Tag Archives: bicycle

Goodbye two wheeled companion – Sunday bike failure

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Peugeot Prologue bike

Just pottered out for a couple of hours on the old winter road bike this Sunday morning. As I think I may have mentioned it’s a bike I keep thinking has done its day, but despite that the convenience of a winter bike that I can totally neglect and not worry about on muddy or wet roads means it has somehow kept its place.

But no more.

Having stopped twice to check the wheel and the spokes because of an odd feeling in the rear wheel I hit my first patch of cobbles and the bike just seemed to go soggy underneath me.

Now the cause was clear.

Photo by Kevin Mayne

No fixing that one by the roadside, or anywhere else for that matter. However I have to reflect that the frame really had earned its keep. I bought it as something lying around the Peugeot UK warehouse for just £75 back in about 1999/2000 as a sort of winter and audax bike for mudguards. I think the chainset and seat pin were probably already almost welded in place then because I never did manage to move them, ever. In the last five or six years it really has been a victim of total neglect, especially useful whenever it was rainy or salty and I didn’t want to corrode other bikes.

However it has also completed some great rides including two 400km randonnees in that time because it was always quite comfortable and not too heavy. I have to reflect that its last great ride was the Tour of Flanders Ride I did on New Year’s Day, maybe the hammer of those special cobbles was the final straw. However I am sure I can say “it was a fitting end”.Belgium, Ronde Van Vlaanderen fietsroute

As I started my walk back to the arranged pick-up point with my emergency backup (thank you darling) I have to say it was a lovely day. The Belgian wildlife at least is completely sure spring is here, the birds were singing their hearts out and the countryside glowed in the sunlight. Au revoir my two wheeled friend.

New winter steed needed for next year, I hope we have a mild dry year until then!

Belgium Belgique

I do not despair for the future of the human race – sunny Autumn afternoon with a bike in the Netherlands

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Dutch hire bike

How was the start to your weekend?

My Friday was in Almere. Doing some business, meeting friends, riding a bike.

Smiling inside.

Radcorso – stunning night in Vienna with 5000 cycling friends at #VC13

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Radcorso Vienna Photography team

Intrepid ECF photographer Chloe trusted me enough to let me pilot the cargobike around Vienna last night for a fantastic evening of bikes, of sights, of scenery and the fellowship of the wheel.IMG_1541

She captured hundreds of shots which will take some sorting, but suffice to say we had a ball. Over 1000 delegates were joined by nearly 4000 local riders for a great evening out, part festival, part bike ride.

Hard to believe it is almost over for another year, but there will be a rich repository of blog material for the next few weeks! (And lots, lots more on Twitter, follow me on @maynekevin and #VC13 for the Velo-city coverage)

IMG_1786 IMG_1825IMG_1817 IMG_1814 IMG_1808 IMG_1799 IMG_1792IMG_1783 IMG_1747

Folding bike – seats three

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Bicycle Taipei Taiwan

These diminutive machines are quite common on the streets of Taipei. I never actually saw one with the extra passenger on the back but I saw a few with a child in the front seat, unfortunately never when I had a camera to hand.

I can think of reasons why this might not pass any number of EU regulations, but is a perfect solution for a family in a small apartment.

When a bike is too good to be true, it is almost certainly not true

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Replica Francesco Moser Hour Record Bike

I walked onto my host’s stand at the bike show I was visiting in Budapest this weekend and the hairs almost stood up on the back of my neck.

Right in front of their stall was one of the legendary bikes of cycle sport – the extraordinary bike ridden by Italian star Francesco Moser in 1988 to break the “the hour”, one of cycling’s most extreme records.To anybody immersed in cycle sport at the time this was the stuff of legends. It even had a photo indicating authenticity.

I couldn’t be true. I just couldn’t make out how this groundbreaking machine wasn’t in a museum or the collection of the man himself.

So I poked around on line over the weekend to see if I could authenticate the bike and I came across a fun new blog I haven’t seen before  – the Lo Pro Cycling Club, a site dedicated to the whole generation of aerodynamic bikes that became super fashionable in the racing scene of the 1980s.

I this great post the blog tells the story of how former professional track rider Kiss Ferenc from Hungary built a Moser replica for fun. I can only assume this is the beast.

The replica is a bit naughty, but what a designer – one of the bike companies should give him a job.

The Kingdom of Bicycles in video – flashback to an earlier China

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Kingdom of Bicycles StillThis post originates from one of those unexplainable coincidences that life throws up. And once they have occurred I know I just have to talk about it.

I was thinking about a “bucket list” post for New Year, reflecting the many cycling experiences I would like to have or to share. I know it has been done many times, but it is a great concept.

On my “done it” list was one item that I feel is probably now impossible to replicate and I was going to challenge readers to suggest an alternative. In 1985 I had the privilege of hiring an upright black bike and riding the streets of Peking with my father. (Now more correctly called Beijing of course).

The only way I can capture the feeling today is to imagine a flock of black birds. The flock wheels and turns, seemingly at random, but somehow the birds do not collide and as a collective the flock becomes a thing of beauty. We two clumsy westerners were almost certainly a break in the harmony, but it didn’t stop it being a magical experience.

I have cycled the rush hours in Amsterdam and Copenhagen but it doesn’t feel the same even today. Maybe it was the touch of the exotic, the scale of the streets, huge highways full of bikes, or perhaps that there were so few cars in 1985 Beijing that the cyclists felt like kings. We certainly weren’t pinned to the side of the road in token lanes, we were the traffic.

I had gathered these few thoughts together in my head as part of this possible “bucket list” post when out of the blue Patrick Keating from Velocapital Partners circulated a report on cycling traffic in China, together with a link to this lovely film from China Central Television English Language service. It is 25 minutes long, so take a glass of something or more appropriately a cup of tea and enjoy the film and photography.

http://english.cntv.cn/program/storyboard/20120124/112052.shtml

Of course much of that cycle traffic has gone now and the rush for cars has driven cyclists off those boulevards in Beijing. Even in 1985 we found the centre of Shanghai to be so congested it was almost gridlocked by buses and taxis and by all accounts the transition in Beijing was rapid. Sadly I haven’t been back since 1985 but I doubt any experience can replace that day. However the film was a great reminder.

By the way Julian – riding your Flying Pigeon in Brussels doesn’t even get close. Sorry mate.

A butterfly of a bike emerges from its chrysalis – 1963 classic fixie

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Wrapped bicycle frameCrossed flad head badge Freddie Grubb FixieOne of the great frustrations from moving house has been embodied in a cardboard box, just one amongst so many. But an odd shape, long and flat.

It arrived a week before we moved and I allowed myself a single peek into the box before very reluctantly I packed it away.

So having unpacked everything domestic over the last two weeks I treated myself to a session in the shed and I carefully brought Freddie Grubb number 11773 into the light after its respray and refurbishment for its 50th birthday (and mine).

A thing of rare delight, a 1963 English steel track frame which has been in my first club, the Godric CC for its entire life. I acquired it in the 1970s and after a short racing career in grass track and rollers I mistreated it for almost 30 years.

But now as I gradually pulled the packaging away I broke into an irrepressible beaming smile.  This is my classic and I am really looking forward to the gradual build. Watch this space for more updates.

Freddie Grubb Fixie

Fixie 1963Frame number 11773

Bicycle dog basket designed in a wind tunnel?

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Spotted in Stockholm.

A most unusual attachment for a sporty road bike. Speculation as to purpose welcomed.