Your Legal Friend

Our friends at Legal asked me to talk about safety for cyclists.

Therefore I am happy to introduce you:

S.E.A.  = Safety Education Action

The SaddleDrunk Method

Every day there are numbers of accidents worldwide involving cyclists.  Here in London, unfortunately, we still have many accidents and some of them are unfortunately fatal.

In my opinion, first of all we need to understand the meaning of the word “ SAFETY  “. Yes you can Google it to find the exact meaning but it depends how you interpret those definitions.

I think there is an unique meaning to “safety on the road” and it is to harmoniously share the roads with all the other users. Mutual understanding and respect it is an essential part of road safety. Each road users, depending on the vehicle, has different requirements in terms of speed, spaces, blind spots etc and we should always be aware of it.

Also, it is very important to avoid reacting to any challenges or confrontations that you might encounter from other road users. It is important to remember that this might end up putting you on the wrong side of the law.

Hence, “ EDUCATION “ is a key factor. This is the “ GOLDEN KEY “ to prevent accidents happening.

Why?

Because by reading & understanding the road codes and signs you will be aware of what you are allowed or not allowed to do while riding your bike on a public road. This will make you an educated cyclist who rides safely and in respect of the codes and other road users.

Awareness courses should be available to all the road users with chances to swap roles on the road to understand more the various dangers for both parties.

Accident free roads is in the public interest and I believe that awareness courses should be organised and funded by local councils or any other agencies that could benefit from it.

Finally, the last and hardest part of the S.E.A. method is “ACTION “.

It should be the easiest point, but the human being by default becomes complaisant after a short period of time.

A little explanation for the latter point is that when we attend courses, we learn something new which we practice immediately. Unfortunately, we don’t always continue practising it and we can slip into bad habits.

Therefore we all need to act responsibly while on the road which means putting into practice all the above, always remembering we are sharing the road with many other users, always following road codes and refraining form confrontations. Let’s just remember that, as per the “Second Law of Newton”, to each action there is a reaction.

Even if you follow all of the above sometimes things can go wrong anyway… Our friends at Your Legal Friend can support you on any cycle crash claim https://www.yourlegalfriend.com/types-of-claim/road-accidents/cycling-accidents/
 

Be Safe on the Road We Only Live Once.

Stefano

The Best Cities to Cycle in 2018,Part 1.

Ciao a tutti,

We will start a series of tips about cycling in Cities and telling about this is a special guest is Flora Dallas,she is a content writer for Fat Lama - the world’s fasted growing peer-to-peer rental platform.

Copenhagen, Denmark

The prevalence of the cycling culture in Scandinavia make it hard to pick out a clear winner, however, if one had to choose, Copenhagen probably takes the biscuit as the ultimate city-cycle experience. You can explore one of the most picturesque harbours in Europe, via the 454 km of cycle tracks. In fact it is so popular that whole infrastructure in place to promote cycling - with bikes being given traffic light preference in rush hour, cycle only bridges and superhighways all in place. In fact cycling is so popular here that only 29% of households even own cars!  

Cambridge, UK

If you are planning an easy city break ‘staycation’ then you could do a lot worse than exploring the ancient colleges, parks and, of course, punting in Cambridge. Though the UK is perhaps not as up to date as their Scandinavian counterparts when it comes to cycling; Cambridge is truly the exception, as its high proportion of students and flat landscape have cultivated a long history of cycling as the primary means of transport. Indeed, you will find it easy to navigate with 30% of the city being traffic free and over 80 miles of cycle tracks to play with. If you do not want the hassle of taking your bike on such a short trip, you can always borrow bikes locally and cheaply from people nearby on peer-to-peer rental sites like Fat Lama.

Chicago, USA

If you are looking for a US city break with a cycling twist then look no further! Chicago with its famous Millenium Park and Navy Pier, make it an ideal candidate for cycle exploration. What’s more, it has the infrastructure to back it up, having undertaken some major cycle improvements in recent years through the Loop Link transport project. Currently, it has over 200 miles of cycle paths in place (set to rise to over 600 by 2020) plus the 18.5 mile lake front trail, making it the cycle-friendly major city in the US.

