Encycleopedia No 2 by Encycleopedia

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Enth채lt kostenlose Ubersetzung bei Verkauf in deutschsprachigen L채ndern

© 1994 Open Road Ltd, First published in Great Britain, August, 1994 by Open Road Ltd, 4 New Street, York, YO 2RA. Tel +44 (0) 1904 654654 Fax +44 (0) 1904 671707 Cover Art (homage to Dali): David Eccles © David Eccles, all linocuts and cover art. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Copyright owners. Open Road Ltd has made every effort to ensure that all products featured in Encycleopedia are of high quality, from respectable sources, and are accurately described. However, we cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of transactions between readers and producers and/or distributors of the products described in Encycleopedia. Open Road Ltd has made every effort to ensure that the shops listed in Encycleopedia are reputable, efficient and sympathetic to the aims of Encycleopedia. However, we cannot bear responsibility for the actions of shops, nor for the consequences of transactions between readers and shops. Conceived, compiled, edited and produced by Alan Davidson and Jim McGurn Written by Jim McGurn Commercial Direction: Alan Davidson Designed by Brian Holt DIP Production: Christopher Thomas Studio/Video Manager and Editorial Support: Amy Davidson Research and Editorial Support: Edgar Newton Representative in Germany: Kalle Kallchoff Product care and assembly: Cycle Heaven, 5 Bishopthorpe Road, York, Y02 1 N Studio Photography: Paul Batty, Camblesforth, Selby, Y08 8HL Film Production by Adlington and Brough Ltd. 121 Duke Street, Sheffield, S2 SQL Printed by Garnett Dickinson Print Ltd. Eastwood Works, Fitzwilliam Road, Rotherham, S65 1JU Video Production: Hall Place Studios, 4 Hall Place, Leeds, LS9 8jD Translated into German by Dorothee Siebecke. Tilsiter Strae 7, 76726 Germersheim, Germany. Special thanks to Mike

Burrows

and Richard Ballantine

ISBN 1 898457 018 Encycleopedia: The International Buers' Guide to Alternatives in Cycling.

RRP: £15. S23, 38DM. f44.

Encycleopedia The international buyers' guide to alternatives in cycling

Alan Davidson & Jim McGurn

his is a book of answers. It shows what wonderful things can happen to our lives and our communities when the power of our bodies is combined with the priceless potential of the pedal and the wheel. Cycling is something special. We hope that the ideas in these pages will help change the way we think about personal transport, freedom and leisure: rarely does the chance to change the world come in the form of so much good fun.

OPEN-- ROAD

Introduction I

he future of the human race largely depends on how we choose to move ourselves from place to place. Multinational industry tells us to fill the roads with fast and colourful pleasure-boxes. Freedom and individualism are the slogans, yet these are least in evidence as we gaze down a grey and busy road to delusion and desolation. Yet hope is all around us. Imaginative and energetic designers and engineers are showing that pedal-power can do an awful lot more than take a fashion-conscious young teenager up a hillside. It can make a huge difference to people's lives, and to their communities. New permutations of cycle technology are enabling us to go further and faster in greater comfort, to carry children and heavy goods, to cycle sociably together on the same machine, and to combine cycling with other forms of transport. The fascinating machines you see in Encycleopedia are practical proof, day-in-day-out, that we have real choices. They are all commercially available, and virtually all from small, specialised, ecologically aware manufacturers from around the world. These manufacturers often find it difficult to market their specialised products effectively. They do not generally have access to the buying public via the high street cycle shop. We felt that such creative people with vital ideas should be brought together in one internationally available book, Encycleopedia. This is our second edition. That it is twice as big as the first is, we believe, a sign that our work is useful and welcome. We have taken the unusual step of binding Issue Three of our magazine, Bike Culture, into this Encycleopedia - to introduce BCQ to a wider readership. We hope you like it. This no-advertising quarterly is a forum for all open-minded cyclists, and, like Encycleopedia, is published from an international perspective. The 1995/96 Encycleopedia will be published separately from BCQ. There is no point in featuring products in Encycleopedia without explaining how to source them - which is not a straightforward matter. Many manufacturers are not set up to deal with the public, especially not on an international basis, and it is also important to support the cycle shops. Providing a back-up service to the shops, and a reader responsecard service, means that we need to charge manufacturers a participation fee. However, manufacturers appear in Encycleopedia by invitation only. The criterion is not how much money a manufacturer has, but rather how interesting the product is. If we badly want a product to appear in Encycleopedia we show flexibility. If we still cannot come to an agreement with a manufacturer, then the product is probably not seriously in production, and belongs, perhaps, in the editorial of BCQ. We have teamed up with a number of far-sighted bike shops around the world, specially chosen as being sympathetic to the aims of this book, and willing to try to supply many of the products you find on these pages. Sourcing these products is not easy, and only some of them may be in stock in any one bike shop. We believe that local specialist bike shops are critically important to the future of cycling.

You will find details of the participating bike shops at the back of this book. If you are seriously interested in purchasing any of the products then contact the shop nearest to you. If you're too far from a bike shop, or the bike shop can't help, send us the tear-out response card and we'll pass your enquiry to the relevant distributor or manufacturer, and at the same time we'll write to you with details of that manufacturer. Very occasionally we have put the manufacturer's address on the page, where he or she only ever deals direct. On the other hand, if you don't think you're a buyer, but simply want more information, then it would be better for you, and for the bike shop, if you were to contact us directly in the first instance. An innovation is the inclusion of a components and accessories section, at the request of readers and shops. There are not many small manufacturers in this area, so we have made exceptions here and there to our normal practice. One last but important point. It is very difficult to give readers an idea of the price of a product. To send a bicycle from country to country, perhaps even across the world, is expensive. Then there are import duties, local taxes etc. For this reason we have almost always given the cost of a product in its country of origin, and in the currency of that country. This book is read in so many countries that no other method makes sense. Therefore, expect to pay a lot more than the guide price when buying outside the country of origin. We've greatly enjoyed our work on this book, and will he happy if it extends a little pleasure and sanity around the world. Happy Cycling,

4iiv o

PÂź

If you want to find out more about a product which interests you, or just like looking at nice bikes, you can order a video, which features all the products marked with the video symbol. Details are on page 111. We use this symbol where we think you might wish to read the more detailed entry for the product or company in last year's Encycleopedia. (Copies are still available: see pages 176-178).

Contents Recumbents

Classics

Family

Trikes

Portables

Accessories

Video

111

Shops

112

Bike Culture

127

Recumbe ts I

he last ten years have seen an exciting resurgence in the popularity of recumbent riding, and interest seems to be increasing exponentially, in many parts of the world. We attempt in this introduction to explain the whys and the wherefores of lying back. This has been due exclusively to the efforts and enthusiasm of a new generation of independent cycle designers and engineers, mostly working in the USA and Northern Europe. Recumbents have suffered from what effectively has been worldwide banishment from mainstream international competition for more than sixty years. In the 1930s recumbents consistently outperformed conventional bikes in track events. Recumbent bikes and trikes are now racing in their own events, under the more liberal rules of the various Human-Powered Vehicle Associations now springing up around the world. HPV events are enjoyable, and often intimate events, full of the spirit of adventure. Many recumbent designers and inventors are inspired by the planet's need for ecologically sound transport. Their pioneering work is leading to the development of new, lightweight cycle technology for everyday riders. Recumbents will not replace the conventional bicycle. But they will constitute a very important minority of cycles on the road, appreciated by those who seek their pleasures beyond the realms of the diamond frame bicycle. Of course, such a radical alternative in bicycle design involves a whole range of new performance characteristics. A big improvement in one area often entails a minor disadvantage elsewhere. Reclining has its reasons. You rest on a comfortable supportive seat, rather than perch on a saddle. Your diaphragm is allowed to expand, thus improving your breathing. Weight is taken off your wrists, your neck is relaxed, and you have better all-round vision. Recumbents are often beneficial to riders with back or knee problems, who would otherwise need to give up cycling altogether. Although there are many variations, recumbents are often very fast machines, partly due to their aerodynamic superiority, resulting from the reduced frontal area. For racing or fast touring a 'windscreen' fairing is added, or a full, all-enclosing fairing for serious track competition. In very general terms aerodynamic considerations become an important factor at around 25kph (15 mph). Recumbent riders argue that their machines offer safety advantages. Certainly, they are eye-catching, and motorists notice them. Brakes can be squeezed confidently - there's no fear of a nose-dive over the top, and in a head-on collision, the rider's head is not the first point of contact. You can cruise along in absolute comfort, and you should notice a big increase in your longer distance performance. There is little to beat the sensation of powering round a series of bends while you lie back and enjoy the changing view. Riding comfort is improved by appropriate suspension (beyond the suspension which already exists in your tyres and spokes). Some recumbents have suspension at the front, the rear, or both. Suspension systems helps roadholding in extreme conditions, and

make the ride more comfortable. On the other hand they can add to the weight, and may absorb a little of your pedalling power, depending on the design. Some recumbents are designed never to have suspension, and remain comfortable to ride. Recumbents also have their drawbacks. Some two-wheeled versions can be short on manoeuvrability at low speeds in traffic. And recumbents are not usually intended for serious hill climbing - but they can usually outperform standard bikes in most other circumstances. At first recumbent riding can make your legs ache, since it calls on muscles which are less used in conventional riding. But as soon as your body has adjusted, you will enjoy a cycling sensation you never thought possible. Do not pull on handlebars: push against your back; and make sure you stop in a low gear: you cannot get out of the saddle and honk your way up to speed as on a conventional bike. Another drawback is the fact that some recumbent seats can cause sweating, due to the lack of air circulating round the rider's back. There are several distinct types of recumbent, and many models which fall in between. Long-wheelbase designs tend to be primarily for touring or long-distance riding. They are extremely comfortable, well suited to carrying loads, and have relaxed riding characteristics. They have handlebars either beneath the seat, with a connecting rod linked to the front forks, or else they have above-the-frame steering, with long-reach bars connecting directly with the headset. Short wheelbase recumbents tend to have livelier riding characteristics. This is the type of recumbent which is still popular in track racing, although there are several excellent variants designed for touring and commuting use. In very general terms, short-wheelbase recumbents are usually lighter than their longer relatives, but take more skill to ride. There is also now a new generation of very low recumbents, with frames dipping down to just above the ground. These are out-and-out track racing machines. Then there are tricycle recumbents. These give a unique riding experience. You loose the ability to squeeze past lines of traffic, and trikes are usually heavier than bikes, but there is little to compare with the sense of total stability on the straight, combined with fast, sharp go-where-youplease cornering. The low riding position gives a sensation of added speed as the road seems to rush up to meet you. And there are quadricycle recumbents, and load-carrying recumbents, and tandem recumbents... We believe that every principal type of recumbent is represented in the following pages. The choice has never been wider. Join the Club.

INTERNATIONAL. The International Human-Powered Vehicle Association, based in the USA, promotes improvement and creativity in design and development. It tends to the scientific and experimental rather than the practical and the everyday. Membership brings you the monthly HPV News, and also Human Power, a quarterly technical journal. Membership: $25 for North America and $30 for other countries. IHPVA, PO.Box 51255, Indianapolis, IN 46251 -0255, USA. BELGIUM. HPV Belgium is a newly fonned club with 55 members and a news-letter produced at irregular intervals. Membership costs 300 Belgian Francs. Frans Holvoet, Bavikhoovestraat 173, 8531 Bavikhove, Belgium. BRITISH Human-Power Club, chaired by Mike Burrows, has 300 members and a quarterly newsletter. The Club arranges about 10 events a year. Membership costs ÂŁ10 from John Kingsbury 22 Oakfleld Road, Bourne End, Bucks. SL8 5QR DENMARK

The IJPV Club Danmark produce a fine newsletter with a 600 copy circulation. Contact them at the Dansk Cyklist Forbund, Romersgade Z Copenhagen. Or phone Johannes Lund: 064 29 8169. GERMANY

The HPV Club Deutschland has 720 members and uses Pro-Velo as its official organ. Membership costs 50 DM. Contact: Troisdorfer Umweltzentrum, WilhelmHamacher-Platz, 53840 Troisdorf. A separate and very useful facility is the Liegeraddatei, an information service run by Andreas Pooch. Send 7 DM for his booklet on current HPVs and to have access to his information service.

NETHERLANDS

The Nederlandse Vereniging voor HPV's has over 1000 members and its well-produced newsletter goes out six times a year. Posthus 10075, 1301 AB Almere, Tel (Netherlands) 36 5312638. Membership: f47.50. NEW ZEALAND Human Powered Vehicles has 60 members and a quarterly newsletter. Subscription NZ $20 or NZ $30 for overseas. Paul Dunlop 56 Cowlisham St. Avonside, Christchurch, New Zealand. OREGON Human Powered Vehicles has 45 members. They meet monthly, produce nine newsletters a year, and have a membership fee of $10. Rick Pope P0 Box 614, Beaverton, OR 97575. SWEDEN

Contact Mats Nilsson, Hermelinsv. 151, 906 42 Umea. Tel (Sweden) 90 140580 SWITZERLAND. Future Bike CH are hosts to the European HPV Championships near Berne on the 26th to 28th August 1994. They have 435 members, a bi-monthly newsletter, and many events and exhibitions. There is a tandem section for both recumbent and classic designs. Membership costs from 20 to 50 Swiss Francs. Juerg Hoelzle, Spitzackerstrasse 9, CH-4410 LiestaVSwitzerland. Fax +44 33 30 39. WISCONSIN/ILLINOIS. The 50 members of this club enjoy a full summer programme. They ride through 100-year old train tunnels, and eyeball some of the biggest, strangest farm dogs around" The newsletter is monthly, and membership costs $12. Len Brunkalla, 260 S. Channing, Apt. 1, Elgin, IL 60120-6619.

N[4LII1O P E DI A

recumbents

VOSS SPEZIAL-RAD GMBH

EVO represents the happy conjunction of the skills of Klaus Beck and Hans Voss. Klaus Beck teaches art and physics in a comprehensive school in Hamburg where he encouraged students to build bicycles without being bunkered by preconceptions. Hans Voss is a respected distributor who has sold a dozen different makes of recumbent, many from abroad. This has given him a clear idea of the various design factors which hold many people back from buying a recumbent. Hans found that some people disliked machines with long runs of chain. Others were nervous of the seating position or handling characteristics of some models, or were dissatisfied with the wheelbase. So he got to work with Klaus Beck, who had already made more than twenty different experimental machines. The result of their co-operation, the BEVO-Bike, incorporates a pragmatic set of aims: to provide the best combination of comfort, aerodynamic position and safety.

Comfort is addressed in both the physical and perceptual sense by the unusual scat, which has variable positioning not only for the back (from near upright to laid-back) but also for the leather cutaway base. The seating position is higher than usual on recumbents, giving better visibility in traffic, and the direct steering is above the bars, which feels reassuring and natural to many riders. The EasyRider position seems to enchant the general public more than under-bar suspension. The handlebar is easily adjusted for position, and a longer or shorter stem can be fitted. Almost any newcomer to recumbents can master the BEVO-bike within a few minutes. Its wheelbase is only a tiny bit longer than that

of a Dutch roadster, and the bottom bracket is sited at a moderate 10cm below seat-level. This feels comfortable, and yet keeps the forward transmission system within the neat aerodynamic profile (which also encompasses the handlebar and rider's arms). Once the rider's weight is on the BEVO-Bike the riding position becomes more recumbent than it appears in our photograph. A handsome Zzipper fairing, specially commissioned for the BEVO-Bike, further improves aerodynamics, and can be used in conjunction with a rain cover for the rider. A further important aid to comfort is the under-seat frame suspension, with a 100mm travel to take out serious bumps. The front-wheel drive system, patented as Top Drive, avoids the problems associated with a long chain to the rear wheel. The twisting force is applied to the chain only when the wheel is turned severely, which is not the case in normal use. In any case a restrictor system limits the turning circle, in order to avoid excessive stresses on the chain. Once you get above a certain speed there is very little lateral movement in the front wheel. We did not find the restricted turning circle to be a big problem in practice. A roller close to the chainwheel keeps the chain in tension. This may need to be checked occasionally and adjusted, otherwise the chain could jump off the sprocket. Front-wheel drive also allows better storage, since the triangle can be folded under the frame. At the same time, the seat can be folded down. In line with their aim to make the BEVO as userfriendly as possible, the makers have chosen Sachs hub gears: the Super 7 gives a welcome 284% range from top to bottom. Only hub gears are possible with the BEVO-Bike. Luggage can be carried either behind the seat, or in an unusual under-frame holder. There will soon be under-frame low-rider racks available, and a clip-on Karrimor rucksack/bike bag for behind the seat. Despite the emphasis on easy riding, Hans and Klaus do not intend the BEVO as simply a recumbent for beginners. They want it to be seen rather as a recumbent equivalent of the Moulton APB: a recumbent All-Purpose Bicycle: a comfortable, effective and enjoyable vehicle for almost every cycling need.

Klaus Beck and Hans Voss

The front-wheel drive solves many problems

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i?.. evo

recumbents

bike

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Wheelbase: 1,36m.

The single-size frame accommo-

Wheels: front, 20". rear 26", with

dates riders up to 1.95 metres

mudguards, or 28" rear wheel with

Overall length: 1,95m.

(6' 5").

narrow tyre, if no mudguard is

Weight: 16 kilos (351b). A five-

Brakes: Magura Hydraulic on front,

used.

speed is optional.

DiaCompe Hybrid on rear.

Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Germany, Whorin ito! c'n ,rw-tt tr no,

Once you sit the riding p slightly mor thanks to th

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recumbents

THE SEAT OF THE PANTS COMPANY eaders of the 1993/94 Encycleopedia may recall our suggestion that the pleasure of throwing a Windcheetah into tight turns was probably akin to flying an early aircraft by the seat of your pants. This comparison obviously appealed to Bob Dixon who took over production of Windcheetahs under licence from inventor Mike Burrows earlier this year. The Windcheetah has been around for over ten years now and it is an indication of the limited production that there are only 160 of this design classic in circulation. Based in Manchester, Bob's new company is set to significantly step up production and will now produce frames in small medium and large sizes. The Seat of the Pants Company are not merely concerned with improving availability, but also with the continued evolution of the design, which is vital to the long term future for Windcheetahs. They will be working to this end in consultation with Mike. They also offer a full spares service for early Windcheetahs. One such evolutionary change is the choice of new aluminium alloy lug material, LM25. Manufactured to BS 1490 standards, LM25 is a significant improvement since, being of higher quality, it machines better and can take a conventional bottom bracket. Other changes include the decision to dispense with glass re-inforced plastic seats to standardise on carbon-kevlar, and the introduction of Sturmey VT 5000 brakes on the 17" front wheels. Mike insists

that 17" wheels are the required size for the definitive Windcheetah but these require the expensive Moulton/Wolber tyres, which leads some owners to try fitting larger wheels, at the expense of the turning circle and general handling. 17" wheels are also more capable of withstanding the enormous sideways forces during fast turns. It's the nature of the beast that recumbent riders get sweaty seat syndrome. To help alleviate this the new Windcheetah offers an upholstered seat option incorporating a wicking material initially designed for sports shoe soles. The middle is detachable for easy washing. The standard version foam seat is still available. These evolutionary changes to the Windcheetah will enhance its wide popularity in the HPV racing world, and enthuse recumbent trike freaks everywhere. The pleasures of riding a Windcheetah are not, of course. restricted to the race track. Many owners enjoy simple fast day rides, sitting back but powering along, with steering, gears and brakes all on a single control column. Special edition Windcheetahs with titanium parts are also in the pipeline as are extra-small and extralarge frame sizes at extra cost. Apart from taking on production of the Windcheetah, the Seat of the Pants Company are also busy developing a new quadricycle which we hope to review in the next Encycleopedia.

Bob Dixon

The Seat of the Pants Company.

Mike Burrows

Left: The a stub ax just one pedals ax Right: St and gear at the en control s

OPEDIA

BUITOWS SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Main frame: aluminium, in three sizes.

Length of medium size: 1.98m (66), for riders 1.63m to 1.83m (54" to 6) Wheels 17" and 26.

Weight: 16kg (351b). Equipment is largely to customer's choice. A full body shell is available for track racing and enquiries are welcome.

recumbents

windcheetah I

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recumbents

SWING CYCLE DELFT he appeal of the Chinkara lies not just in its elegant lines and graceful engineering, but also in its originality, and the close relationship which develops between rider and machine. Your friends can keep their hands off it: the Chinkara demands special riding skills which, once learned, become second nature. It can take between half an hour and three hours to learn the basic skills, and a week or two before skills are advanced enough for the total control needed in traffic. Rob Hofman, designer and manufacturer, demonstrates delicate manoeuvring and hands-off balance at all speeds, and tells us that, from experience, this is wfthin the capabilities of virtually all cyclists.

The central steering leaves chainwheel and sprocket in a fixed plain

The Chinkara's riding characteristics stem from the central steering: the pivot point is just before the seat. This approach to recumbent design, first successfully established by Wim van Wijnen with his Cha Cha, allows a simple front-wheel drive without the drawbacks of a chainset pivoting with the forks, or a laterally flexed chain dropping down from a chainset fixed rigidly to the frame. It also avoids the alternative of a long chain to the rear wheel. You steer the Chinkara by combining shifts of body weight with hip movement. Front-wheel drive permits a wheelbase equivalent to that of a standard bicycle, and the relatively high seat keeps you at eye level with motorists. The Chinkara also has a natural exclusivity in that it is 0 rtu11v custom-made. You choose your own

components from an extensive chart supplied by the manufacturer, and your frame is scaled to your size, with wheel size chosen to match. The design philosophy is based on comfort and ease of maintenance rather than out and out speed, although a racing version will soon be on the tracks. The Chinkara is not intended for mass sales. Only a select number of cyclists will pay the relatively high cost of a quality custom-made machine from a workshop producing only thirty or so per year. The frame material is stainless steel. Rob explains that he chose this for its high yield strength, and that the grade he uses has a particularly high fatigue strength. Stainless steel is also infinitely recyclable, and does not require painting. Rob prefers the naked look, but is happy to supply in a choice of colours. The possible wheels sizes are from 20" to 26", although good rims and tyres at intermediate sizes are thin on the ground. Traditional spoked wheels or tn-spokes are alternatives. An eccentric front hub allows for chain tension adjustment if no derailleur is fitted. Most customers opt for derailleur gears. The model photographed, which Rob rode to our studio from Holland, has a Sachs seven-speed hub, with fixed-wheel. He experiments with all permutations as part of his product development work. The seat is ventilated, and adjustable in all directions. A carbon fibre luggage box is available as an accessory. It also fits MS and Flevobike recumbents. The Chinkara's gas suspension can be pre-set with, if required, differing resistance on the out-stroke and the in-stroke. The suspension system is the result of close co-operation with the Dutch company WP Suspension. It has been specially developed for recumbents and is available separately from Swing Cycles. Rob Hofman is an active and long-standing member of the Dutch HPV Club. He is soon to work in partnership with Leo van de Born - sometimes referred to as Mr recumbent in Dutch HPV circles. They will work together on new projects and products. The Chinkara is named, by the way, after an antelope famed or its speed and agility. Chinkara also happens to approximate phonetically the Japanese for human-power.

Rob Hofman

O P ED I A

recumbents

hinkara SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Weight: around 15.5 kilos (16 kilos with 7-speed hub). Wheelbase: approx 1000mm. Six

frame sizes for people 155cm 195cm. Prices vary according to country and specification. A frame-set with HP suspension forks, sold in the Netherlands, costs 3300 Dutch guilders. A fully equipped Chinkara can cost between 4300 and 8500 guilders. depending on specification.

The front fork can be fitted with a derailleur, or an eccentric hub for chain adjustment

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recumbents

RYAN RECUMBENT CYCLES I wo decades are a long time in the volatile world of recumbent design, yet the classic form of Dick Ryan's Vanguard shows a direct lineage from the legendary Avatar, the first of the post-war generation of long-wheelbase touring and commuting recumbents. This is not surprising, since Dick Ryan was one of the team which helped develop the Avatar. A classic design is not enough if a company wants to succeed in the highly competitive US recumbent market. Constant improvements in design, componentrv, materials and manufacturing processes have kept Ryans ahead of the game. They are currently working, for example, on a prototype aluminiumframe recumbent, with a target price of $695-$825. Like virtually all commercial recumbent-makers Dick Ryan and his son Karl (president and VicePresident) are passionate bikies themselves. Many customers become friends, sending back tour reports and helping the Ryans with further product development. One day, when production pressures had eased a little, Dick decided to build a tandem,just for fun: "I never intended to market a tandem. I thought that a bike with such a long wheelbase would be unwieldy.

Dick and Karl Ryan

To my surprise the bike handled very well. So far the response from the customers has been 100% positive." The DuPlex, as it is called, has a double aerodynamic advantage: it has the low drag of a recumbent, and presents only one of the two riders to the oncoming air. The DuPlex makes tandeming a relaxing and sociable experience for the stoker. Think of the many tandeming couples you have seen, where the diminutive stoker can see little more than the heaving flanks and torso of the pilot. The seating position of the DuPlex seems to be both more egalitarian and relaxed. The stoker is now being practically chauffeured, and could probably mix a cocktail or do the crossword during any longeurs in the trip. A large luggage carrying capacity is a further aid to Th

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~ x; ON S= RYA" RECUMBENT CYCLES, INC.

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recLimbents

UpIeX &van9U ard SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

VANGUARD

DUPLEX

Frame: TIG welded chrome moly.

Frame tubing and seats as per

Aluminium seat frame. Nylon mesh

Vanguard.

seat cover. Transmission and

Transmission: Shimano LX, with

brakes: Shimano Deore LX.

Specialized 53,43.26 crankset.

Sunlour 52.42,32 crankset.

Wheels: Sun rims. 26 x 1.5 and

Wheels: Weinmann rims. 26 x

20 x 1.5.

1.25 and 20 x 1.5.

Brakes: Scott Self-Energizing, front

Weight: 14.9kg (311b) Wheelbase:

and rear, Arai drum brake on rear.

169cm (66 2/3"). Colours: black

Weight: 24kg (531b).

or red.

Wheelbase: 266.7cm (105). Colours: black or red. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in the USA, where a Vanguard costs around $1495 and a Duplex around $3400, depending on specifications.

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recumbents

HASE SPEZIALRADER arec Hase has created innovative cycles at a breathtaking rate since he first began at the age of 13, learning fast from each completed project. As a result there are 30 or so assorted one-offs and prototypes being pedalled round by fortunate friends and customers in the Bochum area. He now makes his living from cycle production, at the astonishingly young age of 23. While he was still training in precision engineering his cycle designs achieved huge success in a government youth enterprise competition (Jugend Forscht). This brought him public interest and orders, which helped with investment in tooling-up for series production of the Easy Glider tricycle, the mainstay of his development work. The Easy Glider is a wonderfully practical town and touring machine: it is low enough and wide enough for reasuring stability on fast cornering, and yet not so low that you commune with the tarmac rather than with the rest of the world. Although many EasyGliders are sold to disabled cyclists, they are not designed specifically for that market. Marec is keen to promote them as a sporty yet comfortable alternative for anyone who appreciates the many advantages of three-wheeling. Tricycles are naturally comfortable, and controllable even at low speeds. Recumbent tricycles are particularly relaxing. Marec continues to work closely with organisations for the disabled, undertaking a lot of custom-building. A hand-cranked version and a lower step-over frame will soon be available. Since it is not always possible to miss potholes on a trike, the Easy Glider has a voluminous 150mmtravel underseat suspension unit. There is a choice of three suspension strengths, according to your weight. Smaller road shocks are largely taken out by the natural suspension in the webbed seat. The seat inclination can be tilted for comfort. The three hydraulic brakes give massive stopping power, with the advantage that on a recumbent front wheel braking is most unlikely to send you into orbit. The two rear hydraulics are applied by one lever, and equalised. The hub dynamo gives all-weather lighting, and the Busch and Muller rear light stays on when the trike

stops. A roomy purpose-made box for luggage or shopping can be fitted between the rear wheels, and taken off in seconds when not required. Marec feels that he would not have been able to risk the curent production run of 150 units without the support and advice of his colleague Heinz Flaig nicknamed Hai-Flai in recognition of his many years in aircraft engineering and manufacture. As a cycle enthusiast Heinz was quick to recognise Marec's potential, and has worked closely with him on design, materials and production planning. Alongside the Easy Glider trike Marec makes an Easy Glider two-wheeled recumbent with the same 150mm-travel suspension. He currently has five on test, and is very pleased with the results. These are fitted with a prototype front suspension with 35mm travel, which will soon be available for the threewheeler, as an option. Marec has also constructed a four-wheeled side-byside consisting of two recumbents which can be coupled together. This is not an experimental curiosity: it was made so that he could cycle sociably with a blind friend. On the same machine, but with a different partner, he recently cycled from his home in Bochum down to Lake Constance and back. He has also told us confidentially about a prototype he has for a new departure in two-wheeled tandem design, which we hope to feature next year.

Marec and friends enjoy his creations. Heinz Flaig, co-developer of the Easy-Glider is far right

Marec Hase

Aadrlw

Hase SpezialrĂ¤der

OPEDIA

asy glider SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame: seamless precision steel.

Prices vary according to country.

Adjustable for anyone between

The lowest price is in Germany,

1.30m to 2.00m (telescopic frame

where you can expect to pay

extension). Powder-coated.

around 5255 DM.

Total length: 1700-2000mm. Total width: 900mm. Wheels: 26" and 16'. Gears: Sachs 3x7 with Racing Groupset 5000'. Weight: 23-26 kilos, depending on equipment.

recumbents

E N[4LI1O P ED IA

rectiinbeiits

FLUX=FAHRRADER ometimes the creativity of a bike designer is matched by a customer whose colourful lifestyle is centred on the bike in question. So it is with Christian Uwe Mischner (known as Cum), designer and maker of Flux rccumbents. While he grafts away in his workshop, his friend Walter Zorn is out on the road, clocking up 20,000-25,000 kilometres a year on his Flux. He often covers 400 kilometres in a day, eating and sleeping in his fully faired machine. Champion of the 1991 HPV Championship in Wolverhampton, Walter has a personal speed record of 125kph: downhill in a full fairing. He's had a good few collisions with trams and cars in his time on the road. Cum is himself an accomplished recumbent racing cyclist, and believes that innovation will come through sport. His ST machines make excellent fast tourers, and are sparkling performers on the race track. However, Cum makes a thoroughbred lowrider recumbent for serious speed addicts. The Flux Z-Pro low-rider incorporates the latest knowledge in aerodynamic design. The frame sinks to the lowest possible level, rising enough to bridge the front wheel. The rear fairing, supplied as an extra, is a neat aerodynamic solution to the mess of airstreams which can swirl round wildly behind the rider's body. This is a serious track-racing machine: the extra low riding position requires good riding skills, especially at low speeds. The mainstay of Cum's work is his standard model: the ST-E short-wheelbase sports recumbent, which is also available as the ST-2, with front suspension and a 'touring package' of lights, carrier, stand and mudguards. Weight is distributed evenly throughout the bike, to give a stable ride, and the optional Fl front suspension increases comfort and roadholding. A secondary chainset, linking two separate chains, permits a wide range of gear ratios, and avoids a flapping chain.

The Flux scat is made of contoured beechwood, specially treated to be water-resistant, and drilled with holes for ventilation. This firm shell is made comfortable by cushioning of porous fibre. Flux ST recumbents are supplied off-the-peg to shops, and custom-built cycles are available through direct contact. Cum has just added front and rear fairings to his range: both for the ST models and the Z-Pro low-rider. He is currently working on a full suspension system - product development never ends.

Christian Uwe-Mischner

DAS KURZLIEGERAD

Left: A teflon tube protects the chain and your legs Below: The ST-E, without suspension forks

O P ED I A

recumbents

FIUX Z- P rO & ST-2 SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

FLUX ST-2

chrome-moly forks, a 46/30 twin

Prices vary according to country.

Main frame: hi-tensile steel, in five

chainset, a slightly lower

The lowest price is in Germany,

sizes

transmission spec, and no touring

where you can expect to pay

Rear frame: chrome-moly.

package. Both models have

between 2998 DM for the ST-E to

Shimano Deore LX. tandem cross-

optional Fl suspension forks, with

4726 DM for the ST-2 with suspen

over drive of 46/36/26, Shimano

45mm of travel.

sion and the touring package. The

M-323 SPD pedals, Vredestein

Weight: from 12.9kg (28.41b).

Z-Pro costs 4998 DM. Rear fairing on all models cost 998 DM extra.

Monte Carlo tyres (37-406 and 32-

THE FLUX Z-PRO

622).

The Flux Z-Pro comes in four frame

Touring package: Pletcher Athlete

sizes and is fitted with SunTour

rack, AXA- Lumotec-Toplight lighting

Superbe Pro or Shimano Dura-Ace.

system. SKS mudguards. The Flux

Weight: 11.8 kilos (25.91b). -F

E N[L'I1O P ED I A

recumbents

RADIUS SPEZIALRADER GMBH adius made their reputation with the development of the Peer Gynt touring recumbent. Four years ago partners Andreas Fortmeier and Peter Ronge began the development of short-wheelbase racing recumbents, which have been very successful on the HPV race tracks and appeal equally to non-competitive riders who enjoy the heady thrill of fast acceleration and high speed riding. The Hornet is the successor to the 16V. The main improvements are centred on the seat, which now has an aluminium frame with a comfortable EVA covering. There is a quick-release adjustment facility in the neck area and in the lower back area.

It continues to be extremely popular for long-distance tourers and commuters, thanks to its well-balanced design, rear suspension, and Magura Hydrostop brakes. This model, too, has now been fitted with teflon chain tubes. Radius have developed fairings systems which fit easily to all their cycles. At 40kph (25mph) the aerodynamics of a Hornet or Peer Gynt will give, very approximately, 2.Skph (1.5mph) advantage over a conventional bike. Add a front fairing and you can double this advantage. Add a rear fairing and you increase the benefit by the same amount. Heavy investment at Radius is helping them catch up with demand, and the partners' target is a threeweek delivery time in the near future.

Left: Andreas Fortmeier jU,ove: Peter Ronge

Radius

Left: The new Hornet seat Below: A Hornet with a fairing

The wheelbase has been extended from 97cm (38") to 1 2 c (40"), partly in order to accommodate the new adjustable elastomer front forks, now available factory-fitted on request. This will give added comfort and roadholding, but brings a small weight disadvantage of around 700g (250ozs). The guide wheel for the chain has been replaced by a teflon chain tube: on both top and bottom lengths of chain. This keeps clothes oil-free, but also keeps rain and nasties off the chain. The Hornet frame and forks are Mannesmann 25CrMo4. There are four sizes, with telescopic extension for a more exact fit. You can buy a frameset, which includes forks, seat, steering assembly, and a complete front tyre, rim, spokes and inner tube. Radius' other main product, the Peer Gynt, shows the classic long-wheelbase design which descends from the Avatar of two decades ago, and perhaps even from pre-war French track-racing recumbents.

O P ED IA

reci,imbei'its

Hornet

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

The Hornet is fitted with a Deore

Colours: Yellow. Black and red are

Prices vary according to country.

Xi groupset (or LX by request).

possible, by order.

The lowest price is in Germany,

Wheels: 20' and 28' hollow sec-

Options: Front fairing, rear fairing

where you can expect to pay 3100

tion. Weight 12.5kg (27.51b).

including luggage space, front and

DM for a Hornet, and 1890 DM for

centre-frame racks, mudguards,

a frameset. Suspension forks cost

lighting system, hydraulic brakes.

an extra 650 DM.

The Peer Gynt

The Peer Gynt costs 3500 DM, and eset. There is )-suspension ynt: the Dino, nd2lOODM

The Hornet

E N[ kIIO

P ED I A

recLililbelits

KINGCYCLE n a fairer world Miles Kingsbury and his father, John, would be international celebrities by now. On the 8th September 1990 their ingenuity and skill enabled a self-propelled human being to travel at 46.96 miles (75.14 kilometres) in a single hour. When Pat Kinch powered the bluntly named Bean to this new world record he was slicing the air with an astonishingly low drag co-efficient of 0.08.

The Bean on its way to a new hour record in 1990

The world record fell to the Bean because the Kingsburys know how to keep rolling resistance, wind resistance and mechanical friction to a minimum. They have been designing, building and racing recumbents for ten years, and are highly respected names on the HPV circuits. John Kingsbury is editor of the British Human-Power Club magazine. Their experience in HPVs has enabled the Kingsburys to develop a bicycle which combines the performance of a light, compact and simple racing machine with the practicality of a touring or commuter bike. This has been achieved by the development of an outstanding range of accessories, which can all be retro-fitted with ease. Accessories include a headrest and luggage bag, front and rear wheel discs, a nose fairing and mounting with headlamp, a lockable tail fairing/luggage compartment with lights, and a rack bracket. There is even a full racing fairing, but this is recommended for use only on closed roads and in good weather. At the other end of the scale you can order Kingcycles as framesets (mainframe, seat, handlebars, forks and chain guide pulley). Most customers buy complete machines, and add accessories over a period.

The basis of the Kingcycle design is a twin-tube frame to which everything else is attached at one point or another along its length. The frame is made of elliptical section Reynolds 531, with forged ends, all hand-brazed in five sizes. There are brazed-on cable and mudguard eyes. The standard design uses all-European components, including Sachs transmission and Magura Hydrostop brakes. Kingcycles are fast. One of them appeared on British television, beating a race horse over three to four mile from a standing start. Fairings make a big differ ence to this kind of performance. The rider is well tucked in between the front and rear fairings: the design avoids leaving bits of metal or body as a hostage to the passing air. Kingcycles have a very positive feel to them on the road, but need a little practice at first. Do they have a disadvantage? According to the makers they do: you have to keep stopping to wait for your friends. Kingcycle are still a small company, making about 140 cycles per year. They are happy to undertake specials at the customer's request, or vary the specification within reason. On the race track their ambition is to build a new machine to take their world hour record from 47 miles to over 50 miles. They are developing very low recumbents for training and racing. The rear fairing also serves as a boot

Miles Kingsbury

KING CYCLE

0PEDIA

gcycle

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Front wheel: 450A. Rear wheel: 600A Rigida.

Changers: Sachs New Success. Stronglight 80 triple chainset. 34. 44, 54. Sachs Maillard 7-speed block, 12 to 28 teeth.

Weight: 11.5kg for the basic machine. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Britain, where you can expect to pay £700 for a frameset, and between £1200 and 11700 for a complete machine, depending on specification.

The new Kingcycic adjustable suspension can be retrofitted to existing Kingcycles

recumbents

recumbent

NI1113O

PEDIA

i-ecumbents

LEITRA APS arl-Georg Rasmussen, a former pilot and aircraft designer, is now firmly grounded in appropriate transport design with his fully faired Leitra velomobile. As he says, "It is possible to live comfortably without a motor car. I have done so for 15 years now. In that time I have done 200,000 kilometres in Leitras" Carl was determined to design a vehicle which would enable the rider to comfortably cope with the wind, rain, snow, and slush of the Danish winter. The vehicle he developed is a practical, load carrying, everyday machine. Leitras have been in volume production since 1985 and have travelled more than 1.5 million kilometres in traffic without injuries. They offer full weather protection and are easy to ride for untrained cyclists and elderly people, thanks to their low weight, easy steering and appropriate gearing. One 75-year old owner uses his Leitra to visit his mother: a ride of 80km twice a week. The front wheels of the Leitra are steered, and the rear propelled. This configuration gives high resistance to tipping over - important in strong side gusts and rapid turns. At the same time it gives very good manoeuvrability when combined with Carl's patented steering geometry. The body fairing, which lifts off in a second, has adjustable air vents to cool the rider and keep the windscreen clear. There are openings in the side to allow for hand signals. The fairing acts as a rainproof cape, controlling the convective cooling of the body and keeping the feet dry and clean. Carl has found that in the Danish winter a light sweater over a Tshirt is sufficient to keep him warm. He has even fitted a few handles to the structural parts to pull the bike through or over snowdrifts, a fairly easy task because of its moderate weight. The good turning circle (two meter radius) generally allows him to swerve around piles of snow in Copenhagen's streets The rider gets into the Leitra by tipping forward the hinged front section of the fairing. Many parts are of

an epoxy resin-based material re-enforced with glass fibre, keeping the total weight (including 6-Volt battery) down to 25-28 kgs (55-621bs) with the fairing and 16-18 kgs (35-40lbs) without. Up to 100 litres of luggage can be carried, and this does not affect the steering characteristics. The rechargeable battery, fitted as standard, is located under the seat to provide six to eight hours of power for the lights. Carl-Georg Rasmussen

Left: The shell lifts up in a second, to give easy access Below: The Leitra unveiled

E N[4I'IIlO P E D I A

eitra SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Length: 195-205 m, depending on

Leitra prices are always quoted in

leg length.

pounds Sterling. Carl-Georg tries to

Width: 98cm,

maintain a universal pricing policy,

Height: 120-130cm. Wheels 20 x

such that fully faired Leitras usually

13/8".

cost between ÂŁ3500 and ÂŁ4000

Brakes: drum on all wheels.

according to the accessories

Gears: Sachs Orbit twelve-speed or

required. Unfaired Leitras cost

to customers specification.

around half as much.

Suspension: carbon fibre leafed springs. A childseat can be fitted behind the rider.

P"Irr , -- ----

recurnbei'its

NIjjjO

P ED I A

recunibents

LIGHTNING CYCLE DYNAMICS I hen Tim Brummer goes out for a spin with the Santa Barbara Cycle Club, his --- Lightning recumbent is a familiar part of the scene. It was as long ago as 1979, when very few recumbents were about, that Tim first started development work on the Lightning: "All UCI bikes (diamond-framed racers) I tried were just too uncomfortable. I couldn't ride as far or as fast as I wanted to." Being a pioneer in the field, Tim could draw on no strong body of design knowledge. He simply set himself performance targets based on a friend's Italian sports-racing bike, but including added comfort, safer braking with a shorter stopping distance, and improved cruising speed. He also looked for a comparable hill climbing, acceleration, and handling performance, and wanted the same seat height as a motorist. His recumbent was also to retail in the same price range as that Italian racer. Tim had no preconceptions about handlebar positions. He built a bike with two handlebars, one below the seat and the other shoulder-high. He found that the high handlebars were lighter, simpler, faster, gave much better handling, and provided a mounting point for speedometers and fairings. He recognises that this position is not, over long journeys, as comfortable as underseat steering, but points out that you can steer with one hand if fatigued, letting the other arm rest. Seat design has been a huge development area for Tim. After years of experimentation he has chosen to avoid conventional underseat suspension, since this can absorb some of the rider's power output. A better solution, he feels, lies in the seat design. The seat base has a gap beneath it, allowing to act as a springboard. And it helps to lean forward in the seat when you hit big bumps. A 700C rear wheel size was chosen to give the range of gearing options of a conventional bike. The typical unfaired P-38 has a top gear of 110 inches, with a

high of at least 130" for faired Lightnings. Zzipper, who make fairings for Lightnings, and Chronos, who make add-on motors for them, are both featured elsewhere in this book. Lightnings are front-line speed machines, and have set several records, including a recent 24 hours of 600 miles (966 kilometres) by Peter Penseyres. According to Tim, the faired F-40 is 40% faster than a conventional UCI bike, and gives the bonus of weather protection and luggage capacity. Lightnings are also tourers when you want them to be: a fine combination of speed-orientated design and specification combined with more than manageable steer ing geometry. We were very impressed. Whilst all his radical design work was underway, Tim kept his eyes on his initial goals and the comparison with a classic sports bike. "I have even emulated some of the Italian bike's frame details by using custom-pointed lugs, sloping crown, and forged dropouts with adjusting screws." The P-38 has similar dimensions to those of a conventional bike. permitting easy storage, and it can carry touring loads. It weighs in at a very creditable 11.5 kg (251b) for the larger size.

Right: Optional suspension forks Below: Fully faired and ready to roll. The F40 racer

Tim Brummer

L/GH TN/NC

OPEDIA

recumberits

Lightning P-38 L SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame: 4130 Crome-Moly.

Options: "We can do almost any

Wheels: 700C x 28, 16 x 13/8.

special work desired."

(optional Moulton 17').

The suggested retail price in

Seat: aluminium frame/nylon

America is $1950. Suspension

mesh with foam base.

forks $250 extra.

Transmission: 21-speed SunTour

OPEDIA

recumbents

LINEAR MANUFACTURING INCI he Linear is an example of the growing strength of the US recumbent scene. The first production run, of 30 Linears, was way back in 1981. This year 1500 of them will be made, which is probably a higher production run than any European maker. The wide availability of the Linear in the States has helped boost the whole image of lying back on a bike. It was originally designed by Dirk Kann, who runs a company specialising in making aluminium products. Dirk still supplies some raw aluminium, but Steve Hansel, a bicycle man, has taken over every aspect and is, in essence, Mr Linear. Based on the proportions of the classic long-wheelbase recumbent, the Linear incorporates advanced production techniques, centred on a box-section extruded aluminium mainframe. It is not a racer. and

can fold it completely in two minutes, for compact storage in a car boot or for taking on public transport. This involves taking the wheels out, folding the head tube and chainstays all the way under, and removing the seat. It's all quick-release: no tools needed. A unique feature of the Linear is the choice which the customer can make between a version with under-seat steering and a version with easy rider above-frame steering. Of all Linears sold, 98% go out with under-seat steering. The Linear is extremely comfortable and easy to navigate: a gift for recumbent novices, but it also meets the demands of the fit and serious rider. The triangular 'cut-away' makes it easy to get a foot down quickly, without the awkwardness of some straightedge recumbent seats. There are plenty of small but useful features, such as the handy pocket sewn into the rear of the seat. A bracket is provided to allow the filling of standard racks, and the Linear can also take front panniers. There are eyelets for mudguards (fenders). A nice extra is the facility for a specially-made Zzipper fairing to be fitted. You can buy a Linear as a frameset, which includes the seat, front fork, bottom bracket axle, and the components for the steering system you choose.

A partial fold takes 20 seconds

The steering linkage uncouples to let the front forks fold

no speed or performance claims are made. It is simply a good, comfortable, highly enjoyable and affordable recreational recumbent. The Linear can also be used for touring, especially anything involv ing mixed-mode transport - since it trumps most other recumbents in that it folds down. A couple of Linear fans are currently touring the world on their beloved machines. It takes about 20 seconds to fold the wheels under and flip the seat down, so as to hang the Linear in any crowded garage, or on any car bumper. Or you

Steve Hansel

LIAR

O P ED IA

near SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame: extruded aluminium. Fork: chrome-moly.

The lowest price is in the USA,

Sizes: 36", 39", 42", 54", 48".

where you can expect to pay

Weight: 15kg (331b) to 16kg

around $1200 (either handlebar

(351b), depending on size.

option), and $749 for a frameset.

Wheels: 20" and 27". A smaller version, the Sport Mode!, has 16" and 24' wheels. Colours: gold or silver (anodised) and black.

Rack and mudguards (fenders) make the Linear a practical machine

Prices vary according to country,

recumbents

E N[4I'I1O P ED I A

recunibeiits

OSTRAD GMBH t seven o'clock in the evening of the 1St May 1993 a seventy-year old man came into the Ostrad workshop in former East Berlin and found in the Ostrad recumbent the bike he had been looking for, for decades. The people at Ostrad remember this with such precision because it marked for them a bridge between their own aspirations as young, innovative, environmentally-aware cycle designers, and the often less idealistic aspirations of the community around them. Ostrad (literally 'East Bike) are a collective of cycle designers and builders who run a cycle shop and a production facility (see our shop directory at the end of this book). Ostrad have a clear philosophy. They believe that comfort is more important than speed - low aerody namic drag is, they say, important, but it comes into play only at high speeds. Comfort, however, comes into play at all speeds, at all times. They have accordingly produced a relaxing, well-balanced bike with tremendous suspension, back and front. They point out that East German roads demand such suspension, and that minor roads in many countries are deteriorating. On bumpy off-road tracks and seriously potholed roads the Ostrad gives a superb sensation of gently rising and falling like a ship majestically conquering the waves. Unlike ocean liners the Ostrad has good acceleration (with a gear for every circumstance), and excellent brakes. Customers can choose at the outset soft or 'hard' polymer suspension units for front and back. Once installed, the resistance of the rear suspension can be further adjusted, according to the terrain and the total weight on board. At its most extreme it has 200mm of travel. The seat adds to comfort, but Ostrad point out that its laticework of soft 20mm cotton strapping needs regular tensioning and absorbs water if not protected from the rain. A simple quick-release lever permits the seat tilt to be altered, and experienced riders can do this on the move. The intermediate three or four-sprocket block, by the rear suspension pivot point, combines with up to eight sprockets at the back. This gives 21 or 32 genuine gears in an astonishingly wide range: from 1.2

Ecki, Ernst, Frank, Gottfried, Enrico, Lars and Dan (not pictured): the Ostrad team.

metres to 8 metres per revolution of the pedals (15" to 100"). With a different block it could be even lower, but there's little point. The intermediate drive additionally avoids a single long chain. The Ostrad has been designed for interchangeability of parts and units. All sprockets can be easily replaced. 20" wheels were chosen because of the enormous range of rims and tyres available at this size: slicks, off-roads, high pressure, low pressure etc. The makers regularly need to diffuse prejudice against small wheels. Research has shown that rolling resistance is almost entirely a factor of tyre pressure, not of the wheel/tyre size nor (surprisingly) of tyre width. A hub brake is fitted to the front, and the rear brake (more important on a recumbent than the front brake) is a Pitbull, by Odyssey - developed for high level BMX racing. The Ostrad has a total weight of 19 kilos (421b), which is quite respectable for a fully suspended long-wheelbase recumbent. A short wheelbase Ostrad will be available very soon and a recumbent tandem is on the drawing board. The Ostrad photographed here was delivered to our York studio by three members of the collective, who rode over from Berlin. We asked the Ostrad team what their greatest disappointment was in the development of their product. "That our bike can't swim," was their prompt reply. And what about future developments? "Our bike' they said, "will learn to swim."

O P ED I A

ostrad SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame: CNC-formed steel tubing.

Prices vary according to country.

Four sizes, for riders 160cm (53")

The lowest price is in Germany,

to 200cm (67").

where you can expect to pay

Wheelbase: 160-180cm.

around 3000 DM for a complete

Total length: 260cm - 280cm

bike with Sachs 5000 equipment;

(86-92").

and around 3850 DM for a bike

Two seat widths: 42cm (16.5")

with Sachs New Success fitted.

and 48cm (18.9"). ...-..-.+

rectimbei'its

E N[4L'J1O P ED I A

recumbents

FAHRRADWERKSTATT RADNABEL he Radnabel ATL is a very singular bicycle. ATL stands for Alltagslieger: which means a recumbent for everyday use. It has been thoughtfully designed from basic principles, harmonising the best from other areas of cycle design. The designer and manufacturer, Dieter Baumann, is a trained engineer dedicated to developmental cycle technology. An early Radnabel prototype, fitted with solar cells and an electric motor, was the fastest 'Hybrid-Mobil' of the 1989 Tour de Sol. The making of the ATL involves some difficult and intensive techniques. The finely constructed tubing in areas such as the rear rack show that this bike is a labour of love. Dieter's preference for the handmade is reflected in the Radnabel brochure, which is attractively hand-written rather than typeset. The ATL does lots of things well. It has a good turn of speed, it carries plenty of luggage, and has a very pleasant and safe easy-rider position, which attracts gasps of admiration from the general public. Despite the long-wheelbase, the two 20" wheels keep the ATL relatively short. Low speed handling is good, as is the turning circle. You can put feet to earth comfortably, and the low frame makes it easy to get on and off. Steering is via a rod, and the handlebar position can be altered to suit. The seat, which has adjustable tilt on the back, tends to the minimal. Its low contact area reduces sweating, and makes it easy to look behind with no wobble. It is possible on the ATL to lean forward and get more weight over the low pedals for a sudden turn of speed, or to get up a hill. The seat was comfortable for short journeys. We did not have the chance for any long distance riding, but Dieter tells us he rides for days on end with no problem. The tyres are high-pressure, made comfortable on small wheels by the suspension. A rubber suspension unit on the rear triangle gives 8cm of travel. The suspension is progressive, and works irrespective of the load on the carrier. The front parallelogram suspension, with eight rubber torsion elements giving 4cm of travel, takes care of most bumps. There is no noticable suspension bounce when you pedal.

