June Monthly Statistics – Exercise

 

Copenhagen Pt 3 of 5

 

Copenhagen: City of Cyclists, Part 3 of 5: We’re headed downtown to mix it up with traffic in Copenhagen. Get a good look at not only the green cycle routes across the city, but also the curb-protected roadside “cycle tracks”, the blue-painted intersection pavement guides, and bicycle-specific traffic lights. What an amazing mix they’ve accomplished, with not only a third of their commuting population bicycling in each day, but in a system so well thought out that kids and families ride through the city right along with them.

But first, saying a big hello is Bill Mould, Chief Mechanic of Spokes Etc in Alexandria, Virginia. We’ll be visiting Bill soon for some helpful coaching to keep your bike spinning strong

Copenhagen Pt 2 of 5

Copenhagen: City of Cyclists, Part 2 of 5: We meet some of the 100,000 cyclists who’ve made bicycle commuting a part of their daily lives. You’ll also get a sneak peek at a future program from John Urman in Georgetown, Washington DC. Keep an eye out for future greetings from cyclists from every side of life and around the globe

Copenhagen by a billion bikes YouTube Pt 1of5

Copenhagen: City of Cyclists, Part 1 of 5: Our very first episode of A Billion Bikes, takes us to the Danish city of Copenhagen, which has one of the most advanced urban bicycling communities in the world. A full third of their city workforce commutes by bicycle! This is an excellent 5-part program of weekly episodes. But first, a brief hello from Tour de France champion Floyd Landis, and a fun open.

A move back to cycling (and other alternatives) in cities

A great article on te rise of green in europe – a slant from the New York Times but interesting reading.

ZURICH — While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.

Christoph Bangert for The New York Times

Cities including Vienna to Munich and Copenhagen have closed vast swaths of streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes eroded bypopular bike-sharing programs. Drivers in London and Stockholm pay hefty congestion charges just for entering the heart of the city. And over the past two years, dozens of German cities have joined a national network of“environmental zones” where only cars with low carbon dioxide emissions may enter.

Likeminded cities welcome new shopping malls and apartment buildings but severely restrict the allowable number of parking spaces. On-street parking is vanishing. In recent years, even former car capitals like Munich have evolved into “walkers’ paradises,” said Lee Schipper, a senior research engineer at Stanford University who specializes in sustainable transportation.

“In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving,” said Peder Jensen, head of the Energy and Transport Group at the European Environment Agency. “Here there has been more movement to make cities more livable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars.”

To that end, the municipal Traffic Planning Department here in Zurich has been working overtime in recent years to torment drivers. Closely spaced red lights have been added on roads into town, causing delays and angst for commuters. Pedestrian underpasses that once allowed traffic to flow freely across major intersections have been removed. Operators in the city’s ever expanding tram system can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

Around Löwenplatz, one of Zurich’s busiest squares, cars are now banned on many blocks. Where permitted, their speed is limited to a snail’s pace so that crosswalks and crossing signs can be removed entirely, giving people on foot the right to cross anywhere they like at any time.

As he stood watching a few cars inch through a mass of bicycles and pedestrians, the city’s chief traffic planner, Andy Fellmann, smiled. “Driving is a stop-and-go experience,” he said. “That’s what we like! Our goal is to reconquer public space for pedestrians, not to make it easy for drivers.”

While some American cities — notably San Francisco, which has “pedestrianized” parts of Market Street — have made similar efforts, they are still the exception in the United States, where it has been difficult to get people to imagine a life where cars are not entrenched, Dr. Schipper said.

Europe’s cities generally have stronger incentives to act. Built for the most part before the advent of cars, their narrow roads are poor at handling heavy traffic. Public transportation is generally better in Europe than in the United States, and gas often costs over $8 a gallon, contributing to driving costs that are two to three times greater per mile than in the United States, Dr. Schipper said.

What is more, European Union countries probably cannot meet a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions unless they curb driving. The United States never ratified that pact.

Globally, emissions from transportation continue a relentless rise, with half of them coming from personal cars. Yet an important impulse behind Europe’s traffic reforms will be familiar to mayors in Los Angeles and Vienna alike: to make cities more inviting, with cleaner air and less traffic.

Michael Kodransky, global research manager at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in New York, which works with cities to reduce transport emissions, said that Europe was previously “on the same trajectory as the United States, with more people wanting to own more cars.” But in the past decade, there had been “a conscious shift in thinking, and firm policy,” he said. And it is having an effect.

