Arthur Lamy

Sprint Bonuses

During the week, Trek Bicycle announced that it was starting an ambitious scheme to recycle carbon composite waste.

This had previously been impossible to do. Trek bicycle have just completed a three month trial with Materials Innovation Technologies, a South Carolina company. The plan is that warranty replacement frames, carbon parts that have been used in testing and uncured offcuts of carbon are recycled into non-structural components, or used to reinforce other polymer based products. http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/trek_life/news/article/2694/2011/04/21/trek_implements_carbon_recycling_program/

I wondered how many keen cyclists had either got married, while on a bike tour, or took their honeymoon by bike? What prompted this was the story of newly-weds, Christy and Adam Coppola, who have taken a year out to ride across all 50 US states and raise money for several cycle charities as they go. The charities that they are promoting are World Bicycle Relief and Achilles International. The couple who come from Connecticut were married in October and set off on their journey in January from San Diego. Their last blog on 13th April saw them in Kentucky, but they should probably be miles away by now!

Follow the blog: http://giveabike.blogspot.com/

Although I’m always happy to see bike sales increasing anywhere in the world, the hugely inceased sales in Japan are the result of the earthquake and tsunami. Reports from Japan’s biggest bike retailer, Asahi, a company with nearly 200 shops throughout Japan, say that sales have doubled since the beginning of March.

Apart from the devastation to the transport networks, it’s felt that rising oil prices will encourage bicycle use among the Japanese.

Cyclists using the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco are to be targeted by city officials if plans go ahead to impose speed limits for cyclists. It’s proposed that cyclists exceeding 10MPH on paths that are shared with pedestrians will face a $100 fine. Naturally these measures are meeting with opposition from local riders. One of the best arguments for cyclists is that legally they don’t have to have speedometers, so it’s impossible to know how fast they’re going.

The bridge is used daily by hundreds of commuters, leisure riders and tourists. Local cyclists say that it’s San Francisco Bay’s notorious fog, that makes riding conditions damp and slippery, that causes most of the problems.

Take a moment to sign the ‘no more lethal lorries’ petition, being promoted by the London Cycling Campaign. This will hopefully improve safety for our fellow cyclists in the capital. Go to http://www.no-more-lethal-lorries.org.uk/

The Bicycle Touring Pro Travel Scholarship winners have just been named; this year it’s a group of young environmentalists from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They are Kerstin, Katie and Lauren. They had been planning their Trans-America route for some time and had all the planning in place. They plan to visit Girl Scout troops along the way, promoting the outdoor life and the importance of good, healthy food.

Visit their website at: http://localmotive2011.wordpress.com/

Fancy your chances at winning the scholarship? : http://bicycletouringpro.com/blog/scholarship/

Here’s a minority sport that I’d imagine many of you have never heard of! Cycle Speedway, it’s a sport that’s been going since the end of the last war. In England there are 16 cycle speedway tracks that see more than 10 events a year and many that host fewer races. Equipment requirements are basic, a striped down single speed bike with no brakes. As regards clothing, riders need to be covered head to foot as it’s a contact sport and falling off can be a regular occurrence, and naturally a helmet.

Have a look at the video: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/cyclespeedway/article/cys_Get-Into-Cycle-Speedway

As the current vogue for retro bikes rolls on unabated, I take great delight in reading the blog of the Gentleman Cyclist: http://gentlemancyclist.blogspot.com/

and looking at: http://www.theoldbicycleshowroom.co.uk/index.asp

I read about an interesting cycle charity over the weekend; this  is a charity that raises money to buy bicycle ambulances that are used in rural Africa. The villages of Uganda, Namibia and Malawi are in urgent need of such devices to take pregnant women and the sick to hospital. In areas where there are already bicycle ambulances, the infant and mother mortality rates have fallen by 90%.

See more here:  http://www.benbikes.org.za/namibia/projects/ambulances.html

And finally,

I read from a Halford’s press release that a couple of BMX expressions have just made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. These are:

ankle (or ankling) -flexing the ankles while cycling in order to increase pedalling efficiency.

To bunny hop – a short jump or jerky forward movement made on a bicycle or by a vehicle over an obstacle on a cycling course, which is generally cleared by jumping the bicycle over it.

So there you are- how to get down with the kids!

Arthur Lamy is a freelance cycle journalist and cycle tour guide: www.cycleinjersey.com