The Dutch bike – the omafiets, or grandmother bike – seems to be as Dutch as tulips and clogs. Just as tulips and clogs are not Dutch (tulips were first commercially grown in Persia and wooden shoes are global) the […]
Continue ReadingWhy hasn’t the UK got Dutch-style cycle networks in every town, city and village? Partly it’s down to culture: the Netherlands has had 100+ years of bicycle-based national identification. This is so strong that the Dutch bike – the omafiets, […]
Continue ReadingTeam Sky’s Chris Froome may be an awesome climber but he can’t fly. This Sky Cyclist can. Well, on paper anyway. The unknown fellow is shown piloting his bicycle above an engineering works in New York state. The illustration below […]
Continue ReadingThe following is from A Treatise on Roads and Pavements of 1903 by Ira Osborn Baker, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois. A bicycle in the eyes of the law is a vehicle and is entitled to […]
Continue ReadingLondon. Late evening of July 16th, 1898. “We’re nearing Millbank Penitentiary, at last,” said Sherlock Holmes. Dr Watson, familiar with his friend’s powers of deduction nevertheless expressed his surprise. “How the deuce do you know that?” he said. “I can’t […]
Continue ReadingFearful of foot-pads? Scared by tramps? Need some steam-punk fighting techniques for use when riding past ne’er-do-wells? Here’s some useful Edwardian advice on “self-protection on a cycle” and “how you may best defend yourself when attacked by modern highwaymen.” “It […]
Continue ReadingEnglish dramatist, novelist, poet and all-round bon vivant George R. Sims was one of the star journalists of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. His views were sought on all manner of subjects and he could command stellar fees. No […]
Continue ReadingVictorian touring cyclists from Britain often complained about the rough granite setts used in Belgium, setts now famous as the pavé to be found on about 50kms of today’s Paris-Roubaix road race. 19th Century cyclists preferred macadam surfaces (small stones […]
Continue ReadingCollaborative mapping resource OpenStreetMap was created in 2004 as the ‘wikipedia of maps’. Much of the early digital mapping was crowdsourced by geek-cyclists. OpenCycleMap, Cyclestreets, and smartphone apps such as the one I commissioned for BikeHub, are initiatives that prove […]
Continue ReadingAA President Edmund King is hot on dispelling the myth that motorists and cyclists come from different planets. In a ‘Two Tribes’ presentation given to a road safety conference he said: “We really must get past this dangerous ‘them and […]
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