Lead a Life on Two Wheels, I Dare You

I've understood for a long time now what riding bikes can do to our quality of life. Once I found myself regularly riding, I began to understand how bikes achieved so much:

• Cost Savings - Car costs (fuel, maintenance, parking, tolls, rego, insurance), time costs, ubers, gym membership
• Exercise - No need to force yourself out for excise, it just happens because you want to go somewhere
• Fresh Air - Your brain is hard wired to desire fresh air and sunshine, it'll reward you for the commitment
• Empowerment - Being in control of your transport without the burden of car ownership or PT timetables is amazing. When infrastructure acts up, bikes are far more versatile and resilient, you can ride a bike (nearly) any where. Using your physical body through such an efficient tool feels like magic
• Connection - Riding connects you to the world around you, you don't just see objects fly past your window, you actually move within places. You get to feel the atmosphere of a lively Saturday afternoon or the deafening silence of the wee hours.

These benefits from riding bikes have put my life on an upward trajectory, they've let me live financially well above my salary and given me the power to get practically anywhere in an urban environment. It forces me outside for fresh air and to take part in the magic of public space regardless of how low I'm feeling. Its kept me fit and strong when otherwise I might struggle for the motivation to care for my body.

This is not to say bikes or their maintenance are free, or that the bike moves effortlessly. Bicycles take energy to ride, both metaphorically and literally. But I've experienced first hand how quickly bikes convert the simple act of getting on and pedalling into happiness, strength, and resilience. Docheii says it best in her epic album Alligator Bites Never Heal:

Life is like a bicycle, it don't move unless you pedal it

However, I've also experienced how difficult the world can make riding a bike. Few folk seem to know how to ride for transport efficiently and even fewer are willing to teach. Its easy to find yourself trapped listening to the dominating voices of sport riders who encourage you to ride faster and riskier, with little thought for safety, comfort or practicality. Their needs will never align with yours as a bicycle commuter and their voices should be heard with that context.

Worse yet, friends, family, co-workers and strangers will all belittle you to defend their own decision in backing the ultimate Motordom and urban sprawl, despite the decision making them poorer, less happy, and killing them faster¹ (and at an even higher gap between socio-economic statuses).

Why don't you just drive? It'd be so much quicker and you wouldn't get all sweaty.

By design, this constant questioning inserts doubt into your decision to ride and serves to alienate you from your peers.

This is to say nothing of the active threats of violence I've received both in person and online for the simple act of riding my bike. Try any comments section on Facebook of a post about bicycles and you will see a slurry of anti bike sentiment, birthed and raised by the motor industry and perpetrated by vile morons happy to have a punching bag.

Online reveals just a taste of what you can experience on the roads. I've learnt how to ensure I receive respect from drivers and am rarely antagonised anymore, but this skill was developed after far too much exposure to violence.

Despite this oppression, I've gathered the strength to stand up for myself and what I believe.

I ride because it makes me happy, you should try it.

Under patriarchy, women will encounter these barriers with more frequently and severely, in addition to facing further barriers that cis men are unlikely to encounter. Not only are bikes fundamentally designed for men² (like car safety and gym equipment³) but they are also less likely to get taught to ride a bike in the first place⁴. These facts are even more frustrating given the amount women serve to gain from freedom of travel. The power of enabling them to reject the awful choices of night time travel of walking, public transport and ubers, all of which can feel deeply unsafe and at their worst, be unsafe. These issues are only more prevalent for women who intersect with other marginalised groups (i.e. trans women, non-white, low income, etc.)

The challenges faced by budding riders combined with my very personal experience of overcoming them has instilled me with a drive to enable and empower others to ride their bikes. I've always considered just by going out into the world on my bicycle, I'm doing advocacy by being seen as the minority.

This passion has been difficult to satiate in adequate scale, especially when faced with such regular and violent opposition.

