London Cyclist - Summer 2021

SUMMER 2021

BEST OF THE BOROUGHS

THE FIRST MILLION-MILE CYCLIST DIVERSITY & DISABLED CYCLING BUYING A SECONDHAND BIKE SEA TO SEA CYCLE TOUR REVIEWS: BAR BAGS & PANNIER RACKS

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MAGAZINE OF

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SUMMER 2021

contents

News | Features | Travel & Rides | How To | Bikes & Reviews FEATURE > 14

HOW TO 54

GUIDES FITTING NEW

DISC BRAKE PADS

John Kitchiner is the editor of London Cyclist and confirmed bikeaholic

Disc brakes have so many advantages over rim brakes — stopping power, all weather performance, predictability and more — that it’s hardly suprising they now come specced on entry-level bikes as well as top-of-the-line racers. But even though they are low maintenance, disc brakes do eventually need new pads. Luckily, fitting them isn’t as tricky as you might imagine

1: TOOLS FOR THE JOB For this job you only need a few simple tools: needlenose pliers (or an allen key) to remove retaining pins; a piston press (also called a pad pusher) to push the pistons

back into position; a rotor straightener for any bent rotors; rotor cleaner; and, of course, replacement pads.

Plus, potentially, paper towel and degreaser for step 4.

3: PUSH THE PISTONS BACK IN As pads wear, the pistons as pushing on new pads move closer together within directly onto the pistons the caliper body, so you need later can cause damage. A to push them back — this piston press (or pad pusher) creates space for the new tool works best, rather than a pads. It’s best to do this now screwdriver or kitchen cutlery.

2: REMOVE THE WHEEL To change disc brake pads, then it’s time for new pads. you first need to remove the With the wheel off it’s wheel. You’ll then be able to also a good time to clean clearly check for pad wear — the rotor, ideally using a if there’s 1.5mm or less of dedicated rotor cleaner. Dry braking material remaining, thoroughly afterwards.

4: REMOVE THE OLD BRAKE PADS Your brake pads will either be pull the pads and spring out, secured with a retaining pin whichever’s easiest. (pictured) or a small hex bolt.

If needed, now’s also a Use needle-nose pliers to good time to clean the inside straighten the end of the pin of the caliper with some and remove it. Then push or paper towel and degreaser.

★ DISCOVER THE FULL WELDTITE RANGE AT WELDTITE.CC ★

RIDE 59

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LOOPING ROUND

Join Adam Bone from IBikeLondon for a lumpy loop to the North Downs and back

BIGGIN HILL

I

For much of the year, however, while group rides are still slowly getting up to speed again after the lockdowns, the rides will happen in a different way. Due to the pandemic, IBikeLondon has decided to simply publish routes online in order to minimise gatherings. The idea is to encourage everyone to do their bit to help slow the spread of Covid-19 by socially distancing (as well as wearing a mask and sanitising hands).

This route includes cycle paths, quiet streets, woodlands and

BIKELONDON HAS been running monthly rides for many years now, combining a love of music with a passion for cycling (IBikeLondon is organised by a community of cyclists with the support of Cyclehoop, the innovative cycle parking company known for creating the Bikehangar and Car Bike Port). Recently reaching out to more diverse communities, and those newly discovering the joys of cycling, the team has many fun, themed rides planned in 2021.

parks, and makes a great day out.

If you enjoy it, check the listing for details of other rides at facebook.com/ IBikeLondon/events.

FACTFILE DISTANCE: 44.5km (27.5 miles) ASCENT: 555m SUITABLE FOR: light hybrids, touring, road, gravel/cyclocross bikes (with a decent spread of low gears).

NEAREST STATIONS: Lower Sydenham ONLINE MAP: ridewithgps.com/ routes/35503482

LOOPING ROUND BIGGIN HILL

3 2

LOWER SYDENHAM

NCN 21 14km

COL DU SKELLY 20km

4

5

FOAL FARM DOWNE 25.5km 29km

LOWER SYDENHAM

REVIEWS 64

LONDON CYCLIST Summer 2021 59

BIKES

HOT TECH

NEW E-BIKES

Best of the Boroughs: we round up the standout new cycle schemes INTERVIEW > 28

We speak to Russ Mantle, the first million-mile cyclist, about his life on two wheels FEATURE > 35

MODEL: RIBBLE HYBRID AL e, Fully Loaded Edition ■ £2,299 ■ ribblecycles.co.uk

Test: Susi Owusu, John K

P

RESTON-BASED Ribble Cycles has been around for more than a century, and building bespoke frames for most of that time. A couple of years back it produced its first electric bikes and now lays claim to the lightest production range in the world. With our Hybrid AL e test rig tipping the scales at a mere 13kg — making it a true featherweight for any class of e-bike — we’d have to agree. So how does it pull of this rare feat?

Well it’s all down to clever design and the combination of Mahle Ebikemotion motor (housed in the rear hub) and a slimline 250Wh Panasonic battery (housed in the downtube). The overall silhouette is indistinguishable from a regular 64

bike; it looks super sleek and we’re glad to report that its performance is every bit as eye-catching. There’s three levels of assist to choose from, selected using the discrete button on the toptube (this also shows how much battery charge remains). It’s simple to operate and does away with an added handlebar controller.

And you can use the free smartphone app to tweak power settings, plus monitor your trip stats or follow a set route as you would with a GPS. We managed 40km in the lowest assist mode, on mixed off-road paths and strong headwinds, before the battery dropped down a notch — that’s impressive and means many people will get a week’s worth of commutes in before recharging. The only slight gripe with this system is

that the battery can’t be removed, so you ideally need a power source near your bike storage.

A bump-absorbing carbon fork, tubeless-ready Mavic wheelset and ultra-reliable Schwalbe Marathon tyres star in a canny spec, though the colour-matched rack and SKS mudguards are equally welcome.

How can we be net zero carbon by 2030 if a large proportion of journeys are still made by car?

ASHOK SINHA, OPINION, PAGE 9

We discuss diversity and disabled cycling, and hear about issues facing adapted cycle users FEATURE >40

On paper it sounds like our perfect bike, so how did we get on with this ultra modern machine from a true British heritage brand?

CYCLE INSTRUCTORS, 22

With bike theft on the rise, we need more secure storage. Here we look at the options...

SEA TO SEA CYCLE TOUR, 50

Remember one single car parking space takes the same space as parking for 10 bikes EILIDH MURRAY, OPINION, PAGE 11 LONDON CYCLIST Summer 2021 3

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CONTENTS | Summer 2021

Cover image: Andy Donohoe Model: Feodora Location: Chancery Lane’s giant planters

EDITORIAL

Active travel wins votes T

HE RESULTS are in and the very clear winner is... anyone who supported active travel measures across the city and in their communities. Sadiq Khan has won a second term as Mayor of London and a strong mandate to deliver on his Transport Strategy. Siân Berry and the Greens received a notable surge in vote share, vindication of their strong stance on environmental issues. It’s a massive win for LTNs and Schools Streets, a big thumbs up for all that new cycling and walking infrastructure — and resounding thumbs down to the noisy ‘anti’ brigade of climate change deniers and political opportunists.

So with only three years in this mayoral term, it’s time to come out of the gates flying, Sadiq. Continue building those new cycle tracks and creating more liveable streets. Challenge those obstructive councils pandering to small minorities. And bin that ridiculous Silvertown tunnel project once and for all.

Our ‘Best of the Boroughs’ feature in this issue shows what can be achieved in a short space of time — more of this please!

We also look at diversity and disabled cycling, interview the first million-mile cyclist, take a tour along the classic Sea to Sea route, and pass on tips for buying a secondhand bike. Plus there’s lots of reviews and ride inspiration. Here’s to a special summer of cycling!

John Kitchiner Editor

LCC MEMBERS’ LEGAL HELPLINE Osbornes Solicitors is the official legal partner of LCC, providing members with exclusive access to a legal helpline. If you’re involved in a collision or have a cycling-related legal issue, phone the Cycling Team at Osbornes for advice on 020 7681 8672.

LONDON CYCLIST Unit 201 Metropolitan Wharf, 70 Wapping Wall, London E1W 3SS n 020 7234 9310 n lcc.org.uk

EDITORIAL

Editor: John Kitchiner (london.cyclist@lcc.org.uk) Design: Anita Razak Contributors: Simon Munk, Tom Bogdanowicz, Fran Graham, Ashok Sinha, Carlton Reid, Darren Kisner, Katy Rodda, Richard Peace

ADVERTISING

Allie Gill (allie.gill@lcc.org.uk)

SOCIAL MEDIA

TWITTER: @london_cycling FACEBOOK: @LondonCyclingCampaign INSTAGRAM: @london_cycling Editorial, copyright, membership LCC is not aligned with any political party.

All views expressed in London Cyclist are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the editor, nor do they necessarily reflect LCC policy. All material is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the editor. Editorial content is independent of advertising. All LCC membership offers and discounts are presented entirely at the discretion of the provider.

London Cyclist is published by LCC. OUR AIMS: lcc.org.uk/strategy MEMBERSHIP: lcc.org.uk/membership TO DONATE: lcc.org.uk/donate LCC is a charitable limited company, reg no 1766411; charity no 1115789

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Summer 2021

SADIQ WINS AS MAYOR, WHAT NEXT? Election results show Londoners want to see progressive active travel measures. Now the Mayor has to deliver...

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LTNs and cycle tracks have dominated social media — candidates from parties delivering active travel schemes won. In West Central meanwhile, long-time anti-active travel politician Tony Devenish (Conservative) was re-elected, but his majority was slashed.

Overall, it’s clear Londoners don’t view the rapid roll-out of cycle tracks and LTNs angrily, indeed they’re likely to support candidates who in turn actively support walking and cycling measures. With this in mind we’ll be pushing the Mayor to accelerate his Transport Strategy.

This strategy — written before the declaration of a climate emergency and the government moving its targets on decarbonising roads — needs new key goals. Just following the preCovid trajectory to 2041 won’t deliver zerocarbon roads, let alone a zero-carbon London by 2030 which the Mayor recommitted to on the campaign trail, and to us during our Climate Safe Streets campaign (see lcc.org.uk). And we will hold him to these pledges.

ON YER BIKE: Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, arrives at City Hall on his e-bike

Photo: PA Images

TER A YEAR’S delay, London’s mayoral election on 6 May saw Sadiq Khan re-elected for a further three years. He now has a clear mandate from voters to do more on walking, cycling and the climate crisis — but he’ll need to be bolder and move quicker to meet his pledges for a net zero-carbon city by 2030.

Khan beat his closest rival, Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey, who has largely opposed Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and cycle tracks thus far. Khan received a lower first round vote than in 2016, and lower final share than expected, though this looks likely to have been down more to low turnout and a surge in Green votes than opposition to active travel. Indeed, the first round saw Siân Berry go from 5.8% in 2016 to 7.8% in 2021, while openly anti-LTN candidates lost their deposits.

The same results played out in by-elections and in London Assembly seats. In Ealing, Hillingdon, Lambeth, Merton, Southwark and Wandsworth — all areas where opposition to 6

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NEWS

RETURN OF LCC RIDES AND EVENTS The summer sees a return of LCC’s community events which were paused over the recent lockdowns.

Our rides and bike check projects are getting going again, alongside our Cycle Buddies scheme. LCC’s network of volunteers are here to help people cycle more and build confidence on the roads.

To find rides or events near you go to the ‘Groups & Events section of the LCC website.

Highlights include: n Southwark Cyclists’ Healthy Rides – a series of easy-paced rides on quiet back streets that are suitable for all. n Kingston Cyclists’ rides that take you out to the countryside surrounding south-west London, including pub lunch stops. n Newham Cyclists – ‘Fix your Bike’ events at the community market in Forest Gate (free bike checks and repairs by our local volunteers). n H&F Cyclists — weekly Sunday rides exploring west and central London, with the odd bit of bit of cycling infrastructure spotting thrown in.

THE STATS

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON…

The World’s First Million-Mile Cyclist, Russ Mantle (see Interview, page 28)

70 Number of years Russ has been cycling

1m + The official number of miles Russ has cycled is 1,000,966

265 Longest single ride (in miles), from Aldershot to Wales and return

22k

In 2001 Russ rode 22,250 miles, his biggest year

When he hit the magical million milestone, Russ had averaged 14,300 miles EVERY year!

ANGEL WALK, ENFIELD, FROM THE AIR

WHILE A FEW London councils have rolled back active travel schemes and others continue to attempt to weaken or oppose schemes, the overall picture for London is looking up.

News came in just before London Cyclist went to press that Harrow Council’s cabinet had voted, following public consultations tipped heavily against their schemes, to remove all LTNs and cycle tracks put in during the Covid crisis. Harrow follows boroughs such as Redbridge, which ripped out schemes before they were even complete, and Wandsworth, where LTNs were kept in for a matter of weeks before being removed. Of course, some sections of the media and those opposing active travel generally have seized on these roll-backs and faltering steps as evidence that such projects don’t have public support and aren’t working.

But, sadly for them, the opposite is true.

Over the last year, TfL and the boroughs have delivered hundreds of School Streets, and almost 100km of 24/7 bus lanes, 100km of new cycle tracks, and close to 100 LTNs. And of these a very small proportion have been taken out or appear under significant pressure to be removed (at time of writing). In other words, this isn’t one step forward, one step back, but 100 steps forward and three back.

We also know from recent voting patterns and ongoing public opinion surveys that Londoners are broadly supportive of active travel initiatives — despite the noise on social media — and doing more on the climate crisis.

While we wait for results of legal challenges to a few schemes (which may be resolved by the time you read this), as well as ongoing negotiations on funding for TfL from the government, we are pressing TfL, the Mayor and boroughs to start moving forward on more schemes as soon as possible.

