London Cyclist Winter 2018

LONDON

Est. 1978

WINTER 2018

SUCCESS

CAMPAIGN WINS OF 2018

01_Cover.FINAL.indd 2

REVIEWS BIKES, LIGHTS & JACKETS

SPORT

MAGAZINE OF

FOLK HERO: ALF ENGERS

18/11/2018 20:02

WINTER 2018

contents

News | Features | Travel & Rides | How To | Bikes & Reviews NEWS > 06

HOW TO 45

GUIDES YOGA POST-RIDE

STRETCH 3-5 MINUTES

Practising 15 minutes of passive stretching after you ride is a great way to aid recovery and stimulate rehydration of the tissues explains Polly Clark

Polly Clark runs Mountain Yoga Breaks in Mid Wales. mountainyogabreaks.co.uk

After a big ride your yoga should focus mainly on relaxation. Long held passive stretches help to stimulate rehydration of the tissues, aiding recovery as well as creating longer lasting changes in the connective tissues to increase range of motion. Passive stretching also triggers the relaxation response which puts the body into the optimal state for recovery.

SUPPORTED FISH POSE HOW: Place one rubber block (or small rolled up towel) on the lowest height just under the bottom of your shoulder blades and place a second block underneath your head. Relax and allow the upper chest and ribcage to open and the

breath to expand into the chest. Stay here for up to three minutes.

WHY: This pose will help to open up the chest, shoulders and upper back. Making sure you focus on relaxing here will start to put your body into a parasympathetic state.

WIDE LEG FORWARD BEND HOW: Take your legs wide legs and back off if you feel and the fingertips to the any pulling on the knee. floor behind you. Use a Find a place that you can block to sit on if you find hold for up to three minutes your pelvis tipping without strain. backwards. Gradually start WHY: This will help to to walk the hands forwards release the adductors without rounding the back. (inner thigh muscles), Pay attention to the inner hamstrings and groins.

SHOULDER-STAND VARIATION ON BLOCK HOW: Lying on your back, You can also do this knees bent, lift your hips pose against the wall so and put the rubber block that the knees can be (or rolled towel) underneath slightly bent if needed. the hips on the medium or WHY: This pose provides low height. a mild inversion which Gradually straighten the can help to refresh the legs upwards and see if you legs, alleviate fatigue and are able to relax there for is calming on the nervous up to five minutes. system.

LONDON CYCLIST Winter 2018 45

RIDE GUIDE

Join book author Jack Thurston on a scenic tour starting in Bath

B

ATH OWES its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to its beautifullypreserved Roman baths and grand Palladian terraces. These are fine buildings by themselves, but what makes them sing is their setting in the steep-sided Avon valley.

The tricky topography made big demands on engineers, especially those who built the canals and railways that drove the city’s industrial growth in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Bath is a perfect destination for a weekend mini-break and this day ride takes in a wealth of sights, including Georgian canals,

WEST COUNTRY

WOOL POWER bridges, aqueducts, honey-stoned Cotswold villages, a Roman road, Britain’s longest cycleable railway tunnel, lots of quiet country lanes and multiple pub options.

The ride is taken from Lost Lanes West, the third and latest in Jack Thurston’s best-selling series of cycling guidebooks which covers the counties of Wiltshire, Dorset, Somserset, Devon and Cornwall. You can buy signed copies of Lost Lanes West or art prints of the cover illustration at Jack’s website: thebikeshow. net/lost-lanes-shop/

FACT FILE START & FINISH: Bath railway station DISTANCE: 72km (45 miles) TOTAL ASCENT: 747m (2,450ft) TERRAIN: mostly lanes, tarmac cycle paths and well-surfaced canal towpath.

SUITABLE FOR: gravel/cyclocross, light hybrid, touring and road bikes (with a decent spread of low gears).

BIKE HIRE: Green Park Bike Station (greenparkbikestation.info) in Bath offers hybrids or e-bikes for hire. Also available from Towpath Trail in Bradford-on-Avon (towpathtrail.co.uk).

NEAREST STATIONS: Bath Spa (regular service from London Paddington) and Bradford-on-Avon (from London Waterloo).

BATH: THE THREE MAIN CLIMBS

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1

START: BATH ST.

2

MULBERRY PARK 7.2km (158m high)

SLAUGHTERFORD ROAD 38.2km(132m)

COLERNE AIRFIELD 60.5km (173m)

END: BATH ST.

BIKES 53

LONDON CYCLIST Winter 2018 47

REVIEWS

SUITABLE FOR BOTH WEEKDAY COMMUTING AND LIGHT TOURS

MODEL: GOLDHAWK RODAX, £1,400 ■ goldhawkbikes.com

A

S THE name hints, Goldhawk is a new brand from West London, founded by local engineer-cumbike designer Jeff Rutland. Looking for a sporty flat-barred bike for himself and finding little of interest in the market, Jeff went for the DIY approach; frame design and geometry is his own, the build is done by a renown Reynolds partner in the Far East (where the majority of the world’s bike manufacture takes place), then all assembly is handled back home in Blighty.

Steel aficionados will appreciate the neat welding and finer detailing, including the cowled dropouts; and commuters and tourers alike will be pleased to see mounts for racks and space for tyres wider than

the specced 28c Gatorskins. The 1x11 gearing is a great choice for town and country ventures, with a wide-range cassette that’s plenty for any climbs in southern England. The most appreciated component for us has been the carbon fork that’s been a godsend on our daily cobble wobbles.

It’s proven versatile so far and stands out from the pack, so watch out for future online updates. JK

VERDICT + Clean, distinct-looking frame will appeal to steel lovers. + Mounts for pannier racks and mudguards adds to versatility. + Nippy about town and able to handle hardpack trails.

LONDON CYCLIST Winter 2018 53

SUCCESSES > 19

Photos: Phill Stasiw

HALF-RECLINED HERO’S POSE ON BLOCK HOW: Take one foot to the and lie all the way back if outside of its own hip, toes your knees will allow but pointing backwards. Use a don’t force anything. Stay rubber block underneath the for as long as possible. Any other hip. Bend the other pain in the knees release off leg. This might be plenty, straight away. stay there if it is.

WHY: This pose will release To increase the stretch the quadriceps, hip flexors take both hands behind you. and front of ankles so it’s a You can remove the block great pose for all cyclists.

RIDES 47

The latest on Oxford Street plans, plus City of London’s 2024 goals

HOW TO

Looking back at the year’s big ‘wins’, from Bank to Boston Manor and Enfield to Stratford A ROUGH GUIDE TO... > 25

How to start campaigning for cycle facilities in your home borough

REVIEWS SECTION > 51

Ridden and rated: two new city bikes, four waterproof jackets and 12 lights

14

CAMPAIGN

Junctions To Die For Mayor Sadiq Khan must urgently take action on London’s most dangerous junctions. Fran Graham puts five key questions to him...

F

OR YEARS, highways engineers have designed junctions across London to move motor traffic — as much and as quickly as possible. This has left London with far too many major junctions with multiple lanes of fast-moving traffic, illegal levels of air pollution and incredibly poor safety records.

Places that are hostile to everyone, whether on bike, foot or in a car.

While some of the most notorious interchanges across London have seen improvements in the last few years, there is a worrying lack of urgency to fix the rest. Time and again, action at these junctions is not progressing at a rate appropriate to the risk they pose — well over 70% of serious injuries or fatal collisions happen at the capital’s junctions.

In recent years, the emphasis from engineers has shifted towards creating junctions that move people through them safely and efficiently — and the most efficient modes are walking, cycling and public transport. This approach is now being mainstreamed by Sadiq Khan: the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) includes the ‘Vision Zero’ goal of eliminating collisions that kill or cause serious injuries from London

streets by 2041. And TfL’s Healthy Streets policy has re-jigged London’s transport hierarchy, calling on everyone who has control of the city’s streets to make sure walking and cycling have priority, followed by public transport, then motor vehicles. But despite policy, engineering expertise and funding, too little is happening, far too slowly.

What the Mayor is doing…

LCC has long known London’s junctions need drastic safely upgrades. Following the death of two people cycling at Bow roundabout in 2011, there were LCC protests and vigils and actions by other groups, which resulted in Boris Johnson creating the Better Junctions programme. Then during our Love London Go Dutch campaign in 2012, we got all mayoral candidates to pledge to introduce Dutch-style infrastructure at junctions.

This Better Junctions programme identified 33 high priority junctions to fix, and many have seen upgrades. But too many retain significant safety risks and too many only have physically protected cycle tracks or cycle-only lights on parts of the junction. On top of that, 11 from the

Old Street overhaul: how this notorious interchange could look in the near future

original list are in limbo — consulted on, but with no word on when construction will begin; and seven are missing entirely, with no visible plans, consultation or progress.

Since his election, Sadiq Khan has added his own list of ‘Safer Junctions’, using collision data to identify 73 of the most dangerous TfLcontrolled junctions. Of this list, 21 have seen some improvement in the last three years, 33 are due for improvement before 2022/2023, and 19 are being studied, to identify improvements needed.

The two programmes have fixed some horrific junctions, and the vastly-improved conditions at Blackfriars Bridge North, Westminster Bridge South and the newlycompleted Stratford Gyratory show how much difference high-quality improvements make.

But concerns still remain about the quality at other junctions, and the rate at which they are being completed.

Huge vigil and ride at Bow: following another cyclist fatality

14

LONDON CYCLIST Winter 2018 15

Too many people consider cycling to be more of a sport than transport CARLTON REID, OPINION, PAGE 10

30

CAMPAIGN

Junctions To Die For Mayor Sadiq Khan must urgently take action on London’s most dangerous junctions. Fran Graham puts five key questions to him...

F

OR YEARS, highways engineers have designed junctions across London to move motor traffic — as much and as quickly as possible. This has left London with far too many major junctions with multiple lanes of fast-moving traffic, illegal levels of air pollution and incredibly poor safety records.

Places that are hostile to everyone, whether on bike, foot or in a car.

While some of the most notorious interchanges across London have seen improvements in the last few years, there is a worrying lack of urgency to fix the rest. Time and again, action at these junctions is not progressing at a rate appropriate to the risk they pose — well over 70% of serious injuries or fatal collisions happen at the capital’s junctions.

In recent years, the emphasis from engineers has shifted towards creating junctions that move people through them safely and efficiently — and the most efficient modes are walking, cycling and public transport. This approach is now being mainstreamed by Sadiq Khan: the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) includes the ‘Vision Zero’ goal of eliminating collisions that kill or cause serious injuries from London

14

streets by 2041. And TfL’s Healthy Streets policy has re-jigged London’s transport hierarchy, calling on everyone who has control of the city’s streets to make sure walking and cycling have priority, followed by public transport, then motor vehicles. But despite policy, engineering expertise and funding, too little is happening, far too slowly.

What the Mayor is doing…

LCC has long known London’s junctions need drastic safely upgrades. Following the death of two people cycling at Bow roundabout in 2011, there were LCC protests and vigils and actions by other groups, which resulted in Boris Johnson creating the Better Junctions programme. Then during our Love London Go Dutch campaign in 2012, we got all mayoral candidates to pledge to introduce Dutch-style infrastructure at junctions.

This Better Junctions programme identified 33 high priority junctions to fix, and many have seen upgrades. But too many retain significant safety risks and too many only have physically protected cycle tracks or cycle-only lights on parts of the junction. On top of that, 11 from the

Old Street overhaul: how this notorious interchange could look in the near future

original list are in limbo — consulted on, but with no word on when construction will begin; and seven are missing entirely, with no visible plans, consultation or progress.

Since his election, Sadiq Khan has added his own list of ‘Safer Junctions’, using collision data to identify 73 of the most dangerous TfLcontrolled junctions. Of this list, 21 have seen some improvement in the last three years, 33 are due for improvement before 2022/2023, and 19 are being studied, to identify improvements needed.

The two programmes have fixed some horrific junctions, and the vastly-improved conditions at Blackfriars Bridge North, Westminster Bridge South and the newlycompleted Stratford Gyratory show how much difference high-quality improvements make.

But concerns still remain about the quality at other junctions, and the rate at which they are being completed.

