Tonbridge Cycle Fun Day

A couple of weeks ago we had a great day in Tonbridge organising loads of cycling activities for families.

We had BuildaBike, a game that started with a stripped down bike and as people added parts on they were entered into a draw to win the finished bike. The winner was ever so chuffed as he really needed a new bike.

We had some skill games including a slalom, limbo and balance board (how much fun can you have with a plank of wood and a brick? Loads!).

We had some guys down from the London fixed gear and single speed scene teaching riders how to play bike polo.

We did roller racing, which got really competitive.

We even did a Commuter Challenge on a couple of GoCycles kindly leant to us for the day.

Everyone had fun and we hope that by having fun they will ride their bikes more.

Our thanks go to Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council for organising, supporting and funding a great day.

There are more photos on Flickr and a video on YouTube.

Cycling in Dublin

When I visited Dublin a couple of years ago the traffic was horrendous. It was like London before the M25. Everything was going through the streets of Dublin. And it was crawling through. The noise and the fumes and the dirt was awful.

The City is now trying to create a cycling culture. Which is fantastic and the situation is ripe for it. Cyclists have got to be able to get around the City quicker than motorists!

They have invested in a cycle hire scheme. They've introduced a Cycle To Work finance incentive package. They let cyclists ride through the pedestrianised shopping areas (unlike some cities such as Canterbury). The Council has given up it's ground floor car park to provide 140 CCTV monitored public cycle parking spaces. And the council is investing in creating a cycling infrastructure. Again this is being done in a canny way. By using their existing canal towpath network they will get more bang for their bucks! Smart.

What is obvious and why this is more likely to work is that there appears to be firm council support for cycling and instead of approaching it in a bits and pieces sort of way there's been a conscious effort to create and follow an holistic strategy to change people's behaviour and make cycling an attractive alternative.

Here's a link to an RTE programme all about the emerging cycling culture in Dublin:

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1070805

Our Roads Are Safe!

The Guardian Bike Blog today had the sub heading "Many roads may be accident free but they are safe only for car drivers, not for more vulnerable users such as children, pedestrians and cyclists."

His view as "a cyclist who wants to feel safe on the road" is just propagating the myth that our roads are dangerous. Some of them are. I wouldn't recommend one of the local trunk roads. It's fast and narrow and bumpy and bendy. But every morning and every evening a very mature cyclist cycles steadily and deliberately all the way from Ashford to Faversham and back. I'm sure he hasn't got a death wish. He just does it because he can and clearly he feels safe. And as of this morning he was still alive and well. We have millions of miles worth of roads that are perfectly safe for cyclists. If you stop thinking about traditional motorised vehicle routes and have a good look at your maps and at your neighbourhood you will discover plenty of safe roads to enable you to get around on a bike. And no cyclist has the right to criticise another road user unless they have taken the trouble to actually learn how to ride safely on the road in the first place. Every other road user (even most pedestrians!) has been trained to use their vehicle safely on the road. Cyclists are not blameless as many pro-cycling "safety" campaigns such as the recent CTC SMIDSY campaign would have us believe. Very few cyclists position themselves well in the road and at junctions. Even fewer bother to be aware of what's going on around them. And even fewer can communicate effectively on the road. We don't need another bunch of consultants draining even more funds from real cycling advocacy work by producing a rubbish piece of research telling us what we already know. What we need is planners to follow the latest street design guidance from the Department for Transport and we need people claiming to be "the voice of the cyclist" to "grow some".

A new bridge and it's NOT for cars!

This weekend and next weekend a rare - and consequently exciting - event is taking place. A new bridge is being installed. But it's not for motorised vehicles. It isn't even connecting a road. It is a bridge connecting a bridleway by Kingston in Kent that was cut in two when the Canterbury bypass was built some twenty odd years ago. So it's a bridge for walkers and riders of horses and bikes.

It's quite a pretty bride too.

To install the bridge the Highways Agency will be shutting the A2 from 8pm on Saturday evening until 6am on Sunday morning this weekend and next.

There's more detailed information here - http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/24211.aspx

If it's not going to be officially opened, I think we should all get together and do a grand ribbon cutting event ourselves! Do you think the Queen will come?

New Track Bike In The Snow

My new track bike arrived in the post last night. The box was open and the bike built within minutes, not that I was excited at all!

It's cheap and simple, as these things should be - steel frame, 700c wheels, brakes, chain, freewheel and fixed gear.

This morning we awoke to snow. Lots of snow. Was I really going to take my new bike out in the snow? Absolutely! It was brilliant slicing the skinny wheels through 4 inches of virgin snow. Eventually got it out on to clear, if a but slushy, roads and it rides really smoothly and it's nippy. Great new year treat!

A lesson kneeded

Well this bad blogger now has a bad knee. Right leg very painful yesterday and my physio tells me I've damaged a meniscus (?) in my right knee.

How have I done this damage?

By not looking after my pedal clips. They're too tight and I haven't oiled them recently, so their a bit stiff to get in and out of and so the extra twisting motion has damaged my knee.

Fortunately I'm on the mend already with hot and cold presses and daily ultrasound treatments.

So, when I regularly service my bike I'm now going to include the clips!

Bad Blogger's back and in a bad mood

Probably like many of you, I subscribe to a forum. This one is specifically for cycling instructors.

I subscribe in the hope that forum contributors will share their experiences and nuggets of wisdom and best practice.

I am clearly way too naive.

The forum seems to be populated by extremists, bigots and self-satisfied prigs barking at the moon.

If these contributors are truly representative of the cycling instructor community I am gravely concerned for the future of cycling.