AU T U M N 2019
CLIMATE CRISIS
LCC’S NEW CAMPAIGN CLIMATE & CITIES ACTION YOU CAN TAKE NOW SCHOOL STREETS
ADVENTURE CYCLING
GETTING WILD IN WALES GRAVEL BIKES BIKEPACKING BAGS TOURING PANNIERS
MAGAZINE OF
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AUTUMN 2019
contents
News | Features | Travel & Rides | How To | Bikes & Reviews CAMPAIGN > 12
RIDES 47
GUIDES RIDE GUIDE
IBIKELONDON
We’ve teamed up with iBikeLondon for a great west London explorer
SUMMER SOCIAL
F
tunes. There’s a ‘no drop’ policy, meaning no-one gets left behind and there’s always someone to help out if you have a mechanical issue. And if you are running late to the ride or become separated there’s no need to worry — the whole ride will be available on the Glympse app, so you can see exactly where the group is in real time. iBikeLondon was created and is made possible by our friends at Cyclehoop, a firm of awardwinning designers of cycle parking run by cycling enthusiasts. The aim of iBikeLondon is to share the love of cycling and to show how fun it is to party on two wheels. The rides are all about inclusivity, diversity and just
ANCY A fun, leisurely ride to some beautiful London parks with a bunch of like-minded cycling folk? Then the Summer Social organised by iBikeLondon this August — including a picnic in Richmond Park — is a ‘must do’ for the diary. iBikeLondon’s series of friendly, social rides happen throughout the year and are free and open for anyone to join. The Summer Social is an annual highlight and this time visits Battersea Park, Wandsworth Common, Wimbledon, London Wetland Centre, Holland Park and finishes in Hyde Park. The pace is relaxed and the rides are always accompanied by a fleet of soundsystem bikes pumping out
having a great time too! To find out more about the Summer Social and other rides, go to ibikelondon.com and cyclehoop.com.
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PUTNEY HEATH 12.5m
LONDON WETLAND CENTRE 17m
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LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 47
HOW TO
FIT A NEW
CHAIN
A smooth-running chain is key to a hassle-free drivetrain. Jenni Gwiazdowski explains how to fit a new singlespeed chain when your old one is past its best
Jenni Gwiazdowski Founder of London Bike Kitchen and book author
There are a number of benefits to ditching your gears and going singlespeed — efficiency, simplicity, easy maintenance and lighter weight are among the list. But it’s still not quite zero maintenance. Chains are a consumable, designed to wear down faster than your chainring and freewheel in order to prolong their life. Here’s how to fit a new singlespeed chain...
STEP 1: KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE If you ride every day, expect probably ‘feel’ when it’s to change your chain once time for a chain change, but a year, although singlespeed the quickest way to check chains can last a lot longer properly is using a chain as they’re not subject to checker tool. When you hit all that gear shifting you 75% wear, change that chain get with derailleurs. You’ll as soon as possible.
STEP 3: MEASURING THE NEW CHAIN Drape the new chain over inner links to use a quick link the top of the chainring connector, so make sure both and freewheel. Pull one end ends of your new chain will of the chain to meet with be inner links. You can mark the link on the chain that the links with a felt-tip pen. would make the best taut Remove the surplus chain connection. You need two length using the chain tool.
STEP 2: REMOVE THE OLD CHAIN For this you need a dedicated handle clockwise to push the chain tool. Place the chain pin out and ‘break’ the chain. tool’s teeth around any With the chain removed, link on the underside of remember to drop the rear the chain, line up the tool’s wheel as far forward in the screw-in pin with the pin of dropouts as is safe, and the chain link, then turn the tighten the wheel nuts.
STEP 4: CONNECT WITH THE QUICK LINK Place one part of the ‘quick first then inner, using a little link’ on one of the exposed bending and wiggling. You’ll pins; the same on the hear a tiny click when both opposite side of the other parts are seated correctly. end of the chain as shown. Finally pull the wheel back so Now marry up both parts that the chain is taut but not of the quick link: outer plate tight, and tighten wheelnuts.
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bridleways, it’s been composed and comfortable. The fork may be more jarring than a carbon equivalent, but chunky 38c Halo tyres do a decent job of ironing out the bumps and hollows. What’s more the fork, like the frame, is doused with mounting options for racks and bottles. Called the One By due to its single chainring up front, the wide-range cassette meant we only wished for a lower gear on two particularly steep climbs (we’d invest in a smaller chainring for alpine tours). The TRP disc brakes were equally impressive, never lacking in stopping power even when carrying a full set of panniers or bikepacking bags. We also loved the ‘riser’ design and flare of the handlebars — little things can make a big difference.
FACTFILE ■ The Darwin family also includes ‘dedicated’ touring models with 2x11-speed gearing, and MT (mountain) models with fat 47c tyres mounted on 650b wheels. ■ Lots of useful upgrade options available on the One By including: Passport Tour rear rack (£45), Passport Lug-Kages x2 (£35), SP PD-8 dynamo & BM50 lamp (£85). ■ The frame also has mounts for a hub gear if you wanted to swap later, plus a ‘coupler’ in case you wanted to fit a belt drive. VERDICT + The simplicity of a ‘one by’ drivetrain is ideal for UK touring and bikepacking. + Hugely versatile bike with upgrade/swap options.
CLIMATE & CITIES > 16
What are the world’s big cities doing to deliver zero-carbon transport?
CLIMATE > 22
Seven simple ways you can help tackle the climate crisis at home or at work
How can we affect changes... if individual councils can wreck strategic developments ASHOK SINHA, OPINION, PAGE 9
TRAVEL, 40
SCHOOL STREETS >31 Andy Donohoe
MODEL: LIGHT BLUE DARWIN ONE BY, £1750 ■ ison-distribution.com NTIL NOW Light Blue (owned by major cycling distributor Ison) has largely flown under the radar, but it offers both ‘urban’ and ‘sport’ ranges and it’s in the latter that you’ll find a couple of dozen steelframed road, touring and adventure bikes, including the Darwins. Built around a beautifullyfinished Reynolds 725 tubeset and steel fork, the One By has the aesthetic appeal of an old tourer yet it’s shod in the latest tech — and it rides really well, reminding us why there’s still a place for the original frame-building material alongside the expensive composites. On the road it’s been faultless, especially over the long haul. And off-road, on hardpacked gravel tracks and chalky
How London must act quickly to become a decarbonised modern city
FACT FILE START: outside the National Theatre DATE/TIME: 2pm, Saturday 17 August FINISH: The Serpentine in Hyde Park DISTANCE: 37km (23 miles) TIME: around 5 hours in total GRADIENTS: 707ft elevation gain SUITABLE FOR: people of all ages and abilities, riding any bike. Make sure your bike is in good condition, and check your brakes and tyres. If you have a mechanical problem or a puncture during the ride, give one of the ride leaders a shout and someone will help you.
IBIKELONDON SUMMER SOCIAL
START: NATIONAL THEATRE
INTERVIEW, 26
Pioneering schemes show benefit of closing streets to traffic in peak hours
Let’s celebrate... cycling is an uproariously broad church CARLTON REID, OPINION, PAGE 10 LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 3
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CONTENTS | AUTUMN 2019
Cover image: Bikepacking in the South Downs (by Andy Donohoe) EDITORIAL
Ten years in the saddle I
WAS GRINDING my way around a sun-baked ‘rando’ event earlier this summer when I bumped into an old mate at one of the feed stations. As we quickly scoffed down a few orange slices and caught up on family and work gossip, he asked: “So how long have you been doing London Cyclist now?” I had to think about it for a few seconds, but when the dates clinked into place in my overheating noggin, I could feel my eyebrows raising. It had been a decade. I’d been editing this fine publication for ten years — and this major milestone has just passed me by! The following day I took a little trip down memory lane and it was fun to scan through old issues to see how much has changed since 2009. The magazine itself has gone through significant changes, not just in format (soon copied by rivals) but also in content mix — and, boy, have we featured some incredible, inspiring people. And when you look at how the capital has better embraced cycling in this period, it’s also impressive — though clearly much remains to be done. So a belated thanks to all those contributors who have pitched in over the years, and especially our designer Anita for her continued support. Here’s to another long haul in the editorial saddle — happy pedalling! John Kitchiner Editor
LCC MEMBERS’ LEGAL HELPLINE
LONDON CYCLIST Unit 201 Metropolitan Wharf, 70 Wapping Wall, London E1W 3SS n 020 7234 9310 n lcc.org.uk
EDITORIAL
Editor: John Kitchiner (londoncyclist@lcc.org.uk) Design: Anita Razak Contributors: Fran Graham, Simon Munk, Tom Bogdanowicz, Rob Eves, Sarah Flynn, Ashok Sinha, Carlton Reid, Amy Foster
ADVERTISING
Allie Gill, 01306 621147 allie@lcc.org.uk
SOCIAL MEDIA
TWITTER: @london_cycling FACEBOOK: @LondonCyclingCampaign INSTAGRAM: @london_cycling Editorial, copyright & printing policy LCC is not aligned with any political party. All views expressed in London Cyclist are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the editor, nor do they necessarily reflect LCC policy. Editorial content is independent of advertising. All material is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the editor. London Cyclist is published by LCC. OUR AIMS: lcc.org.uk/strategy MEMBERSHIP: lcc.org.uk/membership TO DONATE: lcc.org.uk/donate LCC is a charitable limited company, reg no 1766411; charity no 1115789 London Cyclist is printed by Buxton Press on FSC carbon balanced paper from responsible sources.
Osbornes Solicitors is the official legal partner of LCC, providing members with exclusive access to a legal helpline. If you’re involved in a collision or have a cycling-related legal issue, phone the Cycling Team at Osbornes for advice on 020 7681 8672. CBP0007421307115017
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Autumn 2019
HOW IS YOUR AREA DOING ON HEALTHY STREETS PLANS? Campaigns unite to create ‘scorecard’ for tracking walking and cycling activity
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CC, WORKING with other ‘active travel’ campaigns — London Living Streets, CPRE London, RoadPeace, Sustrans and Campaign for Better Transport — has just launched a Boroughs Healthy Streets Scorecard. It uses four ‘input’ metrics —things boroughs can do rapidly and without huge amounts of funding to improve their streets in line with TfL and the Mayor’s Healthy Streets methodology — and four ‘output’ metrics that track the results of such action long term. Inputs include implementing ‘modal filters’, delivering cycle tracks and covering the borough in 20mph zones, while outputs include the activity levels of borough residents, risk of serious or fatal collisions to those walking and cycling, and car ownership levels. Of course these metrics aren’t a complete picture of borough activity. But they were developed to be objective, publicly-available and come from sources likely to be annually updated. So we should see the progress of bolder and braver boroughs clearly highlighted.
“People’s access to streets that are safe enough to take the healthy option of cycling has long been a postcode lottery. But our data shows the gulf is widening further between the most progressive boroughs and the rest,” said Ashok Sinha, LCC’ s chief executive, at the launch. “Every London borough should study this scorecard and take action: the best can and should improve further still, and the rest can and should rise to the challenge of guaranteeing their residents cleaner air to breathe and safer streets in which to walk and cycle.” The scorecard has already caused a stir with some boroughs trumpeting their results, others ringing hands over it and with some campaigners attacking it because Westminster comes ahead of Waltham Forest on the overall results. However, the web page (link below) explains the methodology and how campaigners can best use it to hold boroughs to account. You can find more information on the scorecard and download the full report from lcc.org.uk/pages/healthy-boroughs-scorecard.
TRAFFIC LIGHT SCORES: how each borough is progressing on Healthy Streets
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NEWS
RIDE LONDON TO BRIGHTON FOR LCC DO YOU like to be beside the seaside? The famous London to Brighton charity bike ride is a chance to escape the city for a day and take in the sea air with some beautiful countryside along the way. And LCC has limited places available which will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. So why not take part in this classic event with Team LCC and help us raise vital funds while taking on an unforgettable challenge? Whether you’re a regular racer or you prefer to take things at a much more leisurely pace, London to Brighton is a great day out for riders of all abilities. This year’s ride takes place on 15 September and starts at Clapham Common. There’s a buffet lunch on the course and free mechanical assistance if needed. Plus you’ll get a limited edition Team LCC jersey. For more information and to secure your place, head over to lcc.org.uk/ teamlcc for the Challenge Events listing.
