News

It doesn't matter how well you iron and fold a shirt, once it's spent an hour stuffed in the top of a rucksack it ends up looking like you've slept in it. The cheapest if not the most practical option is to buy an iron from Tesco value range for £5 and keep it at work, but a more sensible and less time-consuming approach is to invest in a...

A new chemical coating repels water, oil and dirt to such an extent that if you apply it to your mountain bike, clothes and shoes you will never again need to hose it down after a winter ride. Washing your bike after a muddy ride keeps it looking good and helps extend the life of your components, but it's a time-consuming ritual when all...

Once upon a time, in about 3600BC, someone pegged a set of wheels to a cart; 4,400 years later the tracks of Baghdad were finally paved with tar. But it wasn’t until 1817 that German Baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn put two wheels beneath a simple seat. Two hundred years later, the bicycle represents the most efficient ways to transform the...

In the current economic climate, there’s much talk of zombie businesses; debt-ridden companies that would die if they were not kept alive by banks eager to see their loans repaid. Given the amount of money spent on their promotion and funding, could the same be said of electric cars? Almost three years ago, at a time when Nissan was betting...

A growing appetite for nostalgic cycle rides is as much in evidence across the channel as it is here. While we have the Tweed Run, an event held in London each year that grows in popularity by the year and currently has to hold a lottery to allocate places, the French have the Anjou Velo Vintage bicycle festival. With an emphasis on...

With over 10 million bicycles on its roads, Beijing is one of the great cycling cities of the world, but its air is amongst the most polluted on the planet. British artist Matt Hope draws attention to the problem with his breathing bicycle, a piece of sculpture that filters dirty air courtesy of a collection of recycled components including...

The Government is proposing to raise the speed limit for lorries on rural roads by up to 25 per cent. The national speed limit for heavy goods vehicles on single carriageway roads is currently 40mph, but there are moves to increase it to either 45mph or 50mph. Road haulage companies argue that the 40 mph speed limit causes: "unnecessary...

At this time of the year, having a choice of transport can be the enemy of the cycle commuter; it’s understandable that the sight of frost or freezing fog on a dull winter’s morning can have even the enthusiastic cyclist reaching for the car keys or Oyster card, but it doesn't make the decision to leave the bike at home an easy one to make....

Cycling on urban roads can feel like a primordial battle, so it’s perhaps fitting that New York designer Taylor Simpson has come up with a pair of bicycle handlebars that look like a stag’s antlers. The black antler look magnificent and might encourage drivers to look properly before pulling into the path of bicycles, but the handlebars are...

Good drivers do not put their faith in wing mirrors – the only safe way to overtake is to take a quick glance over one’s shoulder to check for vehicles approaching from behind – but an optical prescription for car wing mirrors could eliminate dangerous blind spots without distorting the perceived distance of other cars. According to a paper...