Just another London cyclist... Ted Baker joins the peloton, and looks fantastic!

There are some things which are seen as ubiquitous to London, and as demonstrated over the incredible Ride London weekend the humble bicycle is gradually becoming one of them

So is a unique sense of sartorial style and clothes which are cut to perfection, blending functionality with a bit of flair.  Which is why I was excited to hear that London fashion house Ted Baker had been so inspired by the re-emergence of the bike that they've created their own special range of super stylish cycling togs.  

One of the reasons I love cycling so much is because it allows you to be part of the city whilst enjoying the city - the streets are like theatres where we all play a role, which is why I like to look my best when on my bike.

Ted Baker are based in St Pancras, their offices wedged between the Royal College Street bike track and the Regent's Canal.  Looking out their window they saw cyclists of all shapes and sizes rolling past every day and knew there was a place for a new range of clothing for on and off the bike.  As they explain on their blog: "We concluded that the only thing for it was to design a cycle-friendly collection that would survive even the most strenuous commute and still look freshly pressed on the dismount."  
The name of the collection?  Raising the Handlebars by #TedBiker.

So having designed a range of clothes for London cyclists, they needed a cyclist from London to take them for a test ride, and I was more than pleased to oblige...



The collection features a wide range of cycling apparel; from long sleeve zip through jerseys in navy blue and burgundy with track detailing, to a beautiful blazer in anti-bacterial treated premium cotton to ensure you're smart and fresh on your bike or in the boardroom.  Test riding the collection gave me first hand experience of how it handles when you're riding around frenetic old London, and I loved the Dipstic printed collar polo which has a cute bicycle chain motif, and the trim chinos which were so comfortable to ride in and will last a life time with their quality tailoring.

Of course, cycling clothes are dime a dozen these days with some more elegant and practical than others, but what I particularly like is how Ted Baker have really paid attention to detail with their cycling range.  The chinos have secret zip up pockets to squirrel away your Boris Bike key, or something to eat for a longer ride.  The buttons on the blazer are embossed with tiny bicycle wheels., whilst the collars on the jerseys lift up to reveal a simple safety feature; a reflective stripe for those late night rides home.  Greasy bike chains can be a pain, but the trouser legs fold up and can be pinned in to place with a cleverly concealed fastener, whilst the rear pockets can be turned out to show off a reflective trim.  Both the shorts and trousers have reinforced seats to ensure longevity in the saddle... the list of little cycle-friendly touches goes on.

Riding around Camden with a film crew and photographer in tow, dressed up on a beautiful British-built bicycle was such a fun experience, we had a great time putting the film together showing off these fantastic London cycling clothes.  If I look like I'm concentrating really, really hard in the film above it's because I was focused on riding without ending up in the back of a filming truck which the cameraman, sound crew and director were hanging out the back of...  just another typical London bike ride, right?

You can check out the entire collection exclusively on the Ted Baker website here, whilst their blog explains how they were inspired to create a cycling range.  This interview on their site features more photos and looks at my favourite places to ride in London and why I love it so much, do have a look around and see you looking smart rolling on the roads soon!

This is a sponsored blog post.

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What's Dutch about Hackney? Finding out what makes London's most successful cycling borough tick

There is a corner of London where canals, parkland paths, closed roads and cycle routes converge to create the perfect cycling scenario.  Stand on Broadway Market's Cat and Mutton bridge in the east London borough of Hackney and it is easy to imagine yourself transported to some bicycle-friendly corner of the continent, as oppose to inner London.  Bike stands groan with the pressure of parking.  Boris Bike docking stations ring to the sound of hire cycles being docked, hired, docked and hired again.  Creative types on fixed wheel bikes flash past, whilst regal ladies on upright Dutch bikes grace the scene with a touch of style.  You don't need the statisticians to tell you that there is a lot of bike riding happening in certain corners of Hackney; it is there for all to see.

Here at ibikelondon I've been cataloguing the cycling culture around Broadway Market for nearly four years.  From the cycle chic riders who braved the winter and kept riding in January 2012 and February 2011, to the football teams who pedal to practice on Hackney Marshes (not forgetting autumn and the long hot days of summer as well of course!).  There's the "cycle chic wall" outside Lock 7 cafe, not to mention the "bicycles-only road" where two wheels rule.  Noticing how the sun brings out the best in cyclists using Hackney's canal-side paths, to documenting the change from early adopters to everyday and ordinary cyclists, when it comes to London's bicycling borough I've really seen it all.





