Jon Sparks's Blog
Posted by Jon Sparks
I said in this blog just over a week ago that Cycling can help save the planet. Now here’s what looks like a great way of highlighting this - both the need to get more people cycling, and how easy it is to do. It’s especially relevant to U.S. residents, but the broader message is equally pertinent everywhere.
Clif Bar & Co, makers of some of the best and most natural energy bars you can buy, have launched their 2-Mile Challenge. It’s beautiful in its simplicity; forty percent of U.S. urban travel is over distances of 2 miles or less. In an urban setting, over that sort of distance, it’s been proven time and time again, that bikes are quicker than cars, buses, or any other form of ‘rapid transit’. And, of course, healthier.
Not only do they urge people to use bikes for these short journeys, you can use the website to create a map of your personal 2-mile zone. For many people this encompasses a large slice of their life - any or all of school, work, shops, sports, leisure can be within a 2-mile radius.
They’ve also been running a tour of the Western States (now almost at an end) - with a biodiesel-powered bus. There’s still time to get down to REI in Seattle today (2nd November) or see them at the University of Orgeon, Eugene, tomorrow, November 3rd.
Oh yes: the original Clif Bar is said to have been born after a 175-mile bike ride. You shouldn’t have the same need to refuel during a 2-miler!
Posted by Jon Sparks
In my day job, I'm a professional photographer specialising in landscapes and outdoor pursuits, and of course I'm particularly interested in cycling.
Compared to walking, rock-climbing and mountaineering, which are my other main specialist areas, cycling is definitely harder to photograph properly. I've watched a lot of very good photographers, with broad general experience, struggle with photographing action on bikes. There are two main reasons why:
- 1: You're often photographing individuals, not team action, so you need to get close;
- 2: Most people underestimate the speed even of touring cyclists.
I think this is what lies behind my particular bugbear: even when a professional photographer is employed, a lot of publications end up full of pictures of people standing around with their bikes, not actually riding.You might think, if the professionals struggle, what chance has anyone else got? But as a regular cyclist, you have two great advantages:
- You understand cycling and know what makes great cycling pictures;
- You ride regularly so you're always in the middle of the action.
With these factors on your side, and a few simple pointers on the technique front, you should be able to get images that really do justice to your bicycling experiences. That's why I'm posting the first of a short series of articles on this subject.
Posted by Jon Sparks
You may not have read it here first, but I still think Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize is worth a comment. Former US Vice-President Gore shares the prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in recognition of their work in spreading awareness about the human causes of climate change and the need for far-reaching action to combat it.
I watched Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth recently. There have been (disputed) allegations that it contains a few factual errors but this barely dilutes the overall impact. As its focus is mostly on understanding the causes and consequences of climate change, rather than what we need to do about it, there’s only a brief mention of cycling at the end.
Last week a Committee of UK Members of Parliament produced a report on another growing problem, that of obesity. One of their recommendations was that the Government should do more to ensure that it meets its existing target of trebling the number of people who cycle by 2010.
Whether anything will actually happen remains to be seen, but I do get a sense, at least here in the UK and across Europe, that more and more people are becoming aware of the far-reaching consequences of a culture that, for far too long, has been excessively focused on the car. Cycling is not the only answer but it can have a big role to play in improving both our own health and that of the planet.
Posted by Jon Sparks
Some people may feel that, being of the ‘wrong’ gender, I’m not qualified to comment on the subject of bicycles for women. Well, it’s arguable, but I’m going to risk it anyway. It’s a major subject, of course, and in the near future I’ll be posting several linked articles.
I don’t think there’s much doubt that the development of practical, rideable bicycles played an important role in the emancipation of women in the late 19th and early 20th century. That being so, it seems doubly regrettable that women are still in a minority among active and serious cyclists. It’s certainly true that probably at least eighty percent of the riders I see on main roads, country lanes and mountain bike trails in my part of the world are male.
The reasons for this are complex, and all sorts of social factors may be involved. But I can’t help wondering if one factor that stops more women becoming more actively involved in cycling is, or has been, the difficulty of finding bikes, and other kit, that are appropriately designed and comfortable and efficient to ride. Which is where I’ll start this series of articles, in particular by looking at some basic frame designs.
Posted by Jon Sparks
A new bicycle speed record has recently been set in Chile. 33 year old Austrian Markus Stoeckl clocked an incredible 210.4 km/h (130.7 mph) on a snow-slope in the Chilean Alps. While faster speeds have been reached in streamlined capsules, this speed was attained on a conventional Intense bike with Shimano components - including off-the-shelf disc brakes to bring the flying Stoeckl safely to a halt. Conditions were far from optimum on the 2000-metre long, 45-degree slope and it seems certain that the record can and will be surpassed in the near future.
Although extremely impressive, to me such gravity-assisted record-breaking seems a bit of a sideshow compared to the speeds that can be reached on level ground by pure muscle-power - see an earlier article for more on this.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’ve blogged before about traumas that ensue when bikes - especially rental bikes - are poor quality or simply not up to the intended use. My worst experience overall was in the Dordogne region in France, simply because we had to struggle with dodgy bikes for a whole week, but they weren’t the worst bikes I’ve ever ridden.
That dubious honour, indubitably goes to a bike that I rented on the island of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. There is nowhere more beautiful than the Hebrides, and Barra is a microcosm of the whole archipelago. But the bikes!
They’d started out as cheap, wannabe mountain bikes, and were poorly maintained; tyres were a bit soft and gear-changing was temperamental. But the killer was the bar-ends - you know, those bolt-on extensions at the end of the handlebars to give a better hand position for climbing.
The problem was that these had been fitted almost vertically, even leaning back a little. I couldn’t see any way this could actually be useful, and while they didn’t seriously interfere with my riding while I was in the saddle, as soon as I tried to stand up I was bashing my forearms against them. It took me about two minutes to decide that this was ludicrous, but the guy at the hire shack had obviously decided that was it for the day and disappeared
If I’d had a 6mm Allen key I’d have fixed the problem in a minute, but now I was stuck with it. So we abandoned any ideas of cycling right round the island, even though it’s only 20 miles, and instead headed across the causeway to the neighbouring island of Vatersay, where we went for a magical walk along a deserted headland with perfect white sand beaches. Day saved.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’m typing this with aching hands after a day’s mountain biking in the Forest of Bowland, near my home in Lancashire. Why are they aching? In a word (or is it two?): V-brakes.
