So what can you get as a business? You could get 485 bicycles serviced (that’s right a staggering 485 bicycles!) or 77 new bicycle stands or one on one training for up to 55 members of staff. Too good to be true? Cycling Workplace Package info.

I happen to know from personal experience that the cycle servicing is happening as Cycle2Job has won a contract to do it. S0, to sign up for all your freebies go to https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/roadusers/cycling/superhighways/default.aspx or email cyclingworkplaces@tfl.gov.uk.

Is my business eligible for the Cycling Workplace Package?

As a business within 1.5km of the new cycle superhighway and you have more than 50 employees on one site that you will be eligible.

The first cycle superhighways go between Tower Hill in the City of London across to Docklands and then on to Barking.

The other one goes from the City of London, down to London Bridge, past Elephant and Castle, down to Kennington, Stockwell, Clapham, Balham, Tooting and finally to South Wimbledon.

• The main cycle superhighway map
• Tower Hill (City of London) to Barking cycle superhighway schematic map
• City of London to Merton cycle superhighway schematic map

Call to action business owners

Yes, you and I mean you! Sign up to this scheme now before the funds run out. Get a fitter, healthier workforce by encouraging them to commute to work on a bicycle. Not only that, employees will be more attracted to work for you and you could get some great PR stories by encouraging your staff to cycle to work.

Reduce your CO2 emissions by cutting down the amount of journeys carried out by your staff using cars, taxis and public transport.

Don’t forget, that Cycle2Job is here to help you get your staff cycling to work. Why not book a Dr Bike session?

Till next time…

Iain Clark, Founder and Director, Cycle2Job

This particular example can be found on the A161 in Goole.

What do you think? Do you have any amazing cycle lanes (really, I do feature good cycle lanes) then please submit them here. Otherwise, just send in your your normal crap cycle lanes!

via Cycle Facility of the Month.

Please support our friends at Warrington Cycle Club by buying their book Crap Cycle Lanes.

If you are a London business, why not encourage your staff to cycle to work through a Dr Bike session from Cycle2Job?

Safe cycling, Iain Clark.

For the last three years, I have been driving a petrol, gas guzzling monster of a car; a BMW 728i Sports Edition. I loved my car, it drove smoothly, like a dream. The stereo was fantastic and you would arrive at your destination relaxed and not stressed. However, to fill the tank of my car cost around £100 and is usually a managed an impressive 23 miles to a gallon!

Well, the car has gone, and every month I will feature a blog of how I am living without a car with top tips. This week is the supermarket shop – how can you get all that stuff on your bicycle and back home? Well, I did remember that my favourite shop Waitrose offer free trailers to their shoppers. I duly checked and from January 2010 they do offer them. I checked on their website and could not work out if they offered this service in Milton Keynes (where I happen to live). They had never heard of it! I then phoned Waitrose customer services and they said they we unsure of when the trailers would be available in my area. Come on Waitrose, have at least one trailer at every branch! By the way, you can buy your own trailer at BikeHod.

So, it was off to Waitrose on my trusty Brompton. To their credit, I have carried serious weight in the Brompton T Bag Set. So Brompti and I set off to Waitrose. The journey there was OK, but why is Milton Keynes Council not providing good cycle paths in the town centre. If you are not aware but Milton Keynes was built with a completely seperate road system for cyclists and pedestrians called red ways. However, in the centre, they are gradually destroying these cycle paths and putting hotels and supermarkets in the way.

Outside Waitrose there is plenty of cycle parking. Parked up the bike and took a trolley around the shop. Did my shopping and had a lovely chat with the customer service desk. I asked why they had no bicycle trailers and she said that they may be on the way soon.

Packed up my bag at the checkout and trolleyed my now very heavy bag to the bicycle. In fact, it was a bit heavy to carry, but luckily nothing broke. I’m always surprised that a Brompton rides better with lots of weight. It cruises along with the extra weight of my weekly shop. On the way home I suddenly remembered that I had been ordered to buy a new mop by my cleaner (I know it’s lazy). I had second thoughts about adding more weight to the bicycle, buy hey ho – in for a penny in for a pound.

Went to Homebase and incredibly they also had some bicycle parking.  However, it was quite a distance from the store it still worked. Got my mop and went home.

Look at all the stuff that I fitted into my bag – next time it is going to be a trailer.

What are your experiences of cycling to the shops? Please share your thoughts?

Below is the movie

Part of Cycle East, offering you the chance to catch three free gigs across three different venues, providing the perfect tonic for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Grab your bicycle, don your walking shoes or hop on a bus and move from venue to venue to also catch exuberant Eastern European sounds from the London Gypsy Orchestra at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, and austere art-pop indie exemplars Sweet Billy Pilgrim at Toynbee Studios.