After two decades of car ownership, Hans Von Matt, 52, who works in the insurance industry, sold his vehicle and now gets around Zurich by tram or bicycle, using a car-sharing service for trips out of the city. Carless households have increased from 40 to 45 percent in the last decade, and car owners use their vehicles less, city statistics show.

“There were big fights over whether to close this road or not — but now it is closed, and people got used to it,” he said, alighting from his bicycle on Limmatquai, a riverside pedestrian zone lined with cafes that used to be two lanes of gridlock. Each major road closing has to be approved in a referendum.

Today 91 percent of the delegates to the Swiss Parliament take the tram to work.

Still, there is grumbling. “There are all these zones where you can only drive 20 or 30 kilometers per hour [about 12 to 18 miles an hour], which is rather stressful,” Thomas Rickli, a consultant, said as he parked his Jaguar in a lot at the edge of town. “It’s useless.”

Urban planners generally agree that a rise in car commuting is not desirable for cities anywhere.

Mr. Fellmann calculated that a person using a car took up 115 cubic meters (roughly 4,000 cubic feet) of urban space in Zurich while a pedestrian took three. “So it’s not really fair to everyone else if you take the car,” he said.

European cities also realized they could not meetincreasingly strict World Health Organization guidelinesfor fine-particulate air pollution if cars continued to reign. Many American cities are likewise in “nonattainment” of their Clean Air Act requirements, but that fact “is just accepted here,” said Mr. Kodransky of the New York-based transportation institute.

It often takes extreme measures to get people out of their cars, and providing good public transportation is a crucial first step. One novel strategy in Europe is intentionally making it harder and more costly to park. “Parking is everywhere in the United States, but it’s disappearing from the urban space in Europe,” said Mr. Kodransky, whose recent report“Europe’s Parking U-Turn” surveys the shift.

Sihl City, a new Zurich mall, is three times the size of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Mall but has only half the number of parking spaces, and as a result, 70 percent of visitors get there by public transport, Mr. Kodransky said.

In Copenhagen, Mr. Jensen, at the European Environment Agency, said that his office building had more than 150 spaces for bicycles and only one for a car, to accommodate a disabled person.

While many building codes in Europe cap the number of parking spaces in new buildings to discourage car ownership, American codes conversely tend to stipulate a minimum number. New apartment complexes built along the light rail line in Denver devote their bottom eight floors to parking, making it “too easy” to get in the car rather than take advantage of rail transit, Mr. Kodransky said.

While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has generated controversy in New York by “pedestrianizing” a few areas like Times Square, many European cities have already closed vast areas to car traffic. Store owners in Zurich had worried that the closings would mean a drop in business, but that fear has proved unfounded, Mr. Fellmann said, because pedestrian traffic increased 30 to 40 percent where cars were banned.

With politicians and most citizens still largely behind them, Zurich’s planners continue their traffic-taming quest, shortening the green-light periods and lengthening the red with the goal that pedestrians wait no more than 20 seconds to cross.

“We would never synchronize green lights for cars with our philosophy,” said Pio Marzolini, a city official. “When I’m in other cities, I feel like I’m always waiting to cross a street. I can’t get used to the idea that I am worth less than a car.”

Tonic vanishing point review from RIDE.cc

£1300 frame and forks

When a steel bike for testing was mentioned I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I love steel bikes, I’ve owned three of my own in last few years and tested a couple more and every one has left a smile on my face. While I was doing a bit of research on Tonic’s Vanishing Point I just couldn’t get one little number out of my head – 2400g frame and fork weight. After miles and miles on carbon and alloy machines weighing a kilo under that was I finally about to ride a steel bike that wasn’t going to inspire?

Everything from Tonic Fabrication is hand made in house by the two man team Landon & Tony in Portland, Oregon. Right down to custom bending their tubing to the CNC machining of dropouts and other parts allowing full control over every detail found in one of their frames. The Vanishing Point is their first foray into the road market after cutting their teeth with jump bikes, fixed gear and then cyclocross.

Available as a frameset,r custom build or off the peg the options are endless We’re testing our Vanishing Point mainly as a frameset, but the build we have is available as an option too for £4100 – it does include some pretty snazzy componentry not least those Easton EC90 wheels and builds up to a complete bike weight of 8.4Kg.

