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The newsletter of Tower Hamlets Wheelers and Newham LCC
April 1997
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Ride Review
Just off the train and we were already lost, Duncan and Gary were hunched over the map trying to decide which way to go. It was either left or right but they couldn't make up their minds, all they had to do was join up with the route that Redbridge LCC had given them. Chris nipped across the road, orientated himself and led the way. From then on it was all downhill, that's the opposite of having to cycle up hill. It was a short trip through the Essex countryside from Harlow to Bishops Stortford, a gentle 26 miles which five intrepid Wheelers undertook on a warmish February morning. The roads were silent except for the whirl of our wheels, we saw more cycles than cars and gave every other cyclist a hearty hello. We all pootled along chatting away. Sue told us of the new bike she was having made which made us all envious and we are all hoping to see it on a future ride. Diana was getting in training for the Great Beigel Race a week later. The strangest thing about the journey was that all the roads were downhill, honest, we whizzed down and never once had to pay by struggling up again. After an hour or so in the saddle we stopped off at The Cock in Hatfield Broad Oak, this is exactly how you imagine a country pub to be: sixteenth century, friendly, good beer and good food. Though those ordering food were not that adventurous and all went for bangers and mash, but they were good bangers and mash. After all that thirsty cycling, a few beers were supped which may come to explain how Gary's bike was found in a wheelie bin when he went to the toilet, we don't know who did it, I mean you turn your back for one minute... Once more in the saddle and making sure that Gary did not let our tyres down we headed north. The gentle ride was threatened by the busy A120 but luckily running next to it was a disused railway line, now known as the Flitch Way. So we hopped off the road and hit the dirt. The route wasn't too muddy but there is only so much off road you can stand and after the mornings relaxing roads the path was very tiring, so we elected to get back on the road. It was only a couple of mile to Bishop Stortford and we all rocketed along. The train from Liverpool St had been deserted and had ample room for bikes as it had a third of a carriage with fold up seats for the bikes to be stored. The train on the way back was much fuller and there were only half the space allocated for bikes. The bike carriage was at the end of the train so any one who sat in the seats behind the bike storage area were trapped in there. The space only took four bikes so Duncan's was forced to store his in the next door bay and as the train began to crowd out you realise how much room a bike takes up and how stupid it is not to have a proper space for them. The train was the only bad point of the day and hardly that bad, so when's then next ride? |
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| Round the Mulberry Place
Anyone who has visited our hi-tech town hall will know that the cycle parking facilities are most definitely low tech. The very inaccessible building in Mulberry Place has finally got proper Sheffield style cycle racks to lock bikes to. They are not immediately obvious, round the back to the right as you face the front door. But they are an improvement on the idiotic lock-your-front-wheel-and-lose-your-bike style racks they had previously. If you want to know where all the other cycle stands are in the borough ring 0171-364 4803 and ask. |
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Expensive Roads
We in Tower Hamlets are very lucky we have the most expensive road in Europe. The Limehouse Link per metre is the most expensive road in Europe. The LDDC are obviously embarrassed by that as they had to hide it underground. It appears that the users of Canary Wharf are not satisfied with having such an expensive road, a DLR station, buses and a new underground station, they want more. In fact they want to redevelop Tower Hill so cars can speed along the Highway and reach Canary Wharf, ooh, seconds faster. The Tower of London will become marooned in a desert of cars, south of the Highway will be cut off from the rest of the borough. Then in five years there will be complaints that the new road capacity has been used up and they need wider roads. When will they learn, roads create cars, build larger roads and you get more cars. If they want to get people to Canary Wharf faster get them out of their cars and using the public transport which converges on it. |
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Wandering Workshop
The workshop we have suffers from being crowded, dark, cold and damp, consequently anyone working there on a winters Wednesday night develops the same symptoms. These seem like good reasons to move. We are in the process of trying to find a new workshop, at the moment we are scouring the borough for a suitable sight. If you know of anywhere that you think may be suitable or you would like to help in the process please contact Duncan or Gary numbers at the back. |
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New Forests
New Forests for the East End Yes, it's true, the Borough is currently undergoing a massive re-forestation programme. Forests of 'Greypoles' are being planted throughout the East End. "We are keen to plant as wide a variety of Greypole as possible" commented a borough spokesperson. Greypoles are appearing in many borough sidestreets, a curious side effect is that cars congregate in huge numbers wherever they are placed. "We plant a Greypole and cars just appear, sometimes so many cars that it can become hard to cross the street safely, the cars even appear all over the footpaths as well, motorists in the borough just insist we plant more and more, it's really quite funny!" he continued. Greypoles come in many varieties but can be distinguished by several features: l Greypoles always have a hard shiny trunk l Some have small singular square leaves l Some have large circular petals l They are all prone to rust l They are all very Hardy Perennials "We've made a rod for our own backs" the spokesperson continued, "Councilors are terrified of not planting enough Greypoles to keep up with demand, I suppose they're scared of being booted out at the next election if they upset car owners, motorists just love these Greypoles". Unfortunately some Greypoles have been vandalised, and some pedestrians, have been stupid enough to walk into them causing scratching to the shiny grey trunk. "They cost a fortune to plant and upkeep, but they are beautiful, don't you think". |
