The look of miscomprehension as you tell someone you cycle to work every day is one that most cyclists will know only too well. As are the comments which flow afterwards. "But isn't it dangerous?" "What? Even in the rain?" "How far?" "You know what I really don't like about cyclists..."

In general the answers go "No" "Yes" "A few miles" "Red lights; pavements; bike lights; helmets", but their miscomprehension is shared by me at the need to ask the questions in the first place, and the basic underlying belief that what you are doing is frankly barmy.

Somewhere in the past few years we've lost the ability to see the bike as a legitimate means of transport, turning the act of cycling into some sort of rebellion.

Now I could get to work by bus with the coughing wheezing masses, or sit in the same traffic jams as everyone else in the car. I have even, on occasion, walked the 5 mile door-to-door that is my commute. But there is one over-riding (if you'll pardon the pun) reason I take the bike each and every day.

It's fun.

That might sound like a fairly random assertion, and you were maybe expecting something along the lines of it being good for the planet, or to keep fit, or because it's quicker, or to save money. All four are nice by-products, but I’m no eco-warrior or fitness fanatic.

No, I ride because I enjoy it. In the car I find myself seething at hold-ups and shouting at the inane banter on breakfast radio. On the bus I imagine doing serious bodily damage to the youth beside me listening to his iPod turned up to eleven. On the bike the worries seem to filter into the background, even when someone pulls out on you without looking or nudges past too close while on the mobile.

There's even a perverse pleasure to riding in the rain, or the wind, or the cold, or all three. Knowing that at the end of the ride the warmth inside, and that first cup of coffee, will never feel as good as after arriving in what other people rather blindly think of as comfort.