LONDON CYCLIST Summer 2021 7

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OPINION

No time to waste Ashok Sinha explains why the next three years will be the most important of Sadiq’s Khan’s political career

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ELL, THERE you have it. While the psephologists will (again) have to sift through the ashes of their polling to understand why they so consistently over-estimated Sadiq Khan’s lead over his nearest challenger, the result was rarely in doubt. Sadiq has returned as Mayor, with a shortened three-year term, to make good the pledges he made to the electorate.

Sadly, those pledges did not include committing to the asks of LCC’s Climate Safe Streets campaign. So it was not to be a hat-trick of 100% mayoral election successes for LCC, following our campaigns of 2012 and 2016.

Specifically, the Mayor did not (explicitly at least) accept our case that to meet his correctly ambitious goal of a net zero carbon London by 2030, London’s roads must be decarbonised by that date. The logic, to me at least, is ineluctable.

How can London be net zero by 2030 if a large proportion of journeys in the city are still by then made by petrol and diesel cars? It doesn’t make sense, and I’m sure the Mayor and his team know it.

The details are important. In the statement Sadiq gave to LCC shortly before polling day, he put his faith in the target set in the

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Mayor’s Transport Strategy in 2018 to help get us to net zero. To remind you, that is to increase the share of journeys taken by public transport, cycle and foot from 63% to 80% by 2041. That’s right, 2041.

So, unless something truly spectacular happens with electric vehicle production rates and affordability over the next nine years we will still have huge numbers of trips powered by the internal combustion engine come 2030. (Our rough calculations reckon it could be around 20%.)

That punches a big hole in the net zero 2030 target and we will be pressing Sadiq hard to come up with a new plan that steps up to meeting the climate emergency.

Bold ambitions required To give Sadiq his due, he never took a step back on the vital importance of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and cycle lanes, despite being under intense fire from his (not wholly truthful) Tory opponent and substantial sections of the media.

“How can we be net zero by 2030 if a large proportion of journeys are still made by car”

Ashok Sinha Chief Executive of London Cycling Campaign

He has promised to continue with his trajectory of rolling out more of both, as well as improving public transport capacity. Given TfL’s crippled finances, he will need a bold, long-term package of funding, and more devolved powers to raise funds, to achieve it.

The government will hopefully see that there is no sense in playing politics by denying him this. Sadiq in turn will surely form alliances with the hugely popular re-elected mayor of Greater Manchester (and passionate advocate of sustainable travel), Andy Burnham, as well as other city-regional leaders of different political hues, to make an unassailable case for supporting metropolitan areas across the whole country. However it plays out, LCC — not least our battle-hardened local activists, many of whom have suffered all sorts of abuse and, at times, intimidation — will support mayoral cycling programmes on the ground, and push Sadiq hard at the policy level.

For now, we congratulate Sadiq on his re-election, and are watching closely to see how he organises his new team and operationalises his grand ambitions. For the sake of Londoners and the planet, these may be the most important three years of his entire political career.

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OPINION

Healthier streets Community parklets can be a key contributor to LTNs, says Eilidh Murray, and they needn’t cost the earth

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N IMPRESSIVE 100 Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) have now been rolled out across London. And it’s important to realise that they aren’t just for cyclists and walkers, although both are having a ball enjoying them, as evidenced by recent surveys. They are for all members of the local community who also, vitally, will have a say during consultations. How does an LTN benefit others and how could they be encouraged to vote to keep it?

Well imagine that your local LTN had traffic ‘filters’ which were large planters. To which someone had kindly added seating so that older people or parents with small children could have a sit down, admire the flowers and have a break from dodging traffic. Children on their way home from school might linger for a chat, finding it a novelty be able to sit outside and use their space differently.

Perhaps elsewhere in your neighbourhood there’s a spot where, by repurposing one parking place, a tiny green space could be created. Remember one single car parking place takes the same space as parking for up to 10 bikes, which means it’s a really a people parking space for all. You could create an area where people without

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gardens, who have perhaps been shielding for over a year, could sit in a welcoming environment and meet their neighbours. Wouldn’t getting people enthused about these spaces help when they were asked about keeping, changing or removing their local LTN?

Better use of space Such magical installations are called community parklets. And a new group called the London Parklet Campaign has been set up to support residents and councils to agree a sensible process for allowing people to create their own. Community parklets can be created by neighbours with varying skills for less than £100, and the maintenance is done by residents too; parklets host book clubs, talks, coffee chats, yoga, singing. On the other hand, commercial parklets can cost up to £30,000; sometimes they are placed outside cafes or restaurants who agree to look after them as they encourage business.

Much more fun are the unique

“Remember one single car parking space takes the same space as parking for 10 bikes”

Eilidh Murray is an LCC Trustee and active member of Cycle Islington

community parklets designed as herb gardens, or play parklets, or simply a lovely place to sit. They can have bike stands on them, have chessboards incorporated into their design and have mini seats for small people. Being near plants, even for a short while, can have measureable effects on cortisol levels, making people feel happier.

The London Parklet Campaign is planning some fun activities this summer including a People Parking Day which will be over the August bank holiday weekend. On this day you could try a pop-up parklet outside your home for a couple of hours. Read London Cyclist, have a coffee with a friend, do a spot of bike maintenance. Or maybe arrange to meet fellow cyclists and at a filter planter and have a catchup before or after your ride?

Of course you don’t have to wait until People Parking Day or for community parklet processes to be agreed. Start thinking about how you could reimagine using our public realm for everyone.

Parklets are a great way to use our communal space differently, and along with LTNs and School Streets can address the challenges of climate change, pandemics, and our physical and mental health. n Twitter (@LondonParklet); or Facebook (London-Parklet-Campaign)

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OPINION

Inspiring change As Carlton Reid explains, UK cities are taking a leaf out of London’s book and pushing for better cycling facilities

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REATER MANCHESTER’S re-elected Metro Mayor, Andy Burnham, is right: it’s crazy that bus travel in his city is often twice the price of bus travel in London. It’s not the only north versus south transport equity issue. London’s cyclists might not realise it but, curate’s egg aside, conditions for those on bikes in the capital can often be wonderful.

Compared, that is, to conditions in many other UK towns and cities.

Organisations such as LCC rightly cajole for more and safer cycling infrastructure but, for those who live outside of London, it can be eyebrow-raising to hear about terrible cycle infrastructure from pedal-powered Londoners who don’t seem to realise just how relatively golden they’ve got it.

When, in the 1980s, planners and politicians in many UK cities aggressively designed cycling out of the urban fabric, the Greater London Council had a young and thrusting cycling infrastructure team that installed key cycleways and cycleonly cut-throughs that, 40 years later, remain everyday lynchpins in the city’s cycling network. You may very well consider this network to be sub-optimal but, from an outsider’s perspective, it’s really not.

Now, before I go full ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch — “Oh, we

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used to dream of livin’ in a corridor!

Would’ve been a palace to us” — I’m not saying you’ve never had it so good except, well, that is exactly what I’m saying.

You may scoff — “pah, London’s not Amsterdam” — but compared to, say, Leeds the capital is a relative paradise for cyclists.

If London can do it...

Sure, there are also some hellish bits in London, and most especially out in the suburbs, and much more needs to be done, but quite apart from the growing number of protected Cycleways feeding into the centre, having facilities such as a functioning and popular cycle hire scheme and a bunch of world-class bike shops is not to be sniffed at. And be proud, too, of LCC. Many cyclists elsewhere in the UK would kill for a campaigning organisation with such membership, muscle and might.

Spare a thought for those who pedal in British cities that used to have almost zero infrastructure to enable safe cycling.

“You may scoff... but compared to, say, Leeds the capital is a relative paradise for cyclists”

Carlton Reid is a book author and leading transport journalist

Used to have? Thanks to London’s lead — check out the many study trips to Waltham Forest from local authority transport wonks, for example — there are a pleasing number of high-quality cycleways springing up in cities previously beholden to cars. Heck, even car-centric Coventry is “doing a London” with a new cycleway that’s light years ahead of previous infra there.

Officials from many cities have looked at the Embankment cycleway in front of Parliament and thought, well, if London can do it, we can do it as well.

And with Chris Boardman working his magic in Manchester — after Burnham was re-elected the sagacious one kept his position as the city’s walking and cycling commissioner — it’s evident that London now has competition on its hands; it’s no longer the only UK city planning to spend big time on bikes.

Hopefully, ambitious cities can inspire each other to go further (they should start by restricting car use and remove car parking spaces) and this could lead to London installing even more health-promoting, city-saving, congestion-busting infrastructure.

Never stop pushing for more, but also celebrate what you’ve got — it’s a civic imperative.

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BEST OF THE

BOROUGHS Photos: Lee Bolton, John Silvertown

What did boroughs do during the Covid crisis to avoid a car-led recovery?

Turns out quite a lot. Simon Munk picks out the best schemes…

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AST YEAR TfL and the boroughs delivered cycling schemes at a rate never seen before, due to the CV19 crisis.

Most of them were built using temporary materials under temporary traffic orders. Yet despite the many untreated junctions and wobbly wands, the result is the start of a real cycling network in London.

BARNET To suggest jaws might have hit the floor when LCC learnt that Barnet

and junction gaps — but the new scheme is a marked improvement on what was a previously hostile route in and out of the city.

CAMDEN

BARNET

council was working with TfL on cycle tracks along the A1000 would be an understatement. The scheme is far from perfect — with parking

Camden had already planned and started building a one-way track westbound on Prince of Wales Road; great if you wanted to go somewhere but never come back. But when the crisis hit, as if by magic, space was found for an eastbound ‘pop-up’ track too. But Prince of Wales Road was only one

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CAMPAIGN

CITY

CITY OF LONDON What didn’t the City do? For those few who are in the area currently, loads of City streets now feature wands. Of course, the big noise was the legal challenge over TfL’s Bishopsgate bus gate scheme. But now the City is also moving forward with further improvements to its successful Bank junction scheme.

CROYDON

CAMDEN

EALING Ealing made up for lost time in 2020, installing wands on widened cycle lanes along the Uxbridge Road, and connecting Cycleway 9

on Chiswick High Road with Cycleway 34 on the A40. But the jewel in Ealing’s Streetspace crown is LTN 21, which built on a historic set of modal filters to surround and protect Fielding Primary School.

To learn more about Ealing’s decades-old modal filters and see how LTN 21 fits into the wider borough network, visit ealingcycling.org.uk.

ENFIELD One of the original mini-Holland boroughs, Enfield has been delivering major schemes through the crisis including the bold Bowes LTN near the north circular, plus Fox Lane LTN too. However, the local goup particularly wanted to

Photo: Tom Bogdanowicz

of a long list of schemes Camden want you all to ride, including Gower Street tracks, pop-up tracks on York Way and Hampstead Road, LTNs too and masses of new permeability measures on top.

Go Camden!

Croydon introduced nearly 20 modal filters during the pandemic, a step change in pace for the borough. The highest profile, most successful and most controversial Streetspace scheme was on Auckland Road (see main image, above).

Physical barriers (planters) were replaced by ANPR cameras as a reaction to the High Court decision on Bishopsgate in early 2021.

EALING

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CAMPAIGN

cycle tracks now run through the hated, lethal Angerstein roundabout. A massive win!

HACKNEY ENFIELD

highlight Angel Walk, which has turned a disused rail track and wasteland into an amazing link connecting new development area Meridian Water and Edmonton, across Montagu Road.

Hackney, as you’d probably expect, have been delivering schemes at pace throughout the last year: several LTNs and main road schemes as well. But most transformative has probably been putting wand-protected tracks along its stretch of Green Lanes.

Next up, can Haringey do likewise please to link to Enfield?

HARROW Harrow Council demonstrated initial enthusiasm with proposals for a large number of Streetspace LTNs and cycle lanes, but most schemes were cancelled, terminated early or far too weak.

The Sheepcote Road scheme could have been extended to link Northwick Park Hospital with Harrow and Wealdstone town centres, but now instead the council appears set to rip everything out.

GREENWICH

HOUNSLOW

Greenwich is another borough that’s been very bold, particularly considering past performance on schemes. Greenwich town centre got a rather bizarre temporary scheme, and there have been several LTNs. But most welcome has been the extension of Cycleway 4 which is working its way towards Greenwich town centre from both ends. From the east, though, the

Hounslow has steadily, quietly been delivering bold and quality schemes throughout the crisis, including shopping streets and LTNs. But the long-in-gestation Cycleway 9 along Chiswick High Road was an almost unexpected arrival during the crisis — a bi-directional track using temporary materials (alongside permanent sections on the South Circular). Almost immediately it’s become a magnet for families out for a ride during lockdown.

HACKNEY

ISLINGTON

Photo: Andrew Seeds

Islington has for many years been a place which should have implemented good cycling

GREENWICH

HARROW

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HOUNSLOW

schemes, said it wanted to do good cycling schemes, but never did. Well that all changed in 2020. Despite noisy protests, Islington Council delivered again and again. Six People Friendly Street Neighbourhoods delivered with two more in the pipeline, and main road wand-protected tracks.

It’s been an amazing turnaround — now for the rest of the borough.

KENSINGTON & CHELSEA Yay! They delivered a cycle track on Kensington High Street. Boo! They then ripped it out after a few weeks and are now facing the threat of legal action over their rogue borough decision-making.

Photos: Alzbeta Semsch, Kingston Cycling

KINGSTON

KINGSTON

completion of the 4.5km Kingston to Kingston Vale scheme (Cycleway 30) and a 450-space bike storage hub at Kingston station, including bike maintenance stands and space for non-standard cycles. Over the past year it has also introduced three new trial School Streets and three LTNs. The LTN created with a modal filter on King Charles Road at the Surbiton/Tolworth border seems very popular with people visiting the nearby playground and those queueing for their fix of coffee from the local cafe.

LAMBETH

One of the other mini-Holland boroughs, Kingston upon Thames, has continued to deliver its miniHolland schemes including the

Lambeth was already making bold moves prior to the start of the crisis, but this only accelerated during it, with real leadership from both councillors and officers.