It’s a beautiful looking frame with neat touches like the open ended seat and chainstay tubes blending into the, in comparison, dainty machined dropouts. My favourite part of the whole frame though has got to be the wishbone seatstay. The transition between tubes and diameters is seamless and so much more pleasing to the eye than the usual twin stays. In fact the smooth welds and black paintjob create a flowing structure throughout the frame. The oversized headtube with intergrated headset also flows nicely to both the top and down tube, with no logo or badge covering it the lines are kept clean and simple. The only quibble with the quality of the frame is the fact that the threads on the water bottle bosses weren’t cleaned out, no doubt the production models will come with cage bolts so this would be noticed before dispatch. The understated black paint looks classy but if its not to your taste custom colour options are available starting at a reasonable £95. If you want to go the full custom route things like mudguard eyelets and rack mounts can be sorted at the time of ordering as well.

Tonic’s design spec was to create a comfortable frame but fast and stiff like a track bike. The use of oversize Columbus Zona and True Temper OX Platinum tubing create the stiffness with deep section 22.2mm chainstays and 38mm diameter downtube controlling the flex from the bottom bracket area. In Tony’s own words “As for the tubing used, we select it based on Diameter, wall thickness, Butt profile and intended use (No magic formula here) . But we have always preferred the aesthetic and ride quality of large constant diameter tubes over award winning shapes and tapers.” The ride itself was somewhat compromised by the overly stiff bar, stem and seatpost choice, taking away the vibration reducing qualities of the steel but on rides of three hours or more the frame comfort shone through as I was finding my body a lot less fatigued than usual even when really pushing it.

The beefy carbon Enve forks bring a lot to the ride with good vibration reduction to match the frame but plenty stiff enough to give loads of feedback in the corners. Tonic Fabrication can supply a steel fork if you want something a bit different. Its a trimmed down version of the Suernaut steel fork. Getting the power down was fun too, when once up to speed the Vanishing Point is easy to keep there. The lightweight Easton wheel and component package our frame was supplied with balances out the frame and fork weight. Better to have the weight as a static than revolving in the case of heavy wheels. Hard acceleration and climbing showed no problems with stiffness with barely any flex felt anywhere and high speed descents were easily controlled thanks to the confident tracking of the Enve fork.

Although a frame and fork test obviously the components fitted to the frame will have a large impact on how the bike feels. As mentioned above the Easton finishing kit was so stiff it was really at odds with the frame, especially the aero bars – one of the reasons we reckoned it was fairer to test the Vanishing Point as a frameset. A swap to a more traditional bar with a bit of flex in it would help the overall comfort levels a huge amount. The Easton EC90 SL wheels, while amazing to ride giving loads of feedback and some of the best braking (in conjunction with Swisstop yellow pads) I’ve ever known are just too stiff to compliment the frame. Sram Force provided the drivetrain and gears and while not being one of my favourites gave clean shifts and stayed running quite and in alignment over the test period.

Verdict

In conclusion the Vanishing Point is a great looking and riding frame and fork. Build it up with some slightly less harsh components than we had, for day long rides and getting big miles in fast its up there with the best of them. The kudos of having a bike that not many people have heard of also is a feel good factor especially with its understated looks. A great blend of speed and comfort gives the Vanishing Point a large appeal to many, if you’re after an unassuming stealth sportive bike to slot in between the MAMIL’s Pinarello’s book yourself a test ride.

Kelvingrove park – a runners delight

Sometimes you can easily forget what a great place is like to run in. For me this is the case with Kelvingrove park – an 85 acre park in the west of the city. Kelvingrove was originally created as the West End Park in 1852 by noted English gardener Sir Joseph Paxton, Head Gardener at Chatsworth House, whose other works included The Crystal Palace in London. The Town Council had purchased the land, which formerly represented the Kelvingrove and Woodlands estates, that year for the sum of £99,569,[1] around £8million today.[2] The park was intended to provide for the continued expansion of the city to the west, providing relaxation and recreation opportunities for the new middle class to the west, and an escape from the rapid slumming of the city centre for those left behind.

The park when run around is around 2km a loop with a nice hill climb and decent. I had been at a friends house so had run down the river and through the botanics and down the river again to Kelvingrove – a nice little 10km loop

If in glasgow have a run here – a beautiful park that is so often overlooked.

Brompton features on Made In Britain – BBC

 

BBC2 Programme ‘Made in Britain’ excerpt featuring Brompton. Broadcast on 20/06/2011. Shock news: Evan Davis, the former BBC economics correspondent and all-round big brain, can’t do multiplication. Davis was forced to take to Twitter yesterday to apologise to viewers of his documentary Made in Britain, which was shown on Monday evening, for exaggerating the size of Britain’s trade gap. He’d said Britain needed 36,000 more companies of the size of Brompton Bicycles to close the gap – the actual figure 

 

The Brompton is no ordinary bike. You ride it – you fold it up. Not so much a product – more a cult – and it’s made in Britain! This is the story of how they make it – and why they’re changing to a different approach to production.

