Cycle Magazine Feb-Mar 2014 by Cycling UK

February/march 2014 ctc.org.uk {£3} FREE to ctc members

This issue b r u s s e l s to the bl ack

the magazine of ctc The national cycling charity

se a

CTC SURVEY

bik e fit ting :

PAGE 17

hit or m y th c a r bon

Traffic-free touring

roa d

Brussels to the Black Sea on cycleways

bik e s

Bike fitting: hit or myth?

c ycle -proofing

CTC’s tips for quality club rides

m a jor roa ds ctc’s r ide le a der

4-season carbon road bikes

tr a ining february/march 2014 ctc.org.uk

Founded in 1878

INSIDE: Cycle-proofing major roads Rigid MTB forks Three-day sportive Women’s tourer

Membership

February / march 2014

Get five years CTC membership for the price of four. Details on p78

The magazine of the Cyclists’ Touring club

Cycle promotes the work of CTC. Cycle’s circulation is approx. 51,000. CTC is one of the UK’s largest cycling membership organisations, with 67,000 members and affiliates CTC Patron: Her Majesty the Queen President: Jon Snow CTC Council Chair: David Cox Chief Executive: Gordon Seabright Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC) a Company Limited by Guarantee, registered in England No 25185, registered as a charity in England and Wales Charity No 1147607 and in Scotland No SC042541. Registered office: Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, GU2 9JX. Cycle Magazine Editor: Dan Joyce e: editor@ctc.org.uk Designers: Nicky Gotobed, Simon Goddard Advertising: Anna Vassallo tel: 020 7079 9365 e: annav@jppublishing.co.uk Creative Director: James Houston Publisher: James Pembroke Cycle is published six times per year on behalf of CTC by James Pembroke Publishing, 90 Walcot Street, Bath, BA1 5BG. Tel: 01225 337777. Cycle is copyright CTC, James Pembroke Publishing and individual contributors. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission from CTC and James Pembroke Publishing is forbidden. Views expressed in the magazine are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or the policies of CTC. Advertising bookings are subject to availability, the terms and conditions of James Pembroke Publishing, and final approval by CTC. Printed by Precision Colour Printing Haldane, Halesfield 1 Telford, TF7 4QQ. Tel: 01952 585585 Cover: the Tauernradweg by the Saalach river near Weißbach, Austria. By Chris Juden.

{ F RO M }

THE EDITOR

nice road bikes go in winter? I guess some fly south with their owners. Others hibernate, hanging on walls in garages, waiting for drier and warmer weather. Some continue to clock up the miles, spraying their riders with winter filth. It’s a tricky one. You can have a nice road bike but you can’t have proper mudguards on it. The fashion police and much of the bike industry are in agreement about this. Mudguards look naff. They spoil a bike’s ‘clean lines’. (Clean!) They add weight. Of course, they won’t fit that faux racer in any case, due to insufficient clearances and lack of eyelets, so maybe there’s an element of denial… You don’t need mudguards. There’s nothing wrong with your bike. (Apart from its propensity to spray you with cold water. Which you don’t care about.) Road bikes built for 57mmdrop sidepull brakes, so that they’ll accept mudguards and a 25 or 28mm tyre safely, are a strangely small niche. They’re mostly British brands – for obvious reasons – mostly called audax bikes, and mostly made out of steel. We found a couple in carbon fibre (see page 64) but it took some searching. Professional racers are paid to ride bikes without mudguards, and even amateur racers have good reason to eschew them. But if you’re not racing, and you’re riding in the UK, why wouldn’t you use mudguards? On any bike? where do the

48 38

every issue 5 News

CTC’s analysis of the cycling news

10 Campaigns comment  Cycling safety requires safer lorries

12 Events news

Recent and upcoming cycling events

20 Gear up

17 Our survey said…

Your feedback on CTC, Cycle and more

34 Brussels to the Black Sea

Across Europe on EuroVelo routes

38 Fitting the bill?

Bike fitting has exploded in popularity. But what do you get for your cash?

27 Letters

44 Hardriders’ Wessex

Your feedback on Cycle and cycling

30 My bike

Bob Damper’s Crypto Bantam

32 CTC & Me

CTC Tour leader Neil Wheadon

60 Q&A

Your technical, health and legal questions answered

78 CTC member benefits  Special offers for CTC members

81 Travellers’ Tales  Let us take you there

this issue

Components, kit and accessories on test

83 CTC Cycling Holidays  J O Y C E

Contents

CTC members’ ride reports

D A N

Below: Pendragon Sports

CTC, Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, GU2 9JX E: cycling@ctc.org.uk W: ctc.org.uk T: 0844 736 8450 or 01483 238300 (national office) 0844 736 8451 or 01483 238301 (membership dept)

Note: CTC Contacts appear on the address sheet enclosed with this issue of Cycle.

A three-day cyclo-sportive

48 Taking the lead

CTC’s tips for better quality club rides

52 Easter islands

Touring the Inner Hebrides in April

56 Practical cycleproofing

How to go beyond the rhetoric

64 Carbon originals

Lightweight road bikes… with mudguards

70 Female-friendly tourer Oxford Bike Works Model 1

73 Rigid MTB forks

An upgrade over cheap suspension

CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 3

CYCLE

news

ctc’s analysis of what’s happening in the cycling world

page 63 how changes to civil and criminal costs can affect cyclist defendants

Coming up

Low-level traffic lights for cyclists are to be installed at 12 locations in London

£30k for fill that hole page 6

Transport minister Robert Goodwill announced DfT funding for CTC’s pothole-reporting website and app

stop right there! page 8

Crown Prosecution Service drops case against cyclist who stopped in front of a caroccupied ‘green box’

seeing sense page 10

The sudden spike in cyclists’ deaths in London late last year must spur safer lorry designs, to allow drivers to see cyclists easily

Positive signals

cycleproofing

Improving cyclists’ safety at junctions is one of the key elements of cycleproofing. See page 56 for more

The Department for Transport has given a green light to new traffic signals for cyclists. Chris Peck reports The Department for Transport (DfT) has finally given the go-ahead for ‘low-level’ traffic lights for cyclists. It’s the latest in a series of relaxations on traffic regulations – regulations that have tied the hands of local authorities in the UK wanting to emulate the infrastructure of the Netherlands – and it’s something CTC has long campaigned for. In recent years, the DfT has: relaxed rules on making one-way streets twoway for cyclists; permitted the use of a wider range of cycling-specific direction signs; and begun, with Transport for London, experimenting with ways to

make fully-segregated routes better and safer for cyclists. New signs and markings authorised by the DfT are permitted in England, and can also be followed by authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Such changes are required if Prime Minister David Cameron’s promise of ‘cycleproofing’ is to become a reality. Low-level traffic lights for cyclists are helpful at junctions because they’re easier for someone on a bike to see. Such lights are a common sight in other European countries and have been thoroughly tested in track-based trials

in the UK over the last year. The first set will be installed at London’s Bow Roundabout this year, with 11 other sets to follow in the capital in the near future. Campaigners will be monitoring the results at Bow closely, given that this junction has recently been the site of three cycling fatalities. The DfT is also considering approving the use of low-level lights to give cyclists an ‘early start’ at junctions. Advanced signals can help cyclists because they allow them to get ahead of motor traffic legally, and low-level signals are less likely to confuse other road users. However, all ‘early start’ systems need to be very carefully planned and designed, particularly in the case of large junctions. When CTC’s Roger Geffen gave evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group’s ‘Get Britain Cycling’ Inquiry back in February 2013, he said that the cause of non-standard low-lights had been hampered by ‘red tape’, so it is good to see the DfT changing their minds about permitting local authorities to install them. At a DfT organised event in December, the cycling and roads minister Robert Goodwill gave assurances – later reiterated in Parliament – that he was determined to remove the barriers to enable local authorities to use more innovative and cheaper means to give cyclists priority.

CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 5

NEWS

page 48 ctc’s new training course for group ride leaders

£30k for Fill That Hole

CTC’s free weekly email newsletter: email your membership no. to membership@ctc. org.uk

Left & below left: iStockphoto.com

Android app will enable more roadside reporting

The Department for Transport (DfT) has pledged £30,000 to enable CTC to revamp the ‘Fill That Hole’ pothole-reporting website and to develop a new smartphone app. An Android version will stand alongside the existing iPhone app. Cycling and roads minister Robert Goodwill made the announcement on a visit to Oldham. The cash is part of a £5.8 billion additional spend on highways. Goodwill said: ‘At best, potholes are an

irritation. At worst they can damage vehicles and pose a serious danger to cyclists. That is why we want people to tell councils where to find them so they can fill them in. This app means more people are going to be able to report potholes more easily. ‘Filling potholes in quickly is only one half of the story. Research has also shown a long-term approach to road maintenance, rather than patch and mend, can save councils and taxpayers

money and potentially save lives thanks to better road conditions.’ Nearly £24m was paid in compensation by local authorities across England last year due to their poor roads, according to the Asphalt industry Alliance. Since CTC launched the ‘Fill that Hole’ website in 2007, there have been over 91,000 pothole reports filed. Updates to the site and app will take place in the first half of 2014. fillthathole.org.uk

Ready, sheddy, go Recognising that over two thirds of bicycles lie gathering dust in garden sheds, the Brighton and Hove CTC Member Group has begun offering a series of rides aimed at these bikes’ owners. Across the UK, fewer than 10% of people cycle regularly, even though 43% have access to a bicycle. The first ‘Shed Ride’ took place on Sunday 5 January. It was a gentle ride from Hove Lawns to Worthing and back, mostly on cycle paths. Organiser Howard Blanks from Brighton and Hove CTC said: ‘We recognise that many people are put off cycling because of lack of confidence, the amount of traffic, or perhaps being worried about having to cycle too far out of their comfort zone. If you join one of our rides, you do so safe in the knowledge that a Shed Bike Ride is over a shorter distance, generally on cycle paths and at a very comfortable pace, and will be led by experienced cyclists.’ The group is also introducing free bicycle maintenance courses. For information

6 cycle February /march 2 014

Nearly half of the UK has access to a bicycle

on either the rides or the course, email: shedbikerides@gmail.com. If you would like to organise a similar event with your group, contact Membership Manager Matt Mallinder: matt.mallinder@ctc.org.uk.

FROM THE viceCHAIR OF CTC Martin Cockersole when I was sorting through my late father’s possessions, I came across some cashbooks belonging to my grandfather. I was delighted to find in each year an item for CTC subscriptions, both for him and my father. In 1936, the subscription was 7/- with an extra 3/- for CTC bike insurance, equivalent to 35p and 15p! It made me think about CTC then and now. In the ’30s, the bicycle was the primary transport for many people and cycle touring was very popular. So CTC had two key roles in promoting touring and campaigning for better conditions for cycling. Local groups flourished. The cycling world has changed dramatically since. ‘Traditional’ touring is now one of many recreational cycling options, alongside day rides, challenge events like sportives, and mountain biking. Utility cycling has receded but is now making a comeback, particularly in London. CTC is embracing this new world and has made its mark, particularly in campaigning. But we still need greater recognition amongst the wider public. When you say you belong to CTC, how often do you hear: ‘What’s CTC?’ To be really successful in the future, CTC needs a strong membership base and to be recognised in the wider world. CTC Council and our Chief Executive have been focused on steps to ensure both are achieved, and some may be quite radical. Watch this space! On a personal note, I’m not standing for re-election as ViceChair this year. It has however been a privilege to serve in this role.

NEWS

page 70 oxford bike works tourer on test

CTC champions adapted cycles Inclusive cycling gets funding boost

thanks to a grant from the Big Lottery Fund, CTC and Cycling Projects have secured funding to help get more people riding on adapted cycles. An England-wide Inclusive Cycle Champions Programme is being set up to coordinate inclusive cycling promotion. While there are already many inclusive cycling projects across the country, the new funding should help them thrive, attract a broader ranger of users, and integrate with mainstream

cycling activities. Four regional clusters will enable easier networking between projects, and the sharing of resources and best practice. Through the regional clusters, local projects will also have the opportunity to shape the national standards and provision for inclusive cycling. With our support, individual

Ne w s i n b r i e f

LAST CALL FOR AGM MOTIONS

projects will become part of a framework that aims to attract future funding and provide ongoing support for inclusive cycling activities, projects and centres across the UK. If you are involved in or know of an inclusive cycling project in your area and would like to find out how we can help, please contact your nearest regional inclusive cycling development officer. NW England: Jayne Rodgers, 01925 234213, jayne.rodgers@ctc.org.uk NE England & Midlands: Gavin Wood, 07825 785 490, gavin.wood@ctc.org.uk SW England: Tim Trew: 01225 787 927, tim.trew@ ctc.org.uk SE England: Tim Janes: 07980 895 113, tim.janes@ ctc.org.uk

CTC members wishing to propose a motion for the AGM on Saturday 10 May (see p12) should send it in writing to CTC Chief Executive Gordon Seabright at CTC National Office by 14 February 2014. The motion should be proposed and seconded by two members. CTC Council strongly recommends that members wishing to propose a motion contact their CTC Councillor (details on the separate address sheet included with this issue of Cycle) or Gordon Seabright well before the deadline for a discussion about it. It is important, for proxy voters in particular, that the purpose of any motions on the agenda is clear.

10% OFF CTC TRAINING COURSES Members can now get 10% discount on CTC’s training courses. There are more than 40 courses to choose from. You could develop your personal skills, such as riding or maintenance, or become a leader, instructor or trainer for on or off-road riding. This is a timelimited offer. See more at ctc.org. uk/education or contact mtb@ ctc.org.uk

Photo: Clive Andrews

Advanced stop lines are routinely encroached on by other road users

Stop right there! A cyclist who was fined for stopping in front of an Advanced Stop Line at a set of traffic lights because the ‘cycle box’ was occupied by a car has had the proceedings against him dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service. As we reported last issue (p8), Alex Paxton was given a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) by a police officer on Fulham High Street in London for ‘failing to stop at a red light’. With the support of the Cyclists’ Defence Fund, which provides guidance on the law relating to cycling and which fights precedentsetting legal cases, Mr Paxton challenged the FPN. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)

8 cycle February /march 2 014

> dropped the case in late 2013 on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of a conviction. Miss Puneet Rai, of Thomas More Chambers, who acted for Mr Paxton, said: ‘I am very pleased common sense has prevailed. It’s great news for Alex, for the Cyclists’ Defence Fund, and cyclists generally. In making this decision, the CPS clearly accepted that in the circumstances Alex had no real option other than to act as he did to ensure his own safety. Clearly, road traffic laws have to be obeyed but not to the point that cyclists are forced to place themselves in danger in order to do so.’

HAVE YOUR SAY

The CTC website has many articles covering campaign issues and events. New for 2014 we have introduced a comments button so you can now have your say too. CTC webmaster Jonathan Pontet explained: ‘You’ll notice a new facility to add your thoughts to articles. Comments will be read for suitability and then published so other visitors can see your views.’

OFF-ROAD ACCESS DENIED

Surrey and Hampshire cyclists are finding that the Ministry of Defence is increasingly restricting access to its land for cyclists (whilst also making life harder for horseriders and walkers). Is this happening where you live? CTC wants to know if you are experiencing problems accessing Ministry of Defence land. Please email cycling@ctc. org.uk. This will help CTC with any national discussions with the Ministry of Defence, and when negotiating about local problems such as Hankley Common in Surrey.

News

Campaigns

page 56 other ways to improve cyclists’ safety

not to hug the kerb. A recent Twitter-spat between BBC broadcasters Jeremy Clarkson and Jeremy Vine suggests that Clarkson, and many like him, have no appreciation of this last point. As Cycle goes to press, the Government appears to have shelved plans for a longawaited Green Paper on driver testing and training. It’s a real shame if that’s true. If it does appear, CTC will press the case for cycle awareness – and preferably actual cycle training – to be integral to the driver training process, particularly for drivers of lorries and other large vehicles. Watch this space.

read all about it go online

Visit ctc.org.uk/ campaigning for a more in-depth analysis of this and other stories

A typical Dutch roundabout

Lorry mirrors don’t prevent big blindspots

Seeing sense The surge in cyclists’ deaths in London last November must spur real safety improvements, not victim-blaming, says CTC Campaigns Director Roger Geffen

The shocking spike in cyclist fatalities (However, they are somewhat more likely in London last November prompted a to blame the cyclist if the cyclist is a child deluge of media, political and protest or if the cyclist is killed – both of which activity. After six cycling deaths within seem harsh!) 13 days, journalists, politicians and the public demanded to Training & enforcement get more on know: ‘What should be done CTC believes absolutely in campaigns to prevent cyclists’ deaths on the importance of safe and Sign up to CTC’s online, monthly campaigns our roads?’ responsible road behaviour bulletin, CycleDigest, at Boris Johnson’s suggested by cyclists and drivers ctc.org.uk/ cycledigest answers didn’t help. He alike. We want cycle training claimed not to be ‘fingerwidely available for all, not pointing’, before clearly pointing just for young children but also the finger at cyclists’ behaviour. His for teenagers and for adults wishing to inflammatory and insensitive comments discover or rediscover cycling. bore little relationship to any evidence that We also want to see much more effort CTC is aware of. put into public information campaigns to CTC has repeatedly pointed out that, in promote driver awareness of cycle safety collisions between cyclists and drivers, the issues, such as: looking out for cyclists at police attribute responsibility solely to the junctions; not overtaking too closely; and driver three times as often as to the cyclist. understanding why cyclists are trained

10 cyc le February /march 2 014

Stop danger at source Awareness and training initiatives can only do so much, though. As explained in CTC’s evidence to a hastily-convened Commons Transport Select Committee inquiry, the best way to reduce risk is tackle it at the source. If cyclists are being killed by lorries, particularly at junctions, the top priorities must be to improve the safety of junctions and lorry design, while reducing lorry numbers on busy roads at busy times. There have been many cases where cyclists have been killed by criminally irresponsible driving. But in looking for solutions, we shouldn’t start by arguing over whether fatal cycle/lorry collisions are the fault of lorry drivers or cyclists. The principal problem is the lorry itself. The so-called ‘blind spot’ around lorries is a lethal design flaw. Why do lorries have the driver seated so high off the ground, and surrounded mostly by metal rather than windows? Compare them with buses, whose drivers can easily see cyclists at traffic lights. The sooner the Government, EU, and lorry industry get together and solve this issue, the better. It’s also high time the Government looked at continental best practice on reducing lorry use on busy urban streets. If Paris and other European cities can do it, why can’t we? The good news is that Transport for London and the Government are now taking seriously the debate on how to improve cyclists’ safety and priority at junctions (see page 56). This too will be a key issue for the Government’s Cycling Delivery Plan, due out later this year. For more information, enter the term ‘lorries’ in the search box at ctc.org.uk

Scan this with your smartphone or tablet to go to the story

News

PAGE 52 explore the inner hebrides at easter

Events

Team up for new MTB tour

EVENTS IN BRIEF

> britain’s first televised off-road racing tour takes place from 16-23 August, with CTC as a partner. Xcalibre has seven stages and three venues: the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor, and Pembrokeshire National Parks. The event is for 500 twoperson teams. It will test riders across a range of terrains and disciplines – cross-country, enduro and downhill. Teams will earn points towards four pairs of jerseys: yellow ones for the leaders overall, and others for best women’s, mixed, and over-80s’ teams (combined ages!). ITV4 will be filming the action on every stage. The first two stages are at National Trust Stackpole

CYCLISTS’ MEMORIAL SERVICES Cyclists from Yorkshire and Teesside will converge on the village of Coxwold, north of York, on Sunday 11 May, for their 88th annual service of Remembrance at St Michael’s Church. The Service begins at 1.30pm and is preceded and followed by refreshments in the nearby village hall. Offers of cakes and sandwiches, or of cleaning tables afterwards, would be gratefully received. Contact Eddie Grainger 01642 312921. The Heart of England Cycling Rally, which includes the Centennial Meriden Memorial Service, is a week later on the weekend of 17-18 May. More details next issue – or visit ctc-heartofengland.org.uk.

