On Your Bike

Hello there fellow Grump's.

Cycling. It's a healthy, cheap and largely easy way to get around  and Harrogate lends itself pretty well to cycling and it can be as quick as taking the car on most days.  Quite a lot of people cycle around town from kids to commuters to serious cyclist who compete in races and wear the tightest Lycra of all.

I myself am a cyclist and cycle for much-needed exercise and to see the beauty of the countryside surrounding our lovely town.  I should reassure you at this point that I don't possess any Lycra-based cycling clothing - it's not a good look for a fat lad.  When I was 10 years old I passed my cycling proficiency test. Now when you're 10, this is a big deal as at the time the lessons were given by a proper road safety officer from the council and the test was taken in front of the local policeman.  I passed with flying colours and learned the basics of bike maintenance, road safety and the Highway Code and to be honest what I learned hasn't left me.  So, I try to be a good cyclist and a good motorist but when in saddle it's easy to see why cyclists and motorists don't get on.

However, the point of this rant is that a great many cyclists aren't really cyclists.  The people who have proper bikes with brakes and lights and a helmet are proper cyclists.  They ride on the road and follow the Highway Code. It is the others that are the subject of this rant. The non-cyclists, the people on bikes who don't give a shit about rules and regulations or pedestrians or motorists or even their own safety.  These are the people that ride on the footpath - the area designated for pedestrians.  Not only that but when they get to a pedestrian crossing they actually press the button and cross when the light turns green. And they ride the wrong way up one-way streets, and in pedestrianised areas.

What kicked this off was a sight I saw last night at 11pm on Skipton Road which made me so mad.  There he was - knob head biker. He was riding on the footpath, with no lights, no helmet, and.....speaking on his mobile phone.  But he's not alone - he has many knob head accomplices in Harrogate.  They don't think the rules apply to them and they don't give a shit.  However, if they get injured or they injure someone else then they're guaranteed to swear it's not their fault.

And what of these bikes that kids have at present with no brakes?  What are their parents thinking of buying them in the first place, and letting them on the road with them?  They are illegal for Christ's sake - why would you allow your child to ride an illegal bike?

So, there we have it - the Grumpy view of cyclists and the lower form of cycling life, knob head biker.  If you see the latter, do give him a little wave and just check he's sitting the right way round on the saddle