2 Wheels Good

Adrenaline Gateway

2008-07-11T11:15:00.003+01:00

As part of the Adrenaline Gateway project the area around Lees Quarry near Bacup now has several mountain biking routes. There must be a train out to Bacup.......

Technorati tag: Cycling

Over reaction as usual

2008-07-11T10:00:00.006+01:00

I have no sympathy for Jason Howard, the cyclist who hit and killed a teenager he could easily have avoided. I'd even agree with the girl's parents that sentencing for death by dangerous cycling should carry as big a fine or sentence as the equivalent crime by a driver (though that is often pathetically low).

However, the truth is that cyclists kill fewer people per year than drivers do per day and reactions such as this overwrought piece in the Daily Express show the bias and prejudice of the writers. Virginia Blackburn trots out the usual nonsense about lycra louts jumping red lights and then gives an example from her own life that says a lot more about her fecklessness than that of any cyclist. She steps out into a busy road in front of an oncoming cyclist, and only when he warns her does she realise there's heavy traffic in her path. Does this woman not know the Green Cross Code?

Look both ways next time Virginia.

Update My email to the Daily Express news desk-

Sir,

I would like to raise a complaint about Virginia Blackburn's column which I read on your website today. Terrible as Jason Howard's behaviour was, I feel she is over reacting in the cliched attack on cyclists she spins out of it. The truth is cyclists kill fewer people per year than drivers do per day, and very rarely through recklessness. Her description of cyclists "speeding down the high streets as if they're taking part in a race, ignoring red lights, terrifying pedestrians and occasionally killing anyone who gets in their way" could more accurately be applied to motorists.

Virginia's description of her own encounter with a cyclist says more about her than him, I feel. She was in the middle of the road before she spotted him, and she was heading for a lane with heavy traffic in it? Has she not heard of the Green Cross Code? If she had looked both ways before stepping off the pavement she would have seen the cyclist and not had to make him swerve to avoid her, and she would have been able to tell that there was too much traffic to sensibly cross where she was. It sounds like she's lucky her jaywalking didn't get her and another person injured.

There are too many attacks on cyclists in the popular press, a disproportionate amount given how little danger we represent to pedestrians and other road users when compared to cars. This could be because too few journalists cycle regularly and understand the joys (and dangers) of using two wheels. To redress that balance I will happily invite Virginia, or any other Express journalist who is game, to spend a day with me cycling around the streets of Manchester. I promise it will be an eye opening experience.

Sincerely,

Ian Pattinson

http://www.2wheels.howtosavetheworldforfree.com/

Technorati tag: Cycling

Bike Salute

2008-07-09T09:57:00.002+01:00

Whilst in Budapest last week I saw a few people with Critical MAss T-shirts. One of them had a pair of riders doing the "bike salute". I think it was my first introduction to it, strangely enough. Synchronicity saw me find bikesalute.com yesterday, a site/gallery with the plan to get a thousand riders to do the salute.

So long as they don't ask the guy with the mosaic bike.

Technorati tag: Cycling

Mosaic Touring Bike

2008-07-09T09:52:00.002+01:00

Mosaic Touring Bike - Top Tube & Down Tube, originally uploaded by nathan2480.

This touring bike has gained nine pounds in weight because of the mosaic the owner has decorated it with. It looks lovely, but must be hard work getting around, and even harder work getting to stop.

via BoingBoing

Technorati tag: Cycling

The Bicycle Tutor

2008-07-01T19:45:00.002+01:00

Everything you could possibly need to know about fixing your bike.

via Lifehacker

Technorati tag: Cycling

The £15 cardboard bike

2008-06-26T21:57:00.001+01:00

A student at Sheffield Hallam University has designed a cardboard bike that could sell for as little as £15.

Technorati tag: Cycling

The World's better by bike

2008-06-26T16:39:00.003+01:00

17 reasons the bicycle is the world's favourite mode of transport.

via The Cycling Dude

Technorati tag: Cycling

Bike Week

2008-06-14T23:41:00.001+01:00

It's Bike Week 2008. I'll have to look for local events.

Technorati tag: Cycling

Naked Bike Ride

2008-06-14T18:59:00.001+01:00

Naked bike ride, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

Yesterday it was that time again. Time to cycle through town with no clothes on. We got naked a good half hour before setting off, to facilitate others getting slogans and symbols body painted onto them. It wasn't as warm as last year, though the rain held off, so those of us gents who weren't seasoned naturists didn't promote ourselves all that well. (Take me indoors and warm me up and it's a different matter, honest.) However, it's surprising how quickly it feels natural to be unclothed outside.

I put my camera on continuous shooting and just held down the shutter every time I saw something interesting, getting four or five shots. I must have taken in the region of 500 photos. In the process my camera clicked past the 10,000 mark and started all over again at zero. The best of the photos are in the Naked Bike Ride 2008 set. There's also a Naked Bike Ride 2007 set, which provided source material for the Naked Bike Ride paintings I photographed earlier.

Technorati tag: Cycling

How to set up your bike

2008-06-13T09:52:00.001+01:00

As I've just had a bike built for me and I'm about to buy a replacement for my old commuter I should pay attention to this guide to bike set up to avoid joint pain.

