Links

Assorted links that interested the editor and others who have given link suggestions. Please let us know if you have any suggestions or you've spotted any dead links.

Organisations | Resources | Critical Mass | Commercial | Miscellaneous | Links pages and blogs | Mags'n'zines | Travel and tourism | Sport | Health, skill, safety and social justice | Amusement

Organisations

British Isles

London Cycling Campaign - including links to all the local groups

CTC - the UK's national cyclists' organisation

Cyclenation - the federation of UK cycling campaign groups

Campaign for Better Transport - champions transport solutions that improve people's lives and reduce environmental damage. Formerly known as Transport 2000.

Living Streets - the national charity that stands up for pedestrians.

Sustrans - the sustainable transport charity

Environmental Transport Association - an alternative to AA/RAC/Green Flag, all three of whom lobby for more roads

Cambridge Cycling Campaign

Bristol Cycling Campaign

SPOKES - very active East Kent group

Arun-Adur CTC

Dorset Cyclists Network

Push Bikes of Birmingham

Pedals of Nottingham

Cardiff Cycling Campaign

International

European Cyclists Federation
[Links to advocacy groups, VeloCity info, Car Free Cities, bicycle research papers courtesy of the German Cyclists Federation]

The Vehicular Cyclist - Ontario-based site promoting vehicular cycling and opposing compulsory helmet laws

Dansk Cyklist Forbund - That's the Danish Cyclists' Association, that is.

Fietsersbond enfb - the Dutch Cyclists' Association

Resources

Sheldon Brown - a vast legacy of information about bikes from a much missed man

Camden Cycling Campaign Map - a London-wide map showing favourite and 'official' routes alike

OpenCycleMap - the fast-developing cycle map based on OpenStreetmap

BikeBUDI - find someone to share your journey with, for company, safety and fun

London Air Quality data, courtesy of King's College Environmental Research Group

Lies, damn lies and statistics - an interesting collection of info on the bike trade, cycle ownership and use, casualties, theft, training, legislation and health benefits

Prof. John Adams bibliography - leading authority on risk, especially in the context of mobility and transport

urbancyclist-ukdiscussion list

rec.bicycles.* archives

Critical Mass

www.critical-mass.org - Mass city cycling around the world

cmlondon - a site about London's monthly Critical Mass

Critical Mass, Sydney!

Hey, Get Out of Our Way! - a Do-it-yourself, Step-by-Step, Critical Mass How-to

Commercial

For a listing of bike shops in the borough of Hackney, see our info page.

Minx - dedicated to cycle clothing for girls with style and attitude

Bikefix - distinctive central London cycle dealer/workshop

Edinburgh Bicycle workers co-op - Europe's largest on-line cycling catalogue, so they say

Bicycle Books - Rob van der Plas's shopfront

'Cycle Stuff' - cycling accessories UK mail order

LeisureLakes - specialists in all-terrain bicycles

Brox - maximum respect to the late Rob Brock and his classic load carrier

FutureCycles - definitely worth popping into when you're headed for the south coast

MIKLINK Bicycle Trailer System - excellent trailer originally designed for rural Africa, featuring a very classy hitch.

Traditional English willow bicycle baskets - made by David Hembrow of Cambridgeshire

Miscellaneous

Hackney Environment Forum - a network of groups and individuals committed to protecting and enhancing Hackney’s built and natural environment

Cazenove Area Action Group - includes information on the Windus Streets for People project.

Growing Communities - non-profit Stoke Newington-based organic fruit and vegetable scheme, with pick-up points around the borough. Growing Communities also grows food at two locations in the borough, and uses a Brox quadricycle for infra-borough transport.

Games Monitor - independent group monitoring the impact of the preparations for the London Olympics

Magnificent Revolution - builders of the Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema, which uses 12 bikes and 24 legs to power up to 800W of DC or AC mains power to power a projector, laptop, sound system and lighting for film, music, art and education events

London

Cycling in London's emergency services - four films produced by Transport for London demonstrating how cycling is helping the police, ambulance and transport services do their work better

British Isles

National Cycling Strategy links page - a good database of cycle-related organisations

Why Cycle? - impartial advice for buying bikes and cycles in the UK.

The Bike Zone - Howard Peel's excellent pages

TransCycle - includes pages on tricycles, tandems, wheelbuilding, riding fixed wheel etc.

The Roaders' Digest - a comprehensive list of every numbered road on the UK mainland. Trace the well-worn routes out of London.

International

Cyber Cyclery - a long-running international 'hub', currently run by Kiwis based in London

Bike Reader - Smart humour. Thoughtful essays. Attractive photography.

Re-Cycle - Take an unwanted bike lying in the UK, ship it to a country where it's really needed and teach the local people the skills to fix and maintain it.

International Bicycle Fund - non-governmental, nonprofit, advocacy organization, promoting sustainable transport and international understanding

Trento Bike Pages - the portal for bicycle touring and recreational mountain biking in Europe and the Mediterranean

Pizza Power -- Bicycling the Bay Area. Propagators of "a new American proverb: 'Starting [an] engine is a terrible thing to do.'"

