Entries Tagged 'cycling' ↓

Whenever I buy a new bike, I always promise myself that I will always keep it spotlessly clean. In practise, my good intentions last for a few weeks. After a hard 3 hour training ride, giving your bike a proper clean never seems that appealing.

Nevertheless, since I keep one bike in my dining room, there is a good incentive to try and keep the bike clean. What I try and do is always give it a quick wipe to get the worst off. The problem is once you start, you want to get every bit of dirt off. Then it can become quite time consuming because it is really difficult to access all parts. But, you never regret cleaning a bike.

Some Tips for Cleaning the bike

• Use muguards on winter bike, to reduce the amount of mud to clean.
• Washing up liquid is great for removing oil.
• Don’t use a brush which is too harsh, as it may damage paintwork, especially on racing bikes with thin paint.
• For an impressive display, use a bit of WD-40 spray and then wipe with paper towel. This will help give it an impressive polish / finish.
• The best time to clean the bike is as soon as you return and in are in your cycling gear. Otherwise, it takes more effort to go back to the bike.
• I always clean a bike before taking it into a shop for repairs. I think shops dislike having to mend dirty bikes. If you clean it you are more likely to get a better service. It is also more respectful.
• You never regret cleaning your bike, because it does look good and will inspire you to go riding. A clean bike makes it easier to spot problems such as cracks in a frame, worn bolts e.t.c.
• Use special brushes for getting to awkward places.
• Turning the bike upside down, helps reach inaccessible places.
• If you have to hose down the bike, you will need to re lubricate the bike afterwards.
• At various times, you want to clean the chain with a degreaser machine.

As a hobby, I like to take photos of cycling. Quite a rarity is to a see a cyclist smiling. Perhaps we are too busy concentrating on dealing with other traffic, or the effort of cycling. Nevertheless, when people see that you are taking photos, some will obligingly smile for the camera.

The only time when it was easy to catch people cycling and smiling was at Bleneheim Palace Cycling festival. No coincidence the cycling was on traffic free roads.

So anyway, if you see a tall, lanky person taking photos of cyclists in Oxford, smile and you might just become famous overnight (well, famous to the 20 readers of this blog anyway.)

This lady had spotted some friends on the other side of the road.

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I think this is a smile. Ed Silverton enjoying the cyclo cross season.

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Mike Potts shows his beautiful teeth - after Continue reading →

Climbing Dover Hill hill climb. Picture courtesy Picton Photos

On Sunday, it rained all day. Not good conditions for a 2 stage hill climb.

Dover Hill 1 mile long, gradient not too steep.

Dover Hill will be used for the National hill climb Championships 2010

Matt Clinton, mikevaughan.co.uk cycles won in 4.01. 2nd was James Dobbin 4.05. Third was Robert Gough 4.13.3 I came forth with 4.13.8 ( 5 100ths of a second - is a pretty close margin)

I was freezing by the time I got to the car, thankfully, the car heating worked well and I had a spare set of clothes. 2 hours later it was the second climb up Saintbury Hill.

Saintbury hill 1.3 miles

1. Matt Clinton 6.05
2. James Dobbin 6.09
3. Tejvan Pettinger 6.23
4. Matt Higgins 6.27

Overall I came third which won me £30. Thanks to Alex Zebedee and Sollihul CC for organising and marshalling in the persistent rain.

Hill Climbs

Top of Dover Hill

I turned upto a race, 24 hours too early today. For some reason, I thought race was on Saturday. I drove past the hq 3 times, because I was looking for cyclists in the vicinity. Because I didn’t see any, I thought it must be somewhere else. I was getting quite late by the time I finally arrived. When no one was in the car park, I thought Hmm, I must have the wrong day. Indeed, I looked at the start sheet and there it was - Sunday not Saturday!

I made so many small arrangements and plans for the race that I never thought I could get the day wrong!

Moreton in Marsh

O well, I got to ride the course beforehand like a true professional. It was two hill climbs - Dover Hill and Saintbury Hill. Thankfully, the race was only 1 hour drive from Oxford. Tomorrow morning I will go back - taking care not to leave my bike at home or something like that.

