This floating footbridge really tested my karma ...

I've got the old helmet cam working again - has anyone been down on the Regent's Canal recently and come across this walkway? You're expected to dismount and obviously most don't. Would you? BTW - some people may be offended by the T-Shirt the woman in front of me is wearing. I thought it took a bit of guts to sport something like that!

Don't trust me - I'm just a blogger

A nice anonymous person just pointed out very politely that I'd completely got my terms muddled. I've been happily banging on about "fixies" as if I knew what they were, but of course it turns out that I don't. I kind of thought that anything on wheels with just one gear was a fixie - but in fact a fixie is one where you can't freewheel and (I now think) has the brake as part of the pedal system ... (correct me if I'm wrong!).

The moral of the story is don't look for clever answers here - it's just a place to air issues to do with biking. I see myself as an enthusiastic amateur who picks up little bits of knowledge over the years. The real experts are out there! I suspect I need you more than you need me!

Love and karma all around. As they may have said in the 70's.

Now that's what I call a commute ...

Happened across this - a perfect antidote to all of us London commuters moaning about traffic!

pleasant commute from lucy Martin on Vimeo.

Where do cycling accidents actually happen?

This is a depressing post I'm afraid - but my attention was drawn to this map on a site called City Beast. Many of you may know about it already. But it logs all the fatalities and serious accidents which have happened in recent years, and shows the roads where most collisions have taken place.

I wasn't too surprised to discover that Theobold's Road, which I've blogged about quite a lot, is one of the most dangerous.

If you dare, have a look. And then avoid half the roads in London!

My bike has now got just one gear ... it used to have 24

This one's really for Paul, but may have some interest for others wondering what to do with a knackered old bike ...

I've gone on before about the idea of converting a multi-gear bike into being a "fixie". My main reason was that I was getting a new bike and it didn't seem like it was worth the money to buy a complete set of gears, chains etc. So my oft-mentioned brother-in-law did a conversion job for me.

The result is very nice. A simple bike which feels like it isn't going to go wrong. Lighter too. You have to make a bit more effort but he's set it on a low enough ratio that I can get up most hills without difficulty. When you go downhill you feel like a bit of a prat as your legs spin round at an alarming rate - but hey, I'm used to looking like a prat. Anyway, I said I'd take some photos, so here they are, hopefully showing the important innards:

Volcanic ash making London quieter?

I keep expecting to breathe in gobfuls of Icelandic ash, which is apparently spewing out of a volcano and blanketing Northern Europe in dust.

Well, the net effect for me is - there are no planes, and London is suddenly quiet! It's rather lovely. (sorry, people who were booked on once-in-a-lifetime holiday taking off today).

In other news, I'm now back on my first ever London commuting bike - my brilliant bro in law converted it, a few years back, to a one-speed after the gears got knackered and I knew I was getting a new bike.

Having tuned it a bit and pumped up the tyres, I'm quite enjoying being on fat wheels, with wide handle-bars, quite unable to go fast down hills ... it's a good way of enjoying a quiet London.

In case anyone's wondering what the hell I'm going on about - ash, Iceland etc - all planes in the UK are currently grounded due to volcanic ash in the atmosphere - see BBC News, for example.

I do still exist, just been away

Sorry about the radio silence folks. I thought I'd done a clever update from my travels on my new phone - but clearly it's not quite as clever as I thought.

Status update: my increasingly frustrations with my old Specialised hybrid have led me (see previous posts) to take a radical step and I've now ordered ... a new bike on Cyclescheme.

With these things, I always worry that you guys out there will immediately go "ha ha, the fool, he's ordered the one bike which we know is useless - why on earth, etc etc". So please be nice, when I say I've ordered a Giant Seek Zero. Does that mean anything to anyone?

The main things I like about it are: it's got disk brakes (they're kind of new to me, but it seems they are much better in the wet and last much longer than the usual V brakes). And - it's got a kind of enclosed gear hub - so again all your gears are covered rather than exposed to the elements.

I cycled in this morning on my old Specialised and it's a nightmare - whenever I pedal hard the chain slips. I fiddled around with all sorts of screws and suchlike last night and made it a bit better, but I fear the fundamental problem is ... my teeth. They're worn down and the chain can't take it. Here's photographic evidence. Give me advice if you can tell me straight away I need to replace it all. Though with the new bike coming in a couple of weeks, I'm not sure it's worth it ...