London Cyclist Spring 2025

BIG IDEAS FOR LONDON

FREEDOM AFTER DARK: RIDE & REPORT

JAMES MAY INTERVIEW MEET THE BIKE SHOPS

URGENT ACTION ON JUNCTIONS

LCC’S BIKE SHOP NETWORK

News | Features | London | Travel | Ride Guide

Photo: Andy Donohoe

Spring is in the air: and when the sun’s out there’s no better place to be than cycling alongside one of London’s waterways

FEATURES

16 Freedom After Dark

A look at the latest women’s network report and its findings on ‘social safety’

24 Interview

We discuss the joys of cycling, favourite rides and bikes with TV’s James May

30 Meet The Bike Shops

Say hello to the faces behind some of the city’s thriving independent stores

38 Big Ideas for London

What if everyone in London had a bike?

Part two of our ‘dare to dream’ series

44 Dangerous Junctions

Too weak, Sadiq! We’re calling out inaction and demanding safer cycling for all

REGULARS

08 News

Updates on Silvertown Tunnel, a new festival of cycling and LCC skills summit

11 Columns

Saluting brilliant volunteers, plus future campaigning and local bike buses

74 Iconic Bikes

In the golden age of cycle development, why was Premier’s A93 a tech pioneer?

RIDE GUIDE

53 Ride

Join us on a glorious tour of coastal paths and quiet tracks from the town of Rye

58 Reviews

Raleigh’s Trace gets ridden and rated; grouptest of minipumps and inflators

65 Bike Shops Directory

Comprehensive listing of 160+ shops that offer discounts to LCC members

EDITORIAL

Cycling, safety and inclusion

Cover photo: Andy Donohoe

Location:

Surrey Quays

LONDON CYCLIST

Unit 206, The Record Hall, 16-16A Baldwin’s Gardens, London EC1N 7RJ n 020 7234 9310 n lcc.org.uk

EDITORIAL

ITTHERE’S A FEW things that you take for granted as an experienced cyclist: from how to do basic repairs or the best places to position yourself on the road, to recognising within seconds if a location is secure enough to leave your bike or not. As a male cyclist there’s something else you’re not likely to consider very often either and that’s the dangers you might face while out riding. And I don’t mean from inattentive drivers, or folks who think it’s funny to deliberately step off the kerb into your path. What I’m referring to is ‘social safety’, where you are, or feel, at threat to violence, intimidation and other negative behaviour. But, sadly, things are very different for female cyclists, particularly after dark. LCC’s latest report found that 85km of TfL’s designated cycleways are socially unsafe at night, with some individual tracks — like the Grand Union Canal and Greenway — being unsafe in their entirety during those hours. Such ‘part-time routes’ — great by daylight, perilous come nightfall — mean many female cyclists simply stop cycling, or have to choose a traffic-choked alternative. So in these pages we suggest five ways the Mayor, councils and police can make the city’s main cycle network more inviting and inclusive for all.

Elsewhere, bike shop owners tell us how they got started and what they love most about their communities, while our comprehensive directory details 160+ independent stores where LCC members can get a discount!

John Kitchiner Editor

LCC MEMBERS’ LEGAL HELPLINE

Osbornes Law 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.

Editor: John Kitchiner (london.cyclist@lcc.org.uk)

Design: Anita Razak

Contributors: Simon Munk, Melanie Etherton, Sam Stephenson, Tom Bogdanowicz, Jakub Mamczak, Tom Fyans, Izzy Romilly

ADVERTISING

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

SOCIAL MEDIA

TWITTER: @london_cycling

FACEBOOK: @LondonCyclingCampaign

INSTAGRAM: @london_cycling_campaign

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.

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SILVERTOWN TUNNEL

TO OPEN ON 7 APRIL

New £2bn river crossing arrives to overwhelming opposition

LONDON’S NEW road tunnel under the Thames is set to open on 7 April, linking the Greenwich peninsula to the Royal Victoria docks, and likely bringing more motor traffic to east London.

TfL claims the 1.4km river crossing will not add more motor traffic to the area, but this is widely disputed by transport experts and boroughs on both sides. The councils most likely to be directly impacted by the new tunnel have registered their opposition (bar Tower Hamlets), with Greenwich, Newham, Lewisham and Hackney all against. The Mayor and TfL also argue that Silvertown will be a public transport tunnel, with dedicated bus lanes in both directions and 21 buses an hour at peak times.

Charges will now be applied to Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels for most vehicles — with a peak charge at each of £4 for cars, £6.50 for large vans and £10 for HGVs. However, extensive concessions will be available for residents and businesses on both sides of the tunnel, and many driven journeys such as taxis will be free.

Cycling will be banned in the tunnel, but a free (for a year at least) shuttle bus is planned. It’s yet to be clarified if and how the bus will operate for trikes, cargobikes, parents carrying kids etc. And while TfL suggests there are plans to improve connections at both ends for cycling, the current planned stops are located in places hostile to cycling. It seems likely the shuttle won’t be well used by those cycling due to waiting times and the diversions needed.

All this summarises why LCC and so many other organisations oppose the Silvertown Tunnel, particularly given it’s £2billion-plus build cost — and while any walking, wheeling and cycling crossing from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf remains mothballed, and nearby Rotherhithe Tunnel continues to deteriorate.

LCC wants the Mayor and TfL to engage in an overdue conversation on transport targets, net zero, ageing road assets, river crossings and where motorised traffic should or shouldn’t go, and how they plan to actually restrict and reduce unnecessary motor vehicle journeys.

Photo:

TfL

MONTH in NUMBERS 24%

of TfL’s cycleway network (85km) has been found to be socially unsafe after dark. (LCC report, 2024)

7

7 TfL cycleways were found to be 100% socially unsafe after dark (eg Grand Union Canal & Greenway)

ALL-NEW FESTIVAL OF CYCLING COMING TO TOWN

ON SUNDAY 25 May LCC is aiming to fill the slot left by RideLondon and FreeCycle, both of which are postponed for 2025, with new London-wide local street festivals — showcasing walking, cycling, wheeling and outside play, and shaping the agenda for future city-wide cycling events.

It is a collaboration between LCC, Zero Emissions Network (that’s Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, City of London and Westminster councils) and other participating councils (11 in total so far). Local LCC groups, supported by the LCC office, the women’s network and cycling instructors, will lead rides in each participating area, while councils schedule other cycling activities.

Everything will take place locally rather than in central London, with the idea being to create at least one area of ‘ciclovía’, similar to the closed-road circuit in Bogota every Sunday. Although 2025 will be a modest start, the hope is it can grow to rival the Colombians by 2028.

FREE LCC COMMUNITY SKILLS SUMMIT

LCC’s FREE community skills summit is back on Saturday 5 April. We’re rebooting this full-day event for anyone interested in active travel campaigning, making it more interactive and fun than ever. Join us for a mix of sessions where you collectively work out how to make your local area a safer place for anyone who wants to cycle, walk and wheel — and it’s ideal whether you’re brand new to campaigning or a seasoned hand, and regardless of how much progress your borough has already made on cycling. You bring enthusiasm for change, we’ll provide food and fun.

We’re very keen for campaigners from across London to attend, but you don’t have to be active in your local group to get a place; in fact we’ve invited active travel campaigners from across the country too. So get tickets now as the event is imminent.

n Sign up at bit.ly/lccsummit2025

WOMEN’S FREEDOM AFTER DARK REPORT AND RIDE

THE LCC WOMEN’S network has produced another hard-hitting report: Women’s Freedom After Dark: Are TfL’s Cycleways safe for everyone, 24/7? In it, volunteers analysed and mapped the whole TfL cycleway network, and discovered that 24% of it goes through isolated places like parks, where most people, especially women, don’t feel safe after dark.

LCC is calling on the Mayor and TfL to make ‘social safety’ and directness a criteria in approving and funding all future cycleways, and to upgrade or reroute existing unsafe ones, so that our cycle network is safe and inclusive all day every day. To highlight this issue, the women’s network held a protest ride after dark on 6 February in central London, touring a few of the least-safe routes — but with safety in numbers and plenty of lights!

The report’s launch was covered by BBC London, the Evening Standard and The Times among other mainstream media.

Photos: Alistair Hall, Jed Leicester

Activists assemble!

LCC’s work would be impossible without its extensive network of brilliant volunteers, as Tom Fyans explains

MOVING ON swiftly from the cheesy reference to Marvel’s Avengers in the headline, I want to use this column to draw attention to the work of LCC’s amazing volunteers in helping turn London into a world-class cycling city.

Apparently, the definition of volunteering is ‘when someone spends unpaid time doing something to benefit others’. The unpaid nature of volunteering is very clear, but I don’t think we spend enough time talking about the second element, and who these ‘others’ benefitting actually are.

I’ve had three recent and very different experiences that have really brought this home to me. The first was attending a sombre vigil in Stratford, organised by Newham Cyclists, in response to the tragic death of a young man killed while cycling through the junction of Stratford High Street and Carpenters Road on 13 January. The group organised a powerful and respectful moment of reflection, but it was also very humbling to see how they engaged with members of the community with such compassion, listening to their concerns and promising to take strong action in response to another preventable cyclist’s death.

The second was seeing another of our local groups in action, this time in Redbridge at the launch of TfL’s Big Community Transport Tour, which will visit every London borough in 2025. Our volunteers, with years of experience, joined other residents and community organisations in sharing their views on the future of transport in the borough, and made sure cyclists’ voices were heard. And I know this activity will be repeated right across the city throughout this tour.

Incredible to see

Finally, it has been incredible to see the role that volunteers from LCC’s women’s network have played in the lead up to the launch of the new report Women’s Freedom to Ride After Dark — Are TfL’s Cycleways Safe for Everyone, 24/7? (see page 16). This has included conducting the research, producing the map, drafting the report and campaign materials, and organising a complex and challenging nightride with 150 participants in collaboration

“I don’t think we spend enough time talking about who these ‘others’ benefitting are”

Tom Fyans Chief Executive of the London Cycling Campaign

with LCC staff. For me, it has been the sheer number of volunteers so heavily involved, more than 25, as well as what they have done, that has been so inspiring.

But I guess anyone with an understanding of social change in the UK and indeed worldwide would not be surprised by the role that volunteers play in powerful campaigning movements. The Women’s Freedom After Dark protest ride on 6 February, to accompany the report, follows in the tradition of the Reclaim the Night women’s movement that emerged in the 1970s, when police hunting the Yorkshire Ripper told women to stay home at night to avoid attack — and its lessons remain relevant almost half a century later. Then, as now, the campaigning is led by female activists, determined to address the issue that one in three women who currently cycle in London stop during winter months, or after dark, due to a lack of safe routes.

Volunteers are at the heart of everything we do at LCC and I look forward to working with this extended team even more, and supporting them in the often difficult, tiring, rewarding and unpaid work they do for the benefit of nearly 10 million Londoners. All power to them.

A force for change

As new Chair of the board of trustees Giulio Ferrini looks ahead to a road that’s full of opportunities

HELLO! MY NAME is Giulio Ferrini, and I’m thrilled and humbled to introduce myself as the newly elected Chair of the board of trustees of LCC. As I step into this role, I’m excited to work alongside our members, supporters, staff, and fellow trustees to shape a future where cycling fulfils its potential for positive change across London.

A little about me: I was born in Italy but spent my childhood in a variety of places. These experiences gave me an early appreciation for how the design of our streets and cities profoundly affects people’s lives. They also highlighted the significant role that factors like the place you’re born, your gender, race, disability, and ethnicity play in shaping opportunities and outcomes. This realisation sparked a lifelong interest in creating places that prioritise equity, accessibility, and wellbeing for all.

I moved to London for university and quickly fell in love with this city’s energy and diversity. My career in transport planning began shortly thereafter and rapidly brought me to Sustrans, an organisation whose mission aligns closely with LCC’s vision. Here, I worked with local authorities across London and the UK to design and deliver protected cycle

lanes, school streets and lowtraffic neighbourhoods. These gave me firsthand experience of how infrastructure can change not just how people travel, but how they live and interact with their communities, and ultimately live fulfilling lives.

It was during my time at Sustrans that I became involved with LCC, attending meetings of my local Cycle Islington group, and the Covid-19 pandemic saw me working with the council on its People-Friendly Streets programme.

Continuing the work

Two years ago, I joined LCC’s board of trustees, driven by a desire to contribute more strategically to the organisation’s goals. So far I’ve focused heavily on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and we’ve made strides by conducting surveys with staff, trustees and members, improving our recruitment practices, and ensuring that our campaigns and initiatives resonate with and benefit a broader range of

“We can help make cycling accessible, safe and appealing for all Londoners”

Londoners. But we have much more work to do.

Last month, I was honoured to be elected Chair of the board. It’s a daunting task to follow in the footsteps of Eilidh, who has done an exceptional job steering LCC and will support me as vice-chair. I’m extremely grateful for her work, inspired by the momentum she helped build, and I’m eager to continue expanding our impact.

As we look to the future, my vision for LCC is rooted in equity. As London’s active travel ecosystem continues growing, I want us to be deliberate about how we leverage our unique and powerful platform to rebalance the scales, ensuring that cycling becomes a tool for social and environmental justice. By advocating for highquality policies, programmes and infrastructure that prioritise those who are often marginalised or underserved, we can help make cycling accessible, safe, and appealing for all Londoners.

This won’t be an easy task, but the road ahead is full opportunities. I’m excited to build on the incredible work already underway, and to ensure LCC continues to be a driving force for change. Thanks for your support, and I look forward to working together to make cycling central to a fairer, healthier city.

Giulio Ferrini is the new Chair of LCC’s board of trustees and Cycle Islington member

Start a bike bus

With delays to active travel plans, Amandine Alexandre and fellow mums took matters into their own hands

OUR BIKE BUS was born out of anger and a passion for kids’ autonomy. It started with a WhatsApp message. Another mum, Annahita Benbow, said: “I’m so frustrated. I take my son to school on my bike. But there’s so much traffic because of other parents driving their kids to school that I cannot imagine him ever cycling to school on his own.”

