Cycling UK Forum

Like the CTC, FFCT (France) takes a free choice stance; however their magazine cover picture has to have cyclists wearing helmets (info from their editor) and they make an issue of the percentage of riders wearing helmets at their annual Semaine, which up to 15000 cyclists attend. We must ensure that this does not drift over the Channel to Godalming.

Guten Tag Ketherine.

Entschuldigen Sie mich, mein Deutscher ist nicht so gut....... Wir sprechen auf englisch anstatt

If you're flying to Glasgow, then Tiso Outdoor Centre hire bikes (mostly moutain bikes) see www.tiso.com

OS Refers to Ordanance Survey, the UK Government mapping agency and you can buy their maps at various scales and areas - see http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

If you're flying to Edinburgh, then try Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative - I think they also hire bikes www.edinburgh-bicycle.co.uk Cycle Scotland also hire bikes in Edinburgh: http://www.cyclescotland.co.uk/1home.htm

Another website to try which has routes in Scotland is http://www.cyclingscotland.org/ and http://cycling.visitscotland.com/



Also worth trying the Sustrans website which has details of long distance routes in the UK www.sustrans.co.uk

Hope this helps

Paul

I have a various old maps and wondered if there is demand for these and if so could anybody give an indication of their value. Maps as follows:

1) A set of 25 O.S. "Cycling maps of England and Wales", half inch to one mile. These are printed on linen and housed in a leather case.

2) Various O.S. numbered sheets, again printed on linen. Some one inch to one mile & some half inch to one mile.

3) Some barts half inch.

4) Various O.S. paper "Popular Ed" one inch sheets of England and Wales which are more modern but still old judging by the pre-decimal prices.

I did a bike tour about 7 years ago. Flew to Lisbon, 10 days along coast and countryside, stayed a night or two in Lisbon. Then flew home.
Lisbon is about the busiest traffic I have ever seen. So much so that the day I left I allowed time and walked my bike to the airport.
Country road surfaces are very variable. Watch closely for potholes.
When drivers see a car in front, they often blow their horn. Bit irritating at first, then I thought, well it is a warning instrument and that's how they were using it.
Difficult to find accomm in rural areas.
Can't comment on the rest of your journey without knowing intended route.

There are two types of Shimano cleat compatible with their SPD pedals. Single release (SH51) which hold the foot firmer and require a deliberate movement to release. Multi release (SH55) not quite such a firm hold, but are easier to get out of. I’ve been using the multi release and M520 pedals for four years, never had a problem getting out of them even in unexpected circumstances.
Don’t be tempted to buy the shoes mail order, the sizes vary considerably, I’ve found size 44 from one manufacturer is equivalent to 46 from another. All the Shimano shoes I’ve tried have been very narrow, luckily there’s plenty of choice from others.

A few have had favourably things to say about subsidising some types of transport. But why should any mode of transport be subsidised? One could argue that cars are receiving by far the largest subsidy, public transport the least and if governments subsidised neither the latter and cycling would look much more attractive. At present car drivers pay little towards (help me out):

Health costs related to road trauma
Pollution (visual , noise, air, water, fuel transport 'accidents', soil)
Externalities of the manufacturing process
Costs of proper disposal and recycling of vehicles.
Cost of danger presented to other road users
Cost of inconvenience to other road users.
Opportunity cost of land use for driving and car storage (real estate value)
Global warmings effect on other countries
Travel delays to other vehicles including spoiled goods (currently borne by consumers of the good)
Costs of paying for obesity and sedentery lifestyle related illness

If car drivers were paying something like the true cost of these externalities (I admit their values are debateable) there would not be so much driving, it would cost too much. I suspect the cost of public transport would rise too but not by as much as that of driving. Then maybe we would not be living miles away from our shops and places of work, the true cost of all the unneccessary travel we do would be revealed.

Road pricing would be the best method as different roads would have different costs. Driving past the Houses of parliament in the rush hour would be bloody expensive compared to driving the highlands at midnight. Fuel taxes are a blunt and inaccurate indicator of the costs involved and politically unacceptable. Road pricing could work.

I use Shimano A515 on my touring machine and they are far better than the "old fashioned" toe-clips and straps I used to use. However, I tend not to cycle in town traffic so can't comment on their suitability in that context but they are fine for the open country lanes. Perhaps the best option is a double-sided pedal - cleats one side and a platform the other PD-M324. Cleats take a little while getting used to and you may not be able to release quickly enough in town.

I also found this item on the message board:

http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3821

Jon has hit the nail on the head – cars ruin communities. The difficulty is that when it comes to a struggle between sanity and the limited objectives of big business, we all know which side tends to win.

The best thing about cars from a lobbyist’s perspective is that drivers are easily manipulated. Far from being the coherent group as bodies such as the RAC Foundation et al try to portray, they are ultimately a group of individuals at logerheads with one another. The most consistently anti-car group is in fact motorists – just be a passenger for a few miles or less. Cyclists by contrast can go a whole journey with only friendly acknowledgements to considerate drivers. Well sometimes anyway.

It is indeed a con perpetrated by consecutive governments not only with an outdated notion of what it means to be modern, but an equally misguided aim of reducing transport subsidies to cut taxes and get re-elected. What’s lacking is a persuasive campaign (and sadly the funding to make this possible) to demonstrate the alternative.

Of all the horrors of Americanism invading our shores, not least car-based malls and out-of-town shopping, the one worthwhile import might be a relaxation of the UK ban on ‘political’ TV advertising. This makes it impossible to harness the most powerful medium on the planet to present another view, even if we could cobble together enough money to afford it.

