Celebrating Cycling

CELEBRATING

CYCLING

INTRODUCTION This is a story about how I came to be a born again cyclist.

Do you remember the first time you rode a bike, that amazing feeling of effortless freedom?

If you do you’re not alone because it is such a strong memory. Sadly, for many people cycling remains just that, a childhood memory. Somehow the idea that they might want to ride a bike as an adult seems odd.

I certainly remember the first time I rode a bike. My grandfather walking behind and holding the saddle until I suddenly realised that he’d let go and I was actually cycling. I was so excited that I immediately fell off.

Cycling would have remained just a distant memory for me as well if it hadn’t been for my stupidity in getting banned from driving back in 1981. That ban meant I lost a lucrative job with a company car selling magazine ads regionally. Fortunately, I managed to get a job on one of the London listings magazines instead, and I didn’t need a car to get around central London. Then by chance one of my advertisers offered me a job selling ads on the first true glossy consumer cycling magazine in the UK, Bicycle.

The best-selling author of Richard’s Bicycle Book, Richard Ballantine, was the editor and we hit it off pretty much straight away. About my first day there, Richard said: “Alan, you need to ride a bike. Take this Dawes Imperial and ride home with it.” I was a bit dubious, but I thought, well, why not? It was a beautiful looking bike, and I took it out into central London and that was it. It felt like I was floating and totally free and I couldn’t believe it.

What had I been missing! I was well and truly on board, and I’ve never looked back. So, I thank my lucky stars

that I lost my driving licence, because I had no idea what I had been missing, and it made me determined to reach out to others to get back on a bike.

By 1992 I was co-publishing Encycleopedia, an annual high quality, full colour book that acted as a platform to source unusual products from around the world. Unlike catalogues with their reams of facts and figures, Encycleopedia told the stories about the people behind the products, and it was very popular at the time.

Now, may years later, I need a different approach, after all, you can find just about anything nowadays at the click of a button. Those early Encycleopedias were really preaching to the converted — ready-made enthusiasts who appreciated the uniqueness of content, but how to get to the non-cyclists?

Covid-19 lockdowns have inspired more people to get out on a bike, and the evolution of ebikes has helped, but cycling in the UK is still a minority activity.

This new edition from Encycleopedia, Celebrating Cycling, is different, it’s not really a book about cycling at all.

It’s not going to tell you the best bike, the most suitable bike, the cheapest bike, the most expensive bike, the coolest bike, it is just going to celebrate creative people who have interesting stories and who credit cycling as an inspirational part of their lives.

If you’re a cyclist I hope you buy a copy and and then pass it on to a non-cycling friend, or better still, make them a present of one. Hopefully it might inspire them, and maybe, just maybe, they might be tempted to get back on a bike, but if not, it’s a good read anyway.

Alan Davidson, Stockport, 2021.

RECLAIMING THE STREETS FOR CHILDREN TO USE THEIR BIKES Dr Mayer Hillman, University of Westminster, London

W

hat’s the difference between the life of a convict serving a sentence in prison for a heinous crime and the life of a child brought up by loving parents?

Before you think that this is a facetious question posed to elicit a cheap laugh, consider the following: both have a roof over their heads, regular meals, set times for PE, entertainment provided and are not allowed out on their own. The withholding of this basic element of their quality of life may well be appropriate for criminals.

It is clearly unjustified in the case of children.

That is not to deny that today’s children are more fortunate in many respects than their parents were and, even more so, their grandparents at the same age.

Witness the rising numbers with their own centrally -heated bedroom; multi-channel television and computer games for use at home in their leisure time; access to one or two family cars providing safe and effortless parent-chauffeured means for daily travel and for weekend and holiday visits to ever more distant destinations and stimulating activities; and in the last year or two, a mobile phone to maintain contact with friends at all times and anywhere.

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However, there has been, and continues to be, a downside for children to these seemingly attractive, and certainly much appreciated, benefits of material affluence. It can be seen, first and foremost, in a steady albeit unwitting erosion of their right to a safe environment free of risk of injury beyond the boundaries of their home. This right has been almost totally overlooked in the debate about the pros and cons of our car culture. Children unknowingly have had to pay a high price for the motorised mobility of adults.

