I MUST take issue with Ian Clarke (GUARDIAN, January 4) who extols the virtues of the bicycle and tells us all to "Get On Your Bike". He says that the bicycle is one of the very few sustainable forms of transport, ecologically, i.e. it does not use up any of the world's resources and does not pollute our fragile environment. What utter bunkum!

Where does the bicycle come from Mr Clarke, does it fall out of the sky? No, it has to be manufactured. The steel for the frame has to be mined from the ground, involving industry. Parts are chrome-plated, this involves immersing in an acid bath which produces toxic fumes and additionally has to be connected to an electricity supply to do the plating: this uses energy. The frame has to be welded or brazed, which use welding rods and fluxes which again have to be mined from the ground. The frame is painted, which has to be produced in a paint factory. The tyres, inner-tubes, brake-blocks and handle-bar grips have to be made from a mixture of rubber obtained from the sap of trees and mixed with plastic which is a by-product of oil which has to be obtained from oil-wells burrowing into the earth. Glass and chemicals are used for the lights, battery or dynamo, these have to be manufactured from resources obtained from the ground and elsewhere. Ball-bearings for the crank, have to be precision ground on hi-tech machinery in a factory using energy.

Cycling does not use up any of the world's resources, Mr Clarke? Utter nonsense. Your thinking is rather limited, Mr Clarke, and you have done no real thinking or analysing of your subject.

If it wasn't for the motor-vehicle, there wouldn't be any food in the shops! The likes of Mr Clarke would have us all back using the horse and cart and anyway, I don't like being told what to do by so-called ecologists who don't give us the whole story. You stick to your bike Mr Clarke and leave the rest of us to our motors!

PETE WILLIAMS

Beaverbrook Avenue,

Culcheth