http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk Dens solus idoneus est Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:32:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Travelling entirely by bicycle, carrying all of their instruments, accompanied by a two person film / support crew (with Buzz the travelling cat for company) and funding the trip entirely by playing concerts along the way, the Oregan based band Blind Pilot are touring the entire West Coast of the ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/music-powered-bicycles Courtesy of Mr. Crud, we've been testing a couple of prototypes of the 2009 Raceguard. The first Raceguard was invented in 1994, an innovative seatpost-mounted rear mudguard, and it rapidly became the market leader among mountain bikers and commuters alike as the simplest and best-looking way to avoid that "wet stripe" ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/2009-crud-raceguard-exclusive-preview From Bikesnob NYC last week: Of course, the truth is that on a lot of terrain a singlespeed mountain bike isn’t much of a handicap. In fact, often it’s an advantage. When confronted with a steep grade on a singlespeed mountain bike, you either have to stomp up it really fast, ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/spinning http://springwise.com/weekly/2008-08-06.htm#trekstop I can't decide whether this is a great idea, or a really terrible one. While round-the-clock parts availability is a Good Thing, I can foresee drawbacks.  I can just imagine the typical phone call I'm going to get at 2am from some random hipster who's snakebite-punctured his brakeless fixie slamming it ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/vending-machines-for-bicycle-parts Winston writes asking for a shameless plug, and here it is: Rollapaluza XI - Kingspin - is taking place on Friday 8th August at the (rather excellent) Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, WC1.  £7.50 entry with DJs, a bar until 3am, cut price bowling, food and underground stewarded bike parking.  Better polish up ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/rollapaluza-xi This video on creating a mobile phone activated stun gun was posted as a follow up to the anti-theft Instructable. It works by attaching the stun gun battery connectors to the phone's vibrate function thus triggering the shock by calling the phone. The inventor (titter ye not, he's only naked from the waist up) ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/best-bike-lock-ever Instructables have an article up on how to keep your bike from being stolen. I am a particular fan of steps 9 and 10: Step 9 - Trying to make your bike unridable Fixed gear riders advocate fixed gear bicycles as a method of this, that they are somehow more secure because they ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/how-to-keep-your-bike-from-being-stolen So while finding distractions from Actually Setting Up A Business, I've discovered Yehuda Moon, an online cartoon about a couple of guys who run a small bike shop in the middle of a small town in the U.S. - some amusing stuff from both sides of the counter: Worth a look. http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/procrastination-and-online-cartoons Well we've just got back from a tour of the Annapurna circuit, a commonly walked, but rarely cycled route through the Himalayas in Nepal. And no, of course I didn't do it on a singlespeed, don't be daft. The route is nowadays ridden as an annual race called the Yak ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/yaks-yetis-and-singletrack Yet more evidence that tweed is slowly making a comeback: http://www.tweed.cc The Club's wheelmen and ladymembers wish for a return to the honest virtues of lugged steel, dynamo lighting and canvas saddlebags. A stout pair of plus fours offer day-long comfort while a Fair Isle vest takes the chill out of a frosty ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/the-tweed-cycling-club In the Times article I linked to in the last post, they dragged out a lunatic who calls himself Captain Gatso to present a counterpoint to the otherwise pro-cycling tone of the piece.  I'd normally ignore this blatant trolling, but it's amusing enough to want to go through it line ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/captain-twatso According to The Times, Kensington and Chelsea appear to be about to trial a scheme to allow cyclists to legally travel the wrong way up one-way streets.  The scheme will initially only involve six quiet residential roads. This seems like a fabulous bit of common sense for, as the article points ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/contraflow-cycling It looks like our new favourite bike has made it as far as the Telegraph.  Even if we forgive them for taking the celebrity angle: The likes of Madonna, David Beckham, Paul McCartney, Paul Smith, Boris Johnson and Fatboy Slim are seen as prospective buyers since they can actually afford to ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/gold-charge-plug-ii What do you get for the cycling fashion victim who has everything? Look no further than a gold plated Charge Plug. That ought to turn some heads in Hoxton. For a bike that normally costs £399, they've certainly managed to add some extras to bump the cost up including ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/gold-charge-plug Ever since seeing Charlie The Bike Monger wearing a tweed cycling cap at SSUK this year (pictured below, mixing mojitos), I've been getting the feeling that tweed is going to be very big this summer. I've just come across this rather interesting website - Dashing Tweeds.  They make a selection of ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/tweed SSUK has come been and gone for another year and all that remains is to attempt to remove the mud that seems to have found it's way into every nook and cranny of London Singlespeed's kit bag. A fabulous time was had by all, with Drumlanrig putting on a great weekend ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/ssuk-08 Last night London Singlespeed was lucky enough to be at the UK premier of Seasons - a new mountain biking movie by film outfit The Collective.  It was excellent and shows the art of bicycle film making is forever improving - this film has seriously raised the bar. The film is ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/seasons Incredible. Not only do the Japanese have the best technology and a never ending supply of pimpy bike bits, they also appear to have converted missile silos to use as off-street bike storage. Want want want. http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/underground-bicycle-park Seemingly as proof that if you throw enough technology at a problem, some of it will stick; the BBC have an article about the winner of the James Dyson Foundation Award for Project Design who fitted accelerometers and tilt switches to a cycling jacket which are in turn connected to ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/led-cycling-jacket With sadness we report the death of one of cycling's greatest Internet proponents. Earlier today the Harris Cyclery announced that Sheldon Brown has died of a heart attack. "One of the cycling community's most passionate members," Sheldon was an inspiring writer, inventor, mechanic and fixie rider whose knowledge created possibly ... http://www.londonsinglespeed.org.uk/rip-sheldon-brown