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THE BIG PICTURE
SHALDON, DEVON
Photo: Graham Brodie
CTC TORBAY TUESDAY RIDE ‘This is one of CTC Torbay’s Tuesday rides in the summer, returning along the River Teign at Shaldon, having just visited Teignmouth for morning coffee. The Tuesday ride is one of the most popular as many people who have now retired have time to ride mid-week, so it’s not unusual to have 25 or 30 out on this run. It’s normally just a morning ride, but once a month we do a full day’s ride on a Tuesday.’ Photo and text by Graham Brodie
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CTC . O R G . U K cyc l e 5
OFF THE FRONT | PAUL TUOHY FROM CTC’S CHIEF EXEC
E V E R YO N E ’ S A WINNER CYCLING IS AN ‘oven ready’ solution to the UK’s health challenge. The cooking instructions are simple: just add wheels! Physical inactivity – doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity per week – is on the rise. It’s the fourth largest cause of disability and disease in the UK. More than a quarter of women and a fifth of men are now classed as inactive. The estimated cost to UK taxpayers from this is £7.4billion a year. In 2014, Public Health England produced a report that detailed seven priorities for the next ten years to improve health and wellbeing. Physical activity is at the heart of these. I know I’m preaching to the converted, but cycling really is a great way for physical activity to become embedded in everyday life. There is no need to pay to visit the gym. As an active form of travel, cycling (even more so than walking) is likely to raise the heart rate sufficiently to improve cardiorespiratory fitness. People who cycle regularly tend to have a fitness level equivalent to someone 10 years younger. That’s why CTC members live longer than most! While 43% of the population aged over five owns a bike, a much smaller percentage cycles regularly. So there are lots of people who own a bike but do not use it regularly or at all. CTC exists to champion cycling at all levels. As the national cycling charity, we want people to engage with cycling at any level they wish. That’s why December’s announcement of a Strategy for Sport by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is good news. The strategy places an emphasis on engaging more people from every background to regularly and meaningfully take part in sport and – my emphasis – physical activity. There is a real focus on groups who are under-represented in sport and physical activity, including women, disabled people, those in lower socioeconomic groups, and older people. As CTC builds its relationships with the likes of DCMS, I am keen to stress a number of ways in which we can help. The reason we
Left: srcommunitycycling.co.uk, tel: 0780 5077200
Gold medals for cycle sport are great, but for society to win big we need investment in everyday cycling for everyone, says Paul Tuohy
Scarborough & Ryedale Community Cycling, a CTC affiliate group
became so good at the sport of cycling and won Olympic gold medals and the Tour de France is because there was a plan and proper funding behind it. We now need the same kind of planning and funding to promote cycling as an everyday part of life. Our near-70,000 members are more than aware of the health benefits, practicalities and joy of just riding bikes, whether it’s for touring, leisure, work, school, or shopping. We now need to harness this evidence to engage with government organisations across the UK to encourage more people to embrace the wonder of one of the simplest forms of active travel: cycling. CTC proved last year that we can excite people into taking up cycling. With funding from the Department for Transport, our Big Bike Revival project inspires people who own bikes but do not cycle regularly to start
cycling again. Through the establishment of a network of bike re-cycling centres, our campaign helps people to get their unused bikes back into working order with free bike checks, cycle servicing, and maintenance workshops, as well as led rides and cycle training. Last year’s programme reached over 57,000 people. They attended the events to have their bike ‘revived’, or learnt how to gain more confidence in the saddle through our newly-trained cohort of over 750 ride leaders. The greatest impact of the project was arguably among the non-regular cyclists who took part: 59% of them said that they now cycle more than they did before. The challenge for CTC is to make sure the Government takes note of the impact cycling has on the health of our nation, so it invests in cycling – and CTC – to make it happen.
