cycle THIS ISSUE EUROSTAR: BACK ON THE R AIL S
cycle THE MAGAZINE OF CYCLING UK
J U N E/J U LY 2 0 17 £3 OR FREE TO CYC L I N G U K M E M B E R S CYC L I N G U K .O R G
ELECTRONIC-SHIFTING ROAD BIKES A RETURN TRIP TO FRANCE
TOUR TO FRANCE
CYCLING JEANS REVIEW
R AIL AND ROAD TRIPS TO PARIS AND BE YOND
VON DRAIS & THE FIRST BICYCLE START OF SUMMERTIME CHALLENGE RIDE
Plus ELECTRONI C-S HI FTI NG ROAD BIKES J U N E /J U L Y 2 0 1 7
THE BI CY CLE’ S 2 0 0TH BIR THDAY JEA NS FOR URBAN CYCLISTS CY CLI NG UK CHA LLENGE RIDES
PAUL TUOHY
Chief Executive
HERE’S WHAT’S IN STORE
PAUL TUOHY Chief Executive
Photo: Julie Anne Images
A new partnership with Halfords, Big Bike Revival, Challenge Rides, and more. Paul Tuohy looks at what’s happening this summer
Members now get 10% off bikes and cycling products from Halfords
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HE WARM WEATHER might have been slow to arrive, but this hasn’t deterred Cycling UK from getting ready for a summer of cycling. The headline news is our new partnership with Halfords, the UK’s biggest bike seller. Halfords are keen on promoting everyday cycling, away from the sports side of things, just like Cycling UK. ‘Why don’t we work with each other?’, we suggested. They agreed. You can read about the tie-up overleaf. But in brief, all Cycling UK members will now enjoy a 10% discount on bikes and cycling goods purchased there. In addition, Halfords will be supporting this year’s Big Bike Revival with their stores (over
“Halfords will be supporting this year’s Big Bike Revival”
400 of them) across the country. Big Bike Revival (BBR) has been awarded a further £1m from the Department of Transport in England, plus £0.5m from Transport Scotland! So now we will have many more outlets to help get your friends’ old bikes (and yours?) out of the shed and up and running for free. We’ve been promoting this summer’s BBR on Eurosport during the Giro d’Italia. If you’re a cycle racing fan, you may have seen our ad. Our next task is to use all the good news surrounding BBR to persuade Northern Ireland and Wales to join in.
THE NEXT CHALLENGE Our Challenge Ride Series is now in full swing (see page 48). It’s the perfect excuse to cycle in some of our amazing countryside and perhaps discover an area you haven’t visited before. You can, for example, enjoy Momma’s Mountain Views with Chester and
North Wales CTC, go Back to the Fuschia with Leicestershire and Rutland CTC, and ride the Devon Delight with (you guessed it) Devon CTC. Our local groups are at the hub of the action, so it’s a great opportunity to meet fellow Cycling UK members. All finishers will receive a handsome Challenge Ride Series medal and ribbon branded with the event name, a certificate, and a Cycling UK goodie bag. In working to champion the gift of cycling for all, we were pleased that the Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) for England was finally published in April. The first in a series of five-year strategies to support a longerterm ambition to make walking and cycling the natural choice for shorter journeys by 2040, the CWIS was required by the Infrastructure Act 2015 – which Cycling UK and our partners campaigned for. Apart from its vision, which we absolutely support, the promise of CWIS lies mainly in the contribution it could make to better cycling infrastructure… as long as local councils commit to investing in it. To this end, I have formed a partnership consortium with Sustrans and Living Streets to look at how we can best support local authorities to improve cycling infrastructure at a grassroots level. Work has already begun.
MEMBERSHIP MATTERS Cycling UK is the cyclists’ champion thanks to you, our members. It’s always nice to pay tribute to our volunteer heroes, as we do in this issue with Sue Booth of the Chester Fabulous Ladies. (They’re a modest bunch!) I had the pleasure of joining Sue on a ride last year on my tandem with my wife, and Sue’s commitment, enthusiasm, determination, and true CTC spirit was a joy to behold. Read more about her efforts and the Women’s Festival of Cycling further on in the mag. Enjoy the long days of summer. Do encourage your cycling friends to join the family that is Cycling UK; at an average £3 a month, it’s a bargain. And if you shop a little at Halfords, it could be free!