MYTHBUSTING:
people don’t want to cycle in London
JOIN US AT THE AGM AND BOARD ELECTION ON 16 OCTOBER
46
%
% of Londoners who are put off cycling due to fear of collisions
2/3 % of car trips in London that could be cycled in under 20 mins
71%
% who support building cycle tracks on main roads
0 7% % of users who feel Cycle Superhighways led to them cycling more
THIS YEAR’S Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the London Cycling Campaign and election to the Board of Trustees will take place on the evening of Wednesday 16 October at New London Architecture (The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT). We warmly encourage everyone to join us in what promises to be a lively and enjoyable occasion (although only LCC members may vote).
Board Elections Members are invited to stand in this year’s election to LCC’s ten-strong Board. Elected by the membership, the Board is responsible for governance, overseeing the CEO and staff, overseeing LCC’s finances and ensuring legal and regulatory compliance. This year there are six vacancies. To stand, please visit lcc.org.uk/agm/board-election and download a nomination form which must be submitted by 9am on Friday 6 September. Voting will be conducted by an electronic ballot of the full membership in September and in person at the AGM.
Motions to the AGM The AGM is LCC’s highest decision-making body and members are invited to submit motions for debate and decision. To submit a motion please email it to agm@lcc.org.uk by the deadline of 9am on Friday 6 September. As per LCC’s rules, all motions will be subject to a process of scrutiny and possible amendment prior to the AGM. This year’s scrutiny meeting, at which proposers will be invited to attend and discuss their motions, will be held from 6-8pm on Thursday 12 September at the LCC office (Metropolitan Wharf, 70 Wapping Wall, London E1W 3SS). LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 7
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OPINION
Partisan posturing After K&C council’s shameful about-turn, do we need to look at Mayoral ‘over-rule’ on key plans asks Ashok Sinha?
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’M PUTTING pen to paper as an extraordinary inaugural London Climate Action Week closes. In case you somehow missed it, the week saw almost 150 events, bringing together campaigners, politicians, financiers, journalists, youth climate strikers, artists, scientists, community groups (and many more) to debate and organise London’s response to the climate emergency. But I won’t dwell on this, especially as my colleague Fran Graham sets out in these pages how LCC will shortly kick off a new campaign to decarbonise London’s road transport and former mayoral advisor Mark Watts gives us a tour of Big City responses globally. Instead, a specific comment made at one of the Week’s events does warrant attention: a senior figure expressed her exasperation that a single council — Kensington & Chelsea — could kybosh a major new long distance, protected cycleway; how can we possibly effect the changes needed to our transport system at a pan-London level, if individual councils can wreck planned strategic developments at a stroke? She was right to be outraged. As are the large number of people who have excoriated LB K&C for an act of bad faith that reeks of
politically partisan posturing. Let me explain. With the imprimatur of the council, TfL began a public consultation on a new segregated cycleway in west London. And the purpose of these consultations is to improve plans for road redevelopments; they are not, nor should they ever be, treated as referendums (a subject I have covered before). So far so good.
Limited opposition Yet midway through the consultation, under the strangely convenient cover of kickback from limited but vocal opposition to the cycleway, the council pulled the plug on it — effectively snuffing out the opinions of thousands of people who had given their views in the faith that they would be listened to. Imagine your employer and their landlord had promised to convert some car parking spaces into a set of new cycle racks that they know will be wellused, inviting staff to shape the plans, only for the landlord to
“It’s a dismal episode of political maneouvring. But the resident-led fightback has begun”
Ashok Sinha Chief Executive of London Cycling Campaign
kill off the whole idea halfway through just because some noisy, wealthier tenants want to park right next to the building. Only this is much more important than mere convenience, or even social responsibility: it’s a matter of life and death. The route for the planned new cycleway is notorious for collisions. It would not only make it much safer for cycling, but reduce collisions between motor vehicles too. What’s not to like? Unless of course you are a Conservative council with a long history of car-centricity that wants to stick it to a Labour incumbent ahead of next year’s mayoral election. By the way, I have publicly and frequently extolled the Conservative-led City of London for their world class cycling and walking plans, so don’t import partisanship to my views. This is a dismal episode of political manoeuvring. Fortunately the resident-led fightback has begun, with support from LCC. However, it does beg the question as to whether the Mayor should be able to over-rule boroughs in cases of great, longterm strategic interest. But that’s for another day, and another column. Meanwhile K&C deserves all the brickbats that have been despatched its way.
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OPINION
Sporting support No matter what bike you ride we’re all part of the same family argues Carlton Reid, with the same foes
A
RECENT Financial Times article on the supposed boom in cycling started thus: “Swarms of cyclists barrelling up and down London’s multimillion-pound Cycle Superhighways every day suggest [Tour de France] success has translated into mass take-up of the sport.” Sport. Not transport. For some cycle advocates, this is tantamount to hate speech, and the ‘nobody is encouraged to drive to the shops by watching Formula One’ mantra is often wheeled out on social media to push the message that utility cycling and competitive cycling should not be conflated. True, few will start pedalling to the pub because they tripped over an advert featuring Geraint Thomas on a Pinarello, but all the ills of the world really cannot be pinned on the cycle industry for choosing to promote go-faster bikes rather than practical ones. (For a start, that’s what sells. E-bikes taking over? Not yet — according to the Bicycle Association only 66,000 were sold in the UK last year). It’s worth looking with fresh eyes at how the sport side of cycling views cycling as transport. Who’s the go-to guru on transport cycling at the moment? Chris Boardman. What’s his background? Sport. Which organisation, until
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recently, paid a chunk of his annual income? British Cycling. Is British Cycling a racing organisation? Used to be. Now? Yes, but also not only. Heck, even the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) has long described itself as the global representative body for all facets of cycling, including transport cycling.
Sport and transport The UCI’s Agenda 2022 reform programme, adopted last year, promises to beef up the organisation’s Cycling For All platform and says it will “encourage public authorities to promote bike use as a way of improving people’s health.” The UCI’s Bike City initiative creates “examples of how cities can maximise the impact of sport to help create better, safer cities for all people on bikes, regardless of age, level of fitness or cycling activity.” Closer to home, Sport England also promotes cycling as transport. Its director of property has said “getting more people using active travel will see benefits for
“Would such antipathy fade if we all rode Dutch bikes in our civvies? Probably not”
Carlton Reid Transport Journalist of the Year (Specialist Media) 2018
individuals’ health and the NHS as a whole, the environment and local communities”, adding that cycling was for the “commute to work” and transportation in general. Sport England’s inclusive and widely praised ‘This Girl Can’ campaign majors on sweat and effort, but in an aspirational way, and it’s entirely possible that those ads have done more to get women on bikes than anything the bike industry has done in recent years. It also recently commissioned Sustrans to review 84 walking and cycling interventions. This found that “evidence is strongest for town or city-wide approaches... made up of several interventions working together across a whole place”. Of course, the ‘cycling is a sport’ theme is often used as a stick to beat us. Bile-filled columnists pile on ‘Strava freaks’ bowling over grannies on Blackfriars bridge, and petrolheads yell we should race around velodromes rather than ride on ‘their’ roads, but would such antipathy fade if we all rode Dutch bikes in our civvies? Probably not. It’s not the Lycra or the carbon frames that’s at the root of this sentiment it’s our very existence, fast or slow, tucked or upright. Let the haters hate. And celebrate the fact that cycling is an uproariously broad church.
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CAMPAIGN
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Inspired by the school strike activists, Fran Graham looks at how London must act quickly to become a decarbonised, zero-emissions city
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schoolchildren, with millions now demanding climate action. Hope that was bolstered while watching Extinction Rebellion’s peaceful, colourful and joyful protests shut down parts of central London in April, which helped put the climate crisis back on the front pages. It feels like the hope and resolve is still growing, demonstrated by the dramatic shift in public attitude on the issue, with nearly 70% of British people wanting urgent political action to tackle the climate emergency and protect the natural environment. This hope is important, because sometimes it is too easy to feel despondent when it comes to the climate. Late last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) — the world’s leading climate scientists — issued their starkest warning yet: if we keep emitting carbon at the same rate, by 2030 we will have used up all the remaining ‘sub-1.5 degree carbon budget’. In other words, we have 11 years to avoid locking in warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius. This might not sound like much, but we are currently on track to reach 3-4 degrees by 2100. A 3-degree world would lead to droughts, floods, extreme weather, refugee crises and the resource wars that come with it. Even 1.5-degrees of warming would leave millions of people displaced, hungry and impoverished . The 1-degree of warming is already making itself known. In the UK, we’ve seen wildfires ripping through Yorkshire during the hottest February on record earlier this year, followed by another recordbreaking heatwave at the end of June. Globally, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and devastating — in March and April this year, Mozambique was hit by two powerful cyclones — the first time in recorded history
Photo: Getty Images
HEN I stood in front of the crowd at our ‘Climate Strike on a Bike’ on 24 May, I hadn’t expected my emotions to overwhelm me. For someone who’s been involved in the climate movement for years, the sight of so many people joining the call for urgent action to advert the climate emergency was incredible. We’d woven our way through London, the bike bells ringing out, to meet the thousands of school strikers in Parliament Square. They were energised, passionate and organised — an awe-inspiring sight. One that was replicated around the world during the biggest school strike yet. I finished the day with renewed hope. Hope that has been growing in recent months. Hope that we can finally start to see the kind of action needed to transition our lives away from fossil fuels. Hope that was sparked by Greta Thunberg and her solitary Skolstrejk för Klimatet (‘School strike for the climate’), which has grown into a global movement of
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that strong cyclones have reached landfall twice during the same season. Cyclone Idai alone is thought to have killed over 1,000 people and left 400,000 homeless. The climate crisis is already claiming victims, causing damage and misery, and the world’s poorest countries — who bear the least responsibility in causing climate change — will suffer the worst of the impacts. So it’s not overstating when I say that this is the greatest challenge facing humanity right now. Which is why seeing all the energy and passion to advert this crisis, especially from the young activists, is so inspiring. They know we need urgent action, and they know that no technology currently exists to ‘repair’ the climate . There needs to be a concerted effort at all levels of government to curb emissions — that means halting fossil fuel extraction and transitioning our economy away from oil.
bearing on the global response to the climate emergency. In London, the Mayor has already taken the positive step of declaring a climate emergency, but his target of net zero by 2050 is too far away — London must decarbonise faster than that. The main sources of carbon emissions in London are from homes, workspaces and transport. But while the Mayor has few powers directly over private residential housing, there are many more that cover transport. As do borough councils, who control 95% of London’s roads. And with 20% of all carbon emissions coming from road transport in London, decarbonising our roads will be a vital and achievable step towards a net zero-emission city. To get there, two things will need to happen...
We must lead the way
Cycling and walking are zeroemission modes of transport. It’s also cheap, efficient and keeps you healthy. But despite the many benefits, it is still not seen as the obvious choice for most people moving about the city. People are
As a global megacity, the example London sets will be noted and replicated around the world. With 68% of the world’s population predicted to live in cities by 2050, what the cities do will have a huge
RAPID CONSTRUCTION OF A HIGH QUALITY CYCLE NETWORK
fearful of cycling, and until the streets feel safer to cycle on, that is a choice we are denying many people. London needs to be a city where everyone who wants to cycle, can. So while we’ve seen strides towards making the city a ‘byword for cycling’, we still have a long way to go. To enable many more people to choose carbon-free transport, we need to rapidly accelerate the construction of a high-quality cycle network. That means lots more high-capacity cycle routes, such as Cycleway 4 currently being constructed from Tower Bridge to Greenwich, all over London. But we know that it’s also not appropriate or necessary to put a cycle track on every road, so that needs to go hand in hand with more low traffic neighbourhoods. These are residential roads where a few well-placed bollards or planters mean that the streets are accessible for motor traffic, but ratruns are blocked, creating a more pleasant, healthier environment. Rather than wait for a magic technology (such as the long promised and much-hyped autonomous vehicle) to cut carbon emissions in transport, the quickest, cheapest and most
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CAMPAIGN
efficient way to reduce emissions will be to make the streets much better places to walk and cycle.