Our studies have recorded their lives being much more circumscribed. There has been a dramatic rise in the age at which parents give them the ‘licence’ to get around on their own. In pursuit of an understandable wish to minimise their exposure to risk of road injury, bullying by other children or molestation by strangers — its frequency often much exaggerated by media over-reporting — parents have been denying their children independence in their local surroundings until a later stage in their childhood. In surveys of children in primary schools in different parts of England in 1970, we found that, for instance, 80% of the 7-and 8- year olds went to and from school on their own. Now very few of that age group are allowed to do so.

G N I L CYC MOTES PROVIVALITY CON MUNITYT COMOLVEMEN INVSE AND NOI LUTION POL UCTION RED

The harmful effects on children of this approach extend well beyond their loss of a basic right.

The long-term damage is far greater. Their physical development is at an all-time low and declining, for instance, from the ‘couch potato’ practice of sitting for long hours in front of television or playing with computers. The increasingly sedentary nature of the lifestyles of both boys and girls is reflected in a correspondingly disturbing rise in the incidence of overweight and obesity with the result that in later life they are likely to be more at risk of heart and other diseases. As nearly all children are affected, it could be described as a form of abuse far more pervasive than the fortunately rare incidents reported under the heading of child abuse associated with physical and mental assault of various kinds.

Outrageously, too, the increasing danger from the rising volume, speed and acceleration of vehicles has led to most parents denying their children the opportunity of using the bicycle as their primary means of travel - not just for school travel - even though most own one and have indicated in attitudinal surveys that the wish to do so. Their average cycle mileage has fallen steadily over theyears, the sharpest decline being among teenagers.

The bicycle now accounts for less than 2% of their school journeys in marked contrast for instance to the Netherlands where roughly halfof journeys to and from school are made in this way. The effect of this limitation on their freedom is all the more apparent when the distance they are allowed to get about is considered in geometric terms: far more opportunities are opened up as, compared with in the same time period spent walking: indeed, compared with walking, the bicycle increases access to potential destinations 10 to 15 fold.

To add insult to injury, the burden of responsibility and need for rising levels of vigilance from the hazards of traffic is placed on the potential victims, so often children. It could be argued that it is immoral to let them have bicycles and encourage them to acquire skills to ride them, but then only let them cycle for instance for recreation in parks but not as a means of travel because the environment is seen to be so dangerous.

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in 1970 80% OF 7 & 8 year olds went to and from school on their own In fact, driving vehicles at unsafe speeds could be cited as a form of abuse of vulnerable road users, especially children. Many adults could be accused of such abuse with society exonerating them if they are behind a teering wheel!

A related cause for concern is that some of the characteristics of lifestyle adopted during childhood are highly influential in the incidence of some diseases in later years active adults are far more likely to have been active children. For the prevention of many diseases, childhood is the ideal time to instill appreciation of the benefits and practice of health-related patterns of activity, such as the habit of engaging in regular exercise.

Indeed, a report by the author of this article for the BMA nearly 30 years ago indicated that, for the great majority of the population, cycling was the only realistic means of maintaining physical fitness from childhood through to old age — and sadly remains so.

Similarly, children’s social and emotional development has been limited by the fact that most of them can only spend time outside the home with parents or adults that their parents choose. They therefore have far less opportunity of learning from the direct experience of making mistakes, from acquiring coping skills, learning how to deal with the unexpected, developing self-esteem, and so on. When they are allowed out on their own, they are told not to talk to strangers — not even to make eye contact with them. In the wake of this has come a disincentive for ‘strangers’, that is all of us, to speak to or engage in conversation with children we do not know in case our motives are misconstrued.

What a sad commentary this provides on efforts aimed at nurturing social cohesion!

Children’s lives outside the home today are very different from those I enjoyed as a child. These were full of learning experiences finding out how to or having to communicate with people I did not know, exploring local streets and alleys, exercising control over what I did and, within reason, how to use time, giving a hand to old people whom I did not know and thereby feeling part of the community.