The Bowland ride featured two major descents, totalling about 600m, with a high proportion of steep and fairly technical ground. Naturally this meant quite a lot of work for the brakes.
Having recently come back from a week in Austria, where descents of similar or greater length were a daily event, I was made freshly aware of how much work my hands had to do on these descents. In Austria I’d been riding on a bike with disc brakes, and the difference is massive. The discs not only gave greater stopping power, but a quicker, more predictable and more precise response. This all gives you confidence to roll through tricky sections more smoothly and quickly, knowing that you can slow or stop neatly if needed. And the effort needed from the hands and forearms is much less. In Bowland, on the other hand, I often felt like I needed to squeeze the levers for all I was worth to get the required stopping power (okay, it would help if I lost a bit of weight too!)
This experience has convinced me of two things:
1: I need to upgrade my mountain bike to one with discs.
2: it’s time to take a look at brakes and braking on these pages.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I'm just back from a week's riding in the Austrian Alps, based in Alpbach and organised by Fast Tracks MTB, (see a previous blog).
I'll post an article about the area shortly; meanwhile here are some thoughts about our particular experience.
No thanks to British Airways for the shambles at Gatwick check-in, following which four people's luggage, including two bikes, failed to arrive with our flight. Two people couldn't ride at all on the first day and two more (including me) had to manage with a variety of borrowed or inappropriate kit. (By contrast, checking in at Innsbruck on the return was exemplary).
After the first two days the weather deteriorated, with much cloud and rain, turning to snow higher up. We still managed to ride every day, thanks to careful planning by Fast Tracks’ Darren and his local compadres, but couldn't manage everything that was originally planned. On the wettest day we were all very glad to finish riding after a couple of hours. But that's mountains for you and if you're heading that way, at any time of year, make sure you have clothing to cope with all conditions.
The riding inevitably entailed some long (up to 1000m ascent) but non-technical climbs. We'd usually take some refreshment at a mountain hut before getting stuck into some fabulous singletrack descents. We'd like to have stayed up at altitude longer and done a bit more traversing but the weather was against it.
It was a great week, but if we’d had a bit more luck with the weather would have been absolutely fabulous. In the same week in 2006 the biggest problem was the heat!
Posted by Jon Sparks
You may well ask why I’m writing about the Tour de France when these aren’t Suite’s Cycle Racing pages. But the Tour de France is unique: not just the world’s greatest bike raced, but its greatest sporting event of any kind. It’s a huge flagship not just for cycle sport but for cycling more generally. For those of us who believe that cycling has a vital role to play in dealing with some of the world’s most pressing problems - climate change, congestion, health, and so on - then it has an importance that extends beyond mere sport.
A good Tour de France will inspire people to get on their bikes, so presumably a tainted Tour can have the opposite effect. It’s therefore worth considering, as the dust begins to settle a bit, just how badly tainted the 2007 Tour really has been.
Out of 189 riders who started the Tour, just two failed dope tests during the race. Of course that’s still two too many, but it hardly constitutes evidence of wholesale doping. And perhaps more significantly, the reaction of the majority of other riders, and of teams and sponsors, shows a major shift in the climate of opinion. No longer is there any tendency to close ranks or to regard doping as a regrettable but minor misdemeanor.
The ‘Rasmussen affair’ is more opaque. In fairness it must be said that Michael Rasmussen has been dope-tested many times, both during this Tour and on previous occasions, and has never been found positive for any banned substance. But in the new climate, where zero tolerance rules, his failure to be open and honest about his whereabouts, which caused him to miss several out-of-season dope tests, is - to say the least - highly suspicious.
It’s tragic, because Rasmussen looked like a worthy Tour winner, especially in the final stage in the Pyrenees; outnumbered two to one by Discovery Channel's Contador and Leipheimer, he took all that they could throw at him, and then rode away from them in the final couple of kilometres of the Col de l’Aubisque. The decision of his Rabobank team to withdraw him must have been incredibly painful, most of all for those team-mates who had ridden themselves into the ground in support, but it was a courageous and correct decision that helps to restore the credibility of the event.
For all the traumas, the support of the public at the roadside never wavered; if anything they seemed to be more fervent than ever in cheering the remaining riders. Let’s take that memory away too, along with the grandeur of the mountains, the greatest sporting arena on the planet, and above all the magnificent drama of the time trial on the penultimate day. At the end of the Tour, after more than 91 hours of racing, just 31 seconds separated the top three overall (Contador, Evans and Leipheimer). If riders, teams and organisers continue to bear down hard on doping, it could be an awesome race next year.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I've just discovered that this month marks an interesting anniversary, which really ought to have received a bit more attention. It is exactly - and only! - 25 years since the appearance of what was probably the first-ever magazine review of purpose-built mountain bikes.
The magazine was The Bicycle Paper and its July, 1982 offered a comparison of the Ritchey Mountain Bike and the Specialized Stumpjumper. These were the only commercially available mountain bikes at the time.
It’s fascinating to think how far mountain biking, and the mountain bike itself, have come in that time. Both those early bikes still show their ancestry in the ‘cruisers’ of the 1930s and 50s and few of today’s mountain bikers would relish throwing them down a steep dirt track. While the huge technological advances that have taken place are generally welcome, it does make you wonder if we aren’t a little bit pampered today. There was certainly a raffish kind of romance in the story of the first downhill races, which directly prompted the development of the Ritchey and Specialized machines, not to mention the rest of today’s global industry.
Read more about the birth of the mountain bike.
Posted by Jon Sparks
It’s estimated that four million people watched the two sun-drenched opening stages of the Tour de France in England over the weekend. That’s four million in the flesh, at the roadside, not on TV, making it almost certainly the biggest live audience for any sporting event ever in the UK.
This impressive statistic is underlined by the fact, reported on the BikeBiz website, that ITV’s Tour de France podcast was no 1 sporting podcast on the UK iTunes site. All this on the same weekend as the Wimbledon finals, and the British Grand Prix featuring the massively hyped young English driver Lewis Hamilton.
