Author Archive
June 12, 2013 by carltonreid
Plucky Edwardian self-defence for cyclists: how to use the bicycle as a weapon, especially against objectionable children
Send to KindleFearful of foot-pads? Scared by tramps? Need some steam-punk fighting techniques for use when riding past ne’er-do-wells? Here’s some useful Edwardian advice on “self-protection on a cycle” and “how you may best defend yourself when attacked by modern highwaymen.” “It is a mistake to suppose that all the romance of the night roads [...]
June 10, 2013 by carltonreid
“We can’t go on in the present way much longer…let’s build little light bridges for cyclists”
Send to Kindle English dramatist, novelist, poet and all-round bon vivant George R. Sims was one of the star journalists of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. His views were sought on all manner of subjects and he could command stellar fees. No doubt he gave the following interview for free as it wasn’t he [...]
May 29, 2013 by carltonreid
Here’s how the new cover is coming along
Send to Kindle Illustrator Pete English has produced a fresh draft of artwork for the alternative front cover. Click and then zoom on the image above to get an even better view. I’ve asked for a few more details to be added. Once the final pencil drawings have been okayed Pete will add the colour. [...]
May 28, 2013 by carltonreid
O bird, then I, For a golden moment, share your feathery life in the air
Send to Kindle Going down Hill on a Bicycle: A Boy’s Song By Henry Charles Beeching With lifted feet, hands still, I am poised, and down the hill Dart, with heedful mind The air goes by in a wind. Swifter and yet more swift, Till the heart with a mighty lift Makes the lungs laugh, [...]
May 21, 2013 by carltonreid
Britain’s first bicycle path – separated and swept to boot – was suggested in 1821
Send to KindleThe first cycle paths in the UK were installed (badly) in the 1930s. However, the idea for such dedicated ways – segregated and swept, even – was first proposed in 1821. Given that what we would recognise as a bicycle wasn’t developed until the 1860s, such a proposal seems rather prescient. The proposal [...]
May 20, 2013 by carltonreid
“Copenhagen swarms with riders during all hours of the day”
Send to Kindle“No other country has done more for the pleasure and comfort of its wheelmen than Denmark,” said a news piece in The Wheel for February 19th 1897. The American magazine was quoting from an earlier editorial in the New York Sun. “The construction of pavements takes in consideration what best can serve the [...]
May 3, 2013 by carltonreid
US senator: “[Automobiles are the future but] I cannot conceive our active Americans in carriages moved by any other motor but the horse”
Send to Kindle“I imagine that one fine morning we shall wake up with apparatus ready to take us to our offices by an automobile carriage…But…I cannot conceive our active Americans adapting themselves to the pursuit of pleasure in carriages moved…by any other motor but the horse. What has made the bicycle so universally popular but [...]
April 26, 2013 by carltonreid
Reallocation of roadspace: here’s how Birmingham’s Victoria Square did it
Send to Kindle I’ve just left the stimulating Cycle City conference in Birmingham. 450 delegates from across the UK – and the world, in fact – came together to chew the cycling fat in a number of seminars and talks, some held in Birmingham’s impressive Victorian Council House. I gave a talk on the “Disneyland” [...]
April 22, 2013 by carltonreid
A gamble or a sure thing? Here’s how to succeed with Kickstarter (& don’t forget the deductions)
Send to KindleMarket-leading crowd-funder Kickstarter recommends you spend two weeks or so crafting and honing your campaign. I agree, and add that most of those two weeks will be spent in a maelstrom of self-doubt. Or maybe that’s just me? In this stat-packed posting I’d like to explore how I succeeded with my Kickstarter project [...]
April 17, 2013 by carltonreid
