Bike Everywhere!

I just got back from the supermarket (oh, yeah, this blog post has nothing to do with writing or books by the way!) It was roughly a forty quid weekly shop from Lidl; so, unlike Waitrose where you’d be lucky if forty quid stretched to a couple of apples and a packet of chewing gum, I actually came away with a decent sized haul. There is very little that is remarkable about all of this except for the fact that, when I emerged from the supermarket, unlike the hordes of grockles that had descended on the shop to clear the shelves of sausages and burgers, I wasn’t loading my supermarket spoils into the boot of a car, but onto the back of a push bike.

This is the second time I have done this in the last month—the entire weekly shop loaded onto the back of a bike and hauled the two and a half miles back home. Granted, the route home is mostly flat, and I have the benefits of a cycle path that goes almost door to door. The fact that I made it home isn’t particularly impressive, but what I do think is remarkable is how easy it actually was. See, I am the proud owner of an electric bike! One outfitted with a decent pannier rack on the back that allows me to transport a surprising amount of cargo. It is a brilliant piece of kit, and over the last few months it has put in perspective how rarely I actually need a car.

I never used to really like cycling. I always thought it was quite hard. Sure, if you live in the Netherlands than I bet it’s a breeze, but I don’t live in the Netherlands, nor the Southeast of England or the Midlands, where flat lowland planes allow you to coast along with minimal effort. I live in the Southwest, specifically Devon, which, although not quite on par with the Scottish Highlands or Snowdonia, is pretty darn hilly. Every town and village in my surrounding area sits tucked in its own little valley, and in order to get from one to the other it is more or less unavoidable that you are going to have to climb a couple hills along the way. To get back from my parent’s house there is a hill you have to climb that rises 157m from sea level in little over half a mile. The average gradient is about 11%, but there is a section of it that nudges 30%! If these numbers mean nothing to you, just know that its steep. It’s called Peak Hill for heaven’s sake!

So, why on Earth did I decide last year to give up the car and start biking everywhere!? Rewind twelve months or so to the tail end of the first lockdown. The three-year finance agreement on my partner’s car was coming to an end and we were debating what to do about our next vehicle. I am the proud owner of a Mini Cooper, but we cannot carpool into work for the simple reason that our jobs are in completely opposite directions, and so, like the majority of households in Britain, it seemed obvious that we required two vehicles between us. Instead of getting another small supermini, it made sense that our second vehicle should be more family orientated. Kids aren’t exactly on the immediate horizon, but they are certainly someway down the road. At the time however, we were gearing up to get a golden retriever. Given that my day job is as a landscaper, it seemed to make sense that a pickup truck would be a suitable vehicle. Five seats, plenty of space, lots of utility, able to lug around anything and everything, and capable on the one day every few years when snow falls across Devon, bringing the rest of the county grinding to a halt. Aside from that, the whole americana pickup adventure lifestyle seems pretty cool. I’m still in love with the idea of chucking a load of stuff in the bed and just heading out camping for the weekend.

So, why am I writing a blog post about the joys of cycling rather than cruising in a pickup truck? Well, there was something about it all that just didn’t quite sit right. It was probably more money than I could afford, and it felt like we were forcing things to happen sooner than we needed them. I could tell my partner’s heart wasn’t in it either, so we decided to hold fire. The finance deal on our second vehicle was still nearly up, so whilst we decided on what we were doing, I decided to borrow my brother’s bike for a couple weeks and let my partner use the Mini for her commute.

I have to lug around quite a lot of kit for work, so my commute sees me load up a set of panniers and a saddle bag on the back of a bike, but in spite of this, and the hills I have to climb, I quite enjoyed the rides in an out of work in the weeks that followed. Now, I’m actually pretty fit at the moment; I can comfortably run six-minute miles, sub forty 10ks and on a good day I can pull off a sub nineteen-minute 5k. I probably clock up twelve to fifteen miles running in a week, but back last summer I was actually running further. Even still, I’ll admit, cycling uphill is rubbish, especially when you are weighed down by panniers and saddlebags. I wanted to ride to more places and be less dependent on a car to get around, but equally, I didn’t want to arrive everywhere out of breath and sweaty. So, knowing I couldn’t borrow my brother’s bike indefinitely, I bought an electric bike.

About eight months on, I can pretty comfortably say that it is possibly the best purchase I have ever made. I no longer pay for petrol. Car insurance and road tax is shared with my partner for the one vehicle we have between us, and given that we own the Mini outright, there is no monthly finance payment. We’ve saved a boat load of money, and that’s just in eight months!

I can now smugly say that I’ve got a pretty tiny carbon footprint by the standard of most Britons, and I am the fittest I’ve ever been. But, honestly, the greatest benefit is probably to my mental wellbeing. I no longer get stressed out by pensioners and tourists pottering along at twenty miles an hour in front of me whilst I’m on my way to work. I get to enjoy a serene ride along a wooded cycleway, along which I can watch the sunrise at the right time of year. I listen to audiobooks throughout my ride, so that keeps me entertained, and when you arrive at work having already had twenty minutes of light exercise, you feel amazing for it!

Its pedal assist, so if you aren’t turning the pedals with your feet, you won’t go anywhere—it’s not a free ride, but the motor on the bike has three levels of assistance, so you can make it as easy or as difficult as you want it to be! Plus, you can just turn it off and cruise along on your own steam. Often, I take it easy on the way in in the morning and then put in the effort and work up a sweat on the way home. With panniers on I reckon I probably get about thirty odd miles out of the battery, but with them off, on the flat I reckon I can get way more than the supposed sixty-mile range. The battery unclips from the downtube so I can take it inside to charge, which takes probably a few hours from zero to full and costs mere pence!

Sure, when it’s hammering down with rain it can be a little bit miserable and there were a few frigid rides in the heart of winter, but honestly that doesn’t really bother me too much because I’ve got the right clothing. It’s the wet and cold days anyhow that make the sunshine and rainbow sunshine and rainbows!

I still drive around when I’m with my partner, and mostly I do use the car for the weekly shop, but it’s nice to know I’m not dependant on my car to get anywhere. Bar transporting bulky items or journeying up country, my bike is fit for purpose for about 99% of all the journeys I make.

I don’t expect everyone who reads this to give up their car, but if even a small part of you is tempted, then definitely give it a try! The more places I ride to, the more places I want to ride to. Who’d have guessed that riding a bike was actually pretty fun!?