Check this.

I think it’s time that I flagged up a few of the blogs/podcasts that I read/listen to on a regular basis. Just because I’ve heard of these sites, I presume that everyone else has – but I know that’s not always the case.

Monbiot.com and Turnuptheheat.org

Guardian writer George Monbiot has to be one of the most important writers on the issues of green politics and global justice. What I like most about his site monbiot.com is the way he challenges other writers to back up their claims and reveal who their paymasters are. So often we see stories in the press reported as fact, yet we rarely consider whether these stories have received the rigorous analysis that any research should receive from a peer reviewed journal.
His latest book and web site – turn up the heat (turnuptheheat.org) attempts to expose greenwashing and challenges organizations to live up to their green claims.

Here are a couple of quotes from the site, a couple of digs at the type of people that think they are “doing their bit”:

“The middle classes think they have gone green because they buy organic cotton pyjamas and handmade soaps with bits of leaf in them – though they still heat their conservatories and retain their holiday homes in Croatia”

“In promoting biodiesel – as the European Union, the British and US governments and thousands of environmental campaigners do – you might imagine that you are creating a market for old chip fat, or rapeseed oil, or oil from algae grown in desert ponds. In reality you are creating a market for the most destructive crop on earth…I thought that the biggest problem caused by biodiesel was that it set up a competition for land. Arable land that would otherwise have been used to grow food would instead be used to grow fuel. But now I find that something even worse is happening. The biodiesel industry has accidentally invented the world’s most carbon-intensive fuel.”

If you haven’t done so already, you really should check out these sites.

The pressure continues

The pressure continues to build up on the motor industry.
The Guardian reports that the state of California is suing the 6 big motor companies for contributing to global warming.

I think we always look on America as the big bad polluter that couldn’t care less about the planet and wouldn’t sign up to the Kyoto protocol. But we shouldn’t forget that there are some people in America that are taking this issue seriously. California’s actions can only make more people aware of the issues, and face up to the implications of years of apathy that have allowed the big polluters to get away with murder. I wonder if California's governorator still drives a hummer?

Also, this week has seen The Royal Society writing to ExxonMobil to tell them to stop denying climate change. They want ExxonMobil to withdraw funding from groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".

Finally, this week saw the release of “The Inconvenient Truth” in the UK. Al Gore may be jetting around the globe to pass on the message but at least he’s keeping the debate alive.

But despite all the information out there, people still don’t get it. The Government and Local Councils have these big pushes on to encourage us to recycle, but fail to realise that it’s the excessive consumption that causes the problem in the first place. Of course – they aren’t going to tell us to buy less – the whole system is predicated on encouraging an increasing amount of consumption and therefore waste.

I just can’t see how big business can ever be compatible with a sustainable society. Not only should we be working locally, but our food, and just as importantly our energy should be sourced locally. Better still, we should cater for all our own needs through self-sufficiency – I really need to build that green house before winter sets in.

One more thing, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was critically injured attempting to break a speed record for the programme. Although it’s very sad for all concerned, was it really that unexpected from a programme that glorifies speed on a weekly basis, that one of their presenters would come to some sort of harm? More people die on British Roads each year than were killed in the twin towers, yet we still allow cars on our road that are capable of more than double the speed limit. Some people say we don’t need a nanny state enforcing speed restrictions, but if people behave like kids, nanny needs to take their toys away!