Events are free and you can’t book – just get there early if you want to see anything!

As a special treat I have just seen this cycle path in Vauxhall London. It is about 8 feet long and perfect for mowing some pedestrians down. Perfect for doing a U Turn via the traffic light.

The lane can be found on Kennington Lane in Vauxhall, London.

Please feel free to send in your own photo’s here.

What do you think?

via Cycle Facility of the Month.

Please support our friends at Warrington Cycle Club by buying their book Crap Cycle Lanes.

Don’t forget to get you bicycle serviced for the cycle facilities.

Till next time….

Iain Clark, Founder and Director, Cycle2Job

There use to be a cycle repair company called Dr Bike, but for various reasons they are now called Cycle Systems. So, who else could be Dr Bike. The reality is that Dr Bike’s are where trained London bicycle mechanics come to your workplace and carry out safety checks on bikes.

It is a great way to encourage people to get their bikes out of the garden shed and to start cycling to work. It is also a safety issue, as there is no MOT for bicycles. I have seen bikes with no brakes and even bikes with broken back axles!

Dr Bikes occur in the workplace. A qualified bicycle mechanic will arrive and set up a bike stand. The employees are booked in 20 minute slots to have their bikes serviced. When it is someone’s turn to have their bicycle serviced then they are phoned up and they come down.

The mechanic will tune the gears, check to see if the bike chain needs repairing, check the  bicycle brake blocks. A good lubrication of all the moving parts of the bicycle is carried out.

Sometimes we have found some serious problems and have to come back to repair them using our bicycle repair man service. Or, if you would like to book a London Dr Bike then please contact Cycle2Job directly.

Have you had any experience with Dr Bikes?

Iain Clark, Founder and Director, Cycle2Job

Cycling is dangerous!

It could be that last year 13 cyclists were killed in London. Out of these gruesome statistic 9 people were killed by HGV’s turning left and 8 of these causalities were woman.  (from Moving Target).

Bike shops

It could be that many woman find bike shops a male dominated intimidating places. Most woman that I talk to will not go to a bike shop. In fact in the USA there is a trend to have woman only nights in bikes shops to counteract this.

Helmet hair

Other female friends have said that there hair will get ruined – the famous helmet hair. However, there is help at hand at the bikegirl website. Suggestions including wearing a scarf and certain hair products. However, in the UK it is not the law to wear a helmet and there is some contention whether helmets are a good idea or not. See this article on the CTC website.

Cycle sweat

Nothing worse than cycle sweat! Sweat, it’s a real pain when you commute to work on a bicycle and you feel that your clothes have a built in shower system that has been turned on for half an hour. Dripping, salty, running down your back sweat. “When will I start smelling?” you think. Yuk. However, there are many ways to avoid this scenario. However, in a previous post I tell you about Four proven ways to solve the sweat problem when cycling.

Cycle maintenance

The other concern is the maintenance of  a bicycle. The stereotype of boys love to get dirty and to play with mechanical things while girls play with dolls! However, you could always use a Cycle2Job London Mobile Bicycle Mechanic.

What do you think?

What do you think? Let us now on the comments below. Till next time.

Iain Clark, Founder and Director, Cycle2Job

Other articles

http://dc.thecityfix.com/gender-and-the-art-of-bicycle-maintenance/

WOW : Women on Wheels, A Ladies Night Out March 4, 2010 « Bike Shop Girl.

straight leg for saddle adjustment on bike

How can you make a bike go faster? The first mistake people make with a bike is having the saddle in at the wrong height. You may need a friend to help you with this. Sit on your bike and put your full weight on the saddle. Put your foot on a pedal.  For this exercise, make sure that your heal is on the pedal. Back pedal until your leg is fully extended. The saddle should be set to a height so that your leg is fully extended and there is no kink in it. Doing this will maximise the use of the energy produced by your legs.

back foot on pedal

This brings us on to the next subject, the best position for your foot on the pedal. This is to put the ball of your foot on the pedal – that is the front part of your foot. The photo shows the wrong way to do it. Again this maximises the use of your energy from your legs.

bicycle-pressure-marking-on-tyre

Tyres naturally deflate over time. You should be checking the pressure of your tyres at least every week. This will make the biggest difference to the efficiency of you cycling. A deflated tyre will slow you down as there is a larger surface of the tyre on the road. To check for the correct tyre pressure, look at the side of your tyre. Most tyres have a maximum and minimum pressure. I would recommend that you buy a good track pump to do this.

The factors in picking the right tyre pressure are various. The lower the tyre pressure, then the more cushioned the ride will be, however it will slow you down. A higher pressure will give you a harder ride and more speed. Your weight will also have an effect on the ride quality. You may want to also consider a gel saddle if you want a more comfortable ride.