And they say there’s no interest in cycling in Britain…
It’s great to see cycling outshining motor-racing (whose attraction remains a complete mystery to me). Great to see real athletes like David Millar (currently 3rd overall) and Bradley Wiggins (5th) attracting tremendous support from the British public. Coupled with major increases in everyday cycling, especially in London, and the seemingly inexorable growth of mountain-bike facilities across the land, it really does feel as if cycling is embarking on a massive - and long, long overdue - revival here in the UK.
And there’s more good news as a strong campaign spearheaded by the Cyclists’ Touring Club has led to the Government rolling back proposals for revisions to the Highway Code which could have impacted on cyclists’ right to ride on the road. The new Code will now encourage, rather than oblige, cyclists to use separate cycle facilities. Anyone who’s experienced unworkable ‘cycle lanes’, often no more than a painted zone at the side of the road, which may stop abruptly for no reason, will heartily welcome the news that cyclists will continue to have the choice.
Posted by Jon Sparks
Pedalling across the ocean? OK, it’s not cycling exactly, but there’s more than a notional connection between biking and the rest of the human-powered travel world.
Here’s a great example. I’ve already recorded that Greg Kolodziejzyk holds the record for the greatest distance cycled in 24 hours at 1046.1 km (around 650 miles). Greg has now set a comparable record on water at 173.76 km (about 108 miles), pedalling a roughly rectangular course around Glenmore Reservoir near Calgary, Alberta. Just for comparison, this sort of distance would be considered a good daily average by a cruising yacht in good wind conditions (ocean racers would hope to be a lot faster).
For this attempt Greg used a modified sea-kayak with open cockpit but is working on a prototype of a fully enclosed ocean-going boat called WiTHiN, in which he plans to cross the Atlantic in under 40 days - a distance of around 4800 km/ 3000 miles.
Greg’s aim in this undertaking is to promote human power and to encourage a generation of sedentary young people to get active again. He’ll be raising money to fund his school speaking programme, called ‘KidPower’. As he himself says, ‘Our modern sedentary lifestyles are putting our kids at risk at being the first generation that will have a life expectancy shorter than that of their parents. My mission is to get kids active again. Human power is the power from 'WiTHiN'’.
Laudable aims, and it must be sobering for everyone to contemplate the possibility that today’s kids will indeed have shorter life expectancies than their parents. It’s unfortunate that the debate about childhood obesity has focused so much on diet; exercise is at least equally important, and rediscovering lifestyles into which exercise fits naturally is essential for a healthy future.
Not everyone can cycle across the ocean, or pedal continuously for 24 hours, but simple things like cycling to school or work instead of driving should be seen as normal rather than exceptional. If Greg Kolodziejzyk can really help to bring this about it will be a greater achievement than pedalling across the Atlantic.
Read all about it at the Pedal the Ocean website.
Posted by Jon Sparks
My bicycling roots are definitely on the road. I went from general riding - pedalling out to country pubs, that sort of thing - to touring and then to racing. For almost a decade my main focus was on time-trials and training for time-trials. I’d been mountain-biking a few times, usually on holiday, but hadn’t done much more than trundle up and down fire-roads and canal towpaths.
I liked the lack of traffic and the chance to see new places without the hindrance of a car. But I wasn’t wowed by the heavy and seemingly clumsy bikes (cheap renters, mostly) and didn’t get much of an adrenalin rush from the riding I was doing. Truth to tell, I hardly knew what real mountain biking was about. Some sort of seed was sown when I saw some of the 1996 mountain bike race from the Atlanta Olympics - the first time the sport had featured on the Olympic program - but it didn’t germinate fully for a few more years.
Then I got the chance to sample a mountain biking weekend in the Quantock Hills in Somerset (on England’s south-western peninsula). This was run by a great little outfit called Fast Tracks MTB. In fact my partner and I went along together and with good hire bikes, great riding guided by Darren and Dave, and fabulous home cooking from Debs, it was a revelation.
Naturally I started off cautiously but with Darren’s gentle encouragement I was soon launching myself down descents I’d never have thought possible. I couldn’t quite face the rocky run-in to a famous downhill called The Chimney, though. Looking at the pictures recently, I’m sure I could manage it now. Oh, well, I’ll just have to go back some time soon.
The bug had bit and soon we were buying hardtails of our own and discovering that, though the Quantocks are great, we also had fantastic mountain biking virtually on our doorstep in areas like the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. And the rest, as they say, is history. Not only did I learn to love mountain biking, I believe it rekindled my passion for all facets of bicycling.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’ve just received a couple of guides from Rough Ride Guides, covering mountain bike rides in the south-west and south-east. That’s south-west England, so no Moab or Marin County, but believe me places like the Quantocks are a fair exchange. (The Quantocks is where my real mountain biking began, but that’s another story). For a broader review see here. Meanwhile I’ve a bee in my bonnet.
I mention in the main review that the ‘information on public transport options is a bit skimpy.’ I do regard this as a serious criticism. It’s difficult, as I’ve mentioned before, to trumpet the environmental benefits of if everyone puts their bikes on the car to get to their rides.
However, this is a woefully common fault with many British guidebooks, and not just biking ones. The Rough Ride Guides do score much better than many others, usually mentioning when there is a station nearby, but don’t give further detail such as which line it’s on or how to get from the station to the ride. There’s at least one description that mentions a railway station as a landmark but still doesn’t suggest that you could get to that ride by train!
This is not as good as it should be but it’s still miles better than many guides which never even acknowledge that public transport exists. I think this is unforgivable. Interestingly, cycling guides seem to do better in this respect than walking guides, despite the fact that all public transport is (obviously) suitable for walkers, while not all welcomes cyclists.
In this respect I think a big thumbs-down should go to Jeremy Ashcroft’s Mountain Bike Guide to the Lake District, Howgill Fells and Yorkshire Dales, published by Ernest Press. This, which was I believe the first mountain bike guidebook in the UK, has two pages on ‘Environment’ and never a mention of public transport.