DESIGN: The Brompton bike was the brainchild of ex-landscape gardener Andrew Ritchie. He failed to interest the big bicycle companies in the idea and set up his own company. The secret of the Brompton’s success lies in its iconic design. They design not just the bike itself but also the tools they make it with. And they make the Brompton not in China or Taiwan, where most bikes are made, but in London – an essential element in its “hand-built” image.

MAKING IT: Manufacturing starts in the engineering department. The vital parts of the bike are put together employing the skilful craft of the brazer – a process of soldering which, they claim, provides a better effect than welding. But the bike’s not ALL hand-built – their technology includes a CNC machine, controlled by a CAD file, which produces the hinges to the designer’s specifications. Quality is vital – Brompton’s quality control department takes one in 50 of their frame parts at random and checks for problems.

TYPES OF PRODUCTION: Currently Brompton uses batch production but now plans to move to something nearer to continuous flow – machines being used to do just one job, workers working in specialist cells and turning out more bikes more quickly. And not only are they gearing up to make more, but they’re also going in for a bit of marketing. Can Brompton ring the changes and retain their hand-built image?

Pashley guvnor in the sun

The style and elegance of the 1930s Path Racer has returned with the Guv’nor. Based on the model made by the Company in the 1930s, the Guv’nor has a classic and relaxed style, but is equipped with modern components. It features a Pashley built Reynolds 531 diamond frame (in 20.5, 22.5 and 24.5* inch), with relaxed style forks, Brooks B17 Titanium saddle, drop North Road handlebars with leather grips, and a Sturmey Archer single speed rear wheel with 28 inch gold lined black alloy rims. The Guv’nor is also available as a 3 speed model (see menu below).

Danny MacAskill VW ad

It’s an ad but nice to see him doing his stuff all around …..

http://youtu.be/O4fs8gS7ANA

 

 

Old skool dreambike – pashley clubman

The ‘country’ Clubman reflects on the era when one bike would be used for many purposes – club cyclists would put mudguards and saddlebags on their bikes to go touring, strip all accessories off for the weekly club time trial, and ride to work in between. With generous clearances under its centrepull brakes, this Clubman is equipped with modern derailleur gears for ease of use, whilst retaining the classic direct-acting downtube shifters. Mudguards are fitted as standard, as well as a Brooks leather saddle. The frame is fitted with braze-ons for bottles, a pump and a rear carrier.

SRP £1495

Spec:
Frame sizes

20″, 21.5″, 23″, 24.5″ (centre to top); 28.6/28.6/25.4 Down tube/Seat tube/Top tube.

Colour

Ivory or Rich Burgundy

Frame

Reynolds 531 with investment-cast cut-away lugs; classic geometry; cast dropouts with mudguard eyes; two bottle cage mounts and pump peg.

Fork

Reynolds taper gauge oval blades; investment-cast crown; classic small radius bend; cast droupouts with mudguard eyes.

Gears

Shimano 105 with down tube indexed levers; SRAM 8 Speed cassette sprockets; ratios: 35″-125″.

Crankset

Grand Sport 52/39t, 130mm, square taper; sealed cartridge BB, hollow CrMo axle.

Wheels

36/36 double wall box rims, polished aluminium; double butted stainless steel spokes; large flange, quick-release alloy hubs (sealed bearings).

Handlebar

Classic dropped handlebars with Brooks leather tape.

Brakes

Dia-Compe centrepull; traditional levers with gum rubber hoods.

Pedals

VP with toe-clips and leather straps.

Saddle

Brooks Swift with leather; copper rivets; titanium chassis.

More for ambling down country lanes and having picnics sat watching the hay balers in action …. A time machine as opposed to a time trial bike. Quite expensive and might be one of the reasons that Pashley is rumoured to be in trouble – buy now for future vintage and retro appeal. Similar bikes are available from Condor as well as from cooper bikes – the Reims that I mentioned before ….

