Spotted in Manchester

One of the things I have noticed since starting this blog is how many interesting bikes I see parked up around Manchester.  I have recently been noticing a lot of vintage bicycles around, in addition to a few interesting new bikes.  When I can do so without looking too abnormal, I take pictures of the bikes I see around town.

A Raleigh “Conniosseur,” spotted at Sainsbury’s in Fallowfield.  By the look of things the bike seems to be very similar to the Raleigh Sports.  I think it goes together well with the Tourist in the middle picture.

A very similar Raleigh to the one above, this time branded as the “Transit.”  I doubt modern Raleigh would name any of their bikes the “Transit.”

A Batavus BUB parked outside Piccadilly station.  One of the few bikes I have ever read about at the prototype stage and seen come to market, it looks like quite a comfortable ride.  One was given away as the grand prize in the LGRAB summer games.  The frame design was inspired by a paperclip.

A well looked-after rod-brake roadster, a Humber according to Sheldon Brown, identifiable by the unusual fork:

Curiously, I think I may have once bid on this very bike on eBay, before it got a bit too expensive for me.

A huge double top-tube Pashley Roadster, with my Tourist to the right for scale, and a Pashley Princess to the right of that.

I’m guessing whoever owns this bike is incredibly tall.

There are some very nice old and new bicycles around Manchester.  There are plenty of crap-heaps too, but they are less photogenic.

The Quiet Route

After my recent post about cycling to Rochdale during rush hour I found myself needing to return to Rochdale once again.  This time it was a Sunday however, and the weather had been dry for about a week.  As many of you will know, leaving the Manchester in most directions is at least slightly uphill.  Oldham Road is no exception, forming a long but gentle climb until you reach Oldham.  On this day however, the slight incline was also supplemented by a strong head-wind and by the time I reached Failsworth I decided to take refuge on the Rochdale canal.  Things began to look up immediately after that.

The ride was very pleasant after this point, with the trees and hedges along the canal providing escape from the wind.  Due to the dry weather, I was able to get to Rochdale in a time comparable to my previous road trip.  I made the return trip via the same route later.  The ride back is even better because all of the locks are heading downhill.  When I re-joined the road at Failsworth, amazingly the wind was now in my favour.  This combined with the slight slope and a bit of luck with the traffic lights allowed me to maintain a solid 45-50 km.h^-1 (30 mph) for around 4 minutes without even feeling put-out by it.  It was the first time I have managed to spin out on the Tourist, an extra gear would have allowed me to go even faster.  I got some curious looks from motorists as I comfortably cruised along at the same speed as them.

I took this shot of my shadow as I was nearing home in the late afternoon sun.  I was reminded of it by a recent post on A Grim North.  When the weather permits, this is the best way to cycle to Rochdale.

Cambridge Trip

As many of you may have noticed from an earlier post of mine, I have recently been to visit a friend in Cambridge. Whilst I was there I was shocked at how prevalent the bicycle was as a means of transport. Based on what I saw I'd guess a modal share of 10-12% which is unprecedented in the UK of the 21st century. This is despite a lack of any real pro-cycling intervention, sure there are painted cycle lanes and ASLs as in Manchester, but there is no proper infrastructure. The main differences are that everyone cycles, so motorists expect to see cyclists more and there is more cycle parking around because of the demand. The popularity of cycling in Cambridge could be due to the affluent university culture, or perhaps due to the number of historical buildings which have prevented the spread of car-centric traffic planning such as the wide, fast modern roads you see in Manchester.

Pairs of bicycles locked together in gardens and outside terraced houses are a common sight in Cambridge.

Traditional English roadsters from the era of rod-brakes are a very common sight.

Every available object is covered with locked bikes. Bikes left leaning against walls and locked through their frame were also a very common sight.

Pashley bicycles are very popular in Cambridge, although the Princess outnumbers the Roadster by around ten-to-one.



The Raleigh Twenty is also very popular here. Cambridge definitely has the highest usage of internal hub hears and mudguards I have seen in the UK, which is odd considering the reputation the UK has for its lack of rainfall.

Obligatory touristy photographs.

Re-assuringly, Cambridge isn't all picturesque.

What I have learned from looking around Cambridge is that you don't necessarily need to invest in cycle infrastructure to get people cycling. It can also be done by not increasing the capacity of motorised traffic the roads can accommodate, making it a pain to drive. people will see that there are better options and take them. People always say that cycling could be a lot bigger if there was the political will to build things such as segregated Dutch-style infrastructure. The political will to do this is always absent. Cycling can also be encouraged by doing nothing to increase road capacity or traffic flow, letting motorists create gridlock and subsequently finding a better way to get around. There isn't the political will to do a lot of things which would make life better, but I genuinely believe that there might just be the political will out there to do nothing to make it better.

Egalitarian Bicycles

In 1896 Susan B. Anthony said, “The bicycle has done more for the emancipation of women than anything else in the world.”  She was most likely referring to the pneumatic-tyred,“Safety bicycle,” the design of which is the template for almost all modern bikes.  The “Ordinary,” bicycle now commonly referred to as a penny-farthing, was considered too dangerous for ladies to ride at the time.  Large-wheeled tricycles existed before the safety bicycle designed for women, but these were not practical utilitarian machines and at the time bicycles in general were used as toys by the affluent, or as an example of conspicuous consumption nowadays more commonly expressed through expensive cars.

