Towing a Dead Bike (that's cycling speak for a bike without a rider)

I can only presume its a dead bike as it has no pulse to propel it. I do love a good 'term' for something.

Please feel free to educate me on any other cycling terminology that's amusing or the real reason why a dead bike is a dead bike.

There are many times I want to cycle to school with Ol but cant.

Wednesdays are a good example. In my effort to get people off their arses, we started a Walking Bus one day a week. One day a week meant it was manageable for even the most hardcore of bone idle parent. Even those at the mercy of their work schedule were cajoled and coerced into submission.

But it also meant that I had to, if I were to be such a vociferous advocate of the merits of walking and more importantly, not driving, be there week in week out to help coordinate the bus. It is sometimes thankless (although not very often), the kids love it and thanks to the school being bold enough to prevent parents parking along half of the road (dont ask) we have managed to create social convention.

It is now very much a social faux pas to drive on that particular day. It has made the road a wonderful environment for everyone and its means that the staunch car users get a better deal, as they no longer have to negotiate the hideous traffic outside school. They simply drop off their children with us and leggit. No waiting for ten minutes to turn around or the ever familiar gridlock of a small residental street plagued with the school run traffic.

So back to the cycling issue.

There is also the problem that the school has no cycle parking. Not a sausage. Ol has a nice bike. I'm not about to leave it chained to a fence that is easily cut.

This left me with a dilemma. If he cycles to school, what to do with his bike??? Or if he doesn't cycle there, how to get his bike in so he can at least cycle home?

Today I attempted my first basic tow. The plan was to strap the front wheel with bungees to the Blackburn rack on my bike.


 


I had only got 20 metres along the road by the time it had gone sideways and was trying to sneak past me! A few minor adjustments meant that as long as we went in a straight line it was ok. (we? Why am I saying we??)

Roundabouts were a disaster. Never to be repeated and in the end I got off and pushed. But nevertheless I got his bike and mine to where it needed to be.

It did make me long for the simplicity of the tagalong. If you are at this stage with your kids enjoy it. It all becomes some much more complex when they are independent cyclists. I have thought about a trailgator, but I am resisting as I am sure we can find a solution from what we have.

Any thoughts or suggestions very gratefully received!

I probably need a good engineer.....

A Poll - Cycling to School

I have had to take down the poll as my HTML wasnt working properly.  I will try again.

Cycling in the National Curriculum

I write this not with a cast iron view, but more as a cathartic process to explore my own thoughts and to open the floor to the views of others.

As I write, the collective 'powers that be' in cycling, British Cycling and the CTC are asking their members to urge the DoE to put Cycling on the National Curriculum, utilising a consultation the department are going through. 

"This consultation sets out the Government’s plans to reform the National Curriculum in England. It follows a review of the National Curriculum which was launched in January 2011 with the following aims:

• to ensure that the new National Curriculum embodies rigour and high standards and creates coherence in what is taught in schools
• to ensure that all children are taught the essential knowledge in the key subject disciplines
• beyond that core, to allow teachers greater freedom to use their professionalism and expertise to help all children realise their potential.

The National Curriculum continues to be statutory for all maintained schools. It also guides much of what is taught in many schools that have opted for academy status."

https://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationid=1881

On the surface, the idea that the collective membership of the CTC and BC are called to arms for the greater good of preserving childhoods, seems like a noble cause.  But part of me cannot help but feel cynical.

The idea that all children having Bikeability training will somehow result in a mass uptake in cycling is laughable at the very least.  In Trafford, all children in year 5/6 receive Bikeability training, yet where are the bike sheds in the local secondary schools groaning under the weight of these newly converted to the church of two wheels?

Its simply doesn't happen.  The danger their parents feel they will be in when they cycle, whether real or perceived, means that more often than not, most children never touch their bike again apart from the odd ramble in Centreparks or the local park. 

I also can't help shake the feeling, that certain organisations are trying to line their pockets. An increase in cycle training provision, sounds like jobs for the boys to me. Especially when one of the main campaigners also provides said training....

"British Cycling has delivered Bikeability training to thousands of adults and children since 2009 through schools and summer holiday courses. Over 2,000 young people have participated in Bikeability training with British Cycling since 2009. British Cycling has also trained over 600 Bikeability instructors"

And a surge in people cycling isn't going to harm BC's or the CTC's membership figures now is it?

I do concede we have to start somewhere. I also realise that those who have had training are more likely to cycle.  And that if more people cycle then 'we' are a greater lobbying group with a bigger collective voice.  But I just do not believe training kids to 'cope' with the current situation and then using them almost as cannon fodder for the greater cause is acceptable.

Using the momentum of the Olympics, the surge in popularity of cycling recently and the fantastic Times Campaign, I can only feel that the combined voice of BC and CTC could've been put to better use to ask for safer routes to schools for example.  

I just feel like the National Curriculum request, is one big fat red herring.  

But then again, if enough people ask for it, does it demonstrate to the government the importance of taking cycling seriously? Or does it tick a box for them to say they are at least providing training rather than sorting the problem at hand?

ToddleBike

I was lucky enough to be part of last years trial for Toddlebike and the lovely Jo Hockley.

It occurred to me when Jo asked for the next batch of testers that it had been a year that we had been toddlebiking.

Here is a link to my review on the Toddlebike site 

Harry got his Toddlebike at 18mths and after a few false starts he was away.  The fact it is light enough to be picked up by a small toddler meant it came everywhere with us and the design meant that if he got fed up and wanted to walk, it was easy to hang on the buggy.

I may suggest to Jo a carrying strap for days when you are without the buggy.

