My week in bikes. A video post

Let's talk gear for a bit. This video introduces a tasty bit of kit coming next year from Italian kit wizards Castelli, the San Remo Speed Suit.

This looks pretty revolutionary in a number of ways, as Pez Cycling found. Essentially, it's a time trial skinsuit evolved for the road.

Now, I wouldn't ordinarily wear a skinsuit, and I certainly don't ride competitively or fast enough for the serious wattage savings that Castelli claims to make much difference. But I still covet this bit of kit for other reasons.

What Castelli has done here is essentially to attach a racing jersey to the bottom half of its Bodypaint bib shorts. So why do I think this is a good idea?

Well, as the video shows the San Remo acts like a jersey and shorts combo, but one with skinsuit genetics.

On long, hot rides, particularly hilly ones, I frequently have my jersey unzipped at the front for ventilation. This results in unsightly and annoying flapping and makes it a pain to re-fasten when the time comes. The skinsuit heritage brings a far closer fit to the top half of the suit that basically eliminates this problem.

I'm excited about this, but the price tag is going to be painfully high and, as serious pro-grade clothing, can I justify it in 2012 without looking like a bit of a tool?

Meanwhile, yesterday I got my hands on a trailer for a new movie coming sometime late 2012, called Premium Rush.

I don't have much to do with messenger bike culture. I considered a single speed bike in the past and will probably own one at some point but for now, it's a bit of a closed book to me.

I'm excited about this movie for two main reasons. One of these reasons is that it stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is a burnished god of sex.

My second, more bike-worthy reason, is simply that it is a movie about bikes. One that isn't a documentary. An actual thriller! How thrilling!

I'm all over the idea that by putting cycling front and centre of people's minds, getting more people on bikes, positioning it as a mainstream activity and getting all up in people's faces we create a culture that accepts bikers, acts safer around them and gets people out of disgusting, dangerous, unsustainable cars.

Premium Rush looks to me like The Fast and the Furious on bikes. If it's success I have no doubt it will lead to more kids on fixies pulling stupid stunts and getting themselves hurt but, actually, I don't care. It's about visibility and this movie has visibility in spades.

I hope it's not crap...

What price a life? Killer driver gets £87 costs and 10 points

What price a cyclist's life? According to one judge, £87 in costs, 10 penalty points and a community service order ought to do it. That's the penalty handed to Hannah James, 31, of Disraeli Road, Putney.

According to the Wandsworth Guardian, a 17-year old boy, Joel Semmens, cycling home through Byfleet, was hit by James' black Audi TT and later died in hospital from his injuries.

James failed to stop at the scene of the accident and was later found to be using an 'unsuitable' tyre.

She pleaded guilty to all charges, but for some inexplicable reason the magistrate merely handed her 100 hours community work, fined her £87 in costs, and slapped 10 penalty points on her driving licence.

In any collision with a car the cyclist is always going to come off worst. This is why I believe that in any accident involving a cycle, it should be absolutely and incontrovertibly the motorist's responsibility.

Other countries already automatically assume the motorist, protected by a two tonne metal cage, to be at fault in an accident with a cyclist, protected by at most a small polystyrene hat.

Why not the UK?

In my view, failure to stop at the scene of an accident means the CPS ought to have sought to prosecute James for manslaughter at the very least.

She should have been sentenced to a lengthy jail term and banned from driving for a considerable time.

But £87 and a community service order? That sentence is a travesty, a cruel mockery of Joel Semmens' life and an insult to all cyclists. Is that what our lives are worth in this country?

Blackfriars bike blitz

I was tempted to go and join the Blackfriars flashride this morning, but in the end decided against it as I was trying out a new route, and also wanted to try a spot of commuter racing (more on this another time).

Here's some video of the flashride. But why was everyone blocking the bridge at rush hour? Quite simple, really; it's all down to Transport for London's planned 'improvements' to the route, which squeeze out cyclists and pedestrians in favour of the old enemy, the automobile.

At this point, TfL wants to up the speed limit to 30, create a third lane for cars and take space away from pedestrians to create a new lane for bikes, which does our public image no favours (and while we're about it how come nobody ever moans about pedestrians not paying road tax?)

Seriously, though, when you consider that at peak hours bikes account for a good third to half of all traffic on Blackfriars Bridge, and cars in this part of London rarely get over 10 or 15 miles per hour anyway, TfL's plans seem, well, somewhat lunatic.