And, being both an observer and a contributor to the borough's cycling culture, I've often thought about what makes Hackney tick, and why so many people choose to ride bikes here.  Unusually for an inner-London borough it doesn't have an Underground station (although it did gain a handful of Overground stations in 2010), meaning the fastest way to get around is on two wheels, with the 2nd and 3rd fastest means of transport - buses and cars - being prohibitively slow or expensive.  It's also always had a strong cycling 'scene', with specialist shops and bike polo and grass track racing groups for example.  With a strong creative class stationed in the borough there is also a lot of local area and home working, meaning distances between home and the office are eminently cycleable for many.  What's more, the borough benefited from the introduction of the Congestion Charge in its southern corner since 2000, and more people now cycle to work in the borough than drive.  But that's not all that has made Hackney an inviting place in which to ride a bike...



 

The Hackney branch of the London Cycling Campaign have been working with the borough very closely for many years, encouraging the Council to consider the bicycle in all that they do; from approving planning applications, to which bin lorries they procure.  And where they've had the most evident success on the ground is with their programme of "filtered permeability" interventions; making one way streets two way again, using bollards to make streets no-through-roads for motorised traffic, hence becoming a handy cut-through for cyclists and pedestrians.  Clever short-cuts and links, made with little more than a dropped curb or a handy bollard, have allowed cyclists to avoid the busiest and most unpleasant roads, whilst efforts to unwind all of the biggest gyratories in the borough continue.  Long-serving Councillor and former cabinet member Vincent Stops has a long list on his blog of some of the interventions done in recent years to encourage more travel by bicycle, which is well worth a read.

But is this over-egging the pudding?  Is Hackney a popular spot for cycling simply by lucky coincidence, a chance concurrence of beneficial elements?  It is worth remembering that although 14.6% of trips to work might be by bike, the modal share for all journeys by bicycle in the borough remains low compared to other means of transport.  And not everyone agrees that Hackney is exactly a cycling paradise.  Much missed cycling blogger, the famously venomous Crap Cycling in Waltham Forest had this to say of the borough back in 2010; 
"East of Mare Street I quickly became lost in a labyrinth of one-way streets and hideous gyratories... After an hour cycling in Hackney I sobbed nostalgically for Waltham Forest. It's that bad."  
Even self-described vehicular cyclist "Buffalo" Bill Chidley of London bicycle courier scene fame is keen to point out that there are really big changes needed to some of Hackney's biggest and busiest roads; 
"I agree that there remains a lot to do in Hackney.  I live right by the A10 Kingsland Road, on which 3 cyclists have been killed in the last 10 years.  This road desperately needs some redesigning, but not just for cyclists, for pedestrians as well."
And every time I ride west along the throbbing, thronging Hackney Road I curse the absence of a separate cycle path on this busiest of arterial routes that seems to have been left as a festering free-for-all where anything goes.





And this is where things start to get really strange...  Because the Hackney branch of the London Cycling Campaign - the LCC group for the most bicycling bicycley biking borough in biking Boris's London - is staunchly anti-cyclepaths and segregated cycling infrastructure.  So convinced are the lead members of this group of the potential damage that can be done by cycle lanes that they proudly write on their website how they have managed to block TfL from installing cycle paths on Old Street, a busy transport corridor in the borough; "We do not see any advantage in cycle lanes here" they opine.  On the At Home in Hackney blog, Hackney Cycling co-ordinator Trevor Parsons talks of lessons to be learnt from the greatest cycling nation in the world; 
"[in] the Netherlands people are compelled to ride on separate cycle tracks and paths where they exist and Dutch police shout at people for cycling on smooth, empty carriageways. We don't want that over here... ..we want to take the 'permeability' approach".

And this perhaps rather odd approach has trickled down to the borough Council with Vincent Stops asking on Twitter "How many miles of trip hazards is Boris going to install?" after the Mayor's recent announcement that he will build a 15km substantially segregated cycle track across central London.