The ATL has suberb braking, which a recent independent test showed to be comparable with that of a modern motor car (8.5 m/s squared). The two Sachs hub brakes can just about stop you dead without a hint of a skid. The front suspension seems to have an ABS effect. The large front tray is useful: you can throw almost anything in it, and keep an eye on it as you ride. The rear rack has no lower fitting points for panniers. Dieter supplies a Rรถmer childseat, with the fittings to mount it forwards of the head-tube. A new childseat facility has just been developed for the back. An important extra is the front fairing/luggage bag. This has a water-resistant wooden base, can be fitted in seconds, and pulls up over your goods. This protective 'nose-cone' can be combined with recumbent rainwear designed by Alfred Schafer, The whole system ('hardware' and 'software') is known as the ATWS. It protects all of you apart from your face, and is open below. The Radnabel ATL is a delightful do-anything machine, like nothing else on the road. It leaves very little excuse for car journeys round town. Right: Intricate and time-consuming frame building Below: The Radnabel front fairing/luggage bag

Dieter Baumann

O P ED IA

recumbents

i..cidnabel

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame, forks and suspension tubLeading arm suspension for the connoisseur

Options: front luggage tray (max.

ing are almost all Mannesmann

load: 30kg (661b)); rear carrier

25CrMo4, lugless, in three sizes,

(max. load: 18kg (401b)), stand,

for riders 150cm - 200cm

childseat, ATWS all-weather rain-

(411"- 67").

gear system.

Length: between 187cm

Prices vary according to country.

(6' 11/2") and 199cm

The lowest price is in Germany,

(6' 6 1/2'). Sachs New Success

where you can expect to pay

groupset. Union dynamo. B & M

between 4,200 DM and 5000 DM,

Lumotec and Toplight.

according to specifications and

Weight with all basic equipment:

options.

approx. 17.5kg (38.51b). Colours: bordeaux-violet, ocean blue. matt black.

I-I

lip

E N[4LIIlO P ED I A

recumbents

CRESSWELL ENGINEERING I t was only when Richard Cresswell's Rapide was unveiled that many British HPV fans realised that it was the country's first commercially available long-wheelbase recumbent. He is a well-established engineer who has specialised in converting anybody's back-of-an-envelope sketch into moving metal. He began his cycle-making career by making a two-seater sociable while still at school, and recently hand-built his own Pedersen. The Rapide is a paradoxical machine, in that the frame is produced by a frighteningly complex, computer-programmed ÂŁ150,000 CNC machine, which nibbles at fast-moving sheet metal, punching holes here and making curves there. Yet Richard still has a lot of careful brazing and silver soldering to do, and offers customers a high degree of personal service and equipment choice. Quickly mastered by newcomers to laid-back cycling, the Rapide is fun to ride. With rear suspension and a weight (excluding rack and mudguards) of only 13.6 kilos (301b), it costs not much more than a top-ofthe-range conventional tourer, making it a good entry level machine. It also fblds: you take out the quick-release wheels, and the rear part of the frame tucks under. It even folds reasonably well if the wheels are left in place. A drawback is that, with the wheels out, the rear mudguard is left unprotected. The seat moves along the frame to adjust for leg length, and the telescopic steering rod needs to be adjusted at the same time. The one-size frame accommodates anyone down to 1.37m (4'6") and up to 1.90m (6'3"), depending ultimately on leg length. The webbed seat, the back of which folds forward for stowage, has otherwise a fairly basic design. it adjusts only in the horizontal plane. The suspension can be altered simply by fitting a stronger or weaker elastomer unit: spares can be supplied by the makers for around ÂŁ10 each. If you are going on a long, heavily laden tour over rough roads then you might swap the lighter suspension unit for a heavier one. Richard offers a wide choice of transmission componentry. You can have the entry-level Shimano Alivio or the Sachs 5000. Moving up in the world, you can order Shimano XT or Sachs New Success. The latter

would be supplied in conjunction with a Sachs rear disc brake, but you can order the disc brake irrespective of your transmission choice. Richard has also developed a delightful tandem trailer-bike with two wheels at the back, allowing two children to pedal. This is featured in the family cycling section of this Encycleopedia. A long-term project is an electric-powered conversion kit for standard bicycles: a kind of miniature side-car with a motor on it, giving a third wheel very close to the bike's rear wheel.

Richard Cresswell

The seat slides along the frame for leg-length adjustment

OPEDIA

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame: 0.9mm steel for most of

Weight: 13.6 kilos (29.921b). The

box section. Four braze-ons for

fold is not so compact when the

computer, mini-pump, bottle, etc.

rack is fitted. Fixings for a conven-

Length: 2.34 metres (1.36 metres

tional rear rack are supplied as

folded).

standard. Fitted rack and mud-

Height: 0.96 metres (0.4 metres

guards are extra,

folded).

Wheels: Quick-release, alloy hollow section, 500a 19 3/4" on front, 700c 27' rear. Own make of stand. Longer frames by special order. Special colours at extra cost. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Britain, where you can expect to pay between £995 and £1295. depending on the specification.

!\\ !\ i• N

V S I

/ 1

O P ED IA

recumbents

FUTURE CYCLES atrick Shaw has seen a good few ideas on wheels pass before his eager eye - his business, FutureCycles, specialises almost exclusively in recumbent cycles. He also runs tuition and hire service and organises recumbent week-end breaks in rural East Sussex, on the edge of the beautiful Ashdown Forest. Prospective customers are encouraged to thoroughly test the various models on offer, including FutureCycics' own new creation, the Streetglider. The Streetglidei- marks a bold move into manufacturing. The FutureCycles team consists of Patrick and two professional designers: Ian Crowder and Jonathan Frewing. Together they set out to create a recumbent which combines the compactness and manoeuvrability of a short-wheelbase design without compromising comfort and ease of handling: as easy to ride in a busy High Street as on a fast road. Initial development saw the production of a rideable test rig made from extruded aluminium, pieces of old bike, a block of oak, and even an old gate hinge! This enabled experimentation with frame angles and seat positions. It was, however, at a later stage that the designers hit upon the idea of a negative rake fork. It happened almost accidentally: before one of the prototypes had its front brake fitted Jonathan decided in a moment of inspiration to try it out with the fork reversed. To everyone's surprise and delight it "rode like a dream' This resulted in more research and refinement of head angles, rake and offset. This radical geometry gives excellent handling, especially in low-speed manocuvring. The Streetglider frame does not compromise on quality. The tubing used is a mixture of Reynolds 531 and aerospace industry equivalent (Reynolds do not make tubing to the larger diameters required). The framemaker is George Longstaff, one of the most respected names in the business, and featured elsewhere in this book. With his depth of knowledge and experience he became a major contributor to the project.

The seat has been anatomically sculpted for maximum comfort and safety - not only when riding but also when stationary in traffic with feet on the ground. Its development began with a body mould of Jonathan sitting in a foam-filled box. This set the key reference points for the weeks of sculpting and moulding that followed. The seat back has built in D-rings as attachment points for day-bags, tool kit, rain gear etc. It also includes mounting points for a safety flag and high-level LED light or reflector. A conventional touring rack can be fitted - however a quick-release custom rack is also under development.

Ian Crowder, Patrick Shaw and Jonathan Frewing

E N[4Ibi1O P EDI A

recLlfllbelTlts

streetglider SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Wheels: 20" by 11/4". 7000-25.

Options: Wider touring wheels.

box section alloy rims.

Magura hydraulic brakes, mud-

Handlebars: Reynolds 531.

guards and standard fitting rack.

Wheelbase: 940mm. Storage

FutureCycles will be happy to

length 1580mm - 1730mm)

discuss requests for alternative

Weight: from 12.5kg (27.511b).

components to meet customers

Telescopic front tube provides 6"

specific needs.

of adjustment. Extra long or short

Prices vary according to country.

fitting available at no extra charge.

The lowest price is in Britain,

Gears: Shimano LX with Ultegra

where you can expect to pay

bar-end changers.

between ÂŁ1295 and ÂŁ1450.

Chainset: Stronglight 50/40/30. Gear range: 28.9 to 122.

E N[JL'IIIO P ED I A

recumbeiits

HP VELOTECHNIK ost cyclists in their very early 20s have horizons no wider than the bars of their mountain bike. Paul Hollants (20) and Daniel Pulvermuller (22) are made of different stuff. They have designed and produced a fine, all-purpose recumbent, and set up the business structure needed to sell it. Yet they are both still students, specialising in engineering and business. The Street Machine has been three years in development, with a production run of 100 now underway. It is a synthesis of the two partners' experiences. Paul had been a long-wheelbase recumbent freak since his early youth, enjoying touring on machines which gave a relaxed ride and easy steering. Daniel rode a fast, manoeuvrable short-wheelbase machine for training and competition use. They decided to develop a bike which would give the best of both types, and their achievement is a fully-suspended machine which performs equally well as a fast tourer and an inspiring commuter bike. Up till now Paul and Daniel have offered the basic kit - frame, suspension forks, rear suspension, handlebar stem, seat and all chain rollers. They produce an excellent (German language) booklet of information and suggestions as to component choice and other matters related to recumbents. They are very soon going to also supply complete bikes. The suspension is an important part of the Street Machine's design. The rear suspension block is made of polymer foam, rather than rubber, which means that it compresses progressively, within itself, rather than bulging outwards as rubber does. There is no adjustment on the maintenance-free front suspension, which is designed to cut in only when you hit serious bumps. The partners are assessing adjustable tension front suspension forks for their 1995 model. The steering is direct, and the chrome-moly handlebars can be swivelled to give differing positions. We enjoyed the exhilarating ride the Street Machine gives, although it does need a little practice for tight manoevring at slow speeds. The rear part of the frame and most tubing are chrome moly. The main tube is stainless steel, but will be changed to chrome moly at the end of the year. The front section of the one-size frame slides in and out to allow frame-length alteration, although

drastic changes require shortening or lengthening of the chain. For easy storage the front section can be slid out and, with wheel removed, the rear suspension unit tucks under the frame. The cables for lighting run inside the frame. The slightly protruding seat tube can be used to store batteries or a pump. The seat, which comes in three sizes, is sited relatively high, giving good visibility. It is made of glass fibre, and is cushioned by a hard-wearing foam-like surface whose close cellular structure makes it waterproof - so that rain wipes off in seconds. The carrier, designed to avoid the rear suspension, is of full chrome-moly tubing. An aerodynamically shaped Speedbag, fitted behind the seat, gives additional luggage room. The partners are currently developing a device which will allow the mounting of low-rider panniers between the wheels under the frame. The rubberised chain rollers run noiselessly. The fully equipped version will almost certainly have an Axa HR dynamo, fitted as shown. The partners' business skills have been called into serious service, but far more satisfying is the opportunity to talk bikes with people and meet their exact needs. One of Velotechnik's early customers wanted to explore the Australian Outback. He got what he wanted: a custom-built Street Machine for where there are no streets!

Daniel Pulvermuller and Paul Hollants

otechnlk

Ihe carrier avoids the rear suspension

OPEDIA

reci,imbents

street machine SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Prices vary according to country.

Frame: CrMo/St 37. Wheelbase: 105cm.

The lowest price is in Germany,

Wheels: 32-406 (20") at front, 25-

where you can expect to pay

622 (28") at rear.

around 2400 DM for a frame set.

Weight of frameset: 4.3kg (9.41b)

The price of complete bikes will

Two strengths of polymer com-

soon be announced.

pression units can be supplied, to match the weight and requirements of individual customers. Powder-coated finish in yellow or black. Custom colours, extra brazeons and alternative seat types at an extra charge. Speedbag available only for use with the middlesize seat. Mostly stainless steel

the Speedbag good aerodynamics md storage space 4 -

You can always see what front chainwheel you are on

A suspension for taking out substantial road shocks

L -:

Handlebars are direct, giving unambiguous steering

O P E D IA

recumbents

F chameleon bike. On the open road it's a fast, low, aerodynamically superior tourer. Yet on the busy streets of the city it becomes a high-seated, agile, reassuring bicycle which defies classification. And it can be any shade in between. You decide on the seat height you require for the journey ahead of you. A simple push on a release lever behind the seat causes the seat to hiss upwards, with a total travel of 30cm (12"), to the saddle height of a conventional bicycle, thanks to a piston within the frame. Press down on the seat to select a lower seat position. This telescopic gas pressure mechanism also changes the fork rake, providing a steeper angle when the seat is high, thus providing superb handling, especially at low speeds, and a see-and-be-seen riding position. It is just possible to reach behind while you are cycling, to release the lever and let your body weight press the seat downwards. As a bonus, the gas-pressure seat piston provides excellent suspension properties during the ride. The alignment of scat, pedals and suspension keep the pedalling process well disengaged from the suspension effect, and there is a conventional rubber unit at the end of the suspension travel, to take care of serious road whacks. The suspension properties alter as the frame configuration alters. The lower the seat position the more responsive the suspension, giving smooth long-distance comfort. The higher the seat the more resistant the suspension, for over bumpy off-road tracks and potholed roads. The frame is rectangular section aluminium with chrome-moly forks and milled aluminium alloy dropouts. The seat is of tubular aluminium, with polyester webbing. This can be tightened by a series of straps at the back. The seat has adjustable tilt thanks to a quick-release mechanism just behind it. The chain runs through a teflon tube for mutual protection. The gearing system fitted on our test bike is a sensible Sachs 3 x7 (7-speed Hyperglidc alongside a

3-speed hub), with Power-Grip Pro controls. Magura Hydrostops, a quality lighting system, Continental tyres and a large well-made rack complete the picture. Although you can select a variety of seat heights, we have shown in our picture the two extremes of the Tanaro's adjustability. The higher seat position comes down a touch lower the moment you sit on the seat and let some of the suspension take your weight. This admirable machine was developed through three years of intensive, tortuous design work, by Manfred Willems and Jurgen Nordhausen. Manfred has a doctorate in elec tro- technology, and Jurgen is an expert engineer. Their skill and determination have produced an astonishing bicycle which has been much acclaimed at the big German cycle shows. It is now available to the public, and will delight cyclists who prefer life to have its ups and downs. You can read more about the story behind the Tanaro in Issue Two of Bike Culture. Ihe lanaro at its lowest seat position

Manfred Willems

Co Fahr,-ad - $ystemtechnik

N=O P ED I A

i-ecunibents

anaro SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Wheels: Front 18. rear 26.

Prices vary according to country.

Length: 1.9m (63').

The lowest price is in Germany

Weight: 19kg (41.8Ib). The makers

where you can expect to pay

are prepared to fit quality components to your choice.

around 4350 DM for a fully equipped Tanaro such as our test bike.

Lever locks or releases the piston behind the seat

Fork rake changes as the seat position is altered

E N [LJ

0PEDIA

recumbents

CRYSTAL ENGINEERING

hen you're in the recumbent business you know virtually every customer as an individual, and Peter Ross has enjoyed making the Trice for some remarkable people. One customer, from Ireland, decided to sell all his worldly goods and set out on a Grand Tour of Europe on a Trice, towing 127 kilos of luggage in a trailer. By fitting change-over gears he reduced the bottom gear to five inches. On one Alpine Pass this allowed him to overtake two mountain bikers who had been forced to get off and push. Sadly this Trice was written off in a collision. The Irish adventurer was bombing downhill at 35mph when a tractor pulled out of a side road. He managed to bail out just before impact, which, he says, is something he could not have done on a conventional bike. Peter Ross was one of the very first to develop roadgoing tricycle recumbents. By Spring 1983 he was developing his own designs, and moved on to 'volume' production in 1986. Although the 'Speed' version is often seen on the track, the Trice's reputation is built more on its role as a delightful touring machine, with relaxed handling and no unwelcome surprises. For example, it is almost impossible to turn the Trice over - it will skid first. An ideal and inexpensive choice for anyone going recumbent for the first time. The development process is never-ending. The 1994 Trice embodies twelve years of personal experience in designing, building, racing, and listening to customers. As a result the current Trice is not only a good deal stronger than the early models, but also weighs about lOib less than the original version.

New features this year include a tubular aluminium seat with mesh fabric, giving improved comfort and ventilation, and a steering geometry which eliminates bump steer and brake snatch. The frame may be separated into three for easy carriage. The Trice is available in a Speed and Touring version. Both incorporate as many standard cycle parts as possible. This makes for easy maintenance, but also allows it to be built more easily to the customer's specification. It can also be supplied frameonly. The Trice is made under licence in the States by Ken Trueba of Ecocycle. Peter is developing a Trice propelled either by the hands alone, or hands and feet, to be built in China. In parallel with his Trice activities Peter has also developed the two-wheeled Ross Recumbent, the manufacturing of which has just been put into the hands of Orbit Cycles. Peter continues to take an active interest in racing, and developed an exceptionally low recumbent sometime before they became the big thing in Germany. His long term project is a side-by-side two-seater to replace the second family car. This will be fully enclosed but with a sliding canopy to allow fresh air cycling, with the optional use of a removable electric motor and battery pack.

fr vt

Peter Ross crossing the States

O P E D IA

recumbents

Trice

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame: Mannesmann steel, with

Options: mudguards, bracket for

front extension of aluminium alloy

mounting computer, Pletcher rear

(Speed version) or mild steel

carrier, water bottle mounting.

(Touring version).

Comes with mast and flag.

Width: 75cm (29 1/2").

Prices vary according to country.

Weight: 17kg (371b) for the Speed,

The lowest price is in Britain,

18kg (391b) for the Touring,

where you can expect to pay

Wheels: aluminium alloy, 20" front,

between ÂŁ1299 and ÂŁ1399 for a

700c rear. Sturmey-Archer Elite

complete machine, depending on

hub brakes on front wheels, side-

specification.

tr touring trike

reciimbents

GREENSPEED

ince its appearance in last year's Encycleopedia, Ian Sims' Greenspeed from Australia has found a home with owners in many countries, who have sent us good reports, with special mention of its handling and braking characteristics. Back in the Greenspeed's homeland Val Wright and Eric Butcher recently completed a 15,000km tour of the Continent on two heavily loaded Greenspeeds, with no problems whatsoever. Ian has used the experiences of such enthusiasts to develop a new Touring Trike, the GTR 20/20, using the new Sachs 3x7 rear hub, which combines a

A 63-speed Greenspeed made for 75 year old Bry Fergusson

three-speed internal hub with a seven-speed Shimano Hyperglide-type cassette cluster. The possibilities do not end there. Double or even triple chainrings can be fitted in conjunction with the 21 speeds" at the rear. "This is something we were always searching for' says Ian, "to be able to use the full range of the recumbent trike's performance so that you can go at a very low speed up mountains, where a conventional cyclist might wobble or fall and at the other end of the scale, to use the recumbent's superior aerodynamics to increase speed on the flat and downhill" The crossed steering rods, allow a good turning circle. The 'zero-scrub radius' steering gives excellent handling, even when braking. The new GTR 20/20 Tourer has an increased ground clearance (from 90mm [3 1/2"] to 125mm [5"]), uses more robust 20" x 1.75" wheels, and a 1 1/2" x 18g Reynolds 531 main tube to take heavier loads yet retain some flexibility. Ian has also tidied up the front end, by using a telescopic front crank extension rather than a sliding bracket. The Sports Touring version continues with the 20" xl 1/8" wheels, and there is a full-blooded racing Greenspeed. You can read more about Ian Sims in Issue 2 of Bike Culture Quarterly.

__11~_4V

Ian Sims

GREENSPEED Recumbent

Rik 足 . Tik,

IIPV

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

The distance between front wheels: 80cm (31.5"). Length: 195cm (77"). Weight: 16kg (351b). Ian Sims often takes on special orders, including hand-cranked versions. Delivery times on all his products can be lengthy, due to a high level of orders. Colours: to order.

Prices vary greatly according to country. The lowest price is in Australia, where you can expect to

'H E N[III1O P E D IA

pay around A$1 700 for a frameset and between A$2900 and A$4000 for a fully equipped machine including speedo, lights and panniers.

Classics oinetimes a bicycle, or even a tricycle, establishes itself as seminal within its genre, or as the recognised benchmark design within its field. Sometimes a bicycle epitomises or represents a certain distinctive tradition in cycle design. In this edition of Encycleopedia we have brought such cycles together under the rubric of Classics. Since each of our 'Classics' has its own distinct story and reason for being, we have given as much background as possible within the features, rather than putting the whys and wherefores in a general introduction, as is the case for other sections of Encycleopedia. We would have to admit that there are many products within the genre sections which could justify the description of classic - but taking them out would have weakened the content and balance of the section in question. We hope you find that each entry is of interest in its own right. Machines such as the Pedersen and the Galaxe are classics thanks to their history and specialised design. There is little argument about the classic nature of the Moulton, whose unique and audacious design have made it just about the only successful upright-riding challenger to the hundred year hegemony of the diamond-frame safety bicycle. We have included the George Longstaff tricycle since it epitomises the strong traditions of three-wheeled cycling and custom-building in Britain. The German tradition of tricycles for special purposes is represented by the Rollfiets wheelchair tandem. Brilliantly designed by Peter Messerschmidt, and skillfully produced by Robert Hoening, the Rollilets is a classic example of how pedal-power can be cleverly adapted to the needs of everyone. Then we looked at the large and the small. The London, made by Utopia in Germany uses an excellent and attractive frame design of the 1890s to enable tall riders to enjoy quality cycling in magnificent style. At the other end of the size chart is the Agnuti, made by Diamant, also in Germany. We have bent the rules a little, since the Agnuti is new on the market, but we feel it represents the kind of thinking about small-frame design which used to more widespread, but seems to have been overlooked of late by big manufacturers. A product whose history and traditional aesthetics make it an unquestioned classic is the 'Curly' Hetchin's frame. Again, we have looked for contrast, and found it in a mountain bike frame - in line with our belief that all cycling is wonderful. The umax titanium frame is a product which takes cycle technology into new areas of metallurgy and building technique.

E N[4L'I4O P ED I A

classics

MOULTON

r Li

r Alex Moulton launched the original Moulton bicycle in 1962 as part of his continuing endeavours to design and produce "a better bicycle system" for universal adult use. The design was characterised by small wheels, high pressure tyres and full suspension. They were acclaimed world-wide, and over 100,000 were produced. In 1967 Moulton Bicycles Ltd became part of TI Raleigh, which ceased to produce them in 1974. Fortunately for enthusiasts who had become addicted to the machines, a new generation of Moultons was introduced in 1983. The advanced AM (Alex Moulton) series began as a small production operation of uncompromised quality on Moulton's country estate in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. Again, the bikes were an immediate success amongst connoisseurs, and over a million miles a year are currently ridden world-wide on the AM series. Notable long distance rides in touring and competition, as well as World speed records, have been achieved. Jim Glover broke the world unpaced, fullyfaired record for the normal riding position with a speed of 51.29 mph over 200m. Dave Bogdan rode 3,117 miles in the 1988 Race Across America (RAAM) in 10 days 15 hours on the AM-Speed. AM Series bicycles have a unique space frame built of Reynolds 531 small tubes, bronze-welded to be stiffer and stronger than a conventional frame. The lack of the high top-tube is a safety feature and allows ease of step-over and universal height adjustment for riders from 5'4" to 6'2". The frame divides at its kingpin into two separate (39") halves, each easy to handle for stowage. Front and rear suspension is integral with the bicycle. Leading-link front suspension is adjustable to riders' weight and damping preference. The pivoted rear triangle with AM bonded-rubber cone spring gives self-damping and suits a wide load range. The 17" x 1.25" alloy Moulton wheels with stainless steel spokes are immensely stiff and robust. Their high pressure tyres exclusively made for Moulton by Wolber, give quick acceleration with low rolling resistanc& A drawback is that these tyres, being on smaller wheels, need more frequent replacement, and are relatively

expensive, although spares are easily carried on long trips. The load-carrying capability is safely positioned on the centre line and low down. There is a range of optional plug-in AM front and rear racks with AM bags. There is an AM Zzipper fairing available for aerodynamic improvement and cold weather protection. This capability derives from the space liberated by the use of smaller wheels, in contrast to the protruding panniers and saddlebag of a conventional machine.

17" wheels, high-pressure tyres and full suspension

Dr. Alex Moulton

Alex Moulton Umited

The 20" wheel Moulton APB, designed for on/off road riding is manufactured under licence by W.R. Pashley and is featured in the portable bikes section of this Encycleopedia.

Below: The record-breaking Moulton Speed "S"

E N[4K'IIO P ED I A

classics

Am)ubileeL SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

The Jubilee L which is featured in

Other models include: the AM5

smaller tubing, Suntour 16-speed

our main photograph, utilises

with Reynolds 531 tubing and

and low profile handlebars, the GT

smaller Reynolds 531 tubing, and

Sturmey Archer Sprinter 5-speed

with Aerospace 304 stainless

a unique adjustable wishbone

hub gears, the AM7 with Reynolds

smaller tubing and Suntour 16-

stem. It weighs 24 1/2 Ibs, has 16

531 and Suntour 7-speed, the

speed, and the Speed S. which is

indexed gears, and comes in a

AM14 with Reynolds 531 and

a non-separable version of the GT

choice of seven colours.

Suntour 14-speed, the Jubilee with

for competition use. Prices in the

Reynolds 531 and 14-speed, the

UK of the AM range from ÂŁ1,250

Triathlon with Reynolds 531

to ÂŁ2,950.

O P ED IA

classics

RASKO GMBH & CO. KG ver the years they've come and gone: half-hearted attempts to provide a decent off-the-peg touring and town bike for smaller people. At last the bull has been taken by the horns, and you can now buy a bike to be proud of, designed from basic principals. The Agnuti is an ideal size for cyclists between 140cm (47") and 165cm (5'5") with a minimum inside leg of around 70cm (27 1/2"). Riders at the smaller end of this scale need to be sure they can put their foot down when still seated in the saddle. The 26" wheels allow a geometry which is not only sensible, but also optically little different from the proportions of 'normal' bikes. A choice of tyres for this size wheel has become far more available since mountain bikes came along. The Agnuti meets the critical needs of the smaller rider. The traditional solution is a short top-tube. This is not a bad thing in itself: it means that the front part of the bike is pulled in so that the rider can reach the bars comfortably. Yet the only way to do this and still have clearance between the pedals or pedal clips and the mudguard is to flatten out the fork angle, projecting the wheel forwards, but causing the steering to become 'loose' in the process. Smaller people also need a frame with a low enough bottom bracket so that there is no need to slip forwards off the saddle each time they want to put a foot on the ground; and they need brake levers which can be effectively reached by small hands. The happy riding characteristics result from the smaller wheels. Everything else flows from there. The Agnuti scored well in a thorough and independent bench test recently. Smaller frames are stronger anyway, allowing lighter materials to be used.

The Agnuti bars give a wide choice of hand positions

The components are well judged. The broadly sweeping handlebars permit plenty of variation in hand position. The Agnuti is the result of a long period of co-operative work. The initial design is by the framemakers Hertel-Lanzerath. The manufacturers are Diamant, in Chemnitz, a company whose roots go back to the golden years of cycling before the motor age. The Agnuti project was masterminded by Rasko which is a marketing and distribution company allied to the German Association of Self-Managed Cycle Shops (VSF). The Agnuti is available through all these shops and in other countries, too.

RASKO... all of

The Agnuti can be supplied without touring equipment

1DuC

OPEDIA

gnuti

classics

559

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame and forks: 25Chromo4, with

Prices vary according to country.

low-rider braze-ons.

The lowest price is in Germany,

Frame height: 43cm (16'), rising

where you can expect to pay 1643

slightly towards the headset.

DM for the fully equipped version

Tyres: Avocet City 26"xl.25.

and 1545 DM for the other.

Groupset: Shimano SXT, 24/36/46 and 13-30, Sugino 165mm cranks. Terry Touring saddle. FER dynamo system, SKS mudguards incorporating rear light, and alloy rack. There is a slightly cheaper version of the Agnuti. It has no rack, mudguards or dynamo. It also has straight bars with bar-end levers and City Cross tyres. Weight: 13.1 kilos (28.81b). Colours: turquoise and red.

I I

Agnuti with full touring equipment

----.

E N ________ 0 P ED I A

classics

DAVID MILLER

yman (Harry) Hetchin came to England with his sister, following the Russian Revolution. Aged twenty-six he set up a music shop in London, but his passion for cycling could not be held back. Bicycles began to appear alongside the gramophones, a not unusual combination at that time. Harry's thoughts soon turned to producing his own cycles, and he was struck by an unusual frame built by Jack Denny, a local framebuilder. It had a curve in the seat stays and an 'S' bend in the chain stays. This was said to damp out road shock and reduce bottom bracket flex. The astute Harry quickly signed up Jack Denny as a junior, profit-sharing partner, and patented the curly stay design in 1934 as the Hetchin's Vibrant Triangle - now more generally known as Hetchin's Curly Stays. Another of Jack Denny's techniques, which became a second distinguishing feature of Hetchin's frames, was the long and ornate cut-away lug. A long, tapered lug avoided the weakness caused by abrupt stress lines in straight-shouldered lugwork, and the ornate cut-away, based on Jack's fondness for the Fleur-de-Lys design, gave a good run of brass brazing without the danger of over-heating the tube. Different variations of lugs were developed over the years, sometimes extending as far as three inches. Quite often jack Denny did not put Reynolds 531 stickers onto Hetchin's frames. "There's no need'; he would say, "everyone knows a genuine Hetchin's is only built with 531." Hetchin's frames today are usually 531, but can also be made in 653, or even 753 (main tubes only). There is great argument as to whether the Hetchin's stays do have any noticeable suspension properties or extra lateral stiffness. Cycle engineers have their doubts, but many Hetchin's' fans argue otherwise. One of them is Flash, a cycle-loving photographer working in Germany. He reports that "the seat stays work just like a raked fork compared to a straight track-bike fork: riding a Curly is like having a fork behind. You notice it after a day of bad roads and cobblestones: the thought of more terrain like this fills you with delight not dread. The frame is also Flash's photograph of his own Hetchin's frames

Harry Hetchins

Jack Denny

rock-steady down fast, crooked mountain passes; it is never skittish or twitchy, as ultra-tight racers tend to be' Flash argues that the curly stays stiffen the bottom bracket, flexing the right amount only in the vertical direction. The bottom bracket is further reinforced by the elaborate lugwork extending along the chainstays. You can stand on the pedals, says Flash, as you power uphill, with no danger of the chain scraping the derailleur cage. The frames are indeed stiff enough to race and the Hetchin's won its colours in 1936 when Toni Merkens, riding a Curly, became Curly Hetchin's frames were distinctive World and Olympic Champion. on the track

E N[4'k'I1O P ED I A

Hetchins We cannot say whether the Hetchin's stays have the claimed effects. We do know, however, that the distinctive curls became a very useful trademark for Hetchin's during the time in British racing when manufacturers were not allowed to put their name on the frame. Other framemakers, such as Bates, introduced similar frame designs, lessening the effectiveness of the curly stays as a trademark. When Harry Hetchin died in 1961, aged 70, his son Alf took over the business. Jack Denny continued building frames into his 70s, until he and Alf retired

classics

in the late 1980s. The Hetchin's name, now privately owned, is in the loving care of David Miller, of Preston, Lancashire. They make only about two frames per month. The frames are still made with the same attention to detail as they were 60 years ago. A classic design from the thirties continues to be cherished by enthusiasts around the world. Hetchin's frames cost between ÂŁ500 and ÂŁ775, excluding chrome plating, and are built to order and available directly from David Miller, 2 Roundhay Down, Fuiwood, Preston, Lancs, PR2 3NE, UK.

O P ED IA

classics

UTOPIA he average height of North Europeans has increased considerably since the diamond frame was invented. Those who are some way above average height are not well served by mass-manufacturers, and an expanded conventional diamond frame is in any case often not up to the job. Small triangles give strength, large ones are bad news. The London is just the bike for the tall person who wants to ride in upright regal style. Its five-triangle construction, with four tubes supporting the bottom bracket, is particularly suitable for the making of taller frames: it allows a scat tube size of 88cm(34 1/2") which suits a person 223cm (7'4") tall. Not all Londons are sold to tall riders: the frame can be made in smaller sizes, with four triangles. Its inherent strength appeals to cyclists of average height but who tend to be on the heavy side. There are other London-riders who are neither tall not substantial, but simply like the distinctive frame. An average-size London was featured recently in a popular German TV detective series, as the transport of Father Black, an amateur sleuth. This bumped up sales of the London by a welcome 30 percent. Owners of this elegant machine are still a fairly exclusive crowd: only about 300 Londons are made each year. The London represents Utopia's policy of giving the world bicycles which are appropriate to most people's real needs. Too many 'town bikes' are, they say, simply 'tamed racing bikes' with twitchy fork angles, a forward sitting position and a short wheelbase: and the geometry of the mountain bike is often very similar to that of a sports road bike. Many cyclists would prefer a long wheelbase, relaxed fork angles and a comfortable, upright seating position if they could find such a machine. Comfort and asy control are especially needed when carrying a child or heavy goods over bumpy city roads or rocky off-road paths. Utopia bicycles will always cost more than mass-produced machines. You pay for hand-made frames, for environmentally benign manufacturing processes, for a degree of personal component choice, and for manufacturing quality. Frames are commissioned from a family business in the Netherlands who have

four generations of expertise behind them. More than 90% of components are of European origin. Customers who reject aluminium alloy for environmental reasons can opt for coated steel parts. Utopia produce a compendious and informative magazinesize booklet about the London and the other high class cycles in their unusual range. The German-language Utopia catalogue sets out the wide range of customer choice as to accessories and components. They are currently working on an English version.

Inge Wiebe-Kiagges 1

'471

Jt1i

Left: The saddle for the job

Below: The Mรถwe, or Seagull, another traditional Utopia bicycle

E Ni1.1JO P ED I A

LOndOn SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

The London is a classic design. This fivetriangle frame, itself based on an earlier English design, was built in 1909 by Simplex of Amsterdam and is housed in the Museum f端r Verkehr und Technik, Berlin

Frame: CrMo, black, sizes 56cm

Campagnolo, with various chain-

(22'), 59cm (23 1/4'), 63cm

wheels.

(25"), 68cm (26 3/4"), 73cm

Brakes: Sachs 5000 or a back-

(28 3/4').

pedal rear brake on hub geared

classics

E N

[4k1II

0 P ED I A

classics

GEORGE LONGSTAFF TRICYCLES

ritain was the world centre of tricyclemaking in the early years of cycling, and tricycle racing is still an important and thrilling part of British cycle sport. Touring on trikes continues to be a popular pursuit, and there are several local tricycle sports clubs for fast day rides and longer tours. Many British triking activities come under the wing of the Tricycle Association. The principal maker of performance tricycles is George Longstaff. His specialism is in larger-wheeled fast touring trikes, in Reynolds 531 or Columbus tubing, built to special order and involving close consultation with the customer.

able replacement for the family car. George is experiencing a new demand for kendrick tricycles, with the two wheels at the front, and Ackermann steering: this after years in which not a single kendrick order had come in. He will soon be working on a kendrick tandem tricycle for a customer. Throughout his career George has custom-made tricycles for people with particular disabilities. These have been fine, lightweight machines, but unavoidably expensive. He now also offers a cheaper option than this, by converting simple, off-the-peg Raleigh ATBs (adults' or children's) into tricycles. This route brings the price down to about half the price of the full custom-built option, and he often does this on a non-profitmaking basis where disabled children are involved. Although tricycles can be exported, George prefers customers from abroad to collect personally. This gives maker and buyer a chance to meet one another, and for final adjustments to be made on the spot. This is all particularly true of tandem tricycles.

Tandem trikes: three wheels for double pleasure

Bridging the block needs exceptional skill

The heart of a Longstaff tricycle is the rear axle. Twowheel drive allows each wheel to turn in a natural arc, and decreases tyre wear. Differential drive is also available, as is right-wheel-only and left-wheel-only drive. The latter two options depend on which side of the road you ride on in your country, since the direction of the road camber needs to be taken into account. Tricycle axles can be supplied to order, but it makes economic sense to have them professionally built into a new frame, rather than bolted onto an existing bike George is happy to make variations on the standard trike. As far as we know he is the world's only producer of the traditional tandem tricycle: a vehicle which, when fitted with one or more childseats above the rear axle, can be an effective and enjoy-

George Longstaff

uaunu&I T flU!VIR Iry ARUJMUU Ia%I- I-

E N[4IIIO P ED IA

classics

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

These depend on what you ask for. Frames are usually 531. Wheels are usually 700c. The total width is

usually 28', narrower than most household internal doors. George Longstaff Cycles, Albert

Street, Chesterton, Newcastle under Lyme, Staffs, UK.

High performance tricycles - an important part of racing history

A fast touring trike. A luggage platform, childseat and mudguards can be fitted

O P E DI A

JESPER SOLLING CYKELPRODUKTION arely has a bicycle been more closely associated with a single person. Mikael Pedersen, a Dane living in Dursley, England, was the restless originator. 14 separate narrow diameter thin-wall tubes, connecting in 57 places to make 21 triangles. The Pedersen 'space frame' combines lightness and strength. About 8000 Dursley Pedersens were produced around the turn of the century. They were luxuriously finished and practically custom-built for the owner. High quality Pedersens are again available to connoisseurs of distinguished cycles. They are made (fittingly) in Denmark, by Jesper Soiling, a man who matches, in his own way, the eccentricity and unconventionality of Pedersen himself. Jesper began making Pedersens in 1978, and has refined the design over the years. The frame and hammock saddle follow the original design, but otherwise appropriate

back problems. The rider's weight keeps the whole frame in balanced tension. The original Pedersen saddles were woven from 45 yards of silk cord. An adjustable buckle varies saddle tension, and the rear stays have limited height adjustment. Frames come in four sizes, to fit almost any adult. There is an 'R1(Royal Large) version, which is a 'copy' of Pedersen's 1906 model, featuring the Royal handlebar, with the handlebar brazed to the stem. This gives an even more upright riding position and is available on request (nickel-plated or powdercoated) for other size Pedersens. The small Pedersen shown here is fitted with a Royal handlebar. All nuts and bolts are stainless steel, and there are braze-ons for a low-rider rack. The fully equipped version features Vredestein Monte-Carlo semi-slick tyres with reflective side-walls, and attractive Woodguards (illustrated). It also has Alesa 917 hollow-section black anodised rims. Also welcome is the Bumm Secutec LCD dynamo rear light, which stays on when you stop. Jesper and his three co-workers make around 700 Pedersens a year, most of which are sold in Germany. The production base has moved from Copenhagen to Ebeltoft, so that production costs can be lowered. Right: Pedersen made tandem versions, well portrayed in this recent woodcut by English artist, David Eccles. Further details are on pages 176-178 Below: A small-framed Pedersen, made for a rider five-foot tall. (1.5m)

The triumph of the triangle

modern components are used. The makers equip Pedersens where-ever possible with European parts, feeling that they are just as good as components from the Far East. The modern Pedersen has the stately feel of a longwheelbase roadster, with no compromise in terms of weight and performance. The pedalling action causes a slight sideways swing in the saddle position, which is a small price to pay for the added comfort, and is of little consequence. The comfort of the hammock saddle is central to the whole design. It supports an upright riding position, cushioning road shocks: excellent for cyclists with

Jesper Selling

classics

O P ED I A

Pedersenof

classics

denmark

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Pedersens are supplied fully

Prices vary according to country.

THE BOOK

equipped, but many buyers opt

The lowest prices are probably in

The definitive book on Mikael

for the frame only, which accom-

Denmark and Germany. You can

Pedersen and his bicycles is The

modates conventional compo-

expect to pay around 6,800

Ingenious Mr Pedersen, by David

nents. A personal measurement

Danish Kroner for a frame, and

Evans. This has just been reprinted

chart helps identify the correct

between 7800 Kroner and

by Pedersen enthusiasts. Ordering

size frame for you.

10,000 Kroner for fully equipped.

details for this English-language

Typical weight fully equipped:

For Germany the figures are from

book can be obtained from Andreas

17 kilos (37.41b).

1.500 DM, and from 2870 DM

Naegeli of the Velolaboratoriuni

Colours: black, blue, dark green

to 3850 DM.

shop in Zurich, Switzerland (see

and bordeaux (maroon). Other

the shop listing at the end of this

colours, or a bamboo finish, to

book). A German language version

special order. Tandem Pedersens

of the same book (translated by

F NI4&'41O P ED I A

classics

ROBERT HOENING SPEZIALFAHRZEUGE GMBH he task is complex to say the least: to develop and perfect a safe and exciting vehicle which enables a disabled person and a friend to experience together the pleasure and convenience of cycling. 1500 parts from 50 different suppliers: assembled with skill and care. The Roilfiets, designed and refined by Peter Messerschmidt over six years, is produced and marketed by Robert Hoening. It consists of a rugged, specially designed wheelchair - usable on its own which attaches to half a bicycle, forming a tricycle. Thanks to the use of alloy tubing for the wheelchair, the Roll Fiets is no slouch, on-road or off. It can be ridden wherever a conventional tricycle can go. There is no getting away from the fact that one rear rider needs to pedal for two, but the 7-speed hub gear should help, and this can be combined with the two-speed 'Mountain Drive' bottom bracket gear. Trips to the shops, cinema or cafe become a pleasant experience since the wheelchair simply comes off the bike and can be taken directly into the building. Comfort is crucial for the passenger. The chair is orthopaedically shaped from glass fibre-reinforced plastic and comes with padding and adjustable foot and head-rests. When fixed to the cycle the chair tilts back, lifting the small front wheels off the floor. This gives a relaxed, stable sitting position and makes conversation easier. The chair is separated from the cycle with a quickrelease mechanism. It compares well with standard wheelchairs, with its suspension and light handling. Its off-road tyres are excellent on gravel tracks, especially when the chair is being pushed by hand. Roilfiets production began in 1987, and 750 of them are made each year. They are so popular among their owners in Germany that a Rollfiets Club and newsletter have been set up. Duet, Duetto, Dol-Fijn: the Roilfiets has made its way into many other countries. Robert Hoening is increasing his range of special vehicles, some of which have been designed elsewhere but all of which are tested and further developed at the Hoening factory. The Trio three-wheeled recumbent, formerly produced by Radius, has a relaxed seating position which is ideal for many disabled people.

Another Hoening product is the Co-Pilot, featured in the family cycling section of this Encycleopedia. There are two interesting Roilfiets-based designs which take the machine out of the disabled sphere. The Allegro is a workbike version: sturdy but with lightweight parts and the stopping power of drum brakes. It is being tested by the German Post Office for their delivery services. The Infocycle is a further variation. Designed for the use of campaign groups and the like, it carries a large chest with a hinged lid, and contains a folding display top and two parasols. The lnfocycle allows an attractive stall to be set up virtually anywhere very useful in the many cities which now limit motor vehicle access.

Robert Hoening demonstrates a Duet

ROBERT HOENING SPEZIALFAHRZEUGE GMBH

)

Left: The Trio gives recumbent stability Below: The Roilfiets comes apart in seconds

E N[L'IO P E D I A

classics

RolifietsIduet 1Mr__

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Cycle Frame: high-tensile steel. Wheelchair Frame: aluminium

There are many optional accessories, including a motorised version.

'he Info-Cycle

Brakes: 90mm hub brakes,

The cost for the ROLLFIETS is

equalised.

covered in many countries by

Length: combined unit 2m (67"),

social security/health insurance

wheelchair 0.85m (29') plus

plans. In Germany prices start

25cm (10") with foot-rest. Drive

from 7,150DM.

unit: 1.31m (4'4")

Width: 64cm (21") 68cm (23") with hand-rims. Weight: combined unit 37kg (811b). wheelchair 26kg (571b). Wheels: 26" (650mm), alloy ATB. .,

The Allegro: a load-carrier based on the Duet

________o

P ED I A

classics

TITAN PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS The melting of the Iron Curtain has brought exciting possibilities in other matters of metal. For the cyclist this has meant the arrival on the market of a new titanium alloy frame of exceptional strength, and within the means of many serious cyclists who had previously dismissed the thought of titanium as too expensive. The story began six years ago. Nick Scarr, a young British entrepreneur, was so impressed with Gorbachev's new vision that he was drawn to exhibit at a Russian trade show. Nick has run his own company since 1981, specialising in electronics, and computers in particular. He was interested in fostering the renowned Russian resources of grey matter to develop computer software. He then met Sacha Khalizov and together they formed a company, Westlink, producing aluminium cookware using high-tech surface treatments, and telephones - of which they still make 300 a day. In developing the cookware Nick began to increase his knowledge of metallurgy, and, as he did so, he realised that Russia had a lot of highly skilled metallurgists especially those working with titanium, a metal in plentiful supply there. He had always been interested in Grand Prix motorcycling and had begun manufacturing specialist titanium components for the sport. He still loves the motorcycle scene - in fact he has just developed a new power valve for the Honda RS125 - but he was also quick to appreciate the possibilities of titanium alloys for cycle frames. This wonder-metal from Russia had been used before in cycle frames, but it was clear that the technology needed to be taken further than it had ever gone before. Only commercially pure titanium is readily available in the West. It is not inherently strong, and is generally only available in rolled and welded form: not the best stuff for a bicycle frame. Extruded tubing was the way ahead, and it had to be an alloy of titanium: alloys have a much higher strength but are extremely difficult to work with. When it came to titanium-alloy bicycle frames, designers in the West were having difficulties with

the extrusion process, and were generally resigned to using tubes without the benefits of doublebutting. Nick and Sacha's breakthrough was in extruding a high quality titanium alloy in such a manner as to allow them to vary the wall thickness as they went. This is achieved by absolutely tight temperature control in small areas for a specific alloy. By heating in a ring they are able to extrude a tiny bit at a time. The Timax frames all have seamless tubing with walls of between 1.2mm and 1.4mm at the joints, going down to 0.8mm in the centre of the tube. They contain 4%-6% aluminium (the mix varies at different points on the frame), and 2% manganese. Timax frames are extremely strong and have great lateral rigidity. Nick applies to his framesets the same technology as used by the British aerospace industry on turbo jet engines to reduce metal fatigue in fan blades. An unforeseen bonus of this strengthening process is the beautifully smooth burnished finish. You need more than good materials to produce a good bike, which is where Gary Lee Cooper comes in. Gary had seen one of Nick's original titanium prototype frames, and was excited at the potential. Using feedback from test riders Gary eventually came up with the classic mountain bike design shown in our picture. Preliminary reports from the British mountain bike press are very favourable and it is performing well for the semipro team that Nick is helping to sponsor. A small batch of titanium alloy racing frames have been made, and are out on the road with a team of testers. We hope to report on them in next year's Encycleopedia.

Nick Scarr

IN r" V

The success of the umax frame is causing a stir in MTB circles

O P ED I A

classics

1111 M CIX titanium mountain bike frame [ SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

The Timax frameset weighs 1.45kg (31b 3oz), and is available in two sizes: 44.5cm (17.5) and 50cm (19.5).

Ovalised, tapered and butted chainstays a step forward in titanium technology

Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Britain where you can expect to pay ÂŁ999.

Family very cyclist out there is a constant reminder to others that life can be better, that environmental action can be a pleasant and practical part of our daily lives - and there is nothing more natural than a family cycling together. In an age where few children under the age of ten are allowed to travel alone, cycling en famille can be a liberation just as much as a pleasure. It allows young ones to connect directly with the world around them - out of the car and away from the idiot box. Enthroned on a bicycle childseat they can offer a running commentary on both the surroundings and the performance of the parental powerunit. There are numerous child-seats on the market, and they vary enormously in quality and age-suitability. Buy from a good bike shop. A practical and more stable alternative is a child-carrying trailer. These carry one or two children, with boot-room for luggage. Or you can fill them entirely with shopping on the way back from the nursery. They attach to your bike only when needed. On a tandem or trailer-bike children experience the exhilaration of speeding along under combined power. A shared machine also allows an adult to power a weary child home. A trailer bicycle is essentially half a bicycle which bolts onto a purpose-made rack fitted to the parent's cycle, and which can be transferred to other bicycles with appropriate attachments. You can use your bike as a solo whenever you need. On a trailer bike your child is active, but stays under your control, watching what you can do and developing traffic sense. If she tires she can freewheel and be towed along. If she has energy to spare, she can contribute a surprising amount of power. If all the family enjoys cycling, tandems are an excellent investment. A low-backed tandem with a long seat pin can accommodate adults on the rear, as well as children, although you may also need to change the saddle. Tandems can also take a child-seat and tow trailers. There is a huge variety of configurations: some tandems are also tricycles, some are recumbent, and some even take the form of a two-seat trailer. Another excellent family vehicle is the child-carrying tricycle. Unlike a bicycle with a child seat, trikes don't present problems of balance. You are safe on slippery roads, can ride easily at very slow speeds and you can park anywhere, leaving your child in place, with the parking brake on. There are lots of other possibilities: you can buy a specialised cycle with a large area on the front for children or luggage. On the bike paths of Denmark you often see transporter trikes with children sitting in the front box. There are cycling solutions to meet every family need, and when your children grow up you can pass your specialised cycles on to another cycling family. -

N[4I1iII0

PEDIA

family

ORBIT CYCLES rbit are a-most unusual cycle company by British standards. They produce 2000 cycles per year in their Sheffield factory, competing head-on with massmanufacturers rolling out bikes by the hundreds of thousands. Orbit's advantage is their ability to offer a degree of customer choice at the building and assembly stage. They don't offer personalised framebuilding, but they will endeavour to give you the braze-ons, the components and the frame colour of your choice. For example, you might prefer to have different handlebars, and perhaps a dynamo and front rack fitted; or you might like the frame in blue with extra braze-ons. Or you might prefer hub brakes to Maguras... One recent order was from residential school for difficult boys: they wanted ten bikes, all in bright yellow, and with a bomb-proof spec. Orbit go a step further than this on their top-end tandems: offering any frame size, with a straight or sloping top-tube front or back. They are just the right size of company to be able to give you all this choice, yet pass onto you the savings which come from standardised frame production and component sourcing. Simon Gershon, Orbit's innovative owner and motive force, benefits from having had eight years experience at the sharp end of cycle retailing. He knows the importance of supporting good shops, and offthe-peg Orbits are often seen alongside the offerings of big-name manufacturers. Customers who have special requirements can talk to Orbit directly, and the bike is then supplied through a dealer. The Orbit catalogue is refreshingly progressive. It takes a strong campaigning line, with radical pro-cycling information dropped in here and there. It also states that Orbit donates 10% of profits to deserving cycling causes.