A CURE FOR OUR CAR ADDICTION London is plagued by short car journeys. Two-thirds of car trips made by London residents could be cycled in less than 20 minutes. It’s lead to the damaging and illegal levels of air pollution, to a congestion problem that’s predicted to cost London an eye-watering £9.3 billion by 2030, and a significant contribution to our carbon emissions. These issues won’t be solved by a wholesale switch of every car in London to electric vehicles (EVs). For one, there are significant concerns about the mining of all the precious metals needed to create the components for this volume of replacement cars. Plus, switching one for the other still leaves us with a congestion problem, air pollution issues and road danger from collisions. So although EVs will have a part to play in decarbonising the road transport system, it is also vital that we switch the unnecessary car journeys to more sustainable methods — mainly walking and cycling. Alongside providing a high quality cycle network, the most effective way to do this will be by introducing smart road user charging. London is already seen as a pioneer on road user charging, having introduced the Congestion Charge 15 years ago. Covering central London, there is a flat rate for anyone entering the zone between 7am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. This has recently been
It is still not too late to act. It will take a far-reaching vision, it will take courage, it will take fierce, fierce determination to act now, to lay the foundations where we may not know all the details about how to shape the ceiling. In other words, it will take cathedral thinking. Greta Thunberg joined by the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which also charges a flat rate for entering the central London zone, but is applied 24/7. The plan is to expand the ULEZ to cover the area inside the North and South Circular roads by 2021. However, a smart road user charging system would work slightly differently — the pricing system would adapt based on, for instance, the time of day (so it was more expensive at peak times) and emissions (more expensive for more polluting vehicles). It would ensure that the vehicles causing the most damage are paying the most, with the money generated going towards sustainable travel projects boosting walking, cycling and public transport.
A network of high-quality cycle routes and a smart road user charging scheme would work hand in hand to transform London into a place where walking and cycling become the natural choices for everyday journeys, cutting air pollution, helping people stay healthier and, crucially, drastically cutting London’s carbon emissions.
Our Next Big Campaign With the upcoming mayoral elections in May 2020, we will be asking the candidates how they intend to step up to the challenge. Climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity, and at LCC we have a plan for the rapid and achievable way to decarbonise London’s road transport. It’s a necessary stage to a zero carbon city, paving the way for other megacities to follow, creating a better city for everyone — one with fewer cars, less pollution, greener streets and much, much more high-quality cycling infrastructure. And helping to protect the future for the planet and millions of its inhabitants. n Want to keep up to date with the campaign? Sign up to our mailing list at lcc.org.uk/climate. LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 15
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CAMPAIGN CLIMATE
T CITIES CLIMATE CRISIS &
Our cites must change. And cycling is key to solving the climate crisis as Mark Watts, Executive Director of C40, explains
HE FIRST thing I look for on arriving in one of our cities is how many people are cycling. As Executive Director of C40, a global network of mayors, it is often the simplest indicator of progress in tackling the climate emergency that is our focus. The good news is that we will soon be publishing data that shows an exponential increase in cycling across C40 cities. However, the reality check is that it isn’t nearly enough and within the next decade most metropolises need to be approaching the cycling rates currently seen in outlier cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam. For most of my life cities have been designed to meet the needs of motorists. London was one LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 17
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of the first cities to break with that consensus. Yet, when I started out as a young adviser to the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, many older officials still thought it a joke that cycling could ever become a major transport mode in a huge global hub like London. The latest figures show that cyclists in London now clock up 4 million kilometres each day, and cycling was up 5% in 2018 compared to the previous year. Fifteen years ago I cycled from Walthamstow into central London in glorious isolation, but now I’m part of a huge convoy of cyclists for most of the route. We have a long way to go to unlock cycling’s full potential to deliver zero-carbon transport and improve the quality of life for city dwellers, but the surge in cycling in London and many other cities around the world is now impossible to ignore. So what are the lessons from across the world about what cities need to do to accelerate this trend and move even more people out of private cars and onto bikes or other low carbon transport?
If you build it, they will come
World’s longest elevated cycle lane: opened in Xiamen, China, in 2017
of cycle lanes. There has since been even more investment in cycle lanes and routes in the city, and the C40 Cities Finance Facility is supporting the delivery of a 25km Quinto Centenario cycle avenue, part of the city’s plan to double the share of journeys made by bike to 10%. Even more dramatic has been the cycling revival in China. Previously ubiquitous, bicycles lost favour from the mid-90s as cars became a status symbol. I still remember with horror being told by my counterpart in the Mayor of Beijing’s office how he was hoping to reduce cycling levels from 15% of trips to less than 5%. He succeeded. But more recently, faced with nightmarish traffic jams and intense air pollution problems, China is encouraging cycling again with some seriously large-scale investment. Major segregated cycle arteries once again criss-cross Beijing and in just a few short years bikes are again visible everywhere. In 2017 the south eastern city of Xiamen opened the world’s longest elevated cycle lane; a 7.6km continuous, separated ‘skyway’ that can handle more than 2,000 bikes at a time. Just two months ago, Beijing opened its brand new 6m-wide, 6.5km-long bike-only road. This new route will offer a 26-minute cycle (as opposed to what is usually over a 1.5-hour drive during rush hour) for the district’s 11,600 daily commuters. Yet infrastructure alone is not enough, without also addressing
In San Francisco only 29% of cyclists are women, in Barcelona that figure is a quarter, while in London it’s 37%
The first and most obvious lesson is that if you provide continuous, safe cycle routes that connect places where people live and work then lots of people will use them. In Bogotá, the proportion of journeys by bike grew from 0.6% to 6.0% in just a decade to 2015, on the back of a first wave 18
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the broader issues of availability, convenience and safety. Oslo’s city centre is exemplary — over 700 parking spaces have been removed and replaced with gardens, trees, cycling lanes and bike parking spaces. Much of the downtown area is now car-free, and a cyclist’s dream as a result. The air is fresh and the streets safe for pedestrians and cyclists alike. Twenty years ago anyone who wanted to cycle had first to be able to own and store a bike. Following the success of the Paris Vélib scheme, cycle sharing has blossomed across C40 cities. For many, this has been their entry point to cycling, although in China, in particular, dockless cycle hire bikes have become the main cycling mode. Symbolically, cycling will get a massive advert when the Olympics arrives in Tokyo in 2020. Tokyo is investing hugely in cycling infrastructure, securing cycling as the transport of choice for future generations. There are parking spaces for bicycles everywhere, and particularly near train stations — one fifth of the metropolitan area of Tokyo’s 20 million rail commuters now travel to the station by bike.
Selling the multiple benefits of active commutes As well as the environmental benefits, people who cycle to work are 40% less likely to develop diabetes, according to research conducted in Finland. Just two 10-minute periods of brisk walking or cycling a day is enough to stay healthy. Research conducted by C40 and supported by Novo Nordisk, also found that improving public health by encouraging people
Cycle use is growing in all C40 cities: but the reality is that it still needs to grow faster
to cycle helps to reduce spending on healthcare. C40’s research in Houston found that nearly 117,000 car trips were avoided in 2016 as a result of the city’s expanded cycle lane network, cutting significant amounts of air pollution and ‘saving’ 350 tonnes of CO2. As Peter Sagan, three-time road cycling World Champion and C40 Global Ambassador for Cycling Cities, puts it: “When people feel safe and confident riding their bikes rather than taking their car, they are healthier, happier, save money and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.” What’s not to love?
Is cycling for people like me? Behaviour change doesn’t happen overnight, but it is within the power of politicians to make choices to encourage people to get active with their transport — and that’s what many of C40’s pioneering mayors are already doing. More than a dozen cities have signed the C40 Green and Healthy Streets Declaration, which pledges to ultimately make large areas of their city centres closed to petrol and diesel vehicles, encouraging walking and cycling as an alternative. And this isn’t just about replacing fossil fuel powered cars with EVs – decarbonising our streets is crucial, but with growing city populations, we need a fundamental shift in the way people travel around our finite urban spaces. Increasing walking, cycling and public transport will make a far greater impact across all levels of society. It is the great unlocked potential of the bicycle to make society more equitable which is also very exciting. I am a self-confessed middle-aged man in Lycra (MAMIL), and LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 19
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we’re becoming a more common sight in cities across the world. But in order to make cycling accessible for everyone, whatever their background, race or gender, we need to examine what the barriers are to getting people in the saddle on the streets. And it’s no surprise that they exist, when studies have shown that urban cycling investments tend to focus on the needs of wealthy riders and neglect lower-income and BAME residents. We can do this by focusing on the big sections of society who believe that cycling ‘just isn’t for me’. C40 recently published research which highlighted the importance of encouraging more women to cycle. In San Francisco only 29% of cyclists are women, in Barcelona women make up just a quarter of the city’s cyclists, while here in London it’s 37%.
Inclusive volunteer schemes To truly create cycle-friendly cities, everyone needs to have access to the benefits that cycling brings. There are schemes across the globe that volunteers can contribute their time to — including Cycling Without Age, first established in Copenhagen and now allowing elderly cyclists and people with restricted mobility to enjoy cycling in over 40 countries. We Bike NYC provides a safe space for women, trans and gender non-conforming people in New York City to cycle by offering social rides, training rides and mechanics’ workshops. London’s Bike Project and Bikeygees in Berlin offers female-led cycling education for refugee women. Every innovation in urban cycling brings with it both opportunities and risks. Dockless bike sharing systems have brought cheap and accessible bike rental to huge numbers of people who live outside city centres. Yet, the images of cycle graveyards in China, with thousands
Social rides: a great way to bring new groups to cycling
of rusting bikes, suggest the business model is still far from assured. And while e-bikes may encourage even more people to try cycling, particularly in cities not as flat as Copenhagen and Amsterdam, the ‘embodied emissions’ (greenhouse gasses released in the manufacture and lifetime maintenance of a product) are far higher for e-bikes, because of their batteries and need for recharging. If it is a way to encourage people out of cars then it’s a good thing. But the anecdotal evidence that e-bikes and e-scooters are replacing muscle-powered bikes around the world is troubling. Ultimately, while the climate emergency is a very real threat to humanity’s continued existence and needs to be treated as such, making cities low carbon also heralds the opportunity for a new golden generation for everyone to enjoy walking and cycling in the world’s great cities. Change, of course, doesn’t happen without leadership and LCC has provided this in spades over the years. I remember how its vision and pressure was critical in ensuring that the Livingstone administration took cycling seriously — and I still use it as an example almost every time I talk about grass-roots campaigns in cities around the world. While I know LCC’s focus has to be London, it would be amazing to think of an international network of city cycle lobby groups working alongside C40 to internationalise the cycling revolution that LCC kick-started here.
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things YOU can do to tackle climate change Making changes on a personal level is the simplest way to make a difference says Esther Griffin from ‘carbon crush’ experts 1010uk immediately to take action. But it’s not just about one little person going it alone — every action you take can inspire those around you to do the same, until before you know it our society has shifted towards the low carbon future we all need.
Lighting
society, need to take radical action now to stop global warming getting really dangerous. In the face of all that, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. And yet we do have the know-how, skills and tech to make a difference. We just need to crack on and do it. There are plenty of things you can start doing
Illustrations: Boing Graphics
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OU DON’T have to look far to find evidence of the growing climate crisis. In the last year alone the UK has seen heatwaves, severe flooding and wildfires. They’re all signs our planet is heating up — fast. And the scientists just underline the point. All of us, across every part of
If you haven’t switched to super energy efficient LED lightbulbs already, what are you waiting for? They can work in dimmers, the light goes on straight away, you can pick either cooler or warmer tones — and they use so much less energy you could reduce your lighting bill by up to 90%. Once you’ve switched at home, see if you can change at work too. Maybe you could set up a fundraiser to change the lightbulbs at your local school or community centre. And then think even bigger. Check to see if your local council has switched street lighting yet, and if not, tell them to get on with it. According to one 2016 report, a drive to switch homes, street
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lighting and offices to LED could save us more than two Hinkley nuclear plants’ worth of electricity. It’s a cliché to say ‘if we all worked together, we could make a big difference’ — but LEDs are one of the places where this is really, massively true.
draughts too. You’ll often find big gaps where pipes or cables go into walls, like behind the washing machine, under kitchen cupboards and around sinks/toilets. And the best thing is, if you’re renting, you can make all these improvements without a landlord’s permission. Once you’ve done some of these heat-saving tricks at home, offer your skills to a neighbour. Or take them to your office, school, or community hall — any building you might use with other people. Get others involved too, then they can skill up and take what they’ve learnt home with them.
