About bikes, cycling and cycle to work - Tredz Blog

Cycling holidays take off

After the bad press about the many negative effects of our holidays on the environment it's encouraging to read that cycling holidays are as much as 30 per cent more popular than they were two years ago, Mintel's market research reveals.

Last year, 450,000 cycling holidays were booked while the number of people getting on a bike as part of their break grew to 2.25 million.

That seems good news, regardless of whether this is due to an increased awareness of health and fitness issues, concerns about the environment or because we want to do something different.

"Although fly and flop still dominates the mass market, many well-travelled and well-off consumers are growing bored with sun worship and are seeking more active experiences," commented Richard Cope of Mintel.

Some of my mates like to argue about what's a 'true' cycling holiday. Forking out a fair amount of cash to have everything organised and stress-free, or heading off with your bike, a map and a phrase book not knowing what will come across your path. To me this is exactly the beauty of it, whatever your preference, free range or organised, that is your holiday.

It'll be interesting to see if this increased interest in cycling on holiday will continue back home and boost the numbers of people joining cycling clubs and those cycling to work. I don’t suppose any of our blog readers could forward this question to Mintel?
Posted by Caroline

Adventure cycle rides on the good food trail

Are you among those with no holiday plans yet, or have one too many strenuous cycle holidays under your cycling bib? If you don't mind travelling to the US then here's a tempting combination: gastronomy and cycling - the guilt-trip's antidote! No more calorie-counting while you

"taste your way through the farms, orchards, and vineyards of California — from the seat of your bicycle".

Trips run in September from San Francisco.

You might be interested to know that the weather forecast for California for the next month predicts all of 6 days with 'some' chance of rain....

Cycling around Paris

Continuing the seasonal theme of holidays and cycling, BusinessWeek/Spiegel Online alerted me to a quite nouvelle French initiative with their headline:

'Paris Tries to Revive Bicycles'

From the middle of July visitors and residents of Paris will find it easy to get hold of public bike rentals called Vélib explained as 'pedal power to the people' or, as seen elsewhere, 'liberate a vélo'.

It's part of Paris's green transportation plan and you need a chip card (available online, from post offices or certain Metro stations) to rent the bikes from public stations. To start there'll be 750 self-service stations equipped with over 10,000 rentable bikes to start with and the plan is to double this by the end of the year.

Lots more information in the Paris bicycles article - looks like this is going to be an interesting summer.

Cycling hospitality - Warm Showers

Fancy some occasional company? Not sure where to go in the summer? Here's a great idea for both: the Warm Showers list.

Warm Showers is a world-wide directory of Internet cyclists who offer their hospitality towards touring cyclists. Whether this is just a  patch of grass to pitch a tent or extends to a shower, a meal and a bed all depends on what the host is able or willing to provide.

As well as the UK, there are hosts all around the world, I've copied some places at random:

• Buenos Aires, B
• Curitiba, PR
• Florianopolis, SC
• Bragança Paulista, SP
• São José (Florianopolis), SC
• Santiago, RM
• San Miguel de Tucuman, T

...and that's just from clicking on South America! I suggest you may like to log into the site to find out where these are exactly, unless your geography is better than mine, and to see where the remaining 3845 members are based.

If you would like to volunteer hospitality for touring cyclists, you can register yourself on the site. There is plenty of info explaining how it works. What an excellent way to meet fellow cyclists.
Posted by Caroline

Cycling's Greatest Misadventures - new book

A bit skewed towards events in the US, but it sounds like this might be a 'different' cyclist's holiday read: "Cycling’s Greatest Misadventures" is a collection of true cycling-related stories which range from terrifying to comical with some bizarre events thrown in. The stories are told by bicycle aficionados, journalists, magazine editors, professional racers and everyday cyclists.

A selection of the odd but true stories in the book:

• a former pro cyclist's unusual dating tactics by spreading tacks on women’s race course in an attempt to get a date;
• a stationary bike crash during a spin class;
• bicycle escape from a prison yard (after accidentally (??) cycling in there in the first place);
• the first group Trans-American crossing on iron bikes with wooden rims;
• rat attack after the animal jumps on a woman's bike;
• animal one-upmanship, where a man is knocked from his bike by a flying dead dog.

Not sure whether the tales will make you cringe, laugh or just cause a stunned disbelief.

If you think you have experienced worse freak accidents, animal attacks, sabotage, idiotic decisions, or eerie events, why not submit your own story on the publisher's website for Volume 2!

The book is written by Erich Schweikher and is available online (Barnes&Noble, Amazon) and may be available off-line in bike shops and book shops.

Posted by Caroline

Scott Ransoms get a holiday

Scott are offering a prize draw so that 3 riders get an all expenses paid riding trip to Switzerland. To qualify you need to buy a 2007 Scott Ransom between 1st April and 1st July.

If they pull your name out of the hat in the first week of July you’ll get return flights (you take your own bike), transport to the riding location (I’m not sure exactly where), accommodation and meals. They also throw in a local guide for the weekend’s trail hunting.

Visit Wales gets e-update

You wont be surprised to read that Visit Wales is an the organisation responsible for promoting tourism activities in Wales. (The clue is in the title, right?) Well, they’ve had a website for ever at visitwales.com but they’ve gone all Web 2.0 and built wales1000things.com.

The difference? They want to become a home for everything you could want to post about activities in Wales. Get out and about, take some photos and post them up. There’s even vouchers available as an incentive from them.

Keeping the sunshine rides alive

One lucky Tredz employee went on a cycling holiday this month. He was so impressed we placed a banner for them on TredzTalk (a first for us). As they say, here is his story….

We spent a week in an amazing part of Andalucia, Southern Spain near the awesome El Chorro gorge.  The gorge is a popular destination for climbers, but the whole area is equally brilliant for a superb mountain bike holiday. Check out the photos here.

Blazing Trails offer comfortable self-catering accommodation for 2-3 (4 at a push) in a purpose built ‘casita’ which is built away from the host’s main house. It’s within 10 minutes of El Chorro village and 15 minutes to the Ardales lakes. They have an 8mx4m pool with terrace and welcome sun loungers for guests, which is just what we needed after a hard ride.  The views from both the casita and pool were really spectacular.

John, the Blazing Trails guide, has a great knowledge of local rides, most of which were reached directly from the casita.  He charges 70€ per day – well worth it to sample some of the great trails and familiarise ourselves with the surroundings.