Teams will compete over seven stages in three National Parks

Estate in Pembrokeshire with clifftop singletrack and a relay race. Then it’s on to Brecon Beacons for a night race, plus a 60km stage over SAS training grounds. Finally, the tour will go to Exmoor on Devon’s north coast, where Porlock hosts the Grand Finale weekend: a punishing enduro stage followed by a mystery wild-

card stage. Xcalibre is as much about the camaraderie as racing, with food and evening entertainment at the group campsite. The all-inclusive eight-day team package will be around £900 per person. An overview of the routes will be in Cycle’s next issue. For up-to-date information visit xcalibremtb.co.uk

BIKE MAINTENANCE AT DALBY Are you confident that you can fix your bike if something goes wrong when you’re out and about? CTC can help, with extra maintenance courses running throughout winter at Dalby Bike Barn, our National Centre of Excellence in North Yorkshire. Whether you are a beginner wanting to know how to look after your bike and make basic repairs, or a more experienced cyclist wanting to know your bike inside out, there are day courses for all levels. Email dalby@ctc.org.uk for more information.

iStockphoto.com

hebrides tour after agm

Take time out after the CTC AGM to tour the Western Isles

CTC Glasgow is running a tour of the Outer Hebrides right after the AGM weekend on 10-11 May. From Monday 12 May to Monday 19 May, the eight-day tour will take in 300 miles of quiet roads from Barra to Lewis, through breathtaking scenery. Travel (by train or car) from Glasgow to Oban, meet the group, and take a ferry to Barra. From there, you’ll cycle the length of the Hebrides, using ferries and causeways to travel between islands. At the end of the tour at Stornoway, you could do a Scottish coast-tocoast, from Ullapool to Inverness in 59 miles. From Inverness there are excellent, frequent rail links to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and also a sleeper train to London. May is a great time to visit the Hebrides, and long hours of daylight enable you to see the islands at their best. The anticipated cost for all

12 cyc le Fe br uary /m ar ch 2 014

trains, ferries and accommodation is £320 per person. For details, visit ctcglasgow.org.uk or contact Martin Jamieson, mdjamieson@hotmail. co.uk. Early booking is advised. If you’re only in Glasgow for the weekend, don’t forget that there is a choice of led rides on the Sunday morning. Cycle to Queens View and back via Loch Lomond or up to the spectacular Whitelees Wind Farm Centre, or enjoy a short family ride along the Clyde to the award-winning Transport and Kelvingrove Museums. There will also be tryouts with a Commonwealth Games theme: at the velodrome, the MTB course, and through the city of Glasgow following the road race course. If you wish to attend the National Dinner on Saturday 10 May, see last issue for a booking form or contact Sue Cherry: sue.cherry@ctc. org.uk, 01483 238302.

MEMBER GROUP MEETINGS n Tyneside & Northumberland member group will hold a Special General Meeting on Tuesday 25 February at Merton Hall, Merton Way, Ponteland, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE20 9PX at 10.15am to appoint a new Treasurer and Auditor. n Phoenix Cycling Club is holding a CTC Formation Meeting on 27 March 2014 at 7pm in ‘The Cabin’, Lisvane Old School, Heol y Delyn, Lisvane, Cardiff CF14 0SQ. STEVENAGE TOURING WINNERS Alan Baxter defended his title in Stevenage CTC’s year-long competition for local cyclists. He won with a record score of 179 points, 19 ahead of Jim Brown. Leading lady Lynn Bonnici became only the second woman to beat the 100 point barrier. Her 109 was only 10 short of Alison Mills’s all-time record. For more information, visit the website stevenagectc.org.uk

News

PAGE 64 practical carbon road bikes reviewed

Events

London Bike Show returns

Photo: Ian Chandler © The London BIke Show

The London Bike Show returns to the ExCeL exhibition centre in the capital from 13-16 February. It’s the UK’s largest cycling show, and attracted 38,000 visitors in 2013. CTC members can save 30% off the price of adult tickets, which are normally £20 on the door. Just quote LBCTC when booking online at londonbikeshow.co.uk A ticket also grants entry to The Telegraph Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show, the Triathlon Plus Show, and The London International Dive Show, which are on at ExCeL at the same time. The London Bike Show is open from 1-8pm on

Thursday 13 February, 10am-5pm on the Friday, 9am-6pm on the Saturday, and 9am-5pm on the Sunday. The show is a good chance to see 2014 bikes and components. And you can try some of the bikes out too: there’s a test track at the show. Other features include: a bike training hub; a ‘fit zone’ for bike fitting (see the feature on page 38 for more on that); a ‘performance theatre’ for talks from cycling experts and professionals; and cycling stunt displays. If you’re travelling there by tube, the nearest stop is Custom House on the Docklands Light Railway. If you’re cycling there, use the TFL Bike Route planner at http://cyclejourneyplanner.tfl. gov.uk Up-to-date details about exhibitors and events can be found on the website londonbikeshow.co.uk

A ticket also grants entry to the Telegraph Adventure Show, the Triathlon Plus Show, and the London International Dive Show

Hundreds of thousands of cycling fans are expected to descend on North Yorkshire for the first two stages of the Tour De France on 5-6 July. CTC members can avoid problems with accommodation by taking advantage of a 10% discount to attend VeloFest, a four-day camping, cycling and music festival that’s perfectly positioned along Stage 1 of the Tour de France route at Kilnsey Park Estate, near Kidstones Pass in the Yorkshire Dales. The 60-acre site will have pitches for 3,000 tents, camper vans and caravans, and the facilities will include hot showers. There will be tiered viewing platforms offering farreaching views of the peloton, and a giant screen to show the race live. There will also be a cycle show with

14 cyc le Fe br uary /m ar ch 2 014

trade stands, live music, an open air cinema, and a Yorkshire Food Village to showcase local produce. Organiser Tom Hawkins said: ‘This is one of the most exciting events to come to Yorkshire in decades and we know there is a huge demand out there for those who want to be in the heart of the action. We’ve been looking for months for the perfect location and we believe we’ve found it.’ Pitch prices start from £150, which includes one tent, one car and four people for a three-night stay. That’s £37.50 per person. Caravans and campervans are £190 for a three-night stay. For details, visit velofest.co.uk. Use the code CTC10 when booking.

Watch this year’s Tour on one of the many climbs in Yorkshire

iStockphoto.com

Tour de France festival

feedback

Our survey said… Almost 2,500 of you put finger to keyboard to tell us about yourself, your cycling habits, and your views on CTC in our 2013 member online survey. Here’s what you said. What you’re riding

Home and away

Many of us own multiple bikes and desire yet another. Here’s what’s in your cycle shed.

A quarter of members go annual cycling holidays in the UK and 28% enjoy an annual cycling holiday abroad. That’s 18,000 CTC members on the loose – can you spot them?

Touring/trekking bike Sportive/audax bike Hybrid/utility bike Hardtail XC mountain bike Performance racing bike Folding bike Tandem bike Fixed/singlespeed bike Full-suspension XC mountain Bike

50% 41% 39% 33% 31% 21% 11% 10% 9%

Mile-eaters 38% of members cycle up to 50 miles a week, while 37% cycle 50-100 miles. That’s…

3.5m miles

Top reasons you ride

2013 SURVEY

It’s not all about the bike… hen not cycling, W 58% of you enjoy walking and hiking 19% are members of YHA and 32% support the National Trust

by CTC members – or seven times to the moon and back

33% 18% primarily cycle for leisure

Economy boost

primarily cycle to commute

31% plan to buy a new bike in the next 12 months. That’s 20,040 shiny new bikes. Of those, 39% plan to spend up to £1000 and 30% up to £1500. And 60% of members will be spending up to £300 on kit. Note to George Osborne: that’s £30million being added to the economy by CTC members.

Groupies

When you’re riding ■ Day touring once a week ■ Multi-day touring once a year ■ Utility/commuting more than twice a week

25%

53%

31%

32% of members ride with a local cycling group once a month or more, with 19% riding with CTC groups

CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 17

feedback

Supporting cycling

20% 10% 10% 13%

support our friends at Sustrans

support a local campaigning group

ride with Audax UK

ride with a local racing club

School report – how are we doing?

A+

85% very or quite satisfied by CTC campaigning 84% very or quite satisfied by Cycle

B+

78% very or quite satisfied by technical and product advice 75% rate CTC as good/reasonable value for money

C-

60% very or quite satisfied by route and touring advice 56% very or quite satisfied by the discounts on cycling products

Have you seen this man?

We’re listening.

29% prefer the Guardian newspaper 82% are car owners (6% own motorbikes, 10% caravans and motorhomes) 80% male, 20% female 80% of members between 40 and 70 (21% 41-50, 32% 50-60) 28% are in professional occupations, 32% retired

What we’ve aiming to do in next 12 months: ● Improving our range of cycling-related benefits and member offers/discounts ● Supporting local groups – see the member group pages at ctc.org.uk/local-groups ●R e-launching Cyclists Welcome and developing our routes ● I ntroducing quarterly direct debit payment options

You and CTC Word of mouth is still the best recruiter: 36% joined via friends, family or other CTC members – so get chatting to new cyclists! 27% joined to support CTC and its campaigning 33% joined for the 3rd party insurance protection

Getting smarter…

More CTC members are using smartphones and tablets: 30% use one to access a wide range of cycling news, tech, routes, and campaigning news

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What should CTC be doing? Planning/ infrastructure and government spending were the two most important issues that members thought that CTC should be working on. Watch out for our 2014 campaign on… infrastructure and government spending.

And the winner is… 2040 wished to be entered into the draw to win the Tifosi audax bike. But there was only one winner: Sally Berry

from Okehampton. Congratulations!

PRIZE winner

REVIEWS

submit a review components/kit/accessories/more

gear up

FEB/MAR 2014

If you want to submit a review, write or email the editor – details on page 3 – for advice. Each one printed wins a Green Oil Eco Rider Deluxe set worth £34.99. For more about Green Oil’s environmentally friendly bike products, visit green-oil.net

Travels on the Bread Line £12.99

Race Face Narrow Wide 30T chainring £49.95 Reviewed by Dan Joyce Most single chainring set-ups on mountain bikes use a chain device to prevent derailment. With their XX1 groupset, Sram showed that alternately-spaced thick and thin chainring teeth would mesh more tightly with the chain and stop it falling off – at least when used with a ‘clutch’ rear derailleur, which tensions the chain better as it doesn’t jerk about over bumps. But XX1 is expensive and you can’t just pick and choose components from it; for one thing, the rings have a 76mm bolt-circle diameter (BCD). Race Face are one of a number of companies producing narrow/wide chainrings with a 104mm BCD, the mountain bike middle/ outer standard. This 30-tooth version (32, 34,

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36 and 38 are available) makes a single ring easier work off-road. With the 11-36 cassette on my Whyte M109, it yields a gear range of 24-79 inches. I can pedal that at 5-25mph at fairly sensible cadences – and a bit either side at less sensible cadences. Having lost a shifter, derailleur, two chainrings, a cable and some chain, the bike is half a kilo lighter. This 30T 104mm BCD ring is possible because Race Face have offset the chainring: it’s spaced out a few millimetres where the ring bolts to the spider, to give clearance for the chain. This extra thickness of aluminium is threaded so there’s no need for shorter, singlechainring bolts and inserts; you can likely re-use your existing chainring bolts. Having used various chain retention devices in the past, I half expected to drop the chain on the first bumpy descent without one. It hasn’t fallen off once. The bike’s SLX clutch derailleur surely helps, but you might get away with using a standard derailleur. Gear shifting is simple and reliable, with none of the hesitancy or hang-ups you get with a mud-covered front mech. The Narrow Wide chainrings are compatible with 9, 10 and 11-speed chains and come in a variety of bright colours if you don’t fancy black. The 32 and 34 options are £5 cheaper. raceface.com & silverfish-uk.com

Reviewed by Seamus Kelly Travels on the Bread Line is a story of a mum (Fran Adams) who headed across the Channel for a cycle-camping holiday with basic equipment and little money. She took her teenage boys and one of their friends. The reader is guided through their life-changing adventures and misadventures in Brittany in 1987 and their second trip in 1988. Written in clear and simple language, this book is an easy and enjoyable read. The book isn’t about bikes but the freedom, challenges and enjoyment of cycling. It’s sure to appeal to people like me who remember when you could cycle without Lycra, mobile phones or GPS. memoirspublishing.com

Reviews

gear up

CTC Performance Lightweight Training Jacket £66 Reviewed by Julie Rand This CTC-branded longsleeved top by Impsport is perfect for cooler rides, either over a short-sleeved jersey or, on very chilly days, as another layer under a jacket. It has the usual back pockets and a full-length zip, which keeps your neck warm and also allows for ventilation when you heat up. The zip also makes it easier to put on and take off

during a ride, especially if you are wearing a helmet. Made of 100% polyester, the top washes well and dries out easily but the white, though good for visibility, will probably not stay pristine for long. I tried out the size 12 and found the sleeves a bit short, so if like me you have long arms, perhaps order the next size up. Sizes: ladies’ 6-18, men’s XS-XXXL. impsport.com

Biologic FixKit £29.99

Revolights $229 plus $60 p&p Reviewed by CTC member Raul Ramirez Revolights create an arc of illumination at the front of your front wheel and rear of your rear wheel, visible from all angles. The light units secure to the bike’s rims with an array of small

grippers and would be hard to steal off the bike. They’re well sealed and don’t obstruct your brakes. They’re expensive but I love them. Many other commuters ask me about them. Dan Joyce adds: Revolights comprise two sets of LED lights that fit to the rims. A Li-ion battery fits to each hub, with cabling down the spokes. The LEDs only illuminate when pointing forward (white) or backward (red). A frame magnet and accelerometer determine when the lights get switched on. They add about 350g to each wheel. At current exchange rates, the price is about £180. revolights.com

BikeConsole iPhone 4 bike mount £29.95 Reviewed by Adam Coffman A handlebar mount enables you to use your smartphone for navigation. This one is for the iPhone 4 or 4s. The case is weatherproof but not submersible, unlike the one for the iPhone 5. (HTC and Samsung versions are available too.) It clips tightly into its handlebar mount, and there’s a silicone band too, which might prevent opportunistic thefts when you pause at traffic lights. The mount was awkward to install but felt very secure once on. The phone’s touchscreen works perfectly inside the case, and the case is definitely showerproof. You can swivel

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the phone to view it in either landscape or portrait mode. You can feed a charging cable through, for an external battery carried on your bike or for homecharging. There is also a model for £10 extra with a built-in battery to boost your phone’s running time. Overall, good value and it works well. cyclewiz.co.uk

Reviewed by Chris Juden The FixKit packs 20 tools into a 14mm slim, credit-card sized (40ﬁ77mm) unit weighing only 158g. There’s something to fit almost every common fastener on a bike, from 2mm socket screw to 15mm axle nut and pedal flats – fit, but not necessarily turn. You can nevertheless rotate the biggest spanner and slot it back into the tool to add leverage and use the FixKit’s neoprene pouch for palm protection! The width of FixKit restricts use of its small, short bits in tight corners. And I found the 4mm bit (at 4.05mm) needed fettling before it would enter some sockets. So check that anything you may want to turn can be turned before relying upon it. With these provisos – which apply to all mini-tools – the ingenious FixKit is one of the most versatile, compact and lightweight tools of this type. paligap.cc

BAM Men’s Bamboo Raglan Baselayer £32 Reviewed by Editor Dan Joyce Bamboo clothing makes me think of lampshade samurai hats. I was surprised how soft processed bamboo yarn is when it’s mixed with cotton and elastane (28% and 4%). There’s no itchiness and it breathes and insulates well. There are thumb loops in the arms, so you don’t get any exposed flesh between gloves and cuffs. The cut is described as snug, although in cycling terms it’s on the large side; I fitted the small easily. I wore it in rotation with a range of base layers throughout the winter and it was better than any of them – tougher than merino wool, not as odorous as polyester, and not clammy like pure cotton. It’s machine washable. Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s 8-16. bambooclothing.co.uk

Reviews

gear up

Redwood Cyclemate £30 plus £4.95 p&p

magnic lights £191.26 set

Reviewed by Chris Juden By holding a very strong magnet close to a moving wheel rim, Magnic lights exploit the power of a magnet to induce eddy currents in a nearby conductor. Those eddy currents in the rim make their own magnetic field, to oppose the movement, which in turn induces a current in wires positioned beside the magnet in each Magnic unit. It’s like a linear induction motor, reverse-engineered as a generator. The back-induced current isn’t very powerful, but it doesn’t take many watts to produce a useful number of lumens from the latest LEDs. Magnic claim 150 lumens total from the front pair, which weigh only 150g including brackets, plus another 75g for the single rear unit. That’s lightweight lighting by any standards, but battery-free, with no moving parts, no wires, no friction? There is nevertheless a little magnetic drag (first law of thermodynamics: yer don’t get owt fer nowt!). It’s imperceptible when riding but enough to reduce by one third the number of times the wheel turns when one spins it. Set-up is crucial, with light output much more sensitive to air-gap than speed and no noticeable increase above 20mph

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unless one applies the brakes, to which the lamps are attached. Magnic make a rear brake-light virtue of this necessity, but I’d rather have the alternative fixed double adapter and the brightest possible headlights all of the time. I nevertheless appreciated extra light when cautiously descending unfamiliar and very steep lanes. By adjusting the lamps so their magnets cleared by a hair’s breadth with the brakes hard on, and by tightening the cables so they weren’t much further away with brakes off, I got just enough light to ride by. It was subjectively equivalent to a pre-halogen dynamo lamp and likewise goes out at very low speed. When not required, the lamps release (reluctantly) from their adapters and pop into little storage pods to keep the strong magnets from damaging other devices. Individual lamps, adapters and sets for other types of brakes are also available. It’s not great lighting by today’s standards, but weight is minimal, they’re very cute, and it’s almost magic how simply moving the rim brings them to life. Ultimately, a far better hub dynamo system can be had for the money. magniclight.com, UK importer Sonic Cycles (co.uk or tel: 0207 243 2848)

Reviewed by Seamus Kelly The Redwood Cyclemate is a maintenance stand that attaches to a workbench, supporting the bike upside down with a post inserted into the seat tube. Removing the seatpost from the bike before placing it upside down onto the stand is inconvenient, but once you’ve got it in place the bike is at a comfortable height and can easily be turned around to access different parts. I found the Cyclemate particularly useful when working on my cable actuated disc brakes, being able to see the gaps between the discs and pads more easily, and for working on the drivetrain. Most adjustments, including gears, can be made with the bike upside down with no adverse effects. The stand is machined from aluminium, is lightweight, and takes up very little space when not in use. It looks good value for anyone who already has a Workmate-style workbench. redwoodhire.co.uk

join in discussions online: forum.Ctc.Org.Uk

your opinions, your cycling, your ideas

the check-in staff are often uncertain. At the other end, I pack the poly bags in my panniers. I have also flown with my Brompton. It goes in the hold in its bag (along with a few clothes, washbag and tools), and the Brompton front bag is my hand luggage.