riding a fixie gives you strong legs and other myths

PRO: Fixed gear bicycles have been around for years but recently they’ve become more popular, so some folks think of them as something new and hip. Now my kids will tell you that I’ve never been hip but I was riding fixies back before they were cool and I’ll probably still be spinning around the streets on a fixie even when hoverboards or Jetson fold-into-a-briefcase cars become the next big thing. Sheldon Brown has written and collected a whole bunch of info on fixed gear bikes and if you are at all interested in the subject, you should head on over to his fixed gear page. A lot of fixed enthusiasts go all Zen and mystical when they try to explain what makes riding a fixed gear different. There certainly is a oneness that is explained better by one ride than ten thousand words and like a Zen Koan words can sometimes point the way. But remember as you read my words or Sheldon’s, that a pointing finger is not the moon. Find a fixed gear bike and ride one. As Mark Twain said “You will not regret it, if you live.” Here is the main thing about a fixed gear bike: It Doesn’t Coast. Yeah, you only have one gear but the big thing is that the bike does not coast. It only goes when you pedal. That makes it very different and it actually makes it very fun. A fixed gear bike is a creature of momentum. Once in motion, it wants to stay in motion. On a coasting bike your legs bring things up to speed but if your legs can’t keep up, no problem. You coast or shift up to a higher gear. On a fixie, you have to keep up and there is no higher gear. What gear you have is what you use. On a coasting bike, you slow with your brakes. On a fixie, you can slow by pedaling slower. Some young, strong and idealistic riders ride fixies with no brakes other than the fixed wheel and slow only with the strength of their legs. Most folks with a respect for physics and a desire to live opt for at least a front brake. Old, un-cool people like me have both front and rear brakes on their machines. With brakes and a fixed wheel, you can stop a fixed gear bike as fast as anything with multiple gears. This non-coasting thing is all the differerence. You have to be strong on the climbs and you must spin quickly on the descents. There is no other choice, there is no other way. Well, there is the way of coasting, the way of multiple gears, but that is not the fixed way. You do not try a fixed gear. You ride or ride not. There is no try. If Yoda rode a bicycle, I am sure he would ride a fixed gear. It is easy to see the lack of the ability to coast and shift gears as burden but riding reveals a more liberating truth. Fixed gear bikes pedal themselves through the dead spot in your pedal stroke. Climbing hills is easier than you thought it would be. Fixed descents are more frightening than any climb but fear is only a signpost quickly glimpsed and passed as you spin faster than you ever knew you could spin.The bike is less than you thought you needed and you become more than you knew you could be. Your bike will remind you of the limits of man and machine but by clearly marking out those limits, you will learn where you can push. You will become stronger on the climbs, faster on the descents. Your machine is simple and silent, your legs become strong and fast. Fixed gear riding is not for everyone. Multiple gears and coasting are things that many people find useful and fun. But a simple, silent bike that only goes when you pedal may be ride of your life.

CON: Myth #1: Riding a fixed gear improves pedaling efficiency and leg speed.

I might as well get the big one out of the way first. Fixed gear bikes are a great toy for tooling around town, cruising the beach, or propping up for all to see outside the coffee shop, but they have no place in a serious road cyclist’s training routine, unless your primary goals are riding on the velodrome. Here’s why:

• When you practice high cadence training on your road bike you are forced to recruit the muscle fibers that are necessary for quick contractions in the pattern required to keep the pedals moving. However, on a fixie, the pedals are always spinning in perfect circles at very high speeds no matter how sloppy or inefficient your stroke is. Your muscles aren’t required to act, they are really only required to react.

• Riding a fixed gear is the exact opposite of riding PowerCranks, whose advantage has been proven repeatedly on this very site. PowerCranks require your muscle fibers to fire throughout the 360 degree pedal stroke. You are required to push across the top, push down in the front, pull across the bottom and pull up in the back. Your pedal stroke may slow temporarily, but the muscular foundation becomes so solid that it only takes a few weeks of high cadence on your road bike to turn the strength you built on the PowerCranks into power.

• Compared to a fixed gear, even on a regular road bike, your muscle fibers are forced to fire in a very efficient manner. At the very least, you’ll have the experience of pushing down and, to some extent, controlling the movement throughout the pedal circle. On a fixed gear, the bike is literally doing all the work for you. You’re really not teaching your legs anything but to get tossed around at ridiculous speeds. Think about a gym member who takes indoor cycling classes which utilize a large heavy fly wheel. They may get their legs whipped around in crazy circles at a cadence of up to 140 rpm, but have you ever seen them achieve this on a real bike? Trust me, it doesn’t translate.

As a final proof, I offer you up this most recent example. Every year, I finish my season on the track. Last night I wrapped things up with the Points Race at Elite Nationals. Even though I geared up to a 50 x 14, due to the increased competition (Garmin Chipotle, Health Net, Rock Racing), I still spun out at about 150 rpm on some of the sprint laps. When I jumped back on my road bike today, however, I felt like I was chopping broccoli. My legs became so accustomed to the forced circles of the track bike that they became lazy, losing the ability to do the work themselves.

