MCMLXVII circa MCMLXXIX

Wow. Found this old photo of yours truly aged about 12 - with my first bike!

Heart Of Glass

I knew it was the BAFTAs last weekend. Not because I read it anywhere, but because they'd blocked off Bow Street to build a massive lighting rig for the red carpet.

I love seeing what's going on at street level as I amble through the centre of the universe every morning. On the bridges and near railway stations, increasing numbers of Boris Bikes are ridden by fellas wearing suits and wool coats. In Covent Garden it's the morning after the night before: Brakes are delivering boil-in-a-bag food, and Coe Vintners are replenishing the booze supplies. Someone from Addison Lee is driving his MPV shockingly badly past some rather dazed-looking people in Soho who maybe, just maybe, are still partying.

And then there's the building works. The roadworks in Dean Street - gone today, hurrah! - were there because there's a cave underneath the road full of BT equipment.. which had collapsed. The top end of Tottenham Court Road is completely closed off at the moment as they build the new Crossrail station.

But this is the Daddy, going up near London Bridge:

The Shard of Glass, from Southwark St in Borough

Get up close and the sheer bulk of it is overwhelming; a monster! I can see it from home in Bermondsey, and I wouldn't be surprised if, once it's finished, I can see if from Baker Street as well. Recently in The Sun the crane driver who works at the top recounted how, one day, he was above the clouds, and the only other thing he could see was the top of the tower at Canary Wharf. Geometric leviathans flashing their red eyes at each other over our heads.

Love it or loathe it - and I'm in the former camp, I think - the Shard will be talked about for years, and it's a privilege to watch a landmark slowly emerging from the grubby streets behind the train station. I can't wait to go up inside it.

Not very bright

To: info@reelight.com

Hello,

I think your lights are a genius idea. I commute 15km a day across central London, so I have bought an SL520 front and SL620 rear for my commuting bike. It's great to have no more dead batteries - or detachable lights dropped in the Thames!

The first thing I noticed about the lights was the very brief flash. Of course they need to be very frugal with power, especially when running on the capacitor, so I understand that - and the eye does retain the image even after the LED has actually stopped.

I also noticed that the front loses its capacitor reserve quicker. I assume that is by design because the back light is more important at a junction.

But even when the capacitor is fully charged and I am going quite fast, the light does not either stay on longer or get brighter. The front, at least, just flashes quicker - too quickly, I think (isn't there a legal limit of 4Hz?). I can't see the back light when I'm moving but I assume it does the same.

I've set them up carefully and there seems to be plenty of power available - the capacitors start to charge just from me pushing the bike to the gate! - so it seems a shame that they don't use it more intelligently by doing brighter, longer flashes (rather than more frequent flashes) once the capacitor is fully charged, perhaps reverting to the short flashes at 1Hz when running from the capacitor.

So I think they're wonderful but not as bright as they could be - and I wonder if I'm missing something?

Thanks,

(MCMLXVII)

Hi (MCMLXVII),

Thank you for your interesting feedback. We value feedback from users of our products vey much. First of all I'm sorry for the late reply we have been away travelling.

A little feedback on your comments and questions:

- you are right about the limited current resulting in brief flashes. We are currently working on developing our generator concept to enable us to provide a higher output. This should result in flashing products with longer and brighter flashes and steady light with an actual light cone on the road.

- the difference in capacitor reserve is actually mainly due to variations in physical setup. The lights are programmed with the same software.

- the back-up light automatically stops after 2 minutes. This is to avoid the light flashing for ½ an hour after you have parked. Also this serves further reserve when you stop soon after and haven't had time to fully recharge the capacitor.

- When the reserve starts reaching the capacitor limit the light increases the flashing frequency and the flash length - and can actually increase up to constant if ridding fast enough.

I agree and have noted your input about doing brighter and longer flashes rather than more frequent flashes. This requires more advanced software programming than in the current lights. I expect that we will implement a better solution like this in future lights along with improved generators. And by the way I can tell from you comments that you have been very careful with the setup of our lights - resulting in plenty of power. Not everybody is as careful as you.

Again thank you for the feedback - happy safe ridding!

Best regards / Med venlig hilsen

Steffen Buck-Hansen

Research & Development manager

____________________________________________

Reelight ApS.

Hasselager Centervej 11, 1.

DK-8260 Viby J. Denmark

T: +45 86 74 24 90 / D: +45 89 38 61 06

Ridgeback Trials

The blog has had a bit of a holiday, and that's partly because I did too. In December the cold and snow came in with a vengeance and while I would mostly have been happy to keep plugging away, the cold was just too much for little MMVII to cope with, no matter how much we wrapped her up. So public transport it was, for a couple of weeks.

With that, and then a couple of weeks off over Xmas and New Year, it was actually a whole month before I got back on the bike again. So my legs knew about it!

