Idiot On A Bike

The Science Of The Tour

2010-05-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

This looks interesting; a discussion, at the Science Museum, of what exactly it takes to complete the Tour De France. Plus you can have a beer while you listen. I wonder if they'll touch on the more "pharamceutical" aspects (in the news again, thanks to Floyd Landis)

Raphé

2010-04-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

Despite the best efforts of various pubs, London's not really had somewhere you can watch the Tour De France and have coffee/beer/Special Brew. Hopefully that will change with the opening of Rapha's Cycle Club (basically a cafe-cum-exhibition-space, for the duration of the summer, in Farringdon). They'll be showing the Tour live, along with the Giro and other road races. No doubt the drinks will be oh-so-stylish and possibly a little expensive, but if it's a nice place to catch some cycling, I won't be complaining.

Bargain Merino

2010-04-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

High tech fabrics are great and everything, but for breathability, wicking and a general nice feeling against the skin, you can't beat merino wool. I've recently snapped up a pair of Smartwool Light Mini Cycling Socks for £5 from the Howies store in Carnaby Street. I'm not sure if they've got any left, but if not I notice this place has them for £7.95.

Possibly even more bargain-tastic, On-One have long-sleeve, merino zip tops reduced to £27.50. Stock up now, for next winter.

Great bike blog

2010-04-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

Not mine! This one http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/ :-)

Nice Team Sky Paris Roubaix Video

2010-04-10T08:51:00.001-07:00

If you don't know the Paris Roubaix bike race (aka Hell Of The North) is reknowned for the rain- and wind-blasted cobbles that the riders have to travel across. Michael Barry from Team Sky has made this nice video of their training run across them, which captures the experience rather well.

Securing Your Bike Storage

2010-03-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

If, like me, you've recently moved and want to plan how to store your bike securely, this two-part article on Bike Radar has a lot of good advice

Potholes

2010-03-10T07:02:00.001-08:00

Having just started cycling again (see previous post), my first thought after "Wow, this is great" was "Where have all those holes come from?". The roads around my way seemed to be a minefield of hollows and ditches,

'Turns out that it's the harsh winter's fault. Some of these are hugely dangerous to cyclists, so the LCC are encouraging you to report them to the TFL.

Back On The Bike

2010-03-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

After moving house and having a baby I'm finally back on my bike, and thankfully it's coincided with the last two days' glorious riding weather. Not only does it feel great to stretch the legs, but it's turning out to be fun trying to find a route to my office that does not involve Sydenham Hill or the centre of Peckham.

In the meanwhile, there's a nice summary of the forthcoming bike racing season at The Bike Show up at The Racing Year With Lionel Birnie. A nice intro if you want to know the difference between your Dauphine Libere and your Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Something Which Has Always Puzzled Me

2009-10-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

I can understand people who choose to wear cycle helmets.

I can understand people who choose not to wear cycle helmets.

What I don't understand is people who carry a helmet around, dangling off their handlebars. What are they saving it for, some particularly gnarly bit of their route to work ? Or perhaps they just enjoy the extra challenge of having some extra weight on their handlebars to complicate their steering?

Watching Next Year's Tour

2009-10-16T03:38:00.000-07:00

The route for the 2010 Tour has been announced and Rotterdam has been chosen for le Grand Depart. The Bike Show has some nice ideas for getting over there via Eurostar and bike, and watching the early stages in Holland. I'd be particularly tempted to see the stage in Brussels or maybe stage 3 from Wanze yo Arenberg Porte du Hainaut and combine it with a trip to the monasterey in Westvleteren to pick up some of their beer.

Having said that, I think an upcoming addition to the family may limit my future cycling jaunts :-)

Pants and more cycle cinema

2009-09-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

There are many great things about riding a bike to work, but forgetting a change of pants and socks TWO DAYS IN A ROW is not one of them. There's only so many times you can ask your boss if you can pop out for 10 minutes to buy some underwear.

On a lighter note - the London Bike Film Festival opened last night and I went along to watch Breaking Away, the 1979 film about small-town American life, broken dreams and cycling. I'd not seen it before, but it was a lot of fun and more light-hearted than I expected. The climax of the film is, essentially, a bicycle relay race, complete with the competitors passing the bike from team-member to team-member. It was frankly, insane! Do such things exist, or was it just a dramatic invention for the purposes of the plot?

The festival is on for the rest of the weekend at the Barbican. I think Tour Des Legends looks particularly good. Get down there if you want to some more cycle-oriented movies; there was a great atmosphere last night, plus current British Road Race Champion, Kristian House was there.

Bike Films For The Bank Holiday

2009-08-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow night, Monday, in Brockwell Park they're showing the fantastic Belleville Rendezvous, along with live music, a bike race and The Harder They Come (not sure about the bike connection with that one, I thought it was about reggae). More details here

And if you're looking for something more environmental, the Climate Camp in Blackheath is showing some films about sustainable transport tonight, Sunday, "when it gets dark" using bicycle generators! Go to the camp entrance (off Hare & Billett Road) and ask to be directed to the 'cyclology tent'.

Picture courtesy of "reynard"

London Bridge Bike Park

2009-08-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've seen cycle parks in other cities (Bristol, Amsterdam) but not London until today. Luckily I have pretty good facilities at my office, but if you don't and work around the City, this could be a useful facility. Although, you will have to put up with the bell-end outside the "London Tombs" pretending to guillotine tourists.

Apparently there's one in Finsbury Park too.

Drookit!!

2009-08-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Wow! Did anyone else just get caught in that downpour? The Brixton Road was so bad that even the buses abandoned the bus lane for fear of drowning.

Still the Carradice ("that handbag" © my boss) proved exceptionally water-tight. Everything was still bone dry by the time I got home. Same couldn't be said for "other parts" of me. Times like these I wish Gore-tex shorts were less expensive and less "fetish" looking

Old Bikes

2009-08-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

What better way to have a "lifestyle change", than to open a shop restoring vintage road bikes. I shall be cycling up to Sargent & Co in Finsbury Park soon, to check it out.

Made Me Laugh

2009-07-10T00:12:00.000-07:00

"Why spend a king's ransom on the latest titanium confection when any weight advantage will be rendered irrelevant by a cheese-and-pickle sandwich and a thermos of soup?"

:-) From the Tweed Cycling Club

Incidentally, I saw the following *very* non-titanium bike outside an Old Street (natch) pub last night. I don't think I've ever seen such Heath Robinson looking brakes before

AA for Bikes?

2009-07-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

I've often wondered if such a thing exists and then this morning I found business card for Bike-Ade outside my office. He only covers Central London, but it sounds a good idea nonetheless.

I hope I can fix most minor problems myself, and if anything more serious happens I'd probably just walk to a station, but I'll keep the card anyway, just in case.

First Big Ride on the New Bike

2009-07-02T04:23:00.000-07:00

I've finally taken advantage of the good weather to take the new bike out for a (long) spin. I found the Ten Thames Bridges 100k route on Bikely and augmented it with an extra 50k between Herne Hill and the start of the route in Windsor.

The section from home to Windsor took in lots of West London, including much of Heathrow Airport. Whilst low on rutal charm, I have to admit to finding the environs of Heathrow oddly fascinating; all the low rise, anonymous business parks interspersed with 1930s suburban houses long since seperated from their demolished neighbours. Not to mention the constant stream of jets overhead - I soon passed the time playing guess the destination based on my (hazy) knowledge of airline tail logos.

