Welcome to Velo Vision magazine, covering specialised bikes, cycling as transport and human power. It's a quarterly dose of cycle inspiration.
The current issue is Issue 16. The next issue is out early March 2005.
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March roundup
BKN 20 is out, a record-breaking ride, human-powered gadgets, military cycling remembered, bike on UK trains, pedalcar racing and a bike maker's kit up for auction...
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Byke Kultuur Never 20 is out:
http://uk.geocities.com/mikstar123/bkn20.html
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This link from BikeBiz:
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=76418&Sn;=BNEW
is a story about a Pakistani man who plans to cycle 100km with 18 children on board - he's trying to get in the Guinness world record book...
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Many of our more technically-inclided readership will probably have already seen this story on Slashdot, about various human-powered devices for running electronic gadgets:
http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/04/03/07/2324225.shtml
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Among the many great stories on Velorution is a link to this site:
http://www.huntscycles.co.uk/Chums.htm
which describes how The Association for Military Remembrance used replica bicycles to tour the battlefields of Europe in full period style. Splendid! Some great pictures.
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And for our UK readers who might consider taking bikes by train this up-to-date site maybe useful:
http://deaves47.users.btopenworld.com/bikes/cyclingbytrain.htm
It even has extra information for those thinking of taking a tandem.
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Fancy some pedalcar racing? The BPCC are looking for drivers:
http://www.pedalcars.info/news/editorial/display_editorial.asp?EdID=11
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Finally, ever wondered what it takes to make bikes? You can find out at:
http://www.murphyauctions.net/advtrans.html
Which, sadly, details the auction for the equipment of ATP, better known as Vision, the US recumbent manufacturer who recently wound up their operations. Perhaps of more interest to manufacturing engineers than anyone else, the auction list does give an idea of the scale of the manufacturing operation.
Posted on 12 March 2004
Your comments ...| From: Seamus ([email protected]) on 12 March 2004 |
Just spent a few minutes staring at the monitor trying to work out how a vast array of interesting items had got into BKN20 without me knowing.
Then the penny dropped. Doh! |
| From: antony (at pedalcars dot info) on 12 March 2004 |
Good luck to the chap wanting to get in the Guinness Book of Records.
We set a 1,000 miles Guinness World Record (TM) in 2002 and while it was ratified and added to the GWR database, it didn't make it into the book, which obviously enough only contains a small fraction of all the records held.
If we'd done it whilst ironing a shirt, it could have been a different story... |
| From: jes (@pedalcars.infi) on 12 March 2004 |
"Leicester 2004
Not much happening in Leicester this year..."
Except the European Pedal Car Championships at the Walkers Stadium on June 5th / 6th.
Also, round 1 of the BPCC is on more familiar ground in the shape of a wind swept car park in Thurmaston on April 18th.
So there are some things happening in Leicester.
All welcome to turn up and see what fun everyone else is having! |
| From: Leicester's most handsome (cycling historian) on 12 March 2004 |
| and a film festival, a huge cycling history project and the Bicycle Antiques Roadshow. Which I haven't told anyone about yet. |
| From: sue ([email protected]) on 15 March 2004 |
| A Bicycle Antiques Roadshow! Oh yes, I look forward to seeing the expressions on the faces of all those people who bring 1970's Raleigh Twenties along under the impression that they'll be worth a fortune or are actually first edition Choppers... Will there be the inevitable incredibly rare thing that someone got at a jumble sale for 10p? |
| From: Paul Taylor (whatever) on 15 March 2004 |
It's a bit like in the press wher they miss out some of the words to make it say something else.
"Leicester 2004
Not much happening in Leicester this year but rumours abound about a HUGE event for 2005"
So what eaxactly is this huge event happening in Leicester next year? |
| From: Leicester's most handsome (cycling historian) on 15 March 2004 |
Arch, I'm sure we will get loads of people with said bikes but maybe, and it's only a maybe, we might find a picture of the Belgrave Road cycling stadium from the 1870's. Or a Leicester built Penny. Which would be nice.
The huge event is still at the planning stage but we have been talking to the BCF, and the Paralympic committee about SOME of it. It'll be called Ride-Leicester. |
| From: Arch ([email protected]) on 16 March 2004 |
Here's a question for you, oh handsome cycling historian from Leicester. When did the name Pennyfarthing come to be applied to ordinaries? Only some of my ancestors in Salisburys had a bakers shop in 'Pennyfarthing Street', in the later part of the 19th C, and it strikes me as a bit unusual for a street to have a sort of slang name...