Admittedly ideas have moved on a bit since 1989 but a much more recent publication is Off-Road Trails and Quiet Lanes by Keith Bradbury, published by Vertebrate Graphics in 2006. In most respects it's a beautiful production, with good maps and fabulous photography, but it’s almost perverse in its assumption that the only conceivable way to get to the start of a ride is by car. It even complains at one point about slow drivers on Lake District roads. Can this really be a cyclist speaking? As far as I’m concerned, when I’m on my bike, it’s the ones who drive too fast that we should be worrying about.
Posted by Jon Sparks
Now here’s something I really find inspiring.
World Bicycle Relief has this mission statement: ‘to provide access to independence and livelihood through the power of bicycles’. As they say, ‘bicycles empower individuals, their families and their communities…. simple sustainable mobility is an essential element in disaster relief and poverty relief.’
World Bicycle Relief was founded in 2004 by bicycle maker Trek and component manufacturer SRAM, as a response to the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The program provided more than 24,000 bicycles to people judged to be in need after the tsunami.
Following this success, World Bicycle Relief has begun a major new project in Zambia, one of the African countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS. The 2-year program will employ people assembling bikes in 8 locations across the country and aims to provide 26,000 bikes for health care workers and educators. As they point out, a bicycle enables people to travel around 4 times as far/fast as on foot, and to carry perhaps 5 times as much. There’s a nice page on the website illustrating some of the benefits that bicycles bring. For instance an hour’s walking time gives access to an area of just 20 sq miles, whereas an hour’s cycling time opens up 310 sq miles.
Most of World Bicycle Relief’s board members are senior figures at SRAM, with Trek’s John Burke as an advisor. Many other companies within the cycle industry are also offering support.
You can donate to World Bicycle Relief via their website. You can donate a complete bicycle for just US$109, but of course you can donate as little or as much as you like.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’ve previously written an article about Cycling in the Dordogne, in France. This is a great area and in most respects we had an excellent trip, but there were problems with the rented bikes, which came to mind when I was writing about planning your first bike tour.
With three trains (Virgin, Eurostar and SNCF), and two capital cities to cross, we’d chosen not to bring our own bikes, but it would have been worth it. Perhaps we’re spoiled by having good bikes at home, but we were disappointed. The design was old-fashioned and heavy. I particularly disliked the swept-back handlebars, which made it almost impossible to climb out of the saddle. I’d have been much happier with straight bars as usually found on mountain bikes/ hybrids. Also the gearing was rather high for some of the hills.
All these were basic design faults. I don’t think it was too much to expect a simple, standard, modern hybrid bike, which are available everywhere (in Europe anyway) and don’t cost a fortune.
The bikes were obviously a few years old and showed signs of wear. For instance, mine had a suspension seat-post which creaked continually, at least until I worked out how to lock it down.
Unfortunately Cap Liberte, who provided the bikes, had already left them at our first night’s accommodation so we didn’t get a chance to test-ride. Both brakes on my bike were rubbing, and one brake block was too high and rubbed on the tyre. We corrected this ourselves, but we shouldn’t have had to.
My partner Bernie’s bike suffered a flat tyre within the first kilometre, and we discovered that the replacement tube had a different type of valve. Laurent from Cap Liberte assured us on the phone that this wasn’t a problem, but I am still not convinced that it’s safe to have a valve-stem that doesn’t fit the hole in the rim.
This same bike suffered a broken headset within ten kilometres. This made the steering very temperamental. We phoned Cap Liberte again and they promised to bring a replacement that evening. Bernie therefore had to nurse the problem for the rest of the day, which fortunately was not too great a distance, but coping with the steering spoiled the fun of a long swooping descent. In less skilled hands it could have been very dangerous.
The replacement bike arrived at 10pm and was even older and heavier. They said it was the last one they had - we think they should have better reserves.
After this we had no more major problems and had a very enjoyable time but it still underlines that if you can’t take your own bike away with you, it’s vital to ensure that rented bikes are of decent quality and proper fit.
Posted by Jon Sparks
Fixing your own bike isn’t difficult, by and large, but the initial outlay on specialist tools can be a deterrent. Well, here’s at least one way to save a few pounds/Euros/dollars - and score a few points for recycling into the bargain.
Next time you need to replace a chain (and let’s face it, they wear out faster than most things on a bike, except brake blocks) - don’t throw away the old one. Instead use it to make a chain-whip.
A chain-whip is essential if you need to remove/replace sprockets or get at the freewheel body on the rear hub drive side. But it’s not a tool you’ll use every day, unless you run a bike shop. I’ve just checked and found them retailing at £5.99 - call it US$ 12 at current rates. Not hugely expensive but it can all add up. And you’ll also need a lockring remover, which costs a similar amount. (I haven’t yet figured out how to bodge one of those.)
And after all a chain whip is just a length of chain riveted to a metal handle. And mine’s even simpler; I just nailed some chain to a handy piece of wood - also scrap, but solid. After all, all you need is something to give you a grip.
It ain’t rocket science but it got the job done and gave me some satisfaction too. Of course you need to be completely sure that the chain is 100% securely fastened to the handle as you could be using quite a bit of force with one of these.
If anyone has any other money-saving tips, or ways to recycle old bike bits (maybe even for non-cycling purposes), please share them here.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I made a passing reference to Jeremy Clarkson in my last blog, which may have mystified non-UK readers. Lucky you. Clarkson is one of the presenters of a BBC motoring show called Top Gear. Once a serious programme about cars it seems (needless to say, I don’t watch it) to have become more and more a light entertainment show.
However, Clarkson’s idea of entertainment is mostly to ridicule anyone who doesn’t share his particular, if not peculiar, set of values. Clarkson is a standard-bearer for the unregenerate petrolheads, and notoriously scathing about cyclists, not to mention pedestrians, caravans, and indeed almost any other road-user.
One of his co-presenters on Top Gear is Richard Hammond, who last year attracted a lot of publicity after narrowly surviving a 280 mph crash in a dragster, and doggedly fighting back to health. Now it seems bicycles may have played a part in his recovery, or at least in giving him a good base level of fitness to start from.
In a recent magazine interview, Hammond comments that he’s always loved cycling and regularly uses a bike as a practical way to get around town, while getting some exercise into the bargain. But he adds that Clarkson constantly ridicules him for doing so. (Makes me wonder just what Jeremy Clarkson is so scared of).
