Archive for Tips and advice

My summer road trip (on two wheels)

September 12, 2013 Road cycling, Tips and advice, Women No comments

(by Elle Smith)

I seem to have got into the wonderful habit of doing a cycle tour for a week or two each summer – this year was no exception. In late August I packed up my tent and sleeping bag and cycled off to Portsmouth and thence to France. It was a glorious 8 days of cycling which took me through Normandy, Brittany, the Atlantic coast of Payee de la Loire and finally into the high and hilly Limousin for a nice sit down/ sleep before training back. Here are a random collection of thoughts I had and things I learned:

1. Men’s and women’s saddles are in fact different for a reason. No, its not just a Victorian throw back or an attempt by cycle companies to get more money out of us as I had previously thought. We ARE anatomically different (surprise surprise) and I would NEVER cycle 800km (or even 50km) on a men’s saddle again, it was VERY uncomfortable and I spent much of my time trying to find new and inventive ways sitting or not sitting on my saddle. I am now in the market for a women’s version.

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2. Dijon mustard goes with everything. Yes, everything, it is a wonder food.

3. Oringina is cycling fuel, and taste a lot better in France than it does in England.

4. I have finally understood the point of cleats – and (mostly) got over my fear of being clipped in to something with wheels. Going uphill (and there were a lot of hills) with a loaded bike and getting the forward trust with the up-pull of the pedal stroke as well as the downward push makes you go a lot faster. I’m converted.

5. Two tips on cycle touring in France – if you plan to take any TGV trains with your bike (and this is pretty easy and not stressful) book cycle spaces when you book your ticket. You can do it here (www.raileurope.co.uk). Michelin 1:150,000 road maps are the best I’ve found for route planning (I always bring a highlighter so I can mark my route as I go along and feel astonished how far I can go on a bike).

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Turns out this is my 5th cycle tour in France, and its quiet roads and diverse scenery (not to mention the good food and cheap ferries) keep drawing me back. But I think I’ll spread my wings go somewhere even more exotic next year, like, I don’t know…Germany!

Freewheelers Bicycle Workshop – A co-op run by women!

July 12, 2012 Fixing bikes, Pictures, Tips and advice, Women No comments

We opened Freewheelers Bicycle Workshop back in October 2011. Our project is run by women and our aim is to be a friendly, approachable, not intimidating bike space for the community.

We run a tool club where people can come once a week (Wednesday evenings) and use our workshop, tools, books and get support from us to repair their own bicycles. The tool club is run on a voluntary basis and so members only have to pay only £10/£15 to become members for a year. We’re also a workers co-operative hoping to raise enough money to give a decent wage to the three of us. To that end we run a repairs service, sell parts and accessories, deliver maintenance workshops, offer Dr. Bike services and soon will offer Bikeability – with a focus on empowering adult women to feel confident and assertive on the roads. We run women-only maintenance courses and tool club sessions for all those who identify as women. We find that cycling is often a very male dominated activity, not only in numbers (more men than women cycle), but also in attitudes. Too often it seems you have to be aggressive, over assertive and over confident to ride your bike. We find that this affects both women and men and whilst offering women-only specific activities, we hope to be friendly and approachable so that men that don’t conform to the male cyclist stereotype, and that may not have experience with mechanics or might also feel unconfident welcomed in our space.

So far our experience has been very positive. We’ve had more and more people interested in our space and even though numbers are not quite adding up yet to pay ourselves a salary, we feel we’re on the right track! The best bits are the interaction with people, seeing how excited people get when they start seeing the bicycle as being made of different parts and how you can learn to take care of it. Even discovering how hard tyres inflated to the right pressure are supposed to be makes people feel so excited about their machines and makes them engage and love them in a different level.

For us feminism is deeply needed in the cycling world to make cycling inclusive, approachable and available to all. We believe cycling is not intrinsically feminist or sustainable and so we feel we need to create and facilitate a truly feminist, inclusive and sustainable cycling culture. For that we need to reflect on the attitudes surrounding cycling – like we said above – and on the cycling industry and how and where our machines and the parts that make them run are produced. We’re committed to make people think of their bicycles as valuable objects that are worth repairing and maintaining and that can last for a life time if we invest in them. This is a reflection we need to make to many customers. Often people ride their bikes for years and years until they are completely knackered. Then, bringing them up to scratch can be slightly expensive and they think they’re better off buying a new bike. Explaining that if you maintained your bicycle regularly you may spend no more than £30/£50 a year, often makes them see that keeping a good frame and investing (time and/or money) on it is worth it.

