Wednesday, December 17, 2008

New London Bike Shop...

...well, a bike-shop specialising in Fixed/Single-Speed, so not sure how well it caters for those of us not wearing skinny jeans.

Tour De Ville

I'll make a trip up there soon and give it a review.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Another Nice Mapping Tool



I've just come across Bikehike, a website which combines Google Maps, Ordnance Survey Maps and elevation date to make a rather powerful off-road (and hiking) route planner. The OS map pane is great, as it has far more detail than the Google maps, so you can plan trips through forests, over muddy tracks, across fields, etc, that Google alone would struggle with. The elevation graphs are nice too, allowing you to switch between pure elevation and incline (where you can see how much of the ride you'll be going "Arrgh" and how much you'll be going "wheeeeee").

Maybe less use for plain old road-riding and I don't actually have an MTB myself, but I'll certainly be using it for planning my next walk.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Be Careful Out There!



Not one, but two friends of mine fell off bikes while hitting black ice last night; you can see the results of one rider <-> tarmac interface above!

It looks like the weather's getting "warmer" (i.e. not below zero) in London for the immediate future, but it's worth bearing in mind, next time you head out there in near-zero temperatures.

Monday, December 08, 2008

You Won't Get Far With That Front Wheel...



...not to mention the flat at the back

(from Norwoord Road in Herne Hill)

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Lovely picture



Pictures like this make me want to leave the South East (where it snows rarely) and move further North.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Does Anyone Know...

...when you should replace your bike helmet ? In particular, I'm wondering about after dropping it. A lot of sites on the internet (the source of all reliable information) suggest you should replace it in that situation, but none of them specify what constitutes dropping it. I'm fairly sure that of the people I cycle with, all four of us have dropped a helmet from table/handlebar height at least once. Does this really ruin the integrity of the helmet ?

Best advice I found was on the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute site. One of their criteria for replacement is "Is The Helmet From the 1970s ?" :-)