“The reason we became so good at the sport of cycling is because there was a plan and proper funding behind it.” CTC . O R G . U K CYC L E 7
MY BIKE
Joff Summerfield’s penny-farthing Last December, Joff finished a 10,500mile, 18-month tour on his high-wheeler. Dan Joyce asked him about his bike
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n late 2008, Joff Summerfield returned home after spending two-and-a-half years cycling around the world on a penny-farthing he built himself. Rather than resume his former career as a Formula One race engine builder, he began to make penny-farthings for a living in a London workshop. But ultimately he wanted to get back on the road, and in June 2014 he set off to ride the world again, beginning by riding south through the Americas. Once again, he chose to ride his penny-farthing. ‘Penny-farthings aren’t particularly practical, comfortable, easy to ride or, let’s be honest, efficient,’ Joff acknowledged. ‘But they are a whole lot of fun. The most useful thing about the penny is the doors that it opens. Everyone seems to love the bike, and when they discover that you’re travelling on it they seem to get the whole crazy idea. If I had a pound for every photo that has been taken of the bike, I would be a rich man.’ Joff built his first penny-farthing in 1999 and has been developing his ideas since. While each bike he builds is bespoke, the latest design iteration is Mark 6. That’s not what he toured on, however. ‘My machine is a Summerfield Mark 3.5,’ he said. ‘This was the fourth penny that I built, and I have used it ever since as my touring bike. The first penny that I built, and then rode to Paris for the Millennium celebrations, was an absolute monster. The bike weighed 76 pounds. With all my kit, I was up to a 120lb for a five-day ride. I made it to Paris for the celebrations with an hour to spare. After this, I built much lighter, simpler and stronger bikes.’
There was nothing about his current touring pennyfarthing that he’d change, he said. Its Victorian technology had already been augmented with the digital accessories common to 21st century tourers. ‘The adaptations for touring have to be fairly simple so as not to add too much extra weight,’ Joff said. ‘On my recent journey, I
“The most useful thing about the penny is the doors that it opens. Everyone loves it” used a dynamo in the rear wheel. I wired this into a Sinewave Cycles Revolution to give me a USB-out that I could use to charge my Garmin, cameras, etc. I also had a solar panel on the back of the bike to charge a slave battery, again to keep my cameras topped up.’ The gearing, on the other hand, was as old-school as it gets: a 49-inch fixed-wheel. ‘I aim to ride 40 miles a day,’ he said. ‘This I can do day after day as long as the road is
fairly flat, of good surface, and at sea level. So far, I’ve ridden the penny over most terrains, including high Tibetan passes, Mexican deserts, and Andean death roads.’ Joff’s latest world tour began in Toronto, Canada, and ended prematurely in Ecuador. He said: ‘120 miles south of Quito, I was tied up at gunpoint and robbed. They took almost everything, bar the bike, tent, sleeping bag, and the clothes I was wearing. You meet so many wonderful people while cycling around the world, you sometimes forget that a tiny percentage are evil. After four years in total on the road, this is the first time that something like this has happened. It finished the current journey.’ Despite this, his 18-month trip had many highlights. ‘There were so many that it’s hard to pinpoint just a few,’ he said. ‘Zion National Park was stunning. It was great to meet and ride with a lot of fellow cycle tourists. And the whole of Mexico was wonderful.’ For more details, visit Joff’s website: pennyfarthingworldtour.com
Tech spec: Joff’s Penny-Farthing MODEL: Summerfield Mark 3.5 FRAME: 1 3/8in diameter backbone WHEELS: 49-inch front, 17-inch rear GEARING: 49in fixed BRAKES: Barely STEERING & SEATING: It kind of steers, and is uncomfortable to sit on ACCESSORIES: Garmin, GoPro, Brooks panniers, Goal Zero solar panel, Microsoft Surface Pro computer
SHARE YOUR STORY: If you’ve got an interesting bike that’s been chosen or customised to suit you, get in touch. Email editor@ctc.org.uk 32 CYC LE FE BR UARY/MAR CH 2 016
where: Scotland's North Highland coast START/finish: Inverness Castle DISTANCE: 516 miles PICTURES: Johnny Cook & Alamy
N O RT H C OAST 50 0 | G R E AT R I D E S
Gre at r ide s
North Coast 500
This 500-mile loop around the North Highland coast is perfect cycling country. Unless, like adventurer, broadcaster and CTC member Mark Beaumont, you do it in 38 hours
Left: © eye35 stock / Alamy. Others by Johnny Cook
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n 1988, The Proclaimers penned Scotland’s alternative national anthem: I'm Gonna Be (500 miles). Twenty-seven years later, the North Highland Initiative created a 500-mile route around Scotland's most northerly coastal roads. Always one for a challenge, but unwilling to walk 500 miles, I set about trying to cycle the route non-stop, laying down a time-to-beat on Scotland’s answer to Route 66. You might think that America's Route 66 has existed for generations. Yet while the route from Chicago to California is indeed old, it only became ‘Historic Route 66' after it was removed from the US Highway System in 1985. It was then marketed to tourists. The roads around Scotland's North Highland coast are older still. The North Coast 500 route has been ‘created' and marketed in the hope it too becomes a pilgrimage. Most Scots and visitors alike are guilty of exploring only as far north as Inverness, if they escape the bright lights of Edinburgh and Glasgow at all. And yet Inverness is the gateway to some of the best roads, beaches and scenery in Britain.
