4ucycling

Do you think that cycling to work sounds like extra effort, time consuming, dangerous or just plain crazy? Think again! Cycling to work is rewarding in many ways. It's easy to feel nervous and unsure before you get into bike commuting, but by actually taking action and getting on your bike you may find that bike commuting becomes one of the happiest parts of your busy day. To find out how you can benefit by riding to work, let's take a closer look at what you will gain: 1. Save time: You save yourself substantial time if you live in an urban area and work in a city centre. On a bike you pass the traffic instead of sitting in it getting bored, stressed and fed up. You can arrive at your desk, or back home earlier than you would by car. You also save time because you'll have done your fitness for the day. By riding to work you have no excuses to ride back home again, so you get your exercise done for the day and can then enjoy more family time or relax in the even...

So, the last time I hopped on my bike and decided to have a lovely bike to work experience, the adventure was over soon - before it had a chance to actually develop into something long term. It lasted a day. And a sweaty day, full of cycling disappointment it was. Almost three years later I was ready to give it another shot. I was quite happy with my car and congestion adventure until this May and yet another inhuman increase in gas prices. The fact that my colleague from work kept babbling on about all the wonderful benefits of cycling in combination with flashing her lovely cycling legs, just made me more determined to try again. I can do it, damn it! I too, with as little effort as cycling for 20 kilometers to and from work every single day, can have legs like that! Well, needless to say, my adventure began not like any adventure in any of the movies that Hollywood is able to produce. My once lovely little city bike became almost unusable after withering away for almost three ye...

Every year about 300 people are killed on UK roads as a result of a driver falling asleep at the wheel. Driver tiredness accounts for one in five fatal crashes occurring on motorways and other major roads in the UK. Tired driver crashes are three times more likely to result in serious injury or death than other road accidents, because drowsy drivers do not brake or take other avoidance action. These accidents tend to occur most frequently at night, peaking between 2-6am and also in the mid-afternoon, roughly between 3-5 pm. Men, particularly those aged 18-24, are most likely to be involved in these accidents. But statistics also show that some occupations are at particularly high risk: Truck drivers Company car drivers Shift workers, particularly on the first night after a shift Skilled manual workers (e.g. bricklayers, carpenters, electricians) Microsleeps If you are very tired but continue to resist the urge to sleep, you will soon start to experience 'microsleeps...

Smaller Batteries While firms such as Bosch and Shimano are always looking to improve and refine their drive systems, this year’s important e-bike technical developments are more likely to be associated with power sources. Battery size and efficiency is something that’s an important topic for a vast range of modern products — from mobile phones to electric cars — and with the digital consumer hugely reliant on electrical power on the go, battery manufacturers are constantly searching to make theirs smaller, lighter, and hold a bigger charge for longer. In the case of e-bikes that is particularly important because the battery is the main thing that makes pedal-assist models bulky, heavy and obviously different from ‘normal’ bikes. The battery’s ability to hold a charge is also key to an e-bike’s range — effectively regulating how far you can go on your e-bike before it runs out of power. However, one increasingly popular idea is that manufacturers will start shying away from routi...

Vintage bikes, especially steel racing and track bikes, have always had their fans and collectors. In the 2000's, a new generation of riders have also taken interest in owning, collecting and in the best case, riding these beautiful machines as an everyday commute or in events like L´Eroica or Tweed Rides. If you consider buying a vintage racer for yourself, make sure you are spending your money on the right one. What makes a vintage racer valuable? Some collectors favour nothing but handcrafted bikes that were manufactured only by the dozens to low hundreds. Bikes made by the master builders like Ugo De Rosa, Faliero Masi and Ernesto Colnago are some of the most sought after in the world. These bikes will probably retain their resale value the best in the long run. Other icons like Cinelli, Colnago, Pinarello, Peugeot and Gios are very desirable brands among buyers, even though some or all of their models were mass-manufactured in great numbers. Complete bikes usually cost mor...

Different countries, different customs. This also rings true for the loads carries by bike and sometimes also for the number of people riding it. Many things are allowed, some things are forbidden and now and then some things that don’t quite fit, are made to fit. The cultural differences are surprising. One bike, several people To sit on the rear bike rack is not allowed in Germany and Austria (for anyone over the age of eight). Nevertheless, people love to hop on frequently, the same counts for sitting on the bicycle frame or handlebars. There are also rules for child seats. In Germany, child seats can be installed on the handlebar as well as at the rear of the bike, provided that the child seat has a foot rest. In Austria, children are only permitted to sit at the rear of the bike. For the bike-friendly Danes, two children under six years of age are permitted as passengers on one bike. In comparison to those regulation, the United Kingdom goes with a more flexible point of vi...

Diet and exercise fads come and go with few of them creating long lasting benefits. The only way to lose weight and keep it off is by making sustainable lifestyle changes. Professor Gary Foster from the University of Pennsylvania found that sixty-five percent of dieters regain the weight lost within three years. I have long been an advocate of cycling for weight loss. My reasoning is related to the practicality of cycling when compared to other fitness options. It is also worth looking at the latest trends and science in food as exercise only contributes to weight loss while diet plays the central role. As beneficial as it is, our daily commute only makes up a relatively small portion of the day. What we eat and how that affects our metabolism is an ongoing process. Practicalities and benefits of cycling In my experience, cycling is the best form of exercise when it comes to burning energy. Cycling does not burn more energy per unit of time than other activities, but it makes it po...

…you can adopt strategies for general prevention and reduction of conflict in road traffic situations. “Science presents a very useful approach here. It would also be a good way to raise awareness among the general public of the following point. Not every reaction on the part of another road user is necessarily intended in a malicious way,” says Risser. Often, we are unsure how to judge the reactions of our fellow people on the roads. In our uncertainty, we tend to “automatically assume the worst intentions on the part of the other person. This negative tendency presupposes that the other person’s behaviour is wrong, stupid or malicious.” With this type of negative tendency, conflict is then more likely to occur. However, it does not need to be this way. We don’t need to view everything based on this negative tendency. This thought should also be promoted to the public in campaigns. If you make a conscious decision against this negative defensive position, then you are giving yourself...

Whether for short trips or vacations, as a forerunner of emancipation or the theory of relativity: the bicycle has many sides to it. The different roles it can play in people’s lives can be seen in this collection of bike quotations from famous personalities in politics, economy, arts and science. Top 5 Bike Quotations by Famous Personalities Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence. Susan B. Anthony American feminist (1820-1906) Life is like a bicycle, you need to keep moving lest you lose balance. Albert Einstein German-born phisicist (1879-1955) What the computer is to me: It’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds. Steve Jobs Co-founder of Apple (1955-2011) Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. John F. Kennedy 35. President of the United States (1917-1963) No other inventio...

If you want to travel quicker, diminish those parking worries, save money and the environment then hop on your bike and let the efficiency commence. Want to know how, just take a look at the facts…. Rush hour: You are 5-8mph faster than motorised vehicles Commute by bike in the UK’s major cities and you’ll get there in half the time of other road users. In fact, if you drive in Cardiff’s rush hour, you’ll spend over 30 minutes going absolutely nowhere and average just 7mph, compared to averaging around 12-15mph while cycling. You travel around three times as fast as walking For the same amount of energy and that’s with taking into account the ‘fuel’ (food) you put in your ‘engine’ (stomach), you travel three times faster by bike than by walking. Humans on bikes move more efficiently than any other creature on earth In terms of energy efficiency, on bikes humans have even surpassed natural evolution: to move 1kg of body mass 1km, a cyclist on a normal bike uses only 0.136 calories wh...