We all know that bikes aren’t allowed on the Metro. DB Regio & Nexus won’t even entertain a trial off-peak. In the absence of proper, hard empirical evidence, they must have done a whole bunch of risk assessments. In fact, I’ve put in a Freedom of Information Request for two of these, and I’m sure they’re even...
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Some photos! Old Raleigh parked at the end of the C2C. Don’t know if it was someone’s bike, or if they’d just left it there as an “end of the road” statement! The Cullercoats Small Joinery Bike. Have bike, will turn up and adjust hinges on doors, I guess. One of mine - I was heading off...
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First up, a heart-felt “jolly well done” to all of you who entered our last contest. It was hard to judge the winner, but in the end our panel of unbiased judges decided that Scott’s entry (”Cyclists Dismount”) just about summed up the climate nicely. We’ll be sending Scott his prize of some mis-matched...
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Recently I attended a day’s training hosted by Newcastle City Council, and presented by Alex Sully & Ken Spence from Transport Initiatives. Alex was one of the contributors to LTN 2/08, which is the UK’s cycle infrastructure design manual. The event was pitched at the road design techies from Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and North Tyneside,...
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No, really, it is. Apparently, you’re more likely to be injured in an hour of gardening than in an hour of cycling. Yet there’s that campaign from The Times, that ends up getting a mention in PMQs: There’s an excellent commentary on this piece of Parliamentary history over on As Easy As Riding A Bike (bottom line: the...
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My Pashley came fitted with all the essentials of Civilised Cycling - mudguards, rack, chain case, and of course lights. The back light is a battery-powered LED affair, while the front is a dynamo-powered incandescent bulb. The trouble is that at the beginning of this winter, I got a proper LED front light, and I’ve got accustomed...
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I was looking at some of the photos from the weekend’s track cycling in London, and couldn’t figure out what was so familiar about Chris Hoy: … and Victoria Pendleton: If you read the Beano, you’ll probably recognise the head gear: Yes that’s right - Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton are in reality William and Kathleen Grange...
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This via Retronaut: You can stop watching after the first couple of minutes - unless you want to play 1950s RP Bingo. Points awarded for every time the narrator says the word “lovely”!
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Great to see people wearing everyday clothes in this video: That video came from the same people who were responsible for this: Don’t try this at home, kids!
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I was riding home from a meeting on Wednesday last week, when I saw a couple of guys at the roadside. One of them had a bike and a trailer, so I stopped to say hello and to hand out a “Please join us” card for the Newcastle Cycling Campaign: It turns out that this...
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We live by the sea, which can be very hard on anything you leave outside. After nearly 13 years in this house, the front gate’s post and latch finally gave up the fight, and needed replacing. Reasoning that most things can be done by bike, I went to F.E. Maughan’s, the hardware store in Whitley...
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We’re getting closer to the official launch of the Frankenbike, and over the last week I’ve been building the cargo box. As this DIY bakfiets has been cobbled together from other bikes and the frame angles have been done by eye, I’ve not had any drawings. So the box had to be built in-situ, with...
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This via Adam Ef on the Twitters: It reminds me of when I was a student, and my bike was detained by the police for several weeks to “help them with their enquiries”. During this time, I still had to get into lectures, so I borrowed the 1960s shopper that our landlady had left in...
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First of all, a jolly big “well done” to all of you who entered last week’s contest. Sadly, there can only be one winner, and the best bribes were provided by KarlT with his caption, “It’s used for emphasis when you tell a pig ignorant taxi driver to go fsck himself.” Thanks for the crate of...
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A couple of quotes about flying - just substitute the words “fly” for “ride”, or “aircraft” for “bike” etc.: “Flying in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.” Captain A. G. Lamplugh, British Aviation Insurance Group, London. c. early...
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A video from the ever prolific Lewis Dediare, a.k.a. Traffic Droid: As Lewis admits in his own commentary, “I was on the inside lane on the red route lines and shortly after the boxed junctions. As I was riding I suddenly noticed this truck veering slowly into my lane,…he left his indication somewhat too late but I...
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I’ve done well - it’s now 13 months since I last fell off a bike. That was when I discovered a patch of black ice and the front wheel went out from under me like a jolly fast thing on a very slippy surface. Since then I’ve been extremely wary of ice, wet roads, patches...
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I went for pretty much six months without a single flat. Then the post-Christmas weather sent everyone’s recycling bins blowing along our back alley (not a euphemism), scattering broken glass everywhere. In the last two weeks I’ve had five flats, including this morning… …A puncture in my Pashley’s Schwalbe Marathon Plus rear tyre I’ve had this...
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Before we begin, a jolly big “well done” to all of you who entered last week’s contest. The clear winner was Tlatet, who correctly identified that this was an escaped maths lecturer from the Open University. But most of the rest of you did really quite well, so you have permission to go for...
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There’s no doubt about it, the car industry is very successful at marketing. It sells us a dream of driving along the open road… The Dream: The Reality: The Alternate Reality (do watch this one ’till the end!): They tell us about the sporty playfulness to be had in towns and cities: The Dream: The Reality: The Alternate Reality: The tell...
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First there was this on the front page of The Independent last April: Then today, this in The Times (do visit their page and sign up): So now we eagerly wait to see if the other opinion-forming newspapers will fall into line. Rumour has it that The Daily Mail will be next - here’s an advanced...
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