Our part of north-west London is hostile to cyclists. The roads are narrow, very busy, with parked cars either side — my absolute bugbear. We need to remove so many car parking spaces and create more space for protected bike lanes and cycle parking.

And yet, Brent Council and Transport for London progress at a snail’s pace. We were consulted about a walking and cycling route between Wembley and Willesden at the start of 2020, then it was shelved due to Covid, before being followed by a consultation in 2023 on a modified route. The latest I heard is that the work could start in the summer of 2026.

If we don’t have bike lanes, what can we do to make sure that children can cycle to school? The bike bus is a much more positive way to try and impact change than waiting for the local council and TfL to get their act together.

I had already been doing kids’ bike rides for a while. I started Harlesden Mums Who Cycle in 2021 with a friend and we did weekend rides for families. However, since then, we both grew our families, and our capacity to organise events at the weekend took a nosedive.

The thing about bike buses is that it is easier to fit into your day than weekend rides. Last year, I talked with Charlotte Claydon, who runs a bike bus in neighbouring Camden. She made it seem much more achievable to create a similar thing in Brent. Then, Jack Kershaw, a local LCC member, was enthusiastic about helping and we got a small grant from Lime’s Share the Joy fund. Annahita also managed to get a local estate agent to sponsor us. It all came together nicely.

Let children be free

Letting your child ride on the road can be a hair-raising experience. However, we need to bear in mind that children really want to be autonomous. My eldest, aged

“I want more kids to be able to walk and cycle around by themselves and enjoy life”

seven, grabs every opportunity to do things on his own. He relishes walking to school by himself and it helps that his school is round the corner and benefits from two School Streets. But I want more children to be able to walk and cycle around by themselves and enjoy life. Even walking in outer London can be frustrating and scary though, with so few pedestrian crossings.

In parallel with reducing the time young people spend on screens, we need to allow them to move more freely. It is just as crucial for their wellbeing. The bike bus fits into this wider debate and search for solutions to improve kids’ health. It’s a call for action: London has to be a child-friendly city.

As parents, we can create change. We’ve got to get organised and show up on the ground. We need active groups demonstrating what change looks like.

Initiatives such as the Northwest Pedal Express can snowball. Come ride with us. Or visit your local bike bus. Go to Worcester this April for the Global Bike Bus Summit. There are seven bike buses in London now, perhaps you and your friends could be number eight?

n With thanks to Lime’s Share the Joy fund. Apply for up to £2,500 for community cycling projects at lcc.org.uk/sharethejoy

Amandine Alexandre is the co-founder of London’s newest bike bus in Brent

CYCLING AND ‘SOCIAL SAFETY’

Why do so few women choose not to cycle after dark in London, including on dedicated routes? Izzy Romilly examines the key findings of LCC’s latest women’s network report

LESS THAN a third of London’s cycle trips are taken by women. Back in 2023, when LCC’s women’s network surveyed more than one thousand women to find out why, we found that personal safety concerns were among the biggest barriers. In few places is this more obvious than a cycleway that disappears into an unlit park, underpass or canal towpath — and yet, this is exactly what many of

Transport for London’s official cycleways do.

The women’s network has now done a detailed analysis of the whole of TfL’s cycle network to find out exactly how much of it fails on safety after dark — and the results are shocking.

It’s long been understood that the very real fear of mixing with vehicles like cars, buses and lorries on roads dominated by motor traffic is the single biggest barrier to more people cycling

their journeys. If you want more people to cycle, a good place to start is by (re)designing roads and public spaces to make them safer. In 2024, TfL’s network reached 353km of completed cycleways, while London hit a corresponding all-time-high of 1.33 million cycle trips per day. All of this is key to creating a city fit for the future, where Londonders of any background can choose to hop on a bike for their day-to-day trips.

What’s been less explored to

date, however, is ‘social safety’. Social safety refers to being (and feeling) safe from violence, intimidation and other negative behaviours. Surveys which explore barriers to cycling often don’t make a distinction between these two separate but connected issues: the fear of being hit by a vehicle, and the fear of being intentionally targeted or attacked by others.

We asked women about two distinct problems:

1) Abuse, harassment and intimidation from other road users; 2) Unlit and isolated cycle routes, where many feel at risk.

More than half of women who cycle in London told us that they regularly face a choice between busy roads with no safe space for cycling, and a route through dark or isolated places where they feel at risk. Even worse, one in three said that they stop cycling after dark and in the winter because of this.

So, while we celebrate the progress that’s been made getting London to a point where we can mark 353km of cycle tracks, we also need to highlight that many cycleways just aren’t good enough. Some — like east London’s Greenway in Newham, or the Grand Union Canal — are actively avoided after dark, but they are still counted as part of TfL’s strategic network.

In 2024, a group of 20 volunteers undertook the hugely ambitious project of mapping the entire network, coordinated by Kate Bartlett. Some of the key criteria for ‘socially unsafe’ were segments that were unlit, particularly isolated (like industrial estates), or without escape routes (like canal towpaths or tunnels), as well as having overgrown vegetation, blind corners or being a known crime hotspot. These findings were all double-checked, mapped

‘WOMEN’S FREEDOM AFTER DARK’ REPORT: THE KEY FINDINGS

WOMEN’S FREEDOM AFTER DARK

n 24% of TfL’s cycleway network is socially unsafe after dark — 85km in total.

n 58% of TfL’s cycleways have at least one socially unsafe segment.

n Eleven cycleways are socially unsafe for 70% or more of their length.

n Seven cycleways are 100% socially unsafe after dark — the longest are the Grand Union Canal cycleway and the Greenway (C22).

Photos: Izzy, James, Tom B

and analysed, with the help of ally Will Petty of Hackney Cycling Campaign. The results in a new report, Women’s Freedom After Dark: Are TfL Cycleways safe for everyone, 24/7? show that entire swathes of the network are unsuitable at night, especially for women and girls.

Of course, it’s not only women who worry about being a victim of crime. Most people don’t like the idea of heading home through a lonely industrial estate or poorly-lit park. Research suggests, however, that personal safety is a bigger concern for women.

TfL’s own research, for example, found that personal safety was a bigger concern for women, as well as Londoners from Asian and mixed ethnicity backgrounds, with 73% of women saying this put them off cycling. In research for Lime and Opinium’s 2023 report Tackling the Gender Pedal Gap,

just 19% of women said they feel safe cycling alone at night. This maintains a status quo where the majority of women rank cars as the safest choice for night-time travel, and 82% see cars as a safer option than cycling.

This is particularly intriguing because if you ask any woman who cycles regularly at night, they’ll tell you that travelling on a bike often feels much safer than waiting alone at a bus stop or on a train platform. The ability to get away from a threatening situation fast is, anecdotally, what’s so appealing to women who do cycle at night. Clearly, though, London’s cyclists are still too often faced with the choice of mixing with heavy traffic on main roads, or feeling at risk on isolated routes — while those unlit routes are hardly encouraging for anyone who’s thinking about taking up cycling for the first time.

Case studies

Take the Grand Union Canal cycleway. This 23km route goes through Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, Brent, Ealing and Hillingdon. But most people wouldn’t feel safe cycling here after dark, because it’s poorly lit, overgrown, has few escape

routes and some known crime hotspots. Access to and from the canal is often dangerous, and at some points it can only be reached by stairs — meaning that this is a cycleway that’s inaccessible for anyone who can’t carry their bike, as well as unsafe.

One survey respondent said: “I rode this once after dark because I was desperate to get off the dangerous local roads, but I will never do it again. I felt so unsafe. I couldn’t see far enough ahead to avoid the dangers women fear in lonely places at night — and there is no escape route.”

And the problem doesn’t stop with the cycleway itself. Because the route exists, and does technically meet TfL’s criteria, the five boroughs it passes through have no particular desire to fund usable alternatives on nearby roads.

Another example is Cycleway 10 near Millwall Stadium. This is a useful daytime route, but it’s

also a known hotspot for crime, including bike jackings. A parallel traffic route — along Ilderton Road — could provide an alternative, but that road is currently too hostile for cycling. Cyclists face two very unappealing options here: risk Cycleway 10, or take on Ilderton Road?

A final example runs alongside Hyde Park and into Kensington Gardens. South Carriage Drive (C5) and the path that continues east (marked ‘C’ on the TfL map) are official Cycleways, but they’re isolated and poorly lit. Worse, Kensington Gardens closes at sunset and Hyde Park at midnight — so even if you’re willing to cycle here after dark, you can’t. Just like the Grand Union Canal, this wouldn’t be so bad if an alternative, protected cycle route was available 24/7 — but there isn’t one. The parallel route is the hostile A315: Kensington Road to the infamous Kensington High Street.

‘Part-time’ paths

With 63% of London’s ‘socially unsafe’ cycleways being through parks, and more still on canal towpaths, these are often lovely daytime routes, but they become hostile after dark. The result is a part-time cycle network. Compounding the problem is the fact that TfL has no way of mapping or measuring these characteristics. All cycleways have to meet TfL’s Cycle Route Quality Criteria, meant to ensure that routes are good enough to be part of the network, and inclusive enough that a wide range of Londoners feel comfortable using them.

TfL’s criteria are designed to look at conditions like traffic volumes, HGV use and lane widths. But they don’t include lighting, or other factors that researchers identified as contributing to a lack of social safety.

What this means in reality is that it’s easy for local councils and TfL itself to direct cycleways through parks and along railway lines, rather than do the more politically difficult work of reallocating roadspace to protected cycle tracks. The result is that many councils, and too often TfL itself, pick a part-time cycle route — with some or all of it disappearing after dark — over an all-day, all-year inclusive one.

To put all this in context, the stated aim of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy and TfL is to get 80% of journeys taken by walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport by 2041. Right now, we’re hovering around 63% of journeys taken by these modes, which is significantly off track for meeting

that target on time. In addition, the target itself is unlikely to be ambitious enough to meet the Mayor’s pathway to net zero by 2030. As long as TfL’s cycleways remain unusable for 50% of the time, especially for women and girls, cycling won’t be a viable choice for every Londoner, 24/7 and year round.

So what needs to be done? We have five recommendations that would make TfL’s cycleways more inviting and inclusive for all:

n TfL should add ‘social safety’ to its Cycle Route Quality Criteria, (ruling out poorly-lit, isolated areas) and ‘directness’ (to rule out convoluted, indirect routes that are unsafe after dark).

n TfL should urgently bring all current cycleways up to the new quality criteria standard. Failing sections of existing routes, or entire

routes, should be upgraded or rerouted.

n TfL should not approve or fund council delivery of routes that do not meet the updated criteria. Cycle routes through parks are a valuable resource to be enjoyed, but should not count as part of TfL’s core cycle network. Transport funding should be reserved for delivering strategic, inclusive cycleways.

n TfL, councils and the police should also make leisure routes safer, with more CCTV and lighting in places like underpasses and routes that are isolated after dark, particularly at crime hotspots.

n TfL (and Active Travel England) should develop new guidance on cycle infrastructure and social safety. For instance, Dutch designs of bridges and underpasses could be adopted that are far more welcoming than British ones.

Finally, it’s not an official recommendation in our report, but we’d like to see a much better standard of signage on TfL’s official routes. Having to stop and look at a map on your phone after dark is not just inconvenient, but can contribute to feeling at risk in unfamiliar places.

On 6 February, we held a Freedom After Dark ride to highlight the lack of social safety on TfL’s cycleways. Around 150 of us dressed up in lights and shiny clothes for a tour of Hyde Park, Wormwood Scrubs and a lonely underpass beneath Westway, most of which was on the official TfL cycle network. It was fun, but we had a serious point to make.

We now look forward to working with TfL to build an inclusive network that works for all, at all times of day and night.

Photo: Melanie Etherton

JAMES MAY

Melanie Etherton meets the longtime co-host of Top Gear and The Grand Tour to discuss bicycles and why they’re perfect around cities

What do you think about cars in cities?

I hate driving in London. I always have. I avoid it. It feels like a totally pointless activity. And it spoils cars for me. It makes them boring and annoying. Obviously I’ve spent a lot of time over the years writing about cars and making TV about them, and I love cars, but I do think in my bones they don’t really belong in towns. Cars are great for going between places, like from London to my pub in Wiltshire. But within London I don’t want to drive the car, and when I’m down in the village in Wiltshire I don’t want to drive around either.

Bicycles work...

Bicycles are a genuine door-to-door transport solution. Cycling is fantastic in cities. Even Google Maps will acknowledge that a bicycle is quicker for some journeys than a car. It amazes me that people go to the shops a mile away in the car. The world has proved that bicycles make immense sense in densely populated areas.

Where do you cycle?

I live in Hammersmith and have to do a lot of things up in town: voiceovers, meetings and so on. So I cycle four or five miles each way. I quite often stop off at Russell Square to have a crafty fried egg sandwich at the cabby shelter. And, of course, it’s pretty much flat.

Have you always cycled?

I used to ride a bicycle massively when I was young. Me and my mates would cycle to Paris, or cycle across the Norfolk Broads, hundreds of miles. And then later in life, you rediscover it.

I’m almost loathe to admit it because I used to mock Richard Hammond, but it turns out that exercise is good for you and cycling is a fantastic way to do it. It’s low impact and it’s genuinely useful, in a way that jogging isn’t. Jogging is just undignified.

Do you feel responsible for promoting overuse of cars?

No. People were mad about cars long before we started talking rubbish about them on the telly. The second half of the 20th century was a massive love-affair with the car. It’s quite phenomenal when you look at the history. They’ve always been objects of desire. They’re capable far beyond what is required of them, but then that’s also true of our laptops and wristwatches and trainers.

Okay, but we don’t tend to get killed by our wristwatches…

No, no, indeed. Cars are marvellous things, but we have to use them with a great deal of care and discretion, otherwise they’ll be taken away from us. And it’s not, the government, it’s not ‘The Man’ — it will end up being legal tenability and the weight of public opinion.

