VeloBalls

Bike reviews and cycling news that BITES

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Adidas VeloSamba Cycling Shoe – so cool its frightening!

They couldn’t be any cooler if Steve McQueen were wearing them whilst trying to jump a barbed wire fence riding a MK 1 Raleigh Chopper one-handed with his baseball mitt on the other hand.

The original Adidas Samba has been around since nineteen forty-nine. I’ll do the math for you, that’s SEVENTY-TWO YEARS! They’ve been new, cool, retro, hip, trendy, classic, all depending in which decade you wore them. They even do a vegan version. I can imagine Hipsters loving those!

Adidas has now released a cycling version of their classic trainer, the Adidas Velo Samba that allows you to fit an SPD cleat to them. SPD’s were originally meant for mountain bikes but they are now fitted to lots of different bikes, fixies, hybrids, commuter and even Road Bikes.       

Now I’m afraid I’m a bit of a pedal snob when it comes to my Propel Road bike, I don’t use SPD’s on it. To be fair, rightly or wrongly I don’t even use Shimano SPD-SL. I use Look, for no particular reason apart from I wanted to be different from the crowd, even though I slipped on a floor at work and crunched my knee and broke my seat because the plastic cleat and shiny floor didn’t work well together – see Slippery when dry. And I know that SPD metal cleats are bulletproof when compared to road cleats that seem to wear as if they were made from meringue – but it’s a road bike.

Now if I was to buy a cool Fixie (which isn’t going to happen unfortunately anytime soon) either a straight bar or drop bars. I’d put SPD pedals on it just so I could own a pair of Velo Sambas. I’d probably even go for the extra cool yellow ones (What? I like yellow okay) and then when anyone commented on them I could in true Hipster style casually say, “What these old things?”  

Now if Adidas are reading this and would like to send me a pair to review then I’m sure I can re-address my pedal snobbery.

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Bunch of kids cycle 3.5 Million Miles

British school children cycled and scooted a total of 3.5 million miles as part of The Big Pedal, an inter-school cycling and scooting competition.

A charity organization called Sustrans organized The Big Pedal. The annual event is supported by Sharron Davies, a former Olympic swimmer. In just three weeks, the children were able to cover the millions of miles while traveling to and from school. It has been estimated that The Big Pedal participants have saved parents over £475,000, an amount that otherwise would have gone to fuel.

“The rising cost of living in the UK means that parents across the country are looking for ways to cut back on costs, and the school run is the perfect place to start,” quoted Sustrans national projects coordinator for education and young people Gary Shipp.

Shipp added, “Research by Sustrans has previously suggest that by switching from driving to cycling or scooting to school, parents can save on average £641 a year. The popularity of The Big Pedal shows that when families live near to school, it is possible to change the way they get there. But cycling and scooting to school doesn’t just have financial benefit; children that regularly cycle to school are fitter, more alert and better learners too.”

This year’s event was comprised of almost a million and a half separate journeys, a 300,000 increase from last year. Parents and teachers all over England were also some of the participants. This year 557,223 students joined the competition.

This British event, known to be the largest inter-school cycling and scooting competitions, aimed to encourage Brits to cycle and scoot to school, leaving gas-guzzling cars behind. In the three weeks that the event took place, approximately two million car trips were canceled.

More than a thousand tons of CO2 and 94,000 gallons of fuel were saved by The Big Pedal, putting to great use the efforts of Sustrans.

Sustrans is a charity based in England that aims to promote sustainable transport. The organization focuses on projects that encourage citizens to walk, cycle, and make use of public transportation.

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Traversing Manchester (in 2014)

The first thing I saw when I got onto the roads of Manchester was a man on a cheap bike cycling on a painted cycle lane in the Belle Vue area. This would have been unremarkable, were it not for the fact the man was on the wrong side of a two-lane road.

Something happened in Manchester, say 10-15 years ago, that meant that the city planners installed loads of segregated cycle lanes on many of the main roads near and around the south east side of the city, many that lead into the city centre. I mean, great things – wide, segregated. You can fault them, but they are on paper, not terrible. Some are inconsistent, slipping easily to pebbled side roads or reverting back to green paint … but it’s remarkable, from a London perspective.And then seemingly forgot about them, and the result is that there are some rough sketches, but now just wind and rain torn, unsmooth. But, that’s not saying the roads that the car’s get around this part of town are much better – it’s all a bit lost. Which is probably why the hotel was so cheap.

I was in Manchester for the Great Manchester Cycle, having previously agreed to sign up to it in a burst of enthusiasm and trying to get a colleague to join the bicycled gang of London. It was his idea, I said yes. I’m glad I did.

