Life Cycle
by Geoff Maxted

Surely one of life's greater pleasures is spinning the wheels out over our glorious countryside, drinking it in as tracks and lanes meander before us across billowing fields and hills, flecked with sheep and bathed in dappled sunlight. Well, it would be if only it stopped raining. Yet despite the national pastime of agonising about the weather there must be other reasons why only 2% of journeys in this country are made by bike. More than 10% of trips in Sweden -- hardly balmy itself in the weather stakes -- and Germany are on two wheels. The Danish, who know their bacon, manage 18%, and the Dutch are off the scale in their pancake flat lands.

Sport may be one reason. Cycling and cycle racing have been popular in Europe since the nineteenth century. It's a well known fact, for example, that in France baguettes are made long and thin for ease of tying to the top tube when shopping. In Italy, when the football season ends, the tifosi turn their attention to the road. But in the UK mountain biking is perceived as a pastime for yobs, and road racing is considered an oddity; a strange string of lean men on skinny bikes flashing by, if you'll excuse the expression. Yet, in that typically perverse British way, over two million people lined the roadside to watch the spectacle of the Tour de France when it last visited our shores. You figure it out.

Then there's the 'not on my land, you don't' syndrome. I don't want to get into it here; there has already been enough tired bickering on the subject, and matters do seem to be moving forward. But allow me one example: At a water sports centre in the South West, when I enquired about facilities for a family cycling day around the lake as recently as May this year, I was told that bikes were banned 'because they cause erosion'. I mean, if you followed that line of reasoning you'd never leave home, would you? Let's face it, every time we take a step we presumably crush a micro-biosphere.

The American trail organisation IMBA has the right answer: "The bottom line is that a well maintained trail will stand up to heavy use." IMBA's study of trail sediment yield (directly related to erosion) showed that bikers and hikers caused very little damage in any conditions, yet still this old specious chestnut is trotted out as an excuse -- and by a centre for sporting pleasures. Sustrans, Forest Enterprise and the sterling efforts of equestrian Mary Towneley on the Pennine Bridleway, for example, show how it can be done. I can't really see that bikes could possibly be responsible for a poxed and toxic future.

I think the answer lies within ourselves. Actor and mountaineer Brian Blessed recently quoted: "The world is there to be explored and adventure is the key, because without adventure we die..", and I think that's it. A ride around an unknown lake may not seem like much of an adventure to you, but to a five year old on a tag-along, it's an exciting experience.

And what about you? Yes, you there, glued to the screen. How much time do you put into savouring your existence when the mortal tumult of life and work gives you a break?

With all the media hype and flickering inducements to try and buy a manufactured way of life perhaps it's time to get your priorities in order before living becomes just a suburban hell.

What trails have you ridden this month? Cycling allows you to discover again that certain freedom, whether it's across the Pennine Bridleway or a quick trip to the supermarket. The weather doesn't matter. You reach a point when you can't get any wetter and then you get dry again. The 'land use' priorities will get sorted out if we keep our voices heard.

The truth is out there on shifting singletrack deep in green forests; on shardy granite tracks across our remaining primordial places and on the rural lanes and byways waiting patiently to be discovered. Trail biking isn't just the preserve of lycra clad youth like some sort of anti-culture, it's something the whole family can enjoy for little expense. We may be seduced by shiny, fully sprung aluminium harlots beckoning to us from bike shop windows, but the fact is there's nothing inherently wrong with a triangular steel bike frame and a rigid fork.

Biking is about seeing the world from a different perspective; an escape from grey government and boring business; from the shop floor and the high rise. It's about pitting yourself against yourself and winning; forgetting, for a while, the hassles of modern life. Bills are for tomorrow. If you're not already addicted it may be, that after the first few turns of the cranks, you will hear the call and, converted, at the end of your ride the sound you'll hear is your own elemental heart applauding.

© Geoff Maxted
Maximum Mountain Bike