Indeed, the neighbourhood represented an informal classroom in which the lessons from home and school could often be applied in the real world and with the health benefits of daily exercise thrown in for good measure. When I was somewhat older, use of my bicycle freed me to get to school, the nearby park, and to friends speedily and pleasurably. And then, in my early teens, the camping/cycling holiday to the Isle of Wight for ten days with my best friend.

And what memorable experiences that provided!

it provides access in 20 or 30 minutes to most children’s desired destinations; it is not seen as a realistic means of travel for much of the year because of rain, low t emperatures or in hilly areas but in reality these hardly act as deterrents to much use of the cycle; it is claimed by non-cyclists that it entails so much physical effort that a shower is needed at the end of the journey but even when these are provided, it is rare for them to be used; in urban areas, it is thought to be damaging to health as cyclists have to breathe polluted air from the exhausts of motor vehicles but this is only true on heavily trafficked routes which cyclists avoid wherever possible;. and finally it is alleged to be such a dangerous means of getting around that it is suitable only for the foolhardy who do not value their lives sufficiently highly and even then only if a safety helmet is worn to avoid the risk of head injury, but there is persuasive evidence that far more ‘life-years’ are gained by the life-enhancing effects of regular cycling owing to greater longevity than are lost in cyclists’ fatal injuries, partly owing to their typical relatively young age.

Cycling is of course the only means of mechanized travel for people who cannot use a car on their own.

But it is also the only means that children can use independently without a driver and at no cost.

In particular, it provides opportunities for reaching destinations beyond their immediate locality.

As It is too a straightforward way of keeping fit both physically and mentally, it could be asked what is standing in the way of the release of the considerable pent-up demand for it. A major reason is that very few local authorities have created comprehensive cycling networks that children can use safely free of motorized traffic, and cycling does not readily fit into our current ‘further and faster’ culture.

Another reason is a series of fallacious myths which presently inform conventional thinking. Cycling, it is wrongly argued, only caters for short journeys but at a reasonable speed of 10mph,

What seems to be overlooked is that from a public interest perspective, society is better served by more children (and indeed adults) being encouraged to make as many as possible of their journeys by cycle. Cycling promotes conviviality, community involvement, noise and pollution reduction, lesser use of finite resources, minimal interference with other people’s personal mobility, a lowering of the burden on the NHS in having to treat fewer of this healthier population, and not putting the lives of others at risk.

Society’s careless attitude to children lies at the heart of the problem the assumption that their formal education and their protection from risk of injury are of such overriding importance that they justify the ill-effects noted above. In effect, the conventional practice is condoned of withdrawing children from danger, effectively raising them in a ‘battery-reared’ environment, rather than withdrawing danger from children so that they can develop in a ‘free-range’ environment.

Enabling children to reclaim their rights to independent mobility outside the home must be one of our primary objectives in the transport sphere so that the bicycle can fulfill its multi-faceted and positive role in their lives.

We owe it not least to our children

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Pedaling Through The Sky MacCready Meets the Kremer Challenge

I

by Don Monroe (1978-79)

wrote this article as an assignment for a feature writing course at the University of California at Los Angeles Extension in 1978-79. It is based on my own observations and an interview with Paul MacCready.

At the time of writing, the Gossamer Albatross flight across the English Channel had not yet been made.

When Bryan Allen flew the huge, flimsy Gossamer Condor on a 7 1/2-minute flight over a figure-eight course around two pylons a half-mile apart one summer morning in 1977, he fulfilled one of man’s oldest dreams: flight under one’s own power.

Although many individuals and groups had designed and built dozens of human-powered aircraft over the past 50 years, few persons had powered those aircraft through the air for even short distances and no one had come close to winning the Kremer Prize, which had first been offered in 1959. In essence, the rules for that prize required an unassisted takeoff, crossing a start-finish line at a height of 10 feet, flying at any height on a figure-eight course around two pylons a half-mile apart, and recrossing the 10-foot start-finish line. Those rules had become accepted as defining effective man-powered flight. The combination of the turning requirement and the distance requirement had defeated all previous challengers. Few had believed that the prize would ever be awarded.