How many miles of trip hazards is Boris going to install. I'm sure Hackney will continue to focus on what's important for cycling and peds.
— Vincent Stops (@VincentStops) March 7, 2013

So is Hackney a bicycling valhalla, or merely a lucky fluke?  Are its bicycle campaigners on the right track, or is their exclusion of separated cycling infrastructure as a useful, available tool holding back the two wheeled potential of the borough?  And if you had next to no cycling levels in your borough, what could London's most successful cycling borough teach you?  Should we even be looking to this unique and unusual corner of inner London as an example for other locations to copy at all?

All these themes and more will be explored at the June Street Talks, next Tuesday the 4th of June in the upstairs bar at The Yorkshire Grey pub.  As usual the bar opens from 6PM for drinks, food and networking before the presentation at 7PM which this month will be given by Hackney Cycling Campaign co-ordinator Trevor Parsons and Hackney Councillor Vincent Stops, who will explore the challenges they feel their borough faces, the success they have won, and what they would like to do differently to bring about more people on bikes.  See the Movement for Liveable London website for more details.

And if that's not enough Hackney in one month for you, spaces are still available for the Hackney Cycling Conference 2013, taking place on the 6th of June at Hackney Town Hall, and featuring key note speeches from the Mayor's Cycling Commissioner Andrew Gilligan and the author of the Get Britain Cycing report Professor Phil Goodwin. Get your tickets here.

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Up against the wall on Hackney's Goldsmith Row

Here at ibikelondon we've got a bit of a thing about walls in Hackney (weird, I know).  One of our favourite photography haunts is a little spot on Cat and Mutton bridge we like to call the cycle chic wall, where we've been taking pictures of emerging bicycle culture for years now.



But now there's a new kid on the block to challenge for the crown of most photogenic mortar in the biking borough.  Someone has painted an incredible mural of a local street on to the walls of the disused hospital that borders Goldsmith's Row, Hackney's unique walking-and-cycling-only road that we've featured here before.





The mural added a shock of blue to a recent day of golden light and long shadows, and helped to form the perfect backdrop for showing off some of London's most stylish (by which of course we mean everyday and ordinary) cyclists.





By and large the mural seemed to be attracting all of the attention, although one passing Boris Biker seemed a bit perplexed as to why I was taking pictures of bricks.  Maybe he had a point.  Either way, I love how a spot of paint and some creative juices have helped to transform a little corner of where I live, the big question being what will appear here next?  One thing is for certain; the bikes will roll on.

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Longing for spring...

I was thumbing through my photos on Flickr and came across some pictures from last autumn which I'd not uploaded here and had forgotten about.  They were taken on the 1st of October last year - surely the most extraordinary start to autumn; the sun shone, the temperature climbed to thirty degrees and London was out in its shorts and t-shirts bathing in the parks.  It all seems like a long time ago already!

Deck chairs by bike

Bikes can be just as cool as a place to hang out as they are to ride

This winter its been really fantastic to see so many people sticking with riding throughout the colder and darker months, and whilst I love winter and the atmosphere of the illuminated streets and the sharp fresh air, I'm starting to pine for the return of spring and summer again.  Bring on the sunshine!

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From early adopters to everyday and ordinary...

When monitoring trends, sociologists and marketeers like to talk about "early adopters".  They mean the people who first have the courage and the nuance to start a trend, or be the first to be seen to be doing something new or otherwise unusual. 

At the dawn of the motoring age the aristocracy were early adopters of private motor vehicle ownership; paving the way for motorisation for the masses to come later.  In technology, those of you who brought an Apple iPod more than 9 years ago were early adopters of a new way of listening to music, before we all started doing it.




I have no evidence to back me up, and I'm highly aware that the experiences I am about to discuss are limited only to one small corner of Hackney, near to where I live - but around Broadway Market I believe there is a clear pattern of people using bikes passing the "early adopter" stage and moving in to the mainstream.  6 or 7 years ago there were still lots of cyclists around Broadway Market, but they seemed to me to be primarily male, more focused on "gear", or indeed fixed wheel riders.  The fixed wheel "craze" really took off amongst the young art and design creative community in the East End and had a large scene to back it up and help to nurture it (such as specialist shops, bike polo groups etc), and long may it continue.  But as Mikael Colville Anderson of Copenhagenize fame describes in his presentation "Behavioural changes for urban cycling", the fixed wheel craze is sub-cultural (that is to say only appeals to a limited group of people) whereas when something is mainstream ("cultural"?) it appeals to all sorts of different everyday and ordinary people, and indeed is accessible to all.