Just like with anything in cycling, skills are extremely specific. If you plan on racing on a fixed gear then it makes sense to train on one. If you plan on racing on the road, train on your road bike or, even better, do you winter base on PowerCranks, teaching your muscles to fire in absolute perfection and coordination, and then switch to your ride bike just a few weeks before race season. Save the fixie for the high school kids riding in tight jeans.

Cyclists the last true tourists

found article – sorry I cant remember where

Cyclists are the last great travellers, making their silent and sometimes solitary away across great distances, unsheltered from the elements. They are at the mercy of the winds, the rains, the hills: sometimes for the better (back wind, downhill, a cooling shower) but more often, it seems, for the worse. 

Cyclists are travellers rather than tourists or holiday-makers. They are travellers simply because they travel; they are wholly engaged in the activity of travelling or moving. Less concerned with destinations, objectives or places, they enjoy the process of cycling. Of being on the road. They are in touch with their surroundings, the seasons, the climate, the weather, the country, the people. They don’t just see the flowers, they smell them – though the same applies to the roadkill! They know a town or a city as a whole, from entering it to leaving it, and not just the tourist hot spot in the centre. People say that Prague is a beautiful city – but not if you have cycled right across it!

 

Paul Theroux wrote that tourists don’t know where they have been; travellers don’t know where they are going. Tourists spend their time checking out their expectations about places: is it as good as the guide book or brochure promised it would be? Have they missed one of the top ten ‘must sees’?

 

Cyclists as travellers spend their time focused on their own experience of travel itself, something unique to each traveller and not found in any guide book or brochure. A cyclist can only be disappointed with him or herself; that they weren’t prepared enough for the challenges faced.

 

Cyclists don’t know how far they may get each day; they don’t know where they might stay. They carry the bare minimum: the very necessities of life. A map, a little food and drink, a little extra clothing, basic cooking apparatus, a sleeping bag, perhaps a tent or a simpler cover for the night. A paperback book is a luxury.

 

Cyclists are also explorers of their inner being, their own ability and potential. How much more are they capable of achieving? They are tested physically, intellectually and psychologically every time they ride. They find their limits and they learn what happens when they have to go beyond those limits. Whatever might arise, they have to know that they can cope, that limits can be exceeded.

 

Cyclists are at the mercy of their fellow humans, who rush past inside their motorised metal and glass cages, sitting passively or simply manipulating levers. A slight movement of a hand or a foot might mean the difference of life or death for a passing cyclist. After all, the charge in England might only be one of ‘careless driving’. What an imbalance: a monetary fine, a few ‘points’ on the driving licence for the motorist; death or a life of disability for the cyclist.

 

So please give cyclists a wide berth and a cheery wave and, since you carry plenty in your car or motorhome, perhaps give a little – be it time, food or drink – if you meet at a place of mutual rest. Cyclists need breaks to aid physical recovery and rehydration; drivers need breaks to alleviate boredom and to reduce the possibility of falling asleep at the wheel! 

Danny MacAskill in Cape Town – showing the city how to ride

 

As a result of three video votings, we love to present the complete video. Enjoy the video and see Cape Town with the eyes of a street trials pro rider. For Danny, the city is one enormous playground.

Wont embed http://youtu.be/CHLtVhTaZjA

 

Me old chum Marc

Watching the TP52 race in the MedCup – really close and great racing …. watching the long distance race and heard the commentators give a shout out to my old friend from sailing days at the Vaal Dam in South Africa …. Container won that race and are just leading going into the last day ….

Marc Lagesse (RSA) navigator Container (GER):
“It was great to win. We have had a few second places, so to get a win is great. It was not an easy race at all. The first beat we ended up on the wrong side of the shift, so we rounded quite badly but in true Container style we just kept chipping away, one boat at a time. The guys sailed really well and it was literally just one boat at a time. We had a good run, there were veins of pressure and Hamish did a good job of keeping us in the pressure, and we got to the bottom mark in third place and then it was just a long slog home. It was case that we could sail our way and were able to put ourselves in the pressure, so it helped us, the rich getting richer upwind. We were happy too with Audi All4ONE’s comeback because it gives us a few more points on the board on Quantum Racing. They were taking a bit of flyer, but only tacked once and we will have tacked ten times so that is at least ten boat lengths of gain already. Ours is not much of a lead for the Audi MedCup but we will see what tomorrow brings.”

Ben Wilson kiting big waves unstrapped

If you can forget for a moment this an ADVERT for Jeep  – at least Ben Wilson gets some money for doing it. Kiting Cloudbreak one of the premier surfspots……..