Tandems make up ten percent of Orbit sales, and many of these are to hire bike companies. Simon regrets that the advantages of the tandem are not better appreciated. They travel significantly faster and further than the same two riders would achieve on solo bikes. A tandem weighs less than two solo bikes, and its rolling resistance and air drag are almost the same as that of a solo. Then there are the indefinable pleasures of cycling in harmony with your partner. A tandem can be a bike of all trades, and not just a summer hobby vehicle. It can be used in cities for taking children to school or evening activities, or for picking up visitors from the railway station. Orbit have tandems for every purpose. Their Phantom is top of the range, equipped with every thing you need for touring togetherness over long distances. The frame is built with investment cast lugs and Reynolds Magnum oversize tubing. The customer usually decides on the componentry, but most opt for the kind of equipment illustrated here: including Shimano XTR componentry and Magura Hydrostop brakes. The silvery grey finish gives it an ethereal look to match its name. For those on a lower budget Orbit make the Gemini, which is typically sold with MTB bars and mid-range equipment. The frame is Reynolds 500 and 531 special tandem tubing, with chrome-moly forks.

The Gemini a low-budget but well equipped machine -

Simon Gershon

(10)9~~ 271 6

E NI'K'I1O P E D I A

family

r- hantom tandem SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Prices vary according to country. The Phantom pictured here, with the top-end specification fitted. would cost around ÂŁ1800 in Britain. A Gemini tandem costs around 1725, and a Gold Medal around ÂŁ500 all depending on specification. The Orbit Cold Medal is their touring machine, and they claim to be able to fit every rider from 142cm (4'8") to 193cm (6'4"). The one pictured here is built with 26" wheels and an 18" frame to fit smaller riders, with proportionately shorter cranks and down-scaled components.

The Phantom

O-Vllot ROBERT HOENING SPEZIALFAHRZEUGE GMBH he Co-Pilot brings fun and a new sense of freedom to families with a disabled or partly active child. It is a clever, well-executed idea, allowing the child to take part in the steering process. He or she has the therapeutically important sensation of having control over what is happening, but the

greater leverage on the parent's handlebars overrides any mistakes the young one might make. You can see exactly what your child is up to, and what he or she is looking, at sharing your pleasure in what you discover en route. The disabled child in the family is not the only one who can use the Co-Pilot: it can be used to ferry

other children around: the quick release seat pin gives fast height adjustment. With a long enough seat pin the Co-Pilot can be ridden by a small adult on the front, so hard-pressed parents can get out together for a spin from time to time. The Co-Pilot has been made in Denmark for over twenty years by Meyland-Smith, a small and friendly company run by Hans and Kate BrĂ¸ndum. Worldwide distribution outside of Denmark is through Robert Hoening in Germany, whose factory makes the Rollfiets wheelchair tamdem featured in the Classics section of this Encycleopedia. Robert has Co-Pilots made to his own specification. He ensures that they are then distributed through agencies in individual countries, since the understanding and fulfilment of special needs are best done at a local level.

family

Robert Hocning

PI LOT SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Length: 250cm. Wheels: 24". An adult's rear-steerer from the 1890's

Weight: 30kg (661b). Options include: footplates with straps. back-support with straps. special cranks for invalids, freewheel system on the front, holder for crutches, extra-large saddle. Prices vary according to country. In Germany you can expect to pay between 4000 DM and 5000 DM, according to the specification. In some countries. including Germany, the costs are often covered by social security or health

luuut_J

E N[4'IIIlO P E D I A

'a.

insurance provision.

'ilibus

family

:i i i J i u ii:i i ii i i iii: I iii

ichael Kemper quit aircraft engineering to design and make practical but unorthodox bicycles, bringing quality and original thinking to the task of carrying children or heavy loads. He has designed his Filibus transporter bicycle from first principles, using lightweight tubing and alloy parts. He sees the use of quality materials as a measure of how important the role of the transporter or childcarrying bike should be in modern society. Every family should have one!

The Filibus has a low centre of gravity giving good riding characteristics when loaded up. and the low step-over frame is an advantage when the bike is loaded up front or back. It remains a perfectly useful bike for the solo rider when goods and children don't need to be carried around. A thief-proof aluminium container box can be supplied, for courier companies, fast food delivery ser vices, or shopping trips. The Filibus puts the child first: either facing you, for good eye contact, or facing forward to see what's happening in the big wide world. Communication between parent and child is easy, since you are only a foot or so apart. Alternatively, you can put a childseat on the rear rack. Michael also makes the Lorrie, a shorter transporter bike with direct steering. Other products include a very fine lightweight Pedersen bicycle.

Michael Kemper

Ă&#x2DC;Remen

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS Frame and Forks: 050 x 1,2

Mannesmann.

The Filibus was featured in much greater detail in the 1993194 edition of Encycleopedia.

Wheels: 26" and 20", alloy.

Magura brakes to front, back-pedal brake to rear. 5-speed Fichtel and Sachs Pentasport. Weight: approx 20kg. Colours: yellow, red, blue, tur'ouoise. Options: KetUer childseat.

Price 2200DM

A two-legged stand gives parking stability

rid

!P EN[4'LI1OPEDtA

The Kemper brings the shopping. A thief-proof aluminium box can also be supplied

RltSChie

trailer

WEBER WERKZEUGBAU GMBH crbert Weber began making child-trailers simply for his own children. Two years later his factory is making 2000 Ritschie trailers a year. Yet the realities of the marketplace have entailed few compromises. The result is an attractive and very safe vehicle for carrying one or two forward-facing children. The Ritschie is understandably not cheap, but this very versatile trailer will keep its value till you eventually pass it on to another cycling family with young children. The features make quite a list: substantial suspension on the axle, an aluminium roll bar, a lockable towing bracket incorporating a bike stand, a net to keep debris and insects out of the passengers' faces, and well-harnessed seats with adjustable tilts. The heart of the Ritschie is the extremely strong, light, anodised base. Seen in cross-section, the metal is in fact a sandwich of corrugated aluminium

family

between two plates. The superstructure is also light but strong. It can be dismantled easily without tools, and packed, together with the wheels, into the base for easy transport. In fact, the whole lot can then be packed into a specially made zip-up nylon case for taking on a train. Another feature is the quick conversion of the trailer into a simple load-carrier, for which a stretch-over nylon cover is available, or a Touring Top': a high-sided lock-on aluminium cover. A T-shaped handle is available for pulling the Ritschie as a cart. At 13.5kg (29.71b) the Ritschie is not as light as some trailers, but this is an inevitable consequence of the stability factors and the suspension system. There is no useless weight to be found.

Herbert Weber

VVESE

Dimensions: 78cm L. 85cm B. 90cm H. Folded: 78cm, 64cm, 27cm. Wheels: 18". Other optional extras: safety flag. dynamo lighting system, clip-on rear LED light.

Prices vary according to country. The average price in Europe is around 1000 DM.

Everything packs into the aluminium tray

N(4I41O P ED IA

69 falUi/V

Taylor tagga TAYLOR CYCLES p eter Taylor's range of vehicles for sociable cycling continues to increase - his Victorian tandem trike is featured elsewhere in this section. Peter's latest creation, the Tagga Trailer, is not a new departure in child-trailers, but is a well-made, practical variation on an established theme. It has been developed with the encouragement and support of Kevin Dunseath, who is responsible for marketing and sales through his business, D-Tek Cycles. The Tagga gives the young rider all the fun of cycling, including six-speed indexed derailleur gearing (Shimano), and a brake. The styling is mountain bike, to appeal to the young. Peter Taylor suggests an age range of five to ten for the Tagga, but points out that this is best left to the judgment of parents. The Tagga attaches to the standard 1" seatpin. If your bike does not have this size of seat pin. Peter supplies on make it fit S your frame.

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10 P E D I A

UNITED KINGDOM

The connection mechanism,with a spindle of Carbon Manganese Molybdenum steel, sits on top of the seat tube, and a 3" plastic spacer is provided for cases where the seat tube on the bike is so short that the trailer arm fails to clear the rear wheel. Articulation is achieved by simply having a joint allowing movement in the horizontal plain next to, but separate from, a joint allowing movement in the horizontal plain. The 20" steel wheel should last a good few years, and can be upgraded to alloy at a later stage. A fishtail clip-on mudguard can be supplied as an extra. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is Britain, where you can expect to pay around ÂŁ225

The seat-stem fixing leaves the rear rack free for use

Peter Taylor .t.

railerbike

family

ISLABIKES hen Isla Rowntree revived the idea of a • commercially produced trailer-bike she made it possible for thousands of children all over the world to enjoy cycling throughout the twilight of their childhood, when they are too big for a child seat yet too small to cycle far under their own steam. In the process she seems to have achieved the feat of making Trailerbike almost a generic name for this type of trailer in the English

language. The Trailerbike makes many things possible. Fit young cyclists have undertaken rides of up to 70 miles in a day. It behaves well off-road, but is clearly not meant for fast and furious riding over rough terrain. Isla is herself an experienced cycle designer, and a highly successful racing cyclist on and off-road. The manufacturing facility at Islabikes is in the hands of Isla's partner, Andy Thompson, whose working life has been dedicated to cycle design and manufacture. The company also make high quality tubular racks, load-trailers and custom frames. Andy holds Reynolds 753 frame-making certification. The company has a policy of sourcing European components where-ever possible - so it is gratifying that Europe makes up most of Islabikes' sales. They sell particularly well in Germany and Switzerland. This year Islabikes have introduced a five-speed version (Sturmey-Archer Sprinter hub gear), with all alloy parts. The three-speed and single speed models are still available.

Trailerbikes give semi-independence on the road

You can order extra towing racks so that the Trailer Bike can be attached to several different bicycles in the household. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Britain, where you can expect to pay between £250 and £350, depending on the model. Trailerbikes available for sale abroad are usually fitted with higher-end components.

E N['4&LE1O P ED IA

raI

trailerbikes.

family

P12 CRESSWELL ENGINEERINGI f you're going to have a trailer-bike, why not make room for two? Richard Cresswell's U+2 is a tandem, a trailer, and a tricycle. The logic is inexorable. A trailer long enough to carry two children would be unmanageable with just one wheel: adding the extra one gives perfect stability: fit a sturdy bike stand to the lead bike so that the whole vehicle stands there while youngsters climb aboard. The U+2 finds its own level on the road, thanks to a universal joint in the coupling, leaving your steering little affected by wriggling passengers. Even though the LJ+2 has a brake, check the lead bike's brakes: there's a lot of moving mass to stop. Having a tricycle-type rear end, the U+2 can take heavy luggage without balance problems: and the total weight is shared between two 20" wheels. You can still fit rear panniers to the lead bike. The low position of the U+2 riders helps stability, but the adult should beware of a trailer wheel hitting a serious bi

unlikely, and becomes even more unlikely if there is luggage on the trailer. With the U+2 on the road your children will be the centre of attention, and drivers will take great care when overtaking. If you remove three screws and the towing tube the U+2 compacts down to quite a small unit for stowage. Or you can simply store it upright against a wall, well out of the way. There are braze-ons for the optional luggage rack, which fits between the rear wheels. Another option is a bracket allowing a baby/child seat to be fitted in place of the rear saddle, making it a tJ+1 1/2 until the child grows up. Richard Cresswell is also the designer and manufacturer of the Rapide, featured in the recumbents section of this Encycleopedia. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Britain, where you can expect to pay ÂŁ475 for the basic model with 6-speed SIS Shimano. Other components can be fitted to order.

A universal coupling joint lets the trailer find its natural position on the road E N[L'IlO P ED I A

Richard Cresswell

6Fil~e-I_~ s ISZ1I il

â&#x20AC;˘

winches.ter trailer

72 family

WINCHESTER'S ORIGINALS INCI he best products often come from a heartfelt personal need. This was how Stan Winchester came to design and make what was to become a highly successful classic in child trailer design. His concept was taken up by Dick Everett and Gene Smith of Kool-Stop, who carry out all product development and marketing. Child trailers are complex things. First of all they have to be safe, and roll well. Then they have to be comfortable, make good use of internal space, have flexible seating, and pack flat easily. The Winchester designers have achieved all this. The Winchester's cantilevered wheels increase stability and improve the tracking. The coupling incorporates an optional key-operated lock, which makes the hitching process foolproof, and the trailer secure. The Winchester people avoid the temptation to bring out a new model each year. They concentrate instead on widening the range of accessories: the latest being a drop-in aluminium alloy tray for carry ing shopping or touring luggage. The all-weather top is one-piece. In warm weather you can simply roll up the clear panels. The gener-

ous PVC windows let occupants see more, and help block UV rays. Winchester have found that the best seating configuration is for children to sit on two seats, side by side, one facing backwards and one forwards. This is sociable for the children and gives more leg room. The Winchester can be converted in seconds so that both children can face forward, or to a single larger seat. The seat backs can be vertical or reclining.

S170 ORIGINALS, ne.

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

/ Assembly time: 5 minutes. Disassembly: 2 minutes. Overall width: 91cm (36). Weight: 12 kilos (26 1/2Ibs). Max load: 45kg (lOOIb). Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in the USA, where you can expect to pay around $350.

The Winchester is designed for easy disassembly.

M fit

7T \I I1I

O P ED I A

A recent development is the Runner's Kit, which converts the Winchester into a baby jogger or three-wheeled pushchair. It has a 16" wheel and a parking brake.

Trl*kes dd an extra wheel, and the poten al of pedal-power is drastically tial transformed. Trikes are very little understood these days, and their image varies enormously from country to country. They are due for a big revival. A trike gives stability, graceful low-speed manoeuvring and extra presence on the road, but it can often also carry heavy loads and wriggling children. Trikes come close to replicating the functions and convenience of the family motor car and. of course, beat the car in many positive ways. Not all trikes are designed primarily as goods or people-carriers. There are lightweight custom-built trikes for people who enjoy the thrill of hitting fast speeds, leaning into corners to counter centrifugal forces. Trikes are often raced, especially in Britain, and a high quality trike makes an excellent touring machine. Since you don't wobble at low speeds you can use fantastically low gears without falling off. And if you tire halfway up a hill, just put the brakes on and rest a while. Trikes come in all shapes and sizes. Most have two wheels at the back. This gives a carrying space between the rear wheels, and a familiar steering arrangement at the front. Others have two wheels at the front, with Ackermann steering. This arrangement usually gives you more stability, and allows you to use standard components for the rear of the trike, but it restricts your turning circle to some degree. Then there are recumbent trikes, tandem trikes, load-carrying box trikes, children's trikes, trikes for the disabled... You'll find all these in Encycleopedia. Trike-riding is not as easy for the beginner as it looks - although if you've never ridden a bicycle you'll probably sail off on a trike with no problem at all. Tricycles usually require about half an hour of meander ing, till the brain re-schools itself. At slower speeds you point the front wheel where you want to go, and perhaps occasionally make slight and almost instinctive adjustments to your body position if you sense a severe camber in the road, or if you need to swerve to miss a pothole. Once you have got triking skills you keep them for life. Trikes are not without their drawbacks: they weigh more and have higher rolling resistance than equivalent two-wheelers. They have three tracks instead of one, and don't always allow you to squeeze past congested traffic. These are minor matters. Trikes are splendid beasts: safe, sure and visible on the roads. They are great fun to ride, and show your community what can be achieved with pedal-power, and should be seriously considered as an alternative to the car in many situations. Tricycling is a broadening experience.

E N[4KII1O P ÂŁ D I A

W R PASHLEY LTD ashley specialise in specialising. Their range of bikes and trikes meet much of that wide variety of needs which large conventional bike-makers have turned away from. Being specialised does not mean staying small. Ever since they began making bikes in Birmingham in the 1920s, Pashley have believed in strength through diversity. They sell thousands of machines each year to the British Post Office, the National Health Service, car manufacturers, oil refineries and so on. On a more frivolous note, they do a brisk trade in their range of four unicycles, to amateur and professional performers worldwide - which is appropriate, since the present Pashley factory is in Shakespeare's beloved Stratford on Avon.

Not all Pashley machines are designed for heavy carrying. They also produce the Premier as their top of the range touring tricycle. This has 700C alloy wheels, 12-speed indexed derailleur gears and three hydraulic brakes for guaranteed stopping power. A large rear carrier accommodates your touring essentials. Whilst the Premier is just the machine for touring far afield, some Pashley trikes are more at home in factory and commercial use. The bright red Middleweight tricycle is able to carry loads up to 200kg on its large rear platform - the wheels have lOg spokes. The heavyweight of the Pashley family is the DP23 front-loading carrier tricycle with a platform mounted on twin carriage springs. The Number 33 tricycle is similar, but specifically designed to carry vending equipment, such as icecream refrigeration boxes: giving a pleasant occupation to cycling entrepreneurs. Pashley cycles find their way into many parts of life. Pashley also make the Moulton APB, which is featured in the portable bikes section of this Encycleopedia. Left: The Pickle Below: The Middleweight

You can introduce your child to the joys of pedalling with a Pashley Pickle trike. In fact, all your children will enjoy it, since it is made to last, with bail-bearings throughout, rather than the short-lived sleeve bearings found on so many children's cycles. So a Pickle can easily become an heirloom. Whilst waiting their turn on the Pickle, the younger children can be transported on the Pashley Picabac, which has two rear facing child seats with straps. It has many alloy components to keep down the weight, a three or five-speed Sturmey-Archer hub gear and a special parking-lock brake lever. The Picabac has the same specification as the Pashley Picador photographed here, which can carry a large rear shopping basket with lockable lid (available as an option) in place of the child-seats.

trikes

OPEDIA

picador SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Power is transmitted via a hub gear to the right wheel

Two backward facing childseats can be fitted

tnkes

fti,,!h &

low box transporters

CYKELFABRIKKEN

eveloped in the car-free suburb of Christiania, Copenhagen, made on the Danish island of Bornholm, the Cykelfabrikken Transporter Trike is common in Denmark, and now sold throughout the world. Responsible for the development and manufacture of the Cykelfabrikken is Lars Engstrom. He has the boundless satisfaction of knowing that day in, day out his trikes are transporting (in Denmark at least) children, dogs, building materials, gas bottles, firewood, ice-cream and amber sellers. The Royal Danish Post Office uses the trikes to replace vans for parcel deliveries in pedestrian zones. In York a Cykelfabrikken Trike distributes a local newspaper.

I I]

tnkes

bringing massive savings to the publisher. Cykelfabrikken trike designs include a lockable solid-topped box model, as well as low and high box open-topped versions with optional covers. They can be fitted with a bench and safety belts for carry ing children, and a hood with two windows is available to keep them warm and dry. Even with two children on board there is usually lots of room for the shopping. Special orders can be carried out. Cykelfabrikken also offer a version which will carry a disabled person in a wheelchair - the carry box front drops down to form a wheelchair ramp. The Cykelfabrikken has a sophisticated design which causes the rear section to tilt slightly on cornering, thus helping to neutralise the effects of centrifugal

Lars Engstrom at his Bornholm factory

13AEJ1

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame: welded and brazed, electroplated steel. Carrier box: 9mm marine ply\OOd.

Wheels: alloy or steel. 23x2 and 20 x 2.00. Dimensions: 119cm x 89.4cm (66 x211). Weight: 40kg (881b) Capacity: 100kg (2001b).

Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Denmark, where the Cykelfabrikken is made, and where you can expect to pay 6990 Danish Kroner for the low box and 7335 DK for the high box versions. Three-speeds cost an extra 435DK and the HTL versions an extra 4900DK.

E N[4KIiO P E D I A

ER __

ewton

ti"ikes

trike conversion

ROMAN ROAD CYCLES

erek Shackles found that a traditional tricy- specification. The conversion adds, on average, cle with two wheels at the rear was some- about 5.7kg (12.51b) to the previous weight of the bicycle. If you have average technical competence times unstable on the hilly rural roads of Wales the conversion should take about an hour, or you where he lives, can ask your bike shop to do it. He surmised that having two wheels on the front We tested the Newton conversion kit on the Harry could make a more stable vehicle than the tradiQuinn frame in our photograph. The riding charactional configuration. Ackermann steering, common teristics were fine for fast riding - but you can conin the motor industry, would allow responsive corvert almost any kind of bike. We would have prenering, with the inner wheel taking a smaller diameferred, for comfort, a more upright riding position ter circle than the outer wheel. Trikes with a single this is a purely personal choice. It would also have rear wheel provide drive straight though the centre moved the centre of gravity backwards, and would line of the trike, and allow any standard form of also almost certainly have removed the sensation bicycle transmission to be used. The single rear that emergency front braking might pitch you over wheel carries all the rear weight and is therefore the top - the front wheels are positioned a few much less likely to slip than the single driven wheel inches closer to the machine's centre of gravity than on a traditional trike. the single wheel of a standard bicycle. Derek says he Derek has produced a kit which converts a standard has often braked sharply on fast descents in Wales, bicycle with 700c, 26" and 27" wheels. The specially riding in his preferred position with handlebar low adapted Sachs hub brakes on each stub axle are and forward, without any lifting of the rear wheel. equalised to apply simultaneously. The tubing is Derek is working on a conversion kit for mostly Reynolds 531, with wheels supplied to your tandems. You can read more about him and his conversion kits in Issue One of Bike Culture Quarterly.

IjJ

Derek Shackles

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in the UK. where you can expect to pay around ÂŁ700. depending on specification.

Ackcrmann steering at work

J: ikit E NLL'11O P E U I A

fits almost any bike

ictorian

fri kes

TAYLOR CYCLES hat people want, I try and make." Peter Taylor cheerfully enjoys a challenge, but has the strong, time-served engineering background to underpin his natural enthusiasm. In addition to his well established Victorian tricycle, he has made junior tandems, junior solo trikes, and has developed a distinctive design of trailer bike (featured in the family cycling section of this Ericycleopedia). He is now working on converting a wheelchair into a side-car.

The Victorian has the basic advantages of the conventional tandem, but with added stability. Two wheels at the front give more stability than two wheels at the back. The two riders are closer together than on a conventional tandem, making conversation easier. The two front wheels, with their Ackermann steering geometry, give easy handling. On cornering the inner front wheel takes a smaller diameter circle than the outer one. The stability and sociability of this machine make it an ideal form of transport for a disabled rider, and Peter Taylor estimates that 70% of Victorian sales have been to families with a disabled member. He has been working closely with the chief physiotherapist at a Lancaster hospital who uses four of these robust machines as therapy cycles. Purpose-made back supports, straps and foot-rests can be supplied. The Victorian is not a fast lightweight, but rather a fine conveyance for leisurely rides where the scents and sounds of nature come before the thrills of speed.

cORc

Peter and Jean Taylor cycling to success on their Victorian

A solo versior

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Almost all components are standard bicycle parts. Reasonable requests as to components and accessories can be accommodated. Steel rims are standard, but alloy is an option. Wheel size: 26x1 3/4 or 26x2. Length: 1.75 metres (67"). Width: one metre (wider than a standard door). Weight: 26 kilos )571b). Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Britain, where you can expect to pay a little over ÂŁ800, depending on specification.

O P ED IA

Portables

A t one end or the other of every cycle ride the bicycle can suddenly change from a svelte vehicle of paradise into an awkward nuisance. You need to park it somewhere safe, or take it with you on another form of transport. A portable bike, however, lets you travel mixed-mode on your terms. Now that rail systems all over the world are squeezing out bicycles, thousands of cyclists are opting to go for a portable. A portable bike allows you to commute by train, using the same bicycle at both ends of your journey. It allows you to take a bicycle almost anywhere - even into a bar or restaurant for safe-keeping. You can cycle-tour using bike and rail, by choosing a rural rail route, stopping off at a different station each day foi a circular ride, or cycling between stations. No booking of bikes in advance, no anxiety about room on the train, and no fee to pay. A portable bike is an investment in independence and peace of mind. Not all portables are folders. The Moulton APB (and the Moulton Jubilee which is to be found in the Classics section of this issue) are designed to come apart for easy stowage. The folding bikes of 60's were dogs to ride, and usually showed rust after their first taste of rain. However the market for modern portables/folder , is extremely sophisticated. They are generally bought by experienced cyclists who look for the optimum compromise between the quality of the ride and the quality of the fold. The portability of a bicycle can make a big difference to many people's daily lives, especially if the bike in question is the only one the owner ever rides. This is why a sizable number of people are prepared to pay a lot of money for the right bike, and why there is increasing investment in good design and quality. The portables in this edition of Encycleopedia vary enormously in foldability and final performance on the road. Some are better folders than others, some are faster or better equipped than others. Some, inevitably, are more expensive than others. They meet varying needs. Do you really need a highly compact folder if you're only going to fold it a few times each year? Do you need a high performance lightweight for a regular two mile stop-start journey 1 through town? A highly compact specialised folder is perhaps not â&#x20AC;˘: what you need for long-distance tour of the Pyrenees, where the bike will be unfolded (or, in the case of the Moulton, assembled) when you !t\I get there, and folded or disassembled again only when it's time to go v1 home. =3, -----I

ft1U

------

A tricycle which folded inwards to fit through doors

.----..---=-- -

E N14&'IIIO P E D I A

portable

GREEN GEAR CYCLING ow do you sell a folding bike to a professional racing cyclist? The answer, appar ently, is that you make it good enough for them to want to train on during their many business trips. They take it from its suitcase and go for an evening ride. This keeps their fitness regime ticking over until they get home and onto their principal training bike. There are even stories of racing cyclists turning up at the start of criterium events with only a suitcase in hand. A few seconds later a bike emerges from the case, and the owner lines up with all the others for the off. The Bike Friday unfolded from the minds of Alan and Hanz Scholz, bicycle enthusiasts and inspired designers. In 1985 Hanz had taken a folding bike on a European trip and quickly realised its limitations as a serious tourer. He studied all the other folding bikes available then, and concluded that none rode like the fast, high-quality bikes that he was used to riding. Meanwhile Alan was making his mark as a designer with admired products such as the Burley trailer, Duet tandem, and Rock and Roll tandem. The Bike Friday can match the speed of quite a few high class road bikes, and surprises many with the quality of the ride. And yet it packs into a Samsonite suitcase or a travel bag for taking on other forms of transport. Furthermore, the case can be mounted on a light 12" wheel trailer, which can also be used for other purposes, and which can carry up to 50lbs (22.7 kilos). The trailer dismantles and packs into the suitcase with the bike, although it maybe necessary to deflate the trailer wheels. The company provides machines only when they have been sent six

points of information about the customer's size. They can modify the bike to fit anybody,and have built for customers from 4'8" (1.42rn) up to 6'8" (2.03 rn),and up to 2801bs (127kg). They are designed to suit both men and women without compromising the fit for either. A nice personal touch is the addition of an engraved metal name-plate testifying that the bike was custom-built for the owner by Green Gear Cycling. There are now Bike Fridays for different purposes. The World Tourist is a lightweight touring hybrid, which comes equipped with either drop bars or touring power-bars. The Pocket llama is the team's 20" wheel mountain bike. We have not tested this, but the makers say it meets their design aim: "that our travel bikes must perform, after travelling in their suitcases, as would their larger brethren out of the garage' They claim that the Pocket Llama handles the nastiest single track with the rest of the best. Our featured bike, the Pocket Rocket, is designed for those who want an all-out, high performance, lightweight (21lbs/9.5kg) racing/travel bike. It is competing successfully in road races, criteriums and time trails throughout the US. So the keen cyclist can now take a thoroughbred machine anywhere. Or two keen cyclists can take Bike Friday's Two'sday tandem, which weighs under 401b and packs into two Samsonite suitcases, which stack on one Travellrailer. Product development is virtually complete on this, and tandem aficionados are consumed with curiosity.

Hanz and Alan Scholz

FRI PAY

" LQ~ C_!a ,

1 140

Far left: This is how the Bike Friday is delivered. The makers also include a polaroid of the cased bike for reference when re-packing it

TT9

The seat tube folds forward, the rear triangle folds under, and various parts are taken off or moved, using an alien key. Our picture shows the rear wheel removed which is not necessary for the folding process

OPEDIA

Bike fri

portable

rocket [

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS Frame: Custom crome-moly.

Wheels: 20 x 1/8, 24 spokes, with

Prices vary according to country.

ovalised.

RoadLite lOOpsi tyres. Saddle and

The lowest price is in the USA,

Fork Blades: Reynolds 531 cus-

pedals are optional, since most

where you can expect to pay

tom-sized. Handlebar: one-piece

customer like to fit their own

between $1250 and $1800,

custom stem with SR Modelo

favourites. In fact, because this

depending on specifications.

drops.

bike is a custom fit, you really

E N[L'IlO P ED IA

portables

RIESE AND MULLER f you're planning to commit your business resources and years of development time to a new project, you've got to be absolutely sure of where you're going before you even begin - and that means having clear design objectives. When Markus Riese and Heiko Muller began thinking about a new, high-performance folding bike they gave themselves four clear aims: good riding characteristics, comfort, low weight, and an easy, compact fold. That was the easy bit. The design process which followed was to tax their ingenuity to the limit. Their teamwork helped them through, as ideas bounced from one to the other. Markus and Heiko had been friends since their school days, and studied mechanical engineering together. All through their friendship they had designed and made bicycles. They began work on a folding bike in 1991, seeing it as the most useful contribution they could make to traffic sanity, allowins cycling to be easily combined with other forms of transport. They built a test bike in which virtually all frame dimensions and angles were adjustable. Then came a long period of testing, with bikes loaned to friends large and small. Eventually the geometry was set, striking a balance between low speed manoeuvrability and fast performance. The first production run of 300 Birdies is underway, and patents are in force. The Birdy has the seat position and geometry of a conventional bike. The CAD-designed frame is made of oversized aluminium tubing, giving high rigidity. There is no hinge in the main frame, which also keeps the weight down to an astonishing 9.1kg (18.21b). The folding technique is simple. The rear swing-arm tucks in, and comes to rest to the left of the main tube. The front swing-arm tucks in, and rests to the right of the main tube. The saddle pin goes down, and the handlebar folds down. It all takes about 15 seconds.

The handlebar stem comes in four standard sizes, each with a different length and geometry. It can be custom-made to other dimensions at an extra charge. Thanks to the suspension the Birdy can be fitted with high-pressure low-rolling resistance tyres. The leading arm front suspension is designed to circumvent any bobbing of the front wheel on braking when the powerful Magura Hydrostops are applied. Care has been taken to site the pivot position of the rear swing arm so that interaction between transmission and suspension is avoided. The rear elastomer suspension unit can be exchanged in minutes for a stronger or weaker one, to suit the rider and/or the ride. This is an expensive machine: The Birdy's specifications are comparable with a higher-range American aluminium-framed tourer. Markus and Heiko are now developing a fullyequipped Birdy, with mudguards and lighting system. These will be available in late 1994 for retro-fitting. There will also be a carrying bag available in 1995. On a more exciting tone, the partners hope to develop a racing version of the Birdy, with extremely light components. The fold takes fifteen seconds

Heiko Muller (left) and Markus Riese

r\ m 0

O P ED I A

portables

B I rdy

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Wheels: 17" x 11/4. Magura Hydrostop brakes. Transmission: Deore XT, 8-speed, with Grip Shift. Single front chainring. Folded dimensions: 72 cm, 58 cm. 30 cm (28" 23", 12"). Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Germany, where you can expect to pay around 3000 DM for the basic Birdy without accessories.

A predecessor of 1899. This Danish folder also served as a restful seat.

O P ED I A

portable

GALAXE CYKLER he Galaxe is a bicycle of great paradox. It takes its inspiration from the simple BSA folding bike used by British paratroopers in World War Two, and yet has become a high-specification cult bicycle appealing to cycle freaks in the very country those paratroopers were fighting against. Even more surprising is the fact that the Galaxe is made in Denmark, and its revival depended on a Danish collector discovering a battered original in a English barn. It is now made in the frame building workshop of Niels Keld Madsen. There is no question of a replica. The Galaxe (say Galaxy) is an elegant, stronger, lighter version of the Parabike. The forks and elliptical (regular oval) frame have been redesigned for strength; the components are tastefully and astutely chosen: a Brooks B66 honey-coloured saddle, a Pentasport 5-speed hub with all-weather back-pedal braking (or a Sachs Super-7), Vredestein Monte Carlo tyres with reflective side-walls and PRS (Puncture Resistance System), black anodised Alesa rims, SR folding pedals, cork grips, KSS bottom bracket axle and bearings, a Union halogen front light and a Busch und Muller 4Dlite dynamo rear light incorporating diodes rather than a bulb. The quick-release levers on the stainless steel stem and seatpost enable fast height adjustments. All other components are of comparable quality, down to the elegant metal valve tops. All are sourced in Europe except where European products are not deemed up to standard. The Galaxe was never meant to be the meanest folder on the market; but it folds well enough for public transport and compact home storage. Twin levers on the frame allow a single fold, and a quickrelease lever on the stem brings the handlebar parallel. It takes about ten seconds and leaves the chain on the inside. The folding facility does not affect performance. A recent study at the University of Odense revealed no difference in rigidity between the Galaxe frame and that of a good quality diamond frame. The Galaxe's large 28" wheels (a size common on cobble-cruising North European roadsters) give a very comfortable ride. Just a year ago most Galaxes where sold as frameonly. Now the makers sell very few framesets, and offer instead three fully equipped versions. Version

One has the equipment listed above, and comes with black plastic mudguards. Version 2 is adorned with Woodguards and a Woodguard chain protector. Version 3 is like Version 2, but takes the biscuit with its rims made of hickory wood, stained mahoganycolour. Hickory is the traditional wood for bike rims, and was used extensively in the 1890s. The rims are crafted according to traditional methods by the last surviving maker of wooden cycle rims, working in the depths of the Italian countryside. (For more about Woodguards and hickory rims see the Encycleopedia entry for Woodguards.) Version 3 comes with a Sachs VT5000 front wheel hub brake, to keep brake pads off the rims.

Left: A wooden chainguard adds to the elegance Below: The fold takes a few seconds

Niels Keld Madsen

O P E DI A

portable

Galaxe UNFOLDING HISTORY

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS Frame: precision tubing from

Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is probably in

BSA (Birmingham Small Arms)

Mannesmann.

began making folding bikes for the

Forks: Tange CrMo, unicrown.

Germany, where you can expect to

British Army for use in the Boer

Frame Sizes: 51-63cm (20"-24") in

pay around 1275 OM for a frameset and between 2720 DM for

War During the Second World War

2cm increments. If you plan to order a frameset only, the makers

Parabikes were either carried in

Version 1 equipped and 3300 DM

recommend a 622-37 (700c)

for Version 3 equipped.

gliders or dropped in bundles. They

wheel, although there is clearance

were made to land saddle-first, as

for anything up to a 622-47 (28")

this caused least damage to the

wheel/tyre.

bike.

Weight of frame: approximately

The BSA was a heavy bike, and designed as a throw-away item. It

3kg (6.61b). Weight of forks: approximately 900g (21b).

had push-through rods as pedals -

Colours: black or British racing

soldiers' boots being less than sen-

green; others by order (powder-

sitive footwear The Parabike's sole

coated). Customers order either a

function was to speed soldiers from

man's or a woman's saddle. A

the drop zone to the bridgehead they needed to form. Once there,

"ladies" frame with a compromised oval is available. A Carradice Bike

A detail from the D-Day tapestry at Portsmouth Museum

Bag can also be ordered.

the bike was discarded. The most famous use of Parabikes was at Arnhem, where thousands of them were recently uncovered as a result of a farmer ploughing his field. In

dos

Holland Parabikes are still known

as Arnhems.

P ED I A

portables

-DIAMANT FAHRRAD WE R KE ~ ome years ago we came across an American living in Hanover, Germany, who had invented an ingenious folding technique for a large-wheeled bicycle. It looked like the same old story: great idea, equally great indifference from commercial manufacturers. We were wrong. John Strozyk's essential design has been taken up and developed by the design team at Diamant in Chemnitz., He has approved of their work, and the first Handy Bikes are now coming off the production line. The Handy Bike is designed around a standard 26" wheel size, and rides like any normal bike. You forget you're on a folder. Paradoxically the Handy Bike's conventional dimensions are something of a marketing disappointment for the people at Diamant: onlookers often don't realise it's a folder, and so fail to find out more! The very striking frame is largely made of parallel 'tubes' of square-section stainless steel. This choice of material adds a little to the weight, which comes out at 14kg (30.81b). However, the benefits are significant. You can say goodbye to rust, and to unsightly paint scratches. This is an important point on a folding bicycle, where the act of folding will inevitably lead to metal touching metal here and

there. Stainless steel gives a very attractive baremetal finish and, most importantly, is infinitely recyclable. The gearing is a Shimano 7-speed hub, and this is combined with a back-pedal brake, eliminating an extra cable. Back-pedal (or coaster) brakes are common in Northern Europe. They're robust and reliable, being operated by the power of your legs transmitted through the chain. You can assemble or disassemble the Handy Bike in 25 seconds. First take out the front wheel. Then release the safety catch in the middle of the handlebars to let each side of the handlebar fold down. Release the rear wheel and slide it up into the wide space between the rear seat stays, clamping it into its new position. Then release a catch just above the bottom bracket. This allows the whole rear triangle, including wheel, to be slid into the body of the frame, with a pivot point on the top tube, just forward of the seat pin. An alien key for this pivot point is the only tool you need. There are folding pedals on both sides.

DIP M A FIT

HANDY

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Germany, where you can expect to pay around 1700 DM for the basic bike. The carrying bag will not be available till Autumn 1994.

ri Below left: The whole rear triangle slides into the body of the frame Below right: Both sides of the handlebar fold down, and the rear wheel slides up the frame

E N[4'kI1O P E D I A

Handybike The single frame size is 53cm (21") and the specialised seat height adjustment does not allow for the fitting of an extra long seat post. The makers suggest the Handy Bike is suitable for anyone with a leg length of between 75cm (29 1/2") and 95cm (37 1/2"). The fitting of a conventional rear rack would inter fere with the folding process, but you can fit a bar bag, and/or a large saddle bag, both of which are

portables

easily removed for the fold. However, Diamant are working on a specialised aluminium alloy rear rack, which will be split to permit the fold. They expect to have this available as a retro-fit in Spring 1995. They are also working with a lighting manufacturer, to develop a retro-fitting lighting system specially for the Handy Bike. The Handy Bike packs down to 80cm x 85cm (30 1/2" x 33 1/2"), so that it can fit, together with the front wheel, into a neat bag supplied by the makers - so go where you want, and let your life unfold.

O P ED IA

W.R. PASHLEY LTD nce upon a time, in the irreverent swinging sixties, Dr Alex Moulton introduced a bicycle which challenged the very basics of conventional cycle design. The Moulton's small wheels and suspension system caught the spirit of the time, were a great popular success, and made Moulton bicycles the second largest frame builder in Britain. A rash of cheap and nasty 'me-too' small-wheeled bikes, with sluggish fat tyres, muddied the market, and, for this and other reasons, Moulton production ceased. The ever inventive Alex Moulton returned to cyclemaking in the late 1980s, with a striking space-frame design, still based on the concept of (relatively!) small wheels and suspension. (The AM Jubilee is featured in the Classics section of this Encycleopedia, where we cover many further Moulton design points). The AM range is popular with connoisseurs, but is not intended for the kind of volume sales which Moulton enjoyed in the 60s. Now, however, the Moulton All-Purpose Bike, sharing characteristics of the noble AM machines, is being built under licence from Alex Moulton by the long established British firm of WR. Pashley, at a price which attracts a wide range of users.

The Moulton APB has, like the AM range, a distinctive, strong and rigid latticed frame, which splits into two parts for storage or transport. The wheels are bigger, at 20". This size is appropriate to a bicycle designed for multi-purpose use, and 20" wheels and tyres are readily available. The stainless steel leading-link front suspension is adjustable for riders' weight and damping prefer ence. The pivoted rear triangle has a bonded-rubber

cone spring which suits a wide load range. The APB was first produced, like Ford motor cars, in black, with a choice of hub or derailleur gears. This year there has been an explosion of colours and specifications. There is a three-speed version with calliper brakes; there's a Sachs 14-speed, a Shimano 14-Speed or a SunTour 16-speed, all with cantilever brakes, in colours such as bright red, brilliant blue, cerise, aquamarine or gunmetal. This policy of offering machines equipped with groups of components from different manufacturers is an important means of preserving consumer choice. The SunTour and Sachs machines have the majority of components sourced from the respective manufacturer. Optional extras on all machines include front and rear carriers, mudguards and transport bags. Nigel Sadler is editor of the Moultoneer, the magazine of the Moulton Bicycle Club. He uses an APB for 99.9% of his cycling. He chose the 5-speed version, considering it the best option for London riding. He feels that it lives up to its name as an All Purpose Bicycle, and its sturdiness gives him confidence: "I have ridden down a flight of steps on it, something I would never have dreamt of doing on any of my other Moultons." The Moulton bicycle of the 1960s was an immediate success and brought new thinking to a wide market. Its attractive descendant is set to make a similar impact.

portable

KINGDOM

MOULTON

LAPB 3

Above: Leading-link

front suspension

Left: Front and rear carriers are optional Below: When fully dismantled the APB fits into two travel-bags

O P E DI A

portable

Moulton apb SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS Frame: precision steel. Unicrown

Weight: 14 kilos (31lbs). All APBs

fork with Reynolds 531 steering

come with a pump inside the seat

column. The APR14 and the APB16

pillar and an alien key under the

have Reynolds 501 handlebars

saddle. Optional extras include

with Zoom cr0-mo stem and alloy

front and rear carriers, mudguards

bar ends. One frame size only, but

(standard on the APB3) and trans-

with seat pillar adjustable to suit

port bags: one for each half.

riders 160cm to 195cm (5' 4" to

Prices vary according to country.

65").

The lowest price is probably in

Size of each separated half:

Britain, where you can expect to

100cm (39")

pay between ÂŁ450 and ÂŁ1000,

Wheels: alloy, 20x1.75, 500A in

depending on options.

the APB3.

BrO MP to n T5 BROMPTON BICYCLE he Brompton was one of the first folders designed for the discriminating cyclist. Its elegant engineering and remarkable folding capacity become apparent each time it is taken on and off a train. Many Brompton sales result from owners fielding questions from astonished and envious fellow-passengers. The Brompton is nippy enough for round-town, or short country rides, but is not designed to be a high performance touring bike. It gives a reassuring ride, smoothed by a rubber suspension unit just behind the seatpost. It comes either as a basic bicycle, or fully equipped. The busy commuter usually goes for the T5, with the full works: dynamo lighting system, rack and five-speed gearing. None of these affect foldability, but the complete set of accessories adds 10% to the weight, bringing it to 28.41b (11.5kg). This is about the weight of a moderately good touring bike. There is an optional quick-release front bag with two external pockets and an internal documents pocket. It has virtually no affect on handling, being attached to the frame, not the steering assembly. A quickrelease foldable basket is also available. The seatpin can be lowered through the frame, to suit children and very small adults. The fold takes about 20 seconds, and leaves the sensitive, oily bits on the

portable

UNITED KINGDOM

Andrew Ritchie, designer of the Brornpton, struggled for many years before the Brompton took off, but now has a very successful business on his hands. The firm have recently moved to a new factory, allowing production to treble if required.

Midrew Ritchie

[BROMPTONI SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Frame and forks: steel. Forged hinges. 16" by 13/8" wheels. Alesa alloy rims. Standard tyres. Colours: red or black. Folded height: 565mm (22.2"). Folded length: 545mm, (21.5'). Folded width: 250mm (9.8"). Options: extra-long seat pins (30mm and 60mm longer than the standard pin); lower than standard gearing, involving a smaller chainring; fold-up pedal with sealed bearing; and a bike cover. Apart from the T5 the models available are the similar T3 (with a threespeed gear), and the L3 and L5, which come without rack and lighting system. Prices vary according to country. They range from ÂŁ357 to ÂŁ650.

0PEDIA

ER7

Accessories â&#x20AC;˘ eaders of last year's Encycleopedia have pointed out that it's all very well featuring luscious, exotic and often expensive bikes, but why not, they say, also include a wide range of interesting components and accessories? Equally, our Encycleopedia shops tell us that, although they may not be able to risk stocking a ÂŁ2000 fully suspended foldable recumbent racing trike with knobs on, they may be moved to stock some interesting bits and pieces. We hope that the following section meets these needs. In general we have looked for the products of small manufacturers, in line with our philosophy. It is surprising how many small-scale producers of components and accessories are offering imaginative, high quality alternatives to the standard stuff found in the high street bike shop, but it is in the nature of things that small bits tend to be made in large numbers in big factories. Personally sculpted brake blocks may serve as an artistic critique of our mass-production society, but their usefulness would probably end there. We have therefore included a number of good products from some big manufacturers, especially where they have moved onto interesting new ground, or have made an effort to improve on something already available. A few accessories are, admittedly, less than thrilling; but these are often the kind of thing which can greatly enhance your enjoyment of cycling, and yet are generally overlooked, even by keen and knowledgeable cyclists. It is never easy to decide what accessories to put on our bikes. Car-drivers, with their external power source, can garnish their vehicles with all manner of bits and pieces, from the useful to the fetishistic, making the cost-benefit analysis less critical. Cyclists must use their own precious muscle-power to transport whatever accessories they choose, so they choose with care.

7IITIO

P ED I A

FIETS

PARTS

accessories

edal, crank and chainwheel. This crucial componentry is normally seen as the territory of the big, mass-market manufacturers, but Dutchman Simon Koorn has, under the banner of Ergomax, helped develop highclass systems for the competition cyclist. These are systems with a long-standing reputation, for anyone who enjoys a comfortable cadence and intimacy with their machine.

Elger Clip Tricks - possibly the simplest on the market

Simon developed a clipless pedal system, with no moving parts in the binding. The Patent, Office put him in touch with Walter Eiger, who had developed a virtually identical system. The two decided to work together, calling their product the Eiger Clip-Trick. Walter took charge of production and Simon of marketing. The Eiger Clip-Trick system is possibly the simplest on the market. The alloy pedal spindle clicks into a polyamide cleat, which is adaptable to almost all racing shoes. Simon points out that despite appear ances to the contrary the Eiger Clip-Trick is no more difficult to walk on than other cleats. Eiger Clip-Tricks offer superior ground-clearance on cornering, meaning that a racing cyclist can keep down to a minimum the freewheel time on bends. When most types of pedal hit the ground at speed they are liable to fatigue or even fracture at a point in the gap between the crank and the inside of the pedal. However, the Eiger Clip-Trick has its main bearing right up against the crank, so that the area is put under constant tension, making it less likely to suffer damage from a force in the opposite direction.

The spindle housing is barrel shaped, and has the inherent strength of a tube, maintaining rigidity all the way along the spindle. Any breakage is likely to occur away from the point where the pedal screws into the crank, so that you do not lose your pedal entirely (a great safety advantage). Simon's other involvement in pedalling efficiency is found at the opposite end of the crank: in the area of oval chainrings. Here he has for many years promoted and marketed the work of Edmond Polchiopek. How does it work? On a totally round chainwheel there is a deadspot, roughly where the leg is at its most bent and at its most stretched. On a conventional bike most force is applied to the crank at about 2 o'clock, tailing off at about 5 o'clock. Oval chainrings give a 'small chainwheel' effect around the deadspots, and a 'large chainwheel' effect on the downstrokes. You get a sensation of increasing or decreasing resistance at the transition between the two effects. The Polchlopek oval chainwheel system tries to give better ergonomics than this, smoothing out the transition by taking into account not just the available leverage on the crank-arm but also the variable muscle power in the leg at any point in the rotation. This allows higher cadences or, alternatively, bigger gears. This improvement is achieved by a more specialised use of ovals, with an almost-flat spot of three teeth or so, at opposing points in the oval. This increases the diameter of the chainring very quickly to almost maximum, at the point just after the dead centre

Polchlopek chainrings for extra performance

---

)

:. Shun Knorn

1r PT

Edmond Polchlopek

Ost

pas

_____

accessories

rgomax when leverage and muscle output are also at their maximum. A complication is that differing riding styles require differing orientations of crank relative to chainwheel, and this relates to the body position of the cyclist, which in turn relates to the seat angle of the bicycle. An obvious example is the recumbent rider, who can take advantage of Polchlopek ovals only if the crank is in a radically different orientation from that of a conventional racing cyclist, who in turn needs a slightly different orientation from that of a triathlete rider. Simon needs to stock rings to match five different makes of crank, each at a range of sizes, and each differing in the position of the holes to make varying

orientations possible, to meet the riding style of the individual customer. These chainrings are made in small numbers to a standard of durability which, as you would expect, goes well beyond the quality of mass produced items - and if you don't want to get into the physics of it all, Simon offers a consultation service. The alloy Eiger Clip-Trick, which is just coming onto the market, weighs a mere 35g. The steel-spindled version weighs 90g. The price varies according to country. In the Netherlands they cost around 195 guilders (steel) and 250-275 guilders (alloy) The prices for Polchlopek rings vary according to country. The lowest price is in the Netherlands, where you can expect to pay 140-290 guilders for normalsized chainwheels.

%-,UfIUUIL 01., L,UIIUUI1, VYJJ. .bJ, U1.

Bl o 9 ri

accessories

ALFRED HARTMANN

rasp a pencil or similar object in each hand and let your arms hang down loose at your sides. Then, still holding tight, raise your hands up to a position akin to grasping a straight handlebar. You will notice that the axis of each pencil is different, and that neither lies at ninety degrees to your body. Then adjust your wrist position to bring both pencils into a 90 degree axis, as if they were the straight handlebars of a mountain bike. You will now notice that your wrists have been forced into an unnatural angle: nature designed hands for pulling, not pushing. When you press down on the bars your hands finds it difficult to keep a straight line. The biomechanical lines of force no longer run straight, and your wrists have next to no muscle support. The popularity of straight bars, usually in long-reach positions, has meant that greater stresses travel through the wrist, and this is made even worse by the juddering caused by off-road riding. The results can be nerve damage and blood supply problems. A recent study at Munich University looked at how 300 different people held handlebars. For 75% of them the ideal wrist angle was between 105 and 122

degrees; for 15% of them it was between 90 and 105 degrees; and for 10% it was over 122 degrees. Biogrips are a clever solution. They have a profile which fills out the ball of the hand so that wrist alignment becomes correct. Once fitted, each Biogrip needs to be swivelled into position for personal comfort: since each individual has his or her own bar height, saddle height, anatomy and riding style. According to the makers, Biogrips also work on curved bars, as the wrists tend to escape the forces pressing down on them from above, by rotating around the bar, or changing their position. Biogrips feel odd at first, but soon become familiar. Their comfortable sponge-like material absorbs vibration, and the ribbed surface is there to aid the flow of air to the palms. A good idea which should have been with us years ago. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Germany, where you can expect to pay 39.90 DM.

biogrip

Line of force with wrist in false position.

erz

The left wrist, supported by a normal grip, is in a weaker position than the right wrist supported by a Biogrip.

Line of force with Biogrip.

E N[KlIO P E D I A

hronos hammer

accessories

CHRONOS RESEARCH LABORATORIES! ince 1982 Chronos Research Laboratories J have developed spacecraft power conversion systems for Nasa and the US Air Force. In 1989 a Chronos-sponsored team broke the Race Across America record for a conventionally-framed bike. Only Team Lightening was faster overall. One of the Chronos race team, Dr Randall Olsen Ph.D, President of the business and its Chief Scientist, promptly bought himself a Lightning recumbent. Its everyday performance was excellent, but he felt he needed a little extra for the hills on his route to work. The Chronos people calculated the physics, and knew that a high power-density device was possible. Now, after years of development and ten major design revisions, the Hammer is powering to wide popularity in the States. "The most important point", says Dr Olsen, "is that, unlike all historic attempts at adding electric power to bicycles, the Hammer encourages more pedalling, not less". The Hammer power-assist is restricted to low speeds, (those encountered on hill climbing), and is not available

at high speeds, since this would turn nearly all riders into passive electric scooter pilots. The standard gear ratio gives an operating speed of 5-12 mph, which is perfect for 98% of users. Optional ratios are available. Dr Olsen was one of the many testers of the Hammer, and still uses it to commute to work. The Hammer is light: 0.9kg (21b) for the motortransmission-clutch unit and 1.68kg (3.71b) for the battery and motor control circuit. A design breakthrough involved the discovery that the start-up torque itself could be made to kick the motor into engagement with the tyre: one less cable, and a smoother transition. Chronos is in the process of launching a new, slightly heavier lower-capacity model at about half the price of the Hammer. Chronos' long term goal is the development of a spectrum of electric vehicles, including a one-per son commuter vehicle.