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While driving with his family on a vacation trip in August 1976, Paul MacCready had been reflecting on the performance of ultralight aircraft when it occurred to him that he could win the Kremer Prize by approaching the problem in a new way: creating an aircraft larger than any of the earlier designs while at the same time keeping it lighter, thereby reducing the power requirements to one-third horsepower, a level that an athlete could produce long enough to complete the required course.

The aircraft could be designed so that repairs and modifications could be made quickly and easily.

His ideas captured the imagination of everyone who heard about them and he soon had assembled a team of enthusiastic workers.

MacCready, in his early fifties, is an engineer, scientist, and entrepreneur. He is president of AeroVironment, a small company in Pasadena that deals with problems in environmental aerodynamics. He has been interested in aviation all his life, and in his twenties won three national soaring championships and placed near the top in three world soaring championships before winning the world title in 1956, the first for an American. He made a major contribution to soaring by inventing the MacCready speed-to-fly ring, a device that appears on the instrument panel of virtually every high-performance sailplane. In recent years, he has been active in hang gliding and the ultralight end of the sport aviation spectrum.

fulfil l of ma ING one n dream ’s oldest under s: flight own p one’s ower

The prospect of winning the £50,000 prize money (about $90,000), the largest in the history of aviation, was a strong lure to MacCready, but the project became so exciting and challenging, and working with the members of his team so much fun that he would have done it anyway. Although the project took a full year, months longer than he thought it would, MacCready always knew that his approach was sound and he would eventually succeed. His quiet confidence inspired all who worked with him.

The Gossamer Condor looks more like a huge winged insect than it does an airplane. As on the Wright brothers airplanes, the stabilizer is in front, the 12-foot propeller in back. The fuselage extends below the wing and an aluminum tube called a king post stretches about eight feet above the wing. The fuselage, wing, and stabilizer are covered with transparent Mylar sheet. The stabilizer is mounted at the end of a long aluminum tube, the bowsprit, extending from the wingfuselage junction. A multitude of fine wires, used for external bracing, connect various points of the wing and the bowsprit to the top of the king post and the bottom of the fuselage. Power is provided by pedaling, just as on a bicycle. A special light-weight chain transmits the power to the propeller shaft at the top of the fuselage, just under the wing. The wing, with a 96-foot span, is comparable in size to that of a DC-9.

The aircraft, without pilot, weighs only 70 pounds; a DC-9, a thousand times more.

The ship looks fragile, and it is; flown at 10 mph it needs near-calm conditions to fly safely.

On one Saturday morning at Shafter Airport, 10 miles north of Bakersfield, California, just before sunrise, the crew of a half-dozen men and boys were struggling to open the huge doors of a World War II hangar.

MacCready was out on the runway on a bicycle, checking the condition of the wind, away from the influence of the hangar and other buildings.

The wind was averaging only two miles per hour, and was steady, so MacCready was satisfied. He directed the removal of the Gossamer Condor from the hangar.

Crew members untied the wing ropes and gently lifted the fuselage and placed it on the groundhandling dolly. Taking care to clear the hangar doors, the crew rolled the ship out of the hangar. Once outside, they turned the aircraft into the wind, and without delay, proceeded to the runway.

With the ship pointed down the runway, MacCready’s 15-year-old son, Tyler, one of the two test pilots at that time, got in and tightened the straps of his toe clips.

A helper resealed the Mylar access panel, and Tyler started pedaling to warm up. When he was ready, he started pedaling more vigorously and the Gossamer Condor quickly accelerated to flying speed, took off, and climbed to five feet above the ground. The propeller swished and the wing and fuselage surfaces rustled as the great aircraft passed through the air. After about one minute, having covered a few hundred yards, Tyler slowed his pedaling, and allowed the aircraft to descend to the runway.

MacCready had already done some calculations, and he wanted to build a new aircraft. (The Gossamer Condor was to go to the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution.) With improved performance, it looked as though the new ship could do it. The prize justified an attempt.