In previous posts, I examined how much space cars give bikes.

I came across a couple of links which made me go back to the issue.

The first is a study by Dr Walker, whose research was published in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention [link]

Using an electronic measuring device, he found that when wearing a helmet, cars gave cyclists 8cm (3.1 inches). less space.

Interestingly, he found that the worst offenders were lorries and buses (buses got an extra 23cm closer. Something I can easily believe!). He also found that cars were more likely to give women extra room. (an extra 14cm)

His theory, is that car drivers make judgements about cyclists, if they look experienced then they give them less room. However, if the cyclist is not wearing a helmet the car driver worries that the cyclist is less experienced and more likely to behave unpredictably. Therefore, they give cyclists a wider berth.

I’m sure drivers don’t make a conscious decision like -”That person is wearing a helmet, so let’s pass close by.” But, when I’m driving I would take more care and pass wider - if I thought the cyclist was young / inexperienced. The report certainly seems to be plausible from a psychological perspective.

It is only one report, but I have heard alot of anecdotal evidence to back this up. Quite a few people say, that wearing certain clothes and no helmet, encourages cars to give them more room. For example, this newspaper report in Cambridge about wearing purple charity T Shirts

It gives cyclists a dilemma, a helmet may help for low speed crashes, but, if wearing a helmet encourages drivers to pass closer by, the small benefit may be negated.

There are other issues at stake, like could wearing a helmet give a cyclist a false sense of security and encourage more reckless cycling?

When racing, or doing long training rides, I always wear a helmet, it is not because my mother tells me to; but, it seems the right thing to do. But, on short commutes into town, a helmet feels like an inconvenience.

A friend from Cyclox, said after reading a similar report, he tried commuting without wearing a helmet. He made two observations. Firstly, he felt more vulnerable because he was so used to wearing a helmet. Secondly, he did feel he got more space from cars.

Should Cycle Helmets be Made Compulsory?

Crossing from one lane to another on St Giles

At the moment, the decision to introduce 20mph speed limits for residential areas rests with local councils. Currently, Oxford is debating the decision. If a 20mph speed limit is enforced it will have a noticeable impact on road safety and the road environment. These are the arguments for and against.

Benefits of 20mph Speed Limits

• Lower speeds reduce number of accidents
• At lower speeds crashes are far less likely to be fatal. At 20mph, only 10% of crashes are fatal compare to 50% at 30mph
• 20 mph zones have reduced injury collisions of all severities by 60% and those involving child deaths and serious injuries by 70%.  20mph zones in London have reduced all casualties by 42% and deaths and serious injuries by 53%. In Hull’s 20mph zones, serious and fatal casualties have fallen by 90%.
• Lower traffic speeds will encourage more people to cycle, walk. (Transport select committee on Transport Report at CTC)
• 9 out of 10 pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occur in built up urban areas
• Lower traffic speeds makes cycling manoeuvres easier. For example, turning right can be difficult when you have to cross a lane of fast moving traffic. If the traffic speed is reduced to 20mph it becomes much easier.

Costs of 20mph Speed Limits

• Driving will take longer. As a motorist, I currently drive at 30mph in residential areas, having a speed limit of 20mph would require a change of habit and take a bit longer to drive. However, it’s not a huge imposition, as you have to keep stopping anyway.
• Problem of enforcement. I dislike schemes which reduce the width of the road and make it uncomfortable for a car and cyclist to squeeze by. Speed Camera are not popular. But, I quite like them. They would raise money to finance the road safety improvements. Average speed cameras would be best.

Overall,

Overall, I feel the benefits of 20mph outweigh the costs. It is true, driving will take a bit longer, but compared to the benefits of lower road fatalities and a safer road environment it appears a minimal cost. It would definitely be a boon to cycling and walking.
For a long time, society has kind of accepted the fact 3,000 road fatalities as just one of those things. But, maybe that is changing. Maybe people will feel that reducing road fatalities should be a much  higher priority, even if it requires unpopular measures.