ISLINGTON

LAMBETH

Lambeth’s boldness, clarity of communications and pace risks taking the active travel crown from the borough at the other end of the Victoria line, Waltham Forest.

The borough has delivered so many LTNs and main road schemes during the crisis it’s hard to pick one to heap praise on, so we won’t.

Special plaudits to delivering the Oval and Railton LTNs so early on in the crisis, weathering the storm of opposition to them and going on to deliver cycle tracks on Kennington Road, Baylis Road and more of both on top.

NEWHAM Newham have not been the speediest with Streetspace, so its second LTN has only been in place for a few weeks and not truly active (at time of writing) as the cameras aren’t issuing PCNs yet; all the filters on this scheme are enforced

by ANPR. However the joint LTN with Waltham Forest has been in since the summer and has bedded in pretty well. They are still seeing a few bollard thefts/removals in a couple of locations but the grumbling seems to have got quieter and head counts are showing a gradual increase in

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and bring visitors back safely to the street. The scheme was such a success that the council has now consulted on having a permanent timed pedestrianisation of Brick Lane to allow the businesses to do the same again.

NEWHAM

TOWER HAMLETS

cycling with more women and kids on bikes and more cargobikes in evidence. The local LCC group has even managed to get some of the local community groups to adopt planters as well.

Guy’s & St Thomas’ charitable arm.

But the arrival of Cycleway 4 along Jamaica Road and around the hated Rotherhithe roundabout was undoubtedly a highlight of progress in the borough last year.

RICHMOND

TOWER HAMLETS

The borough has really made big efforts since last March, with the Kew Road cycle lane removing 150 car parking spaces, 15 new School Streets and a range of other temporary and planned measures.

There’s still so much to do, but compared to a couple of years ago there’s a palpable sense of change in the west London borough.

Old Bethnal Green Road used to be an unwelcoming car-dominated residential street with multiple schools on it. Through the borough’s Liveable Streets initiative the local LCC group successfully campaigned to create the first LTN in Tower Hamlets with a pocket parklet being created for residents to enjoy. As part of the Streetspace initiative, over autumn the iconic Brick Lane was pedestrianised 24/7, allowing the famous curry houses to create outdoor dining

SOUTHWARK Southwark has delivered numerous low-traffic schemes throughout the crisis, including in Dulwich Village, Walworth and East Dulwich, including working with

The outer London lion, as ever, didn’t disappoint. Despite having finished its mini-Holland programme ostensibly, on restricted budgets and often using temporary materials, the borough still completed work on the massive Blackhorse junction, added tracks from Whipps Cross at the end of its Lea Bridge Road scheme all the way to Redbridge, put wands on Forest Road and added numerous LTNs in Walthamstow and Leyton, as well as a joint one with neighbouring Newham council.

WANDSWORTH From Balham to Colliers Wood, TfL rolled out wand-protected cycle tracks and ‘bus stop bypasses’ on one of its enduring and most

Photos: Crispin Hughes, Matt Hewitt

RICHMOND

WALTHAM FOREST

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NOT MENTIONED

WALTHAM FOREST

infamously hostile and dangerous ‘blue paint’ Cycle Superhighways, CS7 — then went and did similar for stretches of CS8. Sadly, Wandsworth council, having ripped out its own LTNs now wants to do the same for TfL’s local schemes too.

WESTMINSTER While Soho got an amazing al fresco dining scheme between the lockdowns, Westminster bottled it on cycle tracks and on LTNs — delivering painted lanes in the door zone and bailing on a low-traffic scheme near Paddington at the first sign of trouble. Sigh.

WESTMINSTER

Photo: Tom Bogdanowicz

WANDSWORTH

Barking & Dagenham, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Havering, Hillingdon, Lewisham, Merton, Redbridge, Sutton.

A few borough groups failed to get back to us in time for this feature. But most of these boroughs have failed to deliver anything substantive during the crisis. KENSINGTON & CHELSEA And that’s a major concern.

Over his next mayoral term Sadiq Khan needs to be decisive in slashing emissions across London. But any such ambitions could be undone by a coalition of the unwilling: outer London suburban boroughs that don’t think there’s anything wrong with driving everywhere; central London boroughs where the few that do drive are not only vocal, but well-resourced; and places where councillors don’t care, or even believe that more cars are some sort of social justice tool.

Of the list, Hammersmith & Fulham started strong – with a rapidresponse temporary cycle track on King Street – but then did nothing else; Redbridge half-finished several LTNs before ripping them out when opposition reared its head; and Haringey has been excoriated for not only delivering cycle tracks with parking allowed (using ‘mini orca’ protection), but also calling extra zigzag markings ‘School Streets’!

All of the above, alongside Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Wandsworth and Harrow, leave a gaping hole in active travel provision in London and, for most of them, in their own climate emergency declarations. We’ll need to see a lot more action, at a faster pace, this next year. Or more formal powers for the Mayor to overrule inaction.

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WHY CYCLING INSTRUCTORS ARE PUSHING BACK With their skills more in demand than ever, Michael McSherry explains why instructors are seeking a fair deal

I

T’S 7.30AM ON a Saturday morning in the last unit at the end of a trading estate on the very edge of London, between the river, the sewage works and the retail park. In a faded meeting room on the first floor of a council vehicle depot we’re halfway through the introductions.

“My name is Peter, I drive a 40-tonne, five-axle articulated lorry and when I think

of cyclists I think of bugs squashed against the windscreen.” My colleague thanks Peter (name changed) and the introductions continue around the 24 HGV drivers here to complete their Safe Urban Driving (SUD) training. I’d been a cycling instructor for a couple of years, but this was my first SUD course.

With experience, I understand that these drivers have to complete this training or they can’t continue working, and they know that at some point today we’re going to make them ride a bike on local roads. Many HGV drivers are also cyclists or members of cycling clubs, but for others they won’t have ridden a bike for maybe 30 or 40 years. They are professional drivers who are acutely aware of the possibility of a bicycle accident with a vehicle. Some have colleagues

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who have been involved in fatal collisions; they know that when that does happen, the driver is a victim too — possibly being arrested and held overnight, possibly losing their livelihood or worse. Under the blue collar machismo, some of these people are simply afraid.

Next comes one of my favourite moments in cycle training. The first group is presented with bikes and given the chance to ‘warm up’.

The bikes become time machines, transporting each and every one of the attendees back to their own childhood streets as they (against advice) unsuccessfully try to pull wheelies and skids.

All of the micro-aggression of the training room evaporates; there are smiles now. Shortly, as we practise some basic handling skills on the parking area outside, including emergency stops, I will have to catch a driver as he hurtles towards me over his handlebars and manoeuvre him safely back to earth. If there were issues before, I will have no problem with the group following instructions from here, especially after I’ve helped the 6ft4in trainee land injuryfree from his impromptu tumble.

Mostly, the lorry drivers are being paid to be here by their employers, in order to comply with the Mayors’ Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS). In that sense, the Mayor of London values the work of cycling instructors.

Almost everything we do is funded by TfL through grants to local authorities. Whether that is in schools or adult courses, road courses, complete beginner courses, Dr Bike workshop sessions or anything else. Cycling instructors are an important piece in the jigsaw of cycling infrastructure and interventions that seek to change behaviour.

But when it comes to our own compulsory training and certificates we have to pay for all these things ourselves and in our own time. The work is valued, but the workers are not.

Things came to a head in 2019 when a review of the Bikeability Trust left every instructor having to requalify from scratch at their own expense or be unable to continue working. After 12 years of declining pay — the equivalent to a 30% pay cut according to the Bank of England — this was felt to be so unfair that the workforce decided to organise to win change.

As there was no existing union we voted to form a branch of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), the leading union for precarious workers. Since 2012, the IWGB has been organising against outsourcing and low pay in the gig economy and beyond.

In November 2019 we officially constituted and we immediately started to lobby the Mayor of London for better terms and conditions. To which we got the reply: “You don’t work for us”.

We would get used to hearing this phrase.

Photos: James Perrin

Part of the jigsaw

Learning the ropes: in the hands of a qualified instructor

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Year of change Then came Covid. The pandemic has badly affected so many people in so many ways that I make no special case for cycling instructors.

We have effectively been locked out of work for pretty much the entire 12 months, and many of us have fallen between the cracks of the government’s support for the self-employed.

Some have had to shield, care for parents or children, some have used food banks, and a few, like me, have been lucky to have partners with salaries and ridden it out with less anxiety.

Crucially though, whatever financial resilience that used to exist in the workforce has now been spent and is exhausted. As we come out of lockdown, there is a large latent demand for cycle training to be met. Partly this is families wanting to take part in the cycling boom but who never learned to ride, partly it’s because more people will be returning to work and want to avoid public transport, and partly because the introduction of ULEZ is forcing people to sell their cars and look for alternatives.

However, many instructors have already left the industry because it is not viable, and we will continue to lose experienced and passionate

Never too young or old to learn how to cycle: with expert help from the pros

instructors unless there are substantive changes to pay and conditions.

Despite there being no work and no prospect of any work, cycling instructors have been joining the union throughout the pandemic.

On 15 March we launched our first campaign as a branch, targeting two local authorities with four demands: increased pay after 12 years of static and declining pay; paid time for doing the essential elements of the job which are currently unpaid (risk assessments, planning and reporting); a fair cancellation policy which protects our pay; and union recognition.

Fair pay and conditions In line with inflation pay rises over 12 years would be the equivalent of an extra £7 per hour or £172 per school week. But in fact in many cases — including the delivery of SUD courses — the pay has actually gone down. In addition, there are tasks and duties which are not covered by the paid time. These include the essential road surveys and risk assessments that keep children and learners safe during the courses, as well as the online reporting and communications with schools. Instructors estimate they spend an hour every day doing unpaid work as part of their assignments. If it’s part of the job, it should be part of the pay.

We are focusing our energies on Enfield and Haringey local authorities. Enfield and Haringey have the Pan-London Framework Agreement for cycle training, an outsourcing contract that enables six other local authorities to use the

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same contract. In theory, any gains we make here should have an impact across the capital.

Both Enfield and Haringey are local authorities with a strong leadership that share the values of fairness that we do. Cycling instructors in both boroughs are leading on this campaign, and union membership is well over 50% of the workforce here.

Islington council already operates the cancellation policy that we want. In this policy, instructors are paid 100% if the cancellation is within two weeks, and 50% within four weeks.

With this policy in place, Islington has had only one cancellation in seven years. By contrast, even as I write this article a union member has emailed to say that next week’s course has been cancelled without pay because of a “timetabling issue”. Or, to translate, because the school forgot to organise it and the company didn’t check. The reality for the instructor is a £500 hole in the month’s finances despite the course having been booked since last autumn.

We want union recognition because so many of the problems and issues arise simply because the workers perspective is missing from the discussions and simple, organised dialogue can address that.

Boroughs slow to engage The response so far to our campaign from Enfield and Haringey can be summarised as “you don’t work for us”. Haringey has conceded the reasonableness of our demands and has agreed to a dialogue, but insist that nothing can happen until the current contract ends. Enfield has engaged with us less, so far. But we are confident that the public, officers, councillors, and parents ultimately will share our analysis: that the duty of care for cycling instructors working in a borough, under the instruction of its cycling officers, at its schools, teaching its pupils, on its roads, under conditions specific to that borough, ultimately lies with the borough, regardless of what outsourced contract they have put in place.

Outsourcing and the tendering process are at the heart of the problem. The value of contracts

Unseen work goes into every session: here taking dozens of bikes to a schools’ course by cargobike

can only go down in a competitive tendering process unless the tendering authority chooses to put in protections for the workers. The Mayor could make these protections conditional to awarding grants to the boroughs, though that’s not currently the case. The local authorities could also make these protections conditional in the tendering process, but they don’t. The provider company could make them part of the employment offer, but instead they say we work for ourselves. But that myth is falling apart in the courts and in workplaces worldwide.

All across the so-called ‘gig economy’, workers are fighting back and forcing companies to acknowledge their duties to the workforce. Cycling instructors are determined to push back against being undervalued and the unnecessary precariousness of the industry.

But we need the help of LCC members in getting the message out. So please like and share our social media, and invite us to your local meetings. You can email us at cyclinginstructors@iwgb.co.uk, or find us on Facebook (IWGBCIB) or Twitter (@IWGB_CIB). n Michael McSherry is an NSI instructor, specialising in cycling for NHS social prescribing and rehabilitation.

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For the final part of our series on London’s independent bike stores, we ride over to meet the team at Balfe’s Bikes

A

S THE COUNTRY slowly emerges from an unprecedented year of turmoil and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, it’s heartening to see so many bike-related businesses not only surviving but thriving.

Local bike shops — especially their workshops — have never been busier, fixing and servicing bikes in their tens of thousands. Supporting the ongoing cycle boom, one small chain of independent stores has even doubled in size since early 2020, with a handful of new premises.

South London-based cyclists are probably familiar with Richard Balfe’s original shop, opened in 2008 on East Dulwich Road. Over the next decade Streatham, Reigate, Fulham and Sutton branches were added to the mix, before Waterloo, Islington, Kingston, Notting Hill and Gatwick joined the family in recent months (the latter only opened in April). That’s a whole lot of expertise and knowledge the cycling fraternity can call upon.

What’s more, Balfe’s Bikes — like 400 other independent bike stores in the UK — is also part of the extensive Freewheel network and each shop in the network earns commission from its associated sales on the Freewheel website. As a customer you can even use ‘Click and Collect’ to pick up your new accessories, components or clothing directly at the store itself.

In addition, if you sign up to receive Freewheel emails (T&Cs do apply) you’ll get a 15% discount off your first online order. Which is perfect for buying those new shorts you promised yourself ahead of a busy summer of riding. So don’t delay, sign up today!

With the sun coming out, both literally and figuratively, we asked the team at Balfe’s in Dulwich to give us their tips for a fun few months in the saddle...