Don takes off in Gossamer II, Sept 1980, Shafter, Ca. Photo by Ernie Franzgrote.

Helpers steadied the ship by grabbing the ropes hanging from the wing. MacCready walked up and asked Tyler about the feel of the controls and the power requirements.

Then Bryan Allen got in. Allen, 24, racing bicyclist and hang glider pilot, had become MacCready’s primary pilot at Shafter after his predecessor, Greg Miller, had gone to Europe in the spring to race his bicycle. Allen’s weight was ideal at 137 pounds and he also proved to have the necessary strength and endurance. Allen flew down the runway, and near the end executed a gentle l80-degree turn by tilting the tail and warping the wings. He then proceeded in the opposite direction nearly to the end of the runway when the wing spar suddenly snapped, and the aircraft slowly settled to the ground. The invisible wake vortex of a crop duster which had taken off moments earlier from the ramp adjacent to the runway had apparently struck the Gossamer Condor down.

MacCready and his associates spent the first half of 1978 studying materials and structures. The team began building the new ship, the Gossamer Albatross, in late spring. The Gossamer Albatross looked much like the Gossamer Condor, except that much of the aluminum tubing had been replaced by carbon fiber and the wing was designed to better maintain the intended airfoil shape.

Additionally, the wing was narrower, therefore more efficient. It was generally a cleaner looking aircraft.

In mid-July, MacCready’s pilots were flying once again.

Bryan Allen, as well as Tyler and 17-year-old Parker MacCready, and even MacCready himself, made many flights during the calm conditions that prevailed on the Friday evenings and Saturday mornings of the next four weeks. But on one morning in mid-August, Allen experienced a problem with the wing-warp control and crashed. Allen suffered minor cuts and abrasions but the crash destroyed the fuselage and damaged other components of the aircraft.

MacCready’s team repaired the ship with a few days labor. Less than six weeks later, Allen made the historic prize-winning flight.

Some of the steam has gone out of the project since then. The repair work has progressed slowly. A few design changes have been made. Some time has been consumed building the trailer necessary for transporting the aircraft when it is disassembled.

After his success, MacCready felt a sense of relief, and thought he could then relax. He looked forward to taking time off. But then Henry Kremer, the British industrialist who had first offered monetary stimulation to man-powered flight, announced a new prize: £100,000 for the first successful human-powered flight from England to France, across the English Channel.

When flying resumes, MacCready will be conducting two kinds of tests: dozens of flights to prove the integrity of the ship under a variety of conditions and maneuvers turning, flying in crosswinds, etc.; and very careful tests under smooth conditions to verify that the power required is really low. He will also do some flying over water, perhaps from Cabrillo Beach, at San Pedro.

On a two-hour flight over the Channel, bad weather would be catastrophic for a fragile aircraft. MacCready believes that calm conditions exist a large part of the time during the months of May and June, when he hopes to make the attempt. During that part of the year, the water is colder than the air, which means the air should be stable, and there should be no turbulence. If the air were unstable, there would be turbulence, which would at best increase the power requirements and at worst break the aircraft.

A big question for MacCready is the effect of the wake of ships. Three hundred large ships plus ferries and other smaller vessels sail the Channel every day. He plans to do some testing with a light plane to find out how long it takes for the wake of a ship to disperse.

MacCready feels there will be little risk to the pilot on the cross-Channel attempt. He claims that should the Gossamer Albatross go in the water for any reason, the pilot should be out of the water in under 10 seconds.

MacCready will use three chase boats for safety. He feels that if the pilot were to become too tired to pedal the entire width of the Channel one of the boats would be able to secure a towline to the aircraft and tow it to land.

The data so far indicate that the Gossamer Albatross requires about 0.25 horsepower, for steady flight.

Bryan Allen can produce about 50 percent more than that for the two hours necessary for the 20-mile Channel crossing. According to MacCready, “There are many key factors; pilot power is not a crucial one.”

The attempt to cross the Channel will cost about $200,000. Because of this, MacCready is seeking sponsorship. He hopes to find a sponsor whose products or services are compatible with his own interest in physical fitness.