Huge vigil and ride at Bow: following another cyclist fatality

LONDON CYCLIST Winter 2018 15

We won’t succeed unless we bring councillors with us HEIDI ALEXANDER, INTERVIEW, PAGE 36 LONDON CYCLIST Winter 2018 3

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21/11/2018 13:36

CONTENTS | WINTER 2018

LONDON

Est. 1978

WINTER 2018

Cover image: Alf Engers (by Dave Pountney) EDITORIAL

Thanks for the feedback F

IRSTLY, A MASSIVE thanks for all your comments and messages on our new-look magazine. It’s been overwhelmingly positive, with the pocket-sized format in particular striking a chord with readers and industry friends alike. Many of you also commented on the broader content mix, which is something we’ll be trying hard to maintain as we move into 2019 and beyond. Lots of great ideas for features and interviews too, much appreciated.

By the way, we’re always on the hunt for contributors, so if you have a cycling-related article that you think would look good in print, then drop us a line.

In this issue we look at what the Mayor and TfL are doing with the capital’s junctions, we’ve got an interview with Heidi Alexander, tips on how you can get involved in local campaigning, a review of the year’s ‘wins’, plus there’s a lovely story about one of London’s true folk heroes.

On top of that we’ve been testing the latest lights, waterproofs and a couple of brand new city bikes, including the Ampler Curt (pictured below), which looks identical to a ‘regular’ bike but actually houses a very discrete battery and motor. It’s the shape of e-bikes to come.

Have a fun festive period and we’ll see you in the new year.

Happy riding!

John Kitchiner Editor

LCC MEMBERS’ LEGAL HELPLINE Osbornes Solicitors are 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.

SUCCESS

CAMPAIGN WINS OF 2018

REVIEWS BIKES, LIGHTS & JACKETS

SPORT

MAGAZINE OF

FOLK HERO: ALF ENGERS

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, Paul Jones.

ADVERTISING

Rob Eves, 020 7234 9310 advertising@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 Wyndehams on paper made from 100% FSC sustainably-managed and carbon-balanced forest.

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18/11/2018 20:21

Winter 2018

OXFORD STREET PLANS FAIL KEY TESTS Council rejects Mayor’s proposals, ignoring huge local support too

A

FTER WESTMINSTER Council rejected the Mayor and TfL’s plans for Oxford Street, the borough is set to put £150 million over three years into its alternative proposals for the street and surrounding area, with plans out now at consultation. But isn’t that great news? No. The council’s 146-page consultation document (at osd.london) says it puts walking and cycling first, but then proceeds to avoid, as far as possible, any real attempts to reduce or restrict motor traffic. Oxford Street itself is likely to stay open to buses, taxis and deliveries, apart from two short stretches either side of Oxford Circus. And even at this new ‘plaza’, the documents are far from clear whether motor traffic will be banned at all times.

Elsewhere, traffic reductions will apparently come from “encouraging use of public transport, walking and cycling” and smoothing “traffic congestion issues on the surrounding road network to provide less incentive for ratrunning”. Encouraging walking and cycling, without enabling it, is proven to fail. And

smoothing traffic flow doesn’t reduce motor vehicle volumes — rat-runs remain as popular as before and the main roads see more motor traffic too. This is called ‘induced demand’.

The plans also openly consider swapping department stores for more office space, effectively abandoning the street’s iconic status as a shopping destination.

Commenting on the proposals, LCC’s CEO, Ashok Sinha said: “Oxford Street will continue to be choked by traffic fumes, blighted by overcrowded pavements, and present unacceptable dangers to cycling. It’s as if the council actually want it to be an embarrassment among global, 21st-century destinations.”

Joe Irvin, CEO of Living Streets, who we have been coordinating with over Oxford Street, said: “We are not convinced these proposals are enough to meet the challenges facing Oxford Street. We also remain concerned that traffic domination across the wider area is not being adequately addressed.”

Iconic street: this is how Oxford Street could have looked under Mayor’s proposals

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20/11/2018 19:52

NEWS

Alexander stars at 2018 AGM LCC’S AGM in October brought together members to celebrate the successes of the past year and talk about what’s coming next.

Our guest speaker, Deputy Mayor for Transport, Heidi Alexander, gave a spirited talk, sharing TfL’s cycling plans for the next year, and faced tough questioning from members on delays to schemes such as Cycle Superhighway 9, the lack of quality on too many schemes, and on getting the Mayor and TfL staff traveling by bike more often (see Interview with Heidi on page 36 for responses).

Following this, LCC activists from Enfield, Hounslow, Newham and Waltham Forest shared expertise with members during a panel discussion about how local groups can influence major schemes in their area.

Finally, the annual Campaigner Awards were presented (winners pictured below), two motions and a special resolution passed, plus one new board member was elected and two others re-elected.

‘Stay Wider of the Rider’ Statistics

4k

Petition signatures

1,100 Pins dropped by LCC members & supporters

20 Hazardous locations identified

15 Met Police close-pass operations in response

Please keep dropping pins on the close-pass map at staywider.org

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City delivers on transport strategy THE MAYOR of London has set ambitious goals for 2041. But now, the City of London has proposed to exceed those goals within the same timeframe.

The big headlines for the City’s draft Transport Strategy include: by 2024 the City will be 15mph; nearly every door will be within 250m of the ‘core’ cycling network; that core network will feature two-metre minimum width cycle tracks; all roads off the network will see fewer than 150 motor vehicle movements each way in the peak hour; half of all streets will be ‘pedestrian priority’, and many will restrict through vehicle access.

As a result, the City targets a reduction in motor traffic of 25% by 2024 and 50% by 2044.

Motorised freight will also be cut 30% by 2044, with freight movements potentially banned in peak and replaced by ‘consolidation’ centres where deliveries are shifted onto cargo-bikes.

The City is also urging the Mayor to adopt smart road-user pricing (presumably based on location, time, emissions, type of vehicle etc), and a ‘Zero Emissions Zone’. If the Mayor doesn’t do these, the City will without him.

These plans put the City at the forefront of progressive boroughs, in stark contrast to what’s happening next door in Westminster.

LONDON CYCLIST Winter 2018 7

20/11/2018 20:57

OPINION

Quality streets We’ve upset TfL recently. But sometimes we need to simply call it as we see it says Ashok Sinha

I

F YOU were signposted towards something called a ‘Quietway’, you’d expect it to be, well, quiet. Meaning low levels and speeds of motor traffic, and junctions that don’t require 360-degree vision to stay safe. Sadly this is often not the case (apart from a few good examples like much of Quietway 1). In fact, such is the negative reputation that Quietways now have with LCC activists that the very word has become a tad toxic.

So when the Mayor launched a new set of flagship Quietways, largely offering more of the same, we were pretty much compelled to throw a wobbly. If an imaginary Dutch transport engineer were to look at the “140km of new cycling infrastructure” that TfL announced it has delivered since Sadiq came to power — most of which is accounted for by Quietways — they’d probably identify much of it as substandard. And Dutch standards are the benchmark.

As you can guess, our polite but pithy public reaction got us into a bit of hot water with TfL and City Hall. This was in contrast to their reaction to our mass protest at Holborn and the 3,000-strong petition we handed in to the Mayor calling for action on dangerous junctions (following a series of

cyclist fatalities at, or near, roundabouts). Pretty much everyone accepts that the pace of fixing junctions must increase, to which LCC would also add that the quality of remediation often falls short; hence, while officials were never going to agree 100%, I’m sure they accepted that our criticism on junctions had some merit.

Ongoing issues So why the sensitivity about Quietways? Perhaps it was because this infrastructure claim was trumpeted as evidence that Sadiq has delivered more space for cycling in two-and-a-half years than Boris did in eight: no wonder they were touchy when LCC said “Er, hang on...”.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

First, I don’t think it’s helpful to take to Twitter, as some close to the previous administration did, to lament another example of alleged lying by the Mayor. They should remember that Boris didn’t cover himself in glory when reportedly

“LCC is not the Mayor’s political ally; we are an impartial, critical friend”

Ashok Sinha Chief Executive of London Cycling Campaign

suppressing a major report about the harm being caused by London’s illegal levels of air pollution. Second, TfL and the Mayor’s people should worry less about the past: all LCC members and supporters want is delivery on the public promises Sadiq made to LCC at the time of his election, and in his manifesto.

LCC has been unstinting in publicly welcoming progress where it has been made — from Liveable Neighbourhoods to direct vision lorries to stiff traffic reduction targets. Further, we recognise that the co-operation of boroughs, which of course the Mayor cannot guarantee, is vital — indeed that is why LCC has and will do all we can to help clear local obstacles.

But over-claiming on cycling ‘infrastructure’ doesn’t help.

Had the Quietways announcement eschewed questionable boasts and, even better, had it been straight that further improvements are needed in problematic sections and given reassurance that positive dialogue with boroughs to raise quality is ongoing, then LCC would have been less tetchy.

LCC is not the Mayor’s political ally; we are an impartial, critical friend. We don’t enjoy having to cavil, but friends sometimes have no choice but to tell it as they see it.

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14/11/2018 11:40

OPINION

We Are Traffic As Carlton Reid explains, cycling must be generally considered as ‘transport’ if we are to move forward

I

T’S NOT unusual for the mainstream media to state that a “cyclist was holding up traffic”. Ignoring, for now, the mistaken notion that cyclists have less priority on roads than motorists, what MSM outlets should always say, of course, is ‘motor traffic’. The ‘We Are Traffic’ slogan used by cycle advocates down the years is not pedantry, it’s exasperation.

To be considered part of traffic isn’t just of concern to ‘vehicular cyclists’ (if you’re unfamiliar with that term stay blissfully ignorant), it’s of vital importance to all cyclists. This is a point made flesh in a new book by John Parkin, the professor of transport engineering at the University of the West of England in Bristol. Designing for Cycle Traffic, published by the imprint of the Institution of Civil Engineers, is a textbook for scholars, students and road engineers. It’s a “practical roadmap on how to create the kind of streets we want to walk and ride along,” said Chris Boardman, Greater Manchester’s walking and cycling commissioner. “Space not just for transport, but for living,” added the Olympian.

In the book, Parkin points out that in countries with high cycle usage, “cycle traffic” is a term with real clout. So, for Danes, it’s

cykeltrafik and Dutch people use the identical fietsverkeer.

Cyclists, here as well as in Copenhagen and the Netherlands, are not inferior road users. We don’t have to cycle on eggshells; motorists are not our betters. For sure we’ve got less mass to throw around, but might is not right.

Not just a lifestyle choice You may like taking leisurely rides through London’s parks and perhaps riding out to Surrey’s greenery, but I’m assuming you’re an LCC member because you cycle not just for leisure and pleasure but also transportation. For cycling to become a mode with metaphorical as well as actual muscle we need it more generally understood that cycling isn’t just a lifestyle choice, a way to save the planet, a way to stay trim, what you do when you can’t afford public transport, or have a driving ban — it’s a practical form of getting swiftly from A to B. Too many people consider cycling to be more of a sport than transport,

“Too many people consider cycling to be more of a sport than transport”

Carlton Reid Transport Journalist of the Year (Specialist Media) 2018

and this goes right to the very top.

Former All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group co-chair Dr Julian Huppert has claimed that when Philip Hammond became transport secretary in 2010, he wanted to remove cycling from the Department for Transport remit. “His instructions were to get rid of cycling as a DfT function,” said the former MP for Cambridge, “he saw [cycling] as unimportant and trivial.”

Thankfully ‘Spreadsheet Phil’ was dissuaded from demoting cycling, but that a government minister had any such thoughts at all remains alarming. The current transport secretary is no fan of cycling either. And that’s not just because of the grief Chris Grayling got when he doored a cyclist outside the Houses of Parliament in December 2016. Funding for cycling measures — such as grants for electric cargobikes — have to be smuggled past ‘Failing Grayling’.

Yet even when we have political leaders who frequently travel by bicycle — Johnson, Cameron and Corbyn, for instance — little changes at the Department for (Motorised) Transport. Maybe this would change if Labour’s Emily Thornberry became Prime Minister?

She rides a Dutch bike in her civvies with a U-lock slung over the handlebars. Vote bike!

*Guest articles do not necessarily reflect the views of LCC

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14/11/2018 11:47

OPINION

Law reform win United action by cyclists and lawyers leads to rethink of small injury claims ruling explains Stuart Kightley

L

AST YEAR I wrote in London Cyclist about a threat posed to cyclists by a piece of passing legislation. The law change was designed to tackle a perceived problem with whiplash claims, and it involved raising the limit for the small claims court for road accident claims from £1,000 to £5,000.

