bikes and things

I’ve seen this bike around a few times the East Dulwich and Peckham areas, usually locked up, but I’ve also seen the owner riding around on it. I’ve always been struck by the sheer size of it, just look at that head tube! It’s obviously been custom made for the owner who is a very large man indeed. What’s even stranger is that when he’s riding it it doesn’t look out of proportion to him, just a scaled up bike. Those are 700c not 26″ wheels by the way, just to give the image some sense of scale.

No not a set of New Years resolutions but a list of things to achieve perhaps. Goals, targets, aims, dreams etc. Nothing to get disappointed with but a set of pointers and tips. I guess the whole resolutions things is a bit of a cliche (which is why this isn’t a list of them obviously) but it is a nice time to reassess and think about what you want to achieve in the coming year. I’ll keep them all in a Simplenote and add to them as I can.

So here’s mine, lets see how we get on:

– Cycle more (aim of riding 8000k in total).

– Complete my project at work & get some good photos.

– Take pictures for pleasure not just work.

– Use some of the dusty cameras on the shelf.

– Avoid negativity and those who surround themselves in it.

– See more films with Emma.

– Go on a holiday and do absolutely nothing.

– Start running (already in progress).

– Work harder but more efficiently.

– Get up early and make the most of the day (see above)

– Do a photo project of some form.

– Read more books.

– Go riding every Sunday even if no-one is around to go with.

– Drink less (dry Jan is helping).

– Spend less on cappuccinos and sandwiches.

– Ride Lands End to John O’Groats in ten days.

– Ride Dunwich Dynamo.

– Collaborate on more projects with Jim.

– Write more posts here (longer opinions ones).

– Explore London more.

So yeah they’re all pretty obvious but a few targets to aim for. Cycling and photography still seems pretty strong. Lets see how we get on but 2014 is shaping up well and lots to be positive about.

They drive me mad!

Interesting how the pink is brighter and more visible than the yellow. Although clearly you shouldn’t judge this from an Instagram with a filter applied. Does make me think that one of these isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Pic by Andy Waterman.

Two interesting things popped up in my timeline this morning. Firstly this picture via @urbanphoto_blog of interstate 10 in Houston, Texas. It’s complete madness that this even exists.

And secondly contrasted by this brilliant article which shows that if you include the additional time it takes to earn the money to run your car in your overall MPH and compare that to a bike it becomes a vastly slower means of transport.

Not forgetting that you get far more pleasure at the same time from a bike. Win, win as they say.

Furthermore, of the total time Brad has invested in his bike, ninety percent is spent doing what he usually enjoys – bicycling! Whereas Max spends two-thirds of his time working for the privilege of driving his new car the remaining one-third.

Jeremy Vine, of BBC R2 fame, has been cycling recently and has written a pretty balanced article about it for the Daily Mail of all places. It’s a pretty depressing read overall though about the sate of cycling in the UK.

Despite such narrow run-ins, I am OK. Today, yes. Far, far fitter than when I belonged to that gym (and nearly two stone lighter). But tomorrow? I don’t know if I will be OK tomorrow.

Every morning when I leave the house, my wife says farewell in the manner of Japanese women who waved off pilot husbands in World War II.

If nothing else, cycling in a major British city reminds you to make a will and tell your mum you love her.

And he also makes a pretty solid point regarding car use.

Car drivers have no reason to hate cyclists. If we all gave up our two wheels and bought 4x4s, the whole country would be stuck in a jam from Kingston to Kilmarnock.

It’s best to stop scrolling when you get to the comments as it gets pretty grim as usual. It is the Daily Mail remember.

I absolutely love this. A super slow mo video shot from a tube train of the occupants of the platform as it pulls into the Shinjuku station in Tokyo. The layering and flicking of the fluorescent tubes are incredible. It’s almost like a series of passing portraits. So beautiful!

Edit: You can read more about his process and work on this article. He’s a serious tech wizard too by the looks of it. He certainly not using an off the shelf camera and Lightroom/After Effects for this.

And there’s a video of the photographer talking about his work.

With Apple you kind of expect pixel perfect attention to detail. But then a blog I follow spotted this and it’s been annoying me ever since.

Just look, the lines don’t line up!

And a little closer. Shockingly sloppy for Apple.

I wish Instagram would sort their icon out too. That’s another thing that annoys me.

Yes, I know.

Inspired by Mathew’s post, karma neutral, I’ve decided to offer a little more critique and voice an opinion rather than the usual ‘oh my god these images are amazing’ posts.

First on my list is Architects moaning. Now we bloody love to moan – subjects include, but not limited to; the world hates us, we don’t get enough recognition, Doctors earn more than us, it’s not like the old days, we don’t have a design champion, our voice is being diluted and so on.

So I was amazed to read a piece on the Architect’s Journal this week about the ARB throwing Architects off the register for not paying their fees. The title Architect is protected in the UK and you have to be on the register to use the title legally. Arguments about the role ARB plays vs RIBA aside, it’s clear that this is the only thing you need to do each year (and some CPD etc) to stay practicing. You know, doing your job still after all that studying and working your nuts off.

