old Bikeradar forum there was a guy who was strapped for training time and considering using his 10 mile morning commute to do racing intervals. With no showers at his workplace we pointed out that turning up for work sweaty and knackered each morning may not be the best start to his working day!

 

[Brandane]

If one really wanted to cycle commute

That's the crux of the matter though, is it not? If one REALLY wanted to cycle commute.
But there aren't many people who REALLY want to cycle commute, and the weather and hills are contributory factors as to why they really DON'T want to cycle commute.