Tom

36 East Du

lwich Rd

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stor

bike

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Brutus

Wesley

val

ppro a f o l Sea

TEAM BALFE’S SUMMER TIPS Tom - Resist the temptation of a mid-ride ice cream. An ice lolly is much more refreshing!

Brutus - On warm days hydrate, hydrate again, then hydrate some more.

Phil - A packable rain jacket is useful to have stashed in a jersey pocket or in your rucksack all year round, including summer.

Phil

Wesley - Always check over your bike quickly before you set off for a ride – and then clean it as soon as you get home.

store near you — there’s nearly 400 to choose from, so you can’t go wrong! FREEWHEEL.CO.UK 026027_Freewheel.FINAL.indd 27

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RUSS MANTLE The world’s first million-mile cyclist speaks to Darren Kisner about life in lockdown, becoming a celebrity and his 70 years in the saddle It’s been a challenging time since you reached a million miles. Are you still managing to get out and ride?

It averages about every other day and depends on the weather. I like to choose the best days. Last year I did my lowest ever mileage of 5,850 and this year it’s probably going to be even lower. A lot of times last year I stayed in rather than go out. Not because of Covid, but because the cafes and shops were closed, and I do like to have a cafe to aim for. It’s been a nuisance this coronavirus business!

It really has. So let’s look back instead.

Where did your million miles start?

I’d say I started riding in 1951. When I was still at school, we did a few big trips; I had an old Hercules upright that my dad bought me. Then in 1952 I bought myself a Coventry Eagle and I started racing in ’53.

In March 1957, after I’d finished my five-year carpentry and joinery apprenticeship, I did National Service, and most of that was in Germany. I started racing with the BAOR [British Army of the Rhine] cycling team and we came back twice to ride the Blandford five-day race.

And after National Service?

That’s quite a career. Do you have any standing records?

In the Farnham Road Club, of which I’m still a member, I beat 13 records. But most of them were my own. I was just going faster and faster and beating my own times. I’ve got a place-to-place record, from Farnham to Alton and back — 19 miles in 44 minutes. I did that in 1954 when I was only 17, and it still stands!

Was all your mileage racing and training in those days?

Well I was always a tourist and a mountaineer. It was nothing for me to stop racing halfway through the season, go on a three-week tour, then come back and carry on racing. I would park my bike in the Highlands of Scotland or Wales or Ireland and walk up a 3,000ft mountain. I’d keep my bike at a youth hostel and then be up in the mountains knocking off Munro after Munro. I could do six in a day. I used to carry my mountain boots in a pannier.

I also cycled for work. When I was demobbed in 1959, I went back to the same firm where I started as a carpenter and joiner and worked there for nine years.

I used to work in London. We’d do four-and-a-half hours on a Saturday, then I’d cycle to a football match.

I’ve cycled to all the league clubs in London, many times: from Leyton Orient to Millwall, Spurs, Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea. I’d also ride to Southampton, Portsmouth, Oxford, all around, to watch a game.

Photos: Andy Donohoe

I raced mostly time trials. I was better at the TT than road racing. In road races I could breakaway and win, but I never had a sprint in my legs for bunch finishes. I did win ten road races, but eight of those were from breakaways, then I just time trialled to the finish.

I held most of the time trial records in the Farnham Road Club. I did a 10 (mile) in 22:09 in 1964. That was quite a fast ride in those days, and it’s a hilly course on the old Farnham–Alton road. I also did a 57:10 when I came second in the Newark Castle 25, that was in 1959 or ’60. I won a 50 down in the New Forest with a 1:59:36 in 1960. And my best 100 was 4:18:00 in Essex.

But I couldn’t race really long distances, I could only just last a 100.

I was racing for 23 years, until 1975 when I packed it in because it wasn’t there in my legs any more. I could still win races, but I wasn’t enjoying it.

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A life in cycling: Russ has bike-related memorabilia aplenty and hundreds of photos to look over

from 1952 to 1954, only after that. I actually reached a million miles about a year earlier than I officially did!

So your real total is well over a million?

It’s about 100,000 miles over the million, or getting close to that.

Did you ever have time off the bike?

I’ve ridden every year. And despite several serious accidents when I’ve been off the bike 8 to 10 weeks, I’ve always come back with renewed enthusiasm.

In 1968 I became a government employee as a Building Clerk of Works. About 90% of the time I used to cycle to work and to supervise jobs. We were actually paid 5p a mile to use the bike then. I was made redundant in 1994; I did try to find another job, but I couldn’t. So, from 57 years of age, I didn’t work at all.

Did you start ramping up the mileage after you were made redundant?

Yes, my mileage increased from ’94 as I had more time on my hands. And by about 2000 I was doing around 20,000 miles, year in year out. I did 12 or 14 years in succession of over 20,000 miles, with a record of 22,500 in 2001.

What was your longest day’s ride?

From Aldershot to Wales and back, 265 miles in one go. I’ve also ridden to Weston-super-Mare and back, which was 250 miles, and up to Yorkshire and back, again in just one day.

You had to have evidence of your mileage for the official record. When did you start keeping track?

That’s right. I’d always kept a record, since 1952. It seemed the natural thing to do. Except I lost my early diaries. Of course, the 300,000 Mile Cycling Club — which I joined in 1977 and I’ve recorded the one million miles with — insist you have your distance recorded in diaries. So unfortunately I couldn’t claim my mileage

Tell us about your touring experience.

Where have you been? What sort of roads do you enjoy?

I’ve done all the highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales. And when I go abroad, I always go up the highest road available. Whether that was in France, Spain, Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria, Canada and America.

France is a favourite for touring.

The Pyrenees and the Alps. So, the Col du Galibier I’ve been up many times.

All the ones in the Pyrenees, I’ve criss-crossed there, on the French and Spanish sides. I just love going up into the high places.

My highest ride is also my highest as a mountaineer: Mount Evans in America, in 2001. There’s a road that goes specially to the top — you have to pay.

That finishes at 14,127ft (4,306m). Then the peak is only 14,280ft (4,353m), which is just a doddle.

I was doing around 20,000 miles, year in year out, with a record of 22,500 in 2001

And your longest continual climb?

My longest uphill ride was in the south of Spain, the Pico de Veleta. The top

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of the pass, where the gravel starts, is 11,150ft (3,398m). It’s the highest road in Spain and goes continuously upwards from Granada for 32 miles.

When I got to the top of the pass, people were clapping me as if I’d just won a Grand Tour, like I’d broken away and was winning alone! When you reach the top and go over the other side, that’s when the rough stuff starts.

I continued down into a little village called Capileira, about a 50-mile ride in total. That was in the late 1990s.

Did you find a different attitude to cyclists in Europe compared to the UK? Yes, particularly in Spain and Italy. I’d often have invites, if I just stopped and asked someone the way — they’d ask me home for dinner with the family.

Now, the question every bike geek has to be asked: what do you ride?

I’ve got five bikes. Two by Rotrax from Southampton and three Holdsworths.

I’ve been riding Holdsworths all my cycling life. I even bought a frame and cycled home from Putney to Aldershot with it around my neck. And I never bought a whole bike, never. I always bought the frame or had the frame built and built my wheels. Then all the bits and pieces that go on a bike I buy separately and put together. I’ve always

Keeping full records of every mile cycled: an average of 14,300 miles per year since 1954!

done all my own mechanics and built my own wheels.

Done that since I started racing.

Are you tempted by modern cycling technology?

No! I don’t need it. I’ve got so much equipment at home it will last me 10 years without buying anything else. I’ve got bikes, bits of bike, I’ve got a spare bedroom full of cycling equipment. And a shed. And a garage. Cycling equipment and bikes everywhere.

Anything I need I don’t go the shops; I just go to my box of tricks.

I still ride a Holdsworth frame I bought from WF Holdsworth in Putney in 1964. I use it mainly as my shopping bike now. The bottom bracket threads went many years ago, back in the ’80s, so what I do is put a large amount of Araldite epoxy resin glue around the outside of the oversized holding cup to make sure it lasts a long while. Usually every 10 years or so the cranks start getting a bit wobbly, so I break it open with a hammer and do the job all over again. I don’t like throwing things away — if something breaks, I mend it.

What are your essentials for a long day in the saddle?

The basics are a spare tube, puncture outfit and all the necessary tools. Spare front and rear cable for the brakes and the same for the gears. A cape and a sou’wester, leggings and, of course, a lock.

I’d have food stuffed in my pocket, say a banana, a sandwich and a bit of cake. And you do need to get off the saddle occasionally, so I’d head to a cafe about every three hours riding for a quick stop or a quick picnic. I used to be able to get away eating and drinking very little, but we’re all different.

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six national newspapers, five cycling magazines, and some from around the world: America, Australia, Poland even.

It sounds like you enjoy the celebrity aspect of it.

I do. I made news while I was racing, but now I make news merely by mileaging!

Merely? A million miles is quite an achievement!

And what do you think about as you tap out the miles?

I’m always thinking. Probably working out my average speed or something like that. Or which road to take next. Or which road haven’t I ever been on which I’d like to go along now. Or I’d be thinking of the next cafe.

All those kinds of things are going on in my mind the whole time, and the miles just fly by easily.

Back to your record. How did you celebrate your millionth mile?

I completed my millionth mile at the Canal Café in Mytchett. It was all arranged by Cycling UK. About 12 riders from various clubs nearby — West Surrey CC and Farnham Road Club, and some of the 300,000 Milers — came to my house and we rode to the cafe together.

There was a huge crowd there and as I crossed the footbridge to the cafe I broke the tape and there was a massive cake waiting for me. Then we celebrated back at home again with champagne and more cake.

I was invited to quite a few dinners and I’ve been on television. Cycling UK invited me to their annual awards dinner in London too. There was about 300 people there and I was on the top table, sitting next to Sean Kelly, chatting with him as well as lots of other famous people. That was good.

Now you’re the famous ‘million-mile cyclist’ has fame affected you?

Well since I did the million miles, people recognise me at cafe stops when I’m out for a ride. Even walking my bike through Aldershot or Farnborough, people come up and congratulate me, complete strangers. I was in

Bikes and more bikes: a happy Russ shows off his collection

It was just another milestone to me. I mean, when I reached 500,000 miles that seemed quite an achievement at the time, but it was just another milestone on the way to the million, which I knew I’d do. The miles just naturally accumulated, even when I was a motorist: I had an Austin Mini for 37 years, but I sold it with just 18,000 miles on the clock. I was doing more than that in one year on the bike.

You’ve achieved an incredible amount on your bike in the last 70 years. Do you have any other cycling ambitions?

I haven’t any more cycling ambitions.

Unfortunately my touring isn’t possible anymore, it’s a job just doing short rides. My longest ride in 2020 was only 24 miles, and it’s getting even less than that now. The slightest slope of the road has me off and walking. Well, usually I’ve done my shopping by then and my saddlebags are rather heavy. At least that’s my excuse!

But I have lots of memories to dwell on. I’m a keen photographer and I’ve umpteen photographs from each country I’ve been to. It can take me 20 minutes to take one photograph. I wait for the clouds to be in the right places and I like a figure or figures to be in the picture before I press the shutter. I’ve won photographic competitions and I have several of my photos, large photos, up on my walls, blown up from slides.

Pictures of favourite landscapes.

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Diversity & disabled cycling

Katy Rodda meets disabled London cyclists and hears about their adapted cycles, and the pros and cons of cycling in the city

C

YCLING DOESN’T just mean two wheels, a saddle and handlebars around waist height, and pedals somewhere between the wheels.

From recumbent trikes, handcycles side-by-side companion cycles, tandems and penny-farthings, cycling has always meant more. The first cycle to reach the South Pole in 2014 was a recumbent trike.

This diversity has been largely ignored outside a small group of

dedicated organisations, and as with any area where diversity is ignored, this has led to invisibility.

Such invisibility means (among other things) that decision-makers and planners fail to provide suitable facilities for some of the people who most urgently need high quality cycle infrastructure.

Disabled people are less likely than non-disabled to be physically active because they’re excluded from so many environments.

Moreover, the limited description ‘non-standard’ can never do justice to summing up this aforementioned diversity: the differences between these cycles are far greater than the differences between Tao Geoghegan Hart’s racing machine and your everyday hybrid. The ‘standard’ spectrum is narrow and the range beyond it is immensely varied.

What does this mean for disabled cyclists? How has it affected the accessibility offered to LONDON CYCLIST Summer 2021 35

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users of the many alternative format cycles? What can the experiences of disabled cyclists show about what planners know about the wider requirements of people on human-powered wheeled vehicles?

We spoke to four cyclists who can tell us about their personal alternative experiences.

FATIMA CHIZARI Fatima is a childhood stroke survivor. She loved cycling as a youngster, but after her stroke at seven years old she was unable to control a two-wheeler. The tricycle she was given at 14 was much safer for her and she rides an upright trike by Di Blasi to this day.

Fatima rides regularly, usually every other day. As a stroke survivor, she suffers from fatigue and slow post-exertion recovery, but she feels she has really pushed herself, just by using her trike to travel around her area of London. It gives her real independence and has allowed her to take responsibility for training herself. Her medical consultants have noticed a huge improvement in body strength,

and improvements in her right eye: “They can’t believe it!” she says.

Fatima’s part of London is noted in the cycling world for its expert campaigning and its generally poor cycling provision. Her local routes have become worse, not better, over recent years: to prevent motorcycles entering parks, Brent council has installed bollards that make her journey through a park to her shopping area more stressful, as the trike’s back wheels get stuck. As we think about having to get off and lift part of a cycle around a barrier, it’s always worth considering how planners make driving as easy as possible, and the effect this has had on embedding car dominance.

Fatima is supported by an excellent local LCC group and they have repeatedly spoken to the council, but haven’t had any positive responses despite these barriers clearly failing equality guidance.