There have also been a couple of developments with the Ridgeback recently. Firstly, after several weeks of failing to get quite comfy, I have fitted some new swept-back handlebars. My neighbour Z - who imports bikes and components, and sold me the bike in the first place - sourced these amazing bars for me from the continent. As well as just being more comfortable bars, they include a front carrier onto which you can strap things. I have plans to fit a box or tray for carrying shopping - and which, come the summer, will be just the right size for our picnic basket. Proper Dutch looking, too, although the extra weight on the handlebars does feel a bit odd. Most importantly, of course, they've completely revolutionised the seating position and I am now super comfy!

Especially now I've fitted the gel saddle that Dad gave me last year - much better than the Ridgeback one.

Secondly, sick and tired of buying batteries and dropping lights in the river, I've taken the plunge and retrofitted dynamo lights! Not a hub dynamo but lights that work by induction: you attach magnets to the wheel and a coil to the frame, and that generates electricity as you ride. A genius idea, and mine (the Reelight SL520 front and SL620 rear) also have a power reserve capacitor so that, after a couple of minutes riding, they will even stay on while you're sat at a junction. I no longer need batteries or to take the lights off when I park, which is a huge relief.

So as of last week I'm back in the saddle 5 days a week (except today when it was hooning it down), with only one minor gripe. The strap from my pannier was hanging down and got stuck in the back sprocket, making an oily mess of the strap, my hands and my work shirt. My fault, I guess, for not being more careful with the strap... and yet I can't help thinking, somewhere in the back of my mind, that if the frame was the right one for the hub gears, the bike could have had a fully enclosed chain... and this would never have happened. Hmm.

I Wouldn't Start From Here

Yesterday was another tube strike, the third in recent months. Of course it doesn't bother me at all, except that my Mrs, MCMLXX, wanted to cycle too and asked me to ride with her to Westminster. That's a bit out of my way and leaves me tackling Hyde Park Corner to get to my own work. Which is niiice.

Anyway, the good news is that she liked it so much that she cycled in again this morning. What's more, we parted at Waterloo and she did the last leg by herself. We'll meet again at nursery at Waterloo this evening. Another convert? Let's hope so.

The next challenge, mind, will be to get her cycling with MMVII on board. That's a story for another day.

In the meantime I want to share with you this terrific road sign which you come across if you drive or cycle north to Oxford Street from Grosvenor Square:

Looks normal? Well, now look closer:

That's right, bitches. No left turn. No right turn. And the road ahead is a dead end. You should not be here. Mwuhahaha!

Back Pedalling into the 21st Century!

I didn't buy the Velorbis. My plan was instead to find a decent bike shop locally and slowly upgrade the old Windsor Trail - although finding such a shop was proving easier said than done.

But then this came up:

Ridgeback Avenida 8D

Brand new it's a £700 bike but I got mine second hand - and, more importantly, from a neighbour who got it trade price himself - so I paid a LOT less. It's only about 6 months old and feels brand new.

So is the 21st century bike all that? Well the spec is pretty close to what I said was ideal: hub gears, a fairly upright riding position, low maintenance brakes, a kickstand and so on. Let's go through it bit by bit.

Gears

The Avenida has 8 speed hub gears which are gorgeous to use, with a quickfire push button gearchange. The range of gears is really wide. Start off in 2nd or 3rd and keep 1st for really steep hills as it's too low on the flat. I have very occasionally made it into 8th but it's too high for London really. And seemingly endless gearchanges in between; as many as anyone could need. I remember a 10-speed racer being the height of sophistication in the 70s, and a couple of those were usually redundant, so this is about the same - but in a trouble-free hub.

It's a bit odd, though, having that derailleur-style chain tensioner hanging down. What's the point of that? Especially as it stops me having a fully enclosed chain. Well, the Shimano site for the Alfine component set answers that question: "running a chain tensioner allows the use of an internally geared hub in a bicycle frame designed for use with derailleurs". Ahh... so that's what they mean by 'hybrid'.

It's interesting actually that it rather changes your riding style after a 3-speeder. You don't need to change the speed of your legs very much at all; you can just keep plugging away at a comfortable rhythym and change gear to suit the road. This in turn means you can be pretty fast without overstressing your knees. I'm certainly saving 5-10 minutes on my 45 minute commute. My thighs know about it, mind; which means it's great exercise but gentler on the knees.

Saddle

Perhaps I'll get used to it but at the moment this is not working for me. It's described as a 'comfort' saddle but it's neither a Brooks-style leather saddle (which will wear in) nor luxuriously upholstered. First I'm going to try getting used to it; maybe change the angle slightly, too. But I may end up swapping the saddle for my existing black gel one. Visually it should suit the bike quite well; and the brown one would probably suit the old bike which is dark green.

Another feature of this bike is the seatpost suspension. I'm not entirely convinced by that either. It seems to be fully compressed when I sit on it - well, I am a big lad - so I don't really notice it smoothing out the ride much. Also when you stop at a red light and stand up for a second, instead of taking the weight off, the saddle rises, follows you and basically nuzzles up into your bum. Which is a bit disconcerting to say the least!

