N16 and E8

Hot weather, parks, market shopping, flashy bikes.


Photo: Clissold Park, Stoke Newington, London


Photo: Dalston Market, London


Photo: Kingsland High Street, London


Photo: Stokefest 2008, Stoke Newington, London

Bike Week 14 - 22 June

BikeWeek.org: There's bike related stuff going on all over the country next week...

Selected details of some London events occurring next week are listed on a London Cycling Campaign feature.

Or, use the BikeWeek.org 'Event Search' page, and just select "London" in the "County" drop-down menu, leaving all other menus on their defaults, to obtain a more detailed list of what's going on.

SingleTrack: London’s Bike Week Giveaway (June 14 -22)

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Perhaps the sudden surge in morning cyclists this week - as reported by London Cycling Diary - was down to TfL's London Workplace Cycle Challenge, which overlaps Bike Week.

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I don't see it included as part of Bike Week's affiliated events, but no doubt the London Naked Bike Ride will get more press than any of Bike Week's efforts.

View London: "Not many people can say that they have cycled naked through the streets of the capital, but this year more than 1,000 people are again expected to take part in the London naked bike ride to raise awareness of the need for more tolerance of bicycles on the road in the city. Last year's naked cyclists totalled approximately 1,200, and this year even more are set to get in the saddle in the nude.

Making demands for more cycle only areas and safer cycle lanes in all cities, the naked bike ride demonstration is a call for international action to halt climate change and encourage more people to use greener ways of travelling in their cities. The London naked bike ride will also go down in history as the largest ever naked protest in Britain if the total number of naked cyclists exceeds the estimated 1,000 participants.

Although totally naked riders will be taking part in the London naked bike ride, not everyone is obliged to strip off completely. Going as bare as you dare is the way forward, so expect to see plenty of cyclists in their pants, rather than completely au naturelle. [ read full article ]

Links: World Naked Bike Ride / London Naked Bike Ride

Reels of Wheels

Saturday Night At The Movies:


Photo: The Film Shop, Stoke Newington Church Street, London

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Quicksilver (1986): Kevin Bacon screws up his stockbroker job, and takes up a job as a messenger, leading to an impromptu alley cat with his pal, Voodoo (Lawrence Fishburne). With their race through the streets of San Francisco involving the breaking of numerous traffic laws, its not surprising that a cop in a car gives chase to these fixed gear junkies. What is surprising is the cop turns out to hate cyclists so much that he intentionally slams into and kills Voodoo (who at least died having won the race).

With Voodoo's dome splattered all over the tarmac, Kevin swears his revenge and later proves that bikes will totally win the Commuter Challenge every time. Out manoeuvring the cop car, he whizzes through alleyways while the car can barely get through without destroying a half dozen trash cans and getting scrap metal stuck in its axle. With the cop's car getting progressively more beat-up, further showcasing the incompetence through blind bike rage of this bent bobby, Kevin needs to find a way to end this. And quick.

Spotting his chance, Kevin leads our cyclist hating cop into a multi-storey car park and succeeds in making him drive off the building, thus totalling both cop car and cop in sweet finality revenge.



There's also a bike dancing scene, with all of Kevin's messenger buddies pulling tricks until their boss decides to break up the fun.

You can find details of the bikes used at PedalPusher and Wikipedia.

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Ladri di Biciclette / The Bicycle Thief (1948): It's one the best films ever made (see Wikipedia entry) , and its all on YouTube (in nine parts).

Imdb: "Vittorio De Sica's masterpiece about a poor young father in postwar-ravaged Rome who finally finds work putting up Rita Hayworth posters around town, only to have his precious bicycle stolen the first day on the job."

The Vatican has this on its 'Best films ever' list, for its portrayal of humanistic values. No films about cars feature on the Pope's DVD collection.



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Channel 4's Three Minute Wonders: four films (all 3 min long) about bikes.

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More bicycle films listed here, here and here.

Bicycle Film Festival 2008

Photo: Newington Green, London

BFF2008: Starting in New York today, and then moving across 17 international cities, The Bicycle Film Festival 2008 (now in it's eighth year) is a celebration of bicycles through film, art and music.

