The yawning gulf between cyclists and non-cyclists.

[Globalti]

Found myself handing out advice this afternoon to the son of my Pakistan agent, who is in the UK as a student. He has decided 15 minutes is too far for him to walk from halls to college and he wants a car. He's heard from a friend that if you drive on a foreign licence (which he will buy in Karachi) you get cheap insurance.

So there I was disabusing him of a few of his notions and explaining about the importance of insurance and the consequences of having dodgy insurance or fibbing to the insurers, along with a few words on the stupidity of running an old banger.

"So anyway," sez I, " the best thing for someone in your position would be to go and buy a cheap bike!"

Hs shock and disgust were so palpable that even from 200 miles away I could see the sneer on his lips. Bikes are for poor people, not a bright young man around town....

 

[Davidc]

Humanity is doomed.

Mass death from obesity.

 

[CopperCyclist]

Tell him then that he can only drive on a foreign (non EU) licence from one year from point of entry to the country. This doesn't 'reset' between term times if he reasonably expects to return, and it doesn't start from the moment he gets his licence, it's from when he entered.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

Found myself handing out advice this afternoon to the son of my Pakistan agent, who is in the UK as a student. He has decided 15 minutes is too far for him to walk from halls to college and he wants a car. He's heard from a friend that if you drive on a foreign licence (which he will buy in Karachi) you get cheap insurance.

So there I was disabusing him of a few of his notions and explaining about the importance of insurance and the consequences of having dodgy insurance or fibbing to the insurers, along with a few words on the stupidity of running an old banger.

"So anyway," sez I, " the best thing for someone in your position would be to go and buy a cheap bike!"

Hs shock and disgust were so palpable that even from 200 miles away I could see the sneer on his lips. Bikes are for poor people, not a bright young man around town....

Just point him towards the lovely carbon jobbies that cost more than a 5 yr old hatch if he thinks it's for the poor! Lol. My bike and accessories cost more than my car!

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[Ian Cooper]

I always thought that bikes were specifically for 'a bright young person around town', while cars are for angry chav scum, angry rich Jeremy-Clarkson-type scum, people who are too fat or otherwise unfit to cycle, or people who are too stupid to get a home close enough to work to commute by bike.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Without trying to sound funny here, is it just a cultural thing? I mean, back in Pakistan, have his parents been able to drive him round everywhere, whilst the the poorer people he has been told to avoid ride bikes, therefore he really does associate cycling with peasants and other perceived unsavoury types who are out to do nasty things to him?
With the amount of Poverty and unbelievable wealth all in one place, there must be a much wider gulf between the haves and have nots there than here, creating a feeling among some of the middle/upper classes that they really ARE superior? Would being seen with a bike really be so below him? A social prestige thing?


Just a thought and I expect I'll be shot down in flames at any given moment. Nihal, what do you think?

 

[ufkacbln]

From vague memories of being that age, a car is much better if you're on the pull.

... and what is wrong with a tandem?

 

[Globalti]

Without trying to sound funny here, is it just a cultural thing? I mean, back in Pakistan, have his parents been able to drive him round everywhere, whilst the the poorer people he has been told to avoid ride bikes, therefore he really does associate cycling with peasants and other perceived unsavoury types who are out to do nasty things to him?
With the amount of Poverty and unbelievable wealth all in one place, there must be a much wider gulf between the haves and have nots there than here, creating a feeling among some of the middle/upper classes that they really ARE superior? Would being seen with a bike really be so below him? A social prestige thing?
Just a thought and I expect I'll be shot down in flames at any given moment. Nihal, what do you think?

You're spot on of course, but I was hoping that after nearly a year living in the UK the lad would have absorbed at least some of the student culture and way of thinking. However it seems that there are students and there are students.....

 

[defy-one]

My parents are from India,came here to work and eventually settle in the late 50's
Cycling up until 1990 was the standard mode of travel for short journeys,after that came the scooter or motorbike,in the last 10 years or so the car has become affordable to even middle income families and the bike is no longer seen as a mode of transport for anyone but the poor. I imagine it's similar in Pakistan

 

[Mike5537]

Tell him he is wrong about the insurance, I work for several well known insurance companies and if you have a foreign license the price is crazy, they are rarely accepted by most underwriters and the ones that do charge thousands! With what he would pay for insurance over the year he could buy himself a Madone!

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[Dan151]

My bike cost more than my car!

 

[ColinJ]

From vague memories of being that age, a car is much better if you're on the pull.

Not if you are trying to pull a cyclist! I know lots of couples who got together through cycling ...

 

[Crackle]

... and what is wrong with a tandem?

You're limited to girls called Daisy

 

[Night Train]

Without trying to sound funny here, is it just a cultural thing?

Possibly. Both here and in other countries there are groups of people who, culturally, look at material assets as a symbol of wealth and success. The cost of the asset isn't always related to its value or worth.

My parents grew up seeing bicycles as something poor people used because they couldn't afford a car, both as children in the far east and as young adults in the UK.
Even now they only really see cycling as something children do, or adults do for 5 minutes for a bit of a laugh and some fun, and not as a mode of transport for any purpose if you can afford a car. They also see a bicycle that costs more then, say £100, to be a waste of money and a foolish extravagance. They humour me when I say I am out on the bike. My Dad has a bike and the extents of his cycling would be up and down the road outside for a laugh.

 

[tyred]

From vague memories of being that age, a car is much better if you're on the pull.

Indeed. A car has a nice comfy back seat and can inconveniently run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere