Are very bright LED lights dividing cyclists?

With the night's drawing in, lights are being dusted off and re-strapped to bikes around the country. It's funny but bike lights can and are causing issues between cyclists - as I discovered yesterday.

While riding home in the pissing rain some guy riding the opposite direction shouted something like 'disco bike' at me. He seemed pretty hostile and was a bit flustered that I had my front lamp set to flash - I wasn't bothered by his light at all. Apart from what the fu*k it had to do with him, I've noticed a few times lately that riders are having a go at one another due to the brightness of lamps.

The new Cateye Hiroshima

I've only had this one I hasten to add but I've heard people complaining that others are riding with lights. No matter how good bike lights have become since the development of LEDs, they are not as bright as car headlamps and cyclists never, usually, complain about car's lamps. Bike lights are admittedly higher and are not dipped but you'd think a cyclists having a go at another cyclist for using lights would be a rare thing - apparently not.

Later on the same ride I had to have an argument with some car knob who, after pulling out on me, had his fat wife tell me I didn't have my lights on! Cant win! I've reported him to plod anyway - yes I can remember a number plate the length of time it takes me to get my phone out of my pocket to make a note of it.

Anyway, cyclists, what do you think? Are uber bright LED lights a problem?

Keep going keeping going

It's happened to all of us at one time or another and its difficult to shake. I'm talking about those times when for whatever reason - weather, relatives, family, circumstance, injury - you can't get out on your bike. One minute you feel like you're going OK then the next, you've missed three weeks of riding and  you feel further away from any sort of strength than you have for months.

This week's Strava report. Athlete?

I'm in the middle of an up-turn in activity which I'm, once again, determined to build on. In fact, for the first time since I started working in Uppermill last December, I've ridden in everyday this week. It's a bit of a surprise that I've not previously managed it but a clear work diary has finally allowed me to do ten 18 mile rides - presuming I get home in one piece later on.
There's nothing quite like keeping going to make you keep going is there? Long may it continue!
Ride safe

@cycletowork day encourages two-wheeled commuting

If you need an excuse to get on your bike then next Thursday [12 September] offers one: it is national cycle to work day.
It is hoped that thousands of additional people will leave their cars at home and take to two wheels for their daily commute.
Just one day cant hurt can it?
They have Dame Sarah Story to front the campaign and you can pledge the distance you will ride on the day. Rather neatly, it calculates the cost and carbon savings you'll make and the calories you'll burn - see image.

What is 1,694 calories in pasties?

Anything that encourages people to ride is a good thing in my view - just hope it doesn't rain :)
The cost is just about bob on for public transport but a little bit over the top for petrol cost - unless I was driving an AC Cobra bouncing off the rev limiter in second gear all the way. 
Ride safe.

Happy birthday to...

Well, can you believe it? Cycling has kept me in enough material to keep this blog going for a year. There's been thrills, a few spills, no pills, a few punctures and lots of great stories. 
Looking back it's been interesting to watch the status of  cycling in the UK ebb and flow. We've had amazing success at the Olympics, two Tour de France winners and many promises of government cash.
But with that, cycling's popularity has bred a strong reaction from the unwilling.
There's been sabotage, road rage and sadly accidents.
So where do I think cycling will end up in the next 12 months? Well, we should finally see some investment in Manchester into the riding infrastructure and hopefully more people will take to two wheels as a result. 
In the pro sport, we of course have the Yorkshire stages of le tour to look forward to next year. Pat 'Pat' Mcquaid might get the elbow from of of his UCI positions and replaced by Brian Cookson. Finally, the sport might be able to move on from the doping which nearly destroyed the sport.
I'd also expect the demands for a women's tour to keep getting louder too - quite right too. 
Commercially, the sport will continue to thrive and we should continue to support our local bike shops rather than solely relying on on-line outlets - you'll miss them when they're gone, you mark my words.

Any excuse...

Anyway, I'm planning on bringing in a few little innovations to this blog in the next year: some interviews and guest blogs - maybe even a video or two! If you have any suggestions or want to bang out a couple of hundred words on your view of the world on two wheels, then do drop me a note.
Until then, ride safe.

Winter? Pah!

It's May and it's beautiful outside. Still a bit chilly first thing in the morning with that weird cold air / warm sun arrangement. Makes it difficult to know exactly what to wear.
One thing's for sue is that the overshoes, snood, thermal tights have been abandoned to the bottom of the 'drobe for another year. Yes, spring is finally here.
As it turns out, winter wasn't as bad for cycling as you'd expect. According to this piece on BikeBiz from the cycle to work alliance [whoever they are] cycling commuter numbers were actually up year on year to 'unprecedented' levels.
They reckon they have the evidence for it but, call me a cynical old fool, sounds like a bit of PR puffery for the alliance members to me - most of whom are bike retailers.

I mean, how would they know, really know, that 20 per cent more people cycled to work this winter over last? And this is on top of a 9 per cent growth reported the previous year.
Logistically, it's just impossible to understand behavior in that detail in my humble view. 
Ah, but its based on statistics, probabilities extrapolated to provide an answer within a margin of error either way. Well, maybe, but I'd like to see a bit of the data behind the headline before I start believing everything I read. 

Just what is the Cheadle Package?

In follow up to the recent post about extra cycling facilities in Manchester, I have now got some information on the mysteriously named 'Cheadle Package'.
According to local Lib Dems, the package will '... greatly improve the links from Gatley, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme and Heald Green towards Manchester.' 
Billed as a 'Million pound boost to cycling in the Cheadle area', the Cheadle Package actually consists of just over half a million quids work of bike lanes.
The deets are as follows:

• New off-carriageway route along Kingsway from the Gatley lights to the Manchester border.
• New on-carriageway route along Manchester Road from Cheadle towards Parrs Wood
• New safe cycling route (mostly on-road but small section of off road) from Broadway along High Grove Road, Milton Crescent, Wensley Road and Marchbank Drive to join up with Kingsway (and so give a safe route for cyclists wanting to avoid the Kingsway/Gatley Road junction).
• New safe cycling route from Wilmslow Road, Cheadle along Warren Avenue, The Crescent, Hall Street, Brook Road and Mill Lane to join up with Manchester Road.
• New section connecting Grange Avenue, Cheadle Hulme to existing signed route along Queen’s Road.

So, there you have it - the Cheadle Package mystery resolved - thanks to Jon Grieve.

Cheadle, yesterday

F-F-F-F-February

There is a distinct feeling of change in the air isn't there? Daylight is starting at about 7am now and lasting to about six. It makes such a massive difference not permanently riding in the dark.
The last few days of February have been absolutely stunning, bloody cold and a bit blowy but beautiful days for riding.
Riding in daylight on my commuter route reveals all manner of gems which previously remained hidden in the murk behind the glow of sodium lights.
I'm a bit of a champion of modernist architecture on the QT and was pleased to see an amazing example on Huddersfield Road at Millbrook Village - which obviously isn't a village.

Byzantine and modernism alive in Stalybridge

I might even pop in one day, provided I'm not struck by lightening for being a heathen!

Pot hole repairs and poor demented souls

Have you noticed anything different about the roads lately? Yes, the actual road surface. Cyclists are almost alone in observing to road surface in any great detail - it really matters what the road surface is like: which sunken or raised manholes you have to avoid, the patches which mark the location of earlier roadworks - these are called 'utility scars' in the US of A apparently - and the rippled oil covered surfaces of bus stops.
After a little while of doing a particular ride, you end up with a route within a route which you use to pick your way through the worst bits
But have you noticed that it is that time of year again when spray painted white boxes are starting to appear around some of the worst areas signalling their impending filling in.
There is a received wisdom that local authorities condense road repair activity into the months running up to April.  So the discourse goes, this is due to 'the road department using up its budget' to 'make sure it gets the same budget next year'.

A favourite at local authority Christmas parties apparently 

I've no idea if this is true or not.  But it doesn't it make sense to hold your repair budget back a bit incase something really bad happens?  And then, if it doesn't, splurge it on doing as much as you can to keep the roads going for as long as possible?
In an ideal world, the roads would have a smooth layer of tarmac, be regularly swept and have bike lanes on them.  But, alas, that's not going to happen, ever - well not teh smooth bit anyway.
So, what can you do?  Well, you can report pot holes to 'the road department' and see if you can get the buggers filled in, pronto.
You can find out how to do this over on the Sharp Edge Trip blog which can find a link to on the right or here if your mouse wont scurry that far.
Happy pot hole spotting.

Lighten up, man

As the planet has now ended its lurch to the south and its axis is slowly making its way back oop north, there’s a real sense that the days are starting to get just a little bit longer. By a couple of minutes every day, we are slowly leaving mid-winter behind and emerging, chrysalis like into a bold new future of daylight, rain and potholes!

There’s still quite a long way to go until we will be able to see 7pm without the aid of artificial light though – sometime toward the end of March that’ll be.

One thing the dark days do give you an opportunity to appreciate is how far bike lights have come. If my ride in this last week has been anything to go by, there were many stockings filled with lights during Christmas.

Today’s LEDs are basically superb aren't they?  I remember reading a review of a motorbike a few years back which had ditched its old filament bulb for an LED rear light – filament bulbs are still required by law for head lamps.  The review nailed it by captioning a photo of the new rear light with: The days were when head lights were not as bright.

A beautiful light bulb

Same with our cycle lights. I can’t remember the name of the first lights I ever had but they were massive grey things which used two size D batteries every half hour.  The front one had a circular clear lens while the rear was an oblong about the same size as a litre of orange juice.

There is no comparison between the old and new, the new ones perform better, look better, are lighter, brighter, last longer and make you irresistible to the opposite sex.

Chain love @cyclelogicMCR

I had a feeling of smug satisfaction this morning on my ride in.  For once this was not due to me rattling past queuing traffic or getting a hat full of PBs on Strava.

No, the warm glow was due to the overwhelming success of replacing my chain at the weekend. I know it’s a relatively straightforward process but I’m genuinely surprised as to how much of a difference it has made.

The previous chain had gone beyond the .75 mark on the chain stretcher thingamabob so it was time for a new one.  It’s now working like an absolute dream and I’m intrigued to find out how much wear I’ll get out of it.

I've gone for the ‘extreme durability’ option which gives the impression that it’ll last about the same amount of time as a track on a Sherman tank – we’ll see.

Thanks to the lovely folk at Ken Fosters for the advice!

Happy new year dear reader

Well, after ten days of unenforced absence from the bike, today was my first of the new year back in the saddle.
Following a determined but ultimately futile effort to rid the planet of red wine and mince pies, I felt like I had as much power as an Austin Princess this morning and despite the Met Office's promises of a dry but overcast day, it obviously rained for my entire journey.

Austin (very little) Powers

So a lovely introduction to cycling in 2013, but despite all that, it was still great to be back on two wheels.  My Strava deets weren't too bad either - managed a few PBs which was surprising as I was really just plodding.
Maybe there's something to be said for a rubbish diet and lots of rest...maybe not.

My new Manchester commuter route

Day one of my new biking commute is over. First impressions: jeez Louise, it's cold! Really though, it's loads better than I thought, traffic not too bad, road surfaces are mostly ok. Very few bike lanes though!