Finishing maintenance that I started last week

After last week's service, today I got around to finishing the job.

There is a universal joint in the steering column. It's made with a plastic block which provides a low friction and low weight method building a universal joint, but it's a part which wears over time and introduces a bit of play. In my Mango there was now a bit too much play, so it was time to replace this part.

It's very easy to do. You just take out the two bolts which hold it in place, remove one block and put the other in its place. However, I thought I'd take a few photos to show what happens to the block.

The photos show the old and new blocks next to each other.

By the time I took mine out, the play was really a bit much. I should have done this a while ago. However, you can see that there was no danger of the steering column actually coming off. I don't think it's possible for it to get to that stage.

The play comes not because the holes in the block wear larger, but due to the sides wearing down so that they are no longer flat. They rub against the aluminium of the steering column, which is harder than this plastic block, so it is just the replaceable block which wears out.

I also went on the huneliggers ride this morning. Peter and Harry were waiting at the start point and the three of us set off together in our Mangos through the Drents countryside.

This particular path is new and it was the first time we'd ridden along it. Lovely smooth concrete for cycling through a very pretty area of countryside. It'll be a part of this year's cycling holiday routes.

One of the recreational paths that we used was a bit soft. It's got an environmentally sensitive surface, which is fair enough for what it is and where it is - through a large heath area.

Normally this surface works well enough. However, after a lot of rain and a few freeze and thaw cycles it was so soft that our tyres sank into it a bit and made it rather nasty to ride on. A couple of km of this reduced our average speeds somewhat, but this is a touring ride, not a race, and the scenery is lovely here.

Peter got a puncture in his rear tyre, which gives an opportunity to write about repairing punctures on a Mango. Happily it doesn't take long to sort this problem out. You just find somewhere soft that you can roll the Mango on its side without damage, and take off the tyre and inner tube.

This can be done without having to take the wheel out, as all three wheels on a Mango are mounted on one side only, whichever gearing option you have.

Note also that the chain cannot be seen. It's safely within the bike, and stays clean. Because of this, you don't get oily hands when doing this job, either.

I'd done the same with mine before leaving home. As you can see, there's no snow and ice today, so I'd swapped back to my extremely puncture proof Schwalbe Marathon Plus rear tyre. I like these in wet conditions because I've never ever had a puncture with them.

In the Netherlands, the main cause of punctures seems to be this sort of small and sharp stone. Peter has a Schwalbe Marathon Racer on his rear wheel. It's relatively puncture resistant for a fast tyre, but it wasn't quite enough against this particular stone. I like Marathon Racers, but for me they're a summer tyre.
Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.

Policy and Progress in Assen

A little while ago I wrote about how the cycling rate in Assen had reached 41% of journeys. Today I was asked by another blogger if I had some other figures to go with this, and found that the link in the old article no longer worked.

While looking for the original web-page on the Assen local government website, I found a different article, the "Sustainability Vision" document. This document, dating from July 2009, gives a picture of how the local area is performing on environmental and sustainability issues, and how it will attempt to improve its performance between 2010 and 2015.


Last year, Assen made a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2020 and some of the ways in which this will be achieved are detailed in this document. As such, a very wide range of green issues are discussed in the document. However, it also includes some numbers on cycling, and that's what I'll write about below:

At the bottom of page 15 there is a discussion about how energy must be saved with public lighting. Assen has been installing LED street lights on roads and on cycle paths. There is discussion here about trying out dynamic lighting in Assen as well on cycle paths and smaller roads. This saves energy by turning the lights to full only when they are needed.

On page 18 there is a section about sustainable transport. Here we find out that "The central ambition with regard to mobility is that transport in Assen is by bike". There are figures about the present day: "At present, in Noord Nederland (the three provinces of Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen combined), 50% of all journeys are by car, 3% by public transport, 30% by bike and the remainder (17%) are by foot". It goes on to explain that "around 40% of journeys in Assen are by bike" and "Assen promotes growth of cycle traffic at the expense of car traffic".

The next page is headed "Assen Fietsstad" - "Assen Cycle City". Here, the introduction says that "for journeys within the city, journey times by bike must be competitive with journey times by car." I've noted before that this is usually the case. You see fewer traffic lights if you travel by bike than by car, and where there are still traffic lights, these are designed to make cycling as convenient as possible. For instance, you can turn right on red. Some of them default to green for bikes.