Keep in that heat Heating is behind about a third of UK greenhouse gas emissions. And each winter we spend a fortune on it, only to have it escape through draughty windows and doors. But there’s plenty of ways to reduce the amount of heat you need, and make the most of what you use. Turning your thermostat down by just one degree cuts your fuel consumption by up to 10%. Get your boiler’s timer function set up, so you always come home to a warm house without wasting heat, and switch off radiators in rooms you don’t use much. Also try taping tinfoil behind radiators to reflect heat back into the room (no, seriously!). Take your windows (and external doors) to task with some thick curtains or secondary glazing. Even putting clingfilm on your windows helps keep in the heat. Hunt down and block hidden
to a plant-based Come Dine with Me, or set up a vegan bake-off at work. If you’ve got a staff canteen or favourite cafe, ask them to add more veggie or vegan dishes. It’s also worth thinking about where your food comes from. Foods produced locally and grown inseason all help to slash the emissions of your favourite dishes. And whatever you eat, don’t waste it! Any food we chuck out still had to be grown and stored and shipped, meaning lots of carbon emission, not to mention a waste of money. So plan your meals before heading to the shops, ensuring you buy what you’re actually going to eat. Invest in some tupperware boxes and eat leftovers for lunch the next day. Get creative with leftover ingredients as well — you can put odds and ends in curries, soups and pies. And if you can’t use something up, freeze it. Seriously, you can freeze nearly anything.
Eating According to a big UK study from 2016, the carbon footprint of a vegan diet is about 60% lighter than those with a load of meat in them. So have you thought about trying plant-based meals? You don’t have to take an all-or-nothing approach, why not try challenging yourself to go meat-free a few days each week and see what new recipes and tastes you learn along the way. One of the reasons changing your diet is hard is how much eating we do with family and friends. But that’s also one of the things that can make it fun. Challenge your mates
Energy If you’re worried about fossil fuels, one simple thing you can do is switch to a renewable energy supplier. It’s very easy to do, and many people find they save a decent sum of money too. Some companies are even offering ‘green gas’ tariffs LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 23
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now. Once you’ve switched, double your impact by suggesting a friend or family member or workspace switches too (you often get referral rewards). You might also want to think about who you bank with and, most importantly, who they invest in; you should be able to find lists online. If you have savings to invest, it’s worth considering supporting community energy projects. These projects install renewable energy, like solar panels, on schools or community buildings and ordinary people buy shares in the project, so they all own it together and run it for the benefit of the local area. You don’t have to be local to invest. And if you do have one near you, they always need people who can volunteer all sorts of skills — why not lend a hand?
overland is an opportunity to rediscover and reclaim the journey itself, swapping sterile airport lounges for a good book (or podcast/ movie/etc), beautiful scenery and the satisfaction of keeping your carbon emissions grounded. Get the maps out — there are plenty of hidden gems within easy reach by train across Europe and the UK. You can also get the time you need to travel to your holiday destinations by signing up to schemes like Climate Perks which enables your employer to offer paid ‘journey days’ to their staff.
Getting around
Holidays If you love to travel, chances are one of the biggest decisions you can make for the planet is deciding whether to fly or not. Air travel carries a heavy climate cost: a single return flight to Berlin clocks up the same amount of carbon as eight return trips by train. Sometimes we need to fly, but often we don’t. Try planning your next holiday by train. Travelling
One of the best forms of low-carbon travel is, you’ve guessed it, cycling. So let your enthusiasm run wild and encourage others to join you on their bikes. Share your bike-fixing skills with friends. Offer to plan cycle routes to work for your colleagues, and take them on a group ride to build up confidence. If cycling in your area isn’t easy, lobby your council (via LCC local groups) to improve cycle infrastructure. And there are ways to make your car journeys greener as well. All those fuel economy tricks you know you ought to do will help save on carbon emissions as well as pennies. Or if you’re thinking of buying a
car, see if there’s a car-sharing scheme you could choose instead, or if you could go electric.
Knowing stuff One of the biggest problems when it comes to action on climate change is simply that we don’t talk about it enough. This makes it harder to know what the problems and solutions really are, and keeps the pressure off people who could help change things — whether that’s politicians, businesses, or your uncle Colin. Climate science is a complex business, but the basic things you need to know to understand climate change aren’t very hard. There are plenty of talks, podcasts and news websites to get informed and then keep you up to date. It doesn’t mean surrounding yourself with gloomy news though, there are plenty of positive stories of things going right on climate change out there. From inspiring people doing stuff to renewable energy records to businesses making big sustainability changes. It’s not good enough to just keep this knowledge to yourself though. Once you get used to reading more about climate change, talk about it! n 1010uk.org
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SARAH STOREY Britain’s most successful Paralympian is now the cycling tzar in Sheffield. Tom Bogdanowicz speaks to Dame Sarah Storey about her vision... What motivated you to make the commitment to become Sheffield’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner? I’d been inspired by how Chris Boardman’s appointment (to the same role in Manchester) had been received. Also when I walk with my daughter to school I’ve always been surprised to see how many people drive such a short distance within my own community — and we are relatively rural — and I thought, blimey, when you look at the city and you scale that up, it’s a major problem and I just wanted to be part of making a difference. You’ve made four active travel pledges for Sheffield: that it’s led by communities; it enables walking and cycling rather than encourages it; infrastructure that meets or exceeds requirements; and infrastructure accessible to all. What will they mean in practice for Sheffield? We wanted to make sure that people were engaged with the process when we’re talking about where we are going to be putting these routes in place, enabling active travel and improving the infrastructure that’s there — or putting it in in the first place. Allow people to input into that: if they know the crossing points, if they know these journeys, then they know the pitfalls of having no access to active travel.
it’s enabled. People often think that we are just going to stand there and tell them to get on a bike and tell them to walk — and they’ll come back and say it’s not safe, it’s not something that my route allows me to do, there are crossing points that I’m not confident of allowing my children to use. So we will be making sure that there is the infrastructure there so that all of the fears, and the challenges and the obstacles, are removed so that they can make that decision to leave the car behind. And we are talking about 40% of trips in the Sheffield City region being around a kilometre, that’s obviously a huge number of journeys that we could make by foot or by bike. Which leads on to the infrastructure pledges. We want to make sure they meet the minimum standards that will make routes usable. For cycling specifically we remain stagnant nationally at around 2% (percentage of trips by bike) and when you think in some cities the figure is nearer to 20% or 30%, then in regions like Sheffield City it means that infrastructure that’s been put in so far isn’t up to standard. So we need to put those minimum standards in place and if councils want their projects to be financed by the money that we have then they will need to meet that minimum standard. With the accessibility part it’s not just building bike lanes that are for people who are already cyclists, it’s about bike lanes for people who have not yet got on to a bike, who want to get on to a bike and who perhaps are getting on to different sorts of bikes. Maybe it’s a trike, maybe it’s a cargo bike, maybe it’s a bike adapted for their individual needs because of a disability. So there’s all sorts of bike types and it’s trying to make people understand that what we’re designing for is not your average drop-handlebar racing bike.
You say ‘enabling’ walking and cycling rather than encouraging it — what does that mean?
How much have you and Sheffield Mayor Dan Jarvis’s plans been influenced by London, Manchester and other cities’ experiences — what have you learned, what will you avoid?
It is really important to make a distinction. We will encourage it once
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year when we were looking at our latest update to getting one million women on bikes by 2020, women cited safety as the main reason why they didn’t ride a bike on British roads. And the safety concerns are always much higher up that list of barriers for women than they are for men. They are still less confident riding in the primary position (centre lane) in the carriageway to make cars see them and go round them. They feel that they are perhaps slower and therefore more vulnerable as a result. When you look at the Netherlands and their segregated cycleways and the freedom that that gives people, you see women in their 80s and 90s who are still cycling. And it would be brilliant to see that as something that we could have in the UK and obviously in Sheffield.
the success of infrastructure along the Embankment where you’ve seen the number of vehicle journeys dropping and the number of cycling journeys increasing, and that piece of road is carrying more people as a result. We’ve got narrow streets of Victorian terraces with no place to park cars and there’s all the usual challenges, but we’ve seen them being solved reasonably well in places like London and Manchester so that gives us a huge opportunity to explain that it is possible to do that in our area as well.
We have lots of short, sharp, steep hills. We need to work round those challenging gradients, and it’s not just about e-bikes
London has an explicit policy of reducing car journeys. Is Sheffield heading that way? We have to improve air quality, we have to improve the health of the region’s population, so if we can reduce the number of car journeys then, yeah, that’s absolutely what we want to see happening. It should be something that happens as a direct result of the infrastructure that we put in place. How do you to plan to make active travel more inclusive in Sheffield and does your experience as a parent and Paralympian offer insights? I think we start by making the infrastructure accessible by the way that it’s built — again those minimum standards are really key. If a woman with a double buggy can’t get past because of a double railing that’s stopping people driving their car down a pathway, then we need to look at camera enforcement so that the railing is removed. There’s all sorts of utility bikes and trikes, four-wheeled bikes used by people who are in wheelchairs, etc and we need to ensure that the infrastructure we provide doesn’t limit those people and prevent them from using it.
Mayoral support: Sarah works closely with Sheffield Mayor Dan Jarvis
What challenges do you envisage will be unique to Sheffield? Sheffield City region has an interesting topography differing from Greater Manchester and London — we have lots of short, sharp, steep hills. We
Three of the six Walking and Cycling Commissioners in the UK are women, and British women riders have excelled at recent Olympics and Paralympics, yet, unlike Holland, women are under-represented in regular cycling. What will you be doing to change that in Sheffield? It comes back to the infrastructure and the safety. In the figures that came from British Cycling earlier this 28
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need to work round those challenging gradients, and it’s not just about looking at e-bikes, it’s looking at other opportunities. We’ve had all sorts of different ideas from cable cars to utilising the river network with canoes. But we do need to find a way nationally to incorporate e-bikes into our future mobility. Most people were disappointed to find that there were subsidies coming for electric cars but not for e-bikes. Wheels for Wellbeing in London are campaigning for an increase in the allowance for the Cycle to Work bike purchase scheme to £2,000 to allow people with disabilities to purchase e-bikes which are more expensive. Would you favour this? Without a doubt. Any scheme that is more likely to enable someone to own an e-bike is to be supported and applauded. We’ve got tax efficient ways of owning cars and company cars, so wouldn’t it be marvellous if people had access to an e-bike? In Sheffield we have a doctor who does all of his rounds on an e-bike which is a brilliant example of how it can be done. How can the Government contribute to helping you achieve your active travel goals? At the commissioners summit in June we highlighted the five things we wanted from government in order to allow us to deliver on our roles in our regions: long-term devolved funding; political commitment to minimum quality levels; local retention of fixed penalty notices to fund road danger reduction measures; enabling us to innovate by keeping road traffic regulations under review; transport investment decisions should account for the true cost of car use to society. The government have those within their gift. They could give them to us immediately to allow us to do our jobs, because active travel has to be treated
Going for (more) gold: Sarah is aiming to represent Team GB in Tokyo in 2020
seriously nationwide and we obviously want to see the regions that don’t have Mayors or Commissioners able to tap into this opportunity as well. Do you have the powers and the political support to make Sheffield a walking and cycling city? Political will is one of the big things that we need to be successful. We’ve been meeting with councillors explaining what we will be able to do and how we will be able to help, and explaining the vision. It is now down to them to make sure that it’s implemented. We have rising healthcare costs, we have children who are not expected to live as long as their parents because of the obesity epidemic, the type 2 diabetes epidemic. For those short journeys that are more than doable by foot or by bike, active travel is the only sustainable answer. And that’s the messaging that we are taking out to the councils around the region. Finally, we have the Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo next year. How are you going to combine your career as a Commissioner with that of an athlete? When I took on the role everyone was aware that I’m still a competing athlete. Hopefully it’s an added benefit to the role. I’m out there every day on the bike, so I’m using the roads and aware of the challenges for people. And, having ridden through my pregnancy when I was a lot slower, I do understand the concerns of people when they feel they are not fast enough to ride on the road. We’ve put together an absolutely superb active travel team that plans my time, and their time, to make it all work together. Hopefully there will be some superb cycling infrastructure that we can commission, or change, in South Yorkshire and hopefully I can do them proud when I head over to Tokyo in 2020. LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 29
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School Streets LCC trustee Amy Foster takes a look at the benefits of ‘School Streets’ and how you can go about getting one near you
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HE SITUATION by the school gates where I worked was the same every morning. Cars would be queuing to get near the gates, with children hopping out as parents parked haphazardly wherever they could. The air was thick with fumes, as kids dodged in and out of traffic. But ask those parents why they’re driving the short distance to the school and the answer is invariably that they’re scared of the road for their kids. They’re scared of the traffic they themselves contribute to — it’s self-perpetuating and deeply harmful for us all. Around a quarter of all the cars on the road during the morning rush hour in London are involved in the school run. Not only does that add to the congestion, but also the illegal levels of air pollution that disproportionately negatively
impacts kids with their developing lungs. We are also seeing many more children not achieving the minimum levels of activity they need to stay healthy — 8 in 10 children do not get the one hour per day of physical activity that 5 to 18-year-olds need, with 4 in 10 children in London overweight or obese . When I stood for election as a LCC trustee in 2016, I said I wanted London “to become a city in which all families feel safe cycling on our roads”. With the start of the new school year coming up, it’s the perfect time for thinking about how we get our kids to and from school as it has impacts on them and the wider community. So how do we make it easier and safer for children to walk, cycle or scoot to school? Well, School Streets are an excellent starting point. LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 31
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TOP TIPS FOR SCHOOL STREETS 1) SHOW, DON’T TELL People find it very difficult to imagine what a street could look like without cars, so show them. Arrange a ‘play street’ (a one-off temporary road closure) to show the parents and kids what a School Street would look like. Document it and take lots of nice photos. 2) DON’T GIVE UP AT THE FIRST ‘NO’ Schools and councils are becoming increasingly time poor and cash poor, meaning anxieties about doing anything differently are exacerbated, but eventually persistence will pay off. 3) “I WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE TO SCHOOL EVERYDAY” Clare Rogers, LCC campaigner of the year 2016, found that sharing her daughter’s thoughts on the new cycle tracks was a really successful way to respond to the huge backlash against the Enfield mini-Holland. Getting school councillors to lead assemblies and talk about active travel initiatives can be very effectve too. 4) DON’T FORGET THE PARENTS Diversity and inclusivity are essential qualities of any schools streets campaign. It’s important to win hearts and minds and start building an active travel culture within the school before starting out, so that there are school street champions on the teaching staff, in the parent association and in the wider community. Parents need to see the benefits and it’s important to be able to offer something in return and to help people make that transition. 5) DO THE DOUBLE-BUGGY TEST Do your pavements accommodate a double buggy? If not, then it means work needs to be done to create safe walking routes to make active travel accessible to all, even those with very young children. And if we only think about how children get to school once they start school, then we’ve probably left it too late. 6) PHONE A FRIEND Local LCC groups (lcc.org.uk/localgroups) are a great source of information. Also check out schoolstreets. org.uk created by Sylvia Gauthereau, coordinator of Brent Cycling Campaign. And Etta Collier has spent a lot of time presenting on the Bessemer school street scheme in Southwark, so see if you can visit at drop-off or pick-up time — sometimes seeing is believing. 7) CELEBRATE YOUR SUCCESSES Invite elected representatives to your walking bus launches, play streets, family cycle sessions and get them to meet school councillors. Children can’t vote and families with small children often don’t have the time to respond to consultations or attend meetings. This doesn’t mean their voices don’t matter; we all need to work together so they have the chance to be heard.
