Newsletter - Cycling News | October
Sent: Thu, Nov 1st 2007, 07:33
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Welcome to the latest electronic newsletter from Life Cycle UK, the cycle promotion charity. In this edition...
- Doctor Bike
- Bite Size Bike Maintenance
- Hot Pants
- Half-Term Cycle Training
- The Bicycle Belles of New York
- Bike Guru
- Value for Money?
- Chooseday
- Volunteer needed
Doctor Bikes
It's been a busy time for Doctor Bike. Life Cycle's mechanics have been out and about checking bikes and fixing minor problems such as worn out brakes, flat tyres and dodgy gears. A cycle surgery at the Streets Alive event in Easton, Bristol was particularly popular, with people queuing along Stapleton Road, some nipping back home to bring along a second or third bike for a few repairs.
Doctor Bike will be appearing...
- Saturday 6th October 11.00 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. outside Morrisons Supermarket, Fishponds, Bristol.
- Saturday 13th October 11.00 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. in North Street, Bedminster, Bristol.
Several schools and colleges have asked us to carry out Bike MOTs and some of the region's more environmentally-minded companies have booked us to run cycle surgeries at special events designed to encourage greener forms of commuting. As one company Travel Planner put it: "Everybody does cycling stuff during Bike Week, but we think it's important to keep the enthusiasm and the support going throughout the year. Doctor Bike is a great way of grabbing people's attention and getting their bikes in good shape."
Thanks to a spot of funding from Bristol City Council we are able to offer community groups the chance of a free Doctor Bike surgery. If you're organising an event (in Bristol) that's likely to attract bicycle owners then give Life Cycle a ring. Click here for more information about Doctor Bike.
Bite-Size Bike Maintenance -- flavour of the month!
We're thrilled to see so many people tucking in to our Bite Size Bike Maintenance courses launched lat month. Hot topics covered so far include basic bike care, gears and wheel true-ing. We have courses devoted to brakes and punctures coming soon, plus a special course for the owners of Brompton folding bikes. The Bromptons course has proved to be spectacularly popular and was fully booked after just a few days of the date being announced. Clearly there are a few rickety folders out there!
We're running Bite Size courses throughout the autumn and winter, and all topics will be repeated. The courses are on Wednesday evenings 7.00 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. at the Mud Dock bike shop in central Bristol. You work on your own bike and all replacement parts are included in the price (£30). Click here to see the full menu of courses and the dates.
Hot pants
Cycle clothing manufacturer Bike-X has announced the launch of it's WarmX range - the world's first electrically heated underwear. Two uses of the letter X tells us that this is a seriously high-tech company, and these garments certainly sound ingenious. WarmX tights feature tiny heating wires woven into the fabric in the knee and foot areas, you plug 'em in and the tights get comfortably warm. The temperature can be fine-tuned using a waist mounted power control switch.
"That's all very well," we hear you cry, "but won't I need a twenty-five kilometre flex when I go out on a bike ride?" Not so - the tights come with a 12-volt battery back-up that will keep you snug for several hours. At the time of writing the Bike-X website doesn't say when these wonderful items will be available, nor how much they'll cost. If you're interested we suggest you bookmark this page.
Are electric undies just a gimmick? Or could they possibly be the Next Big Thing? Certainly people with circulation problems would feel the benefit, as would users of recumbent cycles, who ride feet first. And should we ever get a real snow-and-ice winter again (remember those?) we'll all want a pair.
Half-term cycle training
If you have any family members aged 8 to 11 years old who's into cycling, book them onto one of our half-term cycle training courses. We have two courses planned: one at Bristol Grammar School in Clifton, and another at St Keyna's Primary School in Keynsham. The course takes place over three days (23rd, 24th and 25th October) 10.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon each day.
The children will learn how to control their bikes, how to anticipate other road users' behaviour, and how to carry out manoeuvres with skill and confidence. We work with small groups so everyone gets lots of attention. On the last day of the course the children receive certificates and the instructors provide the parents with feedback on their child's progress.
Places on the courses cost £49 in Bristol or £20 in Keynsham. (It's cheaper in Keynsham thanks to a Council subsidy. To be eligible you must either live in Bath & North East Somerset or your child must attend a school there.)
