I’m trying a new platform to share stories about cycling and walking. Some of it is science, some of it is personal and none of it is sedentary. I hope it moves you.
It’s here.
Hope to see you there. Hope you like it.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
New stuff
25/08/2020No excuses
09/04/2019Hmmm. It’s more than three years since my last post. If you’ve been waiting on tenterhooks and checking back every day then I admire your patience but, honestly, you should seek help.
However, if you’ve been busy like me with other things, please don’t worry that I’m going to keep you here for very long. It’s just to say that during the intervening 40 months, cycling hasn’t stopped nor has science and, consequently, neither have I.
I gave a few talks, chaired the odd conference, wrote a lot of magazine and website articles, sat back in awe as publishers in several countries translated and published new language versions of my book and led some very popular cycling science rides with my mate Derek for the national science festival.
And I’ve been tweeting like there’s no tomorrow (which is always a worrying possibility). Oh, and I revised the UK version of my book and it’s now out in paperback.
I said I wouldn’t keep you for long this time. Hope to see you before another three years pass by. Until then, buy my book, read my articles and wave to me as I pedal past on my way to another laboratory.
Catching up
30/11/2015It’s been a while since I posted anything so I’d like to thank all of my readers, both of them, for being so patient. The reason for the hiatus is that I’ve been writing for a host of magazines, instead.
The magazine list includes, in alphabetical order, Alphr, Bicycling, Bikes Etc, Cycle Sport, Cycling Active, Cycling Weekly, Cyclist and mbr.
If you want to check them out, some of the stories are online. For example, you can see my recent story for Bicycling here.
My contributions to Bikes Etc and Cyclist are online here and there may be more in a few weeks so keep checking back.
And there are a lot of shorter pieces of mine on Cycling Weekly’s website here.
You can read some of my bike-related articles on Alphr here.
The other magazines are not published freely online, although subscribers can download digital versions.
Top tip: Some public libraries in the UK also make digital versions of cycling magazines available to their members for download for free!
I’m still tweeting like crazy about any and every science paper that is related to cycling. I haven’t gone away. I won’t go away. There’s just so much going on that it’s hard to keep up.
A little learning in Oxford
24/06/2015
Still learning. That’s my lesson from the Cycling Science tour in Oxford on the longest day of the year. Even though I’d led it a few times before in other cities and thought I knew it all, I came away knowing even more.
It may have been the lovely bunch of riders who came along – all ages, all genders, all kinds of bikes. It may have been the lovely route plotted by Science Oxford. It may have been the lovely weather.
Whatever the trigger, there was a moment on the tour when I gained a little bit more understanding about how best to demonstrate some of the science that makes cycling magic. So it’s not just the lovely riders who discover stuff, en route, from the demonstrations and experiments.
Of course, having written a book about Cycling Science, I’d cockily thought there was nothing else to learn.
To write it, I’d read hundreds of thousands of words from hundreds of papers and synthesised them into 192 lovingly illustrated pages.
Yet, to really understand bicycles and the science that makes cycling work, you’ve got to get hands-on, feet on and, yes, bum on, too.
So it was that, during one of the demonstrations, I had a small epiphany.
All the demos and experiments had pretty much worked at each stop on our way to Aston’s Eyot. Then, nervously, I tried to show how the lowest spoke in a wheel gets slacker and carries less load than the other spokes.
I was worried because it hadn’t worked very well on some of the other tours I’d led.
But, in that verdant glade not far from the city centre, on a blazing afternoon on the longest day of the year, it worked perfectly. I became midsummer merry.
The lesson for me was when I realised why it had worked. Unwittingly, I’d used a wheel with spokes laced radially. Prevously I’d always used the more common type, with tangential spokes.
Success!
The difference it made to the lovely bunch of riders may have been small. The difference it made to me was enormous. A key point about wire-tensioned wheels had been made clearly and I had learned something new – to always use a radial wheel for that particular demonstration.
To describe the demonstration in detail here would be to spoil the surprise for future Cycling Science tourers. And really, it is an adventure that has to be hands-on, feet on, and, yes, bum on, too.