And what of Boris Johnson's repeated blathering about wanting to make London a cycle friendly city? This seems like a case of City Hall being unable to exert any influence over the bodies that it is meant to control.

My week in bikes

An extended outage at Blogger means I have not been updating much for the past few days, sorry about that. Here are a few things that I've been up to, and that have caught my eye in the last few days.

Wiggle mucks up

The excellent Wiggle, from where I buy most of my bike kit, made its first error in over five years of shopping there and shipped a (very nice but completely unwanted) rain jacket instead of a jersey that I had ordered.

It was a minor inconvenience that I'm only really bringing up to make the point that Wiggle's customer service and returns policy are so good that I didn't stay slightly annoyed for very long.

I hasten to add that I feel that after so many years of trouble-free shopping there I was probably due a karmic hiccup anyway. If this is the worst thing that ever happens when I shop online then it's all good.

Wiggle also seems to have taken to putting free samples of electrolyte boosting sports drinks tabs in their parcels, instead of the usual mini bag of Haribo. Not unwelcome in and of itself, sports drinks are inherently useful to a biker, but I really liked the little bags of Haribo. Bring back Haribo, I say.

Plotting a route

Following an acquisition my workplace moved approximately 15 miles across London at the start of May, from Sutton, the jewel of south London, to Marble Arch. This has necessitated a whole new spate of route planning and testing, which is one of my favourite parts of cycling.

From where I live now in Battersea to Sutton was around nine or 10 miles, depending on the route, which for me usually entailed a swift spell on CS7 through Tooting, then down through Mitcham, Hackbridge and into Sutton on back streets through Carshalton. On a good day it took about 35 to 40 minutes and heading out of London it was always against traffic.

Going the other way has been an interesting experience, to say the least. So far I'm finding that the five to six miles takes just under half an hour, and the quickest route takes me across the Albert Bridge, avoiding the permanent snarl up at Battersea Bridge. From there I cut up through Kensington, go along Exhibition Road past the Science Museum and then the final stretch through Hyde Park is on dedicated bike lanes.

Using the Google mapping tools on MapMyRide.com (other cycling websites are available but I have found this one to be reasonably accurate), I have so far tried out about five or six basic variants of this route, and each has its advantages and disadvantages; on my first day I found that what I had thought looked like a quiet cut through was actually being used as a very busy cut through by every black cab in west London, and the Albert Bridge is currently being restored and is closed to vehicle traffic, meaning I have to get off and walk over the river.

But what has been quite joyous - and has eased my mind somewhat about the dangers of riding in central London - are the sheer numbers of other cyclists, from wobbly Boris bikes to full-on roadies to trusty hybrids and, particularly in Kensington, blonde rich girls in summer dresses, it's great to see how many people are now turning to two wheels and it gives me hope that more people will do so in time. There is something quite exhilarating about being part of such an unusual-looking peloton.

Off the pavement

Erin Gill shouldn't have been riding on the pavement in Sunday's Observer and deserved a fine, but she makes a serious point about town centre infrastructure. Getting off to push through a pedestrian zone is a pain, but the inevitable one way system makes the alternative very unpalatable.

Near to where I live, in Wandsworth, the town centre is blighted by a four lane monstrosity of a one way system. Unless you're using it at a very quiet time the combination of wide roads, an inappropriate speed limit, traffic lights and multiple lane changes renders it basically a death trap, and I usually make a point of detouring on back streets through Earlsfield to get around it

There is actually a bike path along the London-bound carriageway, but it's shared with pedestrians, the block paving is poorly maintained and bumpy and the provided toucan crossings are timed to let cars breeze through while holding up everyone else for as long as possible.

The ultimate effect is that for the sake of convenience of the polluting motorists, vulnerable road users have their journeys obstructed and complicated. When it takes you a good ten minutes to negotiate a two hundred metre stretch of road and one junction using legal cycling infrastructure, is it any wonder cyclists pavement hop in Wandsworth?

Remembering Wouter

Of course it would be remiss to post on a blog that's meant to be about cycling and not mention the shocking and tragic death of Wouter Weylandt in the Giro d'Italia last week.

Wouter's death makes a serious point about bike helmets; they are lifesavers but there are some circumstances in which they are simple ineffective, not that this should be used as an argument against helmets in professional cycling.

I have been following professional cycling to some degree since the early '90s and remember the last fatal accident on a Grand Tour, which happened in 1995. When you consider that big cycle races hit speeds of up to and over 50 miles per hour on twisty mountain descents, the fact fatalities are so rare truly underscores how fundamentally safe cycling is.