Incidentally, Hammond also comments that driving around London in a 4x4 is ‘pretty unnecessary.’
This inspires mixed feelings. On the one hand, Richard Hammond’s comments suggest that there may be hope for the world yet. On the other hand, it’s almost sad that simple common sense like this should (a) be so newsworthy and (b) be held up to ridicule by the likes of Jeremy Clarkson. Who, unfortunately, is still taken seriously by a lot of people.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’ve just read Josie Dew’s latest book, Long Cloud Ride, about her time in New Zealand. Two things stand out: awful weather and awful drivers.
NZ weather is known to be unpredictable, and Dew does seem to have drawn the short straw there. But bad driving is something else: it’s down to how people choose to act. Here’s what Josie has to say about Kiwi drivers:
Diabolical! Worst ever experienced. The majority seem convinced that the only place for a cyclist is in the ditch and if you’re not in it, they will soon put you there.
I have cycled in New Zealand, but only for a day or two and most of it off-road (we were there to go trekking, or ‘tramping’ as the Kiwis call it), so my lack of bad experiences proves nothing. And it isn’t just Josie Dew’s view; statistics show that New Zealand has an appalling road safety record, and just about every cyclist she met had horror stories to tell.
Kiwi drivers drive too fast, tailgate anyone who dares to travel more sedately, overtake on blind bends, pull out in front of cyclists, and so on. So far not much different from the sort of thing I experience here in the UK, not constantly, but regularly.
In the UK I blame it on the fact that most people never ride bikes (which is a national disgrace, of course) and therefore don’t appreciate either how fast a cyclist can be travelling. Too many drivers treat cyclists as essentially stationary objects, in the same speed category as pedestrians.
Bad enough, but in fact most British drivers are reasonably respectful and considerate toward cyclists. It’s just that the ignorant minority are so much more noticeable.
But what I have never experienced in the UK is driving deliberately calculated to intimidate or endanger the cyclist. This seems to be horribly common in New Zealand, with frequent reports of car passengers spitting at cyclists, hurling bottles and other rubbish at them, as well as running them off the road, not by accident but by intent.
We have our problems in the UK, and there are mindless twerps like Jeremy Clarkson who talk up hostility to cyclists, but clearly New Zealand is a whole lot worse. It surprises me that this beautiful country, whose people in general are both outdoors-loving and pleasantly laid-back, should be so susceptible to the moronic cult of ‘hooning’ (basically, driving too fast and/or recklessly, burning rubber, etc.). Mind you, as the home of lamentable inventions like the jet boat (the best way to shatter the peace of a lonely valley that I have ever encountered) maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.
Shame, but it doesn’t encourage me to head down there with my bike any time soon.
In my next blog I’ll try and hit a positive note with some of the countries where I have found drivers most considerate to cyclists, and as ever I’d love to hear your comments about the best and worst places to cycle.
Posted by Jon Sparks
As promised, here are a few thoughts about the best and worst places to cycle, based on my personal experience. Obviously driver behaviour isn’t the only issue but following on from my last it’s the obvious place to start. I haven’t cycled everywhere by any means, so this is a very partial list - you can help make it more comprehensive.
Best drivers in Europe: Finland. Lovely country, too; I’ll do an article on cycling there very soon.
The Netherlands is also excellent but cycling provision there is so good that you can spend most of your time on dedicated cycle tracks and not mix with cars at all. The same is true, I believe, of Denmark. Finland is a much larger country and there are good cycle networks around the main cities but elsewhere you share the roads.
Highly Commended: Austria. And I’m sure Switzerland is too, but haven’t ridden there enough to say for sure.
Worst in Europe: Greece, without a doubt. My on-bike experience is borne out by a friend we cycled with there, who subsequently hired a car and was appalled by the amount of tail-gating, reckless overtaking and so on that he saw. But then, he lives in Switzerland.
Most disappointing: France. Disappointing, because you’d expect the home of the Tour de France to be tuned in to bikes, but the fact is that the average French person doesn’t cycle any more than the average Brit (in other words, pathetically little) and they’re nearly as over-dependent on their cars as we are. The saving grace in France is that it’s a much bigger country and there are lots of uncrowded roads so the overall experience is pleasanter than in Britain even if the standard of driving is no better.
Best region in Britain: Joint winners here:
Dumfries and Galloway. (South-west Scotland). Probably nothing to do with the fact that it’s where the bicycle was invented, just that there are lots of quiet roads and nobody seems to be in too much of a hurry (apart from one blue Renault Megane Scenic driver who should lose their license immediately...).
The Western Isles (Outer Hebrides): quiet roads and people who are as courteous behind the wheel as they are in the rest of their lives. It’s also a fabulously beautiful region so overall, as long as you have the wind behind you, it has to be the best place in Britain to cycle. (I hear there are some out of this world mountain bike tracks on Harris too). But bring your own bike: if Barra’s anything to go by, the Western Isles have the worst hire bikes you’ll ever encounter.
Best in the Rest of the World: Nova Scotia. Not only did drivers not carve me up, I had to get used to them actually giving way to me when i was coming out of a side road or turning across traffic. (Funny thing, the landscape’s a lot like Finland too...)
Posted by Jon Sparks
For months I’ve had it in mind to write something about winter riding, both its pains and its pleasures. Trouble is, here in the UK winter pretty much passed us by. We had a few days of hard frost, enough to put a skin of ice on the canal behind our house (it just about bore the weight of a duck). We had a dusting of snow on the high hills a couple of times. And that’s about it. What we have had, seemingly almost without respite, is wind. I can celebrate ice and snow, but it’s hard, as a cyclist, to find anything good to say about wind.
As far as winter goes, I feel cheated. I love riding in the warm, but I love it all the more when I can contrast it with the bite of a winter’s day. Maybe next time.
All this inevitably prompts thoughts about global warming. Virtually no-one now disputes that it’s happening, and with unprecedented speed; a minority of serious scientists still contest the claim that the prime cause is human activity. I don’t want to get too hung up on this debate; even if we aren’t 100% sure that we are causing global warming, aren’t there a lot of other good reasons to rein in our emissions of CO2 (and all the other nasties)?
