bikes and things

I know it’s not big or clever to race your fellow commuters but two things do give me a sense of smugness little smile on the way home most evenings.

The first being the traffic lights coming from Covent Garden onto Waterloo Bridge. Each evening I wait, let the pedestrians go and then gently catch every single person who ran the red. No racing, just keeping a nice pace.

The second has to be the lovely smooth tarmac along Kennington Road. It’s nice to get into a nice smooth rhythm along there on the fixed and keep spinning. Not too fast but just enough to cruise along at a decent pace. There always seems to be someone beside or just behind me who wants to race, head nodding, bike creaking, d-lock rattling and a gentle pant. The smoother you pedal the more enjoyable it becomes as you gently pull away. I’m quite happy not racing but it’s still good to win, as well as making it look like you haven’t made any effort.

There’s a new cycling blog in town and it’s not run by cycling vigilantes or nut jobs moaning about the state of two wheeled travel. This one has an overtly positive stance for those of us who enjoy cycling around for whatever reason but don’t enjoy the crap blogs that normally go with it. It also brings great photography along with it which makes me like it even more.

There’s been a couple of great articles already such as the With Associates studio interview as well as the recent interview with Lawrence.

We want to change the way our readers think about cycling in London, whether that means finding a positive slant on biking in the rain, challenging the way that we think about urban transport, or refuting common wisdom about, say, helmets or traffic lights.

Cycle Love is about the stuff that makes cycling great, and celebrating the diversity of cycle culture — bikes *and* people.

It feels like it’s a site for people who cycle but aren’t, or don’t necessarily want to be labelled as, cyclists. Maybe that’s putting words in their mouth, but I think the only way cycling is going to get better is when you don’t have to be a cyclist to do it and we embrace it as the best form of transport for the city.

You also should buy a T-shirt from them.

Some great cartoons related to cycling over at cyclingcartoons.com Two of my favourites below, the bikes in the shed one is particularly brilliant.

Images © Dave Walker

I’ve done this ride a few times, start at the Design Museum and pick up the Thames Path all the way to Greenwich and beyond. Once I even ended up at the Woolwich Ferry and cycled back along the North side. This time it was only to past Greenwich and back but still good to get out after a prolonged period of working late to get my project out to tender.

I also wanted to re-engage with my camera after just using it for paid work I thought I’d do some for pleasure. Just for me and see what I could find, a kind of a mini project in a day. Taking the tripod and camera on my bike way fairly hard work but well worth the effort to document some of the spaces along the South side of the Thames. Unfortunately I didn’t make very fast progress on my bike as I kept on seeing things to take pictures of.

The context of the ride is slightly strange – going from the wealthy areas surrounding the Design Museum through some rougher looking estates, past light and heavy industry, gravel pits, vents from tunnels, new cheap looking housing schemes and a few tourist attractions in between. There were reminders of industry past throughout as well as the looming presence of Canary Wharf and newer developments.

I couldn’t have picked a nicer day, misty at first but brighter later with some surreal Autumn light towards the end of the day. Some of the images were a bit off due to the swing on the lens being engaged when I grabbed it out of my bag but I’m pleased with the selection I uploaded to Flickr late last night.

One of the nicest things was getting out on my bike and being totally relaxed. I didn’t rush but cycled at my own pace, looking around and taking it all in. I also met a few interesting characters along the way including an Indian couple over here to see the sights who were fascinated by the camera and also my bike. A few of my favourite images are below. I might do this as a regular thing and just pick a different route each time and see what I come across. Maybe a lighter tripod next time though.

And to top it all off I got the Thames Clipper back from Greenwich seeing all the same sights from a completely different viewpoint. A superb day out.

My heart has always been in mountain biking, even though I own a road bike. Given the preference I’d rather ride a trail and get muddy than zoom around on the roads. This video is about as close as anything has got to tempt me otherwise though with its stunning scenery and sense of exposure.

I’ve just pre-ordered what looks to be an amazing book on the UK hand built cycle industry which I found via It’s nice that*. Entitled Made in England it looks like a fascinating read as well as being full of some great photography.

Images © It’s nice that

I became interested in this kind of frame building when I had a trip to Witcomb cycles to interview them with Vaughan for living South Magazine. I was shooting some pics for the article at the time (my photography has improved since).

I’ve no idea why I used to add these stupid black borders to images in 2008.

Witcomb were interesting in that they had been building hand made steel frames for three generations in Deptford. They discussed the decline of frame building in the UK as well as the fact that historically most independent shops would have built their own frames – including the megacorp that is Evans! Alas Witcomb are no more after some terrible miss management from a new ‘business partner’ which was well documented on lfgss.com a few years back.

So what is left now is a series of independent frame builders such as Robin Mather, Dave Yates as well as newer entrants to the market such Feather Cycles. It’s good to see that the there’s a seemingly growing market for these brands and this book records the work of this highly personal and hands on craft. Dave Yeates also runs a well subscribed frame building course which I’m very tempted to sign up to. Considering there’s a two year wait it’s probably worth signing up now.

Images © It’s nice that

If you pre-order the book on their site you get a signed copy and a poster of your choice with it when it’s released, presumably in a few weeks. I went for the Reynolds one.

Having searched around for this post I also found a great section on the Rapha site with a series of videos and blog posts. It’s a shame they list the US first rather than the UK but never mind. Here’s Robin Mather talking about his work in Bristol.

* Most of the things on here seem to come via It’s nice that or With Associates these days so you’ll have to excuse the fanboyism please.

“When we were told it’s impossible, we knew it’s the right way to be done”.

Via Neil.

Late to the party with this one but amazing what this guy can do even with skinny tyres.

Martyn Ashton takes the £10k carbon road bike used by Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins & Mark Cavendish for a ride with a difference.

Via Alex & Kristian

EDIT: And now there’s an outtake clip too.

A little while back I modelled rode down a grassy hill a few times for Daniel in front of the wonderful Dawson Heights in sunny South London. Daniel was shooting a double page spread for the LCC for two bikes that had been reviewed but his idea was to set them in a more urban context.

Daniel hard at work.

Having seen Neil do cycling shoots before I brought some box fresh shoes, some bright clothing and a few different colours in case. Having put my new shoes (with new cleats) on, I cycled to the top of the hill, turned the corner and was locked in. I took the full force of the fall on my knee which hurt like hell. It also took me a while to realise it was a 29er. I thought it looked a bit odd. It was a bit of a beast of a bike but I was quite taken with the larger wheels.

We picked a line, Daniel set up the 5×4, checked the exposure, checked the exposure again and then I rode it. I think I must have ridden it at least 15 times, checking the spot, poking the elbows out more, looking like I as enjoying the ride. As it was film we were a little more cautious about dropping the shutter.

The final shot © Daniel Hewitt.

And the magazine spread which arrived on my mat a few days ago. Shame the credit was so discrete for Daniel though as it’s a nice little bit of publicity. Took me ages to find it!

The good people at With Associates get interviewed by Cycle Love

Brilliant in every way.

Image © Cycle Love.