But perhaps there is a preload adjustment I can change to make it work better for the, er, larger gentleman.

Frame and riding position

It's a shame it apparently wasn't designed for hub gears, but apart from that the frame is lovely. It's made from aluminium and is certainly much lighter to pick up - so long as you don't have a child on board! The previous owner had it set up with quite low handlebars for a more racy riding position, but the stem is adjustable so I've raised the bars right up and back to get pretty close to a vertical riding position. Very flexible, and works a treat.

The sidestand is fine too. But I'm not sure about the 'anatomical' handlebar grips; feels a bit weird and cuts off the blood circulation in my palm. But perhaps I'm just putting too much weight on them because of the uncomfortable saddle. Time will tell with this one.

Lights and locks

This is where it again varies a bit from my dream spec. There is no built in wheel lock, which means I have to use the shackle lock when dropping MMVII off at nursery (yes, another Leco seat was the first thing I bought!). That's mildly less convenient, but probably safer.

And there's no dynamo, which was rapidly becoming a priority what with the nights fair drawin' in. Instead - and alongside a tougher lock! - I've ordered some rechargeable lights, with a tiny Li-Ion battery and a USB cable to charge them. I'll report on those in the coming weeks.

Brakes

What a difference! The hub gears on my old bike were never very powerful, so I've gone from one extreme to another. These are not hub brakes as in my dream spec, but flipping disc brakes on a bicycle! The actuation is a miniaturised hydraulic system, with an oil reservoir on the handlebars and tiny pipes the size of a normal bicycle brake cable. I am speechless with admiration. They're extraordinary, and very powerful. In fact the levers are deliberately designed to only take 2 or 3 fingers, as a fistful of brake would definitely have you locking up a wheel or flying over the bars.

I don't yet know how they will be in the wet; but I might find out tomorrow.


Overall it's a really nice ride, and saving me time, so I'm very happy

:-)

Leco

People often ask me about the child seat I use for my daughter MMVII.

Your bog standard child seat is a huge plastic structure on the back like this:

But how are you supposed to talk to them? Or keep an eye on them if they're playing up? And of course they spend the whole journey with your sweaty bum front and centre. Niiiice.

Those sort of thoughts led me to the idea of a front-mounted seat. These seem to be a fairly new development, but I like the idea because you can talk to your child, and they can see out the front. In the event of an accident, your arms are already round them. It all made sense, so for a long time I was going to go for a Weeride:

I like the idea of the sleeping platform, so it was definitely part of my master plan when I first bought a bike. But then I saw one of these:

It's a top tube seat from a company called Leco. I first saw it on a bike parked outside a trendy Bloomsbury bike shop (Bikefix on Lambs Conduit Street). It didn't have the backrest, so it was just this neat little extra saddle sprouting out of the top tube, like Zaphod Beeblebrox's second head. The neatness and minimalism of the thing appealed to me immediately.

Is it enough? Don't you really need a big plastic armchair? Well I think it depends on your child - and your attitude. MMVII was already at the stage where she was physically capable of sitting on the saddle; and I've always been pretty good at coaxing her into trying things that are slightly adventurous (often by just outwardly being confident and making out it's perfectly ordinary, while in reality hovering and watching like a hawk). Given that she's inside my arms, I don't see how a plastic chair could add much on the safety front. And the killer point for me is that it's so much more like actually riding a bike herself: she's sitting on a saddle and holding the handlebars. She even has her own bike horn, shaped liked Tinky Winky.

Another point in the Leco's favour is that it's extremely good value at just £20. Amazon did the honours. It all seems a bit daunting when you first get it out of the box: there's lots of steel brackets and bits, but try putting them together and they do all make sense. In fact it's quite simple. There's a clamp to go round the top tube - actually several different sized clamps to fit all sorts of bikes - with a bit of rubber inside to grip. On top of that is a standard saddle mount and the little saddle itself.

Then there's another clamp with a footbar, which goes on the lower frame tube (higher up it than you think, but probably not as high as in this picture!). Just make sure you've got the right size clamps for your bike, use your child to measure it all up, then bolt it all on as tight as you can.

Talking of which, there is one problem. The nuts that come with it are special 'locking' ones that contain some sort of sticky substance. Clearly they're designed to be done up once and then the stickiness helps hold them tight. Mine weren't quite right when I first did them, and now I've adjusted them they won't stay tight. I'm going to have to get new bolts. Ho hum.

It also comes with the backrest and the strap, and I did include them when I put it together. But to be honest - given MMVII isn't likely to fall asleep or try to climb off in transit - I'm not entirely sure what good they do. If anything that backrest seems likely to hurt one or the other of us in the event of an accident. So next time I'm spannering it might well go for a Burton.

MMVII totally loves it. We commute to nursery on it, and at the weekend, no matter what mood she's in, the offer of a ride on Daddy's bike is guaranteed to cheer her up. And therefore Daddy, too.