Style riders: the new breed of cyclists in London

Esther Walker
14.09.09

Many Londoners are happy to get about town with any old bike and a trouser clip. But there is a new breed of cyclist in London who wouldn't be caught dead in a nylon jacket or on a neon mountain bike.

Stylish cyclists now opt for a Pashley, an Electra or a Raleigh. For inspiration, look no further than Kelly Brook, photographed last week with Boris Johnson to promote Skyride, pedalling along on her Pashley Princess in a silk dress and Christian Louboutin heels; or Elle Macpherson, often seen pootling around Notting Hill on her Electra in jeans and ballet flats.

Part of the appeal is the bicycle colours: from the rich racing greens, blues, creams and tans, to the bright pastel colours of Pashley's new model, the Poppy, which comes in pink and baby blue.

In the past year, Pashley alone has seen orders grow by 100 per cent — heartening for a company nearly killed off by the mountain bike trend in the 1990s. Traditional bikes haven't just caught the imagination of Londoners: the annual Taipei bike show this year, usually dominated by hi-tech and mountain bikes, was awash with traditional bicycle styles.

The idea is to look not so much like you are about to do a triathlon and more like you are zooming off somewhere fabulous, wearing no more synthetic fabric than you would to a cocktail party. “It's female cyclists driving this trend,” says Caz Nicklin, who runs Cyclechic, an online store catering to the elegant cyclist. “They want to cycle because of all the benefits, but they want to do it stylishly.”

Nicky Seymour, 24, a medical student from East Dulwich, loves her Pashley. “The upright way that you sit on it makes it very ladylike and feminine. I'm not at all up for wearing grubby cycling gear and so I just cycle around in my normal clothes.”

Cyclechic's bestseller is the Bern Muse helmet, which looks like a horse-riding hat. Other top sellers are the Box Bag, which fits on the back of the bicycle, and the Deluxe Shopper, which you can carry around like a normal bag, and then hook on your bike when you're ready to whizz away. It's not just girls taking to stylish cycling; Pashley also recently brought out the Guv'nor, a black-and-tan men's bicycle based on the company's 1930s Path Racer model, which has been flying out of the shops.

Bobbin Bicyles, set up by entrepreneurs Tom Morris and Sian Emmison two years ago, also does a great trade in classic bikes and stylish accessories. The shop is so popular — they sell around 80 bicycles a month — that it has recently moved to bigger premises to deal with demand.

They plan to open a second shop in Notting Hill next year. “It's all about integrating your bicycle into your life and lifestyle,” explains Emmison, “rather than compromising your style in order to cycle. London is such a fashion-driven city that when a new trend comes along, like cycling, everyone makes it their own. There's a trend for all things retro at the moment so it makes sense that people are enthusiastic about classic bikes.”

The elephant in the room is that old-style bicycles can be amazingly heavy. Although I love my own Pashley Princess, I can't go up any hills because even in a low gear, pedalling like crazy, I get overtaken by pensioners and three-legged hedgehogs. Once I even started rolling backwards. But for the sake of style and grace (I often buy flowers just so that I can cycle along with them in my basket), I won't swap my iron horse for something nippier. “Elegant cycling is nothing new,” says Caz from Cyclechic. “It's just that in the Eighties and Nineties it became about going off-road and being sporty. Cycling as a leisurely activity got lost.”

Another great bike trend is the rise of the “fixies” — fixed-gear bikes (see box), but if there's ever a Mods and Rockers-style clash between elegants and fixies, I know which side I'll be on. I'll be cycling into battle wearing a dress, riding my Pashley. Slowly.
www.cyclechic.co.cuk www, bobbinbicycles.co.uk www, fixedgearlondon.co.uk

The fixies

As an antidote to all this polka-dotted nostalgia, a trend for fixed-gear bicycles is sweeping the East End. Fixed gear bicycle riders —“fixies” — pare down bikes to their very essence, often even removing the handlebars. The chain is fixed, meaning the pedals rotate whenever the wheels are turning, like an exercise bike. You can usually spot a fixie at traffic lights, performing a “track stand”, ie balancing atop their stationary bicycles, pedalling slightly forwards and backwards just enough to stay still.

Fanatical fixies get their bikes custom-made at Shop 14 in the Truman Brewery, where prices start at £900 — and there's not a tweed cycling cape in sight. “It's massively fashionable in the East End,” says Juliet Elliott, a professional fixed-gear bike rider. “It used to be a niche thing, mostly for bike messengers, but now it's a big scene. I love the simplicity of these bikes. They're low-maintenance, there's less for London bike thieves to steal and they're fast.