This week’s round-up features a seriously flawed anti-cycling argument, an inspiring suffragette bike ride, telephone booths turned into bike repair stations, the 10 best cycling spots in the UK, the 5 best fat biking spots in the world, a warning about bike crime in London and, to finish, something uplifting.
The top image comes from this doozy of an argument by the Alliance of British Drivers, who aren’t impressed with a cyclist who rode 31.7mph in a 30mph zone in London. We’d share their concern, if only the cyclist in question wasn’t Tom Moses (i.e. a professional cyclist) competing in the final stage of the 2013 Tour of Britain..!
A good reminder to check your facts, if we ever saw one.
On a more inspiring note, International Women’s Day last week was celebrated in true style by a group of cyclists in Manchester. A historically themed (and costumed!) ride organised by Sustrans visited sites associated with the Suffragette movement, including Emmeline Pankhurst’s former home.
The group are planning to organise other rides with the aim of getting women more involved in cycling – a fantastic cause!
A fantastic piece of innovation has been unveiled in Thailand, in response to plans by Bangkok authorities to remove over 4,000 telephone booths from the city:
Five booths have been converted into solar powered bike repair stations complete with pump, tools, bike stand, USB connections for charging devices and, in the near future, Wifi capability. The booths are completely free to use and there are hopes to transform at least another 20 in the city.
What a great plan! This could be a good way of rejuvenating some of the decrepit old phone booths you see around the UK.
Almost a year ago we wrote about the launch of Strava Labs, a cool suite of features in Strava that allows you to rummage through the service’s enormous amount of data.
This week the BBC put together a comprehensive report that shows the average speed for cyclists in 2015 (15.1mph for men, 12.3 for women), the regions with the hilliest and flattest rides, longest and shortest commutes (the average is apparently 9.88 miles: how does that compare to yours?).
It also shows the top 10 most cycled regions featuring – unsurprisingly – London in top spot. Leeds and Manchester take #2 and #3.
Check out the full report here, it’s well worth a read.
Following the top cycling spots theme is this fantastic piece from Sam Haddad at the Guardian who recently tried her hand at fat biking for the first time in the Dolomites. If you’re unfamiliar with downhill snow fat biking, let the cheery chaps introduce you:
Sam’s recommendations for the best fat biking spots include from Colorado, France, Norway, Austria and Switzerland (perhaps you could extend your Paris – Geneva cycling holiday with a spot of fat biking!).
It always saddens us to have to warn readers about shenanigans against cyclists, but we do it in the hope that it may prevent incidents. This time we’re warning people to be aware when cycling along canals, especially in London, as groups of miscreants have been attacking cyclists and pushing them into canals.
An article in the Standard gives more information on the incidents that have taken place so far.
And now to end on an uplifting note.
Children in the Danish city of Odense are leading the frontier of getting the next generation cycling: four out of five children cycle, walk or skateboard to school. This compares incredibly favourably to America, where the average is just 13%!
Getting kids used to exercise and safe cycling at such an early age is a great achievement – let’s hope it catches on here!
(Full story here)
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