Social Distancing
BY MATT BARTON
I enjoyed the freedom of the Corona Virus struck city and that ache that only riding street can give you
Bloody Corona Virus and “social distancing”. And then there’s the weather! You couldn’t bloody write it. Mid to late March of any year and you can put money on it being spectacularly miserable as far as the weather is concerned.
But oh no. Not 2020. The sun is out and cracking the flags and everybody’s supposed to he housebound with the exception of critical travel, but contradicting that piece of advice, it’s ok to be alone in the outdoors. Well butter me up and tickle me slap! The first street ride of 2020 just happened. Solo of course. All in the name of following Boris’ orders of course.
20 years ago, myself and a couple of cohorts would get in the van on Christmas day and trek over the Pennines to the metropolis that is Manchester. Having worked in the city centre for a few years, I already knew of many of the famous Mancunian spots but I knew that there were so many more opportunities without traffic and pedestrians.
It was amazing. You could bomb across roads and down pavements and hit stuff with geat gusto. No need to even look over your shoulder or have someone on the corner being a lookout.
That was just before it became another city that never sleeps. Today, Sunday 22nd of March and it was like rolling back the decades. The city was dead. A few buses here and there and a few, mask wearing Asians but yeah…..dead. Even the security guards didn’t want to know and just walked on by when I was sessioning a spot.
I explored a lot of new property developments and a few old spots too. It’d been quite some time since I’d rode around the southern half of the city and I was struck by how much the landscape had changed over the last 10 or so years since the last recession.
City living is where the money’s at folks! Unfortunately though, and it’s just my opinion but modern architecture sucks for riding. Certainly for these old bones and eyes of mine.
Great for Manuals because everything is buttery smooth but if pegs is your game, you need that special eye…..and plastic pegs……and wax. And that’s if things aren’t skate-stopped. Luckily for me, I ditched the pegs a couple of years ago now, and today, I just wanted to ride the city.
Just try and get my Manuals in some sort of order and do a bit of bunnyhopping. Having had about 9 months between this street session and the last, meant that the cobwebs were thick.
I managed to get a couple of bits and bobs self-filmed and a few other nibbles under my belt, but most of all, I enjoyed the freedom of the Corona Virus struck city and that ache that only riding street can give you.