I’m nursing a broken ankle (and bike) after a school run mum decided to pull out in front of me Tuesday morning. “I wasn’t expecting a bike”, she said.
She has a point. When driving our regular commutes, I guess we tend to see only what we expect to see, with the rest fading into the background. If only more people cycle then she would have expected, and looked for me on two wheels before turning out of the side entrance into the road. It was her fault of course, but it was also ours for not cycling enough.
So I’m taking a break. Just when the weather was getting better too.
Well put aside your Holywood fuelled perceptions for a moment and ask yourself why a city like Bogotá, Colombia can host a weekly Ciclovia event involving the closing of 70 miles of streets while Irish cities can only manage a yearly ‘car free day’ that usually involves closing Merrion Square for a few hours if we’re lucky.
Further details of Ciclovia and its non-cycling sister Recreovia are over on the Streetfilms site here
Tulli Campagnolo, using pieces from his fathers hardware store invented the quick-release lever (1930) and an early form of the bicycle derailleur (1933). As with all good inventions these were developed in response to Tulli’s own struggles during a race to change a wheel in the snow of the Dolomites. The firm that bears his name, (but know to gearheads as Campy) still sells components, but has also lended its name to clothing.
Italians have a passion for both cycling and fashion, but can they successfully merge the two ? And while my regular wardrobe does just fine for round town, can I still look good when on the slick wheels ?
Have you seen my bobsleigh ?
While this just looks wrong – whats with the heels ?
and these two get it just right
So next time you slip down a gear as you ease up a hill, give a thought to Tulli, a legend of cycling.
When I saw the Yike bike promo video a few months back I thought it’s biggest flaw was the stability. Fine for smooth roads with little traffic if you don’t mind everyone looking at you, but completely impractical for the normal challenges of city cycling.
The video below seeks to challenge this, demonstrating its decent handling capabilities.
I still think the dropped hand position is unnatural and combined with the 3,500 € price tag may deter many.
So will cyclists defect to electric vehicles, will this encourage more people to leave their cars at home or will it go the way of the segway, providing a niche personal transport solution. Thoughts?
While Ireland is in the grip of the longest cold spell we’ve seen for a generation there are only the bravest out on their bikes. When living in Scandinavia, we routinely cycled round town in temperatures well below -20, but the difference was that it was compacted snow, not thawing and freezing ice we cycled on.
So while we wait for the big thaw, I thought I’d point you towards one of the best bike blogs, the NY bike snob, who reminds us all not to take the whole bike love affair too seriously. His favourite targets are the NYC fixie fashionistas, pro cycle teams, Liz Hatch’s ‘talents’ (below) and of course the righteous cycle advocacy groups.
This post on cycling advocacy and the cycle chic movement will give you a taster..
Delivering a completely upright riding position, the Dursley Pedersen bike has a unique design and a unique history – one of the classic bike entrepreneur tales.
The bike’s full history, including their revived manufacture in the 1970’s is listed here
Those smart guys over at MIT SENSEable City lab have developed a wheel that can be retrofitted to a regular bike. The Copenhagen wheel is here
Acting in a similar way to hybrid energy drives in cars it stores the kinetic energy generated from cycling and braking and stores it for later use when you really need it. That’s smart, but really just an adaption of existing technology.
It is covered in the NY Times here What gets less attention is what I think is the really smart bit, the telematics, which gathers environmental and ride data for display to the user, or for aggregation by city planners to build spatial maps.
I’d ditch the drivetrain and provide just the sensor part allowing the unit to be much smaller and therefore less intrusive visually. If you want a motor, get a moped.