I think that's an affirming and positive message to take away from Wouter's horrible and untimely death.

Motorbikes are friends, not foes

I read today's Guardian blog about a renewed trial scheme allowing motorcyclists into bus lanes in London with interest.

I use bus lanes as a vital part of many bike journeys. Their placement before junctions makes it easier and safer to move past queued traffic and in many cases goes some way to making up for the woeful lack of dedicated bike lanes.

Generally they are pretty empty as well, and I usually wind up overtaking many of the frequently stopping buses I encounter in them.

And actually I don't have much issue with motorbikes being allowed into them, or, for that matter, sharing ASL 'bike boxes' with them.

The pro-cycling lobby suggests it makes things more dangerous for us to have motorcylists swishing past at speed, and it's true that they have a point; for new cyclists in particular it must be very disconcerting to have motorbikes swishing by at speed, and the Cyclists' Touring Club makes the serious point that motorcycle journey times dropped dramatically during bus lane trials, suggesting a lot of them were speeding.

However, I think sometimes we have to suck it up and deal with other road users on sensible terms.

Too many cyclists seem to think that their opinion and ease of movement is all that matters, and this short-sighted attitude does not endear us to the people whose respect we need to win as fellow road users.

Yes, it's true that we are vulnerable on the roads and raising awareness of this is of the utmost importance.

But there needs to be some give and take. If we're to complain at drivers for edging into the ASL or passing too close or the myriad of other sins they commit we also need to show at least some willingness to get our house in order, no?

To me, this means stopping on red, signalling lane changes clearly and safely, waiting in traffic if it is unsafe to move and absolutely not hopping on and off the pavement.

As two-wheeled road users, it seems to me that motorcyclists suffer from a lot of the same problems as we do; the two lobbies are natural allies and it seems silly, not to mention rather pointless, to be scrapping with them.

The real enemy is two tonnes of speeding metal with an Audi badge on the front. There's no reason why leather and lycra can't get along.

Making the switch. Impressions of the Scott Speedster S20

Earlier, I said I had gone through five machines so far, starting out some time in 1986 on a tiny little Raleigh, right through to my current Specialized mountain bike.

To date I've stuck pretty solidly with mountain bikes, which suited the kind of riding I grew up doing.

I have never had anything approaching a true road bike, but these days I hardly ever go off-road to the extent that I traded out my MTB tyres for (literally) bullet-proof Schwalbes a couple of years ago. With the Specialized approaching 12 years of age and starting to show it, it was time to trade it out for something new.

There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to go for either a hybrid with dominant roadie genes, or a full-on road bike, and my ultimate choice - it's a 2011 Scott Speedster S20 - seems to sit somewhere between the two.

There's certainly no describing the Scott as a hybrid; slim tyres on eye-catchingly beautiful white rims and lightweight build (9kg or 20lbs give or take) rule it firmly out of that category. This said, a flat handlebar arrangement gives it a more upright riding position than the classic road bike, and brings it a bit of Hoxton fixed-gear cred, if that's your thing.

In terms of looks, there's no doubting this is a handsome and highly nickable machine. The white and red colour scheme is absolutely a head-turner, and there's pay-off in terms of visibility in traffic, which is kind of a win-win. And it will of course, hold its head high among the more snobbish of the roadie set - no upturned noses here. Well, maybe a second glance at those handlebars but hey, some of us don't want to be stretched out over the bars all day...

Of course the flipside of a white colour scheme is obvious; it's a royal pain in the arse to keep clean, and after a day of ownership I've already wiped it down with a damp cloth. Twice. This is not a bike that will be at home in the wet or mud.

Based on three rides so far, each with a laden rucksack, my first impressions are uniformly positive.

To start with, there was no doubt the Scott was slower than my MTB. The Specialized's kevlar tyres ate the notoriously pitted roads of Mitcham and Carshalton for breakfast, and I could cane the 9.5 miles from Clapham to my workplace in 38 minutes during the school hols. This morning, the Speedster did it in 41 and I felt every bump. But do bear in mind that until May 5 I had never ridden a road bike, so a bit of wobble is surely par for the course.

