News

Schools under siege: Why do we need child-shaped traffic bollards?

February 15, 2019

Our schoolchildren are under siege. Not only are more than 950 schools near roads with harmful levels of illegal pollution, but over 6,000 children were injured on British roads in 2016 - a threat that prompts some schools to resort to barricades against cars. However, a decade after child-shaped safety bollards first appeared outside a...

Driving

Showers expected across the country

February 8, 2019

If your New Year’s resolution is to cycle more, but the absence of a shower at work threatens to stop you commuting by bike, why not build your own workplace shower? Our own take on the idea transforms a standard loo into a fully-functioning hot water shower. The design combines an upcycled plasterer’s bucket, chair, chin-up bar and plastic...

Cycling

Let there be (low energy) light

February 8, 2019

Like bicycles, filament bulbs are a design that has hardly changed over the last century. However, unlike a bicycle, which allows a person to travel at 10–15 mph, using no more power than they would require to walk, filament bulbs waste 95% of the electricity they use as heat. Indeed, in many homes the use of tungsten filament bulbs can...

Environment

Let's drink to staying warm

February 8, 2019

When it feels this damp, time has come to swap your water bottle for a thermos. Whatever the weather, this small thermos from Stanley will help keep you warm however you travel. Win a thermos We have a 0.47 litre Stanley bicycle thermos worth £30 to give away. Simply leave a comment at the bottom of this page and let us know what you'd fill...

Cycling

Ventoux Unsaddled

February 8, 2019

The belief that a cyclist should remain seated during a climb might be commonly held, but it's conventional wisdom that Rob Holden was unwilling to leave unchallenged. If his name rings a bell, you may be already familiar with his two-wheeled adventures - like the time he rented a Boris Bike, rode it up Mont Ventoux in France and returned...

Cycling

Heated gloves up for grabs

February 1, 2019

Keeping hands toasty at this time of year can be challenge - especially if you are cycling. Warmawear heated glove liners have a heating element running around the edges of all five fingers, right around the tips where you need heat the most. Heated gloves are of particular use to those who suffer from Raynaud's - a common condition that...

Cycling

Speeding and a dystopian age of motoring

February 1, 2019

There is no rational reason why motorised vehicles should be permitted to exceed speed limits on public roads. Putting aside the question of why it's possible to buy cars for the road that are capable of exceeding the national speed limit by 100%, neither the threat to other people’s lives nor the risk of penalties dissuades motorists from...

Driving

Brexit and driving in France

February 1, 2019

With less than two months to go before Britain is due to leave the European Union - and nobody any clearer about what that might entail - motorists planning to drive to France would be wise to plan for the possibility of a no-deal. From 28 March 2019, and in the event of a no-deal, the government is warning that British drivers may need an...

General News

Unusual campervans for life on the road

January 17, 2019

If your travel plans for 2019 include a trip by campervan, feast your eyes on the Nimbus - a hybrid electric people carrier that combines styling elements of the iconic Airstream trailer and VW kombi van to produce a design far more radical than anything on the market today. Boasting far more window area, interior space and ground clearance...

Cycling

Bicycle culture and style

January 17, 2019

Once upon a time, around 5,600 years ago, someone pegged a set of wheels to a cart; 4,400 years later the tracks of Baghdad were finally paved with tar. But it wasn’t until 1817 that German Baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn put two wheels beneath a simple seat. Two hundred years later, the bicycle represents the most efficient ways to...

Cycling