Fatima’s current best routes are in parks and open spaces, but if more places were opened up to wider cycles, she’d be able to go further. Where there is cyclespecific infrastructure, she needs

properly dropped kerbs and ramps installed carefully so that her trike can roll over them safely. Roads need to be very low-traffic or trafficfree too, because her cycle doesn’t have the manoeuvrability that planners assume of two-wheelers.

Storage and security is also a problem, as standard cycle racks rarely have space for trikes.

RICK RODGERS Rick cycled in hilly southernmost London until leaving for flatter climes earlier this year. He rides a

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45-degree recumbent handcycle; while some handcycles clip on to a wheelchair, his (like Grant’s, right) is a single unit, which means that despite limited use of his legs he still needs to be able to get in and out of the cycle. Cost and storage is the major issue: his cycle is a top-end model because it’s lighter and more rewarding, but as well as a huge expense it’s also hard to fit the cycle through doorways. This was very inconvenient living in a flat.

Initially, Rick began exploring his local area, realising how much of it he’d been missing over years of driving with a sat nav and being reliant on a car. Gradually testing his stamina and knowledge, he eventually cycled much further afield, including a 50-mile round trip into Surrey, and rides up to the Thames, around south London, and into central London.

Like most cyclists, Rick says it’s nicest to cycle in traffic-free spaces, but that’s not an option on most long routes. Even some Streetspace tracks presented problems: the water-filled barriers and bollard positioning did not leave enough room for him to use the cycle lanes and he was forced into the road with the motor traffic.

Inaccessible infrastructure means that he sometimes has had to change his routes, and even his whole outing. Like Fatima has found, some park access points will allow two-wheeled cycles to slip through, but not handtrikes, due to widths and tight corners. Surfacing is also a big problem as there is little weight over the drive wheel and poor surfaces are particularly hard when you’re steering and powering together with your arms.

Signage about inaccessible routes

needs to be clearer and indicated earlier; lifts are often broken for weeks or months at a time despite being essential for disabled access.

Radar key-operated bollards aren’t advertised properly either. He wants the public to be better educated about alternative format cycles — even supportive comments seem to reinforce an ‘otherness’ about his cycle instead of recognising that his independence is in essence no different from anyone else’s.

Above all, he wants planners to understand how important and relevant it is for them to ensure that cycle facilities work for alternative format cycles, particularly for disabled people, and the impact it has on their independence.

GRANT SCOTT Grant had a happy career in the armed forces before arthritis in his legs and spine forced a medical discharge. He now suffers considerable pain and has little use of his legs. He tried several different cycles before finding a racing handtrike that he eventually bought with assistance from Help for Heroes. He uses it to take part in numerous fundraising events and other veterans’ rides, and usually rides four or five times per week.

Grant’s handcycle is ridden from a low, horizontal position which alleviates his pain, minimises wind

resistance, and maximises his arm power. However, it is slow to start from a standstill and very hard work uphill, like any recumbent, because the rider can’t use their bodyweight to help push the cranks round. Instead, his upper arms and abs do all the work, and uphill it’s literally dragging the rest of the cycle and the rider behind it. Being only 5cm from the ground means he’s also closer to the fumes and potholes, and as it’s a handcycle it’s almost impossible to signal and still control and power the cycle. He uses a mirror and a Garmin radar which tells him how close vehicles are behind, but right turns are “still a gamble”.

Grant rides widely across south London, and particularly enjoys

WHEN IS A CYCLE NOT A BIKE? It’s considered best practice to refer to alternative format cycles as ‘cycles’ instead of ‘bikes’, because ‘bike’ is an abbreviation of bicycle (ie two-wheeler). But many people use ‘bike’ as the generic, including some key manufacturers from the continent, such as Stricker Handbikes and Van Raam bikes. Other languages do not reference wheels in their word for cycle: German fahrrad means ‘ride/drive’, French velocipede means ‘fast foot’, and the etymology of Dutch fiets is not even clear (it may have derived from the French vite, for ‘fast’ or ‘hurry’).

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HOW IS LCC HELPING?

Photo: Cycling UK

LCC aims to give more visibility to alternative cycle formats. More awareness will help planners and decision-makers to include the needs of these cycle users in plans.

LCC also supports Wheels for Wellbeing’s Inclusive Infrastructure Campaign and uses as much other guidance as it can to push for inclusive design. This informs LCC’s campaigning position with Transport for London and London Borough Councils to push to make sure that all possible barriers are removed when they are installing and upgrading cycling infrastructure.

LCC depends on its superb local campaigners’ awareness to help improve details of schemes on roads that are the responsibility of individual boroughs.

London’s bridges; riding all the bridges is on his bucket list. The fresh air makes him happy: “There’s so much you can do on a trike,” he says. He finds bus lanes useful because they have priority so he doesn’t need to stop and start as often, and they increase his choices.

He also explained that stopping occasionally helps his arms recover a little.

For Grant, the length of time it takes for infrastructure to be built is frustrating. He feels that the problems have been known for such a long time and the solutions are so clear, that it’s hard to see why changes haven’t been made. The newest, high quality cycle lanes are wide enough for his handtrike — “It’s bliss to have my own space, especially where junctions have been designed for cycles” — but the chicanes often found around parks or on quieter routes are absolutely hopeless, as the trike’s wheelbase is too long to get round them.

Grant also wants improvements at junctions. On crossings, ‘beg buttons’ are just far too high up for him to reach, and the posts they are mounted on are too close to the road; by the time his arms are near the post, the front of the cycle is sticking out into the carriageway.

He also needs more time to cross roads and junctions — currently he

usually has to start early because otherwise the countdown times are too quick.

BEN GOLDSTEIN Ben is also a stroke survivor, and rides a Pashley (upright) trike, which he’s had for a couple of years.

He regained his cycling freedom starting with Wheels for Wellbeings’ Herne Hill Velodrome sessions, and quickly found that this trike worked best for him.

Upright trikes take some riding; you need considerable core strength to keep them heading where you want to on any kind of camber.

They’re also not easy on bends because you can’t tilt them. The main advantage, however, is that

the rider is high up on the road, which makes visibility better from everyone’s point of view, and of course access to beg buttons is simpler. Another plus is that it can be difficult to get in and out of recumbent trikes, whereas an upright trike just requires you to step over the low crossbar. Ben’s has a modification on one of the pedals to accommodate a strokeaffected foot.

Ben rides in the Clapham area with his dad on most days, unless it’s really wet. Sometimes they go shopping, but usually it’s just a leisure ride, and he’s pleased he doesn’t often have to do hills, because he finds them hard work.

Wind resistance is pretty bad on a trike as well. With his dad to check out routes in advance, Ben hasn’t personally had to experience major difficulties on his routes — but clearly, this is something that not everyone can depend on, and they’d have more choice if things were better.

Like many people taking leisure rides, he likes riding in green spaces best, so a proper network and better connectivity between London’s parks would really help him to explore further. There’s a real need, and demand, to improve accessibility to green space in cycle networks alongside school routes, high streets, and commuting trips.

MORE INFO/READING n Active Travel Podcast, 14 April 2021 (blog.westminster.ac.uk/ata/podcast) n wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk n bikeworks.org.uk n cyclingforall.org n vanraam.com n icetrikes.co

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SECURE CYCLE STORAGE

A As our cycling boom continues, it’s sad to note that bike theft is on the rise.

Tom Bogdanowicz and Toby Godfray explore the options for secure external storage at home or at the workplace

T THE END of the 19th century leading architects like CFA Voysey would design convenient alcoves in the porches of grand homes to accommodate velocipedes. It didn’t last long — architects and planners embraced the car, replacing front gardens with driveways and garages, while streets became storage areas for yet more status-enhancing motor vehicles.

Cycles, where they survived, were stashed in cellars, attics and on balconies; hard to access, unloved and, to some, symbols of poverty.

New developments in the 1960s and 1970s

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were as likely to provide bike spaces as a cowshed. And we now face the consequences of that car-centric development which left no room for bikes.

With the welcome and climate-essential revival of cycling has come a desperate need for cycle storage to protect the most sustainable of transport modes from theft, and the weather.

Thanks to LCC lobbying, and new mayoral targets, all future developments in London will be required to accommodate cycles (including adapted ones), but in the meantime we have to make do.

The Transport for London Cycle Parking Strategy estimates that we need 36,000 more on-street spaces to meet demand. And Cyclehoop, a leading installer of bikehangars (see below) says that since the first lockdown demand has increased by 490%, with a current waiting list of more than 50,000 people.

Unfortunately that unmet demand means that Londoners, including numerous health workers, face potential bike theft at home, their workplace or on the streets.

Here we look at the main ‘external’ options for individuals, families and workers — what’s needed at or near every home and place of work if we are to meet the Mayor’s (and government’s) cycling targets.

THE BIKE SHED

While a basic wooden shed may tempt thieves, the better installations, often custommade, can be as effective as metal lockers in terms of security — many now come with steel doors, security locks and integral anchor points for locking of cycles.

THE BUNKER Ride along a terraced street in London and you’re sure to see a steel bunker or two in front gardens. These are capacious metal containers that can accommodate two or three cycles, and often cater for families that pack in even more children’s bikes. Most of them are made by Dorset firm Trimetals (trimetals. co.uk), though they are often re-branded. The company’s Protect-a-cycle model is approved by the police’s ‘Secured By Design’ scheme and includes an integral ground anchor, special padlocks and chain for extra security.

Tim Smith of Trimetals says demand has been very strong during lockdown and they’ve taken on more staff to cope, but unfortunately supplies of steel have been restricted, which means waiting times for delivery to clients have increased.

Bunker users recommend models with a fold-down ramp so that you can wheel in bikes rather than lift them over the base. In London, you’d be advised to use heavy padlocks (more expensive models come with special locks) and also lock your cycle within the bunker itself (you can fit a ground anchor to the foundation and secure bikes with a heavy chain).

THE LOCKER A more costly alternative to bunkers and sheds is a purpose-designed cycle locker.

They come in a variety of shapes and sizes: vertical, horizontal and triangular, with dedicated models for cargobikes and adapted cycles. They usually have secure key locks and internal security bars like the one fitted to the Velo-Safe from Cycle Works (cycle-works.com).

Such higher-up security bars are often more convenient to use than a ground anchor.

Photos: Tom Bogdanowicz

Leaving a bike in a typical wooden garden sheds is among the most common ways to lose one. A basic low-cost wooden shed might provide good weather protection, but thieves are adept at breaking cheap padlocks and plastic windows. Luckily these traditional outbuildings are finally evolving.

If leaving your bike in a shed, you should at very least consider installing a metal ground or wall anchor (like Hiplok’s Ankr or the Abus Granit WBA100) to which you can lock your cycle inside. If installing a new shed, bear in mind you will need to have a foundation made of concrete or stone paving; fitting a ground anchor at this point is the best option.

Opposite, clockwise from top left: the Cyclehoop Bikehangar; designer storage in SE1; Cycle Works’ Velo-Safe; community cages; and Trimetals garden bunker.

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Ideal for estates: lockers can be fitted in all sorts of unused nooks and crannies

The durability and security of heavy-duty lockers makes them a popular choice for estates where residents typically pay an annual fee for access and maintenance. Cycle Works has just installed 250-plus Velo-Safe lockers on council estates in Tower Hamlets where residents pay £50 per year and the lockers are already oversubscribed. Davenport says: “The lockers we’ve installed across Tower Hamlets have all been done without losing a single car parking space — a really big factor for residents and councils at many sites. But cyclists need to ask for them!”

Asgard (asgardsss.co.uk) and Bikeaway (bikeaway.com) make other popular designs.

THE HANGAR The ever more common cycle hangar (not hanger) has been a boon to thousands of the capital’s cycle owners who live in flats or shared houses. The idea came from the Netherlands where long rows of hangars run parallel to parked cars in most streets with apartment blocks. The front of the hangar opens upwards and up to six cycles can be wheeled in and chained to conventional cycle stands inside .

Anthony Lau, founder of Cyclehoop (cyclehoop. com), popularised the curved green hangar in London, starting in Lambeth and expanding across the city, with several thousand now installed (and 5,000 more promised by TfL).

Hackney was quickest off the mark at hangar distribution installing 300, as Westminster allowed just one on a trial basis.

Annual costs to the users vary significantly from £30 to £110 to cover maintenance and repairs (cars driving into hangars is not uncommon). At the high end of charges the cost of storing a single bike can be as high as a parking permit for a petrol car and often

higher than an electric one, which can counter policies to reduce car dependency.

Because the hangars are limited to six users and ‘tail-gating’ is impossible, they offer reasonable security, and certainly more than an open Sheffield stand. Nonetheless thefts have been reported and the makers are working on improved security — Cyclehoop’s latest design has been certified gold by SoldSecure. Most hangars use keys for access but smartphone locks can be fitted if required.

Another option is an opaque panel to obscure what’s kept inside.

Since the original green ‘roll top’ hangars arrived, several other versions (from Asgard and others) have also appeared. Falco (falco. co.uk) offers one that fits cargobikes.

COMMUNAL CAGES Cages for anything from a dozen to several hundred bikes are commonly installed on estates and at workplaces (often in car parks).

But the greater the number of users the higher the risk of theft, though tail-gating a registered user is obviously much more difficult if all the users know each other. In larger compounds a thief can impersonate a regular user by entering with a cycle or cycle gear. To ensure security, quality locks need to be installed (code, fob, card or key), plus CCTV. And the installation needs management (which usually means a charge is made in residential developments) to make sure thieves do not get access to codes or keys and that bikes are not abandoned. Cages usually have two-tier stands, or Sheffield stands, and users are expected to lock their bikes securely to these.

ENCLOSED COMPOUNDS FOR RESIDENTS AND EMPLOYEES Well-managed, enclosed compounds at residential locations, such as the architectdesigned one in Bermondsey Square, SE1, can offer both personal and bike security with automatic lighting, CCTV oversight (linked to a concierge) and easy-to-access two-tier stands.