A School Street is one that is closed to motor traffic during drop-off and pick-up times, usually for about an hour at each end of the day. I first learned about them from an officer in Southwark who came to visit one of our very first school ‘play streets’, who told me about the scheme’s introduction in Edinburgh in 2015. However, it was only once Camden Council took the lead with St Joseph’s on Macklin Street that London’s local authorities really took notice. The school road closure made headline news and the initial report into the trial concluded, caveats aside, that driven trips to school had fallen by 43%. The council noted the results were “quite surprising” given it was still possible to drive to within 50 metres of the school. These road closures can now be found across London, with Hackney taking the lead by publishing its ‘School Streets Toolkit’ for professionals and sending a copy to councils across the UK.
Showing the way I’m very proud to have been involved setting up the School Street at my school, Bessemer Primary in Southwark; the first in our borough. The difference has been astounding. One of the children on the school council (and one of our TfL travel ambassadors) said: “I like that we don’t let cars outside school in the mornings and after school because the air is cleaner and it’s safer.” Parents also quickly started talking about the fact that it became much safer for the children when moving between the different school sites at the beginning and end of the day, but we
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bus routes (with a ‘bus gate’ to let only buses through) on fairly busy roads, they open up great cycling routes for all, but only in the hours of operation. Ride through across Lansdowne Drive from London Fields, a key cycle commuter route, at 8.30am and it’s bliss. But ride back at 6pm and it’s rubbish. The School Street scheme only operates during school hours. Sometimes you need more than that.
Streets for all
also received comments around how much less stressful the journey became. One parent said: “We love it! So much safer for the children and more conducive to building relationships and support networks for the parents as there’s room to chat while the kids are safe.” Of course, it’s not just children suffering the impacts of far too many cars on the school run. At this year’s Walking and Cycling Conference, Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville highlighted that transport is a feminist issue. Women remain three times more likely than men to do the school run and more likely to do these journeys on foot or by bus. The 2018 Sustrans report into gender equality in transport states: “In terms of senior positions within the public sector, transport has the lowest percentage representation of women with only 6.25% compared to other public bodies. There is strong evidence that equal representation and diversity in decision-making bodies has positive impact on service design.” It’s one reason I and other LCC campaigners spend a lot of time encouraging women to take on leadership roles; within our local groups, within school parent councils and within our local democracy. Closing the gender gap at all levels of decision-making in transport will help shatter the ‘windscreen perspective’ that is dominating too many local processes. Looking beyond mums and kids, School Streets are also great for everyone — who cycles and walks, or wants to. The schemes invariably make roads quiet enough for all to cycle. And when applied, as they have been in Hackney to
School Streets: creating safe and stress-free routes for everyone
That’s where area-wide cycling and walking schemes known as ‘low traffic neighbourhoods’ come in — they are increasingly common in places like Hackney and Waltham Forest. Stoneydown Park Primary is in one of the mini-Holland areas. Around 1,600 vehicles used to pass the school playground each day on a narrow one-way street, but by turning the roads around the school into access-only for motor vehicles when the mini-Holland scheme was put in place, traffic has almost completely disappeared for the entire day, and the numbers of families walking and cycling to school each day are up dramatically. So if a road seems ‘too busy’ for a timed road closure, perhaps greater ambition is required. It’s why groups such as the Safe Routes to School forum in Dulwich are now urging its elected representatives to focus on low traffic neighbourhoods as a more holistic, and fundamentally necessary, approach to actually enabling families to choose active travel. We need to stop encouraging walking and cycling and start enabling it. Of course, for some streets and as a first step, School Streets are ideal solutions — removing most traffic at the key times. Then, once the scheme is in, it can always be extended.
MORE INFO If you’re interesting in hearing more about school streets, LCC and London Living Streets are working together on the second Healthy School Streets seminar on Monday 16 September 2019 at London’s City Hall, hosted by Caroline Russell, Green London AM. n To register and for more information go to http://bit.ly/ schoolstreetstickets LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 33
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Made in
ENGLAND They’ve been at the forefront of saddle design for over 150 years. Rob Eves visits the Brooks factory to see the latest designs
I
T’S A WET and windy second city that awaits us as we step off the early train from Euston. For a change we’re not here for a bike show or conference, instead we wrestle a couple of folders from the Brompton Bike Hire station on New Street, weave through the city centre and head out towards Smethwick via the quiet Birmingham Canal. It’s only
a short 20-minute ride but provides enough of a glimpse of the region’s intricate system of waterways to remind us of its industrial heritage. And that hints at the real reason for our visit. Soon we arrive at the Brooks factory, HQ of the well-known cycling brand that’s been producing leather goods in the Birmingham area for over 150
years. We’re met by Steven Green, who heads up the UK sales operation, and we hang our waterproofs to dry near ‘the oven’. Steven looks after both OEM sales (like the partnership with Brompton, whereby you can now choose between a standard own-brand saddle or a Brooks B17) and also retail sales (saddles, along with pedals, being one of the first
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HISTORY
designs remain true to their 1800s heritage. The first bike saddle patent was filed in 1882 and some saddles, like the famed B17, have been produced in a similar fashion for more than a century. On entering the Brooks factory we’re hit by the whir of machinery and a distinctive smell — the combination of leather and metalwork manufacturing taking place side-by-side. And then we start the tour proper, watching huge spools of wire for saddle rails entering one end of the factory and branded boxes of completed saddles leaving at the other.
Manufacturing heritage
Founded by John Boultbee Brooks in 1866, our hosts originally specialised in products for horses: the story goes that John borrowed a bike to commute when his favourite horse died and he could not afford to buy another. The wooden saddle proving uncomfortable, Brooks then invented his first leather bike seat. Astonishingly, many of the current
PHOTOS: Andy Donohoe
components riders tend to replace on new bikes). He’s worked in bike manufacturing in the West Midlands since the 1970s and recounts memories of working for Raleigh, one time owner of Brooks, when they had three sites in the area, complete with a fleet of bikes parked at reception so that staff could cover the distances between buildings more easily.
Traditional leather Brooks saddles are manufactured by stretching and riveting leather to a metal frame. Most riders find that Brooks saddles need to be ‘broken in’ — so over time they fit the rider better as the leather softens with use — and when this happens a nose-piece at the front of the saddle can be moved to tension the leather so that it doesn’t begin to sag. There are four main production areas in the factory: one making the metal components (rails, springs, plates, etc); a second where sheets of leather are cut, treated and shaped; a third dealing with assembly and packaging. Plus there’s a fourth where higher-end saddles are finished by hand. Many of the machines have been in use since the 1950s, each producing one of the bespoke parts needed to complete each saddle. Brooks employs about 40 people in Smethwick and the staff who show us around are visibly proud of the products they LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 37
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produce — and rightly so. With the collapse, sale or offshoring of so many British cycling brands and manufacturers in general, there’s something inherently pleasing about a traditionally-made product leaving a factory carrying a ‘Made in England’ stamp. There’s also a surprising level of hand-craft still involved, with leather being cut manually and copper rivets being hammered by hand in parts of the long-established process. But traditional processes are just one part of the Brooks success story. In 2002 the company was bought by renowned Italian saddle manufacturer Selle Royal — and the Italians were content to leave
production alone. Their masterstroke being to utilise Brooks’ history to revive the brand at exactly the time when ‘vintage’ styles were re-popularised. We’re told Selle Royal’s marketing people
painstakingly trawled old sales catalogues and archives to identify products for relaunch and expand the range. It clearly worked and the brand is now well placed for many more successful years ahead.
THE MAKING OF A BROOKS SADDLE 1. M etal wire arrives on huge spools and has to be straightened, then fed through machines to form saddle rails and springs. 2. Back plates are stamped out of sheet metal before being shaped. 3. The rails are welded to the plates to create frames for saddles with no suspension. Sprung saddles are more complicated with the frames being assembled from up to 20 parts. 4. 5mm thick leather sheets are sourced mainly from English and Irish cattle – these climates produce a hardier type of leather that Brooks requires. Only leather from the back of the cow is used; beyond the shoulder blades it’s too thin, around the belly too soft. 5. The leather for individual saddles is
stamped out from a sheet using a cutter. Care is taken to cut as many saddle tops from each sheet as possible to minimise wastage. 6. Wastage is kept to a minimum with off-cuts and smaller parts being used for bar grips and other products. 7. Leather saddle tops are then soaked in tanks of water to make them more pliable. Staff use their judgment on how long leather from a particular sheet needs to be submerged to reach the appropriate flexibility. 8. T he tops are then pressed into shape on a machine; only pressure is used, no heat. Shaping is completed by hand; any excess is cut away with a knife. 9. To ensure they retain their shape, the
saddle tops are dried in ovens: 1hr at 40 degrees, followed by 30 mins at 50 degrees. 10. Brooks logos are de-bossed onto the sides of the saddle and Brooks plates attached to rear. 11. The leather tops are riveted to the frames and attached to the noses. 12. For more expensive models, the edges of the tops are shaved by hand and copper rivets are hammered into place. Brooks employees can actually tell which members of the team have completed a saddle just by looking at the unique patterns created on the heads of the hammered rivets. 13. Saddles are packed and boxed.