 

LOCATION: CLOUDBREAK, NAMOTU ISLAND, FIJI
DATE: 20th May 2011

On May 20th 2011, kitesurfing pioneer, Ben Wilson, caught the world’s largest wave ever ridden strapless with a kite. What makes Ben an inspiration to all kiters is his passion for the sport. Ben’s driving force for his brand BWS is based on innovation, integrity and inspiration. Ultimately his undying desire to find the perfect wave and bring it to the public eye.

‘5 Secrets to the Brompton’s Success’ NYCEwheels

From NYCEwheels

There are a million folding bikes out there. Some smaller, some larger, but all of a similar design. The are only a few that break the mold and start out in a new direction. The Brompton was one of the first to defy convention and approach folding in an entirely new way. This fresh approach, born of a struggle for acceptance with Britain’s cycling industry of the late 1970s, set a new standard for lightweight and compact folding bicycles which has yet to be bested. The simplicity, practicality, and sheer genius of the Brompton’s folding mechanism developed over the course of several long years of experimentation.

Brompton breaks the folding bike mold
Traditionally, the folding bike has been an adaptation of the regular bicycle. Most early folding bicycles were simply a regular bicycle with a hinge upon which they would fold in half. This simple and straight forward approach certainly reduces the size of these bicycles considerably, but the folded package is often too cumbersome to be handled easily and not quite small enough to be carried by hand.

Enter the Brompton. Andrew Ritchey, finding the folding bikes of his day to be all too complex and unsatisfactory set out to create the best folding bike possible. His goal was to create a folding bike with the dimensions of a normal bike but of a weight and size which could be carried on a bus or train with ease. This was no simple challenge; it meant abandoning the old and starting with a fresh approach. Luckily, Ritchey had a few tricks up his sleeve. To start he would throw all of the old rules of folding bikes.

Bromtpon’s initial folding bike innovations
The perfect compact bike would fit into cars, trains, and busses without tiring out the rider or getting fellow passengers covered in chain grease. The first two Brompton innovations made short work of these problems. Instead of adapting the traditional 2 piece folding design where a bike folded in half on itself, the Brompton would fold in 3rds. This seemingly impossible task was achieved via Ritchey’s 2nd great idea: a rear wheel which flipped under the bike, rather than folding horizontally. These two strokes of genius allow the Brompton to fold with its two 16 inch wheels next to each other, neatly hiding the chain in between and reducing the folded bike’s height and length to only a few inches greater than the wheels themselves.

More fresh approaches to the folding bicycle
While there were many incarnations of the Brompton over the years, the final product incorporated several more innovative approaches the folding bike. Handlebars had long created problems for folding bicycle engineers. The Brompton yet again approached this aspect of the folding bicycle in a new way. Instead of long curved handlebars which wind-milled out and down to meet the front wheel the Brompton was designed with a skewed hinge which allowed a single handlebar stem to fold flat against the front wheel, saving a crucial inch or two in the process.

Speaking of the front wheel, here is another case where Ritchey’s mastery really shines. Yet again defying conventional wisdom, the Brompton’s front wheel remains facing forward when folded. This simple yet mind boggling feature once again pulls the whole package closer together and makes for a more compact folding bike. The final touch to the Brompton design, one which was part of the design from nearly the beginning is a retractable seat post which when fully lowered locks the frame together. This is what makes carrying the Brompton so practical. No matter how much it is jostled or shaken or bounced the frame will not unfold itself with the seat down. That means a lot when your running to catch the next train in the morning.

Brompton design works miracles
There’s no mistaking the work of a master engineer and genius designer in the Brompton folding bicycle. Standing alone among countless redundant and copy cat designs, it remains unchallenged as the most compact and truly practical folding bike. It’s incredible folding mechanism is so simple and elegant that once you’ve seen it you can hardly understand why anyone would do it differently. Yet this is a folding bicycle which defied convention, striking out boldly into new territory and laying down a new standard. The Brompton is by far the most well thought out and incredible folding bike to date. The secret is all in the design.

A tale of bicyclist revenge

K.C., who writes the blog A Girl and Her Bike, is a girl with a bike. She’s also a District of Columbia police officer. But the second part’s not so obvious when she’s riding on a Capital Bikeshare bike, out of uniform and just trying to get home from work. Which is probably why some jackasses stopped behind her at a red light decided it would be fun to bump her bike with their car. At very least, they probably thought it wouldn’t get them arrested. Suckers!

Instead, the bumper bump turned the Girl on a Bike into a Pissed-Off Police Officer Out to Punish Evildoers on a Bike, as K.C. first flashed her badge and then chased down and caught the fleeing car on her bicycle (with the help of other D.C. officers).