Early start from Inverness 6am, Monday 10 August, Inverness Castle: I chatted nervously to the local press, who had fallen out of bed early to witness the start of this madness. I had gone to bed at 8pm, needing every ounce of rest. Then I stared at the ceiling until 1am, terrified. My entourage included three cars and a motorbike, mainly for the film team. This was a long way from my unsupported rides down Africa, the Americas and around the world.
The trip itself was very different too. I'm used to multi-day, multi-week and multi-month rides. I had never attempted 500 miles non-stop. Within a mile, we all took a wrong turn. It was not a promising start. I was going clockwise, motivated to get the fiercely hilly west coast out of the way during the daylight and whilst I was fresh. And I was soon feeling optimistic – the first 50 miles passed quickly as I started through relatively flat farmland and then alongside the first lochs and forests as I reached the rugged west coast. I mentally multiplied this progress and started dreaming of a sub 35-hour finish. Alas, just as a marathon is a lot more than twice as hard as a half marathon, riding 500 miles non-stop is many times tougher than ten 50-mile rides!
The Bealach Na Ba Alongside Lochcarron, the first of the sea lochs, a roadie sped towards me, swung around and fell alongside. Local endurance hard man Alex Glasgow holds the course record for the infamous Applecross Sportive (Bealach Mor) and was the first winner of the legendary Celtman triathlon. But I reminded him straight away that today was not for any Strava KOMs, as I would still be on my bike the following evening. I could tell he was itching for a fast ride, but loyally kept it steady for the next five hours around Wester Ross. The Bealach Na Ba (Pass of the Cattle) boasts the greatest ascent of any road climb in the UK, rising from sea level to 626 metres over 9.1km. It's the third highest road in Scotland, with a stunning Alpinestyle switchback section, accentuated by
Do it yourself Getting to Inverness with a bike is easiest by train. The Caledonian Sleeper gives an overnight connection from London King’s Cross. British Airways flies into Inverness Airport. It is worth looking ahead and booking accommodation along the route, especially during peak holiday season, as there are some big gaps by bike if you turn up somewhere and there are no vacancies! You can go in real style, for example £400 a night at the Torridon Hotel, or go a budget and camp. The seafood along this route is worth pedalling many miles for; my personal favourite is a pint of langoustine at the Applecross Inn.
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F E AT U R E | B ES P O K E B I K ES
U N I Q U E LY
YOURS
DESPITE CARBON-FIBRE’S INCREASING AFFORDABILITY, SALES OF CUSTOM-BUILT STEEL AND TITANIUM FRAMES ARE FLOURISHING. DAN JOYCE QUIZZED BUILDERS AND BUYERS
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B ES P O K E B I K ES | F E AT U R E
(In the photo) Robin Mather working on a titanium mountain bike frame. Photo: Seb Rogers
CTC. O R G . U K CYC L E 41
where: Central Norway START/finish: From Rena to Lillehammer DISTANCE: 92km or 122km PICTURES: Henry Iddon & Pat Kinsella
n o r way m t b | G R E AT R I D E S
Gre at r ide s
Battling the Birken
Each August in Norway, 20,000 mountain bikers ride up to 122km with a figurative royal baby on their backs. Journalist Pat Kinsella joined them. Henry Iddon took photos
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he theme from Disney’s Frozen is stuck on a loop in my head. When a song worms its way in during a long ride, it’s impossible to shake. Once I would have had something edgier rattling around my brain. I blame my daughters. Them and the movie-perfect Scandinavian wilderness I’m pedalling through. I’m in the midst of an extraordinary cycling event. The Birkebeinerrittet is the biggest mountain bike race on the planet. Until a few weeks ago I’d never heard of it, but now I’m here, wending through Norwegian woods, across plateaus and around mountain peaks. In the distance, the Jotunheimen range reaches into the sky. According to local folklore, these mountains are home to trolls. Not the cute roly-poly ones in the film that has my girls spellbound, the tear-you-limbfrom-limb kind that populated Norwegian mythology long before Disney sprinkled them with sugar. Both my body and my bike are beginning to resemble something a troll has been chewing on. I promise us both a day of total rest and relaxation tomorrow. After 122 kilometres, we’ll have earned it.