The street is still there. The bakers shop, and the Archers, alas, are not. |
| From: andy scaife (bike rescue etc...) on 16 March 2004 |
| well the antiques roadshow will get me there! I agree about the raleigh 20s though. Pity cos they're good bikes after a few upgrades. see Sheldon Brown's page on the subject. My own 'Bike Mondaymorning' is a much altered Stowaway. Maybe i could put it in the roadshow as a prototype Friday? |
| From: andy Scaife (bike rescue blah blah) on 16 March 2004 |
| So doesn't the world famous author of 'on Your Bicycle' know then? That's where I'd refer anyone who asked me that question. |
| From: Tom ([email protected]) on 16 March 2004 |
| He came up with 1920's, when the high bicycle had gone through it's decline, as the point that the term came into widespread use as slang. However, what we're after is whether the term refered to anything else beforehand. We bought Jim some beer to see if that would loosen any gems locked in his memory, but with no success... |
| From: Arch (sarcheretc) on 16 March 2004 |
| Well, yes, I did ask him in the pub last night, but he couldn't pinpoint a date off hand. I could perhaps refer to said work, but I just wanted an excuse to schmooze RtH. |
| From: Seamus ([email protected]) on 16 March 2004 |
Ah-ha Rog I think you may have found the perfect lady to model for a re-shoot of that classic pennyfarthing photo
|
| From: Tom ([email protected]) on 16 March 2004 |
| You have'nt made it clear how much cake you are offering my client, Mr King... |
| From: Arch ([email protected]) on 16 March 2004 |
| By the Way: If you add up all the pennyfarthings in the Leicester world record stack, you get 13 shillings, sevenpence/threefarthings in old money, or £1.63 and threequarters of a penny in new. |
| From: S (etc) on 16 March 2004 |
| I have the original of said picture stored safely for Byke Kultuur 21 (if i ever write the wretched thing) but I'm really tempted to publish the links URL here today. |
| From: Pedant ([email protected]) on 16 March 2004 |
Err,
13 shillings, sevenpence/threefarthings in old money is
actually 68.22917p |
| From: Probably the world's most (handsome cycling historian) on 17 March 2004 |
Arch,
The term Penny Farthing was coined in the 1870's as a form of ridicule toward the much-hated bicyclists on their newfangled machines. It wasn't unheard of for a policeman to deliberately knock a speeding rider from his machine, or for a carriage driver to lash him with his whip. At least we don't suffer much of that anymore!
The term Ordinary Bicycle was first used in the later 1880's to distinguish them from Mr Starley's newly invented Safety Bicycles.
Many street names derive from slang or colloquialisms, and there are still some very rude ones about! However, I doubt the one you refer to relates to bicycles, more likely the type of shops or Penny Bizzarres it used to house.
Seamus,
Go on post the picture and the request somewhere! You can have the exclusive of the recreation.
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| From: Seamus (sdk1) on 17 March 2004 |
Read an article about pennyfarthings by Jim McGurn in a 1984 issue of, Bicycle Magazine," last night. Fascinating stuff about drunken club rides on Sunday afternoons.
that piccie is at...
http://uk.geocities.com/mikstar123/ladycyclist.jpg |
| From: just bloody hansome (etc etc) on 17 March 2004 |
.>
Sounds like a Desford Lane Pedallers ride - 4 pubs in 8 miles on the last one!
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| From: s (etc) on 17 March 2004 |
Whilst putting together plans for Cycle Heritage Leicester I had a moment of pure brilliance. Wouldn't it, I thought, be nice to recreate some of the historic cycling related photographs we have of Leicester.
A well known (to this site) cycling photographer offered to take the pictures for me "for peanuts, because you're such a nice chap and it's a brilliant project", or words to that effect.
Several months later a happened across the attached stereoscopic photograph taken in the studio of Mr L.S. Davison of Leicester in the late 1870's. I have a Penny Farthing and Leicester venue but currently not a model to pose for this photograph.
It would be a tremendous opportunity for a young lady to make the acquaintance of a well known cycling photographer.
I remain Sir, your loyal servant.
Roger T Hilldodger.
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| From: Arch ([email protected]) on 17 March 2004 |
Thanks for the info, handsome historian. I hadn't thought of penny bazaars...
Pedant: You are right I suppose. I was (perhaps erroneously) taking the concept of the penny and its fractions directly over to a decimal system, rather than converting from the imperial system of 12 pence to the shilling to the decimal system of the shilling piece equalling 5 new pence. I stand humbled and corrected.