The Ten Thames Bridges route itself was pretty lovely; lots of Home Counties greenery and obviously a number of bridges varying from the fairly imposing Marlow Suspension Bridge to a thin, no-cycling walkway across Mill End Weir. The latter was actually a highlight, despite having to get off and push, as you felt a lot closer to the water, with the Thames rushing, crystal-clear below. Having said that I'm not sure I'd get out the picnic chairs halfway across as one elderley couple had done.

Using just a printed out Bikely map for the route wasn't great (translation: massive navigation fail!). In future I think I'll create some kind of prompt sheet, complete with distances between turnings. There's nothing better at bringing down your average speed than having to ride up a hill that you're not 100% sure is on the route. At one point in the afternoon my nav was so off I had to turn on the GPS funcitonality of my Nokia N95 to work out which way I'd veered off the route proper.

The bike seemed perfectly up to the distance and in particular the Brooks saddle was a revelation. No sore undercarriage the next day. The Carradice saddle bag was also up to the task, storing plenty. However it's definitely from a "gentler" age of cycling - no ability to quickly remove and attach it when parked up outside a newsagents in the dodgy part of town.

Having convinced myself 150k is do-able, I think the next step is to maybe do an audax of a similar length. I've been eyeing up these two - Ruislip 205k and Luton and Herts 150k. Has anyone ridden either of them before?

I was pretty exhausted by the end, but sitting at Datchett station aftewards having a lucozade and salt-and-vinegar Discos, I was pretty pleased with a good day's riding.

(aerial pic of Marlow Suspension bridge courtesy of/stolen from http://www.marlowtown.co.uk/)

10% off Rapha

2009-06-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

Promotional code I picked up at the Smithfields Nocturne:
SMTH2009
gets you 10% off on their site.

Although that still leaves them a little dearer than Halfords.

Valid at http://www.rapha.cc/ until the 20th

Penny Farthings and Bike Week

2009-06-12T02:13:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I caught the tail end of the Veteran Cycle Club's annual event at the Herne Hill Velodrome. It has to be said, there's something pretty awesome about seeing a Penny Farthing "racing" around the a bike track against other cycles from antiquity (I'd tell you what they were, but I haven't a clue - a velocipede? Solid tyred bike? No idea!). Unfortunately we only got there for the very end, so I think we'll have to return next year, but it does look they put on other events

Loads of bike events coming up this week (being Bike Week and all), but a few which have caught my eye are:

Bike and Kite Festiva l - Blackheath, tomorrow and Sunday
Southwark Cyclists Film Festival - Shortwave Cinema, Bermondsey, Monday evening - showing shorts plus Breaking Away. Email barrymasonuk@googlemail.com for details
Greenfest - Furnival Gardens, Hammersmith, Sunday - not just bikes but general hippy-dippery
Free breakfasts for cyclists - (Camden, Tower Hamlets, Hackney. Plus many others)

Bike Tubes

2009-06-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

One good thing that might come out of this - the LCC organised some "Bike Tubes" today, where they led a number of groups of cyclists into central-London from pre-arranged locations (Ravenscourt Park, Finsbury Park...).

I couldn't see from the site whether they are repeating this tomorrow, but they do say they'll be running more Bike Tubes in future, even if there's no disruption. Sounds like a good introduction to commuting into London to me.

Mayhem On The Roads Today

2009-06-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

As you may know, there's a tube-strike today. Rather than use it as an opportunity to "work from home", Londoners seems to have decided to battle in anyway possible, with the streets already rammed at 7:15. Here's your I-Spy cut-out-and-keep guide to the strike

Red-faced tube workers manning picket line outside a station (10 pts)
Commuter shouting at red-faced tube workers (20 pts)
Twelve people trying to hail the same taxi at once (20 pts)
Pedestrian walking out in front of you because their head is buried in their A-Z as they attempt to work out how to get to their office (50 pts)
Cyclist, riding a bike that hasn't been used since the late 80s and certainly not in rush-hour London, wobbling across three lanes of traffic in an alarming fashion (100 pts)
Company director, in flash car, equally un-used to rush-hour traffic, cutting up the novice cyclists in order to try and grab the last parking spot (100 pts)

It'll be an interesting couple of days.

Back On The Road

2009-06-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, my Evans voucher arrived and I popped over to the store to pick up the new steel stead. With hindsight, I should have perhaps got the voucher for a bigger amount, as it's not often you get the opportunity to buy what you want in a bike shop, effectively at half-price with six months to pay it off. In the end I contented myself with a new lock and some SPD pedals.

I've also added a Brook's B-17 saddle, as per Purple Traveller's advice. Bit early to tell yet, although I'm sure we'll be very happy together. If nothing else, I think it makes the bike look a lot nicer (you may remember I wasn't sold it's appearance) and it complements the ace, Carradice Barley saddlebag I've bought.

After 4 months or so, off the road, I have to admit I'd forgotten the sheer joy of cycling, even if it was on a clogged up, drizzly Euston Road. I'll take it out for a proper spin over the next few weeks and let you know how it is.

Still Waiting For Evans Ride2Work Voucher

2009-06-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

Apparently they've received the payment from my company, but not the form. Obviously, it's too much to expect Evans to email/phone my company and ask where the form is. Oh well, duplicate form on it's way now. It's like living through an enforced No Bike Week

On a more positive note, yesterday proffered an unexpectedly, nerve-wracking end to the Giro, with race leader Dennis Menchov falling off his bike in the final kilometre of the Time Trial around Rome. Some pretty sharpish bike changing by his team car, and the decent buffer he'd built up saved the Giro from a pretty unfortunate end in it's centenary year.

Pith Helmet

2009-05-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

A bit pricey at £95, but this Danish helmet is one of the most dapper I've seen. Available from Bobbin Cycles

New Bike Show Episodes

2009-05-22T00:54:00.000-07:00

Doh, I've somehow managed to miss a whole 8 new episodes of The Bike Show from Resonance FM, but not to worry as they're all available online at The Bike Show. There's no finer way to start a Friday than tweaking some Perl scripts while listening to Jack's adventures on a bike around Flanders.

Watching The Giro

2009-05-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

If like me, you want to watch this year's Giro, but you don't get the Eurosport channel, you can watch it online using their online Eurosport Player for £3.99 a month (so I'll be cancelling come the beginning of June :-))

Not much to watch today though, the riders have decided it's too dangerous and are just poottling round at a slow speed (until the very end)

Getting A New Bike

2009-05-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

Inspired by having the Ride2Work scheme at my present job, I've decided to invest in a new bike. Having ridden both my hybrid and flashy-road bike over the last few years, it's focussed my mind on what exactly I want a bike to do, namely:

be usable for the daily commute
be able to do light touring (maybe a week in Scotland, rather than a month round Africa)
*maybe* be comfortable/practical doing something like a 100-200k

To me, these requirements make perfect sense, but it does seem as if they fall between a number of stools. Road bikes are built for speed and generally spurn the need for mudguard-clearance or anywhere to attach panniers. Tourers do well on those points, but are generally built for serious touring, with an associated weight and lack of whizzing-in-and-out-of-the-traffic-ability. Hybrids too, are slower, and generally don't have drop-handlebars, leaving your wrists craving new riding positions once you do much more than 50k.

The remaining options (at least in Evans - who we can only use for Ride2Work) are:

cyclocross bikes
audax bikes.

Cyclocross bikes look like mummy racer had a one-night stand with daddy mountain bike, with a road frame but knobbly tyres (which I'd swap for road tyres) and enough room to stick guards and panniers. Of these I ordered the Specialized Tri-cross, Genesis Croix De Fer and Kona Jake to try. The Specialized looked great and had carbon forks, but just felt sluggish to me. No doubt some of it was due to it's chunky tyres and it's more relaxed geometry, but it just didn't seem right.

