Fietsvierdaagse

The Drents Fietsvierdaagse was last week. This is a four day recreational cycle ride which has been run every year for forty years. There are several start places, including here in Assen. This year there were 13000 participants. 11000 of them rode every day, and the others were people who joined in for a day or two.

There are several rides each day, all recreational rather than races (there are plenty of other events for those who want to race), and this video from our local broadcaster focusses mainly on people doing the "RollOnRoute" ride aimed mainly at people with disabilities and their family and friends. Cycling is very much an inclusive activity.

The routes go through a lot of villages, and of course all the cafes on route do great business. Lots of places open especially, and there are stalls selling all kinds of things.

We took part last year and enjoyed it a lot, but I was working this year and sadly couldn't spare the time.

You'll see a nice wide demographic in the video. Men and women of all ages, able bodied and people with disabilities, out there having fun. Sadly the event was marred by quite bad weather this year, but this didn't seem to dampen too many people's enthusiasm.

There are also videos and still photos from other days. Also, there is the official fietsvierdaagse website

Bike Trailers - Dog trailer

In the last two weeks I've covered our other two bicycle trailers, the BOB Yak and the Carry Freedom City. Now it's the turn of our largest trailer.

This dog trailer was constructed out of an old child trailer that we were given five years or so ago. The plastic "tent" part was well past its prime, and in any case not particularly pleasant for our dog to sit in. Instead of using this, I stripped it back to its frame and...

...made a basket on a plywood base to go on top.

So it stayed until very recently, despite the constant aggravation caused by the inadequately designed hitch mechanism, which tried to clamp onto one of the chain tubes, but would often become loose.

Luckily, such clamp type hitches can be replaced. I used the Chariot hitch.

It's very easy to replace most hitches.

In this case I needed an allen key and a spanner to remove the old hitch.

The same allen key, spanner, nut and bolt now hold the new hitch.

Note that as the "lollipop" was a bit thinner than what came off the trailer, I also needed a bit of shimming here. I found that a slide of narrow inner tube exactly filled the gap in the case of my trailer and hitch, and as the lollipop itself is flexible this is probably rigid enough.

You connect the trailer by sliding the ball into the cast hitch which is attached permanently to the bike by the wheel nut or quick release.

Then you push through the pin and it's held securely by a rubber part.

The customer inspects my work... We then went for a test ride, and another walk in the woods.

The trailer is much more usable with a decent hitch mechanism.

If you're looking for a way of transporting a smaller dog on your bike, take a look here. There's also a video of a previous adventure with Harry by bike.

Cyclevision / Human Power World Championships 2009

I returned yesterday from Cyclevision / Human Power World Championships in Tilburg. It was an excellent event, including racing, a trade show, lectures on various topics and of course lots of socialising.

The full race results reveal that Stephen Slade from the UK retained his Men's World Champion title this year, and that Barbara Buatois is the current Women's World Champion. Well done to both of them, and of course to all the other competitors. The people of Tilburg were great too. We raced on closed roads, and no doubt caused some inconvenience, but the people turned out to cheer us on and many volunteers helped with the organisation.



1 hour time trial video. I'm in this video briefly at 1:43, wearing a blue helmet and riding the white velomobile. As I enter the picture I only have two wheels on the ground, this being a problem with the corners on the course.

There's a similar still here.

Compared with my own efforts, the winners were very fast indeed. My 39.6 km covered in an hour put me in 57th place of 157 competitors in the 1 hour time trial.

The four hour race course had some really nasty tight corners for those of us riding velomobiles. With such a machine you really want to keep your speed up, as these practical fully equipped every day / all weather use designs are inevitably heavier than stripped down fragile racing specific machines that we were competing with. Nevertheless, velomobile riders did very well in the race.

My own attempt at the four hour race was unfortunately marred by a slow puncture which I failed to notice due to my inexperience in the Mango, and not realising there was a puncture due to the suspension masking the feeling. The puncture caused my speed to start dropping from about an hour in. I initially tried to pedal harder to compensate, drink more and eat more, as I thought it was simply exhaustion. This, of course, simply made myself yet more exhausted. It's strange how the mind works in such a situation. Eventually the tyre was flat enough that people could see the problem and started shouting to me about it. I stopped and was helped to fit a new tube and restart. Suddenly my speed was back again and I kept up just about a 35 km/h average for the last hour. This resulted in my covering only about 122 km in the four hours. Mind you, a few years back I wouldn't have thought that to be a bad average speed.

