My weekend and the Little Green Bike

Saturday:

Home-Green Bike-Kew Gardens-65 Bus - Green bike -Home - Green Bike - Train - Earlsfield - Green Bike - Tooting - Green Bike - Earlsfield - Green bike - Tooting (party!)

Sunday:

Green bike - Earlsfield - Train - Green bike - Home - Green bike - Surbiton - Train - Woldingham - Green Bike - Bec Hill Climb (see photo of face to remember above) - Green Bike - Woldingham - Train - Earlsfield - Green Bike - tea with friends - Green bike - Train - Waterloo - Green Bike - Dinner with friends - Green bike - Waterloo - Train - Green bike - home.

Without the Green bike, that's an impossible weekend. With the green bike it's a doddle.

At the Bec Hill Climb I saw a 15 year old school boy beat all the professionals. Germain Burton - remember that name.

New quickerbybike.com kit order.

I'm ordering more quickerbybike.com kit.

But I'm doing it to order because otherwise it just won't happen.

So if you're keen , please email me with what you want and pay me. Stuff will follow a few weeks later.

Kit is all from Endura. Lycra is their team kit, baggies are Singletrack, embroidered with the quickerbybike.com logo.

Lycra Road Jersey (short sleeve, short zip) (xs, s, m, l) £35
Lycra bib shorts (s, m, l, xl) £40
Lycra bib shorts (girl specific) (xs, s, m, l) £40
Shorts (girls only - no bib) (xs, s, m, l) £36
Men's Singletrack short. (s, m, l, xl) £30
Women's Singletrack short. (xs, s, m, l) £30

Lycra prices above are just the Endura Team Kit prices - I'll pay the postage. Prices for baggies are: trade price + embroidery, plus postage.

Scroll down the blog for pictures of the kit. Visit http://www.endura.co.uk/ for any technical or sizing information on the kit.

So if you're after some kit, please email me and let me know what you want. I'll give you the bank details and you can pay me when you order, then you'll just have to bloody wait!

Martin

Brompton S2L review

Yup, there's a new, bright green folding addition to the quickerbybike stable.

It's bloody brilliant!

Seen here ridden by my rival for the the Gherkin 1-lap TT (which I won. GET IN!).



Though the bike is fast and nimble, it's hard to take yourself entirely seriously when you're riding it, so it's full of fun.

I've had children grinning and pointing at me as I fly past.

I've taken it on buses and trains. I've taken it to pubs and restaurants. I take it to meetings with work. I love it. I always arrive grinning and bright and ready to work.

The other plus is that people can't help liking it and liking you on it. How can you help being kindly inclined towards a grinning man on a little bright green bike?

I can't recommend this bike highly enough. Worth every penny.
Top tip: do not pedal through corners.

"Get off your bike before you're knocked off"?

A quickerbybiker spotted this at the weekend and sent me a link to the article in the Sunday Times, written by Minette Marrin.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article6797744.ece

She says a great deal that is sensible; she sees the benefits of cycling as a fun, free and fast means of travel in London but finds these benefits obliterated by the dangers of busy roads, the aggression of other cyclists, the pollution and the prospect of spending your day at the office being smelly because there are no showers where you work.

There certainly is a problem of attitude by cyclists on the road, as Minette points out. I've always found some London cyclists to be obnoxious and irresponsible. It would be great to encourage them to be more friendly and to behave properly. For the most part though, I think the bustle of cycle commuters is a very friendly place to be.

The pollution in a car is, I understand, no better than outside the car.

I'm lucky enough to have an office with a shower, as are most of my cycle-commuting friends. Those who have no shower at work have the hassle of showering at a local gym. In any event, I think the solution is to encourage employers to install showers, rather than to wrire cycling off as inherently unhygenic.


Minette does acknowledge that many of her friends, and thousands of others in London, really enjoy their commute by bike and I think this is the key point: whilst Minette Marrin does not enjoy cycling, it does not follow that cycling is not enjoyable.

I agree with Minette's stance so far as it applies to her and to others who do not enjoy cycling. It's always wretched for people to be doing things they don't enjoy, whether it's going to a gym, reading Shakespeare, eating out or entertaining. I always want to see people cheerful in what they're doing, particularly if what they're doing is something I love.

There are a great many people for whom cycling will never be fun and I wouldn't wish cycling on them for anything.

I'm sure there are many however who, disliking cycling in the first instance, might find a type of fun in it that appeals to them if they persevere a little.

At last, decent photos of the lycra kit.

Goodbye bottled water!

The Ausies have started us off, let's roll it out across the world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8141569.stm

No junk mail, please.

If you want to stop annoying, wastefull junk mail being put through your door, there are three steps to take.

Firstly, stop the unaddressed leaflet stuff by getting a "no junk mail" sticker for your letterbox. Many councils will issue you with a free sticker. For Richmond and Twickenham, for example, just email your name and address to recycling@richmond.gov.uk to get your free sticker.

Next you need to stop mail that is addressed to you, sent by companies who have bought your address from a database. To do this, you simply register with the Mail Preference Service at http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/.

The last and most irritating hurdle is to write to Royal Mail (no, there's no other way!) to ask them to stop sending you the adverts that they have been paid to distribute.

The address is:

Door to Door Opt Outs
Royal Mail
Kingsmead House
Oxpens Road
OXFORD
OX1 1RX

Simply tell them: "I would like to opt out of door-to-door deliveries".

Three easy-ish steps and it all stops. REDUCE, re-use, recycle, innit.

Martin