So sure, it lacks the durability of the MTB, but I quickly found that the payback comes in terms of manoeuvrability; slimline wheels let you skirt hazards with relative impunity - I also traded up to Specialized Armadillo tyres to lessen my chances of puncturing - by mid-afternoon today I was up to and surpassing my average MTB speeds. This baby will coast along at 16 without this rider breaking sweat, happily does over 20, and given a fair breeze and a bit of a slope will climb well into the upper 20s.

The light frame (and a stonking 30 gears to choose from) also meant that this afternoon it breezed up the hills of Richmond Park with not a whisper of complaint. I'm small and unnaturally light and not a bad climber on an MTB, but this was simply in another league, and I clocked my best time yet on a 30 mile ride.

Cons. Are there any? I'd call them niggles, they're certainly not enough to make me reconsider the outlay. The rear fork design seems - on my first try admittedly - to make light attachment a bit tricky. I use a Knog Frog Strobe rear light and it is currently not positioned for maximum safety (if I was a copper I'd stop me). The supplied handlebar grips do not seem to be amazing quality, and the gear indicators are poorly positioned for visibility.

In summary? For me this has been a literal revelation and a note-perfect introduction to proper road cycling. It's a sub-£1k road bike that will do hybrid riding if you ask it nicely. If you give a toss what the Pinarello set think of you then the S20 will ensure you pass their test. But you know, I'll wager you might even scalp one or two of them and you'll definitely be more comfortable when you do it.

Photo lifted from Evans Cycles and is presumably copyright Scott Sports SA. Problem? Say so!

The 3,664.52 mile challenge

It seems like a bit of an arbitrary figure, but stay with me here.

At the start of the year I got annoyed with myself. Last October, at the first sign of cold weather and the onset of long, dark nights, I put my bike away and started getting the train to work.

Then, December rolled around and Christmas came and went and feeling sluggish I kicked myself into action, got my wheels serviced and acquired some nifty rubberised clip on lights called Knogs, which are funky (but have terrible battery life ... bah humbug).

I reasoned there was nothing to stop me from cycling to work throughout the winter, and not taking the train to work would save me up to £27.40 a week in Travelcard costs, and that's two bottles of wine! Eleven if you shop in Lidl. How could I resist?

But I needed something to motivate me, especially during January. Especially during the winter that we've just had.

With this in mind I decided to cycle from London to Washington DC, although not literally, I would get wet.

Specifically, I decided to ride from my doorstep in Battersea to my in-laws' house in Silver Spring, which is a suburb of Washington. Think Surbiton but with Americans.

Using Google Earth, I plotted a course and drew a straight line between the two points. It takes me across Ireland, then over the Atlantic to Newfoundland, down the coast of Canada and Maine and then on through the northeastern US to my destination. And then on January 9th 2011, I set off.

To date, five months later, a steady diet of commutes (10 miles each way) and longer weekend rides has got me to just under 1,254 miles, with just over 2,410 remaining. This puts me somewhere in the mid-Atlantic.

Some mornings, particularly in January and February, it's been hard to feel motivated to pull on base layers, fleecy gloves and thermal tights and know that you'll be frozen solid by the time you get to the bottom of the road.

But having a target in mind has made things just a little bit easier.

Of course, with the glorious weather we had in April that, touch wood, seems to be hanging around, I've gone probably a bit further than I otherwise would, and now that summer is just around the corner I won't need any encouraging to get moving. In fact, just lately I've been bounding out of bed at 7am on weekends and heading out while the roads are still calm. It's reprehensible behaviour but God it's a hell of a lot of fun.

The real test, I think, will start in mid-September or thereabouts, when autumn begins to set in. I have to wonder how far will I manage to get before the nights draw in and I have to start thinking about lights and leg-warmers again. Only time will tell.

That tricky first post in full

I am a twenty-something journalist in London who enjoys cycling rather a lot, and so I've started a blog about it to hopefully share some of this with you.

I'm not sure where this started. Well. Okay. That's a lie. I am ... but I'm going to save that for another time. The short version goes like this.

I've been riding some form of bike since I was given a tiny red Raleigh at the age of four, and to date I've gone through five machines, outgrown three, lost one bike to theft and two teeth to a hill in Richmond Park, which I think is a pretty clean record.

I've called this blog Moaning About Cycling with good reason. Lately, living in London, I've found a lot of wankers on the roads - bikers and drivers alike - and become quite outspoken when it comes to bike advocacy. There's a lot to get political about.

But I'm not out to be completely negative; cyclists may be a persecuted bunch but there's a lot to love about this pastime, and that's the main reason why I keep hitting the roads.