Adrian Fitch’s random rambling

Thanks to Adam Bowie for for pointing me to First Draft to see this fabulous bike parking facility at Tokyo’s Kasai Station.

For a single-use fee of ¥100 (about 50p) or ¥1,800 for a monthly pass, customers roll their bikes onto a platform and use a control panel to have them whisked away into the secure underground facility that can accommodate over 9,000 bikes.

The video shows that it takes the system only 23 seconds to retrieve the reporter’s bike.

It strikes me as the ideal solution to one of the biggest reasons why many people say they don’t cycle to work — the lack of secure bike parking.

Interesting piece here on an initiative to reduce cyclist deaths by building materials firm Cemex.

The company introduced a number of measures last year including additional nearside mirrors, warning sings and proximity sensors.

The sensors work when the left-turn indicator is activated and give a verbal warning to cyclists should they attempt to pass on the nearside, and an audible alarm for the driver.

I just need to find the equivalent for my commuting bike that tells me when a vehicle is trying to pass too close but I can’t see a verbal warning being that effective at warning them off.

Perhaps it could flash them a warning light and then scatter a handful of tyre spikes into their path if they don’t back off.

My favourite ad of recent times was named TV ad of the year at the British Television Advertising Awards last night.

Kimbofo has posted a new ad from Transport for London in its “Look Out For Cyclists” campaign.

It shows just how easy it is to miss something you’re not looking for.

I even played it again to make sure it was actually in the first half and that the replayed portion was using the same footage.

I wonder if anyone would get it on first viewing, but isn’t that the point?

Research Magazine’s Brian Tarran reports that Arbitron’s portable people meter-based radio ratings systems in New York and Philadelphia have been denied accreditation by media auditor the Media Rating Council according to the company’s SEC filings.

Rajar is currently testing these meters in the UK but has released little to no information on its progress.

I cycled 700 kilometres in February, almost the distance between Ankara and Beirut.

All but 180 kilometres were through my regular commutes - I still haven’t caught public transport to work this year.

Since I started this little virtual jaunt in September I’ve made it all the way from London to Beirut.

If sharing the road with thousands of other cyclists sounds like fun then you can register for this year’s London Freewheel here.

Many of the capital’s roads will be traffic-free and open only to cyclists.

The 2007 event saw more than 38,000 bikes descending on the city’s streets for the day.

Cyclists enjoyed an afternoon of entertainment, picnics, stalls and cycling.

Dubbed as an ‘extraordinary day’, the event stopped traffic along 14km of the capital’s roads, turning the city centre into a bike friendly mecca for Sunday cyclists.

It all sounded like a little too much fun for me so I gave it a miss.

We’ll see what happens this year.

This morning was my first hard ride of the year.

My plan is to ride hard during my morning commutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then easy for the rest of the week.

Hard mornings usually involve 30 minutes of warm up and going hard where possible on the way to Richmond Park, 20 minutes hard around the park and then 30 minutes of going hard where possible and warming down on the way in to Soho.

London’s drivers of course do not appreciate being overtaken by a cyclist trying to keep his heart rate over 90% so my main opportunities to put the pressure on outside the park are when accelerating away from lights and on the few hills along the route.

The rest of my training plan involves a decent length, moderately paced, hilly ride on Saturday mornings and then complete rest on Sundays.

I cycled 840km (522 miles) in January, the same distance that separates Thessaloniki in Greece and Ankara in Turkey.

Three quarters of my total distance was through commuting and one thing I’m quite proud of is I haven’t yet used public transport to get to work this year.

The rest of my miles came from a couple of Saturday morning rides out into the North Downs with a small group from Dulwich Paragon plus one Sunday visit to Richmond Park.

All quite slow and steady riding, just trying to put a good base in before I start the harder work in mid-February.

By then there should be enough light before work to get in a couple of Richmond Park circuits each week.

It still seems quite a long way off, but by late April I need to be ready for the 150km (95 mile) White Horse Challenge.

I’m hoping to raise a little money for WaterAid by completing the ride so if you’re in a generous mood, please visit my sponsorship page and do what you can to help provide safe, clean drinking water to those less fortunate than us.

The British time trial champion was killed on Tuesday after being knocked off his bike by a van while training in Scotland.

“He was the best road cyclist in Scotland and as good as anyone in Britain. He was in the prime of his career,” said Bryan Smith, a former Scotland manager and Olympic rider (Reuters).