Category: Cycling

Nexus One: Riding along on my pushbike, honey..

Posted by Martyn Drake – January 27, 2010

I’ve just discovered the greatest Android app yet.  It’s called My Tracks, and it records your movements via GPS and presents you with both real-time stats as well as a summary at the end.  Obviously if I’m cycling, I can’t see how fast I’m going, but I can gather some interesting stats about my journey.  Below is what My Tracks gathered about my route into work and plotted the track against Google Maps:


View Knaphill To Surrey Research Park in a larger map

And some stats about that journey:

Total milage: 7.56 miles
Moving time: 34 minutes
Average moving speed: 13.39mph
Elevation gain: 137m
Min. Elevation: 74m
Max. Elevation: 152m

Now, I’ve just got to find the right camera mount and borrow the work’s Sony HXR-MC1P camera (the same kind that Robert Llewellyn uses for his Car Pool show) to record the journey in glorious HD.

Ice Ice Crashy

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 17, 2009

Came off bike this morning.  I had not expected it to be that icy as yet.  I got up to the Sainburys roundabout in Knaphill (2nd of three) and did a rather spectacular (well, from my viewpoint) 360 degrees spin before being separated from the bike and landing on the muddy embankment.  Unlike the previous accident, I couldn’t recover from this one and landed on my back with legs akimbo and arms flailing like a pathetic upturned tortoise.

Thankfully no apparently damage apart from being shaken up a bit.  A little hurty on my lower back, and pride well and truly thrown out window, but otherwise okay.  Not sure about bike.  I’ve cycled/walked it back home (so it seems to be okay) and will be working from home today.  As it’s the company Christmas do tomorrow I’ll be bussing it in on Friday, which gives me plenty of time to get the bike checked over before Monday.

Oh, and thanks to the two car drivers that stopped to see if I was okay.  It was very much appreciated and it’s good to know that there are people out there that actually do give a damn about cyclists.

Shining Light

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 6, 2009

Took the pushbike up to the local cycle repair shop today.  The good news that most of the bike seems to be in good nick after the kerb hit (well as good as nick as it can be).   Break pads completely worn, will need replacing.   The downside is that the front light is buggered and thus must be replaced.

Have eyed up a Catseye £75 rechargable light which is much brighter by a considerable margin when compared to the broken light.  Hope that work will agree to cover the charge (haven’t committed to buying it yet).  The cheaper option is a £40 Catseye AA battery model, but is 10 times dimmer.  I’m told that one can spend up to £750 on lights for a bike.. ow.

Fine weather for pond ducks, but not for bicycling Drakes..

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 2, 2009

Nearly came a cropper this evening.

Had set off from work at roughly 4pm (started at 8am) when the weather wasn’t too bad.  It was spitting a little, but this has never been much of a problem even when the ground is still quite wet.  However, as I was heading down Aldershot Road (see map below), the rain picked up enough to completely obliterate my vision. In addition, the electric bike’s breaks barely worked. This resulted in me swerving across the road rather dangerously and then ending up clipping the kerb and falling off the bike. Thankfully I only banged my knee and shin a bit and not much else (in essence I managed to do some mad hopping off the bike before it hit the ground).


View Bike Disaster in a larger map

Since the rain was still coming down extremely heavily, I decided that I couldn’t risk cycling any more and walked the bike from that point upwards to the Worlpesdon stretch of the A322. This was not without further discomfort having had reckless drivers whizzing down the road and going straight through massive puddles causing me to become absolutely drenched (with the occasional mouthful of dirty rain water).


View Larger Map

Managed to ride the bike from that point using the cycle path up to Fox Corner when the rain started to hit heavily again (and once more, the occasional covering of water from passing cars) and I decided to walk the bike again up until Knaphill. It took a while, I tell you:


View Larger Map

Needless to say, I’m taking the bus for the next few days!

Ooh me frozen .. hands, PCI compliance and Thunderbird 3 rc1

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 1, 2009

Set off to work by electric pushbike this morning thinking that I wouldn’t really need my gloves.  How wrong I was.  In fact, it got so bad that I stopped off at Sainsburys and bought a £9 pair of fleece-lined leather gloves.  Legs were quite a bit cold despite wearing thermal lined leggings.  I think tomorrow I might need the under thermals as well.  Eek.  I think it’s safe to say it’s now PROPER winter.

Was very glad to receive an email at work from the University of Surrey asking for feedback from cyclists who cycle in and out of the Surrey Research Park.  Have sent back an email to the Uni telling them exactly what it’s like.  It’s not generally pleasant ever since the Royal Surrey Hospital opened it’s new car park.   That said,  it’s always been bad when you leave the Research Park around 4pm.  You see loads of cars all backed up around Occam Road waiting to get into Gill Avenue as everybody waits for cars to come out the hospital car parks, people crossing at the out-of-action traffic lights, and having to deal with a nightmare roundabout at the end of it all.  There’s not much point asking for cycle lanes as there is just no room for them.  The best I think us cyclists can hope for is a dual pavement/cycle access lane.  Who knows?

Have also been tinkering with servers to get them PCI compliant.  You’ll all be pleased to know that the miniserver this blog sits upon has passed with flying colours (albeit with some caveats).  I even recompiled and installed the very latest OpenSSH on this box to go above and beyond what is required by some of these PCI checkers.

Finally – after a good few days of solid use, I’m pleased to say that I absolutely adore Thunderbird 3 (albeit I’m running a release candidate!).  It’s far exceeded my expectations and I’ve even moved from Apple Mail on the work Macbook to Thunderbird 3.  No major issues encountered so far.