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Parking nirvana: at North Middlesex Hospital in Enfield

Needless to say, that security and convenience comes at a high price. The advantage of full enclosure is that thieves don’t know what’s inside and are not tempted to break in.

Numerous companies now provide cycle parking for staff including additional facilities for changing, drying clothes, repairs and equipment storage. An example of good practice is the new compound at Enfield’s North Middlesex Hospital which includes showers and lockers, as well as a colourful exterior (check out the video at bit.ly/3dzIAWE).

Some London hospitals have been targeted during lockdown by heartless thieves and it is no surprise that staff at one hospital said the lack of secure parking was a deterrent to cycling. Installations such as that at Enfield are clearly the answer.

A new development in the City is providing 800 spaces, at the request of clients, with facilities that include a powered ramp and lift for adapted bikes, plus showers, etc, to enable 15-25% of the employees to ride in.

INSTALLATIONS IN PUBLIC PLACES Enough public compounds have now been installed that we’ve all had the opportunity to see the good, the bad and the ugly. Smart, fully-enclosed compounds with card entry can be found right across boroughs like Waltham Forest. While the chaotic piles of bikes at Paddington station (where Boris Johnson had

a bike stolen) have been replaced by orderly corrals on platforms. At Waterloo provision has been improved with two-tier stands but we still await the promised giant compound to meet demand; the compound at St Pancras (which exists thanks to campaigning by LCC’s Camden group) is hidden away with poor signage; Euston has limited racks on the forecourt; and stations like Charing Cross, Blackfriars and Cannon Street only have small numbers of Sheffield stands outside or nearby.

It’s a long way from Utrecht or Amsterdam stations with 7,000-plus spaces each.

PLANNING PERMISSION If you’re installing a bike shed or locker in a rear garden you are unlikely to need planning permission unless it’s very large or tall (check with your council). In a front garden, however, you will likely need ‘householder planning permission’ (usually about £200) and councils generally don’t object unless the structure is obtrusive or in a conservation area.

THE FUTURE With at least a doubling of cycle trips built in to the Mayor’s Transport Strategy the demand for parking is certain to grow. Roll-out of hangars must be rapid and all new developments must be held to the London Plan parking minimums.

Bike owners need a parking space at home and at work — which could mean demand for 1.5 million more spaces by 2026.

STORAGE INSIDE A PROPERTY A terrace of ‘green’ homes in the Olympic Park’s Chobham Manor estate is unusual in having spaces for two bikes right next to the front door. And if you’re lucky enough to have a wide hallway then it’s an ideal place to leave an unlocked cycle that’s always ready to ride — but things usually get complicated if you have more than one cycle. Wall-fixed hangers can take up to three bikes, pulley systems can pull bikes up to the ceiling, and some vertical stands allow bikes to be stacked above each other.

Other stylish home storage options worth considering include: Cycloc (cycloc.com), Clug (hornit.com), Cyclehoop, Dura (dura.co.uk), Hiplok (hiplok.com) and PlantLock (frontyardcompany.co.uk).

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BUYING A SECONDHAND BIKE 4

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Here’s our London Cyclist guide to being a savvy secondhand buyer

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WNED FROM new. One careful owner. Light use only. Regularly shop serviced. Phrases you’ll doubtless have seen repeated across online auction sites, social media marketplaces and specialist ‘pre-loved’ forums.

With new bikes still hard to source due to material and component shortages resulting from the Covid pandemic, more people than ever are looking to buy secondhand. But it can be a bit of a minefield, especially for the uninitiated, so we’ve pulled together a quick guide to the most important things to look out for.

Not every seller is a crook, but a few checks can save you wasting your money. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, then it very likely is. Caveat emptor as they used to say.

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1 FRAME By far the most important consideration is the condition of the frame as everything else is potentially replaceable (though it might not make financial sense to upgrade too much).

Steel and aluminium frames are usually the best bet secondhand, as they’re generally the most robust and can take more of a hammering; carbon is more of a gamble unless buying from a reputable dealer or there’s a guarantee involved.

When inspecting the frame, look for dents and dings. Smaller dents shouldn’t be anything to worry about and are unlikely to affect performance.

Marks and scratches caused by cables rubbing at the headtube, or where the chain knocks against the chainstay, are very common and again shouldn’t be an issue.

However, larger dents are worth investigating carefully. They’re usually caused by the rider having had a crash, the bike having been dropped, or it’s sometimes the sign of a stolen bike

(where a thief has used a levering tool to prise off a lock). So inspect the general area, tap it, twist it, apply the brakes and rock the bike back and forth to see if there’s any telltale signs of unwanted flex. Check the underside of the bike as well; it’s easy to miss things if purely viewed from above.

Some unscrupulous sellers have been known to hide damage beneath stickers or electrical tape, so take your time to assess the tubes and welds. If you’re new to buying secondhand, take an experienced friend with you.

2 FORKS These need the same sort of close appraisal as the frame. Both legs should be symmetrical, with no significant

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dents. Suspension forks are harder to assess than rigid forks; at very least they should be able to move up and down through their appropriate amount of travel. If they feel sticky, then they’ll likely need a clean and service.

3 WHEELS The most important thing to check after the frame. Obviously make sure these are spinning freely, by lifting the bike and rotating each wheel in turn. Ideally look directly down on each wheel while it’s spinning to see if it’s straight. If there’s any movement, check that the wheel is seated in the frame/fork dropout correctly. If a rim is very slightly out of true, then it might be possible to rectify by adjusting spoke tension.

4 TYRES Check for obvious signs of wear. Is there much tread left? Are there any lumps in the sidewall (the side of the tyre nearest the rim)? Luckily tyres can be easily swapped out, for relatively little expense, and are the single best upgrade you can make.

If a tyre feels a little soft it might just need a bit more air in the inner tube.

Lots of secondhand bikes seem to be sold with flat tyres, but it’s a quick fix.

5 BRAKES This is a two-part check: first the levers and then the calipers. Check that you can pull the brake levers in and they spring out again after released. If they barely move, or pull too close to the

handlebar, then the cable will either need adjusting or replacing (or servicing if they’re hydraulic disc brakes).

Now check the brake pads for wear.

This is easier for rim brakes where you can see the pad clearly, less easy for disc brakes where the pads are hidden inside the caliper. If in doubt, pull the front brake (the right-hand one on UK bikes) and rock the bike to see if the wheel holds. Then repeat for the rear brake (left-hand lever).

New brake pads are also relatively cheap and worth upgrading from the get-go for peace of mind.

6 GEARS As with brakes, this is a two-part check.

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the front (the ring the crankarm and pedal are attached to) then you’ll only have one gear shifter, usually on the right-hand side of the handlebar. If the bike has two or three chainrings, then you’ll have a second gear shifter on the other side of the bar.

Ride the bike up and down the street, changing into every gear and checking that the changes are as fluid as possible; you shouldn’t need to force any gear changes, they should only require a simple push or pull with your thumb or index finger. As with brakes, minor cable adjustments may be needed if you find any slipping or noisy grinding.

Sometimes a derailleur has been knocked and needs a slight realignment, which is a very quick job for a mechanic.

But very often gears feel sticky and don’t run smoothly simply because the derailleur, chain and cassette are dirty and just need a proper scrub and degreasing. This is recommended for any secondhand bike anyway, as it makes pinpointing potential issues much easier.

As we covered in the Winter 2020 issue, perished, poorly-fitted grips (and bar tape) are no use to anyone and can be a real hazard in the wetter months. If the grips look past their best, change them – they’re another easy upgrade.

Every hand is different so, as with saddles, it’s worth trying a few to find something you’re happy with.

7 SADDLE

GET A TEST RIDE

What makes a saddle comfy really comes down to an individual’s personal preference – some cyclists prefer a slimmer, sportier model, while others prefer a wider, well padded perch.

It should go without saying that you should always get a test ride of any bike you buy, especially secondhand ones.

You might like the look of something, but only when you ride it can you tell

There’s no right or wrong, it’s just worth bearing in mind that a secondhand bike might not have your ‘perfect’ saddle.

And that’s no reason not to buy it if it otherwise fits and feels right. Try a few saddles at your local bike shop and ask them to fit it to the bike for you.

8 SEATPIN These smaller collars hold the seatpost in place and either have a quick-release lever or need an allen key to loosen/ tighten. It’s worth a quick check to ensure the seatpost can freely move up and down, otherwise you might be stuck with the saddle at an unsuitable height.

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if it fits and feels right. Too long, too short, too heavy... try before you buy!

GET A GOOD SERVICE We can’t recommend getting a proper service highly enough. And the £30-£50 cost of a very basic shop service should be factored into the cost of buying a secondhand bike. A trained mechanic can quickly spot any issues.

If you’re an LCC member, you can get savings on servicing and parts from the shops in our retail network – head to lcc.org.uk/membership for details.

BE SENSIBLE WITH UPGRADES If you’re only spending £100 on a bike, then you don’t want to be spending another £100 on new parts. Factor in a service and leave it at that for now. For more expensive bikes, £300 upwards, it makes sense to consider new grips, tyres and inner tubes, possibly a new chain and saddle – they’re the cheapest and quickest upgrades, will improve the ride no end and should last a couple of years.

GET A GOOD LOCK! Finally, don’t splash out on a new bike and then leave it unlocked. Get the best Sold Secure Gold rated lock(s) you can afford and remember to always secure both frame and wheel (ideally both wheels) to a stand when left unattended.

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TRAVEL

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Richard Peace links the west and east coasts of England, via the famous C2C route, from the lumpy Lakes and Pennines to the beautiful beaches of Tynemouth

Two C2C highlights: the tough Old Coach Road (left) and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge

HE C2C (short for ‘Sea to Sea’) launched by Sustrans in 1994, is truly a phenomenon; it can fairly claim to be the most popular long distance cycle route in the UK, completed by many thousands each year. It uses numerous sections of Sustrans’ 13,000-mile National Cycle Network and was used as a ‘flagship’ for the whole network during the initial fanfare.

Here we concentrate on the longest 140-mile option, between the pretty seaside towns of Whitehaven on the east coast and Tynemouth on the west. It heads across the northern edge of the Lake District where towering fells rise above emerald green pasture and ancient farmsteads, over the immaculately-kept Eden Valley and beautifully bleak Northern Pennines, before dropping down to the post-industrial landscape of the North-East, much of it regenerated in ambitious and attractive fashion.

The route uses a mix of specially-constructed cycle paths, off-road tracks and minor lanes, only very occasionally straying onto short sections of busier road where necessary. There are a handful of ‘rough stuff’ options, most notably a lung-busting ascent onto the Old Coach Road between Keswick and Penrith, ideal for knobbly-tyred adventurers who want to leave the tarmac behind for a while. Well signed along its length, the C2C can be completed by the whole gamut of cyclists; careful choice of alternative sections should allow just about any type of bike to do it (though trikes and trailers may have difficulty with a few barriers).

However, having a wide range of gears will be

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TRAVEL

a godsend and avoid much uphill pushing. Of course e-bikes are also helping to open the route up to an even wider range of riders.

How long does it take?

If you want to make it an Ironman-style test of endurance you can always try and complete the route in a day. The current record stands at precisely 7hr 53mins, by Joel Toombs and Matt Shorrock in September 2012.

Other amazing achievements on the C2C include crossings by a four-year-old (cycling a tag-along bike behind his Dad), and a crossing on large-wheeled unicycles.

But if you want to make the challenge a little easier you can always use one of the many ‘sherpa’ luggage services to go bag-free, just do it over more days (between three and seven is the norm), or select the easier route variants.

From fells to cobbles: leaving the buzz of Keswick far behind; and the Victorian village of Alston

Leaving Lakeland You’re quickly on cycle path after leaving Whitehaven’s attractively regenerated harbour, and the true mountains of the Lake District are soon in sight, heralded by pleasant villages such as Loweswater and High Lorton as you dip and climb on quiet minor roads.

After Kirkland and Lamplugh there are spectacular views down to Ennerdale Water and back over the coastline before a lovely section alongside the quiet depths of Loweswater leading to the spectacular climb over Whinlatter Pass. Dropping down again, the quaint villages of Braithwaite and Portinscale are linked by glorious little roads along the Newlands Valley.

After such rural tranquility you might find a visit to one of the epicentres of Lakeland tourism, Keswick, a welcome change or a rude surprise.

The high summits of the Lakes are left behind as you approach the flatter more pastoral country of the Eden Valley, with its accent on unhurried market towns and glorious woodland — a real contrast to the Lake District’s mass tourism. There’s no better way to experience the bucolic gem that is the Greta Valley than on the Keswick to Threlkeld railpath. With 200m of it washed

away (along with two Victorian rail bridges) by Storm Desmond in 2015, it has taken a heroic community effort to find the significant funds needed for C2Cers to be able to enjoy it again.

They even added to the attractions of what was there before by reopening a rail bridge that hadn’t been used for 50 years. If this sounds too cosy you have the option of taking to the fells to experience the mysteries of Castlerigg stone circle, and/or the tortuous Old Coach Road.

Spectacle of a different kind awaits after departing the fine red sandstone of Penrith as a long, steady climb brings increasingly panoramic views, culminating at Hartside, sitting some 580m (1,903ft) high like a watchtower on the edge of the vast sweeps of moorland that make up the North Pennines. Roughstuffers tempted by the off-road options up to Hartside beware — they are even more ‘cheeky’ than the Old Coach Road. There follows a brief section of largely downhill trunk road that needs care, especially during busy holiday periods.

You soon find your self back on minor roads in the heart of

The Tyne cycle tunnel reopened in totally refurbished form in 2019

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‘England’s Last Wilderness’, much of it designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Though lacking the ‘mountain’ quality of the Lakes, the sombre spaces present, if anything, a more powerful landscape and there are certainly fewer settlements and chances for refreshment.

