While we were away and (as it transpired) experiencing first-hand the excellent work of the Dumfries and Galloway Safety Camera Partnership cycling news continued to happen. Almost as if the world didn’t rely on us to report all things bike-related, events continued to occur.
It was a bad week for people getting things stolen, as Orange had a number of prototypes and 2011 bikes (mostly not built up) stolen from their factory in Halifax. We’d like to join in hoping that people will keep an eye out for any unusual bargains on Orange hardtails with no forks fitted and pass the details on through Singletrack (details on the link). The National Championships were also hit by theft as nine bikes worth between £3000 and £4000 were taken in one night. The local police suspect an organised group of thieves possibly with a silver van, and once again, be on the lookout for anything suspicious.
However, in London there was good news for victims of bike theft, as a new team has been set up specifically to target bike crime and disrupt the established methods of reselling stolen cycles. Let’s hope that they can make a difference and make it safer to leave a bike parked in London in the future.
This is excellent news for London cyclists although there was mixed news regarding other London schemes for cyclists. Barclays bank has been named as the sponsor for both the Cycle Superhighways and the bike hire project, which goes some way to explaining the colour choices, but also should ensure that both do get the funding they need to continue. The Superhighways are still being met with a certain amount of amusement by the cycling world, unsure of the benefits that blue pain has in terms of safety and relaxed cycling, and there are yet more reasons to criticise the hire scheme. Firstly the locations of the docking stations have been announced, and they cleverly avoid being anywhere near where anyone might want them. So that’s no stations within 15 minutes walk of Victoria, Waterloo and London Bridge train stations, nor near Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square or St Paul's Cathedral. The scheme has also already been attacked for not being large enough, with the inventor of a similar bike hire company in Hammersmith warning that demand will far outweigh supply when it comes to the bikes. He also points out to the Evening Standard that his company, had it won through, would have been compatible with Oyster cards, which would surely have been a good thing. Some good news was floating around, however, and it seems that there will be an increase of cycle parking along the Superhighways, provided by Bike Dock Solutions.
As you know we like to be on the cutting edge of bike developments and we’re not going to let you down in this bumper end-of-week post. So we can offer you the quite ridiculous monsterbike, which shows that there’s no reason why you should stop at 29” wheels on your mountain bike. Also, there’s been much written about Nokia developing a phone charger that runs from a bike, while clearly useful for the developing world where mobile phone use is on the rise, and handy in any situation where you’re away from a mains supply, it’ll clearly be most vital to ensure you have a fully charged phone to call for an ambulance with when you’re attacked by a saw-wielding maniac simply for riding your mountain bike.
To finish with today, something to bear in mind from Roscott, Inc., and we’ll bring you more from the big FMFT Trip North next week.
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