People get very complacent driving cars, because it’s easy, and you are very protected and you’re very isolated inside your car. It’s easy to forget that there’s a huge amount of energy inside a car, even when it’s only going 20 or 30mph. I saw a bloke the other day driving a Ferrari around town very aggressively, and I wanted to say, ‘You’re going to ruin cars (and

especially Ferraris) for the rest of us’. It’s a massive privilege having a car and you have to take it seriously. That’s why my only remaining ambition, apart from not falling off my bike again, is to get to the end of my life without running anybody over.

We ultimately can’t have self-driving cars then, can we?

Because self-driving cars would have to be imbued with a morality, and once you try and do that you realise that cars are actually immoral. They are ‘kill and not be killed’ devices.

Do you only see cycling as a step on the way to a car?

No. The bicycle is the only thing in physics that seems to give you something for nothing. I’m still amazed by it now.

A bicycle massively improves the efficiency of the walking human being, and on the whole they are much easier to maintain and buy than horses. It is no coincidence that lots of the world’s great car manufacturers — Peugeot, Škoda, BMW, Rover — started off by making bicycles.

What should cycle campaigners do differently?

Be more humorous! The cycling lobby can be a bit po-faced. But it’s a joy to ride a bicycle. It’s free at the point of use, there’s no admin, there’s something very child-like about it — it makes me feel about eight years old. Be more fun. Emphasise the fun!

What do you dislike about bicycle infrastructure?

You don’t need vehicle levels of traffic control for bicycles. People on bicycles are really just pedestrians. A bicycle is just an elaborate bit of footwear.

As long as people cycle in a sympathetic way, and pedestrians are still at the top of the hierarchy — the world belongs to people, not machines — then it ought to work. For example, there’s a bicycle traffic light near me at Turnham Green in Chiswick. But really it should just be a ‘give way’ sign and we should allow for the wit of humanity. Not every action needs to be controlled. I find it slightly extremist.

What do you want for cycling?

I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe a central government Minister of Cycling?

What do you want for your nearby Hammersmith Bridge?

I live in west London, and when Hammersmith Bridge was first closed everybody said it was going to completely mess up traffic flow. Possibly it did for a bit, but then after a while nobody noticed. If I was still commuting to the Top Gear studio I’d find its closure a bit inconvenient, but there are other bridges. If they ever finish mending it, I don’t see why Hammersmith Bridge shouldn’t also have some shrubbery, some benches, a few little cafés and hotdog stands. Like Ponte Vecchio [in Florence] which has no cars on it. It’s great. That sort of thing was quite common in the medieval era. The original London had whole towns on bridges: London Bridge had about 600 people living on it. So I’d like Hammersmith Bridge to be more medieval. But with better sanitation. And less plague.

If you were Mayor for the day, what would you do?

I’d bring the bus fare cap back to £2. Raising it to £3 is a 50% increase, which is a lot.

It’s a joy to ride a bicycle... something is child-like about it — it makes me feel about eight years old

And I’d make all people doing roadworks in London accountable. If you’re contracted to do roadworks, and there’s nobody actually working on it, the managing director has to stand there and hand £10 each to every driver and

cyclist and bus passenger that goes past. That’s their incentive to get on with it.

What about anti-cycling opposition?

Some of it smacks of sheer bloodymindedness. Kensington & Chelsea Council says it’s not going to have any cycling infrastructure — well why not? There’s plenty of space. Big wide roads. Why are they being tw*ts about it?

Most of the anti-cycling rage that I read, like that nonsense in the Daily Telegraph about bicycles doing 50mph, is clearly just rubbish. The most I’ve ever managed according to my Garmin is 31mph and that was downhill in Richmond Park, and the world record is something like 40mph. I don’t understand how the editors and subeditors could have looked at that front

Long-time Top Gear and Grand Tour trio:

fellow

landlord

page and not thought, hang on a minute. [Ed — legal e-bike speeds are capped at 25km/h or 15mph, but electric motorbikes, with pedals and throttle, can easily top 50mph].

How would you change the driving test?

I was involved in the development of an app for the UK driving theory test. People go on about all sorts of ways to improve driving training: why don’t we test young people on the motorway, why don’t we retest people over 60? But I think the best thing you could do with the driving test is make a part of it on a bicycle.

Use with care…

The thing that really bothers me is road sectarianism. Quite a few people in cars seem to be somehow offended by people riding bicycles because they’ve paid all this money for a car and think therefore they should be rewarded for it, but often they’re just not

James with fellow bike lover Richard Hammond and

pub

Jeremy Clarkson

Photo: Amazon Prime Video

using the car very intelligently. And some people don’t use their bicycles very intelligently either! I find it baffling that people can’t get on a bit better and have a more of a give-and-take attitude.

You like a fixer-upper too?

I love bicycles as things as well as riding them. They’re relatively inexpensive, you don’t need elaborate tools to maintain them, and getting a bicycle to work really well is incredibly satisfying.

It really winds me up when people treat their bikes like crap. The Dutch treat all their bikes as chattels and end up by throwing them in the canal. I just don’t understand it.

Half an hour with a few Allen keys, a spanner and a can of lube and you can make a bike work beautifully. You see people riding around on quite tricksy bikes but they’ve got dried-out rusty chains or their tyre pressure is too low, and all I think is you’re wasting energy.

I don’t like seeing any machinery being abused, but there’s something particularly tragic about abused bicycles. It feels like kicking a puppy.

QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS

What vehicles do you own?

About seven motorcycles. Maybe nine cars. A boat. An aeroplane. Over 25 bicycles. Quite a few of them are ones I’ve built. What bikes would you take for TheGrandTour:CyclingSpecial?

I would take my Trek. Hammond would go for a gravel bike. Clarkson’s really bad at riding bicycles because he’s inept; he’d want something like a fat-tyred mountain bike with e-assist.

Favourite TV show?

My own — JamesMayandtheDullMen’sClub.

Favourite cycling moment?

Going past something that smells fantastic. The pub on the corner by Olympia on a busy summer evening with fresh beer… smelling coffee… kebab vans… the water in Hyde Park and the mulchy earth after it’s rained.

Highlights of the May bike collection:

• Mayflower: My first bike as a child. It has my name on it!

• Three-speeder: I bought my old three-speeder as a project years ago. It fits me absolutely perfectly. It’s not light, it’s not sporty, but I belt along.

• 7.5kg Orbea: I bought the made-to-measure frame just before lockdown and then added parts from the London Cycle Workshop in Hammersmith.

• Pub bike: I built it out of an old mountain bike frame and painted it in Richard Hammond’s garage. Four-speed hub gear with back-pedal brakes.

• 1980s Moser: It’s in very good condition, with early Campagnolo technology.

• Bromptons: I’ve had Bromptons for almost 20 years, before they were trendy. I’ve got three now, which is ridiculous, and I keep one on my boat.

Photo: Melanie Etherton

As we launch the updated edition of LCC’s Bike Shop Network, Sam Stephenson visits a handful of stores and workshops keeping Londoners’ bikes in top-top shape

EVERY BIKE shop has a story and, as it transpires, every bike shop manager has many more. LCC’s Bike Shop Network seeks to connect members with these vital community hubs and the wealth of expertise that invariably lies within them.

The six stores featured here each represent a different kind of bike shop. From the ambitious start-up to the family run dealer, the centre of local campaigning, and everything in between.

In visiting each of the shops it was clear, not just how much pride each owner had in them, but also in the service they have been able to provide over the years working as a force for good — from rising to the challenges of Covid-19, to supporting grassroots projects and customers’ everyday needs. Independent local bike shops all over London are an important resource and deserve our support.

As an LCC member you can enjoy an exclusive member discount at all the shops we visited, plus the 160 others listed by borough in the directory on page 65.

MEET THE BIKE SHOPS

OMA BIKES, HAMMERSMITH & FULHAM

Owner: Casey Abaraonye

How did the shop first come about?

When our son was little he was given his first bike, which we later sold on eBay for £1 when he got too big for it. So we got him another one from eBay, which later sold for £25. As we got more bikes, we saw that some that had been given away could be rideable again with only a few small tweaks. This led us into the buying and selling of secondhand adult bikes, which grew into where we are now.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of what you do?

The shop has grown to become a bit of an extension of LCC in the area. Also it’s not just about the bikes we sell, it’s that nice feeling when a family comes in and you see the happiness in the child when they first ride a bike.

What is the most challenging aspect of running the shop?

At least four in ten sales, both to adults and children, are to people who are replacing a stolen bike. When you factor in that not many children’s bikes are taken, it gives you a greater idea of how many adult bikes are.

Why join the LCC Bike Shop Network?

I was involved with LCC before I even became a member, through coming to meetings and hearing what it is all about. Now all these years later I’m the local coordinator for Hammersmith & Fulham, so joining the network was a no-brainer!

Plans for 2025?

We’ve always wanted to sell cargobikes in the store but unfortunately have never had the space. But now we’re getting in a range of folding cargobikes, so we can’t wait to be able to tap into the growing demand for them.

Photo

B ecky Mursell

BIKESOUP, SHEPHERDS BUSH

Manager: Cariern Clement-Pascall (third from the left)

When did the shop open?

We launched in 2022, perfectly missing the gold rush of the cycling industry post lockdown! And it’s been a real journey since then; it’s been hard at times because we’re trying to do something different and really lean into that ‘clubhouse’ type space that caters for all.

Now we’re undergoing a refurbishment in the store to really grow the social space nature of it. Exciting times are ahead.

What were the challenges in those

first couple of years?

We have made mistakes along the way. When we opened, we didn’t want to overstock and be in a similar situation to other stores, and yet that’s just what we did.

Being in the environment of Westfield has also brought challenges, such as having to stay open until 9pm.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of what you do?

I’ve always wanted to bring something new to the cycling scene. Opening a bike store in a shopping centre, for example, is unheard of. Then it’s the excitement of being able to take all the best bits of showroom stores and café/bike shops

and bring them together in Bikesoup.

Why join the LCC Bike Shop Network?

The work LCC does by providing that official voice, while being so aware of what’s going on in the sector, is invaluable. The chance to be able to support that and bring members to the store through the network was never one we’d pass up.

Plans for 2025?

This year is going to be mega. Getting this refurbishment done will complete the whole in-store experience. From servicing, to hosting watch parties, we’re so excited to be bridging that gap from a transactional space to a destination.

PEDAL BACK CYCLING, HAMMERSMITH & FULHAM

Co-founder: Nicky Redford

How did the shop first come about?

We originally started over ten years ago in Tooting Broadway market, where we stayed for four years. The developer of this site then got in contact asking if we were interested in what is now our current space, which six years on has grown into the store it is today. We used to also run a café as part of the shop, but now our focus is 100% on the bikes, and being a female-friendly space, when in some shops women might not always feel as welcome.

What would you say is the most

rewarding part of what you do?

It’s just nice sending someone out of the shop with their bike in a much better condition than it was when they brought it in. Then more generally just helping people start cycling, continue cycling or getting back into it for the first time in a while — it’s all part of why we do what we do.

What is the most challenging aspect of running the shop?

It was a very steep learning curve at the beginning. Both me and my other half Ria have been lifelong hobbyists but never more than that, so initially getting pricing right and managing customers’

expectations was tough. Then of course you have Brexit and Covid, but the less said about them the better!

Why join the LCC Bike Shop Network?

We cycle, we’re in London, and we’re all part of LCC whether we realise it or not. We all have a vested interest in having safer roads and better infrastructure, and LCC does a great job advocating for everyone on two wheels in the capital.

Plans for 2025?

Just to keep providing great services, and for our staff to keep learning, enjoying their jobs, and riding.

Photo: Tom Bogdanowicz

WALLINGTON CYCLES, SUTTON

Owner: Duncan Inglis

When did the shop first open?

My mum and dad opened the store in 1995 when I was 11, after dad was made redundant. They looked for a franchise to open with and settled on Action Bikes.

We traded as them for 15 years, but it soon became clear that the franchise fee wasn’t worth it. So we put up the Wallington Cycles sign and never looked back.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of what you do?

Getting non-cyclists enjoying cycling,

that I absolutely love. I’ve got a couple, Maggie and Paul, who sum this up. Maggie got a bike when she retired, and reluctantly Paul got one too. Cut to years later and they’ve been on cycle tours of Cambodia and Vietnam!

What were the challenges in those early years for your parents?

I remember them being surprised how busy the shop was. We even sold our first bike the day before we opened, with someone banging on the window asking to buy one.

Mum and dad were here seven days a week though, very long hours, and at the same time learning everything from

stock levels to doing your VAT.

Why join the LCC Bike Shop Network?

Anything that can get more people shopping in independents is something we’re all for, and it’s also great to support a group aimed at getting more people cycling. The bike trade needs folk who just cycle to work or take the kids to school by bike.

Plans for 2025?

What matters the most to me is just being able to keep customers happy. I know it’s not possible to please everyone, but if most leave happy then we’ve done our job.

RAT RACE CYCLES, SOUTHWARK

Manager: Pete Owen (centre)

Can you give us a brief insight into how the shop started?

I started in the industry working in various shops. Commuting in one day from Peckham Rye by bike I thought, ‘this place could do with a bike shop’. So in 2008 I set out on my own, first as a mobile bike mechanic and then in 2012 I had the opportunity to take on this place and Rat Race was born.

What were the challenges in those early years?

Having already worked in several bike shops it wasn’t too much of a new

experience. Though saying that, we opened on 8 December and my son was born three weeks later, so those first weeks are kind of a blur if I’m totally honest.

Like so many other bike shops, Covid was also a difficult time and the consequences are still being felt across the industry.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of what you do?

Looking after the diverse nature and demands of our customers is really rewarding. We have commuters, we have racers, and then those casual riders who might just go out once a

month. Keeping all of them satisfied means a great deal.

Why join the LCC Bike Shop Network? I’ve been an LCC member for several years and for me being a member is a natural part of being a cyclist in London. We’ve been able to help a number of fellow members who’ve come to the shop over the years.

