A Good Read #2
Scotsman Cycling Column
Many newspapers have a motoring section aimed at readers who require 4 wheels to ambulate. Edinburgh's morning paper, the Scotsman, is to be praised for introducing a weekly cycling column. The writer, Donald Smith, introduced his Cycle Clips column last month with a paradox. While around half the adult population own a bicycle, only about 2% of us cycle to work. Subsequent articles have gone on to encourage more of us to do so in Donald Smith's friendly approachable writing style. Although his Cycle Clips are published by an Edinburgh paper, his articles are relevant to cyclists everywhere. Take his topical 4 November Cycle Clip: Come rain, sleet or snow
'... Wet weather is easily rebuffed with a waterproof jacket and trousers. If you add in a pair of waterproof gloves then you can arrive at your destination barely damp about the edges. And the strange thing is that however horrible it looks out the window when you are setting off, however much it feels as if you are stepping into a cold shower, once you are out in the thick of things, snug within your wet-weather gear, it no longer seems all that bad. You are dry and you soon warm up and become jauntily impervious to the insults of the weather. Instead, it's the car drivers you feel sorry for, stuck inside their stuffy boxes, reluctant to get out and make a dash for shelter in their ill-prepared clothing.
Frosty weather brings a different challenge. If you are pedalling along at a modest 20km/h then the additional wind chill will make it feel about five degrees nippier. Waterproofs do a good job of keeping out the cold wind. For softies add a big woolly scarf around the neck with the tails spread out over your chest. Ears are trickier. Hoods, earmuffs or anything that interrupts your hearing are bad news on a bicycle. So, for that matter, are iPods and the like. It's not fair, but as a cyclist you have to be proactive in avoiding danger. Whoever's fault an accident is, you are the one who is going to get hurt. You need to hear the click of the car door that's about to open in your path, the revs of a car backing out of a driveway, the rumble of a juggernaut on your tail.
A compromise for headgear is a light-weight "buff" - essentially an open-fronted Balaclava - that keeps your head, ears and neck warm, but lets most of the sound through.'
You can read Donald Smith's Cycle Clips every Saturday in the Scotsman. You can check his previous articles on their website (you might have to log on, but that should only take a minute).
