Bike Culture

Let it not be said that I can’t be topical. The Great Helmet Debate is heating up again, so today’s photo hooks right into that. This image comes from Pearlmonger’s Bristol to Bath Railway Path set on Flickr: To enter the competition, just post your caption below as a comment. Remember, I’m offering a prize that...
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OK - a bit of a departure now from all that cycling in tweed I’ve been writing about of late. Fixed gear bikes. Yes I have one, and yes it’s lots and lots and lots of fun. I don’t know why. It. Just. Is. There’s just something about it that wires up my brain differently, and makes everything...
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Big day to day on Siegfried - dropping in to see Carlton Reid (excellent coffee - thank you!) on my way to the Team Valley, then across to a meeting near the Metro Centre, before heading home. In all, around 30-35 miles, and some ‘challenging’ hills. The last of these was on my route home...
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So today was my first real trip on Siegfried - into Newcastle, then out to Walker and home. Somewhere around a 20 mile round trip. And I was presenting a workshop in the afternoon, so I had my laptop, projector, lunch, and a set of waterproofs with me (the weather forecast was for RAIN...
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So I’m almost cycling in ordinary clothes now. The exception is my footwear: Yes, these are industrial-grade safety shoes. Because, after all, cycling is dangerous, isn’t it? Actually, the reason I’m wearing this is that they’re my work shoes - I visit all sorts of factories, where you really do have to wear shoes with...
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No, I’m not talking about getting a second car, but wondering about the whole concept of a car at all. Here’s the problem. It’s time for us to part company with our current car. It’s a 2001 Renault Lagune (yes, I know) that’s done 108,000 miles or so, and is getting to an age where...
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You may have gathered that I got a new bike. It’s a Pashley Roadster Sovereign. That’s not a photo of my actual bike, but one just like it. I’m waiting for a decent sunrise over the sea to take my own photos and scoop the EcoVelo photograph prize. After much agonising, I’ve gone with my first...
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I killed Wilf. Through neglect, lack of understanding, and over-use. But mainly through not knowing how to use a steel ruler to measure the chain. OK, I’m exaggerating a little. But the cost of the components to restore Wilf to health would have been about 75% of the cost of buying an identical brand new...
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OK, so say we’d set out to make it safe for every child of nine years and older to cycle to school unaccompanied. What sort of measures could we put in place to ensure that the public money spent on this project was being well spent? Ian Walker points out that the easy measure apparently...
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*Before you start typing a comment in green ink, please check this post’s categorisation. Thank you* It’s funny how these things happen, isn’t it? Da Square Wheel Man over at the Bicycle Diaries wrote a post this week about bicycle helmets from a Tweedier age, and only last weekend, I’d photographed the same sort of...
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