The luxury of travel. The most convenient and romantic mode of transport, captured in literature, cinema and children's memory, is a bicycle. The nature of the passion for this poetic occupation was studied by The New Times
“Bicycles stood against the wall, sheltered from the rain by the overhang of the roof. With their back wheels they touched the handle of the broken bench. The man's bicycle leaned against the wall, the woman's with awkward intimacy leaned against it. The front wheels were turned at an angle, the pedals clumsily lifted up. The bikes were black and new, with the manufacturer's name on the frames in perfect gothic gold letters. The baskets on the front racks were real willow. The wide, well-sprung saddles emitted a subtle, unpleasant smell of high-quality leather. The ends of the rudders were decorated with yellowish-white rubber tips, black raindrops hung from the chromed metal ... "
Ian McEwan
Child in time
You won't find a better vehicle than a bicycle in the metropolis. It is convenient, comfortable and economical. No gasoline, standing in traffic jams and hassle. Spin your pedals, enjoy life. It's just scary to ride a bike in a big city. Dashing, state-of-the-art cyclists cycling along the Garden Ring are exceptions that only confirm the rule: Moscow is a city for cars. If you don't get knocked down, then so much CO2 will settle in your lungs that it's time to arrange forced ventilation. Of course, you can ride in the park, but there are very few parks. And yes, you have to get there somehow. There are Russian cities with much less intensive car traffic, but the fashion for bicycles has not yet arrived there.
“... For her fourteenth birth... I gave her a bicycle - a charming mechanical gazelle. For some reason, it gave me wonderful pleasure to handle her bicycle, that is, her approach to it, the movement of the thigh when climbing onto it, and the like ... ”Vladimir Nabokov Lolita
... As a child, a bicycle was the ultimate dream, and the owner of a two-wheeled miracle became the object of universal envy. But a real cyclist should not have noticed envious people. As he did not notice and requests to give a ride. Well, maybe "two laps around the school for one Estonian chewing gum." Personally, in those days I had both a Perm bike and a chewing gum, and therefore I could give it a ride based only on personal preferences. No business, only personal!
"Perm" was a prestigious brand. Improved design. Soft seat. It was produced, like the vast majority of Soviet bicycles, at the Ural defense plants as a "consumer product". That is why all the most popular brands had "Ural" names: "Kama", "Ural". There was also an "Eaglet", but it was quite embarrassing to ride on it. Since the mid-70s, folding bicycles have become extremely popular: Salyut, Aist and the same Kama. The folding ones were the most desired, a genuine dream. These bicycles had an important advantage - ease of storage (in small apartments) and transportation. The product is in short supply. Got it on a whim. When he was "thrown out", the queue lined up in the evening. True, the defense factories for the most part saved money and made bicycles from low-quality heavy steel. That's just "Perm" was an exception - an aluminum frame. Of course, there was a cycling elite who rode semi-sport road bikes "Start" or "Sport". Oh that gearshift sound! Music of Soviet roads...
Now the former, even prestigious domestic brands of bicycles have been replaced by imports. Mostly Chinese. Folding Soviet bicycles are mostly used by migrant workers in Moscow courtyards. And on the "Urals" - self-respecting Zhekov's electricians and mechanics.
Although some hundred years ago, a bicycle was considered an aristocratic means of transportation. Along with photography, His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II liked to devote time to cycling. A little later, the bike became more democratic, affordable. It was adopted by many armies of the world. Already during the First World War, soldiers were put on bicycles. For example, in the Austrian army there were so-called cycling units, in Graz there was the first military cycling school, where cadets were taught not only to ride fast, but also to shoot accurately from a revolver and cut the enemy with a saber without losing balance. In any case, almost 250,000 soldiers of the Austrian army fought on bicycles. The bicycle was also used as a vehicle in World War II, and after that, for many years, a caped policeman pedaling a reliable service bicycle was a typical detail of the French landscape. And the postman on a bicycle, the same postman Pechkin!