Look at how much inconvenience people put up with, on the very minor possibility of terrorists using water to blow up planes. We will do anything to reduce the risk of a potential attack on a plane. But, when it comes to easy measures to actually have an impact in saving lives on the road, society seems far more willing to drag its heals.

Just a brief note to say congratulations to Nicole Cooke for becoming World Road Race Champion in Varesse. Nicole Cooke becomes the first female cyclist to win the Olympic Road Race and World Road race Championship in the same year.

Nicole won a tactically astute race, to sprint past former world champions Marriane Vos (Netherlands) and Judith Arndt (Germany).

Even before her Olympic and World Titles,  Nicole Cooke was ranked number 1 female cyclist in the world.

• Nicole Cooke wins Olympic Gold

A real Penny Farthing

The Blenheim Palace cycling event seemed a great success. There were 100s of cyclists there - from eccentrics riding old penny Farthings, to the country’s top road racers and time triallists. In the middle, we were treated to the highly entertaining Brompton World Championships. After the official racing, we were able to ride around the 6 mile loop of Blenheim Palace. It was great to ride around such a beautiful, traffic free course.

Racing Round Blenheim on a Brompton (wearing a blazer, tie and shirt of course)

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A Family Day out

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Tandem

Old Fashioned Bike

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A Cyclist approaching a mini roundabout. If the cyclist was turning right, a majority of motorists do not give way, but keep going straight across the roundabout. If you are not aware that most cars will keep going, an accident is quite likely. This is on my commute home. It is very rare a car, will stop to allow you to go round the mini roundabout and come off. If you want to avoid an accident, the onus seems to be on the cyclist to give way to the motorist driving straight on.

Once I had a close shave with a car driving straight on through a mini roundabout. I came very close to the car. The motorist shouted - you should have signalled right. But, if you read the highway code, you would signal to come off a roundabout not stay on it.

Now, when I come to a roundabout like this, I do often signal right, and look very closely at the driver. I assume, I will have to stop and give way to the car. In rare cases (and it is surprisingly rare) they will let you go right.

What is there to say? Apart from never assume other road users will do what they are supposed to!

I’m sure that many drivers and cyclists don’t fully understand the rules of roundabouts. Also, many drivers seem to treat mini roundabouts with disdain.

I was struck by the introduction to the introduction to this article in a Canadian newspaper:

“Winnipeg • I often get around town by bike. So curious is this behaviour to the Lexus-drivin’, lunch bag-packin’ crowd I encounter in suburban Winnipeg, that it is often discussed, sometimes behind my back. When it is to my face, at least I can defend myself. “I am not a hippy freak,” I say, oozing frustration and impatience, like Jerry Seinfeld when he started carrying a man bag. “I’m being European.”

- Cycling Goes Chic.

I remember when I was a young lad of 16. I worked at a little chef about 3 miles away. For some reason I commuted in my full cycling gear. (3 miles seemed a long way in those days, and if your going to cycle why not cycle properly?

It never failed to gain the amusement of the workers that
a) somebody would cycle to work
b) somebody would come dressed to work in skin tight lycra tights (I did change when I got to work, I should point out.)

I don’t think I inspired anyone to try cycling to work, but probably reinforced cycling’s image as a quirky pastime for people lacking in basic fashion decency. But, it did prove an enduring topic of amusement (which is perhaps just a reflection of how grim working at the Little Chef could be…)

The other thing about cycling, was the persistent worries of my mother, who seemed to assume cycling was about as dangerous as parachuting from 500 metres. It felt like all the forces were against cycling; to be cycling you had to be pretty persistent which is perhaps why so few cycled to work.

Anyway, you now hear quite a bit about ‘cycling chic.’ Beautiful models riding gracefully around on their Amsterdam bikes. Aside from the image of the urban warrior cycling on pavements, cycling is almost cool these days.

A question for the readers - What do your friends and family think of cycling, and has their perceptions changed since you started cycling?