To book a place please give Life Cycle a ring on 0117 929 0440
The Bicycle Belles of New York
A few years ago Life Cycle carried out a rigorous scientific survey of bicycle riders. Just who uses a bike in Bristol? What sort of people are they? Our scientists spent several months staking out bike racks and hanging around outside cycle shops and they quickly concluded that cycling as the sole preserve of supremely talented and astonishingly beautiful people. The simple act of getting on to a bike transforms even the plainest person into a veritable Venus (or Adonis).
In September a similar phenomenon was discovered across the pond. The New York Observer - rather breathlessly - invited its readers to ...
"Meet the beautiful bicycle girls... a breed that bears little resemblance to the hard-charging, Spandex-short-wearing species of 20 years ago. Those women were athletes, pumping the pedals, fighting to win. Getting somewhere. Today’s girls ... are more meandering, their long legs flashing along the pot-holed alleys of SoHo and the boutique-lined bike lanes of the West Village. Eco-conscious and ethereal, they wear flowing frocks and gigantic sunglasses but never helmets. Their hair flutters in the breeze as they leave a trail of swooning male pedestrians in their perfumed wake.
"Local celebrities like the actresses Naomi Watts and Chloë Sevigny and the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen have all championed living the green life... “I go every day to work on my bike,” Ms. Bundchen told the Daily News a couple of years ago. “It’s faster than a car, and cheaper.”
"Fashion designer Lela Rose is another cycling devotee. “I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I don’t go anywhere any more without bringing the bike. At a minimum, it’s the best way to get around. It’s for the environment. It’s for health reasons. For me it’s just a great way to get a better peace of mind.”
“Women are our best customers,” said bike shop proprietor George Bliss. “They know what they want. Fenders [mudguards] to protect them in the rain, a chain guard, and they want a basket. They really want a basket. They’re using bicycles in a more practical way, while for men it’s more to stay in shape or some other symbol of machismo."
Bike Guru -- next appearances
Have you met Life Cycle's Bike Gurus yet? These utterly charming, highly approachable and yet slightly mysterious folk have been popping up at strategic locations around Bristol. Their mission is to dispense cycling wisdom in the shape of a handy credit card-sized leaflet, and illumination in the form of free bike lights together with a handsome fluorescent waistcoat. Hundreds of people have benefited so far.
So that you can find out when and where the Bike Gurus are appearing we've set up a special website. Visit www.bikeguru.info
Value for money?
Life Cycle has had the occasional success in squeezing a few quid out of the Department for Transport (most recently for the Bike Guru project) but generally getting money for cycling out the Her Majesty's Government is like getting blood out of a stone.
How much easier life would be if we built motorways! The Guardian recently reported how the widening of the M6 motorway along a 51-mile stretch between Birmingham and Manchester is scheduled to cost £2.9 billion. That's a shade under £1,000 an inch! Is this good value, we wonder? (While on the back of an envelope we worked out that for £2.9 billion Life Cycle could provide high quality cycle training for the entire adult population).
Britain is now one of the most car dependent countries in the world. Between 2005 and 2006, according to the Highways Agency, cars in Britain travelled 506 billion kilometres - up 7 billion kilometres from the year before - despite government intentions to reduce traffic. In fact traffic has increased by nearly 12% since 1996 and by 851% since 1955.
Bicycle traffic was estimated to be 4.6 billion kilometres in 2006, an increase of 5% from 2005 - but a fraction of Germany's 30 billion kilometres cycled every year.
Chooseday
A new campaign is getting under way to declare every Tuesday a Chooseday, a special day when the people of Bristol are encouraged to rethink their lifestyles and to do things differently. According to the website... "Chooseday will begin with the challenge to leave the car at home and experience what a day without cars feels like. Are you up for it? Sign up now to show your support, get the T shirt, send for the stickers, download some posters and let’s build the greatest partnership Bristol has ever seen. Imagine the streets going quiet, people emerging from their houses, to a new kind of city…"
Checkout www.chooseday.org for more information.
Volunteer needed
Life Cycle is looking for a special person to join us on a voluntary basis to help run the Two’s Company project - a regular series of tandem rides for people who are blind or partially sighted. The job involves organising the ride programme, liaising between the volunteer front riders and the visually impaired back riders, coming up with route ideas, and gathering feedback from participants.
You'll need to be available for at least one day a week and you'll need recent experience of working in a busy office. A knowledge of cafes and pubs is an advantage! There is no salary, but we will cover any work-related expenses and we'll treat you to lunch. Please e-mail us if you are interested.
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- Sent
- Thu, Nov 1st 2007, 07:33