Trip to Dublin

Bike culture definitley seems a bit stronger in Dublin

Random musings

I haven’t been keeping this blog very up to date recently. I think when it gets to the summer I just end up too busy to do anything. Maybe if I put more random musings in here rather than just focusing on bike related stuff it might get updated more regularly. I'll probably stick a few more photos on as well.
Having 2 jobs is useful and has been necessary over the last few years as my other half has been training to be a midwife. But now that she has qualified – I will hopefully be able to work less. In an ideal world I would love just to do the juggling work and grow all our own food but I doubt whether my other half would be happy with that.
I don’t mind working as a civil servant – union membership is very high and it’s pretty much a job for life. But I can’t help thinking that my time would be much better spent doing other stuff. Promotion prospects are pretty non-existent, and to be honest I couldn’t be bothered with the extra responsibility if I were promoted. Its not that I’m lazy (maybe a bit) but I just don’t feel motivated by pushing bits of paper around a desk.
I’m planning not to work next August – which will give me more time off with the kids as well as giving me more time to do my other job.
We are going away for the weekend for our anniversary, my wife doesn’t know yet and as she rarely (never) reads my blog it will hopefully stay a secret till we go away on Friday. It’ll be good to get away together and think about the next stage of our life – now that she is a qualified midwife, paying the bills isn’t going to be quite as difficult as it has been recently. We might even get a proper holiday next year for the first time ever.

Crash!!

You think you live in a place where not many accidents happen with cyclists and then 2 happen in the same week. I was emptying out the circus van last week when I heard a screech followed by some shouting and another screech. I stuck my head out of the driveway and saw a car driving off at speed, so I made sure I got his reg and then noticed 2 kids up the road a bit with their bikes on the pavement. One of the kids had a bad graze on his arm. It turns out what happened was that the kids had been riding on the pavement and 1 of them collided with a car at a junction. Now you could blame the kids for riding on the pavement but the car was travelling well over the 30 mph speed limit and, even worse, he reversed back in to the kid to have another go at him!!
I brought the lads down to our house so they could use the phone.
I had to leave before the Police got to the house but I let the lads leave their bikes round the back and the next day they turned up with their dad to say thanks (with a box of roses choccies!) and said that the police were going to pursue the driver – not only for reversing in to the lad, but for leaving the scene of the accident. Hope they throw the book at him.
Later that week I met with my friend James who told me someone who was looking the other way at a junction had knocked him off his bike. Apparently the bike flew in to another car and damaged that as well so he had to hang around for an hour before the Police turned up. He said he was feeling ok on the day but has since developed a very sore back. So remember always take the lane and presume motorists at junctions can’t see you, and if you do crash remember you might have hurt yourself – even when you think you haven’t so always get the police involved.
The amount of people I see riding on the pavements depresses me – in fact I’d say I see more cyclists on the pavement than I do on the road. I always feel like shouting, “come on the road – it’s safer in numbers” but I get a feeling that transport policy over here is increasingly trying to separate bikes from other traffic. There is a stretch of road on my commute that is a bit narrow and on a bend and cars usually have to wait till I get round the bend before overtaking. This stretch of road is down hill and only takes me about 20-30 seconds to get down, but recently I have noticed that alterations are being made to the pavement which seem to suggest that bikes are going to be directed on to the pavement which will become a shared use cycle path with pedestrians. I for one wont be using it – not only do I not want to share space with pedestrians but I don’t want to stop at junctions that I wouldn’t have to stop at if I was on the main road. So I’m sure as this bike lane becomes operational you will see a few more posts from me about the abuse I will be getting from motorists for not using the cycle lane.

Tour de France

Its that time of year again, and already the controversy has started. Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich have been banned from the race because of a new doping scandal. I'ts a shame because they were both worth watching.
On the plus side David Millar is back in the race - now that his 2 year drug ban has expired. It's good to have someone from a bit closer to home to support - having said that, he's lived in France for a few years now hasn't he.
Any way i'm looking forward to see who's going to take Armstrong's crown - at the minute it's looking fairly open.