The Genesis felt much better, with disc breaks and a steel frame, but Evans have run out of them now, which conveniently solves that dilemma. I'm still waiting of the Jake as Evans only seem to have one in my size, which is trapped in some limbo between London and their Gatwick warehouse never to materialise into a test-rideable form.

An Audax bike, is a bike designed for riding Audax events :-) These are essentially long-distance, non-races of any where between 100 and 600k, the more hardcore of which feature people cycling for days on end with a few hours kip grabbed here and there. The best bikes for this kind of lunacy are fast touring bikes i.e. perfect for what I want. Unfortunately, the one such bike Evans stock has a slight Granny vibe about it, but otherwise had the best feel of all the bikes I've tested so far and again was steel so should be comfortable on those longer rides.

So which will I go for? Evans have just phoned to say that the Kona *should* be in London tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to final make my choice (if only so I don't have to put up with anymore of their indifferent customer-service)
[TO BE CONTINUED]

Cyclists To Be Allowed To Turn Left On Red

2009-04-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

The Guardian is reporting that Boris Johnston has asked the Department of Transport to allow cyclists to turn left at red traffic-lights, on the grounds that this will allow cyclists to get ahead of vehicle (i.e. lorries) at the junction. Not sure how practical it is, or how much safer it will make the roads, but will be interesting to see what happens. From the quotes in the article it seems CTC have already taken against it.

He'll Never Get A Bike Helmet Of That Hair

2009-04-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk.tscc.org.uk/pressoffice/stories/2009/1_april/30/topgear.shtml

PS - apologies for the lack of updates of late, I've been in Hawaii. And New York. Talking of which, it's interesting to see what the bike couriers look like here (supposedly the home of fixed-gear-courier culture). A few of them are the gnarly, trendy looking types as seen in London, but most of them look like they're on crack. Seriously.

Long Distance Cycle Talk

2009-03-04T05:13:00.000-08:00

Long-distance cycle tourer (tourist ?) Peter Gostelow is giving a talk on his epic journey home from Japan to England this Saturday at the Globetrotters Club

His blog's worth checking out too - there's plenty of stuff on there to get you wanting to pack it all in and cycle off to Japan. Unfortunately I'll miss his talk as I'll be cycling to the slightly nearer...Cambridge.

Poetic Justice

2009-02-20T05:30:00.000-08:00

A fantastic post on the Cycle Chat forum today. Read it if you fancy a laugh.

Congratulations to Mark Cavendish

2009-02-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

Starting the year as he means to go on, with a win in the Tour Of California. I'm also pleased to see some particularly catchy categories in there - "California Travel & Tourism Commission King of the Mountain (KOM) Jersey". Give me "The Yellow Jersey" any day :-)

London (well, Staines) to Oxford

2009-02-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

My mate Barry and I cycled the Thames Valley route from Staines to Oxford this weekend (with an overnight in Pangbourne). As you might expect, the weather added some interesting aspect to the ride, but it was still do-able (with some pushing, some slow cycling and some giving up the official route and just taking the road). It's a mixed route taking in Thames-side cycling, some lovely rural bits on Berkshire and a bit of the usual "creative accounting" off-road routes that Sustrans specialise in (through housing estates, car-parks, etc)

4 Bad Things About This Weekend.

1. Mysterious Exploding Inner Tubes. Before we'd even left London, Barry had destroyed two inner tubes (waking up his neighbours in the process). Had they got caught on the rim ? Was there something sharp inside the tyre? Was the gauge on his track pump a couple of bar low? We suspect the latter, but can't say for sure. Oh well, it only seemed to set us back an hour-and-a-half.

2. Snow and Ice. A lot of the route was surprisingly clear or gritted, but anything that took us through Windsor Great Park, round the back of Didcot Parkway or down pathways into Oxford was a treacherous landscape of thawed and refrozen snow. Good job I put my new slick tyres on last week!!

At best this took our average speed down to 3 or 4 mph while we struggled to keep upright and at certain points we just had to get off and push.

3. Trying To Get Our Bikes On A Train From Reading to Pangbourne With 50 Million Reading Town FC Fans. Barry got on, I could not. At least it meant I got to bomb along the A34 on the bike trying to catch-up the train.

4. No Local Beer in Pangbourne. Half the fun of a bike ride away from home is being able to drink Ye Olde Goat's Nadger's Ale from the local brewery. Only London Pride and Courage in the otherwise good George Hotel, although I did end up remembering how much I like London Pride.

4 Good Things About This Weekend

1. Cycling Through The Snow Covered Landscape of Berkshire. Most of Sunday morning involved cycling down nicely cleared country-lanes, surrounded by pristine snow-covered fields and woods. In particular,
at one point we came out of a wood onto a hillside that seemed to look down onto much of Oxfordshire, with Didcot Parkway being the only thing to break up the white blanket covering the landscape. London seemed very far away and it felt far more like the Peaks or Lakes than the South-East.

2. Slicks Coping On Ice and Snow. No punctures either

3. Wildlife Following Us. As well as rabbits running across the frosty fields to our side, a bird of prey (possibly a Buzzard) followed us on-and-off for a couple of miles around Wallingford. Obviously we must have been looking weak and vulnerable at this point (at least until our pub-lunch)

4. Getting 15 "Mornings". When overtaken by the local cycle club out for their Sunday morning run.

Overall it was a good ride, with the Sunday morning the undoubted highlight. Inevitably for a Sustrans route going through urban areas, some of it tended towards alleys and pathways that can reduce your average speed somewhat and aren't necessarily that picturesque. If I was doing it again, I'd probably try and swap some of these out, for more rural lanes.

If you go expecting something like the C2C or the Devon-Coast-to-Coast, you'll probably be disappointed by the extent to which our crowded corner of the island is now dominated by man's footprint, but for an easily-organised weekend out of London, it was a lot of fun.

Interesting Interview With MD of Brompton Cycles

2009-02-10T01:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, while recovering from the cold I caught while cycling in the snow to Oxford at the weekend, I heard the following interview with Brompton Cycle's Will Butler-Adams. It's pretty fascinating, I didn't realise they were still actually built in London (Brentford, a mile from where I went to school)

BBC iPlayer (only valid for a week)

It starts about 1:35 in, so you'll need to fast-forward to that, to avoid the 80s jazz.

Tip When Booking Bikes On Trains

2009-02-05T15:11:00.000-08:00

If you try to book a bike reservation through an external ticket seller like The Train Line, and they tell you one isn't available, it may be worth checking with the train company themselves. This has happened to me at least twice, most recently this week. In both cases, bike reservations weren't available NOT because the train was already full of bikes (as The Train Line said), but because it was a revised timetable and therefore you couldn't reserve anything, seats or bikes, on the train. In this case, the nice lady at First Great Western has advised me we should be ok, if just turn up and stick our bikes on the train.

Mind you, if we have more snow, who knows if the train will actually turn up.

Made me laugh

2009-02-01T03:52:00.000-08:00

From my friend David's flickr. Although to appreciate it you probably need to have seen one of these

New Tyres and Rapha Sample Sale - Part II

2009-01-30T06:42:00.001-08:00

So, I've had a week on the new tyres and it's been a week of dry clear days and wet miserable days and this has proven a pretty good trial. They do seem faster, but like always with city riding, unless you go a *lot* faster (or don't stop at lights), it won't make much overall difference.

