42 Bikes

On being first!

My LarryVsHarry Bullitt Clockwork is not only my first “proper” cargobike but I think it is proving to be much more significant than that.

It seems that for nearly everyone around Syston and wider Leicester it is the first cargobike they have ever seen.  I find this strange as we have seen, known and ridden a wide variety of bikes over the years. Have so few people really been to the Netherlands or to Copenhagen?

So far as cycle advocacy is concerned it appears that simply riding around on a Bullitt might be doing more to show an alternative to cars than I had realised as it is just so visible. Maybe to go further I need to get the childseat option and borrow a few children younger than our own to highlight just how good these are for family transport.

Image via Wikipedia

Anyway after visiting someone this afternoon I realised that I was well on the way to the city centre. Well I was at least 2 miles out of 6 so it felt like I could pretend that it was nearly most of the way So I popped in for a nice Costa Flat White after accidentally finding myself in Waterstones.

Of course if I had gone for that visit by car there is no way I would have ventured into the city at 5pm. The traffic was pretty slow which meant that I was about as fast as cars to the central ring road and from there left them way behind as I cycled straight to the bike rack outside Costa. They would have a circuitous route to a car park and then a 5 minute walk. Oh and of course they would have to pay for the car park and afterwards queue out of town while I enjoyed a gentle meander through Abbey Fields and Watermead Park

Even when I don’t need the carrying capacity of the Bullitt it is a great bike to ride in traffic. It is very confidence inspiring, plenty fast enough and very comfy (especially with my new saddle, more on that later).