News

For most of us, preparation for winter riding means a set of mudguards, but for Kate Leeming, it involves commissioning all-wheel drive bicycles capable of tackling the wilds of Antarctica. Kate aims to make the first bicycle crossing of the Antarctic continent via the South Pole - a task that requires as much technical assistance as she...

A third runway at Heathrow airport has been approved following a cabinet committee meeting today, a decision described as catastrophic by Tory MP Zac Goldsmith who plans to now resign and stand as an independent candidate in his southwest London constituency. The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, claimed the economic benefits would be...

In a bid to encourage more city dwellers to swap gas guzzlers for pedal power, comes an electric trike that looks like a car. With typical Italian design flair, Milan-based bicycle builders Agnelli have styled the front of the cargo trike to look like the iconic Citroen 2CV. The cargo box of the 2CV trike sits on old-fashioned leaf...

Quick release bicycle wheel theft is an irritating peril of urban cycling. The tech stems from racing, but have become pretty much standard issue on bikes; great news if you routinely break your bicycle down for transportation - not so good if you are targeted by thieves. Unfortunately, as locks have become stronger, the theft of quick...

No lock is safe from a crook equipped with power tools, so in the fight against theft, bicycle security is becoming ever more imaginative. Shunklock is a D-lock that’s pressurized with a noxious chemical deterrent. When the lock is cut, a cloud of gas containing an irritant is released into the air surrounding the thief. The noxious...

The Shield TL is a bicycle light with a difference: Its distinctive form promises to make the bike highly visible to car radars - a digital shield to protect cyclists. [quote type="cycle_insurance"] The Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS) fitted to new cars is a virtual co-pilot for drivers, a radar that looks out for potential hazards on the...

How clean is the air where you live? Air pollution is rarely highlighted to prospective house buyers, but as air quality deteriorates and the link between pollutants and poor health strengthens, expect there to be increasing interest in maps such as this. The map at aqicn.org/map/europe provides daily updates on air quality around Europe....

The deficit in our engineering workforce comes at time when innovation has never been so vital to our economy – let alone our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Expert design and engineering can be a powerful catalyst in enabling a modal shift to greener modes of travel. Ann Dowling is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering...

Mobility scooters are getting bigger. We buy up to 80,000 a year in Britain alone and the models themselves are becoming larger, better equipped and more sociable. The latest designs even offer the option of two seats. Tandem mobility scooters are no different from a conventional driver-only model, other than their stretched chassis and...

We love a good bicycle caravan. In an age preoccupied with speed and gizmos, their snail-like pace and diminutive size isn't for everyone, but travel is always more rewarding in the slow lane. DIY engineer extraordinaire, Paul Elkin, built the nomad as a lightweight, cheap, insulated bicycle camper to be used for year-round slow touring in...