Bicycle Documentary

The BBC made a great documentary about the history of the bike. It’s available on youtube.

Cycling Saved My Life

Eleven month ago at the age of 48 I gave up cigarettes and decided to get fit. I had smoked for 35 years and given up several times before (my longest stretch was 6 months), but I always went back. A friend who quit many years before advised me that I needed to put something in the place of cigarettes and acting on that advise I took up cycling.

Optima City

I bought a city bike, an Optima City made by Falcon Cycles in the UK. It’s a heavy steel framed bike with a three speed Sturmey Archer hub gear. In the early days I took it out everyday for a run on a hilly five mile circuit. The run was paced, I pushed just until the point where I began to pant and then stayed just under that point. The first time round I done the circuit in exactly 33 minutes. But as the weeks went on the time dropped.

After six weeks I bought my Raleigh Oakland and my wife and daughter started to use the city bike for short local journeys. In the eleven months since I continued to cycle mainly on the Oakland, but I also bought a road bike and started to do a Sunday morning ride with a local cycling club.

Last Saturday I was giving the city bike a full service and was curious to know how fast I could complete the five mile circuit after 11 months of cycling and 11 months without cigarettes. Away I went and was back in 24 minutes and 40 seconds. Over 8 minutes faster than 11 months ago. This is a good measure of how 11 months of cycling and 11 months without cigarettes has improved my cardio vascular performance.

In 11 months cycling has transformed my life. I am no longer as dependent on the car as I once was. I am teaching myself to be bike mechanic. I have broken my addiction to cigarettes. Cycling has literally saved my life.

Optima City on Falcon Cycles Website

The Power of Bicycles (World Bicycle Relief)

Many years ago when reading the green classic “Small is Beautiful” by E.F. Schumacher, I came across the idea of intermediate technology. Schumacher was against the idea of transplanting advanced industrial technology into places like rural Africa and argued that they needed simple human powered technologies. Simple easy to maintain machines that allowed them to keep their traditional economic and social models but enhanced them by providing a huge increase in productivity.

I thought of Schumacher when I came across World Bicycle Relief (WBR) recently. Founded after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami WBR provides poor communities in Sri Lanka and Africa with bikes and train local mechanics to maintain them. This is a perfect example of Schumacher's idea in action, a simple rugged human powered machine producing a massive increase in productivity and a massive improvement in the quality of peoples lives.

In AIDS ravaged Zambia healthcare providers who assist AIDS sufferers have been provided with bikes. Instead of walking they now travel much faster and can see more patients each day.

The program gives bikes to rural students, some of whom spent many hours walking to and from school, and often arrived late. With a bike they get to school on time and their education improves.

Small farmers can carry more produce to market quicker on a bike, which boosts their income. Women who have to travel long distances to fetch water and firewood can do so much quicker with a bike. Young people have new career options as bike mechanics.

With bikes people save valuable time and energy, for every ten miles traveled on a bike three hours are saved. A person can carry five times more cargo on a bike than on foot. And they can cover the ground four times faster on a bike.

The bikes are Asian made Buffalo Bicycles. The're rugged machines, designed for the tough conditions of rural Africa and WBR is backing up the gift of a bike, by training mechanics and ensuring that spare parts are available.

WBR recently passed a major milestone, they have now distributed 100,000 bikes. For a donation of just over 100 euros (134 US dollars) they can send another bike to Africa. For only 189 euros (250 US dollars) they can train another mechanic. For small money we in the western world can put a bike in the hands of some of the poorest people on earth and really transform their lives for the better.

A video about how bikes are changing lives for the better in Africa

Visit the World Bicycle Relief website and make a donation

The Buffalo Bicycle

Power To The People

Super Universal Battery Charger

I’m amazed there are still non rechargeable batteries on sale. I converted to rechargeable batteries in the mid 1990s and have not bought the non rechargeable kind since. The reason is simple, rechargeable are vastly cheaper.

A top of the line non rechargeable AA battery like the Duracell Ultra Power, sells in Argos for €5.99 for a four pack. A top of the line rechargeable like the Energizer 2450 mAh Rechargeable AA selling in Argos for €17.49 for a four pack.

The rechargeable pack is almost three times more expensive but will recharge up to 1000 times. Buy the non rechargeable type 1000 times and the cost is €5990. An initial investment of €17.49 will eventually save €5972.51. There is of course the cost of electricity to charge batteries and the cost of a charger, but €5972.51 will buy a lot of electricity and €20 will buy a good charger.