On Tuesday, which featured "that fine rain that soaks you through" and a resulting layer of slime over the road, I definitely had a few wobbles going round corners a bit fast. Nothing too alarming, but definitely some faster heart-beats and a need to work out what I can and can't do now. The tyres are Armadillos, which are reknowned for their puncture-resistance, so a softer-tyre might be a bit grippier. I'm hoping they'll prove their worth on longer rides when that reduction in friction will add up.

Also - just back from the Rapha sample sale. Nothing too much too tempt me (wrong sizes, wrong items) but a fairly big queue to pay, so obviously someone was tempted. T-shirts were 20 quid, everything else upwards from there.

New Tyres and Rapha Sample Sale

2009-01-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

My Specialized hybrid currently has some fairly chunky, 700 x 38c, tyres which seem a bit surplus to requirements, given that most days I ride on the not very gnarly Brixton Road (mind you, some of those potholes...).

So I've splashed out and bought some new, narrower, slicks. APPARENTLY, according to the nice man in the bike shop, I don't need 38c width tyres and can actually take them down as narrow as 28c, so that's what I've gone for.

I'll let you know on Monday whether I can actually get them on my rims and whether I go any faster.

And in other news, Rapha have another sample sale coming up next weekend, next door to Condor Cycles. Hopefully I'll make it to this one and can find out whether reduced Rapha is within the price-range of us mortals.

Opening Times are:


Friday 30 January: 12am-8pm
Saturday 31 January: 10am-5pm

Truing A Wobbly Wheel

2009-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Truing a wobbly wheel is one of those bike maintenance tasks that I always thought was some kind of dark-art, that could only be done by the tattooed, big bearded mechanic you always saw lurking in the back of your favourite bike shop. But having watched a video on Bicycling.com, I was able to carry it out with reasonably good results.

The video assumes you have a truing stand, but I was able to manage with the bike upside down, so that the wheel could spin, and using the brake pads to gauge how much the wheel was wobbling from side to side. One other thing, I had the tyre off (I was replacing a spoke) which seemed to make it easier to see what was going on.

Warm Head

2009-01-06T05:27:00.000-08:00

Seeing as I'm a slaphead, I can't believe I haven't previously owned one of these. I got one as a Christmas present and tried it out for the first time on the ride to work this morning. Needless to say my head was suitably toasty, despite London being "colder than the Antartic" (© the not remotely sensationalist Evening Standard).

Mine is the Pearl Izumi Microsensor Skull Cap for around £14, but I'm sure others work just as well.

Now I just need some winter gloves and I'll be sorted.

Keep 'Em Peeled...

2009-01-05T02:45:00.000-08:00

...motorbikes can use TFL bus-lanes from today.

50 Quirky Bike Rides

2009-01-01T04:55:00.000-08:00

Some cycling is all about performance, hauling yourself up Leith Hill so that you're ready for your summer trip to Mont Ventoux or Whistler, or to take another minute off your PB. It's the battle between your will-power and abilities, seeing which will give in first.

Another side is more about the journey, the people and places you come across. The remote hill-top cafe in Cumbria, the beatiful viaduct in mid-Devon, the guy with the recumbent you meet at Newcastle Station. I have to admit this is where my heart lies and is very much the emphasis of Rob Ainsley's excellent book "50 Quirky Rides".

It lists 50 rides in the UK that take you to somewhere notable or unusual. If you've ever wanted to go on a ride that features a trip on a ferry, a visit to a cycle maze or over a scary unfenced viaduct, this is the book to satisfy your need. It even tells you how to ride up that optical-illusion road they used to feature on Blue Peter, where you appear to free-wheel up an incline.

The rides themselves are between 5-50km ("many can be done in a lunchtime"), but the introduction suggests you can expand them into a day-long trips (or longer)

The routes themselves are listed on the website, but I'd encourage you to buy the book, so that we can hopefully get
50 Quirky Bike Rides Volume 2.

New London Bike Shop...

2008-12-17T05:32:00.000-08:00

...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.

Another Nice Mapping Tool

2008-12-16T04:59:00.000-08:00

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.

Be Careful Out There!

2008-12-12T02:22:00.000-08:00

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.

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

2008-12-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

...not to mention the flat at the back

(from Norwoord Road in Herne Hill)

Lovely picture

2008-12-06T03:27:00.000-08:00

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

Does Anyone Know...

2008-12-03T04:48:00.001-08:00

...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 ?" :-)

More Bike Tattoos

2008-11-06T06:21:00.001-08:00

I've mentioned bike tats in the past but they seem to be growing in popularity. Check out some of these "bad boys" from Wired

Crap Cycle Junctions of London #1

2008-11-06T04:04:00.001-08:00

Queen Victoria Street and Queen Street, Mansion House

Want to encourage red-light jumping in cyclists ? Then why not create a set of cycle traffic lights where the cyclists only get one green-light for every two green-lights that the rest of the traffic and the pedestrians get. Guaranteed to either make people think that the lights are broken or just infuriate them that they're regarded as less important than everyone else.

Not mention the queue of cyclists that back up, blocking the pavement...

Rapha Sample Sale

2008-10-31T10:28:00.001-07:00

A bit late, but if you're a fan of ponce-tastic Rapha cycling clothes (actually, they're not that bad :-)) they're having a sample sale, starting tonight. 18:00 - 20:30 @ Condor Cycles (51 Grays Inn Road, Clerkenwell, WC1X 8PP).

It's also on tomorrow between 10:00 and 17:00

My ideal beer

2008-10-24T05:09:00.000-07:00

They make Belgian-style beer! They like all the organic, granola, hippy crap I like! They like bikes!

Just need to find somewhere in the UK stocking them now.

http://www.newbelgium.com/

Apologies again

2008-10-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all my reader :-) for the lack of posts recently. I had one of my bikes stolen (along with Jen's) and it put me in somewhat of a bad mood re: the world of bicycling. Not sure that there's too much of interest in the theft itself, we'd been a little naive about the security of where they were kept. Live, learn and don't get too attached to physical possessions.

On a more positive note, I went to Amsterdam at the weekend, which is generally regarding as a cycling city. Interesting to see, the whole approach to bikes (at least in the city centre) seems to be that they are purely functional. Everyone rides "granny bikes" because of their lack of desirability to thieves. I think I only saw two people on single-speeds in the whole weekend (in some parts of London these days, you'd be hard-pushed to see two people not on single-speeds these days). I saw a few people out on nice road-bikes, but this was out on the roads in the middle of the countryside. For the commuter the purely most-basic wins.

And if you ever stay in Amsterdam, I can recommend this place http://www.sevenbridgeshotel.nl/

Open Cycle Map

2008-09-26T06:04:00.001-07:00

I've recently bought a cheap second-hand GPS and have been playing about with it. One thing it's introduced me to, is Open Cycle Map, a sub-project within Open Street Map. The idea behind OSM is to generate open-source map-data, which people can use without the usual restrictions that apply to data from Ordnance Survey (see this for the whole story). The Open Cycle Map project plans to use this data, to plot the National Cycle Network, along with other useful cycling features (shops, cycle parking, etc).

The map already seems considerably more user-friendly than that on the Sustrans site and will presumably only get better. I've already started contributing to OSM (tagging up some pubs in my local area, natch) and hopefully once I get a bit more up-to-speed with my GPS, I can start adding some cycle routes too.