Plans for 2025?

We don’t necessarily have any plans; we just hope to see more trade and more customers coming through the door and continuing to support local independent stores like ours.

Photo: Tom Bogdanowicz

LONDON GREEN CYCLES, CAMDEN

Owner: Roman Magula

How did the shop first come about?

When we opened back in March 2013, we were quite unique in the UK, and even beyond, through selling cargobikes. We did a lot of trade abroad, selling bikes as far away as Australia. As cargobikes have gotten more popular here that’s changed. Now it’s become a really loved section of the market, which has been great for us.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of what you do?

We’re fortunate enough to have a highly loyal group of customers because when

we sell them a bike, they know that we’ll look after that bike forever.

It’s also so rewarding seeing children going into the baby seat of the bike, and then all these years later coming back as 10 or 11-year-olds. So there are many families you’re able to build a relationship with.

What would you say have been the challenges?

Any changing market brings its challenges. We’ve now got a lot more competition, which was always going to come as cargobikes grew in popularity. But the good thing is that because we have that strong customer

base, we’ve been able to navigate that.

Why join the LCC Bike Shop Network? I’ve worked as a bike mechanic in London since 2006, and LCC has been the main cycling institution throughout that time. When you’re in the trade you want to support those organisations supporting a London that’s safer to cycle in.

Plans for 2025?

We’re opening a new store in Wandsworth, which is the first time we’ve opened a new branch. It was an obvious thing to do and it’s great to have a new space to experiment with.

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WHAT IF...

EVERY LONDONER HAD A BIKE?

The second of LCC’s big ideas to get London’s Mayor thinking seriously about his legacy, considers how we could remove barriers to cycling that go beyond routes. Simon Munk explains what’s possible...

SADIQ KHAN IS now the better part of a year into what could well be his last mayoral term in London, a term which is certainly his opportunity to cement and stamp his ‘legacy’ on the city. But what will that be? Currently it hangs in the balance somewhat.

Much of both the good and the bad is policy-led and technical fundamentally. He took the central London ULEZ, that had been advanced by his predecessor Boris Johnson, and made it,

controversially, London-wide. This has already had a significant impact in cutting pollution — many people effectively owe him their lives for that. But by 2028, that’ll have been in for years and an accepted fixture for most residents, while at the current rate congestion (even if from electric cars), crime, housing,and more will still be unsolved. And pollution is by its nature fairly ‘invisible’ too, unlike say, former Mayors’ hire bike schemes.

Similarly, the widely-opposed Silvertown Tunnel is due to open

this spring. It will be accepted as a fact of life one way or another by 2028, let alone 2038. It won’t and can’t be what Khan is remembered for, particularly given how long it took to arrive, how unlikely it is to magically solve congestion in east London and how, well, rubbish it is. Indeed, there’s little yet that’s obviously going to result in such a big ‘win’ for the Mayor in any area — housing, climate, economy, crime, nightlife.

So what will his legacy be and why does he seem so curiously cautious and adrift post-ULEZ?

What if the sky could be bluer?

LCC has been ruminating on this for a while now, asking experts and formulating our response. Our new campaign asks of Khan and London: what if Londoners’ lives could really change for the better, thanks to the Mayor? What would make the sky that bit bluer and put a smile on our faces? What would help us all get about that bit easier? And what could Khan’s crowning glory be? He seems to have bet the house on resurrecting a partial and slow-to-deliver scheme for

Oxford Street. But that alone is far from big or bold enough, frankly, for Khan to ‘own’, let alone to get the guy back on his mayoral horse and charging forward with vim and vigour. He needs something bigger, bolder, faster. So we distilled our work down to four big ideas that would not only see London transformed for cycling and help the Mayor really leave a mark, but also that could be up and running quickly.

The first of our four ideas was ‘family-friendly outer London town centres’ — a return to transforming our most cardominated suburban town centres into Waltham Forest style highquality areas the Dutch would be proud of, where kids and parents can cycle freely to shops, schools, stations. Our second idea?

What if you don’t own a cycle?

What if every Londoner was given access to a cycle? What if buying and storing a cycle was no longer the barrier to cycling they currently are for many Londoners?

We know what stops Londoners from cycling more — much of it is around a network of connected, comfortable and safe routes that enable the population to get from home to destinations without ever feeling like they’re mixing with loads of traffic or facing hostile and dangerous junctions. But cycle infrastructure isn’t the sole determinant for whether people cycle or not — and increasingly, where such routes are available as the start of a network, in pockets of London, other issues are coming to the fore as well.

One of the biggest issues Londoners face in places where there are already cycle routes is the simple fact that they don’t have a bike. Bike ownership itself is a barrier to cycling for some — most notably for those who are poorest. While for others it’s not affording their own cycle, it’s what they need to do with it that’s an issue.

Cycling is cheap, but…

Of course, we all know owning a bike is far cheaper than just about any other form of transport for getting around (unless you really do live within walking distance of everything you do most days, including your job — and remember it isn’t the city’s poorest working from home). But that doesn’t mean the outlay of a new or even half-decent secondhand cycle is within grasp of all Londoners.

Some people can’t even get on the first rung of buying a cheap bike. But for many more Londoners, the bike (and the money upfront to buy it) isn’t the problem: there’s also the space for storing it, and the necessity for that to be secure, plus there’s other issues around the reality of cycling being ‘cheap’ too.

For many, the cheapest cycles are also really not the type that they need or want to use, ones that enable them to start changing transport habits and swapping from existing journeys taken by bus or car. So what might be affordable to a single parent might not be useful for carrying kids to school, or doing their job, or carrying their tools.

In other words, in a city like London, simply delivering a network of safe cycle routes is a first and vital step to enabling far more of us to cycle. But it’s far from the only step. And while some bits of the capital now see kids cycling along main road cycle tracks on their own heading home from school, and women in hijabs cutting through Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) on the way to work or local amenities, even in those areas ahead of the curve on cycle infrastructure there are considerable issues remaining to get everyone cycling.

Of course, behaviour change programmes, support from community champions and more helps. But for many Londoners, as we’ve said already, just having access to a cycle is a big barrier.

Why owning a bike doesn’t work for everyone

ISSUE 1

— You’re a Londoner living in a ten-storey building or in a converted Victorian terrace, and squeezing a cycle along narrow corridors, possibly up stairs or via a lift, is awkward enough. Then where do you store it indoors? Maybe you can’t lift a cycle above your head onto a hook, or even if you could there’s likely a dozen other priorities vying for space in the lounge/dining room already.

FIX 1 — Massive expansion of secure cycle parking

Secure cycle ‘hangars’, which often replace existing car parking spaces with room for six bikes inside, or other forms of residential secure cycle parking outside the home are now rolling out in many boroughs. But that programme needs rapid expansion and the security of the parking needs improving, so you can leave your cycle there without having to spend hundreds of pounds more on additional locks, and achieve the peace of mind in knowing that it will still be there the following morning.

The Mayor and TfL need to plan for, fund where possible and ensure delivery of a hugely accelerated rollout of secure cycle parking, not just on residential streets, in estates and new-builds, but also at the ‘other end’ — we need far greater numbers of secure cycle parking hubs at suburban tube, bus and train stations for commuters, and we need loads more high-quality cycle parking in general to make cycling less attractive to thieves using portable angle-grinders.

ISSUE 2 — You need to carry work

or home life equipment, or (little) people, with you. Community nurses, delivery drivers, tradespeople, parents, lots of people have reasons to carry heavy equipment and/or small kids around when they go from A to B. It simply isn’t viable for most to use a standard cycle to do most journeys, or have two bikes available for different usages.

FIX 2 — Easier access to electric cargobikes

Cargobikes are increasingly being used for a variety of purposes, including for construction materials. We’re not advocating to switch the average tipper truck into hundreds of e-cargobike loads, even with an additional trailer, but even in construction, smart cycle planning pays off — with increasing numbers of big companies saving time and money by dropping tools and parts at sites by cargobike.

What’s needed is a rapid expansion of the cargobike loan programmes many boroughs have introduced, and using schemes such as Cycle 2 Work to ensure more people who want to try a cargobike out can and make it more affordable for those who want

to buy one. Ideally, government would subsidise the e-cargobike market and uptake, putting it on a more commercially competitive footing in line with electric vans for ‘last mile’ services — because while vans can carry more than the biggest cargobikes, they can’t dodge congestion like a cycle.

ISSUE 3 —

Forget cargobikes, you need an adapted cycle or specialist trike.

FIX 3 — A range of services and support

Just as with cargobikes, the Cycle 2 Work scheme should be expanded to more easily enable a wider range of Londoners to access a wider range of cycles on a payback loan or other basis. Particularly for

Photos: Tom Bogdanowicz

Disabled people the assistance government and the Mayor could extend doesn’t need to stop at a try-before-you-buy adapted or specialist cycle. It could also relate to rollout of personal charging points for electric cycles, parking space (for instance, some boroughs are only just beginning to roll out secure on-street parking for nonstandard cycles), extra equipment and more.

ISSUE 4 — Cycle 2 Work schemes require an employer.

FIX 4 — A longer-term, lower repayment level Cycle 2 Work alternative. Ideally run by the Mayor, boroughs or government for self-employed workers, unemployed people, students, etc.

ISSUE 5 — Nowhere safe to park, lots of stops. We recently heard of a London NHS trust that had used expensive e-cargobikes for a team of community health workers who travelled across some of the rougher parts of London. Within weeks their wheels and then their entire bikes were stolen. E-cargobikes are brilliant, but if you have to stop in lots of places that aren’t secure, there can be issues.

FIX 5 — Hire bike credits

The answer for these particular health workers was for their Trust to provide dockless hire bike credits. Stopping at a service user’s home meant simply parking the bike nearby (thoughtfully of course!) and picking up another one afterwards. Dockless hire is already clearly expanding the cycling offer of inner London, with almost half of all 18 to 34-year-old Londoners saying they use a hire bike weekly or more. But dockless hire can be expensive. So it should be available for employees in far more companies as a travel option, via expenses, via a modified Cycle 2 Work scheme, and as an addition

or alternative to company car and travelcard schemes.

On top, dockless operators such as Lime already offer substantial discounts for keyworkers — that should be expanded and aligned with mayoral/TfL programmes to ensure cheap or free access to those who can switch to e-bikes and need additional support to be able to do so. Indeed, hire bike credits could theoretically also be used for London’s poorest who don’t have space at home or secure locations for storing cycles.

What if the Mayor stepped in?

By now it should be very clear that the reasons why some people don’t cycle even when they live next to a network of safe routes and don’t have access to a cycle can be many and multi-faceted. But that represents itself an opportunity for the Mayor to make a mark.

‘A bike for every Londoner’ isn’t about prescribing specific services, it’s about the Mayor stepping in and TfL assessing which of the above services and ideas would reach those most in need of unlocking cycling — and which ones most rapidly and most cheaply. This ultimately would be a huge boon to many deserving Londoners, could be delivered relatively inexpensively simply by boosting existing services and programmes, and would prove popular.

So what’s the Mayor waiting for? What if he signed off on some of these ideas tomorrow? Many more Londoners could sit on a saddle, and get moving more healthily, with bigger grins on their faces.

Following the update of our ‘dangerous junctions’ map, LCC is more loudly calling out inaction on reducing danger and enabling cycling. Jakub Mamczak details the issues.

THERE’S GOOD NEWS and bad news on cycling and ‘active travel’ in London right now. The good news is that cycling levels continue to rise, fairly rapidly too. As we pointed out last summer with our London Loves Cycling campaign, nearly a quarter of Londoners cycled last year in the capital, and nearly another quarter want to.

At that point cycling was already at 4.5% of all journeys made in the city, which is now over 1.26 million trips daily — equivalent to a third of the trips made across the entire tube network. Cycling is now a mainstream activity. And dockless hire operators like Lime are also clearly opening up cycling to a much younger and more diverse audience — almost half of Londoners aged 18 to 34 say they hire a bike every week, and many more frequently than that.

Despite the growth of cycling, over the last decade risks to those cycling per journey have only marginally dropped, and that’s where the good news ends. Because while a huge amount has been done for active travel, in inner London particularly — and we have seen a huge rise in cycling numbers as a result without increased road risk (and it’s important to remember that cycling is still statistically very safe) — we still have a very incomplete cycling network in the city, with some boroughs that have nearly nothing. Plus the comparative lack of women and people of colour cycling, as well as kids, the elderly, and disabled people indicates we still

TOO WEAK, SADIQ!

have a long way to go to make cycling feel and be safe enough that everyone feels comfortable doing it.

Of late, however, it feels like the chain is slipping and the wheels on the Mayor’s Brompton are at risk of coming off. For some time now, LCC staff, alongside other NGO campaigners, have been telling TfL, the Mayor and the boroughs to up their game. We face conjoined and car-related crises of climate, inactivity, pollution, community severance, inactivity and, obviously, road danger.

The Mayor’s plans

The Mayor has committed to ‘net zero’ London roads by 2030, with his own report suggesting this means cutting road kilometres driven in London by a quarter by that date. But even if we make the extremely rash decision (as the Mayor and TfL appear to be doing currently) that net zero won’t happen by then and ‘pay per mile’ or ‘smart’ road-user charging aren’t politically viable, then that still leaves the Mayor, TfL and boroughs committed to a Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) that means private motor vehicles will be only 20% of journeys made by 2041 (they’re currently stubbornly hovering well over 35%) and that no-one will die or be seriously injured on London’s roads by then either. The Mayor, TfL and London’s boroughs are not only all way off track on decarbonising the roads, but additionally they’re also way off track on their ‘mode share’ and their road danger reduction (‘vision zero’) targets.

One target that TfL is rightly worried about is that of falling bus speeds. Every year, preand post-pandemic, bus speeds fall another 0.1mph. For the first time ever, bus speeds average below 9mph across London, according to the latest figures.

