Cycling UK Forum

Over five million Germans took a cycle touring holiday in Germany in 2009. I've toured in Germany for several years and agree that on the popular routes you see many luggage-laden cyclists. So cycle touring is alive and well on the continent. I toured the Mosel and Eifel this summer and I would say that more than 80% of the cyclists we saw were touring, not sportif types. The infrastructure in Germany is infinitely better than it is in the UK, with thousands of miles of good quality cycle routes, much of it traffic free and often well-used. The 'ordinary' German is more likely to cycle for leisure than the 'ordinary' Brit, it seems.
One thing that Germany has in its favour is some very long river valleys, which often provide varied and fairly easy cycle routes. These are amongst the busiest cycle touring routes, but if you break away from the valley, you see relatively few cycle tourists. I think this is reflected in the type of bikes usually ridden. Most are heavier than a 'true' British tourer (I have a Thorn Clubtour and I think that's a bit heavy) though they do have some mighty low gears to compensate! Also, a significant proportion of the German cycle tourists we have seen have been riding in organised groups with luggage transfer. Those who carried their luggage did seem in general to take rather more than we carried but the Dutch win hands down for the sheer amount of luggage you can fix to a bike!

Each to their own, as they say!

Keith

so what happened next?

I'm thinking of buying folding bikes for myself and my wife. We're experienced tourers on 700c wheels but have no experience with these foldy things.
The folding bikes will be used for occasional day trips and short tours.
I've read previous posts, and have broadly come to the conclusion that a Dahon Vitesse D7 is the prime candidate because
(1) price is reasonable
(2) weight is ok and I can tolerate the fact that it doesn't fold as small as the Brompton
(3) 20" wheels rather than 16" on some other models
(4) generally favourable comments about build quality

Any comments?

In the light of experience maintaining derailleur geared touring bike I'd be particularly interested to hear opinions about Dahon's derailleur. Is it robust enough not to get damaged when the bike's folded, do the gears remain well adjusted despite folding the bike, what are these bikes like to maintain? Are hub gears more or less trouble on folders?
I guess we'd probably be content with 40 miles in a day on these, what's the record? Friends have done 80 on a Dahon lookalike!
What's the Dahon like for carrying luggage for a short tour (equiv to a couple of panniers)?

thanks
Keith

Geoff,
Some CTC Suffolk rides come within reach of Braintree, e.g. Bures. You might be able to meet us at 11s and perhaps ride to lunch. There are several folk from Colchester who regularly ride with us (our rides start from Ipswich). You can find the rides list on our web site
http://www.greenlivingcentre.org.uk/ctc/

regards
Keith (CTC Suffolk sec)
ctc.suffolk@btinternet.com

CTC Suffolk would like to hear from members interested in supporting any form of club rides in the north east part of the county, roughly Bungay - Lowestoft - Southwold.
Our current operations are concentrated on the south, around Ipswich, but around 100 members live in the north east of the county so there may be sufficient support for some club activities in that area.
Please contact the secretary, Keith Halton, at ctc.suffolk@btinternet.com if you are interested.

CTC Suffolk would like to hear from members interested in supporting any form of club rides in the north west part of the county, roughly around Bury and Newmarket.
Our current operations are concentrated on the south, around Ipswich. During June (2010) we are writing to all CTC members in the NW part of the county to see if there is sufficient support for any organised activities. Please contact the secretary, Keith Halton, at ctc.suffolk@btinternet.com if you are interested.

Council wisely decided to put the counting of votes in the hands of the ERS but they seem to have placed two obstacles in the way for many members.
Firstly each copy of Cycle contained a single ballot paper regardless of how many members live at the same address. Not a show stopper, but it hardly encourages people to exercise their rights and responsibilities to the club!
Secondly, the rules state that each member must state their own individual membership number on the ballot paper. Since CTC now sends only one membership card to each household, bearing the membership number of the first-named member, other members at the same address may well not know their membership number. Granted, those who are intending to vote might pick up the phone and ring the membership services number (which could of course be the start of another saga....) or they could ask their member group secretary. Intererestingly, as secretary of a member group with over 800 members, I have not received a single enquiry from anyone wanting to know their membership number!

I wonder whether the ERS would consider the requirement to state one's personal membership number on the ballot paper, while not providing the information to each member, is a breach of 'good practice', perhaps sufficiently to render the vote invalid??