Letters

Bikes by air In response to the letter from D Gray in the Dec/Jan issue: I have used the CTC polythene bike bag often over the last 12 years, flying with various airlines from Liverpool, Manchester, Southampton and Gatwick. There have been few problems. My Thorn Raven tourer is robust and has suffered little damage, despite the best efforts of baggage handlers! Usually I just turn the bars and remove the pedals. I pack the panniers/saddle bag into a separate, heavy-gauge, taped-up poly bag as hold luggage. It’s worth getting to the check-in two hours before departure, so that if there are any difficulties, they can be resolved. Take a copy of your airline’s rules on cycle carriage, as

Write to us at: cycle letters, ctc, parklands, railton road, guildford gu2 9jx, or email: cycleletters@ctc.Org.Uk

This month: Taking bikes by air, and by train, cycling with Alzheimer’s, 1914’s soldiercyclists, the costs of cycling, bolt-on lighting, and a wellearned certificate Letter of the month

John Holiday

More information about packing your bike for air travel, plus advice on using the CTC poly bag, can be found on the CTC website, ctc.org.uk. Type ‘bikes by air’ into the search box in the top right hand corner.

The rail alternative Compared to short-haul flights, ferryand-train is a more environmentally friendly, more enjoyable way to transport you and your bicycle to your cycle touring area of choice in Europe. Why not try the excellent Deutsche Bahn site (bahn.com) for train-plus-bike options across Europe. There are bargains to be had. For example, a train last August took us from the Hook of Holland to Wolfsburg in Eastern Germany for 29 Euros each, plus three Euros for the bikes – which stayed intact and ‘bagless’ all the way. Robin Bevis

Cycling with Alzheimer’s When he was approaching 70 – five years ago – my lifelong friend began to show signs of dementia. He is now incapacitated with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. He can’t form words, has difficulty walking, and can’t carry out simple tasks. His wife is his permanent carer. To everybody’s amazement, including his medical advisers, he can still ride his bike. Once a week, I take him for an hour-long bicycle ride through pleasant parks and along a paved ex-railway track. As long as I don’t

stray more than a few yards in front of him, so that he can keep me constantly in view, he can follow me along traffic-free paths without losing his balance or becoming distressed. At a leisurely pace, we cover seven or eight miles. He loves it. He can apply the brakes and slow down or stop when necessary, and can adequately steer his wide-tyred mountain bike. One thing he can’t do is change gear, so I ensure he is in his middle gear when we set off, and he is content to leave it there. Maybe there are some readers who have friends or relatives in a similar situation. I know that dementia affects people in different ways and cycling might be beyond some, but if they have been cyclists in the past then maybe, just maybe, they could get back on their bikes like him? I’m convinced that he feels better after our rides: it’s an achievement, he can do it, and he always gives me a man-hug afterwards. So it’s worth it for me too. Cycling really is for everybody. Fred Warren

WW1 soldiercyclists Whilst researching old documents about cycling battalions, for a WW1 display at the CTC Heart of England Rally (ctc-heartofengland.org.uk) on 17-18 May, I was struck by the bravado and eagerness. In Cycling (8 Oct 1914), the correspondent wrote of the soldier-

Letters are edited for space (if above 150 words), clarity and, if necessary, legality. Please note that if you have specific complaint or query about CTC policy, you should address it to your CTC Councillor or relevant national office staff member. Letters and emails for the April-May issue must arrive by 28 February

CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 2 7

letters

Obituaries

cyclists in the early days of the war: ‘Their work has been full of adventure and peril, their exploits more stirring than any that fiction has hitherto anticipated… When the war is over, the tales our cyclist warriors have to tell will be amongst the most inspiring in the annals of this stupendous conflict. ‘The reasons for the success of the soldier-cyclists are not far to seek. His mount, unlike that of a cavalryman, is silent. The cyclist can hear but not be heard. He can approach speedily but noiselessly and, without warning, attack the enemy who, all unconscious of his presence, often fall an easy prey. Should his attack fail, or receive an unexpected or momentary check, the cyclist can beat a retreat and, by a circuitous route, come upon his foe again where he is least expected.’ How quickly the reality changed, in ‘the war that was to be over by Christmas’.

cyclists talking. The topic was the 80mm deep-section wheels on one guy’s bike. The other lad was saying he’d never go training on more than 50mm. Bless them, they had lovely Pinarello road bikes with Dura Ace groupsets. They’d cycled 15 miles and were going to do the same back. I suppose it’s up to each of us what we spend, but it did make me think. When my son needed a 26inwheel mountain bike. I found him a secondhand 14in Kona Fire Mountain for £90. After an extra £27.50 to have the wheels straightened and the disc brakes sorted, it was ready to go. Late 1980s/early 1990s steel-framed mountain bikes also work well as budget touring bikes for adults.

John Bennett

Jonathan Poole

Died 24 October, aged 82. A lifelong CTC member, Alan was the Section Secretary of the Sheffield Intermediate Section in the 1960s and 70s. He enjoyed leading hostelling holidays for the Sheffield group. His favourite area was the highlands and islands of Scotland. Alan was a regular camper at CTC York Rally. In later years, he was awarded the Presidency of the South Yorkshire & North Derbyshire DA (now Sheffield District MG). In 2003, Alan proudly received his 50 years membership badge from HQ. Gareth Dent

Bolt-on lighting

Keith Wray

Fred Lloyd: 1928-2013

Why is it so hard to buy LED battery lights that bolt to your bike on a simple bracket – for example, at the fork crown? I visited seven local bike shops and not one stocked such a light. All had clip-on lights that strapped onto forks, pannier racks or handlebars. But where are

well done, Mike A Certificate of Merit was recently awarded to Mike Jones of Merseyside CTC. He was nominated because he has been a stalwart of the Merseyside Group for over 40 years. He is a popular runs leader who formed and ran a Saturday Section for 27 years and helped run a camping section for nine years. He took on the role of DA Secretary for nine years and then President for seven years. He has written many articles for the Merseyside newsletter, and as an accomplished photographer, his many fine photos from cycle tours at home and abroad have delighted members at numerous slide shows. Noel Blundell

costs of cycling Sitting at the café at the top of the Cat and Fiddle, I heard a couple of

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Fred Lloyd, Honorary President of CTC Lancaster & South Lakes, died in August. He joined CTC in 1947 and cycled through Western Europe in the post-war years. He continued to tour until the very end. Fred was an amazing character and was a founder member of the Lune & Lakes DA in 1984. He was a key member of that small group who organised the successful 1996 CTC Birthday Rides in Lancaster. Fred and his wife Pat were stalwarts of the Rough Stuff Fellowship. Mike Hutchinson

Rita Oakley Rita was the wife of Bob Oakley, the son of past CTC President Bill Oakley. During nearly 60 years of marriage, Rita and Bob, and sons Philip, Mark and Richard, cycled as a family, making friends at every turn. It was a blow to Walsall CTC when Rita developed a motor neurone disease last year. She died on 11 October. She always took a supportive role in the family and the DA, and there are many others who benefitted from her guidance. She retired at 60 from a career as a teacher of textiles and then special needs. Joan Bridge-Taylor

Alan Kirk: 1931-2013

Died suddenly on 17 November, aged 77. For many years, he was Chief Steward to the York Rally Committee. Each year, Keith drove around York a few weeks before the event, armed with a long ladder and an assistant, to erect signs to the Rally. Keith’s working life was latterly spent as a guard with Northern Rail, and he was always willing to bend the two bikes per train policy, if it could be done safely. Our sympathy to Mollie and her large family. Paul Hepworth

Join the conversation

Get immediate feedback from other CTC members on the CTC Forum: forum.ctc.org.uk. Here’s an abridged extract from one popular thread before Cycle went to press (see tinyurl.com/noremv7).

we meant to put a front battery light if we are touring with front panniers and a bar bag? I ended up buying two lights with adaptors to fit their clips onto the supplied brackets. These can fairly easily be dislodged – or even removed by light-fingered individuals. I’d much rather have a small bolt to secure my lights than a quickrelease. There must be hundreds if not thousands of cyclists who just want an inexpensive light that will simply bolt onto reflector-style brackets. Ian Hewitt MBE

CYCLE SKYWAYS FOR LONDON? James01: tinyurl.com/ m89ytlq – Radical proposals for cycle commuter routes. mjr: Bonkers. Most of the disadvantages of the MK Redways with none of the ubiquity. Boris is looking for the easy way out to avoid upsetting lorry firms.

network. Block one path and there is always another way of getting through. I’m not sure if the proposed solution could offer that sort of redundancy. Most importantly, its route needs to be close to the cyclist’s starting point, and take the cyclist to where (s)he wants to go.

Claireysmurf: There is talk of them being paid for by tolls. I’m not sure NUKe: I think this is a brilliant idea. Having them I want to pay to cycle anywhere. over the railways is a stroke of genius. Rualexander: Why not just close some of Geriatrix: The existing the existing roads to road network is like a motorised traffic? fault-tolerant computer

Vorpal: I have a better idea. Let’s limit motor traffic on some routes. Not only will it make cycling better for less money, but it will improve things for residents and pedestrians on those routes as well. Or why not propose tunnels under the city for motor traffic instead? Let cyclists have the surface streets. Some Scandinavian cities have done that.

Bob Damper: “My first real outing was a very flat 11-mile spin around Bosham harbour in the company of over 100 other enthusiasts at the National Association of Veteran Cycle Clubs’ annual rally at Fishbourne, Sussex, in September 2012. Since then, notable outings have included a circuit of Lake Vyrnwy in North Wales, and the Peregrine Trail from Symonds Yat to Monmouth and back along the River Wye.”

MY BIKE

1894 Crypto Bantam

Bob Damper wanted to own one of these unusual front-wheel-drive bicycles from the moment he first saw one. Here he explains why

ycling as a pastime only became practical with the development in the late 1860s of the high wheel ‘penny farthing’ or ‘ordinary’, with its tiny trailing rear wheel. Like its predecessor, the boneshaker, it was driven with cranks directly connected to the front hub. Unlike the boneshaker, the large front wheel allowed a reasonable forward progression for each turn of the cranks. Still, the ordinary was the preserve of the athletic young male prepared to brave the occasional header, a spectacular forward tumble over the handlebars and front wheel. Attempts to overcome the dangers of the ordinary met with limited success until, around 1890, a number of more practical designs of ‘safety’ machine started to appear, with smaller wheels and a lower riding position. The new safeties were more suitable and comfortable for children, ladies and the older gentleman, especially when fitted with Dunlop’s new pneumatic tyres. Although most safeties utilised a geared chain drive to the rear wheel, a small band of builders continued to extol the virtues of front-wheel drive. Chief among these was Isaac Watts Boothroyd, proprietor of the Crypto Cycle Company. In 1893, Crypto exhibited at the Stanley Show in London their FD (Front Drive) Safety No. 3, shortly renamed the Bantam. In place of a large front wheel, the cranks of the Bantam 3 0 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r ch 2 014

drove an epicyclic hub gear, of a design patented by Shaw and Sydenham in 1882. By this means, each revolution of the cranks turned the small front wheel through more than one revolution, giving the effect of a

“The Bantam is an iconic machine, being the last front-driver to sell in any quantity” much larger driving wheel. (Henry Sturmey owned one of these machines and saw the potential it offered for variable gearing, later realised in what became the SturmeyArcher hub gear.) The Bantam is an iconic machine in cycling history, being the last front-driver to sell in any quantity, although its popularity was short-lived. Crypto ceased cycle manufacture around 1902. Ever since, I saw one of these bicycles in the Science Museum in Kensington, I had coveted one. I had to wait nearly 40 years before becoming the proud owner of a firstpattern 1894 model, purchased at auction in 2011. A few trips later to Pinkerton Cycle Restorations in Redditch, the Bantam was roadworthy and, after an initial lesson from Doug Pinkerton, I felt brave enough to start practising on my own. Relative to a modern machine, the

Bantam has some unnerving characteristics, not least that pedalling forces are coupled directly to the steering, making any kind of hill-climbing a challenge. Drive and steering rely on road contact via one small front tyre patch, ameliorated to some extent by the wide (1½-inch) tyres. Also, the Bantam has no fork rake whatsoever, so that road shocks add ‘interestingly’ to the rider’s experience. Last but not least, almost all the weight of the Bantam and its rider is at the front, which coupled with the short wheelbase makes it skittish and prone to tipping forwards. Still, after a few practice spins, I felt confident enough to venture further afield. TECH SPEC Bob Damper’s Crypto Bantam Bike name/model: Crypto FD Safety No. 3 (Bantam). Wheels: 24-inch Dunlop Welch rims, Dunlop Junior Champion 24ﬁ11/2 inch tyres. Front wheel spoked 1ﬁ, rear wheel radial. Transmission: Crypto epicyclic hub, front wheel drive, 66-inch gear. (Crypto geared cycles can be conveniently dated from the hub serial number. Mine is 5148, the third oldest Bantam known.) Brakes: front wheel plunger. Saddle: Christy Anatomical. Accessories: Powell and Hanmer ‘Demon’ paraffin oil front light.

(Left and below) Neil in Slovenia. To find where he and other CTC tour leaders are going this year, visit cyclingholidays.org or see the advert on page 83.

CTC &ME

the tour leader

Neil Wheadon has been leading CTC tours for a decade. He explains how he got started – and what makes CTC Cycling Holidays different

‘C

losed.’ I remember the sign vividly. At the age of 19, a friend and I were cycling across Europe and fancied walking around Pompeii. We were armed with a map of Europe, a tent, and a pair of touring bikes loaded with spaghetti but no guidebook. I wasn’t aware that Italy shut on a Monday. This trip and a previous European excursion had introduced me to the joys of cycle touring, but what I needed now was a spot more planning. Roll on 13 years and I headed to Australia on a tandem with my wife Sarah, a year-long trip. We set out in 1996, but in reality the trip had started the year before as our mailbox groaned under the weight of guides and information from the countries that we would be visiting. As I flicked through the pages and created an itinerary, I was determined not to have another ‘Pompeii moment’. We didn’t: we visited battlegrounds, walked trails, and were in just the right place to see orcas in the Pacific. I’d been a member of CTC since our return to the UK in 1997, and would wistfully peruse the magazine, dreaming of places that CTC 3 2 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

tours went. So in 2001, we explored Rajasthan with Pete Jarvis. Two years later, we ventured to Himachal Pradesh for another of his Indian odysseys. From that point, I was hooked on the concept of leading tours for CTC. I enjoyed the cycling and doing the planning, and combined with the experience of cycling the world, it seemed only a little more effort to do this for 12

“In recent years, I have taken members further afield, to India and China, and perhaps my favourite: the USA” cyclists rather than just myself and Sarah. In 2003, I led my first tour, employing a formula I knew well (and still use): fixed centre and catering for families. This allowed me to find my feet within the organisation. It wasn’t long before I progressed to moving-on tours through stunning mountainous and coastal scenery. First Norway, then tours to Slovakia, to Nova Scotia,

and back to the fabulous Norwegian fjords. In recent years, I have taken members further afield, to India and China, and perhaps my favourite: the USA. Our world tour in 1996 had taken us through 23 states over six months, and it’s a country that I love. I’ve led trips to New England, Colorado and Yellowstone. The latter was a new tour for CTC and it’s repeated this year. Being part of CTC and providing tours for members has been a highly rewarding experience for the past 10 years. There are over 50 tour leaders and each of us offers individual holidays that cater for a wide audience. For some, it is a ride through Spain where they understand the culture and language; for others, it’s a tour that encompasses not only the cycling but the history of the area they are passing through. For my part, many have helped and guided me – CTC tour leaders have over 1,000 years of experience between them! CTC Cycling Holidays continues to move forward, and I’m now an integral part. A group of us tested the new online booking scheme this spring, and I’m now overseeing the worldwide tour programme. So if you fancy going somewhere that we haven’t yet visited, you know whom to ask!

where Belgium to the Black Sea Start Brussels finish Constanta, Romania Distance 3,000km words Chloé Mispelon pictures Chloé Mispelon

Brussels to the Black Sea

Chloé Mispelon and her partner and Jérôme spent the summer cycling 3,000km across Europe – accompanied by their two-year-old daughter, Rose

t was a misty Sunday. We left home quietly, just the three of us. Two bikes, a trailer, six legs, and all the luggage we could carry. We took the usual road to the park but this time we didn’t stop there. The plan for the day was to reach Leuven. The plan for the next three months was to reach the Black Sea. We had been talking about it for a while. It was the kind of idea that only dreamers can have, and only someone in love with a dreamer could make happen. Travelling as a family was definitely part of it. We had never done such a long trip before: who can manage to get enough money to be off work for three months? Well, the Belgian state gives three months of parental leave to both parents. Not full salary and not always easy to arrange with the employer, but still: three months to focus on our family. What else could we have done other than go travelling? So there we were: Jérôme, Chloé and Rose on the first day of our big adventure, gently moistened by the Belgian rain. For the first day, 30km seemed reasonable. For the rest of the trip we thought we would do 50km a day, six days a week. Of course, things didn’t go as planned and we spent

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the first night wild-camping in a field. Unable to reach our intended destination, we were wet, exhausted and pensive. The next morning, two things were obvious: Jérôme’s back needed a rest, and we could not rely on only a GPS and signposting. And so when we finally made it to Leuven, an expensive hotel room and a cycling map of the region were on the agenda.

