Another kickstarter campaign worth backing. Veleco CC are a UK cycle clothing business hoping to launch a recycled polyester softshell jacket, urban cycling shorts and a range of carbon neutral t-shirts and hoodies (from a factory that uses wind turbines, no less). To get this initiative off the ground, they need to raise £20k over the next 2 weeks via their kickstarter campaign. The new products will complement their existing range of cycle (and apres cycling) clothing. 

Kickstarter campaigns are a fine way of showcasing your ideas and empowering people to be involved; a truly social and democratic process which  I fully applaud (not to mention the enthusiasm and the ethics of this particular venture). I know from experience precisely how difficult it is to try and forge a business approach that takes a bold and positive stance on fair trade and sustainability. Even more so when the product is uncompromising and first rate. So very best of luck with the fundraising Veleco. I look forward to seeing those products in my local bike shop soon.

To support the campaign, start by watching the the kickstarter video here. 

I often think about this. How are you viewed? How are you seen through another’s eyes? Reserved? Brash? Happy? Dour? Active? Lazy? Does it even matter?

The answer, I guess, is ‘it depends’;  on context, environment and relationship. Where it’s perhaps unequivocal is how young people view us, particularly if we’re hoping to impart some form of guidance in life. Our mentoring role is not to be underestimated.

Yesterday, I came home from Mountain Mayhem, tired but satisfied with the weekend’s effort to be greeted with this lovely picture from Evelyn (she’s 6). She told me that the bike was modeled on my favourite (“It’s the blue one daddy…you know…your cross bike”) and that she found the wheel on my Bristol bike project t-shirt a little tricky.

If my only mark on this world is to leave one child with the impression that being in the outdoors, riding your bike and supporting a social project is the right and normal thing to do, then that’s at least one perspective I’m not going to worry about.

Simon // “Inspiration” // Vancouver Cycle Chic Films from VANCOUVER CYCLE CHIC on Vimeo.

I rather liked this short film by Vancouver cycle chic after their Cardiff counterparts (and friends of this site) featured it in a recent blogpost. Aside from being bright and breezy, there is something hazily romantic about cargo bikes; they are the velo equivalent of the the classic French goods van (below).

Unquestionably it is the most useful cycle that I’ve never owned, yet most miss.

Image via curbside classic 

They circled slowly, tooled up with scaffold pipe and bolt cutters, braying for blood.

Break it! 

<the first blow lands>

Smash it! 

<feet land on the wheel>

Take it!

<components are removed>

Annihilated in Park Place. This poor thing really has endured some violence. This particular spot – adjacent to the Park Hotel Cardiff – seems to be particularly prone to cycle crime. Note similar damage to other cycles in the background.

More in the series: Abandoned Part 1, Abandoned Part 2, Abandoned Part 3, Abandonded Part 4, Abandoned Part 5 Abandoned Part 6, Abandoned Part 7, Abandoned Part 8, Abandoned Part 9, Abandoned Part 10, Abandoned Part 11, Abandoned Part 12, Abandoned Part 13, Abandoned Part 14, Abandoned Part 15

If you come back to your bike to find it decimated by detritivores, please think about passing any unwanted bits to local social enterprises such as The Cardiff Cycle workshop, The Bristol Bike Project,  ReCycling (London) or The Bike Station (Glasgow). This is part of an ongoing series to highlight cycle security, abandoned and vandalised bikes. 

I love urban exploring by bike. I don’t necessarily mean finding old buildings and peaking between boarded windows (though I like that too). No. I mean riding around and hunting out the nooks and crannies that tell us a little more about the place in which we live. Pyschogeography? Is that the phrase? Whatever – having a bike means you can do an awful lot of it in a relatively short space of time. It’s one of my favourite lunch time pursuits, generally saved for when conditions are favourable and the road beckons.

The images here are from an alleyway in Roath, Cardiff. It’s dark artwork that casts a malignant gaze along a central rat run. Impressive, unsettling artistry.