Quite an obscure news story perhaps, of real interest only to those cyclists unfortunate enough to have been injured in a road accident and needing legal representation. The reforms would mean that whereas currently the cost of being legally represented was recoverable from the opponent if the case was won, in the future that cost would have to be borne by the injured party themselves, making it uneconomic to bring a claim.

The new rules would have applied to all cases where the injury element of the claim was worth £5,000 or less, and so would have covered an array of broken bones, dislocations, damaged teeth and soft tissue injuries.

To take a recent example, we acted for a cyclist who was riding along a cycle lane when a car driver coming from the opposite direction turned right across his path and knocked him off. Our

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client sustained a nasty fracture to the collarbone. He was off work for six weeks and his shoulder symptoms — and travel anxiety — lasted about a year.

We traced the insurers, obtained an expert’s medical report (as required by the rules) and prepared the claim. The other party’s insurers admitted liability early — unusually — but argued over all of the losses (which included past and future travel, damaged bike and clothing, medical expenses, equipment and care) and we needed to obtain seven separate witness statements to verify the losses. The insurers’ first offer was £3,400, but the case finally settled for £6,200 (the injury claim element being £4,750).

New rules were bad law This was a very typical case, the sort of accident that befalls cyclists in London on a daily basis, with the sort of legal wrangling expected from insurers and their lawyers; it would have fallen foul of the new

“Cyclists are nothing to do with ‘whiplash culture’... they have very different injuries”

Stuart Kightley Partner & Head of Cycling Team at Osbornes Law

rules. The injuries were below the £5,000 threshold so the claimant would not have been able to recover his legal costs and would have represented himself or more likely not brought a claim at all.

To those of us representing cyclists these new rules were bad law: cyclists are nothing to do with the so-called ‘whiplash culture’.

They have very different injuries and have every right to legal redress when they are injured on our roads. They were only caught up in the reforms, we said, because of ignorance and poor drafting.

We and the LCC wrote to the Ministry of Justice about our concerns and lobbied parliament as part of the Vulnerable Road Users Group. And in a happy ending to this story, the government accepted the cycling lobby’s arguments and backed down in September 2018, announcing that the new £5,000 limit would not apply to cyclists (and other vulnerable road users such as pedestrians), and that the increase for them would be limited to £2,000, the same as for other accident claimants.

The moral of the tale is that the cycling lobby is alive and kicking and when it uses its collective muscle it can even shift government policy.

19/11/2018 21:00

Junctions To Die For Mayor Sadiq Khan must urgently take action on London’s most dangerous junctions. Fran Graham puts five key questions to him...

F

OR YEARS, highways engineers have designed junctions across London to move motor traffic — as much and as quickly as possible. This has left London with far too many major junctions with multiple lanes of fast-moving traffic, illegal levels of air pollution and incredibly poor safety records.

Places that are hostile to everyone, whether on bike, foot or in a car.

While some of the most notorious interchanges across London have seen improvements in the last few years, there is a worrying lack of urgency to fix the rest. Time and again, action at these junctions is not progressing at a rate appropriate to the risk they pose — well over 70% of serious injuries or fatal collisions happen at the capital’s junctions.

In recent years, the emphasis from engineers has shifted towards creating junctions that move people through them safely and efficiently — and the most efficient modes are walking, cycling and public transport. This approach is now being mainstreamed by Sadiq Khan: the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) includes the ‘Vision Zero’ goal of eliminating collisions that kill or cause serious injuries from London

streets by 2041. And TfL’s Healthy Streets policy has re-jigged London’s transport hierarchy, calling on everyone who has control of the city’s streets to make sure walking and cycling have priority, followed by public transport, then motor vehicles. But despite policy, engineering expertise and funding, too little is happening, far too slowly.

What the Mayor is doing…

LCC has long known London’s junctions need drastic safely upgrades. Following the death of two people cycling at Bow roundabout in 2011, there were LCC protests and vigils and actions by other groups, which resulted in Boris Johnson creating the Better Junctions programme. Then during our Love London Go Dutch campaign in 2012, we got all mayoral candidates to pledge to introduce Dutch-style infrastructure at junctions.

This Better Junctions programme identified 33 high priority junctions to fix, and many have seen upgrades. But too many retain significant safety risks and too many only have physically protected cycle tracks or cycle-only lights on parts of the junction. On top of that, 11 from the

Old Street overhaul: how this notorious interchange could look in the near future

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original list are in limbo — consulted on, but with no word on when construction will begin; and seven are missing entirely, with no visible plans, consultation or progress.

Since his election, Sadiq Khan has added his own list of ‘Safer Junctions’, using collision data to identify 73 of the most dangerous TfLcontrolled junctions. Of this list, 21 have seen some improvement in the last three years, 33 are due for improvement before 2022/2023, and 19 are being studied, to identify improvements needed.

The two programmes have fixed some horrific junctions, and the vastly-improved conditions at Blackfriars Bridge North, Westminster Bridge South and the newlycompleted Stratford Gyratory show how much difference high-quality improvements make.

But concerns still remain about the quality at other junctions, and the rate at which they are being completed.

Huge vigil and ride at Bow: following another cyclist fatality

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FIVE QUESTIONS FOR SADIQ ON JUNCTIONS 1) Why are there such long delays on each junction?

With an horrendous safety record, the Woolwich Road/A1020 junction was on the original Better Junctions list. Known locally as the ‘crossing of death’, it was where cyclist Adrianna Skrzypiec was killed in 2009. Despite this, the junction remained unchanged, with no timetable for the plans for its transformation.

Then in March earlier this year, Edgaras Cepura died there cycling on his way to work.

Following his death, nearly 3,000 people signed our petition, calling on Sadiq Khan, as Chair of TfL, and on his Deputy Mayor for Transport, Heidi Alexander, to rapidly bring all of the junctions in the Safer and Better Junctions programmes up to international quality standards, and publish a timescale for doing so.

Our petition prompted London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon to press Sadiq Khan on progress. In response, he published his timeline (https://lcc.org.uk/articles/mayors-timelineon-junctions-doesnt-add-up), which shows that the planned extension to Cycle Superhighway 4, that should fix the Woolwich Road/A1020 junction, has been accelerated. But many of the others on the list are still facing long delays.

While London waits for action, people are being injured and killed. And only in the aftermath of a fatal collision are we seeing timetables shortened. Why are we having

to wait for families to grieve, friends to be heartbroken, before any progress can be made?

2) Why can’t you shorten the gaps between consultation and construction?

Holborn protest: LCC has repeatedly protested at killer junction

Many of the junctions in the programmes are in limbo. They have been consulted on, but construction has yet to begin. The Mayor’s timetable shows that Lambeth Bridge North and South were consulted on in 2017, but aren’t due for construction until 2020; Wandsworth Town Centre was consulted on in 2016, but isn’t due for construction until 2021; and Kings Cross Gyratory was consulted on in 2016, but isn’t due for construction until 2021. That’s five years!

Whatever the reasons, the Mayor needs to improve this. Whether it’s streamlining internal TfL processes or doing earlier stakeholder engagement to avoid last minute objections and legal challenges, letting these projects sit on the ‘to do’ list for years is not acceptable.

3) What are you going to do about Westminster (and the other carcentric boroughs)?

Westminster appears to be having a huge negative impact in fixing junctions within its boundary. According to the Sunday Times, Lambeth Bridge North has the worst record for cycling deaths and injuries in the UK, yet safety

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improvements are apparently being held up by Westminster councillors fretting over traffic displacement and the loss of a palm tree.

Marble Arch was due to be upgraded as part of the Oxford Street pedestrianisation, but when Westminster pulled their support for Oxford Street transformation, the upgrade was halted.

And the Great Portland Street gyratory doesn’t have any plans at all. By delaying schemes, Westminster Council is demonstrating a disgraceful lack of concern for everyone who walks and cycles — and risks further fatalities.

Kings Cross Gyratory was consulted on in 2016, but isn’t due to be rebuilt until 2021. That’s five years!

There needs to be a review of all junctions under both programmes that are marked off, or with plans, to assess if they meet the Mayor’s own Vision Zero targets.

4) What are you doing about junctions already ‘fixed’, with major safety risks retained?

Nearly all of the junctions on the Safer Junctions list with “significant improvement completed within the last three years” and those on the Better Junctions list that are completed still feature ‘hook risks’ and other critical issues for cyclists and pedestrians, or only provide protected space for cyclists in one direction.

As examples: cyclists at Parliament Square still face excessive delays if they use the cycle tracks; at Manor Road/Stamford Hill, the main upgrade at a dangerous interchange was Advance Stop Lines (ASLs); the Bath Road/ The Parkway junction in Hounslow is ticked off, despite the high-speed roundabout being essentially left unchanged.

5) And junctions not on the list?

Lambeth Bridge North: not due to be rebuilt until 2020 (draft illustration)

While the Better and Safer Junctions programmes cover many dangerous junctions, they don’t cover them all. In August this year, Dr Peter Fisher was killed at the Holborn Gyratory.

It’s not on either list, but Dr Fisher was the fourth cyclist killed there in five years. Over 500 people joined us there a few days later to tell the Mayor and boroughs that political inaction on junctions #MustEndNow. Outer London junctions are also underrepresented. Many don’t have high numbers of collisions and injuries, but this is not because they are safer. It’s because they are so hostile, most people walking and cycling avoid them.

We are also seeing major junctions moving forward, eating up millions of pounds of TfL money, that risk locking in dangerous designs for years to come. Croydon Fiveways work has been planned to get cars to the proposed Westfield nearby, not to make things safe. That simply isn’t good enough. All major junction consultations must now be in line with the MTS.

#MustEndNow All of these major junctions are not just a safety concern for people who cycle, they’re a huge barrier to those who don’t. Even for confident cyclists, crossing one of these can be daunting; for new cyclists they are downright off-putting.

If the Mayor wants to enable more people to cycle and meet his Vision Zero target, he needs to fix all of London’s dangerous junctions, fast.

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SUCCESSES While there’s ongoing frustration at the changes to London’s dangerous junctions (see page 14), Tom Bogdanowicz looks back at some of the year’s big campaign wins

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T’S BEEN a tumultuous year for cycling improvements in the capital. Despite hold-ups on Cycle Superhighways 9 and 11, your campaigning paid off with some outstanding victories for common sense and healthier, safer London streets.

BANK JUNCTION It took the tragic death of Ying Tao (a cyclist killed by a turning lorry at Bank) to push the City of London into action. Following our demonstration, the City took a radical step: restricting motor traffic at the notorious Bank junction to buses and cycles only, from 7am to 7pm daily.

The initial 18-month trial faced concerted opposition, notably from black cabs which blocked the junction in protest.

LCC rallied supporters who sent in thousands of consultation responses and LCC staffers made impassioned presentations to City committees. Eventually

common sense triumphed, and in September the City’s Common Council voted to make the scheme permanent. Removing buses and redesigning the roadspace next would make this landmark location, with its iconic buildings, the liveable neighbourhood it deserves to be.

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TAVISTOCK PLACE If you are one of the several thousand who cycle daily along Tavistock Place in Bloomsbury, you will likely remember the many leaflet handouts by LCC and Camden Cyclists, to try and make this essential cycle scheme permanent. Those riders who didn’t have leaflets shoved in their hands (we may have missed a few) might not realise the improved cycle tracks, built in 2016, were only there on a trial basis. The council faced enormous opposition, with black cabs taking their familiar anti-cycling stance.

Of the 15,000 consultation responses (thank you all!) the great majority supported the cycle tracks. Members of Camden Cyclists made the case at a public enquiry, LCC’s Infrastructure Campaigner faced cross-examination and eventually the council cabinet agreed to make the tracks permanent. Reversing the current one-way scheme for motor vehicles, however, is still to be considered — it could have negative impacts.

‘DIRECT VISION’ LORRIES STANDARD

HOUNSLOW, BOSTON MANOR ROAD

LCC argues strongly for lorries with good ‘direct vision’ for the simple reason that lorry drivers repeatedly blame blindspots for collisions.

Responding to a promise made to LCC to make safer lorries the norm, Mayor Khan has published the world’s first Direct Vision Standard (0 to 5 star rating) which comes into play in 2020, albeit with an option for operators to install ‘mitigating measures’ such as cameras and alert systems if any of their current lorries are still ‘0-star’.

