History

  I’m a great fan of psychogeographical wandering: I love the whole chronotope thing of getting lost in a landscape and drifting through timescapes; I love the whole Hazlittian and Solnitian walking and thinking at 2.5 miles an hour trope. I love walking, thinking, imagining and composing on my own. But sometimes, the bicycle calls. The traditions of the Clarion Club beckon: a collective socialist exploration of landscape, history and conversation. That too has it place: a good old-fashioned bike ride. Or perhaps a bit of Mr. Polly; Mr. Kipps; Lucia and Georgino; or working-class hero; or green locomotion. Cyclo-geography, however,  is a new phenomenon: it needs an e-bike around these parts. The freedom to pedal with comfort up any Stroudwater hill; the satisfaction of knowing that you can explore as many valleys as you wish; the exploration of all those precipitous dead ends that you would never contemplate on your old steed; doing in two hours what used to take four; in short, extending your pedestrian practice of psychogeography, through the praxis of cyclo-geography. And collective cycling has a rich heritage. Here is one strand: Cyclists of the World Unite You have Nothing to lose but your Chains The 1890s saw the development Of the bicycle as we now know it, Overtaking the posh boys’ plaything, The cumbrous high-seated penny-farthing; Here was a bike the workers could afford: Second-hand, about twice a weekly wage; New, about ten times that but with a deposit, You could pay by tolerable instalments. This was an end of century revolution: The sun might not set...