News

People may have been building simple devices to create the image of a moving picture for over 2,000 years, but even today the effect of placing simple paper shapes on a moving wheel is no less magical. As part of a third year dissertation, design student, Katy Beveridge, has produced a film on rudimentary animation that is causing a stir on...

Ever ready to help promote cycling, the entire work force of the Environmental Transport Association has been “balsam bashing” to clear overgrown cycle paths on the banks on the river Wey in Surrey. The work was coordinated by Thames21, an environmental charity working with communities to bring London’s waterways to life. Thames21 mobilise...

It doesn’t matter what you ride or how you ride it, the stark fact is that you are at risk from bike thieves of one kind or another. The low-to-medium value bikes parked in town centres and railway stations are most likely to be stolen by petty criminals paid cash when they dump them at a designated spot for a gang master to pick up later...

There is no shortage of cycling-related apps for the iPad, but very few ways of re-charging the device on the move. The Cycle Charger from Convergence Tech looks like a conventional bicycle dynamo, but has been designed specifically to charge any mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, Blackberry, GPS or other device. The cycle charge is not on sale...

We are no strangers to the novelty cycle helmet, but never has one catapulted itself to the top of our collective Christmas wish list as quickly as the R2-D2-themed Star Wars design launched by Burton. Who will wear this? Arguably the most effective protection you can get as a cyclist is a good cycle insurance policy – injury rates...

As police forces around the country crack down on cyclists riding without lights at night, spare a thought for those committing the same offence on British roads over one hundred years ago. According to Pearson’s magazine in 1901: Sometimes a cyclist needs protection from the arm of the law, as when he finds himself many miles from home at...

A new iPhone accessory allows users to attach a series of GPS trackers the size of luggage tags to key chains, bags, bicycles or any item that risks being stolen or mislaid. The BiKN (bee’-kin) comprises an iPhone case, app, up to eight trackers and the ability to track in one of three ways. In Find mode, a visual display and sound can be...

A resurgence of interest in traditional cycling brands and events coincides with this year’s Movember to make it the ideal time to embrace your inner gentlemen and grow the ultimate bicycle accessory, the handlebar moustache. The annual charity event Movember, which requires participants to remain unshaven throughout the month of November,...

Scientists have built an electric ‘car’ so small that 250,000 could be parked bumper to bumper across the tip of a ballpoint pen. The tiny vehicle is built at a molecular scale with four paddle-like wheels that rotate when they receive a small electrical current. The project represents the cutting edge of nanotechnology ,but an application...

A part-time inventor who wanted to make cycling in heels a more practical proposition for his girlfriend has published free plans on how to make your own high-heels with a clip-less cleat. Contributor to the DIY website Instructables.com, Corwin, spent 18 months designing and making the shoes, a length of time he describes as having...