Do it yourself For information about the EuroVelo network, visit the EuroVelo.com website. Some of the more developed routes (such as EuroVelo 6 and EuroVelo 15) have their own websites. The Danube route (EuroVelo 6) is at eurovelo6.org, while the Rhine route is at rhinecycleroute.eu

A soggy start The key when you leave unprepared is to be flexible enough to be able to handle anything that might come up. That said, some practice rides with the bikes fully loaded and the purchasing of some paper maps in advance would have helped. Nevertheless, we went on, trying to find the best rhythm and the best path – learning more about each other every day, discovering new landscapes, and enduring the rain. On day five we were hoping to take a proud photo of our first border as we crossed into the Netherlands but we ended up in the centre of Maastricht. Darn it! We had missed the shot. But thinking back, at an earlier point in the day, the cycle path had become wider and better

Brussels to the Black Sea great rides

“We decided to skip Prague and get to the Danube early, using the orientation tools nature and engineers had given us: rivers and canals.” marked – how come we hadn’t noticed? The Netherlands hosted us just for a night but didn’t disappoint: wide cycle paths, reliable signposting, a choice of itineraries… and a proper rainstorm. We could see that the trailer was waterproof, at least when the water wasn’t coming up from the ground. (Have you ever noticed that heavy rain drops can bounce higher than 15cm?) That night we had wet sleeping bags, but that was the last time we let the rain surprise us. From then on, anything that could get wet was wrapped in double plastic bags, rain jackets were placed on the top of the panniers, and the rain cover of the trailer was rolled in a way that wouldn’t require more than ten seconds to unwrap and zip down. Every day during the first three weeks we had to use the rain jackets. Following big rivers Three weeks was also the amount of time we needed to find a working rhythm for the three of us. Leaving a place

In The Photos 1) The statue of the Dacian king Decebalus, near the city of Orsova in Romania, isn’t ancient: it was completed in 2004 2) Following rivers made navigation easy. Chloé, Jérôme, and Rose cycled by the rivers Rhine, Main, and Danube

was always complicated so we decided to avoid frequent stops and instead do longer ones. It was also useless to try to be pedalling early in the morning; no matter how early we woke up, we were never on the road before 10am. Upon reaching the Rhine, we felt liberated. The river meant that there was no need for the GPS or even the maps. Following a river is the most obvious route you can find. It is mainly flat and you can never be lost for too long. Moreover, the Rhine cycle route (EuroVelo 15) is one of the most developed cycle routes in Europe; infrastructure and facilities for cyclists were numerous. We really felt welcomed. We enjoyed cycling along the Rhine so much that it made us reconsider our itinerary. The original plan was to reach Prague and then to go south to Vienna, but we decided to skip the Czech capital and get to the Danube as early as possible, using the great orientation tools mother nature (and human engineering) have given us: rivers and canals. Thus we went along the River Main and then the Main-Danube canal to reach the Danube in Kelheim, in the south of Germany. The Danube cycle route (part of EuroVelo 6) is one of Europe’s most frequented long-distance cycle routes, particularly between Germany and Austria. This section was like a cycle-touring Disneyland. Plenty of accommodation, restaurants and shops along the way,

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EuroVelo routes

In The Photos 3) The Hungarian Parliament in Budapest 4) After the cycling, it was time to break out the Lego. So long as each day’s ride wasn’t too long, Rose didn’t get bored. She even napped in the trailer 5) Arriving at the Black Sea, after 3000km of riding

“When we mentioned the idea, our families were unenthusiastic. ‘What will you do with Rose?’” other cycle tourists to talk to, and some good but redundant signposting (you just had to follow everyone else!). Seeing as we are French, we found reasons to complain: the path was crowded; we were overtaken by groups of elderly tourers on pedelecs; and camping was expensive… But it was undeniably one of the easiest parts of our entire trip. Journey’s end We proudly reached Budapest, where we met up with some family and friends, and enjoyed the pleasure of having a kitchen. After that, the journey changed dramatically. We faced a heat wave and some notso-touristic areas. We struggled to find diapers. It was sometimes difficult to achieve our usual intake of calories. We switched to fizzy drinks there. Easily accessible on the road, many tiny grocery shops were all selling cold (well, cooler that 30˚) Coke. It was way easier than finding milk or meat. By the end of August, we were on 1-litre of Coke a day each (except Rose, who was drinking juice). Our legs had gotten stronger, and our daily routine was set. We were confident. The landscape was beautiful, the peak tourist season over. The end of the journey was not so far, and there were no doubts we would make it. And we did. We reached the sea on a late afternoon after the longest day of cycling: 80km, hilly, with heavy traffic

3 6 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

in places.. Walking the bikes on the promenade, we felt like the kings of the world. Touring with a toddler When we first mentioned the idea of the tour to our families and friends, they were unenthusiastic. ‘What are you going to do with Rose?’ Obviously she was coming with us. ‘But how? Poor little girl!’ My mother-in-law was not impressed. We saw the trip as three months of family time, while everyone else seemed to think that we had a whim and would be locking Rose in a trailer all day. So we had to explain time and again that we would be doing a maximum of four hours of cycling per day, when Rose would be in a comfortable trailer, full of toys and books, where she could take her daily nap. I guess it doesn’t work for all kids. But our two-yearold could enjoy staying quiet, focusing on her books or her Playmobils, and even the landscape, for two hours in a row. The biggest challenge when travelling with a toddler is the restriction it puts on your flexibility. You need proper food and a place to spend the night after every four-hour ride. We found that cycling any longer made her way too edgy and us way too tired to enjoy the end of the afternoon. Even though EuroVelo routes are pretty well developed in terms of restaurants and accommodation along the way, a four-hour ride with a heavy load doesn’t allow you to cover that much ground. So there were not always services where and when we wanted them. Food can also be tricky. Two adults can postpone a meal or just have some canned food once in a while.

EuroVelo incorporates existing and planned national and regional cycle routes into a single European network. The network consists of 14 separate routes, each with their own theme (e.g. EuroVelo 1 – Atlantic Coast Route, EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail, etc). The EuroVelo routes can be used by long-distance cycle tourists, as well as by local people on their daily journeys. In the UK, EuroVelo routes link to parts of the National Cycle Network. EuroVelo is coordinated by the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), who expect that the routes will be completed by 2020, at which time the network will total over 70,000 km. There is already official EuroVelo signposting installed in many places around Europe, including parts of Austria, Czech Republic France, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland and the UK. But until the routes are complete, it is helpful to know which national or regional routes you should follow rather than just relying on the EuroVelo signs. For more on the European Cyclists’ Federation, see the website ecf.com

Brussels to the Black Sea great rides

FACT FILE

Brussels to the Black Sea When: We cycled from Brussels to Constanta, Romania, on the Black Sea. We took the train twice: from Budapest to Belgrade and from the Danube Gorges to Bucharest. When to go: We left on the first of July and came back at the end of September. It was a rainy July and a sunny August. From June to September is the best time for cycle touring if you plan to camp. Distance: Our GPS recorded 2,826km but there were times when it had no battery so we estimate that we reached the 3,000km threshold. We aimed for 40km per day. 7

Children, however, need regular food and a balanced diet. We made sure that Rose had regular fruit and vegetables – bananas, cucumbers and watermelon were widely available. Added to this was a weekly dose of broccoli (her favourite vegetable), defrosted in a hotel bathtub. The other challenge was milk. She was on two baby bottles a day. Sometimes it was easy to find small portions, sometimes not. We then had to add 1-2 litres of milk to our load. That said, only twice during the three-month trip did we fail the milk mission, meaning that she had to have dinner or breakfast without.

6) Hidden castles in Austria. ‘Like Disneyland’, Chloé called this section of the Danube route 7) In Western Europe, evening meant camping; in the east, an inexpensive room

Getting back: From the Black Sea, we reached Istanbul with a 12-hour drive by night bus. Then we took a flight back to Brussels. We had checked that the company would allow us to take the bikes. They did: 40 Euros each. Bike used: City bikes. Mine (Chloé’s) was the one I use to go to work: a 3 year-old Grandville, basic (only six gears) but robust. Jérôme borrowed one from a relative. It had gears and brakes in the hub. We had many issues with it and it always took ages to fix. Our main investment was the trailer: a Chariot Corsair 2. I’m glad I had: my leather-and-cork flip-flops – my only footwear for three months. And Rose’s bed: a pop-up tent (set up in our tent or room). It enabled her to sleep in the same environment each night.

Accommodation: The first part of the trip (until Budapest) we mainly camped. We spent the night in a hotel (preferably with a bathtub) once a week. We stayed in small rooms in Serbia and Romania as they were affordable, and campsites

I wish I’d had: a smaller and more discrete camera than our SLR. A pair of lycra shorts that could dry overnight.

europe Germany i ne

brussels

Looking back I do wonder what will she remember of these three months. She knows a lot of bicycle vocabulary. She knows that a flat tyre needs to be repaired. She knows that if you follow a river long enough, you end up at the sea. She knows that food needs to be bought from somewhere. She knows that cycling is harder uphill.. Will she remember days starting with a sleeping-bag hug? How much she enjoyed throwing stones in the river? Skype sessions with grandparents – ‘Grandma, you know we are very, very, very far away.’ Or the night she had to sleep without diapers? Her fall into the Danube? The frustration when we could not find our way? I am not sure. But I know I will never forget that misty Sunday afternoon when we took the road to the park and didn’t stop there..

In The Photos

Cycling conditions: Scenic cycle paths in Germany. Main roads in Serbia and Romania, shared with traffic or horses pulling carts.

were infrequent and not especially nice.

Danube

HUNGARY constanta

budapest

romania

GREECE iSTANBUL

CTC . O R G . U K cyc l e 3 7

Fe atur e

Bike fitting

photos dan joyce & sam streeton

Fitting the bill? A professional bike fit costs around £100. What do you get for your money and is it worth it? Editor Dan Joyce tries three to decide

ike fitting systems have exploded in popularity in recent years. Maybe it’s the influence of the MAMIL, wanting to ride 100 miles on a brand new razor blade of a race bike. Maybe it’s bricks-and-mortar bike shops reacting to the rise of internet discounters by offering a service that the online sellers can’t. Whatever the cause, there’s plenty of choice in bike fits. Are they essential, useful, or just snake oil? I’ve always been sceptical. After decades of cycling, I can put the saddle, handlebar, and shoe cleats where I want them without a tape measure, protractor, or mathematical equation. And the fitting systems I’ve read about simply made up rules about how you should sit on a bike based on extrapolations from measurements that happened to work for elite male road racing cyclists. But I was curious to see how bike fittings worked, and whether the fitters would suggest I do anything differently. I contacted 3 8 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

Paul Hewitt, who has been successfully fitting cyclists on his jig since the 1990s, and Trek, whose Trek Fit is based on the longstanding CycleFit system. By chance, I’d also been fitted by Bikefitting.com at a bike show earlier in the year. Test subject

In November and December, I visited Paul Hewitt at his shop in Leyland, Lancashire, and Trek Fit technician Sam Streeton at York Cycleworks. I took my fixedwheel Ridgeback Solo for Paul and Sam to examine. It’s the bike I ride most, for anything from urban errands to 70-mile summer rides. I’m comfortable on it, even pedalling at 150rpm or more. Like many cyclists, I’ve got a bad back. In my case, it’s because I shattered one of the vertebrae in a fall in my twenties. I was lucky to be able to walk afterwards – albeit with fused lower spine and a slight limp. Nerve damage to my right leg means I can’t

roll from heel to toe properly on that foot; the front of the foot won’t support my bodyweight. On the bike, the back injury affects where I want the handlebar and my right foot presents problems when pedalling. That’s why my Solo has a short stem and a short drop from saddle to handlebar: I cannot tolerate a long, low position. The saddle is set back because I felt it helped me to pedal. I’ve since discovered it’s further back than the knee-over-pedal-spindle theory would dictate. But I can’t press down powerfully from the 3 o’clock position with my right foot, so depend on being able to pick up the right pedal at 11 or 12 o’clock and drive it over the top. Sitting a bit further back enables me to engage that pedal earlier. It also seems to help when climbing seated. To compensate further for my weak right foot, I use carbon-soled cycling shoes with the cleats set back as far as they’ll go. I decided that I would tell the bike fitters about my set-up choices or injuries if they

In the photos 1 Pedalling and pedalling for the Trek Fit 2 Paul Hewitt measuring saddle setback 3 Paul’s jig, with Dan’s bike’s saddle 4 Bikefitting.com – computer says what?!

Type of Measurement: ROAD RACING SPORT Cycling Geometry for: XX XX Measured by: BIKEFITTING.COM Date: 11/03/2013

asked about them. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t. I wasn’t trying to trick them; any bike fit should address these sorts of issues. Fitting #1: Bikefitting.com

Bikefitting.com now falls under the aegis of Shimano, which is how I came to bump into Ruud Mestrom, of Bikefitting.com, at a Madison trade show. Bikefitting.com has three options: Basic, Standard, and Professional. There’s no pricing scale as such. ‘Most of our dealers charge their standard hourly workshop rate to perform a fit, but may knock this off the price of a new bike purchase should the customer come back,’ I was told. Ruud did the Standard Analysis for me. It took less than 30 minutes. Like the Basic Analysis, it’s based on your body measurements. The Basic fitting measures inseam, torso length and arm length. The Standard fitting also includes height, each foot size, each arm length, and shoulder width. The numbers are fed into the Bikefitting.com computer program, which spits out a diagram with dimensions on it. For the Standard Analysis, you first need to pick one of 12 different types of cycling, which range from Competition Road Racing to Comfort Touring. Ruud and I picked Sport Road Racing – a fair match for my Solo, which also gets used for training on the road and on a turbo trainer. There was no interview or pedalling involved in the fitting. I stood on a

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Fe atur e

Bike fitting

measuring jig and Ruud wrote down the numbers; his computer didn’t have internet access at the time. Ruud later emailed me the geometry diagram. The recommendations were a mixed bag. Saddle height matched mine to the millimetre. Saddle setback, as best I can figure it given that Bikefitting.com doesn’t measure from the saddle nose, was also the same. The recommended handlebar position was much lower and much further forward. It was, frankly, wrong. I didn’t even try to apply these measurements to my bike. I’ve ridden in this kind of position before and been in pain at 10 miles and in agony at 50. It’s possible that the Standard Analysis won’t work for me; I might need to use the more thorough Professional Analysis, which involves pedalling on a jig. It’s also possible that Ruud transcribed something incorrectly during the Standard Analysis; we were at a busy bike show, not having a quiet fitting in a shop. But on the evidence of the numbers presented to me, this fitting was a failure. Fitting #2: Paul Hewitt

Paul Hewitt began offering bike fits because he builds bikes for people. He wanted to be sure the bike would fit before he built it. It costs £100 for the fitting by itself, plus a charge for labour if you want him to set that position up on your existing bike. If you’re ordering a bike from him, however, it’s a free service. And whatever kind of fitting it is, it’s free to go back and have it fine-tuned. The fitting jig sits in a corner, underneath 4 0 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

a jersey signed by Bradley Wiggins, thanking Paul for some wheels. At first, Paul and I talked through bike fitting in general terms. His philosophy is to get the saddle and handlebar ‘where your body needs them to be’ and then find the components and frame that will achieve that. He’s not overly prescriptive. ‘A bike fitting is a good starting point rather than the end of the story,’ he told me later. ‘I don’t think there can ever be a conclusive “this is what you should have”. But even if you get someone who feels like they’re in the most perfect position they can be, they’ll still never know if it could have been any better. All you can do is set someone up the best you think they can be, then go from there.’ That’s what we did. Paul carefully measured my Solo and then transferred those measurements – and the Solo’s saddle – to his fitting jig. The jig is more sophisticated than it looks, as it enables the contact points to be moved around independently; for example, Paul can put the saddle up without moving it back, which is

In the photos 1 Some of the spare contact points next to Paul’s jig 2 Saddle to brake lever distance 3 Hewitt Cycles is in Leyland, Lancashire

what happens when your raise the saddle on a bike with a 70-odd degree seat-tube. Before I got on the jig in my lycra, Paul queried my cleat choice and position: SPDs, bolted directly to the bottom of road shoes, set back as far as they’d go. I told him that SPDs let me ride any of my bikes in any of my shoes, and that I’d used SPD-SL and Speedplay and not found them better. Paul shrugged, fitted SM-SH40 adapters to the shoe soles to stabilise the cleat in the pedal (and make walking easier), and moved the cleats forward. I sat on the jig and pedalled. Paul observed. ‘Your brake hoods are a bit low on the bars,’ he said, ‘so you’ve tilted the bars back. The saddle looks too low; you’re pedalling with your heels down. You’re sitting far back on the saddle to compensate for it being low. The saddle nose is tilted up slightly…’ I got on and off the jig while Paul adjusted things, using a practised eye and a plumb bob. He uses knee-over-pedal-spindle as a setting guide. (‘I know what Keith Bontrager wrote about it, but I’ve found it works.’) He changed things one dimension at time. ‘How does that feel? Okay, we’ll try changing that by a few millimetres…’ Eventually I was in a position that Paul was happy with and that I could tolerate. Paul then measured the jig and transferred those measurements to my bike. In doing so, he fitted a new, longer stem and a compact handlebar. This increased the reach from saddle nose to bar top but not the distance from the saddle nose to the brake hoods. So

Bike fitting

In the photos 4 After the Trek Fit interview, it was time for the turbo 5 Sam begins adjusting the cleats 6 York Cycleworks: soon to be bigger

“i know what keith bontrager wrote about kneeover-pedal-spindle, but I’ve found that it works” I wasn’t any more stretched out. I was sitting a lot higher. Even deducting the height of the SPD adapters, the saddle was up nearly an inch. I rode the bike around the block. Paul asked me how it felt. Odd, I said, but okay. On my first proper test ride when I got home, I found the new position awkward. I felt I was stretching too far to reach the pedals, particularly the right one. The right side of the saddle was uncomfortable. I was pedalling with a slower, choppier, up-down cadence going downhills, and struggling to pedal uphill while seated. I was riding 1-2mph slower too, on average. Further rides reinforced this. I told Paul. ‘It is a little difficult from a bike-fitting point of view to know how much of the saddle height feeling high is down to your back injury and how much is down to you being used to, and having adapted to, the position you had before,’ he said. ‘It’s probably a bit of both. ‘I think over time you might adapt to a higher saddle height, but if it’s causing you problems, then it’s probably best to lower your saddle. Try 5mm at a time, until you get it to a position that is comfortable for you, then gradually move it up 2 or 3mm at a time as you get used to the higher saddle height. All the issues you mentioned seemed to point to your saddle being a little low. On the other hand, the final saddle height has

got to be at a position you can comfortably manage.’ Fitting #3: Trek

York Cycleworks have been doing Trek bike fits for three-and-a-half years. Business is brisk and they’re about to expand into the property next door, so that they’ll have a dedicated bike-fitting facility with motion capture facilities. When I went, it was a shed in the back yard – albeit a very nice one. I had the Trek Precision Fit, which costs £90 at York Cycleworks. There’s also a New Bike fit (£35), which just covers the basics of saddle and handlebar set-up, and a Trek Pro Level Fit (£150, or £200 with optional physiotherapist analysis), which includes the aforesaid motion capture stuff. Trek Fit technician Sam Streeton began the bike fit by interviewing me. He wanted

to know height, weight, age, the kind of cycling I did, how many hours a week I spent cycling, why I wanted to be fitted and – crucially for me – what injuries I had. Then he did some physiological assessments. Were my shoulders and hips level? How wide were my shoulders? What was my inseam? How big were my feet? (My right foot turned out to be wider but two European sizes shorter.) What were the arches of my feet like? (High.) Were my feet tilted? (A little.) The Trek Fit puts a lot of store in symmetry, in evening out imbalances between each side of your body. ‘We can see that you’re left-leg dominant just by looking at your leg muscles,’ he said. The assessment also involves flexibility tests. Sam got out a massage table and checked my hamstring range and hip flexion. Trek use a ‘traffic light system’ for flexibility on the bike, ranging from red (a new cyclist or injured cyclist) through to green (serious recreational cyclist or advanced rider). I was surprised to find myself in the green zone for everything except my preferred handlebar height. After this, Sam set my bike up on a turbo trainer and asked me to start pedalling. There were pros and cons to this, compared to Paul Hewitt’s jig. It was good to be pedalling against resistance, as it felt more