Whilst it might look barren up here, keep your eyes peeled for rare alpine flowers and elusive birds like the merlin. The grandeur is broken at pretty Garrigill, known for its waterfalls, and at England’s highest market town, Alston, whose cobbled Victorian street scenes proved too much to resist for the makers of a TV version of Oliver Twist.

The high point Things take on a wilder, more rugged appearance still at the former mining town of Nenthead and soon after, for those who like celebrating landmarks along the way, comes the highest point on the route, Black Hill, at 609m.

Once upon a time pre-motor winter travellers found a journey under the hills here, via the mines, easier than going over the tops.

Lead mining villages such as Nenthead, Allenheads and Rookhope have a curious collection of mining relics such as the Lintzgarth Arch and Bolt’s Law Standing Engine. Larger settlements are strung along Weardale Valley and a C2C option passes through one of them, Stanhope. Extensive vistas along the trafficfree Waskerley Way lead to the magnificent Hownsgill viaduct and Consett, where the route splits to Sunderland or Tynemouth.

Almost immediately out of Consett and Shotley Bridge it’s clear you have left the heather moorland behind you and are in gentler surroundings as you can enjoy a serene downhill coast along the Derwent Walk, a former railway through woods and pasture.

Ebchester has a Roman history and an attractive conservation area at its heart, whilst Gibside boasts the magnificent National Trust estate, worth allowing some time out for.

Decisions, decisions...

Your major route decision comes where the river Derwent meets the Tyne; follow the southern bank along the Keelman’s Way or the northern bank along Hadrian’s Cycleway. Both

The road points up: on the ascent of Hartside in the Lakes

are attractive, largely traffic-free routes and both allow a chance to experience the Tyne’s undoubted highlight, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the world’s only tilting bridge and arguably even more spectacular when lit up at night. More good news is that the Tyne cycle tunnel reopened in totally refurbished form in 2019, affording another unique perspective on the joys of the Tyne.

The final run-in along the estuary is among the C2C’s most enjoyable sections and Tynemouth itself is a splendid town, with a glorious sweep of beach aptly named Longsands.

If, as C2C tradition dictates, you dipped your wheel in the sea at Whitehaven harbour slipway, you’ll probably now need to wet your wheels again to mark the end of a memorable journey.

FACTFILE GETTNG THERE The C2C is normally completed west to east to take advantage of prevailing winds. There are train services to Whitehaven — from London the most direct service is from Euston, with some services offering only a single change at Carlisle.

FUEL UP - PITSTOPS n Kirkstile Inn, Loweswater n Horse and Farrier, Threlkeld n Boot and Shoe, Greystoke village near Penrith n Hemmel Cafe, Allenheads n Cycle Hub, Quayside, Newcastle.

TOURIST INFO/ACCOMMODATION n visitcumbria.com n lakedistrict.gov.uk n visiteden.co.uk n visitnorthumberland.com GUIDEBOOK The Ultimate C2C Guide, by Excellent Books (£11.95) LONDON CYCLIST Summer 2021 53

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FITTING NEW

DISC BRAKE PADS

John Kitchiner is the editor of London Cyclist and confirmed bikeaholic

Disc brakes have so many advantages over rim brakes — stopping power, all weather performance, predictability and more — that it’s hardly suprising they now come specced on entry-level bikes as well as top-of-the-line racers. But even though they are low maintenance, disc brakes do eventually need new pads. Luckily, fitting them isn’t as tricky as you might imagine

1: TOOLS FOR THE JOB For this job you only need a few simple tools: needlenose pliers (or an allen key) to remove retaining pins; a piston press (also called a pad pusher) to push the pistons

back into position; a rotor straightener for any bent rotors; rotor cleaner; and, of course, replacement pads.

Plus, potentially, paper towel and degreaser for step 4.

3: PUSH THE PISTONS BACK IN As pads wear, the pistons as pushing on new pads move closer together within directly onto the pistons the caliper body, so you need later can cause damage. A to push them back — this piston press (or pad pusher) creates space for the new tool works best, rather than a pads. It’s best to do this now screwdriver or kitchen cutlery.

2: REMOVE THE WHEEL To change disc brake pads, you first need to remove the wheel. You’ll then be able to clearly check for pad wear — if there’s 1.5mm or less of braking material remaining,

then it’s time for new pads.

With the wheel off it’s also a good time to clean the rotor, ideally using a dedicated rotor cleaner. Dry thoroughly afterwards.

4: REMOVE THE OLD BRAKE PADS Your brake pads will either be pull the pads and spring out, secured with a retaining pin whichever’s easiest. (pictured) or a small hex bolt.

If needed, now’s also a Use needle-nose pliers to good time to clean the inside straighten the end of the pin of the caliper with some and remove it. Then push or paper towel and degreaser.

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HOW TO In association with

5: INSERT NEW PADS Most disc brake pads are symmetrical and fit on either side of the caliper. But some, like the Shimano ones we’re using, have a dedicated left and right pad, which are

marked. Hold the two pads correctly oriented in one hand and place the spring into position. Now gripping the pads together, carefully slot them into the caliper.

7: INSERT WHEEL & CHECK ALIGNMENT Put the wheel back in and any minor adjustments to the check the caliper position caliper position with an allen relative to the rotor. The key; also check step 8 below. rotor should be running To ‘bed’ the pads in, do a parallel and central to the dozen hard stops (brake pulls) caliper body. You can make in a safe, car-free area.

6: SECURE NEW PADS With the pads correctly seated, check that the spring is still in the right position too. Pads should be evenly spaced with room for the rotor between them.

Thread the retaining pin through the holes in caliper and spring, using needle-nose pliers to bend the end for a secure fit. Hex bolts screw in, often with a tiny circlip added.

8: CHECK DISC ROTOR FOR DINGS If you notice the rotor is wheel slowly to locate the catching the pad at any point dodgy spot, then use a rotor in its rotation, it might be that straightener to gently bend it the rotor has had a knock and back into shape. Don’t overdo is very slightly out of true. it though — or be tempted to If that’s the case, spin the use damaging pliers!

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HOW TO

PILATES

FOR CYCLISTS

Susi Owusu is a Pilates rehab specialist in London. (pilateswithsusi.com)

As lockdown restrictions end, we move onto the second stage of our new four-part Pilates series.

This issue (and each magazine in 2021) will include four simple exercises — core, hip/back mobility, legs, stretch — and build in challenge from one session to the next. It’s 10 minutes very well spent!

To learn more about Pilates, join a Zoom class, or get one-to-one tuition, visit Susi’s website.

exhale and tap right toes to the mat; bring the leg back to the start position. Repeat on left leg. Always use an exhale breath to move, releasing the leg from the hip not the knee.

Aim for 8-10 floats per leg.

3: LEGS — SINGLE LEG STRETCH Lie on your back and bring and chest lift, and bring both your legs into tabletop. Then hands to the left knee while interlace fingers behind your you extend the right leg. As head. Bring your elbows into you exhale change so the left your peripheral vision and roll leg folds in and the right leg the head and chest off the extends. Keep moving this mat. Now maintain the head way for 8-10 leg changes.

2: HIP MOBILITY — SIDE KICK Lie on your side with your point the toe and sweep the shoulders, hips, knees and leg back in line with your hip. ankles stacked vertically. Bend Move the leg back and forth the bottom leg and then lift like this 8-10 times. Make sure up the top leg so it’s in line the leg is in line with the hip with the hip. Flex the foot and before you release it to the sweep the leg forward. Focus ground. Turn over and repeat on folding at your hip, then the exercise on the other side.

4: STRETCH — NECK & UPPER BACK Sit on the mat (or a chair), and away from the chest. As you interlace fingers behind your move you should feel your head. Exhale, gently roll your rib cage gently rolling down chin towards your chest while and lifting up. This is a gentle gently folding the elbows stretch so don’t over-extend in towards each other. Then as you come up, or pull and inhale and begin to open your tighten as you roll the chin elbows while rolling your chin and head down.

1: CORE — LEG FLOATS Lie on your back with legs hip width apart. Exhale and float one leg into tabletop position (pictured). Then exhale and do the same with second leg.

Maintaining a neutral spine, unfold from the hip on an

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LOOPING ROUND

Join Adam Bone from IBikeLondon for a lumpy loop to the North Downs and back

BIGGIN HILL

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BIKELONDON HAS been running monthly rides for many years now, combining a love of music with a passion for cycling (IBikeLondon is organised by a community of cyclists with the support of Cyclehoop, the innovative cycle parking company known for creating the Bikehangar and Car Bike Port). Recently reaching out to more diverse communities, and those newly discovering the joys of cycling, the team has many fun, themed rides planned in 2021.

For much of the year, however, while group rides are still slowly getting up to speed again after the lockdowns, the rides will happen in a different way. Due to the pandemic, IBikeLondon has decided to simply publish routes online in order to minimise gatherings. The idea is to encourage everyone to do their bit to help slow the spread of Covid-19 by socially distancing (as well as wearing a mask and sanitising hands).

This route includes cycle paths, quiet streets, woodlands and

parks, and makes a great day out.

If you enjoy it, check the listing for details of other rides at facebook.com/ IBikeLondon/events.

FACTFILE DISTANCE: 44.5km (27.5 miles) ASCENT: 555m SUITABLE FOR: light hybrids, touring, road, gravel/cyclocross bikes (with a decent spread of low gears).

NEAREST STATIONS: Lower Sydenham ONLINE MAP: ridewithgps.com/ routes/35503482

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LOWER SYDENHAM

NCN 21 14km

COL DU SKELLY 20km

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FOAL FARM DOWNE 25.5km 29km

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RIDE GUIDE

Route Guide LOOPING ROUND BIGGIN HILL

NCN 21 [2] By the time you reach this point at approximately 14km in, you are likely to be very glad you stopped for coffee in Beckenham, as you’ll have climbed a few hills by now. Turning right from Skid Hill Lane onto NCN 21 again, you rejoin this classic cycle route which stretches 154km (95.6 miles) from Greenwich to Eastbourne.

Further south on NCN 21 at Heathfield, East Sussex, there’s the Cuckoo Trail, 23km of traffic-free, peaceful riding. This former railway line is full of dramatic sculptures and an abundance of wildlife, prior to its finish at Eastbourne’s stunning Victorian pier.

For now, you will just spend several hundred metres under the shade of this tree-lined track. Enjoy the flattish terrain here, as there are a few uphills and downhills coming shortly.

FOAL FARM/ THE OLD JAIL [4] If pushing on is your thing, you will be rewarded with a long, flowing downhill almost straightaway.

There are a couple of options here too. You can take a slight detour at the start of the downhill, taking the left on Church/ Berry’s Hill. Carrying on along Jail Lane

and taking the right of the two tracks 100m after the pub, you’ll find yourself approaching Foal Farm Animal Rescue Centre. With a café, shop and lots of animals to visit, you can easily spend a few hours here if you’re in need of rest at this point. You might even end up rehoming a small animal – there are all shapes, sizes and breeds looking for owners.

And if you decided not to indulge at the Blacksmith’s Arms, there is also The Old Jail just near the entrance to Foal Farm.

DOWNE/DOWN HOUSE [5] If you diverted to Foal Farm, simply retrace along Jail Lane, turning left down Single Street. You’ll then rejoin the route in the village of Downe. Any last culinary requests can be made here, at the pub or café, before the final leg back towards London.

If you took the diversion, you will have passed Down House, once home to Charles Darwin and it’s where he wrote On the Origin of Species. There are beautiful gardens to look around, along with the house of course, hopefully open soon after lockdown.

A quick drop down New Road Hill and up Downe Road, then you’ll go left by Keston church and by the Roman villa, heading along the lane back to Coney Hall, with some lovely views as a bonus. A few gentle miles of suburbia takes you via Beckenham to ride’s end. n ridewithgps.com/routes/35503482

CUT-OUT AND KEEP

COL DU SKELLY & THE NORTH DOWNS [3] After wending your way up the Col du Skelly, and continuing up to the top of the North Downs, you turn left onto the B2024 and head along the top, taking in the glorious views over Kent and East Sussex, before taking Chesnut Avenue, which comes just as you start the steeper descent. There is a short off-road section further down here, so another chance to simply watch the fields roll by.

Dropping down Newbarn Lane and then climbing the other side, keep your eyes peeled. We were lucky enough to see five deer in the woods to the left, just before reaching the summit. At this point, you might be delighted to know, is a pub, the Blacksmith’s Arms. Depending on your energy levels, you may wish to stop and indulge or push on.

©Crown copyright 2018 Ordnance Survey. Media 060/18

Photos: Bromley Cyclists, wikiCC/Oast House Archive, Foal Farm

LOWER SYDENHAM/BECKENHAM Your journey begins at Lower Sydenham station (a stone’s throw from Cyclehoop’s offices). Immediately starting off on the NCN 21 cycle path on Kangley Bridge Road, it’s only a few hundred metres before you join the Pool riverside path, with the HSBC sports ground on the left.

After meandering through Cator Park (enjoying its abundance of trees and birdlife), and past some lovely allotments, you arrive in Beckenham.

Even though you have only just started the route, you may wish to stop for hot beverages and cake at this point; Eatwell and Fee & Brown both serve some of the best. You may choose to grab drinks and and sit in nearby Kelsey Park (opposite the lake is very relaxing) to spot herons, swans, ducks, geese, and if you’re lucky, kingfishers and woodpeckers too!

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Bikes & Reviews L ATEST | BIKES | GEAR | MEDIA

BIKES

RIBBLE E-BIKE 64

ELECTRA LOFT 66

PRODUCTS

BAR BAGS 68

PANNIER RACKS 70

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BIKES

HOT TECH

NEW E-BIKES On paper it sounds like our perfect bike, so how did we get on with this ultra modern machine from a true British heritage brand?

