Riding a bike is punk as fuck

Bike riding? Punk as Fuck? Fyxomatosis appears to agree although for slightly different reasons:

I was rolling around the mean streets of SM with the boss, and I swear it was if the new residents had NEVER seen two adults on bicycles. Not even TRACK bikes. Just plain BIKES.

You’ve gotta be pretty ‘punk’ to ride. Everyday, putting yourself into the ‘river’ of traffic, knowing that most cars see you as a target, and everyone else thinks you’re mad.

Too right. But I think bike riding is ‘punk’ in other ways too, depending on your reasons for riding.

Bicycling can be a DIY thing, and we all know how ‘punk’ DIY is. Many people build their own bikes from parts, and if it’s second hand parts then all the better. Buying second hand means recycling a perfectly good product that might otherwise get disposed of. It also means sticking two fingers up to the ‘throwaway’ culture of buying new stuff and disposing of old stuff. Buying second hand reduces wasteage, and avoids giving profit to big corporations* and tax to the government – tax, part of which goes towards subsidising the oil industry, building weapons, and so on. If you really wanted to, you could go all the way and learn some engineering, and build your own frame, forks and components.

*buying new stuff from small rider-owned companies, people who hand-build frames etc. also avoids big corporate wankers too…

It’s resistance and refusal; refusing to rely on the sub-standard yet overpriced public transport system, resisting laziness and car culture, refusing to support the filthy rich oil barons by joining the masses in high speed fossil-fuel consumption, refusing to add to air pollution and to put people’s lives at risk, etc. Plus, how many Iraqis died so you could fill your car up cheaply eh? Paying for that petrol is like giving the government your consent to invade oil-rich countries and kill innocent people…

As a leisure activity, bicycle riding is an alternative to mainstream culture. Rather than paying for someone else to entertain you, you’re doing it yourself. Rather than sitting on your arse in front of a TV or cinema screen, spectating and taking in what someone else has produced for your consumption and for profit, you’re getting outside and taking part in an activity for yourself, not being controlled by anyone. the simple act of pedalling for fun has the effect liberating yourself from the mass-produced media and products that are there for some corporate fat cat to profit from. You can’t buy the enjoyment that bike riding brings, and no-one can sell it to you. You create it yourself. It’s freedom, it’s self-liberation, it’s escape, it’s two fingers up and a ‘fuck you’ to consumer culture…

And you know what? It’s FUN! And it’s CHEAP!

Bike riding isn’t exactly underground but in this country it’s not exactly mainstream either, and to be honest I don’t think it ever, ever will be. In fact I think it would be ridiculous to think so. I would love to see the bicycle take over as the main mode of transport everywhere, but let’s face it, the car will rule because people are lazy, public transport is shit, and the car produces the most profit for the rich greedy bastards who control the automotive and oil industries…

Something I have been wondering for a long time though: Can you still be a bike punk if you emigrate to Amsterdam, or do you automatically become a ‘normal’ member of society?

Related: Birmingham Fixed Gear