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Fe atur e

Bike fitting

natural, but Sam couldn’t change anything in isolation. If the shoe fits…

As it happened, Sam didn’t really change the bike. I’d put the contact points back to how and where they were before I went to see Paul Hewitt. I did this on feel, and the saddle ended up being a bit higher and further back. My shoes still had the SPD adapters, albeit with the cleats set right back. Sam watched me pedal. And pedal. And pedal. He measured my knee and hip angles with a kind of big protractor and declared them fine. The saddle height was okay; my heels weren’t actually dipping below the horizontal when pedalling. Reach to the bars looked comfortable. ‘Not short?’ I asked. ‘Not really. You might try a 40cm or even 38cm handlebar next time you fit a new one.’ The Trek Fit assesses saddle setback both in terms of knee-over-pedal-spindle and the rider’s centre of gravity. Sam reckoned I was sitting a bit far back on either scale. ‘I might move you 10mm further forward and fit a longer stem to maintain the reach but you seem okay,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to be able to justify making a change, and I can’t do that. You’re in the normal range.’ He elaborated on this by email. ‘Your major injuries have a real reflection on what could be achieved in the bike fit, but the amount of riding you currently do shows that something about your bike set-up must be okay. When we got to the nitty gritty of pedalling on the turbo, this was true. You can’t ride as much as you have and not have something correct. So the adjustments to your current position were minimal. ‘The real benefits were to be had from your shoe set-up. I stacked the right shoe to make the pelvis sit more central on the saddle. I put a wedge in the left foot to address the varus tilt on the foot. I also put in a set of E-soles to support and stabilise the feet in the shoes. From my observations, these remedies had a positive reflection on your pedal stroke, but they can only be determined over time on the bike after the bike fit.’ The 3mm stack that Sam put under the right cleat made some sense to me. Although my legs are the same length, my right foot isn’t ankling like the left. ‘We can’t change what’s happened to your right foot,’ Sam said. ‘You could try strapping up that ankle to see if that helps.’ Test riding the bike afterwards, it felt very natural – no surprise, really, as nothing much had changed apart from my shoes. The E-soles made my shoes too tight for 4 2 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

Trek Fit: handlebars for any shoulder width

thick socks, but were comfortable otherwise. Right now, my shoes are back to how they were before. That’s because I wanted to try the Hewitt set-up some more. I can’t honestly say I’ve missed the E-soles or the very thin wedge under my left cleat. But I’ll definitely do some more miles with the 3mm stack under my right cleat. Conclusions

The Trek Fit was closest to my preferred setup, so even though it might be confirmation bias, I’ll happily endorse this system. Paul Hewitt is well worth visiting too. We can agree to differ about saddle height, not only because he wasn’t adamant about it but because, if I were an ordinary punter, I could just go back to him for free to refine the fit. After trying out the Hewitt and Trek

positions, I set the Solo up again by myself, according to what felt most comfortable. The contact points ended up close to where they started. But I’m using the handlebar, stem, brake levers and SPD adapters that Paul Hewitt supplied, and I’ll keep the E-soles and cleat stack that Sam Streeton gave me. I haven’t had any bike fit revelations; perhaps I was wrong to expect any. On the other hand, preparing this article has shown me what I don’t believe in. I don’t believe in knee-over-pedal-spindle (KOPS) as anything other than a coincidental relationship; it turns out that, excepting my time trial bike, I ride a bit further back than that. (And I now think I know why.) I also don’t believe you can be fitted to a bike by a formula: you need a good bike fitter and a bike or jig to pedal on. The £100 question is: do you need a bike fit at all? If there’s something about your bike set-up that you feel needs fixing and that you’re not confident of solving, visit a good fitter. The fitter could solve in a few hours what might take you years. Conversely, if you’re quite happy with your bike, save your cash. Never forget that the number one authority on your own comfort is you. BikeFitting.com: website as name Paul Hewitt: 01772 424773, hewittcycles.co.uk Sam Streeton: 01904 626664, yorkcycleworks. co.uk – or contact your local Trek dealer.

BIKE FIT BY NUMBERS Saddle height (BB to top)

Original Hewitt Trek * Bikefitting.com Current ** 708 734 717.5 (713) 708 713

Saddle setback (nose-BB) 51

65 (58)

~ 51

Stem length

75 (70)

120

Seat tip to bar

490

509

500 (496)

~ 551

510

Seat tip to lever

652

645

640 (655)

Not known

648

Drop from saddle to bar

32.5 (25)

Bar width

420

400

420

Crank length

170

KOPS? Behind Yes Behind

Not known Behind

* The measurements in brackets are mine, which I took later at home. They differ from Sam’s probably due to different methods of measuring. Plus, either or both of us could easily be a couple of mm out on any measurement. ** This, like the Hewitt and Trek fittings, includes Shimano SM-SH40 adapters, which add 2-3mm to the shoe soles. ~ Bikefitting.com doesn’t use saddle setback from the saddle nose, so I’ve calculated this. Accuracy to approx +/- 3mm.

where South West England Start & finish Somerton, Somerset Distance 340 miles words William Wake pictures Pendragon Sports and SportivePhoto

Photos: SportivePhoto (sportivephoto.com) and Pendragon Sports (pendragonsports.com).

Hardriders’ Wessex Three century rides, back to back over a Bank Holiday weekend? What middle-aged-man-in-lycra could resist? Not CTC member William Wake, who signed up with three friends

he Tour of Wessex is one of the tougher events of the UK sportive calendar: three days and 340 miles, with lots of hills and possibly wind and rain. My friend Simon was entered into it by his family as a 40th birthday present. In a moment of madness, I agreed to join him. I have ridden many events and thousands of miles with Simon. This event would be different, as Simon’s large family were there to support him: brothers, sisters, parents, in-laws, children, and nephews. And two were coming along for the ride: Simon’s triathlete sister Helene and her partner Steve. Helene and Steve planned to ride with us for the first part of each day, peeling off to complete the ‘short’ route as we plodded on for the 100 miler. None of us had done anything of this scale before. We were all agreed on a few points, however: it

4 4 cyc le Fe bruary /march 2 014

was not a race; we’d stay together; we wouldn’t chase anyone. Helene, an accomplished triathlete, was adamant on this: ‘Remember, it is NOT a race’.

In The Photos 1) Simon (left) and William (lead) climb Purbeck Ridge 2) ‘Non-competitive’ Helene 3) The Somerton start 4) Feed stops are essential

Fast pace for an unrace On day one, we headed off towards Cheddar Gorge. The gorge is a great climb: beautiful scenery and not very steep. Thus far, the non-racing plan seemed to be working. After the gorge, however, the road started to descend – and something happened. We spotted a group of female cyclists ahead. Non-competitive Helene dropped low on the bars and shot away, swishing past the group, who dropped low in turn and gave pursuit. A gap opened up between the seven speeding women and a bunch of men behind… The gap increased as shouts of ‘RIGHT TURN!’

Hardriders’ Wessex great rides 3

2 went unheeded. It’s surprising how far someone can travel in a short time when they’re doing 35mph… After some minutes, non-competitive Helene returned. Various female cyclists came past with muttered curses about ‘that girl’. Ah, the camaraderie of the road! The other group were from a London club, called something like the ‘Peckham Pursuers’. Back together, we continued our non-race. I couldn’t help noticing that we were not-racing just fast enough to be able to reel in any rider who was female… Steve and Helene turned off at 50 miles, while Simon and I continued. We spent many miles with only each other for company, seeing relatively small numbers of other cyclists. We caught up with people on the hills and at the feed stops, and occasionally someone overtook us. Simon seemed well prepared and in good shape, and we rolled up the miles from Alfred’s Tower to Mere. Around Stourhead and back to Bruton, we paused at a another feed-stop, discovering that we had 30 miles to go. Thirty miles! I was starting to flag. We hooked up with another rider, Simon sat on the front, and we rode on – at six miles from the finish, passing right by the place where we were staying that night. ‘Can we please stop now?’ I silently wished. In retrospect, it wasn’t so bad. We finished in under seven hours, averaging 16 miles per hour. Our support crew arrived and we were chauffeured to our accommodation, where we were fed and encouraged to recount the adventures of the day. Non-competitive Helene and Steve had enjoyed a ‘relaxed’ completion of the short route. Helene’s

Do it yourself The 2014 version of the Tour of Wessex once again runs over three days, from 24-26 May (the bank holiday weekend). You can choose to ride for three days – either 335 or 213 miles – or ride for just one of the days. Daily distances vary from 57-116miles, depending on route choice. It costs £105 to enter for all three days or £30 or £35 for one day. Information on the 2014 event can be found on the Pendragon Sports website. Visit pendragonsports. com/tour-of-wessex2014

second-fastest category finish, ahead of the Pursuers, was not greeted by any whooping at all… Back in the saddle Day two dawned with the sun shining and Dorset beckoning. Non-competitive Helene packed a leftover baked potato as ride food, the theory being that it would be pleasantly warm after a couple of hours in her jersey pocket. As an alternative to the sweet stuff at the feed stations, the rest of us took ham rolls. Day two was lovely. I actually felt fitter than on day one. There were some beautiful climbs, the highlight for me being the Lulworth Ranges; I used to work at Corfe Castle. Riding over the Purbecks, bathed in sunshine and surrounded by the almond scent of gorse, was one of those times when you know exactly why you ride a bike. What about any jostling for position on the road, and specifically those Peckham Pursuers? Well, the main event on day two was something we later branded ‘potatogate’. Non-competitive Helene assured us that she was trying to re-position the potato in her pocket. That it flipped out and into the path of the Pursuers, causing consternation, swerving and braking, was not intentional. Any time advantage was lost in any case, as Helene had to retrieve the potato, it being needed as food. Non-competitive Helene subsequently dropped to seventh in her category on day two. I was surprised by how fit I felt after 70 and then 80 miles. It was so different from day one. But I was conscious of my bum, the first aches and pains from which were to signal problems later on.

CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 4 5

PAGE 64 carbon fibre sportive bikes tested

FACT FILE

The Tour of Wessex When: May Bank Holiday weekend.

Somewhere near Cadbury Castle – Arthurian fort, not a chocolate-based theme park – we got into a big group and were swept along at over 20 miles per hour. I was a few riders ahead of Simon, nicely tucked in and scarcely pedalling. It was great: take me home, London Phoenix! I made the occasional check to see if Simon was still there. We took a couple of turns and breezed alongside Yeovilton air base. Over 100 miles done, and fewer than ten to go. Day two was in the bag! The rider ahead of me slowed and pulled to one side, unable to hold the pace. I picked up speed and crossed the gap. Simon wasn’t with me. When we took a right-hand turn at a big roundabout, I took a wide line to look back at the following riders. Twenty of them had vanished. What had happened in the last few minutes? Crash? Cake? Kidnapped by aliens? I let the group that I was with go and pootled along. Gradually, I was overtaken by the riders from the splintered group. Eventually Simon reappeared. While I had been swept away in Phoenix-powered luxury, he had been left in no-man’s land. Three miles later, however, we were home: 120 miles in 7 hours 20. Fail to prepare… Day two had all the ingredients needed for a great ride – sunshine, scenery, no punctures, and potatorelated drama. Sadly for me, it also resulted in a sore, skinless contact point on the saddle that I hadn’t anticipated, and a balloon-sized right ankle. Day three for me was scuppered. Two other friends joined Simon for day three. On a hilly, windy and sometimes wet day, they completed the route ten minutes ahead of the broom wagon. Non-competitive Helene and Steve completed all three ‘short’ days, a total of over 200 miles. And not being a race, no one (certainly not Helene…) really noticed or commented that while the Pursuers may have been chasers, they weren’t catchers.

4 6 cyc le Fe bruary /march 2 014

In The Photos 5) Note the triple chainset. There’s a lot of climbing in sportives like the Tour of Wessex 6) Despite the numbers at the start and finish, riders spread out thinly en route. Go with friends

Where: Each day starts and finishes in Somerton, the ancient capital of Wessex, and the ride heads out on consecutive days into Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset.

I’m glad I had: People to ride with. We did team up with other riders for parts of each day but it’s surprising how 100 miles of road can absorb several hundred cyclists. A solo rider could find themselves alone for long periods.

Distance: There are different route lengths available and riders can choose to ride one, two or all three days. The longest routes are 100 miles or more each day.

I wish I had: Checked my bike’s position more carefully before the ride. The slight misalignment of my saddle appears to have been the cause of my pain. Consecutive 100-mile days will find any flaws in your kit or preparation.

Accommodation: Camping is available at the start and finish location, and luxury tents can be hired. There is plenty of choice of B&B and hotels in the area, and the venue is close to Glastonbury and Street. We stayed at Sleepy Hollow self-catering cottages and the Old Vicarage B&B in Barton St David.

Photographs: Most sportive rides now have on-course photographers to capture your agony and ecstasy. They are often near the top of a long climb – try not to look too distressed as you pass! Photos can be purchased post-event through the organiser’s website.

england minehead

warminster

street

GlastonburY

Day 3

Day 1

somerton wareham

bridgwater yeovil

Day 2

Fe atur e

Club Leader Training

photos by ctc

Taking the lead

CTC’s new Club Leader course trains cyclists to run group rides that are enjoyable and safe. Instructor Greg Woodford describes what’s involved

‘

hat do we do now?’ asked John, one of the participants on the course that November day. It was a valid question. We had been hurtling down a long descent following a trainee leader. When we turned around, the back half of the group was nowhere to be seen. ‘We don’t do anything,’ I said. ‘The leader must decide.’ I was delivering CTC’s new Club Leader course, a one-day intensive course for ride leaders. We had designed various scenarios to see what decisions the trainee leaders arrived at. Some scenarios were relatively common events, such as losing someone off the front of the group or a rider stopping because of a puncture. Others – a crashed cyclist – were events that happen rarely. In either case, what I was looking for was the trainee’s reaction. Resolving problems in a practice scenario is a great way to learn. Group dynamics

That day’s course was being delivered to a group of triathletes. Triathlon is booming nowadays, especially after the Olympics and the ongoing success of the famous Brownlee brothers. Triathlon England is 4 8 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

keen to develop their club network and lead more rides, targeting newcomers to cycling in particular. They have asked CTC to train their leaders all over the country. The day-long course was broken up into different sessions. In the morning, we looked at why people want to lead rides and why cyclists come out on club rides. We examined the basic principles of ride assessment and route planning. And we looked at group leadership techniques, such as where the leader ought to position themselves, and at what to do in hypothetical situations. Trainees were paired off to lead rides together. Each pair got a map to look at the designated route to identify how they would lead the ride over their section. Then it was time for the fun bit: we went out for a ride. That’s where we ‘lost’ half of the group… The Club Leader course caters to a different audience from CTC’s other Ride Leader courses. In those, the leader may have to deal with inexperienced cyclists and badly set-up bikes. Participants on a club ride are often enthusiastic cyclists already, so there’s less pressure on the leader to assess the abilities of the riders or the roadworthiness of their bikes. Those areas are still covered on the Club Leader course, but the focus is more on passing on group-riding techniques

(Clockwise from top left) Instructor Dan Cook. Steep bends may require singling out. Side-by-side chain gang technique can be learned on foot – and then (main pic) put into practice

Fe atur e

Club Leader Training

It all went swimmingly Two of the triathlete participants give their feedback.

In the photos 1 Dan fakes a crash to test the leader 2 Waiting at a known stopping point 3 Planning the ride in the classroom

to the participants, and on keeping the group together without stopping and starting too often. Practical lessons

The practical part of the course involved creating different problems for the trainees when we were out riding. In the above example, the person at the back of the group ‘fell off his bike’. The group had two ride leaders: one at the back and one at the front. The leader at the back stayed put with the ‘injured’ cyclist. The front part of the group carried on… The front leader looked back, but by then we had travelled a fair way downhill; I had been doing my best to keep the group moving, surreptitiously obscuring the front leader’s line of sight behind. It’s interesting how little it takes to keep a group of cyclists moving – I didn’t need to say anything. Eventually we reached our pre-designated stopping point and the leader suggested we wait there for the others to catch up. (At the start of the course, I had stressed the need for re-grouping points for rides.) As this was a practice scenario, it wasn’t long before the

“the practical part of the day was a club ride from hell…” 5 0 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

back group arrived, including the ‘casualty’. We had a discussion about the best ways to regroup in these kinds of situations. The leader identified the regrouping point. Another participant brought up what she called the ‘10 minute rule’. If we were still waiting after 10 minutes, she would send someone back to see what was wrong. The review session after the ride continued the group discussion. There were two clear questions for the participants: What went well? What could you improve next time? The aim was for the participants to develop their own strategies rather than being steered solely by the tutor. Lessons stick better when you’re reviewing your own rides and those of your peers rather than simply being told what to do. Focusing on the positive keeps participants upbeat and engaged. By the end of the day’s course, each participant had led a short stretch of the ride and dealt with at least one scenario themselves. They had learned how to match up routes to riders, what the participants of their rides might want to achieve, and how to create a series of rides with a progressive theme to them. But above all, everyone had fun and developed their own knowledge and style of leadership. Club Leader courses are available (for a limited time) with a 10% discount for CTC members. Dates and details are at ctc.org.uk/education or via greg.woodford@ctc.org.uk

We had a wide range of characters on our course, from professors to military personnel to business people. We also had decades of cycling experience across a wide spectrum: social, short and long distance, racers and triathletes. All were here to learn the nuances of leading club rides, ranging from social rides to training rides. After we had compared experiences (and horror stories!), the day progressed with the classroom basics of leading a good, safe and fun ride with lots of banter, counter opinions – and solid advice from the course tutors. The practical session rolled around. Safety-checked and wrapped up against the cold, we moved off in our groups, ready for a couple of short circuits of the local route we’d planned earlier with maps – part of the ‘good preparation’ ethos drummed into us. The road section was great fun, both analysing how we all reacted to scenarios and looking at how differently people performed essentially the same leader responsibilities. It was a club ride from hell, with hill breakaways, chains off, cyclists ‘knocked off by cars’, people getting lost, cyclists getting dropped, all in the name of testing our common sense. We learnt that you don’t always have to lead from the front; indeed sometimes it’s impossible. I learnt that the best led ride for me is one where it feels social and it’s not even really apparent who is leading, it all just flows. Paul Gardner, Hillingdon Triathletes Technical Swim & Run Coach, BTF Level II, GB Age Group

This course was extremely useful, even to experienced triathlon coaches. It really helped me appreciate the value of thorough preparation so that the cyclists I take out have an enjoyable, safe ride whatever the weather! The course made me think of the value of route planning, building in a nutrition stop, and fully planning alternative routes if the unexpected arises. It also taught us the value of taking people of all abilities for rides, and the appropriate planning for each level. This was a truly inclusive course with a genuine focus on getting people out on their bikes whatever their ability. Karen Parnell, Triathlon Coach and Personal Trainer

where The Inner Hebrides, Scotland Start & finish Tayvallich, on the mainland Distance 110 miles words Alice Philippa Gore pictures Rob Tuley and Alice Philippa Gore

Easter islands

deer that give the island its name (‘Jura’ stems from the Viking name, Dyr Oe, or ‘deer island’). One lonely road interrupts the deer territory, and doesn’t even stretch the full length of the island. Most of its 142-square-mile area escapes the disturbance of human footfall, let alone invasive cameras and Party spies.