Weighing in The Birkebeinerrittet is less a bike race and more a two-wheeled tradition. Over 20,000
people come to ride the course every year, but few cyclists outside of Scandinavia are aware of it. And it’s not just the size of the field that makes ‘the Birken' unique. Like its winter equivalent, the Birkebeinerrennet ski race, the event commemorates a moment in Norwegian history when a royal infant – Prince Haakon – was smuggled through the mountains by two skiers who were protecting him from assassins. That was in 1206. Today, all competitors, even the elites, must carry an extra 3.5kg of bulk (over and above any food or drink they might consume) to symbolically represent the weight of the royal baby. Rows of weighing scales surround the starting line, with riders nervously queuing to make sure they’re carrying enough. Some stuff stones into their backpacks to make up the difference. I’m warned there’ll be spot checks at the end, to ensure people are still lugging their fair share of baby bulk. The Saturday race is the big one: 17,000 riders take on a 92km course that rolls along dirt roads and double-tracks from Rena to Lillehammer. The field is so huge that riders begin in waves, each containing 250 bikes, with five minutes space between each one. The first starts at 6am and the last leaves around 2pm. Unusually,
Do it yourself The 92-kilometre event is achievable by anyone with reasonable fitness, on a hardtail or full-suspension bike. The Ultra is a much sterner test, where you’ll struggle without full suspension. Enter early – the race sells out and accommodation in Lillehammer fills quickly. Norwegian Air (norwegian. com) offers cheap flights from various cities to Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport. Let airlines know you’re travelling with a bike, and pre-arrange additional luggage allowance. From Gardermoen, trains regularly service Lillehammer, a journey of just under two hours. Bus services link Lillehammer and Rena, with extra buses put on to transport bikes and riders for the race.
in 1206, royal infant Prince Haakon was smuggled through the mountains by two skiers to protect him from assassins CTC. O R G . U K cyc l e 51
F E AT U R E | G ROU P R I D I N G
TA K E THE LEAD
Great group rides need an organiser to make them happen, which is why CTC ran a series of free ride leader workshops. Julie Rand explains
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Club rides by Devon CTC (left and this picture) (Below) Ali Baker (L)
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Think back to some of the best group rides you’ve been on. What made them memorable? Was it the scenery, the company, the destination, an enjoyable refreshment stop, or a combination of all of these? Chances are, your favourite rides didn’t happen by luck: somebody planned the route, thought about a nice place to stop, and brought everyone together. That person was most likely also the ride leader, without whom group rides wouldn’t take place. Leisure cyclists may take the services of a ride leader for granted, but a good one is much more than a flesh-and-blood GPS. Ride leaders are the largely unsung heroes who exemplify a long-standing CTC tradition: bringing people together in like-minded company to cycle and explore interesting parts of the UK and beyond.