However, rather than face the reality of what that implies, we hear time and again that what is to blame for falling bus speeds is LTNs (Low Traffic Neighbourhoods), cycle tracks and safer junction designs — in other words, the fingers are being pointed at cycle routes and cycling. Except that simply isn’t true.

The 1990s called…

What’s missing is pay-per-mile road user charging and/or other measures to reduce motor traffic and pass the priority back to buses (and cycling, walking). Instead of TfL pushing for that, they’re weakening everything they should be doing more of. We’ve even (only partially joking) compared recent TfL junction designs to those the organisation was turning out in the 1990s (see page 48).

What seems to be happening — based on what we’re being told repeatedly by those in the know — is that all too often, TfL puts buses in with general motor traffic on the approach to a junction and therefore any scheme which reduces motor vehicle capacity and signal times coming up to the junction is therefore deemed beyond the pale, because the modelling comes back showing delays to buses. Basically, a couple of seconds of added bus journey time at any junction TfL has a say over is seen as worth more than lives lost or saved. This is, frankly, scandalous.

We know that TfL can move fast when it wants to, when the stakes are high enough and when stakeholders push them hard. After Dr Marta Krawiec and then Shatha Ali both died at Holborn’s junction cluster, action was taken

CYCLOPS in action: the safest type of junctions, here shown in Hulme, Manchester

rapidly to fix the junctions. This was clearly in part because Camden Council pushed hard for action and LCC protested.

LCC protests work

LCC protested most recently in late February at the junction of Carpenters Road on Stratford High Street. Here, some of the oldest cycle tracks in London feature terrible and outdated junction designs, with turning risks from lorries going into and coming out of the Olympic Park and nearby industrial estates. Four junctions in a row east of Bow roundabout are the most dangerous in Newham. This last, Carpenter’s Road, claimed the life of a man in his 20s in January, triggering LCC’s protest calling for rapid action at these locations, where it’s been too long ignored and with fatal results.

Again, this inaction is scandalous, as are TfL’s latest designs for its junctions, which highlight how badly TfL has lost the plot when it comes to its own stated priorities on safety and on its ability to innovate and design well. Because as usual, one London borough seems to be managing to deliver safe junctions, faster, where others seemingly can’t deliver anything halfdecent. Take a bow, as ever, Waltham Forest.

CYCLOPS & Waltham Forest

In Greater Manchester and across the UK increasingly, ‘CYCLOPS’ junctions — where pedestrians and those cycling are held until motor traffic stops, then circulate around the junction clockwise on their own signals — are considered the gold standard of walking, cycling and safe junction design.

Manchester at last count has about 20 of these built or on the way, Cambridge has one on the go, Liverpool too, and other cities not far behind. They’re so good even the last government briefly recommended them in its active travel design guidance called ‘LTN 1/20’. London has eight similar designs — and they’re all in Waltham Forest.

Go take a ride round the Lea Bridge Road junctions at Orient Way, Bakers Arms, Whipps Cross, or Forest Road junctions at Blackhorse Road and the Bell Corner, and you can experience the simplicity and safety of these designs that have tamed notoriously dangerous junctions. These schemes have got past TfL modelling and work, without delaying buses. Yet TfL consistently has not delivered them, TfL Buses apparently object to them, and no other London borough has yet to deliver them — with

only Newham proposing them as part of its Romford Road cycleway design.

Great Eastern Street? Too weak

The latest TfL scheme to follow this backward trend is at Hackney’s worst junction — the second most dangerous in all of London for cycling and sixth most for pedestrians — on Great Eastern Street and Curtain Road. This horrific junction in the ‘Shoreditch Triangle’ is so hostile that most people avoid it, which makes its injury and collision toll even more worrying. TfL’s new proposals are so weak, they led us to coin the catchphrase ‘Too weak, Sadiq’, calling on the Mayor to step in and get TfL to up its game. We’re apparently back to Advanced Stop Lines (ASLs), the painted ‘bike boxes’ at the junction.

We will be running an ongoing action for people to email the Mayor any time a weak scheme is being consulted on. We just ran it in response to the Great Eastern Street plans, but from what we’re hearing from our sources it won’t be too long until we have to use it again. Take the action at: lcc.org.uk/tooweaksadiq

Even pre-pandemic, we were calling out TfL’s inability to deliver proper junctions — TfL and the Mayor’s ‘Safer Junctions’ programme in the run-up to 2020 often featured ‘critical’ safety issues left in. Current Great Eastern Street designs take the junction from four critical issues — the worst objective safety design mistakes by TfL’s own scoring system — to still featuring two if built as proposed.

Worst example: Shoreditch Triangle features multiple junctions hostile to cyclists and pedestrians

Schemes weakened or delayed

Meanwhile, the long list of schemes we know about or are hearing have been weakened, delayed or kicked into the long grass because of internal TfL wrangling, continues to grow and grow.

C50 was meant to go from Camden to Tottenham, but now stops before the bridge at Finsbury Park and uses backstreets instead of main roads; Nine Elms in Wandsworth has apparently seen money the council was meant to spend making it safe diverted; the lethal Wood Lane junction and cycle tracks are still in limbo; Swiss Cottage, part of CS11, is now missing for most of a decade; Euston Road and Euston Circus remain dangerous with no sign of action. These are just a few key examples.

It’s boroughs too…

Of course, it’s not just TfL that’s failing London and cycling, it’s our boroughs too. Even relatively cheap and easy fixes such as Wandsworth Council filtering ratruns off Upper Tooting Road — the most dangerous junction cluster in London — remain not just ignored, but with a cloak of silence and cowardice covering them as more prople are injured and die. Many of the worst junctions in London and many of London’s missing schemes are not solely down to the Mayor and TfL, the boroughs are culpable as well.

The cry of ‘too weak’ is one we’ll increasingly be taking up with boroughs, TfL and the Mayor — and it’ll be featured in forthcoming actions we’ll be asking you to take for each proposal that could have been presented in the 90s or earlier. It is the flipside in one sense to our ‘big ideas’ campaign which asks the Mayor to be bolder (see page 38).

Because if the Mayor, TfL and the boroughs keep delivering weak, partial and poorlydesigned schemes that will undermine much-needed progress on walking, wheeling and cycling in London, just as if he doesn’t dream big and bold, the Mayor has no chance of hitting the targets for wider forward momentum London also needs.

THE BAD: GREAT EASTERN STREET

The DfT’s and TfL’s Junction Assessment Tool applied to TfL’s plans for the Great Eastern Street and Curtain Road junction — the second most dangerous in London for cycling according to LCC analysis — can be seen at haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/shoreditch.

On the plans, green arrows represent cycling turning movements so easy a competent teen cyclist could make them safely and comfortably. However, the five-arm junction has 20 turns in total, of which only three are green. Amber movements are fine if you’re fast, fit and fearless; red are nasty for everyone; and black arrows either mean it is impossible to make that movement (southbound on Curtain Road is against a high-speed one-way and not legal), or so incredibly hostile as to be downright dangerous.

The best bit of this junction proposal is the north-west corner which removes a massively nasty ‘hook’ risk and provides more pedestrian and shared space. But overall this will remain a seriously hostile, still fairly risky junction that only the most hardy cyclists will go near. When we were filming here, we saw multiple groups and families walking their bikes on the pavement past the junction — and they’d still have to do that when changes go in unless TfL grows a backbone.

THE GOOD: ROMFORD ROAD (pictured above)

These are a London variant of Manchester’s famed ‘CYCLOPS’ junctions. In both styles, the cycle track goes up to lights at the corners of the junction so you’re held until all traffic stops, then cyclists and pedestrians get green lights to move round the junction (cyclists going clockwise only in most designs). These junctions not only feature the best JAT scores generally, and are far safer than what was there previously, but feel far safer too — plus they are also great for not delaying buses heavily, if at all. So why won’t TfL and most London boroughs deliver them, in the same way that Waltham Forest and now Newham (and Manchester) apparently can?

THE GOOD, THE BAD

OSBORNES LAW was recently contacted by a female cyclist who was involved in a collision while riding to university.

The student was in a clearly marked cycle track, riding parallel with a car, when the driver of the vehicle suddenly, without indicating, turned left to go down a side street, knocking the cyclist off her bike, and causing her to hit her face and teeth on the car’s bonnet. The driver claimed she hadn’t seen the cyclist and just drove off — but not before the cyclist had managed to note down the car’s registration number.

The cyclist sustained fractures to two of her teeth, a laceration to her upper lip (which later resulted in some scarring), and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Megan Lambert, who was instructed to act in this case, immediately obtained expert

The cycling team at Osbornes Law explains why proper advice is vital in collision claims

medical reports from a plastic surgeon, a psychiatrist and a dentist. And it was recommended in these reports that the cyclist have future dental work and plastic surgery on her lip, plus therapy for her psychiatric symptoms.

Settlement negotiations subsequently took place with Lambert ensuring that the financial award allowed her client to receive all the recommended treatments and therapies going forward. In total, a settlement of £65,000 was negotiated for the student.

Of her experience with Osbornes, the cyclist said: “On the day of the collision I had been happily riding along in the correct

place. But after I was hit, as well as being in pain, I was in shock at what had happened and the driver’s response. Thankfully one of my first actions was to take a picture of the car’s number plate. When I first spoke to Megan, she was so reassuring and patiently explained the entire process to me. I knew I was in capable, experienced hands. Looking ahead now, although a little warier I’ve not been put off riding my bike and am looking forward to a summer of cycling.”

Ride Guide

“Osbornes Law took on my case after I was hit by van on my cycle to work. I learnt about them as a member of the London Cycling Campaign. I would recommend Osbornes Law to anyone who is unsure how to proceed following a traumatic cycling accident.”

Felicia D

FROM RYE BEST RIDE

THERE ARE PLENTY of great rides to try from the lovely town of Rye, but this is one of the most popular. It has a little bit of everything, from singletrack and quiet country lanes, a wealth of history and culture, to wildlife and stunning scenery. You can get to Rye easily by train, on HS1 to Ashford, and then change for the short hop to Rye.

This route has been designed to be possible for most cyclists in half-a-day, but with so much to see along the way, why not make a full day or overnight of it? Almost all the route is on dedicated cycle paths or peaceful lanes with only a short section of main road, so it's accessible for all.

And if you want to leave your own bike at home, local cycling gurus Rye Bay E-bikes can meet you at the station with bikes and accessories to hire, from £30 for half a day or £50 for a full day (ryebay-ebike.co.uk).

Martin Summers guides us on a scenic ride in East Sussex that's full of history, intrigue and gorgeous seaside towns

FACTFILE

DISTANCE: 26km (16 miles)

ASCENT: 150m

TERRAIN: cycle paths and country lanes.

SUITABLE FOR: all bikes; low gears helpful on the hills.

NEAREST STATIONS: Rye.

You can download free route maps for all the rides featured in London Cyclist. Simply scan the QR code here to access the relevant page on your smartphone or tablet.

Photo: John Kitchiner

Ride Guide BEST RIDE FROM RYE

S/F RYE STATION

From Rye station, follow the one-way system towards Hastings on the A268, which joins the A259 at the Kettle o’ Fish roundabout. As soon as you’ve crossed the roundabout, the zebra crossing and the River Tillingham, take the track to the right. This turns into a footpath where you must dismount to cross the railway. You’ll now enter a small park and, turning left, join NCN2. This area is known as Gibbets Marsh.

down to New Gate arch, built in the 13th century. From here it’s a short uphill stretch to the entrance to Wickham Manor.

3 WICKHAM MANOR & HOG HILL MILL

After a couple of turns you’ll join a singletrack path, along the base of Cadborough Cliff. This is also part of the Saxon Shore Way and the 1066 Country Walk and a popular spot for birdwatching.

You’ll shortly turn left onto Winchelsea Lane, cross the railway again at Winchelsea Station and head towards Ferry bridge on Station Road. After the picturesque crossing of the River Brede, you get to the hairpin where the A259 heads up to Winchelsea.

2 WINCHELSEA

Wait for any traffic to clear and, in a low gear, head up the main road. You’ll see a stone arch, known as The Pipewell or Ferry Gate, which you ride through and enter the town. Take the first right up School Hill to the centre of town. There’s plenty to look at here, including one of the largest collections of wine cellars in the country, but many people come to see the grave of comedian Spike Milligan. He famously wanted to have 'I told you I was ill' carved into his headstone, but the church found it demeaning and refused it, so he had it written in Gaelic so they wouldn’t understand.

Leaving Winchelsea on Monks Walk and then turning left onto Wickham Rock Lane, you carefully wind yourself

Now owned by the National Trust and featured in an episode of The Crown tv show, it’s a beautiful spot and well worth a visit.

After another little uphill, you come across Hog Hill Mill, a windmill restored by Sir Paul McCartney and housing his recording studio. As you join Pett Lane, you begin to get far-reaching views to the south and, on clear days, glimpses of the French coast.

This charming lane winds down to the bottom of the Pannel Valley, becomes Pannel Lane and then rises steeply up through some woods. One more up and down and you reach the linear village of Pett, with a tearoom, a cricket pitch and a couple of pubs; the Royal Oak is our pick.

Approaching the end of the ridge, and the village, you will encounter Chick Hill; the steepest hill in East Sussex joins Pett with it’s sister village of Pett Level. Slow down and test your brakes before you start the descent!

4

PETT LEVEL

Having turned left on Pett Level Road, after 200m it’s worth taking the gravel road on your right, past the tiny St Nicholas' Church and Pett Level Independent Rescue. Here you get a great vista of Rye Bay, from Cliff End to the power station at Dungeness. There’s fossils and dinosaur footprints to be

For hassle-free navigation, let Beeline show you the way. Plan quiet routes, follow them with ease, and record all the fun — Beeline is a cycling device that will change how you ride your city. Visit beeline.co for more info.

found below the cliffs and at low tide you can walk across a petrified forest dating back to the last ice age. Following the prom along the top of the beach, there’s a row of modern houses, the most famous of which was featured on Grand Designs in 2004. Just before the popular Winchelsea Beach Café, carefully navigate your way past the metal gate and join the path heading parallel to the beach. At the end of Dogs Hill Road there’s a pleasant green on the site of a failed attempt to build a new harbour for Rye.