Now, don't get me wrong, I rather like fixed wheel bikes, and I have no more beef with people who want to tear up the city in a single speed alley cat than I do with someone who wants to pootle to work on a Dutch upright bike.






But I am certain that we've passed the narrow-cast "craze" stage of cycling around Broadway Market and moved on to the "everyday and ordinary".  That is to say, the "sub-cultural" riders would cycle regardless of whether it was a mainstream activity or not, but perhaps the prevalence of "sub-cultural" riders in recent years has helped to encourage others to become early adopters and help to mainstream cycling.  I've talked before about Hackney and how the organic grid of cycle routes and different types of infrastructure have helped to create conditions which are inviting for cycling, but I wonder what the key factor is in helping to make cycling here seem so much more mainstream than elsewhere in London.  Note in my pictures the age range and diversity of the cyclists portrayed.  Note the lack of helmets, high visability gear and cycle-specific clothing.  I have my own ideas as to what I think are driving the move from early adopters to mainstream cyclists in my neighbourhood (regular readers won't be surprised to hear I think that design and planning have a lot to do with it) but what do you think?  Is cycling still a narrow-cast reserve of the few where you are, or, like Broadway Market, is it becoming everyday and ordinary?  If you currently cycle only in cycle-specific gear, helmets and high-vis what would convince you to change to a more leisurely European style of riding? 

As always, I'm keen to hear your thoughts!

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January blues banished with a bit of winter cycle chic

It might be grey, cold and miserable outside, but if you're riding through winter you won't have failed to notice how many other riders are joining you and sticking with cycling throughout these cold months.  This time last year the roads were just reappearing after a month under snow and it was bitterly cold.  This year's winter has been petulantly mild, and whilst we might have the odd wet day thrown in (with a bit of wind for good measure!) it seems to me that the unseasonably warm weather we've been having has been keeping people on bikes for longer. 

At Broadway Market in Hackney, recently, I was sharing the streets with these wonderful other riders...










..so, the person next to you at the traffic lights may be a seasoned all-year-round cycling old hand, or they might just be starting out their life on two wheels.  Either way, why not give them a cheery wave and ride through winter together?

What better way to beat the January blues than a bike ride in style?

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Footballers do it on two wheels...

I was out with the Better Half for a bike ride around Hackney Marshes recently and grabbed these shots.  Footballers do it on two wheels..

For those unfamiliar with the Marshes they're a huge, almost traffic-free space of public land in East London, bordering the 2012 Olympic Park.  It's criss-crossed with cycling trails and very popular with riders of all backgrounds and abilities.  Despite purportedly having the most goal posts in one place in the entire world, sadly this great public resource will be off-limits for much of this year whilst the Marshes host a temporary coach park for visitors to the Games. 

Still, whether you're commuting to work, or pedalling down to kick about practise, you're better off by bike! 

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City of London Cycle Style photography exhibition opens to the public

Last night I attended the Lord Mayor of London's launch of the City Cycle Style photography exhibition at the Royal Exchange.  This was not your usual cycling event; there were bankers and brokers, lawyers and designers and all sorts of City types furiously exchanging business cards, catching up on their Blackberries and bidding vast sums of money in the auction.  But they did so for a good cause (all in aid of the Lord Mayor's charity, Bear Necessities) (His name is Michael Bear, geddit?) and did so whilst surrounded by gorgeous pictures by photographer Horst A. Friedrichs of cyclists in the city. 

From snaps of Paul Smith, local celebrities and even the Mayor himself, to photos of local couriers and everyday riders - all were given the glamorous treatment and committed to celluloid.  And it seemed to work; around me people were over heard talking about cycling "Why don't you ride a bike?", "Why is it so hard to ride in London?", "Wouldn't it be great if it was like Amsterdam..?"  These are the seeds with which people begin to think about cycling, and perhaps start to tune in to the sort of questions raised over at the Cyclists in the City blog.  Fun though last year's event format was, sometimes it's good to break out of the crowd of usual suspects who normally make up these events and bring cycling's positive message to a new audience. 

And whilst some of these photos might force the chic urban cycling concept a little, anything that offers an alternative to the more prevalent Lance Armstrong look that surrounds bicycle promotion in the UK gets a tick in my books.

Donna Ida Thornton of denim boutique Donna Ida rides a 2010 Specialized Globe Carmel 3

Drag artist extraordinaire and local personality Johnny Woo rides a 3 speed Dutchie in some serious heels!