Armstrong in, Contador out (probably) at Astana

2008-09-24T03:43:00.001-07:00

The newly un-retired Lance Armstrong looks set to join the Astana cycling team. This is a bit of a shame for their other big signing of the year, last year's Tour winner Alberto Contador, who has hinted he'll be offsky if this happens.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/7632837.stm

Aldi Bike Bargains

2008-09-17T01:34:00.000-07:00

Before I begin, I should point out; I've never bought any bike gear from Aldi, so have no idea of the quality (or whether it's made by 8 year-old children in Bangladesh). However, by the look of things some of these are at least worth an investigate. Most eye catching has to be the SPD Cycling Shoes for £19.99! Although looking at the picture they look like they're made out of some plasticky, non-leather, non-breathable material. Perhaps most practical are the overshoes (£5.99, including cap!) and the bike holder

Not sure about the locks though, I've heard rumours of groups of friends buying locks from Aldi/Lidl and finding that all the keys opened each others locks.

It all goes on sale tomorrow (18th) - more details here

Latest Purchase

2008-09-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Well, a birthday present actually. Despite sounding quite dull, the bike stand is one of those incredibly useful things that I can't believe I haven't bought thus far. If you've ever tried to do any kind of cleaning or maintenance, that requires the turning of your pedals and back wheel, you'll know you have two options: turn the bike upside down, or ask your partner to come and help you while you swear a lot. Neither of these is ideal, I find.

The Minoura DS500 Bike Stand takes the place of your partner, lifting the wheel a few centimetres of the ground allowing the back-wheel and pedal to turn freely. Note, if you want one of those full size ones you see in bike workshops (so you can fix the bike while standing up), you'll have to splash some extra cash, plus they tend to be quite big. The strength of this model is that it folds down to about a foot-and-a-half.

Even better it has some of the best mistranslated instructions I've seen. I particularly liked:

"Do not ride bike while is on DS500. The man will be injured when the bike fallded down"

Thanks to Jen for buying it for me.

And If You Can't Wait That Long For The Tour of Britain

2008-08-27T11:37:00.001-07:00

Whilst just searching for a repeat of The Professionals, I've found out that ITV4 are showing the Tour Of Ireland each night at 7pm this week. Come on Cavendish.

Tour Of Britain Comes To London

2008-08-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

Having thoroughly enjoyed a couple of bike race events over the last 12 months (last year's Tour De France prologue in London and the Smithfield's Nocturne) I can recommend the upcoming London Stage of the Tour Of Britain on Sunday 7th of September. The line-up looks pretty strong, offering a chance to see a good selection of British riders, both those from the Tour De France (David Millar, Mark Cavendish) as well as those who've excelled at the Olympics over the last few weeks (Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins), not to mention riders from further afield.

The route forms a circuit along the Embankment between Tower Hill and Westminster. For more info, have a butchers here.

Things I Learnt Last Weekend

2008-08-22T03:28:00.000-07:00

Printed out Google maps are not really adequate for locating campsites down Peak's country lanes at 12:30 in the morning

You can, however, find sneaky spots in the Peak's National Park for doing some wild-camping, if needs must

The Goldeneye Map of the Peak District is great for suggesting cycle routes, but you have to be very careful when navigating as the level of detail is a bit lacking (I took at least three wrong turns thanks to the map)

If you are going to put your bike in guard's van on a East Midlands train (which has nothing for you to attach it to) don't then sit in the carriage next to it, otherwise you will hear your bike smashing to the floor, the first time the train rounds a bend

The Peak District is hugely pretty

Actually I already knew that last one, I'd just forgotten.

So as you can probably tell from the above, the trip turned out to be "eventful". In particular the whole finding-the-campsite/wildcamping incident meant I didn't get to sleep till 1:30-2am (and was then up again at 5:30am taking my tent down, before anyone official found me). This all lead to me being knackered on the Saturday morning and downgrading my cycling plan from the route mentioned here to this one. It was still 50 miles and about as hilly as I was capable of on the day. In particular Winnat's Pass (which has a 20% gradient) utterly defeated me at the end of the day, but was still an impressive geological feature. Coming down the other side towards Edale was lovely though (always enjoyable flying down a hill while others plod up with gritted teeth. On heavy mountain bikes). Other highlights included the Broken Road, the shady, forested hill around Cressbrook and the long, open descent from Wormhill.

The North Lees Campsite (when I finally got there at 6:30 on the Saturday morning) was nice. Just a shower/toilet block and drying room by way of facilities, but pleasant, wooded surroundings and a good, secluded location. Note - if you're walking/pushing a bike to the site, it's *far* quicker to take the footpaths up from Hathersage village centre, rather than walk on the road.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to wangle a diversion to Arbor Low, but did discover Night Watchman beer

Definitely could do with some more hill practice, so off to Leith Hill again, this weekend I think.

Best Bike Ever!

2008-08-20T05:24:00.001-07:00

A write-up of my weekend's Peaks District adventures will follow soon, but in the meantime, I've just spotted this on eBay. Possibly the greatest bike ever. It can do "moderate off-roading" and has even take 3 adults once (there was a pub involved, inevitably)

Ready for the Weekend (maybe)

2008-08-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm off to the Peaks this weekend, to give the new bike a thorough workout. I have:

bought a Goldeneye Cycling Map of the Peaks

picked out a route (looks hilly, looks hard, will probably end up doing something else

done some practice (up and down Crystal Palace Hill. Up and down Leith Hill/Box Hill/etc on the South Downs

bought a seat bag to put my stuff in.

bought some energy bars

Hopefully, it will be a weekend of hard, but rewarding climbs, beautiful scenery, Neolithic Stones and nice beer.

What to Do When Your Derailleur Goes All Knackered

2008-07-31T04:20:00.000-07:00

Jen, David and I did a bike ride on Sunday (from the Around South London book, 32 miles from Headcorn, "two water bottles" difficulty) and although it was largely a pleasant ride through rural Kent, it all went a bit wrong towards the end.

Pic courtesy of Jen

As we were coming up a hill into Sissinghurst, something happened to David's gears, resulting in bad noises and an inability to change gears without the chain coming off. After much road side poking and prodding between the three us, and a tentative "I'll give it a quick ride see if that's fixed it" from David, it became apparent that the derailleur was not guiding the chain correctly, resulting in it constantly trying to move it onto another ring. Given that it was patently not behaving we were now in the "let's see if we can bend it back into the right place" territory, but we hadn't noticed that a plastic peg had snapped, so that the derailleur was completely knackered. We all stood around marvelling about how little we knew about how gears worked. We ended up pushing the bikes for 6 miles.

So what can you do if this happens and you're miles from a bike shop and you don't have a spare derailleur with you? Are you doomed to push your bike for the rest of the route? Well, the best advice I've found is to:

1 - Put the bike in a gear you will be happy cycling in for the rest of the day (bit hard, as you'll have to guess a bit, but probably something in the middle)
2 - Remove the chain using a chain tool (that I forgot)
3 - Remove enough links (using your tool) so that the chain will go round the large front and back rings ONLY (missing out the two small cogs) with a fair degree of tension
4 - Replace the chain around those two only (using a spare chain link, which I DID remember)

These pics hopefully show what I mean.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

You have effectively made a single-gear bike, which you should be able to pedal, but will obviously struggle to go up hills/break the land speed record, but hopefully the chain should stay on long enough for you to get home/to the bike shop. However please note:

1 - Removing links from chains is a tricky job at the best of times, so best not to do it for the first time when you really need to fix your bike. This describes it in reasonable depth.