Through my day job as a transport engineer I work on infrastructure that could drastically change the quality and safety of travelling for folks on bikes, incentivising uptake in ridership. However, I've quickly found my powers to ensure positive active transport outcomes are limited. I wish to shape it to benefit all (not just private motor vehicles), but I am always opposed by money hungry developers, political opposition and just plain ole' entropy. Now that I've developed a understanding of what forces shape our public (and private) transport infrastructure, its pains me to see the selfishness and apathy with which some develop our world.

After the realisation that I wasn't going to achieve much through my work, I found myself in bicycle advocacy spaces and my local Bicycle User Group (BUG) was place to start. I found myself burnt out almost immediately. The political disinterest and just straight aversion to cycling infrastructure in our current political climate makes me feel deeply upset. This existential worry has increased even more so given current context of a soon to be fuel shortage, presenting a likely significant decrease in quality of life for the many left trapped in their cars.

I don't have the skillset or emotional capacity that allows me to fight in these deeply political battles as hard as others do, all for little hope of a positive outcome. Although I'll always say the act of getting out there on a bicycle is advocacy in and of itself, but my experience won't allow me to shy away from giving my all to get folks on bikes.

In 2024 I realised I had much to teach, specifically the how to ride. Many curious folks would share they'd "been thinking about riding" and ask me questions about where to start. I quickly found myself wanting to info-dump everything I knew without taking a breath, but this was obviously unhelpful and overwhelming. Unable to contain my knowledge, I wrote a zine to summarise my findings from 7 years of riding.

Now when folks express interest in riding, I whip a copy out of my bag and hand it to them (Yes, I always keep copies on my person, I am a dork). In writing it, I ensured it was interesting, focused, and only $1 per copy so I can give them away. Currently, I've done 4 print runs, totalling around 90 copies personally given to folks. I never thought I'd find that many readers and I'm incredibly proud of this project.

Alongside learning to share information about riding with folks, I've also been learning to fix bikes. Around 35 bikes have made it through my workshop now, each better serviced than the last. I've made the financial investment into bike specific tools and dedicated much time to learning to become a competent bicycle mechanic. The drive to develop these skills has come not only from being able to build resilience into my personal fleet of bicycles⁵, but to empower others to ride by being a friendly and helpful face who can service their bikes.

As I talk about in this post, I'd slowly found myself picking up bikes from the tip shop and giving them several hours of my time to give to those who've seen the light and want riding into their life.

Its become a very routined process now and begins with early Saturday morning yoga, followed by devouring a sausage roll while driving to the tip shop just before it opens. I spend up to an hour perusing the bikes, making antagonising decisions about which have the best bones and will require the least work. I then put on a public circus show by fitting up to four (4) bikes in my Honda Jazz and take them home. I spend as much time as I can on each bike before I need to go buy parts, then I go to the bike shop (I also grab helmets, bike lights, locks etc). Then, if it was a good weekend maybe I get most of them done, but often the job seeps into one or two more weekends.

Once the bike(s) are done, I like to do a little ceremony involving taking the bike to the girl's home, gifting her new helmet, locks etc. and showing her how to ride. There is always an offer of help if the bike needs maintenance and always an expressed desire to go riding together. It is a joyous moment that often comes as the light dims and dusk settles in after a long weekend of good work. They are then left but with one task, to get on the damn thing and pedal.

I'm writing this post because I've just completed my 10th ceremony. I've been able to empower 10 women to ride bikes, to free themselves and advocate for themselves to make their lives better. To say I'm proud of this achievement is an understatement. I have helped create a fleet of fit women who are who want to get out their on their bikes and are better for it. Some of these girls now send me friends they've shared the good word with.

Not every friend I've entrusted with a bike has made it a regular part of their life, but I'm always happy rolling the dice with my effort when the payoff is making someone's life better.

It doesn't always feel like its enough, maybe I'll find a better outlet at some point, but for now I think I'm going to keep putting women on bikes.

Thank you to Janet, Astral, Kaycea, Dawn, Brooke, Luna and Lily who trusted me enough to start pedalling.