kublogger

Rainy Saturdays are here for… well yesterday it was a city bike tour called The Big Ride, organised by LCC, the London Cycling Campaign. They say it was the biggest ever cycling demo in London. Riders from very young to people who I’m sure they have seen the times before the big rise of the car felt safe to cycle. A strong sign to say ‘make this city cycle friendly!’, to whoever wins the mayoral elections next week – well hopefully not Boris again…
Have used my bike as rolling tripod and cut a small video you can watch here:

#thebigride, 28 April 2012, London

…12 days ago, there was it again, that yearly occasion… and we had a nice party in our house, together with a video projector, a youtube playlist (the modern times… ;) and the lovely guests Hilary, Deniz, Christine, Bernadette and Nick. They loved the music-and-videos, Jo’s fabulous cooking and just a few beers. Christine nearly stayed over… at least until the Absacker – and watching the latest Placebo live DVD – which is very close to the Brixton concert where we’ve been in 2010. Cool stuff!

Behind 2 'Black 5's crossing the Ribblehead viaduct on the Settle & Carlisle railway

Not to forget, Jo’s birthday present: a rail tour on Sat, 18 Feb. to Carlisle and back via Settle (the famous railway across the Cumbrian mountains), behind 2 ‘Black 5′ steam engines. What a sound, what a great landscape!

What I did the nearly gone by winter long? Beside other things… I built another bike – this time a polo bike. But first – polo. Now I’m not just taking photos at tournaments (damn, they are fast!), I decided to give it a go and play myself.
End of September I visited the beginners in a parking in Peckham first time. Actually I was a bit afraid – going there on my own – to find a group of dedicated people who make it hard to join – as many groups who share a common interest are. But I got surprised. Well, they are dedicated, but basically this bunch is a typical London mixture, people from everywhere, and everyone interested is welcome to give it a try. Everyone is ready to lend his/her bike or mallet and off I went the first time after 10 minutes chatting. And I’m still doing it, but now on my own bike.
Well, basically like my first bike build [link], I got a frame from someone online, some used bits from here, a few new ones from there and overcoming minor troubles it looked more and more like a bike. What made it different to my first tries was the fact that I own quite a few tools now myself, the flat is bigger than my room 2 years ago and well, I know much more about bikes now.
I had to find out about the cog wheel ratio for polo (I chose 24/16 for now – works quite well), find a double brake lever (both brakes on the left side) – or better: I filed my own, using an adapter. The handlebar is narrower to have more space for the mallet during playing. Just the stem I got was not the best choice as I found out last Tuesday, highsiding over it and lending on my chin… not funny. It is a bit worn out, but replacing the old bolt and inserting a small sheet of tin from a beer can between stem and handlebar should have done the job now. It’s not moving at all anymore. And wheel covers I added today as a last bit – nicely painted by Jo.
Finally – what I enjoyed a lot was how many people I met through working at 56a, the community workshop [link], and through dealing all kinds of used bits through the bike forum and meeting for swapping – normally very small amounts for used items. All chilled out and fun! Thanks everyone!
But better see yourself – pictures are better than words…

Building a polo bike

I’m going to call my Austria trips catch-up-marathons or such. My diary is never that full of appointments than on those occasions. A whole week of meeting friends, business appointments and a party-of-the-year (Krampusfest) made me come back not quite as healthy as I was before… A little cold and apparently the wrong food at a Vienna veg restaurant where the food is less ‘Yummy!’ than their name might suggest made me slow down a bit. Better was ‘Hotel Mama’ with a marvellous Schnitzel lunch right at the beginning of the week.
All in all I’m happy to have seen everyone again (Thank you for seeing me – or in case of the Segels, thanks so much for being host again!) and to get some to do’s ticked off from my list. ‘Die Quote‘ for example started working on the music for the jamboree film, I enjoyed two really interesting and funny sessions with them explaining the cut and the ideas behind the sequences. And I met Flo Warnecke, a programmer who is going to work in collaboration on web projects with me in the future hopefully. Bernhard Schober showed me around at the renovated ‘Graphische’ college where we both had graduated 14 years ago (!!!) and where he teaches now. We had a long chat about working as a photographer in Austria, about the school and about bikes not to forget – another one mad about cycling… hehe.

Wenn man eine Reise tut, kann man was erleben… Just back from a trip to Austria, this time the train tickets were too expensive (couldn’t book earlier), so I had to fly again. Easyjet. 2 years ago I bought a trolley which I can take to the cabin without checking it in. It has exactly the allowed measurements, and I wanted to have a proper one where I can change parts in case they are broken. So I spent quite some money. But Easyjet knows better. At the gate they could see that the trolley fits in their basket but still they checked it in. Nice that I was allowed to take out the computer, the camera, a book, my head phones… so what about having only one piece of hand luggage now? Well, at least they didn’t charge me anything for this. Thank you! :|
On the way back they asked me to check in my trolley at the check in already (same procedure, took out all those bits), in exchange for Speedy Boarding. They said the flight was so full that they’d have a problem with all those trolleys. Hmm, time for a policy change, maybe somehow to put people’s convenience at the front rather than profit in the first place? Well whatever.
Make flying as inconvenient as possible, so people use other means of transport! In January it’s gonna be trains again anyways.