2 - I HAVE NOT TRIED THE ABOVE, SO YOU DO SO ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK :-)

Thanks to "Slice" for the single-gear suggestion

New Bike

2008-07-29T06:42:00.001-07:00

Exciting news! I finally took the plunge and bought a new bike. A colleague (my boss, in fact) was selling his Condor Squadra which he rode up Alpe D’Huez in L'Etape a few years ago and I made the mistake of giving it a test-ride. This was the first time I've ridden a "proper" road bike, since I fell off one in a church car park in Renfrewshire 25 years ago, and it was a pretty revelatory experience. Suddenly I was faster than most people. Suddenly I made lights, that previously I got caught at every day. Suddenly I didn't have anywhere to put my panniers :-)

So having umm-ed and ahh-ed, and learnt about groupsets, and test-rode a heap of other racers at Evans, I decided that the sheer enjoyment of riding the bike was too much to forego and decided to buy it. I got a good price (even with our work's Ride2Work scheme, I couldn't get anything quite as good for the same cash for new).

So what to do now ? I don't want to just use the bike for commuting, but as the bike is built to be as light as possible, it isn't really designed to then have a load of panniers on it, as would happen if I took it off for a weekend tour like my "Gloucester to Hungerford" trip. I think I need to re-think my trips into circular ones where I leave all my stuff back at base, while just how far I can go in one day before I fall over. My first planned trip is to the Peak District in a few weekend’s time. Not sure of my route yet, but somewhere starting (and finishing) around Hathersage/Edale I think.

More to follow...

Oh Dear!

2008-07-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

David Cameron (leader of the Conservative party and someone who makes great play of his cycling credentials) has had his bike nicked from outside Tescos in Portobello Road), although according to the Evening Standard "Cameron had chained it to a 2ft bollard, allowing thieves to lift both the bike and the lock clear"

<shakes head>

New Cycling "Knickers"

2008-07-21T01:19:00.000-07:00

This week I've been wearing my new Swrve "knickers" (American for 3/4 length trousers). I have to say these are awesome, being specifically cut for cycling, but at the same time are almost smart enough that you can wear in the office/pub (if you can't be bothered changing). They have nice big pockets at the back and are cut lower at the front so they don't into your stomach when you're bent over on the bike.

I bought them at this place in Vancouver (benefitting from the strong pound) for about £45 but at more expensive over here unfortunately £65. They're still worth trying if they sound like they might be your kind of thing

I've got them in cotton, but you can also get them in more technical fabrics, if you need.

Highlight of the Week

2008-07-21T01:14:00.000-07:00

While watching the Tour De France yesterday on ITV4 I noticed that on the road, in white paint instead of the usual list of riders names (Evans, Cav, Schleck, etc) or messages from the Socialist Party of France, someone had painted a large 15ft cock and balls (someone British, I'm guessing :-))

I'll post a picture as soon as I can find one.

Bikes and Trains

2008-07-16T00:20:00.000-07:00

Trains and bikes should go well together, however privitisation and overcrowding seem to have left a situation where different companies have different policies at different times and checking them requires judicious use of Google. Thankfully A To B Magazine maintain an up-to-date and in-depth guide to all the networks' different restrictions.

In fact it's so in-depth that it will tell you what all the companies' policies on tandems are, should you be interested.

Back from holiday...

2008-07-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

...new posts to follow.

In the meantime, anyone who's had their chain snap will appreciate David Millar's reaction during the last 1km of a stage of last month's Giro D'Italia

Boris on helmets, terrorists and liberty

2008-06-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

As you may know, the new mayor of London is a cyclist, but doesn't much like helmets. This causes great consternation to a lot of people (setting a bad example to children, etc. etc). Here he attempts to address the issue in his usual "bumbling" way. Clear a couple of days in your diary if you intend to read all the comments that follow it.

By the way, does anyone really think that kids are going influenced by the behaviour of Boris "Cool" Johnson ?

Pic from the Telegraph.

New Bike Mag

2008-06-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

The Ride

The website makes it look quite trendy, but according to the creators:

"The journal is our stab at capturing the soul of cycling. Sod the reviews and route guides, we're about passion in riding, whatever bike its on. We're track, mountain bike, bmx, road, commuting, racing, free-ride. As long as people have a love for bikes then we're interested."

Be interesting to see what it's like.

Incidentally, if you're after a trendy bike mag, then you could do worse than check out Rouleur. I'm sure it's creators wouldn't mind me describing it as "coffee-table" (a polite way of saying 9 quid an issue), but if you like classic photography of epic Tour De France stages, you'll probably like it.

Sometimes you just need a new tyre

2008-06-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

After 5 punctures in as many days (and an evening where three of us pored over the tyre looking for sub-atomic embedded bits of glass/stone/etc) I finally gave up and bought a new tyre. It was only 20 quid and if it means I don't have to use a cycle-pump or puncture repair kit this week it will have been worth it.

(picture of funky no-cycle sign taken in Barbican centre)

How Very Dare They

2008-06-13T09:39:00.001-07:00

I've just noticed that at the bottom of my last receipt for some repairs at Brixton Cycles, under "Notes and Recommendations" it says

"Recommend cleaning your bike. It will work better"

They're right though,

If you find modern cycling...

2008-06-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

...a little bit uncivilised, perhaps you'd care to check these people out, The Tweed Cycle Club. Apparently they organise rides from London.

I particularly like the following advice:

If the barometer forecasts rain, the cyclist is wise to remain in bed or repair to a hostelry for refreshment. Should there be no alternative to riding through a downpour, a fisherman's so'wester will keep the head dry allowing the cyclist to face into the heart of storm and push on with resolve and determination, remembering that moral fibre is the sturdiest of fabrics.

A Weekend of Cycling

2008-06-09T01:43:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, Jen and I headed up to Smithfields to watch the Smithfields Nocturne. If you don't know this is an evening of cycle racing including some pretty big names (Geraint Thomas, Ed Clancy, Rob Hayles) as well as some more fun races including the infamous Folding Bike Race, in which competitors have to wear business attire. The whole thing was very enjoyable (helped by the plethora of nice pubs in the vicinity) in an impressive setting with the opportunity to be alarmed at just how fast pro-cyclists go (they barely came out in my photos in the evening light)

On Sunday we headed down to picture-postcard Sussex to do the Rye - Camber - Lydd route from the Sustrans website. If you've not been to this part of world before, it has quite an odd landscape: flat as a pancake, dotted with holiday homes and Dungeness dimly visible in the distance. The only problem with the actual cycle route is that large parts of it are on a rough track, next to the road. This is great if you're a family with kids who want to be safe, but for everyone else it limits your speed and you don't feel particularly removed from the noise and pollution from the cars.

On the way back we took the road, which is actually nicer - you can get a decent speed up and the traffic is reasonably light. It also meant we got back to Camber in time for quick dip in the sea.

Motorbikes in Bus Lanes

2008-06-06T00:21:00.000-07:00

Allowing motorbikes in bus lanes is a contentious issue. Ken trialled a couple of schemes which showed a reduction in accidents, but then allegedly (according to the Evening ~~Boris~~Standard ) the report was suppressed to avoid antagonising cyclists. Now Boris is in office he is planning on pressing ahead with it

Personally I've not had a problem with motorcyclists in bus lanes, but, it would be nice if motorbikes could be kept out of the cycle boxes at junctions a bit more effectively.

If you feel inclined, here's the LCC anti-motorbikes in bus lanes petition

Easy Rides in the South East

2008-06-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

A useful link if, like me, you are planning some short cycling trips in the South East. Also they will hopefully be well signposted. Signage on Sustrans routes can be variable in quality. For instance, NCN1 from London to Brighton starts off brilliantly, however by the time you're cycling across Tilgate golf course (an official part of the route!) without a sign in sight, you may be doubting your own sanity.