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Bike Build
Bike Build II - and this time we've got wirecutters. Summer is a coming and that brings our useful annual bikebuild days, its a chance to clear the workshop of a years clutter by building bicycles from all the bits and pieces that have been donated or just dumped in the workshop. This is also a warning to those of you who have machines left lying around the workshop for years at a time as "unfinished projects". On bikebuild day this Summer, unless arranged in advance Every potentially buildable frame will be CONSIDERED usable. So if your machine is not to be fair game, let us know now, and get it marked. Contact Gary or Duncan. |
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Traffic Tables
A Tale of three Traffic Tables live near Cleveland Way, this is a residential street, pleasant, but its position means that it is a convenient short cut for cars traveling north from the Mile End Road and wanting to avoid two sets of traffic lights. Using this short cut they negotiate a street lined with parked cars, effectively one vehicle wide, squeezing cyclists as they travel at high speed (its one way, one way street =3D race track). People rarely cross the street because the cars travel so fast. Until recently. Over the last couple of weeks the borough has been constructing Car Calming tables at three points in this street, fortunately they have built them without the 'cyclist shredding' wire fences as appear on the Stepney Way chicanes, but they are chicanes, so be prepared to breath in as cars try overtake you on these humps. For two weeks these new tables had a 100% success rate, because during construction the street was completely blocked to through traffic. Despite three large notices at the end of the street, saying ROAD CLOSED, motorists being thick gits, still tried to cut through this short rat run, only to be faced with several other cars doing an impersonation of a line dance while trying to turn around and return the way they came in. At least I had a laugh at this. The most bizarre side effect was the change in the nature of our street while works were in progress. It took no time at all for people to start crossing the road to chat, children appeared on bicycles and kids played football on the road. Well, for two weeks anyway. Each table costs around £ 20,000, times that by 3 equals £ 60,000. This expense is incurred just because motorists cannot be trusted to obey the law, so rather than enforce the law, our borough spends council taxpayers money on ways to make it harder for the motorist to break the law. We now have three car tables in our street, the council is down to the tune of sixty grand and now the workmen are gone cars speed up our street again, brake hard at the car table and accelerate to the next table. Should I ever consider robbing a bank and get caught my defence will be that the council did not take sufficient steps to make it hard enough for me not rob this bank, as council tax payers I hope you lot have deep pockets, my lawyer is expensive. |
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Voting
Recycling your vote Unless you have been on a rather prolonged cycling tour you will be aware that there is a general election looming, in fact by the time you read the next newsletter it will have been and gone. Politicians of every hue will be after your vote, they will be banging on your door, stopping you in the street, asking if you have a baby they can kiss? When they have you cornered ask them about their party's transport policy. Are they going to reduce road traffic? How are they going to make public transport more attractive ? Do they believe freight travels better by road or by rail? Why does the taxpayer subsidise car ownership through company tax breaks? What are their thoughts on the London Cycle Network, are they going to give it the funds it needs? Here's a point for starters, the prospective MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, Sheref Osman, has been reported in the East London Advertiser as saying he wants to halve the cost of parking permits in the borough (so non car owners subsidise car owners) and he wants to build SIX MULTI-STORY car parks in Tower Hamlets. Methinks here's a person with a 1970's frame of mind. Another dinosaur is The Traffic Director for London, who is the person currently putting a spoke into our plans for a Mile End Road cycle lane. The current LBTH council administration are behind us on this point, but the government are not. Think about these things before you place your cross. |
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Workshop Changes
Wednesday Workshop There are changes afoot in the workshop. Anyone who has been down on Wednesdays will know that it only takes a few people to fill it. We have decided to change the nature of Wednesday night, it was once advertised as Self Help Night, sadly this is to go. If you want to come down to repair a puncture or change a brake block the workshop will be open for that on the self help basis, but anything more complicated we cannot help you with. If you want to rebuild your bike or fix you bottom bracket give Peter Steele a call (number below) he will arrange a time with you and help you fix it without the distraction of other people. We are sorry about this change but there are only so many resources and too much demand, we have to be realistic about what we can provide and we want to give the best service we can and not turn away disgruntled people. |
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Beigal Race
Didn't we do well!!
