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Thursday 31 January 2013

Manchester gets its own @bikeandtri show

It was only a matter of time but Manchester has got its very own bike show, well, bike and tri show to be precise.
How the show might look, only with fewer bikes
Taking place at GMEX on February 16 & 17, the show is a bit like the most expensive pizza on the menu: it has every type of topping imaginable - including not one , but two sportives - the longer of which takes in Mam Nic and Winnats.
The show will probably quite good but, I dunno, I'm not convinced I should pay for the privilege of being sold to.
Call me a sentimental ol' fool, go ahead, see if I care.
"£12 to you, sir or £30 if you wanna do the ride." Said a man in a high viz jacket frantically waving his arms at an industrial estate which had been turned into an impromptu match-day car park.

Friday 25 January 2013

Thursday 24 January 2013

Where bike locks go to die in Manchester

This is my final installment from St Mary's hospital - lock to bike ratio 5:1
Awaiting the summer rush perhaps?

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Bike designification in Manchester

These are lovely aren't they. I'm going to start cataloging this around and about when I spot them.  I may well get sick of it but in the meantime...
These are off bike lockers at St Mary's.
Another dot for the bars?
Nice detail around the forks and rear triangle

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Manchester's bike infrastructure mapped: a challenge to @officialtfgm

Remember the humble A-Z? They were wonderful weren't they? Well, they might have been but I'm probably being a bit nostalgic which is not like me so I'll stop, straight away.
The yoot of today wouldn't know an A-Z if it came up to them and asked for directions to The Albert Hall because, as you well know dear reader, in the world of smart phones, interwebs and electronic thingamajigs of fantastical ability, the printed page's days are numbered - just like the pages themselves.
The idea is that having electronica do your mapping, it'll be better, more accurate and put you at the centre of your world - rather than have Jerusalem or Goodison Park there.
Digital mapping allows you to see the world in a different way and it lets you see Greater Manchester's cycling infrastructure in a way that you never usually can: in its splendid fractured entirety.  
If there ever was a case for a literally and figuratively more joined up approach to cycling, then this image is it.

There are three types of 'bike lane' marked on here: trails (dark green), dedicated lanes (lighter green) and bike friendly roads (dotted green). I'm not blaming the map maker (calling them a cartographer doesn't seem right really) here but these categories hide a multitude of sins. A trail is usually a bridleway or a path which cars don't use - through parks for example. Dedicated lanes seem to be just that, roads where lanes are fitted in leaving the euphemism of bike friendly roads which, if you look closely includes such belters as Bridgewater Way between The Uniteds and Hulme, Portland Street and Oxford Road. Hardly friendly.
Wouldn't it be great if there was an organisation which could make sense of all this, close gaps, link lanes up, make them good.  That would be truly original and thoroughly modern. 
I know this isn't fair but look what Copenhagen has achieved - surely the birthplace of the industrial revolution could do better?

Step forward TfGM, your challenge awaits you.

Monday 21 January 2013

Nice things to lock your bike to No 4 - Manchester

Spotted these at St Mary's Hospital this afternoon. Not only a snow dome but also some very sturdy looking lockers.  Nice stuff for keeping your bike stationary and dry.

Last word in bike parking
The NHS PFI revolution has been put to some good causes!

Sunday 20 January 2013

Scotch eggs and Maxine Peake

It's weird how things link up in your life isn't?  You can go for months without thinking about something, say Scotch eggs for example, then, for no apparent reason you start seeing them everywhere, hear people talking about them and end up buying them: even though you don't actually like them. Or, alternatively, the sudden hightened awareness of Scotch eggs is actually a manifestation of some unconscious desire. 
A kind of similar thing has happened to me recently.  I've blogged before about Maxine Peake and her Beryl Burton radio documentary late last year and yesterday's post about Bolton Clarion is also closely connected to Maxine's world: Bolton, socialism and cycling.
I didn't realise what all this meant until about an hour ago.
My darling lady wife solved the puzzle for me by getting me a CD for my recent 21st birthday.  After realising that we no longer have a CD player plugged in, I've finally got round to downloading and listening to the 1612 Underture by The Eccentronic Research Council which features a certain Ms Peake.
Wonderfully subtitled as 'A folkloric sonic pilgrimage to the home of the Pendle Witches' the recording is essentially poetry put to electronic must with a few abstract a-tonal interludes.  It is rather superb even if I do say so.
But what in the name of Sean Kelly has this got to do with cycling? Well, quite clearly the planets have aligned and instructed me to enter the Pendle Witches Vintage Velo on Easter Sunday.
Never done this ride but I have ridden some of the roads and they're tough.  Entry is limited to 200 and at £14.95 with all proceeds going to The Stepping Stones Children's Hospice and Cancer Research, it's a bit of a no-brainer really.

Saturday 19 January 2013

Bolton Clarion: It was 90 years ago today....