MODEL: RIBBLE HYBRID AL e, Fully Loaded Edition n £2,299 n ribblecycles.co.uk

Test: Susi Owusu, John K

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RESTON-BASED Ribble Cycles has been around for more than a century, and building bespoke frames for most of that time. A couple of years back it produced its first electric bikes and now lays claim to the lightest production range in the world. With our Hybrid AL e test rig tipping the scales at a mere 13kg — making it a true featherweight for any class of e-bike — we’d have to agree. So how does it pull of this rare feat?

Well it’s all down to clever design and the combination of Mahle Ebikemotion motor (housed in the rear hub) and a slimline 250Wh Panasonic battery (housed in the downtube). The overall silhouette is indistinguishable from a regular

bike; it looks super sleek and we’re glad to report that its performance is every bit as eye-catching. There’s three levels of assist to choose from, selected using the discrete button on the toptube (this also shows how much battery charge remains). It’s simple to operate and does away with an added handlebar controller.

And you can use the free smartphone app to tweak power settings, plus monitor your trip stats or follow a set route as you would with a GPS. We managed 40km in the lowest assist mode, on mixed off-road paths and strong headwinds, before the battery dropped down a notch — that’s impressive and means many people will get a week’s worth of commutes in before recharging. The only slight gripe with this system is

that the battery can’t be removed, so you ideally need a power source near your bike storage.

A bump-absorbing carbon fork, tubeless-ready Mavic wheelset and ultra-reliable Schwalbe Marathon tyres star in a canny spec, though the colour-matched rack and SKS mudguards are equally welcome.

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It means the Hybrid Al e is a flyer across all terrain, it accelerates beautifully and is one of very few e-bikes that pedals like a regular bike when the assist is turned off. It also doesn’t break your back when lifting it up stairs.

From city streets to gravel trails, it does the lot. Cracking value too!

FACTFILE n For an extra £299 you can get your Ribble bike painted in a custom colour. n Same bike not ‘fully loaded’ costs £100 less.

VERDICT + Direct-to-consumer model means you get top tech at more affordable price. + Light weight and all-round capability puts the Hybrid Al e in our all-time top three e-bikes.

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BIKES

URBAN UTILITY Marrying modern tech with practical essentials makes for a robust ride that’s a match for city streets

ELECTRA LOFT 7I EQ STEP OVER n £800 n trekbikes.com

Test: Richard Peace

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AKE SOME old school features like hub dynamo, hub gears and sprung saddle, then add a dash of modern bike tech and, voila, you have Electra’s new Loft (there is also a step-thru model). Indeed, at first glance this city slicker could be mistaken for a refurbished bike that your parents or even grandparents might have been seen on.

But, of course, their bikes were very unlikely to have had the advantages of the latest Shimano gearing, lightweight alloy frame and powerful dual-pivot rim brakes — which make the Loft more nimble to ride than its lookalike predecessors. And while the Loft isn’t a particularly light bike in itself (we weighed it at 15.8kg), it’s not at all bad for something with hefty hub tech front and rear, plus an ultra durable steel fork, chainguard,

mudguards, alloy pannier rack and LED lighting.

Riding comfort and low maintenance are what the Loft’s design is all about. Comfort comes from the high-rise, backswept bars and that lovely sprung saddle, while the frame has Trek’s ‘Flat Foot’ geometry that makes it easier to put your feet down when stopped. Wide 38c tyres also help iron out the worst of our potholed roads. Likewise

the Nexus gears fulfilled the low maintenance brief admirably, never needing an adjustment.

The Loft has reasonable speed on the flat, though on hills we did feel a little of the bike’s heft and the fact it’s quite highly geared. But those high handlebars help and make out-of-saddle efforts less difficult.

It’s good to find decent lights fitted as standard, which means you have one less thing to think about daily.

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FACTFILE n Only two frame sizes available – medium for riders 5ft4in to 6ft2in, and large for riders 5ft8in to 6ft3in. n 3-speed and 5-speed hub gear options also available in addition to the 7-speed reviewed here. The non-hub gear, non-dynamo version without rack, the Loft 7D, starts at £450. While an electric Loft model, with 500Wh battery, costs £3000. n If you haven’t heard of Electra, you have probably heard of Trek; the US bike giant acquired retro-style specialists Electra in 2014.

VERDICT + Great comfort, minimal maintenance. + Riding position ideal for city cruising. + The bike’s not light, but it’s built to last and comes fully equipped so you don’t have to shell out on ‘extras’. + The rear LED light is battery powered, not dynamo powered like the front light, which seems like a missed trick. But it’s presumably done to stop messy wires running to the rear of the bike.

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HANDLEBAR BAGS There’s a better way to carry your daily essentials than stuffing everything in pockets, so we’ve put the miles in with a variety of new bar bag designs

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HANKS TO the recent bikepacking trend, people (and brands) have been re-thinking and refining their on-bike storage options. And the latest bar bags make a great alternative to carrying essential items in pockets, bum bags or small rucksacks. Combined with a seatpack or frame bag, they also provide enough capacity for long summer rides.

Here we look at seven of the newest 2021 products.

#2 BROOKS SCAPE

#5 RAPHA BAR BAG

#1 ALTURA HERITAGE

#3 CARRADICE

BIKEPACKING BAR BAG

#6 MISS GRAPE MOON

BAR BAG

REVIEWS: John K

A waxed cotton outer lends this 5-litre bag a retro, 1960s explorer vibe and there’s enough room inside for your binoculars, maps, vacuum flask and more. Our iPad fitted inside (no padded internal sleeve though) and there’s a lid pocket for wallet, phone and keys. Comes with Klickfix mount and strap for off-bike portage. n Altura Heritage Bar Bag, £60; altura.co.uk

#1

With a 10-litre volume, the waterproof Scape is more like a mini briefcase, with its padded internal tablet sleeve (also holds 13in laptop), pockets for cables, plus an external pocket for wallet and phone. We found the main compartment will take a book, jacket, waterbottle and lunch; we even used the cinch straps underneath to carry a small picnic blanket. Fitted using a ‘Klickfix’ bracket and quickly converting to a shoulder bag, it’s been extremely useful on day tours and city trips. n Brooks Scape, £105; extrauk.co.uk

A mid-size cyclindrical bag that’s ideal for longer days out, freeing up those jersey pockets. It’s made from tough Cordura fabric, with a lined lid to protect contents from wet weather.

Two simple straps (with foam spacers) attach to bars, with an optional third one to clip around your headtube.

Great reflective patches as well. n Carradice Bikepacking Bar Bag, £47; carradice.co.uk

#4 RESTRAP CANISTER BAG

Handmade in Yorkshire, the Canister is just 20cm wide with a 1.5-litre volume — but that’s still enough for a windproof jacket, gloves, multi-tool, phone and snacks, and we much prefer carrying stuff up front than on our body. Twin straps secure to handlebars, there’s an LED light loop, and two elasticated side pockets. It’s minimalist and unobtrusive, and we like that a lot. n Restrap Canister Bag, £44.99; restrap.com

While this compact bar bag can also be used off the bike using the shoulder strap supplied, we’ve left it on the daily hack since it arrived as it’s so handy.

Rather brilliantly, the addition of a fourth strap to one end means it can even be used as a frame bag. We’ve mostly carried all our usual riding spares in it (there’s internal pockets for keys or multi-tool), but recently discovered it fits three stubby beer cans very nicely too! A waterproof and highly versatile product at a great price. n Rapha Bar Bag, £45; rapha.cc

We’ve rated Miss Grape’s bikepacking range previously and the Moon’s proven a great complement to the brand’s Internode frame bag on spring rides where we’ve needed to carry extra layers. The main fabric is waterrepellent and reinforced with a plastic backer to hold its shape. Mounting options make it suitable for road bikes, folders and mtbs alike. n Miss Grape Moon, £65; ison-distribution.com

#7 ORTLIEB BARISTA URBAN BAG A trendy click-on, click-off shoulder bag for city cycling that also happens to be fully waterproof. There’s room inside for a tablet and change of clothes, or a couple of books and a packed lunch; interior pockets hold phone, cards, keys or the removable strap itself. Neat magnetic closure and light loop, but no reflective patches. n Ortlieb Barista Urban, £135; ortlieb.com

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REVIEWS

#2

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PANNIER RACKS Whether you’re carrying your work gear into the office or considering a longer self-supported trip, there’s a variety of racks to suit all budgets

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EOPLE ARE either pannier people or rucksack people.

Both have their merits, but fans of the former will always argue that it’s better to carry loads off your body and avoid a potentially sweaty back.

Generally racks fall into two camps — commuting or touring (though there’s also mountain bike models these days) — with dozens of options to suit every wheel size and brake type. Here we look at four all-rounders that will work in most situations.

#1 TUBUS GRAND TOUR

REVIEWS: Tom Bogdanowicz, Rob Eves

We’ve been using Tubus racks for years and they haven’t let us down yet; the build quality is reflected in higher prices, but these racks really last. The Grand Tour is made from chromoly steel tubing and comes with a 30-year guarantee and threeyear mobile guarantee, and has been tested up to 40kg (though the legal admissable limit is 26kg). It held our Carradice bags in place without

deflection and felt extremely robust. A second set of rails runs below the top of the rack, which allow panniers to sit slightly closer to the ground — we liked this as it added to the overall feeling of stability when carrying heavier loads.

What’s more, with its relatively narrow profile it still feels quite inconspicuous. n Tubus Grand Tour £185; tubus.com

#2 PASSPORT TOUR

Hailing from cycling city Cambridge, this rack introduces two welcome innovations: a bolt-on ‘light tube’ that’s designed to hold typical strap-on rear LED lights; and vertical adjustment on the carrier legs (in addition to fore and aft). In other respects the rack follows standard ‘expedition’ design with a tubular alloy structure to mount panniers in high or low positions, and secured by fixed or sliding hooks.

You only require allen keys and an 8mm open spanner for fitting, and thanks to that vertical adjustment we were able to get it horizontal on both a large 700c frame and a small 26in off-road tandem. The weight, at 650g, was lower than advertised (760g) and there’s no maximum carrying weight. We loaded it with 30kg of encyclopaedias and sat on it for good measure (adding 70kg) and there was no breakage or unwarranted movement — rock solid! n Passport Tour, £49.99; ison-distribution.com

#3 TORTEC TOUR

The Tour sits at the affordable end of Tortec’s range and has a relatively high weight of 870g. It’s made of solid 8mm aluminium rod and is designed

for caliper or V-brakes rather than disc brakes (disc version is £5 more), so your frame needs braze-ons at the seatstays and seatpin for fitting. We had zero issues getting the rack horizontal on a 56cm frame and the connecting strips allow 5cm of lateral adjustment.

The ‘offset stay’ (the L-shaped piece at the rear) supports a heavily-laden pannier, plus a wide central strip on top protects you from tyre spray.

Maximum weight is 25kg and we found it held firm with that load, though we’d recommend sharing that kind of weight with front panniers for better balance. n Tortec Tour, £34.99; zyrofisher.co.uk

#4 TOPEAK UNI SUPER TOURIST (DISC)

This midweight rack comes in versions to fit bikes with or without disc brakes; the latter has a wider profile to ensure bags stay clear of rear rotors and cassettes and it’s height adjustable to suit different wheel sizes. This has made fitting/removing mudguards easier too. The rack is compatible with Topeak’s MTX QuickTrack range of trunk bags, rear baskets and boxes, which mount by sliding onto the top plate. Otherwise you can strap bulky items on using bungees. There’s also an integrated rear light mount.

We found the rack worked nicely cycling on towpaths and bumpy roads around town; it felt solid and stable, and our panniers were well supported and didn’t move around. With a carrying capacity of 26kg, the Uni Super Tourist is a good pick for both commuting and longer trips away. n Topeak Uni Super Tourist (Disc), £54.99; extrauk.co.uk

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REVIEWS

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ICONIC BIKES

1947

Paris Galibier John Kitchiner introduces a London-made design classic that took the post-war cycling world by storm and still endures in a modern guise

by the end of the 1940s Paris had 13 models in its catalogue.

However, such whirlwind growth, a move into batch production and seemingly inevitable cash difficulties led to the firm collapsing in 1952. Harry left the trade and died in 1984, but would doubtless have been delighted to see his iconic design revived by Condor Cycles; Tom Board, Condor’s framebuilder, built high-class replicas between 1981 and 1987, and the Galibier still lives on as a retro frameset, only now made from triplebutted Columbus steel with laser-cut bi-laminations.

Some of the first Galibier’s featured a twin top-tube, before the switch to a single tube, but it’s that oversized ‘mid-tube’ and the quirky ‘cantilevered’ seat-tube, plus those gorgeous bi-lams (preferred as they were stronger than lugs), which really stand out and confer it classic status.

How did it actually ride? Well there seems to be an even split between the “dreamy” and “deathtrap” camps, so we’ll refer you back to that same early tech blurb. “The Galibier has a certain elasticity which allows it to flex in such a manner that the shocks received on the wheels are efficiently damped, and this noticeably improves the holding of the road.”

Illustration: David Sparshott

THE OBJECT OF this superior design, which incorporates larger dimension tubes, is to present a higher resistance in the transverse direction, thereby resulting in a more efficient drive which uses to advantage every ounce of the cyclist’s effort.” Just the sort of jargon-stuffed, marketing hyperbole that you find on every bike brand website today – only these words were penned in 1947, to announce and explain the highly unorthodox design of the Paris Galibier. And you can just imagine the waves it caused back in post-war Britain.

Paris Cycles was set up by Harry Rensch – known as ‘Spanner’ as his name sounded like ‘wrench’ – during WWII, though he was already well known in the 1930s for building lightweight bicycles using a lugless concept that he called ‘bronze welding’. It is thought Rensch changed the company’s name to Paris Cycles to avoid the violent anti-German feeling in London after the Blitz and the new business was run out of his home at 133 Stoke Newington Church Street.

He initially produced traditional-looking bikes, though it was the Galibier which quickly garnered the most plaudits, and 74

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