Oh do I, oh I do love my bike. Her name is Maria Guadalupe the Super Sharp Shooter and I miss her silly soul terribly as I am all the way at the Salton Sea and she is in Peckham.

This picture was taken during the bad snow storm end of the year 2010 where perhaps most sane people would not have elected to cycle to work. Especially not from Peckham to Euston. Was a bit hairy at some points and so icy at others, that even moving ever soooo slooooooooooowly and keeping your body aligned straight above the bar and not breathing and hoping and sweating and praying you can ease your way round the corner…. would still land ya thumped on the icy ground and bruised. 

But the journeys were spectacular, especially when it was dark, all still and cosy when cycling through the quiet cities steets and the park through fresh crunchy snow.

Though I do have a bike here too, which I got a the local Market for $20. I use it to get all around Salton City. And I used to get to work with it. See image two for a slightly different type of cycling. My ride to work took me alongside Highway 86 - next to thundering eighteen wheelers and RV-happy campers and pick up trucks speeding past at 65+ mph. The picture was taken at sunrise not long after I saw a coyote running across the road.

(And may I say one last thing: I may be unlucky but I have had two accidents where I was launched off my bike due to dips in the roads (one time by Burgess Park, the other by Aldwych) superman style. The first  resulted in head injury and the second in elbow and forearm concrete
scrapes. Please Londontown: please get rid of dips.)

I love it. I love the feeling of riding my Maria everywhere. Its thrilling.Its fulfilling. And you don’t have to wait for a bus. May I recommend one thing that I believe is probably the best item I have ever bought? Overshoes. - Christina Lange (via email)

Top