Clear day, blustery wind, cotton wool clouds.

Sun baked mud, fields of grass and buttercups. Invisible winds prescribe patterns into the distance.

Road. Cattle grid. Rocks.

I crest an ancient celtic mound and gaze east to Gwent. South to Devon. West to Swansea. North to Pen-Y-Fan.

Head East across Moorland, descend the North East slopes. Enter gate.

Usually empty, the gnarled, rocky descent is lined by children.

‘It’s steep down there!’.

‘I know’. ‘Thanks’. Smile. Descend.

My back wheel is followed by a ripple of applause.

How unexpected.

I reach the bottom and turn back up the hill. Road this time. Steep but comfortable.

The sign reads – ROAD CLOSED. LANDSLIP.

I’m not alone in ignoring it. A Japanese man pushes his bike.

I smile. ‘Good morning’.

He looks at me. Looks through me. Nods silently.

I climb.

I run the south slopes of the Garth, bike on shoulder.

I jog the climb. Walk the steps. Hobble the fell.

My trig point has a new adornment. A lady stands astride the monolith, photographing the scene.

‘Will you film me?’

‘Art project?’

‘No. Football manger’.

She mimics a gull. I capture philosophy in pixels.

Footage reviewed she smiles contentedly.

Riding off the mountain, I pass the Japanese wanderer , sat cross-legged beside a Celtic barrow.

His bike rests idly.

I smile.

He looks at me. Looks through me.  Nods silently.

Saturday was a glorious day for training at my favourite spot. The sun saturated everything in its path, the woody descents were silent and the hardened path perfect for my 29 inch wheels. Normally my sets are uninterrupted lonesome affairs. But Saturday was quite different. Vaguely surreal.  Image taken earlier in week at a reworked Victorian train bridge.

Cycle art for the space cadet. I approve.

Cycle art by Agrimony and available here.

Reblogged from The Odoni-Elwell blog:

Based on our Spaceman scooter rack, we had fun producing these (above). Expect to see these lazer cuts riveted to the side of our cycle shelters and dangling from our key-rings. We'll also be producing a bottle opener version shortly  (handing for cycle events - or at the least the ones we attend).

If you have a bespoke requirement for a lazer cut, have a chat with the Odoni-Elwell design team.

If you’ve a copy of  the current issue of Bicycling Times (#23), have a look at page 10  for the most bizarre statement I have ever read in a bicycle magazine. In relation to a previous article (#22, An exchange of guns for bikes programme in Montana – p16), there is a quote from a letter written by a reader in LA, blown up (excuse the pun) and writ large in the side panel:

Guns and bicycles are not diametrically opposed. Bicycles and guns have been an integral part of my life for the better part of 61 years.

Eh? Guns and bicycles are not diametrically opposed??? Where did that come from? With the exception of the opening scenes of Grosse Point Blank (a truly great movie). I can barely think of two things more diametrically opposed. One is facilitating, enabling, health promoting, humble and – crucially – life enhancing. The other is for killing things. It’s arguably the most surprising statement I’ve ever read in a bicycle magazine. Is it a brave editorial decision to engage in an unexpected guns/bikes debate?  Or should it have been skipped entirely? I Can’t imagine the promotion of bikes and guns ever raising its head in Boneshaker , The Boneshaker Almanac or the Ride Journal (or any other cycling magazine for that matter). Long may the two not be combined.

I guess it goes to prove that cycling literature can be endlessly surprising…

Bicycling times issue 23 is available from Fringerprint distribution . Inspired by the memory of Grosse point blank, enjoy ‘mirror in the bathroom’ below (the music is used in an iconic scene) or the whole thing here.

Little rays of colour added to the Cardiff cycle network. It really, really doesn’t take very much to brighten up the dull corners of our cities (and everyone else’s day in the process). Bravo Enfys.

Ditch the motor. Hop on your bike. Enjoy the sun.