In April, the Inner Hebrides can be chilly but they’re still beautiful, as CTC member Alice Philippa Gore discovered on a short tour of Jura and Islay

he freezing air bites at my cheeks and reaches up behind my ears to claw at my head. I can’t fully feel nine out of ten of my toes and I’m bracing myself rigidly against my handlebar, stiff fingers poised above the brakes. It’s not the most comfortable of moments, but I’m charging down the hill with a grin and loving the view. Ahead, the road tumbles along the side of the island, picking an undulating path between the sea on one side and the rugged grassland on the other. Beyond, there’s a stretch of water, and then a carpet of mottled snow and a backdrop of white mountains. The all-seeing eye of Big Brother is surely far, far away from here. I’m surrounded by countryside and sea and air and space. There’s hardly a house or person to be seen. This is Jura – a wild and rustic Scottish Hebride, but also the island on which George Orwell brought to life the power-driven, manipulated world of 1984. Somehow it doesn’t quite fit. Jura has a population of fewer than 200 people, a figure far outnumbered by the 5,000 or so red

5 2 cyc le Feb r uary /mar c h 2 014

In The Photos 1) Heading north on Jura on the island’s only road 2) The bay at Inverlussa, Jura 3) Jura distillery, Craighouse. Whisky is the industry here 4) The Paps of Jura dominate the island, rising to 785 metres

Exploring Jura Jura was the first destination of a two-day tour that my sister, brother-in-law and I embarked on at Easter. I’m not a very accomplished cyclist (hence my freezing feet, which my sister smugly avoided with her overshoes), but I enjoy the occasional outing, usually in tow of my rather more active siblings. Taking advantage of the long Easter weekend, we had picked a route along Jura’s lone road, across to Islay (via a distillery or two), and back to where we’d left the car near Lochgilphead on the mainland. We rode 110 miles, but this could be adjusted either way according to ferry options and routes around the islands, Islay in particular. We were blessed with uncharacteristically beautiful weather that weekend: cold for Easter, but sunny and with hardly a drop of rain (or snow) to be seen. The clouds meandered across the sky so that the light constantly changed in that mesmeric Highland way, and visibility was fantastic. Although the mountains that I could see across the water looked close, I was told that they were all the way over the Kintyre Peninsula and on the Isle of Arran. The Paps – so often shrouded in mist – also stood stark and white against the rusty land and shifting sky. Even the deer appeared clearly before us. We came across them periodically, enjoying a brief moment of

easter islands great rides

startled eye contact before scattering them into the grass, sometimes under the watchful eye of a pair of proud and protective stags. This wildlife was a far cry from the bold urban foxes of my central London home! The downside to cycling on Jura is that you are forced to backtrack along the road. After arriving in the main village of Craighouse, we ventured north as far as the road would allow us, following a promise of tea on the beach at the small bay of Inverlussa. Sixteen hilly miles later, we arrived to disappointment; a rather dour local lady informed us that tea was not yet being served for the season. Bereft of refreshment, we admired the view instead. It was well worth the sweat. Standing on a little bridge, I watched a river run beneath me before skirting the damp beach and merging silently with the distant blue water. Jura is home to some surprising bays and beaches. In bizarre contrast to the western wilderness of most of the island, even palm trees grow in places, nurtured by the passing gulf streams. Over to Islay Back on the bikes, we returned the way we had come. Far from being frustrated by this, however, I was pacified by the new vantage on our surroundings. Despite brief interruptions from drivers who waited patiently for us to pant our way past them at minimal miles per hour, it felt like we had the world to ourselves. Before we knew it, we were watching Jura disappear behind us as we crossed the short distance by ferry to Islay. History and whisky unite these two islands, yet both are more pronounced on the somewhat more hospitable and temperate Islay. Standing stones and Celtic crosses punctuate the rolling landscape as a reminder of the island’s long human occupation. More recent history is marked by the eight working distilleries on the island. Other juxtapositions of man-versus-nature and oldversus-new struck me on Islay. Being close to the mainland, it is a relatively well-developed island with a population seventeen times that of Jura (approx 3,500).

Do it yourself By car: Lochgilphead, where we parked, is about two hours from Glasgow via the A82 and A83. By rail: the easiest option is probably to take the train to Ardrossan, then take ferries to Arran, the Kintyre peninsula, and then Islay, cycling in between. For details of ferries to various Hebridean islands, including ‘Hopscotch’ tickets that let you make several journeys, see the CalMac Ferries website, calmac.co. uk. The direct ferry from Tayvallich (on the mainland) to Jura runs from April to September; see jurapassengerferry. com. It’s also possible to fly from Glasgow to Islay via British Airways: ba.com

“Clouds meandered across the sky so that the light constantly changed in that mesmeric Highland way. Visibility was fantastic – I could see the Isle of Arran” CTC . O R G . U K cyc l e 5 3

PAGE 12 there’s a CTC tour of the outer hebrides after the AGM in may

FACT FILE

Jura and Islay

Where: Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland.

miles from the end of the road to George Orwell’s house.

When: From April to September gives the most flexibility with ferries and the likelihood of best weather.

I’m glad I had… Companions.

Distance: 110 miles, with room for manoeuvre.

As such, it has what can reasonably be called a town (Bowmore), supports the required infrastructure, and attracts greater numbers of visitors than its neighbour. This makes it an easier place to tour around than Jura, with better roads, services and some extra options for entertainment. However, the island also retains a remoteness and rawness that you rarely find on the British mainland. Cycling through the centre of the island early on Easter Sunday, I was struck by the image of a lone figure battling against the wind in peat bog, cutting turf by hand and stacking it up to dry. Getting into the spirit It felt only right to end our trip to Islay by sampling its best-known beverage: the spirit of Islay in more ways than one. Bruichladdich, Bowmore, Ardbeg, Laphraoig… a veritable alcoholic litany that trips over the peaty tongue of the island. Now I don’t yet have hardy enough taste buds for whisky (I took the breathe-deeply-and-go-for-it approach), but I could at least appreciate the flavours through the burn. And indeed it did a good job. A mile from Port Ellen on the south of the island, the beautifullyset Laphroaig distillery is a great place to look out and enjoy the sense of space and freedom before hopping on the ferry back to the mainland. A wee dram is also good preparation for snoozing your way across the water. Those few sips just rounded off the satisfied tiredness that follows a good dose of exercise and a faceful of fresh air and wind. The wild remoteness of Jura and Islay drifted away behind me and the relatively busy mainland drew closer. The land of the real Big Brother approached – but at least my toes were warm.

5 4 cyc le Feb r uary /mar c h 2 014

In The Photos 5) Sunset on Islay. With more roads and amenities, it’s easier for touring than Jura 6) Kennacraig on the Kintyre peninsula. You can catch a CalMac ferry from here

Conditions: Challenging in places and hilly enough to be interesting, but overall surprisingly gentle. Jura was more strenuous, but rewards your efforts. Start/finish: Tayvallich, approximately 10 miles from Lochgilphead. Bike advice: Surfaces on Islay are definitely better than on Jura, where a hybrid or touring bike would be recommended at the least. Given time and a mountain bike, you could cycle the further four

I wish I’d had… Thermal overshoes. A better appreciation of whisky. Where to stay: There are various options on Islay. We stayed at a characterful and affordable place called the Lochindaal Hotel. A warning, though: the cheaper rooms are above the bar, which gets noisy at night. Getting there/back: Tayvallich to Craighouse (Jura): £20 on the boat. Must be booked in advance but they take bikes at no extra cost; Feolin (Jura) to Port Askaig (Islay) (free in that direction as they assume it’s the second leg of a return journey); Port Ellen to Kennacraig (£6.30 one way).

JURA

ISLAY

INNER HEBRIDES

Fe atur e

Cycleproofing

main photo graham smith

Practical cycle-proofing Cycle-proofing is about fixing the problems of the road network, particularly those routes that carry lots of traffic. CTC Campaigns Officer Chris Peck explains

ast issue, we briefly profiled the concept of ‘cycle-proofing’, announced by the Prime Minister last August. In a government statement that appeared at the time, there was a specific commitment to cycle-proof new trunk roads ‘so they can be navigated confidently by the average cyclist’. In Wales, the Assembly has already gone a step further, passing an Act that places a duty on promoters of major schemes to accommodate cyclists properly. These could be excellent steps to making cycling mainstream – if they actually happen. The major road network is a huge problem for cyclists: the risk of death while cycling on major rural roads is 28 times greater than

on minor urban roads; and driving on these roads is almost 50 times safer than cycling. But it is the severance that these roads cause – cutting across minor roads and bridleways – that presents an even bigger problem. So far, the commitment to cycle-proofing means there is almost £20m over the next couple of years to fix a handful of sites where cycle access, or safety, is poor. Meanwhile, the Chancellor has announced vast expenditure on upgrading the road network – tens of billions of pounds over the next 10 years. If not properly cycleproofed, these new roads could be disastrous for cycling: new, fast roads make driving easier, while the extra traffic generated means cycling becomes worse on the local roads on which every car trip inevitably

the major road network is a problem for cyclists. it’s dangerous – and it severs minor roads and bridleways 5 6 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

begins and ends. In addition, where roads are widened, cycling is often ignored or marginalised – with small junctions replaced with large roundabouts or slip roads. In one egregious example from Wales, a bridge carrying a major road between Penarth and Cardiff excluded pedestrians and cyclists altogether. Private car travel was prioritised over sustainable modes. Only recently, after years of waiting, has an alternative bridge been provided (on a less convenient alignment…) thanks to Lottery funding for the Sustrans Connect2 project. Cycle-goofing

Even where there is a commitment to do things well, it can go badly wrong. A recent upgrade of junction 13 of the M1 between Bedford and Milton Keynes, accommodating a widened and up-graded A421, has been the source of continual problems, which local CTC volunteers have been battling for years. There was an opportunity to provide high-quality cycle routes, linking employers

In the photos 1 Cambridge cycle bridge 2 Dutch infrastructure 3 How not to do it – Leith, UK

2 3

such as Cranfield University and Amazon to residential areas, as well as giving leisure cyclists a way of crossing busy roads safely. Yet CTC’s local campaigner on the junction, Alan Sprod, says: ‘Instead of being a benchmark of success, the cycle route has become a case study of how to waste money on an inadequate and unsafe scheme.’ In his view, ‘A safe cycling route should have been an integral part of the A421 scheme, funded by the Highways Agency.’ What was previously a country lane cycle route now has to cross two slip roads to a dual carriageway. The route also drops cyclists at a new, hazardous roundabout and a terrifying junction where, to reach the cycle route, users must merge into, then cross over, the path of two lanes of traffic trying to get onto the M1. A Kafkaesque arrangement of signs directs cyclists onto routes, some of which they aren’t permitted to use. Despite spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on cycle paths and bridges to cross a new stretch of road, the route is utterly inadequate, with missing

sections and cyclists expected to ‘dismount and dash’ across lanes of fast moving traffic. ‘What is disconcerting,’ Alan says, ‘is the fact that the cycling route has so many deficiencies that I see cyclists disregarding it and using the main roads.’ He feels he was ‘duped’ by the Agency’s assurances that a safe cycling route would be created. ‘This quite clearly has not been accomplished.’ The problems stretch beyond the Highways Agency, with the local authority in the area also bearing a great deal of responsibility for the problems at the A421.

Left, top to bottom: Flickr Creative Commons pictures by ‘Prisoner 5413’; by www.TheEnvironmentalBlog.org; and ‘the Magnificent Octopus’

Cycleproofing

In the photos 4 Footbridge provides an inconvenient but safe A1 crossing 5 An afterthought in Lancaster

Even now, Alan is still lobbying the local authority to fix the route. While the Prime Minister’s cycle-proofing commitment may hold for the major road network in England (and only England), when it comes to local authorities, which control 97% of the total road network, the problems for cyclists are innumerable. And the safeguards are weaker. The government’s position is to ‘encourage’ local authorities to ensure cycling is considered. CTC is pressing for changes to ensure that cycle-proofing does happen locally. Funding the facilities

In recent discussions with the Department for Transport, Scottish Government and local authorities, CTC has argued for two prerequisites. Firstly, local authorities need better guidance and flexibility in government regulations to permit simpler designs and traffic signals. Stronger guidance – and training for traffic engineers – on what works, and cheaper, simpler means of achieving it, will help strengthen the hand of local politicians prepared to reallocate road space away from people in cars and give it to people on bikes Secondly, there needs to be substantially more funding to build better quality infrastructure – space for cycling on every major road and less traffic, travelling slower, elsewhere. At least £10 per head,

per year, is necessary. That’s roughly what has been spent in the cycling nirvana of the Netherlands for 40 years (in some years it’s been much more), and it’s what’s planned for expenditure in London for the next decade. The Prime Minister’s announcement of £94m for eight English cities in August last year provides £10 per head in those cities, for a couple of years. Outside those areas, barely a handful of places are spending any of their rapidly diminishing discretionary funding on cycling provision, despite the millions of fine words in thousands of local government transport policy documents. So where can we find the £10 per head – £600m across Britain – each year? Currently, cycling is funded through a combination of central government grants, local authority cash and ‘planning gain’, the ‘bribes’ offered by developers to allow them to build. Quick fixes

There is another potential source of funding for cycle-proofing. Over £1bn is spent across the country on resurfacing and repairing local roads each year. If the needs of cyclists were considered in these resurfacing programmes, then new facilities or changes to junction priority could be included at minimal cost. Simple steps, like laying out roads to have uphill ‘crawler’ cycle lanes, would cost virtually nothing. It doesn’t just mean maintenance, of

There needs to be much more funding for better infrastructure. at least £10 per head, per year, is necessary 5 8 cyc le fe br uary /m ar ch 2 014

course. Like the high priority national projects, local authorities often build new roads and new public transport infrastructure, as well as permitting changes to roads to incorporate the desires of developers. Each new project represents an opportunity to make improvements for cyclists – which is usually squandered. In Manchester, where £30m is being spent on new cycle routes, hundreds of millions are being spent on new and extended tram lines that may have cycle parking at stops (bikes are banned on board), but force cyclists off the road onto utterly inadequate and fiddly crossings. In Oxfordshire, despite tenacious campaigning from the local CTC representative, a rail enhancement between Bicester and Oxford will close bridleways, forcing users into long diversions. These problems occur because local authorities only consider cyclists at the end of the project, rather than at the outset. Whether it is new national infrastructure, such as the new A14 in Cambridgeshire, HS2, or a proposed M4 diversion around Newport in South Wales, CTC campaigners around the country will be working to try and ensure that the cycle-proofing promises are realised. But for cycle-proofing to mean something other than a nice phrase from the Prime Minister, it will take commitment from individuals at every level of government, stronger direction as to what must be done, and – crucially – grassroots efforts from CTC and campaign groups to maintain the pressure. For more on cycle-proofing, visit CTC’s website.

Left and far left: courtesy of Matt Hodges

Fe atur e

Technical/Legal/Health Your questions Our answers

Q&A

M E E T

Chris Juden CTC Technical Officer and qualified engineer

T H E

E X P E R T S

d r m at t brooks Cycling GP

pa u l k i t s o n Partner from Slater & Gordon (UK) LLP

Technical

WHICH NEW STEEL?

I’m in the process of buying a new audax frame and have been looking at Spa Cycles Audax in Reynolds 725 tubing and Ribble Cycles in Reynolds 525. How do these tubes compare with 531 DB or 531 Competition? And which is better, 725 or 525? Tony Lynch

When choosing mudguards, you generally want ones about 10mm wider than your bike’s tyres

Technical

MUDGUARD SIZE

I’m buying SKS Chromoplastic Road Mudguards but am unsure of the correct size. I think I need size 700fi28-37. The specification given on the tyre walls is: 32-622 and 28fi11/4 fi13/4 Steve Cowan

Yup, that’s the size. The bike trade, unfortunately, keeps its customers confused by describing tyres in a great many different ways, so I made a page to explain it: search for ‘tyre sizes’ at ctc.org.uk. Mudguards are often sold without any tyre size guidance, just the width of the guard. In that case, you generally want a guard about 10mm wider than the tyre section. Too wide and the guard adds unnecessary wind resistance,

CONTACT THE EXPERTS

too narrow and it’s hard to keep it from rubbing one side or other of the tyre, especially on rough roads where the guard tends to flap about. So a 35mm guard is good for tyres up to 25mm, or 28mm at a pinch – literally! The product you’re looking at is most likely a 45mm guard. If a mudguard is too close to a tyre (especially one with a prominent tread) it can catch onto it, get carried around by the wheel, and jam into the frame. So it’s important to have enough clearance. And stay-release fittings are required for safety on a front guard, to let it break free if and when that starts to happen, because a front wheel jam invariably sends the rider over the handlebars! Chris Juden

The short answer to your question is that Reynolds 725 is ‘better’ than 525. They are chemically the same steel (0.3% carbon, alloyed with chrome and molybdenum), but 725 is heattreated, boosting its strength by about 50%. Thus a tube of 725 can be made with thinner walls, saving weight without loss of strength – provided that will not make the frame too flexible. (The stiffness of steel is an unchangeable property.) To make a tube lighter whilst preserving not only strength but also stiffness (in bending and torsion), one must not only make it from a stronger metal but also increase external diameter simultaneously with reducing wall thickness. A fatter, thinner-walled tube is more vulnerable to denting, and making it from stronger steel only slightly improves its resistance to such damage. With a diameterto-wall-thickness ratio in excess of the engineer’s 50:1 rule of thumb, lightweight steel bike frames are

Send health and legal questions to the Editor (details on p3). We regret that Cycle magazine cannot answer unpublished health and legal queries. Technical and general enquiries, however, are a CTC membership service. Contact the CTC Information Office, tel: 0844 736 8450, cycling@ctc.org.uk (general enquiries) or Chris Juden, technical@ctc.org.uk (technical enquiries). You can also write to: CTC, Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, GU2 9JX. And don’t forget that CTC operates a free-tomembers advice line for personal injury claims, tel: 0844 736 8452.