Until next time stay safe on the road.

GDPR....Data Protection Laws 25th May 2018

Dear SaddleDrunkers,

I don’t want to bore you with copious amount of emails that you probably already received, therefore a polite reminder might be worth it sharing with you. 

With the revision of the (GDPR) Data Protection Laws starting today, we wanted to touch base with our customers to highlight the direction we are taking.

As detailed within our Terms and Conditions, all data is held is at company level and at no time is it available to any other organisation.  

As you have selected to opt in to subscribe in our newsletter and have an ongoing relationship with us, we can continue to work in the same way as we do now after May 25th.

If you don’t want to receive any longer our communications, you need to follow a simple step which is to unsubscribe.

Should you have any queries or want to see or amend the details we hold on your company, please do not hesitate to contact us..

Kind Regards & Have a good weekend.

Be Safe on the Rides!!

Stefano

The Passionate Italian Weekend

Aprile 2018

Ciao a Tutti,

It has been a long time that I have not written something about Cycling Experiences to share with all our followers.

AYRTON SENNA MEMORIAL

I will try not to bore you too much.

Few weekends ago a group of 16 from the SaddleDrunk Cycling Friends Club ( join us on Strava via this link ) went for a long weekend in Faenza, Emilia Romagna, Italy, Europe, Planet Earth.

They flew out early friday morning from the beautiful London to Bologna, capital of the some of the best Italian food…Like Bolognese Sauce the way it is called outside Italy,  Ragu another good one, Cappelletti, Tortellini, Ravioli , Tortelli, la “ “Mortazza” (Mortadella) & much more…not to mention that Bologna host the oldest university in Europe….

Agriturismo La Sabbiona

SD staff & I pick them up from the airport and whisked them away to Imola to have an amazing lunch inside the tragically famous Formula 1 race track  where 2 pilots lost their lifes long time ago…RIP Ratzenberg & Senna where we visited their memorials. Really a big touch feeling for me as I saw it with my eyes that tremendous weekend…

OK!!..let’s get a grip and bang on Cycling…We got to the lovely Agriturismo La Sabbiona, after check & prepared out bikes we headed out to the lovely Brisighella a Medieval town.

Local Delicacies

After our lovely ride in the hills to get new fresh oxygen in our lungs, plenty of fun during the ride including a lovely crash in the first downhill.

We refreshed ourselves & headed out to Town for a meal in a traditional Osteria.

Osteria la Sghisa as usual made us feeling at home with their friendly staff and the astonishing food where we partied until late to celebrate Laura's Birthday.

Laura's Gluten Free cake

The Saturday, we woke up gently by the sounds of the "Galletto" in the farm.Followed up by an Italian & Intercontinental breakfast fuelling up for our day on the bike. 

We spent all day on a bike touring around the hills and preparing for the Granfondo Le Cime Di Romagna 2018 the following day organised by the Gruppo Sportivo Ciclistico Avis Faenza.

Local Art

In the evening we had another amazing meal at Casa Spadoni where everyone was able to enjoy more culinary delicacies from the area of Emilia Romagna. 

Italian Style Aperitif Time

A team photo at the feed station!!

The Sunday morning we had an early wake due to the 7:30 start of the event.The 3 various distances were perfect for the different group abilities. The distance covered were Corto, Medio & Lungo. 

Everyone had great fun,and we all enjoyed the “LOCAL’s” attentions, the friendly event’s staff,the well organised event and routes and the well stocked feed stations.

We were awarded 2 trophies due to be the furthest team. The trophies were a really long & thick      “ SALAMI “ and a big ceramic vase from one of the local ceramist in Faenza.

Faenza is very well known in the world thanks to be the home of Ceramics.

Prize Ceremony to be the farthest travelled Team.

The last day of our trip was a realxing day where we had a really slow where we enjoyed our breakfast.

Our local host Serena owner of La Sabbiona, prepared our class room with flour,eggs, rolling pins, chef’s hat & all other items needed to complete the cooking course.

At the end of the course all the “students” were able to eat the food made during the class & well earned after sweating.