The bike ride is a 13 route from the Manchester City stadium along the southern part of the ringroad (major roads all closed down, for BIKES!) to Salford and the Manchester United stadium. You can do the (essentially flat) loop once (13 miles); twice (26miles) or four times (52 miles). My friend opted for twice, and that’s what we did. And, despite a few crashes (there were A LOT of cyclists), it was a great affair – people of all ages, on all bikes, of all varieties showed up and pedalled through. It was great, although I think I’d like to do the 52 miles if I did it again.

But, if there were loads of bikes, where were they on Saturday afternoon when I arrived? The weather wasn’t that bad. Why are the cycle lanes in such bad states? Why are the roads in general in such bad states? It always strikes me as odd when there are lots of fancy buildings going up (and there seem to be a few in Manchester), but the state of the roads is a bit crap? Manchester is not a massive city, and a potentially excellent one to cycle in – what happened to those lanes? It’s a reminder to Cycle Campaigns, elsewhere, not to rest on their laurels once they get some of their own way, as the London ones are starting to.

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Diabetes and Cycling

Why talk about diabetes on a cycling website? Two main reasons, firstly doctors suggest that cycling (along with swimming but we aren’t a swimming site hence ‘diabetes and cycling’ rather than ‘diabetes and swimming’) is a low impact (on joints) form of exercise that helps limit and treat the effects of diabetes. Secondly, if just one newly diagnosed person searches the internet and ends up here and takes up cycling because of this article then I would consider it a resounding success and I will be a happy man.

Also even if you haven’t been diagnosed and are in no danger from diabetes some of the facts about the sugar content in foods will surprise you.

When I first approached the editor of Veloballs with the idea for this article, I wondered if it would be a too heavy subject, but he replied that he thought it was a great idea and told me to go for it…. I then panicked as I realised I had to write a ‘proper’ article with facts and figures rather than my usual ramblings laden with sarcasm, attitude and (hopefully) witticisms, so here goes…..

There are two types of diabetes Type 1 and Type 2 they have similar symptoms but different causes, both result in increased blood sugar levels that can cause if left untreated, eye, feet and heart problems, it also takes longer for cuts and grazes to heal. The cause of both is insufficient insulin being produced by the pancreas which regulates the amount of sugar in your system.

Type 1 is an autoimmune condition and is often inherited, diagnosed in childhood and not linked to lifestyle. It is usually the more serious condition of the two, as the pancreas normally produces no insulin whatsoever.

I’m going to concentrate on Type 2 though as Type 1 is controlled with insulin and monitoring needs to be carried out far more rigorously and I would not presume to give any advice on Type 1 that is any different or better than a Doctors.

Type 2 is becoming an epidemic according to the N.H.S. A new term of pre-diabetic has been coined for people who are edging towards the Type 2 borderline, but could be pulled back from the brink if they improve their lifestyle. There is also a train of thought that suggests if you are type 2 and change your habits soon enough after diagnosis then the effects can be reversed. This may be true, but I believe you won’t be cured, the weight loss and healthy eating would, in my opinion, be the ‘medicine’ used to treat your diabetes, it would return if that medicine went away i.e. You put weight back on and started eating junk food again.  Type 2 is sometimes controlled by diet alone but more often tablets and in some cases, insulin.

Type 2 is often linked to lifestyle i.e. Poor diet and lack of exercise. It used to be known as ‘age related’ diabetes, but before anyone gets on their high horse and goes all defensive on me. I will add that I was diagnosed with type  2 in my late twenties whilst overweight and eating far too many kebabs.

There is some evidence however that says that some people may be susceptible to obesity and diabetes due to their genes. If that is true and it may well be, then the modern world certainly doesn’t help that group fight the susceptibility. i.e. Sugar-laden food and lack of time for exercise. Let’s take both points and discuss them.

Sugar Laden Food
The Guideline daily amount (G.D.A) for sugar for an adult is 90 grammes (gms)….. Lets say you had the following for your lunch….. (they are the market leaders standard products) the amount of sugar is in brackets
one tin of Tomato soup (20 gms)
one can of normal cola (35 gms)
one fruit yoghurt (18 gms)

Total 73 gms or 81% of the sugar G.D.A

If you add a few biscuits and two sugars in all your cups of coffee throughout the day then add a Korma or sweet and sour as your evening meal then you have probably at least doubled the G.D.A for sugar intake. Study the cola’s sugar content, it contains nearly twelve teaspoons of sugar would you put twelve spoons of sugar in your coffee? no of course not…. Its no wonder soft drinks are called hidden calories by dietitians on television programmes.
Of course low sugar options are available but you only think to look for them if you realise how high in sugar the normal products are.