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ADVERTISING FEATURE
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RIGINATED IN Manchester, the SR600 is a new anti-theft alarm system and powerful front light, designed to keep you safe both on the road and when parked up. With cycle theft still a major issue across London and other British cities, it’s time for cyclists to get one step ahead. The LED torch bursts to 600 lumens for 1.5 hours with four other lighting modes. It features a high capacity USB rechargeable battery and directed beam pattern designed to give optimal light coverage on unlit streets. The alarm robustly clamps to the front handlebar and doubles as the mount for the torch. It is activated when the torch is unmounted —
a simple solution that makes safeguarding your bicycle hasslefree and stress-free. The alarm has its own battery and uses an advanced motion sense system to detect any potential theft and a thunderous siren effectively defends your bicycle. You can rest assured the SR600 won’t give you any false triggers when parked. With thieves becoming more daring, the SR600 is not afraid to strike back. If anyone tries to steal your bike while you’re riding, simply unplug the torch and shake your bike — the alarm will lock on and wherever your bike goes the alarm will follow, blasting its siren towards the rider. The alarm-torch connection means once the alarm is set up you
never need to think about it again. Arming, disarming and charging… all automatically done by the torch. Double up your security with no extra effort — it couldn’t be simpler!
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03/08/2019 09:41
Into the
wilds of WALES Sarah Flynn packs her bags and heads into rugged Mid Wales for a weekend of off-road adventure led by Pannier cycle touring company
T
WO WEEKS before the Desert of Wales trip we’d all been sent a kit list of what to pack. A woolly hat, full set of waterproofs and our favourite bike snacks were among the designated necessities. Short and precise, packing took less than an hour, which included a healthy dose of faffing, Google Earth searches of our main basecamp and scrolling through Pannier’s lusciously landscaped Instagram page. For anyone who’s planned their own cycling adventure, you’ll know such abbreviated prep is virtually unheard of. Hours, days, weeks is
the norm, which includes route-mapping, bike checking and inevitable last-minute sourcing of supplies. For some people that’s half the fun, but for the rest of us it can actually be a deterrent for going off the beaten track. And that’s exactly why our hosts’ business exists: to celebrate, inspire and enable exploration by bike.
Arrival at Basecamp Two trains later and the congestion, pollution and concrete landscape of London has long been forgotten, replaced by the rugged, expansive terrain of Mid Wales. Rhayader, a small market town smack bang between Snowdonia and
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Wild and woolly: Mid Wales is one of the least explored parts of the UK
Meeting the motley crew The first town on the River Wye, Rhayader is known as the home of the spectacular dams and reservoirs of the Elan and Claerwen Valleys, and it did not disappoint. Taking in the view, the team ebbed and flowed along the path and, as is often the case with cycling, by riding two by two people soon become better acquainted, swapping salutations and comparing set-ups. Some of our fellow riders arrived with all the gear, some showed up with well-loved but sturdy bikes. And others, who shall remain nameless, rocked up in Decathlon hiking boots bought hours before her train departed because she’d only got a chance to read the briefing email the night before leaving — which clearly stated that the road shoes she’d planned on taking would not be suitable footwear. Either way, what became apparent after the 40km warm-up loop was that such a trip clearly appealed to all types — from first-timers
PHOTOS: pannier.cc
Brecon Beacons National Parks would serve as home for the duration. Upon arrival we were greeted by the brains behind Pannier: Stef Amato, who’s putting the finishing touches on dinner, and Dave Sear, also resident mechanic, who’s buzzing about from bike to bike, ensuring bolts were tightened, gears indexed and everything’s ready to roll into one of the UK’s most sparsely populated areas. Dave set us up with a Surly Straggler, complete with Brooks saddle and Ortlieb bikepacking bags, while Stef had our sleeping situation sorted — a sleeping mat and bag waited in one of the communal Tipi tents. Then it was time for some campfire introductions with fellow riders. Special ‘tourer packs’ were distributed — including a dry bag, enamel mug and spork — before we ran through the day’s schedule, quickly swapped civvies for padded bibs and were off to pedal a 40km loop in and around the Elan Valley reservoirs.
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TRAVEL
RHAYADER
WALES
TRIP HIGHLIGHTS: Camping and bothy stops, rarely ridden tracks, homemade pizza, the wild side of Wales to seasoned veterans — we all in our own way were after the same thing: to have some good old-fashioned fun on two wheels, and hopefully see a few new sights along the way.
Into the wild Waking to the smell of coffee and breakfast, we enjoyed a leisurely first morning before packing our bikes and heading off into the unknown. A bit of tarmac and a swift climb later and both landscape and terrain began to change. Gravel replaced blacktop, and the rolling hills, passing waterfalls and reservoirs turned into a singletrack-dotted wilderness that looked other-worldly. In the moments where you found yourself alone, the cavernous space which is typically filled with the bustling sounds of the city was empty; only the sound of tyres crunching on crushed stone and the distant chatter of riders ahead remained. However, Stef and Dave were never far away. Leading the front of the group and following up at the rear, the two made it seem effortless. It was along these sections that we got a chance to chat with the pair more about their motivations for running a set-up like Pannier, and what they hoped to provide to folks looking for an adventure but who don’t know where to start. Seeing a gap in the market for a travel company offering a range of accessible, affordable
tours, the pair have created exactly that — fun trips in relatively unknown areas, that won’t break the bank and that you can do over a long weekend. Understanding the innate barriers to planning and setting off on cycling adventures (cost of accommodation, challenges with plotting a route, sourcing kit, etc) they wanted to create a space where anyone could enjoy the thrill of the outdoors, with a few choice luxuries along the way.
A bothy for gnocchi Having anticipated the worst, Wales was kind to us on the first day, offering a mild on-again, offagain drizzle and light breeze. That being said, the idea of some warmth and a chance to refill our bottles and bellies was most welcomed. Around midday, we made our way inland from the reservoir tracks towards lunch. Across a boggy moorland awaited the open door of an idyllic stone bothy, and we all began to unpack our lunch rations — jars of pesto, bags of grated parmesan, fresh gnocchi and a bit of Battenberg for dessert. The bothy made for a perfect resting spot and lunch was rustled up in no time, leaving us plenty of time to relax, refill our bottles in the nearby stream and get excited for the remaining kilometres that lay ahead. Stomachs full and saddlepacks a tad lighter, we headed back over the moorlands
Another essential amenity of the hostel was actually something it lacked — mobile reception. An almost forgotten experience...
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and continued up and in to the valleys towards our home for the night. The clouds had burnt off by this point, leaving blue skies and great vibes for the remainder of the ride. The track and our surroundings were fantastically varied — from remote reservoir bridleways to wild, tussocked moors, to treelined climbs offering incredible views of the Cambrian Mountains — we found the going to be equal parts challenging and accessible for any rider with a decent base level of fitness.
A quiet hostel Formerly run by the Youth Hostel Association, the Elenydd Wilderness Hostel would serve as our home for the evening; they were established in 2006 after the YHA decided to close due to inactivity. Staffed by volunteers, the bunkhouse has warm beds to sleep in, running water and solar-powered heating and electricity. What that meant for us was the luxury of a cold beer and a hot shower upon arrival — quite possibly the two most important things following a long day in the saddle. Another essential amenity of the hostel was actually something it lacked — mobile reception. With no signal to speak of, the bunkhouse offered a fantastic, almost forgotten off-grid experience. The large communal seating area provided the perfect setting for our group, and once we had scrubbed and changed
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TRAVEL
UNHURRIED, SINCE 2012 Stef started Pannier back in 2011 as an online journal. In the beginning, it served as a creative outlet for story-telling and route sharing. Dave joined in early 2018, following another role in the cycle travel industry and together they offer fun bikepacking experiences, both at home and overseas. Guided UK trips currently include the Peak District, Lake District and Wales; in Europe there’s Bosnia, Slovenia and the Venetian Alps. n For more info visit pannier.cc into our civilian comforts, we found Dave in the kitchen on dough duty and Stef outside firing up the wood oven for — a Pannier speciality — homemade pizza. Beers, food and an afternoon’s worth of sunburn settling in, we all sat around the main table swapping stories until suitably heavy legs signalled time for bed.
Up ‘The Struggle’ After another restful night’s sleep, we woke up to porridge with fresh berries, banana and Nutella, made ourselves some ploughman’s bread rolls for lunch, stuffed a couple of Tunnocks in our pockets for good measure, and departed to make our way back to basecamp. A loop around the nearby reservoir showcased a brutal yet breath-taking view of the valley, complete with loose ascents and winding descents. The big climb of the day (and most famous) was easily the Devil’s Staircase — lovingly known as ‘The Struggle’. Then it was all downhill from there, or so we were told by our trusty guides. Even though our hosts may have had a slightly different idea of what classifies a climb (especially to us Londonders), the route was again filled with a variety of terrain that really gave you a sense of escape and freedom. Dam
crossings, a bit of singletrack here and there, a few mixed climbs, and one rocky hike-a-bike section across the moorlands later and we were all back around the campfire where we’d all first met. Tired and happy, we just had time to chug a celebratory beer with new-found friends before nipping into town for some well-deserved pub grub. After breakfast on our final morning, we all packed up our belongings, said our goodbyes and headed off to our respective transport and train stations homeward bound. Waiting on the platform for the train back to London, one thing from the past few days really stood out. For the first time in a long time, riding a bike turned from simply a utilitarian function — a way to get from A to B among traffic, crowds, potholes and the like — to what got us all on our bikes in the first place: pure, unadulterated enjoyment. And, in this case, we were able to find it just two trains and one short hop away.
SPECIAL OFFER! We’re pleased to be able to offer LCC members 10% off all UKbased Pannier experiences. Offer expires 31 December 2019. Visit membership.lcc.org.uk/travel to claim your discount.
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RIDE GUIDE
IBIKELONDON
We’ve teamed up with iBikeLondon for a great west London explorer
SUMMER SOCIAL
F
ANCY A fun, leisurely ride to some beautiful London parks with a bunch of like-minded cycling folk? Then the Summer Social organised by iBikeLondon this August — including a picnic in Richmond Park — is a ‘must do’ for the diary. iBikeLondon’s series of friendly, social rides happen throughout the year and are free and open for anyone to join. The Summer Social is an annual highlight and this time visits Battersea Park, Wandsworth Common, Wimbledon, London Wetland Centre, Holland Park and finishes in Hyde Park. The pace is relaxed and the rides are always accompanied by a fleet of soundsystem bikes pumping out
tunes. There’s a ‘no drop’ policy, meaning no-one gets left behind and there’s always someone to help out if you have a mechanical issue. And if you are running late to the ride or become separated there’s no need to worry — the whole ride will be available on the Glympse app, so you can see exactly where the group is in real time. iBikeLondon was created and is made possible by our friends at Cyclehoop, a firm of awardwinning designers of cycle parking run by cycling enthusiasts. The aim of iBikeLondon is to share the love of cycling and to show how fun it is to party on two wheels. The rides are all about inclusivity, diversity and just
having a great time too! To find out more about the Summer Social and other rides, go to ibikelondon.com and cyclehoop.com.
FACT FILE START: outside the National Theatre DATE/TIME: 2pm, Saturday 17 August FINISH: The Serpentine in Hyde Park DISTANCE: 37km (23 miles) TIME: around 5 hours in total GRADIENTS: 707ft elevation gain SUITABLE FOR: people of all ages and abilities, riding any bike. Make sure your bike is in good condition, and check your brakes and tyres. If you have a mechanical problem or a puncture during the ride, give one of the ride leaders a shout and someone will help you.
IBIKELONDON SUMMER SOCIAL
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WANDSWORTH COMMON 6m
PUTNEY HEATH 12.5m
LONDON WETLAND CENTRE 17m
6 HYDE PARK
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Route Guide IBIKELONDON SUMMER SOCIAL
BATTERSEA PARK [1] Originally opened in 1858, Battersea Park is a 200-acre green space on the south bank of the River Thames. It features a number of different gardens including the new Winter Garden, the Sub Tropical Garden, the Old English Garden, the Russell Page Garden, the Herb Garden and more. The park is also home to a number of sculptural pieces like Barbara Hepworth’s Single Form, Henry Moore’s Three Standing Figures and Nicola Hicks’ Brown Dog.