Carfree Cities - Car-free cities past, present, and future. Solutions to the problem of the urban automobile.

The Bicycle Forest - innovative human powered vehicles and more, including the excellent bikeCAD frame design applet

Links pages and blogs

Anthony Cartmell's Links Page - the world from the perspective of a West Sussex CTC activist

Urban Cycle Chic - Hackney-based Finn Nesbitt's blog aims to encourage stylish bike culture. He describes Hackney as "a borough with a flourishing sense of cycle chic."

Mags'n'zines

Velorution - excellent blog by London's leading freight cycle operator

Moving Target - web version of the long-running cycle courier fanzine

Culture Change magazine - formerly Auto-Free Times, from the Alliance for a Paving Moratorium

Sport

Herne Hill Velodrome - the home of track cycling, right here in London.

LondonCycleSport.com - People are often surprised to discover just how much sports cycling goes on inside London and its surrounds. In the summer you can almost ride or race every day. LondonCycleSport.com has comprehensive listings.

Lee Valley Cycle Circuit - Also known as Eastway, this was a fantastic 1.6km circuit plus BMX/MTB course just ten minutes' ride from Hackney Central. The cycle circuit sadly closed in November 2006 to be demolished to make way for the Olympic Park. Our loss is Redbridge's gain, since a replacement has been built there in the shape of the Redbridge Cycling Centre, to be followed in due course by a spanking new velodrome, mile-long road racing circuit, BMX/MTB circuits at the Olympic Park after the games.

Travel and tourism

London Bicycle Company - Guided cycle tours of London, plus cycle hire

Empty Roads - a guide to how easy it is to travel to some of the most beautiful parts of England and Wales without a car

Cycling holidays in Suffolk - Self-guided bike tours in gentle Suffolk countryside.

Byways Breaks - A variety of cycling and walking holidays in Shropshire and Cheshire

Breton Bikes - Cycling holidays in France and that. Have been known to organise rides to raise money to buy bike-trailer combos for Intermediate Technology.

Chain Gang Cycle Tours - Operate five guided tours around France (as reviewed in the London Cyclist magazine)

Bicycle Beano - Cycling holidays in Wales, renowned for great veggie grub

The A to B Bike/Rail page - up-to-date information about taking your bike on the train anywhere in Britain, courtesy of the excellent A to B magazine

UK Public Transport Information - Excellent and up-to-date links to information on all forms of public transport in the United Kingdom

UK railway station mobility maps - Will you have to carry your bike up and down dozens of steps on your train-assisted ride?

The Man At Seat 61 - How to travel by train from London to destinations in Europe and beyond. A simply excellent site produced by Mark Smith of Buckinghamshire. Includes tips on cycle carriage.

European Bike Express - Coaches to fast-forward you and your bikes to southern Europe

Dominican Republic Mountain Bike Tours - Fun, independent and downhill cycling tours in the highest mountains of the Caribbean, sez 'ere

Impressions from bicycle travels - Visual stories from America and Asia

Health, skill, safety, social justice

Stricter Liability for Us - campaign to create a "duty of care" on those driving motor vehicles, making them liable if they come into contact with such vulnerable road users, as is the case in many other European countries

STA Bikes - home-grown, school-based cycle promotion and training in Hackney

Cycle Training - non-profit company providing most of London's cycle training, upskilling all ages and abilities

London School of Cycling - well respected and long-established Hackney-based cycle consultancy and training

Cycling Instructor - new West London-based cycle training provider

Cyclecraft - An excellent guide to skilled cycling technique

RoadPeace - UK charity for road crash victims

Slower Speeds Initiative - for lower and better enforced speed limits

Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation - seeks to provide access to a wider range of information than is commonly made available by some governments and other bodies that take a strong helmet promotion stance. It is hoped that this will assist informed judgements about the pros and cons of cycle helmets.

No Helmet Law - bicycle helmet laws are the wrong solution to an overstated problem, and have failed wherever they have been tried. This is a choice which can and should be left to the individual.

Wrongheaded - campaign against proposed mandatory helmet legislation in Northern Ireland.

Cycle helmets should not be compulsory - An article in the British Medical Journal by Hackney LCC's former co-ordinator Douglas Carnall. [2010 note: It is a matter of regret to the author that his article is now behind a paywall.]

Cycle path safety: a summary of research - Think that cycle lanes and tracks are safer than the road? Think again!

Road Danger Reduction Forum - Forum for road safety professionals committed to reducing road danger at source

London Road Safety Unit (LRSU) - Transport for London's road safety unit's website, including casualty data reports

Speeding, the continuing challenge - the facts from PACTS (the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety)

Health Development Agency supports LCC on speed limit - 20mph speed limit in residential streets essential to reduce health inequalities

Is it safe? - a guide to road danger reduction (illustrated print-ready version in PDF - 1.4MB)

Roadsafe London - Met police site for complaints about illegal or nuisance road use

Amusement

Facility of the month - Warrington Cycling Campaign's appreciation of the best of British bikeway design. Says curator Pete Owens, "I only started the site to let off steam following a brush off reply from our local council when I wrote complaining about the very first facility nearly four years ago - I didn't imagine that it would keep going so long."