Dr and Mrs Olsen enjoying their Hammers

CHRONOS Hammer Electric Power Assist

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Output: maximum of about 0.2

horsepower (equivalent to two more cyclists) for 10 to 15 minutes of continuous, full-power climbing or enough for an average bicycle ride of one to three hours, depending on the terrain. The rechargeable battery fits into a standard water bottle holder. A push button switch is mounted on hanâ&#x20AC;˘ dlebars. A charger is availW_ able to work on overseas IL power supplies. Prices vary from country to country. In America the systems are available for between $598 and $659.

The Hammer installs easily onto most conventional bikes

E N[4k'I4O P ED I A

Gb panniers

accessories

GILLES BERTHOUD SAl

illes Berthoud, known world-wide as a master framebuilder, was so taken with the elegant lines of the classic luggage which graced his bicycle, that he bought the factory which produced it. The eighty year old manageress of the Sologne factory had finally decided to call it a day in 1985, and Gilles felt he had a duty to ensure future production of these famous bags, which had been produced since 1930. The strong and stylish Paris panniers are made of cotton duck, trimmed with light tan leather straps and trimmings. They also attach via leather straps, and are laced at the sides to compress the space when necessar',. These bags are likely to last you for a touring lifetime. In any case Gilles' factory can always repair the bags, even after years of wear. Gilles will introduce an easier attachment for the panniers in 1995. The black cotton panniers are trimmed with leather, but have modern hooded tops, nylon straps and click-clips.

Gilles Berthoud also designs and manufactures his own elegant tubular metal racks to carry his luggage, or other kinds of bags. These are extremely lightweight, thanks to the recent availability of thin walled chrome-moly tubing. The front rack weighs 270gm (9 1/2oz) and the rear one 430gm (15oz).

Gilles Berthoud 's custom-made frames have a world-wide reputation.

.5!f

Gilles Berthoud

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Prices will vary according to country. In France the Paris pan-

A full set of Paris panniers makes a bike hard to overlook.

niers cost between 650 and 900FF, and the Front Bag 650 FF. The low-rider rack costs 3 74F and the rear rack 51 OFF

-1

-S

The new GB luggage includes a bar-bag and (I. ' -5

N!TEITIO

P ED I A

low-riders with hooded

Gil/es Berthouci's own design

tops and click-clips.

of chrome-moly rack.

tool-stop

brake blocks

KOOL-STOP INTERNATIONAL INCI

he science of stopping a bicycle has come a long way since cyclists applied spoon brakes to the tyre tread. Kool-Stop International have taken the deceptively simple matter of bicycle brake blocks to new levels of sophistication. The Kool-Stop story began when Richard Everett came out of the US military in 1970, and started the Everett Manufacturing Company. He made friction products with the help of his father Harry, who had previously run a company developing and producing brake pads for automotive and industrial use, and who assisted in the friction formulations. Richard Everett came up with the idea of moulding friction material around an internal frame (backbone). This, he believed, would be a better product than the traditional design consisting of a pad crimped into a metal shoe, with the danger of the two parting company. This new idea was applied to a safer, high-friction compound which also worked

accessories

U N I T E D

well in wet conditions and, according to Dick Everett, they were the first pads to achieve this. Another innovation was their original air-cooled fin" design, which is where the name Kool-Stop originated. In 1974 Gene Smith became a partner and has been "pedalling" brake pads ever since. From its original air-cooled design, Kool-Stop has made further improvements in high friction compounds and product design, combining efficiency with reliability and safety. For example, Kool-Stop's Eagle 2 brake blocks are moulded around a casehardened backbone with aluminium post. They are larger, lighter, work well in the wet, and are suitable for all cantilever systems. At the peak of the BMX racing boom Kool-Stop modelled a pad after the 'VANS' tennis shoes which were required footwear for the true convert at the time. The brake shoes work very well, especially if they are on the correct foot and laced tight.

STA

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Kool-Stop make a whole range of pads. Prices will vary according to country. In the USA you can expect to pay around $8 a pair for Eagle 2 pads and around $6.50 a pair for the Vans.

A ground-brake

of the 1890's

The Kool-Stop "shoe-shop' Top left is their rust-eraser: a block of abrasive material for tackling any trouble spot.

E N[4'L'IIO P ED I A

aderwerk hpv rack and fairing RADERWERK

accessories

he inventive design team at R채derwerk in Hanover who made a name for themselves with their excellent trailers, have increased the happiness of recumbent fans by bringing two interesting accessories onto the market. The Raderwerk front rack for recumbents fits onto the front end of the main tube of long-wheelbase recumbents, such as the Peer Gynt. It also fits the Dino, Fateba, Pichler and Megarad. The rack is made of thin-wall chrome-moly steel, and is intended for top-loads, rather than side-panniers. It bolts on easily, using allen keys. This rack permits the rider to even out carrying capacity, putting weight over the front wheel, which otherwise sits more lightly on the road than the rear wheel, and has been known to loose traction during very tight turns on loose surfaces. The other useful accessory for recumbent riders is an elegai with Egg fairing ft

the front rack. The R채derwerk fairing will, in very general terms, add several kilometres per hour at speeds over 20kph. At the same time it helps to keep the rain off you, and in particular off your feet which are more exposed than on a conventional bike. The fairing is well braced on the inside, to avoid flapping in the wind, and the bracing neatly forms the forward part of a very useful compartment for keeping your goodies in. It weighs 1,75kg (4.11b), including fittings. Raderwerk are developing a reverse gear for tricycles, and are about to re-introduce their Flizza trailer with a lower specification, so that it can reach a wider market. They are listed in our shops directory at the back of this book.

RDERERK

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Germany, where you can expect to pay 165 DM for rack, and 1,200 DM for the fairing.

An elegant fairing of hand-laid glass fibre.

The thin-wall chrome-moly gives strength and lightness. EN

O P ED I A

swing arm

te".,sioner

accessories

FIX-FREE DRIVE he Swing Arm is a charmingly simple device which allows you to greatly extend the range of your hub gears, by using them in conjunction with double or triple chainwhecls with a standard front derailleur lever and shifter. It's a useful device for the dedicated hub-gear user, since even the arrival of seven-speed hubs does not give the same kind of gearing choice for long journeys over varied terrain. The Swing Arm employs two spring-loaded sprockets to keep the chain in tension as it moves from chainwheel to chainwheel. These tension sprockets float horizontally to ensure perfect alignment and smooth gear change. Attached to the sprockets are rotating side shields which ensure the sprockets are constantly running with the chain. As there is no rear plate holding the jockey wheels, the chain can simply be lifted clear of the Swing Arm for rear wheel removal and maintenance. Oil rings supply a film of oil onto the bearings. The Swing Arm is fitted to the chain stay, approximately 11" along from the bottom bracket. This allows the Swing Arm to be well clear of the rear hub. On top of the mounting bracket is fitted a chain deflector, and to the lower part of the bracket is attached a clip to hold a cable stop for the hub gear. The slimline Swing Arm does not protrude beyond the frame, reducing the risk of damage, and it weighs only 8 ounces with the bracket. The originator of the Swing Arm is Paul Fletcher, who makes them in small batches when he has enough orders in: so be prepared to wait. He also manufactures the Fix-Free, a mechanism which, by the operation of a single lever, instantly switches from fixed to freewheel drive or back again - while you ride. The Fix-Free can also be used with double chainrings which is Paul's own personal preference.

E N! L'I1O P E D I A

This requires a different, pre-set, single sprocket tensioner which is locked backed into position by way of a manually operated butt on, and is only applicable to chainwheels with a maximum tooth differential of ten teeth. At 65, Paul Fletcher looks forward to retirement, and would like to find a reputable manufacturer to continue production on his behalf, but in the meantime he continues only to deal directly with customers.

The Fix-Free with pre-set single sprocket tensioner - the tensioner is re-positioned by way of the manually operated butt on.

Or!vé SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS Prices vary according to country. In the UK the Swing Arm costs £25.80 and the Fix-Free £45 including postage and packing. Fix-Free Drives, Brockhurst Bagpath, Brimscombe, Stroud, GL5 2SJ, England.

The Swing Arm tensioner lets you use a hub gear in conjunction with a front derailleur.

ubx1paramount lock 0

HENRY SQUIRE & SONS] enry Squire and Sons began making locks in Willenhall, England in 1780, just over a hundred years before the diamond frame safety bicycle was invented. It remains a family business: John Squire, the 29 year old sales and marketing director, is eighth generation. The Squire UBX (named the Paramount lock in English speaking countries) is generally regarded as one of the very best in the world. In August 1991, the British consumer magazine Which? reported that the UBX was one of only two D-locks out of ten tested that they were unable to break into. It features a hardened steel locking bolt and boron-alloy steel shackle which is 20% s than standard hardened steel and carrie product guarantee. It is one of the few to approved by the test laboratories of the i Dutch Road Vehicle Research Institute, TNO/ART. The cropping resistance of the UBX/Pan nine tonnes, which, say Squires, would b jaws of manual bolt croppers. Swansea Fi once telephoned Squires to ask how to n bike locked by a UBX, as it had defeated boltcroppers. The through-body shackle gives an extra resistance to twisting, which is a commoi method of attack, using levers. The hardened steel key entry plate is designed to defeat attempts to drill out the lock. Lock-pickers are likely to be defeated by the six-pin tumbler, giving over 117,000 different key combinations which is good enough for British Telecom, who have stemmed the loss of hundreds of ladders a year by using UBXs to lock them to their vans. The UBX/Paramount is a hefty item but, as John Squire remarks, "To gain the best security, there is no alternative to hardened steel, which is heavy."

E N[414!IO P ED I A

• --

100

accessories

- -K I

There is no way to completely protect a bike from theft, but a serious lock such as the UBX will give you many times the security of a cheap but outwardly almost identical lock. This lock is sold in Holland at about 90 Guilders, in Germany at about 80 DM, and in the UK (as the Paramount) at £35. The lock comes with a carrying bracket to fit bike frames up to 34mm diameter, and extra brackets can be bought. John Squire

• --

u ltimate

101

accessories

bicycle repair station

ULTIMATE SUPPORT SYSTEMS INCI bicycle stand is a big incentive for taking on 'our own repairs and maintenance, particularly if you haven't got a workshop or live in confined conditions. Having to crouch over a bicycle in a cramped backyard can only lead to irritation and a temptation to rush the job. The Bicycle Repair Station will make a chore into a pleasure. It is lightweight and folds down easily, rather like an expensive camera tripod. It fits into a compact nylon totebag supplied by the manufacturer, which can be secreted away in the smallest of households. Ultimate Support Systems developed their expertise over fifteen years of making support stands for the music industry, and this shows in the elegance of the Bicycle Repair Station design. It is made of heattreated, black anodised aluminium and weighs 4.5kg (9.91b) for the basic unit. Its height extends

from 1070mm (3' 6') to 1780mm (5' 10") via a quickrelease lever. The ailing bicycle can be rotated through 360% around the support arm, which is tightened with a large comfortable handknob. A wheel-truing jig is mounted on top of the stand to provide the best eye-level position for this delicate task, and a telescoping holder to lock the handlebars during repairs can be mounted between seatpost and handlebars. Another neat idea is a capacious toolbox which clips to the stand and opens out to become a repair tray.

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in the USA, where you can expect to pay $265 for the complete package (repair stand, truing jig, toolbox, handlebar holder and tote bag) or $185 for

the stand only.

The screw tips are shaped to detect wobble and hop simultaneously

il ak

The repair stand you can forget about till next time

NL]IJO

P E D IA

102

velo-case

accessories

VELO-CASE he VELO-CASE had to come: a light, lockable, box to give full protection to the cyclist's luggage. It's the idea of Rudiger Gabriel, a regular cyclist for 37 years. He has them made according to his specifications, by Rimowa. manufacturers of specialised hard-shell cases in Cologne: who give a three-year guarantee. These cases, made of an aluminium-magnesium alloy, fit onto all conventional racks, front and back. This makes them easily transferable between bikes. The specially-made hooks were designed in conjunction with Jack Wolfskin. Each box has a carrying handle and a shoulder strap: you can quickly take off the hook-assembly to make them into conventional protective luggage boxes, and

they qualify as hand-luggage on planes. A VELOCASE can be left or right: you simply slide the hooks to the appropriate position. VELO-CASES are ideal for a picnic. After a long tour in sweltering heat, Rudiger reports that they have something of a 'cool-box' effect in hot weather. They also make great seats when you get to your picnic site. They are equally useful for the shopping, hooking onto a shopping trolley in the shop. They can be taken directly indoors when you arrive home. They are easily washable inside and out, and the overlapping lid ensures good rain protection. The VELO-CASE is also ideal for the books and papers of a student or office worker. A VELO-CASE helps you keep the contents organised and easily accessible. Cycling photographers also make good use of the VELO-CASE: Rimowa have made similar boxes for photographers for forty years. In fact, the list of uses is endless: an Austrian cycle tour company uses them as tool boxes for the mechanics who ride with the tour parties; and the Cologne Police Force are about to experiment with them on bicycles.

Rudiger Gabriel

VELO-rASE SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Each Velo-Case has a volume of about 20 litres, and weighs almost 1.5kg (31b 5oz). Dimensions: 33cm x 30cm x 20cm (13 x 12" x 8"). VELO-CASES fit onto virtually all

bikes. To illustrate this we have shown them here fitted onto a

Lockable, luggable and extremely hard-wearing

small 46cm (18") frame bike. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Germany, where you can expect to pay 690 DM per set, of two.

OPEDIA

woodguards n these days of alloy, titanium and carbon kit, it's refreshing to find someone making accessories of the most traditional material under the sun. Johannes RessĂŠguier handcrafts wooden mudguards and chainguards in his workshop in Bremen. These aristocratic accessories consist of nine layers of Swedish birch and are amazingly strong. They bequeath distinction to almost any quality bicycle, but are most commonly seen on Pedersens and Galaxes (featured elsewhere in this Encycleopedia). The other remarkable Woodguards product is a hickory wood wheel rim. Hickory is the traditional wood for this purpose, and was used extensively in the 1890s. These rims are crafted according to traditional methods by the Ghisallo family in the depths of the Italian countryside: the last surviving makers of wooden cycle rims. They are then brought to Bremen to be stained and coated according to a special formula.

These beautifully made rims are clearly rust-free, and are lighter than steel or aluminium alloy. According to Johannes, hickory rims have a degree of spring in them which copes well with heavy loads and, despite hearsay to the contrary, the danger of wooden rims breaking is, he says, practically nonexistent. Owners do, however, need to varnish the rims regularly, and avoid bringing their bicycle directly into a warm room after a ride in the cold. And, of course, rim brakes are out. These rims are made for standard wire-on tyres. They require extra-long spoke nipples, which are readily available from DT Swiss.

103

accessories

Johannes RessĂŠguier

Woodguard SPECIFICATIONS AND OPTIONS

Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in Germany, where you can expect to pay

Woodguards made of nine layers of Swedish Birch -

around 195 DM for a pair of mudguards including fittings, 135 DM for a chainguard, and

E N[4'L41O P E D I A

Yak

104

BEAST OF BURDEN BIKE TRAILERS hy did no-one ever think of it before? A simple, lightweight, go-anywhere trailer. Clip on the Yak and you've extended your carrying capacity in seconds. Your favourite bike suddenly becomes infinitely more versatile: ready for anything: from a trip to the shops to a fortnight's offroad camping tour. The originator of the Yak is Philip Novotny. His extensive touring experience, and his years of commuting, convinced him that pannier systems had only limited usefulness. Philip designed and built the first Yaks in his workshop. The potential was easy to see. The Yak is superbly practical, and adapted to a variety of bike frames, including recumbents. Philip is delighted to have made a contribution to a more environmentally friendly world: thousands of cyclists can now transport their heavy, bulky goods with ease. Philip's company, Beast of Burden (B.O.B. Trailers), now sells Yaks around the world. The Yak has a minimal effect on the performance characteristics of your bicycle. This is partly due to its low fixing point. It is also lighter and has lower rolling resistance than a two-wheeled trailer, and low aerodynamic drag. The Yak functions well off-road, on tracks too narrow for two-wheeled trailers. Back on the road its narrow profile gives easy passage through congested traffic. The frame is tig-welded chromemoly, and the 16" wheel's rim and hub are aluminium alloy, with stainless steel spokes. It is probably the lightest trailer on the market, with a weight of 5.6 kilos (12.31b). The

E N[4'k'IlO P ED IA

accessories

recommended maximum loading is set at 32 kilos (701b). The Yak fixes to a stainless steel modified quickrelease skewer, supplied with the trailer, and is adjustable according to your axle length. This skewer replaces your existing quick-release skewer, and is normally left in place when you aren't pulling the Yak. A safety flag, mudguard (fender) and reflectors are supplied, and a useful accessory is the Yak Sak, a 94 litre weather-proof rip-stop nylon cargo bag. Prices vary according to country. The lowest price is in the USA, where you can expect to pay around S199

Philip Novotny

BOB T R A I L E

The chrome-moly frame keeps awkward loads in check

R S

zzipper road fairings

105

accessories

ZZIP DESIGNS resh air: you love it, you breath it, but you don't need to let it be a drag. Zzip Designs, run by Karl Abbe, specialises in fairings for almost all kinds of cycle. The primary advantage of Zzipper fairings is a reduction in aerodynamic drag. At 32kph (20mph) this is about 20%, rising to 30% at higher speeds or in headwinds. A secondary benefit is weather protection, deflecting rain and snow and cutting windchill. All Zzipper fairings are made from Lexan(TM), a clear polycarbonate plastic which is light but tough. The fairings are flexible so that they will absorb road

shock, and can be removed and rolled up for car riage - essential if you use a car rack. Rubber washers prevent rattle. Karl Abbe has introduced two fairings for short wheel-base recumbents this year. The new Presto ZZ has a three-point fitting and adjusts for foot clearance, vertical height and angle of attack into the wind. A body skin of breathable Spandex reduces drag from side-wind, and will un-zip in warm weather. Karl has also designed a custom mount system with quick-release for the Opus Tandem, to meet the needs of disabled riders using handcranks. A Zzipper has been developed for Lightning Recumbents (which are featured in this Encycleopedia). Karl can supply Zzippers for various European recumbents. He is currently also working with several makers of solar-powered vehicles. Prices vary according to country. The lowest prices are in the USA, where you can expect to pay between $110 and $650, depending on the fairing, and with

Novi

Karl Abbe

:=7I PPE #rO1VD F/\JRINGS

A Zzipper fairing can combine with a breathable Spandex body skin for improved aerodynamics

E Nt4LLO P ED IA

106 accessories

i cycle table and clock You might hope for a degree of elegance in the products of a firm based in Daimler-BenzStrasse and you would not be disappointed by the bicycle table and clock made by Roland-Werk. Now you can display your obsession in the living room without being regarded as a suitable case for treatment. The table we have pictured has the hub boss and balls painted black but Roland also offer a natural wood alternative with a clear varnish. Perhaps the wheel-chronometer could be used as an emergency spare by the

asy stand

time trialist in his race against the clock? Prices will vary according to country. In Germany you can expect to pay around 185DM for the clock, and around 325DM for the table.

Fitting a bike stand to your best bike can be like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa. Most stands are a dirt trap, spoil the clean lines of your bike, and may also spoil the paintwork if bolted on too firmly. The idea of bolting on extra weight will also offend the purist with the classic machine.

rubber stop will protect the carpet, should you be moved to exhibit your Bianchi, Moulton or Hetchins in your living room.

Fortunately for those who need an occasional prop, Greenfield have produced a lightweight stand that is simplicity itself, and fits most bikes by simply slipping into the space between the crank and the hub. A curved ledge with a protective rubber inlay then supports the chainstay. It's also excellent for storing your bicycle or showing it off. A

Prices will vary according to country. In America you can expect to pay around $15.

Wearing a helmet in winter when the roads may be covered in ice, can be a sensible move, but also an uncomfortable one. Ears remain exposed, unless a woolly hat or a headband is used. But these can make the helmet a bad fit, or cause sweating and itching.

and apparel. As they weigh only 15 grams, Hot Ears can be easily stashed away if the weather warms up. Prices will vary according to country. In Germany you can expect to pay 24DM.

The easy method of keeping ears frost-free is to fit a set of Hot Ears to your helmet. Made of MALDON Polartec fleece, these simple triangular flaps slip up the straps of the helmet, to sit up against the rim of the helmet. They come in a range of plain colours and patterns, so can quickly be changed to suit your mood

r\ m

Made from cast aluminium, the Easy Stand weighs 215g (7 1/2 oz) and has a smooth, mat black, powder-coated paint finish.

足 _ ot ears

107 accessories

I THIRD WAVE CARRIERS I

Kiddy pod

The Kiddy Pod chuldseat comes out of no mould: it's made of wicker. The ovular shape gives weather protection and a degree of allround security in an accident. It is intended for babies up to about 18 months. Once the child has outgrown the confines of the egg the top can be removed to give extra headroom up to about the age of 4. The Kiddy Pod easily converts into a simple shopping carrier by reversing the inner seat, the wicker back of which is shaped to close up the open front. Being wickerwork, the Kiddy Pod is light, durable, ecologically-friendly and gives work to human beings rather than machines. The Kiddy Pod goes into production in Autumn 1994. An undercarriage system is

available so that you can wheel your little one around in the Kiddy Pod once you have parked your bike, or use it as a shopping trolley. NB. Laws regarding carrying children on bikes vary from country to country. Prices will vary according to country. In Holland you can expect to pay around 250 guilders for the seat only.

01jdWav

Camzu t.ci.

HOLLAND

I KOOL-STOP INTERNATIONAL INC I

ool-stop repair kit /

Enthusiastic cyclists can become obsessive in their quest to save weight. They drill holes in spanners, or share a tooth-brush on a tour having first cut off half the handle. However a puncture repair kit is an essential item of luggage which can be left behind only for the shortest of rides. So the traditional tin and two levers are carried, rattling merrily, amongst the other tools. The Kool-Stop puncture repair kit is a minimalist's dream. The two parts of the plastic case have curved ends which act as tyre levers, the one forming the top, clipping into the

other, forming the base of the case. Inside is a tube of rubber solution, some repair patches and a square of emery paper. The case is so compact and convenient, that it can be carried on every trip. Prices will vary according to country. In America you can expect to pay around $5. lee

I KOOL-STOP INTERNATIONAL INC I

ool-stop tyre gard and rim gard One of us once led a party of young cyclists down a road littered with hedge trimmings. Thirty repair patches saved the day - just. The experience would have been less of a nightmare had our tyres been fitted with puncture resistant polyurethane tape. The Kool-Stop Tyre Card prevents most foreign objects from penetrating the inner tube and is easily installed in the casing before the inner tube is inserted and inflated. It has a feathered profile and ends, to prevent pinching. Kool-Stop also make Rim- Card to protect the bicycle tube against a potential flat caused by

spoke nipple abrasion. It's a great improvement on the old cloth and rubber rim tapes, and Kool-Stop claim that it will never break rot or fail. It stretches to fit rims from 20 x 1.75 to 27 x 1. Prices will vary according to country. In America you can expect to pay around $2.10 for the Rim-Gard and $7 for the Tyre-Gard.

108

accessories

I KOOL-STOP INTERNATIONAL INC I

K001-St0p valve adapter You have several bikes. Your children have several bikes. Some of the tyres are highpressure with Presta (or similar) valves. Others are low-pressure, with Schrader valves.

So if you are ever on a long bike ride and your pump breaks, this little adapter can save the day, allowing your high-pressure tyres to be inflated with a borrowed car foot-pump.

The Kool-Stop valve adapter is a neat way of making your life easier. It adapts Presta-type valves to fit Schrader connectors. Made of aluminium or brass, the adapters are only 1 1/2 cm long, so can be carried in a puncture repair kit. They simply screw on, and are fitted with a rubber 0-ring to prevent any escape of air.

Prices will vary according to country. In America you can expect to pay: $0.79.

KSS WALZLAGER-VERTRIEB

KSS precision hubs Robert Schmitt began to produce his doublesealed precision bottom bracket units in 1989. Today he produces 500,000 units a year with five basic models: axles made of stainless steel (TLS), bored stainless steel (TLSL), case hardened steel (TLM), bored case hardened steel (TLML) or titanium (TLT). Each type has its own merits, for example the TEE' is wonderful for light bikes while TLM produces the strongest axle.

keeps the bearings correctly positioned. Robert believes that higher performance machines will help to tempt car-obsessed executives into giving cycling a go. Prices will vary according to country. In Germany you can expect to pay around 28DM for the basic TLS model, 45DM for the TLSL

_S ~

_ S _

~Z It's important that the units are installed cor rectly by fitting the two spring washers on the crank-side to form an 'X', which automatically

Wove

The British have a tradition of using battery lights, rather than dynamos. Yet they have been badly served by battery light manufacturers. One relatively small company in Wales is helping to put matters right.

The versatile brackets offer a variety of mounting positions, which will be helpful to riders of non-standard cycles, and the Nighteye beam is positive enough for everyday use.

These pocket-size lights slip easily off the bike for security, and take R14 batteries. Rechargeable batteries can be used but are not fitted as standard. The batteries are held in position by two powerful springs, which eliminate all those annoying rattles so often associated with similar types of light. Nighteyes have very positive switches which are easy to operate even when wearing thick mitts, but they are also unlikely to be switched on accidentally.

Prices will vary according to country. In Britain you can expect to pay, including batteries and brackets, around ÂŁ18 per set or ÂŁ9 individually.

109 accessories

INNOVATIVE CYCLE CONCEPTS

edeye safety light The RedEye Safety Light is a new departure in cycle lighting. It is lightweight at 28.4gm (1 oz) with the battery installed and is claimed to be completely waterproof. The RedEye is automatically activated by the slightest movement, and will shut off after 90 seconds of complete stillness. Instead of an on/off switch, the RedEye has a photosensor so that it only functions when it's dark - absent-minded cyclists don't need to remember to switch off. About 125 to 150 hours of battery life can be expected.

in each package: a seat post clamp, reflector bracket mount, arm band, and belt clip. So the light can be used for a number of activities, such as walking or jogging. Prices will vary according to country. In America you can expect to pay $14.95, including battery.

Innovative Cycle Concepts, Corp.

There are four mounting attachments included

Releasy plus

Gone are the days when a D-lock was all the security you needed in the big city. These days your quick-release wheels, handlebar stem, Shimano rear mechanism, and cantilever fixings can all be vulnerable. Tim Whitty, of Cycle Logic in London, makes a clever range of security devices for all these components. Some replace quick-release levers, others are bolts. The Releasy Plus system involves a small tool which lives happily on your key-ring, and which engages in a unique way. In 1995 a similar fixing will be available for a saddle micro-adjuster and seat-post binder. Many of these fixings are in stainless steel, and the quick-release bolts have a safety ID mark and

an easy-to-fit Nyloc-type nut. Tim Whitty has been developing his products for nine years, and hopes that he has made the cyclist's life that bit easier. Prices vary according to country. In Britain you can expect to pay around ÂŁ25.00 for the complete system.

RELEASY. PLUS

7light

Many older British cyclists remember the hub dynamo as a model of reliability, unaffected by mud or rain. Unfortunately their output was insufficient for the glare and speed of modern city life and they have long been out of production. Thomas Schneider took up the challenge and after years of development work he came up with the S'Light hub, a lighter and more efficient system than previous designs. The S'Light dynamo achieves a good level of output at 55% efficiency, and you scarcely feel any resistance when it is working. This 3 Watt system is compatible with other commercially available 6V lamps. There is a rechargeable battery in the front lamp which cuts in when

CYCLE LOGIC

BISY BIKE-SYSTEMS

the bike is stopped or moving slower than 5 kph. If you ride faster, the storage battery is recharged. The Rear light has three long lasting LEDs which are longer lasting than a single bulb. It reaches 70-80% of its maximum output at only 3kph. Prices will vary according to country. In Germany you can expect to pay around 292 DM.

no accessories I CRAIG METALCRAFT INC. I

super link iii

elohorn

The Super Link Ill ends all the fuss and bother of connecting and disconnecting your chain. Once fitted, you can disconnect your chain in seconds making cleaning and installation easier and eliminating the stiff links which are often caused by the incorrect use of an extractor tool. Three safety locking systems are incorporated to prevent accidental disassembly.

and a bright finish. There are two models available which cater for most, if not all, chain widths. Super Link lii is claimed to last for the life of two chains. Prices will vary according to country. In America you can expect to pay $4.95.

Each side plate is made from high carbon steel, and pins are precision ground rather than rolled. Nickel plating gives extra durability

CRAIG METALCRAFT, INC.

The Velohorn is a neat idea. It slips into most handlebars. All that protrudes is a plastic top like a bar plug from which a clip protrudes, like a pen top. This lies close to the handlebar and at the end is a small button for activating the horn. This allows you to keep full control of the brake lever while sounding the horn. The resultant beep, which is piercing without being shockingly loud, can be either brief or continuous. So you can use it to announce your presence in a fairly discreet way, or sound a long alarm when needed.

IdID

handlebars and would not be obvious to a casual thief. It is made of durable black nylon weighs 28.4gm (loz) and takes an A23 12v battery. Prices will vary according to country In America you can expect to pay between $10 - $15.

The unit is unobtrusive, does not clutter the

I LEPPER I

oyager saddle

The Voyager saddle was developed upon the initiative of Alex Moulton who felt that the available leather saddles were too heavy for his lightweight models. Yet the advantages of leather saddles make them a favourite of long distance cyclists. Leather breathes, does not sweat and slowly moulds to the bottom of the owner. A truly comfortable saddle is so impor tant, that some cyclists will switch their tried and tested favourite between machines. So Dr Moulton designed a lightweight frame of Reynolds 531 tubing and Lepper, the respected saddle-makers of Dieren in the Netherlands, have fashioned the leather top: elegant as a dart and naturally tanned with vegetable materials. A cyclist might remove a

saddle like this not just for safety, but also to display on the coffee table as a work of art. The Voyager weighs 265gm (9.32 ox), and is intended for racing and fast touring. Lepper have plans for an even lighter racing model. Prices will vary according to country. In Holland you can expect to pay around 165 guilders.

epr

111

Video _ I

he decision to offer an accompanying video with Encycleopedia 94/95 was born from the simple notion that most of the featured products will not be in stock in your local shop, nor even in your local Encycleopedia-affiliated shop. We hope that more and more of the products will eventually be more available but, for a lot of people, the reality of sourcing Encycleopedia products will involve placing orders with dealers for products as yet unseen. We have gone out of our way to present each product in its best light, but a two-dimensional image has its limitations. The idea was to try and simulate the impressions you get from looking at a product it in the shop. Sixteen of the products in this year's book are featured: Agnuti 559, Bike Friday Travel System, Chin-Kara, Galaxe, Greenspeed Tourer, Handy Bike, Kingcycle, Ostrad, Pedersen of Denmark, Radnabel, Rapide, Street Glider, Tanaro, Trice, Winchester trailer, and Yak 16 trailer. If you are interested in purchasing any of these products then you might find our video gives you more insight than is possible on the printed page. It would be boring to produce a video with nothing but product shots, so we have tried to liven it up by including interesting footage celebrating all aspects of cycling. At the same time we wanted to keep this video affordable, which has meant, for this first year anyway, a very small budget. The Encycleopedia 94/95 video is therefore unlikely to win any Oscar nominations but we hope you will find it useful and even enter taining. We are producing VHS copies in PAL NTSC and SECAM standards so that, wherever you live, one of these copies should be compatible with your VHS system.

We are grateful for the assistance of Hall Place Studios in Leeds, especially Tom Grey for his production and editing skills. Next year's video will benefit from the experienced gained this year and, depending on the success of this video, we hope to have a much larger budget and produce a more professional and ambitious video. On sale from October, the video has 30 minutes running time, an English soundtrack, and is available directly from ourselves for ÂŁ12 + postage see page 178 - or from the affiliated dealers listed on page 112-126. It is available in 3 standards: PAL, NTSC, and SECAM (check with a local video dealer if you are unsure which standard you require). FOR VHS USE ONLY.

Bicycle - the cycling video We are continuing to offer PAL copies on VHS of this universally acclaimed video. Featured in greater detail in the 93/94 Encycleopedia, this two hour tape is a specially edited compilation of six, half-hour programmes originally broadcast in 1991: Invention - the evolution of the modern bicycle. Wheels of Change Mass production and craftsmanship. The mountain bike ascendancy. Recumbents and the aerodynamics of cycling. The Ultimate - a season with Greg LeMond, riding with the Tour de France. The Business - How the powerbase of cycle production has shifted towards the East. The multi-billion yen racing business of Japanese Keirin. Free Spirits - The sweetspots and obsessions of those who live by the bicycle. Vehicle for a Small Planet - Clean air, road space and fossil fuels are being sacrificed to the motor vehicle. The argument for a mass return to the bicycle is irrefutable. The Bicycle video costs ÂŁ14.99 + postage see page 178 for ordering details. The sound track is in English. Australia and USA

The York Films Bicycle video is only available in Australia and the USA from their agents. The retail price may differ from the Encycleopedia price. Australia: The Video Bookshelf, 25 Nelson Street, Balaclava, Victoria 3183. Tel. (03) 534 7246. USA: Famous Cycling Videos Inc, 704 Hennepin Avenue, Box Cl, Minneapolis, 55403. YORK FILMS OF (Fl 0t A N 0 Tel. 1 800 359 3107

ops

With few exceptions, all the products featured in Encycleopedia are, in theory, available through the following affiliated shops. Some of the products may be in stock, but it is more likely that shops will need to order products for you. We have carefully selected shops which are sympathetic to our Encycleopedia philosophy and they will do their best to help you source the products. If your nearest shop cannot help (and there are many good reasons why that may be so), then they may be able to suggest an alternative shop. Failing this, or if there is no Encycleopedia shop in your area, or if all you really want is more literature on the products, then fill in one of the tear-out response cards at the back of the book and send it in to us. We will then forward your details to the manufacturers and viceversa. We believe that quality specialist bike shops are essential to the fabric of a society which values cycling. Listing the shops in alphabetical order of their town illustrates the wide diversity of cultures which Encycleopedia helps to unite. Check this A-Z index of each represented country's towns to establish your nearest location.

DELAIDE

Colonel William Light, Surveyor General of the fledgling state of South Australia, set about designing Adelaide in 1836. He planned it to be a city of broad streets, handsome buildings and spacious squares, surrounded by the world's first 'green belt' of parkland. Today it has a distinctly European atmosphere, and is an

MSTERDAM The houses of the old town in Amsterdam are laid out in concentric segments separated by canals. There are 160 canals with myriads of houseboats and 1281 bridges. The city has more than 40 museums, but to the cyclist, its position as a cycling city connected to Holland's extensive network of cycle-routes is attraction

j Ii

IIADEN

Baden lies on the eastern slopes of the Vienna Woods, surrounded by extensive vineyards and woodlands. The mild climate, together with hot sulphur springs, account for its use as a spa and recreation area since Roman times. The Imperial court spent every summer in Baden. It's a first class A .. cycletouring area, and there are guided biking

AUSTRALIA Adelaide Pulteney Street Cycles Canberra Canberra Cycles Pty Melbourne St Kilda Cycles AUSTRIA Baden B.I.E.R. - Radstudio Klagenfurt Vélodrome CANADA Victoria dirfleld Bicycle Shop DENMARK Copenhagen Christiania ykelwerksted EIRE Dublin Square Wheel Cycleworks GERMANY Bamberg Radladen Bergisch-Gladbach Veloladen Berlin Fahrradstation Ostrad GmbH Zentralracl Bielefeld Freilauf GmbFl Braunschweig Radhaus Cologne !,vei Plus Zwei Dortmund Dan Rad CmbH Duisberg Radwerk Erlangen Freilauf Essen Rudi mach ma Flensburg Velopedes Frankfurt Radschlag Freiburg Radhaus Germersheim Haasies Radschlag Gottingen Velo Voss GmbH Gröbenzell (Munich) Flux FahrrNdcr Halle Fahrradies Hamburg Pro Velo The New Cyclist Zweirad und Zukunft Hanover Raderwerk GmbH Mainz Fahrradladen Münster Drahtesel Nurnberg Veto Radsport GmbIl Oldenburg Die Speiche Reutlingen TransVelo Söchtenau Radschlag-Muskelbetriebene Fahrzeuge

Stuttgart Doppelaxel GmbH Troisdorf VamBike Rad & Rat VS.Villlngen Tour. Fahrrader Sport & Freizeitartikel ITALY Modena Sundance NETHERLANDS Amsterdam irLy Frames Breda Schielecat Tweewielers Nijmegen Inter City Bikes Rotterdam Bikers Best Utrecht 0 its Kok Fietsenwinkel NORWAY Randaberg (Stavanger) Felgen sykkel SWITZERLAND Langenthal Velorarna Solothurn \elo Werkstatt Wabern (Bern) Bricoinec Zurich Velolaboratorium UK Bath \nn Valley Cyclery Birmingham Bearwood Cycles Bridgwater St John Street Cycles Cambridge Ben Hayward Cycles Edinburgh the New Bike Shop Glasgow Gear of Glasgow London Bikefix Brixton Cycles Cyclecare (Olympia) London Recumbents Machynileth Joyrides Cycles Manchester Bicycle Doctor Newark Castle Cycles Newcastle-upon-Tyne Cycle Logical Oxford Walton Street Cycles Westhumble (Dorking) Action Packs York C:uI- Heaven USA Berkeley (Ca) The Missing Link College Park (Washington) College Park Bicycles Ft Collins Whistle Stop New York Centre for Appropriate Transport Orange (Ca) People Movers

important artistic and cultural centre.

W111

PUITENEY STREET CYCLES This forward-looking cycle store is run by a husband and wife team, with an enthusiastic staff all involved in cycling, be it racing or mountain bike touring. They specialise in frame-building, modification work and frame-painting. They also cater for the tourist, with their seven-day opening and large range of hire cycles and tandems. Access: 1.5 km from Adelaide Railway Station.

enough. Visit.

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.1. Open: Mo-Th 8.30-18.00, Fr 8.30-21.00, Sa 8.30-16.00. Su 10.00-16.00 309 Pulteney street. Adelaide 5000. Tel: 223 6678 Fax: 08-2233314

08-

Access: close to the City centre and Muiderpoort Station.

FANCY FRAMES

Frank Kraakman who doesn't like cars at all, wants to provide a benign alternative, and reckons that recumbents fit the bill for both commuting and touring. Frank aims to stock all sorts of HPV to suit every need, and has five different kinds of recumbents available at the moment, including a tandem. As he thinks it important that people can try the machines, he hires them to prospective buyers. He also stocks Pedersens.

tours, Wednesdays and Sundays from 14.00 from the Tourist Information Office.

bigger base so that they can strengthen their connection with the HPV scene. Access: 3 km from the railway station

-A

NC V

JR % M F S

Open: Tu, We. Fr. Sa. 9.00-17,00, Th. 19.00-21.00 le van Swindenstraat 553, 1093 LC Amsterdam. Tel/Fax No; 020-6946448

B.I.E.R. This cycle workshop is part of a project of the Baden Campaign for True Cyclists, an important element of the Austrian cycling scene. It is staffed solely by cycling enthusiasts, who all ride different bikes for thousands of kilometres each year. There is hardly a thing sold in the shop which has not been tested by the workers. They sell good everyday bikes, recumbents and trailers, and are seeking a

AJ!1 Fohrrad-Studio Open: Mo-Th 10.00-12.00. 15.00-18.00: Fr 10,00-12.00, 15.00-19.00: Sa 10,00-12.30. Jagerhausgasse 12. A 2500 Baden. Tel/Fax: 02252-47690

AMBERG The cathedral is the most important architectural feature of this town which became a bishopric at the beginning of the 11th Century. The old townscape is unique, with the towers of many churches soaring over a jumble of gabled roofs. The town hall is built as a large baroque gatehouse in the middle of a river bridge. Bamberg

ATH Bath has been a tourist city for 2000 years. its Roman Baths being among Britain's finest Roman remains. The city also •. contains stately homes, elegant shops, parks, and 'çbeautiful architecture, including England's largest Georgian crescent. A centre or some excellent cycling, and the County of Avon has a transport plan which aims

•'

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I I

ERGISCH-GLADBACH

.-,.,,,+,-., +.-.,,, set in fine, well-wooded landscapes, twenty kilometres to the east of Cologne. Among the gentle hills there is a wealth of old castles and pretty villages, waiting to be explored by bicycle. The City of Coloene home of IFMA, international cycle show, is only half an hour away by rail.

makes a great base of cycle tours.

RADLADEN A shop which emphasises quality above all else, with intensive advice and opportunities to try things out. Radladen specialise in everyday bikes, which does not mean the same as cheap bikes. Whilst they don't stock racing bikes, they sell mountain bikes, recumbents, trailers, Pedersens, tandems and tourers. They occasionally hire tandems or trailers. They look forward to the day when cars are banned from the town., for the

to increase cycle paths and parking. Bath is linked to Bristol by a very well used cycle path.

AVON VALLEY CYCLERY This unusual business aims to be different; especially in the wide spectrum of cycling it promotes: from recumbents to child trailers. They have recently opened up the front of the shop to boost display space, introduced a couple of sofas, play music and plan a food and drink bar. They have a reputation for the trouble they go to in order to track down unusual components, and

VELOLADEN

P,J1 At, .4.

p ERKELEY (CA) I

Berkeley is dominated by the University of California with its 30,000 students and impressive buildings in the centre of town. It was the centre of protest against the Vietnam war, challenging the authority of the then Governor, Ronald Reagan. There are many good - - •._ bookshops and cafes in the area. Part of the avenue

ERLIN Berlin is an exciting destination for the touring cyclist: huge areas of the previous GDR are now accessible, although some of the roads demand good tyres. After exploring the city you can venture into the surrounding area, -famous for its lakes, forests, and points of historical interest. At nearby Potsdam the Prussian King designed a palace which is one of

benefit of the whole community. Access: 5 minutes by bike from the station.

Bicycle Culture and Technology is the way Veloladen describe their activities - and they stock interesting machines: tandems, hybrids, town bikes, MTBs, children's bikes, trailers and 'specials They have a special interest in HPVs, and are closely connected with the Aeroproject recumbent. The Veloladen team encourage interest in all sensibly designed cycle technology. partly through their hire fleet which includes recumbents, tandems and child trailers. Their business philosophy involves treating all

where our bike shop is located is a 'Gourmet Ghetto' with restaurants, delis and bakeries.

00 Open: Tu, We, Fr 12.30-18.30; Th 12.30-20.30; Sa 9.00-14.00. Untere Sandstr. 14, 96049 Bamberg. Tel: 0951-57853 Fax: 0951-57809.

their large hire fleet includes eight tandems and two rickshaws. Access: Only 2 metres from Bath Spa Station ("behind it, unfortunately")

AVON VALLEY _.. ;•_ Open every day, 9.00-18.00 Rear of Bath Railway Station, Bath. Tel: 01225-442442 Fax: 01225446267

customers as individuals. Access: take the Sli from Cologne Central Station to BergischGladbach Station, then it's a ten minute walk.

f1d&4d" Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-18.30; Th until 20.30; Sa 10.00.14.00. Bensberger Str. 117, 51469 Bergisch-Gladbach 2. Tel: 0220241221 Fax: 0220241822

with varying degrees of supervision. Access: 2 blocks away from the Berkeley Bart station.

MISSING LINK The Missing link is a radical shop set up by Berkeley students as a worker-owned co-operative in the early 1970s. The workers are committed to promoting the imaginative use of pedal-power as an antidote to the State's heavy and destructive reliance on the automobile. The Missing Link offers free repair classes, with a shop area open to customers who want to carry out their own repairs,

the best examples of the rococo style ever created in Germany. it's in the centre of a fabulously beautiful park.

Open: Mo-Fr 10.30-18.30 (19.00 in summer); Sa 10.00-18.00; Su 12.00.17.00. 1988 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA 94704. Tel: 510.8437471 Fax: 510-8485322

former ice cream factory as a multi-purpose cycling centre: a Bike Station for Berliners. Access: Close to the S and U Bahn.

FAHRRADSTATION This dynamic cycle centre used to run 'Berlin by Bike' and operated as a cycle shop under the name: Lastesel. They now specialise in carrier bikes, trikes and trailers. They also sell city and touring bikes and emphasise quality of customer service: their motto - Morgens gebracht, bis abends gemacht" ("Bring it in the morning and we'll fix it by evening"). They are developing a

Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-14.00, 15.00-18.00; Sa 10.00.14.00. Mickernstr. 92, 10963 Berlin. Tel: 030-2169177 Fax: 030-2151566 Also at Gipsstr 7. 10119 Berlin.

j ERLIN Time is against you if you want to find a remnant of the wall, as it was quickly retailed as souvenirs. Berlin has yet again changed its character, having already run from pre-war artistic decadence through wartime destruction to brutal division, and is now moving to a different tune. The energy generated by rapid change gives it a special buzz, of a sort that cyclists

ERLIN • IJ Berlin is one of the world's most lively and fascinating cities. It has always been a centre for new thinking and alternative • lifestyles. By 1871 the King of Prussia was Emperor of -. ,Germany and Berlin was , the capital of the German Empire Now that it is no longer an island state' . within East Germany, - •. Berlin is an excellent base for the touring cyclist to -

IELEFELD

I-

Bielefeld stands in the Teutoburger woods and over 500km of footpaths begin and end at the city. Overlooking the woods is a tall fortified tower built in the 13th Century, while the 20th Century is strongly represented by a striking art gallery built in 1968 to the design of the American architect, Philip Johnson. Bielefeld is a great centre

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IRMINGHAM

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•

England's second city has been an important place for industry throughout the ages. The museum at lronbridge Gorge, the birthplace of the Industrial -. Revolution, shows the city's part in the past. Not far from the city, and easily accessible in a day's ride, , are Shakespeare's Stratfordon-Avon and the superb mediaeval castle at

RAUNSCHWEIG Braunschweig is a magnificent city of culture, with many pre-13th Century buildings, in the northern German state of Lower Saxony. It is known as the City of Henry the Lion, who put his stamp on the appearance of the city in the 12th Century. Braunschweig is surrounded by excellent rural cycling areas, extending into

can tune into as they cruise the streets - and the city has one of the most vigorous alternative cycling scenes in the world.

ri3.i1I1U Ostrad, situated in the former East Berlin, have been making recumbents since 1989 and opened their shop in 1993. They specialise in recumbents and high quality hybrid and trekking bikes. They are a young and enthusiastic team - all cyclists, who clock up the kilometres to test their products and cycle a lot themselves to develop experience of many products. Ostrad specialise in suspended

discover parts of Germany which have been largely inaccessible since 1945.

ZENTRALRAD Take your bike to Zentralrad and they will give it a free-of-charge service. This is just one unusual aspect of a bike shop which is central to the bicycle culture of Berlin. With a staff of ten, they are able to reach out to the community with the cycling message. They believe strongly in the importance of service, but also in offering a wide range of cycles. Among their specialisms are Pedersens, and kiddicranks, which are raised bottom brackets to help

bikes. They offer a limited hire facility but you can hire recumbents for test ride - such as the one featured in our product pages. Access: 15 minutes from Alexandcrplatz station.

ostrad Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-1830; Sa 10.00-13.30 and late on Thursday, once a month. Winnerstrasse 48, 10405 Berlin. Tel: 0304-411164 Fax: 0304-411163

children reach the pedals on the back of a tandem. Access: two kilometres from Berlin Central Station.

ZENTRALRAD

Open: Tu-Fr 10.00-18.30; Sa 10.00-14.00; Th till 20.00 during Summer. Oranienstr. 20, 10999 Berlin. Tel: 030-6152388 Fax: 030-6151558

of publishing, and home to the big German cycling magazine, Radfahren.

FREILAUF Freilauf has been open for fifteen years. It's an Aladdin's cave of specialised bikes such as Radius, Brompton and Bernds - and of trailers, too. Freilauf has a service workshop and customers can fix their own bikes. Enthusiasm and skill have lead to success, and they plan to rent much larger premises to increase the range of unusual machines. Access: 300m from the station.

Warwick. The city council have made some procycling efforts, but cycling is certainly not top of their agenda.

BEARWOOD CYCLES

FREILR LF Open: Tu-Fr 10.00-13.00, 14.30-18.30; Sa 10.00-14.00. August-Bebel-Str 16-18, 33602 Bielefeld. Tel: 0521-63811 Fax: 0521-172853

from Birmingham New Street Station. Three miles from Rolfe Street Station, Smethwick.

BEARWOOD CYCLES

Variety is the byword at Bearwood Cycles and has been for 64 years. The staff have an in depth knowledge of the cycle world and are pleased to answer your questions, they can supply from stock anything from a genuine velocipede to the latest high tech carbon fibre racing and ATB cycles plus thousands of spares etc. Access:4 miles

Open: Mo-Sa 9.30-17.30. Closed all day Wednesday. 428-432 Bearwood Road, Smethwick, Warley, Birmingham, B66 4EV. Tel: 01214292199 Fax: 0121-4343045

former Eastern Germany, the former border being only 30 kilometres away.

are keen, committed cyclists. Access: 4kilomctrcs from Braunschweig Station.

RADHAUS Radhaus describes itself as a young' shop, even though it has been in business for ten years. They are referring to the happy, energetic atmosphere in the shop, where the workers take real pleasure in stocking "as many unusual bikes as possible' They also promote high quality city bikes, including traditional Dutch roadsters, as a means of keeping traffic chaos out of their fine city. All six workers

ftad/ r -hcsus Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-13.00, 15.00-18.00; Sa 10.00-13.00; Closed Th morning. Heinrichstr. 25, 38106 Braunschweig. Tel: 0531.339650 Fax: 0531.337146

• REDA

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surrounded by woodland and heathianci. and the cycling is excellent.

Once a frontier town ravaged by war the Belgian border is nearby - Breda is now an important shopping centre thanks to its extensive pedestrian precinct. Sipping beer or coffee from a terrace is a good way to . view the city, but the elaborate monuments of -' the Grote Kerk (13th century) deserve a closer look. Much of the town is

Schietecat Tweewielers specialise in mountain bikes, especially the shiny, lightweight and expensive variety. Well-attended mountain bike testing days' are offered for those customers who need convincing. Alternatively, mountain bikes (and others) can be hired. The shop also stocks a good range of hybrids, recumbents, folding bikes and child trailers. Access: 5 mins walk from Breda

RIDG WATER

ST JOHN STREET CYCLES

Bridgwater sits at the heart of Somerset, orthofTaunton and numerous cider orchards. An hour's ride to the east is Glastonbury, the alleged burial place of King Arthur and the site of an annual music festival. Close by are the Quantocks, a range of undulating red sandstone hills which are ideal for gentle touring.

