Bike blog | The Guardian – Tagged "Life and style" – Page 9

Cycling, Environment, Life and style, UK news - August 5, 2019

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.

Can you guess the world city from the cycle lane icon?

Some cities use images of bikes and riders, with or without helmets. Some use riderless bikes – and others just get the geometry all wrong. Can you tell what city it is from its cycle lane icon?

Which city is this?

London

Paris

New York

Which city is this?

San Francisco

Manchester

Vancouver

Which city is this?

Amsterdam

Sydney

Edinburgh

Which city is this?

Stockholm

Milan

Washington DC

Which city is this?

Tokyo

Jakarta

Singapore

Which city is this?

Bahrain

New Orleans

Copenhagen

Which city is this?

Lille

Seattle

London

Which city is this?

Perth

Prague

Pittsburgh

8 and above.

Excellent

7 and above.

Very good

6 and above.

Pretty good

5 and above.

Not bad

4 and above.

Not bad

3 and above.

Hmm

2 and above.

Oops

0 and above.

Oops

1 and above.

Oops

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'People think we’re from another planet': meet Karachi's female cyclists

Teams of women and girls are among numerous cycle groups increasingly to be seen on the streets of the frenetic Pakistan megacity

Early on Sunday morning in Karachi, a group of girls are riding loops around an empty stretch of road outside the colonial-era Custom House. At 6am they left the narrow alleys of the old neighbourhood of Lyari, branded a war zone by national and international media after a lengthy and brutal gang conflict. Two hours later they are still happily pedalling away, in ballet slippers and with headscarves tucked under helmets.

“I used to cycle alone,” says Gullu Badar, 15. “It’s nice to cycle here because there’s no danger, no cars. It feels good that there are other girls cycling with me too.”

The ego of our men is very fragile. If someone is trying something new they cannot tolerate it

Share your photos of the best and worst cycling infrastructure in your cities

Some cities feature spectacular bridges, bike paths and transport hubs designed with cyclists in mind, while others remain less than cycle-friendly. We want to see your examples, both good and bad

Some of the best and worst of examples of cycling infrastructure in cities have hit the headlines this week. On Monday, the Bicycle Architecture Biennale – which celebrates cutting edge designs from around the world – launched in Amsterdam. Schemes included a 8km bicycle skyway in Xiamen – China’s first suspended cycle path and the world’s longest aerial cycle lane, and projects from cities as far afield as Australia, the US and of course the Netherlands.

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Life and style RSS

Carpe noctem! The joy of cycling through the night

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

Can you guess the world city from the cycle lane icon?

'People think we’re from another planet': meet Karachi's female cyclists

Share your photos of the best and worst cycling infrastructure in your cities

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