A great event, made more enjoyable by the company of Harry and Marjon with whom I went, and also by all the BHPC people I met again.

There are more videos and pictures.

Cycle parking stand design. A solved problem.

I took this photo on the 9th of September 2001. It was the first time I had seen the tulip style cycle stand, which I've come to realise it one of the most effective types of cycle parking available.

In this instance such a stand is supporting a mountain bike with fat 26" tyres, a traditional Dutch bike with 28" wheels and a 20" wheel folding bike. The stands hold bikes upright while you load shopping, grip enough of the wheel not to be "wheel benders", provide a loop through which the frame can be looked and due to being on two levels they permit bikes to be parked close together without clashing so that large numbers of bikes can be parked in any given area - an essential thing here where there are often thousands of bikes parked in one place.

So, why do I prefer these to the "Sheffield stand" or "U-rack" now almost universally recommended in English speaking countries ? Well, they support a lot more bikes in the same area, and they really do support them. They keep your bike upright as you load luggage, and as both sides are free you can load a pannier on both sides without having to reposition your bike. Because of the way they grip the front wheel your bike doesn't try to roll forwards or backwards when parked, either.

The Tulip stands are made by Velopa. You can see examples of them in use on their website.

There are more cycle parking posts.

Cyclevision

If all goes to plan, this post on my blog will appear while I'm at cyclevision, where I'll be racing in a Sinner Mango velomobile.

Pjotr's video from last year's event:


Click here for the second part.

And just to prove that these things are not actually as fragile as you might have thought:


I've now been and returned. There is a further post about the event.

The Dutch Railway Station Cycle Parking Crisis

The Fietsersbond reports in the May/June 2009 "Vogelvrije Fietser" that cycle parking at railway stations in the Netherlands is in crisis. There simply are not enough places to accommodate people's bikes. Growth in use is around 5% per year, which means there will be a shortage of 150000 spaces in three years time.

Ten years ago, the ministry responsible made half a billion gulders available for cycle parking. This seemed a lot at the time, but more is needed. It looks like a billion euros will be required over the next ten years for railway station cycle parking in the Netherlands. That works out as 60 million a year for the actual building and 40 million a year reserved for maintenance, advertising, planning etc.

The map shows how many extra spaces some cities are planning. Delft, for instance, is building a new 5000 space underground cycle park. However, there is already concern that it will be completely full from the first day that it is available because cycle and train usage is growing so quickly between the time that plans are made and the cycle park opens.

Cycle parking is also under pressure to look attractive, and that often means that it should be underground, covered parking, rather than being a vast area of bikes exposed to the elements in front of the station. Groningen already has done this. However, the problem is that each underground space costs about 2100 Euros to build, while an outdoor space costs just 300 Euros per bike.

I've previously covered the cycle parking at Assen, Amsterdam, Groningen, Utrecht and Beilen stations.

There are also other articles about cycle parking and planning.

100 million Euros per year for railway station cycle parking ? That's roughly twice what the UK, a country with 4x the population, spends each year for everything to do with cycling. Britain recently announced a once off sum of 5 million pounds for improved cycle parking at ten railway stations, but that's only around half the amount that was spent here in Groningen alone... The Netherlands does have some problems too, of course. Mark Wagenbuur pointed out to me in email that the railway company has so far only promised to build 100000 spaces, not the 150000 which are expected to be needed...

Sundays

A group of local recumbent enthusiasts meet each Sunday morning. The video shows the ride from a couple of weeks ago. We went about 65 km through the Drents countryside.

It was a nice day, so lots of other people out cycling as well. Not just to get somewhere as they do during the week, but in order to enjoy the countryside, which is of course easily accessible by bicycle.

Perhaps I'll be doing something similar this Sunday too...

Update later on the same day...

... and so we did. I wasn't sure I was going to go as I have had a cold for a few days and worke with a fever. However, it was another excellent ride. Very enjoyable, including the long stop at Anton's for tea. For me it was 87 km this time. I didn't video it this week. However, one part of today's route was this human powered bicycle ferry that I videoed last year:


Wilfred took some photos.

There are other similar videos of huneliggers rides on this blog, or see youtube.