The direct vision standard is also due to become part of EU legislation as of 2026 unless industry lobbyists succeed in delaying it. Mayor Khan is lobbying for an earlier, 2024, start.

You have only to look at the headcam video of Boston Manor Road (https://tinyurl.com/ BostonManorCycle) to see the radical difference between the new, twoway, separated cycle track and the still-visible narrow painted lane it replaced. The road carries 17,000 cars and 700 HGVs per day which made cycling there extremely unpleasant.

Inevitably, as with other transformations impacting car parking, the project’s acceptance required the local LCC group to defend the principle of cyclist safety at council meetings.

With initial plans submitted in 2014, it’s been a long four-year campaign, but the results are well worth riding.

NORTH-SOUTH CYCLE SUPERHIGHWAY EXTENSION It’s not perfect, but the northern extension to the North-South CSH is at least partly in place, helping riders get further, safely. At time of writing, Crossrail works continued to punch a gap in the scheme, and the quiet route north of Greville Street was incomplete, missing the Judd Street section.

LCC’s Camden and Islington groups, along with staffers, worked to ensure major and dangerous junctions were done right — with Snow Hill, Charterhouse and Clerkenwell Road junctions all getting major improvements north-south.

Two-way cycle traffic down very narrow streets was also avoided thanks to early interventions.

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ENFIELD, A105 The Enfield — a composite beast that is fox, eagle, wolf and lion — will surely rejoice that its home borough has at last welcomed the composite creature that is part human, part machine.

Enfield’s local LCC activists have won awards for their impressive efforts in shifting what was once a staunchly motoring borough. The transformation of the A105 from a road that’s best avoided, to a street that can be enjoyed is a taster of more to come in one of the three ‘mini-Holland’ boroughs.

The A105 (Green Lanes) now has protected cycle lanes on both sides of the street, using a combination of raised kerbs, ‘orca’ separators and kerb separation. And the borough is now building its second major scheme.

STRATFORD GYRATORY Gone are the days when you dreaded the moment that you had to negotiate the Stratford Gyratory — it was like Hyde Park only longer, faster and more chaotic. The gyratory is going (at time of writing) and there are fresh cycle tracks all around the Stratford Centre shopping mall.

The Newham LCC group has long pushed for a better deal here, and after Newham narrowly missed mini-Holland funding, the borough and TfL pushed forward with the major scheme. It’s a great improvement and is nearly complete. During its consultation and build, the local group was heavily involved and also intervened to make the roadworks safe for cycling.

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WALTHAM FOREST MINI-HOLLAND Where once local residents carried a coffin to protest the death of their shopping street, there are now tables with happy diners and businesses doing well in a more liveable neighbourhood.

And transport experts from London and abroad now cajole the tired, but successful, LCC activists and local officers to give them guided tours of the award-winning cycling schemes in Waltham Forest.

Orford Road (where the coffin was once displayed) is a visual trope for a ‘healthy street,’ while the 4km of protected cycle track along Lee Bridge Road is close to completion. There are also several cycle hubs at stations and further low traffic neighbourhoods to come. Studies have shown that local residents are now more active and air quality is improving.

CONSULTATION OUTCOMES: 20 MPH, ADAPTED BIKES & CYCLE PARKING

If you ride along Embankment you’ll know the link between the North-South and East-West Cycle Superhighways (CS6 and CS3) at Blackfriars is being dug up for the Thames Tideway project. What is surprising, given past roadworks, is the 10,000 daily cycle trips here that have barely been interrupted by one of the capital’s biggest construction schemes.

Southwark Cyclists, LCC staffers and TfL worked with Tideway to ensure tracks were kept open, instead of the old way of taking cyclists on a long detour or abandoning them altogether.

TfL roadworks supremo, Michael Barratt, worked with LCC members and engineers to minimise disruption. And the lessons learned are, increasingly, being applied elsewhere.

A little known, but valuable part of LCC’s work is responding to numerous consultations. It may be dull to those not putting in the work, but that work can pay off in

spades — in more ways than one.

The original version of the Mayor’s London Plan put cycle parking for adapted bikes (used by people with disabilities) and cargo bikes into the ‘non-obligatory’ text of the document. Following objections from LCC and others, provision for such bikes is included in the (draft) official policy. The Plan (cover inset, pictured left), which is subject to a public enquiry, also includes higher cycle parking standards, which developers may attack.

A commitment to 20mph as London’s default speed limit, a long-standing LCC position, came closer in the final version of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS), committing TfL to consider 20mph in every new traffic scheme.

PHOTOS: Tom Bogdanowicz

BLACKFRIARS ROADWORKS

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The Rough Guide to

Better Local Campaigning Simon Munk extracts tips from our revised campaigner’s handbook to show you how to get better cycling in your area by working with an LCC Borough Group

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O YOU look at cycling in boroughs like Waltham Forest and Hackney with envy? Or wonder how come Stratford suddenly has cycle tracks but your local high street remains a disaster zone? Would you like your neighbourhood to get rid of the rat-running cars? Knowing where to start can be tricky, so here’s our simple guide to campaigning for better cycling in your area.

Join a Borough Group

Illustrations: Boing Graphics

Nearly every one of the 33 London boroughs has an active LCC Borough Group. Your Borough Group is the single most important outfit for you to engage with if you want change, and should be your first port of call.

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large Transport for London (TfL) schemes. To create a political mandate to change your borough, you and your Borough Group will need to show councillors there are lots of people who already cycle, or want to, who will vote.

LCC’s Borough Groups will likely have relations with officers and councillors already; they’ll know what attitudes key individuals hold to cycling, what they care about, and who is most influential. Borough Groups are also great for accessing LCC office expertise, training and materials — like our upcoming guide to campaigning on cycling infrastructure. And Borough Groups mean strength in numbers — with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of LCC members in each borough.

Borough Groups will likely have ongoing campaigns of their own they are already working on. So no matter how much what you want to achieve aligns with these existing campaigns, it can really help to start by just getting involved: turn up at meetings, write emails,

Adapt, change and refine your approach as you learn more about the individuals involved. Face-to-face meetings, on a semi-regular basis, will really help. help out on stalls. Whatever your skills, there will be ways to help make the group better. Over time, though, raise your concerns and get the group working on the issues you see as a team.

Theory of Change When you’re planning a campaign with your Borough Group, it’s vital to map out who you will be targeting, what you’re campaigning for and what success will look like. To work this out, you can do an activity known as ‘Theory of Change’. Ask these questions: 1) WHAT IS THE OVERALL CHANGE YOU WANT? This should be something more than a few years in the future, and

beyond the ability of your Borough Group on its own to achieve. In other words, the answer shouldn’t be ‘a Cycle Superhighway at the end of my road’, but perhaps ‘10% of journeys in the borough to be done by cycling’.

2) WHAT STEPS ARE NEEDED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN? These can be ‘critical success factors’, such as genuine political will from the council, but also focused on removing potential barriers. Break down the big change you want to see (eg, ‘10% of journeys in the borough to be done by bike) into smaller changes, such as ‘the council now listens to us’.

3) WHAT DOES YOUR GROUP DO BEST AND WHERE IS HELP NEEDED?

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What does your group do uniquely or differently from other organisations (such as other local campaigns, charities, LCC head office, the council)? And, perhaps equally importantly, what role could other organisations play alongside your Borough Group? It’s important to focus on what your group does best and to then ask for help and coordinate with others.

4) WHAT PROGRESS LOOKS LIKE AND HOW DO YOU MEASURE STEPS TOWARDS YOUR END GOAL? What might SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely) targets for you be?

Set some targets to achieve in your first year, write down the measurable things that mean you will know when you have successfully taken your first step towards your main goal.

Having good, detailed answers to all four of these questions means you and your local group are all pulling in the same direction and focusing your efforts and resources.

How to make friends and influence people Part of campaign planning is to work out who will help you, who might oppose your ideas and how you might change their minds.

For most, the key relationships will be with councillors and officers — but you may also need to build coalitions with groups like clean air/anti-pollution campaigns, walking and other travel campaigns, key community stakeholders such as places of worship, schools, hospitals and GPs, and more.

With all these groups and individuals, it helps to work out how you’re going to go about influencing them. For each individual — key council officers,

cabinet lead member, etc — think about their current attitude towards walking and cycling. Do they have specific thoughts on your area? Are they vital to getting your area changed? What do they care about? Once you know this, you can figure out how to approach them for their support. The campaign won’t change, but how you talk about it will.

To a councillor with pictures of their kids on social media, talk more about safe routes to school and the childhood inactivity crisis.

For those visibly worrying about the funding crisis, explain how your ideas or campaign can unlock TfL’s coffers.

Adapt, change and refine your approach as you learn more about the individuals involved. Face-toface meetings, on a semi-regular basis, will really help.

Councillors should be a priority, as they set the agenda: a good councillor can achieve lots with weak officers; a weak councillor is unlikely to do anything even with good officers.

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Try and keep your campaigning positive and friendly, even with the most anticycling councillors.

Carrots and sticks Once you have a strategy for whom to talk to and how, think through tools you have to influence them.

These shouldn’t be just sticks, but carrots too. If you and your group spends most of its time moaning and is ignored by the council, stop.

Regroup, do the exercises above and ask for help from LCC. If you are doing the same thing over and over again without a different result, you need to change tack.

That’s not to say that pointing out negative issues can’t be productive — but make sure you actually get the council’s attention when you do so. Use examples where what the council is doing is against its own policies, their Local Implementation Plans, or the Mayor’s Transport Strategy.

But do try and keep your campaigning positive, constructive and friendly towards even the most anti-cycling councillors and officers. Get creative and make sure that it is designed to deliver results from your key targets.

Ensuring that councillors know there is a stick, but showing them a carrot regularly is key. With every council, finding something to regularly praise — even a bit of contraflow cycling or new cycle parking — demonstrates you are pragmatic and don’t need them

to fix the world before they get some kudos. One very successful LCC Borough Group begins every meeting with officers with a list of appreciated actions. Regularly praising and recognising hardworking officers and councillors is vital in bringing them on board.

When they do something really good, don’t be afraid of wildly overdoing praise either.

Councillors and officers very rarely get any positive responses.

Riding into the sunset What about those who don’t want to change? Who actively have no clue about why they even should?

Or who think their council is doing wonderfully, when the opposite is true? There are many techniques and approaches; every group will work out what works best for them.

Waltham Forest’s mini-Holland schemes demonstrate several successful examples. For example, Waltham Forest Cycling Campaign volunteers now offer walking or cycling tours most weeks to officers and councillors from around the UK. These showcase how lowtraffic residential neighbourhoods and main road cycle tracks work,

and the transformative results for the local community. A few hours walking around this outer London area can be eye-opening.

That is how the mini-Holland begun. In 2007, campaigners spent a year persuading local councillors and officers to go on one-on-one rides with them along a pre-set route for an hour. The route included the most dangerous road in the borough — Lea Bridge Road — and some small, old, but good cycling infrastructure. Councillors and officers experienced how good and bad council schemes led to good and bad experiences. The result of riding only in small numbers was a visceral understanding of why Advance Stop Lines and painted lanes don’t cut it, and how a few bollards can. The rides led directly to the council upping its game on cycling and to the award-winning mini-Holland schemes.

Winning hearts and minds is what your Borough Group must do to transform your area.

We hope this brief guide helps, but remember there are more resources available on the LCC website and from the office staff. n lcc.org.uk/campaigns

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Alf Engers: Folk Hero

Race face on: Alf in hell-forleather sprint finish

In the long history of London cycle sport, the name Alf Engers jumps out. Author Paul Jones looks at the time-trialling legend’s enduring appeal...

T

IME TRIALLING is a peculiar and parochially British form of competitive cycling. It scratches the popular imagination via headline appearances in Grand Tour races, but is the dominant form of bike racing in the UK. For most people, it is

their first taste of competitive cycling. Even our technicolour professional heroes bookend their careers on the country’s arterial roads, taking on the topography and the timekeeper.

Sean Yates hurtled around the dual carriageways long after he’d left behind his

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noun: folk hero; 1.

a person greatly admired for their achievements by the ordinary people of a country.