He has turned down a cigarette manufacturer.

Without sponsorship, MacCready feels he would have little chance of success. He would have to go to England with only one aircraft (he would like at least two), a bare-bones crew, and little extra material and supplies.

To MacCready, one of the nice features of working on human-powered flight is that it doesn’t have a practical application and he doesn’t have to fudge one. It’s not the start of a big recreation industry, but man-powered aircraft can be made so that they are trailerable, low cost (in time and money), and easy to fly. He envisions bike clubs building HPAs and flying on weekends. He thinks they would also be good for schools, to help teach construction techniques, aerodynamics, and physiology.

The aerospace establishment has accepted MacCready’s success as a milestone in aviation, because it has extended the range of man’s achievement. Professional associations, sport aviation bodies, and federal agencies have presented numerous awards to MacCready. “I don’t want to appear blasé about awards,” he says, “but I’ve got them all at home in a box.”

Paul MacCready

Bryan Allen

epilogue

by Don Monroe (March 31st, 2010)

MacCready secured the

sponsorship of DuPont. During the early spring of 1979, after having tried everything the team could think of to improve the performance of the Gossamer Albatross, they tried a new propeller design, from Prof. E. Eugene Larrabee, at MIT. That provided enough performance boost to allow making long-duration flights. MacCready and his team went to England in the spring of 1979. After waiting weeks for the promised good weather, MacCready

saw an opportunity good enough to justify a crossing attempt on June 12. MacCready wasn’t sure it would be possible to actually cmplete the crossing.

The team did have a backup aircraft, and another one under construction. As these photos show, the flight was completed, having taken 2 hours, 49 minutes, much longer than the 2 hour maximum for which the team felt prepared. Bryan had long run out of water, and was flying on sheer willpower, with cramps in both legs.

All images copyright Don Monroe - www.donaldmonroe.com

LETTERPRESS DESIGN

25 YEARS OF TRADITIONAL LETTERPRESS PRINTING

by LISA PAICE

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e are a small band of print nuts and now include two generations of the same family in our ultimate goal of getting ink on paper, in any way possible but mainly letterpress. It is by using this experience we are aiming to tailor bespoke print methods to each individual client based on their own merits.

When I was asked if I could produce a limited edition letterpress print of the Real Neat poem by Geoff Cloves on the beautiful paper handmade by Gangolf Ulbricht I knew that it was right up our street.

Over the years we have added to our collection of presses and now boast 3 heidelberg platens, 2 15×10’s and 18×13, a Chandler & Price, a Jardine, a Farley flatbed proofing press, a Marshall DUT hotfoil machine and several Adanas.

The Chandler & Price treadle press was ideal for the job

giving me finger-tip precision for each pass. We also have a sister company, Lyme Bay Press, who aims to support the letterpress community with the supply of photopolymer printing plates, inks and other printing items and who produced the plates for Real Neat.

We can offer several services from the design stage right through to the finished product including foiling, thermography, die cutting, laser cutting and edge painting, to name but a few.

Where is the real beauty in environmentally unfriendly, mass produced stationary that you can get anywhere? We have lost the quality within our modern culture and are producing nothing remarkable. In setting up Letterpress Design we are hoping to fill the gap that is being left by mass production and aim to provide beautiful, individual stationery products.

e c i r P & r e l d n a h C style new 1920 ic rca le press d a e r t

Hans Bullitt Fogh, Co-founder & CEO. Office: :+45 53 65 55 09 M: harry@larryvsharry.com Facebook / Instagram.

Larry vs Harry Copenhagen

Larry and Harry are the masterminds behind the Bullitt cargo bike and as Copenhageners and old friends, they have always biked as much as they could, not just because it is green, cool or cheap, but because it is the fastest, most convenient way to get around town.

Harry was a carpenter using a 60-year-old Danish Long John cargo bike to get from job to job.

Larry was an engineer for another bike brand making the best cargo trike in the world.

Harry’s vintage Long John was more manoeuvrable, so in 2007, they decided to come up with the perfect two-wheeled cargo bike.

