It was on my recent trip to Tokyo that I realised we have been marketed the wrong type of bike to help solve our climate problem. What we need is pedestrian bikes. For many people when they think of riding their bike, it is exercised based – not the ‘I’ll just go for a cruise’ thought. In Tokyo everyone rides bikes to get them around. For this reason the bikes are not your traditional mountain bikes but more of a cruiser – design has not been overlooked. The bikes come in all sorts of cool and wonderful shapes. And as much as many would disagree, I loved not having to wear a helmet. The Hotel Claska, where I was staying, offered a very retro bike made by Yamaha for guests to ride around on. The bikes have asistance from a battery which means that going up hills is easy. I went for a 20km ride and didn’t even work up a sweat.
