"Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia"

I didn’t know this quote from HG Wells’ novel of alternate history “A Modern Utopia” or even that it was World Bike Day . But this discovery has sent me off on a merry investigation of the associations that I have with my beautiful Tokyo bike.

At its heart, I get to taste a little bit of freedom on my bike: of getting from A to B under my own steam, and if I’m lucky with my route, the pure exhilarating sense of liberation that free-wheeling down a hill offers.

People also ask if I’m not afraid to cycle, especially in Belfast which is criminally underserved with safe paths and routes. Having learned how to cycle in London, navigating the terror that the roundabout at Elephant and Castle invoked, that ‘touch of The Mortals’ as my father would have described it, is at essence an invigorating start to a day and a reminder of the precious fragility and beauty of life.

And to be on a bike allows me to connect with a glance and a smile with others travelling at human pace - the walkers, the joggers, the runners; those with prams and small people; those with walking sticks and rollators; those with scooters with wheels that light up and on balance bikes as they are introduced to life on two wheels.

There’s a joy and a lightness of being on a bike that can feel Utopian - a tangible, daily representation of mobility, of equality, and of human-scale activity. And perhaps we need to touch into those Glimmers in as many different ways as we can in a world that can feel too fast, disconnected and controlling.

Musical pairings: David Byrne’s love for biking is beautifully explored in his book The Bicycle Diaries, and the segue from Cycle to Psycho is all too tempting: Psycho Killer by Talking Heads