Guest Post: By Fixie Through Lagos, Part 2

Guest poster Tolu continues his description of riding his fixie around one of Africa’s largest, busiest, most congested cities, Lagos, Nigeria:

My cycling gear for adventuring around Lagos has to be well thought out. I have to be visible without wearing too many layers. I have to keep weight down. I also have to stay cool. It’s also essential for me to have an emergency pack.

My cycling gear typically consists of:

• Sleeveless top
• Cap to shield from sun
• Headphones to create my soundtrack
• Respro sportsta breath guard to protect my lungs
• Baggy offroad shorts to protect my modesty
• Cleated cycling shoes for my clip-in pedal system
• I also ditched my heavy messanger bag that made my back sweat heaps, for a cheap, but highly effective Nike drawstring rucksack. (Weighs nothing and is just big enough for my emergency kit).
• Old mobile phone. (I leave my blackberry at home in case I get mugged!)

My emergency kit consists of:

• CO2 pump (Weighs nothing, about the size of a small torch and inflates a tyre in seconds)
• Spare inner tubes (My front wheel is a 650 so i have to carry 2 tubes. DOH!)
• Tyre levers
• Spare chain link
• Small bottle of water (More for washing out wounds if I fall and cut myself)
• TCP spray plaster (Excellent spray that disinfects injuries and forms a waterproof seal on contact. It also stops minor bleeding and allows wounds to heal naturally)

I also use sunblock and insect repellent liberally and use my Knog front and rear lights all the time! You may have noticed no hemet on the list. The no helmet thing is a bit of a sore point in the household, but I just don’t find them comfortable in the heat!

Lagos is also quite heavily polluted. Car emissions are not regulated and people also rely very heavily on generators to provide their electricity as national power is very erratic and unreliable. (As of today we haven’t had power from the national provider for over a week). This cocktail makes for very bad air quality. As a result a breath guard is essential. Not easy with the humidity as sometime you feel like you can’t breathe! The pollution mask I use is a Respro Sportsta mask. The Sportsta filter inside the mask has an extremely low inhalation resistance compared with other particle filters. It works pretty well, but on hot days when you’re pushing you sometimes feel like you can’t get enough air. Most of the time it’s fine and very necessary! The days I’ve forgotten to put it on I definitely notice the difference when I’m back home.

Anyway… more about riding! After several weeks of daytime riding, I was keen to try riding at night, however nighttime excursions were a particular issue. Lagos is not the safest place. There have been lots of robberies and violence in the past. Less so recently, but it’s not unheard of. I first voiced my interest in night riding to my wife. She immediately told my sis and mum and I was made to promise I wouldn’t do it. I do so with my fingers crossed.

Soon after “making the promise” I got ready for my first night ride at about 8pm on a weekday evening. I strapped on all my lights (front and rear), left indoors my headphones, iPod and anything that could be perceived as valuable, snuck the bike out and tentatively made my way out. Wow. Learnt so much on that first dark ride. Firstly there are a lot of insects about when it gets dark! Clear riding glasses for next ride, check. Luckily I wear a breath guard so no insects were swallowed!

It’s also amazing how totally pitch black it can be in some places due to the lack of electricity and lights. Even with my lights on the bike, I could only see a few feet in front of me at a time.

I was also able to see what people got up to around Lagos once it got dark. Groups of people huddled by stalls watching Arsenal v Chelsea football on little TVs powered from generators, guys hanging out smoking (again strange as you don’t see many people smoking during the day). Now it sounds weird, but when you’re in a car you don’t notice these things.

Since then I’ve been on a handful of night rides, and have kept pretty close to home. I love being out at night seeing this side of my city but I am not sure I want to push my luck too far!

My time spent on two wheels around Lagos have raised many questions and brought to light many observations:

• Why is the importation of bicycles into Nigeria banned? It would make such an ideal way for the majority of people to get around. (In 2004 the government has banned the import of assembled bicycles, supposedly to protect local industry.)
• Why don’t more people cycle to get about? (The only other people I see on bicycles are low level staff and elderly northerners). As menacing as it may seem, so long as you are confident and experienced cycling here is not intimidating. I actually haven’t had a situation where I’ve been forced off the road or bullied by other vehicles. If anything I’m the one doing the bullying!
• The human body is an amazing thing! I’ve been out for rides in blistering heat and high humidity and have survived to tell the tale!

I’ve got lots more cycling planned and am slowly converting some of my close friends to join me in cycling locally. I don’t think there will ever be a fixie “scene” here, but I hope more and more people are encourage to get onto two wheels.