They are on a mission to get the cargo bike (preferably the Bullitt but if you absolutely have to have one of the other ones that’s kind of okay too) accepted as a viable alternative to a car.

That’s a tough challenge because, let’s face it, cars are functional. The problem with cars, of course, is running costs, endless traffic jams and emissions. The Bullitt is the practical and environmentally friendly solution to getting around quickly, safely, and even stylishly.

Workmen use Bullitts to carry their tools; delivery and messenger companies use Bullitts instead of minivans, people commute on them,

do their shopping, pick up their kids… You name it.

And if you want some assistance, the STePS eBullitt system includes a 250W, 36-volt electric drive unit, or motor, that will help get you up to speed, but cuts out at 15.5mph (25km/h). You can go faster than that if you want but any speeds over 15.5mph have to be generated by either pedalling or gravity alone.

Larry vs Harry only makes quality kit, so if it’s got “Larry vs Harry” on it, you know it’s built to last. The Original Bullitt cargo bike is over 10 years old and has been tested on roads the world over. You can still see the very first Bullitts out there riding and still look good!

Q&A

WITH HARRY - AKA HANS BULLITT FOGH

Do you remember who taught you to ride a bike? My parents and myself.

What does cycling feel like?

It feels efficient.

When was the last time you rode a bike? This morning, 10k to work, will be back on the bike in 45mins going home.

What was your first bike?

A Winther trike.

Do you have a favourite cyclist?

Laurent Fignon.

What was your longest cycle ride?

270 kilometers (still regret doing it).

Where would you most like to be riding your bike right now? In Sweden.

Uphill, downhill or flat? Everything.

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought to do with cycling? The most overpriced were a pair of Assos bibs.

Have you always cycled?

Between 96 and 97 % of my life.

What has been the most important lesson cycling has taught you? It set me free when I was a kid and it still does.

What would your superpower be as a cyclist? XXXX You can change one thing.

What would it be? I would kick the automobile out of the city.

What makes you unhappy?

Automobile traffic.

How do you relax? I cycle and I drink a beer after cycling.

Who would you invite to your dream bike ride? My father.

Where do you stand on E bikes?

Love them, make tons of money selling them (one day I will be old enough to get one myself).

What is your most treasured possession? Mostly they are all just bikeparts, can be replaced by new ones.

What would you rescue in a fire?

Living individuals only, I am properly insured.

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COP

IES

Alan and Amy Davidson filming Tim Elsdale on his prone low-profile, for the Encycleopedia 99 video.

the curious case of

leonardo’s bicycle a graphic investigation

by Brick

I

n 1974, a remarkably accurate drawing of a modern bicycle was discovered during the restoration of a scrapbook of Leonardo’s notes. Suddenly the invention of the bicycle on the 19th century was in doubt.

Never mind the technology depicted in the sketch would have been astonishing for the time, if anybody could dream up such a revolutionary vehicle in the 15th century it could only be that great visionary, Leonardo da Vinci.

After all, didn’t he invent the tank, helicopter, and parachute… or did he?

Within a decade, cracks in the claim began to appear, and a disturbing story of academic mendacity, church corruption, political intrigue and cultural misappropriation begins to emerge. Slowly the dark heart of Italian politics,

Vatican criminality and, inevitably, the Mafia’s involvement in both are revealed.

Twenty years later, new evidence emerges of a cataclysmic environmental disaster that devasted parts of the northern hemisphere and gives credibility to the invention of the proto bicycle in the 19th century. Ten years after that, the full story of the conflicted life of Karl Drais, professional inventor and unfashionable Democrat, is brought to light, explaining why his claim on the extraordinary invention was so vulnerable to question.

The Curious Case of Leonardo’s Bicycle is the full story of the scam in all its convolutions. It is a true detective story, with all the dead ends, time shifts, contradictory evidence and multiple suspects that make for an enthralling, exquisite nerdy read.

any si m betwe ilarities e living n person o s r d are pu ead r intent ely ional

CYCLING CYCLING

CELEBRATING CYCLING

CELEBRATING CELEBRATING

ALAN DAVIDSON