Bike blog | The Guardian – Tagged "cycling" – Page 12

Cycling, Environment, Gender, Life and style, Women, World news - October 4, 2019

Why are female cyclists targeted by aggressive drivers for abuse?

By being on the road, women seem to be transgressing a boundary that some men find intolerable

I commute in London by bike. Run-ins with aggressive drivers are as much a part of my daily routine as brushing my teeth. Recently though, I’ve started to wonder whether there is a distinctly gendered dimension to the frequency and intensity with which I am shouted, sworn and honked at.

When I talk to friends who cycle, I’m struck by the instant recognition of this phenomenon by fellow women, who are quick to share their stories. Sometimes the abuse is explicitly sexual, more often it’s simply aggressive and unpleasant, or merely patronising. Almost without exception, it’s perpetrated by men.

What do we lose when we lose a local bike shop?

As UK rents rise and online retailers eat into their margins, shops struggle to survive

In the early 1930s a young William Laker would cycle the 50-odd miles from his home in Kent to Crystal Palace in south London to visit the woman who would, half a century later, become my grandmother.

There is every chance Grandpa would have popped into the small bike shop at 3&5 Central Hill in Crystal Palace. That very shop remained open for about 97 years, serving generations of cyclists, but in July the current custodian of what is now called Blue Door Bicycles, David Hibbs, announced it is to close its door for good.

Carpe noctem! The joy of cycling through the night

Friday Night Ride to the Coast has been spreading the joy of night riding for almost 15 years

If you missed this year’s Dunwich Dynamo, or feel that it’s a little too big, chaotic or (whisper it) competitive, you might trying catching the next Friday Night Ride to the Coast.

This is a carefully organised event run by “the Fridays”, a club devoted to the singular cause of safely delivering you at a conversational pace from the Smoke to the sea. They do this every month from spring through autumn, requiring only third party insurance and an annual membership fee of £2.

Why we're tackling the Etape du Tour despite our breast cancer

Our conditions have forced us to temper our expectations, but my friend and I won’t let them stop us pursuing what we love

A breakaway is a cycling term that refers to an individual or a small group of cyclists who have successfully opened a gap ahead of the peloton, the main group of cyclists. On 21 July, two of us are plotting a breakaway from the disease that hangs over our daily lives by tackling one of the most challenging amateur cycling events.

The Etape du Tour, which has been running since 1993, is a chance for amateur cyclists to test their mettle on a stage of the Tour de France, riding on the same routes and under the same conditions as the professionals.

Channel 5's nonsense will make me and other cyclists less safe

Cyclists: Scourge of the Roads? isn’t just as bad as the title indicates – it’s irresponsible

On Wednesday morning, I’ll be a little bit more wary when I cycle into work. I’m always hugely careful, anyway – the trip involves sharing space with tonne-plus lumps of speeding metal – but this time I’ll be particularly on my guard. Why? Because Channel 5 are putting me, and others, at risk.

At 9.15pm on Tuesday, a reasonably sizeable number of people, the majority of whom probably drive motor vehicles, will sit down to watch what is undoubtedly the worst, most scaremongering, inaccurate, downright irresponsible programme on cycling I’ve ever seen.

Many motorists see cyclists as scum of the roads – speeding through crossings, riding where they shouldn’t, and generally hogging the roads.

For many drivers in the capital, cyclists have become public enemy number one.

What really winds motorists up is the feeling that cyclists are allowed to pedal outside of the law.

It’s not just in cities that some riders are on a right old rampage.

The pastoral dream – or it was until the cyclists came.

Cyclists sure can be a pain in the rear end, and some are a danger on the roads.

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cycling RSS

Why are female cyclists targeted by aggressive drivers for abuse?

What do we lose when we lose a local bike shop?

Carpe noctem! The joy of cycling through the night

Why we're tackling the Etape du Tour despite our breast cancer

Channel 5's nonsense will make me and other cyclists less safe

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