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D E TA I L S WHERE: Southern England, Northern France S TART/FINISH: Bristol to Paris DISTANCE: 400-450 miles PICTURES: Steve Melia and Sergey Borisov / Alamy
BRISTOL TO PARIS | G RE AT RI D E S
Great rides
A RETURN TO PARIS With a silver wedding anniversary to celebrate, Steve and Sara Melia cycled 400 miles back to where it all began: dinner on the River Seine
‘I
’ve been offered a job in Paris,’ I said to the 20-year-old girl I had recently met. ‘I don’t suppose you want to come?’ She did. Eighteen months later I was proposing to her over dinner on a bateau mouche, the wide, glass-sided boats that cruise along the River Seine. That was over 25 years ago. Since then, we’d often talked of going back to Paris to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary. ‘I don’t suppose you fancy cycling there?’ I asked, when the time came. She lifted one eyebrow and decided: we were going. There are many advantages to starting a long ride from home: you can leave when you feel ready; you don’t have the stress of bikes on trains or ’planes; and from where we live, the first stretch towards the coast provides an ideal warm-up. The Bristol-to-Bath cycle path starts a few hundred yards from our home. I never tire of the sliver of nature it brings to the heart of the city. We were heading to Poole, loosely following NCN25 along quiet ridge roads, plus one well-surfaced path into Blandford Forum and a rougher one into Poole. Cyclists must make an easier target than cars or vans for security searches at ferry ports. A serious-looking man
Do it yourself
FERRIES & TRAINS TO FRANCE asked me: ‘Are you carrying any weapons?’ I always want to say something like: ‘I’ve got a rocket launcher in my left pannier; is that okay?’ But I never do.
NORMANDY LANDING The climate of northern France has changed in the years since we lived there. As we left Cherbourg and began to climb inland, melting tar was bubbling on the road. Fortunately this was the bocage, the heavily-wooded rolling countryside that hampered the advancing Allies in 1944. The hedges have been left to grow, providing welcome shade from scorching temperatures. The D-roads, even the ones coloured yellow on the IGN maps, were unbelievably quiet for a sunny August afternoon. St-Vaast-la-Hougue, our first stop, is a fishing port surrounded by fortifications, some built to keep out the English in the 17th century and some added by the Germans in World War II. The fortifications multiply as you follow the coast road south east towards the long sandy beaches of the D-Day landings. One shelldamaged bunker bears a mural painted by a German artist with a message of peace. We have visited several museums along this coast
There are several routes from the Channel ports to Paris. From Bristol, Poole to Cherbourg was the best option, taking 4 hours 15 minutes with Brittany Ferries (brittany-ferries.co.uk), who also serve Plymouth to Roscoff and Portsmouth to Le Havre. For anyone starting further east, Newhaven to Dieppe may be better (dfdsseaways.co.uk). We returned via Eurostar (we don’t fly, for reasons explained in my book Urban Transport Without the Hot Air). Thanks to Cycling UK and everyone who signed the petition that saved us from having to pack bikes in boxes! Bikes booked in advance cost £30 per journey. (See p40 for more.)
THE FORTIFICATIONS MULTIPLY AS YOU FOLLOW THE COAST ROAD SOUTH EAST TOWARDS THE LONG BEACHES OF THE D-DAY LANDINGS CYCL I N G U K.O RG CYCL E 3 5
CROS SING PARIS Cycling is easier as the Metro doesn’t take bikes
Left: Sara Lincoln Photography. Others by Huw Poraj-Wilczynski
Feature
BACK O N TH E R AI L S EUROSTAR’S CYCLE CARRIAGE POLICY WAS REVAMPED IN THE WAKE OF CYCLING UK’S SUCCESSFUL 2015 CAMPAIGN. SAM JONES GETS A TICKET TO RIDE n a London morning, I escape the jostle of Euston Road and glance up at St Pancras International’s Victorian clocktower. In a few hours, I’ll be sipping coffee in Paris. There’s no rush. I’m not dragging a bagged bike out of the back of a taxi and balancing it on a wobbly-wheeled luggage trolley. I’ve arrived, as I’ll depart Gard du Nord, on two wheels. My Surly Disc Trucker is travelling with me unboxed. For that, I can thank everyone who supported our Zerostars for Eurostar campaign…
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We launched this in October 2015 to put a stop to Eurostar’s plans to carry bikes only if they were boxed or bagged. We pulled together a coalition of European cycling organisations and galvanised over 10,000 cyclists into writing in protest to Eurostar CEO Nicolas Petrovic. The mayors of London, Paris and Brussels shared our outrage. By Friday 13 November, the controversial policy was dropped.
