7 entries tagged bike
Introducing my new bike
Yes! Pictures of my new bicycle, and not before time. Actually, I only have my bike here because I don't have a cat to give a webpage to...
Update (1999): I was intending to add more info about
my bike and cycling in Oxford but so far I have never found the
time. So this page is a little old... :-)
My bike wrecked
Alas! I have managed to dispose of another bicycle. This time it was written off in an accident—I was ‘in collision’ with a car door. Luckily for me the bike took most of the damage, but in the process the front forks and frame were wrecked. Just about the only component unaffected is the rear wheel. Since this has the hub gears, it is probably the most expensive part of the bike...
I sha’n’t bother changing my bike page to translate the present tense into the past, because (I hope) soon it will be true again. I intend to replace my bike with one just like it.
Update: Yes, I have replaced my bike. It works very nice too.
Another bicycle written off
Alas! I have managed to dispose of another bicycle. This time it was written off in an accident—I was ‘in collision’ with a car door. Luckily for me the bike took most of the damage, but in the process the front forks and frame were wrecked. Just about the only component unaffected is the rear wheel. Since this has the hub gears, it is probably the most expensive part of the bike... I won't bother going through my bike page to translate the present tense into the past, because (I hope) soon it will be true again. I intend to replace my bike with one just like it.
Update: Yes, I have replaced my bike. It works very nice too.
Council’s anti-bike vendetta continues
Judging from their behaviour, it has long seemed that the powers that be in Oxfordshire hold cyclists in contempt but don’t feel able to actually come out and admit it. One of their techniques for discouraging cycle commuters is to make it as difficult to park a bicycle in town as it is to park a car. Case in point: up until yesterday, I had the perfect place to park my bicycle each work day—it had a roof overhead and plenty of railings to lock my machine to, and was not in anybody’s way. The County Council (in whose car park this spot was) has now fenced off this area with a big steel fence, with a notice to the effect that it was reserved for Environmental Services’ motorbikes and bicycles. When I tried locking my bike to the outside of the new cage, notices were put up ordering me not to (the implication being that they would not mind damaging my bike in the process of removing it).
The upshot of this is that there is nowhere to park near my office. All the road signs are already occupied by the time I get in. The foyer already has three bikes in it, but I would not have used it anyway, having already had a bike stolen from such a situation. In the end I locked it to the back of a street sign in the next street along. Psychologically it feels exposed out there in the middle of the footpath. I much preferred keeping it out of people’s way, on the grounds they will then feel less need to vandalize it…
New bike parking for me
I complained last November that my favourite bicycle parking place had been taken away from me by the County Council. Now the City Council (I assume) have installed new Sheffield racks on a street corner just a few dozen metres from my offices, which is nice. What’s more, they are flush with the ground (as opposed to having steel tubes along the ground, which obstruct the wheels of parked bikes) and well-spaced (usually Sheffield stands are too close together), which improves on most of the cycle parking in town. Groovy.
The Ultimate Commuting Machine?
My previous bike having been stolen, and Trek having discontinued that model, I got a new black bike for my daily commute. This was an unsual experience for me: not only did I have to order the bike specially, I also got to specify how it would be customized for my requirements. I've now been riding it for a couple of weeks, and I'm really pleased with it. Read more