Commuting grump post of the week..

Posted by Martyn Drake – November 18, 2009

This week I’d like to have a go at both car drivers and my fellow cyclists. Pedestrians get an honourable mention.

I’m encountering too many cyclists, both adult and children, who are out and about after dark without any lights or reflective clothing.  Or helmets.  There are also a good number of cyclists who like cutting up both pedestrians and other cyclists without paying attention as to who else may be using the road or pavement.  I was coming down the road that leads out of the Vyne and suddenly a cyclist (who DID have lights) cut across my path rather than turning properly into the road.

To the car drivers of Woking and Guildford who have graduated from the School of Psychic Motoring, you will already know what I’m about to say.  SIGNAL.  And especially: SIGNAL AT TURNINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS.  But in particular: KEEP TO THE CORRECT LANE.  I cannot describe how frustrated I am at trying to outguess the increasing number of car drivers who fail to correctly signal at junctions and at roundabouts.

I’m also fed up with cars and vans overspilling into the cycle lane around Sainsburys in Brookwood/Knaphill as well as the cycle lane further up Aldershot Road.  Or cars PARKED in the cycle lane.  And the cars that park right by the roundabout between Southway Road and Aldershot Road in Guildford: why?  You’re effectively blocking off an entire lane by your selfishness.   It is very difficult to turn left.

I’ve also noticed that this junction:


View Larger Map

is seeing a good number of drivers who fail to get in the correct lane and consequently then pull off when it’s not their turn and nearly collide with cars turning from the opposite direction.  The traffic lights at that junction are quite obvious, and yet so many are getting it wrong.

Speaking of Sainsburys at Brookwood/Knaphill – why do Sainsburys security allow kids to ride their scooters/bikes/whatever around the car park? I’ve nearly collided with these kids who shout abuse (at both staff and customers) and generally get underneath the feet of shoppers. This suggests to me that we need more open space/parks in the area for kids to go. A Sainsburys car park is no place for kids to play.

Also to the college students who attend the Merrist Wood College and who walk down the cycle path that connects Holly Lane to Aldershot Road: it’s a cycle path – there is PLENTY of room to the either side (pavement or the road itself).  Don’t act surprised to see cycles coming down it.  Oh hang on, you don’t – you don’t look or pay attention where you’re going and need to be alerted that somebody is coming down the path.  Perhaps the college could offer courses on the Green Cross Code?

It’s a veritable Winter wonderland..

Posted by Martyn Drake – November 9, 2009

.. out there and I’d really appreciate it if car drivers would consider switching on their lights when driving in the dark as it’s a tad difficult to see a small box on wheels pulling out unexpectedly without them.  Which is precisely what happened to me today when I was cycling home from Sainsburys in Brookwood after work.  I wouldn’t have minded, but he (or she) could spot me a mile off what with my front lights, day-glo jacket, etc. coming up towards them.

While I’m on the subject of Sainsburys, why is it that when I queue up and watch people take tons and tons of plastic carrier bags that when I follow them out the store shortly afterwards that I see them load all those bags into their car?  What’s happened with the re-usable bags?  If you’re going to be doing that much shopping, surely you’d have planned on doing so and as such, would have made your life easier by re-using bags or boxes rather than waste plastic carrier bags?

Is it ‘have a go at cyclists week’ or something? Is the Daily Mail anti-cyclist?

Posted by Martyn Drake – September 17, 2009

First we have James Martin, a TV chef, having a good bitch about cyclists and advocating (for that is what the article implies) knocking cyclists off their bikes by distracting them.  He later apologised, stating that it was all misjudged humour.  Yet it certainly attracted a large number of people in the comments of the Daily Mail and The Register (and elsewhere) bemoaning cyclists (and cyclists bemoaning car drivers).

Today, the Daily Mail publishes this article about how the West London borough of Kensington & Chelsea launching a new scheme to allow cyclists to go both ways down one-way streets.  Now, I'm not particularly thrilled about this idea unless this scheme has some form of method to allow cyclists and cars to travel safely down such streets.  However, the comments in the article are very vitriolic against cyclists again.

As somebody who has chosen not to drive, does not own a car (by choice) and relies on both cycling and public transport, I must object strongly to all this negativity against cyclists.  There are plenty of excellent and well-behaved cyclists as there are car drivers.  And similarly, there are plenty of bad cyclists as well as bad car drivers.  I myself try to obey the Highway Code at all times.  I do not cycle through red lights.  I do not whizz through pedestrian crossings.  I wear reflective clothing when necessary, and use front and rear lights when dark.  I do not mount pavements and should and force pedestrians out the way.  In short – I try to be a good road user.

As for the lycra debate, I do wear lycra leggings for cycling.  These stop chaffing around the vitals (and as such, I also wear long T-shirts to avoid any embarrassments), keep the dirt, rain and mud off my regular clothes, and are light and comfortable.  Surrealist statement of the day: my leggings do NOT make me go any faster or slower than somebody wearing jeans or loose shorts.

I also wear a helmet.  Regardless of how effective or ineffective they may be in an impact, it's certainly better than not wearing one at all.

I try to keep my breaks and other essential components well maintained.  As such I pass my bike to a specialist bike shop for them to do the work.  This ensures that I don't muck anything up.

No cyclist or car driver is any better than one another.  What's important is that we both share the road amicably and according to the laws set out in the Highway Code.  Sometimes we both may not get it right, but providing everybody is paying attention, then accidents should be kept to a minimum.

What we do need is more bike lanes if I were to be honest..