After twelve years' trading and a large increase in customers, St John St Cycles recently moved down the road to larger premises. They specialise in touring bikes, touring luggage, tandems (complete or frame-only), cost-effective components and, most importantly, good advice. This is a shop which places service high on the agenda, resulting in much repeat custom. They also offer a free delivery service. Access: 200 yards from Bridgwater Station.

Cambridge is one of England's oldest and most famous university cities. The university colleges are rich in architectural heritage; Pembroke College was Sir Christopher Wren's first ,•• building and the Bridge of Sighs at St John College dates back to 1831. Agreat bicycle city, •Cambridge is known for its throngs of cyclists, many of whom are students, whilst

ANBERRA A city of fine modern architecture and green open spaces. Cycling around Canberra is a less claustrophobic experience - than in many other cities, and you are never far from water. Lake Burley Griffin gives the city a sense of openness and tranquillity. Canberra houses a cycle museum, and is the centre for many organised

tc.tI

SCHIETECAT TWEEWIELERS

the county is known for its dramatic fenland skyscapes and for its cathedrals at Ely and Peterborough.

BEN HAYWARD CYCLES Trading since 1912, Ben Hayward Cycles specialise in service, quality and value" They stock a wide variety of touring, mountain and commuter bikes, including the mould-breaking Moulton range. The staff particularly enjoy the sheer variety of bikes which they deal with in the course of their working day. Cycle clothing is one of the shop's strong points - they have a separate shop

cycle rides.

iiuI(T-i Open: Mo 13.30-18.00; Tu, We, Fr 9.00-18.00; Th 9.00-18.00; Sa 9.00-17.00; Closed Sunday. Korte Boschstraat 1-3, 48" ES, Breda. Tel/Fax: 076.212830

Open: Mo-Sa 9.00-18.00. 91-93 St John Street, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 5HX. Tel: 01278-423632 Fax: 01278 431.107

dedicated to clothing, helmet and general cyclewear (Ben Hayward Cyclewear). They also operate a well established mail order service. Access: 1.5 miles from Cambridge Station. Ben Hayward

'CYCLES Open: Mo-Sa 8.30-17.30. 69 Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 IRJ. Tel: 01223-352294 Cyclewear Tel: 01223 301118

dreams. Access: 3.5km Canberra Station, 5km Queanbeyan Station.

CANBERRA CYCLES Canberra cycles have grown as part of the cycling boom in Australia, and the size of their showrooms and repair shop reflects the popularity of cycling in the sunshine continent. The staff enjoy the variety of customers who walk through the door. One person may be looking for a $2000 touring bike, and the next might be a student from the university who needs advice on how to make her limited resources stretch to the bike of her

OLLEGE PARK (WASHINGTON) Whilst the obvious image of Washington is of the political centre. there are many attractive back road routes for cyclists in the area, including 40 disused rail tracks, and routes through local park land. You can get free publications about - cycling in Maryland by contacting the 24 hour free Bike Hotline on

Central Station.

1-800.252-8776.

BERRA CYCLES

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Open: Mo-Fr 8.00-18.00; Sa 8.00-16.00; Su 10.00-15.00. 70 Newcastle St, Fyshwick, Canberra 2609. Tel: 06-2804984 Fax: 06-2391257

folding bikes. Access: College Park Bicycles are in Maryland but on the Washington metro system, one mile from the College Park metro station.

COLLEGE PARK BICYCLES This splendid emporium has over 800 used bikes for sale, dating from 1900, alongside dozens of recumbents, tandems, triplets, and folders. They have a rapid frame repair and modification service, and general repairs and wheel building can be done the same day. Hundreds of framesets and six type of trailers are available. An extensive hire service includes recumbents, tandems and

BCL'ES Open: Mo, Th 10.00-21.00; Tu, We, Fr 10.0019.00; Sa 10.00-18.00; Su 12.00-17.00. 4360 Knox Road, College Park, Maryland 20740. Tel: 301-8315151 Fax: 301.8310111

0 LOGNE

South station, or by tram from the main station.

good round trip.is possible

Cologne is one of Germany's most important cities with its the huge Gothic cathedral, museums, theatres, auction houses and art markets. The Second world War left ninety per cent of the centre in ruins, but nearly all the valuable monuments have been rebuilt. There are excellent cycle paths running either side of the Rhine, and a

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The inspiration for this firm's name Two and Two is obvious from their superb catalogue which is full of trailers: for camping, carrying groceries, children, even canoes. They can supply trailers which can be stored, folded up, in the tiniest dwelling. If it's possible to shift something by bike, Zwei plus Zwei can supply the means to do it. You can hire trailers. But you'll have to buy the bike elsewhere. Access: 1.5km from Cologne

OPENIIAGrEN

holding an umbrella,

Copenhagen is 825 years old, and unlike most capital cities it is cycle friendly. There were 50km of cycle tracks as early as 1912 and now there are many more. The bike could be said to be the cultural symbol of Denmark. On the roof of one building you can see a bronze statue of a cyclist appear if the weather is good, but if it rains you see the same lady appear

In the 1970s a group of Danes set up a community based on alternative thinking and lifestyles. Cycling was part of their vision. Ten years ago Christiania Cykelwerksted was founded, and has grown from a workshop repairing bikes for local people to a professional shop that attracts customers from all over Copenhagen. The reason for its success is the tangible enthusiasm of the staff. They specialise in mountain bikes and Pedersens,

ORTMUND

DAS RAD

Dortmund, the economic and cultural centre of the East Ruhr, was once a member of the Hanseatic League and a free town. It has a cosmopolitan outlook, and a growing cycling scene, with strong pressure being put on the City Council for better transport policies,

UBLIN Ireland's capital and literary centre. Home to George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, all of whom, and many more, are celebrated in the Dublin Writers' Museum. Dublin is a seat of learning, and many a student has learnt a lot on a trip to the Guinness Brewery or Whisky Corner. Dublin makes an excellent starting

UISBURG The port of Duisburg. covering 2,235 acres, is the largest inland harbour in Europe and the largest river port in the world which is why the majority of the Ruhr's blast furnaces were sited there. Gerhard Mercator who founded the science of cartography lived there from 1512-94. Duisburg was never a traditional cycling city, but

ZWEI PLUS ZWEI

CHRISTIANIA CYCLEWERKSTED

This shop has been open for 7 1/2 years and the staff are all active cyclists. They sell a wide range of special bikes such as monocycles, tricycles, tandems and recumbents. They also sell high quality town and touring bikes and promote cycling projects for children, with an element of training involved. Their ambitions are to concentrate on European manufacturers in future and improve their recycling activities. Access: 1 km from the main station.

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Fah r r ad. An hang

Open: Tu-Fr 10.00-13.00, 15.00.18.30; Sa 10.00-14.00. Palanter Str.5b, 50937 Kรถln. Tel: 0221-424012 Fax: 0221 422700

and in selling spare parts for these bikes. Access: 2km from Central Station, Norre Port, and Oster Port.

cyki 4 Open: Mo-Fr 9.30-17.30. Badsmandsstraede 43, DK 1407. Kopenhagen, Denmark. Tel: 31-954520

a ll 11; Open: Tu-Fr 10.00-13.00, 14.00.18.30, late on Thursday once a month; Sa 10.00.14.00. Stifstr. 21, 44135 Dortmund. Tel: 0231-529324 Fax: 0231-551320

run a supervised cycle park and a cyclists' information centre. Access: 700 yards from Tara St Station, 1 mile from Heuston Station.

point for an unforgettable cycle tour of rural Ireland.

SQUARE WHEEL CYCLEWORKS I

Square Wheel Cycleworks are a community-based shop. They campaign for cycling at city level, and have had some important successes. Their knowledge of the best cycle routes in the countryside around Dublin is worth its weight in gold. An expert repair service is offered, with spare parts supplied for most bikes. They'll even renovate your beloved old heap. Square Wheel

some effective cycle campaigning is having a big impact on the way people think.

RADWERK Started in April 1984, Radwerk will get involved in anything that will increase interest in cycling. They specialise in bikes for everyday use but sell mountain, racing and triathlon bikes in fact anything that is fun to ride. Customers can hire specialised bikes for a long trial run. Radwerk wish to stock recumbents soon. Access: About 15 minutes by foot or 5 minutes by bike from the

Zweu

o o zwei

quare

.1hCCt tU

Open: Mo-Fr 8.30-18.30. Temple Lane South (Off Dame Street), Dublin 2. Tel: +35 (0)31-6790838 Fax: +35 (0)31-6774234

railway station.

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radvverk Open: Mo,Tu,Fr 10.00-13.00, 15.00-18.30; Th 10.00-13.00, 15.00-20.30; Sa 10.00-14.00. Oberstrasse 42, 47051 Duisburg. Tel: 0203-24032 Fax: 0203-288116

DINBURGH

also famous for festivals: science. jazz. book, film, theatre, and fringe.

The New Bike Shop, The Bicycle Repair Shop and Central Cycle Hire. One business, three specialities: repairs, hire and sales. This is a shop which is keen to support all forms of cycling. The staff are as happy to fix a three-speed hub as they are to sell a top range MTB. They repair just about anything, and have an excellent and adventurous hire fleet. The New Bike Shop supports Spokes,

Open: 10.00-17.30. Closed Sun and Tue, but in June, July, August open 7 days a week. Lochrin Place, Tollcross, Edinburgh, EH3 9QX. Tel: 0131-228 6363 Repair: 0131-228 6633 Hire: 0131-228 6333

RLANGEN

FREILAUF

Shops) Access: Ten minutes by foot from

Erlangen is a part of the Nurnberg-FurthErlangen industrial area. It has a large university founded in the 18th Century, part of which is housed in a former castle. The gardens contain an 18th Century Orangery. A number of excellent museums were established in conjunction with the university. Erlangen is well-established as one of Germany's foremost cycling cities.

Freilauf has been going for 8 years. Their first priority is to sell bikes which people enjoy riding. They offer test rides, so that customers can decide on such details as saddle comfort and component choice. Freilauf will find the best set up to transform your energy into motion. They stock high quality mountain bikes costing from 1000 DM to 5000 DM, racing and triathlon bikes. Pedersens and trailers, They also do a good trade in the excellent city bikes supplied by Manufaktur, in partnership with the VSF (Association of Independently Managed Cycle

SSEN Only 150 years ago Essen had a population of 8000. Now it is the fifth largest German city. Investment in urban renewal, pollution control f and landscaping have made Essen a surprisingly clean and attractive city. The city contains eight million trees, twelve to every inhabitant. and ten times as many new trees are planted each year as there are new born babies.

THE NEW BIKE SHOP

Crossing Essen by bike you would notice a continuous rise from 26 metres above sea level on the northern edge, to 202 metres at the southern edge.

RUDI MACH MA'

the Edinburgh cycling campaign. Access: 3/4 of a mile from Waverley and Haymarket Stations. All bus routes to Tollcross.

Scotland's historic capital, with a growing culture of cycling. It's a compact city, making the bicycle the only transport you'll need. A city of contrast, perhaps the most famous thoroughfare is Princes Street, which has shops on one side and a striking castle towering above the other. Edinburgh the Child Friendly City", is

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LENSBURG On the Danish border, and on an inlet to the Baltic sea, Flensburg developed as a trading settlement. Its prosperity is reflected by the solid, late Gothic gabled brick buildings which took over from halftimbered buildings. Other features are two large Gothic churches and the Nordtor of 1595. The people of Flensburg enjoy the

RANKFURT Frankfurt, the commercial capital of Germany, is a city with history. At one time German kings and emperors were crowned - -. there, and the first parliament in German history was constituted in the city. It was also the birthplace of Goethe. The Frankfurter Stadtwald is -! the largest communityowned forest in Germany. It offers delightful rides for

r I II

Eight years ago Rudi mach ma' was the smallest bike shop in Essen. Now they are one of the biggest, with 1400 square metres, and eight workers. One of their specialisms is frame building - and they make anything from triathlon bikes to expedition tourers (to measure, of course). They also hire out tandems to the public, and exotic' cycles to organisers of exhibitions and fairs. Rudi mach ma' are proud

Northern European culture of the traditional roadster, which is even more pronounced just over the border in Denmark.

FREILAUF Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-13.30, 14.30-18.00; Sa 9.00-13.00. Lazarett Str.4, 91054 Erlangen. Tel: 09131-202220 Fax 09131-201710

of their achievements in getting Essen onto bicycles. Access: 4 kilometres from Essen Station.

LN4144, Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-18.30; Sa 10.00-13.00. Max-Keith-Str. 25, 45136 Essen. Tel: 0201-442405 Fax: 0201-263474

Flensburg Station.

VELOPEDES This shop, close by the Nordtor, of Flensburg, stocks all kinds of bikes, including children's machines, recumbents (Flux and Radius) and Pedersens. Velopedes have become an important part of the community in this area with a strong cycling tradition. There is also a full range of hiking gear, clothes and shoes. Access: 3km from

the cyclist, and the nearby Taunus mountains offer something for the more intrepid rider.

Radschlag stock a good range of town, touring and off-road bikes. They even sell genuine, high quality Dutch roadsters. Radschlag concentrate on customer service, and are happy to supply odd bike bits which other shops have no time for. One of the Radschlag workers is English, and is happy to talk bikes in her native tongue. Radschlag are a campaigning shop. They recently publicly offered bikes to two leading officials in the city transport

OHG

Open: Mo,Tu,Th,Fr 10.00-13.00 and 14.3018.00; We 14.30-18.00; Sa 10.00-13.00. Neustadt 7, 24939 Flensburg. Tel: 0461-46699 Fax: 0461-45590

department, in the hope that it would change their attitude. The officials enjoyed cycling so much that they bought the bikes. Access: 4 kilometres from Frankfurt Station. (!

radschlog Open: lu-Fr 9.00-13.00, 15.00-18.30;

Th till 20.30; Sa 9.30-13.30. Hallgartenstr 56, 60389 Frankfurt. Tel: 069-452064 Fax: 069453284

IREIBURG

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Radhaus is a friendly sociable shop in a quiet area. Where-as some modern shops will maximise customer throughput Radhaus provide a corner where a customer might read a book and have a coffee. They have many classic special bikes. So you will find Pedersens, Bromptons, Moultons, and Flux and Radius recumbents. Plus lots of trailers. Access: 2 km from the railway station.

T . COLLINS

roads through ranch and farm lands.

Fort Collins, Colorado, is situated 60 miles north of Denver along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. A supportive policy towards bicycles has brought bike paths and trails which allow easy access to any part of the — city. West of the city arc mountain bike trails to test off-road skills, while east of the city lie rolling country

Close proximity (7') to the railway track suggested the name for this unpretentious bike shop near the heart of Fort Collins. The shop's focus is more on practical transportation issues than on radical technology. Their intention is to further the recumbent bicycle as a means of transportation. Several different models are stocked and they aim to tailor a bicycle to the specific needs of the customer. Bikes can be hired. As for access, it's

ER'1ERS HElM

HAASIES RADSCH LAG

Germersheim is a small but friendly town near the Rhine, and close to Speyer with its great Cathedral. Its inhabitants can pedal off into the countryside on a useful network of cycle paths.

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RADHAUS

This centre of the Black forest region is noted for its Gothic Cathedral, situated in the historic Old Town: its spire is regardd e as a masterpiece of pure Gothic architecture. Its a university town and can r. historicprobably be counted as one of Germany's top five cycling cities.

I I

LASGOV One of Europes Cities of Culture", Glasgow is host to opera, ballet, the Royal Scottish Orchestra, museums and art galleries. It is a city which has yet to fully appreciate the wonders of the bicycle. In the meantime there is a choice of bus, boat, taxi, foot and helicopter tours of the city. Cyclists will be more interested in quieter

INGEN Gottingen is a classic historic university town in Lower Saxony. where the lively ways of the students coexist happily with the gaily decorated half-timbered houses from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. When they are not enjoying the IF culture of the city, students love to cycle in the ir attractive countryside of Lower Saxony.

Open: Mo-Fr 9.00-13.00, 15.00-18.30; Sa 10.00-14.00. Münchhofstr. 4, 79106 Freiburg. Tel: 0761.280832 Fax: 0761-280838

ironic that the nearest train station is now Denver. 60 miles away.

WHISTLE STOP

ri..dHIk.-A I!i

Open: Tu-Sa 10.00-17.30, or by appointment. 410 Jefferson, Ft Collins, CO 80524. Tel: 303-2245499 Fax: 303-2245309

of Encycleopedia and Bike Culture. Access: 15 minutes by foot from the railway station.

This is a shop with great imagination, operating in a small town where their ideas and products have a perceptible impact. They have many specialised machines in their range such as Pedersens, recumbents, folders and 7 different trailers. Forty different trailers can be ordered, and both trailers and recumbents can be hired. They also wish to extend their allied business of bicycle text translation Dorothee Sicbeckc wife of Radschlag's proprietor, is the German translator

Open: Mo-Fr 9.00-12.30, 14.30-18.00, Sa 9.00-13.00 Closed Wednesday morning. Markstr. 22 76726 Germersheim Tel: 07274-4863 Fax: 07274-779360

pleasures of the Glasgow and Loch Lomond cycleways.

Access: five minutes walk from Kelvinbridge Underground station.

GEAR OF GLASGOW This family business has been open a year and specialises in recumbents which they demonstrate to people in a nearby park. They want to promote all types of cycling, so suggest machines only after determining the customer's needs. Another speciality is trailers for shopping, luggage or children. Gear have started a recumbent club, members of which cycle off to the beautiful Scottish countryside.

Open: Tu-Sa 10.00-18.00, Su 12.00-16.00. 19 Gibson Street, Hilihead, Glasgow, G12 8NU. Tel/Fax: 0141-3391179

VELO VOSS Velo Voss arc keen cycle campaigners work closely with the town council on promoting cycling and helping them produce information leaflets. They stock a wide range of machines including city bikes, Bromptons, racers, tandems and recumbents. Velo Voss specialises in custom building with a wide component choice. They expect to move this year to larger premises, to be able to offer even more choice. Access: easy walking distance from the railway station.

fthnikW

MEN= M

Open: Mo 14.30-1800; Tu-Fr 9.30-13.00, 14.30-18.00; Sa 9.30.13.00 Rote Strasse 31, 37073 Gottingen. Tel: 0551-484236 Fax: 0551-56237

ROBENZELL (MUNICH) Grobenzell is a small and pretty town 20 kilometres west of Munich, in the southern German state of Bavaria. It is surrounded by quiet cycle routes: ideal for touring the delightful villages of the area. The landscape is fairly flat, with lots of trees, and with distant hills to contemplate. A trip to the Bavarian capital, Munich, makes an interesting contrast. Lovers of cycle

• •

ALLE Halle is the birthplace of Handel, where he served as cathedral organist. The marketplace is surrounded by Gothic and Romanesque towers, and in spite of considerable war damage, some half-timbered houses dating back to the Middle Ages survive. Halle was formerly in East Germany, and the .role of the bicycle in the city diminished in the decades

AMBURG Germany's "Gateway to the West" is characterised by water, but not only because of its huge harbour. In the centre of the city is a large lake, the Alster. Go for a short trip on one of the many Aister boats and you will have a ii splendid view of the business centre and the tall church spires overlooking it. Hamburg is a

• AMBURG

Hamburg has a long seafaring tradition, with the port as its heart, accounting for an eighth of the city's surface area. Each year 13,000 ocean-going vessels sail into the city, but the number of cycle journeys along the pleasant riverside paths has never been counted. There is fine cycling in the surrounding areas, with villages full of

I AMBURG The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is one of the oldest republics in Europe. It is elegantly set on the Elbe River and the Aister Lake. - Nearly half of Hamburg's surface is made up of parks, green areas, nature reserves, rivers, lakes and canals. With a total of 2400 bridges it outdoes Venice, Amsterdam and London put together. Around Hamburg are large areas of untouched nature

history will find the science and technology museum of particular interest.

FLUX FAHRRADER A combination of high quality products and honest, thorough advice has led to the success of this small, country-town bike shop. It's what goes on behind the scenes which makes this bike shop different: its owner, 'Cum is the designer and maker of the Flux recumbent which is featured in this issue of Encycleopedia. All four workers enjoy the contrast between their work on high-value

after the War. However, the efforts of dedicated campaigners are beginning to show results.

recumbents and on the more conventional bikes for the local population. They think all bikes are wonderful. Access: 150 metres from the Gröbenzell

PLUAX Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-12.00, 14.00-18.00; Wed afternoon closed; Sa 9.00.13.00. Schubertstr. 2, 82194 Gröbenzell. Tel: 08142.60470 Fax: 08142.8792

over the world. Transporter bikes can be hired. Access: 1.8km from Halle/Salle station.

FAH RRADIES This cycling centre was set up in 1990 in a derelict building obtained from the State. Its primary role was as a self-help workshop. Fahrradies specialise in town and touring bikes and wheel-building. Its a bicycle culture centre as well as a bike shop. They organise a programme of events which includes a bike festival, talks, and slide shows on cycle-touring in the rest of the world. They have visitors from all

FAII1AMES Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-12.00, 13.00-18.00; Sa 10.00.12.00, 13.00-15.00. Windthorst Str. 20, 06114 Halle/Saale. Tel: 0345-36865 Fax: 0345-36865

cosmopolitan city with a strong and growing cycling movement.

PRO VELO We find ourselves in the year of our Lord, 1994. All bicycle shops have been conquered and occupied by Shimano. All bicycle shops? No, in one, a small stubborn band of screwdriver-wielding Provelopians offer constant resistance to the market barons. Whilst life is not easy for our oily heroes, they never tire of singing the praises of Mavic, Sachs, Campagnolo, SunTour and sweet T.A.

thatched-roofed, half-timbered houses and baroque churches. To the north the Baltic Coast, largely inaccessible since 1945, awaits discovery by bicycle.

pro velo Open: Tu-Fr 10.00-13.00, 14.00-18.00; Sa 10.00-13.00. Reetwerder 7, 21029 Hamburg. Tel: 040-7213109 Fax: 040-7212988

which come their way. Access: two kilometres from Dammtor railway station.

THE NEW CYCLIST An English name for a shop which specialises in quality English bikes: Chas Roberts, Woodrup, Nigel Dean, Moulton, Brompton etc. A full range of other bikes is also stocked, and cycle repair is emphasised. The New Cyclist also runs a hire service, for tandems, recumbents, and load-carrying bikes. The five workers enjoy the variety of tasks

reserves, crossed by cycle routes.

ZWEIRAD UND ZUKUNFT Zweirad und Zukunft (Two Wheels to the Future') offers apprenticeship in cycle mechanics and cycle trade. They currently have 18 apprentices, all disadvantaged people. They are a kind of developing centre for all things cycling. Current projects include recumbent-building, solar power bikes, and a trailer containing electric motor and battery which pushes the rider along. This Project is run in co-operation with a sister concern Zweirad Werkstatt Ottensen ZWO- Radhaus

Open: Mo 14.30-18.30; Tu-Fr 7.00-13.00, 14.30-18.30; Sa 10.00-14.00. Grindelberg 45, 20144 Hamburg. Tel: 040-4220658 Fax: 0404220659

where bikes and recumbents can be bought. You can reach both 3 minutes walk from Hamburg Altona railway station in the Werkhof, the largest alternative project in Hamburg.

0 Zweirad und Zukunft Open: Mo-Th 7.3016.00; Fr 7.30-13.00. Tel: 040.395285 ZWO-Radhaus Open: Tu-Fr 10.00-13.00, 15.0018.00, Sa 10.00-13.00. Tel: 040-393992 Fax: 040-3902302 Gaul3str.19, 22765

ANOVER

Raderwerk (Bikeworks') is a relatively new shop, run by cyclists with a long-standing commitment to new ideas in transport alternatives, and a reputation for working hard at getting things changed. They are, for example, the designers and manufacturers cycle trailers, and of the recumbent carrier rack featured in this Encycleopedia. Raderwerk's cycle repair workshop is going full swing, with the facility for customers to borrow a temporary bike

LAGENFURT

paths along the rivers Drau and Gail.

fit

its

--?

Europe. A cosmopolitan city which is beginning to take cycling seriously.

Hanover is the capital of Lower Saxony. From the accession of George I in 1714 until 183Z the electors of Hanover were kings of England. After the Second . World War, many historic buildings were rebuilt from If the original plans. The Herrenhausen gardens laid out in a formal geometrical style are one of the most . important examples of this 18th Century style in

Klagenfurt in South Austria is a handsome city and a wonderful base for cycling - with five well marked local cycle tours. One visits five castles, another historic buildings, and a Picnic Tour' passes a waterfall and castle. There are mountains enough to exercise the most vigorous mountain bikers and two more sedate long distance

RADERWERK

while their own is under repair. The partners are developing a varied and useful hire fleet. Access: 3 kilometres from Hanover Central Station.

RXDERVERK Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-18,00: Sa 9,00-13.00, Calenbergerstr 50. 30169 Hanover, Tel: 0511-717174 Fax: 0511-715151

VELODROME VĂŤlodrome is well placed to meet the requirements of visiting cyclists. Gert Steinthaler is in the Austrian National MTB team and specialises in mountain bikes with suspension. So it's just the shop to provide the kit for a serious attack on the nearby mountain paths, with advice from a seasoned competitor. Access: Klagenfurt railway station.

Unser Service - [/ire Freizeir! AiCii

FT-

Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-12.00. 1600-1900: Sa 10.00-12.30. Fledermausgasse 7A, 4-9020 Klagenfurt. Tel/Fax: 0463-230890

ANGENTHAL

Langenthal is in the centre of Switzerland and nicknamed" little Venice' Rivers can flood through the town, so the pavements are raised in the -town centre. It is known for its textiles and porcelain. Cyclists will find it an ideal start for a tour of Oberaagau, the Jura and Emmental.

â&#x20AC;˘ ONDON

One of the worlds great capitals, and the often inevitable starting point to a visit to Britain. Armed with a cycle route map from the -) London Cycling Campaign (available from bike shops), and with a very good cycle lock, the visitor can spend happy days onatour of the world-class museums, art galleries, visitor centres and monuments. The -

ONDON Although London has many committed an t've cyclists, the city has yet to fully recognise the bicycle as the answer to its crippling transport problems. London cyclists regularly remind the authorities that a thousand-mile network of cycle routes had been promised. Nevertheless, an alert and confident cyclist can enjoy slipping past the slow moving traffic queues,

A passionate cyclist, Daniel Buchli made his first bike 17 years ago and set his shop up shortly afterwards. He invites customers to come with their individual requirements. He sells all kinds of recumbents, pedersens, mountain bikes, touring and transporter bikes, and has an entertaining sideline in unicycles and jugglers equipment. A centre of cycling culture well away from the big cosmopolitan cities. Access: near to the railway station.

Open: Mo,WeJh.Fr. 9.00-12.00, 13.30-18,30: Sa 9.00-12.00. 13,30-16.00. Spitalgasse 3. 4900 Langenthal. Tel: 063-229690

London Cycling Campaign is one of the largest in the world, and the London local authorities amongst the most stubborn,

hire. It's a shop with a difference: a no-gimmicks centre for all things cycling. Access: Russell Square and Holborn tubes. 10 minutes from King's Cross.

JM11WA1

bikefix

BIKEFIX

II t11R1tIhvuisui

Bikefix is central London's only specialist repair shop. In their large workshop they custom build frames and wheels, and carry out any and all bike and frame repairs. Bikefix pride themselves on speed and effIciency,and essential to this is a huge stock of parts and accessories. Tandems and other cycling oddities are usually available for

Open: Mo-Fr 8.30-19.00: Sa 11.00-16.00. Lambs Conduit Street. London. WC1. Tel: 0171-4051218 Fax: 0171-4051099

leaving almost every other road user behind. Most London cyclists use mountain bikes, although adapted touring machines are beginning to make a come-back.

commuter bikes and related products. Trailers and racks can be ordered on request and are available on hire. Access: Brixton British Rail 400 yards; Brixton Tube 300 yards.

BRIXTON CYCLES CO-OP Brixton Cycles Co-op is a lively workers' cooperative which has been trading for ten years now, in the heart of Brixton, a multi-cultural centre south of the Thames. They began with a workshop that was little wider than a corridor, but now benefit from very spacious showrooms. Brixton Cycles specialise in custom building,

IifihA'TOil/ (IC/li CO-OP Open: Mo-Sa 9,00-18.00: Th 9.00-19.00. Coldharbour Lane. Brixton. London. SW9. Tel: 0171-7336055 Fax: 0171-7335595 435-437

VAIJIIAI

There is much more to London than the city centre and the traditional tourist attractions. There are published routes, devised by London Cyclists, which take you on tours of the often delightful London suburbs. These routes often have a theme, and describe the kind of social history which is frequently missing from guide books to !

ONDON You come across all kinds of cyclist on the roads of London. Watch out for the cycle couriers, whose riding style can be unorthodox to say the least - how things have changed since the upper middle classes cycled sedately round Hyde Park in long tight-waisted clothing. -That was in the 1890s. Hyde Park itself has changed little, and the speakers on

ACHYNLLETH

London's centre. A book of leisure cycle routes out of l.ondon, written by Patrick Field, was published lst year.

CYCLECARE (OLYMPIA)

contacts in Europe they can import many unusual components. Access: 200 metres from Olympia Underground and British Rail.

CYCLECARE (Olympia)

Cyclecare are based in central London, agent for Brompton, Moulton, Pedersen and offer a hire before you buy option on many items such as Pendle racks and Winchester trailers. They have a workshop and wheel-building service. Cyclecare has a close association with Brompton and can offer a number of unique refinements. With good

Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-18.30; Sa 10.00-.17.00. 30 Blythe Road, Olympia, London, W14 OHA. Tel: 0171-6029757 Fax: 0171-6029757

their soap boxes at Hyde Park Corner on Sundays are worth a visit. There is a fine collection of bicycles in the Science Museum. South Kensington.

America, London Recumbents also stock luggageand child-trailers. Access: half mile from both Herne Hill and North Dulwich Stations. LONDON RECUMBE NIS

LONDON RECUMBENTS London Recumbents is the perfect place to visit if you are considering buying a recumbent, because they are based at Herne Hill Cycle Stadium, where you can try the machines, and take them around the local lanes and parks. Bikes are hired as well as sold, and the hire fee is refunded if you buy. As well as recumbents from Britain, Europe and

solar, wind and water power, organic gardens and bio fuels. They encourage visitors, and there's enough to see and learn to keep you there for a whole day, and even longer.

A7 Open: Times include weekends and evenings: phone for details and appointment. Herne Hill Cycle Stadium, Burbage Road, London SE24. Tel/Fax: 0171-6359761

also active in promoting cycling amongst local people, and have had many notable successes. Access: 100 yards from Machynlleth station.

A small Mid-Wales town which makes a great centre for cycling. Machynlleth is a lively and historic market town set in the Dyfi Valley in Montgomeryshire. -Surrounded by beautiful countryside and wildlife, it is also home to the Centre for Alternative Technology, which develops and promotes "green" methods and technologies such as

Joyrides is a small shop with wide horizons and a welcoming atmosphere. They specialise in recumbents (the Linear and Peer Gynt), and the Duet wheelchair tandem. There is a full range of conventional bikes, accessories and trailers. They operate a popular cycle hire service. Joyrides are

Open: New Year - Easter: Mo Tu We Fr Sa 10.00-17.30. Easter - New Year: Mo Tu We Fr Sa Su 10.00-17.30. The Old Station, Machynlleth, Powys, Wales, SY20 8TN. Tel: 01654-703109

AINZ

the 18th Century.

towards Christuskirche-Rhein.

JOYRIDES CYCLES

Mainz, on the Rhine, is one of the oldest cities in Germany, occupying an important position on ancient trading routes. Its cathedral was founded over a thousand years ago and is one of the most impressive Romanesque buildings in the country. Later history is reflected in such buildings as the Head Quarters of the Teutonic Order built in

The Bicycle-shop has been open for ten years and stocks everything from children's bikes to the stately roadsters often preferred by their grandparents. They also stock many of the more exotic machines featured in this publication, such as Pedersens, Galaxes and Moultons. Their priority is to give advice and good service and their ambition is to stock more and more exotica!" Access: 800m from the main station,

ANCHESTER

how the new Manchester Velodrome will shape up.

â&#x20AC;˘ A cii) brimming with culture, theatre, music, art, museums, universities and some classic Victorian architecture. Manchester is developing an impressive pedestrian zone, and the new tram system is benefiting all non-motorists. The city council are beginning to use cycling as a means of boosting the city's environmental credentials. Local cyclists are waiting to see

FAHRRADLADEN

-Fah rraci o

BICYCLE DOCTOR Bicycle Doctor was formed eleven years ago, as a workers' co-op. It now has seven members, all committed to getting the people of Manchester on bikes. They have recently expanded their premises and offer touring, racing, mountain bikes, and recumbents, as well as clothing and accessories, and a full repair service in their workshops. The shop's free notice board lists clubs. events and second hand sales. There is a 10% discount for students. Their Mountain Bike Club

Laden

Open: Tu-Fr 10.00-13.00, 14.30-18.30; Sa 10.00-14.00. Albinistrasse 15, 55116 Mainz. Tel: 06131 225013 Fax: 06131-230017

organises regular off-road rides for all abilities. Access: two miles from Oxford Road Station.

BICYCLE DOCTOR

Open: Mo, We, Th, Fr, 10.00-18.00; Tu 14.0017.00; Sa 10.00-17.30. 68-70 Dickenson Road, Rusholme, Manchester, M14 5HF. Tel: 0161-2241303 Fax: 0161 2573102

ELBOURNE

Y a

ft. -.

St Kilda specialise in good quality repair work including a same day service for people who use their bikes for work or daily transport. Every effort is made to obtain hard-to-get spare parts and products. They hire out high quality bikes, including mountain, touring and triathlon bikes. for any period from one day to two months or longer. Open seven days a week, St Kilda puts

ODENA

Romanesque Cathedral

Modena has loads of style, being the home of Ferrari and Maserati cars and birthplace of Paverotti. The only locals that aren't well ' heeled are the pigs as the " culinary speciality is stuffed pigs trotters. Should you '. wish to wash these down, it is the best place in Italy to sample Lambrusco. For those of more subtle tastes, there is a majestic

W* 7

IJNSTER

•

Munster is often considered to be Germany's leading cycling city. Its network of cycle paths is thronged with cyclists, who would consider no other , form of transport for such a compact city. Münster is twinned with York, which is I! one of Britain's leading cycling cities: and it will - .'--'soon be possible to cycle from city to city on an

EWYORK >.ew Yorkers reckon that their city is

• •

compulsory, and the consequences are being scrutinised around the world.

Melbourne is a busy port city, and capital of the State of Victoria. A cosmopolitan city, with many different ethnic groups. Melbourne's 3.25 million inhabitants have been discovering cycling in a big way, and cycling has • been placed high on the political agenda. Victoria is the Australian State which has made cycle helmets

one of the best of places to ride a bicycle and, as it is flat and compact, cycling is a wonderful way of experiencing the vibrant Street life of the city. An estimated 75,000 New Yorkers use bicycles for . transportation on a typical day - the bike is almost always the fastest, most reliable form of

EWARK The district of Newark and Sherwood is steeped in history, and was, of course, once the home of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The Major Oak in which Robin is thought to have hidden from the Sheriff of Nottingham still stands in Sherwood Forest. A cycle ride around the area becomes a journey into the past. The many

efficient service as its main goal. Access: 2 kilometres from Balaclava Station. stmar

ST KILDA CYCLES

SUN DANCE Sundance opened as a kite shop, run by Robert Appleby, an Englishman. His wife, Sue Darlow, is a cycling photographer, responsible for many pictures in Bike Culture. Both are keen to introduce a wider bike culture to Italy. They are recumbent enthusiasts and have given many Italians their first taste of lying low.

international bike path passing through the Netherlands, with a sea crossing from Hull to Rotterdam. The continental section is in place, and parts of the British section are ready.

DRAHTESEL Drahtesel occupies premises in the centre of the town, which has the advantage of having a traffic free area for testing outside the door. Raimund Cerwing has a happy and fruitful relationship with his customers of all ages. They stock lots of clothing and accessories and specialise in touring

transport between two points.

CENTER FOR APPROPRIATE TRANSPORT

Open: Mo-Fr 8.30-18.00: Sa 9.00-14.00: Su 10.00-16.00. 11 Carlisle Street. St Kilda 3182. Tel: 03-5343074 Fax: 03-5343035

Ii tI

S UN DANCE Open: Mo. Tu. We, Fr, Sa 9.00-12.30. 160019.30: Th 9.00-12.30. Via Falloppia 46, 41100 Modena. Tel/Fax: 059-221247

and city bikes, quality mountain bikes and tandems. Access: 250m from the railway station.

Dfflf-WTSL Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-13.30. 14.30-18.30: closed Wednesday mornings: Sa 10.00-14.00/16.00. Servatiiplatz 7. 48143 Münster. Tel: 0251-511228 Fax: 0251-56252

research and laboratory for electric and humanpowered vehicles and commuter centre. Access: A block away from the Broadway-Lafayette Station. EN ER FOR

As well as being the only recumbent dealer in New York City, the Center for Appropriate Transport designs and custom-builds new machines. They specialise in work bikes and are famous for their Dump Trike, an upright trike with a large heavy-gauge plastic container attached to the front, which can be rented from the shop. CAT hopes to open a Pedal Electric Development Station soon, which would house a

surrounding villages often have historic significance, East Stoke for example, was the site of the final conflict in the War of the Roses.

PRIATE N S P0 P T

Open: Mo-Sa 10.00-18.00. 49 East Houston Street, New York, NY 10012. Tel: 212-2266227 Fax: 212-9666680

Castle, half a mile from North Gate.

CASTLE CYCLES Founded in 1981, Castle Cycles have been providing customers with a good service and that includes after-sales care. They stock a wide range of value-for-money bikes, accessories and spares, including the Linear and Kingcycle recumbents. For the younger bicycle enthusiast they also stock kiddy trailers. Access: a quarter mile from Newark

Open: Mo-Fr 9.00-17.30, Sa 9.00-17.00. 15-17 Boar Lane. Newark. Nottinghamshire. NG24 1AJ. Tel: 01636-79893 Fax: 01636-79578

EWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE This livelyindustrial city on the north cast coast of England is famed for the friendliness of its populace. It is, however, anything but a cyclist's paradise. A dedicated group of r• campaigners have made some progress, and a number of Geordies (as the people are called) are beginning to ''• discover or rediscover the rural wonders, as seen from the bicycle saddle, of -

]

IJMEGEN

•

Nijmegen is one of the oldest towns in Holland. having been established as a frontier town in AD 105 by Trajan. Today you can still appreciate its strategic importance from such viewpoints as the Valkhof where .. you can get magnificent views of the low lying plain of the river Waal towards Arnhem, and from the Belvedere watch tower

URNBERG The mediaeval centre of Nurnberg has a defensive wall three miles long with 120 sentry towers, 12 fortified gates and a 60 foot moat. Once the capital -. of the Holy Roman Empire, . it was extensively damaged in the war. This tragedy was turned into a triumph of discreet reconstruction with modern buildings carefully designed to

LDENBURG

the vast and various county of Northumberland to the north.

CYCLE LOGICAL Cycle Logical has been open for a year and specialises in same day repairs as a Shimano Service Centre. At the same time they promote specialised bikes of all kinds. At the more exotic end of the market they sell Cycman Carbon fibre frames as used by Spencer Smith, the World Triathlon Champion. The shop also takes particular care to provide for the needs of women cyclists.

dating from the 15th Century. The Velorama cycle museum, down by the water front, is one of the best in the world.

INTER CITY BIKES Inter City Bikes sells only recumbents - currently stocking about fifteen different models from six Dutch manufacturers. Furthermore, they buy only the framekits, which allows them to build the machines exactly to the customer's wishes. They also hire recumbents to allow potential customers to try out different models. In an innovative attempt to

compliment the old.

TYCLOGC Open: Mo,Tu,We,Fr,Sa 9.00-18.00; Th 9.00-19.30; Su 10.00-14.00. 37 St.George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE2 2SX. Tel: 0191-2818383 Fax: 0191-2810681

promote green transport, Inter City Bikes lease machines to organisations. A Utrecht branch will be open in 1995. Access: 10 minutes by foot from the intercity station.

INTER CITY31KE5 141 J ,

neqer,

Open: Tu.Sa 10.00-17.00. Voorstadslaan 4a, 6541 AC Nijmegen. Tel: 080.731957 Fax: 080-732183

partnership between cycle shops, to the benefit of the cycling community as a whole. Access: 600m from the Central Station.

VELO RADSPORT Velo Radsport is a well established and enthusiastic shop where the staff take time to advise customers about unusual bicycles such as Moultons, Bike Friday, Brompton, as well as individually assembled top range MTBs. They specialise in MTBs from America and Canada. If the customer wants a recumbent, they send them to a nearby colleague, who specialises in these machines: an example of an excellent working

Germany, close to Bremen. In the 17th Century it developed into a North German cultural and economic centre, despite having been part of Denmark for 100 years. A handsome city with fine cycling opportunities round about.

Oldenburg's nearness to the Netherlands may be the inspiration to the city's excellent pro-bike policy. A _glossy leaflet tells tourists about the pleasures of cycling in the city, and warns that car drivers should watch out for cyclists (legally) going the 'wrong' way up one-way streets. All new roads must incorporate cycle paths. Oldenburg is in the very north of

Die Speiche (the Spoke) is a bike shop immersed in the deep cycling culture of Oldenburg. It is always busy keeping the town's 120,000 bicycles in action. The workers enjoy their contacts with the many student customers who rely on the shop. Pedersens and Galaxes are usually stocked.

RANGE (CA)

visit the Anaheim show in

Orange is at the centre of Southern California's tourist attractions, including Hollywood and Disneyland. But it also offers many more subtle delights for the cyclist. It is twenty minutes away from beautiful beaches and an hour away from mountains. Cyclists can go for a long distance ride along a dried river bed or if they wish to drool over the latest kit,

They have a small hire fleet catering for local hotels customers who want to see the area. Access: Metro train from Newcastle Central Station.

DIE SPEICHE

September.

PEOPLE MOVERS People Movers has been open for three years and now stocks over 15 different American-made recumbents. The owner, Jim Wronski, is such an enthusiast that he bought twelve for himself. They rent out beach cruisers, simple six-speed tandems, hybrids,mountain bikes and hope to hire out some recumbents soon. People Movers are always looking for good new products to add to their line of speciality bikes and act as swiftly as possible to

Open: Mo,Tu,Th,Fr. 12.00-18.30; Sa 10.00-13.00. Köhn Str.38, 90478 Nurnberg. Tel: 0911-473611 Fax: 0911-467707

Work is in progress on a cycle museum on the upper floors of the shop's premises. Eight Dutch roadsters form part of their hire fleet.

Die Speiche. Open: Mo, Tu, We, Th, Fr 9.30-13.00, 14.00-18.00; Sa 9.30-13.30. Donnerschweerstr. 45, 26123 Oldenburg. Tel: 0441-84123 Fax: 0441-83471

meet the customer's requirements. Access: half mile from Anaheim Stadium Arntrack Station.

PEOPLE MOVERS CM3EJT ITCL

Open: " Everyday from about 10.00 to 18.00." 980 N.Main Street, Orange, CA 92667. Tel: 714-6333663 Fax: 714-6337890

XFORD Many periods of English history are documented in Oxford's streets, houses. colleges and chapels. The city of 'dreaming spires' has 900 buildings of architectural or historic interest within a single square mile. There is no famous fortress or grand cathedral that will give you a short-cut impression of the city - you need to get on your feet or

your bike with a guide book in your pocket. Cycling is. of course. the traditional form of transport for the student population.

WALTON STREET CYCLES One of the great pleasures experienced by staff at Walton Street Cycles is kitting out the new students with bicycles at the start of each academic year. Many come from areas where cycling is rare, and some have never owned a bike before. The shop is proud of its fine collection of postcards sent from around the world by customers on cycle tours.

ANDABERG (STAVANGER) Randaberg, on the tip of a headland ar Stavanger in Western Norway is surrounded by bays and inlets. It is a farming community, with some recent industrial development and popular r tourist attractions include a lighthouse and a Stone F1 Age cave dwelling,

- -

EUTLINGEN

•

Access: one kilometre from Oxford Station.

FELGEN SYKKEL Felgen Sykkel is an enthusiastic and friendly shop. They were established in 1991, and have since moved three times to expand their growing business, becoming well known across Norway. Whilst they stock road bikes, they concentrate of high-quality off-road bikes. They intend in future to be able to offer a bike for every need, including special bikes for the disabled. They currently undertake lots of specialised bike-building for

villages

vondcrfu1 cycle touring country.

Reutlingen is a lively town of 100,000

Open: Mo-Fr 8.45-17.45; Sa 9.00-17.00. 78 Walton Street, Oxford. Tel: 01865-511531 Fax: 01865-58689

the disabled. The firm is proud of its comprehensive workshop and customer service. Access: 8 km from Stavanger Railway Station.

Open: Mo-Fr 9.00-19.00; Sat 9.00-14.00. Randabergvelen 372, 4070 Randaberg. Tel/Fax: 0514-19477

interesting hire fleet, which includes a rickshaw. Access: 800 metres from Reutlingen Station.

TRANS VELO FAHRRADLADEN

\T.

. . - .-• -

Ij I 5

-. • . •

It is graced with handsome towers - reminder: of the days when independent towns needed defence against local barons. Reutlingen sits at the edge of the Swabian Jura, a charming range of hills, with undulating forests and meadows, and many delightful

Ten years ago cycle enthusiasts in Reutlingen set up a self-help cycle workshop. Now it is one of the largest cycle shops in the region, with seven workers, among them three qualified engineers, one of whom has conducted academic research on the physics of the bicycle wheel. So high has been the level of commitment amongst the workers that in the early days several of them virtually lived in the shop. TransVelo run an

OTTERDAM

BIKERS' BEST

Rotterdam is the world's biggest port, with a host of a activities, attractions and events linked to the river and port. It is known for its modern architecture and international museums, festivals and many restaurants and pubs. There are numerous bike paths, and the city is close to the sea, windmills and the polders.

Bikers' Best have just renovated their shop and reckon that its the most colourful, diversified and unusual shop around. The enthusiastic staff know their stuff: many of their customers are world travellers, competitors and heavy bike users. The shop specialises in mountain, trekking, racing. and folding bikes, and tandems too. They offer repair services and are happy to seek out unusual products for customers. Access: 10 minutes walk from the Central Station and 3 minutes from I-Iofplein Station.

OCHTENAU

8km away.

Grolking is a typical local farm between Munich and Salzburg on the Roman road from Ausurg to Salzburg. The farmer runs a small, simple camp ground too. This is an attractive ;' region, dotted with small lakes, and near to the Austrian border. Salzburg is 55km away. Crolking is very close to the Simsee, with the larger Chiemsee about

RADSCHLAG MUSKELBETRIEBENE FAHREUGE Radsch lag-Muskelbetriebene Fahr-Leuge, means that the focus is on unconventional bikes as featured in ENCYLEOPEDIA. It has a small workshop with a very friendly atmosphere: there's always a cup of Cappuccino waiting in the sales office. They sell Windcheetahs, Pedersens, recumbents, folding bikes and trailers. Customers are encouraged to make an appointment by

TRANSVELO Fahrrader GmbH Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-18.30; Th 11.00-20.30; Sa 9.00-14.00. PIanie 22. 72764 Reutlingen. Tel: 07121-470726 Fax: 07121-470727

B i kE

R S'y uzn

Open: Mo, We, Th, Fr, 9.00-18.00; Tu, 13.00-18.00; Sa 10.00-17.00. Noordsingel 3, 3035 EG Rotterdam. Tel: 010-4662916 Fax: 010-4662184

telephone before they come along. Access: 4km from Bad Endorf station.

radschlag Open: Phone to make an appointment. Radschlag. Muskelbetrlebene Fahrzeuge Norbert Henkel D-83139 Grolking 3 Tel: 08053.2374 Fax: 08053-2397

OLOTHURN

distance from the town.

Solothurn is Switzerland's best preserved and most beautiful baroque town.

VELO WERKSTATI'

six city bikes and a tandem f o r from the railway station.

hire. .Access: 1 km

Although it has only 16,000 inhabitants it holds film and literature festivals, frequent concerts, exhibitions at local art galleries and theatrical performances in a number of small theatres. Wonderful green countryside is only a few minutes cycling

TUTTGART There's nohiding the fact that Stuttgart, home to Daimler-Benz and Porsche, is a motor city, and one of the most cycle-unfriendly cities in Germany. The

national and local cycling organisations are doing their best to dismantle prejudices, but it's a big job. A slogan used by in the recent local elections, by the conservative CDU, ran

ROISDORF

The three workers here see the bicycle as a serious alternative to the motor-vehicle, both now and in the future. They have converted their hobby into an occupation adopting the slogan, 'Ride a Bike, Make a Difference.' They specialise in high quality products and individual everyday bikes. racing bikes, tourers and children's bikes. They take a pride in their repair service and doing things that the customer really wants. They have

"Cycling is nice, but without the motor car wed go broke.

Radladen Doppelaxel, established in 1986, is not just a cycle shop: it is also a self-help cycle repair workshop. The members of the collective see all their work as way to promote a stronger cycling culture in Stuttgart. They believe in the value of straightforward, honest advice, and in giving as wide a choice as possible. Usually in stock are tandems, recumbents, folders and trailers, as well

flows into the Rhine, and rides on the paths along both rivers are highly recommended.

VamBike have been trading for three years now and regard service and advice as their strengths. They specialise in city and touring bikes and load carrying trailers. They also stock children's bikes, regarding this as an important but often neglected part of the cycle trade. Their hire service includes a "try before you buy" feature so customers can make a well informed choice. VamBike carry a

TRECHT

WIM KOK FIETSENWINKEL

Utrecht has a rich history as a centre of Dutch trade and culture. It is home to Holland's largest university. The historic town centre features the Oude Gracht Canal, which has many beautiful bridges dating back to mediaeval ties. A cycle friendly city; and a fine base for a cycling holiday in the Netherlands.

Wim Kok Fietsenwinkel have been trading since 1970, and have established a nationwide reputation for stocking and promoting specialised cycles and accessories. They have a strong sales and repair service, and hold a wide range of leisure bikes: recumbents, tandems. hybrids, touring bikes, trailers and 'strollers One of the most important shops in the Netherlands, Wim Kok runs courses in cycle maintenance and roadside repairs. Access: 3km from Utrecht Station.

ICTORIA Victoria, the smaller and shyer but better-looking sister of nearby Vancouver, is the capital city of Canada's Pacific province. This university city is situated on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, much of which remains in a pristine state and is home to mountain lions, elk herds, ancient rain forests and, of course,

as city bikes. Access: ten minutes cycling from the main station.

DOPPELAXEL

Troisdorf is a town of 65,000 people. Nearby is a nature reserve and the 18th century Wissem Castle. Situated between Cologne and Bonn, it is easily accessible to tourists visiting either city. A local train line runs between Troisdorf and Cologne. Bonn, Germany's capital is nearer: just a 45 minute ride along a bike path. Troisdorf's River Sieg

Open:Tu-Fr 9.00-12.15, 13.30-18.30; 9.00-12.15, 13.30-16.00. Basel Str. 47a, 4500 Solothurn. Tel/Fax: 065-234676

VAMBIKE

McDonaldsTM. From Victoria, various ferries transport you and your bike to the Canadian or to the many surrounding smaller Gulf Islands which offer splendid opportunities for bike touring and camping.