Found this extraordinary photo in the Whitworth Gallery this morning. It shows the Bolton Clarion parade from 1923. It's the stuff of nightmares in many ways but, then again, just people enjoying themselves on bikes.
The photo is part of the Working Class Movement Library www.wcml.org.uk

Friday 18 January 2013

Le Tour visits Oldham (nearly)

Even though the Tour isn't actually coming to Saddleworth, it hasn't stopped The Oldham Chronicle getting into a big fizz about yesterday's route announcement.
Something is happening close by, next summer
With the climb of Holme Moss confirmed and the route taking the peleton back to Sheffield along the Woodhead Pass, the ride will actually pop into Derbyshire very briefly and this is enough for the Chron to seek out the views and opinions of the town's great and good.
For example, Natalie Goas from The Old Bell in Delph is hoping to put up the entire entourage of the tour in the 18 rooms she has available, while Tim Mitchell from Saddleworth Clarion is excited because '...it's like having the World Cup of cycling virtually on our doorstep.' and finally Larry Wells thinks its great as the race will be '...more or less on our doorstep.'
Can't blame them for getting excited, I am too, even if East Yorkshire has been sadly overlooked.  Oh well, there's always next year, oh, wait...

Wednesday 16 January 2013

TdF for Holme Moss?

So with all the fuss about what, why and where he should have said to Oprah becoming rather tiresome, I'm now boycotting any mention of him until we found out how he tried to fudge saying 'I did it'. 
Of much more interest is the announcement tomorrow on what the opening stages of Yorkshire t'our in 2014 will be.
There's loads of possibles and no doubt there will be a bit of a bun fight going on between the various towns and cities as to which places get a bit of tour action next year.
We know Leeds are getting a bit and some of the famous 'mountains' should get a look in. Rumours are circulating that Holme Moss might get a look in.

Perhaps not the high point of the entire Tour
Personally, I'm hoping for a bit of East Coast action so as I can pitch up at the in-laws and undertake some splendid Yorkshire hospitality.
We find out tomorrow at 6pm.

Friday 11 January 2013

New Sky top - 17% APR

So Rapha finally launched the new Sky kit and... well...it's underwhelming dullness is only matched by its astronomical price.

£140 for this? Nope, me neither

Wednesday 9 January 2013

The Armstrong Sacred Cow Abattoir

So, by this time next week we'll know, really know by how much Lance Armstrong riddled himself with drugs in order to compete.
The news that he's going on Oprah to break his silence can only have one plausible explanation: he can't be going on there to stick to his 'I didn't do it' line so he must be about to admit his doping and bring an end to his shambolic defence. 
A while back I suggested that he'd be much better off fessing up and coming clean - obviously he's taken my advice!
If reports are to be believed, he's doing this in order to reduce his lifetime ban in order for him to compete in something called a triathlon.
Its here were I got Lance completely wrong.  Here was me thinking he could confess, thank the lord jesus christ, cut an onion in half  and throw himself into raising money for his charity.
Whatever you think of Lance, and I'm not a fan, you cant deny that he's ferociously competitive and it seems that it's the lure of competition which will lead him to admitting he'd give Iggy Pop a run for his money.
Iggy - shortly after completing the 1975 Paris-Nice
It'll make fascinating viewing and the question remains: will he bring any sacred cows down with him in return for being able to compete in the vets category of the annual Michigan half distance triathlon.
I reckon there'll be a few nervous bods about. 

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Lighten up, man


As the planet has now ended its lurch to the south and its axis is slowly making its way back oop north, there’s a real sense that the days are starting to get just a little bit longer. By a couple of minutes every day, we are slowly leaving mid-winter behind and emerging, chrysalis like into a bold new future of daylight, rain and potholes!
There’s still quite a long way to go until we will be able to see 7pm without the aid of artificial light though – sometime toward the end of March that’ll be.
One thing the dark days do give you an opportunity to appreciate is how far bike lights have come. If my ride in this last week has been anything to go by, there were many stockings filled with lights during Christmas.
Today’s LEDs are basically superb aren't they?  I remember reading a review of a motorbike a few years back which had ditched its old filament bulb for an LED rear light – filament bulbs are still required by law for head lamps.  The review nailed it by captioning a photo of the new rear light with: The days were when head lights were not as bright.
A beautiful light bulb
Same with our cycle lights. I can’t remember the name of the first lights I ever had but they were massive grey things which used two size D batteries every half hour.  The front one had a circular clear lens while the rear was an oblong about the same size as a litre of orange juice.
There is no comparison between the old and new, the new ones perform better, look better, are lighter, brighter, last longer and make you irresistible to the opposite sex.

Monday 7 January 2013

Chain love @cyclelogicMCR


I had a feeling of smug satisfaction this morning on my ride in.  For once this was not due to me rattling past queuing traffic or getting a hat full of PBs on Strava.

No, the warm glow was due to the overwhelming success of replacing my chain at the weekend. I know it’s a relatively straightforward process but I’m genuinely surprised as to how much of a difference it has made.

The previous chain had gone beyond the .75 mark on the chain stretcher thingamabob so it was time for a new one.  It’s now working like an absolute dream and I’m intrigued to find out how much wear I’ll get out of it.



I've gone for the ‘extreme durability’ option which gives the impression that it’ll last about the same amount of time as a track on a Sherman tank – we’ll see.

Thanks to the lovely folk at Ken Fosters for the advice!

Friday 4 January 2013

Happy new year dear reader

Well, after ten days of unenforced absence from the bike, today was my first of the new year back in the saddle.
Following a determined but ultimately futile effort to rid the planet of red wine and mince pies, I felt like I had as much power as an Austin Princess this morning and despite the Met Office's promises of a dry but overcast day, it obviously rained for my entire journey.
Austin (very little) Powers
So a lovely introduction to cycling in 2013, but despite all that, it was still great to be back on two wheels.  My Strava deets weren't too bad either - managed a few PBs which was surprising as I was really just plodding.
Maybe there's something to be said for a rubbish diet and lots of rest...maybe not.