We’d like to see the British cycling industry alive and kicking again, not only to make the production of bicycles and bicycle parts more local and sustainable but also because that could create much needed local and useful jobs. That’s why we’re committed to try to stock British made and ecologically sound products – such as Carradice panniers or Green Oil. However, the processes of production and distribution are in the hands of big companies that have a lot of power and make it difficult to access the products we’d like to purchase or that we’d like to see produced. But, whenever possible, we’re committed to work with smaller companies that are more local and work at a more human scale. We dream of a co-operative of bike projects and co-operatives strong enough to work towards that change. For that, we just need to hang on in there and try to spread our ideas and hope that the local cyclists and cyclists to be trust us and come to us.

Ride out the recession – DIY and the bike

February 13, 2012 Fixing bikes, Tips and advice, Women 2 comments

It’s long been my mantra that the best ways I know to live cheap are 1) packed lunches and 2) riding a bike. Its my experience that every cyclist, especially those of us who live by our bikes and find it difficult to conceive of other ways of getting to work, to the pub, out to the country and just about anywhere are, at some point, going need to know how to fix them. Its not mountain biking or road racing that knackers a bike its the dirty gritty city roads. Its the daily grind, the workhorse not the weekend bike that takes a beating. Its sitting outside in the cold weather and being clipped by cars, propped up against railings outside pubs that leads to wear and tear. And its the inability to be parted from our bikes, even for a few days in the workshop, that allows them to go to rack and ruin. This is totally understandable but it means that every cyclist who does not have money to throw at their bike related problems (which is all of us at the minute – right?) needs to be a mechanic as well. This is a great thing, is an impetus to unleash your inner mechanic! If that sounds daunting, here a few pointers to get you started:

fun at beryls' night

1.Take a class

I am of the opinion that everyone can be a mechanic. If you tell yourself you not ‘mechanically-minded’ you’ve lost before you’ve even started. If such a thing as mechanical-mindedness exists, these people are very lucky most of us simply need practice and patience. Approach it like you would anything new, get some instruction (there is no shame in it – really!). There are more and more courses offered by all kinds of organisations ranging from a few days intro for £60-100 to a full-blown profession qualification which will set you back a grand. Start with an ‘intro’ course, if you get into it you can do something more advanced, never fear repeating the same material you’ve already covered on an earlier course – you literally cannot repeat stuff enough its the best way to get your head round it. Opt for independent workshops and bike coops especially those which will offer you access to their space once the course is completed. I have made a (far from definitive) list of these places at the bottom of the page.

truing wheels at Beryls' Night

2.Join a DIY workshop

This is the key. Once you’ve done a course, unless your a secret millionaire, your not going to be able rush out and buy all the tools you need to start home mechanic-ing. So you gotta find a bike stand, tools, access to parts old and new and comradary/support for those tricky moments. Thats why you need to find a DIY bike workshop near you. Many of these exist to educate people about bikes, enable shared ownership of resources and bring people together around cycling. So support them, don’t faff about getting frustrated in a dark cold garden/garage by yourself, become a member and step into the light…workshop. Some even have women’s nights. (again see list below)

3.Get a guide book: I went through a few before I found one I got on with but when I did it was my absolute security blanket until I gained the experience to out grow it. The internets good and that, you can find literally reams of info on Sheldon Brown’s website but if you are like me a get along better with a proper instructional manual you can take into the workshop I recommend Chainbreakers bike book unreservedly. Its not only easy to follow and covers pretty much everything for the amateur mechanic, its got politics! Its non-commercial, feminist, recycle and reuse message, not to mention the radical New Orleans bike zine reprinted in the back are like chicken soup for the soul of any cyclist who sees bikes and DIY as part of making our material world a bit more authentic. There are others of course so, in order of worth havingness: Park Tool Big Blue Bike Book: lots of pictures but it is just a big advert of Park Tool, Zinn and the art of road bike maintenance, Zinn and the art of mountain bike maintenance: these are very detailed and probably not the best when just starting out, Haynes bike book is very basic and I don’t really rate it. Feel free to add your own reviews to this.

Well hope thats helpful. Lets get to it.

a list of DIY bike spaces offering tool clubs, cycle groups, courses and even bike ballet:

London
56A bikeroom
London Bike Kitchen

Oxford
Oxford Cycle Workshop Training
Women only session Beryls’ Night Wednesdays fortnightly.

Bristol
Bristol Bike Project
BBP women’s night
Kebele Community Coop bike workshop

Birmingham
Birmingham Bike Foundry

Leeds
Pedallers Arms, with monthly women and trans drop-in session

Manchester
I Bike MCR

Newcastle
Recphy yer bike

How to deal with aggresive drivers?