As the weekend was more than amazing, we will make this an annual event for the club.Therefore if you like to be part of just join us at ride@saddledrunk.com

I hope you enjoyed the reading and remember to be safe on the road.

Ciao

SD 

Setting new best FTP's while making Pasta.

BLINKERS

Zurich, CH.

Velohub, a Swiss start-up based in Zürich that specialises in developing smart technology for cyclists, is today pleased to announce the launch of its first product, Blinkers. Blinkers is a new smart lighting system that makes the urban cyclist visible, predictable and respected by everyone else on the road. The smart lighting system including front, rear and laser lighting is available to buy from www.blinkers.bike with prices starting from £89/€99/$120

Cycle use has been increasing in the UK with 1.9 million people cycling every day and more people cycling at least once a week. With so many bikes and 71% riding on roads, safety is paramount as cyclists are among the most vulnerable users of the road. Using two wheels to balance, no chassis to protect them and only able to communicate by hand with other vehicles, they are often left in risky situations particularly when riding in a busy city. With cars and bikes always struggling to share the road together, the concept behind Blinkers is to allow cyclists to communicate with fellow road users more efficiently and become a more natural part of the road.

Along with communication benefits, Blinkers aims to be the next generation of bike lights by giving cyclists the ability to use extra safety functionalities including turning indicators, brake lights and laser projection with a simple remote control. With two-thirds of cyclists’ injuries or fatalities occurring at, or near, a road junction with T-junctions and roundabouts being the most commonly involved, the benefits of turning indicators is clear and a safety precaution that should prevent confusion and give all road users peace of mind.

Blinkers smart lighting works in many of the same ways that road users are already familiar with, allowing a smooth transition for all on the road. The Blinkers indicate the direction of the turn the cyclist is taking, by blinking to the right or to the left, with the rear Blinker using a red light that becomes more intense when the cyclist is braking. The laser set allows users to project half a circle on the ground, which will increase visibility during the night and to give cars a better understanding of the cyclists’ positioning on the road and the space the cyclist requires. All of these features are controlled by a wireless remote control on the handlebar of the bike to make the communication and use as simple as possible.

The lights can be charged by USB and are designed to be used for approximately 20 hours. They can be put on any bike with universal attachments on the handlebar, the saddle and the rack. Blinkers can be easily removed from the bike due to a magnetic system, so that users can take them off whenever the bike is locked or left unattended. The system works with radiofrequency and a light on the remote control indicates when the Blinkers should be charged so that cyclists will be aware of when the battery is running low.

Previously, Blinkers was on Kickstarter in June 2016 and gained support from over 500 backers, including from within the UK, raising over €50,000. The feedback from both backers and beta testers was overwhelmingly positive with one backer, Elaine, commenting: "How come this kind of product hasn’t come out before? I am so looking forward to receiving mine, roads here in the UK are everything but safe". Beta testing of the Blinkers solution confirmed that cyclists found it easy to use and intuitive.

Electricbikereport.com also tested a pre-production model of Blinkers and though it wasn’t the finalised version, stated, “Blinkers are the best indicators I’ve tested yet. They are practical and work pretty much as you would expect.”

Since the completion of the campaign, Velohub has partnered with Zühlke Engineering and Sapetti Design studios to craft a premium quality product and improve Blinkers even further for users, in terms of functionality, durability, user-friendliness and design. After over a year of product development and negotiating with suppliers and manufacturers, Blinkers has finally hit the UK market with a full solution that aims to be the new essential piece of kit for road cyclists. It is being produced in Switzerland and in Spain (assembled in the European Union).

Blinkers are available in the 4 different packages from £89/€99/$120 for the rear light without laser, to £175/€199/$240 for a complete safety solution (the rear and front light with laser), shipping included from www.blinkers.bike.

About Velohub

Velohub is a bike accessory developer based in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 2016, Velohub launched its first product, Blinkers, at the end of 2017, and thousands of cyclists around the world are already using it. Velohub’s vision is to develop a full portfolio of products that deliver intelligent solutions for urban cyclists that are not only safety related, but also user experience related.