This particular offering was on the subject of self defence and of course all of us would at some time or other find any tips and guidance on this skill useful although I stand by my best defence which is to run away and live to fight another day.
The specific area of self defence covered was in the use of a bicycle.
That may seem odd today but bear in mind that the original document was a feature in Volume 5, Edition 4 of Pearson's Magazine from 1901.
We may think of that time, at the very beginning of a new century when Victorian ideals were in the process of review in the optimism of the Edwardian Era, as a halcyon period for cycling.
There were very few motor vehicles on the roads and new freedoms and attitudes for personal expression and adventure saw a huge upsurge in the numbers of males and females taking to two wheels in their pursuit of leisure and pleasure.
The humdrum of daily work and the pollution of towns and cities could be left behind when on a bicycle and the country byways and lanes explored with no sense of peril or danger.
The Pearson's Magazine piece was written by a Marcus Tindal, who appears top have been a regular contributor to that publication which offered varied subjects from literature to politics and social comment. Amongst its other contributors were George Bernard Shaw and H G Wells who serialised in 1897 his science fiction story of War of the Worlds.
Tindal wrote on the risks to cyclists, in particular lone riders from attacks by footpads, rough types and tramps which he felt had attained similar notoriety to that of the highwaymen and roadside robbers of earlier times.
A cyclist out at night, obeying the fledgling laws of the road would be an easy target for anyone up to mischief or mayhem in that their bike lights could be seen for some distance and a trap laid.
The innocent rider, he feared, could be easily upset from his or her machine by the deft placing of a stout stick through the wheel spokes, a jerk of the handlebars or a wire stretched across the road with the intention of causing an involuntary and potentially harmful dismount.
On the other hand a bike did have advantages in being silent and swift giving the rider a fair chance of outrunning an assailant unless of course there was more than just an opportunistic intention.
The bike could lend itself to being used as a weapon in a number of ways.
The first was to just ride at speed towards a would be attacker and swerve at the last moment to cause confusion and to wrong foot.
The momentum of a moving cycle would also help to generate a powerful blow either a side swipe in passing or a forward blow to give an element of surprise.
It could be safer to dismount and cause the bike to rise up on its back wheel and then jab at those who would menace.
Equally, the bike could be used to entangle the attacker giving an opportunity to wade in with a more conventional self defence method.
The rapid sweeping around the body of a bike could produce a force field of frame and rubber by which to bamboozle.
Simply pushing your bike directly at an assailant could cause him to naturally try to catch it giving vital seconds in which to retaliate yourself.
Tindall acknowledges that the fairer, female sex may not be afforded the physical attributes of a male in the same situation and so advocates the fluorishing of a heavy bike pump, the purchase and use as a deterrent of a water pistol.
If being followed or stalked by another rider he offers a suggestion of pulling sharply on the brakes to cause the undesirable to crash into the back of the leading bike with the real possibility of injury or a mechanical problem being inflicted on them.
Tindal appears to have had quite a lot to say on the seedier side of cycling but his words stand as a good archive of the early days of cycling as a mass participation pastime.
In my experience little has changed from that era to the present day out on those roads.
No comments:
Post a Comment