September 4, 2011 General, Road cycling, Tips and advice 3 comments

I found this website the other day all based on one woman’s experience of cycling through London. Here is just one of her experiences: “Our first wanker was angry that a bicycle was on the road. He hit his horn whilst behind me, whilst I was waiting in the cycle box at the traffic lights. As he turned at the junction alongside me, he continued to use his horn. At the next traffic lights, he rolled his window down to shout “You stupid fucking slut, get off the road and onto the pavement, you stupid bitch”. He was in his company vehicle, so rather than rise to his bait, I took my iPhone out and openly took a photo of his registration plate. For some reason this shut him up. The company in question is Cannon Hygiene. I’ve written to them to tell them about their driver, and will update if they get back to me.”

I think its incredible she still cycles. I’ve not suffered that kind of abuse up here in Newcastle, but I know a number of women who have. For me the main problem is aggressive drivers who push me off the road, quite literally. There is behaviour on roads which can make it a trial to cycle through towns rather than a joy.

So how can we, as cyclists, meet this aggression? With equal force? I find sometimes this means you both just get angry. Many a time I’ve flicked the bird or given some kid of  “you’re a knob” hand signal, only to be met with the same back. Great. Getting angry is not really my style so recently I’ve been trying a different, more creative, tactic.

Last month a driver drove aggressively close to me and overtook me coming up to a junction. As I sat behind him in the middle of the road waiting to turn right he proceeded to reverse towards me. All the while he was smirking and checking my reaction from his wing mirror. I was pretty peturbed, then decided to do something I’d not done before. It worked a treat! I looked directly into his wing mirror and mouthed the words ‘CALL ME’ my hands mimicking a mobile, pointing at him. He had no idea what to do. It was great. He sheepishly drove off and I felt fantastic that I’d not been aggressive back at him. I hope, by meeting his aggression with something slightly different it got him thinking.

Here are a few ideas on how to deal with aggressive drivers in a slightly different way:

 Beeping: If a driver beeps at you wave at them! Mouth ‘hello’. If you it’s clearly your attention they want so make sure you give it to them. I like this one especially if I can put an ‘I love cycling’ grin on my face.

 Talk to them: If you are in the right head space (feeling calm and confident) and a driver does something which is clearly out of line and then stops at traffic lights an easy cycling distance ahead try this one. Calmly knock on their window and talk to them about your experience. If you start with “I felt” or “that felt” it works best as drivers cannot argue with your feelings, it’s how you feel. End with what you’d like them to do in future “please can you make sure you give me more room next time?” If you can do this pretty calmly then the response is generally positive. I’ve done this quite a few times and every single time drivers have wound down their windows and I’ve had a “sorry,” a grin and more space on the roads. I have to make sure I’m in the right mood though.

Call me signal: A bit of a favourite at the moment, if you try it tell me how it goes! I was really impressed by the response drivers gave on this one.

Slow clap: Again, something a bit different to get the driver thinking. Look at them in the eye and applaud them for their angry driving.

At the moment that is as far as I’ve got but if you’ve got any other ideas let us know. All the tactics described above have given me a real sense of joy and confidence on the roads after I’ve done them. I hope they might do the same for you.

Fighting the fear: how I got confident on the road

August 10, 2011 General, Road cycling, Tips and advice 2 comments

Theres a lot of talk about women being more nervous of cycling on the roads than men.  I don’t know if I agree with that.  I do think they’re often more prepared to admit fear, which is definitely not the same thing. I suspect that men often mask their nerves in lycra and bravado whereas women decide that cycling is not worth risking their lives over. However, scary facts about women being knocked off their bikes by lorries suggests that they can also be victims of their own wariness.

I certainly had loads more hairy moments before training to become a cycle instructor. I was definitely a curb hugger and would often dash for the pavement if things got beepy. The instructor course was an eye-opener for me. There were a few simple tips and techniques that instantly made me feel less vulnerable and defensive when navigating the bike-hating streets of Leeds. It didn’t save me from the idiots but it made me feel safer and in charge. I thought I’d share some of the most useful, just in case they help you too…

  • Look drivers in the eye whenever you want to do something
  • Take up the position of a car (i.e. in the middle of your side of the road) whenever at a junction, don’t let yourself be overtaken when turning – this includes roundabouts
  • Get to the front of traffic at a red light if you have time.  If you don’t, get in between two cars and become a car yourself
  • Don’t worry about pissing off drivers – they’re pissed off because they’re stuck in a metal box, not because of you.
  • Cycle lanes are not always the best place to be
  • Look over your right shoulder, a lot
  • Don’t assume other cyclists know what they’re doing
  • Beware the gutter, its often the most dangerous place to be
  • Cycle two-abreast its not only legal (and more fun) but recommended by British Cycling
  • The more confident you are, the safer you will be

This stuff is kind of obvious I guess, I just wish I’d been told it earlier.

This video is great too You lead the dance!

 
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