5 RYE HARBOUR NATURE RESERVE

On the other side of the green is one entrance to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, a unique habitat, part of the world’s largest expanse of shingle and an important site for rare bird and plant species. Please pay your respects to the crew of the Mary Stanford as you pass the old lifeboat station; all hands were lost in the disaster of 1928. Follow the River Rother, past the famous redroofed beach hut and soon you enter the small village of Rye Harbour, with a café, pub, small shop, sailing club and RNLI station. There’s a shared path from the edge of the village back to Rye, or for those with more off-road interests there’s a path towards Camber Castle which starts just before the industrial estates.

BEELINE VELO 2

HOW TO... GET SET FOR SPRING

With the mixed and often harsh UK winter weather, plus unforgiving road surfaces, our bikes are fighting a constant battle against the elements. In this article, we suggest eight ways to prep your trusty machine (and yourself) as the season’s turn, so you’re ready to spin into spring. Advice tips come courtesy of LCC’s insurance partner, Yellow Jersey.

1. THE DEEP CLEAN

Cleaning your drivetrain after every wet ride might seem like a faff, but it’s essential; it helps your bike run smoother and reduces wear on components. After winter,

a deep clean is the perfect tonic: blast off dirt, degrease your chain and cassette with a brush, then wash with a soft mitt/sponge. Rinse, dry, lubricate and you’re done.

2. PROPER SERVICING

Proper maintenance keeps your bike running in optimal shape. As well as brakes and drivetrain, things to check include noisy bearings and wobbly crankarms, which can

signal wear and decreased reliability. Check all bolts and replace parts before failure. And if you lack the tools or knowhow, book a full service at your local bike shop.

3. LUBE UP

Dry, squeaky chains accelerate wear to the rest of your drivetrain components. So after every wash, always lubricate. Choose wet lube for the rain, dry lube for fair

weather, or all-weather lube for mixed conditions. Clean and dry the chain first, then apply a drop to each chain link, and wipe off the excess. Don’t go mad, less is more!

4. REPLACE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

At a very minimum, keep a close eye on brake and tyre health. Check brake pad thickness and, if running rim brakes, ensure your levers aren’t bottoming out on your

grips. For disc brakes, use dedicated cleaner to remove contaminants from rotors. Check tyre treads closely for wear and ensure tyres are pumped up appropriately.

5. TOOL UP

If you keep your bike well serviced, serious mechanical issues are quite rare, but it’s still worth carrying a tool and spares on every ride (in a saddlepack, pannier or bag).

Always take a spare inner tube, minipump, tyre levers and multi-tool (ideally with chain-breaking tool). Nitrile gloves are a handy bonus to keep your hands clean.

6. DON’T DITCH MUDGUARDS JUST YET! s

As spring weather is so unpredictable and the roads often still wet, don’t take your mudguards off just yet. Wraparound guards, which fully cover the front and rear

wheels, will keep your bum dry the best, and grime off your face and bike. But even smaller, plastic guards behind the front fork and under your saddle are worthwhile.

7. GET YOUR COAT

As spring can easily see four seasons in a day, your cycling wardrobe needs to be flexible. You’ll want to carry a lightweight rain jacket, but this can be swapped for a

gilet on warmer outings. Arm and knee/legwarmers are versatile pieces of kit, likewise Buffs/necktubes. As always consider baselayer, midlayer, outerwear combinations.

8. BRIGHTEN UP YOUR RIDE

And just because we move into ‘summertime’, doesn’t mean ditching your lights, especially for early mornings and late finishes. USBrechargeable, weatherproof

lights, with a range of fixed and flashing beam modes are the best bet, with plenty of side visibility. Check red LED rear lights are visible and not hidden behind wheels/bags.

NEW E-BIKES HOT TECH

How does Raleigh’s sportiest e-bike fare in the hands of a newbie?

PTRACE n £2,099 n raleigh.co.uk

ROBABLY STILL Britain’s most widely-known bicycle brand, Raleigh these days splits its range between classic hybrids and electric models, of which the Trace is the sportiest. Available in two colours and four sizes that should cover most riders from 155-190cm tall (5ft to 6ft2in), the Trace looks sleek, unfussy and comes as standard with commuter staples such as pannier rack, wraparound mudguards and integrated LED lights. The mostly Shimano drivetrain offers nine gears (11-34t cassette), Tektro supplies the hydraulic disc brakes, and the 700c wheels are shod with excellent WTB ByWay tyres — it’s far from a spectacular spec, but not untypical

at this price point and we had no reliability issues during testing. Obviously the key ingredients are motor and battery, and as our most experienced testers are already extremely familiar with the Mahle X35 rear hub motor (and have rated it highly in the past), we asked a first time e-biker to jump aboard and provide feedback. He undertook multiple flat and hilly rides, getting used to the pedal assist and general handling characteristics, and we felt a few of his observations were well worth sharing.

He said: “The pedal assist was a real treat on the flat, especially on blowy days. But having to regularly look down at the mode indicator on the crossbar was distracting,

RALEIGH

On/off and mode selection button

Superlight Mahle X35 rear hub motor

and trying to remember what each flashing or stable LED setting meant. And I think this caused a few initial problems with transitions when moving from seated to standing on the pedals, from hard cornering to climbing. Uphills were easy, the bike really helps take the strain, though I felt I ran out of regular gears on very steep ascents.

“The transition between power modes felt smooth and traction was good on and off-road, and you do feel a minor surge when pulling away from traffic lights. But I could never tell how much battery charge was left, which was a worry. Also having to move one hand from the bars to hit the control button didn’t seem like a great solution,

particularly on busy roads. Among the positives, however, I was surprised how light the Trace was, lighter than my own non-electric bike. And with a different control panel I’d be highly impressed.”

Our expert testers — who’ve ridden hundreds of e-bikes of all types — agree these are valid points. A wider-range cassette would certainly aid climbing prowess, and

FACTFILE

n Four size options to cover riders from 155-190cm (5ft to 6ft2in).

n Integrated lights, also controlled by the toptube mode selection button.

n Rack and mudguards included.

n Lightweight, easy to lift, at just 16.5kg.

the addition of a bar-mounted controller would put mode changes and ride metrics more readily at hand, as Raleigh does on all its other e-bikes. Every manufacturer does the same, in the pursuit of weightsaving and clean aesthetics on their sportiest models, so just be aware that it can take added ride time to become fully au fait. Before long you’ll be loving that simplicity.

VERDICT

+ Mahle X35 provides seamless pedal assist modes.

+ Battery range claimed at 80km, but we didn’t quite hit that mark. + Best suited to a city commuter.

Integrated front (and rear) light, controlled by the mode selection button

Battery charging port with rubber cover

Cables routed through headset spacer

NEW MINIPUMPS

Alongside a spare inner tube, tyre levers and multitool, a compact pump should be part of every cyclist’s on-bike repair kit. Here’s a few to consider...

TE BARREL-shaped minipump is still the cheapest and simplest form of tyre inflation, but now there’s also electric options — the size of a pack of playing cards — to choose from (just remember to keep the battery charged). Here’s London Cyclist’s guide to the latest products this spring.

#1 MUC-OFF AIRMACH ELECTRIC MINI INFLATOR

While electric inflators have been around for a while in the car/ motorbike world, where size and weight are less important, it’s only over the last year or so since the tech has reached the bicycle world, with the AirMach being one of the first products to market. It’s USB-C

rechargeable (taking about 25 minutes to top up), weighs just 97g, fits into the palm of your hand (64x56x28mm), and delivers up to 100psi of inflation. We found there was sufficient puff for a fully-deflated pair of mid-width road and gravel tyres (about 90 seconds each), or a single, higher-volume mountain bike tyre; but we used it most for smaller pressure top-ups across a group of riding mates. Wrapped in a protective silicone case, it’s a neat gadget more suited to the roadies/light off-roaders. n muc-off.com; £75.

#2 TOPEAK GRAVEL 2STAGE

It’s great to see this new addition alongside Topeak’s Race Rocket range, aimed at riders who use different types and volumes of tyres on their bike(s). A simple dial at the bottom of the handle alows you to select HP (high pressure) or HV (high volume); the former perfect for road, gravel and touring tyres needing 50-90psi, the latter for wider gravel/mtb tyres needing up to 50psi. For a 35mm Continental tyre it took about 275 strokes to reach 45psi, swapping from HV to HP on the way. It’s a super simple solution, though only works with Presta valves. It weighs 101g and

comes with the usual bracket to mount under a waterbottle cage. n extrauk.co.uk; £39.99.

#3 ZÉFAL GRAVEL MINI

Another new pump straddling that popular Tarmac-meets-trail middle ground, the Gravel Mini is as sleek as they come, lightweight at 105g and easily fits into a jersey pocket or handlebar bag. The clean, minimalist barrel hides an extending flexible hose under the topcap, which means you can more easily angle the pump to reach valves. The head can swap between Presta and Schrader valves, while the barrel has a magnetic closure to keep it from accidentally opening. It took us more than 300 strokes to inflate a 34mm tyre so, as with all manual minipumps, you need to be prepared to deploy some elbow grease when necessary. Bike mount included. n zefal.com; £33.99.

#4 FLEXTAIL TINY BIKE PUMP PRO-120

We’ve used a Flextail Tiny Pump for camping mats since it was first introduced, with zero issues, and the Pro-120 is a development from that. It’s pocket-sized — though marginally bigger than Muc-Off’s AirMach — weighs 108g and can reach 80psi in under a minute (with a potential max of 120psi). An automatic shut-off means it can be used hands-free and we found it could inflate up to three narrower 25c road tyres on one battery charge; it only took half-an-hour to fully top-up the depleted battery via USB-C cable. n flextail.com; £68.

Photo: Shutterstock

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Tom Bogdanowicz, JK

REVIEWS:

CYCLING READS

THE CYCLING CHEF: PLANT-POWERED PERFORMANCE

Alan Murchison bloomsbury.com; £22

Described as “a game changer” by World hour record holder Dan Bigham, Murchison’s latest title focusses on road-tested vegan recipes for healthy breakfasts, main meals, desserts and snacks. With between 5-10% of the UK population already eating a plant-based diet, it aims to explode ageold myths such as vegans all being pale and weak with poor immune systems, or meat-free diets being boring, by showing relatively straightforward ways that cyclists (and other athletes) can ensure they consume the right balance of carbs, protein and nutrients in a tasty variety of dishes.

And while the Michelinstarred chef’s strawberry brekkie risotto might not be everyone’s cuppa, we loved the quirky roasted sushi-style watermelon salad. Reducing meat consumption has to be a good thing and this level of detail should convert sceptics.

FORGED BY SPEED

Steve Peat adventurebooks.com; £25

Mountain biking is still a relatively new sport, only becoming globally popular in the 1980s, but in the UK one person probably did more than any other to promote its growth: Steve Peat. As well as a world champ’s jersey in 2009, he won three overall world cup titles, and a then record 17 downhill world cup rounds, plus multiple European and British crowns, with his celebrations being almost as famous as his victories.

He retired in 2016, at the age of 42, and here he charts his early days in Sheffield, his love of trials riding, formative experiences between the tapes, some of his near-misses, and the hugely successful years with the Orange and Santa Cruz teams. It’s a shame there’s not more on his mentoring, or events he’s run over the last decade, but as he still calls himself a “near-qualified plumber who was handy on a bike”, he’s far too humble.

This is the first book to take on the subject of road crime reporting by the public, aka dashcam or helmet-cam reporting. Close passes by motor vehicles, use of mobile phones at the wheel, parking on zebra zigzags, crossing solid white lines and running red lights are all prosecutable on the basis of video evidence submitted by members of the public. Written by an active helmet-cam reporter, this is key reading for anyone who wants to reduce road danger and send reports of incidents they witness. Once drivers are aware they can be recorded anywhere, it’s (hopefully) more likely they’ll drive responsibly.

Sielski draws on his own reporting experience but also interviews other leading cammers like Cycling Mikey (Michael van Erp), and BBC broadcaster Jeremy Vine, as well as women reporters Cycle Granny (Anna), Rebecca and Tina. The book cites LCC’s women’s network finding that 90% of female respondents

had experienced aggression or verbal abuse from drivers.

Sielski also shares insights from police officers who prosecute drivers based on third-party reports. Their key advice, is to “record, retreat and report”, allowing the police to take action “when appropriate”.

The Met Police says that 40% of third-party submissions (between 1,000 and 2,000 per month) result in Notices of Intended Prosecution (NIPs), with most reports coming from dashcams, though helmetcam and mobile footage is acceptable as well.

To report a videoed offence first read the guidance at tinyurl.com/ roadcrime. You have to submit unprocessed video showing 60 seconds of action before and after the alleged offence, and within a ten-day window. Reporting an offence as a witness, rather than as a victim, appears more likely to result in enforcement. TB

RECORD, RETREAT, REPORT Lukasz Marek Sielski amazon.co.uk; £15 (paperback)

with team LCC!

Spaces are still available for the two biggest challenge events in the LCC calendar... London to Amsterdam – Six to seven day ride, taking in the beautiful surroundings of France, Belgium and finally the Netherlands. To find out more information about both rides, scan the QR code and head over to the LCC fundraising page: lcc.org.uk/fundraising-events

London to Brighton – Iconic ride down to the south coast, offering riders both a challenge and a great day out.