It’s a hair-raising story:

I’m not sure why I decided to go after him. I was on a CaBi, in civilian attire, off-duty. Instinct I guess? I did though. I followed him up Kenyon where he had gotten stuck in traffic & the light at 14th St. NW. I guess he saw me coming after him, because all of a sudden his reverse lights came on (he couldn’t go anywhere else), and he started driving backwards towards me. I thought he was going to try to escape down the alley, but I guess he figured it was a dead-end. … I managed to get out of the way without him hitting me, but it was very close. So close I was able to hit his side mirror as he went by. The light had changed at 14th & the traffic had begun clearing, so he gunned it and managed to flee out of the block, down 14th St. It was at this time I grabbed my radio (it was in my bag) and broadcasted a look-out and that I needed help.
Read the rest at A Girl and Her Bike. K.C. says several times on her blog that she’s not a superhero just because she has a badge, but frankly, if you have to SAY it …

And it gets even badder of ass. The driver, Mr. Harrison, wasn’t just the kind of charming fellow who likes to ram his car into bicyclists. He was the kind of charming fellow who likes to ram his car into bicyclists in his time off from dealing drugs. How do they know this?

Because the criminal genius that he is, made a phone call to his girlfriend from the DC Jail. Phone calls which are RECORDED and MONITORED. And he asked her if she wouldn’t mind hiding his drugs and gun for him.

Yeah. Super Smart.

An emergency search warrant was obtained and his room searched. Sure enough, a gun was recovered.
The assault happened back in February, but A Girl and Her Bike is revisiting the story (with more details) now. Harrison pled guilty to felony possession of a firearm, felony fleeing, and misdemeanor assault on a police officer, but not vehicular assault — those charges were dropped. So right now, he could go through his whole trial without any acknowledgment that his original crime was using a car to threaten the safety or life of a bicyclist (who, yes, also happened to be a police officer, but right now that’s the only part he’s getting charged for). K.C. has a call to arms:

Mr. Harrison’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 19th at DC Superior Court. I want to pack the courtroom with cyclists. As the victim of a crime, I am able to present a “Victim Impact Statement” to the judge. You better believe that I intend to bring up the fact that I am a cyclist first and foremost, and that this whole saga began when a driver decided to literally push around a cyclist with his motor vehicle. It was just a matter of luck that this cyclist also happens to be a police officer as well. It is Not Okay for drivers to bully cyclists on our streets. His actions were not only irresponsible, but CRIMINAL. He didn’t “accidentally” hit me–he made a conscious decision to hit a human being with a 2-ton vehicle. That is assault. These sorts of things have to STOP.
If you’re a bicyclist in D.C., consider going over to the Superior Court (500 Indiana Ave., NW) on August 19 and showing this badass lady that you’ve got her back.

Saturday morning run commute to work

It’s nearing summer in the Middle East and running has to either be done early doors – late at night or in air conditioned luxury indoors.

Ran in this morning and watched as temp on the Suunto HRM first said 29 then rose in the warm sections to 34 degrees C. Lap times fairly consistent – 1st km and a bit is on corrugated dirt road then the rest is mainly tar road – although some sections get busier with traffic. Bits where there is no traffic you can see as the lap times barely deviate from the 4:25/km heat cruising pace.

lap times

Remembered to stretch off after the run so hopefully legs wont be sore later.

Boris Brompton Bike

Keeping on the Friday Brompton theme … I see Boris made a trip to the factory that a lot of commuters are glad exist …. the only thing that could make Brompton better is a belt driven version but that is a post for another time …..

 

LONDON, UK – To promote the UK capital’s business successes outside the Square Mile, and to see the role businesses like Brompton play in supporting London’s economy, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, visited the Brompton Bicycle factory in West London.

 

Boris Johnson is known in the UK and abroad as the bicycling Mayor after the introduction of the Barclays-liveried “Boris’s bikes” rental system last year.

 

After paying Fuller’s Brewery a visit in Chiswick, the Mayor rode on a Brompton bicycle with Brompton’s Managing Director, Will Butler-Adams, for the short ride to the factory in Brentford. Here he met several members of Brompton’s staff and the manufacturing facility.

 

Boris said of the visit: “Here Brompton are building their bikes by the Great West Road; it’s just a great example of the diversity of manufacturing found here in London.”

 

Will said: “It is fantastic to have the Mayor of London visit the factory and see what we are doing first hand. We take great pride in making a quality product here in the capital, and getting Boris in the saddle was a great way to demonstrate the product. We had a lot of fun on the ride from Chiswick; I think he really liked the bike!”