A preview of the New York event's opening night musical entertainment can be found here, at Pitchfork and also in Time Out New York. The latter quotes Matthew Modine:

Time Out New York: The biggest name on the program is actor Matthew Modine, who appears in the activist doc Bicycle Stories later that night. Turns out the Birdy star has been a cyclist since his salad days: “I used to sneak out of my parents’ house and ride to my girlfriend’s place,” he says. “We lived in Imperial Beach, California, and biking home with the salt and wind in the air kind of completed the sensual experience.” [ read full article ]

The festival arrives in London on October 1, 2008 and runs until October 5, 2008.

The programme for BFF2007 London can be found here.

I've never been, but I'm hoping that, whilst most screenings or shows will attract mainly the fervent biking enthusiast (eat, drink and sleep with their bike), there will enough to attract the more casual city cyclist (twice a day, to and from work / from A to B). Such as last year's screening of Ayamye, about recycled bicycles from the USA arriving in rural Ghana.

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Dork Magazine: Interview with Bicycle Film Festival founder, Brendt Barbur

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Edinburgh and Leicester are each running their own Bicycle Film Festival events, both in June 2008.

Edinburgh: www.bicyclefilmfestival.info

Leicester: bikefilmfestival.org

Dis-con-nected

Photos: Dis-con-nected Party, Dalston, London

Cycle powered energy activists Magnificent Revolution threw a party in Dalston last night, with eight bikes geared up to power the sound system.

Dis-con-nected: "A night of pedal powered mayhem where the power is down and the people will need to get involved to keep the night going. We’ve convinced the owner of the Old boys Club in Dalston to turn off his power for one evening. The sound system and lighting will literally feed off the energy of the audience, who provide the power by getting on bikes (provided by the magnificent revolution crew) to generate the electrical energy needed to keep the fast paced show on the road."





"Captain Dynamo" was particularly impressive, looking like a vigilante bike-crimestopper.

Cycle Links

Photo: Dray Walk, Brick Lane, London

It was glorious and sunny yesterday, as shown by this photograph taken at Dray Walk (home of Rough Trade East, discount fashion and generally a busy, outdoor hipster hangout just off Brick Lane). Here, bikes and fashion mesh seamlessly, and an abundance of personalisation (a leopard skinned Brompton) and fixed wheels (Brick Lane being Bike Polo central).

Today, its raining heavily, but I'm going to brave the streets shortly. Before that, various links of interest:

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SF Gate: Cycling In The Rain by Dave Ford: ""I like the camaraderie of seeing other cyclists out there in the rain," she wrote in a recent e-mail. "You know they're the serious ones, the committed ones who ride no matter what."

She says she doesn't need rain gear for her half-hour commute, opting instead for cycling clothes (she totes work clothes in a backpack). It's the sense of freedom, of "controlling my own destiny," that draws her to bicycle commuting -- as well as the knowledge that, in the rain, motorists may exhibit a smidgen more caution than normal.

"I like to think that, actually, I'm a bit safer (riding in the rain) than on a sunny Friday afternoon in summer when everyone is anxious to get home and start their weekend," she wrote.

Non-bicyclists are likely to think: What, are these two nuts? Indeed, non- bicyclists often ask Fahrner and Kelly-McMahon just that.

"Most of my co-workers are accustomed to my commuting after three years, but (I) still get a few 'Are you crazy?' glances," Kelly-McMahon wrote. " 'You rode in this?' Yup, (and) how long did you stand in the rain waiting for your bus?" [ read full article ]

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The Guardian: Urban Cycling: Zoe William's 2007 article on cycle safety and Ten Great London Back Routes For Cyclists

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BBC: The Bicycle Backlash: A fairly flimsy piece from early May 2008, reporting on train passengers' antagonism towards "space-stealing" cycles and their owners, on crowded commuter train journeys.

A to B to Z

Photo: Oxford Street, London

BikeRadar.com: London Cycle Maps On Your Mobile: "A special edition of A-Z’s digital London Mini Street Atlas which includes Transport for London’s cycle route information has just been launched. Two versions of the map are available for the Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 3rd Edition platforms. A list of compatible devices is on the A-Z website where the map is downloadable for £6.95. On-line technical support is provided." [ read full article ]

A-Z Maps: CycleCity Maps: London Cycle Maps On Your Mobile: further details and guide to compatible devices.

It looks like my Sony Ericsson (this cyclist's preferred music player of choice whilst out riding) is out.