Enhanced 'Bike Trivia Quiz' page

I've souped up the Bike Quiz (originally posted here on 12 and 13 January) with a bit of JavaScript and put it on a new stand-alone web page. If you haven't done it, it's a fine way to waste a coffee break.

Enhanced 'Are you a real cyclist' page

I've enhanced the 'Are you a real cyclist?' quiz.

It's now on a new page on my bizarrebiking.com site, with pictures and automated push-button scoring.

And, incidentally, I see from today's Sunday Times that comedian and impressionist Alistair McGowan is a cyclist. Apparently he cycles seven miles to work and back every day.

Let's hope that if we ever happen to be stopped next to each other at the lights, he doesn't say to me 'Oy, you're that bloke that edits the website for the British Library, aren'cha? Go on, do a bit of JavaScript for us.'

New Year Bike Quiz 2 of 2

The second part of yesterday's quiz.

QUESTIONS...

11 According to a survey by Cycling England in September 2008, 64 per cent of women (right) never cycle. What was the main reason (cited by over half of them)?
A Didn't want to arrive at work sweaty
B Helmets would ruin hairstyle
C Partner didn't like it
D Worried about getting lost

12 How many cycling golds did Britain win at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing?

13 In 1954 a young man got into boxing accidentally when his bike was stolen. Furious, he found a police officer who happened to be a boxing coach, who persuaded him to take up boxing to channel his aggression. Who was the young man?

14 Which band released the single Bicycle Race in 1978, which featured a large photo of several dozen nude women cyclists?

15 What links Oscar Pereiro, Alberto Contador, and Carlos Sastre?

16 A classic 1948 Italian realist film about the search for a stolen bicycle was re-released in December 2008. What is the title?

17 Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset (above right), is famous for what cycling reason?
A Thomas Hardy broke his leg riding down it
B Dropped at last minute from Tour of Britain in 2008
C Setting for a TV advert
D Olympic cyclists Bradley Wiggins was born there

18 In 2006 Bath University researcher Ian Walker studied the space given by cars overtaking cyclists, and concluded that which one of the following is safer than wearing a helmet?
A Sign on bike saying 'KEEP BACK'
B Cycling on pavement
C Using lights in daylight
D Wearing a long blonde wig

19 England's biggest body of water (right) has a traffic-free bike path all round it. What county is it in?

20 Which of the following is illegal?
A Breaking the speed limit on a bike
B Refusing a breathalyser test while cycling
C Riding two abreast
D Cycling to church on Christmas Day


...ANSWERS
11. A was the chief worry. C, however, was also a concern, followed by D. More
12. Eight. More
13. Cassius Clay, now Muhammad Ali. More
14. Queen. More
15. Tour de France winners 2006, 2007, 2008. More
16. The Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette). More
17. C. The Hovis advert was filmed there in 1971. More - Ad on YouTube
18. D. The wig suits you. More
19. Rutland. More
20. *Updated 3 Feb 2009* All of them. The Holy Days Act 1551 said you must go to church on Christmas Day, and you must walk, but was repealed in 1969 (I'm told). Nothing wrong with the others.

New Year Bike Quiz 1 of 2

We spent New Year's Eve with friends in Cambridge. Everyone there was a cyclist, so part of the entertainment was this bike quiz I put together. Here are the first ten questions; remaining ten tomorrow. Answers at the bottom.

Rebecca and Jane's team won, with 14 out of 20.

QUESTIONS...

1 What is special about the 35km long cycle path (top right) started in 2007 along the coast of Doha, Qatar?
A Solar-powered fans provide tailwinds
B It's air-conditioned
C Magnets underneath track propel special cycles
D Only place in UAE you are actually allowed to cycle


2 According to the sign at its bottom, the B6138 (Cragg Vale, right) in Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, is England's longest what??

3 The world's longest cycle trail, which will be 21,500km long when complete, is currently 70 per cent there. Where does it go?
A Newfoundland to Vancouver
B Moscow to Kamchatka
C Seattle to Panama City
D All around Japan's Honshu coast

4 In June 1904, something happened to 47-year-old English composer Edward Elgar (below right) that was so exciting, he cycled round to tell all his friends and relatives, including a 50 mile round trip to his dad's house. What?

5 Whose last words, in a landmark 1968 film, were 'a bicycle built for two', from the song Daisy Bell?

6 Bicycles feature prominently in which magic-realist Irish novel, written in 1940 but not published till 1967, including the theory that interchange of atoms between machines and their owners over time turn people into bicycles?

7 Who was the last US President to have a cycling accident?

8 There are approximately 500 million cars in the world. How many bicycles?

9 At the 1974 West Coast Cyclocross championships in Marin County, California, Russ Mahon competed using what's now considered to be one of the world's first what?

10 Which of the following happened to Conservative leader and cyclist David Cameron in 2008?
A The Daily Mirror filmed him going the wrong way up a one-way street en route to Parliament
B The Guardian revealed that a van driver tried to push him off his bike
C His bike was stolen outside Tesco's in Portobello Road
D He apologised for his unintended centre parting in Parliament, caused by his helmet

...ANSWERS
1. B. Solar-powered panels provide a mist of cooled water. More
2. The longest continuous gradient - in other words, the longest road freewheel downhill (or longest uphill). More
3. A. It's the Trans Canada Trail. More
4. He had just received news of his knighthood. He cycled from his home at Craeg Lea, Malvern, to his dad's house in Bromsgrove. See Allen, K.: Elgar the Cyclist (Malvern: Aldine Press, 1997), pp.39-41
5. HAL9000, the maverick computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. More
6. Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman. More
7. As of January 2009, it was George W Bush, who crashed into a policeman at the G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005. More
8. One billion is the figure quoted by Wikipedia, though there are no reliable sources for it. More
9. Mountain bike. More
10. All of them. More: A, B, C, D

Questions 11-20 tomorrow.