BOXED INTO A CORNER Any euphoria over Eurostar’s decision was overshadowed later that day by the dreadful events in Paris’s Bataclan concert hall. But
ever since November 2015, Cycling UK has been working with Eurostar on its cycle carriage policy. As a result, two assembled bikes and four Eurostar-boxed bikes can now travel per train. I recently spoke to Eurostar’s Head of Public Affairs, Pierre Delalande, a keen cyclist himself. He was at pains to point out that the now-abandoned mandatory boxing policy wasn’t intended to discriminate against cyclists. ‘When we changed our policy and asked passengers to put their bikes in a bag or box, we wanted to make it simple for customers to protect their bikes and for us
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D E TA I L S WHERE: Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk START/FINISH: Stevenage DISTANCE: 62-210km PICTURES: Tony Upfold
S TA R T O F S U M M E R T I M E | G R E AT R I D E S
Great rides
SUMMERTIME BEGINS Cycling UK’s new Challenge Ride Series kicked off in Stevenage in the late March sunshine. Tony Upfold was there
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t was England’s green and pleasant land at its unbeatable best. Cambridge sparkled in the distance as we rode along a ridge in the north Hertfordshire countryside, the sun burning with all of its March might in a cloudless sky. A pair of red kites soared and swooped in search of prey above the field to our left. Beneath them, and definitely not on the menu, was an overcooked, lycra-wrapped, trussed-up turkey on two wheels who envied their freedom! Yes, it really was that hot: Cycling UK Stevenage’s Start of Summertime ride lived up to its name. For 24 years, the Stevenage group has staged a series of rides on the Sunday morning when the clocks go forward. And this year there was an added attraction, as it was the first event in Cycling UK’s new Challenge Ride Series – which features 16 handpicked rides throughout the country. The series ends back in Stevenage with ‘Emitremmus’ (summertime reversed) in October.
WARMING TO THE TASK Winter cycling gear seemed a must on 26 March when I drowsily left home at 6.30am, bound for Hertfordshire, having lost an hour’s sleep (along with 65 million other people,
admittedly). At dawn on that Mother’s Day morning, it was two degrees; wearing shorts would have risked a sharp frost forming on the knees. By midday, and 10 miles into my ride, my three top layers and full-length leggings were surplus to requirements as the sun shone and the temperature climbed to 14 degrees. Bearing in mind there was snow around for this event in 2013, it seems churlish to complain that this really was the start of summertime! Cycling UK Stevenage provided a choice of four rides for the 200 cyclists who descended on Fairlands Valley Park to make the most of the weather. Twenty-four hardy riders set off at 8.15am for the 210km (130 mile) trip to Lavenham in Suffolk and back. At 9am, I had the privilege of being asked by event organisers Jill and Jim Borcherds to start the 100-mile (160km) ride, which crossed over the border into Essex. The Deputy Mayor of Stevenage, Councillor Pam Stuart, was on hand to start the most popular ride, with 87 people tackling the 115km (71.5 mile) outing to Thaxted and back. Last but not least, 56 of us – myself included – set off on the 62km ride (38.5 miles), on a loop that took in Walkern, Reed, Barkway, Buntingford and Benington. After climbing away from the lake at
THE SUN BURNED WITH ALL OF ITS MARCH MIGHT IN A CLOUDLESS SKY, WHERE A PAIR OF RED KITES SOARED AND SWOOPED
Do it yourself
CHALLENGE YOURSE LF See page 18 for more details about the Challenge Ride Series. Remaining events are: SUN 4 JUNE: Bamburgh Summer 100 (100 miles, Tyneside and Northumberland CTC) SUN 11 JUNE: Cumnock Canter 100km/Glespin Gallop 100-mile (Cycle Ayrshire) SUN 25 JUNE: The Des Radford 100 miler (Swansea CTC) SUN 9 JULY: Diss Dawdle/Diss Dander (100km/200km, Diss CTC) SUN 16 JULY: Devon Delight (100km, Devon CTC) SUN 20 AUG: Tour of the Hills (115km, West Surrey CTC) SUN 27 AUG: Wild Wales Challenge (85 miles, Merseyside CTC) SAT 2 SEP: Momma’s Mountain Views (130km, Chester & North Wales/Caer a Gogledd Cymru) SAT 16 SEP: Discovering Shropshire (Blue Remembered Hills). (120km, Shropshire) SUN 8 OCT: Gridiron 100 (100km, Wessex Cycling) SUN 29 OCT: Emitremmus Desrever (Choice of distances, Cycling UK Stevenage) For more information and links to the events, visit bit.ly/cyclingukchallengerides2017