Strabane Carnival

Some bikes from Strabane Carnival

















This one looks better when its moving

Acro Bike

I was working in silent valley yesterday which is a lovely country park in the Mourne Mountains. And Simon, Anita and Kelsey revealed one of their new props for their trapeze show - A fantastic green trike that they will be using to do handstands and other athletic things on. They havent worked it in to the show yet but are using it as a walkabout piece. I've allways fancied doing up my Raleigh 20 and using it as a walkabout, or should that be rideabout piece. By threading the hub off centre you can make it bounce up and down - but i'm afraid thats beyond my capabilities at the moment - may be i'll just pay someone to do it for me. I wonder if its possible to stand on the saddle and the handle bars and go round in a circle whilst juggling. I suppose it's worth a try - then I could finally combine my 2 loves cycling and juggling.

Critical One

There are a few stretches of road on my commute to work which are shared bus / bike lanes between the hours of 07.30 and 09.30. For most of the route motorists stay out of them but as you reach a set of traffic lights in Finaghy cars start to move over to the bike lane and queue up there.
This has pissed me off for a while so last week I decided to stop my bike in the bike lane with a queue of cars behind me. It didn't take long for the traffic to back up a couple of hundred meters.
I explained to the woman at the front of the queue that she was in a bike lane and she started pushing her horn and telling me to move. I thought to myself I bet I can wait this out longer than she can so I decided to stay until she moved.
A few people further back realizing what was happening pulled in to the other lane (which was now completely empty - but most of them still sat in the bike lane?)
After a couple of minutes a workman from a site came over to see what was going on and the woman said "he's blocking the lane" and to my delight the workman said "Well, you shouldn't be in that lane should you"
she stayed there for another 2 minutes and eventually decided to move, and as soon as she pulled off I moved as well to cheers from some builders on scaffolding across the road. So with a shout of "power to the people" and a punch in the air (for the benefit of the builders) I was on my way.
Sometimes it can be a bit embarrassing taking direct action on your own, and I wonder whether it does anything to change peoples ideas, but at least on this occasion I got my point across. I think my next course of action will be to write to the Police and ask them how many motorists they have fined for driving in the bike lane on that stretch of road - I have a feeling that I already know the answer.

Picture from flee.com

Riding against the wind

The wind and the rain has been ridiculous this last couple of weeks, but it has led to a couple of nice cycling moments.
The wind has been behind me on the way in to work, which has led to some record times. And this morning, for the first time ever, I overtook a guy on a scooter. I’m still laughing now thinking of the double take he did when he saw me coming past! He overtook me again pretty quick but I stayed with him pretty much all the way to Belfast.
Last week, on the way home with a very strong wind against me, a couple of cyclists came past me. The one in front was all kitted out and also a ridgeback rider – his was a nice racer though. The one behind was pretty much the opposite of the one in front and had obviously been tailing the one in front all the way from Belfast – He even said to me as he went past “I’ll have to catch up with my moving wind break here”
Sensing that the guy in front would be a bit pissed off I kept up with them.
The guy in front kept slowing down and looking behind him but the second guy just didn’t get the hint. I think the second guy even had the cheek to say “speed up a bit” to the guy in front. So eventually I went ahead to give the guy in front a break and as he passed me later on, as I went a different direction to where they were going, he thanked me for taking my turn and rolled his eyes towards the other guy.
Some people just don’t seem to get cycling etiquette, you would of thought the guy in front was making it fairly obvious that he wanted a break when he slowed down and looked over his shoulder. It was nice to be riding in a group for a change though.

Super Commuter

Well, I’ve had the bike for over a month now and I’m loving it. I was tempted to go more simple with a single speed or fixed wheel but I think this bike makes more sense for the length of my commute.
Throughout the winter you don’t get many other cyclists on my route but as spring arrives a few of them start to appear. Sometimes when a fully kitted out racing cyclist overtakes you its fun to try and keep up with them. And last week I had the satisfaction of catching and overtaking one as we arrived in Belfast. He’d overtaken me about 2 miles in to the commute so I thought lets see if I can keep up. I stayed about 20 ft behind him – it was hard going at first but after about a mile I got used to the pace and kept my distance for 7 miles then coming up to the last mile I made my move. He never caught me again – I’m sure its quite humiliating being overtaken by someone in their work clothes, especially when you are fully kitted out in Lycra.
Childish I know, but sometimes you need a bit of a challenge on your commute.