6 0 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

Letter of

Technical

CHAFING GEAR CABLES

Recently, you said something about your bar bag damaging the cables that sprout from STI levers. How can I avoid this? Dave Rowell

My cable that failed was from a bar-end control that didn’t emerge from under the bar tape until some way around the first curve, so it bent upwards a bit before curling back. That caused the cables to rub gently on the bottom of a bar bag. I thought nothing of this, as it didn’t seem to be hurting the Ortlieb fabric, until the front mech wouldn’t shift up… A flat spot had worn on the hard plastic that covers the lengthways wires that give indexed gear cable casing its resistance to compression. This plastic coating binds those wires together. When this plastic case is critically weakened, the wires can buckle under compressive force (that’s equal and opposite to the rise in cable tension when you shift) and burst apart. Having jury-rigged my front mech in middle ring, I wound insulating tape around the other casing, which I now noticed was also worn to the wires!

already dicing with dents! So whilst the answer is simple, the question is much more complicated. What do you mean by better? If you mean lighter, the answer is probably not. Reynolds’ catalogue shows that for every 725 frame tube (in the main triangle at least), there’s a 525 tube of identical diameter and wall thickness or ‘gauge’ (usually 0.8/0.5/0.8mm). And as neither is available in a

the STI cables rubbing on month the sides of a bag will surely suffer the same fate – and maybe sooner. A good precaution is to apply the binding of PVC tape before any wear occurs at all, as it will become tatty before the casing wears. Preferably route gear cables where they cannot rub. For STIs with ingrowing ‘washing line’ cables, consider Nokon casings (distributed by windwave.co.uk and pictured below). Their jointed metal outer sections are resistant to chafing and allow tighter curves, which should enable you to keep these casings clear of the bag. This you will need to do, or else they’ll surely chafe the bag instead! Chris Juden

The Reynolds 725 steel tubing that the Spa Audax is made from is better than Reynolds 525, since it is heat treated and thus stronger

great variety of sizes, there’s little opportunity of making a lighter and equally stiff frame from 725 versus 525, except for a few grams here and there. (There is much more choice of tube diameter and gauge in some other new steels, such as 631 and 853.) If by better you mean stronger, then yes, the 725 frame should be less likely to break – unless the builder makes some very strange tubing choices indeed! If a better frame for you would be just as strong but lighter and more flexible, then that is possible with 725, but only if the designer of the 525 frame has chosen to build with unusually fat tubes. How do these compare with 531? Reynolds 525 is about the same strength, whilst the much stronger 725 is comparable to 753 (but far easier to weld). How they differ is that whereas a 531 down-tube, for example, was almost always 28.6mm diameter, but came in various wall thicknesses, modern

Q&A

Photo: courtesy of Matt Hodges

tubes come in a variety of diameters, most of them fatter and all much the same wall thickness. Comparisons are more about dimensions than materials. A simple 531 doublebutted decal gives no clue about wall thickness – apart from thicker at the ends than the middle! In the 1980s, Reynolds sorted their tubes into sets, and ‘531 Competition’ meant a 28.6mm downtube with 0.91/0.61/0.91mm walls. A ‘531 Professional’ down-tube was 0.71/0.55/0.71mm (–17% in weight and stiffness), and a ‘Super Tourist’ 1.02/0.71/1.02mm (+14%). The lightest 525 or 725 tube that could possibly be used as a down-tube is also 28.6mm and 0.7/0.4/0.7mm. But at 28% lighter and more flexible, I doubt that’s stiff enough for a down-tube and think it’s intended as a top-tube. It’s 18% lighter and 3% stiffer than the 1in 531C toptube. The usual 0.8/0.5/0.8mm walls of 525 or 725 result in a down-tube that’s still 14% lighter and floppier than 531C, but (as suggested above) modern steel frames are usually stiffened by a fatter top-tube. Many have a fatter down-tube too, 31.75mm diameter, which comes out 5% lighter and 17% stiffer than 531C – but more easily dented. For a bit more resistance to accidental damage of all sorts, I’d choose 725. Otherwise, there’s not much in it. You can generally reckon on the modern frame being a bit lighter and stiffer than your old one. Chris Juden

6 2 cyc le Fe br uary /m a r c h 2 014

bike is helpful as it encourages use of the thigh muscles rather than the abdominal ones, so won’t exacerbate the hernia. Once it has started, I don’t think there are any specific exercises that can improve the hernia. It’s more a case of avoiding things that may exacerbate it such as heavy lifting. Saddle adjustment may help the pain but surgical repair is considered to be the definitive treatment. Dr Matt Brooks

H e a l th

LIVING WITH A HERNIA

I have the beginnings of a hernia. I’m told that provided I manage it properly it should not get any worse. Is there nothing that can be done to improve matters? Tony Jones

An inguinal hernia occurs when abdominal contents (including the lining of abdomen and sometimes bowel) protrude through a weakness in the abdominal wall. It can present as a lump or discomfort in the groin. The lump may appear when lifting or standing and disappear when you lie down. If there is doubt, an ultrasound can be performed. Inguinal hernias occur mainly in older men though I’m not aware that it is any more common in cyclists than non-cyclists. Risk factors include obesity, constipation, chronic cough, and heavy lifting as they increase the pressure in the abdomen. Irreducible hernias cannot be pushed back in. Strangulation is a medical emergency where the contents of the hernia become twisted or trapped by the narrow opening, cutting off the blood supply and obstructing the bowel. Inguinal hernias can be repaired surgically, often as a day case, by pushing the hernia back into place and using a mesh to strengthen the weak point in the abdominal wall. A truss may be used when surgery is not possible. I’ve heard it said that a recumbent

Le g a l

EXPENSIVE JUSTICE?

I understand that a successful defendant now has to meet his or her own legal costs, even after a not guilty verdict. This is because of changes to the Defendants’ Costs Orders regime, which came into effect on 1 October 2012 as part of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. What does this mean for cyclists? Paul Broadgate

A recumbent is less likely to exacerbate a hernia than an upright, as it engages the abdominal muscles less

There have been important changes to both civil and criminal costs, which will impact on access to justice in England & Wales. (There is a different legal system in Scotland.) The erosion of access to public funding in criminal cases has been widely reported, but recent changes in the law will affect those who can afford to mount their own defence in the Criminal Courts. Section 16(6) of the Prosecution of Offenders Act 1985 allowed the court to award acquitted, privately-paying defendants an amount from public funds to compensate them for their properly incurred legal costs. In 2010, the Law Society successfully challenged the previous Government’s attempt to cap, at legal aid rates, the costs recoverable by successful defendants. This Government has, however, recently enacted, without further consultation on costs in criminal cases, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 and the Costs in Criminal Cases (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2012. The principle of compensation set out in the 1985 act has been amended. The new legislation provides that defendants in the magistrates’ court will be entitled to recover their costs under a Defendant’s Costs Order if they are acquitted, but the amount will be limited to legal aid rates – which are

An acquitted defendant can now end up out of pocket, which doesn’t seem very just

very low indeed. Defendants appearing in the Crown Court, in respect of proceedings commenced on or after the 1 October 2012 (except in an appeals from a magistrates’ court), will not be entitled to recover their legal costs expended in successfully defending those proceedings if they chose to be represented privately. The rationale for this is that all defendants in the Crown Court will be entitled to legal aid whatever their means, but subject to a contribution. Defendants who obtain legal aid will be entitled on acquittal to have the entirety of their contributions repaid to them. This is in contrast to those who chose to pay privately for their defence, who will not be entitled to recover their costs. Whilst it is undesirable in my view for an acquitted defendant to be out of pocket, the main issue for cyclists and other vulnerable road users is that bad driving is all too often not dealt with by the courts. The current legal framework unfortunately fails to ensure the proper administration of road crime, particularly for vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians. (This is why CTC has launched the Road Justice Campaign, supported by Slater & Gordon Lawyers – see roadjustice.org.uk). In civil proceedings, there Successful claimants in civil cases may pay up to 25% of their damages to their lawyer

have been changes as to how personal injury cases are funded. Cases were funded under Conditional Fee Agreements, known as ‘No win no fee agreements’. In the event of a win, the successful claimant’s legal costs were recovered from the defendant’s insurance company. In addition, the claimant’s solicitor would also recover a success fee (in road traffic collision cases, normally 12.5% of the fees), which would also have been paid by the defendant’s insurers. From 1 April 2013, success fees are no longer recoverable from defendants, and for all cases below £25,000 in value only very limited fixed legal costs are recoverable against a defendant. In most cases, a successful claimant will thus not recover all their legal costs. In practice, most successful claimants will pay up to 25% of their damages to their lawyer. Notwithstanding the changes to the civil costs landscape, CTC’s legal services scheme is unchanged. Cases are still funded under a no win, no fee arrangement, and successful CTC claimants will recover all their damages without any deductions for legal costs. paul kitson

REVIEWS

four-season carbon road bikes

Bike Test

Hewitt Carbon Audax

£1300 & £2150 carbon road bikes

Carbon originals Carbon fibre and practicality can go hand in hand. Journalist Mike Davis tests two road bikes from Lancashire that are designed for mudguards If you want a nice road bike,

you won’t want mudguards. That seems to be the consensus of opinion among bike manufacturers. But what if you do? Britain can be soggy in any season, and there’s no reason a practical road bike has to be an inexpensive ‘winter trainer’. Perhaps you want one nice bike you can use all year round. Perhaps you’ve only got space for one bike. Some manufacturers are starting to produce bikes that combine the low weight and lively performance of the ‘best’ bike with the practicality and versatility of the winter trainer. Unsurprisingly, given our climate, it’s smaller British companies that are in the vanguard. The two bikes here

6 4 cyc le FE BR UARY /M A R C H 2 014

You can have a free bike fit when you buy the Hewitt Carbon Audax. See page 38 for details

– Ribble’s Sportive 365 and Hewitt’s Carbon Audax – are among the few that offer carbon fibre frames with deeper-drop brakes that give room for 28mm tyres and mudguards. Ribble’s website allows you to customise its Sportive 365 to your exact requirements. Then you click ‘order’ and Ribble will deliver it to your door. You can buy a basic Sportive 365 for less than £900, although our test bike came in at £1300. Paul Hewitt offers a different kind of interactivity. Visit his shop for a bike and you’ll get a full bike fit (see page 38). Time and geography prevented me from doing that, so Paul requested a slew of measurements from my own bike and replicated them on the

Carbon Audax. I felt immediately at home on it.

Frame and fork The usual benefits touted for carbon fibre are strength and low density, allowing high-volume frame tubes to be made for stiffness without an undue weight penalty. For the year-round bike, carbon has some other important attributes. First, it doesn’t fatigue as metal can; a well-made carbon frame should last indefinitely in normal use, so it’s a great option for high mileages. Also, it doesn’t corrode, so salted winter roads aren’t a problem. Carbon frames are made in moulds, which gives designers lots of scope to make the tubes interesting shapes.

bike test

reviews

P61

Ribble Sportive 365

This is particularly valuable on bikes like these; by manipulating the tubes, it's possible to have plenty of tyre clearance without hugely long chainstays or cutting into heel clearance. The Ribble is the more curvaceous bike here, with an arcing top tube and tall, wavy chain-stays. The Hewitt is a little more subtle, although with significantly more volume to the down tube and around the bottom bracket, combined with slender seat-stays. Both bikes employ conventional threaded bottom bracket shells rather than utilising any of the myriad new bottom bracket standards that have come along. Only the Hewitt features a tapered steerer tube, a set-up that’s close to ubiquitous on new bikes. Usefully, the Hewitt frame includes rack mounts as well as mudguard mounts, an extremely unusual feature on a carbon frame. It also has internallyrouted cables.

Components Both bikes stick largely to single groupsets, rather than a mix-and-match approach. The Ribble comes with Shimano 105 transmission, the Hewitt

Campagnolo Athena. They’re both slick and reliable. Some riders will prefer the twin-lever layout of Shimano’s STI units; others will favour Campag’s Ergopower lever/thumb trigger set-up. The drivetrains are quite different. The Ribble is equipped with a compact 50-34 chainset and 11-25 cassette. The Hewitt has a triple chainset with a 30T inner for really steep stuff, combined with a 12-27 11-speed cassette. The Ribble has a bit more range at the top end, while the Hewitt goes lower. Its Campag 3×11 set-up also offers smaller jumps between gears, particularly dropping down from the big ring. Note that you could specify something different on either bike. Both bikes diverge from groupset uniformity when it comes to the brakes. In large part, this is because of the smaller choice of callipers with a 57mm drop. Ribble stay with Shimano, while Hewitt spec a pair of Tektro brakes whose shiny, polished finish looked entirely at home next to the Campag whirly bits. Both provide competent control, although the Ribble’s Shimanos could use better pads. As well as bike fitting and custom

frames, Paul Hewitt has a fine reputation as a wheelbuilder, so it’s no surprise to see a pair of traditional handbuilt wheels on the Carbon Audax. Miche Primato hubs and Ambrosio Excellence rims continue the Italian theme from the Campag transmission, and it’s refreshing to see a well-built pair of conventional 32-spoke wheels on a bike. They’re light, durable and easily repairable. That isn’t to say that the Fulcrum 5 wheel-set on the Ribble don’t perform well – it’s just that if anything does go wrong you’ll

There's a big menu of component choices when ordering the Ribble Sportive 365 online. You can get one for less than £900

Also available

Dolan Dual £1112.99 On the face of it, the Dolan is similar to the Ribble and Hewitt, but standard-drop callipers limit tyre options to 23mm at most with mudguards. dolan-bikes.com

Lynskey Sportive Disc £1,299.99 (frame only) Not carbon fibre, but titanium won’t corrode either, disc brakes mean huge tyre clearance, and there are rack mounts too. hotlines-uk.com

CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 6 5

Reviews

bike TEST

Tech specs Dimensions in millimetres and degrees

710 570 73˚

810 45

550

689

420

610 73˚

172.5 285

130 622 25

1010

Ribble Sportive 365 Price: £1,299.45 as tested

10-speed cassette, Shimano 105 STI levers and mechs. 20 speed, 36-120 in

Sizes: 44, 49, 52, 55 (tested), 58 Weight: 8.96kg

Brakes: Shimano R451

Frame and fork: Carbon fibre. Fittings for mudguards and two bottles.

Steering & seating: 45cm Deda RHM02 bar, 105mm Deda Zero 2 stem, Selle Italia SLS saddle, CSN 31.6mm carbon seatpost

Wheels: 25-622 Continental Gatorskin tyres, Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels

have to do a bit more legwork to track down spare parts. Both bikes have 25mm Continental Gatorskin tyres, a sensible choice for all-season use. Continental's GP4000s roll a little quicker, but the Gatorskins offer better puncture resistance, and no one wants to be fixing flats by the roadside in winter. The Ribble has SKS chromoplastic mudguards, the Hewitt wider Axiom Rainrunners with a reflective stripe.

Ride Both bikes weigh less than 9kg, including mudguards, and so feel sportier than a traditional winter trainer. The Hewitt feels a bit sprightlier under power. It’s hard to say where that comes from; it’s difficult to discern any difference in frame flex when pedalling, and overall weight is only a little lower. There is less weight in the wheels. Despite using the same tyres at the same pressure, with similar amounts of seatpost extension and posts of equal diameter, the Hewitt also feels more forgiving on broken road surfaces. It’s surely down to differences in frame construction. The Hewitt does have fractionally longer chain-stays and a slightly more relaxed geometry too,

6 6 cyc le FE BR UARY /M A R C H 2 014

making it spot on for longer distances. The Ribble is far from uncomfortable, however. And its more agile handling is neither better or worse than the Hewitt’s stability. It’s down to personal preferences again.

Summary The concept of a lightweight carbon bike with room for slightly highervolume tyres and proper mudguards is such a good one that it is, on the face of it, surprising that there aren’t more to choose from. While conceptually similar, the Ribble and Hewitt have some key differences, not least the purchasing process. The Ribble offers great value, lots of spec options, and a livelier ride. The Hewitt majors on personal service, attention to detail and smooth, mileeating performance. They’re so different in price that a straight comparison isn’t really relevant. Each, in its own way, represents a great choice for a fast, versatile, year-round bike. If you can only have one bike, either of these would fit the bill beautifully. And if you buy one as a second (or third) bike, don’t be surprised if it becomes your first choice for almost everything you’d do on a road bike.

Equipment: SKS mudguards

Transmission: Shimano 105 172.5mm 5034 chainset, Hollowtech II BB, 11-25T Shimano

Contact: ribblecycles.co.uk

1 Carbon frames are easily curved for clearance or aesthetics 2 The Hewitt has eyelets for a rear rack as well as mudguards 3 Both frames fit 57mm brakes, but the Hewitt has 3mm more clearance

Dimensions in millimetres and degrees

715 560 73˚

785 45

425

600 72˚

545

689

175

275

130 622 25

1015

Hewitt Carbon Audax Price: £2150 Sizes: XS, S, M, L (tested), XL Weight: 8.85kg Frame and fork: Carbon fibre. Fittings for mudguards and two bottles. Wheels: 25-622 Continental Gatorskin tyres, Ambrosio Excellence rims, Miche Primato hubs, 32ﬁ3 butted spokes Transmission: Campagnolo Athena 175mm 5239-30 chainset, 1227T Campagnolo

11-speed cassette, Campagnolo Athena Ergopower levers and mechs. 33 speed, 29-115 in Brakes: Tektro R539 callipers Steering and seating: 44cm Deda RHM01 bar, 13cm Deda stem, fi’zi:k Arione saddle, Deda RSX02 31.6mm seatpost Equipment: Axiom Rainrunner Deluxe Reflex mudguards, Hewitt Arundel bottle cages Contact: hewittcycles.co.uk

Reviews

bike TEST

1 £1000 touring bike

Oxford Bike Works Model 1 A made-to-order flat-bar touring bike with 26-inch wheels, ridden by CTC member Marion Guy and reviewed by Technical Editor Chris Juden Richard Delacour saw a gap

in the market and started a microbusiness specialising in flat-bar 26inwheel touring and expedition bikes. He makes to measure by assembling different components on a standard frame. Very few people are such an unusual shape they need a custombuilt frame, but up to 50% of women are simply too small for the malebiased range of sizes offered by many brands of touring bike. I’ve long been aware of cycling’s female exclusion problem and in 1992 made a comprehensive review of available bikes, having recruited a panel of petite cycletourists (to play musical saddles for a week in the Peak District). They labelled themselves the Shortcranks and still meet up every year! So my attention was caught by Oxford Bike Works’ unusually small smallest size – and I knew exactly where to look for someone to test it!

70 cyc le Fe br uary /m ar ch 2 014

Frame, fit and wheels Marion owns several touring bikes, including a Thorn which is very similar to Oxford’s Model 1. And although (at 152cm) she’s one of the shorter Shortcranks, the second smallest size was quite small enough. Richard prefers customers to visit Oxford for a fitting, which wasn’t convenient for us so we sent measurements, and he sent a selection of stems with the bike. After changing a nine to 10cm extension, Marion found the position ‘really comfortable… the balance between hands, feet and saddle was as good as my own bespoke touring bike.’ And after a month in which Marion ‘really enjoyed’ logging 537 miles on this bike, she observed that: ‘it handles really well on tarmac and rough-stuff. The stand-over height is good and there is no toe overlap – a problem I often have as my feet are not so small.’

1 Since it has 26-inch wheels, smaller frame sizes are not a problem. This is a 16-inch frame. There’s also a 14-inch

Clearance is one of several smallpersons’ bike design problems that are solved by choosing 559 wheels, i.e. the 26in MTB size – but 25in when fitted with 32mm touring tyres. The frame and fork nevertheless leave room for fatter rubber, with mudguards fitted via neat spacer blocks. And although

Also consider

1) Thorn Sherpa £1319 With flat or drop bars and lots of à la carte options, this 26inwheel chromoly steel tourer is also available in lots of sizes.

thorncycles.co.uk

2)Surly Long Haul Trucker £1149 In the 26in-wheel option, it comes in sizes down to 42cm. Cro-mo frame, drop bar, bar ends, 27-speed Tiagra/LX. ison-distribution.com

bike test

reviews

Tech specs

2 smaller wheels may not roll quite as easily, all else being equal: all else is rarely equal! Kenda tyres have a less equal reputation, but Marion had no complaints. When I accompanied her on a circuit of the local lanes, I noticed that Oxford Model 1 rolled down the hills comparatively well, and by her own account: ‘I held my own’ on a ride with friend Claire ‘on full carbon and racing wheels!’ Marion didn’t actually go on a tour in Nov/Dec, but we have no reason to suppose any problems with panniers, given the frame tube sizes and specification. The chainstays are short for a tourer, but I’ve toured with shorter. It’s a matter of choosing well-designed panniers and/or a long enough rack – like the one fitted. I’d nevertheless recommend a few more centimetres on the larger frame sizes, assuming longer cranks and feet too.

brakes were easy to reach and worked well, even in the mud!’ Marion hadn’t tried a saddle with a dip in the middle before but soon ‘forgot it was there’. For example: ‘At the end of today’s long (60-mile) ride, I had completely forgotten about the saddle, which must be a good thing!’ The handlebars she also found comfortable, and liked the rubber grips but found the integral end-pieces too small and slippery, since full-size bar ends provide one of her favourite hand positions. The one omission is pump pegs, noted by husband Phil rather than Marion, who popped a mini-pump in her rackbag. Personally I’d find another set of bottle bosses more useful, to mount a ‘Morph’ pump and perhaps a lock. Marion did get a puncture, and gratefully found the tyre no trouble to remove and refit.