FAIRFIELD BIKES

Open: Tu, We, Fr 10.00-18.00; Th 10.00-20.00; Sa 9.00-14.00. Lerchenstr. 40, 70176 Stuttgart. Tel: 0711-2261515 Fax: 0711-2261984

wide stock of recumbents, and aim to extend the popularity of the recumbent. Access: 800 metres from Troisdorf Station.

eZ7orna'*e Open: Mo-Fr 10.00-13.00, 14.30-18.30; Sa 10.00-14.00; Closed Wednesday afternoon. Alte Poststr. 21, 53840 Troisdorf. Tel: 02241-78645 Fax: 02241-83357

Mw ro%K

Open: Tu-Su 9.00-18.00; Th late night 19.0021.00; Closed Monday. Nachtegaalstraat 51, 3581 AD, Utrecht. Tel: 030-315780 Fax: 030-316675

are involved in the local cycling coalition and have a fondness for older bikes and older riders. Nothing interests them as much as esoteric bikes and thought. Access: 1.5km from downtown ferry and bus terminals.

NVO :3 Oslo")

With their emphasis on practical bikes for the real world, Fairfield Bikes is a commuters' oasis in an MTB desert. They specialise in bike conversions, custom wheel building and frame brazing/trueing. They also offer courses in bike repair. The staff

Open Mo-Fr 9.00-18.00. Sa 9.00-17.00. Su 11.00-17.00. 1275 Oscar St. Victoria, BC. Tel: 0101 6043812453 Fax: 0101 60436il547

S-VILLINGEN Villingen is 700m above sea level and near to the Black Forest. It has a city wall and towers, built around 1300. Villingen is surrounded by excellent countryside for cycling. The town has a late Gothic town hail and the main church has late Gothic tracery windows and a Romanesque doorway.

ABERN (BERN) Wabern is situated on the edge of Bern, just a twenty minute bike ride from the city centre, by cycle-path. A cycle path leads further out to the Berner Oberland, an area of outstanding beauty. Wabern has one of Europe's most scenic campsites.

TOUR FAHRRADER Established in 1982, this business has grown to occupy 300 square metres of new premises. They aim to sell quality products using the best materials. Whilst handling unusual bicycles can complicate their business, they insist on doing so, to offer the customer a wide choice. So their wide range of city, touring and mountain bikes is supplemented by many of the bicycles, recumbents and trailers featured in this publication. Access: 3 minutes walk from the station.

BRICOMEC Bricomec offers a good range of cycles, conventional and otherwise, but also takes a strong interest in veteran bikes, undertaking restoration work for customers. The shop's fleet of veteran cycles is often made available for special occasions, and there are, of course, modern bikes for hire. Bricomec involves itself in community-based cycling initiatives, and believes in offering customers as many options as possible. Access: three minutes from Wabern Station.

iur

Fahrräder

Open: Mo-Fr 9.30-13.00, 14.30-18.30; Sa 9.00-13.00, once a month 9.00-16.00. Obere Str. 12/1, 78050 VS-Villingen. Tel: 07721-54416 Fax: 07721-57664

BRICOMEC OLD-TIMERVELOS

Open: Tu-Fr 9.00-12.30, 14.00-18.30; Closed Sunday and Monday. Seftigenstr 225, 3084 Wabern, Switzerland. Tel: 031-9611796 Fax: 031-9614123

ESTHUMBLE (DORKING) Boxhill is a well known beauty spot. owned by the National Trust, from where visitors can enjoy views of the green hills of Surrey. Cyclists can ride from here along the North Downs. Boxhill Station is nearly 130 years old and built in the Gothic Style.

VORK Awarded the title of Britain's Top Cycling City. York is a historic and splendidly preserved city . which has kept its long tradition of cycling. The city council has a positive • cycling policy, and the , cycle paths charity, Sustrans, have built cross- -. country routes out of York. Their Inverness-Dover and hull-Liverpool routes will

.' .,.

• •

URICH Zurich is the economic hub of Switzerland, yet in spite of rapid development since 1800. it remains one of its - --finest cities and a great centre of Swiss culture. It -gains light and movement • through being at the end of Lake Zurich and being divided by two rivers. So sailing and boating are popular activities. • Zurich has one of the most environmentally aware

ACTION PACKS Action Packs is based in the booking hail of the station, where it hopes to lure visitors from London for a day cycling in the country. They specialise in mountain bikes and other products that they have tried and tested. Bike hire is the main business and this allows customers to try some of the unusual machines featured in Encycleopedia. They can then buy the machine at a discount of up to 10%. Access: At Boxhill/ Westhumbie station, half hourly service to London.

meet just south of York. Open Road, the publishers and editors of this book, live and work in York.

ciiot IPACk1 Open: 6 days a week, 9.30-17.30 (except We: 9.30-13.00) Closed Tu; Best to phone and book. The Booking Hall, Boxhill Station,Westhumble, Surrey RH5 6BT. Tel: 01306-886944 Fax: 01306-880332.

Dedicated to the renaissance of mass utility cycling. Cycle Heaven will sell you anything from recumbents to trailers. Access: ten minutes walk from York station.

CYCLE HEAVEN It was whilst living in Miami that the owner of Cycle Heaven became convinced that the motor car would be the death of all civilised urban life. After completing his MA on "The Culture of Cycling in England 1870-1900", he found himself as the unlikely manager of the car parts shop "Motorist's Mecca' He began converting it into a cycle shop, bought out the lease, and within two years Cycle Heaven was born.

transport policies in the world.

Open: Mo-Sa 9.00-18.00. 5 Bishopthorpe Rd, York, Y02 1NA. Tel: 01904-636578

from him. Access: 15 minutes by bike or 30 minutes by tram from the main station.

VELOLABORATORIUM This fascinating shop stocks only specialised bikes. such as Pedersens, Moultons, Galaxes and transporter bikes. They supply diamond frame bikes only to special order. They hire out fun bikes, rickshaws and Pedersens. Velolaboratorium also plan to develop and produce a light transport bike. The owner is a Pedersen enthusiast and has partly funded the reprint of the original English version of David Evan's famous Pedersen book, which is available

V ELILA°RA[ORIVl''\ Open: Tu-Fr 13.30-18.30;Sa 10.00-16.00. Schmelzbergstr. 40, 8044 Zurich. Tel: 01-2514707 Fax: 01-2514762

arterly

elcome to Issue Three of Bike Culture Quarterly, bound into Encycleopedia for this issue only. Encycleopedia and Bike Culture are two sides of the same coin. The one is an annual forum for the latest thinking in cycle technology, the other is a quarterly magazine, a lively meeting place for free-thinking cyclists from around the world. We are proud to be an independent, ads-free magazine for the openminded cyclist. We publish BCQ for people who, like ourselves, see cycling as a joyous way of life rather than just an occasional leisure activity. BCQ is a sort of information exchange for people of ideas: campaigners, inventors, connoisseurs, traditionalists and visionaries. We bring in big issues, ideas and insights - this is helped by the fact that we publish internationally. We do not carry advertising, since this can alter the editorial nature of even the best-intentioned magazines, and advertising is in any case largely inappropriate for an internationally published magazine. BCQ is still growing, and we feel privileged to be part of a new and progressive worldwide movement in cycling. By incorporating this issue into the 94/95 Encycleopedia we have more than doubled the number of copies in circulation compared with Issues One and Two. Our long term goal is to reach a sufficiently large circulation for every issue, so that BCQ can become a truly influential publication on a global scale, but still without paid-for adverts. Our present cover price of ÂŁ5 is relatively high compared to other magazines which can afford lower cover prices thanks to their advertising income. Having been in the mainstream cycle publishing business for many years, we know that there is no alternative if we wish to keep our independence. From January 1995 BCQ will go up to 68 pages, with no price change. From that issue, too, Open Road USA will be in operation, handling distribution in North America of a separately printed BCQ containing more coverage of US news. There will also be a parallel German-language version: identical to the English language version, but with German text and greater coverage of German news. We hope to launch versions in other languages in due course, and are interested in making contacts with cycling business partners in other language areas. Encycleopedia will continue to be available through affiliated bikes shops only, and from ourselves. Details of how to order are on pages 176-178. One change of plan: we previously stated that BCQ would continue to be part of Encycleopedia each year. This will no longer be the case. The 95/96 Ericycleopedia, and subsequent editions, will be self-contained, separate publications. If you are reading BCQ for the first time we hope it lives up to our claims, and that you will want to read further issues, and perhaps even catch up on the two back issues if you have not seen them yet. BCQ is intended to give you a good, lively read, but your support also increases BCQ's power and influence in the world. We go out of our way to make sure it is read by the world's decision makers in matters of cycling, transport and the environment. To be effective we rely on our readers to keep us in touch with events and news. That's why we've joined Internet. You can now contact BCQ editorial on: 'News@bikecult.demon.co.uk '.

Alan Davidson & Jim McGurn, Co-Publishers.

C 0 N T E N T $

NEWS 130

THE NEW PROTESTERS

Campaigners find new methods for stopping the road lobbv

BIKE GRUNGE

Entrepreneurs find money in junk 133

BIKE PATHS INTERNATIONAL QUARTFR!

THE BACK DOOR TO UTOPIA

Can pedal-powered activity parks bring cycling to the

A co-ordinated network spreads out from the Netherlands 157

cities? 134

READERS' REPORT

Your feedback on how your equipment has performed CARASTROPHE

158

New health concerns fuel the arguments against mass

motoring

LITERATURE

136

Cycling

extracts from two top novels 160

ART AT SPEED

David Eccles selects his favourite works of art on the theme of cycle racing

A dip into cycling magazines worldwide

137

161

NEWS-STAND

THE OUTSIDER

THE CLOWN WHO LIKES BIKES

We interview Mike Burrows: bike designer, media man, controversialist

Pierre Blanchard: the circus performer with novel ideas in cycling

140

162

STATESIDE

OPINION 164

Appropriate transport for the Big Apple 142

GLOVE AFFAIR IMAGES OF INDIA

A photographic essay by Sue Darlow

French roadman's lament for lost friends 165

144 PHELAN FREE BALANCING ACT

Richard Ballantine describes how the natural world cycles to perfection

Jacquie Phelan lets rip on the subject of women and cycling 166

148 THE CREATION OF THE SNARK READERS' LETTERS

A family quadricycle to replace the car

150

168

TRAVELLERS' TALES A

journey of discovery across Japan's northern island 152

THE BICYCLE AND THE RISE OF INDIVIDUALISM

Albert Herrestal describes how a new bike culture transformed society at the turn of the century 170

HUMAN-POWERED VEHICLES

news from around the world

TWO PLUS TWO

153

The trailer people 175

THE INVENTIONS OF DR POPP 154

BCQ SHOP

Posters, T-shirts, subscriptions etc 176

BIKE CULTURE QUARTERLY ISSUE THREE, AUGUST 1994. Publisher: Open Road Ltd. ISSN number 1352-4301. Address for all correspondence: 4, New Street, York. 101 2R. Tel -44(0)1904 65464. his -44 (0)1004 671707. EDITOR AND CO-PUBLISHER, Jim McGurn COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR AND CO-PUBLISHER: Alan Davidson DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Brian Holt ASSISTANT EDITOR; dgar Newton EDITORIAL SUPPORT: Amy Davidson COVER ARTIST AND CHIEF ILLUSTRATOR: David Eccles CORRESPONDENTS IN GERMANY: Gunnar Fehlau. Andreas Pooch CORRESPONDENT IN USA: I Ian Macdonald GERMAN TRANSLATOR: Dorothee Siebecke DTP PRODUCTION: Christopher Thomas FILM PRODUCTION: Acllington and Brough, 121, Duke Street, Sheffield, S2 SQL Tel. +44 (0)1132 7563311. PRINTER: Garnett Dickinson Print Ltd. Eastwood Works, Rotherham, S65 1JL. Tel -44 (0)1709 364721. All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic. nicehani. cal, photocopying. recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Copyright owners. Open Road ltd has made every effort to ensure that all material in Bike Culture is accurate and correct. However. we cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of actions based on the advice herein. The views of contributors are necessarily those of the publishers. \Ve welcome manuscripts, photographs and illustrations for publication, but can return them only on receipt of an SAE or equivalent international reply coupons. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please refer to page 178 for all subscription information and publication dates. INTERNET: News@bikecult.demon.co.uk .

N EWS

Giant strides imn wheel design

wheel to be used extensively in the Thur de France. Burrows remains cautious: "Early tests show that we're onto something, but we have a long way tc go. We have not yet decided on the best ingredients. Should ther€ he some carbon-fibre in there, and if so, how much? 110w many spokes should there be? The competition cyclist should be onto thu straight away, because it'll make him go faster". We carry an extensive interviev with Mike Burrows on pag€ 140/141 of this issue.0

MOSCOW CYCLE SHOW

Mike Burrows' new wheel, on the monocoque bike designed for Giant.

iant Industries of Taiwan are anticipating a break through in cycle wheel technology which could leave the conventional steel-spoked wheel for dead in cycle racing and fast touring. The new 'super-wheel', which is still undergoing development work, consists of twelve 12mm wide ovalised 'aerospokes' made of a reinforced plastic and glass fibre mixture. Remarkably, each spoke can be tensioned like a steel-spoked wheel, thanks to the particular properties of glass fibre when mixed with certain plastics. The new wheel has been conceived by Mike Burrows, Giant's maverick designer, engaged to think and work inventively in his workshop in Norwich, England. Burrow's relationship with Lotus Engineering, which resulted in the carbon-fibre monocoque 'Super-Bike' on which Chris Boardman took the gold in the

130 BIKE CULTURE

Barcelona Olympics, turned sour a year or so ago, leaving room for Giant to step in. The new wheel, which will be made in 700c size and to take an 8-speed block, was unveiled at the Shimano Design Competition, as part of the Burrows-designed bicycle entered by Giant. The spokes are made by extruding the plastic and glass-fibre mixture and then cuffing it into lengths of up to 10mm, which determines the length of the glass fibres. The whole is then melted and injected into a dye. During this process the glass fibres tend to remain on the outside of the mixture, and to flow in a constant pattern lengthwise through the dye, passing all the way through to the other end of it. This gives excellent unidirectional strength. The Burrows/Giant wheels give no great weight advantage, but has the same aerodynamic bene-

fits as tn-spokes and disks, but the same feel as conventionally spoked wheels. A few 'fat' oval spokes cut the air more cleanly than a large number of conventional round spokes, yet offer less surface area than tn-spoke wheels. Furthermore, Burrows claims exceptional strength for his wheels, although he points out that long-term fatigue tests have yet to be completed. The new wheels do not rust, and wheelbuilding and spoke replacement will become a simpler matter. Giant have developed specialised hubs to take the new spokes. The use of conventional deep rims is envisaged. Once development is complete, Giant intend to fit their new wheels to their top-end Cadex carbon-fibre framed bikes, and possibly market the wheel as a separate component. In the meantime they will be hoping for their

- n the days of Soviet Russia citl streets were dominated b3 public transport and utility vehi des in the service of the State Yet, hidden from the media 0: the world were millions of bicy des used in the countryside often carrying farm workers t and from the fields. The bicycli has not gone away. The Russiar Transport Ministry reports tha over 100 million bicycles are im daily use. Russia is now to have cycle show. Cycle Moscow take place from the 26th to 30th o October. It will display both bicy des and motor-bikes, and is par sponsored by the Russiat National Cycle Association Details from InterEXPO, 46 Firs Place, Ground Floor, New York NY 11231. Tel. +1 (0)71859627010

HARD WEARING SMALL TYRES. ew from Vredestein an some high-pressure 406-3' (20") versions of their Mont' Carlo tyres which are designe for recumbents and other cycle with small wheels. The Mont' Carlo tyre incorporates a layer o very hard puncture-resistan rubber. This maintains flexibilit while keeping down the rollin resistance - which is als' reduced by the use of seamles casing. •

N EWS

CycleFest success tage from the wind direction, and also because the sprint distance of 200 yards did not allow the recumbents much time to get up to speed. Once they were up to speed they were faster than the local clubmen, but it was usually too late. The race organisation was in the usual laid-back style of the British l{PV Club, and there were no injuries. Other events, at other sites, included a 'le Mans' start race for portable bikes, a cycling treasure hunt, and short talks by some names in

"1 kv

The Moulton race attracted a good field.

hey came from all over on their Moultons, Pedersens, high-wheelers, recumbents, portables, and heavens knows what else. CycleFest 94 took place in mid-July at St Martins College, Lancaster, England, and was a chance for cycle-lovers everywhere to ride, race or relax in good company

One of the highlights - . was the British HPV Club's sprint racing on Morecambe Promenade, watched by -- astonished multiPeter Taylor takes a ride at CycleFest on the biketudes who had wheelchair he has just developed. turned up for a stroll but were captivated by the the cycling world. cycling. The racing lads of the The whole event (other than the 1na1

T,iirip

(vt'1inr

(Itib

w'r

I-1PV rai'inj

r1ft1v nra,nieM

CYCLE HISTORY CONFERENCE Academics and non-academics alike will wheel it to Cambridge this September for the Fifth International Cycle History Conference. The organisers are hoping for contributions from all disciplines, covering a wide range of topics. These could include design, innovation and manufacture, collecting and studying old cycles, theories of technology and society, and individual and industrial biographies. The Conference takes place from the 2nd to the 4th September 1994, and a programme is available from David Patton, Chairman, F.I.C.H.C. Organising Committee, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN. Tel +44 (0)223 333399, Fax 223 333392.0

No STOPPING STRASBOURG CYCLISTS A report that 95% of Strasbourg cyclists ignore red lights has brought a delicately worded response from FUBicy, the French cycle rights group. According to Jean Gerber, VicePresident of FUBicy and a Strasbourg city councillor, "urban cycling is a way of life associated with the liberty of the Individual. We make sure that our journeys involve the shortest routes, without recognising certain institutionalised hindrances here and there, such as traffic lights and one-way streets; but we are neither immature nor irresponsi-

ble."I

way to winning the road race.

BIKE CULTURE 131

N EWS

WRONG WAY IS RIGHT IN VIENNA

he Viennese authorities have announced a large scale programme for allowing cyclists to go the 'wrong' way (]own oneway streets which are within the 30kph speed restriction limit. This initiative, which is closely based on the very successful scheme in Bremen, has two main advantages: the low speed limit provides safety, and the more direct routes make cycling an even more attractive alternative, since drivers heading for the same destinations have to go the long way round.0

KIWIS IN HELMETS

yclists in New Zealand are dismayed at a new law which makes helmet wear compulsory. Australian experience shows that such legislation decreases accident statistics largely because it diminishes the number of cyclists on the road, not because the remaining ones are wearing helmets. A community constable riding a mountain bike has being pursuing cyclists not wearing helmets in Palmerston North, and has given out scores of infringement tickets since the law came into force. This is reminiscent of the time in the 1890s when the City

of N York hired the speed star Mile-a-Minute-Murphy to chase errant scorchers amongst the cycling community. U

Yorkshire, BD8 9BY, England. Tel: +44 (0)274 499821. U

DIARY DATES WHITELEGG LAUNCHES WORLD TRANSPORT MAGAZINE

nvironmentalists in Britain have been delighted at the eloquence and effectiveness of transport expert John Whitelegg's analysis of the transport disaster facing the world. Now, in conjunction with the MCB University Press in England, he has launched the World Transport Policy and Practice Journal. Its main role will be to stimulate the rapid publication of new ideas, concepts, planning experience and policy successes from all parts of the world, thus speeding up the learning process and the transfer of successful ideas from one part of the world to another. The journal has a very clear mission with respect to transport and Third World countries. Issue One is launched with Volume 1, Number 1 in October and will be marketed in the direction of planners, decision-makers and activists around the world. For subscription details, contact MCB University Press Ltd, 60/62 ToIler Lane, Bradford, West

erman Pedersen fans are meeting for a sociable weekend in lNeumarkt, North Bavaria, 1st and 2nd October 1994. Tel. +49 (0)911 6427410. An international exhibition of cycles old and new continues at Schloss Schwarzenau, Lower Austria, until September 25th 1994. Tel. +43 (0)2849 2202. An exhibition on the history of the bicycle and the Tour de France continues at Dover Museum, England, till September 4th 1994. Tel. +44 (0)304 201066.

M5 ON THE LOOSE

eaders are requested to watch out for an MS recumbent not returned to Frank de Braak's recumbent hire bike service in Eindhoven. The thief, who subsequently stopped off at a cycle shop to have higher gearing fitted, has English as a native language, and is a knowledgeable and experienced cyclist. He comes across as a world-traveller and could be in any part of the world on the MS. When stolen, it had a red frame. Please contact this office if you have information. U

The man who forgot to book his bike on the train. Mile.a-MinuteMurphy earns his nicknmae

SINCLAIR CLAIMS SUCCESS

ur uncomplimentary comments last issue about the Zike electric bike has brought a rebuke from the inventor, Clive Sinclair. He says that with worldwide sales to date of 2000 units the Zike can indeed be regarded as a commercial success, and that technical refinements in the areas of battery and drive belt have helped to confirm this achievement. Heaviest sales are in Japan and Spain. U

132 BIKE CULTURE

CYCLEWEAR COMPETITION

The British cycling campaign group, Leicester Spokes, is planfling a competition for the design of cycle clothes. P0 Box 30, Leicester, LEI 9DG. TRAILER LEAVES THE SCENE

Wipo, manufacturers of cycle trailers in Germany, have announced that the current batch of Pick-ups and Radelboys will be the last they make. Trailer freaks are advised to strike fast. Contact Alfred Wilhelm, +49 (0)2241 805488. HOPE IS EVERYTHING

Velocite, the French cycle campaign magazine, reports that the city of Caen has joined the Club of Cities for Cyclists, despite the fact that the city brought in no cycle-related facilities whatsoever last year. It even managed, in the course of building work, to remove two out of seven sets of bike stands and replace them with car parking space. CANADIANS IMAGINE

Canadian activists have launched a new magazine of information and ideas. Imagine is dedicated to the vision of a world without cars. This exceptionally intelligent and well-produced publication has an international relevance. Subscription details from World without Cars, 7750 Matchette Road, LaSalle, (Windsor) Ontario N9J 2J4 Canada (Enclose an SAE or international reply coupon.)

OLD TYRES DISSOLVED The Nishikawa Rubber Company of Hiroshima has developed a method of dissolving worn tyres by heating shredded fragments to 400 degrees C at a pressure of more than 40 atmospheres in a solution of sodium hydroxide. This process goes further than any other in devulcanising the rubber and decomposing it into smaller organic molecules, so that it can be recycled into further products.

F E S T Y L E

Bike grunge breaks new ground BCQ charts the charismatic rise of the man behind the great grunge phenomenon in cycling. rnest Length's Velo Emporium of Upper Tooting, London, has become a common backdrop to fashion spreads in our glossier magazines. His distressed roadsters have propped up many a stick-like model in string vest and lumberjack boots, and his 'antiqued' post bikes have supported frail waifs in Russian army-surplus trenchcoats. The biggest seller this Spring has been the fashion industry's reinterpretation of the tan warehouse coat that has served Ernest as workday garb for the last fifty years. Perished prewar cycling capes are now sported over cycling shorts by fetishists in London's raunchier nightclubs. The highspot of the winter fashion season was the occasion, during Vivienne Westwood's latest show, when the only operative brake cable snapped on a Triumph Palm Beach pedalled by Naomi Campbell along the catwalk, propelling her into the arms of the photographer from American Vogue. The motordrive on his camera captured the stunning shot, which hit front pages around the world and should go some way to pay ing his hospital bills. And yet, to have described the Velo Emporium of just a year ago as a backwater would have been an h draulic exaggeration. A pensioner might wander in to buy a set of rod brake blocks and Ernest was occasionally asked to repair a puncture on the old Co-operative Society carrier bike which the neighbouring shopkeeper, Mr Patel, used to deliver his samosas. It was the old roadsters that kept the shop going, painstakingly reassembled from abandoned wrecks. It was Mr Patel's enterprising son, Kevin, who collected them to earn pocket money. These eroded steeds, disguised with several coats of thick black enamel paint, sold readily enough to impoverished students. It was the rack of near-wrecks outside his shop that was to make Ernest's reputation and his fortune. One day, a squeal of brakes announced the arrival of a Range Rover outside the shop. Out of it skipped several creatures who, had it not been for their extraordinarily long legs and sculptured cheek bones, might have been taken for the Tooting cadre of the Khymer Rouge. Ernest had last seen such kit 50 years ago, on the exhausted troops he had helped to capture at the end of the North Africa campaign. The sylphs gathered excitedly around the ancient bicycles outside the shop. "They're perfect, Toby!" they trilled, "Grunge in motion." Toby, who had emerged from the Range Rover, wore a fringed suede Western jacket, festooned with enough camera

The cycle parks of India - a source of splendidly worn-out roadsters, destined to attract top prices in the fashionable quarters of European capitals.

equipment to capture anything from a close up of stampeding elephants to the facial expression of a wood louse on Venus. He was close to desperation after searching all day for rugged urban settings for his photo-shoot of grunge fashion. On the Thames Embankment he had placed his models alongside some gentlemen of the bottle. This had not been a success. In fact the day had come close to ruin when two of the models had over-enthusiastically imbibed from a bottle of Thunderbird generously proffered by one of the derelicts. At the end of the day, faced with no results yet a bill of ÂŁ2000 in modelling fees, Toby had found the props he needed - he soon had the models whizzing up and down the road on Ernest's antique bicycles. The results were a fashion sensation, and Ernest's shop was soon thronged with Sloane Rangers eager for some ancient wheels. Such was the demand that Ernest had difficulty in finding enough wrecks to refurbish. The problem was solved when Kevin Pate! (International) paid some affable Dutch pot-heads to regularly trawl the canals of Amsterdam. The Dutch steeds were even more rusted than anything hauled from the skips of Tooting, and their foreign lines made them particularly covetable. Kevin Patel also imported several hundred traditional roadsters from India which are now marinating in the mud of the Thames Estuary. He predicts that six months' immersion, together with a vigorous whipping with a bicycle chain, should distress them nicely and secure future supplies. Many important decisions lie ahead. How mildewed, for example, should the saddles be, and should the silt be left in the bottom bracket? Should handlegrips be perished rubber or several layers of electrical tape? Mr Patel would be pleased to receive our readers' opinions. Edgar Newton

BIKE CULTURE 133

FUTURES

The back door to Utopia Jim McGurn, makes some radical proposals for the future of cycling.

n the late 1890s the state of Prussia turned the might of its police force against a new threat to civil order: the cyclist. Officers of the law lay in wait in ditches, ready to leap out and apprehend any miscreants without a bell, or a licence, or a firm grip on the handlebars. The bicycle clearly offered Prussian citizens an alarming opportunity to slip free of state control while they communed with nature and pointed their front wheel wherever they chose to. Powerful, manipulative governments have always taken a strong interest in how, people move about. Motorised journeys today are an opportunity for consumption, profit, tax revenue and 'job creation'. They give a spurious sense of progress. This is why the government of Indonesia ordered 10,000 Bekak

The Bois de Roulogne. Paris, during the 1890's cycling boom. Leafy lanes, cafĂŠs. care-free cycling. A modern cycle activity park could bring back many of these pleasures, with more on top.

134 BIKE CULTURE

taxi-tricycles to be thrown into the sea. The more a state feels a need to control and direct its citizens towards pointless economic goals, the less it will want to encourage cycling. The more a state encourages 'growth' through mass consumption, the less it cares about people who are content to pedal themselves about in harmony with nature. The more a state proclaims with hollow voice the virtues of freedom, independence and self-sufficiency, the less it cares about those of its citizens who dare to practise these very virtues by cycling. More mature and relaxed democracies such as Denmark and the Netherlands are, of course, exceptions. During the sixties most politicians in western democracies had little to worry about. Cycling was off the agenda, and, with any luck, would disappear entirely. Now that cycling has returned, this time bearing powerful messages about health, equality and the environment, the politicians are nervous. My guess is that over the next twenty years they will fail miserably to curtail motor traffic, but will feel obliged to bring in substantial cycling facilities at the same time. There is, in this respect, a great responsibility on Germany. The country which, in some respects, has yet to come to terms with its history is now in a unique position to radically improve all our futures. Germany is the only large, influential, car-based industrial nation with a significant proportion of its populace preparing for change, and with parts of its industrial base capable of smelling what's in the wind. If Germany can turn the corner other countries will follow, and new green transport technology from Germany will be sold throughout the world with a message of hope. The renaissance in imaginative, purposeful bicycle technology in Germany, so evident in the publication you are reading, is an important part of the. picture. We have more readers in German-speaking countries than in Britain, which is why we produce full German translations of Encycleopedia and Bike Culture Quarterly. The arguments for the wider economic benefits of cycling have long been won. The problem is that governments don't dare operate according to full-cost economics. The British government, for example, would not dream of associating the cost of the Gulf War with the per-mile cost of motor transport. The Greek government would similarly ignore the cost of remedial work on the traffic-polluted antiquities of Athens, and the cost to the country of Athenians' unhealth. The boom in organised and unorganised leisure cycling offers real opportunities for the eventual conversion of cities to

FUTURES

A pedal powered activity centre might be based on a simple track such as this one, built in Munich around the turn of century.

cycling. \lready visible are the beginnings of real cycle path networks in many parts of Europe. These need to be pushed through, and linked together. At the same time, it is not too much to ask that whole country roads be virtually closed off to motor traffic, or traffic-calmed in their entirety. Then whole rural areas - perhaps existing National Parks and other popular tourist areas - might be designated cycle-friendly: peppered with cycle hire and repair facilities, traversed by bicycle-priority roads, and served by cycling maps and guides. Cycling would become an essential and enhancing part of the tourist infrastructure for these regions. Then, moving the solutions closer to the cities, there might be a series of pedal-powered activity parks just outside of major conurbations. These would be commercial enterprises, perhaps sited at existing visitor attractions. They would offer something which many would-be cyclists yearn for: a safe, controlled, supportive environment for exploring all the possibilities within cycling. Leafy lanes for cruising round on roadsters, off-road tracks for mountain-biking, a smooth track for trying out some speed cycling, safe arenas for young children to belt round on tricycles. Every kind of cycle would be there to be tried out: from unicycles to multicycles, from fast recumbents to transporter trikes, from Dutch roadsters to monorail cycles. Throw in a small cycle museum, an interactive cycle technology exhibition and a cafe: to give a lowinvestment leisure centre exactly in line with all the predictions made about future tourism and leisure patterns. There are already signs that the international cycle industry is looking for new ways to expand their market by encouraging cycling per se. They can't sell many more bikes or parts of bikes till people want to cycle more. And new cyclists will come along in greater numbers if extensive cycle leisure facilities are in place. It is quite possible that the cycle industry

will get together with leisure developers. Walt Disney's kind of theme park industry needs to be kept well clear of all this. Disney uses history to create a superficial nostalgia, an escape scenario for those who cannot cope with the realities of life. The approach has been analysed by Professor M. Christine Boyer, of Princetown University, in Variations on a Theme Park. She argues that such parks are 'self-conscious attempts to regain a centred world, to re-establish a mythical base on which American moral, political and social traditions might stand". A "themed" activity park based on pedal-power would not be an escape from the world outside, but a means of changing the world outside for the better. At the same time it would be much more fun than holding conversations with sickeningly jolly people in Mickey Mouse masks. Even if the dreaded Disney can be kept at bay, it will still not be easy to avoid pedal parks functioning simply as releasevalves: as self-contained alternatives to cycling in the cities. They need to be well hooked-up to urban areas via cycle paths. The adjoining cities need to develop, in parallel, their cycling facilities. Otherwise the pleasure and enthusiasm of visitors to the pedal parks, and their new appreciation of the potential and diversity of cycling, will not pass over into daily life.

The faster you pedal the more lights you illuminate. One of the many ideas, involving activity and learning, which could be used in a pedal-powered theme park.

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E N V I R 0 N M E N I

Carastrophe

Dr Taunus Kemasang was born in Indonesia, whose government has shown an almost pathological hatred of cycling. He left Indonesia for political reasons, and now works as an historian and freelance journalist in London. Here he highlights some often unrecognised cosequences of mass motorisation.

liroughout the world, the car kills on average 250,000 people and injures many more each year. It would not be texcessive to equate the car with the plague. Indeed, in many ways the harm it causes is probably far worse than the most devastating plague ever to have befallen mankind. The average car weighs about a ton and the manufacture and main tainance of such a monstrosity demands large amounts of our earth's irreplaceable resources. For example, some 250 million tyres are discarded each year throughout the European Union, and their manufacture requires some 370 million gallons of crude oil. Car production and use requires a worldwide network of oilfields, sea-going tankers, refineries and garages, inevitably spilling hazardous matter into air, land and water. Tyre wear scatters myriads of diverse hazardous microscopic detritus including the heavy metal zinc. Discarded in dumps, tyres can leech various contaminants into the soil and water supplies. Tyre dumps occasionally catch fire, and one dump in Wales is still burning after eight years. Friends of the Earth estimate that each motorway mile takes up 25 acres of land. It has been calculated elsewhere that each mile of trunk road requires 120,000 tons of primary aggregate, whose quarrying disfigures the countryside. Covered in tarmac and cement, roads and car-related built UI) areas are far more lifeless than areas of deforestation. So it is hypocritical of 136 BIKE CULTURE

motorists to blame Third World people for chopping dov trees: which end up, after all, as products we consume. Lii charity, ecology begins at home. The demands of the car are certainly felt at home. The OWfl( mortgages a good part of his life to acquire a car, and gets I exchange a machine that's much too powerful ever to be USC to its real capacity anywhere beyond the realms of fantas Having tied up his capital on a pile of inexorably corrodin fantasy machine, he cannot travel in major cities any faste than a horse-drawn coach a century ago. Worse still, the car literally poisons its driver. A 1992 Eart Research Report for Greenpeace UK found that pollution leve. inside ears are up to 18 times worse than those in the air ou side; drivers can be exposed to even higher levels of toxic p01 lutants (hydro-carbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxid etc) than cyclists and pedestrians. This is because a car create a slipstream. It sucks into itself the ambient air, including th tyre detritus mentioned above as well as the pollutants fror the exhaust pipe. These pollutants are especially dangerous t pregnant women, the young and the old. More experts ar coming round to agreeing that car pollution causes divers long-term carcinogenic effects and respiratory problem including asthma in Europe's children and old people. The environment is inexorably degraded as manufacturer and vendors flog ever more cars to maintain profit. Thre' years ago the Confederation of British Industry estimated tha the traffic jams alone cost some ÂŁ15,000,000,000 direct annua loss to the UK's economy. It is no longer enough to have on car for all the family. Now each adult member of a famil: wants to have his or her own car, in keeping with the con sumer society's credo of expressing "individuality" througi owning personal TV sets, personal radios, personal telephone and the like. This is one reason why today's families are break ing up. Broken into individual units, a family provides mo consumers to target. Parents surrender even more of their freedom to the money. lenders and product-pushers. They also surrender their own health and that of their children and generations to come.

ART

Racing Pictures Our cover-artist David Eccles describes some of his favourite works of art which take cycle sport as their subject. Nos Cycistes (artist unknown)

Time-Trialist, by Frank Patterson.

Looking like a French milliner's fashion-plate of about 1890, this picture of a ladies' Ordinary race is probably pure fancy or wishful thinking, given its overtly risque nature. The image is overlaid with the aura of fashionable horse-racing, with its elegant Longchamps grandstand, notice-boards for the betting odds, and the riders' jockey-caps-cum-bonnets. The winner's immodest posture as she flings a well-developed leg over the bars to slow down her machine was calculated to titillate and shock: made clear by the reaction of the top-hatted spectator with his binoculars and the more genteel lady behind who appears to be fainting away in horror.

This is one of Pat's simpler sketches which, with his masterly control of line and tone, vividly evokes the excitement of riding against the clock, as practised in Britain. The rider, clad in traditional black alpaca and with spare tyre round his shoulders, is possibly doing a '100', or a 12-hour, or even attempting one of the distance records - hence the need for the feeding bottle. The helper's baggy plusses (note the 'shake' in the outline) and his patterned stockings suggest that the illustration is of the 1930s. The violent perspective of the country lane is emphasised by the receding telegraph poles.

BIKE CULTURE 137

ART

Champions. Anthony Green Green's unusually-shaped paintings invariably exude a hint of self-mocking fetishism. In the triangular self-portrait, which is one of a set of five, is Green suggesting no more than the simple fantasy of being the hero of the Skol Six-Day track meeting? The glamour of the track-man's uniform with its zips and straps and buttons is one thing, but what of that sprint wheel, snug in its cover with the drawstring like the ribbon on a negligĂŠ, and being caressed by track-mitted fingers? Enough! The real interest here is the curve of the track contrasted against the triangle of the frame, which brilliantly accentuates that heart-stopping, vertiginous plunge off the banking behind the motor pacer. Anthony Green remarks of this, "It's paced by those wonderful old Belgian expros with knobbly legs and loud motors". The circular image, entitled The Skol Six-Day, contains similar themes. Anthony Green explains that "my French side gets the gladioli - my British side gets the girl!' The girl in question happens to be Mrs Green. Copyright Anthony Green, c/o Piccadilly Gallery, London, Wi 1PF

Facing page

Les Routiers. William Roberts, c.1930 Impending pile-up or happy chaos? Roberts delights in the sunny colours of the riders (three maillots jaunes?) and the lively patterns created by their cycles, especially the curly drops which wriggle about like snakes. We can also admire those impossibly narrow rear dropouts. Of course, there won't be a crash, all the ingredients of the composition are poised in a moment of perfect equilibrium and look as though they have been happily immortailsed in plasticine. Ulster Museum, N Ireland

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ART

BIKE CULTURE 139

INT ER VIEW

The Outsider Mike Burrows achieved public recognition after designing the Olympics Superbike. Cyclists had been aware of his inventiveness for many years before that. He now works on contract to Giant in Taiwan, but continues to live in England. BCQ talked to him about his feelings and his future. BCQ:\\hat first attracted you to cycling? My motor car had died on me. I had to get to work somehow and started using my wife's bike. I had always had an engineering interest in bicycles. Eventually I bought myself a half decent Raleigh bicycle and got really fired up. I then moved on to building my first bike and that was it: I was totally hooked. 1 built my first bicycle in 1976, a touring bike with 551 tubing. A friend took me along to a 10-mile time trial. I took the mudguards and carrier off, entered, and was hooked again. I've never been a physical person; never raced or run, and was horrible at games at school. Yet I enjoyed time trialing and was determined to build a better bike. I built my first racing bike by copying a friend's machine. This eventually led me into commercial bike building. I began to build a few each year to sell to a local bike shop. Around this time, the HPV movement was gathering momentum and I went to Brighton in 1980 to see what was going on. It looked amazing fun. A group of us started to develop HPVs. One worked in a bike shop, another in the local mental hospital, which offered us space to build HPVs, and I had a machine-shop. Which all set me off along the parallel track of HPV building. I diversified into a whole series of unusual bikes, built as much for their own sakes as for any practical application, and culminating in the carbon fibre models. Whilst the two strands of cycle racing and HPV building were separate, it was mostly the HPV construction which made me apply basic principles to my designs and consider new materials which were to change my perception of the bicycle. BCQ: Do you see a dividing line between your work and your leisure interests? BURROWS:I have the day work which is, for the most part, making packaging machinery, and I have leisure work, which can also earn income through making batches of bicycles, but which usually consists of making bicycles for myself. I can work on the packaging machinery during the day, then at 5 o'clock I'll stop and start working on bike projects for an hour or two. This becomes almost as a way of relaxing. Then I have BURROWS:

140 BIKE CULTURE

Bike testing near his home in Norwich

a completely separate leisure pursuit in birdwatching, which helps me relax entirely. BCQ: What has been your greatest disappointment? BURROWS: This has mostly to do with the lack of recognition. I'm a terrible one for needing a pat on the back. I'll come up with new bicycles, whole series of new ideas, of which the monocoque is the latest. And outside the HPV world, where I get more than enough recognition, I get blank, even scornful looks when I try to prove my bikes. Some people try to deride the bikes, and even today there are people who claim that my Olympic bike had nothing to do with Chris Boardman's victory at all. This is matched by indifference at an official level: for example I haven't heard a word from the British Cycling Federation since the Olympics. But by and large the lack of

INTERVIEW

enthusiasm is not a major element in my life, I bounce back with something else. I can always drop high profile cycling projects for a while and go back to the HPV scene, which is a lot of fun with a nice bunch of people. BCQ: I low important to you is competitive cycling? BURROWS: I look on cycle racing simply as a physical experience simply involving me against the clock. I don't know why I like it, because I don't particularly like hurting myself. I find it a relaxation and a driving force to make me come up with better, faster bikes. I cannot isolate racing from my love of bike technology. Some of the local racing clubs bring in youngsters and introduce the bicycle as something to race on and nothing more. The racing bike is part of a complete spectrum of cycle use. 1 would suggest that you are not getting the most from cycling if you don't race sometimes. BCQ: How do you see the future of HPVs? BURROWS: I don't see them as replacing bicycles but as becoming an important minority sector, probably larger than tandem ownership. I think that recumbents may well make up 10% of the European bike market. BCQ: How did you react to the criticism by Graeme Obree on the subject of your part in his earlier hour record attempt? BURROWS: Graeme Obree is an excellent cyclist: the fastest around, and very competent technically. However, I thought his words were rash. lie said that I had criticised his 'Old Faithful' bike. I have no recollection of this. In fact, all I did was fit the bike with one of my 'Monoblades' instead of conventional forks. Graeme then asked me to make a replica of his bike (less the Hotpoint components). I built it exactly to his specification and sketches. Certainly, I made changes to the riding position and gearing, which are very personal things, but these were exactly as he requested. BCQ: You have just signed a contract as consultant designer for Giant in Taiwan. What sort of working relationship will von have with Giant? BURROWS: I don't honestly know. Giant haven't previously employed anyone in this capacity and I haven't worked for anybody for fifteen years, let alone the world's biggest bike manufacturer. What I'm hoping is that I can do some of the more exotic stuff I'm known for: the moulded bicycles, the

Burrows going for speed on the bike which would be sold to Lotus.

racing bikes and SO on, and put the same know-how and technology into 'shopping bikes'. There is no reason why we shouldn't redesign shoppers as well as racers, giving cycling an upmarket image. They've asked me to work on every bicycle they have if I think I can have an input. The nice thing is that, although I'm working for a big company, I'm doing so at a distance, which removes the constraints which close association might bring. If I have an idea I can drop whatever I'm working on to pursue it immediately, without having to ask permission. This will allow me to be innovative within commercial constraints. I hope that this will work for both parties. BCQ: How did you make the connection with Taiwan? BURROWS: Taiwan came to me, I didn't rush off taking Britain's secrets with me. Nobody in this country or in Europe has ever shown an active interest in anything I have ever done. I've shown my bikes at shows, they've been featured in bicycle magazines. It's been public knowledge that I can do more than just monocoque racing bikes or recumbents. For example, I've done the Amsterdam (shopper). I'm full of ideas that nobody has grabbed. The Amsterdam: an experimental design for a round-town bike

Left: Burrows Speedy (alias Windcheetah), here in its racing guise

141

STATESIDE

Appropriate transport for the Big Apple he late Frank Lloyd Wright, widely considered the greatest American architect of the twentieth century, called New York City, "a big pile. A fibrous tumour. A place fit for banking and prostitution and not much else." He went on to ask, rhetorically: "Is this city not anti-Christ?" As a lifelong resident of New York, I object to these characterisations, although - I admit - not strenuously. New York has always provoked extreme reactions from its inhabitants and visitors and I, too, must admit to a certain schizophrenia about the place. Especially when it comes to bicycling. Topographically, New York City is a cyclist's dream. It is relatively compact and flat, with most corners of the city easily reachable on two wheels. As for sightseeing, New York is unmatched anywhere by its population's ethnic and cultural diversity, all competing with the usual urban hazards for a cyclist's attention. As former Mayor Ed Koch liked to point out, New York has more Jews than Jerusalem, more Puerto Ricans than San Juan and more Haitians than Port au Prince. Of course, New York also poses challenges to those of us brave enough to cycle in it. With hundreds of thousands of motor vehicles clogging its streets daily, New York is more congested than an elephant with hay fever. Add to that a giant government bureaucracy - sometimes indifferent, sometimes suffocating - and a generally apathetic citizenry. New York has one of the highest pollution levels in the country and it's no wonder that Bicycling magazine consistently rates New York as one of the most bicycle "unfriendly" cities in America. It is in this heady urban environment that a group of dedi-

142 BIKE CULTURE

cated bicycle transportation advocates are working to create a human-power oasis in Lower Manhattan. Led by George Bliss, an industrial designer and builder of human-powered utility vehicles and an advocate of the economic development potential of HPVs in urban communities, the Center for Appropriate Transport, or NYC-CAT, is struggling to open in lower Manhattan. The CAT concept is the brainchild of Bliss and fellow HPV designer and builder Jan VanderTuin. Bliss and VanderTuin studied workbikes and projects like CAT during their travels throughout northern Europe and Scandinavia. In Europe they came to recognise the potential of workbikes, whereas in America motorised vehicles are used for practically everything. Even in a flat and dense urban environment with extensive mass transit like New York, bicycles are largely perceived as the transportation of last resort: autos, trucks and buses continue to clog the streets. To help alleviate this problem, Bliss and VanderTuin envisioned creating an alternative transport center in the heart of America's most populated city, to provide local residents and businesses with minimally-polluting, human and electric-powered vehicles for most daily needs. At this future CAT "Ped Station," members would park or store their own ecologically friendly vehicles, and have access to other vehicles leased out by the Center. In addition, CAT would provide resources, services and facilities for cyclists, wheelchair users, pedestrians, mass transit riders and all others utilising transportation appropriate to the urban environ-

STATESIDE

ment. This would include a wheelchair and vehicle repair collective, facilities for the design, development and manufacture of alternative vehicles and a resource library and Transportation Information Center. The CAT would also incubate several bicycle-based businesses such as a delivery service, and a vehicle production facility that would produce self-propelled food-carts and other workbikes to be sold or rented to members. VanderTuin fled New York four years ago, moving westward to Oregon where he opened a CAT in Eugene in 1992. Bliss remained in New York and continued to work with the bicy cling community and local businesses in an effort to establish an East Coast counterpart. Buoyed by VanderTuin's early success in Oregon, Bliss founded NYC-CAT in mid-1993 as a formal non-profit organisation with a board of directors and temporary office space. The biggest obstacle remains procuring a base, despite the vast numbers of unused properties in Lower Manhattan. NYC-CAT had been negotiating with the Cooper Union University in New York to lease, ironically, a former gasoline station they own in Lower Manhattan. Unfortunately, the University chose to abandon its stated mission of "mobilising technology and artistry in the service of city life" and instead leased this property to a local restaurateur and night club owner. NYC-CAT is not idle, however. Pedal Express (PedEx), a delivery service sponsored by CAT, is currently making hundreds of deliveries a month using vehicles developed by Bliss and his company, Human Power Research. Pedicabs of New York (PoNY), a community-based environmental transportation service, will soon begin operating in Manhattan communities under-served by conventional public transit. With a fleet of twenty brightly coloured "pedicabs" (giant tricycles capable of transporting two passengers and the driver), PoNY operates as a workers' cooperative with members contributing both monThis dumper-trike, designed by George Bliss, is a regular visitor to New York's waste recycling centres.

etary investment and sweat equity, and participating equally in all business decisions. At the time of going to press, PoNY was searching for an insurance underwriter so that it could begin operations. Eventually, Bliss and VanderThin would like to see a network of CATs open in cities across America, helping to develop local economies while providing residents with non-polluting alternatives to the ubiquitous motor vehicle. Dylan MacDonald George Bliss, Human Power Research, 2nd Floor, 38 East 4th Street, New York, NY 1003, USA. Tel: +1(0)2122266227. BICYCLE BLUEPRINT The difficult conditions faced by any innovative cycling project in New York are recognised by the campaigning group Transportation Alternatives who recently produced the Bicycle Blueprint, a magnificent plan to bring bicycling into the mainstream of the city. The authors ruefully remark that "everything seems to conspire against the cyclist. The pavement is torn and filled with glass, the bridges are crumbling and often off-limits, the air is polluted. The streets are choked with cars and pedestrians and motorists are inattentive at best and frequently hostile." Yet Chip Brown, a contributor to the Blueprint, still waxes lyrical: "You ride a corridor of scents and odours - Central Park's wet earth and oxygen, the treacly stench of garbage in Szechuan Valley, the atmosphere of fast food and fumes on 125th Street. Every corner brings a whiff of city life - exhaust, bacon, urine, pizza, new concrete, wet scaffolding, cut flowers, Calvin Klein's Obsession. Every steel plate on the street grows slick as ice in rain. Fifth Avenue feels like velvet compared to Eighth. The light changes. It's close to nine, a summer Sunday night: you're rolling east to west, down a blazing canyon: a bunkered horse, aimed at the sun?' Transportation Alternatives firmly support an extensive onStreet bike lane network as essential if cycling is to become part of the mainstream and help to avoid traffic chaos: "Bicycle lanes can work if they are designed and implemented unapologetically as a means to wean people from driving into bicycling ... Even minimal improvement and additions to existing bike lane networks would deliver a strong message that the city's transportation and environmental priorities are changing and that priorities are shifting from 'keeping the cars happy". New York is a city defined by water rivers, creeks, narrows, a harbour and a sound. So Transportation Alternatives stress the importance of guaranteed, safe, continuous bicyclist and pedestrian access to all bridges. The authors remark that cycling facilities are easy and cheap enough to implement, if only there exists the political will make things happen. Bicycle Blueprint 160(A4) pages, available for $15 (post paid) from Transport Alternatives, 92 Marks Place, New York, NY 10009. Tel: +1(0)2124754600.

BIKE CULTURE 143

PHOTOALBUM

Images of India Sue Darlow is a professional photographer specialising in cycling. Having an Indian mother, she was eager to discover India and meet relatives. She took her camera along, to catch on film the mighty role of the bicycle in that country.

A disabled resident of Delhi, Whose tricycle is his only home.

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P H 0 T 0 A L B U M

A man reclaims his rickshaw from the rickshaw pound.

Taking the school bus. Sometimes six children might be seen carried on a standard bicycle: three behind the rider and three in front.

ir ;iUhil

BIKE CULTURE 145

PHOTO ALBUM

Fifty empty cooking oil tins ready for the road.

-!- V -

Selling vegetables in a middle class suburb of Dehli.

146 BIKE CULTURE

P H 0 T 0 A I B U

Passenger services on a typical roadster.

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JAEAD

Early morning milk delivery.

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Roadside cycle repairs are a ubiquitous alternative to the cycle repair shop.

BIKE CULTURE 147

RICHARD

Balancing act Do we shape history or does history shape us? Can we understand the forces that govern this world and use them to shape the future for homo-sapiens?

Charles Kelly, co-inventor with Gary Fisher of the mountain bike, sometimes wonders if he and Gary just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Charles and Gary were vanguard members of a small group of California cyclists who in the late 1970s developed a passion for off-road riding and racing. The story is well known: at first they rode heavy, balloon-tyre 'paperboy' bikes, modified and strengthened to withstand the stresses of charging along rock-strewn trails. These clunkers, as the bikes were known locally, swiftly evolved into a fresh breed of purposedesigned bikes fitted with adapted lightweight components. It is unlikely that these mountain bike pioneers foresaw that their tinkering for fun would

become the wellspring for the most significant development in cycling in this century. Still, Charles and Gary should take a deep bow, and deserve a suitable statue in their honour on Mt.Tam, birthplace of the mountain bike. Although certain historic elements such as the availability of lightweight components worked in their favour, the rapid worldwide success of the mountain bike was far from an accident of fate. When Charles and Gary first demonstrated their new creation to a wider public at the New York bicycle show, the major American and European manufacturers responded with derision. They could not see how a machine that completely confounded the tradition of lightweight, narrow-tyre road bikes could possibly become popular and thus be a means to make money. If Charles and Gary had quit in the face of this rejection, then the cycling scene today might have been very different. History makes us, but we also make history. Charles and Gary knew from practical experience that mountain bikes were tremendous fun, and also very useful as all round transport. They car-

Richard Ballantine sees connections between how we ridea bike and how Nature keeps balance.

