Dust Off Your Handlebars: Bicycling Benefits
Whether you remember the freedom of whizzing around on your bike as a child, or simply wish to cut back on driving and find safe routes for cycling (and affordably), there are lots of tips and resources out there to help. Town planners can help too, by building more cycling-friendly communities.
Safe Cycling in the City is a useful book for cyclists in in urban areas. It covers choosing the best bikes and clothes, and also covers road safety, braking, gears, and using extra power provided by electric bikes.
Cycling boosts heart health
Cycling gets your heart working, which is one of the best ways to keep it strong. Regular rides help lower your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and strokes. Even gentle cycling raises your heart rate and improves blood flow.
This supports the delivery of oxygen to muscles and organs, which keeps the whole system healthier. A few rides a week can make a big difference over time.
Cycling builds leg strength & muscles
Pedalling works your legs, hips and backside. Over time, you’ll notice stronger thighs and more shape in your calves and glutes. Unlike weight lifting, cycling puts less strain on joints.
This makes it perfect if you’re after better muscle tone without much risk of injury. Riding up hills or tackling windier days will work your muscles harder, so there’s plenty of chance to progress.
Cycling supports good mental health
Spending time outdoors lifts your mood. Fresh air, changing views and natural light help sweep away stress and leave you feeling sharper. Scientific studies link regular cycling to reduced anxiety and lower levels of depression.
Many riders say they feel clearer-headed after a ride, and the routine helps break up negative thoughts. The feeling of moving forward, both literally and emotionally, is hard to beat.
It’s interesting that the ‘happiest countries on earth’ (like Denmark and The Netherlands) have high cycling populations. It helps that both countries are flat!
Cycling is gentle on your joints
Unlike running, cycling doesn’t pound your knees or hips. The circular motion of pedalling avoids the harsh impact seen in many sports.
This makes it a great choice if you have arthritis, struggle with joint pain or want a lifelong exercise option. Many physiotherapists recommend cycling for recovery because it keeps you moving without extra wear and tear.
Cycling helps to improve sleep
Regular exercise like cycling helps you fall asleep faster and enjoy deeper, better-quality rest. The physical effort uses up energy and resets your body clock, especially if you ride outdoors in daylight.
Riding a bike keeps your immune system stronger. Studies show people who cycle regularly catch fewer colds and recover faster from illness. Cycling helps your white blood cells move around the body, which means your body can attack bugs more efficiently. Even short daily cycles can help keep you healthier in the long run.
Cycling is eco-friendly!
Bicycles don’t burn fuel or release harmful fumes. Riding means one less car on the road, which can help reduce pollution in your area. If you swap the car for a bike on short trips, you’ll help cut emissions and ease traffic.
It’s a small shift, but every journey counts when it comes to cleaner cities and greener countryside.
Cycling saves money (once the bike is bought)
Once you own a bike, the running costs are low. You don’t need petrol, expensive tax or insurance. Repairs and parts are much cheaper than most car fixes.
If you commute by bike, you can dodge the rising cost of public transport too. The savings add up quickly, especially if you cycle two or three days a week.
Good Bicycles and Accessories
- Priority Bicycles (US) offers quality affordable bicycles for adults and children, which feature rust/grease-free carbon drive belts (no chains), internally-geared hubs , puncture-resistant tires and (mostly vegan) comfortable saddles.
- Babboe Cargo Bikes (The Netherlands) is the market leader for safe affordable bikes to carry children, dogs and shopping. With electric pedal resistance, if you don’t live somewhere as flat as Holland!
- Bikeworks offers unique bikes for children with special needs.
How to maintain and repair your bike
- Use Biodegradable Cleaners/Lubes. A good brand is Kingud, which is free from toxic PTFE, you can also buy citrus toxic-free degreaser (keep citrus away from pets) and even a plant-based helmet polisher! Sold with refill packs.
- Invest in a Bike Repair Multi-Tool. This can do a number of tasks including fixing a damage spoke, snapped chain or puncture. Pebble Tool is a good brand sold with a lifetime guarantee, that can fit in your pocket to bail out most common bicycle mishaps. It includes an integrated Dynaplug® tyre repair accessories to quickly patch a puncture.
- Buy a Decent Bike from a bike shop, where people know how to put it together and test the brake, and teach you how to safely ride it. You’ll also need a good lock, bell and bike insurance/breakdown cover.
- Read Back On Your Bike, a super book with info on how to be a cyclist again, even if the last time you cycled was a child. This real-world guide includes tips on safe riding, fixes and maintenance and ideal for the nervous new returning cyclist.
Where to recycle unwanted bicycles
Only around 10% of bicycles in England are used regularly, the rest just lay in sheds and garages, falling into disrepair. Yet the average bike lasts 10 years, and can easily be recycled (most are 20% metal and 40% rubber).
Bikes are also one of the few items of ‘our trash’ that are good to send to Africa (unlike laptops and dirty clothing that they don’t want). But bikes provide cheap effective transport, without clogging up landfills or causes toxic fire hazards).
Obviously ensure unwanted bikes are safe (get a local bike shop to check the brakes and tyres). Unless donating to an organisation that will do this for you, or recycle parts for scrap.
Why donate unwanted bicycles?
If you bought a bike then decided the novelty has worn off, don’t just let it sit in your garage. A good working bicycle can be a life-changing way of getting around, as well as keeping waste out of landfills.
Obviously working bikes have to be safe, but they can help students reach school if it’s miles away (especially abroad) and can also mean that children have more energy to learn, on arrival.