Lack Of Exercise Time
I tried to find time for jogging and failed. Long hours at work and a young family made me feel guilty when I got home then went out for a run, leaving the wife who also works full time to bath Little-un, cook his tea, do ironing etc. She wants me fit and healthy but quite rightly she needs some help in the home as well. I’m sure other people have the same dilemma, bringing work home or staying late to finish something and generally fighting for family time…

I feel there is another reason we are in an obesity/Type 2 epidemic and that is, an affluent society. My generation, the kids born in the sixties and seventies were the first generation in history where two elements combined to create a time bomb…. the elements were….
・ Readily available sweets and chocolates in the shops… (pre-war, chocolates were a luxury and during the war and until 1953 they were heavily rationed.)
・ Parents with money to buy them (and the inclination to buy them because they themselves were deprived of them in the 40’s and 50’s) my parents if they had wished could have bought me dozens of chocolate bars a week…. and the problems getting worse whilst I’m not wealthy I could go out right now and spend thirty quid on sweets without causing the household budget any problem. Never before have people been able to spend so much on unhealthy food.

If I was ‘Ruler of the World’ (cue sinister laughter, Wha, ha, ha, ha…….) I would ban supermarkets from doing ‘Buy one get one free’ (Bogof) or half-price offers on any product with over ten gms of sugar in the pack…. People will drink both of the ‘Bogof’  thick sugary milkshakes in quick succession just because they have them.

I once complained to a supermarket because they had ‘half priced’ the full-sugar 6 packs of Cola but specifically excluded the diet alternative. I told them they were at best naive and at worst promoting obesity…. (I got a ten quid gift voucher for my trouble and the promise to look at their marketing procedures)

Okay lets now discuss cycling (hoo-rah finally)… Exercise is part of the treatment for type 2, walking and running will help but…. walking won’t get you very far in a hurry and running if grossly overweight can impact your joints and cause you other problems long-term. But cycling….. If you live within ten miles of work, you can easily cycle to work and if you live in a city it will probably be just as quick…. this is where the family time juggle comes in…. Its guilt-free ‘you’ time, I cycle to work everyday if I drive to work twice a month I’d be surprised.

So If you are Type 2 or pre-diabetic then I will give you two pieces of advice (follow your doctors advice as well but hopefully it will be similar to mine)
・ Look at the sugar in all foods, 3 gms of sugar = 1 teaspoon of sugar if the amount of sugar looks high, it probably is…. a lasagne could have 4 spoons of sugar in it ……We know puddings have high sugar content but we know this and ‘budget’ for it, its the hidden sugar in soft drinks and savoury foods that ambush you.
・ Get your bike out of the shed and ride it (to work if possible) , if you haven’t got one, borrow one or buy one, even if its a supermarket special, but I guarantee in 6 months any bike you have or buy won’t be good enough and you will be hankering after a sexy road bike (old name = racer). You may even have lost enough weight to consider wearing lycra (stop laughing, you will honest!) if your mates laugh, tell ’em to piss off because at that point you will be healthier than them.
If you follow my (and your doctors of course) advice you will live as long as anyone else,  if you don’t follow it, (and even worse, you smoke as well) then you could well be blind and in a wheel chair with no legs by 65….. that’s not a fact just a distinct possibility…..
I’m a right bore round the supermarket because I check the sugar on everything and my wife does the same, not just for me but the rest of the family as well…..

I could go on and tell you to check carbohydrates because these turn to sugar as well, but I don’t want to overcomplicate matters.

When I was first diagnosed I was distraught but it was the kick up the arse I needed to change my lifestyle, I haven’t reversed the condition myself but I’m close to my ideal weight and have the condition well under control…
If you have read this out of interest but are not Type 2 diabetic, then I will point out that it is estimated millions of people are walking around un-diagnosed with the condition, so if TWO or more of the following apply to you then stop reading and go and get a test at your Doctors or a local chemist NOW….
・ More than a stone (7 KG) overweight.
・ Thirsty a lot of the time.
・ Urine is dark yellow and smells. Diabetes  Mellitus (the condition’s full name) is ancient Greek for sweet excessive urine (the literal translation is syphon honey-sweet.)
・ Go to the loo a lot for a wee in the night.
・ Get cramp in the night 2 or 3 times a week.
・ Vision is occasionally a bit blurry.