2.

a hero who imprints their name, personality and deeds in the popular consciousness. the amateur and the professional. But none command the same level of reverence as a baker from Barnet called Alf Engers, or as he is known almost universally, ‘The King’.

A regular cover star throughout the 1970s, his surname was superfluous. Alf was an anarchic force of fashion and charisma combined with incredible, logic-defying speed. He existed in a state of constant conflict with authority, on the receiving end of five-year, two-year and one-year rustications, all because of supposed infractions against the authorities.

As a club cyclist I became captivated by Alf, poring over stories, newspapers and magazines, gazing with admiration at the stylish yet unreachable figure looking back, trying to eke out some form of meaning. What I didn’t know is that one day I’d end up writing the story of Alf Engers, at his request, and then watch in awe as ripples of meaning rolled outwards from the page, shimmered across the leaves of time to mingle with popular memories. If I had known, perhaps I would have turned down the project, paralysed by nerves.

Meeting of minds

coveted yellow jersey and domestique duties at Motorola. Chris Boardman honed his craft on the ‘J’ courses up near the Wirral, with dad and mum helping the soon-to-be Olympic and world champion. Bradley Wiggins returned in the rainbow bands to visit a fabled strip of tarmac near Hull. Alex Dowsett terrifies the locals in Essex, while Ian Stannard has a preference for the High Wycombe evening ‘10’.

Their names float around on the gossipy breeze of club life, an unbroken link between

The beginning of the project seems like a distant fragment of a dream. I was giving a talk about another book to a packed room of ex-professionals and assorted London heroes — people like Maurice Burton, Grant Young of Condor Cycles and Carlton Kirby. At the end, somewhere from the back of the room a sharply-dressed figure stood up and asked a question. I realised with a jolt it was Alf Engers and garbled an incoherent reply. Three weeks later we set about to translate the twists and turns of his life into narrative.

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Bernard Thompson

Typical tryptych from 1969: joking to reflective in a matter of minutes

Paddington Track to the Skol Six, through bike shops then and now, touching upon entrepreneurs, wide-boys, professional cyclists and amateur fanatics. It starts in Copenhagen Street, heads up to the massed start races at Finsbury Park, moves outside the city to the Hertfordshire aerodromes, back down through Archway, stopping at the Nags Head for Cycle Speedway, rolling on to Herne Hill, then back to Paddington for the Friday night races.

End of season shindigs took place at the Albert Hall, where the massed tiers of club cyclists made paper aeroplanes from programmes and fired them at a disconcerted Tommy Trinder and Lynne Perrie. It ended up with Alf and friends doing the hokey-cokey: settling old scores through the medium of a crazed party dance.

Endless stream of anecdotes At our first meeting I was late. Alf spent his whole life in search of seconds, I was late. Black mark. He made me bacon buns but I didn’t eat them. I was too nervous to say I was vegetarian.

They congealed on the tray and Alf thought I was weird and I was starving. Vignettes spooled

If I had gone on to do what I wanted to do I would have won the Tour, but that’s not how the dice were rolled.

out like the unrolling reels of a C90 cassette, a magnetic record of a lifetime of cycling.

“We were off to Bournemouth for a race,” he said. “It was me, John Harvey and John Woodburn. It started badly. We got John Harvey to book the accommodation for the team. He rang this number and it rang and rang and eventually this bloke answered and went ‘Ello’ in a really gruff, pained way, like he was really cross. John told him he wanted to book rooms and the bloke said, ‘Right I’ll put it in the book’ and slammed the phone down.

“We got to this address later in the week and this chap took ages to get to the door. We could hear him thumping around and wondered what the hell was going on. Eventually he opened the door and he’s balanced on crutches, got his leg in plaster. John says “Hello, I’m John Harvey... er... I rang to book the accommodation?”

“Yeah... You’re the BASTARD who rang when I fell down the bloody stairs,” he replied.

In between interviews I raced in our club ‘10s’. I wore dark glasses. I drifted out toward the middle of the line. I cut the curve. I did what I thought Alf would do. I fought a secret vendetta with the organisers that only I knew about. I went a bit method. It happens when I’m writing, some people get under my skin, they dominate my thoughts. I look at the world through the prism of their lived experienced, because that’s what I’m mediating.

The third time he made me salmon and cream cheese sandwiches. He fed them to the dogs. I thought I was going to end up the same way. Alf gave me a stern look and told me about nutrition

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Len Thorpe

On the comeback trail (above): and winning at Herne Hill, Good Friday, 1959

and essential acids and the Heinz guide from 1957. Judith told me the dogs were waiting to rip my head off.

Seeking new records Each anecdote is testament to a different era and an inescapable feeling of a change, embodied by a fear of the future. Alf talks in strident sentences where meaning is clear, but sentiment is buried beneath memory, concealing a reservoir of pride and regret. Pride at working and riding, winning races on the back of all-night shifts in the bakery. Regret at what might have been.

Alf explained: “I would work all night and finish at 3am. Friday night is busiest so I’d rush through the work. I would go home, eat a tin of rice and cheese rolls, washed down with black coffee, then go and race. Where I came up from it was so very different: up at 5 o’clock in the morning, the tinkle of shoe-plates on the road, the smell of embrocation, the stillness of the morning, just you and the timekeeper. It is the essence of cycling. If I had gone on to do what I wanted to do I would have won the Tour, but that’s how the dice were rolled.”

Towards the end of his career, Alf was consumed by a fanatical desire to be the first person to break the 30mph average speed barrier for 25 miles. It was borne of an unceasing determination to “put the record where other blokes couldn’t get it”. He was aware that every second was slipping through his fingers. It became a Sisyphean effort.

Where previously Alf and his coterie saw

lightness as the key, they now began a quiet revolution in bike design. Alf sought to maximise aerodynamics, rather than weight.

Brake levers were hidden behind the tops of the bars, calipers behind the fork crown. Things were polished, milled, smoothed. Alf doesn’t refer to it as ‘marginal gains’, the increasingly hackneyed Team Sky motto, but the idea of the single second: “There is nothing more important than a single second, races were won and lost, records equalled and not taken.” All he needed now was the perfect day, in body and in spirit.

“Somehow or other there is a fluid, effortless grace. For the most part, the better rides are easier; it’s the slower rides where you have really got to slog. When it’s there, you just fly.”

Throughout our conversations I felt like the match angler; Alf was the one that took the bait, but somehow got off the hook. I became a participant in the life of someone who played with the surface tension of social change. As well as being a chronological record of his achievements, the book is a record of that process, of a character exploring his legacy and his past, doing something we all do: trying to make sense of it all.

BUY THE BOOK

You can buy your copy of I Like Alf: 14 lessons from the life of Alf Engers, by Paul Jones, published by Mousehold Press (£13.95) here – https://tinyurl. com/AlfEngers

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INTERVIEW

HEIDI ALEXANDER Tom Bogdanowicz asks the Deputy Mayor for Transport and former Labour MP about cycling, infrastructure and hitting targets What’s the first bike you rode?

I suspect I was about four and I think it was pink — and it definitely had stabilisers. The first time I ever cycled in London was back in 1999; I moved here with £1,500 in my bank account and couldn’t afford a travelcard so cycled to work from Balham to Canary Wharf.

You’ve been in post for six months now, so what have you set yourself as a target on the cycling front?

My personal target is to get to the point where I can comfortably cycle to and from work five days a week and not feel totally exhausted. But in terms of city cycling objectives, I’d love to be able to cycle on Cycle Superhighway 4 (CS4) by the time of the next election. I want us to have made good progress on construction with CS9, CS10 and CS11. I want us to have consulted on and started construction on two of our new routes — from Tottenham Hale to Camden, and Hackney to the Isle of Dogs — as well as to have made some of the most dangerous junctions substantially safer. That includes finishing the work at Highbury Corner and Stratford, getting underway later this year with Old Street and making good progress on tackling our Safer Junctions list.

the amount of protected space for cycling; enabling every borough to have a mini-Holland (now known as Liveable Neighbourhoods); and making safer, direct vision lorries the norm. The Mayor’s term ends in 2020, so when will you deliver on these promises?

We’ve almost matched what Boris delivered in his second term — about 50km depending on who’s counting and what they’re counting — and with a fair wind, I’m hopeful we will triple the protected space by the next election, yes. But we can’t do this without the boroughs and we can’t do it without the support of your members.

Promising cycle schemes often stall because of borough objections. What are you doing to persuade boroughs to contribute to the Mayor’s plans?

As I just said, we cannot do this without the boroughs.

Just looking at some of the schemes that we inherited from the previous administration as an example, we simply don’t have the power to deliver them on our own.

CS11, for example, includes sections on Westminster’s roads, Camden’s roads and a park road run by a little known public body called the Crown Estates Paving Commission. CS9 runs almost entirely on roads controlled

by Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow; CS4 is split between TfL, Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich.

Will Norman (the Mayor’s Cycling Commissioner) has met with every borough, and I’ve met nearly a dozen too. I’m speaking to MPs about new cycling infrastructure and Will and I will be making a point of meeting as many councillors along the new routes we are proposing as we can.

That’s a lot of people to meet, but we won’t succeed unless we bring councillors with us. The Tottenham to Camden route passes through about 11 wards, so that’s 33 councillors.

We won’t succeed unless we bring councillors with us

The Mayor made three promises to LCC before he was elected: tripling

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INTERVIEW

almost immediately results in more kids walking and cycling to school and reclaiming the streets for play.

More importantly, it changes the conversation. It’s no longer about ‘cycling’ per say, which can still be off-putting to many people. It’s about less traffic, less pollution, less noise, a calmer school run. Who wouldn’t want that?

We have the funding, sadly the most powerful tool to bring boroughs to the table, and we will spend that money where we know we can work with boroughs to deliver good schemes. Our fantastic Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) is another really important tool. Each borough’s Local Implementation Plan (LIP) — soon to be submitted to me to be reviewed — must set out how the borough will deliver the MTS in its area. Cycling is central to the MTS and I will be going through each LIP with a fine toothcomb to ensure they are committed to helping deliver the Mayor’s plans.

Cycling numbers in the capital continue to grow with the exception of trips to school. How will you address this critical health (and congestion) issue?

Getting more kids cycling to school is a tough nut to crack and I was concerned to hear about the school in south London recently that is making kids have number-plates on their bikes if they cycle to school.

We need to be making it easier, not more difficult!

Infrastructure is key — unless parents feel it’s safe enough to cycle with their kids to school, or allow them to cycle on their own, it isn’t going to happen.

Training is also important and is something TfL continues to fund. Kids need to learn to ride a bike on the road before they can cycle to school, as do some parents.

One new development I’m really excited about is School Streets, where a road in front of the school gate is closed to cars at pick-up and drop-off times.

I think it was Camden that first piloted the idea and it’s really taken off in Hackney. We’re hearing of more and more boroughs wanting to trial it, which is fantastic. Teachers will tell you that it

Launching the NorthSouth CS6 extension: Heidi, with LCC’s Simon Munk, Mayor Sadiq Khan and Will Norman

The Mayor said he would use TfL’s procurement powers to help eliminate the most dangerous lorries from London’s roads. While there is now a TfL ‘direct vision’ standard, lorry operators will be able to continue to use ‘0-star’ lorries beyond 2020 by adopting ‘safe system’ mitigating measures. When will TfL set a date for its own contracts to specify only 3-star, or higher, lorries without recourse to mitigating measures?

TfL and the GLA are leading by example and require a minimum 1-star direct vision standard rating by October 2019, increasing to a 3-star minimum by October 2023. This means that vehicle operators under TfL and GLA ‘in scope’ contracts won’t have the option of adopting ‘safe system’ mitigating measures instead of direct vision requirements.

I’m very proud that London has led the way in developing the direct vision standard, but there is more to do. And we will continue to put pressure on the EU to urgently adopt this standard so that, in the future, direct vision is built into lorries at point of manufacture.

You’ve said you’ve been hit when out cycling. Your predecessor as Deputy Mayor, Val Shawcross, was discouraged from cycling by concerns about road danger. What progress will we see on the Mayor’s Vision Zero by the next election?

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INTERVIEW

I’ve ended up in St Thomas’s A&E as a result of getting knocked off my bike in a hit-and-run about 17 years ago.

The weird thing was my cycling stalled after that not because I was fearful but because my bike had been mangled. The truth is I probably shouldn’t have been cycling quickly on the inside of a traffic jam as I may not have ended up going over the bonnet of a left-turning car.

