The Dublin Transportation Office have mapped Dublin’s cycle lanes on their site here. According to DTO director John Henry:
We hope the maps which show on-road and off-road routes, will help persuade non-cyclists to venture out on their bikes for the first time and they might encourage experienced cyclists to try out new parts of Dublin when out for a cycle.
Further to the continuing discussion taking place on this here blog about what (or what not to) wear while cycling, I feel compelled to write about a specific aspect of this general debate which, it seems, has become rather preeminent of late - the general idea of “cycle chic”.
“Cycle chic” has become a phenomenon to the extent that it now has its own Wikipedia entry, which informs us that the phrase was apparently first coined in 2007 by the guy that runs Copenhagen Cycle Chic. Since then it’s inspired London Cycle Chic, Velo Vogue, and a Californian version, RidingPretty, among others. There’s a Canadian Cycle Chic too, though it seems that they have a rather different view of what constitutes cycling chic to those in Copenhagen, the west coast and London.
At a basic level, the cycle chic idea is about encouraging people to cycle by portraying cycling as an activity and a mode of transport that can be stylish as well as practical. As the masthead of Copenhagen Cycle Chic states, it’s about showing “normal people in normal clothes on normal bikes”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, cycle chic is overwhelmingly concerned with female cyclists, and websites devoted to it are full of Sartorialist-style images of ladies in la-di-swish outfits on often quite la-di-swish bikes. Of late, however, cycle chic has moved from various blogs and websites into the pages of fashion magazines, largely thanks to the oft-published photos of British model Agyness Deyn pedalling a (very lovely) black vintage bicycle around New York while wearing a tiny miniskirt and ludicrous pair of heels. As a result, the fashion pages of several celebrity magazines recently contained features devoted to cycling, discussing everything from the best old-fashioned tartan box-bags to sit on your back pannier to which cruiser was the cutest for going on gentle cycles around the local park.
I am not a cycling puritan, before you ask. Quite the opposite, in fact. After all, when choosing my bike I insisted on a step-through frame so I could continue to wear skirts while cycling, and had to get a basket for the front to carry my handbag. And it’s clear that the idea of cycle chic potentially has a great deal of positive outcomes. If it encourages more women to become regular cyclists, then I’m all for it. Some cycle chic sites are not just about the style, with sections devoted to safety and good bike practice. Moreover, aside from not being a cycling puritan I’m also a girl with a penchant for fashion, and I have to admit that some of the items I’ve seen discussed on cycle chic websites have definitely tickled my fancy. That’s you, floral pannier bags.
However, there’s something just off about cycle chic, to my mind. Firstly, there’s the bizarre presumption that some of the people behind these sites seem to make that they, and the other cyclists they feature, are in a minority by dint of the fact that they wear ‘normal’ clothes when they cycle. The author of London Cycle Chic states that she “refuses to be another Lycra clad anorak”. It’s as if the majority of day-to-day cyclists go around looking as if they’re ready to take on the Alpe d’Huez, convinced that you simply cannot so much as consider getting on a bike if you aren’t togged out from head to foot in body-hugging fabric.
This, based on personal experience of cycling in Dublin and Paris, and seeing cyclists in London, is utter nonsense. The overwhelming majority of commuting cyclists wear their normal clothes while cycling. Today, for example, I made my journey into work wearing exactly what I had planned to wear in work - a denim skirt, flat pumps, red jumper and white blouse. If only there’d been a cycle chic advocate nearby. Right now I could be gracing the front page of one of their sites, being held up as a model of retro cycle chic in an ocean of sweaty lycra and plastic.
And yet, sometimes sweaty plastic is the only way to go. Tomorrow, it being Dublin, it could be absolutely bucketing down outside - but I’ve still got to get on the bike. So it’s on with the day-glo yellow waterproof trousers, the pink and black waterproof jacket, and the equally day-glo backpack cover. It’s an ensemble that would send most cycle chic types into fits of disgust, but it keeps me (mostly) dry.
The problem is that cycle chic doesn’t seem to recognise the fact that if you’re a serious daily cyclist, sometimes - no matter how stylish you are - you have got to dress badly in order to stave off the elements. Otherwise you just end up miserable and dripping wet. Its refusal to acknowledge the possibility of having to cycle in heavy rain, or other adverse conditions, suggests that the idea of cycle chic is inherently lacking when it comes to the basic practicalities of being a cyclist. And don’t get me started on its belief that one can cycle safely in very high heels.
