Writing (and taking photos) about cycling.
- Cycling web sites:
- getting started,
- next steps,
- touring and off-road,
- writing and photography.
- Also a Cycling Miscellany. Jewellery, history and memorabilia, odds and sods.
Also see
- Cycling around Malvern – planning a leisure ride.
Cycling web sites
There are many racing/touring club sites and various attempts at putting wider facilities together. Here’s some less sport dominated:
Getting started
- Books: City Cycling (Aug 2007) from our favourite author on the practicalities of cycling, Richard Ballantine. “Richard guides the city cyclist through the pitfalls of riding in traffic, how to buy and maintain a good bike, safety and riding with confidence.”
Next Steps
- Get Cycling (was Company of Cyclists) A business promoting ‘everything cycling’, and provides cycling promotion support services. Also an extensive and varied library of cycling images, Bike Try-Out Roadshows/Bike Culture Weeks.
- Try Park Tool Co’s bike repair and maintenance section for advice on common problems (they’re American but that shouldn’t create too much confusion).
- See the Cycle Malvern website.
Online Cycle Networks and News
UK-based discussion forums/social networks on cycling.
- Cycle Chat.
- Cycling UK forum. The open discussion area from the cyclists organisation (previously known as CTC).
Online cycling news and features:
- Bike Radar Sections on Mountain Biking, Commuting, Family cycling (although they do seem to overlap greatly).
- road.cc A bit of a road cycling focus, but good general coverage of ‘real’ cycling news too. Currently our preferred cycling news feed.
- BikeBiz is for anyone in the cycle trade. News, features, product guides, trade directory, jobs, etc.
Touring and off-road
- Cycletourer A couple’s experiences and advice on cycle touring with a tent.
- Cycle-n-sleep Info for ‘long distance bicycle touring’, using National Cycle Network routes. But there’s also a good Links page.
- Cycle Touring Festival. Once a year UK event.
- WarmShowers.org helps create reciprocal hospitality amongst touring cyclists.
- Women’s Mountain Bike and Tea Society (Wombats) is a network of women of all ages and abilities who share a passion for pedalling in the dirt, US but happy to have international ‘chapters’. Also check out Jacquie Phelan’s blog.
- Crazy Guy on a Bike – a place for bicycle tourists and their journals.
- SingleTrack – ‘The Art Of Mountain Biking’. Magazine with lively web site.
Writing and photography
- Josie Dew: cyclist, writer and cook. News updates are worth checking out as tasters and in their own right.
- BikeReader, ‘a riders digest’. Brilliant site – run by an American living in Britain, and has loads of UK stuff. An archive of essays, humour, links, etc. and photo section has much improved since our first visit.
- VeloVision Quarterly magazine celebrating cycle culture and cycling innovations from around the world. You can read a sample edition online.
- A to B Magazine Mainly for info on folding bikes, but also covers electric bikes, bike trailers trikes, trains and alternative transport. Online guide to what’s available, advice. Want more on collapsing transport? Then go to The Folding Society web site.
- Cycling photographer Brian Donnan is based in Cheltenham, so loads of localish bike pics, including ‘Hell of the North Cotswolds’ reliability events and a folding bike outing which I saw while out walking that way.
- Joolze Dymond mountain bike events, cyclo cross and other photos.
- Favourite bicycle related blogs: Dave Moulton’s Bike Blog, from an ex-frame builder who has moved to the US from Britain (has some good information/tech pieces too). Copenhagen Cycle Chic – cycle chic where cycling is just a way of life, or Copenhagenize – Bike Culture by Design.
Cycle Miscellany
Retro Bicycles is based in Malvern, providing cycle-themed jewellery, hand crafted in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. The same people have also produced a photographic journal, in the form of quality postcard books, of their five year ‘Bicycle Odyssey’ taking in 22 countries and 30,000 km.
Companion Cycling A charity in south west London which enables people who are unable to ride “solo” cycles for whatever reason to enjoy the pleasure of cycling with a companion in the delightful and traffic free surroundings of Bushy Park. Also has Links page featuring specialist cycle suppliers.
Sheldon Brown’s Bicycle Glossary.
Cycling past
Cycling before Lycra Thirties and forties cycling memories from Allan Nelson and parents.
19th Century Bicycle News Interesting selections from American archives. This book mentioned there sounds fun – Around the World on a Bicycle (from Amazon) – a late 19th century adventure on a penny farthing!
National Cycle Collection in Llandrindod Wells, mid-Wales.