THE NEW ABNORMAL

The declinein public transport useis unlikely to be terminal butsomethingsignificantis happeningin the way we navigate our towns and cities by bike.

By Will Pearson

Before lockdown, commuting by bike was pretty straightforward:ride to your workplace, ride home again, sleep, repeat. No longer.

There has been some big talk from the UK government recently regarding urban cycling, with a whopping £5bn earmarked for improving cycling(and walking)infrastructure. This, we are assured, comes on top of steadily rising expenditure on cycling, up from £2 per capita, in 2011, to £6 in 2017.All of which seems todovetailneatly with the government’s planto double cycling activity by 2025. It does, however,includesomewoolly Bojo book-keeping.

The Pearson Once More Unto The Breach. Straight forward commuting.

As noted on the 1860 Hubpreviously, those headlinenumbers have considerably less varnish when onedigs deeper. Cycling’s share of that pot may be as little as £350m. If you sense the whiff of ingratitude, bear in mind that just one kilometre of fully segregated bike lane is, according to government figures, likely set you back as much as £1.5m.

What isn’t in doubt is that, over recent months, the natureof cycle commuting has changed.In March and April, it meant riding throughdeserted city landmarks, as if Trafalgar Square or the Strand had been created for that very purpose. (Think Centre Parcs after a zombie apocalypse.)As lockdown eases, some of us will nowbe free to return to work. While offices may lookand feel disconcertingly unfamiliar – two-metre spacestaped on the floor, more sanitiserbottles than staff – the journey by bike will provea reassuring constant.

St Pauls Cathedral also adorned on the inside label of our Merino zip top, The Big Smoke.

Reliability is a hallmark of the bikes in Pearson’s Urban collection.Our singlespeeds, for example, provide low-maintenance simplicity. Take the nippy agility of Once More Unto the Breach, an aluminium bike with clean lines and mudguard mounts for year-round riding; or Now You See Me, the perfect commuter thanks to a pothole-smoothing steel frameand a flip-flop hub that lets you convert easily to a ‘fixie’.

We're a couple of swells...

For those who want gears to bringtheir city riding ideas to life, Flat Iron is the urban cousin of a popular Pearson gravel bike. With swept bars for a classic finish, it offers a commanding riding position in traffic and can also accommodate tyres up to 40mm widefor improved shock absorption.

The Flat Iron's 40mm tyres allow you glide across the roughest cobbles your city has to offer.

Despite the government flannel, incorporating cycling into your everyday routine is likely to comedown to individual action. For thosenewly convertedto working in their pyjamas, for example, the commute requires a bit of imagination.With several previously unavailable hours added to the day, working from home might mean‘commuting’ there too, fitting in a ride beforefiring up Zoom.

Cyclists are often ahead of the times –face masks have long been de rigueur for city riders – and the same applies tothe Pearsonrange of urban clothing. Our stylish designs in technical fabrics are perfect for both on- and off-bike use. In this (relatively) Lycra-free zone,our Kick Back shorts have been created for minimal washing and extended product life. The High Days and Holidays t-shirt, meanwhile, is made from blended yarns that will not only outlast regular cotton but are also sustainably sourced.

Doffing your cap, the pre-Strava way of giving Kudos.

No longer at the mercy ofpublic transporttimetables (buses and trains haven’t bothered with them for years), commuting by bikealso means you’re more likely to be on time. There’s also the matter of social distancing, something we could only dream of duringthe rush-hourwacky races that were a feature of pre-covid commuting.

The city that sleeps in, the new abnormal.

And this new commute means time to think, too; instead of raging against innumerable other two-wheeled machines,you may wellfindthespacetoletyour mindwander. Yes, it’s different, but it’s something to be embraced rather than feared.It’s whatcommuting means, after all, a word derived from the Latin:‘commutare’, to change.

View the full Pearson Urban Collection here.

View the Pearson Urban Clothing here.

View the Pearson Urban Bikes here.