Amazing tool for planning cycle routes.

What an extraordinary application this is.

Double-click your start point on the map.  Same for your finish point.  Tell it how fast you are, Press 'Go'.

It knows cycle paths and parks.

Brilliant:

http://london.cyclestreets.net/

It says "London" but it's UK-wide.

A new way to communicate. Help needed!

There's a big queue of traffic outside my office window as I type.  I started Quickerbybike.com after riding past this queue every day.  Queue is still going strong.  Same drivers?

On the plus side, I see loads of cyclists these days.  Way more than before.

The quickerbybike.com shorts are a way to communicate with motorists and point out the alternative and encourage them to switch.

And I hope we're reaching some.  But it'd be great to reach more.

So I'm going to get a sign, like this clicky made up and I'll plonk it next to the road each morning.  You might be thinking that this is hardly thinking big.  True enough.

So what should the new sign look like and say?  Please help me!  Tweet or email your ideas to martin at quickerbybike dot com.

It mustn't be smug.  It will include the quickerbybike logo, nice and big.  Then perhaps the simple message: "Let me help you to cycle instead of driving.".

I'm going to leave an area white so I can write different messages each week.  Suggestions for this would be great too.  Perhaps we can have a weekly poll.

But please - what should the main, printed sign say?

Maybe even just the logo and a big question-mark?

Thanks in anticipation.

New kit order, summer 2011.

The emails asking for kit are piling up so I'm about to place an order.


They're Endura Singletrack shorts embriodered with the quickerbybike.com logo and they're £30. Endura haven't got annoyed with me yet (they charge £42).  It's a campaign, not a business, and I pay the postage on the shorts.

No lycra kit this time round, sorry.

If you'd like a pair, let me know what size you want and give me your address. Email martin at quickerbybike dot com.  I need you to pay for the shorts up front (as you would if a friend were organising some team kit for you, which is basically what this is) and then there will be a two-to-three week wait for the shorts. When I've collated the order, I'll email all those who orderd with bank details so you can pay me.

There are girls' and boys' versions of the shorts. They are big-ish: I'm a 31inch waist and wear "small".

If you know anybody else who might want a pair, please put them onto me. I don't place orders very often so best to include as many people as possible.

Any questions, just ask.

Martin

Ten cycle commute lessons.

A great little piece here on The London Cyclist

http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/tips/10-lessons-learnt-from-cycle-commuting-for-a-year/

Ues rechargeable batteries!

My friend Phil has a very reliable moral compass.  He reckons in 50 years time people will look back at the wastefull way we live now and find it just as astonishing and deplorable as we now find the idea of a slave trade.

Maybe that's going a bit far.

But having someone make you a new battery (having mined all the materials and manufactured each cel for you) every time your old one runs out isn't very cool.

Get a recharger and buy rechargeable batteries!  If you want a selfish reason to do so: they're much cheaper in the long run and....you can charge them at work!  Free power.

Go on, use the last of your evil throw-aways, recycle them properly and then sort yourself out with some rechargeables for next winter.  You can have a hug from me if you do.

Patch your old tubes.

I get punctures all the time.

If you want to avoid them, take these simple steps:

1. Get tyres with some protection. Here, there's even a site dedicated to them: Puncture resistant tyres
2. Check your tyres as often as you can be bothered for little flints or pieces of glass.  Most punctures are caused by small sharp bits that have been working their way into your tyre over a few rides.  Flick them out with a pin/knife/fork/whatever. How often you check will depend on how important it is to you.  If someone you love commutes 13 miles across london to a stressy job, from whom a mid-commute "I've got a puncture" phonecall would cause you plenty of heart-ache, you'll check hers/his every night.
3. Don't ride in the gutter.  Keep your eyes peeled for glass (more and more of it about.  A deliberate campaign?).

Anyway, when you do get a puncture, find the nasty, remove it and change the tube.  Stuff the old tube in your bag and add it to the pile at home.  Don't bother arsing about at the side of the road patching the tube.  It doesn't work well in the rain and once the tube of glue is open it tends to go off before you next use it.

Once every few months, sit down with a box of patches (Rema Tip Top from UK Bikestore at 30p each?), some sand paper, glue and a pump, turn on the afternoon play on Radio 4 and repair them all.

New tube = £4, patch =30p

No brainer.  Can't do it?  Want help?  Email me!

Have your stationery delivered by bike

There's a zero-emissions way to have your stationery delivered in London.

http://gnewtcargo.co.uk/