Taking this as read, the question I want to raise is; can we, as cyclists, really feel smug about our environmental credentials? I’d like to say yes, but there are a few caveats to be entered. Just because you identify yourself as a cyclist doesn’t, of itself, reduce your carbon footprint. So are we, as cyclists, as green as we’d like to think?
I know a lot of people who like cycling, but because they aren’t happy cycling on Britain’s crowded roads, what they end up doing is strapping bikes on the back of the car to get to somewhere where there are safe lanes or off-road tracks. In fact they will often drive fifty miles to cycle fifteen.
Or take my own case. On the credit side, my partner and I moved house recently, and we deliberately chose somewhere within easy walking distance of all the shops we use regularly. We’re also in a great location for road cycling, with pleasant loops, mainly on country lanes, starting from the door. It’s also a lot nearer where my partner works and she does cycle (11 miles each way) pretty regularly. We’ve even down-sized from two cars to one.
But on the other hand, we just bought a new bike rack for the back of the car, mostly to carry the mountain bikes. While I’d certainly like to make a case for the environmental benefits of mountain biking, I also have to take note of the packed car-parks at places like Glentress and Coed-y-Brenin. Well, mountain bike centres are often, for understandable reasons, in out-of-the-way places, and they often aren’t well served by public transport. We just aren’t as good at this as most of our European neighbours. And surely there’s no better use for a car than to transport bikes. But still, it’s a negative that has to be acknowledged.
Here in the UK, there’s something even more confusing to report. A number of politicians, most notably Conservative Opposition leader David Cameron, now cycle to work regularly. Excellent. At least they have some idea about the value of cycling and what it’s actually like on our car-dominated streets. But Cameron and some of the others do their cycle-commute with a car following behind carrying official papers and so on. Now there’s a mixed message if I ever saw one.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’ve just seen the best biking film I can remember. It’s called ROAM and it comes from an outfit called The Collective.
I suppose you’d say it’s a mountain-biking film, though I think anyone who knows or cares about bikes should see it. It features everything from dirt-jumping, helter-skelter-downhilling and some massive gap-jumps to the grace and precision of trials riding. Locations range from mountain-bike hotspots like Moab, Utah and Vancouver’s North Shore to the wilds of Morocco and the streets of Prague.
Watching ROAM I was frequently left breathless by the skill, and often great courage, shown by the riders. But the beauty of the film is that it isn’t just a parade of macho look-what-we-can-do stunts. It also celebrates the varied and often awe-inspiring settings where the guys ride. And as a photographer myself I really appreciate the sensitivity to light and landscape that it displays, from the lichen-hung forests of Vancouver’s North Shore to the sculpted slickrock of Moab. But most of all it’s a celebration of some of the wonderful things people can do on bikes.
Buy or rent the DVD and you can also enjoy an excellent ‘Making of’ documentary, which is more like a companion film in its own right. I was fascinated to see the complicated ropeways that were used to get some of the ‘aerial’ shots, and lost in admiration of anyone who can keep pace with triple World Cup downhill champion Steve Peat on fast, twisting singletrack - with a chunky 16mm camera strapped to their helmet. I like it for its insights into the character of the riders too. It was very noticeable how riders who were supremely confident hurling themselves off 50-foot drops were a lot less so when confronted with the culture shock of a first visit to Marrakech.
Criticisms? Not many. The film does portray a relentlessly male world - are there no women riding bikes out there? And the film’s fine eye for landscape makes me want to see more from other parts of the world - the Alps, say, or Scotland. But that's's not so much a criticism as a plea for more, and I gather the team are already at work on the successor.
There’s lots more, including a fine bit of sample footage, on the Collective website.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’ve just posted an article about some of the outright speed records achieved on bicycles. I thought I’d mention some of my own ‘personal bests’, if only to show that I do have a little bit of experience.
For largely historical reasons (which I’ll try to explore a bit more some time, maybe over on Linda’s Bike Racing pages), there’s a very strong time trial tradition here in the UK. For anyone who’s not familiar with this branch of cycle sport, a time trial simply involves each rider setting out alone against the clock. Time trial stages in races like the Tour de France might be run from A to B but British competition regulations stipulate a maximum distance between start and finish, so you can’t get too much advantage by starting at the top of a mountain or riding with a tailwind all the way. They’re meant to be a fair test of the rider.
It is competitive but for many riders the main adversary is yourself and what you’re really trying to do is beat your own personal best times. Riders will often travel long distances to find the fastest courses. Unfortunately the fastest roads are often the ones with most traffic and the risks are obvious, so more recently there has been a move to promote more ‘sporting’ courses.
Anyway, my own personal bests were all set a long time ago - before the widespread use of technical innovations as tri-bars (introduced to mainstream bike racing, I think, when Greg Lemond used them in a time trial in the 1989 Tour de France) and disc wheels.
My best time for 10 miles was 23 minutes, 36 seconds. Top riders in those days were regularly clocking around 21 mins.
I did manage to ‘go under’ just twice. ‘Going under’ is, or used to be, one of the great aims for many British riders - it means to beat the hour for the ‘’blue riband’ distance of 25 miles. My best-ever time was 59.24 but on reflection I’m prouder of a 59.59 clocked on a more ‘sporting’ course closer to home. But the then UK record was 10 minutes faster!
However, in many ways I think my best time was for 50 miles - probably my best distance generally. I clocked 2.0.24 on a fast course in Yorkshire and that’s while nursing a broken spoke in the back wheel for the last 20 miles. I’ll always wonder if I could have gone faster, or whether by forcing me to ride really smoothly the broken spoke was a blessing in disguise.
I recorded 4.46.20 in my only completed 100-mile event. That included a 4-minute stop at about 80 miles to fix a puncture, and I think by breaking my rhythm at a crucial stage it cost me considerably more than that. I never completed a 12-hour event.
That was a long time ago, but only yesterday I happened to ride up and down the roads where I set my 10-mile time. I was giving it some welly, as we say in these parts, but had a light rucksack on and wasn’t riding it under full race conditions. I don’t have exact times but my bike computer gave me an average of 20.0 mph for the 5-mile leg one way and 20.7 coming back.There's life in the old legs yet...