Naturally I’ll be very happy to bring the new improved resoundingly fantastic demonstration with the radial wheel and the entire tour to everyone who wants it. Drop me a line to book your tour.
And, when that happens, which I hope will be soon, I look forward to learning yet more from the whole experience.
Photos courtesy of Science Oxford
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City of Dreaming Tyres
26/05/2015What did I know of Oxford before my visit last Friday? I wore a dubious pair of Oxford bags in the ’80s and that was the sum of it. Now I know a bit more and it’s a revelation.
First, there’s The Story Museum. Why aren’t all libraries and museums like this, including those aimed at grown-ups? These beautifully-designed rooms will spur you to read any book, immediately.
As it is, the next Cycling Science presentation will be held there at 6.30pm on Sunday 21 June. I’m privileged to share the bill with Dr Tom Cohen, deputy director of the Transport Institute at UCL.
Tom will give an evidence-based presentation about danger, risk, responsibility and, er, helmets. Yes, helmets. So expect a lot of fireworks. I might have to hide under the giant bed in the room upstairs.
I’m planning to include brand new information about a recently-discovered material that could have as big an impact on bicycles in the 21st century as carbon fibre did in the 20th and steel did in the 19th.
You’ll have to come to the talk to find out if you’ve guessed correctly.
There will also be a couple of Cycling Science Rides during the day. I’m indebted to Tara at Science Oxford for showing me the paths and tracks past the river and through meadows of this surprising city.
Compared to previous Cycling Science rides, these will be positively rural, despite being in the centre of a conurbation. Tara’s picked out a great route and, as ever, they will be family-friendly.
If you think you know HOW a bicycle works, these rides, complete with demonstrations and experiments, will show you WHY a bicycle works. We even dreamed up a couple of new stunts to open your eyes to the magic that is cycling.
There will also be an opportunity to purchase signed, discounted copies of Cycling Science, my book which has grown into live talks, led rides and helped me to discover Oxford.
I hope to see you there.
Cycling Science & the Himalayas
27/04/2015Roll up, roll up: Nutrition, Colnago, Aerodynamics & Himalayas
07/04/2015I’ve got my work cut out this month, preparing for several gigs at Edinburgh International Science Festival and Chester University.
None of them will be quite the same as each other or the same as what’s gone before.
Ashleigh Fraser, Scottish National Junior Women’s Road Race Champion 2014, reveals the winning diet
Among the line-up in Edinburgh at 5.30pm on Sunday 12th April will be Scottish national junior women’s road race champion Ashleigh Fraser.
She’s going to explain the science of nutrition – what to eat to be an elite cyclist. It’ll tell me where I went wrong because I suspect my teenage diet of apple pies and Cheesey Wotsits weren’t much good.
And Professor Andrea Sella will be going further than Ernesto Colnago ever dared. If Eddie Merckx had come to a Cycling Science presentation before his 1972 attempt on the world hour record, he would’ve done even better. Andrea’s demonstration is a real eye-opener and UCI rule-makers should start taking notice so they can close another loophole…
I’m refining the aerodynamics demonstrations and showing some mildly embarrassing home movie from last century, together with some futuristic stuff. A tenuous link between Edinburgh Castle and the science of cycling will also be fully exploited without apology or shame.
The gigs for Chester are going to be full on and part of the University’s excellent efforts to boost cycling in the city. I used to live nearby and spend my weekends there so it’s great to be going back
The first day, Friday 24th April, will be for students from year 7 to university level. I’ll be giving a cycling science presentation, with a few demonstrations thrown in, and then leading two short cycling science rides around the Thornton campus.
On the second day, Saturday 25th April, the University and others will be running several events in the city centre. I’ll lead a FREE public ride about cycling and science from the university’s city campus in the afternoon. Come along and take part in the experiments and demonstrations to learn about WHY cycling actually works.
In the evening I’ll be giving a presentation about what was probably the first mountain 
bike crossing of the Greater Himalaya. I can’t believe I actually did it so do come along and learn about the ridiculous risks I took as a fool-hardy and unprepared younger self.
