You see I love my bikes; I really, really do. Currently I own Fingal,Max, Peregrine, Blackbird, Shackleton and Bob the Yak. Fingal is a 50cm Orbit Harrier with century aero bars and more lights than you can shake a stick at. Max is a Specialized Hard Rock I bought for towing the trailer around and who is a solid little beast that is surprisingly nippy. Peregrine is a Pinarello Galileo with Chorus Groupset and carbon Record Ergos who likes jumping up hills. Blackbird is a rescued Raleigh Sun Solo I built up as a fixed wheel, currently running on a 67" gear with contemporary Cinnelli bars and a brutal Goldtech chainring. Finally, for the moment, there's Shackleton: a long-held desire come true in the shape of an On-One Il Pompino singlespeed. He's currently awaiting conversion to fixed.
It's not all about cycling for pleasure, although cycling is always a pleasure. It's about what the Booze Monkey refers to as velocivangelism (good grief). It's all about the sick, perverted pleasure of whizzing past lines of fuming traffic, laughing at the drivers (referred to as "cagers" by the denizens of urbancyclist-uk) trapped inside metal boxes getting more and more stressed as they fight the traffic, never for one instant letting it cross their minds that they are the cause of the traffic.
I have watched mothers pack two children of indeterminate age into an MPV or SUV and transport them all of 200m to school in the morning, coughing out fumes from the exhaust, all the worse for the fact that the engine hasn't even had time to warm up by the time they have to stop. I have stood in utter bemused horror, remembering that I used to walk two miles or so to school, by myself from the age of about 6, as they block the road, parking beside the road in areas where there should be no parking, and then complain to other nodding parents about the horrendous traffic problems.
It's so bloody unnecessary. It's stupid. Worse than that, it's practically negligent.
Dammit, I'm ranting, and this is supposed to be the introduction bit where you find out what is in this section. But you can see what is here from the menu on the side there, so this is as good an introduction as any.
Just one thing; some of the essays and rants in here you might have seen on the front page if you are a regular reader of Singularity. Some you might have seen in Impressions and some you might have seen at UC-UK or Bicyling Advocacy. You don't have to read them again if you don't want to. This is definitely a growth sector of the website - there are only so many hours in the day, but it's about time someone dealt with some of the thornier issues of cycling: like what do you if it's that time of the month and you don't like tampons (after much experimentation: deal with tampons because moon cups are even worse); the difficulties in finding a saddle that fits if one is a female who is generously endowed in the flaps department (an ongoing dilemma); the use of one's breasts in the fight against on-road discrimination (skin-tight silver lycra helps enormously). There are girly bike sites out there, but I haven't seen anyone addressing these life-altering questions. I am here to redress the balance.