148 BIKE CULTURE

ried on, and quickly found a more perceptive audience: Japanese manufactur ers. The Japanese understood that to open up new markets, you had to have a new product. The new machine was not just a marketing gimmick. It worked. The Japanese swarmed over the bike with tape measures, ferried Gary and Charles over to Japan for talks, and soon had clones in mass production. The rest is indeed history. The mountain bike came into being and then flourished precisely because its roots were small, diverse, and above all, authentic. The story illustrates, at least to some extent, a fundamental change in the way the world works. Economic forces used to be the primary influence in how our lives were organised. Today, environmental ideas and forces are rising to the fore. Please bear with me while I try to explain. Mass, or sheer physical presence, is fundamental. In the case of biological organisms, when other things are equal, bigger and stronger organisms dominate over smaller and weaker organisms. In life, however, other things are not equal; circumstances change, and the organ-

RICHARD

isms that survive do so by adapting to new demands. Biological adaptation is a function of genetic diversity; the greater the range of characteristics in a species gene pool, the greater the survival ability of the species. Included in the spectrum of genetically coded adaptive abilities is the quality known as intelligence. Intelligence is defined many ways, but in the case of homo sapiens one classic definition is pragmatic: humans have the ability to control their environment. Because of their brains, it is said, humans are able to devise ways to harness physical forces to create food and shelter and otherwise adjust circumstances to suit their convenience. Homo sapiens' technological capability is of course two-edged: it can be used to provide energy, light and the making of wonderful things, and it can be used to blow up the world in a blink. We live with that dichotomy because we have to. Construction and destruction are two sides of the same coin. But controlling our environment through technological means has now run foul of the most fundamental of all the forces necessary for our existence - the functioning of the ecosystem that is planet Earth. Scratch any environmental problem and you will find that the cause is money. Human society - and technological capacity - operates within an economic framework. So for example, it costs more money to dispose of garbage and waste in an environmentally sound way than to tip it into the ocean. And it costs even more in the first place to produce environmentally sound goods that will not become harmful waste. Dumping waste into the ocean as an economic expedient seemed fine so long as the ocean appeared capable of tolerating an infinite amount of pollution. But the great size of the ocean, which covers over 70 per cent of Earth's surface and constitutes 95 per cent of the biosphere, or space in which living things dwell, is misleading. The ocean is comprised of an intricate web of intermeshed ecosystems. A small change in one ecosystem can, through a domino effect, lead to widespread major change. Thus, a toxic substance released in quantities too small to be otherwise significant can strongly effect reproduc-

BALLANTINE

tion of a species. Because life in the ocean is inter-dependent, many other species and ecosystems may also be effected. The ocean is fundamental to life on Earth. It maintains the atmosphere and climate of the planet, and even slight changes in the functioning of the ocean can have a major effect on the complete ecosystem of Earth. We also have to contend with resource depletion. Fish are the leading source of animal protein for humans, particularly in Africa and the Eastern world. Pollution, especially in coastal areas that are breeding and nursery grounds for much of ocean life, and overfishing, has decreased the potential yield of this food source by 20 per cent. The idea of allowing the ocean to recover naturally by curbing pollution and setting fish catch quotas is a case of too little too late. Once an ecosystem has been seriously upset it does not necessarily go back together the same way. and like the ocean, planet Earth is an ecosystem comprised of many ecosystems that interact, balance, blend and constantly change; it is enormously more complex and sensitive than we ever imagined. We exercise technological control of our environment at our peril. Why didn't we know all this before? Communications. We did not have enough information to know what was happening. Understanding complex ecosystems requires levels of data processing speed and comprehension that we are only beginning to possess. The major impact of homo sapiens on our world is extremely recent. Industrial technology dates from the 1800s, and our ability to really hammer at the planet only began in this century. In the span of the history of Earth, that is like a fraction of a second out of a day. It is too soon to be completely sure of what is happening. For precisely this reason, advanced environmental thinking leans towards a policy of minimum intervention. If a form of unnatural environmental control holds unknown consequences, do not use it, because the effects may be irreversible. At this point, if I am talking with some-

one, I like to say, "You know, an ecosystem is just like a bicycle," and then wait for the moment when the other person's eyes show the amused thought, Ballantine, this time you've gone too far, before continuing: "A bicycle is always out of balance, you see, going into balance ... and ecosystems are exactly the same. They are dynamic, always changing, always balancing". Describing how a bicycle rider remains upright in terms of physics is theoretically possible, but is so complex as to be impractical. There are so many continuously changing variables. But the fantastic thing is, just about anyone can learn how to ride a bicycle without even thinking about it. And the central gov erning principle is simple: nothing in excess. The less energy expended in balancing a bike, the better. Planet Earth is the same. The central ideas of the previous century, and for most of this century, were economic. Prosperity and growth. Capital and production. White collar, blue collar. Workers of the world unite! Economic ideas were perhaps fine for building factories and using up resources in a hurry. But we have to pay the piper sometime. In the long run, operating by economic rules is too short-sighted and inefficient. What's needed for harmony with natural forces is a soft, delicate touch that balances with the minimum expenditure of energy. Nature abhors waste. Species and ecosystems that function with maximum efficiency survive those that are less efficient. It's a simple matter of optimum use of resources. Humans possess the saving grace of communications and learning. Our ability to obtain, process, and assimilate ideas and information has increased over time, and with any luck, will continue to do so. We are beginning to understand a little bit about our world. And as we move into the next century, economic ideas as a framework for our lives will be replaced by environmental and ecological ideas. We will not be reaching for big technological sticks with which to beat our environment into convenient shape, but rather, looking for ways to move with our world as gracefully and efficiently as possible. Quite like riding a bicycle. BIKE CULTURE 149

LETTERS

In aid of nothing

Why does a section of the British public need to dress up in ridiculous ways in order to feel coinfortable about being seen on a bicycle? 1 am talking about the people who dress in 'amusing' ways on sponsored rides. You can bet that these are people who wouldn't normally be seen dead on a hike (luring the year, but will turn up for a laugh on a sponsored ride. The image this gives does no good to cycling as a whole, and I, for one, keep well clear of this kind of event. The behaviour tends to be too manic for me to be convinced that these people are genuinely having fun. Call me a boring old puritan if you like, but I can tell you that I've had many a wild time riding my bike. If people want to do something remarkable for the charity of their choice they might consider an event which taxes their powers of ingenuity rather than their ability to cross-dress and ride a rusty 01(1 Raleigh borrowed from their neighbour's shed for the day. The scouting movement has, I believe, a long tradition of cartriding, in which each troop designs and makes an imaginaFamilydress in mass-events. Why do people find it necessary?

150 BIKE CULTURE

tive pedal-powered cart, raced against other vehicles of the same general genre. Or there is the phenomenon of the kinetic sculpture race in California, where participants design and make vehicles for travelling across a course consisting of sand, mud and water .They don't go far, but they go in style, giving spectators more to see - and for which many would be willing to pay. It's time we in Britain had some new ideas on raising money for charity. I have not noticed any great love of such cross-dressing antics etc in mass rides abroad. Anton Schwarz, London, England In the Beginning...

hi the beginning was the bicycle. Then some bicycle makers started to make cars and car makers borrowed ideas from the bicycle makers. Now it seems the circle is turning and the bicycle makers are borrowing ideas from the car makers. (eg. The Welsh Tricycle with Ackermann steering in Bike Culture 2). Unfortunately it seems that another car trait is creeping into the scene, namely the concept

vehicle a la Double Orange bicycle by Batavus (Bike Culture 2). The concept vehicle is rarely produced as a commercial product, which is unfortunate because there musy be plenty of possible buyers just waiting for such a vehicle. In the case of the Double Orange I for one have been waiting for such a bicycle. Now why, if so much effort and expertise has gone into designing such a bike, is it not to go into production? Can it be that, as with the car makers, it would mean loss of possible future sales because they want to gradually change current design year-by-year until they eventually get to the concept design? Do we have to have this evolutionary chain? On the subject of four wheels, has anyone tried putting the front (Welsh tricycle) two-wheel steering conversion onto a conventional trike with two rear wheels? It would be interesting to know how such a vehicle performs and what problems may ensue. Pete Harvey, Abbots Langley, England All locked-up

I have just come across Issue One of BCQ, and read your piece on manufacturers and cycle security. I agree that a locking device inside the frame would be very useful - but this would not enable the owner to fix the bike to an immovable object. Other readers may be able to think up ingenious ways of making part of the frame detach and fit round a lamp-post. However, if a bike has been immobilised simply by internal locking, then (if the lock is uncrackable) no thief will want to take a machine which had a 'frozen' headset and bottom-bracket. Perhaps the manufacturer who steals a march on all the others will be the one who devises a system of miniature key locks for the frame, wheels, saddle, saddle post and stem. A key fastening on the seatpost might help avoid the need to find an allen key to

adjust saddle height. My wife and I share a car: it takes just seconds to adjust the position of the driver's scat from the position the previous occupant left it in. Why cannot bikes be as easy to adjust? Cannot an integral cycle security system be combined with the need to adjust the position of cycle components from time to time? Martin Weber Stuttgart. Germany

I recall that one design of recumbent entered in a recent design competition incorporated the novel idea of a luggage box which formed part of the structure of the machine. On removing the box you were left with a cycle which was totally unridable. Perhaps this particular design avenue might be explored further. Several European distributors market a horse-shoelike lock which is mounted on the frame and involves a bolt passing through the spokes of the wheel. Continental readers will know this well. In activating the lock, the key comes out, and you take it with you. Perhaps a pair of locks like this would help solve the wheel theft problem. Tim Whitty, of CycleCare Olympia, London, produce various ingenious devices for locking bits to bikes. Tel. +44(0)171 6029757. (Ed.) -

Dutch Doubts

Your article about LF cycle routes through the Netherlands did not tell the whole story. Dutch cyclepaths are often cited as the sign of a civilised nation. While this may be true in some ways, I have to say that if you choose not to use the often bumpy bike paths they have, and ride instead on the tarmac of their roads (which is usually a more direct route to where you want to be), you get constant abuse and aggravation from Dutch motorists. This makes it virtually impossible to cycle quickly across the country - perhaps on the way to a cycling holiday in another country. Cycling facilities in the German-speaking countries may be less numerous,

LETTERS

but are often more practical and conducive to fast cycling.

SUSPENSION RAIL-WAY, ROYAL

PAI'ARMONJOrc GARDENS,

UVERPOOL STRF.ET, KIN". CROSS, NEW ROAD. Sr. PCRAs.

Wilma Schelle,; Munich, Germany

Alan Terrill, lbrtoise ibwers, Woodchw-ch, Kent, England

Bikes in the sky

Jim Kor's bikes-in-the-sky project (I3CQ Issue 2) was interesting, but seemed impractical to me. You would need a hell of a blast of air down the tubes to help the vehicles on their way. You may be interested in this picture of possibly the earliest example of an overhead human-powered railway. Maiy Walters, 14"ome, Somerset Dog defences

Ian Maunders squirts a jet of water at aggressive dogs (BCQ 2). One suggestion from a cycling magazine of the 1880s was to hurl a heavy spanner at the snarling cur, attached, for retrieval purposes to a piece of string. It was pointed out that this technique needs some skill, since it can upset the riders' equilibrium (I presume this was in the days before the low safety bike). John Binder, Christchurch, New Zealand

Car-makers do something right

Here's to Mercedes-Benz and their Swiss counterpart for introducing the "Swatchrnobile". It's a tiny car that will add an ecological dimension to urban traffic, and a welcome addition to the growing market for a "smarter", less expensive form of automobility. I recall that Amsterdam designer, Luud Schimmelpenrink, introduced his 'white car' in the early 1970s, following his less enterprising 'white bike' plan of the 1960s. Another manufacturer, BMW, should also be commended for promoting the "park & ride" concept in Europe, providing BMW folding mountain bikes in the trunks of their new cars, enabling drivers to park on the periphery of crowded cities and

larly liked the cover and, as a tortoise-lover, was glad your artist took the trouble to get the anatomical details correct.

Anna Borzello, who wrote our

Green Tourism article last issue writes from Uganda:

â&#x20AC;˘

WILLIAM THE IFOURTJ3,!OYAL.C&R.

..-

Tanaouidting Machine. now cnhtbninein the Royal PanamtoninnGa,dtts.in perhaps one or the most tntpk pieces ofMach,n,nn

enerdobered.pn t.ntnin such wonderful action. that many tons weight may bu conveyed to any diraaoo& without hulpo( steam oranimal potter. Noon, can believe that this Inane, inavels with ench tee, and rapidity without being a ralitnens of the fact. The idea is a very ingenious nato. and dons peat erode roMe. H. THORRINGTON who is the jtts,ntoo. The edtnjttetto, to the Gardens is One Shilling each Person. ,,tisilig the portion to rid, toenmi tire gantkm in the Car, or on the Hobby Hourso. Reresttmentt may be obtained on the sims.

The earliest human-powered overhead railway?

cycle the last few kilometres. With more than fifty different types of folding bicycles now on the world market (including several mountain bikes and even a tandem), one would think that more car manufacturers would offer folders as a regular accessory. Just as sail-boats carry dinghies, shouldn't cars carry bicycles? I look forward to the day when Peugeot, Volvo, Fiat and other European manufacturers bring their good ideas to Europe. John Dowlin, Bicycle Network News, Philadelphia, USA Mr Schimmelpennink is still active In Dutch cycling circles. He runs a design and development organisation which channels Dutch government grant aid towards the development of innovative cycle products. (Ed.)

Portable policies Given that most railway systems

around the world are restricting the number of bikes they will carry, is it not time for cycle activists to bow to the inevitable, and find a constructive way ahead? This might involve inviting the more forward-looking rail companies of the world to begin promoting the better types of folding bike, working together with the manufacturers of these bikes in joint initiatives. Clearly, this should be done in conjunc-

tion with improved bike parking facilities at stations, since not every cyclist will want to ride a folder, and no initiative in the direction of folding bikes should infringe on the albeit inadequate facilities which exist now for carrying bikes on trains. Martin Campbell, Dundee, Scotland Debate over

For years many cyclists have believed that since multiple derailleur gears have helped the racing cyclist they are bound to be of use to virtually every other kind of cyclist. Racing cyclists keep their machines clean and well-adjusted. They (or their back-up teams) take the trouble to inspect and replace worn parts. The touring or town cyclist should not have to bother with such matters. Personally,I cannot understand why cyclists need look further than the combination of a seven-speed hub and three-speed front derailleur, as produced by Sachs. This must surely put an end to the long and often sterile argument between fans of the derailleur and the hub gear.

I doubt I'll send you a bicycle story from here: bikes are low quality and very expensive. The roads are very bad and the taxi drivers are criminally dangerous. I've been watching all the ex-pats driving around in their expensive Toyota and Suzuki trucks, some of them paid for out of foreign aid at at least $30,000 each. The money would be far better invested in buying bikes and creating cycle paths in Kampala... How strong can a spoke be?

I came across this little illustration from a Dutch cycling magazine of 1904. The text underneath says that one bicycle spoke can take a 75,000 kilo weight. Can this possibly be true? Markus Amsie,; Arnhem, Netherlands

We asked Mike Burrows. He tells us that he has previously conducted some workbench tests on the load-bearing capacity of plain gauge spokes. When put under tension they tended to brake at a load equivalent to only twice his

Thomas Wex, Graz, Austria

the head, so might have taken

Tortoises

applied to the top and bottom of

I NN as N erN pleased to see the second issue of BCQ living up to the standard of the first. I particu-

the shank. Just the same, a

body weight. They always broke at more tension had clamps been

weight of 75,000 kilos demands a measure of credulity. (Ed.)

BIKE CULTURE 151

TRAVELLERS' TALES

The Crossing of Hokkaido Alan K. Suemori of Hawaii adventured across the island which forms the northern part of Japan.

his past summer, armed with a mountain bike and a Berlitz language tbook, I attempted to cross Hokkaido, with visions of being swallowed up by a vast landscape of ancient and silent grandeur. I instead encountered the worst traffic and pollution this side of Tokyo. Fortunately, I also experienced days so splendid that I felt as if I had ridden off the edge of the Earth into a sacred and forgotten world. Staying in youth hostels, minshukus (family-run inns) and fields of friendly farmers, I followed a spontaneous, improvised route which took me from the southwestern tip of the island to its eastern shore. There is something quite delicious about riding a bicycle alone through Japan. If you cannot read or speak her language, you are at once returned to a state of childhood, where your tongue is reduced to crying, silence, or yelps of joy. A simple excursion to the laundroinat or the corner drugstore to buy toothpaste is a great adventure because everything is unexplored and unexperienced. On a bicycle, time is lengthened, then stretched, then lengthened some more. Minutes are massaged. Hours are decompressed. Suddenly you see the farmers standing quietly in their rice fields, tending the summer crop; slowly you breathe in the panorama of an entire fishing village working in the morning light on the beaches below. Atop a bicycle it is still possible to stumble upon a gaggle of children playing on an empty side street, or a hunched grandmother trudging home at dusk still attired in traditional indigo blue work clothes. 152 BIKE CULTURE

In order to avoid traffic and make the best use of daylight, I often began my rides before dawn. The streets are foggy and empty and all that you hear is the whisper of your bicycle wheel spinning upon the wet asphalt as you pedal to the next town. In the early morning you'll see a different Japan: the lights of cozy farmhouses igniting one by one as their families awaken to the new day. You ride through a universe of lives which flicker softly as the day grows stronger. And the farther you go the more your journey changes, from a travelogue vacation into something deeper and more difficult to categorise. Sprung from the cocoon of a car or a train, you see the terrain not as a numbing series of images rectangularly and uniformally cropped by the borders of a plexi-glass window, but as it was meant to be seen. The summer storm which rolls down the mountainside and sweeps across the floodplain now drifts unobstructed to the ocean. The waterfall along the roadside now rises off its haunches and stretches up and over the sky. You pay attention to the disposition of the landscape because her moods and omens portend the difference between a day of pleasurable travel or one of misery. A day spent riding with the wind in your face is profoundly different with the wind at your back. There are vanguard clouds which come before the heavier clouds, which might bring rain. There is a wind that comes up from the south which might bring hot days, or worse yet a storm. The land calls to you like a child sometimes in whispers, sometimes in shouts, and in vain, you are always listening. The dread of any solitary traveller is that of being lost. Of incompetently taking the wrong road at the fork, making the wrong choice and ending up in oblivion or catastrophe. My journey was filled with wrong turns. I have lost

count of the roads that slowly disintegrated into wild fields, the mountain paths which insidiously curled their way back instead of forward and the villages I stumbled into that until this day remain unmarked on any map. What awaited me was not disaster nor calamity, however, but adventure and revelation. In one town I found an innkeeper who instructed me on the tenets of Hawaiian music while feeding me sashimi. In another hamlet, I befriended a young teenager who had spent two years in Kenya planting trees and longed to go back. Up on one mountain road I was beckoned off my path by a roadside farmer and given food. Each wrong turn and aimless, dead-end road escorted me into a deeper, more intriguing layer of .Japan that I would never have discovered had I remained on the straight, well-cobbled route. The poet Michael Meinhoff once said "Travel is the greatest education one can receive. You enter a foreign land where you are forced to learn its language and its manners and its secrets, and in many ways that foreign land is you". At the end of any long journey, the novelty and the exhilaration of the undiscovered wears away, and what comes to the foreground is the melody of your own thoughts and meditations. I had come to Hokkaido to pursue a great adventure. Spurred on by the lapbell of my 35th birthday, I had arrived to immerse myself in a monumental act; a heroic trek across the unknown to reinvigorate my youth. Instead I left with a gift that was far more appropriate. It was the reassurance of my ability to change and grow, and my rediscovery of my childhood capacity for wonder. This is a shortened version of an article which first appeared in Oikaze, the English-language cycling newsletter of Japan..

HPV'S

Are the big boys coming? he first production recumbent ever was probably made by T Peugeot in 1914. It was a commercial failure, due partly to the unavailability of transmissions systems appropriate to recumbents, and also to customer resistance to such a highly priced and exotic machine. The onset of war will also not have helped. These restraints seem no longer to apply. Last Autumn Staiger became the first large cycle company in modern times to launch a production recumbent, the Airbike. Now Cannondale have announced that their fully suspended long-wheelbase prototype recumbent could be in production for 1995.

A semi-recumbent reminiscent of the Danish Sofa.Cykel.

Centurion Cycles, a sizeable German company, have revealed a recumbent which they may mass-produce, and even the clothing manufacturers Benetton may be making moves. They appear not to be lying low about their plans to lie low. Some smaller, established bike makers in Holland and Germany are going only half-way; Saiga and Delta are producing semi-recumbents reminiscent of the Danish 'Sofa-Cykel' and verging towards the safety bike in design. At FIBO, the Fitness Fair in Essen, many indoor fitness bikes machines proved to have gone semiShimano go with a recumbent: recumbent this year. a sign of the times. Equipment manufacturers are sI.lImPfl0 also warming up. At FIETSBAI, 'rthe big Dutch cycle show, few visitors failed to notice that LIGH1 Shimano's own stand very prominently featured a Challenge recumbent (made in Holland) with STX equipment. Shimano are notoriously care• ful as to who and what they are t seen with. and many regard their FIETSPIAI stand as a •• break-through. Gunnar Fehlau

HPVs

Three

E,ZE

under the name Berkut, have begun making recumbents in Moscow. While students at the Moscow Aircraft Building Institute they began designing HPV5 which won prizes at both national and inter-

Berkut make a range of The Berkut B305 recumbent tricycles, for commuting, touring and competition. They use aircraft technology alloys, mainly aluminium with titanium and high-grade steels for parts with high working loads. Titanium is available in plentiful supply in Russia. Berkut claim that their FIPVs are the first to have front wheel drive and steering. Some models have suspension on the two front wheels, others on the rear wheel and some have a mono-blade rear fork. One of the team, Vladimir Shtrakin is an expert in mechanics having worked in the design office of the llyushin aircraft factory for five years. A colleague, Vadim Mazaev, worked for the Mil helicopter factory for ten years and is a specialist in making fairings from composites. Berkut lease production space at the llyushin factory. This inventive team have products which are in need of capital for necessary product development and for the funding of production in commercially viable quantities. They are also looking for representatives in Western Europe. Berkut, 125 212, Russia, Moscow, Adm. Makarov St. 45-91. Tel/Fax +7 (0)95 452 5598. English and German are understood. CAPED CRUSADERS Staying dry on a recumbent has never been an easy task. Now specialised all-weather cape systems are available from German makers. Details from Alfred Schafer, Boblinger Sti; 45/1 ,D-71065, Sindelfingen. Tel =49 (0)7031 872977. Or from Fahrradwerkstatt Radnabel, Jakobsgasse 19, D-72070, Tubingen. Tel ±49 (0)7071 23896. AGE NO BARRIER Carl Georg Rasmussen, maker of the Leitra recumbent trike in Denmark, reports that his last ten customers have all been over the age of 65. Other makers of recumbent trikes verify a growing interest from older cyclists. For example, Bry Ferguson of Sheffield, England, has ordered a Greenspeed from Australia, and is looking forward to riding it during the Semaine Féderale, the great annual cycletouring event in France. RECUMBENT CYCLING MAG Many European HPV enthusiasts are still unaware of the American magazine, Recumbent Cyclist International. This enthusiastic publication, published in black and white six times a year, is available from Robert Bryant, P0 Box 58755, Renton, \\A 98058, USA. Subscription details depend on where in the world you are. Tel +1(0)206 630 7200 for precise information. BIKE CULTURE 153

PROFILE

The inventions of Hermann Popp

n the darkest storm you often find a colourful umbrella. In Schweinfurt, a German city struggling with unemployment, Hermann Popp's imagination is producing ideas in bicycle which will, he hopes, eventually bring employment to at least a few of his fellow-citizens. He matches his unconventional thinking with some engaging self-publicity, typified by the impractical concept of mounting an umbrella in a bicycle. However, practical progress is being made. Popp has secured a manufacturing partner for his unorthodox bikes, and a preproduction batch of ten has been made. Hermann Popp worked for Fichtel and Sachs at Schweinfurt for thirty years, where his specialism had been motorbike engines. On retirement he turned to the bicycle, and applied some novel thinking to bike design: challenging conventions such as headsets, twin forks, chain drive and independent brakes. One of the most noticeable features of the Konzept 2000 is the lack of a traditional headset. 'Central steering', with indirect connection to the front wheel, allows a large load to be earned in a stable position between the wide handlebars, in clear view of the rider. A prototype Post-Bike has not yet netted the German Post Office as a customer. Side-mounted wheels are relatively common on motorbikes and, on a bicycle, allow punctures to be easily removed and repaired. The Konzept 2000 frame is offset, to allow the interchangeable front and back wheels to be mounted from opposite sides, thus keeping them in line. Perhaps because he comes from a motorbike design background, Popp regards shaft-drive as a possible route towards

154 BIKE CULTURE

maintenance-free cycling, and has been working on this, alongside development work on a reliable belt drive. If he eventually achieves a decent belt drive he will have succeeded where hundreds of big-budget bike makers have failed. Of course, shaft drive was around on bicy cles before the turn of the century and has been extensively used in motor bike technology. Recent attempts to re-introduce it for bicycles have not been successful, although it is apparently popular in Japan, for commuters who don't give a hoot about cycle maintenance. Popp's shaft drive invioves a hydraulically operated set of internal gears just behind the bottom bracket, and another set by the rear wheel. He does not claim that his shaft drive is more efficient than a conventional chain drive in new condition, but rather that it is more efficient than a badly maintained chain. He knows that many round-town cyclists ride on a rusty old chain with links in various stages of seizure. Popp's system is impervious to mud and water, and has, he say, been admired by many mountain bikers who are beginning to tire of having to strip down and clean their very exposed derailleur systems after a bit of fun in the mud. Popp is developing a braking system which will involve both brakes being hydraulically applied, using Magura components, by means of a back-pedalling device situated behind the pedals. This is similar to a device now being marketed by Bullseye in the States. Also in development is an ABS system, which involves hydraulic fluid being diverted into a tiny reservoir to reduce braking pressure when necessary. Early days yet. Popp has taken out a series of patents and expects production models to be more refined than the prototypes in our photographs. He anticipates the weight of the production versions to be 17-18 kilos, and to cost between 1500 and 2000 Marks (C5804,780). We look forward to reporting on more of Popp's activities in the future. Hermann Popp, Wurzburg Str 84, 97424 Schweinfurt. Germany. Tel: +49(0)972181218. Popp's shaft drive involves a set of internal gears just behind the bottom bracket, and another set at the rear end of the shaft.

P R 0 F I L E

The Popp version of a post office bike shows his novel drive system.

V '

2<'

Flowers in the rain. Hermann Popp's ideas bring colour to a grey age.

The wheels are supported on one side only, making puncture repair easier. Diligence of detail is shown

by the Popp-designed stand. It has widely splayed feet and is operates without the need to lift one bike wheel clear of the ground - not always an easy task with conventional stands on heavily laden bikes.

BIKE CULTURE 155

C A M P A I C N I N G

The new protesters Opposition to reckless roadbuilding is becoming more confrontational, broaderbased and effective. Patrick Field describes how some cycle campaigners have changed tack.

In the early 80's the government of Hessen in Germany wanted to build a new western runway for Frankfurt's airport. They were met by one of the most co-ordinated and committed protest groups in the history of transport campaigning. There was sustained anger at the proposed destruction of half a million trees, and the awful damage to the lives of the people living nearby. Campaigners built a tree-top village to defend the trees. They attracted massive media coverage. They even launched an art competition and published a book of the best entries: .Kunst gegen Startbahn West (Art against the Western Runway).

Eventually they sat in front of bulldozers, singing protest songs. The power of the state prevailed, the chainsaws moved in, the runway was built. Startbahn West was built because too large a section of the general public accepted the State's argument that a bigger airport meant greater economic success for the area, and that economic success was a goal not to be questioned. Politicians across Europe are still using identical arguments for their road-building programmes. But the public are now often a step ahead of them. It is quite possible that Frankfurt's Startbahn West would be a non-starter if attempted today, and that protesters will achieve successes they never thought possible just a few years ago. Startbahn West 1982. Motorway Madness 1994. The people are still in revolt. I know a campaigner who broke his foot defending an ancient chestnut tree from the roadbuilders, but continued to cycle 156 BIKE CULTURE

across London to sit on roofs and occupy work-sites, with crutches strapped to the top-tube of his bike. Another successfully defended herself in court on a charge of criminal damage, despite being caught (literally) red-handed with paint and brush, decorating a contractor's fence with the slogan 'SPEND THE MONEY ON SOMETHING USEFUL'. She was campaigning against the proposed M11 Link expressway, designed to allow more motor-traffic through the Northeastern suburbs into Central London. Before she became fully engaged in nonviolent direct action against the proposed Mu, she had been putting her considerable energies into more conventional activities on behalf of the London Cycling Campaign: co-ordinating cyclecounts and lobbying councillors. The mammoth UK media coverage of the "No M11 Link" Campaign has focused on the unlikely alliances which the campaign has fostered, bringing together respectable, middle-aged residents, young crusties and radical environmentalists. But reports have completely overlooked the significant contribution made by activists from the London Cycling Campaign. Maybe this is because the anti-road campaign is so broad-based and popular that it is impossible for observers to identify all its component parts. However, it also reflects how commentators from the old cultural mainstream fail to see the positive elements in the burgeoning antiroads movement. No matter how much evidence mounts up about the harm caused by motortraffic, campaigners still see a necessity to back up their arguments by inflicting delay and disruption on projects being pushed by a road lobby which trundles onwards like a driverless steam-roller. Protest action takes different forms according to local circumstances. In the Pyrenees, where a motorway from Pau to Zaragoza is being actively resisted, press coverage has focused on the threat to the last remaining habitat of the European Brown Bear, although the

issue is just as much one of infrastructure and the perceived cost of the project. Money spent on roads is money not spent on more sustainable forms of transport or, even better, on developing systems of organisation which minimise the need to carry goods or people long distance. From the Alps to the Baltic road-builders are facing opposition and the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), an influential lobby comprising representatives of Europe's largest companies, has found itself the target of an office occupation drawing attention to its attempts to incite spending on new trans-European roads. While it has become fashionable for politicians to broadcast the virtues of cycling, the actual number of kilometres travelled by cycle in the UK continues to decline. The bicycle activists of London who have decided that stopping conditions getting worse is more urgent than trying to make them better, have been led to this conclusion by years of kind words and inaction from government. Naturally they have commissioned bicy cles for the battle: since November more than sixty derelict bikes recovered from condemned and neglected houses or donated by supporters from across the city have been reconditioned in a rudimentary workshop, set up on the ground floor of a house in Claremont Road, a terrace of two-story Edwardian houses which would be completely obliterated if the new road were ever completed. These bikes, painted in the house-style, make ideal transport for campaigners operating in a five-kilometre 'campaign corridor' against adversaries with ten thousand times more resources at their disposal. The bicycles give flexibility in action and point the way to the positive and humane alternatives to destroying communities to produce canyons full of pollution and frustration. Next door to the workshop lives Dolly Watson in the house she was born in and has lived in for 93 years. She has no plans to leave Claremont Road.

NETHERLANDS

Bike paths international In BCQ Issue Two we published a report on the LF4 cycle route which runs across Holland and well into Germany. These routes are the work of the Landelijk Fietsplatform (National Bicycle Forum) in the Netherlands. Ad Snelderwaard, responsible for LF routes at the Fietsplatform, explains more about the growing network of LF routes.

he Landelijk Fietsplatform was founded in 1987. Our task is to encourage the activities of the many organisations concerned with recreational cycling and cycletouring in the Netherlands. Finance comes from government ministries, and we liaise with them on issues of policy: principally the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Fisheries and the Ministry of Roads and Waterways. We also work with commercial organisations involved in recreational cycling, with the Touring Club of the Netherlands (ANWB) the Bicycle Foundation (Stichting Fiets), and the Dutch Federation of Genuine Cyclists (ENFB). We receive further support from the provincial authorities. One of our principal activities has been the devising of a network of long-distance through-routes for cycle-tourers and holiday-makers. These National Bike Routes (Landelijke Fietsroutes) make maximum use of existing bike paths and routes away from traffic, taking in as much attractive countryside as possible. At the same time we attempt to avoid great detours.

The routes cross each oilier, so they can be combined. 6,000 kilometres were completed by 1989, and are 2' Weersc described in two guides, one 'n'O.fl1 r! ge F1 or for the northern half of the eeuwar country, and the other for the Assen• Dn Hel southern half. Each has twelve maps at 1:150,000 scale. Since 1989 we have been busy co-ordinating the signposting Hrn At er d amJ of routes. The ANWB (the Apeldoorn • ''Enschede S Touring Club of the Utrecht • The Hagu Netherlands) is responsible for 110t l dh Arnhem a -.-... • Rotterdam all route-marking in the Nijmegen S Netherlands and has incorporated the LF route signs • Breda within its general bike path • Eindhoven signing system. This signpostS • Turnhout ing is paid for by central, 4Bwru 79Me W r• regional and local governGent • Mechelen ment. Heerlen Maastri Brussel • The network is spreading • Aken beyond Dutch borders. For B example, the LFI (North Sea Route) runs for 360km down LF6 LF1 North Sea Route the coast and into part of LF1 Waddenee Route LF7 Northern France. There are LF3 Maas Route LFI3 Rhine Route LF4 Central Netherlands Route LF14 Saxon Route plans to take it to Boulogne, to LF5 Flanders Route link up with ferry services to England. The LF4, which runs 250 km across the middle of the Netherlands, becomes the Ri as it border. By the year 2000 half of the crosses Germany, and will eventually routes, amounting to 3,000 km, will be take cyclists all the way to Poland. This comprehensively signposted. We hope was described in Bike Culture 2. The that the growing network of LF routes LF3 (Maas-Route) runs along the valley will help stimulate similar initiatives in of the river Maas between Arnhem and other parts of the world. Maastricht and offers great opportunities for diverting off into the German There are, so far, Dutch language guides and Belgian countrysides. In 1993 the to the LFI, LF3, LF4 and LF14. They cost LF14 (Saxon Route) opened, running 15 guilders, including postage within between Lauwersoog in the north, Europe, from Stichting Landelijk which has a ferry to the island of Fietsplaform, Postbus 846 (Bergstraat 6), Shiermonnikoog, and the LF4 near the 3800 AV mersfoort, tel. +31(0)33-653656. German border. It's possible now to The same organisation produces two travel 550km from the north-east to basic guides to the whole national netsouth-west. work of cycle routes. Part one covers the Two new routes will open in 1994: the north to the centre of the country, and LF10 along the north coast, connecting part two the centre to the south. Each to all the ferries to the islands, and the costs 34.50 guilders, including European LF13 across the south to the German postage. C,

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BIKE CULTURE 157

F E E D B A C K

Readers report Fixing points for U-Locks From Charles Leger, Brussels, Belgium

1 have used an ordinary ring-headed fix ing bolt, available in many hardware stores, to secure a bicycle outside my house. The ring I have used is not hardened steel, but does not protrude very far from the wall, and closely fits a Ulock shackle, so if you install it at a height where it will be obstructed by the seat tube, back wheel and lock, it is very difficult to get at. Editor's note:I have recently seen on the market a hardened steel wall bracket for U-locks which does much the same thing. It ingeniously protects the head of the fix ing bolt with the shackle of the lock. It can be installed with domestic tools. In the UK this device is known as the Anchorpoint, costs around ÂŁ12, and is distributed by Madison.

Tyre Truths Prom Karl Briggs, Helmsley, England.

Tyres are probably the major consumable item in cycling. It is accepted that they wear out, or can be damaged during their normal useful life, needing replacing earlier than expected. Failure can result from internal splits in the carcass canvas due to excessive compression forces from potholes etc. It can result from external cuts to the tread or side-wall. This includes cuts to the carcass canvas and cuts which expose the canvas to the weakening effects of water or grit. Failure can also result from the side-wall becoming detached from the edge support wire of wire-on tyres or from the edge support wire becoming stretched. Most cyclists realise that rear tyres wear out considerably quicker than front ones. However, the type of wear differs between front and back. Rear covers tend to wear flat, whereas front ones wear on the sides of the tread and appear to be more prone to cuts, possibly because of their longer life, but also because of the 'screwing effect' caused by the greater lateral movement of the 158 BIKE CULTURE

front wheel. It was not until about 18 years ago, when I acquired a tandem, that I realised that tyre life basically depends on some function of the normal load carried. This came about as the front wheel on my tandem carried about the same load as the rear wheel of my solo cycle. It therefore appears that the driving force on the rear wheel has little effect on length of life of the tyre provided that it is not subjected to skidding. Cable Cuts From Rod Shin/cfleld, Lancashire, England.

Once upon a time, upon being asked for an inner-brake cable, the bike shop owner would inquire whether it was for a front or rear brake and with a pear or pill nipple-end, while often showing a hesitant customer an example of both kinds of nipple seflotaped to an old display board. These days, in Britain at least, all brake cables seem to come in one standard length, with a pear nipple on one end and a pill nipple at the other. The average customer, lacking cable-cutters at home, now has to remember to ask the bike shop to snip off the unwanted nipple, together with a certain amount of unwanted cable.

Also, in those days, the ends of the cables would have been dipped in solder to prevent fraying when pushed through the twists and kinks of an outer. These days unravelled cable ends are par for the course, and lead to enormous frustration. Can't the cable-makers do better than this? Bearing all the above in mind, I get a lot of satisfaction by carrying out my own form of standardisation. My front brake is worked by the part of the cable that sported the pear-nipple, as is normal, while the pill-nippled end and the unwanted length of attached cable work the front changer, the lever of which is on the down tube. The fact that the pillnipple is too big to fit into the recess in the front changer's lever has not proved a drawback at all. In fact, I no longer get a jammed gear cable nipple, which was often the case when using the correct, smaller-nippled gear cables. So measure the cable length carefully before cutting, and don't throw the unwanted part of the standard cable away. Editor's note:One way to prevent fraying

put a touch Qfsuperglue on the spot where you are about to cut the cable. Let it dry before you snip. is to

Limits to Inflation Feedback comes from all directions. Frank Berto. from California, is a leading cycle engineer, and author of many books and articles on cycle technology. Here he passes on his knowledge as to how safe it is to inflate tyres beyond the pressure limit stated on the sidewall. Bicycle tyres are tested to v' ithstand at

least twice the recommended pressure listed on the sidewall, when mounted on the proper rim. This test is usually performed with water rather than air to limit the amount of energy involved. In some cases it's rim failure that causes the tyre to come off. The shape of the edge of the rim is the critical item. Some rims have lots of 'hook'. The French call this a "crotchet" edge. Others, including many mountain

FEEDBACK

bike rims, have just a bulge. Old style "clincher" rims have straight sides and rely entirely on the tyre bead to retain the tyre. Rims with a pronounced hooked-edge do the best job of retaining the tyre at high pressures. Rims with well-worn brake tracks or bent edges can't stand much over-inflation. According to the ISO standards, the distance from the rim bead seat diameter (le from one inner edge of the rim to the other) has to have a tolerance of plus or minus 0.05 inch. The distance from tyre bead to tyre bead also has, according to ISO Standards) a tolerance of plus or minus 0.05 inch. Many manufacturers hold tighter tolerances than this. A maximum tyre and minimum rim will blow off at a lower pressure. A minimum tyre and a maximum rim will be hard to mount. Tyres are easier to mount on rims with a deep centre, so mounting ease isn't a reliable measure. The pressure limit is reduced when the tyre and rim overheat due to braking on a long downhill run. If the rim heats up to 200F, the tyre pressure will increase by about 30 psi. Back in the tubular days, we worried about the glue softening. This is one of the reasons for disc brakes on tandems. Steel-beaded tyres can withstand more over-pressure than Kevlar-beaded foldable tyres. I suspect that the current fad for mounting fat tyres on skinny rims reduces the amount of pressure you can add to the recommended limit. The tyre pressure rating was determined with the tyre mounted on a rim of the proper width. I'm more inclined to over-inflate back tyres than front tyres. You can probably walk away from a rear blow out. If you still want to over-inflate tyres think about "proof testing" the tyre/rim combination. The safe way to do this is to pump up to the extra high pressure with the wheel under water. If you wanted to run an 80 psi tyre at, say 110 psi, test the mounted tyre at 160 psi. If nothing dramatic happens, you would feel more comfortable at 110 psi. A final caveat. The tyre makers are absolutely firm about pressure ratings. If you exceed the pressure rating and the tyre comes off, the responsibility is all yours. There are just too many variables

and (in my country at least) too many ambulance-chasing lawyers waiting to file contingency lawsuits.

strong enough to bend the forks, as the rear of the cycle should leave the ground without affecting the forks. Our thanks to all readers who have written on this subject. Before leaving the matter I need to point out that both articles on hub brakes and forks were written by people who are great fans of hub-brakes: myself and Geoff Apps. Perhaps this did not come through strongly enough. Editor's note:

Hub brakes again Several readers have commented further on the hub (or drum) brake debate.

Derek Roberts of Mitcham, England,

gives an historical perspective: One thing in common to all the modern hitech systems of braking is their high cost, and in some cases there is a degree of complexity that rules out amateur tinkering when something goes wrong. The Resilion Dynamic Coupling of the 1930s was cheap and could be fitted to any bicycle without alterations to frame and forks. It provided braking that was as efficient as any obtainable today, and was more efficient than many. A front hub brake was applied in the usual way, but the anchor arm was not anchored to the fork. As the arm tried to turn it pulled a cable that ran to the rear brake (hub or rim) and applied that. As the rear brake came on it increased the braking effect on the front brake. The only structural change was to the front brake, to allow the arm to rotate freely. Exhaustive tests showed that hub brakes were about 10% more efficient using this system - they still worked even when oil or grease was put onto the shoes. One snag today might be the low cost of such a system if marketed today: the modern cyclist seems to enjoy paying through the nose for fancy gadgets. Jan Sims of Greenspeed in Australia, says: "I do not like what I see as a continued attack on drum brakes via the NNeakness of substandard forks. I have seen a number of broken forks - but none from using drum brakes. I see rim brakes as far more dangerous than drums. It is a pity that the your article in BCQ2 did not balance the advantages of drum brakes against the perceived problems." Helmut Wieners of Zurich, Switzerland,

feels that the whole debate is superfluous. Many cyclists now have brakes "which are so strong that they have passed the point of diminishing returns. If you want to lock the rear wheel or do a wheelie, there are plenty of cheaper brakes will do the job for you". John Brown of Cambridge, England, tells us that a braking force should not be

Bits and wheezes Mason StGlair of Nashville, Tennesee, has

sent us a miscellany of tips from his newsletter, Top Banana, Bottom Line. Be pro-active and not merely reactive! If an oncoming motorist threatens to do something silly you can quickly catch his eye by simply passing your palm rapidly in front of your headlight. It works nine out of ten times! A reflector can be mounted to a doorstop spring fixed to a rear dropout or ehainstay. The bobbing action makes the reflector much more effective. If I see an overtaking motorist in my mirror, and want him to move out a bit, I just yank up on the handlebars and smack my front wheel down sharply. The reflector dances in the car's lights like a crazed animal. Most drivers will take the hint. Bar-end mitts are winners hands down. They'll even fit on drop-bar bikes. They won't negate your other equipment like bar-end mirrors. I simply cut a slit at just the right place and the mirror bracket goes right in! Down to 20 degrees I bike without gloves using the bar-end mits. Down around zero degrees I slip on a pair of light thermax gloves. Buy a larger size helmet for winter use. This way a wool headband fits in nicely. Finally, I recommend 600 Tips for Better Bicycling, compiled by Ed Pavelka. It was published by the Rodale Press, 1991. being tip-orientated I've worn this little book out. It is a gem in bike literature. 600 Tips is part of my favourite bike book trilogy. The other two: Basic Maintenance and Repair and Bicycle Commuting Made Easy were also compiled by Ed Pavelka and published by Rodale. Anyone interested in Mason StClair's newsletter can phone him on (USA) 615 297-3252.

BIKE CULTURE 159

LITERATURE

We publish your and our favourite cycling extracts from literature of all kinds.

In Arthur C. Clarkes novel. Imperial Earth, Duncan MaKenzie finds an enjoyable way of preparing for earths gravity.

he toughening-up process involved a fifteen minute session, twice a day, in the ship's centrifuge or on the "racetrack". Nobody enjoyed the centrifuge; not even the best background music could alleviate the boredom of being whirled round in a tiny cabin until legs and arms appeared to be made of lead. But the race-track was so much fun that it operated right around the clock, and some enthusiasts even tried to get extra time on it. Part of its appeal was undoubtedly due to sheer novelty; who would have expected to find BICYCLES in space? The track was a narrow tunnel, with steeply banked floor, completely encircling the ship, and rather like an oldtime particle accelerator - except that in this case the particles themselves provided the acceleration. Every evening, just before going to bed, Duncan would enter the tunnel, climb on to one of the four bicycles, and start pedalling slowly round the sixty metres of track. His first revolution would take a leisurely half minute; then he would

160 BIKE CULTURE

gradually work up to full speed. As he did so, he would rise higher and higher up the banked wall, until at maximum speed he was almost at right angles to the floor. At the same time, he would feel his weight steadily increase; the bicycle's speedometer had been calibrated to read in fractions of a gee, so he could tell exactly how well he was doing. forty kilometres an hour - ten times round Sirius every minute - was the equivalent of one earth gravity. After several days of practice Duncan was able to maintain this for ten minutes without too much effort. By the end of the voyage, he could tolerate it indefinitely - as he would have to, when he reached Earth. The race-track was at its most exciting when it contained two or more riders especially when they were moving at different speeds. Though overtaking was strictly forbidden, it was an irresistible challenge. And the race-track also provided him with a more material souvenir, a pseudo-mediaeval scroll which announced to all who were interested that I, DUNCAN MAKENZIE, OF OASIS CITY, TITAN, AM HEREBY CERTIFIED TO HAVE BICYCLED FROM SATURN TO EARTH, AT AN AVERAGE VELOCITY OF 2176.420 T{ILOMETRES AN HOUR. In Byzantium Endures. a strange historical novel by Michael Moorcock. the hero is an engineer of uncertain morality who recounts. amongst many other things, how he survived the turmoils of the Russian Revolution. Here he describes his early interest in engineering, while still a schoolboy in Kiev.

ost engineers I knew later had m been infected by their first ride on a train, or their first contact with an automobile or a monoplane. With me it was the sight of a simple English bicycle ... a handsome black beast (a Raleigh 'Royal Albert' Gent's Roadster, now longsince extinct), it was bright with red and gold transfers and polished steel accessories. It was completely beyond my pocket. It was more expensive, even,

than the imported German and French bicycles available. I do not remember having any expectation that it might be mine. I did not even think of entering the shop to pretend to be a purchaser, to inspect or touch the machine, for I had no particular desire to ride one ... I was not impressed by the machine's function so much as what it stood for. It represented all the great inventions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It stood for the airship and the aeroplane; the electric carriage, the steam-turbine, the motor-bus, the tram, the telephone, wireless radio-transmissions; it was steel bridges and sky scrapers and mechanical harvesters. It was abstract mathematics become practicality. I studied its brakes, its chain, its spokes, its nuts and its tubular steel struts. I was impressed there and then by the divine simplicity of the mechanical system which, by producing pressure on the pedals turned the chain-wheel which then turned the back wheel, could, with the minimum of effort, help Man travel as fast and as far as any living beast. Beyond this conception - revelation if you like - I had no special interest, Certainly almost all the scientific inventions of those times had proved themselves of benefit to mankind, but for me their beauty rested in the simple fact of their existence. They functioned. They were solved problems. Krupp cannon and Nobel dynamite were to arouse in me the same aesthetic feelings as hydraulic dams or Mercedes ambulances. I was to be inspired by the machinery, not its social uses. Pistons and cylinders, circuits and gauges would satisfy me so long as they performed their appropriate task: driving a ship, taking an aeroplane aloft, sending a message. It would have seemed improper to me even then to indulge in metaphysical or sociological speculation as to their uses. When, later, the War came and we heard about the British tanks, you did not find me tut-tutting. I had anticipated them already. They had become a vision turned into the reality of plate steel, rubber and the internal combustion engine.

N EWSSTAND

COMPULSORY

HEbAETS

Publishing Down-Under

Thu omervilJe

â&#x20AC;˘f Australia is a land of contrasts so are its cycling magazines. On the one hand there is the overtly consumer mountain bike magazine Cycling World, and on the other is the highly successful Australian Cyclist, a magazine which combines the pleasures of cycling with strong campaigning topics. Australian Cyclist is produced by the Bicycle Federation of Australia, the national umbrella group for cycling advocacy, as a service for its members and a platform for the cycling message. Editor Neil Irvine is not afraid to be blunt: "It appears our society has deserted cyclists and left their aggressors in charge". Not the kind of up-beat tone which attracts big name advertisers. Australian transport ministers at both State and Federal level have endorsed a National Bicycle Strategy. and Australian Cyclist is constantly monitoring the implementation of this policy, at the same time campaigning to see 1 % of road funding committed to cycling facilities. Although Australian cyclists face many problems, Neil Irvine sees signs of hope: "the success of Sydney's bid for the 2000 Olympics is attributed partly to its "greenness", and that greenness includes provision for bicycles in the design of the Olympic village and in associated transport planning. Greenpeace submitted the village design and contributed to the Environmental Guidelines for the Games. Greenpeace sees the Olympic village as a model, and is increasingly active in the debate here on urban planning for green cities, not just villages. This is obviously a good rallying point for cyclists". Australian Cyclist, P0 Box 869 Artarmon, NSW 2064.

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Phil Somerville's idiosyncratic and occasionally surreal cartoons are a major attraction of Australian Cyclist, and compulsory helmet use is a regular theme.

Italian magazines still seem to be coming up with the most interesting ads. This saddle advert seems to give a new meaning to the word Agonismo. A hard saddle, says the text, lays bare your sensitive parts. In total contrast is the 50's style Colnago advert from the inside cover of Bicicletta, colourfully harmonising the themes of adventure, rural innocence and feminine admiration.