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’ve just posted an article on the basic types of bike and thought a few readers might be wondering what I myself ride.
At the moment I only have two bikes, a road bike and a mountain bike. I’d love a few more but have issues both about cost and about storage space, and, heck, I get a lot of pleasure out of riding the ones I do have. I’ve also ridden a fairly wide range of other bikes as hire, loan or demo rides - some brilliant, some pretty awful.
My road bike is quite a few years old now but gets well looked after and things like chain and sprockets have been replaced more than once (tyres too, of course). It came from Ribble Cycles, one of the UK’s leading bike stores, which just happens to be in the city of Preston only about 10 miles from where I live. It’s a 7005 aluminium frame, so it’s pretty stiff. Campagnolo gears, double chainset, 8-speed rear cassette. These days I do wish I had a triple chainset on some of the bigger climbs round here!
I’ve used this bike for light touring with a handle-bar bag and an SQR saddle-pack from Carradice - another Lancashire firm. It’s not designed to take a conventional pannier rack but if I wanted to carry a bit more stuff I could fit a beam-rack. However the stiffness of the ride - it is essentially a racing bike - means it’s not ideal for longer, more leisurely tours.
My mountain bike, which I’ve had for about 2 1/2 years, is a Marin Palisades Trail. The current Palisades has disc brakes, whereas earlier models like mine had V-brakes. Having ridden disc-equipped bikes quite a few times, I’d say this is one of the most significant upgrades possible - at least as big a deal as rear suspension. Otherwise there have clearly been tweaks to the frame design but the rest of the equipment spec looks pretty similar.
My Marin, then, is a fairly basic hardtail and could be consiered little more than an entry-level mountain bike. That said, I’ve ridden it on some fairly testing trails all over the UK (like the 7Stanes and Coed-y-Brenin) and also in Slovenia, and also found myself on a virtually identical bike in Greece last year, and it has always been my skill or nerve that has been the limiting factor, not the bike.
I’m convinced, as are many experts, that anyone starting out in mountain biking should start with a hardtail. You might be able to ride more demanding trails right away on a full-suspension bike, but that’s because up to a certain level the full-susser is more forgiving of poor technique. However as you try to progress, bad habits will catch up with you. Starting on a hardtail means you need to develop good basic skills from the start and surely that’s the way to go.
Having said that, I do yearn for a full-susser and while Marin do some very nice ones, I keep looking longingly at the Specialized FSRxc series. No mountain bike will ever look as beautiful as a good road bike, but these are pretty gorgeous, and get rave reviews for their ride qualities too.
Posted by Jon Sparks
Trek boss John Burke is a man with a message, and I think I like what he’s saying. He’s already been dubbed ‘the Al Gore of the bicycle’.
Burke is President of Trek Bicycles, one of the biggest global players in the industry (the biggest manufacturers in terms of volume are in China). He was addressing Taipei Bike Show in Taiwan, having also aired his message earlier at the League of American Bicyclists’ annual meeting in Portland, Oregon in March.
Burke referred to four of the most significant current global trends: obesity, traffic congestion, environmental pollution, and rising energy costs, reinforcing his message, Al Gore-style, with sobering statistics.
He then asked a simple question, to which you probably already know the answer: what one product is perfectly suited to address all of these issues? The bicycle, of course.
Burke’s message to his industry colleagues was, yes, product development and marketing are important, but the long-term future of the bicycle ultimately depends on people wanting to ride them - which means supporting initiatives that make the world, or just individual communities, better places for bikes. He urged his colleagues to spend on bicycle advocacy, relative to other areas like R & D and advertising.
This all seems to make perfect sense to me. The bicycle does have massive potential to help alleviate all the problems mentioned above (and probably a few others I could think of). However, the amount that’s currently spent on cycling promotion is minuscule compared to what goes into promoting cars - which, let’s be honest, are one of the main factors causing all of these problems.
It remains to be seen how the industry will respond to John Burke’s rallying cry, but I for one hope they really get behind it.
Posted by Jon Sparks
British riders Tom Allen and Andrew Welch are preparing to circumnavigate the globe, by mountain bike, travelling off-road as far as possible. With this ride, called Ride Earth, they aim to build awareness of the true potential of the bicycle as a sustainable transport solution, and to raise money for charity (see below), but I trust they are also going to have a fantastic adventure.
The planned route will take them through more than 50 countries, looping through Europe and then on into the Middle East and Indian sub-continent, down through south-east Asia to Australia and New Zealand then across to South America and up to the USA and Canada.
Planning is ongoing and has unsurprisingly proved easiest in areas like Europe, New Zealand and North America where mountain biking is well established; in other parts of the world the pair will rely on agricultural and trade routes and a greater degree of improvisation will be needed.
They will be raising money to support The Wilderness Foundation - which seeks to preserve and promote the value of the world’s last remaining wild areas. They are also acting as ambassadors for Wheels4Life - a non-profit organization that provides bikes for people in Third-World countries.
They expect to be towing trailers, so I don’t anticipate they’ll be seeking out highly technical singletrack or big drop-offs on their routes. Clothing, back-packs and camping gear is being supplied by extremeGB.com, and the trip is seen as a useful testing ground. At time of writing (26th Match 07) they are still looking for a bike sponsor. It seems to me it would be a great publicity opportunity for a bike manufacturer - and a tough testing ground.
If any Suite readers have undertaken, or are contemplating, a big adventure by bike (on- or off-road), email me and I’ll spread the news or visit the discussion forum if you have a question or a thought to share.
To find out more or to add your support to this venture, visit the Ride Earth website.
Posted by Jon Sparks
I’ve just posted an article about the importance of proper hydration and thought I’d also mention some personal experiences which helped me to understand the importance of staying hydrated, and the best ways to go about it.
I used to suffer frequently from cramp on long rides (2 hours plus), especially in hot weather. This was both painful and, I now know, unnecessary. In those days we used to carry drinks in bottles mounted on the frame, or when we weren’t racing, would often rely on stopping at a cafe or a pub. Cafes meant tea, and pubs meant beer. British beer is the best in the world, but quaffing a pint or two in the middle of a long day in the saddle isn’t really recommended.