A 12 volt DC charger like the Super Universal Battery Charger, about €20 in Maplins Electronics, will charge batteries from a PV solar panel. I’ve used two ICP 15 watt solar panels with the Maplins charger to charge batteries.

The charger is used a lot in our house. There are radios, cameras, game controllers, several battery powered audio amplifiers, guitar preamps, stomp boxes (for guitars) and many flashlights and bike lights, all of which use AA, AAA or 9 volt batteries. Without exception there are all powered with rechargeable batteries.

Right now there are about 80 rechargeable batteries in our house. There are 54 in appliances and about 26 spares. If I were buying non rechargeable batteries it would cost a fortune.

According the the University of Cambridge website more than 15 billion batteries are used by households every year. The website Battery University estimate the global battery market is worth about 50 billions US dollars per annum, about 5.5 billion of this is rechargeable.

Non rechargeable batteries typically take 50 times more energy to make than they will produce. This is a very poor use of resources.

Duracell Ultra Power AA Batteries - 4 Pack

Energizer 2450 mAh Rechargeable AA Batteries

Super Universal Battery Charger

ICP Battery Saver Pro 15 Watt

University of Cambridge article on batteries

Battery University

Energizer 2450 mAh Rechargeable AA

The Roland Street Cube a battery powered guitar amp

The Winter of 2011-12

According to the Irish Met Office the winter of 2011-12 was  the mildest since 1989 at several of their stations. During January when the cold snap was at its height on continental Europe Ireland enjoyed moist warm Atlantic airflows. A slight touch of frost in the morning was as bad as it got. Sometimes it is great to live on an island out in the Atlantic.

Frogs Feb 28th

Like all Irish households we consumed a lot less heating fuel than the previous two winters. We were also better prepared for the cold than in the last two winters, with blinds fitted on windows and heavy curtains on both our outside doors.

I was caught out by the mild winter in the crops I grew. The previous two winters I had crops of winter cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli. Both were destroyed by the cold weather, but would have done very well this winter. The only crops in my garden right now are leeks and scallions, both of which will withstand extreme cold.

Another great advantage of the mild winter is that my cycling has been unaffected. I have been able to keep cycling all winter.

It is not certain that we will not get a cold snap yet, but as each day goes by it gets less and less likely. It is a very early spring, with the frogs already having layed their eggs in our garden pond, almost three weeks earlier than last year.

Roll on summer

Irish Met Office report on Winter of 2011-12

The Park Tool Chain Scrubber

I have never been great at keeping my bikes in good order. I tend to ride them until there is a problem, and then give them a major overhaul. I recently resolved to change this and have in recent weeks set up a proper workshop for storing and working on my bikes. Proper maintenance has a number of advantages, a well maintained and adjusted bike is easier to cycle and will cover the distance with less energy used. Components that are kept clean will run better and last longer.

Chain Scrubber

My conversion to this new way of working was prompted by the realisation that like many people who have lived in an oil powered society I have been casual about minding tools and machines. With every thing so cheap I have become used to heedlessly using things up, throwing them away and buying a new one. In the future bikes and bike parts will become more expensive and we will all need to take more care of them.

In particular moving parts benefit from proper maintainance and on a bike the biggest number of moving parts by far are in the chain. I got 8000 km out of the first chain on my Raleigh Oakland and resolved to maintain the new one better (see Raleigh Oakland Reviewed Part 3).

To do this I bought the Park Tool Chain Scrubber. I’ve used it today for the first time to clean the chains on my hybrid and road bike. It took about about a minute to do each bike and there was no need to take the chain off. The chains were scrubbed perfectly clean. An hour in the sunshine and they were dry and ready to be lubed.

Old Chain on top note the stretch

I used Bikehut Extreme Bike Cleaner from Halfords in the chain scrubber which I had in stock, but I read online that warm water and washing up liquid will work just as well.

This is a fantastic little machine and I will never again suffer a dirty chain. It is solid and well made and spare parts are available so I look forward to many years of service. If you have a bike and it does not have a full chainguard buy this machine and use it regularly. You will save chain wear and you will save energy every time you cycle.

Park Tool Chain Scrubber €28.99 from Chain Reaction Cycles

Park Tool Chain Scrubber Replacement Brush Set €7.55 from Chain Reaction Cycles

Bikehut Extreme Bike Cleaner €9.99 a litre from Halfords


This video demonstrates the scrubber in action