Mostly cycling is fun, and you get around much faster even than most of other people on other means of transport.
But then there are main roads, where you find traces of cycle lanes and advanced stopping areas in front of traffic lights (normally blocked by a car anyways). That means – this is also a place for bikes, or not? Dare you use that road in rush hour or at night or … at all? Drivers hardly care, and professional drivers like cabs and vans even less (well I know, not all of them, but it really feels like). Well if you are lucky and there is hardly any traffic around you might be lucky and they let you enough space not to be afraid of being crushed next second. But if there are more cars around the race is on, the I’m faster-than-you-game and the cyclist finds her/himself on the being-ignored list. Go further east from the centre and the cab race is being replaced with the show-off drivers speeding along Bethnal Green Road and sorts, mostly male drivers in BMWs or Mercedes, of course alone in their car (sharing? What the f…) and mostly ignorant towards everything not sitting in a metal box on wheels. Getting in their way on your bike? Best to choose different routes…
And a bike promoting major rejects protests by ever more people cycling this city and even deaths of cyclists at dangerous road sections. Feels like being a 2nd class citizen…

Today I want to show three London examples of … a mindset which still has to go a long way to really get to the point to take cycling serious in this city…

Ah, Cycle Lanes!?

This is Ledbury Road in Notting Hill (today). As we can see, the cars rule. But it’s a quiet, residential road, so cycling shouldn’t be too dangerous here. And they have done something to show, cyclists are welcome! Are they? There’s a sign (bottom left, looking south, behind some branches of a lovely tree), which points towards the road… saying something ‘look, a cycle lane!’ – Really…? But there’s still hope. I found a second sign (bottom right, looking north) – pointing – ah – to the front garden of the house? Or where actually? Next street maybe… or next galaxy? Why did (who ever) spend money on these useless signs?

Jump, man!

I’m fascinated by this since I moved in close by: It’s along Haygate Estates close to Elephant and Castle. There’s actually a stand alone cycle lane (wow!) – it would be enough space to make it wide enough actually – for everyone – without taking too much space off the pavement, but never mind. Is this supposed to be a reminder of the beauty of old phone boxes? If you want to stay in your lane as cyclist it only works in one direction – not the one at least the guy in the picture is riding in. If he’d stay in his lane, what is he supposed to do? Jump maybe? The box makes it also hard to see if anyone’s coming from the other side – unless I do what everyone does: cycling in pedestrians’ area…

Cars first! (June 2011)

If there’s a road to be closed for construction and a bike lane (even a ‘Superhighway’ here!) is beside, we close the bike lane. Would it ever be the other way round? It definitely caused confusion, by everyone involved. I have to say, there was enough space for everyone, the traffic slow (most drivers in this side street reluctant to get on the cycle lane) but the signs clearly said ‘cyclists unwanted’. ‘Cyclists dismount’ – why not ‘Cyclists disappear’? It’s like, ‘lorry driver, get your rope out and drag your coach through the space…’

The Guardian published this interesting article about ‘Britons unmoved by pro-cycling campaigns’ [link]. Contradicts a bit my comments 2 posts before regarding the bike lobby in London. But there seem definitely to be more lobbying than in Vienna – in my humble view…

Since a couple of months I am ‘playing’ with video. I watch a lot of (snow board-, cycle-, skateboard- etc) movies and clips, and after getting all kinds of equipment I finally had a first weekend of practise beginning of May. A lot of theoretical knowledge turned into really doing things. Welcome to reality. It’s fun. Using the SLR camera for video. Perfect quality – at least the pictures, not yet my camera technics. But I’m doing my steps. Sound, light in a different way than when taking photos, all new things. And of course cutting the endless material you produce over 2 days usind something more advanced than iMovie. It’s a challenge, but a good one.

Here is my first result, the video from the Scout Jamboree-IST meeting of the Austrian contingent [link]. (The train videos don’t count – although some are nice -, they were the bloody beginning ;) )

In summer I will be part of the Austrian contingent at the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden [link]. My job there is – to film; To document the 800 Austrians participating at the Jamboree. Mainly 14 to 18 year olds, but also the IST (International Service Team) members. And the result should be a proper, well filmed, well directed, well cut movie which the participants – and other interested people like to watch again and again… Challenge ahead!

I’ve posted a reply on a blog post [link] of Franz Joseph, a Viennese comedian and editor. It’s about not stopping for cars any more… Well written.