No cycling again this weekend as I headed back to Pembrokeshire to see my family. A great weekend away and very relaxing – it’s far nicer there than here in the South East of England!
Didn’t take either of the bikes so I hope to get out on them during the nights this week.
Some pics of Pembrokeshire over on my Flickr account.
Brompton’s inventor Andrew Ritchie has been awarded a design award by Prince Philip – the Prince Philip Designers Prize.
Congratulations to Andrew Ritchie and the guys over at Brompton! This is great news and highlights the world of ‘folders’ to the wider community.
Link: BBC News story
Took a day off work today to headed into London’s Earls Court for the 2009 Cycle Show. It was nice to not have to wake up at the unearthly hour I normally do, instead I slept in and crawled out of bed around 0730.
A cycling friend arrived at 0915 and we walked off to the train station and headed West towards Victoria Station in the centre of London. Although rain was forecast for later in the day, it was a mild and bright day – good for cycling!
The show was well attended but it wasn’t over-crowded. It was the first public day of the show, Thursday being a trade-only day, and I suppose that Saturday and Sunday are going to be the busiest. Most of the big names were there, Cannondale, Scott, Bianchi, Colnago, Specialized, Brompton… No Dahon though. Thinking about it, not all the big US manufacturers were there, such as Marin, Trek, Giant. But the Europeans were.
Bikes ranged from under £100 kids’ bikes to £8,000+ road bikes. My eyes were watering at some of the price tags and my credit card was screaming to get out of my wallet – but I controlled it! I didn’t buy anything 
The high-end road bikes were incredibly lightweight. I was really surprised at just how light bikes can be made these days.
I hung around the Brompton stand for a while taking a look at what was on offer. These bikes are hand-made and to prove it they had a guy making bikes there, right in front of you.
It was the first time I’ve got my hands on a Brompton and it was very small and very light. It was much smaller and lighter than my Dahon D7HG, but it was considerably more expensive too. There were other folders on show too. Moulton and Airminal were there, with the latter really catching my eye (but again, very expensive).
After a few hours of touring the stands, browsing the bikes and keeping my credit card in my wallet, we headed out for a few pints and a sit down before returning home on the train via Victoria Station.
More of my Cycle Show photos over on Flickr.
Here’s another ‘concept’ folder, this time it’s by Dominic Hargreaves and it’s in the running for the James Dyson Award.
Also check out his ‘hoist’ design.
I’d been thinking about how do I stop the empty Grolsch and wine bottles from stacking up in my kitchen.
I could put them out in the ‘blue bin’ for recycling, but they don’t truly recycle that glass, it’s just reused (hard core or other such filler). I was thinking that I should take it to the bottle bank and get rid of them that way, ‘real recycling’. The next question was how to get them there on the Dahon. The ride was going to be about a mile and a half to the bottle bank and I don’t have a cycle trailer. Hmm…
The Crate Folded
I had a look around the house and realised that I had the perfect solution! A small Tontarelli folding crate that appeared to be the ideal size (10L) to mount on the back rack of the Dahon.
I added some small plastic blocks to the bottom of the crate to help it engage with the rack – a few screws and some foam pads keep things together. Then a couple of bungie straps secure the crate to the Dahon’s rear rack.
Unfolded
I left the house early this morning with a full load of glass in the crate and headed off to the bottle bank. Bumps in the road caused the bottles to rattle around a fair bit, so it was a little noisy on the way but not too bad.
I’d quickly popped all the bottles into the bottle banks so thought I’d take a look around town before heading back to the house for breakfast.
It was the last of the four Castle Concerts in the grounds of the Castle last night so the stage was still up (photo). There were some fantastic fireworks at the end, over the River Medway, late last night but there weren’t any remains as I cycled around this morning.
It’s a nice day out there and the Dahon has helped me be that little bit ‘greener’ this morning as it became my Recycle Cycle!
Loaded
Empty
Build yourself a low cost camera mount for your bike and get out there cycling! This cheap and easy solution will fix your camera to your bike’s handlebars for next to nothing.
Click here for full instructions.
[via RochBike]
I’ve just come back from a few days back in Fishguard, where I grew up. Went home to see my family and to have a break from work and the hectic life in the south east of England.
Fishguard and the surrounding area is really laid back and the contrast between sleepy Pembrokeshire and the hustle of Kent is quite startling at times.
I went out for a walk with my sister on the Thursday night along the Marine Walk which hugs the top of the cliff between the old harbour at Lower Town (pictured) and the larger harbour at Goodwick. It was a great evening: warm, sunny and no wind.
Pembrokeshire is a great place to cycle, although for a number of reasons I didn’t have either of my bikes with me this visit. There’s a lot of great scenery ranging from the coastal views through to mountains and hills.
Cycling appears to be on the rise back there with more cycle shops opening no doubt fuelled by
events such as the Tour of Pembrokeshire (this weekend). I found a brand new cycle shop in Fishguard called Pembrokeshire Bikes (www.Pembrokeshire-Bikes.com) – their website isn’t live yet but it’s coming soon.
I visited the shop with my sister and we spent quite a while in there looking around and chatting to the owner. It’s a relatively small specialist shop but it stocks some great bikes from Trek, Cannondale and Colnago – they don’t stock the low-end bikes for kids (like Halfords), this is a true cyclist’s shop. They also stock classic town bikes and products from Brooks.
I was really impressed with the shop. If you’re in Fishguard in the near future then you should definately take a look.
Even trains are looking for alternative methods of travel during these days of the credit crunch!
In January I posted a poll on whether or not people wear cycle helmets. After months of hectic voting (!!!), the current count being a massive (!) 17 votes, the results are as above. Only one of the voters has voted like me, stating that they don’t wear a helmet.
The poll is still running so if you haven’t yet taken part then there’s always time to do so. Looks like most people cycle with skull-safety in mind and protect their head.
I’ve just read that the statistics show that severity of injury “increase with helmet use”:
Individual cyclists may have benefited from wearing a helmet … but the odds would seem to be against it.
When large population samples are examined, it is difficult to detect any noticeable improvement in cyclist casualty trends. Worryingly, what change is to be found would seem to suggest that injuries, and sometimes injury severity, increase with helmet use. [Cycle Craft]
More helmet statistics and information on the following sites:
Collected my new Big Apple tyres from the Post Office this morning, before 0900. It’s a really nice day out there, the sun is up and it’s nice and warm.
Having already been shopping for my breakfast, the bike was already loaded up so the tyres were strapped in underneath.
The plan is to fit them tomorrow.
This photo was taken on my phone camera, near the Castle.
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