The latest from the CycleChic team:
As spectacular as Vancouver is, it’s not about where you go, but who you go there with.
This is particularly true for Josh Bloomfield, the founder of Cycle City Tours and the subject of the seventh of our #CycleChicFilms: “Between the Stops”.Josh elevates his tours beyond a checklist of landmarks to make them interactive, social experiences. He recently launched the first craft brewery bicycle tour in Vancouver — because obviously.During the making of this film, Josh spent the day with the Vancouver Cycle Chic team traveling to many of the locations Josh includes in his expeditions: Stanley Park, Granville Island, Robson Square, Gastown and Bomber Brewing.
Take the tour with us:
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Maybe I;m not getting fashion but I don’t see what is “chic” about anything they’re wearing. Seems to me they just threw on what was comfortable. (Which is fine, I just don’t understand why it would be called “chic”.)
‘Chic’ is indeed a bit of a misnomer. ‘Cycle normal’ would perhaps be more accurate (but less sexy)! As my friend Neil once eloquently explained:
“Nobody is suggesting that everybody should be on a sit-up bicycle. Indeed, everybody who is cycling in Vancouver today, should probably carry on as they are. Clearly they’re a-ok with the cycling status quo, because they’re doing it.
The point is that people dress like pedestrians most of the time: when they’re walking, riding the bus or driving their cars. If bicycles are to continue recent gains in mode share, then they must appeal to those same people.
A city with helmet choice, with heavy (bixi bikeshare) bikes, with abundant safe separated infrastructure and cyclists dressed like pedestrians, is a normal modern city. There are still “one-less-car” road warriors, and sportsmen with cleats and spandex, but they’re the minority: participants in a niche sport, like sports walkers, hikers, joggers or sports drivers. They’re not banned or shunned or made illegal or whatever; but they’re also not the only thing you see on the streets.
Sit-up cycling isn’t an attack on you. You carry on. Tennis whites, scuba gear, soccer shorts are also niche attire: please recognise that wearing special clothes will always be more niche than not, by definition.
Instead, our harping on about sit-up cycling, civic cycling, cycle chic – whatever you want to call it – is an attempt to show that cycling can be just as normal as walking, driving and taking the bus.”
I started commuting by bike at the end of May. I chose a hybrid bike to balance the competing desires for a comfortable ride and low rolling resistance. The one I bought is definitely leaning toward low resistance so I feel every crack and exposed rock on Point Grey Road.
On the first day I wore the same clothes I’d previously worn on the bus with one exception: I wore a t-shirt and carried a nicer “work” shirt in my backpack. It was a big mistake. My windbreaker didn’t have enough ventilation, my pants got sweaty, my underwear bunched up and the straps of my fully loaded backpack cut into my shoulders.
I am now a hybrid like my bike is. I wear padded Lycra underwear under a pair of loose fitting shorts, a basic t-shirt and (optionally) long sleeved athletic tops to suit the weather. My gloves are designed for road bikes so the padding isn’t in the right places, but my skin isn’t against the rubber grips anymore. Instead of a backpack cutting into my shoulders and creating a river of sweat down my back I have a stylish pair of saddlebags on a rear rack. Each change made a noticeable improvement in my comfort level.
Those with shorter or flatter rides who don’t need to carry much back and forth to work may find that minimal changes in attire are needed.