"The sun on the spokes, blue overhead,
The wind is in our faces, we overtake the globe.
Winds and miles, running away into the distance,
You sit down and just press the pedal.
VIA "Singing guitars"
Now the bike is not just a means of transportation. It's a lifestyle. Bicycles for every taste. The cycling aesthetic, like everything around it, has changed. The cycling world never ceases to amaze. Previously, there was one, one and only speed, now - twenty-one. shock absorbers. Rubber with special tread. Expensive models with disc brakes. The cycling world has its own "Rolls-Royces" and "Cadillacs", created in small workshops, in limited quantities, for the elite. And wealthy. True works of art that use the latest technology. The price for some models reaches 15,000 euros. On the Internet they offer exclusive bicycles for one and a half million. But the average amateur is limited by the price in the range of 200-300.
But what an amazing thing! The same bike "Perm", which cost 53 rubles. 50 kopecks, in today's prices we can compare with the most popular models now for 4500-5000 rubles. In other words, shock absorbers are shock absorbers, speeds are speeds, and the price of a bicycle in relation to the average salary in a city like Moscow remains unchanged.
How unchanging is our love for bicycles. The love of cyclists is for their city.
But the city does not reciprocate them. In Russia, in Moscow in particular, it is very problematic to travel long distances by bicycle. There are no special lanes, but if they appear, then where is the guarantee that Lexuses will not drive on them? And the drivers of Moscow trolleybuses always strive to push the cyclist off the road. Yes, and pedestrians from time to time splash out their accumulated aggression on peacefully rolling cyclists.
In most European countries, the issues of improving and expanding special bike lanes are decided at the state level. And it’s not at all necessary to buy a bicycle in Europe: a wide network of rental points is convenient and affordable. You can rent a bicycle in the city center and return it in the suburbs.
Another important problem is that “in Russia you cannot leave a bicycle unattended. There are no parking spaces, and if you fasten your bike to a tree, they will drag you along with the tree. However, they steal not only from us. So, some time ago, the Italian carabinieri found a secret warehouse, where there were about a hundred bicycles stolen from famous owners, actors, journalists, athletes. They all lost their means of transportation in Rome in broad daylight. Five hijackers have already been charged. 60 years have passed since the release of Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves, but problems with bicycle theft have remained. They just steal from celebrities, not from poster-posters...
However, let's leave the sadness. April is coming soon. Puddles dry up. Get on the bike! On the road! The only thing that the autocyclist can promise is that if she ever gets a Lexus, she will be extremely attentive to the owners of two-wheeled vehicles. However, who knows what happens in the soul when you suddenly find yourself behind the wheel of a Lexus ...
The first mention of a scooter that could be ridden while sitting on horseback and pushing off the ground with your feet dates back to 1761. It was then that the German carriage master Kassler made a wooden scooter. There is a legend about the serf Artamonov, who allegedly designed a bicycle in 1800, and then made a run on his bicycle from the Ural village of Verkhoturye to Moscow. For this invention, Artamonov and his offspring were freed from serfdom. The Blancher Cart was built in Paris in 1808. All of these scooters had no steerable wheel and could only move straight ahead. In the 1870s, Bates of Croyden in England created the first rear-wheel driven bicycle, called the "Flying Dutchman". His drive with pulleys and cord Lawson in his "bicyclelet", patented in 1879, replaced the chain drive.
Around 1885, Starley and Sutton produced the "Rover" bicycle, with two 760 mm wheels and a chain drive to the rear wheel. Around the same time, Linley and Biggs released the Whippet bicycle, with a roughly diamond-shaped frame that became the most common fixed-position saddle, pedals, and handlebars thereafter. Two springs were provided in the frame to absorb road shocks. The improvement of the bicycle and its extraordinary popularity at the end of the 19th century led to social changes. There was a revolution in the world of women's fashion - women's cycling trousers appeared, and ladies were allowed to go cycling in the company of men.