The Chester events are FREE. Book your tickets for the Saturday afternoon ride here. For the Himalayan adventure presentation, book your free tickets here.
Brighton: fun & done. Edinburgh and Chester next
17/03/2015
It’s official! Brighton Science Festival was a lot of fun. Andrea Sella, Viki Bloodworth and I had a vast range of props, slides, demonstrations and experiments lined up to explore just a few of the things where science and cycling meet.
Viki brought the rare and beautiful Lotus MTB, the monocoque carbon fibre bike designed by Chris Hornzee-Jones of Aerotrope. The finer points of carbon fibre were explored – plus some insights into the extraordinary new developments coming to a man-made composite near you any day soon. 
Forty-three years after Eddie Merckx had a special request turned down by Ernesto Colnago, Andrea demonstrated in public, for the first time in recorded history, how the great cyclist could’ve saved 10g from his bike by filling his tyres with hydrogen. It was a gas.
Thanks to EasyComposites, which kindly donated materials, the audience was able to visualise how much bloomin’ air a cyclist has to push aside just to pedal down the road. The instant scale model wind tunnel, powered by Dyson, made apparent the vortex that hides behind every saddle and saps our energies just a little.
Some of this, and more, will be happening again next month. At the Edinburgh International Science Festival, at 5.30pm on Sunday 12 April, Andrea and I will be joined by Ashleigh Fraser, Scottish National Junior Women’s Road Race Champion. She’ll put us amateurs in our places as she reveals the true science of being best on a bike.
In Chester, at the University’s Thornton campus on Friday 24th April, I’ll be talking and running a couple of cycling science rides for school students. On Saturday 25th April, in the afternoon,
I’ll lead a public cycling science ride in the centre of Chester, complete with demos and experiments. In the evening I’ll be explaining How to Cycle over the Greater Himalayas by Accident. On purpose. 
Photos: Martin J Burton Photography
Cycling Science goes Live in Brighton
27/01/2015
Exploring why bicycles stay upright – one of the experiments by the cycling scientists
I’m involved with cycling science events during Brighton Science Festival so I hope you can come along to at least one of them.
First, there’s Cycling Science: The Ride! They are led rides through Brighton, stopping to do experiments and demonstrations. Tickets are on sale here.
You will be the guinea pigs in the experiments and demonstrations and, no matter how much you think you know about cycling or about science, I hope you’ll find out something new.
The rides are family-friendly but tickets are limited so I’ll be doing it at 11.00am on Sunday 1st March and again at 2.30pm on Sunday 1st March.
The rides are supported by Rule 5 Bikes, University of Sussex, Martin Burton Photography, Nick Sayers and the Velo Café.
The other event is a presentation all about the science of cycling which I’ll be giving with Professor Andrea Sella of University College London, BBC TV, Radio 4 and Hackney CC.
He’s the 2015 recipient of the Michael Faraday Prize, given annually by the Royal Society for excellence in communicating science. Yes, he’s terrific.
We’ll be joined by Viki Bloodworth, structural engineer, cycling addict and expert in carbon fibre at Aerotrope. She’ll talk about possible futures for carbon fibre bicycles. And she’ll be bringing an extraordinarily rare and special bike. Viki’s terrific, too.
The presentation is part of Big Science Saturday, on 28th February 2015, and it’s the first event of the day, scheduled to start at 10am. Tickets are on sale here.
The presentation is supported by Dyson, University of Sussex, Aerotrope, Morvelo, and EasyComposites 
New home for cycling science news
27/11/2014
For the time being, my cycling and science stories are not appearing on this blog – because they are being published by Cycling Weekly.
As a self-employed journalist, this makes good sense. It means I can earn part of my living by sharing the wide range of new information that continues to pass across my desk.
You can read my more recent contributions to Cycling Weekly here and the earliest ones here.
Enjoy them and send me your comments.
I’m hoping that other publications, too, will soon be carrying my cycling and science stories – they’ll be different in subject, content and style.
When there’s news about them, it’ll be posted here.
cycling science 