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THE FIRST BICYCLE | FE ATURE
Feature
TH E F IR S T B ICYC L E THE BIG BANG OF MECHANISED PERSONAL MOBILITY HAPPENED 200 YEARS AGO IN THE FORESTS OF GERMANY. HISTORIAN HANS-ERHARD LESSING TAKES UP THE STORY
annheim on Rhine, before Whitsun, 1817. After the local cartwright’s apprentice brought the news that the paint on the newly ordered twowheeled carriage had dried, the household of judge Wilhelm von Drais bustled with activity. With the help of the family’s coachman, the judge’s son, 32-year-old Baron Karl Drais, collected the vehicle, which he had designed – not bad for someone who’d spent only three terms at the technologically-oriented Heidelberg university. In the evening, he oiled its hubs while his four sisters looked on. Early next morning, he mounted the twowheeler and started to speed it forward through the empty streets of the city. Its iron hoop tyres rattled over the cobblestones, creating tiny sparks with every little bounce. He headed for the high road to the former summer residence of the Electors Palatine, the local rulers, at Schwetzingen: as a civil servant, he knew the route well from many rides on his official horse. But now horse fodder had become rare and expensive due to the catastrophic crop failure the previous year. Earlier than usual, he reached the former relay station halfway to Schwetzingen, where he turned around and rolled homeward. Back home, he found he had covered eight miles in less than an hour. This same distance would have taken him four hours by mail coach. The local gazette didn’t report this event on 12 June 1817, which supports the view that Drais didn’t seek publicity for his initial spin. Also unreported was his mountain ride six weeks later, from a 700-foot-high hill, four miles down to the spa town of Baden-Baden. But this time, he placed a lengthy advert in the Spa
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Weekly. In it he referred to his invention, with some self-effacing irony, as LODA: an acronym from the French la locomotion and le dada (hobby-horse).
IT STARTED ON FOUR WHEELS Due to strict censorship of any news relating to the food shortages of 1816/17, no editor or printer would have let Drais write that his machine was meant to replace the endangered saddle-horse, lest the complete print run be confiscated by the censor. The authorities didn’t like news of hunger riots to be spread. In fact, Drais’s interest in land transport had started back in 1812, when a series of bad harvests began raising the price of oats and hay. (The 1810s were the coldest decade on record, partly as a result
of the Tambora volcanic eruption of 1815.) Drais commissioned a four-wheeled wagon called the Fahrmaschine (‘driving machine’) powered by a treadmill between the rear wheels. The drive system was later changed to a crankshaft, trodden by the feet of one passenger sitting on a suspended saddle. The Fahrmaschine didn’t raise any interest among the princes, and a disappointed Drais temporarily deserted land transport. However, when the catastrophic crop failure occurred in 1816, he returned to human-powered vehicles and invented a two-wheeler later to be known as the Laufmaschine (‘running machine’). Necessity was the mother of invention, and contemporaries confirmed Drais’s reasons for building it. For example, the diplomat Comte de Ségur wrote an article in Journal de Paris
Riding school of manufacturer Anton Burg & Sohn in Vienna 1818
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BIKETEST | ELECTRONIC SHIF TING
RICHARD HALLETT Technical Editor
Bike test
ELECTRONIC SHIFTING Just for racers or an upgrade for the rest of us? Richard Hallett reviews a Trek Domane SLR7 and a Specialized Tarmac Expert eTAP
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LECTRONIC DERAILLEUR gear shifting has come a long way in the quarter of a century since French manufacturer Mavic gave the ZMS – or ‘Zap’ – system its prototype debut at the 1992 Tour de France. Then little more than a curiosity, electronic shifting is now widely reckoned to be superior in operation, reliability, and prestige to the various mechanical shifting systems offered by the three main manufacturers. Having proven almost impervious to adverse riding conditions, it is popular with cyclocross riders. Its ease of use also makes it a great option for long-distance riders and those with limited hand strength or movement. Shimano’s Di2 was the first of the ‘modern’ systems. It was launched in DuraAce guise a decade after Mavic’s Mektronic groupset fell foul in 1999 of the Union Cycliste Internationale’s then muddled thinking on technological advances. (The UCI banned Mavic Mektronic from competition, dealing a fatal blow to its commercial potential.) Campagnolo’s EPS design came along shortly after Di2, and it too uses wires to transmit control signals. The most recent
