Some cities, for example, New York, have right-of-way laws for cyclists. These laws together with proper bike lanes reduce the dangers on urban riding. We certainly do not have those laws and the majority of our urban riding is done on roads without bike lanes, hence the reason why South Africans do not commute to work.

A great example of a city promoting cycling is Copenhagen, who together with bike advocacy group ibikecph have installed a simple, low-tech fix that makes riding in the famously bike-friendly city even easier. The idea is a pair of railings, one low, one high, for cyclists stopped at intersections to balance on. You grab one and rest your foot on the other, so you can push off faster when the light turns green instead of rolling slowly through traffic fumbling with your pedals. The text reads: “Hi, cyclist! Rest your foot here… and thank you for cycling in the city.”

Hand and foot rest

Commuting made easy, except for the snow!

Ride around any city enough and you’ll take to balancing on signposts (in Copenhagen they’re rumored to be rubbed smooth by so many cyclists’ hands). These new railings play right into that behavior, but make it easier and safer, a great example of a city adjusting its infrastructure to what cyclists naturally do.

The Light Lane

Another concept I came across is The Light Lane, which allows any bike rider to project a traffic lane around them. This technology uses a cheap lasers to project a lane around the rider. Of course, it only works at night and lets face it, riding around our cities at night is not the safest thing to do nowadays. It does look affective though.

Everybody is welcome, no matter what bike you ride. Its a great opportunity to meet like minded people with a love for cycling and commuting.

Tomorrow, being the last Friday of October is Critcal Mass time in Cape Town.  If you are keen to join, meet at the Baxter (Main Rd, Rondebosch) at 06:45. The group rides at a very civilised pace along lower main rd into town where the 2nd group is met at the CTICC at 07:15. The ride then carries on through to the Waterfront and Seapoint where you can either make your way to work or stop for a cup of coffee. There is usually a group heading back to Southern Suburbs if you need to ride back. Enjoy!

A fixed geared bike (or fixie) is a bicycle that has no freewheel, meaning that it cannot coast and the pedals are always in motion when the bicycle is moving. When riding a fixe a cyclist can stop without using a brake , by resisting the rotation of the cranks (easier said than done), and also ride in reverse.

Fixed geared bikes have always been used by track cyclists racing around velodromes but nowadays more and more are being used on our roads, a phenomenon started by bike couriers around the world.

I am a fixie rider and love commuting to work. Having been lucky enough to have traveled to both Portland and San Francisco in USA where the fixie culture is huge, I have noticed some serious trends in the fashion worn by the riders both there and here locally. This includes the snug fitting classic cycling hats worn by the European pros, really tight jeans, a big across – the – shoulder style bag and alarmingly, no helmut. It turns out that I seriously need to look into changing my wardrobe if I am wanting to fit in. Lycra and fixies just dont work!

The majority of the bikes I have seen have absolutely no brakes, which looks awesome and together with the single gear keeps the maintenance down to a bear minimum. I however have kept my rear brake on for emergency stops. This is partly because I cant skid properly yet and my route to work has some really steep downhills to negotiate.

Getting back to the fashion, I think it looks cool and can only hope to part of the in crowd one day…. with my helmut on of course. Some of the more traditional cyclists say that fixies riders are posers and that riding a fixie is bad for your knees etc, each to their own, but I reckon its because they dont believe in the power of the skinny jeans.

Fixies are fantastic. Each bike is unique, customized to the finest detail and most importantly, simple. The trendy crew that ride these bikes are equally unique and from my experience are super friendly.

My first challenge to you is to start commuting to work, whether on a fixie or not. And secondly, try riding a fixie. If you enjoy it, which I promise you will, either buy one or recycle one of your old road bikes that are lying around. The conversion is pretty easy and its a fun project to take on.

Yours in commuting