BIKE CULTURE 161

PROFILE

The clown who likes bikes Canada is not a country noted for its love of the exotic in cycle design, yet inventor-performer Pierre Blanchard, whose alternative derailleur system was featured in BCQ Issue One, is adjusting the balance single-handedly.

n 1987 Pierre Blanchard claimed one of the world's most esoteric records: that of being the tallest and fastest pogo-stilt runner in the world. His ten-foot tall stilts, sprung for extra power, sent him hurtling past the finishing post at 18mph, a speed verified by the radar gun of a Miami Beach police officer. Blanchard then proceeded to astound 7,000 spectators by jumping 15 feet and doing the splits. Performances like these became commonplace as Blanchard toured the world with his company of acrobats, Les Fanatasies de la Grandeur. In 1983 he attained a record height for stilt walking, at 43 feet. During the course of his performing career, Blanchard built his own specialist equipment. He was able to use skills leaned as a youth, as a motor mechanic and builder of racing cars and motorcycles. As a result, his inventions reflect his experience of both motorcycle sport and circus performance. Blanchard's love of bicycles stems from the same passions, but his cycle inventions have moved into territory beyond the world of show business. Two of his inventions have been taken up by Taiwanese manufacturers. Overlord Industries are producing his foldable bicycle, and Pacific are producing his mountain bike with long arm suspension. "In Quebec", says Blanchard, "people are too sceptical, whereas the big factories in Taiwan are always on the lookout for new ideas." The folding bicycle evolved as part of his acrobatic act, when he used small-wheeled bicycles with tremendously high seats and handlebars in his stilt routines. The folding bicycle is called the PB 80T because of the 80 tooth chainwheel used to drive the 16" wheels. It is claimed to be the only foldable bicycle with no hinge in the middle of the frame. The frame incorporates a number of trestles, a device which seems to have first been deployed to good effect to support the

162 BIKE CULTURE

incredibly long components of the stilt bike. The long-travel suspension mechanism on Blanchard's mountain bike derives from his success in motor-cross competitions. He claims that "a really active or efficient suspension must allow a long displacement of its moving parts under a gradual, not too brisk tension ... In every shock absorbing device, there is a variation of pressure during the course of the compression and decompression processes. This is why the suspension feels softer at the beginning of the absorption phase and stiffer towards the end. If the distance between these two limits is too short, the variation of pressure build-up will be intense and impacts from bumps will merely be absorbed and transferred to the rider's body. Therefore, bicycles with shock absorbers (with less than 3" travel) should not be called suspension bicycles because they do not " suspend" and isolate the rider from the road obstacles." Blanchard has photograph albums detailing his 150 or so inventions, and claims to have taken 50 or so of them to the prototype stage. He is not without a sharp commercial edge: "If you are showPB Derailleur. the firm which markets ing a product to a Blanchards products, tell us that his potential investor. novel plastic derailleur system will soon it's got to be perbe distributed in Canada and perhaps feet. The adrenathen be put onto the European market. un rush of that The design and development stages will first impression soon be complete, and we have been is very important. promised one of the first production units You must excite for testing. PB Derailleur are at 57 rue him. He must Lindor. Granby. Quebec. Canada J2G 8C8. want one immeTel. +1(0)514 375 6483. diately."

P R 0 F I I E

Pierre Blanchard with his folding bike, developed from a design used in his circus act. Also shown is his prototype derailleur, which he sees as a cheap and effective improvement

on existing systems.

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Blanchards long-travel suspension system is used successfully by several leading Canadian MTB racers.

fig 0. WOOOO

From the heights to the depths. Blanchard on his very low-rider.

A member of les Fanatasies de Ia Grandeur rides a

i./ / / • /

_______

•',

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Blanchard invention, which can be unpacked from a small box and assembled in

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the circus rink.

BIKE CULTURE 163

OPINION

What the future holds T.G. Lawrence of England looks at several radical design alternatives which, he feels, have not yet been well enough explored.

ew technology can sometimes make a long-discarded design become worthwhile again. An example of this may be front-wheel drive, which is the subject of experimentation in some parts of the HPV world. I can imagine a more conventional bike, with the rider seated lower and a bit behind the wheel, pedalling on the front wheel axis rather as is done in a child's tricycle, but with a gearbox in the front hub. The steering geometry would call for some engineering skill, to diminish the affect on the steering. I notice that the designers of the Avant HPV trike have gone a long way down this road. Good mudguarding is desirable with front-wheel drive, but it means an end to that messy chain drive! I expect that the future will bring streamlining and windscreen ing in materials which repel dirt and have low surface drag. We may perhaps see the deflection of rain by electronic fields. Impressive dirt-repelling surface treatments are currently available, and they are bound to be improved. If you doubt the possibility of rain deflection try combing your hair, then holding the comb near to a stream of water from a slowly running tap. I believe we shall see the development of "Star Trek" clothing whose "warmth" adjusts automatically to suit body and weather. We will one day have garments containing thin layers of materials whose thermal conductivity and reflectivity can be controlled over a wide range. These, together with thin heating and cooling elements powered by the better batteries/power units which must come soon, will make it possible to run a temperature-conditioned suit from a small rechargeable battery in a pocket. Cycle clothing. Nature still has better insulators than those which man has managed to make, materials which reflect body heat have been around for ages but are little used. We don't appear to learn from birds, for example, who fluff out their feathers in cold weather. Wings? Well, it has been done, and will no doubt be done better. We may yet see

164 BIKE CULTURE

the pedal-assisted ultra-light folding glider (with powered take-off,I reckon). Right now, I will settle for "flying" along a pleasant lane on a reasonable road bike.

What cloth it profit a man..? Cheap bikes: do they make cycling accessible to the poor, or do they cut their owners off from a long-term enjoyment of more serious cycling? Andrew Metcalfe of England examines a theme which will find echoes in many other countries.

years ago, when cycling was an fandorty everyday form of transport for adults children in millions of low-income families, there was, by necessity, a high level of public knowledge as to what constituted quality in a bicycle. These days, outside of the specialised leisure market, there is an ocean of ignorance. Many customers are walking into bike shops and asking: "What's the cheapest mountain bike you've got?" Some customers who ask this question are wealthy, fully paid-up autophiles, who are intimate with the private parts of a whole range of different motor cars, but are not prepared to part with the dosh when it comes to a 'simple' machine like the bicycle. This market will never go away. There will always be hundreds of thousands of customers looking for the cheapest. But is there a future for high turn-over bike shops which concentrate on low prices rather than quality? In the long term these bike shops will be beaten at their own game by the multiple stores, and by the increasing number of car retailers who see bike sales as a useful sideline. A sell 'em cheap reputation becomes selfdefeating when demand is static or declines. The dealer finds it hard to shift to a higher quality product which appeals to enthusiastic dedicated cyclists. The dealer or his staff may not themselves be cyclists, and will possibly lack the depth of knowledge needed for the more sophisticated customer who is prepared to spend more on a bike and accessories, but expects expert guidance. In addition, a cheaper bike is less likely to give customers long-term pleasure and confidence in bicycle technology,

which means they are unlikely to become long-term customers of any bike shop.

\Ă¨1oCit off-course Gianni Catania of Italy feels that VeloCity, the biennial international cycling conference, has lost its way.

eloCity is important. It improves V our knowledge and our ability to cope with the still powerful spread of motorised transportation. Furthermore, Velocity brings like-minded people together, in friendship, creating powerful and useful links between campaigners around the world. This is often more productive than attending courses or official meetings. I have heard from a number of cycle activists that attendance at the last two VeloCities (Montreal and Nottingham) was a great finance strain on their organisations. For the next VeloCity the organisers should make a special effort to make the Conference more accessible. More people, particularly from poorer countries, such as Vietnam and Bangladesh should be able to attend. To achieve this, the participation fee should be reduced at least to the level it was at when the Conference was held in Milan. VeloCity is not a conference for yuppies or for jet-setters. New solutions for simple accommodation should be found. The organisers might try to find more sponsorship and simpler and cheaper meeting places. Officers and politicians, whose fees are paid by institutions, should pay much more than the other participants. And in order to achieve a bigger resonance let's aim at a larger number of participants: 700 people would be a good target for Basle. In a speech on the final day of the Nottingham VeloCity Margiet Desch, of the Viennese cycle campaign, Argus, explained how sad she was not to see in attendance more planners and activists from the countries of the former eastern Block. Vienna is geographically very close to these countries, and she knows from first- hand experience how great and urgent is their need for pro-bicycle planning (ED.)

ffair ;''A true stork from the Pyrenees by Robert Bernard Intile practice of our Spurt mans of us- wear cyc4ng gloves, Thu. c.uipp.d I set off on the randonneurs' 'rotir dc France. Mv gloves were showing their age. so I took the precaution of stuffing a new Pair into a pannier.'. . I was very attached to my old cycling gloves. We'd -been through many an adventure togetliei fl,ro mans â&#x20AC;˘..' drips had they wiped from my nose? 1-ov mu-h sweat / had they sponged from my brow? Smeared with grease, soaked in rainwater, scorched by the sun, they spent their nights rolled into a ball at the bottom of my bug. These modest servants of my basic needs endured everything. Each time they were washed they turned the water into a steamy, odorous soup, yet kept an indefinable hue as witness to their past exploits. The large loops of cotton on their outside had begun to unravel, their interior skin was coming apart, making it difficult to get my fingers into the correct holes. As the stages in my Tour passed, their condition deteriorated, and I sensed that I was coming ever closer to the fatal decision. I was up in the Pyrenees, having just had my route card stamped on the Col du Tourmalet. I was just about to take the long and fast descent into Bareges when something told me the time had come for the parting. I stopped and parked my bike against the little stone wall. The sun shone, and from my mountainside route I felt lord of the earth below. The surrounding mountains, still covered in snow, dissolved . into the bluish light of the distance. A titanic landscape, where ,4 Nature offers her silence, her fragrances, her beauty and her strength. No place on earth could be more worthy of what I was about to do. I slowly took off my old gloves, tied them together, so that they might ;Lay as Punt', and, with an offertory gesture I consigned them .... 4 to oblivion... Then I put on my new ones and. gloecl like a 'prc'. I completed my descent on Barcges and l.uu-Saint-S,vuu, to begin my attack on the SoulOr, and LAubisie. Dear cvclingfriends. if one di' 'u find ourselves climbing the Tourmalet on the Barcg,' road. hi' mindful that two or three kilometres belo'. the summit. just at tb lint where \ULI feel at the end of your powers, two knovs-ing and -duI ttituieses w ill be watching you pass. . I admit that this deserves less respec.t thtun simpson's monumentp., Ventoux, or Coppi's and Bobet's medals iii the hoard. ui the hiaf'r.1 above the forge used by Chrustiphe at Saintu --\lariF' do Campa4i..4? They tteru.' just my gloves. This passage first appeared In Cyclotourisme, the magazine of the -. Cycle Touring Club of France. Translation by Jim McGurn. ifiustration by David Eccles.

BIKE CULTURE 165

IEW P0 INT

Phelan free

Jacqui Phelan's radical ideas on women and cycling have had an influence far beyond America. Here she gives us a ta ;te of her thinking.

ver since I dropped into the fat tyre culture, back in 1980, I have noticed how the sport dressed different, felt different, and tasted different from skinny tyre culture. I had come from the road, and I liked the knobbly casualness, as if riding in the dirt did not require "dressing to impress". I took that to be an acceptance of who I was as a person. Roadies were expert instantaneous judges: coming toward you at 23 mph they discerned whether or not you got 'The Nod' - no, make that a glance. Never ever a wave. It had something to do with the clothes you wore. A sociology study at Iowa State University showed road cyclists to be painfully conscious of rank, and hence the conformism of the Euro-Look. Nowadays, I am afraid, the trend in the dirt is to neon, except amongst the new wave of natural colour freaks, but the tradition of variety is respected. I pedalled into my first group ride on a girl's Raleigh fivespeed with a basket. It had 1 3/8" tyres. My helmet drew stares (nothing new), since cool roadies didn't wear 'em. I didn't realise that the fact I was a woman was also an oddity. By that time in my life I was hanging around mostly with men. It was men who liked to do what I did, and they could keep up with me. I was totally out of place, looked at from the outside, but inside I knew I had discovered my new hearthome. This discovery happens often, and when it happens to women they are transformed. Women are out there, buying and riding knobby-tyre bikes. They manage to do this in spite of the occasional lame shop, the inevitable lame mag, the likely cheap bike. In a way it is miraculous that they get a bike at all, given that for the same job and amount of education, an American gal makes 59 cents to the dude's dollar. I propose that bikes have two prices: one for women, one for men. No, just kidding. It wouldn't be constitutional, and the thought of all those men sporting falsies to go for the discount... It's miraculous, too, because so many women are intimidated at the bike shop. A dayin-the-life type hurdle: a woman in her mid-fifties 166 BIKE CULTURE

comes into a busy, successful bike shop, and says she'd like to "buy that Merlin over there". The youngster waiting on her (who works for the minimum wage) bluntly asks, "Why?" and tries to convince her that "she doesn't need that much bike", probably assuming he could save her some money. This true tale never fails to excite gales of laughter when my friends and I share bike horror stories. Is it possible that there's an element of contempt or envy in the underpaid bikie boy selling to a professional woman? Another gal goes into a bike store to look at bikes and is aggressively sold last year's hard-to-move model because she hasn't done her homework and learned what's out there. Nor will she, unless she rides her friend's bikes, and learns that sometimes it can be The Bike's Fault that she's not having a comfy, safe ride. Ten years ago available bikes were such a bad fit for women that it convinced some of them that they didn't have what it took to enjoy riding off-road. It's easy to mistake the crummy, off-balance ride you get from a too-long, too-tall machine for an indication of ones own particular unsuitability for cycling. I was lucky in that I am built like a guy with a long torso and shorter legs. But the first road bike I ever bought was a full three inches too big for me: a 23" frame for a 5'6" teenage girl. Then there is The Barrage. That scary, hard-to-decipher babble that mixes letters, numbers and Italian-sounding words, which all comes at you too fast. The Barrage always came from a young man, probably underpaid, and without a minute's worth of sales training. Chances are, it's his first job - the good sales-people move on up. While we're in the bike shop, let's take a peep at the magazines on the rack. Oh my, look at that cover: "15 Ways to gain Speed. 3 Secrets to a lighter Headset! DeMorXPR's: Do they work or just look good?" Nice cover shot of some Martian dude sailing through the air. But gals are fait They won't judge the mag by its cover. So what about the inside? Hmm, here's an interesting ad. The words seem to float in space: "techno-logi-

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Jacqui Phelan, aka Jane Air MD (Mud Dowager) is the founder of the Women's Mountain Bike and Tea Society. The WOMBAT mission is to sustain a women's off-road cycling network, so that members may find a riding partner, encourage other girls and women to try cycling for the fun of it, learn the trails of the area, and keep up with the latest news of interest to "women who love mud too much". WOMBAT also aims to enhance awareness of the bicycle as a mode of transportation. To find out more write to WOMBATS, P.O. Box 757, Fairfax, CA 94978, USA. Or call +1(0) 415 459 0980.

S (I)

cal ... a trail that even lemmings back away from... kamikazes ... pressure"... The ad goes on to discuss a "dream that leaves...WD-40 on the sheets". Nice. The ad's not aimed at me, but I feel like soiled sheets. Here's an article entitled "Turning Tricks". By now that gal's outta here! The magazines are a boy's club. The manufacturers are a boy's club. It even looks like the ad agencies are a boy's club. What's a gal to do? Start a girls' club. Describing the unseen (though sharply felt) factors that conspire to slow a gal's entry and progress in bicycling (or for that matter any sport) is a job for a social critic, best undertaken by a pro. These factors are cultural barriers, but I think of them as hurdles because I love leaping over them or kicking them down. The row of hurdles curves into Forever if you play in the competitive arena: a woman's mobius challenge. One never really "arrives" - you just retire to the different hurdles of the Real World. I had my epiphany in 1990 when, by mistake, the promoter of the Portland NORBA race handed me the Pro Men's sixth place cheque instead of the cheque for the women's sixth. I tore it open and to my delight, I won more than I had all season - four hundred bucks! Swiftly, harsh reality killed my joy, when I realised that my usual seventh place cheques were

always thirty-one dollars - barely the entry fee - and the drop off between 6th and 7th could never be that steep. I pondered the implications of skipping off to cash the NOPIBA race cheque, and trudged back over to return it, so as not to ruin the sixth place man's day. (The women's sixth place prize at this National Point Series event was forty-six dollars). Not long after this event, ABC Wide World of Sports agreed to air a show on a great, fabricated, invitation mountain bike race called the Bide Of Your Life, with a $10,000 cash prize. After talking to the promoter and to the video producer I learned that the women's event was essentially a trial run for the technical details of the men's event (filming fat tyre racing is a challenge that exceeds the relatively simple task of racing). The male promoter hadn't searched for a women's purse, though he could have divided the ten into two fives and still had the top American purse of all time. The video producer, when pressed for how the show would look, said that it would be a twenty minute show with a minute of "highlight packages" featuring the women. Don't these fellows realise that Women's sports marketing is defined in terms of the speed with which the woman yanks the remote control out of her husband's hand? And playing it right actually doubles your advertising income. Announcers tend to call the men's race "the main event". The women's races are casually shortened with little warning. At the World Championships veteran women often race a lap or two less because the track has to be cleared for the gents. Message: you don't count. My message back: wait till you find how much market share you're losing. Excitement in sporting spectacle derives from the viewer's identification with the player and familiarity with the activity. Hardly any women play football but nearly all women ride bicycles and 50% of the people watching TV are women. American readers of this magazine will have noticed that when manufacturers want to sell their goods, from Sunsweet Prune Juice to Reebok shoes, they plunk every woman and her mother on a mountain bike. We gals are the serious shoppers, but the men making up sports events aren't convinced. If the purses were larger, and women got what the men got, the women's field would swell dramatically. Sponsors pay less to women, and women make less in winnings. The justifications are complex. In a nutshell, it's felt that women will take less and be more appreciative if they are aware that they are seen as intruders in the men's club. Our self-esteem and low opinion of pushy women who stick up for their opinions contribute to this. Yet in all kinds of sports many women are now making it past the What-Will-The-Boys-Think stage, earning some of their own money, and deciding to go out and play. BIKE CULTURE 167

I N V E N T 0 R S

JXI

The creation of the Snark Over the lurching roads of rural Wales rolls a strange creature which has, as its home, the highest village in that hilly country. This creature is called the Snark: not a mythical beast but rathe r'th e Eastwood family's pedal-power 'ed alternative to the family c ir. Tony Eastwood describes how the Snark was created and what it can do.

Snark was the first vehicle I never designed. My wife and I had been riding bicycles since our marriage (our tandem had been a wedding present) but gradually, as our children were born, the tandem became increasingly useless for real transport. So the hunt for a more suitable vehidc began. As the children grew 1 built a very strong lightweight, fullyenclosed child trailer. Eventually I realised that our two children were getting heavier and heavier, that four little legs would be atrophying, and that a four-person recumbent would be just the thing. Initially I tried to buy one but no one owned up to making them (which is odd, as there scores of four seater motor cars on the market). I happened to mention my ambition to a local welder and he said yes, fine, for an hourly rate he'd weld any thing. Thus encouraged I picked up some smashed bike frames, some steel tube, seats, wheels, pedals and ten lengths of chain. Eventually I had a huge heap of junk in the

168 BIKE CULTURE

bedroom. One morning I put most of this junk in the child trailer, rode down the road to the welders, and the Snark wa, born. Suddenly i was transported back to the birthplace of the industrial revolution. Molten metal flowed in rivulets from the impossibly hot flame of the torch, or flew in fiery arcs under the angle grinder - red hot pieces of metal were quenched in oil or clouds of steam. At night I dreamed of Wilkinson casting canons or Naysmith forging mighty steam hammers. But after three days the confusion was over. The Snark, as yet unpainted, was wheeled home through the twilight. The Snark has now been in use for nearly two years and has undergone some modifications. The steering has been replaced by a much more direct system acting on the track rods. During the same rebuild the 20" front wheels were replaced by 17". These are fine, although it is a nuisance that Moulton tyres are so very expensive, three times the cost of the very much superior 500A tyres used on the back wheels!

I N V E N T 0 R S

The Snark has also been fitted with a windscreen - made from 1.5mm Lexan with aluminium stiffening. This has also made the vehicle a little faster and much warmer, which extends our winter range quite considerably. Having a roof, the Snark is a fairly dry vehicle to travel in. The only problem in wet weather is that water tends to run off the roof and onto the two front seats. Travelling on the Snark is a delightful experience. The first great advantage compared with normal cycling is that you do not have to worry about the traffic. It's big and solid and looks like a car. In addition there is no danger that wind or bad road surface will cause wobbling - in fact the steering is so good that I can drive with the front wheel only three inches from the kerb even at 15 mph - so our effective width is no greater than a tandem! We also have a mirror and flashing lights). City centre traffic is real fun - we can keep up easily and pretend to be just like real people. Of course only I, the driver, have to worry about the traffic; the other three occupants could be debating the weather, admiring the hedgerows, singing songs, or eating their lunch (always providing they keep pedalling!) I think the sociable nature of a side-by-side vehicle cannot be overestimated. In our case it is simply wonderful to be sitting next to a young son or daughter and yet to be going cycling. Another great advantage is comfort. The long wheel-base, the suspension and the sheer size make it a very smooth vehicle to travel in. Long journeys may take a bit longer by Snark but they are never traumatic. When you get there your legs may be tired but the rest of you is fresh and alert. How well does it go? Well, we have four occupants: myself a fairly average rider with a good staying power on hills, my wife, who is also an average cyclist, my son John (aged seven) and daughter Patience (five). We don't climb hills very well "The Snark is not a replacement for our family car - it is our family car".

usually about 5mph on a 1 in 10. On the level it's quite a different story. We cruise at about 13mph already, and it's quite clear that once Patience reaches John's size and John is a healthy eight year old, then our level speed will be more like 16-17 mph. Long journeys are surprisingly easy. Over the 65 hilly miles between A cycle taxi from the 1880s. our house in North East Wales and Talybont near Barmouth in West Wales we averaged 10.6mph, and when we got there we were all ready to go and play on the beach. On a safety bike I can do the same journey at 13.4mph, but I feel much more jiggered when I arrive. Our gearing is perfect for its purpose. The biggest problem to the Snark is probably the threat of vandalism, for such a unique vehicle inevitably attracts unwelcome attention. So far we have been fortunate and have had no actual damage but it would certainly require some faith in human nature or a very good alarm system before we would leave it outside an inner-city concert hail or public library. A second problem is lack of luggage space. Most car owners expect to be able to carry about large fragile items like computers or pick up heavy furniture. A much better Snark design would allow the rear seats to fold down for such eventualities. There is no problem with the weight - I've had a bag of builder's sand on board before now. Our Snark is both a prototype and a successful means of transport. We would urge others (especially professional frame-builders) to look seriously at the building of side-byside four-wheelers. Both two-seat and four-seat Snarks would make very practical vehicles. If our prototype can be used by an average family living in the highest village in Wales then surely a more sophisticated lighter version could easily meet the needs of those living in flatter places. SPECIFICATIONS Front wheels: 17 Moulton with hub brakes Rear wheels: 20" (500A) with rim brakes Seats: Glass fibre (Peter Ross) Frame: Tension members of 22g tube from Smiths Do-it-all.

Compression members and pedal tubes of 18g. 1" (all I could get). Cranksets: Stronglight Tandem sets (28-38-48 and 32-42-52) with Raleigh children's cranks for the children. Clusters: 14-32 (5 or 6). Gear Ratios: 17.5" to 74. Weight: about 95 lbs. Suspension: Rear wheels only - tension rubber band (old inner tubes) Front track: 40. Rear track (and distance between seats): 18. Maximum recorded speed: 37mph! Minimum recorded speed: 2mph (climbing the Horseshoe Pass).

BIKE cLLTuRE 169

HIST

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The bicycle and the rise of individualism r,

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Albert Herrestal describes how the bicycle changed society a century ago. hen Baron von Drais invented his 'running machine' in Germany, in 1815, he created a vehicle intended to make human propulsion faster and easier. Yet it achieved popularity via a different route: as the play thing/sports machine for the rich leisured classes. Only later, once design had passed through several development phases (including the addition of pedals and cranks), was the smaller-wheeled safety bike to dominate the stage. Cycling was to boom in popularity across Europe in the last five years of the 19th century, affecting first Britain, then France, then Germany. Later, mass production was to bring cycling within the reach of the masses. In Germany the bicycle's mass popularity as a means of transport in the 1920s was to coincide with a time of strong class conflict. People became increasingly conscious of a chasm between the social classes. The years in which cycling first achieved broad popularity in Germany, just before the turn of the century, reveal some fascinating themes which find echoes in other countries. In his influential book, the Philosophy of Cycling, (1900) Eduard Bertz declared, rather optimistically, that "both sexes cycle today, and every age group and all classes: workers, farmers and soldiers as well as artists, academics, politicians and kings". Bertz saw the communality of cycling bringing all these people together as part of a great, worldwide reform movement, releasing a new liberating spirit. This common pursuit, he said, created a shared identity for cyclists and

170 BIKE CULTURE

inspired a form of spiritual conversion. Thus the bike served progress and the development of a common humanity. The social success of the bicycle was also linked to the rise of individualism. According to Bertz the value of the bicycle lay, without doubt, in the time it could save. The railway had been a precursor to the bicycle, but it did not meet the changing needs of modern transport since it followed predetermined routes, at predetermined times, to specified destinations. It served the masses who were prepared to subordinate themselves to official timetables, who were willing to fit into someone else's regime. The bicycle can be used for countless self selected routes, at every hour and in every direction of the compass. It meets the needs of individuals and matches the eternal multiplicity of the human will. In America Scribner's Magof the opinion that for 99 out of a 100 men the bicycle is better than a horse because there's hardly any maintenance costs and it never gets tired. It goes three times as far as a horse in the same time." People who stabled or hired out horses found that their

azine was

HIST

ant' f ihrradwer1e.

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This Diamant poster, from around 1897, was probably conceived with the male purchaser of bicycles in mind. Even the daring culottes (anything but common amongst female German cyclists) would not have made it easy to mount machines with such high top-tubes.

Bicycles made individualised transport possible for the masses.

living was seriously threatened, horse prices dropped, and farmers in America found that at the end of the last century, breeding horses was hardly worthwhile. In the American magazine Arena Sylvester Baxter claimed that horses would disappear from the streets entirely. As the roads would therefore no longer be pounded by horses, new and absolutely flat roads could be laid according to scientific principles. This would benefit cyclists, and the costs of maintenance would be minimal. There would be plenty of electrically driven carriages, noiselessly propelled in all directions. The current noise on the streets would vanish, relieving the nerves of many city dwellers. Street cleaners would be practically redundant. Carriage drivers and coachmen who had previously dominated the road and had often dealt high-handedly with pedestrians, found the arrival of the bicycle difficult to cope -with. Cyclists could zip past them and tease them with impunity. Carriage drivers often tried to block the cyclist's passage, forcing the latter to follow behind over the ruts caused by the carriage wheels. Some drivers used whips on the cyclists, and court cases ensued. Bertz saw parallels with the machine wreckers of the previous century, another popular reaction against the arrival of mechanical tools. Karl Marx devoted a whole chapter to this phenomenon in Das Kapital, stating that wherever the machine takes over a field of production, it creates chronic

misery amongst the workers it displaces. Where the transition was fast, the misery was acute. Perhaps the carriage-drivers saw cycling in this light. Other areas of the economy were affected. The American monthly magazine The Forum reported in 1896 on how different trades were suffering from cycling. For example, wealthy people who used to give their children such presents as a gold watch, a piano, or furniture for their rooms, no longer did so. The magazine reflected that piano and clock-makers might well be complaining, but this was not necessarily a bad thing given the numbers of talentless people playing the piano, and it was beneficial for anyone to get out on a bike. It was good that a healthy sport drove out a dispensable luxury. Dressmakers also complained, since both sexes cycled in sporting costumes of the cheaper sort. A milliner suggested that the milliners' trade organisation should petition Congress to rule that all cyclists should be obliged to purchase at least two felt hats a year: Cyclists often dispensed with hats as they were liable to blow off. Shoemakers complained that cyclists were buying inexpensive beach shoes which were not easily worn out by the pedals. Cigar manufacturers claimed that cycling had caused a million fewer cigars a day to be smoked. Innkeepers complained loudly about the fall-off in wine and beer consumption, Theatre and other entertainment venues complained about lower attendances, and barbers complained that cyclists were not bothering to shave or have a haircut before BIKE CULTURE 171

HISTORY

For the first time, women began to enjoy freedom of movement, thanks to the

Photography, religious prurience, adventurous women, danger on the roads: some

bicycle.

of the re-occuring themes in 1890s cycling.

taking to the road. Church attendance was thought to have been affected by the popularity of cycling amongst the younger generation. The evangelical Mr Bertz responded that the bright-eyed cyclist communing with a wonderful vista was more likely to be in direct touch with the Almighty than the community confined before the pulpit. It was considered scandalous for women cyclists to bare their knees and sweat on the brow was deemed unfeminine. By the end of 1896, women's right to ride was established in most European countries. Corsets were criticised and doctors began to recommend looser garments for easier breathing. Anklelength skirts gave way to riding costume, cycling trousers and culottes. George Hermann wrote in 1901 "The bicycle is to be thanked for giving women the freedom they have today in the public arena. The bicycle has brought the daughters of the house from their knitting, away from the pots and pans, taken them out with brother or friend into the open air, and has freed our young girls from the constant supervision of mothers and aunts. It has brought them to a degree of independence. - Accidents were another major issue around 1900. According to Bertz "the bicycle has entered the world as a disturber of the peace and constitutes a hazard in street traffic. Pedestrians in the bigger cities are already needing to take great care in crossing the Street. Many are injured because they have been unable to keep pace with the speed of technical developments in transport." Bertz criticised pedestrians who wandered out in front of cyclists: "Do they not have eyes,? Can't they hear a bell?..It is a measure of the skill and alertness of cyclists that so few pedestrian are run over. Those who suffer most are the indecisive, the fearful and the nervous. Those who stand frozen at the sound of a bell or the sight of an oncoming cyclist have a higher chance of survival than those who jump this way and that in front of the approaching cyclist. A church bell would not be loud enough to alert some people." The role of doctors at this time seems curious

from a modern standpoint. Many doctors at the turn of the century allowed their distaste for cycling to colour their medical judgment. Discussions amongst doctors were often heated and bitter. A Dr von Leo claimed cycling brought tiredness, temporary swellings and stiffness due to the fairly static riding position. He claimed there were disturbances to the nervous system and circulation, and uneven development of muscles. He thought that the leg muscles develop out of proportion to the arms. This would be ugly and unfeminine and would produce a strange gait. This would particularly affect young girls who were still growing. It was felt that the dust stirred up by cycling enter the eyes and damage lungs. Doctors warned against heart problems, an increase in TB, strains on the nerves of the back, and urine poisoning of the blood. Dr Martin Mendelssohn, at the end of the last century, said that cycling increases the body heat, and the increase in blood circulation would increase sexual libido. Men often had to dismount in the course of cycling to allow their libido to ebb away and thus avoid the outward signs of sexual arousal... There is nothing left to add.

172 BIKE CULTURE

In general, only the sons and daughters of the wealthy attained bicycle ownership in the 1890s, and they seldom rode on city streets. The bicycle was yet to bring its liberating effects to children worldwide.

Middle class England at play. At gymkhana garden-fetes and country shows the bicycle took a leading role.

H I S 1 0 R Y

The traditional annual visit to the photographers studio began to include the subject's bicycle.

Formation riding, by English ladies.

Elegance on three wheels. The bicycle became, in the 1890s, an object of great prestige and usefulness.

Above: The crowned heads of Europe cycled together when staying with the Danish royal family at Fredensborg Castle. This photo is probably from 1896.

Left: The bicycle was to have its greatest effect on the working classes

the people who had most

to gain from increased mobility. Here the workers of Paris enjoy the fruits of the 40 hour week, brought in by the Front Populaire government before the occupation.

A BIKE CULTURE 173

H I S T 0 R Y

A poster by E. Vulliemin for Peugeot bicycles, about 1900.

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Armchair theorists were fascinated by the possibilities for

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using bicycles in warfare.

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By this time American mass-manufacturing techniques were bringing the bicycles within the price range of previously excluded sections of society. American imports drove down bicycle prices across Europe.

As late as 1908, a decade after the great European cycling boom, Opel were associating their bicycles with upper-middle class female elegance. The lady in this poster is not portrayed as the owner of the high-framed gentleman's bicycle. She is there for purposes of adornment, and to lend an opulent tone.

4..

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P R 0 F I L E

Two plus two -

Forty makes of trailer for the customer to tow away.

raditionally bike shops have fought shy of trailers, arguing that they take up too much floor space in relation to the commercial return. Yet a few far-sighted dealers have always taken a different view, and one in particular now stocks nothing else. Zwei plus Zwei (Two plus Two) displays over 40 different kinds of load- and child-carrying trailers in its Cologne shop. They have produced an excellent colour booklet, which is distributed

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through the 110 outlets which are members of the Association of Self-Managed Cycle Shops (VSF). These shops co-operated on the production of the booklet, and have exclusive rights in Germany for retailing the trailers. This puts Zwei plus Zwei in the additional role of wholesaler, and neatly avoids the situation which existed previously, in which individual shops sourced (and even imported) trailers on a one-off basis. The motive force behind the Zwei plus Zwei catalogue is Andreas Gehlen, a former voice-coach to professional actors and media people. On a five-week visit to Africa he was struck by the creative way in which Africans applied human-power to everyday tasks. Then he went to a large German trade show, and was enthused by the range of trailers available, but was also aware that few bike shops were taking trailers seriously. At the same time, many of his personal friends were expressing a need for a trailer. The voice-training went into pianissimo, and Zwei plus Zwei The RS Surf, for kayak or surfboard

Andreas Gehlen

was born. It is not just a trailer supply facility. It is an information centre, which gives any VSF colleague technical back-up on the telephone, since trailer design and technology is wonderously varied, and very few in the cycle trade would call themselves expert. Andreas also provides spares and optional accessories to the shops. Customers can, of course, visit his shop in person, and choose from everthing on show. Does it all work in practice? The answer is yes. The customer sees a huge selection of trailers well presented in the catalogue; the retailer does not therefore need to stock them all, and Zwei plus Zwei give their rapid delivery service, plus technical back-up. Everyone wins. The catalogue costs 2.50 DM from VSF shops, or German readers can send 3.00 DM in stamps directly to Zwei plus Zwei, Palanter-Str 5b, 50937, Cologne. Readers in the rest of the world need to send send a 5 DM Eurocheque, or international reply coupons to the value of 4.00 DM. Tel: +49 (0)221424012. BIKE CULTURE 175

BCQ Shop These are not conventional marketing pages, in that everything you see here has been specially commissioned by us, and is exclusive to this magazine. With each passing issue we will add to the range of goods available. Although they may bring in some welcome cash to help meet the bills, these products have been commissioned because they celebrate the variety and depth of international cycling culture. For details of how to order, and prices, please turn to page 178.

Posters The Pedersen bicycle never made it into the colourful world of 1890s lithographic poster art - partly because the Pedersen came along towards the end of the poster period, but also because it was too specialised a machine for mass-circulation posters. We've put things right, late in the day, by commissioning David Eccles to produce this sensuous new Pedersen poster working from a French original of the same period. Printed on high quality 170gsm gloss art paper the A3 poster measures 420 x 297mm. This poster, by Bonn van Loon, is the kind of image which governments should be issuing. We hope that it will inspire readers to spread the message of the joy of cycling, and inspire the unconverted to give cycling a go. The poster is printed A3 size (420 x 297mm) on high quality 170gsm gloss art paper. Organisations wishing to use it for campaigning or promotional purposes should contact us to discuss terms for bulk purchases.

Back Numbers The 93/94 Encycleopedia was the first ever edition and is already a collector's item. At ÂŁ5.95 for 92 pages featuring 34 products the 93/94 Encycleopedia is excellent value, and some copies are still available. Product features in this year's edition which have the reprise symbol were also covered, sometimes in greater detail, in the 93/94 edition. BCQ's message is timeless. We like to think that each issue of Bike Culture will be a good read whenever it is picked up. Originally published in Jar Bike Culture 1 a

176 BIKE CULTURE

T-Shirts All our 'F-shirts are made from top of the range preinium 100% cotton by Screen Stars and are available in either large or extra-large. Bike Culture T-Shirt The simple Bike Culture T-shirt sports our logo, designed by David Eccles, reproduced as a small crest on the front and enlarged right across the back, printed black on white. BCQ 2 T-Shirt (not shown) The BCQ 2 T-shirt also sports our logo on the front as a small crest but features the popular cover picture from BCQ No2, by David Eccles, in full colour on the back. Encycleopedia 94/95 T-Shirt (not shown) The Encycleopedia 94/95 T-shirt features the compass motif as a small crest on the front, black on white, and a colour reproduction of David Eccles' Encycleopedia 94/95 cover design on the back.

BCQ SHOP

David Eccles Limited Edition Prints For the 1993/94 edition of Encycleopedia we commissioned David Eccles, one of Britain's foremost cycling illustrators, to produce original images of 19th century cycles in the form of a limited edition set of four linocuts. Conceiving an image and printing it from a block of cork linoleum is a rare and delicate craft. A linocut has a limited capacity for printing due to the fragility of the material. David produced 75 individually numbered and signed sets of the four prints before cancelling each block. The size of lino-block David chose for our prints is near the maximum size for his 'Albion' press. Because both the printing and the inking are done by hand no two prints will be exactly the same. The paper, made entirely from 100% cotton and acid-free, has been specially made by hand for this edition by Chris Bingham of Puscombe Valley Paper. It replicates exactly paper made in the mid-to-late 1700's, and is normally used for repairing books and documents of that period. For our purposes we had the making hot-pressed by the Wookey Hole Mill. The paper is called 'Queen Anne', the colour is 'Edinburgh Shade' and the weight llOgsm. It was supplied by Limehouse merchant John van Oosterom. These prints are offered individually and, subject to availability, also in full co-ordinated sets of all four prints. At the time of going to press, all prints are still available, including full sets. Each print is numbered, signed and dated by the artist. The prints have all been window-mounted on 46cm x 41cm acid-free conservation board. For practical reasons, we cannot supply the prints ready-framed. The prints can be ordered individually or, subject to availability, as a complete co-ordinated set of four.

1. A tracing is made of the artist's drawing, but the detail of the picture emerges only as the cuffing is underway

2. Every so often the cut is inked up so that a trial 'pull' can show, progress •

'VJ

Alpha Bantam circa 1898 The Alpha Bantam was built by the Crypto Cycle Company in Clerkenwell Road, London and was one of the last in a series of attempts to maintain the popularity of direct front-drive against the ever increasing popularity of the chaindriven rear wheel drive. The Bantam sported an epicydic hub gear in the front wheel.

lilu'

Mergamobile The 'Mergamobile' was made of wood and propelled via a pulley system operated in a treadle fashion via the pedals. The origins of the machine are unclear, and opinion varies considerably. We would welcome any new information on this mysterious machine.

Bicycle Racing, mid 1880s High bicycles were exciting and precarious thoroughbreds. Direct drive meant that one rotation of the pedals translated into one revolution of the wheel: so wheels remained large until the gradual introduction of the smaller-wheeled safety bicycle, made possible by the happy idea of running a chain to the rear wheel.

Durstey Pedersen Tandem, turn of the century. Pedersens, in solo or-tandem form, were an elegant and expensive alternative to conventional diamondframed bicycles. At least one Pedersen tandem weighted an astonishing 281b (12.7kg) and was designed to carry 24 stone (153kg).

3. The careful cutting-out begins and a reversed image begins to appear. One false move could ruin days of work

4. The cut is regularly inspected in fine detail, and worked on till the artist is satisfied.

l• '------

•'. '• --—;--__

BIKE CULTURE 177

NEW ANNUAL BCQ SUBSCRIPTION DEAL All the affiliated shops on pages 112-126 stock Encycleopedia and most should stock Bike Culture. Bike Culture and Encycleopedia are also available by mail. This issue of BCQ (o 3) will be the only Bike Culture not published separately from Encycleopedia. All future Encycleopedias and Bike Cultures will be self-contained, separate publications. Because of this, we have introduced a new annual BCQ subscription deal. All new annual subscriptions (ic 4 consecutive issues of BCQ) as promoted in this combined

Encycleopedia 94/95-BCQ 3 edition, will automatically start from BCQ 4 issue, or whatever subsequent issue of BCQ is current at the time the order is received, unless a future issue is specified. Current subscribers will be notified of the new arrangements along with their renewal reminders. Readers wishing to subscribe from an earlier issue will instead have to order earlier issues of Bike Culture (and/or Encycleopedia) as back numbers. By quoting their unique subscription number, or by placing the orders when taking out a subscription, subscribers

will be entitled to a 20% discount off back number cover prices and free postage. As part of our policy to broaden the availability of BCQ, we have appointed exclusive agents to handle distribution for us in North America, Benelux, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Details of how to order from these new agents are listed below. Please note that these agents are merely servicing orders and Open Road Ltd in England remains responsible for fulfilling all ongoing subscription commitments entered into with these agents.

GERMAN/SWISS/AUSTRIAN DIRECT SUBS

BENELUX DIRECT SUBS

NORTH AMERICAN DIRECT SUBS

All single cop) orders and annual subscriptions to Bike Culture, and/or Encycleopedia, for GERMANY, SWITZERLAND and AUSTRIA are now being handled by VELOMOBILE Gmhl-l. Annual BCQ Subs (4 consecutive issues): 5013M Back Nos: BCQ: 15DM (+3Di4 postage), 93/94 Encycleopedia: 14D\l (f-4DM postage), 94/9 Encycleopcdia: 38D\l (+5DM postage). Payments: German cheques drawn on German bank accounts should be made payable to Velomobile GmbH and must be in Deutschmarks. Payments from Switzerland and Austria must be made in Deutschmarks by Eurocheque - 'Ort' should read 'Bremen' and the card guarantee number must be written on the back. Fill out the VELOMOBHE section of the special tear-out response card opposite entitled 'OPEN ROAD LiSA! VELOMOBILE/FIETS a PARTS' and send it along with your payment to Velomobile GmbH, Postfach 10 77 47, 28077 Bremen, Germany. Telephone: 0421 5465923, Fax: 0421 5465960.

All single cop\ orders and annual subscriptions to Bike Culture, and/or Encycleopedia, for BENELUX (Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg), are now being handled by FIETS a PARTS.

d annual subscriptions to All single cops orders an n Bike Culture, and/or Encvcleopedia, for N AMERICA are now being handled by OPEN ROAD USA.

Annual BCQ Subscription (4 consecutive issues): 58 guilders. Back Nos: BCQ: 14.50 gldrs (+4 gldrs postage), 95/94 Encycicopedia: 17 gldrs (-'-5 gldrs postage), 94/95 Encycleopedia: 44 gldrs (+6 gldrs postage). Giro Payments: Fiets a Parts S. KOORN, Rabobank Maarssen, nr 31 06 27 346. 'lb keep track of your order please fill out the FIETS A PARIS section of the special tear-out response card opposite entitled 'OPEN ROAD USA/VELOMOBILE/FIETS it PARTS' and send it to Fiets a Parts, Gantel 2, 8052 BR Zwolle, Holland. Tel: 03 8551580, Fax: 03 8551685.

Annual BCQ Subs (4 consecutive issues): $35. Back Nos: BCQ: $8 (42 postage), 95/94 Encycleopedia: $9 (+$2.50 postage), 94/95 Encycleopedia: $23 (+$3 postage). Payments: Cheques should be made payable to Open Road USA and must be in US$. Fill out the OPEN ROAD USA section of the special tear-out response card opposite entitled 'OPEN ROAD USA/VELOMOBILE/FIETS a PARTS' and send it along with your payment to OPEN ROAD USA, P0 Box 1055, Ansonia Station, New York, NY 10023. Telephone: 212-865-7688.

ALL MERCHANDISE ORDERS AND OPEN ROAD (UK) DIRECT SUBS All T-Shirts, Posters. Eccles Prints, and videos are available by direct mail only from the publishers. Open Road Ltd in the UK. This merchandise may also be stocked by some of he affiliated Encycleopedia shops listed on pages 112-126.

Open Road in England can take orders by telephone, mail, and bank transfer. Telephone Orders To order by telephone call +44 (0)1904 654654 Monday to Friday during normal office hours (09.0017.00 UK time). We accept the following Credit Cards: Visa, Access, Mastercard and Eurocard. Ordering by Post When ordering by post please choose one of the methods of payment described below. Once you Rave established the amount to pay and the appropriate method, please complete the tear-out response card opposite entitled 'OPEN ROAD UK ONLY' and send it, along with your payment, to: Open Road, 4 New Street, York, YOl 2RA, England. CREDIT CARDS: Credit card payments must be made in Pounds Sterling only. Be sure to indicate the following information: which type of credit card; the name as it appears on the card; the card

number; the expiry date; and the name and address for delivering your order. EUROCHEQUES: If you are paying by Eurocheque, please note that all Eurocheques must be made out in pounds sterling regardless of the country in which the bank account is held. Please remember to put 'York, England' as the "Place" not your own address, i.e. the destination as opposed to the origin. Also, please write your guarantee number where indicated on the reverse of the cheque. CHEQUES: If you are paying with an ordinary personal cheque, you must make out the cheque in your national currency. All personal cheques must be drawn from bank accounts held in the country of origin. We do not accept personal cheques from non UK bank accounts made out in pounds sterling. All personal cheques and Eurocheques must be made payable to Open Road Ltd.

Bank Transfer

To at-range a Bank Transfer in sterling your bank will require the following details: Account Name: Open Road Ltd Account Number: 00199926 Bank: Bank of Scotland, 88 High St., Coldstream, Berwickshire, TD12 4AQ, Scotland. Bank Sort Code: 80-13-02 Please advise us of your transfer via the 'OPEN ROAD UK ONLY' tear-out response card. !fyou are paying in a currency other than sterling please make every effort to ensure that you are sending sufficient money at the prevailing rate of exchange equivalent to the sterling values in the table below. To establish the prevailing rate of exchange between Sterling and your national currency we recommend you consult your bank

Cover 1-Shirts

£ 1500

(BCQ2/Encycleopedia 94/95 versions) postage (per T-shirt - UK only) postage (per T-Shirt - Europe ex UK) postage (per T-Shirt - Rest of World)

+0.75 +1.25 +2.00

PRICE INFORMATION FOR DIRECT ORDERS TO OPEN ROAD Bike Culture Annual Sub

£ 20.00

(4 consecutive issues as from BCQ 4) Bike Culture (per copy)

postage (per magazine - UK only) postage (per magazine - Europe ex UK) postage (per magazine - Rest of World)

5.00

--0.75 +1.25 +2.00

(per copy) postage (per book - L I'. only) postage (per book - Europe ex UK) postage (per book - Rest of World)

+1.00 +2.00 +2.50

(per copy) postage (per book - UK only) postage (per book - Europe ex UK) postage (per 1)00k - Rest of World)

15.00 -1.50 -2.50 +3.00

Encycleopedia 1993/94

(per print) (per set of four) postage (per order - UK only) postage (per order - Europe ex UK) postage (per order- Rest of World) David Eccles Prints David Eccles Prints

5.95

'Pedersen' Poster by David Eccles postage (per order - UK only) postage (per order - Europe ex UK) postage (per order - Rest of World) 'Ride a Bike' Poster by Bonn Van Loon postage (per order - UK only) postage (per order - Europe ex UK) postage (per order - Rest of World) Bike Culture T-Shirt

Encycleopedla 1994/95

178 BIKE CULTURE

(simple Black/White version) postage (per T-shirt - UK only) postage (per T-Shirt - Europe ex UK) postage (per T-Shirt - Rest of World)

65.00 220.0 -5.00 +10.00 +20.00 7.50

+0.75 +1.25 +2.00

Encycleopedia 1994/95 Video

(not available until October 94) postage (per video - UK only) postage (per video - outside UK)

12.00

+1.00 +2.50

7.50

+0.75 + 1.25 +2.00 10.00

+0.75 +1.25 +2.00

York Films Bicycle video

postage (per video - LJJ.( only) postage (per video - outside UK) Please allow at least 28 days for delivery on all orders. Orders by Eurocheques, or other cheques not drawn from a UK bank account, may take longer to process.

14.99

+1.00 +2.50

Index

Photo Credits All studio photography by Paul Batty except the following products: Burrows Speedy, Duplex, Easy Glider, Flux, Hornet, Leitra, Greenspeed, Roilfiets, Co-Pilot, Filibus, Ritschie, CykelFabrikken, Victorian, Birdy, Brompton, and Zzipper. Non-studio photography copyrights Paul Batty Sue Darlow, Caroline Austin, David Bocking and The Portsmouth D-Day Museum.

AM Series: Jubilee L Agnuti 559 Bevobike Bicycle Table & Clock Bike Friday Travel System Biogrip Birdy Brompton T5 Burrows Wmdcheetah Chinkara Chronos Hammer Co-Pilot DuPlex Easy Glider EasyStand Ergomax Filibus Flux ST-2 Galaxe GB Panniers Greenspeed Tourer Handy Bik Hetchins High & Low Box Transporters Hornet Hot Ears Kiddy Pod Kingcycle Recumbent Kool Stop Brake Blocks Kool Stop Repair Kit Kool Stop Rim & Tyre Guard Kool Stop Valve Adapter KSS Precision Hub Leitra Lightning P-38 Linear London Longstaff Trikes Moulton APB Newton trike conversion set Nighteye Ostrad Pedersen of Denmark Phantom Picador R채derwerk HPV Rack Radnabel Rapide Redeye Safety Light Releasy Ritschie Rollfiets/Duet S'Light Street Glider Street Machine Super Link Ill Swing-Arm Tanaro Taylor Tagga Timax Titanium Frame Trailerbike Trice U+2 UBX/Paramount Lock Ultimate Work Stand Velo-Case VeloHorn Victorian Voyager Winchester Woodguards Yak 16 Trailer ZZipper Road Fairings

Alex Moulton Ltd Rasko GmbH & Co KG Voss Spezial-Rad Roland-Werk Gmbh ATP Green Gear Alfred Hartmann Riese und Muller Brompton Bicycle Ltd Seat of the Pants Co Swing Cycle Delft Chronos Mayland-Smith ApS Ryan Vanguard Firma Marec Hase Greenfield Fiets a Parts Kemper Flux - Fahrr채der Galaxe Cykler Gilles Berthoud SA Greenspeed Diamant David Miller Cykel Fabrikken Radius Spezialrader Riese und Muller Third Wave Carriers Kingcycle Kool Stop Inc Kool Stop Inc Kool Stop Inc Kool Stop Inc KSS Walzlager-Vertriebs Leitra Aps Lightning Cycle Linear Manufacturing Utopia George Longstaff WR Pashley Ltd Roman Road Cycles Ultralight(Lighting) Ostrad CmbH Svenborg Cykelfabrik Orbit Cycles Ltd WR Pashlcv Raderwerk Radnabel Cresswell Engineering Innovative Cycle Cycle Logic Weber Werkzeugbau Robert Hoening Bisy GmbH Future Cycles HP Velotechnik Craig Metalcraft Inc Fix Free Drives Fahrrad-Systemtechnik D. Tek Titan Performance Islabikes Crystal Engineering Cresswell Engineering Henry Squire & Sons Ultimate Support Velo-Case Invent PJ Taylor Cycles Leppers Fabrieken by Winchester's Originals Inc Woodguards Beast of Burden Bike Trailers Zzip Designs

46-47 48-49 8-9 106 80-81

94 82-83 90 10-11 12-13

95 66 14-15 16-17 106 92-93 67 18-19

84-85 96 44 86-87 50-51 76 20-21 106 107 22-23 97 107 107 108 108 24-25 26-27 28-29 52-53 54-55 88-89 77 108 30-31 56-57 64-65

74-75 98 32-33 34-35 109 109 68 58-59 109 36-37 38-39 110 99 40-41 69 60-61 70 42-43 71 100 101 102 110 78-

no 72 103

104 105

7 TWO

The Encycleopedia team: Paul, Edgar, Chris, Jim, Brian, Alan and Amy.