entrant is SRAM, whose eTAP concept arrived in 2015 to considerable acclaim both for its wireless operation and for its highly original functionality. If there’s a common feature of road bikes that are specified with electronic shifting, it is their cost, with eTAP-equipped cycles starting at around £4.5k and Ultegra Di2 a more affordable £3k or so. Both groupsets can be found for sale at a grand or thereabouts and can be retro-fitted to an existing bike, making the technology itself more accessible than the prices of complete cycles might suggest. Typical of the latter are the two cycles on test, with the eTAP-equipped example some £400 more expensive than its broadly comparable competitor. There are significant differences besides price and component choice. Trek’s Domane SLR features frame technology designed to quell vibration, and is marketed as a comfortable machine for rough roads and the long haul. Meanwhile, the Tarmac Expert from Specialized is easily identified as a straightforward high-performance road bike, albeit one with a good helping of all-round ability.
BOTH GROUPSETS CAN BE FOUND FOR SALE AT A GRAND OR THEREABOUTS AND CAN BE RETRO-FITTED TO AN EXISTING BIKE 6 4 C YC L E JUN E/JULY 2 017
FRAME & FORK IsoSpeed is the name chosen by Trek for the vibration-dissipating technology found on the Wisconsin firm’s Domane endurance road bikes. The first generation Domane, launched in 2012, featured a rear ‘de-coupler’ with a conventional (for Trek) all-carbon fork shaped for resilience. The current version has a de-coupler device in the head tube as well as a new flex adjustment system at the rear. The de-coupler essentially allows the relevant frame member – seat post or fork steerer – to deflect under shock, semiindependently of the frame or fork, in the foreaft plane while remaining accurately aligned to maintain torsional rigidity. At the rear, a slider can be used to alter the length of the flexible spar and tune the rear suspension. Lacking such complexity, the Tarmac Expert’s conventional high-end composite
Above: The right shifter moves the rear derailleur to a smaller sprocket, the left moves it to a bigger one. Press both shifters together, the front mech moves up or down
ELECTRONIC SHIF TING | BIKETEST
SPECIALIZED TA R M AC E X P E R T E TA P eTap derailleurs are bulkier as they house batteries as well as wireless receivers
TREK DOMANE SLR7 The single Di2 battery, linked to both shifters and derailleurs via wires, is hidden in the frame
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CYCLING JE ANS | GROUP TEST
Group test
CYCLING JEANS For urban cycling, there are better compromises than uncomfortable denim or geeky bike gear. Dan Joyce tests jeans designed for cyclists
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OU CAN cycle in normal jeans, of course, but there are a few reasons you might not want to. Comfort tops the list: a thick seam in the crotch combined with a narrow bicycle saddle can make you sore. Then there’s durability: denim wears through at the sit bones after a while. Finally, there’s the fit: even those of us who aren’t track sprinters tend to develop bulkier quads and glutes than non-cyclists of our weight and waist size, making some ordinar y jeans restrictively tight. Why cycle in jeans at all? Why not? When your bike is your transport, you want to be able to hop on and off it in whatever you’re wearing. So if you’re going to own any jeans, it’s arguably worth paying extra for a pair that’s better suited to cycling. Note that there is no gender equality when it comes to cycling jeans: women have fewer to choose from.
WA I S T Whether or not there’s any elastication, all jeans have belt loops so you can fine-tune the fit that way. To accommodate a leaningforward posture, the cut is normally lower at the front, so your belt buckle won’t dig into your belly, and higher at the back. Some have a zipped fly, others buttons.