Moreover, the condemnation of lycra and anoraks and unflattering waterproof gear ensures that cycle chic remains, for all its “Hey! Let’s All Bedeck Our Bikes With Flowers And Go Cycling While Wearing High Heels!” cheeriness, essentially snobby and exclusive. You get the feeling that, as I noted above, many cycle chic advocates would (having first suppressed their initial urge to throw up) have to resist the urge to push me off my bike if I whizzed past while dressed as Waterproof Woman. Perhaps this snotty attitude - however unintentional - is simply par for the course when one deals with ideas inspired by the unashamedly toffee-nosed world of fashion.
Ex-Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne is also a cyclist, and a multimedia artist - some of the bike racks he designed are in various locations around Manhattan. See them here.
Last week I got some money, and invested it in some new lights for my bike. Raiding Thinkbike in Rathmines (formerly Commuting Solutions [formerly the Rathmines Bike Shop]), I picked up a replacement simple rear red light, a dangly sort of flashing red medallion thing that hangs off your backpack, and a 5-LED white lamp for the front handlebars. Previously I’d been getting through the winter with a couple of old LED lights that, in hindsight, were pretty weak - and most likely not really visible in lowlight conditions. I’m most excited about the front light: its beam is strong, which probably means being able to see the road when cycling down unlit lanes and the like.
I’ve always deplored late night cycling without any lights (and have only done it once or twice when I’ve left lights behind or they weren’t working) but really what makes you visible - the first thing a motorist sees - late at night are hi-vis jackets. Those things really leap out in low-light conditions. Obviously, the ideal is to combine all the visiblity measures.
So I’m all prepared - the only problem is the evenings aren’t quite dark enough yet. Soon.
Tomorrow, I’ll temporarily cease being a cyclist. Just for tomorrow, mind. My bike’s going on yet another visit to the bike shop due to yet another bloody broken spoke.
Aaaargh.
This is the fourth broken spoke I’ve had in as many months. An average of one broken spoke a month is not good - noone else I’ve spoken to *pun intended* about this problem has ever suffered as many (if, indeed, they’ve ever had a broken spoke at all). I found this latest casualty when I was parking the bike today. I could take it to the UCD bike shop and have it fixed, of course - but I get the feeling that the problem would just happen again. So, depending on the advice I get from the mechanic tomorrow, it’s a new rear wheel for me, and a slightly emptier pocket.
With every spoke that breaks I wonder what I’m doing wrong. I love my bike (the older, silver version of this) dearly, but it’s clear that the spokes don’t love me back. I moved house in April, and have been making much longer cycle journeys since then. The law of averages means, naturally, that more cycling = more chance of damage. There are some poor road surfaces along my route, too - Leinster Road, with its tarmac caving in under the weight of SUVs ploughing up and down it, being a case in point. But other people cycle these routes and cycle for the same distances as I do, and they don’t have this recurring problem.
I pondered whether the persistent spoke breaking was due to weight on the bike, but it seems that you’d have to be fairly overweight to put the sort of pressure on a back wheel that breaks spokes. I don’t ride the bike very hard, as far as I can tell - although I do admit to hopping off pavements from time to time. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I’ve read that not trueing the wheel properly after replacing a spoke can just continue to weaken the structure of the spokes and the wheel - but after the last spoke repair, my wheel came out of the workshop straight as a die.
And yet, my spokes are still giving up on me. At this stage I’m of the opinion that it’s bad bike karma, visited upon me as a result of the frustrated kick I once delivered to the tyre of the bike abandoned on the rack outside our offices, taking up valuable parking space and making it difficult for me to park my bike properly. Perhaps a final sacrifice to the bicycle gods of my hard-earned cash and my old back wheel will be enough to appease them.
Today’s Tour of Ireland stage took the riders 200k from Ballinrobe to Galway, via Louisburgh, Westport, Leenane and Connemara, with several climbs along the way. Yesterday Mark Cavendish added to his win in Waterford on Wednesday with a perfectly timed sprint finish in Loughrea - and today he’s made it three stage victories out of three, winning in Galway. Shane Stokes’ detailed account of the stage is available on Irish Cycling.
Today’s win bucked the predictions being made during the television coverage of the race yesterday, with most commentators agreeing that the Manx sprinter would find today’s course significantly more difficult and expecting to see the climbers coming to the fore.
