Friday, 22 December 2006

Bicycle No. 7: Wednesday December 20, 2006



Cycling in London is not for the faint of heart. What cycle lanes there are last for 10 meters, before merging back into the bus lanes. Cars pay scant attention to their two-wheeled foes. And taxi drivers believe that cyclists would deliberately throw themselves under cab wheels were the Dutch system of attributing automatic fault to the car driver in the event of a car/bike "interface" ever to be introduced over here. But the number of these hardy fools seems to be increasing; they're making their presence felt. If you click to enlarge the photo above, you'll see one cyclist powering his/her way down Gower Street, well-wrapped up against the bitter cold and trying to maintain a good distance ahead of one of London's bendy buses. Rather him than me.

Monday, 18 December 2006

Bicycle No. 6: Sunday December 17, 2006


Off to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds for the weekend -- and a bike crisis. I saw horsies, I saw dogs, I saw plenty of 4x4s, but very few bikes. Irritatingly, I did see a group of cyclists prepping for a country bike ride -- flourescent gear, bike helmets, shiny mountain bikes -- but failed to take a picture of them, posed beautifully in Chipping Campden's historic market place. I dashed out of a boozy late lunch to find a bike -- any bike -- in the village, but this was all I could find. A fine bike used purely for advertising. Oh well, at least it's pretty.