Quaxing: Cycling can be Utilitarian, Too…

This is not an article about performance, endurance and speed. If anything, it's an article about survival.

Change is, by definition, different, often uncomfortable but usually unplanned. So it was for me. In August 2020, I was informed, in the middle of a global pandemic, that I would not receive funding for my teacher training course and very quickly made a decision: I’d have to sell my car.

The decision was a simple one, as the car was going to be a monthly money drain and its selling price, a means to my survival. I was quick to decide to buy a bicycle to commute. I was quick to realise I needed to be able to fix and service it regularly. However, the process of gradually weaning myself away from car use for purposes other than commuting has taken well over a year of experimentation and error.

Around this time, I encountered the term ‘Quaxing’ (with a hat tip to Lewis Lippiatt who first introduced me to it).

The most suitable bike might just be the one you already have

The origins of the term are rooted in a cynicism of anything apart from car use for daily utilitarian transport. It seemed right to assume that cars were ‘right’ to do the shopping in and run errands in, when transport systems, parking systems and infrastructure are centred around car use. 

But, by early 2021, I was already travelling to my place of work in a bike. I was already using the bike to get me and luggage around for the vast majority of the time. The excuses came and went; would the motor traffic be an issue? Would I be able to lock my bike up safely? Would I manage to carry such a significantly heavy load on two wheels?

None of the answers to these questions were perfect; each involved an extent of hackery and adaptation. Cycling infrastructure in Coventry, UK where I live is still a fledgling. A segregated cycle path has just finished being constructed near my home and the city has appointed their first ‘mayor of cycling,’ Adam Tranter, to enact significant changes to active travel infrastructure. However, each of my journeys by bike were fraught and anxious. They were unpleasant. Drivers honked and acted with impatience - as if I had chosen to disrupt their assumed privilege over the roads.

I was the most visible person at the store, which was Mostly a good thing.

But it was possible. I did complete my shopping trips successfully. And the humble £85 80s mountain bike I took the shops? It just worked - simply and efficiently with some gentle coaxing from all the mechanical skillz (with a ‘z’) I had acquired over the past year.

Mechanical hackery and luggage bodgery is enough to get you going.

Like I said at the start, this is not an article about performance, endurance and speed. I set no Strava PBs, nor did I complete any ‘training.’

This is simply a story of realising that the established norm may not be the best, or even very good for you or the environment. I tried using a bicycle whenever I could and wherever I could, to both get around and take things around. I succeeded. It was possible. 

I hope you do so too.