WIMBLEDON [3] Next we head towards Wimbledon, home of the world’s oldest tennis tournament (established at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in 1877), Passing Wimbledon on the right, we then cycle through Wimbledon Common. This consists of three named areas: Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath
RICHMOND PARK [4] Richmond Park is where iBikers stop for a lakeside picnic and the ‘social’ lunch aspect of the Summer Social. It’s a relaxed affair so riders who prefer a slower pace can join at any time (Glympse is a great way to check on current movements). Sitting just across the road from Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park dates back to 1637, when King Charles I created a hunting park, introducing around 2,000 deer, and building a brick wall eight miles long to prevent the deer from straying. You can still see this wall today, and the deer continue to shape the way the park looks. It’s the largest of London’s Royal Parks (1,000 hectares), and still has 300 red deer and 350 fallow deer. LONDON WETLAND CENTRE [5] From Richmond Park we travel north to the London Wetland Centre. The site of four disused Victorian reservoirs tucked into a loop in the Thames, the Centre was opened in 2000. This is where we join up with the Thames Path once again.
Spread across 40 hectares, the Centre forms part of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust which was set up by the artist and naturalist Sir Peter Scott. Many wild birds which have now made their home in the Centre can’t be found anywhere else in London. The Centre was featured on the BBC television programme Seven Natural Wonders in 2005 as one of the wonders of the London area. In 2012, the London Wetland Centre was voted Britain’s Favourite Nature Reserve in the BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards. HOLLAND PARK [6] After the London Wetland Centre, we cross the Thames via Hammersmith Bridge. The bridge is currently closed to vehicular traffic, so it’s basically a cycling bridge! Then it’s onward through Hammersmith before visiting Holland Park. Holland Park is the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s largest park, weighing in at 22.5 hectares. In it, you’ll find gardens, large areas of woodland and plenty of wildlife. A particular highlight is the Kyoto Garden, a stunning Japanese garden that was donated by the Chamber of Commerce of Kyoto in 1991. It was created by an eminent Japanese designer and his team to celebrate the Japan Festival in London in 1992. The ride itself finishes at The Serpentine in Hyde Park and the group sticks around here for some dancing with music bikes in tow. The East-West Cycle Superhighway is in Hyde Park, so it’s easy to hop on for those who need to head towards central London afterwards.
©Crown copyright 2018 Ordnance Survey. Media 060/18
Photos: National Trust/John Miller, Aerial Sussex
WANDSWORTH COMMON [2] As we head away from Battersea toward Clapham Junction, the next port of call is Wandsworth Common, which covers 171 acres and features a number of ponds and a lake. A railway line broadly divides the Common into two strips, west and east; houses on the Wandsworth (SW18) side are in what is known as the ‘Toast Rack’ and are large Victorian semis and detached homes, some with blue plaques marking notable fomer residents like the former PM David Lloyd George.
and Putney Lower Common. As a combined area, it totals 460 hectares. This part of Wimbledon Common provides a nice woodland ride with some gravel, and it’s a little hilly in parts. Due to its size, Wimbledon Common can be an ideal place to see wildlife and birds. And of course, it’s home to the Wombles.
CUT-OUT AND KEEP
We follow the Thames Path pretty much from the starting point, behind MI6 and Vauxhall Bridge, to just after Battersea. It’s traffic-free which makes it fun to ride on.
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HOW TO
FIT A NEW
CHAIN
A smooth-running chain is key to a hassle-free drivetrain. Jenni Gwiazdowski explains how to fit a new singlespeed chain when your old one is past its best
Jenni Gwiazdowski Founder of London Bike Kitchen and book author
There are a number of benefits to ditching your gears and going singlespeed — efficiency, simplicity, easy maintenance and lighter weight are among the list. But it’s still not quite zero maintenance. Chains are a consumable, designed to wear down faster than your chainring and freewheel in order to prolong their life. Here’s how to fit a new singlespeed chain...
STEP 1: KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE If you ride every day, expect probably ‘feel’ when it’s to change your chain once time for a chain change, but a year, although singlespeed the quickest way to check chains can last a lot longer properly is using a chain as they’re not subject to checker tool. When you hit all that gear shifting you 75% wear, change that chain get with derailleurs. You’ll as soon as possible.
STEP 3: MEASURING THE NEW CHAIN Drape the new chain over inner links to use a quick link the top of the chainring connector, so make sure both and freewheel. Pull one end ends of your new chain will of the chain to meet with be inner links. You can mark the link on the chain that the links with a felt-tip pen. would make the best taut Remove the surplus chain connection. You need two length using the chain tool.
STEP 2: REMOVE THE OLD CHAIN For this you need a dedicated handle clockwise to push the chain tool. Place the chain pin out and ‘break’ the chain. tool’s teeth around any With the chain removed, link on the underside of remember to drop the rear the chain, line up the tool’s wheel as far forward in the screw-in pin with the pin of dropouts as is safe, and the chain link, then turn the tighten the wheel nuts.
STEP 4: CONNECT WITH THE QUICK LINK Place one part of the ‘quick first then inner, using a little link’ on one of the exposed bending and wiggling. You’ll pins; the same on the hear a tiny click when both opposite side of the other parts are seated correctly. end of the chain as shown. Finally pull the wheel back so Now marry up both parts that the chain is taut but not of the quick link: outer plate tight, and tighten wheelnuts. LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 51
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L ATEST | BIKES | GEAR | MEDIA
BIKES
ADVENTURE 54-55
REVIEWS
BIKEPACKING 56
PANNIERS 58
BOOKS 61
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ADVENTURE BIKES
Andy Donohoe
MODEL: LIGHT BLUE DARWIN ONE BY, £1750 n ison-distribution.com
U
NTIL NOW Light Blue (owned by major cycling distributor Ison) has largely flown under the radar, but it offers both ‘urban’ and ‘sport’ ranges and it’s in the latter that you’ll find a couple of dozen steelframed road, touring and adventure bikes, including the Darwins. Built around a beautifullyfinished Reynolds 725 tubeset and steel fork, the One By has the aesthetic appeal of an old tourer yet it’s shod in the latest tech — and it rides really well, reminding us why there’s still a place for the original frame-building material alongside the expensive composites. On the road it’s been faultless, especially over the long haul. And off-road, on hardpacked gravel tracks and chalky
bridleways, it’s been composed and comfortable. The fork may be more jarring than a carbon equivalent, but chunky 38c Halo tyres do a decent job of ironing out the bumps and hollows. What’s more the fork, like the frame, is doused with mounting options for racks and bottles. Called the One By due to its single chainring up front, the wide-range cassette meant we only wished for a lower gear on two particularly steep climbs (we’d invest in a smaller chainring for alpine tours). The TRP disc brakes were equally impressive, never lacking in stopping power even when carrying a full set of panniers or bikepacking bags. We also loved the ‘riser’ design and flare of the handlebars — little things can make a big difference.
FACTFILE
nT he Darwin family also includes ‘dedicated’ touring models with 2x11-speed gearing, and MT (mountain) models with fat 47c tyres mounted on 650b wheels. n L ots of useful upgrade options available on the One By including: Passport Tour rear rack (£45), Passport Lug-Kages x2 (£35), SP PD-8 dynamo & BM50 lamp (£85). n The frame also has mounts for a hub gear if you wanted to swap later, plus a ‘coupler’ in case you wanted to fit a belt drive. VERDICT + The simplicity of a ‘one by’ drivetrain is ideal for UK touring and bikepacking. + Hugely versatile bike with upgrade/swap options.
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BIKES
MODEL: SARACEN LEVARG SL, £1349 n saracen.co.uk
REVIEWS: John K, Katy Rodda
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HE LONG-STANDING British company started out making mountain bikes in the early 80s and has had ‘touring’ bikes in its range for decades. But the Levargs (‘gravel’ backwards) are Saracen’s first stab at a drop-barred, truly off-road adventure series, combining modern geometry and bang up-to-date spec choices. That geometry is straight out of the current mtb playbook, so the bikes get longer top-tubes and shorter stems, creating a more centred riding position, with improved steering control and fantastic stability on rugged terrain. Barring the, erm, bar the other components wouldn’t be out of place on a similarly-priced mtb either: single chainring and wide-
range (11-42t) cassette, cableactuated hydraulic disc brakes, and of course those chunky tyres with tan sidewalls. Using smaller 650b wheels allows Saracen to use wider 47c rubbers and they are the standout feature here, making rutted downland trails a real joy. They can handle pretty much anything. Special mention also to the carbon fork (in natty camo colours) that helps with the vibration damping. The 6061 aluminium frame is one of the nicest we’ve seen (with internally-routed cables) and an added bonus is that the flattened top-tube and boxy downtube work superbly with bikepacking bags. Three sets of waterbottle mounts have refuelling covered too.
FACTFILE
n There’s four bikes in the Levarg range, starting with the flat-barred Levarg FB (£899) and topping out with the Levarg OR (£2,299) which sports a Fox AX suspension fork. n Quality finishing kit, from flared handlebar to well-shaped saddle. n The modern geometry means that frames are longer for a given size (S-XL), but remember they’ve been designed specifically to work with short stems. As always ‘reach’ is the key figure to get a good fit. VERDICT + Wide 650b WTB tyres soak up bumps, provide great traction and add comfort. + Well worth a look if you’re planning rugged adventures that mix road and off-road.
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REVIEWS
BIKEPACKING BAGS
Lighter than pannier/rack combos, and offering better weight distribution, these bags are all you need for multi-day adventures
SEATPACK
Attaches to the saddle rails and seatpost. Ideal for carrying bulky items like sleeping bag, inflatable mat, bivvy bag, Jetboiltype stove, food or spare clothes.
TOPTUBE BAG
Sits on toptube (also strapped near stem) and, depending on size, its handy location makes it best for compact camera, phone, wallet, keys, cereal bars and snacks.
BAR BAG
Also known as a ‘front roll’, this hangs from handlebars. Larger models are good for sleeping bag, mat, bivvy bag; smaller models better for spare/ non-riding clothes.
FRAMEBAG
Sits inside frame and attaches under the toptube (with additional straps on headtube and downtube). Good for tools, inner tubes, pump, gloves, lightweight jacket.
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ALPKIT Limited Edition Wax Cotton range
ALTURA Vortex 2 range
Having used an ‘Original’ Alpkit set on dozens of big trips over the last decade we can certainly testify to the collection’s longterm durability. Detailing and consideration on how each piece works together is excellent, it’s simple to set up and you’ve got more than enough capacity for several days’ camping. We found the Possum ideal for carrying spare tubes, pump, tools, chargers and it’s fitted half-a-dozen different frame designs perfectly. The Kanga provides a more rigid support for bulkier items; we used our own drybag to hold sleeping bag, bivvy, inflatable mat and clothes. Maybe our only gripe is that we’d prefer a slightly longer, firmer base to the Koala for stability. Otherwise, it’s by far the best ‘mix and match’ kit available.
Already well known for its panniers, Altura’s now added a dozen fully waterproof, seam-sealed bikepacking staples to the range. We’d previously tested the original Vortex framebag and had an issue with some frayed stitching, so were glad to see a much tougher fabric and contruction on the new Vortex 2 products. The front roll has a smaller capacity and is better suited to spare clothing or super compact sleeping bags, but we really like the integrated rigid frame and extra front pocket (for compass and maps). The seatpack is very stable, even with a single seatpost strap and has top bungees (good for bananas or damp kit), while the toptube bag was a perfect size for our camera, phone and battery charger. Oddly the Vortex 2 framebag (£70, not tested) only comes in black.