It was my sons 6th birthday last week and guess what he got – a new bike! His first proper one with gears. Its actually heavier than mine and he still hasn’t learnt to ride properly yet so I might teach him on his sisters old bike first – she’s going to need a new one by the summer as well! Hopefully, he will learn soon as the trailer bike we were using doesn’t fit on my new bike because of the suspension seat post, but walking to school has been fun as well.
I've also had my camera nicked this week while I was doing a show so no pictures for a while:(

New Bike !

The un-ending repairs to my old bike finally got to me and I just went out and bought a new bike last weekend.
The final straw was when I set out to work one day last week and the rear mech just collapsed.
I was toying with the idea of getting a Ridgeback Nemesis which has hub gears and breaks, but the bloke in Bike Dock convinced me that the Ridgeback Super Nova was more suited to the type of riding that I do, which is mainly the 22 mile round trip of my daily commute. Its the first time i've bought a more expensive bike (more expensive to me anyway). It has a Shimano Deore XT group set, which I'm hoping will be more hard wearing than the budget components on my current bike - time will tell, I've decided i'm going to let the bike shop service it anyway. I'm going to get a rear rack and mud guards for it next month.
I'm paying it off over a year, and when i've paid for this one i'm already planning to get a proper road bike. There is just something really appealing about well built bikes don't you think?

Video

I'm experimenting with putting video on the site using google video - if this works you should get to see someone doing bmx trcks in Donegal centre. If you cant see it click on this link.

R.I.P. Ivor Cutler

I was sad to hear the news of Ivor Cutlers death this week. Ivor was one of a dying breed of British eccentrics, who will be familiar to anyone who ever listened to John Peel.
And he was an inspiration to generations of performers from the Beatles (He played Buster Bloodvessel in Magical Mystery Tour) to Franz Ferdinand.

One thing I didn’t know about him till I read the obituaries was his fondness for the bicycle.


From the Guardian:

The bicycle was his preferred mode of transport, its cow-horn handlebars in the sit-up-and-beg position in line with his Alexander technique practice.

I also heard someone say that he would often utter obscenities to complete strangers under his breath as he glided past them on his bike.

A sad loss

Why do cyclists receive so much abuse from kids?

Why do cyclists receive so much abuse from kids?
It doesn’t happen very often, maybe once every couple of months. And it’s usually kids jeering or, on rarer occasions, kids throwing stuff at me. It’s probably wrong to call it abuse, the kids are usually having a laugh and it doesn’t bother me at all.
But it makes me think, what is it about me on a bike that provokes this reaction?
The flashing light on my helmet attracts a few comments, and I wonder is it things that they perceive to be out of the ordinary that push them to make a comment?
After dropping the kids off at school this morning I was cycling along and a young kid (about 4) said “Hey bikes aren’t allowed on the road” I know kids that age often say the first thing that comes in to their head. I remember when my youngest kid was about the same age, we were at Tescos and he shouted out “Dad I’ve just seen a wee boy with a big mans head!” It was the first time he’d seen a dwarf .Kids of that age are just reacting to things that are outside their area of experience, but it’s sad that she sees so few bikes on the road that it occurred to her to be worth commenting on.

Police Bike

I was doing a show at a police station for their family fun day last weekend, and along with all the water canons and police land rovers they had on display they also had a pretty cool Police Bike. I have seen a few of the cops around Belfast riding these, but this was the first time I’d seen one up close. Best of all I got to ride it as well! A very comfortable well maintained bike with hub gears, disc brakes etc.
I wonder if they do their own maintenance? Wouldn’t it be great to ride a bike every day and have someone else do the maintenance!