Left & above: Graham Brodie. Right & overleaf: Selim Korycki
Ride guidance CTC’s series of free workshops last autumn sought to identify and share the best ideas for leading groups. Participants looked at ways of planning a ride, taking into account the terrain, the weather, and the ability and requirements of the group. Topics included where ride leaders should position
themselves, how to use a back-marker, and when to single out or ride two abreast. The workshops also examined why people choose to go on a group ride rather than riding alone. Forty workshops took place throughout the country. They were funded by part of the £1million CTC received from the Department for Transport for the Big Bike Revival 2015, a two-week festival of cycle renovation and rides at bike recycling centres across the country. The Big Bike Revival was aimed at lapsed cyclists, inspiring them to get back on their bikes. The ride leader workshops were funded to improve the amount and quality of led rides available through CTC’s network of over 800 groups. Workshop attendees included experienced and novice ride leaders from over 400 CTC Member Groups and affiliated groups. The workshops were seminars more than lectures; many participants praised their interactivity and the opportunity to share tips with each other. Group activities included looking at a variety of unexpected situations that can occur on a ride, such as what to do if a rider disappears, or if the ride leader is unable to continue. While common sense is often more useful than having a prescriptive solution to every problem, in the case of a major incident, it’s useful to have a set of Emergency Operating Procedures to fall back on. The workshops drew up a recommended checklist of actions to take in the unlikely event of a serious situation arising. Insurance and liability issues are important for ride leaders these days so a whole unit was devoted to the ‘legal, moral and insurance requirements of ride leaders’. Participants were reassured that as long as ride leaders are registered with a CTC
REVIEWS | BIKE TEST
CUBE TOURING HYBRID PRO 400 EE bike test
Two grand pedelecs Electric-assist bikes are better than ever. Richard Hallett reviews a Cube Touring Hybrid Pro 400 EE and a Giant Prime E +3 W After riding these two bikes, I’m now
a confirmed pedelec fan. I even used one of them in preference to a pedal-only bike for a trip where the latter would have done perfectly well. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that for some journeys made by bicycle, a pedelec makes more sense than a plain push-bike even for those fit and strong enough to have no other excuse to go electric than that they don’t want to get too hot… Electric-assist bicycles are usually regarded as being aimed at those who feel the demands of unassisted cycling to be too great: distance, head winds and hilly terrain, which would otherwise surely deter many potential cyclists from taking to two wheels, are largely nullified by the addition of a motor. The extra power required isn't huge: just 200W, or one third of a horsepower, is enough to push the average cyclist on a racing bike along on the flat at around 20mph. The two bikes – from Cube and Giant – are both pedelecs rather than twist-and-go,
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throttle-style e-bikes. They require the rider to pedal in order to receive assistance from the motor. Stop pedalling and the motor stops providing power. Furthermore, the motor won’t give any assistance when the bike travels at more than 15mph. UK regulations (bit.ly/ctc-pedelecs) don’t necessarily require the link between pedalling and assistance, but it seems to be the current norm for such machines, which are legally classed as pedal cycles and can be ridden without need for registration, insurance or a licence. As pedal bikes On first appraisal, there’s not much to choose between them in terms of equipment and build. Both feature front suspension, a beefy aluminium frame designed to offer a low step-over height, and hydraulic disc brakes. Indeed, so close is their specification that one might be inclined to choose between them on the basis of appearance alone: both boast a suspension seatpost, integral kickstand, derailleur
(Above) If you want to drain the battery less when you climb hills, the 10-speed drivetrain of the Cube is easier to equip than the Giant's with lower gears. It would be feasible, for example, to fit the Praxis Works cassette that's reviewed on page 20
BIKE TEST | REVIEWS
P61
GIANT PRIME E +3 W
(Above) The 9-speed 11-34 cassette on the Giant is as big as the Alivio derailleur is designed to cope with. For most users, that will be a sufficiently wide range, however, thanks to the extra motor power (up to 250W) available
gearing, sturdy urban utility tyres, lighting front and rear powered by the battery pack, and full mudguards. They even place the battery pack in the same place, inside a cage above a welded aluminium rear rack integral with the frame. Compared to the obvious alternative locations on the down and seat tubes, this puts the battery’s weight high and a long
way from the steering axis but does keep it out of the rider’s way. On the other hand, it means that any load placed on the top of the rack is higher than it might be. The same is true of panniers attached to the rack. These would presumably need to be sourced from the relevant manufacturer, since neither rack will accept the hooks of a standard pannier. Adding to the slightly top-heavy feel of both bikes is their sheer height. Both put the bottom bracket axle about 290mm above the ground, which is some 20mm higher than usual for a road bike. This puts the rider a long way from the ground when riding. It made life needlessly difficult for the Cube’s 5ft tall test rider, who disliked having to scale the saddle’s giddy heights when setting off. It is hard to see any reason why either cycle should not sit much lower to the ground; it would certainly make life easier for smaller riders. Minor cycle part differences are revealed on closer inspection. The Cube’s kickstand is a little long, holding the bike at a precarious near-vertical angle on level ground. The Giant sports a handlebar stem usefully adjustable for angle, while that of the Cube fits over the top of the steerer and offers little height adjustment. The Giant has a Monoshock suspension fork that rocks about at a standstill but which feels fine on the road, while the Cube sticks with a conventional MTB-style fork.