Wheelers take top two positions and a close fourth... Well, what
a show, the Boroughs first Grand Beigal Race organised by Wheeler
Genia Leontowitsch in conjunction with Tower Hamlets Agenda 21
and CPRE London, was a 100% success as far as we were concerned
and, its official, cycles are the fastest transport across the
borough. Setting off from Brick Lane and burdened with a precious
cargo of beigels, teams had to make their own way over roughly
four miles to the Town Hall in Mulberry Place, (that's the far
side of Docklands to you and me). Wheelers provided four cyclists
aged between 24 and 44 , with varying quality of machine, and
took the first two positions, followed by a close fourth and finally
sixth position for the last cyclist who traveled the route utilising
the DLR for part of the way. We raced against the mayor who traveled
in the borough limousine, (arriving 5 minutes late because of
hold ups in Bethnal Green Road) proving himself to be a good sport,
in spite our criticism of his car in our Summer 1996 issue., A
group from Tower Hamlets Community Transport, gamely pursued the
chase in a 12 seater minibus despite being blocked in their parking
bay by a thoughtless git of a motorist at the start. Continuing
in the Spirit of the East End, Jimmys stables laid on a Horse
and trap, making the magnificent time of 32 minutes. To try make
sure we covered every form of transport a team traveled the route
with a baby buggy on London Buses, taking over one hour to reach
the Town Hall. The officially sanctioned finishing times were:
Interestingly these results and times prove that you don't need
an expensive Bicycle or a Tour De France quality pair of legs
to be as fast as motor transport over a short distance in London.
With a time difference of only 8.5 minutes between the fastest
and slowest complete cycle journeys, , BICYCLES ARE FASTER. The
Mayor and his Driver both felt that they had not encountered any
unusual delays during the race, even on a relatively traffic free
Saturday afternoon. A small reception was held at the Town Hall,
where Kay Wagland of Tower Hamlets Agenda 21 handed over a document
detailing local transport issues to Councillor John Biggs. Wheelers
contributed a chapter on cycling related issues to this. Thank
you to the Local newspapers, and particularly Channel One television
and Independent Local Radio for giving the event some peak time
coverage. |
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New Ride
The next Sunday social ride is....... Following the success of our last country ride in late February ("it's the best ride I've ever been on" was one comment) we'll be running a similar type of ride on 27th April. Destination as yet undecided but expect a train journey into Essex followed by around 30 miles pleasant quite cycling. We will try to keep the train fare to around £ 5-7. Contact Gary or Duncan for more details. |
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AGM Conclusions
The AGM took its usual form on 25.2.97 with some good, some bad news. Financially we rely on future income to pay for current debts, the bridging funding coming out of members pockets, a situation which cannot and should not be allowed to continue. Membership continues to rise, although workshop use appears to have declined, this led to a discussion on the nature of the workshop and its operation and funding. Clearly most of the 235 Wheelers in the LCC do not use the workshop, on the other hand, those who do use it regularly, appreciate it. It is also a good masthead for Wheelers and cycling issues in general. Peter Steele, who is the Workshop Manager, does not feel that he can continue running Wednesday Workshops as he has up to now. (Having given 15 years sterling service to the running of the workshop to date) Peter feels that his monthly Sunday maintenance class is popular and a good source of revenue for the workshop, but he does need one person as an assistant (mechanical knowledge unnecessary) for each class that he holds. Gary mentioned that the workshop is perennially untidy, and is a disincentive to encouraging people to use the workshop and not a good advert for potential recruits. Another point raised, was that members of the LCC in Tower Hamlets have free access to the workshop at the moment and should there be an annual reduced rate workshop fee for these members, accompanied by a more formal structure for opening times? Finally, and dovetailing into all the previous points, was a mention of potential new premises. The Five Bells pub, who are incredibly helpful to us at the moment is for sale and would a new landlord (assuming that it stays a pub at all) be so benevolent to us? Duncan, Gary, Chris and Peter are looking for potential new sites, this also raises the point of whether to have a workshop at all given the nature of precarious funding. Conclusions
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