Great value track pump. Cycle2Job mobile mechanics use these pumps on their jobs. Only £19.99 RavX-Airmax-Track-Pump

Transform the comfort of your bike with these sprung gel saddles. Keep your tyres hard and keep comfort. Why not get a Cycle2Job mobile cycle mechanic to fit it for you? Only £18.00. Sprung Gel Saddle

The next tip is just a personal observation, and I hope other people can comment on it. I have found that if I rush and try and go faster on my bike that in fact I don’t get to my destination in a faster time. The result is a very tired Iain! My hypothesis is that my rushing you are exhausting yourself and your average speed is slower.  London also has a lot of traffic lights and cycling can be a stop and start affair, so rushing does not in fact speed up your journey.

However, if that all sounds like too much work then you could always have our mobile mechanics do all this for you. As part of our standard service we get your bike ready for the Spring and carry out the above as standard.

Do you have any top tips to make a bike more efficient?

Iain Clark, Founder and Director, Cycle2Job

Last week, I was promoting the Cycle2Job mobile mechanic service in the City Of London. Michael (our new mechanic) and myself were going all over the City looking for bikes to put our flyers on. We went round Finsbury square and could not find that many. Where are all the bicycles? We went to Liverpool station and found the bike rack outside the station crammed full of bikes. In fact, the bikes were overflowing . Good for us as we carefully placed our flyers on the bikes by placing them between the spokes. I said to Michael, ‘I’m sure there is more parking than this?’ as according to the Road CC website there are 189 parking spaces in Liverpool Street station. If you have very sharp eyes, you can just see a small sign near platform 10 informing you that there is cycle parking on platform 10.

We walked down platform 10 in anticipation looking for the fables bike parking facilities. There was a train waiting on the platform waiting to take passengers away. We passed the first carriage, then the second. Where is the cycle  parking we asked? In fact, we passed the train and found ourselves on a road with taxis driving past. At least, we were still in the station. We kept walking. By this time we were surrounded by tall blue hoardings and there was very little light. We felt the grail hunters getting closer to the holy grail.

At last, out of nowhere we found it. Rack upon rack of bicycle parking that was virtually empty. Where are all the bikes? Well, if you put the cycle parking in the middle of nowhere, how are people suppose to find it? Tell your friends, tell your neighbours, tell everyone, there is loads of cycle parking in Liverpool Street station.

Empty cycle spaces for bikes in Liverpool Street

If you want to start cycling to work in the City of London, let us help you. Our mobile mechanics can service your bike, or why not organise a Dr Bike at your workplace so you can encourage more people to enjoy the joy of commuting to work on a bicycle. If you want a decent route, then let us create you one, with our Safer Route scheme.

Let us now where you have found some good cycle parking and we will feature it on this blog. Come on Londoners, let us know where you park your bike.

Iain Clark, Founder of Cycle2Job

One option, is to not cycle, however, this blog is all about cycling to work on a bicycle, so we can’t have that. Or can we? Electric bikes are now becoming more reliable and a lot lighter. Think back a few years, and an electric bike was this clunky, heavy Heath Robinson thing that looked more like a moped with a very limited range. Things have moved on, the new bikes are lighter at 22kg and have a large range.  The time when you really start sweating is on hills, an electric bike will detect that you are on a hill and automatically add assistance to get you up the hill.

If you are on the flat and are feeling a bit tired, then on this particular model you have a cruise control button (just like on a car). When pressed, this will power the bike without the need for pedals at all! Cycling, without pedalling! Of course, when you apply the brakes the cruise control will turn off, just like a car cruise control.

The other options do involve cycling. The Slow Bike Movement can help you . The say that there is no need to cycle around like a maniac, as if your children are in a house fire and you are rushing at high speed on your bicycle to rescue them. No, life is for living, take your time, enjoy your journey. The reduction in speed, will mean that you will sweat less, or not at all.

However, I have to admit, before I started cycling to work, I use to have refresh my underarm deodorant by about 3pm in the afternoon. Nothing seemed to work and I kept trying different brands, even girls’ deodorant! But nothing quite worked until I found the amazing and fantastic Mitchum. They claim that you go without re-applying for 48 hours (in my case about 20 hours). By the time I had discovered Mitchum I was cycling to work anyway. However, even if I do get a little sweaty when cycling (I obviously have a large family, as, yes, I have to admit I do cycle as if my kids were burning alive in a house fire).

You could always have a shower. That is how I started on my cycling to work voyage of discovery. I joined a gym near work and went there to shower after my bike ride. The machines looked pretty, but I was not in the mood to use them after cycling from Walthamstow to Euston via Hackney marshes and the Regent’s Canal. I will document this route another time and update this article.

Do you have any tips for the sweat and cycle problem?

Iain Clark
Founder and Director, Cycle2Job