Sunday 31 October 2010

Caucus





















I parked my bike next to this caucus of a bike. Still firmly chained to the railing, but not much left of it.

When I leave my bike overnight, I use two locks. One a thick cable, the other a massively heavy motorbike chain. One through each wheel and both through the frame. The cable lock has been attacked but held. As far as I know an attempt on the motorbike chain has never been made. I don’t know of a way of getting through it, without oxy acetylene cutting gear!

Cable showing the cuts where Mr. Scrote attempted to cut through it.

Monday 18 October 2010

Electra?
























Spotted this interesting old bike outside Kew Gardens. Going off memory, I think it was called an Electra, although it was not an electric bike. Don’t think I’ve seen one of these before.

Sunday 17 October 2010

the pavilion





















This is the pavilion that you always see on the TV when they are talking about Kew Gardens.
  



Here is a peek inside.

Looks fine, but I was expecting more. I think in Victorian days, it would have been amazing, but now-a-days your local B&Q will have a small version of most of these plants. So slightly less impressive to modern eyes.

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Kew Gardens


This brave little fella stood his ground while the amateur wildlife photographer sneaked up on him. He’d barely time to jump back in his ‘larder’ and then zig zag away with a nut.
Well, it could have been a nut. Dunno really.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Feed the birds



















Well here we are. A real life Mary Poppins style lady out in the park by Euston Road, feeding the birds. I suspect with inflation, those bags will be well over two pence now!

Sunday 10 October 2010

Boris’s Bikes


Spotted a row of Boris Johnson’s Electric bikes. A long queue of them here on Endsleigh Gardens in London. Couldn’t resist a look at them and check out the prices. I’ve never ridden one of these and fancied a spin.
No chance. First you need to become a member, that lets you buy a key, you cannot just pick one up on the day and then there are various costs. I wont go into it all, but basically to hire a bike for nine hours (work and back) it would cost you £54. Late charges for returning outside their time slot, that’ll be another £150, and another £300 if you damage it. See here.

Across the whole of Britain (that I’ve seen) , the attempts to get people out of their cars and onto bikes, are laughably inadequate. We all know about the cycle lanes that simply ‘END’, where you would actually need a cycle lane, like at a roundabout, or the lanes that disappear when the road gets too thin to paint in a cycle lane. Also annoying are the cycle lanes that run for five metres, and of course the helpful ‘Cyclist Dismount’ where the engineers have failed to put in adequate infrastructure to accommodate a bike - or more usually, for no good reason at all.

Although I appreciate that they are making some attempt at making things bike friendly, why don’t they see that most of what they do is whole useless, they must know, they’re not stupid people. Just send them on a jolly to Denmark, Holland, Germany etc. to look what they do. All of these countries have very similar solutions and work well. Where needed, bikes get a lane stepped up from the road, similar to the area that pedestrians get. Bikes also get priority on roundabouts, so you can actually go round them without being killed.

Anyone for a weeks commuting to work on one of Boris’s Bikes. That’ll be £270, thank you very much - and don’t scratch it!