Componentry

Conclusion

Although Marion tolerated the 165mm cranks fitted, she goes better on 160mm; and this chainset can be supplied, to order, with cranks any length from 152 to 175mm. She found gear changing ‘a delight, slick and light’ and with so many ratios ‘there was always one to suit the terrain and gradient.’ Marion also reckoned ‘the

This is a very competent touring bike – or trekking bike, as it’s designed with flat bars. As Marion observes: ‘for long distances, it would be a good choice’. She was quite reluctant to give it back, but couldn’t justify another bike so similar to her Thorn. She nevertheless remembered to buy the forgettable saddle!

2 Marion found the bike equally good on tarmac and rough surfaces 3 Neat spacer blocks put the mudguards well under the V-brakes and near enough the tyres. They could be removed to fit fatter tyres 4 Assembled in Oxford, the bike can be fitted to you when you go to the workshop to pick it up

Oxford Bike Works Model 1 Price: £995 Weight: 12.0kg Sizes: XS (14), S(16) tested, M(18), L(20), XL(21) Frame and fork: Reynolds 525 butted steel frame & fork. Fittings for: guards & carriers, 2 bottles Wheels: Kenda Kwick Roller 32-559 tyres on Ryde Zac2000 rims, 32ﬁ3 2.0mm spokes, Deore hubs Transmission: 30-speed, 23–109in. Shimano M530 pedals, Sugino XD 165mm 28-38-48T chainset, Shimano HG94 chain, 11-30T 10-speed cassette, XT mechs, Deore shifters Braking: Shimano Deore V-brakes & levers Steering and seating Deda stem, ITM handlebar, DH-Sports grips & extensions. Velo ladies saddle on BBB post Equipment SKS guards, Racktime Fold-it carrier, 2 bottle cages, bell Contact oxfordbikeworks.co.uk 01235 831992

CTC . O R G . U K cyc l e 71

Reviews

components/kit/accessories/more

grouptest

FEB/MAR 2014

c y c l i n g j our n a l i s t s t e v e w o r l a n d r e v i e w s M T B F O R K S

Rigid MTB forks For transport, touring, and less rocky off-road trails, a rigid mountain bike fork can trump a suspension fork. Cycling journalist Steve Worland tests four Almost all mountain bikes come with

1 Material The cheapest rigid forks will be made from basic steel, and they won’t be light, although there are some relatively light chromoly steel offerings around. Mid-range forks usually use carbon legs with aluminium crowns, dropouts and steerers. Top-end forks use more carbon.

suspension forks these days. This is a pity, because not every rider or ride requires suspension. On rough trails, a well-controlled suspension fork boosts comfort and control; elsewhere, it’s simply extra weight. The cheapest suspension forks add hardly anything except weight. There’s little or no scope to adjust the compression or rebound, so the fork may scarcely move, sag too far, or spring back like a pogostick. This is worse than no suspension at all. Switching to a rigid fork should make your mountain bike lighter and make the handling livelier. Riding rigid off-road is fine as long as you avoid rockier trails, although you can improve comfort with generously-sized tyres and thoughtful line choice. On road, whether you’re using a mountain bike for transport or touring, a rigid fork is an asset. 2 Steerers Make sure the new fork steerer is compatible with your frame, stem and headset in height and diameter. MTBs over a decade old may have a 1in diameter threaded steerer. More modern MTBs will be 1.125in and Aheadset (no thread). A bang-up-to-date bike may have a tapered steerer. 3 Brake mounts Some forks are designed for rim brakes only, some for discs, and some are compatible with either. Discs usually have a 160mm or 180mm rotor. Make sure the fork you buy is compatible. There are two different disc calliper boss types – post mount and ISO – but you can buy adaptors to convert from one to the other.

4 Dropouts Most fork dropouts on rigid forks will be for quick release wheels, but many suspension forks on modern MTBs use a through axle. You can buy through-axle rigid forks but they’re usually of the costly carbon variety.

5 Height and geometry Your new fork should roughly match the length and rake of the sagged suspension fork it’s replacing. If it’s too long or too short, or if the rake is totally different, the steering and handling of the bike is likely to be compromised. If you’re at all unsure about this, take the advice of a good shop mechanic. The sales information for a quality rigid fork will usually explain that it’s designed to replace a suspension fork of a certain length.

CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 73

Reviews

GROUPTEST

ON-ONE CROMO £59.99 Mail order brand On-One offer lots of different fixed-blade forks for MTBs, from the remarkably well-priced carbon monocoque model at £149.99 to this basic chromoly steel fork. You could opt for a disc-brake-only version or one with cantilever as well as disc mounts (pictured). At this price you don’t get much finishing finesse but you do get a fork that has a good reputation for durability in harsh riding conditions. The chromoly build is slightly less harsh on rough terrain than the hi-tensile steel forks you’ll find in many shops for about £30, and it’s about the right length to replace average short-travel suspension forks. There are no mudguard eyes but it’s worth taking a look on On-One’s web site to see what else is available. They offer a variety of axleto-crown lengths and a variety of lighter carbon forks. Weight: 1270g. Axle-tocrown length: 440mm. on-one.co.uk

ON ’GUARDS

A basic but tough fork that comes in versions to fit any MTB

SALSA CROMOTO £99.99

If you’re planning to use your rigid-forked mountain bike for transport or touring, look for mudguard compatibility. Relatively few mountain bike forks come with eyelets at the dropouts or a drilled crown. There are work-arounds, however. P-clips on the fork legs are fine for attaching mudguard stays. To attach the mudguard to the fork crown, bore two pairs of holes in the chromoplastic ‘guard, just in front of and behind the fork crown. A zip-tie each side will secure the ’guard to the fork crown.

Salsa and sister brand Surly produce a wide range of steel forks, covering almost every possibility of length, steerer size, brake fitting and tyre size. You can buy the chromoly steel Cromoto as a disc brake fork, as shown here, or with both disc and cantilever brake bosses; you can remove the canti posts if you don’t need them. The 425mm length is intended as a replacement for a short travel suspension fork on a 26in wheel bike, but 445mm or 465mm versions are available too. All are black and there are versions with rack mounts too. We’ve used several of these forks on different bikes over the last few years. The ride is surprisingly compliant for a straight blade fork and we like the aesthetics, especially the sturdy and slightly cowled aluminium ‘Ride and Smile’ embossed dropouts, which have threaded mudguard eyelets. Weight: 1133g. Axle to crown: 425mm. ison-distribution.com

A very nicely finished steel fork with aluminium dropouts

CARBON CYCLES EXOTIC DISC £179.99 (currently £98.99) Carbon Cycles sell lightweight parts for road and mountain bikes online. Most of the products are branded Exotic. RRPs are listed but everything is substantially discounted. But the main draw is that there are so many forks available, variously constructed and in all lengths and steerer sizes. It’s a great place to look if you need a short fork for an older bike (e.g. with rim brakes and a 1in steerer), and there’s an excellent choice of super-light models with carbon steerers too. The one tested here was a UD (unidirectional) carbon legged model with an aluminium crown, steerer and dropouts. Construction standards are superb and the price tag at the time of testing was discounted by 45%. The carbon legs are noticeably better at absorbing vibration than a steel fork. Weight: 815g. Axle-to-crown: 425mm carboncycles.cc

One of the cheapest carbon forks, and with no obvious quality cuts

RITCHEY CARBON DISC 29er £380 Ritchey have established an excellent reputation for their carbon forks, supplying rigid alternatives to World Cup mountain bike racers for as long as there have been World Cup mountain bike races. The World Championship Series model is even more costly than this (£485) but also weighs 130g less. This one is already one of the best on the market for riders who don’t mind paying extra for a reputation. On the trail, however, there’s almost no feel or performance difference between this and the Carbon Cycles fork. The fact that dropouts are carbon as well as the legs trims more weight. There are 26in and 650b options too, with rakes to suit, including a 26in-wheel fork with cantilever bosses. This is one of the nicest forks out there but the cost is obviously a deterrent unless you’re equipping a very classy MTB. Weight: 755g. Axle-to-crown: 480mm. paligap.cc

Superb build and ride quality and very light but very costly too 74 cyc le Fe bru ary /march 2 014

benefits

go online visit ctc.org.uk/memberbenefits for the full list of offers and benefits

benefits & special offers for CTC members

Member Benefits Win two return trips with European Bike Express The most relaxing way to travel into Europe, European Bike Express is a luxury coach-and-trailer service that takes cyclists and bikes to destinations across France and into Spain. There’s no baggage handler lottery: bikes are carried fully-assembled in custom trailers. You can take any cycle – even tandems or trikes. You can create your own itinerary from 25 Continental dropoff and pick-up points, starting and ending your tour in different places if you wish. CTC members already get a £10 discount on fares, but thanks to European Bike Express we’ve got two return trips – worth up to £268 each – to give away. All EBE coaches have: seat-belted seats that recline 45 degrees and have leg support; extra leg room; air conditioning; no smoking; table seats for dining; toilet facilities; headphones and screens for watching films or listening to music; Wi-Fi; a courier and hostess service; even cooking facilities. The ease of travel is probably why there are so many repeat bookings by CTC members. In fact, EBE was set up in cooperation with CTC in 1993. For more details or a brochure, visit bike-express.co.uk, tel: 01430 422111, or email info@bike-express.co.uk

How to enter

CTC Prize Draw rules: 1.This is a prize draw open to CTC members. One entry per person. 2. Entries must be received by 31 March 2014. 3. The draw will be made on 7 April 2014. 4. The winners will be notified by email or telephone and may be required to take part in publicity. 5. There are two prizes, as described, donated by EBE. There is no cash alternative. 6. The free trips are subject to availability and must by booked by 1 June 2014. 7. Employees of CTC, James Pembroke Publishing, EBE, and their agents cannot enter. 8. Entry coupons will become property of EBE after the draw, unless otherwise indicated on the coupon.

Complete the coupon below, or a photocopy, and send it to: European Bike Express Prize Draw, CTC, Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, GU2 9JX. Name Membership no Address

Daytime telephone Email ❑ I do not wish to receive information or offers from EBE ❑ I do not wish my details to be passed on to any third party.

Why join CTC?

Benefits include

Whether you’re new to cycling, ride regularly or want to get back into it, we cater for you. With over 130 years of experience to share, we are passionate about helping more people enjoy the benefits of cycling. As an independent charity, we are heavily more details reliant on voluntary online – visit donations for funding. www.ctc.org.uk/ You can help us grow memberbenefits and support our work by being a member.

•H elp encourage thousands more people to cycle and keep cycling

•A ccess our expertise to help make your neighbourhood cycle-friendly

•G ive cycling a louder voice – we campaign to promote cycling

•C hoose from thousands of free, diverse local rides

•T ake advantage of advice by phone, email or on the forum. There aren’t many questions about cycling that we can’t answer

•D iscover new routes – we have a vast library of them

•E njoy six issues of our awardwinning magazine, Cycle

•R ide with peace of mind – you’ll be covered by £10m third-party insurance and will benefit from a cycling-related support and advice

•D iscounts at bike shops across the country and online at the CTC shop by Wiggle, Rouleur publications, Cotswold Outdoor and more

•B e part of a 70,000 strong network that looks after cyclists •E njoy the support and inspiration of your local cycling community

Membership rates STANDARD MEMBERSHIPS Adult Senior (65 years plus) Family (2 adults & unlimited under 18s) Affiliated Club or Workplace

£41 £25 £66 £60

Pay by Direct Debit and get 15 months for the price of 12

VALUE MEMBERSHIPS Adult 5 years for 4 Senior 5 years for 4 Life membership (see CTC website or call

£164 £100

CTC Membership Department on 0844 736 8451)

CONCESSIONARY MEMBERSHIPS Junior (under 18) Unwaged (unemployed) Student (with NUS card) Disabled (call Membership Dept for details) Disabled Carer

£16 £25 £16 £25 £25

Join now on 0844 736 8451 or visit ctc.org.uk/membership 78 cyc le fe br uary /m a r ch 2 014

We need you! lers’ Tales.

Cycle wants your Travel – details on ite or email the editor Wr at’s required. page 3 – to find out wh

Travellers’ tales

an exmouth exodus Chris Cassidy and his friend Gary cycled through the night from Bristol to Exmouth

Thailand, Laos & Myanmar Jeff Trueman’s redundancy inspired him to make a ten-week trip through South East Asia

isaster? Not really. It became my opportunity to fulfil a lifelong ambition: to go on a long cycle tour. My time window was January to March, and I was recommended to try South East Asia as this is the time of year that it’s coolest. I flew to Bangkok and spent the next ten weeks riding around Thailand and Laos, fitting in a day-trip to Myanmar as well. From Bangkok, I headed north, visiting the ancient capitals of Siam at Ayutthaya and Sukhothai, before having a few days off in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Navigation proved tricky as the best maps I could find were at a scale of 1:550,000. I met some Belgian cycle tourists who

had GPS and were able to find smaller, quieter roads than those shown on my maps. How I wished I’d bought one! After Chiang Mai, I went into the mountains: great scenery and quiet, but such steep roads. I got a 24-hour visa for Myanmar and then came back to Thailand, travelling east beside the Mekong to the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet. I took a two-day trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, with my bike strapped on to the roof of the boat, and then turned south, travelling along the virtually traffic-free roads of Laos. Getting food and accommodation was sometimes a challenge

in rural areas. Electricity was usually available, running water only in bigger settlements. I crossed back over the border near the Laotian capital of Vientiane, then went south to the coastal area of south-west Thailand, near the border with Cambodia. Accommodation was plentiful. I often took a cooling dip in the sea to end the day, with temperatures now in the high thirties. I ended my trip in gridlocked Bangkok, which is not a great place for cycling, yet surprisingly has a good selection of bike shops, one of which boxed up my bike for the flight home. My blog is at: jefftrueman. wordpress.com

Between January and March, South East Asia is at its coolest. Cool, however, it’s not

the exmouth Exodus is a freeto-enter, semi-organised ride through the night, from Bristol to the seaside. At 9:15am, with other cyclists departing in small groups, we begin. In five minutes, we’re crossing the Clifton Suspension Bridge, brightly lit against the night sky, with the lights of Bristol twinkling below. 9:35pm: Rain. Wardrobe adjustments required. At 9.39pm, it stops. Jackets off. Then it starts. And stops… 9.57pm: A couple leaving a local pub give us a cheer. When a man puts his arm up to hail a bus, I go for the highfive. He leaves me hanging. 11.12pm: On Blagdon Hill, three wild looking men with wilder looking dogs ask what all these cyclists are up to. They’d been watching the lights steadily climbing the hill. We say we’re riding to Exmouth. They ask why. We struggle to answer. 11.25pm: We descend Cheddar Gorge with ear-to-ear grins, the steep slopes of the gorge looming up on either side. 01.10am: We haven’t seen any other riders for a while. A missed turn? Yes. 04.40am: An old boy on a classic racer stops with us at the top of a hill. When he has caught his breath, he sets off. ‘You’ll pass me in a few minutes,’ he says. We never see him again 05.00am: The gathered bike lights at the final tea stop are a welcome site. The sky starts to brighten. 06:30am: The call of a seagull tells us we’re getting close. 7.24am: We reach the Harbour Café and the end of our 109-mile adventure. A fried breakfast and a paddle in the cold sea awaits us. Chris and Gary raised money for East Devon Cystic Fibrosis, edcf.org.uk

CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 81

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Travellser tale

Route: canals Felicty Frost and her partner Steve followed France’s Canal du Midi and Canal de la Garonne

Riding the Rallervegen Frances Wilson’s three-braked bike helped her enjoy Norway’s most popular cycle route The Rallarvegen is Norway’s most popular cycle route. It covers 80km from Haugastøl to Flåm, and is used by 20,000 cyclists each year. Constructed to convey men and materials during the building of the mountainous section of the OsloBergen railway, it combines stunning scenery with history. I planned to cycle the 55km section from Finse to Flåm, which goes over the highest point and descends to the sea. Leaving Finse, the gravel track climbed slowly, giving excellent views of the Hardangerjøkulen, Noway’s sixth largest

glacier. After 10km, I stopped at a former railway cabin, Fagernut, for tea and waffles, a Norwegian delicacy. Refreshed, I continued on over the highest point of the route, Fagervatn at 1,342m, passing lakes and mountains to arrive at the small community of Hallingskeid, where I stopped for lunch. The cycling was harder after this, as the track steepened, descending through the Klevagjelet Gorge. Warning signs were posted, and on several occasions I was forced to dismount and wheel the bike where the surface of the road had deteriorated due to flash floods. A kiosk at

Vatnahalsen provided a welcome drink. For the descent, my bike’s coaster brake (the third brake) came in very useful. Over the next two kilometres, the track plummeted in 21 hairpin bends at very steep gradients. The coaster brake allowed me to stay in control whilst reducing strain on my hands and wrists, enabling me to enjoy the breath-taking views on the descent. Eventually the road flattened and the scenery changed from mountain to valley. I sped along through farmland to Flåm, a harbour on the Sognefjord, the world’s longest fjord. I could see cruise ships.

Gradients are relatively easy when you follow a canal, thanks to cuttings and aqueducts

When in wine country… buy some fragile wine glasses and put them in your panniers?

D ro p p i n g thro u gh yo u r l etterbo x i n two m o n ths :

next issue

road bikes with discs Two drop-bar all-rounders on test

welcome to glasgow A great ride around the city

café society What makes a good cyclists’ café? And which is your favourite?

xcalibre draws closer Find out more about this multiday mountain biking event

8 2 cyc le fe bru ary /m a rch 2 014

The ferry and trains were booked and we’d bought the maps months ago: Steve and I were ready to cross France, following the Canal du Midi and Canal de la Garonne. A last-minute purchase of lightweight sleeping bags and some front panniers meant we could take our inherited Saunders Spacepacker tent too. I’d read about the rough surface of the cycle path along the Canal du Midi – and it was rough. However, our rigid, everyday bikes coped well, and conditions greatly improved west of Toulouse. Early on, where you really have to pick your line through the tree roots, a tandem passed us with a small child in a trailer! Crops grown along our route varied from vines through apples, plums, peaches, kiwis and back to vines again near Bordeaux, and we supplemented our diet with a few pilfered apples and grapes, and many delicious foraged figs. On our many coffee stops, I enjoyed some great hot chocolate, which was more like chocolate soup. The canals are huge and impressive, with many locks, some double or triple. The aqueducts at Moissac and Agen are amazing. Moissac itself is a pretty, arty little town where we bought possibly the most unsuitable souvenirs: a pair of hand-blown wine glasses. They made it home okay. A couple of caveats: we got from Paris to Narbonne by ‘sleeper’ train. It’s pretty awful – hard to get the bikes into their space, no food or drink, noisy and cramped. I resorted to some pants over my head to cut out the lights flashing by! Cycling through Paris rush hour in the dark is also not recommended. Other than that, it was a great holiday with beautiful scenery. We used two Voie Verte maps (canaletvoieverte.com) and several IGN ‘tourism et découverte’ maps. We could have done with a cycling map of Paris.