This week’s round-up features a new TV channel about cycling! As well as 3D renders of people’s sketches of bikes, pro-bike architecture in Norway, a story about women’s cycling, and a look at Graeme Obree’s new film.
The top image is from a Reddit thread titled ‘African roads are not for the faint of heart’, and man does that sound accurate. Imagine taking your prized steed along that road – how far would you get before you got off and walked (or carried her?). Check out the poster’s blog if you fancy reading something more tour orientated.
Now, on with the round-up!
A new TV channel has launched with a schedule dedicated exclusively to bikes!
The eponymous channel launched in Italy in 2012 and has grown impressively in popularity since. Filippo Ubaldini, the channel’s founder, explains that “the rapturous way that the UK embraced London 2012 and the Tour de France proved to us that the logical next step was to launch here”.
You can expect programming on every area of cycling from adventure, endurance, BMX, triathlon, legend profiles, MTB, road and sport. See what’s on today here.
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the impressive coverage and prize fund of the women’s Tour de Yorkshire event. This week Laura Trott and Elinor Barker have said how hopeful they are about the state of women’s cycling in the UK, saying that soon it will (rightfully) get the same attention as men’s.
An article on road.cc explores the issue with Laura and is worth a read. She says that “When I first started out in cycling if there were two girls there that was successful but now if there are 20 girls there it’s just unbelievable. The growth of the sport is just incredible”.
Long may it continue!
Do you think you could accurately draw a bicycle from memory?
Italian illustrator Gianluca Gimini asked hundreds of people he knows to give it a go, and used the resulting sketches to render some surprisingly unusual bike innovations. Some of our favourites:
Although most of the bikes in the sketches wouldn’t work properly, they still manage to look quite interesting. He explains that insights and innovation can emerge from ‘error-driven drawings’, and that “a single designer could not invent so many new bike designs in 100 lifetimes”.
Why don’t you give it a go and see what you come up with?
In some less error-driven design is a new building in Oslo which will be designed from the very beginning with cyclists in mind (and with drivers very firmly out of mind).
A ramp leads directly from the street into the building, bike racks are behind glass so people’s bikes are displayed prominently, and there will be space for over 500 bikes. The only car facilities are charging spots for 10 electric cars; more traditional cars will have to park outside!
A member of staff at the company who designed the building said there are several trends pointing in the direction of cycling and eco-responsibility, and that Norway’s government are leading the charge. It’s great to see things like this happening in architecture and city design!
This week’s top story is of Graeme Obree, a man intent on breaking the Human Powered Landspeed Record. In the trailer we see him frantically carving pieces of saucepan and washing machine to go in his hand-built bicycle, which sets the tone for the film.
His struggle “against the best teams, technology and science in the world, with only his hands, eyes, mind and body, a saucepan and a pair of roller blades” is well worth a watch. You may be familiar with Obree’s world record in 1993 on his hand-built bike ‘Old Faithful’, and his back-and-forthing with the ICC about whether his bikes and riding positions are legal within the sport.
April 15th, 2016 at 1:38 pm
That African road is insane. Love your blog.
April 16th, 2016 at 4:44 pm
Thanks Erica!