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| From: Arch (skiving@work) on 17 March 2004 |
| Seamus - I have another cycle based advert for you: Latest ad for Phones for You (or is it Carphone Warehouse?) has woman bonding with her mobile phone by going on a tandem ride with it. Needless to say the phone is just sitting on the saddle and not pedaling, its legs are way too short... |
| From: Seamus (somewhere) on 17 March 2004 |
Talking of cars, tandems and cyling in adverts...
There's an ad being shown in these parts for some huge car selling place which runs through reasons for not having a new car and for one of them (which off hand I've forgotten) features a family on a tandem with a two seater trailer bike. |
| From: Arch (still skiving@ etc) on 17 March 2004 |
ooh, ooh, I just remembered another one, for a mortgage company, with voiceovers saying varoius things about mortgage options, one of which is 'I'm extending mine', over a shot of a guy on a bike with a trailer bike and kid behind...
How sad is this? |
| From: Leicster's etc (etc.) on 17 March 2004 |
I did, of course, mean bazzaar and not bizarre.
No takers on the modelling job, yet. |
| From: Arch (setc....@etc) on 18 March 2004 |
| Are you quite sure about that? Have you not received communication from Messers Riley, Riley and Riley, Theatrical and Velocipede Model Agents? Or Mr King, Publisher Extraordinare? |
| From: Dickon's Dog (from Leicester) on 18 March 2004 |
| Not yet Arch, perhaps they're still...um...interviewing? |
| From: nobody important (don't know) on 18 March 2004 |
"I did, of course, mean bazzaar and not bizarre."
Well, actually I think you'll find you meant, "bazaar," actually.
And another thing, how come a respectable site like this has a link to Naked Bike Ride but Byke Kultuur doesn't? |
| From: Seamus ([email protected]) on 18 March 2004 |
| Wonder if Jase has a picture of Arch on his files 'cos then he could combine it with the pennyfarthing pic. tee-hee;-) |
| From: Arch (@my desk) on 18 March 2004 |
| I believe my agent has already made my terms for personal appearance clear to you, Messers King and Hilldodger. Any poor imitation photoshopping will be looked upon with severe disapproval and fees will levied for the use of my head. |
| From: Tom ([email protected]) on 18 March 2004 |
| Mssrs Hilldodger and King, check your inboxes! |
| From: S ([email protected]) on 19 March 2004 |
i only use my sdk etc email at work 'cos they won't let me use my yahoo adress.
And what was that weird email about 3 minutes time difference between York and somewhere else all about? |
| From: Arch (@theendofmytether...) on 19 March 2004 |
| Seamus - as we have employees based in Manchester and St Albans who often work from home, we are in the process of installing 3 clocks at Global Headquarters so that we can accurately check whether our staff are at their desks or are still eating their cornflakes. We wouldn't want to ring them too early. Manchester is about 3 minutes behind, and St Albans about 3 mins ahead. |
| From: Arch (again...) on 19 March 2004 |
Whoops, I notice this thread has become a Seamus, RtH, Arch and Tom discussion zone. Sorry Pete, to have hijacked your website.
Now, to get on with dominating the world... |
| From: Arch (and again...) on 19 March 2004 |
Mind you, everyone else stopped reading this thread days ago, so it doesn't really matter does it....
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| From: S. (etc) on 19 March 2004 |
Pete's too busy answering emails and letters to have noticed.
Has Jimbo noticed what you're doing at work yet Arch?
Silly me, you're keeping your eyes on the pulse of the cycling world at large which is obviously an integral remit of your gainful employ. |
| From: s (agin) on 19 March 2004 |
| ..and by Monday, if not sooner, this thread'll have been bumped off this page into the abyss of, "older stories." |
| From: . (.) on 19 March 2004 |
Victoria Sponge (God Save the Queen!),
I just had to share that. |
| From: Tom ([email protected]) on 19 March 2004 |
It's a nice remit if you can get it... I thought it was MY remit though...
Don't be silly. Mr McGurn never looks at cycling websites. |
| From: Tom ([email protected]) on 19 March 2004 |
| Arch is about to head out into the cold to drive a mobile library, (Rtd), to Lincolnshire to run a try-out show. Thus silence can be taken as busyness and not huffage. And we can talk about her behind her back. |
| From: Arch (back@work) on 22 March 2004 |
Until I get back and find out what you've been saying. Oh, nothing. No, I'm not disappointed. Not at all. No.
Anyway, like S said, we've fallen off the edge of the world now.... |
| From: S (etc) on 22 March 2004 |
So how was Lincoln?
Bloomin' windy I suspect. |
| From: Arch (back@herdesk) on 24 March 2004 |
| very windy yes. But we were in an indoor sports hall, so it didn't matter... |
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