Bike Culture

I’m not a big fan of cycle helmets. But I also recognise that wearing one may sometimes be beneficial. Here’s my pro- and con- lists: On The Plus Side Might prevent head injury from a low speed fall or impact Keeps my head warm when it’s cold - once the vents fill with snow Some shyster lawyer may...
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One of my mates, Mike, is a style-conscious chap about town. He wears a tweed waistcoat, often sports a beard, and runs an advertising agency. Don’t hold the latter against him - he’s a top bloke for advice & fat-chewing when you’re in a fix (and also has an eye for design, copy and...
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It’s been a couple of years since I bothered to track my mileage. But a brief Twitter conversation with Neil from the Stockton Cycle Hub got me wondering how far I ride my bike. In previous years when I’ve bothered to measure this it’s been because I was training for something or other, so...
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In the early 90s, I graduated, got my hair cut and got a job. I also ended up living 30 miles from where I worked, and petrol was cheap - it cost me just £1.20 a day to get to work. I stopped riding a bike for anything other than the very occasional summer...
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Lorries … and Taxis … and Buses Oh My! (So why do girls in britain stop cycling?)
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Declaration of interest: this post is about a Sustrans project. Sustrans are monthly contributors to the keeping-a-roof-over-my-head fund, and I have definitely drunk their Kool Aid (”Tune in, turn on, drop out & build your own transport network”). But that doesn’t mean that what follows isn’t true! One of the criticisms levelled at cycle infrastructure...
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Like most children in the UK in the 70s, I had a bike. The one that really got me my independence was an orange Raleigh Commando, which lasted me from Christmas day of 1977, up to the spring of 1981. I only lived 400m from school, so I didn’t use it for “commuting”. But after...
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I was at a health & wellbeing event last week for work. One of the other exhibitors as Northumbria University’s Sport Central, who were doing all sorts of health & fitness tests on willing victims volunteers. After one of my colleagues had done the test, and found out that her metabolic age was 32, compared...
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… There’s always Unicycle Hockey. And you can play against your bicycle polo playing refusnik friends if you really want to spice it up (apparently less is more - the unicycles trashed the opposition): Can we just file this one for later?
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Whitley Bay has a large network of traffic-free streets. Like those elsewhere, they’re more desirable places to live, where people don’t have to worry about traffic noise, and children can play free of the fear of failing their Green Cross Code. You see hopscotch grids chalked on the paths, and people chatting with their...
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