I’m passionate about cycling and the joy of riding a bike. Riding a bike will keep you fitter and builds exercise into your day-to-day routine. It improves your mental health and helps you access more varied places around the village, town or city that you live in – often more easily and quickly. It will save you money, and it is beneficial to the environment, reducing congestion and harmful emissions. There’s nothing like going on a long ride, getting out for as many hours as possible, seeing how the different locations around you link, feeling more connected to them and expanding your experience as you discover new things from your mini adventures.
Where did it all start for me though? So, I’m in my early 40s, I didn’t pass my driving test until I was 38, and before that, I used a mixture of public transport, walking and my bike to get around. A bike was just always easier, cutting down journey times and avoiding congestion which caused buses to be late when taking shorter journeys, and importantly it saved me money.
When I was quite a bit younger, I suffered from reoccurring Deep Vein Thrombosis which caused all sorts of leg and circulatory issues which I still manage today – riding a bike has been a gift while dealing with this as it’s lower impact on my legs than walking and in terms fitness, I’m unable to run, so riding a bike is a great way to get good cardiovascular workouts in.
Having worked in the community with groups of people from all sorts of different back grounds I ended up with the honour of getting a job with Sustrans in 2015 and for nearly the next 7 years I was able to immerse myself in how riding bikes benefits people and the places we live in. I realised that there is only so much excitement that I’m going to have about the bike itself, although I got the opportunity to fully understand the joys of being hands on with bike mechanics and I have a joyful interest in different bikes and specific brands, really, it’s all about the people who ride bikes that really inspires me.
Riding allows you to process stress, it gives you opportunity to compartmentalise your thoughts and get to the bottom of niggling problems, cycling is good for your mental health. The cardiovascular workout will improve your physical health, giving you more stamina and energy and like all other physical activities you’ll release endorphins which will make you feel happier. Riding a bike makes people smile. All of these things will help you make the decisions which are right for you, and this will in turn help you achieve your goals. If you use a bike for your regular form of transport you can fit all of this into your normal schedule and at the same time you’ll be saving money and benefitting the environment. Riding a bike allows you to go on adventures with friends or on your own, through riding you can see more of the world, and develop as a person. That’s what it’s really all about for me.
Through advocating for cycling for nearly 10 years now I have met some of the best people, some of which have become very dear friends. Like minded, positive, forward thinking and more often than not, very high functioning, high achieving, inspirational people. It’s being part of a community like this which is another reason that riding a bike is so important to me.
Through the community focused events that I have delivered, I had the privilege of being able to serve and give back to the communities that I’ve lived and worked in. Just speaking about the joys of riding, being present and available for people to communicate with is so important. Being able to help people that need it most by offering free or low cost bike repairs, advice on which route to take, making an effort to create some kind of togetherness and cohesion with the bike as a central theme has been so rewarding. I’ve gained so much from these situations and hope that I’ve been able to offer back somewhere close to what I’ve gained. All of this is very important to me, for me it’s where life is at and for at least the last decade, bikes and riding have been a part of this.
Mikey