Easy Riders

The knees, for a start, and the hamstrings. All that pedalling. The shoulders, arms and neck, from being hunched over the handlebars. The back. Even the digestion - snatching a bite to eat before dashing off on your bike to deliver an urgent package, stomach still full, isn't ideal.

Anyone with a bike knows how important it is to maintain it properly, points out acupuncturist June Tranmer of the Healing Clinic in Fulford Cross, York. "And we have got to maintain our bodies as well."

Which is why cycle despatch riders and couriers with York firm Cyclone have all been signed up for regular monthly 'MOTs' at the clinic. Each month they will be seen by a different therapist - it may be an acupuncturist, a nutritionist, a shiatsu therapist or a chiropractor - and the aim, explains June, is to make sure they stay in tip-top condition.

"It's very much in line with the Chinese philosophy of keeping people well, rather than fixing things when they go wrong," she explains.

Cyclone, set up as Wheel Alternatives by Chris Hamm, Mick Thomas and Graham Horne two years ago, is York's environmentally-friendly answer to the motorcycle despatch rider.

The firm guarantees same-day delivery of urgent despatches anywhere in the country - all by bike. York, of course - but much further afield as well.

An urgent letter to be hand-delivered to a lawyer in London? No problem - one of Cyclone's eight couriers will leap on the train with a folding bike, leap off again in the capital and beat the local motorbike despatch riders at their own game by weaving through the traffic more quickly than they can.

Cyclone can also undertake delivery of heavier items using one of the Maximus trikes - heavy-duty three-wheeled freight-carrying cycles with 42 gears that can carry up to a quarter of a tonne. The Maximus is used to deliver the Evening Press to city-centre vendors, and much else besides. They've even been used for furniture removals, says Mick Thomas.

Being a cycle courier, however, does put some wear and tear on the body, Mick admits. "The riders are doing something like 100 miles a day, which is somewhere up around the Tour de France distances. The difference is they stop after three weeks - we don't!"

With the firm's reputation resting on its ability to deliver, it is vitally important all eight despatch riders remain in good health.

Which is where June Tranmer and her colleagues at the Healing Clinic come in.

Anybody who wants to be a cycle despatch rider will tend to be a little alternative in their thinking, Mick admits - so it seemed natural to turn to a complementary health centre to keep them in shape.

Joe Jefferies, a 25-year-old who hails originally from Shakespeare's home town of Stratford, joined Cyclone as a despatch rider after graduating from York University.

He loves the job. "The idea of being paid to cycle everywhere is almost too good to be true!" he grins. He insists it keeps him healthy, too. "At the end of a long day, I tend to be generally tired and hungry, but it's really good to eat because you're hungry and sleep because you're tired!"

There's no doubting his fitness. But it doesn't take June long, during her initial consultation, to establish that, yes, he does have some back trouble - courtesy, Joe says, of pulling a muscle lifting when he worked part-time in a factory in his student days.

Before he can say cycle despatch rider, June's got him up on her couch where, after applying Indonesian massage oil, she brings out the 'cups'. They're small, rubber Chinese bulbs used for deep massage and to stimulate circulation.

She gives each one a little squeeze before applying it to Joe's back, where it sticks, gently sucking up the flesh and drawing blood towards the surface of the skin.

She works deftly, concentrating on the area around Joe's pulled muscle, applying and re-applying the cups before using them for a kind of sliding massage down each side of his spine. The main aim, she explains, is to relax tight muscles, but the cups can also draw out pathogens.

Whatever it's doing, it has clearly worked. Joe is so comfortable he's half asleep. "It's really relaxed my muscle," he manages drowsily. "It was very tight and it has just neutralised that."

Cupping finished, June massages Joe's feet and ankles. Then she turns her attention to the back of his neck, applying gentle pressure with her fingers to acupuncture points either side of the vertebrae to allow energy to flow freely so the neck can relax.

It's not a form of manipulation, she says, but a way of allowing the vertebrae to relax into a natural, unstressed position.

As she works, June talks. One of the problems with cycling too much, she says, is that the exercise isn't balanced: the legs and lower body work hard, while the upper body doesn't.

To redress the balance, she suggests a simple exercise she calls the 'cross crawl', where each leg in turn is lifted and bent at the knee, and the opposite arm is stretched at the same time.

The really good thing about a centre like the Healing Clinic, she adds, is that there are a number of different practitioners, skilled in several different therapies, who all work together, If one practitioner isn't sure what to do about a problem, they can consult with somebody else who may be able to help.

So the clinic's Alexander Technique specialist Pam Mason could help with posture - people who spend long hours on a bike can have problems, and the Alexander Technique can really help them find the best way of sitting on a bike, June says - while McTimoney chiropractor Oliver Grant can help with joints and stiffness, nutritionist Azizah Clayton with diet, and shiatsu practitioners Jan Redwood and Paul Chielman with stretching and loosening exercises.

The idea is that the Cyclone couriers will each come in once a month to see a different practitioner - and hopefully any problems can be caught before they become serious. A radical approach to health care indeed.

The Healing Clinic can be contacted on 01904 679868

Updated: 09:32 Monday, February 18, 2002