Once upon a time the only way we knew to carry drinks was in a bottle (occasionally two) mounted on the frame. I discovered a major limitation of this arrangement on my first taste of real mountain-biking in the Quantock Hills; bottles got covered in mud, making them uninviting, if not unhealthy, to drink from. I was soon introduced to modern hydration systems and drinking through a tube. Apart from the hygiene benefits, I soon realised I was drinking more, often getting through a 2 litre reservoir when I would previously have had one 700ml bottle.
This was put to the test when I entered the Isle of Man End to End Mountain Bike Challenge, a 45-mile off-road event with some serious climbing. It was far the longest ride I’d done on a mountain bike and I set off with trepidation, but by making sure to drink plenty (I started off carrying 2 litres, and got a top-up half-way), it went smoothly, with not a trace of cramp. In fact I felt so good at the finish I wished I’d gone faster! If only I’d known a bit more about hydration when i was riding 50- and 100-mile time trials...
Posted by Jon Sparks
Is the Tour de France good for the planet? It certainly ought to be. It is the world’s greatest sporting event (The Olympic Games are not a single event). It lasts a month. It is seen live and in the flesh by - conservatively - ten million people. It inspired me to get into serious cycling, and must have inspired thousands more.
Of course the Tour has a chequered history. The debate about drugs really belongs on Suite’s Bike Racing pages, and anyway there’s another issue that concerns me now.
180 cyclists will start the Tour and on past form about 130 will complete it. Each of the 20 teams will have at least three cars and a team bus. Then there are race officials, press and TV and so on. The publicity cavalcade that precedes the race has at least 200 vehicles. Although the Tour’s own website is coy about this, there must be well in excess of 500 vehicles directly associated with the race - at least three for every rider and probably more. That’s no mean carbon footprint, before you even think about the thousands of spectators’ cars, camper-vans and so on.
At least, unlike such ‘sports’ as motor-racing, the Tour can claim to do some good by promoting cycling generally. If it makes cycling glamorous and even sexy, and above all if it encourages people, especially young people, to take up cycling, then this could offset the Tour’s own environmental impact many times over.
The 2007 Tour starts in London, and London’s mayor Ken Livingstone says, ‘With all the background noise about health and environment, the Tour de France gives us the chance to really make people think about cycling.’
Sounds good, but the case is not proven. The Tour may inspire some people to take up bike racing, but how many have been inspired to leave the car at home and cycle to work? Does the Tour have any impact on people’s wider behaviour? How many Tour heroes do anything to promote cycling generally?
It’s a tough question, and if anyone knows of any evidence it would be good to hear from you.
Posted by Jon Sparks
It’s just been announced that a new Hollywood film on a cycling theme is in development, probably to be called ‘Tour de Frank’. I await it with interest but not high expectations. The history of bikes in film isn’t that great. When I compiled a Top Ten of cycling books, the only difficulty was what to leave out, but when it came to bikes in film (mainstream cinema, that is, not ‘genre’ films) I couldn't even get to ten, never mind a Top Ten.
It’s a similar story with other great interest, mountaineering, though this has inspired a few more mainstream films - The Eiger Sanction, Five Days One Summer, Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit all spring to mind. When some climbing friends and I went to see Cliffhanger on its first release, we infuriated the rest of the audience by roaring with laughter throughout. If you know anything at all about climbing, the action sequences vary from mildly implausible to utterly ludicrous, (though, to be fair, in the ludicrousness stakes Cliffhanger is far outstripped by the dire Vertical Limit).
Where’s the connection, you may ask? Well, cycling and climbing are both hard to fake, and in both cases far too many actors and directors haven’t bothered to learn how to do it properly. The Eiger Sanction may look dated now, but at least Clint Eastwood learned to climb properly, and did many of the stunts himself, unlike Sylvester Stallone. (Similarly, in The Bridges of Madison County, Eastwood looks totally convincing as a photographer, unlike most stars who pick up a camera).
So, no Top Ten here, but a couple of picks:
Best Film With Bikes In: The Bicycle Thieves, that high-point of Italian neo-realism, rides away with the title. Made by Vittorio de Sica in 1948, it remains a classic of world cinema.
Best Film About Cycling: Breaking Away, made by British director Peter Yates in 1979. Even here, some of the action sequences aren’t totally convincing - like the one where the star is supposedly slip-streaming a truck at 60 mph, but still on the small chainring - but it’s a sharp, warm and funny film about growing up in working-class America.
Still, it makes me wish Clint Eastwood would make a film about cycling, and if he was looking for a lead then there’s at least Hollywood superstar who knows how to ride a bike, in the shape of Robin Williams.
Posted by Jon Sparks
Something that every cycling should try at least once, if they have the chance, is riding on a velodrome (banked track). I count it as one of the biggest thrills of my cycling life.
I must admit I was a bundle of nerves the first time I walked into the Manchester velodrome and looked down on a group of elite riders, apparently defying gravity as they hurtled round the 45-degree banking. Hard to believe I’d ever do that. But an hour later I was, though admittedly not hurtling quite so fast!
A skilled coach led us gently through our initiation. Before you even get near the banking you have to get used to riding a bike with no brakes. Track bikes have a single fixed gear and you slow down by reverse pressure on the pedals. It takes a little getting used to, which is one reason our coach started us circling gently round the flat part in the track centre.
Once we had the hang of it, we moved onto the track proper, first the low ‘apron’ and then the banking itself. The banking is designed for speed, and it’s vital to keep a reasonable speed through the curves; too slow and you can slide down the track.
It took a little while before I was confident enough to go right up to the top of the banking, but by the end of that first session I was revelling in it, whipping round the curves (well, it felt like whipping to me), feeling the bike glue itself to the track, even tentatively experimenting with a sprinter-style dive off the high banking to gain extra speed into the straight. I finished the evening grinning from ear to ear and determined to repeat the experience.
I’m lucky in living an hour’s journey from one of the best velodromes in the world, but it's not unique. Is there one near you? Look here for more information.
Of course track cycling is also a great spectator sport; another great thrill, for me, was watching the British and Australian teams, probably the world’s best, battling for honours in the 2002 Commonwealth Games on the very boards where I had ridden myself. (The Aussies cleaned up that night but honours were evenly split in the Athens Olympics two years later).