Boots & Spurs

I am not a natural sportsman but despite a bookish nature I embraced cycling in lockdown. I also signed up to be a member of Clarion in part because of the insurance but mainly due to its illustrious history as a left leaning cycling group.

My vehicle of choice is a Pashley Royal Mail Postal Bike (c/o cycleofgood.com/elephant-bike/) . Clocking in at a mere 23 kilos (twice the weight of my father's bike), a princely three gears (slow, less slow, and fast...ish), and fashioned from steel (the only contact with carbon fibre it is likely to have had is through crushing a more modern bike in a collision) it hardly stands as an elegant mode of transport for a more civilised age.

Yet it suits me well. The step through frame, the broad seat, the prodigious carrying capacity courtesy of the pannier rack and capacious front basket mount (although in the interests of full disclosure I have foregone the delightful wicker basket it came with as a tad too 'vicary' and instead utilise a collapsible crate in its stead). All work as one to deliver something of a ‘Hobbit’ bike. It is reliable, unassuming and comfortable – all I have asked of it. 

Not least of which being cycling down to the RMT pickets on the occasion of the recent rail strikes. The aforementioned capacious basket was put to good use carrying a consignment of The People's Greggs for those on the picket line. I wear my politics on my sleeve and indeed atop my head as my helmet is adorned with stickers acquired from the fine people at the Trade Union Football and Alcohol Committee (tufac.org.uk) declaring my anti-fascist intent as well as a penchant for the odd beer. The piece is rounded off with the images of James Connolly and 'Big' Jim Larkin adorning the Red Flag. It is not, I grant you, a subtle piece of apparel. If we are to embrace the legacy of the Clarion Cycling Club let it be done by using our bikes to support those on strike.

Mine is not a bike (or cycling style) suited necessarily to a commute (too unwieldy for the train) or for a Time Trial (it being the weight of two other bikes) but it is admirably suited for the shopping run, taking the air, and indeed small acts of solidarity. We follow in the tyre tracks of those that went before so get on your bike and look for a picket to support. Workers of the world unite - you have nothing to lose but the snags in your bicycle chains.