Messages about saving the planet and improving communities are rejected for being politically orientated, while promoting the opposite is thought of as a valuable commercial activity. Broadcasters are probably happy with this absurdity as a huge chunk of their income comes from car advertising. Given that no political party with any chance of power is ever likely to carry truly pro-cycling policies into office until voter pressure outweighs corporate power, this is one policy that ought to change.

This is why I hate cars:
I also grew up in a rural community, but our village had plenty of shops: a Co-Op, baker’s, hardware shop (including drill bits), two butchers, greengrocer, post office, bank, clothes shop and library. You could get almost anything you needed, and if they didn’t have it would get it for you. The Co-Op and baker even delivered locally. There was a daily bus service to the nearest town. Things were localised, you didn’t need to travel for them.
Not any more.
The county town (Cambridge) underwent a high-tech high-wage expansion. Now the village is a dormitory for motorised commuters. You’ll be lucky to get a bus once a week, the only places still open are the pubs, and the housing is priced out of the reach of local families.
This is entirely because of the existence of the motor car. It allows the sort of commuting distances involved here, and the out-of-town shopping that has killed off the local retailers. There are more people in the village now, but there is no community any more. The roads are full of people hurling themselves between work, home, and out-of-town shopping centre. There’s no connection with anywhere, just a lot of destinations to be reached as quickly as possible. My “land of lost content” wasn’t lost, it’s a road-kill victim.
How did we get conned into this? It’s all a big trick. Goods and services used to have to come to where people were. Now we are expected to travel huge distances to work and shop in centralised locations. Certainly it’s efficient for the businesses and employers, keeps their costs down and profit up; but we’re expected to pay for the transport costs of getting ourselves there. Instead of one van delivering to a local retailer, we’ve got 50 or more cars driving to the mega-mart. Perhaps just to get a pint of milk. Meanwhile the local Co-Op is converted into ‘Georgian style’ flats. It’s insane.

And I think you may have missed my point. By eliminating some of the FIXED costs of car ownership (so-called road tax and third-party insurance) and paying for those things out of an increased levy on fuel, the total costs to those who use a small car and use it sparingly are REDUCED. It is the high-mileage drivers of large vehicles who end up paying more. As they are a minority, the only thing that stops this being a vote winner is the stupidity of the general public, who tend to ignore the fixed costs and only count the cost of fuel.

By all means improve and subsidise public transport, but how do you raise the money for that except by taxes on motoring? Increase the fixed costs and you drive people to use their cars more. Only by reducing those costs at the same time as increasing the tax on fuel do you have any hope at all of selling the idea to a necessary majority of the public.

It's mainly the rural rich who use living in the countryside as a pretext for their profligate mileage. I was born and brought up on a small tenanted farm, so I know very well how it is for the rural poor. My parents drove into town once a week, for the cattle market and to do all their shopping, appointments etc. in one hit. Since they couldn’t afford either the time or the money for gadding about, our annual motoring mileage was way below the national average, despite living in a tiny isolated village with no shops and no public transport.

The best place i've found for reviews of recumbents is www.bentrideronline.com, it is American but has lots of reviews including the mistral, it also has links to most manufacturers.
A london dealer for Challenge is Bikefix, www.bikefix.co.uk.
Alternatively FutureCycles in Forest Row, E.sussex sell Optima and M5 who have similar models. wwwfuturecycles.co.uk.
Ther is also a UK mag called Velovision, I think their website is www.velovision.co.uk.
I've been meaning to try a 'bent' for a few years but never seem to get around to it, maybe this summer.
Hope this is useful.
Steve

I think you may have missed my point. I don’t care whether those rich enough to afford helicopters moan about how much it costs to fill up their cars, my objections to price rationing are based on protecting the rights (albeit an imperfect right in this case) of the poor. Many poorer people use their cars as a cost-efficient and practical means of transport. And whether it’s a lone woman returning from shift work late at night, or a family living in the middle of the countryside, sometimes a car is the most practical – if not the most environmentally friendly – choice. The answer to the problem of congestion and pollution, and the only efficient and socially acceptable way of changing people’s behaviour is to use a carrot and not a stick. Build more and better cycle facilities, improve and lower the price of public transport and demonstrate to people the fact that they have choices. Why use a car for the daily winter commute when a scooter is more fuel efficient and not effected by congestion? Why use a scooter for fair-weather commuting or local journeys when a bicycle is the most efficient form of transport available? Rather than dogma about how evil the car is, and measures that nobody is ever going to vote for anyway, we need pragmatic solutions that work in the real world for all people…especially those without helicopters.

I've used Easyjet in the past and found them excellent. No charge, no fuss.
I think they've recently tightened their rules though. Their website now mentions a £10 each way charge. Also since summer 2004 they have required bikes to be boxed. I don't know how strict they are about this.

Ryanair now charge £17 per bike each way but don't require boxes.

BA still make no charge for bikes and certainly at Gatwick still give you a free plastic bag (just ask at the out of gauge belt).

Kerry,
Get a copy of Chelmsford council's map, "Get on your bike and cycle around Chelmsford".
This shows that you can cycle from the town centre on shared tarmac footpath/cycleways:
1 West to Writtle Ag Coll and St John's Green. The western km of this is new and might not be on their map.
2 North, the Chelmer valley to Valley Bridge Rd.
3 West to Chelmer Village.
On each of these you can see ducks and swans and the occasional Great Crested Grebe.
Look at www.sustrans.org.uk. There is a linear cycleway on the old railway out of Braintree. I don't know what the surface is like.

Does anyone know of a good off road cycle route within 10 miles of Chelmsford. I have two young children (5 and 7) riding their own bikes, so it needs to be fairly even ground and quite flat.

Thanks