If you do sign up feel free to join me in my league – it is number 1577, entitled ‘tour de france expert punditry’, though I think you just need the number. No expert punditry is required I must add.

Kennedy Fraser got the answer right, although most of you were winners too with your entertaining answers. Here’s the widget in its final resting place:

The widget was the piece I was missing to make the gears work on one of my bicycles, hence the joy. Unfortunately the gears still do not work properly as I am not very good Sturmey Archer adjuster.

The bicycle is my circa 1976 Raleigh Twenty Stowaway folding bicycle. I bought it from eBay for about £43.

It is one of two and a half folding bikes I own (the half is a scrap raleigh twenty which I’m using for parts). It does not fold very well, but I plan to use it when I go places and want to lock a folding bicycle outside. I quite like the challenge of bringing the old fashioned granny shopper bike back into vogue. Other people have done so in far more convincing ways – see Sheldon Brown’s Raleigh Twenty page, and in the UK Littlepixel’s one.

I have a more sophisticated folding bike about which I might write more another time. I am a great believer in folding bicycles – see for example this post and some of the ones in my cycling category. I will perhaps write more about how I believe folding bicycles can save the world at some other point if anyone shows the mildest bit of interest.

From the Sustrans Connect 2 site:

£50 million won and we couldn’t have done it without you!

This is fantastic news, and thanks to everyone who voted for Sustrans’ Connect2 in the People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway, and for your help in winning £50 million of funding from the Big Lottery Fund for Sustrans to invest in walking and cycling UK-wide. This really is an amazing achievement for our charity and the many local authority and other partners with whom we will work on Connect2. We simply couldn’t have done it without you and your votes.

We start work on delivering Connect2 in January 2008. Our local authority partners are poised ready to go, and will be adding matched funding from their own transport and other budgets to the £50 million from the Big Lottery Fund. This is a five year project, and in total we have already identified nearly £100 million of local authority funding to support Connect2, and we are working hard to bring even more funding to the project so that we can ensure as many people as possible benefit from Connect2.

We will continue to update you on progress during 2008. In the meantime can I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year and to thank you again for supporting Sustrans’ Connect2.

John Grimshaw MBE
Founder and Chief Executive Sustrans

This is the video for the Sustrans Connect2 project which tells you a bit more about it:

You can find a scheme close to where you are (in the UK) by clicking on the map.

As I have said before (hence the continued’) I love the idea of getting a folding bike. The picture above is me test riding a ‘Brompton’, the ultimate in folding bikes, at the Cycle Show. Bromptons cost about £600 once you have bought all the trimmings. As you can see I am blurred owing to my great velocity. The lady on the right is guiding the traffic as the test track is a figure of 8 – in other words it crosses over itself on a diagonal basis. This is to give an element of danger which adds realism to the test ride. The other lady on the right is the assistant to the lady guiding the traffic. I’m not sure what her job is, but it involves standing there. The figure on the left is a cardboard cutout for safety reasons as it would be too dangerous to have a real person there with all these test-cyclists whizzing around. This also adds a sense of realism for those who will find themselves regularly riding in areas populated largely by cardboard cutouts.

When I was in the supermarket yesterday I noticed that someone was advertising a folding bicycle for only £25 in the postcards. £25! Buoyed with enthusiasm I called up and made my enquiries. Unfortunately the man did not have the answers to my in-depth questions, like ‘What make is it?’, so I decided I had better go and see it.

I went on my folding bicycle inspection excursion this morning. Upon seeing the bicycle I instantly knew that it was not what I was looking for as it was a bit rubbish, so told him that I would not be buying it. I came up with a convincing reason involving the handlebars. He said that that was fine, not a problem at all. At which point in a moment of madness I said: ‘Oh, alright then, I’ll buy it.’

I am an idiot sometimes.

Unfortunately the bicycle really is rubbish. It is unique amongst folding bicycles in that it folds into a shape bigger and less convenient than the shape it started from. One popular folding bicycle website says this about it:

The Skoda of folding bikes – the Universal is still the cheapest folder available, but the Chinese are challenging. Made in Poland, the bike looks like a 1960s-vintage ‘shopper’, which is exactly what it is. It’s heavy, it doesn’t fold very well or clip together, and the ride and handling are poor. Yawn, yawn. Long, long overdue for a replacement

Does anyone want to buy a folding bicycle?

To you – £25.

You don’t believe me do you?