Our Vision Zero action plan is a really important document; a shared vision to reduce road danger between a large number of organisations. You can see that commitment looking back at the press release we issued when we published it, which includes quotes from Mayor Sadiq Khan, Mike Brown (Commissioner of TfL), the Met’s Road and Transport Policing Command, City of London Police, the Air Ambulance, London Ambulance Service, the Fire Brigade, RoadPeace, 20’s Plenty and London Councils.

Reducing speeds is central to achieving Vision Zero. By 2020, I’m really pleased to say that all of the TLRN (red routes) within the congestion charge zone will have a 20mph limit; the Direct Vision Standard should be live and permit issuing should have started; and 20 Safer Junctions should have been completed.

Jeremy Corbyn has said that it is a matter of social justice to provide safe, healthy routes for those on foot and bicycle. How do you think cycling creates a more just society?

Jeremy is totally right on this. There has been a view in some progressive circles that working people need to be able to drive to support themselves and their families; that cycling is somehow a middle-class pursuit; that the so-called ‘war on motorists’ hits the poorest the most. This simply isn’t true. In London, many of the richest households don’t have cars and the

Setting out the City Hall vision: Heidi addresses the LCC AGM in October

poorest cannot afford to own cars. The least well off are also the most affected by road danger, air pollution and inactivity. Owning a car is expensive.

Walking and cycling is free.

What’s the best (and worst) thing about cycling?

I’ve got two best things: you can’t physically be on your phone when cycling and you also end up seeing bits of London you wouldn’t otherwise see.

The worst thing is being cut up by someone — whether it’s someone on a motorbike, a driver or another cyclist.

What do you think you, Sadiq Khan and Will Norman will be most proud of when the Mayor’s first term finishes?

I think that having the Direct Vision Standard in place will be a huge, huge achievement. Not only is it going to tackle the greatest source of road danger in London — lorries make up less than 5% of the kilometres driven in London, but in 2016 they were involved in around 50% of cycling deaths — it is going to drive change in lorry design right across Europe.

The Ultra-Low Emission Zone will be in place in May 2020, to be extended right across inner London by 2021. This means cleaner air for everyone, particularly important for those of us on our bikes.

And breaking ground on the first of our new Future Cycling Routes — Tottenham to Camden, and Hackney to the Isle of Dogs — would be a massive achievement, the first of the 25 new significant routes we’re going to build to create a London-wide, highquality strategic cycling network for the first time.

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HOW TO

FIT A TYRE

Replacing a tyre is a simple job that will help improve your ride and hopefully save you from falling flat this winter as Jenni Gwiazdowski explains

Jenni Gwiazdowski Founder of London Bike Kitchen and book author

Changing tyres is a basic maintenance skill that all cyclists should feel equipped to handle as it will save you money and time from unnecessary flats due to worn tyres — and new tyres also improve your bike’s handling. If you feel you need some face-to-face guidance, consider joining a London Bike Kitchen ‘Intro to Maintenance’ course

obvious. Another sign is if the tyre looks a bit square when it’s pumped up (it’s not round any more); road contact has worn it down flat. Watch out for cuts, embedded sharps and crumbling rubber revealing nylon threads.

3: FITTING THE NEW TYRE Add a couple pumps of air to going in the wheel rim; this the inner tube and tuck the is the side that you start tube into the tyre all the way tucking in first. Once one around, valve facing into the bead is fully seated, do the centre. Place the wheel next other side. Use your thumbs to the tyre and put the valve to push the bead into the rim. in the valve hole. Notice that A tyre lever may be needed one side of the tyre starts on the very last section.

2: REMOVING THE OLD TYRE Many old or loose tyres can Line up the second lever on be removed with your hands the next spoke over and place or a single tyre lever. But for the scoop similarly. Push down tighter tyres, use two levers. on both levers and hook one Deflate the inner tube. Line around a spoke. Use the up the tyre lever with one second lever to peel the tyre of the spokes (opposite the bead off; some brute force valve); place the scoop end may be needed. Lift or push underneath the tyre bead. the second bead off now.

4: INFLATE TO THE CORRECT PRESSURE The tyre’s sidewall shows it’s unscrewed), S for Schrader — ideal pressure range — for and make sure it’s secure. example, 50-80 PSI or 3.5-5.5 Then inflate (track pumps Bar. Your chosen pressure will make this easier than minidepend on factors like terrain pumps). Finally screw on the and weather. Select the right valve ring and dust cap. pump head to match your Remember to check pressures inner tube valve: P for Presta at least once a month and (this one needs to be top up when required.

1: ASSESS YOUR TREAD “You know how some men go bald when they get old?

Well so do tyres.” This was advice given on a recent kids’ course. So you need to check the tread regularly to see if it’s worn; tyres with grooves or knobbles make it more

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HOW TO

YOGA POST-RIDE

STRETCH 3-5 MINUTES

Practising 15 minutes of passive stretching after you ride is a great way to aid recovery and stimulate rehydration of the tissues explains Polly Clark

Polly Clark runs Mountain Yoga Breaks in Mid Wales. mountainyogabreaks.co.uk

After a big ride your yoga should focus mainly on relaxation. Long held passive stretches help to stimulate rehydration of the tissues, aiding recovery as well as creating longer lasting changes in the connective tissues to increase range of motion. Passive stretching also triggers the relaxation response which puts the body into the optimal state for recovery.

SUPPORTED FISH POSE HOW: Place one rubber block (or small rolled up towel) on the lowest height just under the bottom of your shoulder blades and place a second block underneath your head. Relax and allow the upper chest and ribcage to open and the

breath to expand into the chest. Stay here for up to three minutes.

WHY: This pose will help to open up the chest, shoulders and upper back. Making sure you focus on relaxing here will start to put your body into a parasympathetic state.

SHOULDER-STAND VARIATION ON BLOCK HOW: Lying on your back, You can also do this knees bent, lift your hips pose against the wall so and put the rubber block that the knees can be (or rolled towel) underneath slightly bent if needed. the hips on the medium or WHY: This pose provides low height. a mild inversion which Gradually straighten the can help to refresh the legs upwards and see if you legs, alleviate fatigue and are able to relax there for is calming on the nervous up to five minutes. system.

Photos: Phill Stasiw

HALF-RECLINED HERO’S POSE ON BLOCK HOW: Take one foot to the and lie all the way back if outside of its own hip, toes your knees will allow but pointing backwards. Use a don’t force anything. Stay rubber block underneath the for as long as possible. Any other hip. Bend the other pain in the knees release off leg. This might be plenty, straight away. stay there if it is.

WHY: This pose will release To increase the stretch the quadriceps, hip flexors take both hands behind you. and front of ankles so it’s a You can remove the block great pose for all cyclists.

WIDE LEG FORWARD BEND HOW: Take your legs wide legs and back off if you feel and the fingertips to the any pulling on the knee. floor behind you. Use a Find a place that you can block to sit on if you find hold for up to three minutes your pelvis tipping without strain. backwards. Gradually start WHY: This will help to to walk the hands forwards release the adductors without rounding the back. (inner thigh muscles), Pay attention to the inner hamstrings and groins.

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RIDE GUIDE

Join book author Jack Thurston on a scenic tour starting in Bath

B

ATH OWES its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to its beautifullypreserved Roman baths and grand Palladian terraces. These are fine buildings by themselves, but what makes them sing is their setting in the steep-sided Avon valley.

The tricky topography made big demands on engineers, especially those who built the canals and railways that drove the city’s industrial growth in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Bath is a perfect destination for a weekend mini-break and this day ride takes in a wealth of sights, including Georgian canals,

WEST COUNTRY

WOOL POWER bridges, aqueducts, honey-stoned Cotswold villages, a Roman road, Britain’s longest cycleable railway tunnel, lots of quiet country lanes and multiple pub options.

The ride is taken from Lost Lanes West, the third and latest in Jack Thurston’s best-selling series of cycling guidebooks which covers the counties of Wiltshire, Dorset, Somserset, Devon and Cornwall. You can buy signed copies of Lost Lanes West or art prints of the cover illustration at Jack’s website: thebikeshow. net/lost-lanes-shop/

FACT FILE START & FINISH: Bath railway station DISTANCE: 72km (45 miles) TOTAL ASCENT: 747m (2,450ft) TERRAIN: mostly lanes, tarmac cycle paths and well-surfaced canal towpath.

SUITABLE FOR: gravel/cyclocross, light hybrid, touring and road bikes (with a decent spread of low gears).

BIKE HIRE: Green Park Bike Station (greenparkbikestation.info) in Bath offers hybrids or e-bikes for hire. Also available from Towpath Trail in Bradford-on-Avon (towpathtrail.co.uk).

NEAREST STATIONS: Bath Spa (regular service from London Paddington) and Bradford-on-Avon (from London Waterloo).

BATH: THE THREE MAIN CLIMBS

3

1

START: BATH ST.

2

MULBERRY PARK 7.2km (158m high)

SLAUGHTERFORD ROAD 38.2km(132m)

COLERNE AIRFIELD 60.5km (173m)

END: BATH ST.

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where scenes from the TV adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall were filmed. It’s now managed by the National Trust. Look out for the superb avenue of oaks just past the house.

In the space of just over three miles the route crosses first the old Roman road between Bath and London, then Brunel’s Great Western Railway, and finally the A4 Bath Road, the old stagecoach route and turnpike. It’s believed that Charles Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers owes its name to the village of Pickwick just north of Corsham.

Grounded is a stylish yet relaxed cafébar in a grand converted chapel in the centre of Corsham and makes for a good pitstop (cafegrounded.co.uk) After Biddestone the route leaves National Cycle Route 254 to take in a lovely but hilly section of narrow, twisting, wooded lanes following the valley of the By Brook river upstream.

It’s a fast flowing river with a 200m drop over its short, 18-mile course and this made it a perfect choice for watermills. There’s evidence of at least 20 mill sites.

Roman mills ground wheat; in medieval times there were also mills for cleansing and thickening wool; and in the 18th and 19th centuries several converted to paper-making and lasted into the 20th century.

The village of CASTLE COMBE [5] grew out of the medieval wool trade and local lore says that the English word ‘blanket’ owes its origin

to a Flemish weaver named Blanquette who ran a mill here. In 1962 the British Travel Association declared Castle Combe ‘the prettiest village in England’ and it’s still very much on the Cotswold tourist trail.

The next section takes in the intersection of two of Britain’s great roads: the M4 motorway and the FOSSE WAY [6].

The M4 was completed in the 1970s, nearly 2,000 years after the Romans built the Fosse Way between Exeter and Lincoln, marking the western edge of their conquest.

For most of its length the Fosse Way is now covered by wide and busy trunk roads, but this section includes an unsurfaced track. Close your eyes, listen carefully and you might just hear the stamp of legionnaires’ sandals.

Crossing back under the M4, the Salutation Inn at The Gibb is a decent pub with a sunny garden and from here the route continues on a steady climb along the Fosse Way, by now a tarmac lane, for six miles as far as Colerne Airfield.

A right turn leads to a glorious descent of the steep-sided and sylvan valley of St Catherine’s Brook. In late spring the air here is thick with the scent of wild garlic.

All of a sudden you’re back in the Avon valley, beneath Solsbury Hill. If you’ve got energy to spare then you can make a detour and ride very close to the top of the hill before scrambling up the grassy ramparts of the Iron Age hill fort for a tremendous sunset view across Bath.

Then, after crossing the Bathampton toll bridge (bikes go free), it’s over the A4 and back onto the canal towpath for the final run back into Bath city centre.

CUT-OUT AND KEEP

The ride starts out heading west, downstream, on the River Avon before making a southerly turn onto the TWO TUNNELS GREENWAY [1], a pair of disused railway tunnels that Sustrans and Bath council opened as a walking and cycling route in 2013. The second of these, the Combe Down tunnel, is just over a mile long and the longest cycleable tunnel in Britain. The lighting is on the dim side so it’s worth taking lights, if only to be seen by other cyclists and walkers.

You emerge from the darkness into the picturesque hamlet of Tucking Mill. This was once home of William ‘Strata’ Smith, a late 18th-century canal and mines surveyor who in his spare time pioneered the infant science of geology. Through careful observation of the layering of rock types he published the first ever geological map of England and Wales.