S E AT The signature design feature of cycling jeans is an extra diamondshaped panel of material in the crotch: a gusset that prevents you sitting on a thick seam.
P O CK E T S
M ATE R IA L Cycling jeans aren’t 100% cotton. A small amount of elastane or other synthetic fibre enables the fabric to stretch to provide a closer fit that doesn’t compromise pedalling. Some jeans also employ Cordura for abrasion resistance.
You won’t be wearing a bike jersey, so anything you need to pocket – keys, coins, wallet, phone, etc. – will likely go in the jeans. Four pockets is a minimum, all deep enough that they won’t spill their contents when you’re pedalling.
LEG Even regular-fit cycling jeans tend to be cut a little closer in the lower leg to prevent them flapping around, with slim-fit and skinny-fit jeans cut closer still. Some jeans have darts at the knee for easier bending, but most depend on the fabric’s stretchiness.
Your thoughts? WRITE TO US: Cycle Letters, PO Box 313, Scarborough, YO12 6WZ EMAIL US: editor@cyclinguk.org DISCUSS ONLINE: forum.cyclinguk.org
DAN JOYCE Cycle editor
E X TR A S Most cycling jeans have reflective details that are revealed if you roll them part way up your calf, hipsterstyle. Some have additional details such as ankle tabs or reinforcing panels.
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Travellers’ tales
‘Mountain’ biking in Norfolk
Manche to the Med ROLAND SEBER TOURED END TO-END ACROSS FRANCE WITH WIFE JULIE RAND
PE DDARS WAY, OUR WAY Alan Thompson and two friends explored Norfolk on mountain bikes
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acko and Podge appeared from an overgrown and rutted section of the Peddars Way, arms and legs bloodied. ‘Ah, Livingstone, I presume?’ I nearly said, until I saw their icy stares. ‘We could take this quiet road to Castle Acre for tea and cakes,’ I suggested instead. We’d come down to Hunstanton from Merseyside with our mountain bikes to ride the Peddars Way and catch some late August sun. Jacko, pushing 70, had some reservations about riding off-road after a lifetime on it, but had bought a nice Scott MTB off one of the lads. We left the trail at Harpley Dams and followed quiet lanes through Little and Great Massingham, then rejoined the Way on old Roman road that took us to Castle Acre, where we visited the tourist sites – an 11th century Cluniac priory
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and the 12th century Norman castle. From there, we decided to head back north and leave the Peddars Way to braver, younger men. But at the village of Harpley, I noticed an off-road route through the grounds of Houghton Hall, which was built for Sir Robert Walpole. As we approached it, a large man wanted to know what we were doing. ‘Admiring the Palladian architecture,’ I said. He politely sent us back the way we’d come. We weren’t back on the road long when I noticed a bridleway heading over the fields to Anmer, which was followed by some more off-road to Fring. Eventually we reached the coastal village of Thornham, where we took liquid refreshment at the Old Coach House, sitting outside in the warm sunshine. We planned a way back to Hunstanton via the coast, stopping to admire the amazing empty beaches near Gore Point. Next day, we followed the coastal cycle route to Wells, before another night at Hunstanton and a long journey home.
he idea of cycling across France was a challenge in lots of ways. My unease in travelling far from home, as I have agoraphobia, was just one of them. But we had a target – the town of Sète, west of Montpellier – and a deadline: a TGV booked back to Paris in 11 days. Following the River Loire south from Orléans and then the Allier through the Auvergne towards Le Puy, we cruised effortlessly past miles of empty waterways and fields of sunflowers, all the while thinking about seeing the Camargue’s wild horses and pink flamingos, and the waves of the Med. All was going according to plan until we hit the Massif Central. Daily mileage dropped and spirits with it. The low point came 50km from Le Puy when we realised we wouldn’t make our deadline. Our map didn’t show stations clearly but we prayed that there might be one in the nearest town of Langogne. There was – with a train to Nîmes waiting to depart! It had room for us and the bikes, so we jumped straight on. By the time we reached the Camargue, I was managing my anxiety and enjoying the trip. An unscheduled night on the beach near Montpellier (another story!) and a futile attempt to see the horses and flamingos later, we just made our TGV for the journey home.
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