The front mudguard on both is on the short side, especially for a utility cycle, and could do with a decent mud-flap. Giant offer nine derailleur gear ratios, Cube ten, both operated using indexed finger-andthumb shifters. The Cube's frame has a double-chainstay arrangement, built both to cope with the drive loads of the electric transmission and to offer a stable platform for a chaincase. The bike, however, has a simple guard that does little to keep muck off the chain. E l e c t r i c a s s i s ta n c e The interesting stuff lies beneath… Both cycles employ a sort of ‘power module’ that sits under the frame in place of a regular bottom bracket assembly. While the Giant uses a Yamaha module, the Cube’s is made by Bosch. The obvious visual difference is in the relative sizes of the chainrings; that of the Bosch system has a mere 15 teeth and rotates 2.5 times faster than the cranks thanks to internal gearing, while the Yamaha has a regular 38T ring that turns with the cranks. The small chainring on the Bosch is intended to minimize the likelihood of chain derailment and enhance ground clearance; the unit itself has a quicker take-up and more sophisticated feel than that of the Yamaha, which is a whopping 500g lighter. Enclosed within the cast aluminium casing of the module is an electric motor and a bank of sensors. These detect when force
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T R AV E L L E R S ’ TA L E S
A NEW ZEALAND E2E Andrew Dickson avoided the UK winter by touring NZ in January and February
China in winter
Katherine Liver’s cycle tour from Australia to the UK saw her reach China in February…
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here was a fresh layer of snow on the ground, our drinks bottles contained unappealing blocks of ice, and I was wearing every item of clothing that I had with me. Despite all this, my toes were still cold. China is a pretty cold place to be in February. This was compounded by the high altitudes. The descents were particularly fresh. So much so that I’d started to enjoy pedalling up more than freewheeling down. I dreaded the prolonged periods of icy cold, the nose-numbing wind. Climbs almost guaranteed I’d be toasty warm by the top. Often, upon seeing a sign alerting us to a descent, my cycling companion George and I would look at one another, and one of us would mutter: ‘Well, you gotta go down to go up!’ You might think that we would have adjusted to the cold conditions after spending day after day in them, but it was constantly on our minds and in our conversations. We couldn’t help reminding each other just how cold it
was, rolling out the same phrases day after day. It would go something like this. ‘Cor blimey, it’s cold.’ ‘It is fresh. You’re not wrong.’ ‘Positively Arctic out here today.’ ‘Pretty brisk, eh?’ ‘Sharp, I’d say.’ ‘Christ, it’s nippy.’ ‘I’ll tell you what it’s not: it’s not bloody warm.’ Then one of us would escalate things, saying how we’d give our right arm for just five minutes next to a radiator. The other would up the ante with talk of bonfires. With neither available, we kept moving.
MY PLAN was to cycle from Cape Reinga at the top of New Zealand’s North Island to Bluff at the bottom of South Island. These locations mark the north and south ends of Highway 1, but I intended to wander through the country following local advice. I wasn’t ever disappointed. Having arrived in Auckland, my trip also took in the CoromandaI Peninsula, Rotorua, Tongariro National Park, Wellington, Mount Cook National Park, Dunedin, and Christchurch. I mostly camped. New Zealand is currently developing a network of trails using old railway tracks and quiet roads, and I managed to take in several, including: the Hauraki, Rimutaka and Otago rail trails; the Te Ara Ahi trail; and the Whanganui River trail. All were manageable on my fullyladen Dawes Ultra Galaxy. Roughly the same size as the UK and with a population of 4 million, New Zealand is a country full of interest, with dramatic and varied coasts, wonderful forests, rugged mountains, glaciers, hot springs, interesting ferries, and undoubtedly a sense of adventure. Maori heritage is very much in evidence. I started in mid January and spent nine weeks covering 3,500 miles.
SHARE YOUR STORY: Cycle wants your Travellers’ Tales. Write or email the editor – details on page 3 – to find out what’s required. 82 CYC LE FE BR UARY/MAR C H 2 016