I’m in the research phase for Bike Boom which, one day, will be as forgotten and as dusty as the books I’m buying on eBay and Abebooks. If you’ve got any suggestions of books I should dig out do let me know. 1970s bicycle advocate Robert Silverman of Montreal suggested I take a look at Autokind Vs. Mankind by Kenneth …
Month: March 2015
On tour …
Carlton Reid Tour Dates
How the bicycle beats evolution and why Steve Jobs was so taken with this fact
Chart from Scientific American, 1973 Apple’s late leader Steve Jobs loved to liken the computer to the bicycle (“the computer … is the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds”) and there are two films of him recounting a fact he’d picked up from Scientific American. Below I’ll quote from the article Jobs was referring to – which showed that …
88 of the very best quotes about bicycles and cycling
Poets, presidents, prime ministers and prime-time newscasters have said great things about cycling. No doubt I’ll put a fair few of their quotes in my book – due in 2016 – but in the meantime here’s a selection … “Riding bicycles will not only benefit the individual doing it, but the world at large.” Udo E. Simonis, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Policy …
Forget Kestrel and Peugeot, carbon composite bicycles started with Carlton, in 1971
Most histories say it was Peugeot of France or Kestrel of America which made the first carbon bike, sometime in the 1980s. In fact, the first carbon-framed bicycle was made in Britain, and in 1971. Many of today’s top bicycle makers – including companies such as Trek, Specialized, Giant and Cannondale – were founded in the early 1970s, thanks to …
Women have been at the cutting edge of cycle advocacy since 1971
In Roads Were Not Built For Cars I had to sheepishly admit that the major characters in my book were all men – women played little part in the cycle advocacy movements of the 1890s. In the sequel (Bike Boom is on Kickstarter until mid-March) I can happily report there will be many women featured. In fact, women are now …
DfT poster: “You can never give a bike too much room”
In 1985, the Department of Transport (when it was still “of” and not “for”, and long after it had been the Ministry of Transport) erected a poster in London with a real elongated bicycle, telling passing motorists that “You can never give a bike too much room.” But as is clear from this piece on BBC1’s John Craven’s Newsround, the …
Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive, ee-lee-min-ate the negative
“Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” From Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry, 1973. ++++++++++++++++++++ Why am I writing Bike Boom? Listen to Jack Thurston’s The Bike Show. I may have said “stay positive, keep pushing” more than once. This is not to say …
Speed sells
Cycling has many well-understood health and economic benefits but a key benefit is often overlooked – urban nippiness. Motorists slow to a crawl in “rush” hour; those on bicycles don’t. Many people perceive cycling to be a slow form of transport, which it is, if you have to undertake a long journey. Short hops are swift on a bike. There’s …
There are no measures that will get me to cycle, say 40% of respondents to YouGuv survey
Over on BikeHub.co.uk I’ve published an article on a new YouGov survey, commissioned by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. The RoSPA press release states that the overwhelming majority of people in Britain would support greater provision for people on bicycles. The research was done online over two days at the end of February and involved 2,169 people, …