Insane Bike

2008-05-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

While searching for Raleigh Grifters on ebay (just out of curiosity, don't worry I have no intention of becoming a Hoxton Twat riding around on a 70s kid's bike which is 10 time smaller than me!) I found this:

If you don't remember it, the Raleigh Vektar was their attempt to make a futuristic electonic bike. As well as the more usual features (wheels, gears, saddle, etc), the Vektar featured:

computer (for speed and distance)

an AM radio (with attena dangling off the rear of the bike)

a sound effects generator!!

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the sound effects would have included lasers and sirens. Of course, being the 80s, these electronics occupy a good third of the bike, whereas nowadays they could fit in one of the tyre caps.

I actually took part in some Raleigh market-research for this when I was a kid, so I am partly to blame for this bad boy! They came to Heston Village Hall and paid us a couple of quid to quiz us about it. Unfortunately although I remember the bike, I have no recollection of what I thought of it. Looking back, it's hard to see how this
didn't provoke some kind of reaction in me!

See here for more details

New Favourite Bike Shop In London

2008-05-21T03:27:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend has just bought a bike which has meant quite a few weekends over the last few months have been spent trawling round the bike shops of London, trying bikes out and watching customer service in action.

Our requirements were a bike mostly for fun rides at weekends, rather than commuting, suitable the odd footpath/canal towpath/forest track, but nothing remotely gnarly and off-road. Price range: £300-400.

Evans, Spitalfields - this initially scores highly by being big and therefore browser friendly and unintimidating for someone who doesn't want to be pounced on by a sales assistant the second they enter. However after this point, we found the service rather lacking. They didn't have any bikes in her size in stock, only suggested two different models and rather pushily got us to reserve one for a test-ride next week (the more expensive of the two, natch, £50 deposit required). My objection to this is that someone who's new to cycling may not know what they want, far better to get them trying stuff out (even if it's a similar, more expensive model), just so that you can be sure of their requirements. The person at Evans seemed far keener on getting us dealt with as quick as possible (they were pretty busy that day) 5/10

Cycle Surgery, Spitalfields - also crowded and again, didn't have the right frames in stock. This time however, they were keen to get Jen on similar bikes to establish stuff such as whether she would prefer a ladies frame or not. Also, sent us round the corner to their other store, to ensure she could try some other bikes they didn't have in stock. If you want to go to one of the chains, this would be our recommendation. 8/10

Brixton Cycles, Brixton - Initial impressions are quite intimidating as this store is small and all the assistants look like grungy cycle couriers. It was also extremely busy as it was the first hot Saturday of the year. However once we managed to flag down an assistant the experience was great. The staff's enthusiasm for cycling was manifest (they seemed pleased that you wanted to ride a bike!) and they took as long as was necessary with you, even though the queue in the store was getting longer. Somehow, the guy serving us juggled several other people all test-riding bikes and asking Jen useful questions to aid in the decision making process.

The only drawbacks were the busy-ness and the slight chaos in the store (when we went to pick up Jen's bike the following week, they said it was ready when they still needed to fix a few things on it). We'd definitely recommend it for buying a new bike, just don't go when you're in a hurry. 9/10

(Thanks to CTC Maps for the photo

Intermission (Win an £800 bike!)

2007-12-05T06:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry if anyone's waiting with baited breath for the third and final installement of Gloucester to Hungerford. I haven't got around to writing it up yet.

In the meantime, why not support Re-Cycle by buying some raffle tickets and being in with a chance to win the above Wilier Pista singlespeed.

Re-Cycle send reconditioned bikes to poor communities in Africa, where they are obviously more use than here in a shed/locked to a lampost getting seven shades of shit beaten out of it by passing kids.

They also have a nice plan for how to build a trailer out of old bike parts if you want to do some recycling of your own (I'd be tempted if I could spot weld)

Gloucester to Hungerford Pt 2

2007-11-29T05:03:00.000-08:00

Continuing from Pt 1

Peering out of my B&B window on Day 2, I could see that the weather had taken a turn for the worse with wall-to-wall grey skies and a distinct drop in temperature. This combined with the extremely (and wind-exposed) landscape of the Severn estuary meant that Saturday morning was probably the low point of the route. Perhaps on a sunny day this would be nice cycle, but even then the Avonmouth bridge (riding alongside the M5) would be a bit of a grind.

Thankfully, once you're over the other side the fun stuff begins. Following the Avon you wind your way towards Bristol through woods and with cliffs rising either side. Suddenly it felt a bit more remote (even though we were on the outskirts of major city). The route pleasantly rises and falls, and you can even (occasionally) kid yourself that your charging through some gnarly single track :-). With the lack of traffic I decided I could not stick my headphones and crank up the music.

Soundtrack: Client - Client

The Clifton Suspension Bridge announces the beginning of Bristol proper and soon you're passing converted warehouses and the SS Great Britain. One thing to beware of (particularly in the rain) are the disused railway tracks on the waterfront in Bristol. Even though they barely poke above the surface, they're treacherour if you don't cross them at an oblique enough angle, something I found out to my cost when I ended up sprawled on the ground.

I combined my need for (a) grub and (b) a spare chain link by visiting the excellent Mud Dock Cafe. It's part bike shop, part cafe and is about 50 yards off the route. Probably the only place I've eaten with a penny farthing dangling above my head and a copy of L'Equipe celebrating Armstrong's seventh Tour win in the bogs

The route then follows the Bristol-Bath Railway path, predictably along disused railway lines. The section immediately outside Bristol centre is a little dull, but the nearer you get to Bath the more rural and pleasant it gets. Fulfilling all my preconceptions of Bath I passed some posh kids cheering on the school rowing teams.

Soundtrack: Electric 80s - Various

After a brief stop in Bath, I push on along the Avon-Kennet canal in the hope of reaching of Bradford on Avon before dark. This turns out to be a vain hope, which is a shame as apparently this is one of the highlights of the route, taking you over aquaducts and surrounded by pretty hills. Also, it's a royal pain in the arse trying to spot 20 cm cycle route signs in the dark, with a weedy front light. Thankfully all the wrong turns I took soon left me in someone's driveway/front-garden/a forest, so I was able to correct myself before going to far off route.

Bradford turned out to be an ideal stopping point, being a well-to-do suburb of Bath with plenty of pubs, two Italians, an Indian and a bike shop.

PS - You can find all the photos of this trip at Flickr

Gloucester to Hungerford Pt 1

2007-11-27T08:12:00.000-08:00

Having previously completed the C2C and the Devon-Coast-to-Coast cycle routes, I decided to use up some holiday doing the "Gloucester-to-Hungerford-via-the-Avon-Kennet-Canal" or "GTGVTAKC" as I preferred to call it. The original plan was to go with my mate Barry, but unfortunately a nasty ear infection meant he had to stay behind in London while I caught the train up to Gloucester.

Gloucester seemed the very model of a sleepy cathedral town, it's quiet streets seeming a million miles (and approximately 3 decades) from modern-day London. Figuring I had an hour to spare, I spurned the cathedral and had a quick look round the (free!) Gloucester Folk Museum. Unfortunately I then had to spend a further 30 minutes trying to attach my new map holder to my bike. I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong, but in the end gave up and just wore the wap round my neck on a strap (which worked perfectly well)

The first part of the route follows canals and country lanes down the Severn Valley with the river itself occasionally hoving into view. Even though you only really see the beginning, it's nice to think you're following the course of the river. Unfortunately time constraints meant I didn't have time to stop at Slimbridge but had to crack on for the Village Farm in Elberton (my B&B for the night)

This first stage was nice enough, but I have to admit didn't really stir the soul. The terrain was mostly flat, 30 miles partially on pleasant country roads and partially on tow-paths. Having said that Elberton was nice, with a decent meal and beers in the White Hart.