Chocolatier and local businessman Paul A Young rides a Gazelle Tour Populaire

If you weren't there last night, you haven't missed your chance to catch the fabulous photography of Mr Friedrichs.  His prints will be on display in the open air to the general public 24 hours a day in the streets around the Royal Exchange until October 29th.  Be sure to check it out!

This is the second cycle fashion photography exhibition I've attended so far this year, the other being mounted by the Royal Borough of Kensignton and Chelsea and which included fantastic photographs of local residents who cycle.  Be sure to check out my write up of the "Like Riding a Bike" exhibition here.

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Got your burka on? Great, let's go cycling!

Too often when I read about cycling and indeed 'cyclists' in our national newspapers it is with a very heavy heart.  I've lost count of the amount of times I've been compared with the anti-Christ by disparaging tabloid hacks merely because of my choice of personal transport. (And hell, it aint my emissions killing 1000s of people in London every year!)  So imagine my surprise when author and columnist Bella Bathurst wrote a piece in The Guardian recently decrying the use of high-vis jackets by cyclists - not because she hates cyclists (indeed, one of her own books is entirely devoted to bikes and bicycling), but because she hates the jackets some of us where...

"No Jacket Required"

"Up in the hills of Perthshire, about 100 miles north of the point at which the Romans gave up, a friend and I took our bikes and set off along the old drove roads. Coming round the corner beside a hill loch, we saw two other cyclists about half a mile away on the far side. It wasn't difficult to spot them; one of the cyclists was wearing a fluorescent yellow high-visibility jacket. There followed one of those perfect British cycling moments. As we passed, we read each others' thoughts. They were thinking: "Amateurs." We were thinking: "Twats."

In that lovely sunlit setting, the jacket looked as silly and discordant as a car alarm. There is no evidence that high-visibility cycle wear prevents accidents. Reflective strips are useful in the city and lights after dark are essential, but high-vis is just a uniform and the point of uniforms is to make people more anonymous. Instead, high-vis has become our modern cloak of invisibility. Stick on a pair of boots and one of those workman's yellow jackets and you could probably wander straight into the MI6 building without anyone giving you a second glance.

The most common cause of injuries to cyclists is hitting opened car doors and I've lost count of the times I've watched some lunatic human banana riding three inches out from a line of parked cars.

The most successful cyclists are those who ride properly and look like themselves. If you cycle along confidently in a purple-spotted cape with a bunch of leeks poking out of your backpack, motorists are going to notice you, and if they notice you, they'll avoid you.

High-vis kit is a ripoff and an eyesore and no one, at any time, needs anything lighter in the hills of Scotland than an open mind. And – perhaps – a bit of money."

Are attitudes towards cyclists and cycling here in the UK changing?  Is riding a bike becoming normalised?  We can hope...  But how sad that, on quiet byways in rural Scotland, someone felt the need to wear such a jacket in the first place.  Indeed, I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen people pootling along the traffic-free Greenway near my house, with fleuro tabards and jackets on, and wondered who exactly they hope it's going to help spot them?  The birds and the bees?

A sea of high-vis at last year's SkyRide

 

Effortless everyday and ordinary cycling, Hackney

 

But my opinion about the people wearing this gear is slightly different to that of Bella's.  I don't think of people who wear this stuff as 'twats'.  I see them as the product of market forces (remember my earlier post about the Public Face of Cycling?) - because let's face it, if there is money to be made in selling fleuro gear, manufacturers will try their hardest to make it seem necessary.  I also think it is very telling that it has become the norm for cyclists to be seen to be protecting themselves from the risk of danger that is wrought upon them by others; it is the 'done thing' to wear your helmet, wear your high-vis kit, cross your fingers and hope for the best.  Which to me points to two things; firstly that even people who are actually out there cycling don't feel especially safe or welcome on the roads, and secondly a systematic failure in equality when sharing the roads is occurring.  If we have to don ridiculous and unpractical clothing merely in order to ward off the unwanted advances of other road users, something is going wrong somewhere... 

You heard it here first folks, high-vis kit is the burka of the cycling world.

P.S If you're at a loose end this evening, why not take a quick ride over Hyde Park to Kensington & Chelsea town hall to hear me speaking on 'Inviting Cycling' - I do promise to try and be entertaining!

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