BIKE SHOP NETWORK

LCC members can access a range of discounts on parts, accessories and/or workshop labour at more than 160+ London independent bike shops

BARKING & DAGENHAM

Vandome Cycles Barking Riverside Cycle Hub Behind Riverside Station, IG11 0DS vandomecycles.co.uk info@vandomecycles.co.uk 07774 182308

Vandome Cycles Becontree Cycle Hub Junction of Wood Lane & Green Lane, RM8 3HH vandomecycles.co.uk info@vandomecycles.co.uk 07774 182308

BARNET

Bike and Run

128 High Road, N2 9ED bikeandrun.co.uk bikeandrun@live.co.uk 020 8815 1845

Broadway Bikes

250 West Hendon Broadway, NW9 6AG broadwaybikes.co.uk broadwaybikes@hotmail.com 020 8931 3925

John’s Cycles

17 Greenhill Parade, EN5 1EU johnscycles.co.uk info.johnscycles@gmail.com 020 8449 8993

Kisharon Bikes

25 Bell Lane, NW4 2BP kisharon.org.uk

bikes@kisharon.org.uk 020 8202 5540 / 020 8815 1845

Phoenix Hotworks

137 Station Road, N3 2SP

facebook/PhoenixHotworks phoenix.hotworks@outlook.com 07857 654050

RG Cycleworks

4 Lawrence Gardens, NW7 4JT rgcycleworks.co.uk rgcycleworks@btopenworld.com 07801 515840

The Cycle Store

201 Woodhouse Road, N12 9AY thecyclestore.weebly.com thecyclestore@outlook.com 020 8368 3001

BEXLEY

CyCMech 9 Gresham Cl, DA5 1EW bexleycyclemechanic.co.uk mail@bexleymechanic.co.uk 07984 645648

Chris’s Bicycle Workshop

283 Broadway, DA6 8DG chrisbicycleworkshop.com 020 8637 3766

Halcyon CC (collect & return service, SE London) halcyoncc.com info@halcyoncc.com 07900 698222

White’s Cycle Centre 124 Erith Road, DA7 6BU

whitescyclecentre.co.uk sales@whitescyclecentre.co.uk 01322 558 331

BRENT

Electric Bicycle Co.Ltd

711 North Circular Road, NW2 7AX electricbicyclecompany.co.uk sean@electricbicyclecompany.co.uk 020 8450 3272

Kilburn Cycles

173 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7HY kilburncycles.co.uk info@kilburncycles.co.uk 020 7625 4888

Sparks

Bank Buildings, 5 High St, NW10 4LT facebook/SparksNW10 sales@sparksonline.co.uk 020 8838 5858

BROMLEY

Coney Hall Cycle Works

47 Croydon Road, Coney Hall, BR4 9HZ chcw.co.uk info@chcw.co.uk 020 8462 1778

Deen’s Garage

439 Croydon Road, BR3 3PP deensgarage.co.uk info@deensgarage.co.uk 020 8650 0630

FAB Cycle Services

141 High Street, BR6 7AZ fabcycleservices.com enquiries@fabcycleservices.com 01689 490922

Mark’s Cycle Repairs.com

31 Tilbury Close, BR5 2JR markscyclerepairs.com mark@markscyclerepairs.com 07824 337891

Panagua Bikes

50 Hayes Street, BR2 7LD panaguabikes.com info@panaguabikes.com 020 8289 7802

SE20 Cycles

78 High Street, SE20 7HB se20cycles.com se20cycles@icloud.com 020 8659 2060

CAMDEN

Camden Cycles

241 Eversholt Street, NW1 1BE camdencycles.co.uk info@camdencycles.co.uk 020 7388 7899

Condor Cycles

49-53 Grays Inn Road, WC1X 8PP condorcycles.com customer.service@condorcycles.com 020 7269 6820

Crank Doctors

86 Mill Lane, NW6 1NL crankdoctors.co.uk workshop@crankdoctors.co.uk 07359 029094

Cyclonic Bikes and Workshop

511 Finchley Road, NW3 7BB cyclonicbikes.co.uk Ian@cyclonicbikes.co.uk 020 7018 9380

Flying Dutchman Bikes

188-192 Eversholt Street, NW1 1BJ flyingdutchman.bike enquiries@flyingdutchman.bike 020 7388 3688

London Green Cycles

4 Chester Court, Albany St, NW1 4BU londongreencycles.co.uk info@londongreencycles.co.uk 020 7935 6934

Lunar Cycles

Arch 66, Wilkin St Mews, NW5 3NN lunarcycles.co.uk bikes@lunarcycles.co.uk 020 7482 1515

The London Bicycle Workshop

97-99 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5BX londonbicycleworkshop.com info@londonbicycleworkshop.com 020 7998 8738

Underground Bicycles

229 Camden Road, N7 0HR undergroundbicycles.co.uk thierry@undergroundbicycles.co.uk 07729 320399

CROYDON

Blue Door Bicycles

7 Central Hill, SE19 1BG bluedoorbicycles.com contact@bluedoorbicycles.com 020 8670 9767

Re-Cycles 8 Godstone Road, CR8 2DA (no website) 07815 100961

Rolling On Cycles (collection & return service, Surrey) rollingoncycles.co.uk info@rollingoncycles.co.uk 01737 552268

EALING

CC Cycle Services (remote mechanic) cccycleservices.co.uk contact@cccycleservices.co.uk 07973 471204

London Bike Hub

Greenford Park Residents Association Hall, 18 Queen’s Avenue, UB6 9BX londonbikehub.com info@londonbikehub.com 07479 574572

The London Cycle Workshop

39 Bond Street, W5 5AS tlcw.co.uk ealing@tlcw.co.uk 02080755222

Town Bikes

153 South Ealing Road, W5 4QP townbikes.co.uk info@townbikes.co.uk 02034902684

Velo Mec

Kingsley House, 41 Lynton Avenue, W13 0EA velomec.co.uk

info@velomec.co.uk 07463 677700

Wheelpower Bike Shop

112 Broadway, W13 0SY alphaclearwater@gmail.com 020 8566 0044

ENFIELD

Auto Store Motor Factors

755 Green Lanes, N21 3SA autostoreonline.co.uk shop@autostoreonline.co.uk 020 8360 3611

Bikes R Us (mobile)

Serving Southgate & surrounding areas, N14 petebikesrus@hotmail.com 07949 066889

GREENWICH

BESBiKE

Unit 2 Workstack, 599 Woolwich Road, SE7 7GS besbike.co.uk info@besbike.co.uk 020 8050 3856

Cycles UK

135 Creek Road, SE8 3BU cyclesuk.com greenwich@cyclesuk.com 020 8692 3148

Harry Perry Cycles

Unit 6, 88-104 Powis Street, SE18 6LQ paulandkathleen.mepham@btinternet.com 020 8854 2383

1 Love 2 Wheels

12 Moseley Row, SE10 0QS instagram/1love2wheels.co.uk paul@1love2wheels.co.uk 07845 194895

OneSixSix Velo

166 Westcombe Hil, SE3 7DH onesixsixvelo.com info@onesixsixvelo.com 02030939506

Pink Cycle Works

Cheriton Drive, SE18 2RE pinkcycle.works cruxcycleworks@gmail.com 07514 674804

HACKNEY

A&S Cycles

69 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0NP as-cycles.com a.scycles@yahoo.co.uk 07801 438650

About The Bike

124ABC Dalston Lane, E8 1NG aboutthe.bike info@aboutthe.bike 020 7254 2513

Balfe’s Bikes Hackney

164 Mare Street, E8 3RG balfesbikes.co.uk hackney@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 3833 1544

Barclays For Bikes

466 Kingsland Road, E8 4AE barclays4bikes.com 020 7241 3131

Better Health Bikes

13 Stean Street, E8 4ED betterhealthbikes.org.uk bikes@centreforbetterhealth.org.uk 020 3479 7003

Bicycle Lane

415 Wick Lane, E3 2JG bicyclelane.co.uk info@bicyclelane.cc 020 3417 3635

Big Fun Bikes

Arch 30, Frederick Terrace, E8 4EW bigfunbikes.com info@bigfunbikes.com 07840 352032

Bike Mech

The Castle Climbing Centre, N4 2HA bikemech.co.uk jon@bikemech.co.uk 07762270616

Bohemia Bikes

Arch 9, Bohemia Place, E8 1DU bohemiabikes.org.uk bikesbohemia@gmail.com 07469 259763

East Side Cycles

145 Goldsmiths Row, E2 8QR facebook/stahsrepairs stahwcr@gmail.com 07308 612361

Frankenbike

16 Felstead Street, E9 5LT frankenbike.cc shop@frankenbike.cc 020 3417 0252

Fullcity Cycles

47 Martello Street, E8 3PE fullcitycycles.co.uk info@fullcitycycles.co.uk 020 3441 1831

Hub Vélo

215-217A Lower Clapton Rd, E5 8EG hub-velo.co.uk shop@hub-velo.co.uk 02034902110

London Bike Kitchen

16 Whitmore Road, N1 5QA lbk.org.uk fixit@lbk.org.uk

Push Cycles

35C Newington Green, N16 9PR pushcycles.com info@pushcycles.com 020 7249 1351

Perlie Rides

137 Well Street, E9 7LJ perlierides.co.uk 020 8525 5694

The Hackney Peddler

89 Stoke Newington Road, N16 8AA thehackneypeddler.co.uk hello@thehackneypeddler.co.uk 020 3095 9789

Two Wheels Good

165 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0UL twowheelsgood.co.uk ourshop@twowheelsgood.co.uk 020 7249 2200

HAMMERSMITH & FULHAM

Balfe’s Bikes Fulham

584-590 Fulham Road, SW6 5NT balfesbikes.co.uk fulham@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 7731 1700

Bike Stamford Brook

360 King Street, W6 0RX bikestamfordbrook.com service@pisquaredbikes.com 020 3249 0008

Bikesoup Ltd Ariel Way, W12 7HB bikesoup.co.uk support@bikesoup.com 020 3645 7619

Cycle Junxion West Brompton

299 North End Road, W14 9NS instagram/cyclejunxion sales@cyclejunxion.co.uk 020 3475 7778

OMA Bikes

325 Fulham Place Road, SW6 6TJ omabikes.co.uk bikes@omabikes.co.uk 07975 612368

Pedal Back Cycling

24 Lillie Road, SW6 1TS pedalbackcycling.com info@pedalbackcycling.com 020 7018 5280

The London Cycle Workshop 373 King Stree, W6 9NJ tlcw.co.uk hammersmith@tlcw.co.uk 020 8075 5222

HARINGEY

Brompton Haus bromptonhaus.com matt@bromptonhaus.com 07595 877141

Future Cycles Shop

314 Park Road, N8 8LA futurecyclesworkshop.co.uk shop@futurecyclesworkshop.co.uk 020 3538 0731

Sun Cycles

79 Broad Lane, N15 4DW suncycles.org info@suncycles.org 07948 345923

HARROW

CycleRepair

4 Honister Place, HA7 2EL imran.mamdani@gmail.com 07920 414519

HAVERING

Bike Doctor Hornchurch Unit D7 Seadbed Centre, RM7 0AZ bikedr.co.uk michael@bikedr.co.uk 07810 874756

Cycle Cellar

3a Tadworth Parade, RM12 5BA cyclecellar.co.uk info@cyclecellar.co.uk 01708 451406

Hornchurch Cycles

192 High Street, RM12 6QP hornchurchcycles.co.uk hornchurchcycles@gmail.com 01708 445521

Young Again Cycles (mobile) facebook/YoungAgainCycles Prefer contact via mobile 07870 392925

HILLINGDON

Bikewise

61 Swakeleys Road, UB10 8DQ bikewisegb.com email@bikewisegb.com 01895 675376

Lewis Cycle and Scooter Services

1 New Farm Lane, HA6 1HD bhewkrizja.mobirisesite.com peter@lewiscycleandscooterservices.com 07828 752887

Runway Cycling

Heathrow Cycle Hub, Newall Road, TW6 2AP runwaycycling.com info@runwaycycling.com 02089909720

Electric Bicycle Company formed in 2011. We want to combine great service and quality to give people a simple and reassuring experience when they buy an electric bike with our expertise and experience we will always find the right bike for you!

“Happy customers are our priority, so we will always support them in making the best choices.”

HOUNSLOW

Back in the Saddle Bikes

592 London Road, TW7 4EY backinthesaddlebikes.co.uk info@backinthesaddlebikes.co.uk 07852 521577

Balfe’s Bikes Chiswick

124-126 Chiswick High Road, W4 1PU balfesbikes.co.uk/chiswick chiswick@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 3870 1005

Dan the Bike Man

5 Baber Bridge Parade, TW14 0HP danthebikeman.co.uk 07468 566246

West London Cycles

74 Worton Road, TW7 6HG westlondoncycles.co.uk sales@westlondoncycles.co.uk 07522 292805

ISLINGTON

Balfe’s Bikes Islington

33 Essex Road, N1 2SA balfesbikes.co.uk/islington islington@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 4531 5550

Bicycles Company islington 251 Holloway Road, N7 8HG bicyclescompany.co.uk info@bicyclescompany.co.uk 020 3417 4644

Fettle Bike Repair - Finsbury Park 6C Tollington Park, N4 3QX fettle.cc support@fettle.cc 020 4538 5567

Finsbury Cycles Ltd

185 Seven Sisters Road, N4 3NS finsburycycles.co.uk info@finsburycycles.co.uk 020 7263 0007

Urban Cycology Ltd

184 York Way, N7 9AT urbancycology.com admin@urbancycology.com 020 3086 9363

KENSINGTON & CHELSEA

Chelsea Bikes

427 King’s Road, SW10 0LR chelseabikes.co.uk info@chelseabikes.co.uk 020 7376 3700

Flying Dutchman Bikes West

109 Freston Road, W11 4BD flyingdutchman.bike rich@flyingdutchman.bike 07762 366989

KINGSTON

Balfe’s Bikes Kingston

36-40 Richmond Road, KT2 5EE balfesbikes.co.uk/kingston kingston@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 4531 5552

Full Cycle Community Bike Project 175-181 Kingston Road, KT3 3SS fullcycle.org.uk info@fullcycle.org.uk 07421458835

Torque Electric

37 Victoria Road, KT6 4JL torqueelectric.co.uk info@torqueelectric.co.uk 020 3904 2883

LAMBETH

Balfe’s Bikes Streatham 87 Streatham Hill, SW2 4UB balfesbikes.co.uk/streatham streatham@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 8671 1984