At Brassknocker Basin it’s on to the Kennet and Avon Canal and over John Rennie’s grandiose DUNDAS AQUEDUCT [2] towards Bradford-onAvon. After another Rennie aqueduct at Avoncliff, where No.10 Tea Gardens is a good café stop, the route passes the magnicent (and free entry) 14thcentury TITHE BARN [3] on the way into Bradford-on-Avon.

It’s a steep climb through the beautiful medieval wool town and past the Jacobean manor house where the late Dr Alex Moulton developed his iconic smallwheeled, spaceframe bicycles and where topof-the-range Moultons are still made by hand. It’s then a traverse across gently rolling farmland to Corsham. Along the way is the 15th-century moated manor house of GREAT CHALFIELD [4],

©Crown copyright 2018 Ordnance Survey. Media 060/18

Jack Thurston

Route Guide WOOL POWER

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CUT-OUT AND KEEP

WEST COUNTRY WOOL POWER

6 5

1

4

2 3

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L ATEST | BIKES | GEAR | MEDIA

BIKES

AMPLER 52

GOLDHAWK 53

REVIEWS

LIGHTS 55

JACKETS 59

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BIKES

LONGTERM TEST BIKES

Our test team gets to grips with the latest bikes, from hybrids and city slickers to off-road adventurers and mtbs MODEL: AMPLER CURT, FROM £2,175 n amplerbikes.com

I

NDISTINGUISHABLE FROM a ‘standard’ city bike in profile, the Ampler Curt is the shape of things to come in the e-bike world — integrated, intelligent and increasingly lightweight. The company offers two other models — Stout and Stellar — both starting at £1,999.

Our tester comes in singlespeed and 10-speed options, brushed metal or black frame, with a multitude of add-ons including belt drive, built-in lights, full-wrap mudguards and tyre upgrades. And with the weather turning, we went for a ‘winter friendly’ spec that promised minimal maintenance.

At first glance everything appears as it should for a wellconsidered city bike — robust

aluminium frame, carbon fork, puncture-proof Continental tyres and our favourite Shimano disc brakes. And the Brooks Cambium saddle adds a touch of class. But it’s the stuff you don’t immediately see that is the real revelation. There’s a 250W motor housed in the rear hub and a 336Wh lithium-ion battery hidden inside the frame’s down-tube. Only a discrete on/off button and charging port on the non-driveside seat-tube hints at any electronic trickery. It’s so well executed that most people take a few minutes to spot it’s an e-bike — which is an added security bonus.

Battery range is claimed as between 45-100km and we were only charging it twice per week for our daily rides around

town. The pedal assist is almost instantaneous, noticeable within the first pedal stroke, and the torque sensor means that the more you put in the more you get back.

Even the singlespeed version we had meant our very steep road home was a relative breeze.

Fitted lights and folding Abus lock mean there’s two things less to worry about. All in, there’s little to fault — it’s an ideal commuter. JK

VERDICT + Smartphone connectivity allows you to tweak motor settings. + Comes with own wooden toolbox and shiny flat pedals. + Super simple magnetic charger, but battery not removable.

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REVIEWS

SUITABLE FOR BOTH WEEKDAY COMMUTING AND LIGHT TOURS

MODEL: GOLDHAWK RODAX, £1,400 n goldhawkbikes.com

A

S THE name hints, Goldhawk is a new brand from West London, founded by local engineer-cumbike designer Jeff Rutland. Looking for a sporty flat-barred bike for himself and finding little of interest in the market, Jeff went for the DIY approach; frame design and geometry is his own, the build is done by a renown Reynolds partner in the Far East (where the majority of the world’s bike manufacture takes place), then all assembly is handled back home in Blighty.

Steel aficionados will appreciate the neat welding and finer detailing, including the cowled dropouts; and commuters and tourers alike will be pleased to see mounts for racks and space for tyres wider than

the specced 28c Gatorskins. The 1x11 gearing is a great choice for town and country ventures, with a wide-range cassette that’s plenty for any climbs in southern England. The most appreciated component for us has been the carbon fork that’s been a godsend on our daily cobble wobbles.

It’s proven versatile so far and stands out from the pack, so watch out for future online updates. JK

VERDICT +C lean, distinct-looking frame will appeal to steel lovers. + Mounts for pannier racks and mudguards adds to versatility. + Nippy about town and able to handle hardpack trails.

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REVIEWS

FRONT LIGHTS BLACKBURN Dayblazer 800, £55

exposurelights.com

Charge time (claimed/actual): 4hr/3hr50 Run time (claimed/actual): 1hr30/3hr+

Charge time (claimed/actual): 4hr/2hr Run time (claimed/actual): 2hr/2hr15

This tough, high-quality light was the most powerful on test in theory, offering 800 lumens on main mode, but in use its larger, less focussed beam was only second brightest. Having said that, it was more than bright enough for riding off-road and on country lanes at speed, as well as anything London streets could throw at it. Where the Blackburn did have an advantage over others was in staying power — it averaged a run time far in excess of its claimed one. The relatively heavy (129g) unit also featured IP67-rated submersible waterproofing, and came with a GoPro-style mount for helmet use. On the downside, side visibility was only middling and the casing would certainly benefit from larger cutouts around the lamp. The strobe mode lasted over 10hr which is comparable with the competition. For our money, it ticks a lot of the right boxes and at this price point is a solid pick — more than suitable for most city cyclists.

Exposure has a deserved reputation for its high-end road and mtb lights; the Sirius is part of its ‘urban’ range and proved the brightest light on test, despite packing a few less lumens than the Blackburn. That’s probably because its single LED is focussed into a tight, sharply-defined beam — in fact it was so bright that in areas with lots of pedestrians or cyclists, we found it better to default to a lower setting to avoid dazzling people. Side illumination was also the brightest, ensuring you can both see and be seen. The Sirius is light (84g), helmet mountable, IPX6 splashproof-rated (not immersible) and has multiple programmable modes. Plus it can be plugged into a twinned rear light, battery pack or accessories. The DayBright pulse mode is great at catching motorists’ attention in daytime too, which might help avoid ‘Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You’ (SMIDSY) collisions. It’s a top light, but highly priced.

KNOG PWR Rider, £58

LEZYNE MicroDrive Pro 650XL, £45

Charge time (claimed/actual): 3hr30/3hr40 Run time (claimed/actual): 2hr/1hr30

Charge time (claimed/actual): 2hr/3.5hr Run time (claimed/actual): 3hr/4hr+

This large, minimalist light packs a secret second purpose – it works as a charger for your mobile phone or GPS, thanks to a built-in 2,200mAh power pack. However, given the run time isn’t incredibly high on the main mode, if you want enough juice to charge a phone and ride home, we’d recommend sticking to the lower/flash modes. The main mode’s wide, uniform beam is good for seeing the road ahead on dark days in urban conditions, but it’s not very sharply focussed. In the city, we found the secondary ‘commuter’ setting (190 lumens) to be the best choice for mixing main roads and side streets. Side visibility was quite poor, while the strap design wasn’t the sturdiest or simplest to use (particularly on wider diameter bars), certainly compared to the other Knogs we’ve tested. A couple of tweaks and the PWR would be a decent all-rounder.

The cheapest light on test does fairly well on bang for your buck and the body is super sleek, plus there’s multiple settings for all types of road cycling. The 400 lumens rating for its main mode is on a par with similarly-powered rivals, though the beam’s not quite as wide as some; side visibility was very average and could definitely be improved. For most about-town use, however, the lower economy modes were more than sufficient and we got 5-8hr run-time using those. In fact run times overall were both impressive and consistent. One major plus is the Daytime Flash mode, deliberately designed to be “highly disruptive” to help drivers see you even in sunshine and this worked really well. Our sample even came with a new remote handlebar switch, which allows you to control this light and a compatible rear Strip Drive without stopping or letting go of your grips.

silverfish-uk.com

REVIEWS: Simon Munk

EXPOSURE Sirius Mk7 Daybright, £100

zyrofisher.co.uk

upgradebikes.co.uk

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REVIEWS

REAR LIGHTS EXPOSURE TraceR ReAKT Mk2, £65

LIGHTRIDER Phase USB, £14.99

Charge time (claimed/actual): 4hr/2hr Run time (claimed/actual): 3hr/3hr15

Charge time (claimed/actual): 5hr/5-6hr Run time (claimed/actual): 36hr/24hr+

For road or commuting use the TraceR is at the premium end of the rear light market. But you get a quality aluminium casing, light weight (35g) and an interesting range of features. In theory its 75 lumens mean it’s not the brightest light on test but head-tohead comparisions proved otherwise — possibly because its single LED projects a more direct beam than others and the well-designed seatpost mount angles the light well. The design provides great side visibility too and there are three levels of brightness, each with a constant and flashing mode. The brightest flash mode has an irregular ‘DayBright’ pattern designed to draw attention and we also found the ReAKT setting worked well, making the light flare more brightly when braking. There’s even a ‘Peloton’ mode to prevent dazzling riders behind; while tricky to judge its effectiveness, the light does dim noticeably when in direct contact with the beam of a front light.

It might be little bulky, but the Phase is a still a well-featured light for the money. A single button on the face controls all functions; hold for a couple of seconds to switch the light on/off and tap once to cycle through the seven modes (one constant and six flashing/pulsing patterns). The light also has a built-in sensor, used to automatically switch the light off if you don’t move for 5mins and then back on again when you set off. The Phase also features an ambient light sensor, which stops the light from automatically coming on in brighter daylight (if you intend to use your lights in daytime all year round, as well as at dusk and night, this may not suit you as the feature can’t be disabled). The unit mounts easily to seatposts and is angled to face backwards not down; the rubber strap held the light in place well on our test but it isn’t integrated with the main unit so care’s needed so that it’s not lost. Available in four colours.

NITERIDER Sentinel 250, £55

BERYL Pixel, £19.99

Charge time (claimed/actual): 3hr/2hr30 Run time (claimed/actual): 5hr/3-5hr (depending on laser use)

Charge time (claimed/actual): 1hr30/1hr30-2hr Run time (claimed/actual): 5hr/5hr+

The Sentinel is effectively two lights in one: a main beam provides all the standard features you’d expect, including a pulsing mode that’s bright enough for daytime use, a flashing mode and two constant modes with different brightness levels. The USP, however, is the projection of twin lasers behind the bike, creating a ‘virtual lane’. These are operated by pressing a separate switch on top of the unit; you can choose constant or two flashing lasers. It’s debatable whether the lasers increase rider visibility significantly, or offer better visibility than using two lights, but it’s an interesting feature. The unit is quite bulky and not particularly attractive, though the casing is robust.

The mount attaches to seatposts with a rubber strap (you need to angle the light correctly to get the lasers parallel) and there is also a clip for attaching to bags and clothing.

No, we’ve not run the wrong image! The Pixel is a neat little light from Beryl (formally Blaze) which can operate as either a front or a rear. Clicking one button on the unit’s face cycles through constant white, white pulsing, constant red and red pulsing modes. The same button acts as the on/off switch. It’s a light designed purely for city cycling – it will help you be seen rather than help you to see. It’s compact, lightweight (18g), simple to operate and extremely versatile. The multitude of mounting options include: a conventional silicone strap for fixing to handlebars or seatposts, a simple clip for attaching to bags or clothing, and a Velcro strap for looping to a helmet.

A ‘power save’ mode also allows you a good hour or two when the battery’s 85% depleted, enough to get home safely or if your journey takes longer than usual. Few lights offer that front/rear option, so the Pixel works as a back-up in various guises.

exposurelights.com

REVIEWS: Rob Eves

zyrofisher.co.uk

lightrider.co.uk

beryl.cc

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REVIEWS

LIGHTSETS ALPKIT Hadron, £95 alpkit.com

CATEYE Kinetic Sync, £120

Charge time (claimed/ actual): 3hr30/4hr Run time (claimed/ actual): 3h20/5hr

Charge time (claimed/actual): 2hr30/2hr30 Run time (claimed/actual): 2hr/2hr45

If you like to mix your road and offroad rides the Hadron could be a good-value choice. At full power the egg-sized front light pumps out a theoretical 2,000 lumens (comparison suggests it’s a bit less) which is plenty for trails and unlit roads and the battery lasted a lot longer than claimed. On the lowest mode (it has three intensity settings and a flashing mode) you generate 130 lumens which is more considerate of fellow cyclists and ups the run-time to some 15hr. A matching rear light (without side visibility) connects via a splitter cable to the battery, which itself attaches firmly using velcro straps to your choice of frame tube (another strap tidies up any loose cable). A dual button acts as an additional on/off switch which scrolls through the modes.

