One way to avoid punctures: Ski-bikes in Germany

We've just got back from southern Germany, where it was too snowy and icy to cycle.

The Bavarians, though, see such weather as an opportunity rather than a threat. This was what we saw on the local BOB train out of Schliersee. Each carriage here has space for twelve bikes, and about as many snowboards or sets of skis.

Does this count as skis or a bike (picture)? Not sure, but it certainly isn't a wheelchair.

The uncertainty principle of bikes on trains

Is bike space on trains being made smaller on some services, or is my bike getting bigger? I'm not sure. This was the bike space on this East Midlands service between London and Sheffield the other day - a hoover-size cubbyhole beneath a cupboard.

Thanks to the bar-ends, my bike wouldn't fit, and spent the journey rolling around and falling over like a Top Gear presenter at a canapes'n'wine product launch. And was about as entertaining*.


Still, we spotted something positive at Swindon. I'd never seen a sign like this before, telling you which end of the train the bike space on the London-bound train was going to be.


And why can't they put bike-space information on the electronic signboards? At some stations, such as Doncaster with its Heisenberg-like uncertainty of bike-carriage location, this would save massive stress. When the London-bound train comes in there, even the platform staff don't know which end your bike should go. Which means that half the time you guess wrong and have to sprint to the other end.

That really is Heisenberg, isn't it? You know the momentum but not the position? Maybe not. You can't be certain about anything these days.

* Only joking. TG's James May is, of course, a Real Cyclist himself, often seen on his Brompton.

Rail stations: Only a wee problem with a folder

So there you are, with a laden bike at a railway station, desperate for a wee. It's a right pain in the bladder: you have to wheel your bike to the racks at platform 19, lock it up, take off your luggage, cart it to the toilets at platform 1, and eventually return to platform 19 for your bike, by which time your train has gone anyway.

But with a Brompton, no problem: you just take it into the toilet with you, like this chap at Victoria the other day. (And if you can afford a Brompton, then six shillings to spend a penny is presumably not a problem.)

Thames Crossings 10: Fulham Railway Bridge

Downriver from Putney Bridge is Fulham Railway Bridge. It dates from 1889 and has a footpath, accessed by three or four flights of steep metal steps at either end. Not a problem for featherweight fixies, but no easy task on a solid tourer with panniers full of shopping.

Past the bridge, on the north side it's wiggly roads up to Wandsworth Bridge. On the south side it's cycle paths towards and through Wandsworth Park, and then wiggly roads to Wandsworth Bridge.