More on the Guardian's Bike Coverage 07/31/09

I’ve long been a fan of The Guardian, so when they launched a bike blog over the summer that collates all their cycling coverage, I signed up to receive updates. So far, I’ve not been disappointed. It covers a broad range of cycling culture and news.

There are women contributors who write about everything from harassment to riding in a skirt. The show’s current podcast, second in what’s to be a monthly series, included an interview with cyclist and Olympic medal winner Victoria Pendleton, who said that while she enjoys racing and can’t wait for London 2012, she looks forward “to the day when I don’t have an agenda [while riding]” and can “just toodle” around with her friends. Perhaps she was imagining that while posing for this picture.

Pendelton with a Pashley Poppy, from the Daily Mail via Cyclechic.co.uk

Also featured were reviews of the new Trek Soho (described as “stately” yet “slightly chunky”) and the Sirrus Elite (the “boy racer” of hybrid bikes), and an inside look at Pashley (not only is business up, they’re opening a new distribution center . . . in Taiwan!).

A recent piece on Denmark’s bike culture included this fascinating tidbit:

A few, here, still bother with those wriggly centipede locks, and D-locks, and chain their bikes to trees or the plethora of stands (there’s even a stand at the airport, filled with 150 bikes): far, far more users simply rely on the so-called O-lock, the fixment the size of a small hand which swings down from behind the saddle and slots in half a second between spokes on the rear wheel. Fast and cleanly efficient, and most of those I spoke to say bike thefts had gone down in recent years: partly, they say, because everybody now has one. Even if they were stolen in the first place.

How convenient. Wish I felt secure enough to just use the O-lock with my Bat. Does anyone out there (outside of Denmark) do this? Not to mention, everyone has a bike? Sometimes I wonder if Copenhagen could possibly live up to the cycling paradise that articles like this have led me to envision. I do remember scads of bikes on the road when I was there in 2002, but since I wasn’t riding then, I didn’t notice details.

Also featured this week was this article on the breadth of cycling today. Unlike the recent NYT piece on the subject, it featured photos of real people, from naked riders to businesspeople with folders to moms on trikes to the girls of cyclechic.co.uk. (In a classic “great minds think alike” example, Dottie was publishing a post on this article while I was writing this one! See her more in-depth reaction here.)

A Batavus takes a naked ride!

Definitely a blog to check out, whether you’re in the UK or not.