Here’s a snippet from his website:

I went for a coffee in the local Nero’s and met Grant who like many many other people was intrigued with my A-Bike, which following an explanation of its workings allowed me to continue our conversation with me sharing the gospel with him.

On my way back to see if my new friend had arrived at the meeting point I was astonished to be stopped by an elderly lady who must have been well into her 80’s who wanted to talk to me about my bike.

I would reiterate what I have said in an earlier newsletter that if you are at a loss on how to start conversations with people to share the good news about Jesus with them, then buy an A-Bike and you will have many such encounters each day. They can be obtained from www.a-bike.co.uk for £149.95.

The A-bike, in case you are wondering, is a folding bicycle. It is apparently great to carry but not so great to ride. If you want a space-age bike that is great to ride but not quite so great to fold then I’d recommend the Strida. Not that I’ve got one, but who knows, one day.

Anyway, enough about bicycles. John is the intrepid evangelist’s name. I wish him all the best on his mission.

In this day and age it is right that those who are able should travel to the supermarket by bicycle when they can. I find though that when I do so I often encounter problems transporting groceries, especially if they are delicate or malleable. My bread, as the jottings above indicate, often ends up rucksack shaped at the end of the trip which means that the bread burns in the toaster as it is misshapen into untoasterly forms.

I think that I need some better means to carry delicate groceries by bicycle. Perhaps some panniers, though most panniers that I have seen look a bit small and still liable to crush bread. I could attach a large plastic box onto the rear rack, but that would look a bit unstylish and clash with the sleek lines of my bicycle.

In the old days bicycles had baskets, but these are now frowned upon in areas such as South East Essex. I think some more innovative solutions are called for, hence the drawing of the bread-carrying hat above.

How do you get your bread home?

About two hours before the race the ‘caravane’ comes through – lots of weird and wonderful advertising vehicles dispensing free gifts. I rather liked these yellow wheely bins:

We collected quite a few goodies – I’ll try to gather them all together tomorrow and take a photograph.

The excitement builds in intensity as the race approaches. Then, all of a sudden… swoosh… as the ‘peleton’ zooms by at great velocity (note the clapping hands – included in the photo to give a sense of the atmosphere):

Nearly all of them sped by at once, except one who was a minute or two behind, and this guy, who tootled past 5 minutes later having obviously not had the best of days:

All in all a great spectacle. If you’re in the UK then you can watch the Tour every day (I think) at 7 on ITV4.

Other bloggers who saw the Tour:
Diamond Geezer was at the Prologue
Onionbag blogger took some great photos
Steve Collins took some good Prologue photos
John Davies watched Stage 1
Jonny Baker took Prologue pictures

I’ll add more as I find them.

There are several observations one could make, but the one that particularly came to mind is that the safe arrival of guests at the Palace depends entirely upon the correct placing of six coloured drawing pins.

It concerns me that ne’erdogooders could, if armed with reasonable fingernails or, heaven forbid, some extra coloured drawing pins, create havoc in the Palace and therefore the entire Anglican Communion. Visitors to the Archbishop’s cottages could turn up at the library, visitors to the flats could be mistaken as Advisors, and all sorts. It would be a scene of utter chaos.

Let’s just hope and pray it never happens.

[Unrelated aside. Saw some of the Tour de France opening ceremony in Trafalgar square this evening. It has really buoyed me with enthusiasm for the race over the next two days. If you get the chance to be anywhere near London or Kent to see the Tour then I'd say do.]

Friday 6th of July
The opening ceremony at 6pm. I’m not sure how interesting this will be to non-cycling fans as I haven’t been to one. I’m hoping to be there as I happen to be in London anyway that day.

Saturday 7th of July
The prologue time trial. This is where the riders go one by one at one minute intervals around the streets of London. The route is about 8km and will taken them about 9 minutes. The ‘caravane’ starts at 1 (these are the eccentric promotional vehicles that precede the race and give out freebees), whilst the first rider goes at 3pm and the last at just after 6. We’re planning to be there.

Sunday 8th of July
Stage 1, from London to Canterbury via various places. It starts at about 10.25am with the caravane before that from 8.40. The race reaches Canterbury sometime around 3.30pm. Again, we are hoping to watch the race at some point along the route, but we aren’t quite sure where. There are special train timetables which we are poring over. In theory it should be possible to see the race twice, once in London and once in Kent, but that might be a bit ambitious.

Anyone else planning to watch it? We might see you there, depending upon your chosen vantage point.