Balfe’s Bikes Waterloo 69-71 The Cut, SE1 8LL balfesbikes.co.uk/waterloo waterloo@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 4529 7777

Bon Velo West Norwood 495 Norwood Road, SE27 9DJ bonvelo.co.uk norwood@bonvelo.co.uk 020 8766 9001

Brixton Cycles

296-298 Brixton Road, SW9 6AG brixtoncycles.co.uk

sales@brixtoncycles.co.uk 020 7733 6055

Cycle Fix London

338 Kennington Park Road, SE11 4LD cyclefixlondon.co.uk info@cyclefixlondon.co.uk 020 7820 0028

Cycleworks London

74 Bolton Crescent, SE5 0SE cycleworkslondon.co.uk cycleworkslondon@gmail.com 02075871725

De Ver Cycles

632-636 Streatham High Rd, SW16 3QL devercycles.co.uk devercycle@aol.com 020 8679 6197

Harbour Cycles

200 Coldharbour Lane, SE5 9QH harbourcycles.co.uk se5cyclesltd@outlook.com 07931 257637

LEZ Cycles

Arch 135A Mepham Street, SE1 8SQ lezcycles.com info@lezcycles.com 07936 738595

Marcus’ Bikes Ltd

Sandmere Road, SW4 7PS marcusbikes.com info@mysite.com

Orion Cycles

232 Kennington Park Road, SE11 4DA orioncyclesuk@gmail.com 07742 160817

LEWISHAM

Ben’s Bicycles

50 Brockley Rise, SE23 1LJ bensbicycles.co.uk ben@bensbicycles.co.uk 07562 984001

Compton Cycles

23-25 Catford Hill, SE6 4NU comptoncycles.co.uk info@comptoncycles.co.uk 020 8690 0141

Finches Emporium

25-27 Perry Vale, SE23 2NE finchesemporium.com sales@finchesemporium.com 020 8699 6768

Grove Park Bike Hub

268 Baring Road, SE12 0DS groveparkbikehub.com hello@mobilecyclerepairs.com 020 8050 5073

HM Cycles (Back to New Cycles)

150 Sydenham Road, SE26 5JZ facebook/HMcycles2019 backtonewcycles@gmail.com 07306 089574

Parts And Labour Cycles

148 Lewisham Way, SE14 6PD pandlcycles.co.uk contact@pandlcycles.co.uk 020 8265 2426

South London Cycles

290 Lee High Road, SE13 5PJ facebook/southlondoncycles southlondoncycles@aol.com 020 8852 6680

Varonha Frameworks

25 Mallet Road, SE13 6SP varonha.co.uk winston.vaz@talktalk.net 07840 672646

VG Cycles

74 Honor Oak Park, SE23 1DY vgcycles@gmail.com 020 3417 0436

XO Bikes

Unit 22/23 Lewisham Shopping Centre, SE13 7HB xobikes.com hello@xobikes.com 03301 331080

MERTON

Moose Cycles

48 High Street, SW19 2BY moosecycles.com info@moosecycles.com 020 8544 9166

The Bicycle Workshop

39 London Road, SW17 9JR thebicycleworkshop.london info@thebicycleworkshop.london 020 8286 2617

NEWHAM

Rob’s Bikes

50 Langton Avenue, E6 6AL facebook/robsbikeslondon info@robsbikes.co.uk 07846 738292

Wanstead Bike Surgery

40 Avenue Road, E7 0LD wansteadbikesurgery.co.uk info@wansteadbikesurgery.co.uk 07587 123323

REDBRIDGE

Biketrax

3 Cambridge Park, E11 2PU biketrax.com

sales@biketrax.com 020 8530 3305

The Cycle Store

613 Green Lane, IG3 9RP cyclelife@hotmail.co.uk 020 8597 0266

Woodford Cycle Centre

53A George Lane, E18 1LN woodfordcyclecentre.co.uk andy@woodfordcyclecentre.co.uk 0208 989 3200

RICHMOND

Bespoke Be Heard (Bicycles) Clarendon Secondary Centre, Egerton Road, TW2 7SL bespokebeheard.co.uk info@bespokebeheard.co.uk 020 3146 1441

Cycle Race

276 Upper Richmond Road West, SW14 7JE cyclerace.co.uk hello@cyclerace.co.uk 02031617568

Leftfield Bikes

13 Brewers Lane, TW9 1HH leftfieldbikes.com contact@leftfieldbikes.com 020 7193 1436

Moore’s Cycles

214-216 Kingston Road, TW11 9JF moorescycles.co.uk

teddington@moorescycles.co.uk 020 8977 2925

DIRECTORY

Moore’s Cycles

61 London Road, TW1 3SZ moorescycles.co.uk twickenham@moorescycles.co.uk 020 8744 0175

Richmond Cycles

425-427 Richmond Road, TW1 2EF richmondcycles.co.uk shop@richmondcycles.co.uk 020 8892 4372

Richmond Station Cycle Centre

Richmond Stn , Kew Road, TW9 2NA richmondcyclecentre.co.uk info@richmondcyclecentre.co.uk 020 8143 0228

The London Cycle Workshop

42 Sheen Lane, SW14 8LP tlcw.co.uk/east-sheen-shop sheen@tlcw.co.uk 020 8075 5222

SOUTHWARK

Balfe’s Bikes East Dulwich

34 East Dulwich Road, SE22 9AX balfesbikes.co.uk dulwich@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 7732 4170

Bicyclenation

83 Norwood Road, SE24 9AA bicyclenation.co.uk info@bicyclenation.co.uk 020 8671 6900

Bon Velo

27 Half Moon Lane, SE24 9JU bonvelo.co.uk hernehill@bonvelo.co.uk 020 7733 9453

Edwardes Camberwell 221-225 Camberwell Road, SE5 0HG edwardescycles.com info@edwardescycles.com 020 7703 3676

Fettle - East Dulwich

55 Grove Vale, SE22 8EQ fettle.cc support@fettle.cc 020 3488 1130

Machine

97 Tower Bridge Road, SE1 4TW machine.bike se1@machine.bike 020 7407 4287

On Your Bike

3-4 London Bridge Walk, SE1 2SX onyourbike.com london@onyourbike.com 020 7378 6669

Rat Race Cycles

118 Evelina Road, SE15 3HL ratracecycles.com pete@ratracecycles.com 020 7732 1933

Squarebike

7, Station Way, SE15 4RX squarebike.co.uk laszlo@squarebike.co.uk 020 7732 0707

SUTTON

Balfe’s Bikes Sutton

126 High Street, SM1 1LU balfesbikes.co.uk/sutton sutton@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 8076 7400

On Your Bike

49 Westmount Close, KT4 8FL onyourbikerepairs.co.uk info@onyourbikerepairs.co.uk 07902 621600

Wallington Cycles

3 Stafford Road, SM6 9AQ wallingtoncycles.com info@wallingtoncycles.com 020 8288 9909

TOWER HAMLETS

Aztec’s Bikes

4 Corsican Square, E3 3XS aztecsbikes.com hello@aztecsbikes.com 07488 878612

East End Cycles

116 Mile End Road, E1 4UN eastendcycles.co.uk

info@eastendcycles.co.uk 07857 395047

Paradise Cycles

256 Paradise Row, E2 9LE paradisecycles.co.uk info@paradisecycles.co.uk 020 3441 9220

WALTHAM FOREST

Abbott Cycles

402 Lea Bridge Road, E10 7DY abbottcycles@gmail.com 07424 542100

Bamboo Bicycle Club

Argall Works, 7 Argall Ave, E10 7QE bamboobicycleclub.org info@bamboobicycleclub.org 07446 930945

Bicycleboom

Midland Road, E11 1EA bicycleboom@yahoo.com 07440 083334

Bike Shack Leyton

26 Ruckholt Road, E10 5NP bikeshackleyton.com info@bikeshackleyton.com 020 8558 1144

Cycle Spirit London

599 Lea Bridge Road, E10 6AJ cyclespirit.com info@cyclespirit.com 020 7998 9210

Heales Cycles

477 Hale End Road, E4 9PT healescycles.co.uk info@healescycles.co.uk 020 8527 1592

Mamachari

163 Forest Road, E17 6HE mamachari.co.uk shop@mamachari.co.uk 020 8531 2585

Racer Rosa Bicycles

12 Friday Hill House, 7 Simmons Lane, E4 6JH racerrosabicycles.co.uk hello@racerrosabicycles.co.uk 07772 931543

Remedy Cycleworks

Patch Park Farm, Abridge, RM4 1AA remedycycleworks.com remedycycleworks@gmail.com 07833 054896

Station Bicycles

1 Upper Walthamstow Rd, E17 3QG stationbicycles.co.uk info@stationbicycles.co.uk 020 8520 6988

Soigneur Bike Fitting

Unit C6 Leyton Industrial Village, Leyton, E10 7QP soigneur.co.uk tim@soigneur.co.uk 07876 829677

The Cycle MOT (sales & workshop)

357-359 Forest Road, E17 5JR thecyclemot.co.uk info@thecyclemot.co.uk 020 3092 3210

The Cycle MOT (workshop only)

400 Forest Road, E17 5JF thecyclemot.co.uk info@thecyclemot.co.uk 020 8509 8883

Walthamstow Cycles

Unit 21 The Crate, Parking Lot, 35 St James Street, E17 7FY walthamstowcycles.co.uk walthamstowcycles@live.com 07790 56470

WANDSWORTH

Bike Clinique Ltd

Unit 58 Wimbledon Stadium

Business Centre, SW17 0BA bikeclinique.com info@bikeclinique.com 07951 125843

Elswood Cycleworks

98 Lower Richmond Rd, SW15 1LN elswoodcycleworks.com info@elswoodcycleworks.com 020 8789 9837

Fettle (bike repair only)

75 Lower Richmond Road, SW15 1ET fettle.cc/workshops/putney support@fettle.cc 020 4538 5530

Get a Grip Bicycle Workshop Ltd

19 Lavender Hill, SW11 5QW facebook/Get-a-Grip-BicycleWorkshop-Ltd info.getagrip@gmail.com 020 7223 4888

Goku Cycles

332 Balham High Road, SW17 7AA gokucycles.co.uk gokucycles@gmail.com 020 8014 5999

Phoenix Cycles

59A Battersea Bridge Road, SW11 3AU phoenix-cycles.co.uk info@phoenix-cycles.co.uk 020 7738 2766

Psublim inal

17 Balham High Road, SW12 9AJ psubliminal.com info@psubliminal.com 020 8772 0707

The London Cycle Workshop

125 St John’s Hill, SW11 1SZ tlcw.co.uk/battersea-shop battersea@tlcw.co.uk 020 8075 5222

Velosport

252 Upper Richmond Rd, SW15 6TQ velosport.co.uk info@velosport.co.uk 020 8780 1978

XO Bikes

6 Garratt Lane, SW18 4FT xobikes.com

hello@xobikes.com 03303 301080

WESTMINSTER

Balfe’s Bikes Notting Hill

106 Westbourne Grove, W2 5RU balfesbikes.co.uk/notting-hill nottinghill@balfesbikes.co.uk 020 4541 0555

Fettle Hyde Park

29 Kendal Street, St George’s Fields, W2 2AW fettle.cc/workshops/hyde-park support@fettle.cc 020 4538 3179

Fudge & Sons

564-566 Harrow Road, W9 3QH fudgeandsons.com

sales@fudgeandsons.com 020 8969 5991

Westminster Wheels

41-45 Church Street, NW8 8ES westminsterwheels.co.uk admin@westminsterwheels.co.uk 020 3302 7767

BIKE SHOP NETWORK

LCC members can now get discounts on parts, accessories and workshop labour in more than 160 London bike shops. Find out more at lcc.org.uk/ membership.

Premier A93

Few models emerging from the golden age of bicycle development showcased as much ‘tech’ in one place as the A93, says John Kitchiner

THE LATE Victorian era was undoubtedy the golden age for bicycle development. Still decades away from the distraction and world-reshaping wrought by the internal combustion engine, draughtsmen, inventors and home tinkerers alike focussed their efforts on refining the emerging and exciting two-wheeled (sometimes three or four) transport options.

Of course, the first velocipedes had existed much earlier, since German Karl Dreis’s laufmaschine (‘running machine’ in English) in 1817. Made from wood and metal, these were effectively adult-scaled ‘balance bikes’, like the ones kids use today. However these ‘swiftwalkers’ — also referred to as ‘dandy horses’ as they were popular among dandies, the hipsters of their time — were frequently used for long distance journeys. They laid the foundations for the formative pedal-equipped bicycles that came out of France in the second half of the century, most famously the Michaux ‘boneshaker’, then the myriad versions of the ‘ordinary’ and ‘penny farthing’.

By the time John Kemp Starley had introduced the Rover,

a chain-driven safety bicycle, in 1884, the gloves were truly off in the manufacturing world as technology advanced at a rapid pace. The Premier Cycle Company of Coventry, already well-known for its component innovation, produced several unusual and interesting designs, of which the A93 model became a standout rolling showcase of curiosities.

Most significant was the use of helical frame tubing — spirally-wound steel of varying thickness — to reduce weight. Added to that was a wraparound mudguard that formed a structural part of the frameset, with the pedals and chainring attached at the front end, plus a three-part ‘seat-tube’ tower on which to mount the saddle. The latter mirrored in miniature a concept used on old boneshakers, where saddles perched on a long flat spring, like a modern-day toptube (crossbar), to absorb shocks from poor road surfaces. The wheels too, with six spokes connected to extended leaf springs, aimed to improve comfort. But perhaps the strangest addition was a lever-actuated rod ‘brake’ that pushed a disc down directly onto the tyre. All told, it was an incredible amount of tech for the period and helped secure a royal warrant in 1897.

Illustration : David Sparshott

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NEW-MEMBER BENEFITS

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