I’m sure people on other health and diabetes sites and forums could disagree with my opinions on the causes of Type 2, they may be right, I haven’t got even an ‘O’ level in Biology, but I cycle a lot and listen to my doctors therefore I would hope they would agree with my advice, So…..

For a final time RIDE YOUR BIKE and CHECK THE SUGAR CONTENT IN YOUR FOOD. Even if you don’t have diabetes that isn’t bad advice for anyone, is it?

Buy Sugar Beat at Amazon…

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“The Professor” Recieves a Hefty Halfords Payday

When a rider falls in love with the sport of cycling, he/she becomes consumed by it. They get natural highs when they experience the speed and stamina of the game. They train endlessly to gain milliseconds off of a stopwatch. And when they realise how good they are, they compete against other lovers of the game all over the world. A select few achieve success. They are showered with medals, praise from their peers, and money from anyone willing to throw it at them. But, what happens when the door to your passion is shut. That is what happened to Chris Boardman.

“The Professor” had reached all the heights that cycling could give him. He broke world records and gained world recognition at the Olympic Games in 1992 when he won a gold medal in Barcelona. He seemed unstoppable. His mind was ready to go, but, unfortunately his body did not have the same strength. He noticed that his body was tiring more easily. And with each race after his triumph in Barcelona, it was evident that something was not right. He saw specialists and they confirmed that his bone density was deteriorating. He was developing Osteoporosis and his bones were getting weaker by each race. He was forced to retire. He had no choice.

But, he still wanted to leave his mark on the sport he loved. And thanks to Halfords, he has succeeded. The bicycle and car parts retailer has purchased Boardman Bikes for an undisclosed amount of money. He will still have creative control and oversee operations. He said glowingly:

“This step will take the brand to the next level and their backing will allow us to further develop our research and development and extend our award-winning cycling ranges.”

Don’t you just love a happy ending?

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Brain mechanic say ‘pfffhhttt’ to bike helmets

Professional brain-tinkerer (neurosurgeon) Henry Marsh has chucked his tuppence-worth into the seemingly never-ending debate about whether we should be cladding our skulls in polystyrene when we take to the mean streets on our bicycles.  The topic of whether we should wear helmets always used to be overwhelmingly convincing on the ‘yes’ front, with naysayers being regarded as suicidal loons.  But now the tide is turning and we’re finally getting some interesting debate on the topic.

It’s worth noting (especially if you’re as sarcastically sceptical as we are) that an awful lot of the pro-helmet research appears to have been paid for by the companies who manufacture the helmets.  Now I know that this is unavoidable to a certain extent, after all drug companies fund research into the effects of their drugs, research is rarely carried out without a motivated party (with an interest in the outcome) putting their hands in their pockets to fund it.  It could perhaps be said that a neurosurgeon might be in a similar position – after all (sadly) some of his stock and trade results from cycling accidents.  But fortunately in this country at least medical professionals heartily encourage us all to do whatever we can to stay out of their consulting rooms.  God bless the NHS.  Seriously.  So to have one of the people who have to rebuild us after head injuries declare publicly that helmets make near as dammit no difference to how our heads cope with discourteous attention (to the extent that he doesn’t wear one himself) is interesting enough for us to stop what we’re doing and pay attention.  It’s worth noting (because we’re just the kind of jerks that note shit like this) that Henry Marsh doesn’t entirely disagree with cycling headwear, he just doesn’t think much of what he refers to as ‘flimsy helmets’.  So what does he wear on his head while cycling?  Well I’ll let the man speak for himself by directly quoting him:

“I have been cycling for 40 years and have only been knocked off once. I wear a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. I look completely mad.”

Now this is only one man’s opinion, and he may be a very clever man who has had human brains in his hands more often than most of our readers (we hope), but he is not representative of his peers when it comes to saying ‘pfffhhttt’ to bike helmets.  We wouldn’t be foolish enough to make a strong judgement either for or against bike helmets (that’s what the comments section below is for) but we would encourage an open mind when it comes to listening to the evidence.  Even if the evidence comes from a man who rides his bike dressed in a cowboy hat and boots (and trousers and a top we assume, although…).

So where did this brain mechanic air his views you say?  Well at a literary festival of course.  There is no emoticon appropriate at this juncture.  The man did say a few other entertaining things about cycling through red traffic lights and the like, so we’d encourage you to have a click on the link below so you can read the rest of the story.

Cycle helmets are USELESS…

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Critical Mass London 28/03/14 – my report

Critical Mass is an unofficial and 99% unplanned bike ride that happens in hundreds of cities around the world on the last Friday of every month. It’s a bike ride that I’ve wanted to be a part of for a long time.