According to the board, almost six per cent of the UK’s 34,000 registered architects did not manage to cough up the £105 fee before the 31 December 2013 deadline.

The number marks a 57 per cent rise on the 1,300 architects booted off in 2013, and is equivalent to almost half the architects employed by AJ100 practices.

The tone of the article clearly implying that the ARB was being nasty and charging a fee for people missing the deadline. Then cue quotes from people who missed the payment and wanted a moan.

Fran Balaam of Pie Architecture, said: ‘The £65 charge is ridiculous. And for what? It’s costing more [to be reinstated] than when I joined first time.

You could have saved the £65 by paying it on time surely?

I’m reminded of the blog youhadonejob.org. The only thing you have to do was pay your fees and stay registered as an Architect. You get an email reminder too telling you to pay. But instead of phrasing the article as “Architect’s too lazy to pay professional fee to allow them to continue their job” it’s all “woe is me we’re put upon even our own professional body hates us”. The AJ weren’t the only one’s to take this angle. Please man up Architects. Anyone outside of the profession seeing this article would surely think we’d all lost the fucking plot and were a bunch of moaners.

And as Vinesh reminded me, you expect clients to pay you on time (and moan about that too) so why haven’t you paid your fees?

On Sunday I wanted to get a ride in but without the faff of mountain biking. My road bike is out of action as it’s being re-sprayed and all I have at the moment is the fixed (and the Brompton). I also had my tax return hanging over me so wanted to get a good bit of exercise without spending too much time out of the house. I thought about having another go at my favourite trail from the design museum east which I’ve done a few times before. I managed to talk Jonty in to meeting me and coming along for the day. The weather looked like it would hold til at least 2pm so we met at 9am for coffee on Bermondsey Street and then headed out East.

I’ve done the ride loads of times before with various options. Once I got the Woolwich ferry and rode back along the North side. Other times I’ve got the clipper back from Greenwich as well as various permutations of. It’s always a good ride though, nothing too fast or challenging but nice to see some sights as well as the changing context. Riding by the river is great too.

I ended up sounded a bit like a tour guide explaining things I’d seen before or pointing interesting items out. We kept going and going, past Greenwich and on to the Thames Barrier. The idea was to see that and if it was working and come back.

So we had a poke around the Thames Barrier and thought we’d push on. We ended up at the Woolwich ferry which is the furthest I’d been along the path. The bit after was more like a larger towpath and was nice riding. Again nothing too fast or crazy but just nice pushing the pedals and admiring the view.

I was also riding with a pannier for the first time which is surprisingly good. Whilst it doesn’t win any awards for looking cool it is amazing to ride without a rucksack. I’ve been using the same this week for commuting and love it. Apparently it really comes into its own in the summer though to avoid that awful sweaty back look which is so unpleasant.

Anyway by this point we’d gone a fair way east and spotted a big concrete housing scheme to go and have a look at. We looped round than had to decide what to do. The Garmin said we’d got to 35k so thought it best to head back and we knew that at some point the weather was going to turn. We got a little more sun on the way back and the stinky Tate and Lyle factory was looking pretty good in the winter sunshine.

We also came across this odd little pavilion which has fallen into disrepair. Not sure what it was but it was set in a formal pair of pools. No idea what it was or what it was used for it was intriguing. I’ll ask the book of knowledge old Matthew Wickens and see if he knows.

And then there was lots of this kind of stuff. Heavy industry, derelict factories, ship yard, docks, gravel pits etc. But then lots of it is all changing and being replaced by housing. The old electronic factory has started to be demolished too. The whole area keeps changing each time I cycle this way.

After a quick stop for a burger in Greenwich we were back to SE1 and another coffee to finish off (at the same place). Not a bad run out and managed to nudge the Garmin over the 70k mark which I was pretty pleased with, especially being fixed. It just started to rain as I was doing the last few kilometres. A great day out and so nice to ride directly from the front door. Maybe push it out a little further next time.

And here’s the route map which kind of looks a bit funny.

I stumbled on this interesting article earlier via Mathew’s (With Associates) new blog*

Clusterfuck is military slang for “a chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong. It is often caused by incompetence, communication failure, or a complex environment”. We use it fairly specifically to mean communications failure caused by too many people in charge of, or weighing in on, a particular thing.

It’s great to see someone blogging about business practices like this and considering, and talking openly, about how these things could be simplified. Read the whole article but the other line seems particularly pertinent.

Email threads and the ability to CC everyone on Earth are a particularly fine source of clusterfucks.

It seems like this might be easier for fresher industries like those that work with the web but unfortunately I can’t imagine the construction industry ever considering their process in this detail or talking about it openly. More is the pity.

*interestingly you should also read Mathew’s post of why he started blogging when the party is apparently now over .