All parts are attached to bike or helmet using tough rubber rings which stay firmly attached while riding, even on cobbles. There is, unfortunately, no indicator to show battery depletion level.

One on/off button to rule them all.

That’s the key to this intelligent set and we enjoyed not having to fiddle around with several light switches. Lights are paired using a free Cateye app (you only need to do this once), which also gives a precise battery read-out. The front has a maximum intensity of 500 lumens, plenty for canal paths, while four lower settings (including flash modes) cater for street use. The rear has six modes and, like the front, has good side visibility. The front attaches via an efficient ratchet clamp, the rear by a durable silicon strap and the handy ‘wearable’ light (not pictured) uses a simple clip. In addition to innovative one-button operation, the set also has an accelerometer on the rear which increases the intensity of that light when braking. Nice to see a green light to indicate a good charge and red light for when a re-charge is needed. Incidentally, with lithium-ion batteries it’s best to stick between 25% and 85% charge to extend battery life.

FABRIC Lumasense Set, £55

LEZYNE ConnectDrive, £135

Charge time (claimed/actual): 2-3hr/2hr30 Run time (claimed/actual): 3hr30/4hr

Charge time (claimed/actual): 2hr/1hr30 Run time (claimed/actual): 3hr/2hr30

fabric.cc

REVIEWS: Tom Bogdanowicz

Charging/run times shown are for Front light (main mode) only

From the minimalist white packaging to the braided USB cable, this set oozes designer input. A sturdy plastic clip and silicon strap attaches each light to bars or seatpost (at a slight downward angle) and both front and rear generate 30 lumens: enough to be seen in town, though not to illuminate an unlit road. There’s a choice of high and low modes, plus two flash settings. The smart rear light also has an accelerometer which boosts the light level as you brake to warn vehicles/cyclists behind, while conserving power in normal mode.

We found the rear also switches off if it is motionless for five minutes, after which you have to switch it back on (not just shake it) — this made is difficult to confirm claimed run-times, but we kept one going for 4hr and it was still at full brightness. A red indicator integrated in the on/off switch glows when the power is low and also stays on when charging. Sadly the rear has very limited side visibility with only a 50-60-degree light angle.

zyrofisher.co.uk

upgradebikes.co.uk

If you like multi-mode lights this is the set – a total of 19 settings on front and rear including ‘disruptive’ daytime options. A wireless controller can switch modes on either lamp when the two are paired up. The robust 800XL front light can generate 400 lumens on max, too much for busy streets but great off-road; lower/flash modes are better around town. The rear Strip Drive is a well-established design with good side visibility; you may wish to avoid the full mode (45 lumens) on packed cycle lanes as it can dazzle riders behind and also uses up the battery quickly. By switching modes you can extend the 1hr30 ‘blast’ option to a more useful 5hr on flashing. Both lamps attach easily with silicon straps and have indicators showing decreasing battery capacity from 100-5%. Very handily, the rear light also switches to flashing after the full beam runs out.

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REVIEWS

WATERPROOF JACKETS WOMEN’S RAPHA

REVIEWS: John Kitchiner, Sarah Flynn

Commuter Jacket rapha.cc £100

MEN’S ALPKIT Gravitas

alpkit.com £125

Rapha’s new City collection is aimed squarely at the nonLycra crowd, and the Commuter’s simplicity and attention to detail makes it a good pick for year-round use. It’s super lightweight (meaning it can easily live in our rucksack when not needed), and features sealed seams, waterproof zip, storm cuffs, elasticated hem, adjustable hood and zipped pockets.

Plus there’s a cool reflective dot pattern on the rear. It easily kept out autumnal downpours and we didn’t overheat – even without using the pit-zips – on cooler rides. Overall this jacket represents good value (something Rapha’s been criticised for in the past); people probably won’t even notice it’s designed for cyclists – which is exactly what we’re looking for in our city cycling wear. Three colours; XXS-XL.

From the outdoor brand behind Sonder bikes, the Gravitas is claimed to be one of the lightest three-layer jackets on the planet. Our medium sample tipped the scales at just 180g and while it doesn’t feel that robust, it’s actually still blemish-free after a few scrapes. The super-thin fabric is also highly breathable, we felt zero clamminess even on changeable weather days, plus the seams are all taped to prevent rain seeping in. As we’ve said in the past, we actually love a fuss-free, minimalist design for our outer layers and here you get one chest pocket, elasticated cuff and simple drawcord adjustment at hem and hood — and that’s all you really need.

The fit and shape is spot-on for us, with room for a standard midlayer, though if you prefer a chunkier insulated top underneath it might be worth sizing up. Three colours; S-XXL.

ALTURA NightVision Thunderstorm altura.co.uk £129

HOWIES

Visibility on the bike, without looking like a traffic cone off it – that’s the Thunderstorm’s appeal in a nutshell. It comes in either tasteful tonal or contrasting colours, with the upper chest, shoulders and lower back panels on each being clad in Altura’s famous NightVision reflective fabric.

This makes it very hard to be missed in vehicle headlights! The detachable hood is very useful, as are the multiple pockets across the chest, torso and back, more than enough for gloves and essentials. A large rear vent and pit-zips came into their own on longer rides or when throwing the jacket on over work clothes. Sizing was true, though we found the neck a little tight when fully zipped, especially when riding. Style-wise it’s more sporty than casual, and one we’ll reach for on colder commutes. Four colours; 8-18.

As the most pedalfriendly of Howies’ winter jackets, the Courier does a great job of nailing that elusive ‘on and off bike’ appeal. The two-layer nylon fabric is heavier (610g) and immediately warmer than Alpkit’s featherweight, but a full mesh liner negates any boil-in-the-bag effect. We found the shape allows plenty of freedom of movement in sportier riding positions and a drop-down tail helps with rain spray. Instead of drawcords or elastic, cuffs and hems adjust using buttons; the former (and a matching tab on the upper back) can also be reversed to reveal reflective strips — very neat. The hood can be folded away when it’s not needed and there’s a hidden sleeve pocket for Oyster cards too. Charcoal only; S-XL.

Courier howies.co.uk £139

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MEMBERS

Winter Cycling

SURVIVE (AND THRIVE) WITH LCC MEMBERSHIP

The mornings are crisp and the conditions variable, but that doesn’t mean you should give your bike the cold shoulder this winter. With LCC Membership, you can continue to enjoying riding all year round. Here are some of our top cold weather riding tips to keep you on your bike...

Wrap up A wise cyclist once said, there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. Layering is key to successful winter riding. With a good set of essentials – breathable waterproofs, merino baselayers and socks, active neckwear (we’re fans of the funky Stolen Goat designs), and gloves – you’ll be able to mix and match to accommodate any kind of weather. Proviz jackets are popular among commuters due to the weatherbeating and 100% reflective features, meaning you’ll stay dry and stay seen.

When the weather really drops, consider adding a lightweight insulated top to the rotation.

Finnesterre makes a wide range of jackets that will keep you stylishly warm on and off the bike, and its 100% recycled polyester copes better in the wet than down (and is much more sustainable).

Stay hydrated Not having enough fluids can cause your core temperature to drop, so while it’s easy to neglect hydration in the winter months, it can be a crucial step to staying warm!

If you need an incentive to sip, try spicing up your H2O with a Lemon + Matcha hydrating power sachet from TRIBE — perfect for more active rides as it contains natural electrolytes

for both performance and hydration.

One of our favourite winter riding hacks? Hot drinks on the go. Make your choice of warming beverage (though we recommend staying away from hot cocoa to avoid unfortunate chocolate stains) and stick it in your bottle cage. Ensure your drink stays hot throughout your ride with an insulated mug from Klean Kanteen.

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MEMBERS

Accessorise your bike Velominati style purists would surely disagree, but during the winter months, no matter what the ‘rules’ say, accessories can be a bike's best friend. Mudguards help keep the grit off you, your bike and the people riding behind you and are an essential accessory to any winter road-worthy steed. Winter tyres will improve your grip on the road and help to prevent punctures.

Waterproof saddlebags and panniers mean your clothes, electronics and other belongings will arrive at their destination dry. A good set of lights are also essential to keeping you safe and seen.

Retailer Cycle Surgery offers hundreds of options to customise your set up. Restrap has recently launched a more commuter-friendly range of bike luggage, or if you’re looking for a truly bespoke route head over to Mack Workshop.

Refer a friend to join LCC and SPECIAL you’ll both get a free pair of Beryl OFFER! Pixel lights (lcc.org.uk/brighter).

Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance!

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. Your bike is already dealing with unfavourable conditions like road grit and rain which can quickly wear down components, so make sure you’re keeping up with regular maintenance to ensure it keeps on running through the winter months.

At-home maintenance is a breeze with Eat My Dirt, and for any repairs outside of your expertise, head on over to our online Retail Network (lcc. org.uk/retailnetwork) to find your pick of local bike shops. If you prefer to do it yourself, London Bike Kitchen offers a range of classes to give you the knowledge you need to fix your bike.

Too busy to visit the bike shop? Havebike will collect, service, clean and return your bike, making servicing truly hassle-free.

Enter an event We’re not all winter warriors and sometimes a little extra motivation can make all the difference. Why not consider entering a spring or summer sportive?

If you enter next year’s RideLondon 100 you’ll have an incentive to ride when the weather isn’t so inviting. Having your sights set on a goal can be just the thing to keep you training, motivated and in the saddle throughout the winter months.

Improve your chances for success by training with a group. Check out our list of Affiliate Cycle Clubs and Borough Groups to find a group in your area. Most will offer regular rides throughout the year and are a great way to meet people and improve your riding skills.

VISIT THE MEMBERSHIP WEBSITE As an LCC member, you get great savings with all of the benefits listed in bold text above — and more!

So head on over to lcc.org.uk/membership to see our full membership package.

We go further when we #ridetogether

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DIRECTORY

ICONIC BIKES

1969-1980

Raleigh Chopper Like nothing else we’d seen before, Raleigh’s most famous model achieved cult status from day one as John Kitchiner explains

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a small rear rack was added (never used for carrying anything other than a second, or third, passenger), and the gear shifter changed to the T-bar style (perfect for snagging clothes or impaling yourself). Raleigh even did a drop-barred version called the Sprint, much sought after by collectors but the very definition of a ‘Frankenbike’. These were standout bikes in an industry dominated by similar-looking steel road machines and unsurprisingly they spawned a series of smaller bikes like the Tomahawk, Budgie and Chipper.

But it’s not only the aesthetic we’re still talking about all these years later, in fact we’d be remiss not to mention that other arch characteristic of the Chopper: the ride. Veering between fun and lethal, usually always hair-raising at some point, they were teeth-jarringly harsh off homemade ramps despite the wide tyres and the steering seemed to have a mind of its own. However there’s never been a finer ‘backies’ bike.

These days pre-loved models sell for hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds. So with 2019 marking the Chopper’s 50th anniversary, we might have to give our own space blue beauty an overdue polish...

Illustration: David Sparshott

FFICIALLY UNVEILED and available to buy for the first time in 1969, the Mk1 Chopper pretty much instantly became a signifier of ‘cool’, the must-have bike for a generation of young riders on both sides of the Atlantic and one of the most famous names in the history of cycling.

Designed in response to the hugely popular Schwinn Sting-Ray of the mid-60s, the Chopper came with a choice of three or five-speed Sturmey Archer gear hubs, or singlespeed coaster hub. As well as the distinctive frame, the new Choppers incorporated features clearly borrowed from their motorcycle namesakes: ‘ape hanger’ bars, high-back seat, ‘bobbed’ mudguards, chunky kickstand and mismatched wheel sizes (16in front and 20in rear). Even the chromed rear hoop was said to mimic the anti-roll bars employed on custom dragsters.

Legendary as the Mk1 has become, it’s actually the improved Mk2 that most people fondly remember as it launched in 1972 and stayed in production until 1980. The frame was tweaked to move the seat forward, supposedly to prevent the front tipping backwards (it didn’t make much difference though), 66

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