Technorati tag: Cycling

Ian has a new bike

2008-06-03T12:58:00.003+01:00

Ian has a new bike, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

It's actually cobbled together from components I took off another bike and a frame, fork and other bits I got off Ebay. The stand over height is ridiculous, I didn't realise how small the frame is until bits started going onto it. I need to replace the pedals and get my nerve up and then I can go play.

The bike was built for me by GBH bikes on Whittle street, Manchester (just off Tib Street), M4 1LT. If you're on Facebook you can join their group. I videoed the build and will be producing a few short clips about it.

Technorati tag: Cycling, Bike Building

Get your own jet bike

2008-05-21T10:58:00.002+01:00

For just $650 you can get a pulse jet designed to fit to a bike.

Technorati tag: Cycling

Cycle sidecar

2008-04-13T11:17:00.001+01:00

Cycle sidecar, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

Spotted in town earlier this week. I'm not so sure about its ability to turn left or just how useful it would be in traffic.

Raleigh Chopper info

2008-04-12T19:31:00.002+01:00

ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CLASSIC RALEIGH CHOPPERS BUT DIDN'T KNOW WHO TO ASK.

ANd there's a lot to know, with the various models, special editions and foreign variants. The site's owner would probably cry if I told him the tale of how my friends and I sheared the frame of a Chopper by doing stunts off a home made ramp.

Technorati tag: Cycling

Mancunian bike news

2008-04-11T14:26:00.002+01:00

Oscar hands out 3000 bikes. Every council should have an official bike (and other stuff) recycling program similar to the one run by Oscar.

Flat boosts cyclist's medal hopes.

Man charged after cyclist injured. It's not all good news, sadly.

Technorati tag: Cycling

Sex and the single Olympian

2008-04-07T10:44:00.002+01:00

Victoria Pendleton is one of Britain's many potential medal winners in the Beijing games. She talked to The Mail on Sunday about her prospects and dropped the headline friendly tidbit that sex helps the performance of female athletes but hinders that of males. For this and other reasons she has a casual relationship with someone outside the sport.

Technorati tag: Cycling

MP hits cyclist

2008-04-04T10:50:00.003+01:00

Undoing all his party leader's positive work on two wheels Tory MP Simon Burns hit a cyclist outside Parliament whilst driving his Range Rover. This sounds like the sort of accident that happens every day- driver pulls into traffic without looking and hits a cyclist, it's happened to me though thankfully less painfully- and only made the news because of where it happened and who the driver was.

Let's see "Dave" Cameron come out and make a statement about always looking out for two wheelers at junctions.

Technorati tag: Cycling

The Daily Mirror goes cycling with David Cameron

2008-03-30T11:12:00.003+01:00

No matter what you think of David Cameron politically, at least he's raising the profile of cyclists amongst tabloid readers. Unfortunately, last week it was because The Daily Mirror followed his commute and caught him running red lights and going the wrong way up one way streets. When the paper sent a reporter on a bike to shadow him he seemed to have learnt his lesson and didn't break any rules.

Technorati tag: Cycling

I [bike] Manchester 2008

2008-03-14T11:39:00.001Z

This year's festival celebrating two wheeling in the rainy city starts later this month. Find out more at the I [bike] Manchester website.

Technorati tag: Cycling

Around the world by bike

2008-02-15T18:00:00.001Z

British cyclist Mark Beaumont has broken the record for cycling around the world, doing it in 195 days and 6 hours.

Technorati tag: Cycling

The Boris Johnson cycle school

2008-02-15T17:57:00.001Z

Boris Johnson has offered to give cycling lessons as part of his bid to become London mayor- but only to incumbent Ken Livingstone.

Technorati tag: Cycling

London's cycle highways

2008-02-12T15:29:00.000Z

Ken Livingstone has announced £400million in planned investments to make London a cycling supercity. The scheme will include special cycle ways and free (after registration) municipal bikes. The chairman of the AA weighs in, voicing his new found concern for the safety of cyclists by basically saying that we should get off the roads.

Technorati tag: Cycling

The AA is all about protecting cyclists, honest

2008-02-11T16:01:00.000Z

Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: "There is concern that some local authorities appear to be doing this to save money, rather than to save the environment.

"In terms of road accidents, we have to be sure that this won't lead to more deaths and injuries on the roads, particularly for cyclists and pedestrians who are difficult to see at the best of times."

I can't believe the AA spokesman suddenly developing a concern for the safety of cyclists and pedestrians. If the motoring organisation is so concerned about my well being why doesn't it start running campaigns to get drivers to slow down at amber and observe other rules of the road.

As for the lights, how a bout a compromise. Turn off every other light. Not as big a saving, but the number of lights is excessive at the moment. And anyone who's worried about vandalism or crime could always fit a motion sensitive floodlight so that anyone who gets too close to the house can be bathed in light.

Technorati tag: Cycling

Essex too flat for Olympians

2008-02-01T22:20:00.000Z

The London 2012 Olympic mountain biking track was going to be in Weald Country Park, until it was judged to be too flat by the UCI. The course should have a height difference of at least 300 metres.

Technorati tag: Cycling

MySociety travel-time maps

2008-01-25T17:08:00.000Z

MySociety is a not-for-profit group that runs several projects. One of them has been mapping travel times in London. they've updated these maps recently to make them interactive. You can map public transport travel times against average cost of houses to find the best places to live (based upon certain work addresses). They also have a map showing where it is faster to cycle rather than take public transport assuming you're heading for teh Department of Transport (There are very few places where public transport is faster).

Technorati tag: Cycling