MISS GRAPE Bikepacking range
ORTLIEB Standard Bikepacking range
alpkit.com n Koala seatpack £95 n Possum framebag £65 n Kanga handlebar harness £65 n Fuel pod (original) £35 n Stem cell (original) £32
ison-distribution.com n Cluster seatpack £125 n Internode framebag £95 n Node 2H toptube bag £55 n Tendril 4 bar bag £110 A new name to us, Miss Grape (main photograph, left) is a small Italian company that makes each product by hand. This means prices are a little higher than many rivals, though the build quality is impressive. The super tough polyester material used throughout still looks new after a few scrapes and, even though there’s no sealed seams, the set’s proven adequately waterpoof in the few showers we’ve experienced. Rubberised straps and panels on the Cluster and Node grip bike frames like glue, while cut-to-fit Velcro straps are used on the Internode. The bar bag has easily the quickest fit system of those tested here and sits neatly between drop handlebars, but the Tendril 4’s small capacity meant we stored clothes here and sleeping/cooking gear in the seatpack (which many people prefer anyway). Lots of reflectivity and extra stash/lash points are an added bonus.
altura.co.uk n Vortex 2 seatpack £70 n Vortex 2 toptube bag £35 n Vortex 2 Front Roll £60
ortlieb.com
n Seatpack £105 n Framebag £80 n Cockpit pack £45 n Handlebar pack £80 Anyone who’s ever used Ortlieb’s panniers knows how totally waterproof and bomproof their products are — and the same applies here, albeit in a much lighter design, The cavernous bar bag has been plenty big enough for our 3-season sleeping bag, bivvy and off-the-bike clothes, while the seatpack is one of the most stable we’ve tested. Its most ingenious feature, however, is a tiny valve which allows you to compress the contents and squeeze out any surplus air trapped by the roll-down closure. At 16.5-litres the seatpack is great for down jackets, cooking kit and spare riding gear, while bungee cords on the top are the best place to stash wet jackets. The cockpit bag is an odd ‘8’-shaped thing, with an awkward zip, but offers true peace of mind for valuable electronics. Overall it’s a high quality set, but the robust, fully waterproof design does add a few grammes. LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 57
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REVIEWS
TOURING PANNIERS
PHOTO: HokkaidoWilds
Our experts test four of the latest panniers perfect for extended summer tours or shorter weekend escapes AI Urbane Pannier
BROOKS Suffolk Pannier
n £59 n Capacity: 22 litres n Weight: 855g
n £103 n Capacity: 18-22 litres n Weight: 950g
Available only in this very smart charcoal colour, the AI pannier is easy to set up without tools as all the hooks are integrated and can be adjusted by hand to fit your rack. The upper hooks release under the weight of the bag when you lift the handle upwards, and lock into place when the handle is released. There’s no bashguard at the base but overall construction is super tough (it doesn’t seem to mark with abrasion) and the laminated material has welded seams and roll-top closure, keeping our kit completely dry in those early summer down-pours. A neat feature is a removeable padded pouch for laptops that fastens inside the bag with poppers; the slightly tapered main compartment was the perfect size for carrying our books and clothes. Finishing touches include reflective detailing and a clip for a rear light.
The combination of Brooks and Ortlieb know-how is a recipe for style and functionality here: the Suffolk uses Ortlieb’s quick-release (QR) attachment system and roll-top closure, but with the Brooks loop and hook system (as on its rucksacks) for securing the bag. Main fabric is a cloth-like water resistant material which is stitched rather than welded, so it’s fine for moderate showers but not a proper deluge (for which you’ll want to use a drybag inside). There’s two stretch side pockets and a convenient front pockets for tools or snacks. We found the pannier great on both longer rides and weekday commutes, but would recommend a small tweak to deter opportunist thieves in London — we’d lengthen the lower fixing loop by an inch to allow snatch-proof attachment through the carriers. We just threaded the long handle through the rack, which worked.
REVIEWS: Rob Eves, Tom Bogdanowicz
neoscycling.co.uk
brooksengland.com
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RESTRAP Large Pannier
restrap.co.uk n £89.99 n Capacity: 22 litres n Weight: 910g
PHOTO: HokkaidoWilds
Restrap bags are handmade in Yorkshire and this model comes in black or olive. With a single compartment they have a smart, contemporary design that works equally well in town and country. The tough canvas outer fabric has a separate lining, while the roll-top closure uses magnetic fasteners rather than standard buckles — these work well, you just need to roll the top down and fasten at the sides, they can’t be looped and fastened over the top as with some other bags. The mounting system works really well with two spring-loaded upper clips that are depressed to attach/release from the rack. Reflective detailing and mounts for LED lights are on both sides and there’s clip-in sleeves for laptops or tablets available to buy separately. Simple and durable, they’ve proved totally waterproof too.
UPSO Potters Pannier upsobags.co.uk
n £55 n Capacity: 12-21 litres n Weight: 1150g A new sister brand to perennial LCC favourite Carradice, all UPSO bags are made from upcycled lorry tarps – which means they’re waterproof and highly durable. The Potters pannier is a simple design with just one compartment, and each bag can be used on either side of the bike; you mount the bags using Carradice’s Quick-Clip system, one we’re very familiar with and it works well. Two hooks take the weight (these come with plug-in adaptors to make sure they fit different rack tubing diameters), and a central catch holds the bag in place, with a button to press for release. A roll-top closure does a good job of sealing away contents from the elements and we had zero water ingress during testing. The thing we liked best, though, is that every single bag is unique – and there’s dozens of colours to suit any preference. Plus this material has been saved from landfill.
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REVIEWS
BIKE BOOKS
CLOSE TO THE EDGE
MIND IS THE RIDE
BACK IN THE FRAME
Crime novels rarely involve bicycles so it’s refreshing to have a sleuth efficiently pedalling around north London (where most of the action takes place) instead of idling in traffic in a vintage motor. Unfortunately, the clarity of mind and sharp thinking that cycling usually encourages don’t seem to apply in the case of Laurie, our 20-something amateur investigator, who persists in making foolhardy decisions until a smart, though technophobic, father figure (aka ‘Dad’) turns up to help out. In fact the over-arching moral of the story seems to be don’t trust strangers and listen to Dad (but we could have misunderstood). Along the way Faber (best known for his non-fiction works) does his best to promote sustainable transport, with the characters using public transport, walking and cycling. It’s a different type of thriller, ideal for a spot of holiday reading. TB
This is not your typical travel book. It uses various bicycle components as the starting point of each chapter, blending them with the author’s experiences of local cultures and linking into discussions of a more philosophical nature to describe a cycle tour from the UK to India and back. Like most travel books, there are plenty of exotic locations described, but the journey is as much inward as it is outward. There’s a fair amount to appeal to those more interested in bikes and cycle-touring but the philosophical ideas form a more significant part of the book. After a while you will feel like you’re actually on the ride with the author. If you’re the sort who finds yourself pondering life’s bigger questions while riding your bike, then this book may well appeal. If you’ve an interest in touring and other cultures then there will also be plenty for you to enjoy. RH
This is an inspirational story of Lady Velo (the author’s blogger name) and her relationship with cycling in London. It’s a personal account of the battles she faces with her confidence in returning to cycling and gives us a great insight into her upbringing in a lively, loving family. The book touches on all aspects of barriers that she encounters and how she overcomes them. We found this a touching, enlightening story that documents an era in London which will be remembered fondly by a large community of cyclists, name-checking every café, community group and start-up that we’ve seen in the last decade that has made our cycling community what it is today. Jools also speaks about the steps she takes to becoming a Lycra lover, detailing issues she has with her health and selfconfidence. A fun read for bike fans, but sure to inspire non-riders too. LC
REVIEWS: JK, Lucy Cooper, Richard Hawkins, Tom Bogdanowicz
Toby Faber Muswell Press, £10.99
Jet McDonald Unbound, £16.99
Jools Walker, Little Brown Book Group, £14.99
CYCLING AND CINEMA
Bruce Bennett Goldsmiths, £24.95 Cinema and the bicycle share a similar timeline, both emerging at the end of the 19th century during a period of intensive technical innovation, and this book examines the historical interplay between the two. Bikes featured in what’s regarded as the first cinema screening, held by the Lumière brothers in Paris in 1895, and these ‘revolutionary technologies’ have been closely linked in popular culture ever since. We’re taken on a guided ride of the cinematic role of the bicycle, not only as transport or toy, but as a means for exploring identity, social class, nationhood, family, gender and pleasure. And we’re reminded along the way of how central bikes have been, in everything from the early slapstick comedies and war-time dramas to ET, BMX Bandits and beyond. It’s an enlightening read for movie buffs and cyclists alike. JK
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MEMBERS
WHAT EXACTLY DOES YOUR INSURANCE COVER? Enjoy peace of mind with LCC membership and its built-in insurance cover. Here's a quick guide to everything you need to know
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VER THE past couple of months we’ve received several calls and emails about the free liability insurance that comes with LCC membership, so we thought now was a good time to remind our members exactly what’s included, and what you’re covered for…
Third-party liability insurance As an LCC member, you have the peace of mind from knowing you have free third-party liability insurance. Providing your membership is up to date, you don't need to do anything — you are automatically covered. The insurance covers you for claims made against you for injury or damage caused by you to a third party while out cycling — this
applies anywhere in the world, except in the USA and Canada. You can find a summary of the policy by visiting https:// membership.lcc.org.uk/thirdparty-insurance which explains the coverage, and exclusions in greater detail. If you do ever need to make a claim, you can contact the insurer on 0151 494 4400, referencing London Cycling Campaign when you call. LONDON CYCLIST Autumn 2019 63
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MEMBERS
COLLISION ADVICE CHECKLIST n FIND WITNESSES You'll need these if mounting a civil or criminal case against another road user. n GET THEIR DETAILS If you're able, write down names, addresses and phone numbers of all witnesses (even if the police are too). n GET COLLISION DETAILS Take the name, address, vehicle registration and insurance details if another road user is involved. n DO NOT ADMIT LIABILITY Immediately after a crash isn't the best time to decide whether it was your fault, especially if you've been hit! n CALL THE POLICE If there's damage to yourself, your property, or the other driver can be shown to be breaking the law, make sure you call the police. n SEE A DOCTOR Call an ambulance if you're incapacitated; if you're not but you've been hit, see a doctor straight away. n SEEK LEGAL ADVICE If your property has been damaged or if you have been injured, ontact our solicitor Osbornes Cycle Injuries on 020 7482 8672.
Great deals on theft insurance Cyclesure offers LCC members excellent theft and damage cover at very competitive rates, with great benefits including 'get you home' coverage. You can get a competitive quote instantly by calling 0151 427 9529 or by visiting cyclesure.uk/lcc.
Free legal advice
We've got your back... so get theirs
We hope you never need it, but our cycle-friendly solicitors are ready to give you advice if you do. They're experts in cycling injury claims and recognised as leading lawyers in London. If you’re ever involved in a collision, or need legal advice on a cycling matter, you can contact them free of charge on 020 7681 8672.
At LCC we're working really hard to make cycling in London safer, easier and even more enjoyable. But to get there we need as many members as possible. If you're a member of LCC and know a friend who cycles in London but isn’t a member, invite them to join and they’ll also get the same great coverage and peace
VISIT THE MEMBERSHIP WEBSITE As an LCC member, in addition to insurance coverage, you also get great savings with bike retailers across London, discounts with top bike brands and more! To see all of the benefits you get as a member, visit membership.lcc.org.uk
of mind you have with your own LCC membership. To say thank you, we'll give you and your friend three months FREE membership each! Simply share the link below along with your name, postcode and membership number. lcc.org.uk/friends
We go further when we #ridetogether
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ICONIC BIKES
1970s
‘Marin’ Klunker No matter the true origin of ‘mountain biking’ says John Kitchiner, the cobbled-together Californian klunkers deserve their seminal status
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The answer was the humble 1930s cruiser, like those made by Schwinn; heavy but comfortable, with balloon tyres and rear coaster brakes, they were the perfect base for experimental frankenbike-builders, including the likes of Charlie Kelly, Gary Fisher and Joe Breeze. These first klunkers were simple singlespeeds but after a chance meeting with the Cupertino Riders at a cyclocross race in 1974, Kelly and Fisher were inspired to experiment with drum brakes and rear derailleurs. Rear hubs were taken off tandems, thumb-shifters from touring bikes, brake levers from motorbikes, seatposts from indoor exercise bikes, braces were added to forks, and rear stays were forced apart using 2x4in timber to accommodate wider axles and fatter rubber. And a Brooks B-72 leather saddle was deemed the ultimate finishing touch. As the klunkers became more capable, the rides became more adventurous and, as the downhill sections were inevitably the most fun on these heavy bikes, the Repack races were born as a way to see who was fastest. On 21 October 1976 an exciting new cycle sport came of age.
Illustration: David Sparshott
THE ORIGIN of mountain biking as we know it today is still fiercely disputed. Some point to the US Army’s ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ who customised bicycles to carry heavy loads and made an arduous off-road trip from Montana to Wyoming and back in 1896. Others point to France, where Velo Cross Club Parisien members were coverting 650b-wheeled bikes (now in fashion again) to develop a new sport in the 1950s. And certainly California’s Cupertino Riders (or Morrow Dirt Club) of the early 1970s deserve mention for exploring the concept of ‘klunker’ (or clunker) bikes. However, as it was home to the first proper race series (the Repack races), home of the first real ‘production line’ and home of several of the sport’s founding figures, it’s Marin County, just over the San Francisco Bay, that is now generally regarded as the birthplace of modern mountain biking. The eureka moment for the Marin crew was when they finally realised their expensive road racing bikes were onesurface-wonders, costly to repair and prone to theft. They wanted something more practical for knocking about on and carrying loads, something robust and not too precious.
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