Unwieldy women’s tricycle (above) and amongst penny-farthings (Below).

With the advent of the safety bicycle and the continued fall in the price of bicycles, women could ride a much more practical and utilitarian machine whilst still keeping their legs covered by a skirt.  The popularity of the safety bicycle with women brought in a new era of practical attire, a newfound level of personal mobility and the freedom it provided.  The men of the time were not all happy about this, it was feared that the bicycle “Would disrupt the delicate sphere of the family unit by allowing the woman to travel beyond her previous limits without the surveillance of a knowing husband nearby.” 

Nowadays it is hard to imagine that this was still going on as recently as the time the safety bicycle was introduced.  It is definitely worth remembering the egalitarian effect the safety bicycle had.

Greater Manchester Transport Plan

You may not have heard about the public consultation regarding the latest Greater Manchester Transport Plan, probably because local authorities like to keep consultations low-key to avoid having to take ordinary people’s views on board.  You may see this as a bad thing, but just take a moment to think about who you perceive to be the “Ordinary person.”  If it has managed to escape your attention, the plan can be found here. 

The report makes the usual references to cycle infrastructure and trying to create a modal shift away from the car.  The cycle plans are largely vague and involve opening up parts of the public right of way network to bikes.  Interestingly there are also promises of a “Core cycle network implemented locally,” allowing users to “Cycle with ease, convenience and safety.”  I am slightly concerned that the people writing this believe that the bits of existing cycle infrastructure in Manchester believe that they are also easy, convenient and safe when in fact they are difficult to use, inconvenient and actively dangerous.  Generally the report acknowledges the benefits of producing a pro-cycling culture but the proposals go nowhere near far enough to produce it.

The report mentions marketing several times, both to encourage people not to make pointlessly short car journeys, not to kill or maim anyone whilst making those pointlessly short journeys and to consider cycling, walking or getting a bus.  I get the impression that a large part of Manchester’s Local Transport Plan will take the form of billboards and local radio ads.

Interestingly the report suggests the installation of better bicycle parking at Metrolink stations to encourage multi-modal transport whilst ignoring the elephant in the room; the replacement of bike-friendly trains with bike-hostile Metrolink, such as is currently underway on the Oldham Loop railway line.

The most interesting part of the report for me was the statistics for Greater Manchester:

• 70% of journeys into the city centre in the morning rush are made by public transport, walking or cycling.
• 33% of households in Greater Manchester have no car.
• 48% of Manchester households are car-free.
• Morning rush-hour travel into the city centre by car has decreased by 15% over the past 10 years
• 80% of cars observed on “Key,” commuter routes have a single occupant.
• In the satellite towns around Manchester (Ashton, Rochdale, Stockport etc) the car is used for 60% of journeys into town.
• 15% of people commuting by car travel less than 2 km (just over a mile).
• 30% of people commuting by car travel less than 5 km (just over 3 miles).
• 30% of Greater Manchester’s carbon dioxide emissions are from transport.
• An estimated 2,000 people per year (50,000 nationally) will die prematurely in Greater Manchester due to the effects of air pollution from transport.
• 9,000 people were reported injured by Greater Manchester motorists last year.
• 794 of those were killed or seriously injured.

The plan does include provisions to increase or maintain car dependency, such as widening the M60 westbound to increase the volume of congestion and introducing various hard-shoulder running schemes at various parts of the motorway.  It also suggests allocating city centre parking for short stay use only to encourage people to use other transport modes, I would suggest removing town centre parking at street level entirely and either widening pavements or introducing Dutch-style cycle infrastructure, but there is no reference to anything like this in the report.

Lastly, the report acknowledges that as the safety of the road network has increased (apparently), the main cause of incidents is now driver behaviour.  Sadly they plan to deal with this with re-education and marketing.  Perhaps ASBOs could be used to exclude these people from driving in Greater Manchester instead?  If you want to respond to the consultation, the form is here.

Rush Hour Ride

Yesterday I decided to visit Rochdale after work. I set off at about 17:15 along the following route (give or take):


View Larger Map

The sheer volume of traffic meant it was easier to keep pace, so for large sections I was riding at 25-45 km.h-1 or 20-30 mph (Yes, on a DL-1, they are faster than you'd expect) and I was amazed at how poorly motorists deal with a cyclist who is travelling consistently as fast as they are. I understand Jobysp's frustration now, as he must encounter this kind of behaviour much more frequently (as he seems to usually commute on a roadie). Numerous times I was overtaken unnecessarily only to filter past at the next set of lights. Several of these overtakes were on narrow, blind sharp corners on the route between Shaw and Newhey. One guy nearly even crashed into an oncoming car just to get past me when I was comfortably travelling near the speed limit. I arrived in Rochdale at 18:45, although the last 5 km took me about half an hour due to my desire to explore.

I enjoyed being out in the cold crisp air, shame about the motorists though. If you live in Rochdale, commuting in to Manchester on an upright bike could be viable, although be prepared to encounter some stupidity.

Cambridge Train Station

I will write in more detail about my recent trip to Cambridge shortly, for now I wanted to share these pictures taken outside of the train station in Cambridge:

It was hard to believe I was still in the UK.  Compare this to the bicycle parking facilities at the Manchester train stations and consider that the Cambridge urban area has a population of 130,000 and the city of Manchester (excluding Greater Manchester) has a population of 464,200.  Puts into perspective just how big cycling is in Cambridge.