My friend and fellow cycle adventurer Sam made it to the meet-up point under Waterloo bridge bang on time (6.30pm) only to be dissapointed by the fact that we appeared to be the only cyclists who had turned up. Two bikes doth not make a Critical Mass ride.

We then figured out that we were under the wrong part of Waterloo bridge, a fact made clear to us when we made our wsy down to the river and found hundreds of cyclists getting into the party mood. It has been estimated that over 600 cyclists were in attendance.

There were all kinds of bikes, a LOT of fixies and a lot of bikes decorated with fairy lights. Some folk took their bike upgrades to the extreme by adding surprisingly loud sound systems.

After what seemed like an age of standing around feeling a bit cold someone shouted something, everyone cheered and rang thier bells and we were on our way. Slowly.

As we hit the first roundabout we found a big group of cyclists blocking the traffic from comming round the roundabout, giving safe passage to the hundreds and hundreds of cyclists spewing out of the side streets and into the city via Waterloo bridge.

The first few miles of the ride were very stop-start. It appeared that collosall bottlenecks were forming at traffic lights, and then once the traffic lights did the job of stopping the opposing traffic large numbers of cyclists positioned themselves to block traffic once the lights changed back. This happened with side streets throughout the ride and on the whole was very good-natured, with the blockers genially chatting with bewildered and amused blockees.

The whole ride was very high-spirited, lots of ‘thank yous’ being thrown to the vehicles our sheer mass were stopping from moving. I saw lots of laughing cabbies and waving laughing bus drivers.

I was expecting to see a lot more aggro on the ride, but people just seemed to be really amused to see this raggle-taggle tidal wave of bikes forging a path through Central London like a massive bell-ringing fun-plunger.

The evening wasn’t entirely incident free, and I only mention the incidents I saw in the interests of balance, not scintillation. As Sam and I passed through a junction we saw a black cab nudge forward and push a stationary cyclist off his bike (only stopping short of actually driving over his bike). Sam and I stopped to block the cab and were very quickly joined by many others. This sense of instant solidarity was evident too many times to mention, and each time the situation ended the same way – the blockers would politely thank the motorists for their patience and normal traffic would resume.

There were quite a few pizza delivery mopeds trying to weave their way through traffic, which on the whole was fine. But I was saddened to see a Dominos scooter driver try and kick a cyclist off his bike before trying to veer into him. A large volume of cyclists stopped and surrounded the cyclist and moped driver, not to hassle him, but to protect him from the cyclist who wanted to have a unfriendly word. I did see the same cyclist yelling at a Pappa Johns moped dude later in the evening, so maybe he was just a dick. The important thing was that as a collective the Critical Mass riders utterly refused to allow aggression from any fellow riders towards any other road users. If motorists looked frustrated they were thanked for thier patience and the situation was calmly dissappated.

A lot of pedestrians called out to ask what was going on, ‘why are all these people following me home?’ was my stock answer.

We took in a lot of the London sights and busiest roads, all with a feeling of total safety. There were parents cycling with thier children along Regents Street, something that ordinarily would perhaps be lunacy. There was a thirteen year old boy and his older sister skateboarding along the main road through Camden Lock. In fact there a lot of skaters.

The ride ground to a halt at Trafalger Square. It was a great experience and I really look forward to riding Critical Mass again, hopefully quite soon.

Critical Mass Gallery

critical mass ride photo
critical mass
London critical mass photo
critical mass photo

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Bike wheel size

Bike wheel sizes might not fascinate you if you own just one bike that you hop on, whizz down to the chippy and back then discard in your front garden.  Even if you own a carbon dream bicycle worth thousands then you probably don’t spend any time at all pawing over bike wheel size charts; you probably know what size your wheels are so can buy replacement tyres and wheels and life is simple.

But if you’ve ever tried to build or restore a bike then the exact size of wheels can become very important to you, especially if you’ve bought a bike with almost no provenience, and crucially if you’ve bought a vintage bike.  So because I’m a helpful elf type I’m going to give you a very quick rundown of bike wheel sizes:

Bike wheel size chart

(wheel size followed by typical usage)

  • 27″ x 111/4″ – Old touring bikes
  • 700c – If you have a road bike (racer) made in the last twenty years then this is probably the wheel size that you have
  • 16″ x 1 3/8″ – These days mostly used on Brompton folding bikes

There’s a LOT more information (including ISO numbers) over on the ever-crucial Sheldon Brown website…