Go Vegan

I saw a link to this article on veganfreaks.com. Veganism is something I’ve been considering for a while. I’ve been vegetarian for the last 18 years, but I’ve gradually come to the realisation that the dairy industry and its produce can be just as bad for our health, the environment and of course the animals.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have calculated the relative carbon intensity of a standard vegan diet in comparison to a US-style carnivorous diet, all the way through from production to processing to distribution to cooking and consumption. An average burger man (that is, not the outsize variety) emits the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes more CO2 every year than the standard vegan. By comparison, were you to trade in your conventional gas-guzzler for a state of the art Prius hybrid, your CO2 savings would amount to little more than one tonne per year.

So as well as thinking about how your mode of transport affects the planet, you might want to think about how your diet affects it to.

Eat your greens - dont drive with them.

Surprise surprise, bio-diesel isn’t the great alternative fuel it was promised to be. As reported in the Guardian by George Monbiot - The biodiesel industry has accidentally invented the world’s most carbon-intensive fuel.

The idea that we can simply replace this fossil legacy – and the extraordinary
power densities it gives us – with ambient energy is the stuff of science
fiction. There is simply no substitute for cutting back. But substitutes are
being sought everywhere. They are being promoted today at the climate talks in
Montreal, by states – such as ours – which seek to avoid the hard decisions
climate change demands. And at least one of them is worse than the fossil fuel
burning it replaces.
The last time I drew attention to the hazards of making
diesel fuel from vegetable oils, I received as much abuse as I have ever been
sent by the supporters of the Iraq war. The biodiesel missionaries, I
discovered, are as vociferous in their denial as the executives of Exxon. I am
now prepared to admit that my previous column was wrong. But they’re not going
to like it. I was wrong because I underestimated the fuel’s destructive impact.

Its definitley worth checking out the full article here.
As he says there is no substitute for cutting back, but people are determined to maintain their current lifestyles at whatever the cost. The idea that its ok to protect the environment as long as it doesn’t threaten our economic stability is very short sighted. Its our economic system that is the problem in the first place. This is where traditional politics falls down, because whether you lean to the left or the right – a society based on production and consumption can only produce more and more waste in pursuit of greater profit.

School Runs

I've been doing quite a few school runs recently as my wife has been on late shifts. My five year old rides on the trailer bike and my 8 year old rides on her own bike, which is getting too small for her. Luckily there are cycle paths nearly the whole way to school, so getting there is no problem. But I then have to bring all the bikes back to the house before I head on to work which adds a lot of time on to my journey as i'm going back on myself. It also takes a bit of time strapping the bikes together for the return trip. Although I was impressed with myself for coming up with a way of strapping that was safe and secure the novelty of hauling the bikes back home wares off after a bit.
Luckily I've just found out that my parents in law may be buying house near the school, so i'll be able to leave the bikes with them and pick them up later. The only problem I can see now is when I get my daughter a bigger bike I wont be able to strap it to the trailer. I'm thinking of alternatives - possibly a Christiania for the school run and a Brompton for the solo part of my journey which I could carry with the kids in the Christiania.
Anybody else have any ideas?

Round The World in 4 Years

I love reading storys about great expeditions, and this has got to be one of the greatest. Alastair Humphreys has taken 4 years to cycle 45000 miles across five continents. I am so jealous, I dont even have enough time to cycle around Ireland - maybe one day. His maintainance problems put mine in to perspective -

While his machine is nominally the one he set out on, he has cycled his way
through five new wheels, 15 sets of tyres and three new bicycle frames. His
worst record for punctures was set in Bolivia - 15 in one frustrating day;
although the final stages in Europe have not proved plain sailing. Last week in
the Dolomites, he reported "15 punctures in four days, four broken chains, two
buckled wheels, a split tyre, a fragile bottom bracket, no back brake, six
broken spokes in a cracked rim and split hub and only about 10 gears still
working out of 27". - From the Guardian

What an achievement, i'm sure its going to be difficult for him to settle down. There is something so appealing about being continually on the move, maybe its a fear of finally reaching our destination.