I haven't seen this point discussed so far, apologies if it has been covered somewhere in the mass of chatter in the subject!

Keith

CTC Suffolk continues to arrange Sunday and Thursday rides starting in the Ipswich area, throughout the year.
We would like to know if there is sufficient interest to arrange additional rides beginning in either the Bury St Edmunds or Waveney Valley areas of Suffolk. Please contact me if you are interested in rides from either of these areas.

Keith Halton, Hon Sec
ctc.suffolk@btinternet.com

Full details of CTC Suffolk can be found at
www.greenlivingcentre.org.uk/ctc

In all this, I have not seen what the 'No' camp will do if they WIN the vote. All the ills that they have identified re the charity will still be there, all the failings to provide efficient services to members, etc.... Anyone care to enlighten me?

Keith

The present structure was created following a review which concluded that it offered benefits to the membership. Like many other organisations, CTC engaged in a range of activities, some of which came within the remit of a charity, and could thus attract faviourable taxation, while others did not. The only way, at the time, to gain these benefits was to separate the activities into charitable and "non charitable" organisations. Whether the changes in legislation have been brought about by a recognition (by government) of the complication caused by this distinction, I am not sure, but what is fairly clear to me is that CTC only chose this course of action because it was appropriate at the time. Now, we have the opportunity to move to a simpler structure and that, I feel, is a sound objective.
There has been a lot of discussion about the transfer of funds between the two organisations (see the "£388,0000" thread for instance) but surely, this is a question of how the CTC spends money, not of how the organsisation should be structured. If anything, perhaps a single corporate structure would make these issues more transparent?

Recently, I had a problem with the zip on a jacket that I'd bought from Cyclos Uno at Mildenhall. After a friendly email exchange it was subsequently returned to them, and a replacement arrived within three days with a friendly note - not bad as I sent it second class to them.
Excellent service, which I could not fault. Thanks, chaps!

Keith, Ipswich.

Wiggle do not seem to want to publish a phone number, either on the CTC site (including the contacts page) or their own site.
I am beginning to hear grumbles from other members of my local group about this.

Keith

Four of us are touring in south-eastern switzerland in late June/ early July.
Have done quite a bit of web searching so already know something about the following, but we would be interested in any other cyclists' experience on the following routes...
1 From Zurich to Meggen (east of Lucerne)
2 From Andermatt over the Oberalp pass then following the Rhine route as far as Bonaduz (a bit west of Chur)
3 South from Bonaduz via Thusis and Tiefencastel and Filisur to Samedan. On this stretch we are planning to use the train for some of the way, including the Albula tunnel. Does anyone know whether the route from Thusis to Tiefencastel is rideable as there appears to be only a main road, with tunnels?

Thanks
Keith & Nicola Halton, Ipswich

The former Suffolk DA is now CTC Suffolk.

Regular rides on a Sunday and Thursday daytime and Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, plus plenty of events throughout the year.

Activities tend to be centered on Ipswich but we would like to hear from CTC members elsewhere in Suffolk and to offer support in establishing activities in other parts of the county. Contact the secretary at ctc.suffolk@btinternet.com

Full details of CTC Suffolk can be found at
www.greenlivingcentre.org.uk/ctc

Pete (President CTC Suffolk)

Keith (Hon Sec., CTC Suffolk)

Hi, from Keith, Hon Sec., CTC Suffolk....

I was looking at how our group should deal with the still-unfilled role of welfare officer and came across this thread.
My first thought is that I wasn't party to the discussion that went into the drafting of the National Handbook for Local Groups so I don't know precisely what brought about the idea to create the welfare officer role. However, it seems to me that the role isn't clearly defined (so how do I seek someone to fill it?), possibly needs someone with the right background (again, unspecified) and, if the role is needed at all, there must be strong organizational support for the welfare officer to call upon (is there?).
Having looked at the way several other clubs that I have dealings with are organized (such as a local tennis club), they do not have welfare officers, yet they deal perfectly well with issues of vulnerable adults, member disputes and juvenile members so are we any different? The only organizations that I could envisage that do have posts similar to the proposed welfare officer are professional, such as educational or health organizations, or indeed businesses. In such organizations, the welfare role is dealt with by trained professionals with considerable organizational support.
So, after a search of the CTC website and finding that the Policy Index is "Awaiting content", where can I find a clear and succinct explanation of why we need a welfare officer and what they are really supposed to be doing?

Keith Halton
hon sec., CTC Suffolk