you might be wanting to get home from
work you might be simply wanting to go
out or you might just want to explore
for the afternoon but whatever your
reason cycling in a city can be
brilliant fun and here's how to get the
most out of it
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the type of bike that you ride really
doesn't matter very much as long as it
fits you and it's got brakes which allow
you to slow down so that could be a posh
road bike or it could be a mountain bike
or a folding bike or a fixie and
actually in Mesa disease days you don't
even need to own one because you can
hire one that looks a bit like this way
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you
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similarly what you wear doesn't really
matter I there now we do always use
helmet so that's a given but we are
quite happy to dispense with lycra for
when we're cruising around town just go
be a little bit careful that you don't
get too hot and with that in mind you
might want to consider the color of what
you're wearing and the fabric as well so
it doesn't show up the sweat when you
get just a little bit of a bead on if
you're carrying anything don't whatever
you do hang it on the handlebars use a
rack like this if you have one or just a
simple rucksack or shoulder bag like Dan
showing use em pari man bag etiquette
that's fine
bikes are generally allowed on the vast
majority of city rows it's as it should
be it's great it's quite liberating as
well however you might not necessarily
want to ride on any road so what you
want to do is put some consideration
into where you ride you can check Google
Maps for a start and some places
actually you might have a dedicated app
that'll also tell you just make sure
that you sometimes think about taking a
slightly longer route so you might be
able to ride through a beautiful park
for example or take in a particularly
great section of bike park now it might
add on literally a couple of minutes of
ride time to your journey but I take
that
riding in a city is great of course we
are just a little bit biased but I think
we all agree without exception that
would rather cruise in the saddle in an
urban area then we stuck cramped in the
backseat of a car and it's not just the
freedom that cycling brings with the
right attitude it can open up all sorts
of opportunities we've already talked
about route choice and it makes a lot of
sense to ride your bike in areas where
you're not allowed to use a motor
vehicle especially when it's as
beautiful as this city riding is about
more than this you don't have to worry
about parking your car for example so
you can plan your rides to Lyons and
stop in cool places places where you'd
otherwise never bother to try and stop
coffee
a cafe or a row of shop for example now
Manik me that's suitable when you're
going from A to B with a bit of a
deadline but it can really enhance your
commute if you leave 15 minutes early to
allow yourself time to stop for a coffee
and a nice pastry
firstly when you're I try to exude
confidence even if you don't necessarily
feel it a great way of doing that is to
ride slightly away from the curb perhaps
by a meter or so also be aware of what's
going on around you look ahead into the
size of you to give you chance to react
and listen as well for vehicles coming
up behind you never assume that you've
been seen I'm not just talking about
cars it also bikes and pedestrians as
well now you might think that that might
undermine the confidence that we've just
talked about giving that constantly
feeling like you haven't been seen it's
probably going to make you paranoid but
it's not quite what we mean no you just
want to give yourself as much time and
space to react to things as possible
just in case someone pulls out in front
of you and remember as well if you can't
see your vehicles mirrors they can't see
you unless you're in front of them of
course in which case you can't see them
that they can see you clearly you know
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we know that some cyclists out there
like to choose which rules of the road
they obey and disobey rather than all of
them and they will give you various
reasons for doing that and ultimately
it's completely up to you but we'd like
to respectfully disagree yeah
the rules of the road are exactly that
rules and whilst it might seem that some
of them are fairly irrelevant when it
comes to cyclists we think that we need
to do our bit and here too the very same
rules that you would do for driving a
vehicle to ride in a city then choose
whichever bike you like think carefully
about where you ride it pay attention
but then most of all have fun a little
bit like you did Matt in this video up
here where we took on these selfie
tourists challenged to watch it just
click up there or you can click just
down here for a commuter challenge where
we found out the best bike to ride to
work on and to subscribe to GCN click on
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