Harrys love of his toddlebike, meant that for a while he turned into a miniature Madge from Benidorm choosing to scoot everwhere, even in the house rather than walk.

One morning he managed to get his entire breakfast ready and eat it without ever getting off his trusty steed!

As I mentioned in my review on the official site, the fact he used it so very much meant his transition to two wheels was very rapid indeed.  He had his second birthday party at one of the Strider Cup sessions at the Velodrome in Manchester.  

We even made an appearance on BBC Breakfast!

So 12 mths after and now having progressed onto two wheels is our relationship with Toddlebike consigned to the past?

Well I will admit, I thought it might be.  It was what I had expected.  But considering the price of Toddlebike, I didn't mind one bit.

But no!  A year later and it is still without equal in the played with stakes.  It is an almost constant companion.  Perhaps it is because we are lucky to have enough indoor space for him to scoot, I don't know.  I had thought about donating it to his Nursery, but they will have to wait quite some time I think!

I genuinely can't say enough nice things about Toddlebike.  I wish the company and Jo every success for the future.

School Run Woes

My guest post for the wonderful Cycling Embassy of Great Britain
School Run Woes

Failing Highstreets - Let Blame Local Councils

Mr Pickles has squarely laid the blame for failing High Streets at the feet of poor old parking attendants.

Thats right.

The whole sorry mess of boarded up shops and neglected ghost towns, its all the fault of some poorly paid person, who walks the streets everyday trying to make a living by enforcing rules that they have had no hand in shaping.

It even lead to one 'journalist' to call them names like Urban Pests.

Cristina went on to say "I blame traffic wardens for  local shops' slump in sales, restaurants' empty tables, and over-congested roads", yet she has no evidence to back up this claim.

And lest we forget that tabloid journalists are not renown at present to being truthful, or basing anything on fact.

She continues with "I live in central London, thanks to heavy-handed traffic wardens I rarely have friends dropping by: they daren't risk a fine."  Now I will venture into her realm of opinion not based on fact, but I doubt its the fines that's keeping them away....

But back to Mr Pickles.  He believes "I believe we need to give people the good grace to pop into a local corner shop for 10 minutes, to buy a newspaper or a loaf of bread without risking a £70 fine."

Mr Pickles, may I suggest that you don't need to drive to your local shop?  That is is this fact that damages local business.  The fact that our streets have become such unpleasant places to be, that people feel compelled to travel everywhere in their own 2 ton VIP section of tin box?  Surely you can see that this is unsustainable.  We have to enforce parking outside local shops because of fat lazy twats in their cars who will only drive everywhere.

I am generalising, but hey, take a look in a mirror some time Mr P.

Why are people still blaming parking as a reason?  I went to have a look at our local council to see if they were to blame.  I like blaming them for all sorts.

Oh, bugger, 10p for an hours parking.  Hmmmm I am sure Cristina and Eric can stretch to 10p to park?

Then Mary Portas jumps on the band wagon.

I am beginning to sense some sort of collusion as this is not the first time their names have been linked.

For example http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/9039443/Eric-Pickles-is-having-a-laugh-say-market-traders.html and http://www.guardian.co.uk/local-government-network/2012/jun/08/richard-vize-mary-portas-high-streets-patronising-drivel

Have they changed anything? Not as far as I can see. And I sense an uneasy backlash building among the Portas towns where regeneration is supposed to be happening.  Tales of money being spent on Peppa Pig outfits do nothing to give the project credibility.

But it is quite simply that they are paying lip service to the whole process of regeneration.  It is a complete smoke screen to appear caring without having to do any actual work.

To stop High Streets failing will take real political will for things to change and investment at a time of austerity and I very much doubt our current Govenment have the backbone for such an undertaking.

Boris. (sorry its a bit sweary)

Unless you have been half asleep, or not knee deep in a twitter feed of cyclists sat typing with their mouths half open, not quite believing what was being announced, then you will know all about Boris' announcement today that he is going to spend lots of money on cycling.

I kid you not.  OK, its not a complete panacea, its nowhere near on the same levels as a road building scheme and its not even the coffee, tea and biscuits budget for HS2, but in terms of the UK, it is an unprecedented level of money being allocated to improving cycling for them dahn sarf in Larn-darhn.

Whilst the cycling community and everyone else who would like to venture onto two wheels were it not for the Alton Towers factor of sharing the Capitals roads with HGVs and cocaine fuelled motorists (yes I have heard the urban myth about £20 notes in London) cheered from the cheap seats, the scheme was not without its naysayers.

The response from Mr Lawson of the Alliance of British Drivers was that Mr Johnson's vision was "bonkers".

OK, I am not going to listen to you if you use the word bonkers as an argument   That's the sort of thing my kids....oh no wait....they wouldn't either.

He said: "As a London taxpayer I strongly object to this waste of financial resources on a scheme that favours cyclists over other road users.

Right.  Just stop right there cockwomble,

As a UK taxpayer for 20 years (I know I am only a wee whipper snapper), you can go fuck right off.

I am sick to bleeding death of the bleating, hand-wringing motoring lobby.  "Please sir, don't be unkind to us...."

Piss off.  This country, this Government and previous Governments have presided over the subsidisation of car use over and above every single other road user.  Over pedestrians and over cyclists.  Greedy greedy greedy.  We all pay.  All of us, for your 'right' to own and drive a car.  Everyone.  All the cyclists and all the pedestrians.

So at long last a small, really small in the scheme of things, thing is being done to redress the balance.

And you Mr Lawson, sound like the spoilt little shit at school who never gets invited anywhere because you wont play nice and share.