Farmers abroad can increase income as much as 35% by using bikes to reach the market, and refugees who can’t afford cars or even public transport, can use them to find education and work.
Around the world, around 15 million bikes end up on dumps each year. Yet bikes are brilliant! It’s like throwing away 15 million gold nuggets, each one able to transform a life and provide carbon-free transport.
The Bristol Bike Project takes donated bikes, then trains local people to repair them or use parts to ‘build-a-bike’ that they then own. They also offer workshop space and tools, for people to repair bikes themselves, once they have the skills.
The Bike Project has drop-off points nationwide, where refurbished bikes are passed to refugees, to help them get to work.
LifeCycle lets you donate bikes in Bristol (at two locations – Bishopston and Create Centre). In Derby, people can donate bikes through the partner organisation at Pickering’s Bikes (Swadlincote).
Donated bikes are refurbished by prisoners who earn a professional bike mechanics qualification to help job prospects after release. Checked by experienced mechanics, the bikes are then sold to the local community or given to refugees and people struggling with transport poverty.
ReCycle provides free non-polluting transport to help people to get to work or school. Find a local drop-off if you have a bike in the garage doing nothing.
This charity particularly welcomes adult mountain bikes and hybrids, as they are suitable for unmade African roads. As are city and commuter cycles.
Where to donate inner bicycle tubes
You can recycle inner tubes sat Velorim (600 sites nationwide – you can also drop off tyres and li-ion batteries).
If your bike is not safe or fit for donation, donate metal to scrap yards and tyres at your local council (tyre waste if a fire hazard).
Creating bicycling-friendly communities
In England, you’re lucky if you get a little bit of coloured pavement to cycle on that suddenly disappears. But in Europe and the USA, cycle paths are everywhere, people can cycle from town to town, and many places have most people cycling to work.
Don’t do what one ‘green council’ did, and remove a ‘living wall’ that was home to birds, in order to build a cycle path. Bird homes are more important than cycle paths.
Beryl (an app-based bike sharing scheme)
Beryl is an app-based bike-sharing scheme, which rents out modern bikes (height-adjustable from 5ft to 6ft!) and also offers electric bikes and cargo bikes. Available nationwide, councils can also help create bike-friendly towns by setting up Cycle Hoop cycle racks.
Used by over 300,000 people, Beryl has people renting their bikes to get to work or university, explore a new place or nip to the shops. All the bikes have bells, brakes and lights, and if you are riding an e-scooter, you can take their 15-minute Scoot Happy course to stay safe, and earn 30 Beryl minutes.
Beryl recommends wearing a helmet that has a snug fit and secures tightly on your head (visit your local indie bike shop for advice).
Electric scooters are classified as Personal Light Electric Vehicles, so you must have a UK-valid driving license or provisional license, be aged 18 or above and registered on the Beryl app.
With a top speed of 15mph, these need training to balance, steer, change gears and brake. But they are great for going up hills, without working up too much of a sweat!
Sustrans has free downloadable guides on its website for town planners, including how to design safe cycling in cities.
Tips for cycling-friendly towns & cities
Cycling is not just about providing cycle lanes. It’s about providing secure parking, showers and changing rooms (for commuters), and especially so in England, due to rainy days.
It’s also about ensuring that bikes (esp. folding bikes) are allowed on public transport, and that councils and schools offer bike safety info, for the road.
The City Fix reports that over 40,000 cyclists die worldwide in road accidents, which is why it’s so important for cities to follow their steps to safer cycling cities:
- Build bike lanes in car-free zones. This is where England goes wrong. We have a few coloured bike lanes right next door to thundering lorries and buses. Abroad, bi-directional bike lanes (not safe next to cars) are built for just bikes.
- Create bicycle boulevards. These give bikes priority over cars (low speed limits, pavement markings). This has happened in Portland, which has 70 miles of them).
- Use pop-up temporary bike lanes. Protect streets with cars, with dedicated space, not just ‘a different colour path’ with a cycle lane sign). Ideally with a buffer zone, for two cyclists to ride side-by-side.
- Heavy-duty physical segregation. If you’re riding your bike next to a car, a quick swerve can knock you off. Bumpers, bollards, barriers are made from heavy-duty plastic or flexible rubber, to avoid steel or concrete, which could injure.
People in The Netherlands enjoy over 400km of bike lanes (with bike-friendly bridges, parking hubs and even dedicated traffic lights).
Building the Cycling City is a birthday book for your town planner, by an American couple who lived and studied public transport in The Netherlands for years. Learn how to create affordable planning, so most people want to ride bikes. It profiles five Dutch cities and interviews the experts.
Copenhagen is another very bike-friendly city. It has elevated bike highways and interconnected cycle paths, so you can cycle from town to town, without meeting road traffic. The city even clears snow from bike lanes (before roads), showing how dedicated it is, to people who ride bikes.
Both The Netherlands and Denmark have a ‘cargo bike’ culture where parents use them to go shopping, placing children in the back. In Copenhagen, the main street of Strøget is totally car-free and most people get around by bike.
Denmark has even created a network of cycle super-highways, which offers safe routes for distances over 5km.
Portland is a green city in the US state of Oregon. It has Trimet (the best public transit system on earth, with one ticket letting people ride the bus, train and tram – all bicycle-friendly).
The planning is so good, that residents can easily cycle out to enjoy nature, in the nearby Pacific Northwest.