Thus far, the Tour of Ireland has been really enjoyable - Wednesday’s and yesterday’s stages were of great quality, and each stage route has been well chosen. The late night TV coverage on RTE 2 (or ITV4, depending on your preference) has been great (and has nicely filled the gaping hole in my daily schedule previously occupied by TG4’s excellent Tour de France nightly highlights). However, the attitude of the national media towards the race has tended to make the Tour of Ireland feel a bit like some sort of occult gathering, known only to a small, select group of initiates.
Take sports bulletins on radio news, for example. I listen to Today FM in the mornings, and I have as yet still to hear so much as a mention of the Tour during their regular sports bulletins. Golf, snooker, changes in the captaincy of the Leinster rugby team (!) - they’re all covered. A challenging, competitive cycling event featuring some of the best known cyclists and cycling teams in the world, taking place on our doorsteps?
Not a whiff of it. RTE features a brief update on the result of each stage on nightly television news bulletins, but neglects to mention the fact that they’re screening extended highlights of the race later. The sports section of their news site is worse. Although Cavendish won the first stage at around 3:50pm on Wednesday, by 5:00pm RTE still hadn’t updated their sports headlines page to inform readers of the result.
As it happens, it fell to Karl of this very blog to get them to put something up. It’s not like it’s hard to find out who won. For the benefit of the RTE sports news people, though, who have obviously missed this, there are live daily updates from the Tour here. Yes! Live updates just a click of a mouse away! Technology is amazing, isn’t it? They haven’t learned their lesson, either. Their coverage of “Friday’s Live Sport” includes golf, snooker and the Eircom League. That’s all.
Now, here’s the thing. I know that the Tour of Ireland is not, in the eyes of most people, considered as a significant sporting event on a par with, say, the World Cup or something. But the fact remains that it is an international sporting event, featuring internationally renowned riders, and it is happening in Ireland, right now. So why aren’t the various organs of the national (and international, seeing as the BBC don’t have anything about it on their cycling news page) media giving it a bit more attention? It’s ridiculous to argue that the reason is that no one cares about cycling.
Lots of people care about cycling. Lots of people ride a bike every day, be it for commuting purposes or for pleasure. Lots of people spend their weekends taking their bike up and down hills, or out to the sea, or around the Phoenix Park. And those are just the non-competitive cyclists. Then there are the non-cyclists who enjoy the spectacle of competitive racing, be it road or track.
The key players in competitive cycling clearly think the Tour of Ireland is a worthwhile endeavour. Otherwise, teams like Columbia and Garmin Chipotle wouldn’t be here and wouldn’t be fielding some of their most important riders. So why can’t the media see it like that?
An article in today’s Irish Times - that appears to lean quite heavily on recent debates held on this blog - takes a comparative look at cycling in Dublin and Copenhagen, where apparently nobody wears helmets and everyone cycles aesthetically pleasing bikes. Why can’t we do the same in Dublin? Perhaps if we just ditch the unfashionable helmets and high-vis jackets motorists will cease to use cyclists for target practice. This argument closely follows a recent, much-quoted piece of research that essentially says cars go closer to cyclists who look like they might bounce comfortably off their windscreens like Tellytubbies rather than splat messily across them like a gnat, thus placing the responsibility squarely with the cyclist. Justin Mason has pointed out that it’s not as simple as it seems to wear ordinary clothes on a bike, concluding that a safer road environment is necessary to ‘Copenhagenize’ Dublin, and that ultimately it ‘takes dedication - and lots of wet weather gear - to ride a bike here.’
Today’s stage of the Tour of Ireland is over - Mark Cavendish won it in Waterford about an hour ago. (See the live text updates from the race here.) Highlights are on RTE 2 tonight at 11.15pm.
The first stage of the Tour of Ireland kicked off in Dublin about an hour ago. I’ve just come back from filming some of it down at the Montrose flyover with my friend Neilo, and will post the footage later (with a commentary about how close we were to so much expensive cycling gear, and how tempting it’d be to lift it. Ahem). The first stage runs from Dublin to Waterford, and will be followed by another four stages up until 31st August. The guys on the Garmin/Chipotle blog have described the Irish conditions as ‘Wet, windy and lumpy.’ Check out their blog, and, if you can make it to one of the stages, get out there and lend some support!
Rider David Millar’s blog is here.
Dublin Bike News
Karl
Laura