Be Safe, Be Seen...Be A Bad Bwoy

2007-11-05T05:48:00.001-08:00

From Instructables

The Least Enticing Bike Route Ever ?

2007-10-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

On the platform at Lockerbie station (I think). Apparently it runs *alongside* rather than *on* the motorway, but even so...

Having said that, it is a lovely bit of the country that it runs through

Chain Reaction Pt 4

2007-09-18T04:49:00.000-07:00

Finally got the chain fixed this weekend. Once I knew what I was doing it actually only took 5 minutes to fix. I also then used the chain wear tool to see whether the whole chain needs replacing, which it does :-(

Passed the above "chopper" on my way in, or rather I should say it passed me. Despite the rider having to pedal like some furious BMX-er, he was maintaining a pretty decent speed down the Kennington Road. Perhaps it's the low-slung, aerodynamic postion.

Chain Reaction Pt 3

2007-09-11T08:51:00.001-07:00

If you're expecting a step-by-step guide about how to fix a broken chain, I'd wait a few more days till I'm actually able to do that. In the meantime, here's some "DON'T"s that may prove useful

1. Don't turn you bike upside down without removing your (open) panniers first

Picture says it all really

2. Don't forget to make a drawing of where the chain goes first

You'll forget as soon as your trying to re-attach the chain and when you're covered in oil is not the time to be looking round your house for a picture of a bike.

3. Don't re-attach the chain (using the SRAM link you bought) in such a way part of it is running outside of the frame.

You'll just swear a lot

4. Don't think "That's OK" - it should be possible to just slide my SRAM link back apart again

Apparently it *is* possible, but it requires skill and pliers, and not oily hands and no skill.

4. Don't think "That's not a problem", I can use my bike chain tool to remove another link, move the chain back inside the frame, before re-attaching the link using your bike chain tool.

The bike chain tool should be used to push a pin out part (but not all) of the way. See here for how to do it properly. If you do push the pin all the way out, there's no way on God's Green earth that you'll be able to get it back in.

I will now be buying another connex link, to replace the link where I took the completely out and hopefully I'll be able to be back on my bike (finally)

Bike Events in Brockwell Park This Weekend Pt 3

2007-09-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

Cycle Training are now not appearing at the Urban Green Fair, but Dr. Bike will be.

Hopefully this is my last post on this subject :-)

Bike Events in Brockwell Park This Weekend Pt 2

2007-09-05T04:40:00.000-07:00

Cycle Training UK have also said they'll be in Brockwell Park this Sunday, so if you're interested in getting some training on how to cope with London's not always bike friendly streets, pop by. I believe they even provide some subsidised/free courses via Lambeth Council.

PS I still haven't had a chance to repair my chain yet, so am having to make do with public transport again this week. Obviously a good week to do so.

Bike Events in Brockwell Park This Weekend

2007-09-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

The "Urban Green Fair" this Sunday in Brockwell Park has a Bicycle Testing Zone, where you can try out different types of bikes and even better Brixton Bicycle Art will be teaching you how to repair and pimp your old bike.

Chain Reaction Part 2

2007-08-31T01:39:00.000-07:00

I've spoken to my resident bike expert and in order to fix my chain I need to use a chain tool like this

(which I have) to remove the "busted-up" link and replace it with one of these

(which I don't). I can also use a chain wear tool like this

to tell whether the whole chain is knackered and just needs throwing in the bin.

Off to the bike shop at lunch, I'll let you know how I get on.

Chain Reaction

2007-08-29T02:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I rode to work marvelling at how well my freshly cleaned and oiled bike worked. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and each time I changed gear, you could hear the cogs bite with a satisfying clunk, and the movement on the shifters was smooth and definite.

Yesterday evening, my chain decided to explode and leave me to push the bike two miles home.

Not sure if I my cleaning was a little overzealous, or it was all an unfortunate coincidence, but I will be spending the evening learning how to repair and/or replace my chain.

I got a tattoo to commerate the ocassion (only joking, the image is from Louisiana BMX a site dedicated to BMX art!)

I Missed This Last Year...

2007-08-25T10:43:00.001-07:00

...so am hoping to catch some of their films this year.

2007 Bike Film Festival

Cycle Theft Chat

2007-08-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

Chat online to a couple of coppers and some people from the Home Office, about how to avoid getting your bike nicked.

17th August, 12pm-2pm
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/chat/chat002.htm

This Looks Fun

2007-08-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

The Hovis London Freewheel is a load of London streets closed to traffic on the 23rd September, for some car free fun.

PS The logo is mine, not the official one :-)

Cycling on the Isle of Wight

2007-08-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went off to the Isle of Wight for a long weekend. As part
of it, my girlfriend (a non cyclist) and I decided to hire some bikes in order to get around and just for it's own enjoyment. Thankfully the Isle of Wight seems a fairly cycle-friendly
place, with plenty of bike hire places and a variety of routes around
the island.

As part of our hire of two bikes from Wight Cycle Hire we got the Cycle Wight pamphlet which lists 13 routes of varying difficulty (they also sell it seperately for £2.99). On the Saturday we chose the Sunshine Trail (12 miles), supposedly named as it orbits the part of the UK which gets the most sunlight per year. It runs from Shanklin through Wroxall, Godshill, Sandown, before returning to Shanklin and mostly runs on cycle-tracks and very quiet roads. The "challenging
off-road" section is basically across a field, bumpy in summer, and
probably a mud pit during the winter months. The route was lovely,
quickly leaving Shanklin for some very rural fields and scenery.

On the Sunday we went for the more challenging Shanklin to Ventnor and
back route, which includes two substantial hills and for a lot of the time sticks to the main road (more appealing than it sounds). Although less rural, it does take you
to Ventnor for a dip in the sea/pint at the (http://www.thespyglass.com/) Spyglass Inn. We also opted for the extension to. It's supposed to end at Niton but we didn't find much there (it was probably around the next corner). Luckily we spotted a sign for a beach cafe at St.Catherine's Point and had a late lunch there.

Oooo, nice

2007-08-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

Combining my loves of not getting cold on a bike and peerless Jocko booze, is this great top from the Velo Club d'Ardbeg. I'm looking into doing a holiday up on Islay which will involve some cycling, and will update you with what I do.

PS. Apologies for the lack of updates of late, normal service should be resumed now.

Cycle Lanes Part II

2007-06-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

Following the no doubt overwhelming response from readers of this very blog, the government seems to be backtracking on the idea of cycle lanes being compulsory.

Story on Government News Network

"Use cycle routes, advanced stop lines, cycle boxes and toucan crossings unless at the time it is unsafe to do so. Use of these facilities is not compulsory and will depend on your experience and skills, but they can make your journey safer."

Cycle Lane Petition

2007-05-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

Cycle lanes are obviously "a good thing", generally making cycling more pleasant and safer. Unfortunately there are now moves afoot (see here) to make it compulsory to use one, when it's there. This is very much a bad thing as far as I am concerned, mostly because it fosters the attitude that cycle lanes are the *only* place for cyclists and encourages the already prevelant attitude that roads are for cars and we are somehow intruding on *their* space.

On top of that they are not always well maintained, kept free of parked cars and often integrate back into the road at rather dangerous spots.

Sign the petition here if you agree (thanks to the Crap Cycle Lanes of Croydon blog for the pic.

Sorry for the lack of posts...

2007-05-29T09:32:00.001-07:00

...I've been on holiday. Normal service will be resumed shortly.