Under "Ambition", it says "The bike is the most used means of transport for residents of Assen. In the past, development always emphasized the convenience of the motorist. New developments are designed starting with the bike. The realisation of a safe cycle route network of good quality, improvements in the attractiveness of use of bikes and improvements in directness, safety and comfort are central. By 2015, so many journeys as possible must be by bike. Bikes must more frequently take priority over cars."

Underneath this are a number of examples of what needs to be done:

• The primary cycle route network must be further improved and the secondary network must make a qualititive leap
• New business and residential areas are easy to reach by bike
• The bike can compete with the car if it flows freely. Traffic lights must be set up to give the bike higher priority than the car.
• Where possible, roads which currently emphasize the car must be changed to emphasize bikes and tolerate cars.
• Dangers for cyclists must be removed.
• Bike signage must be improved.
• Better cycle parking is needed.
• More secure cycle parks are needed. In order for these to be favourable for cycle use, they must be free of charge.
• The city grants subsidies for cycle parking at businesses and schools.
• The city encourages the use of fiscal schemes to encourage cycling.
• Drenthe is a province with much recreational cycling. Access to the area for recreational cyclists from within the area is as important as for those from outside the area.
• For recreational cyclists, a touring route around Assen will be created. More connections are needed which get past existing obstructions such as the A28 (motorway), Canal and railway line.

Assen has featured many other times on this blog. And this is indeed a wonderful area for recreational cycling. Many examples of how cyclists are prioritized have already featured on this blog.

Assen provides an example in this blog post, but it's not alone. Other Dutch cities are also working hard in much the same way. It's quite competitive.

The photo at the top shows a view of part of the centre of the city on a Saturday. There are a lot of racks in the city centre, but they were already full and not one of these bikes is in a rack. 400 more cycle parking spaces are promised in this area. It may well not be enough. If the link in this article fails, it's also now at webcite (thanks, Daniel).

Ice-Bat racing

The Ice-Bat is a new recumbent trike for winter competition. It uses a propeller and skates to run on ice-rinks. Good speeds can be achieved like this, with no damage to the surface of the ice.

It was invented by Steve Ellis, another British person living here in Assen.

I featured the original prototype a few months back.

The prototype first tested the concept of running with a propeller. It was based on a Sinner Comfort recumbent trike and ran on wheels. Steve later moved on to parts of the Comfort on skates as a proof of concept. This rode well enough that it was worth going further.

Now the first two production Ice-Bats have been completed by Steve working with Sinner Ligfietsen. These are lower than the prototype, and have a proper propeller designed for the speeds of the Ice-bat mounted somewhat more rigidly than on the prototype.

The machines will be racing here in Assen on Saturday at De Bonte Wever - our local ice-skating circuit.

Wednesday morning update. Another test ride:

Stop the Child Murder

I often get asked what can be done to increase the cycling rate in countries outside the Netherlands. It's often noted that there is little government or public enthusiasm for spending even small amounts of money on the small number of people who are currently cyclists.

I think it's a good idea to look at what worked in the Netherlands.

Cycling in the Netherlands declined sharply in the post-second world war period. In the 1950s and 1960s, existing cycle paths were in many cases removed in order to make space for more cars. "From 1950 to 1975, the bicycle was almost entirely excluded from the government's vision"(Dutch Bicycle Master Plan 1999). The number of deaths on the roads rose, especially amongst children on their way to and from school. In 1972, a total of 3264 people were killed on Dutch roads, and at around the same time, in 1973, 450 road deaths were of children.

Note that this was a long struggle. The
photo shows Minister Zeevalking
receiving information from protestors
in 1982. (wikimedia)

1973 was also the year that the pressure group "Stop de Kindermoord" ("Stop the Child Murder") started. The object of this group was to point out the number of deaths caused to children and to campaign to reduce them. They successfully influenced the Dutch government to re-emphasize building of segregated cycle paths, and to make money available to pay for them. This resulted in both a rise in cycling and a reduction in cyclist deaths, reversing the previous trend. It has been a success not only for child cyclists, but for all cyclists, and indeed for the population as a whole.

There is a lesson here for other countries. I'll take Britain as an example.

It is difficult to campaign for better conditions for "cyclists" in Britain. Cyclists are a minority group, and not a very well liked minority at that. Cyclists can be considered to be an out-group. This is a large part of why it is that cycling initiatives come and go in Britain. There's no real emphasis placed on results because too few people see it as important. When cyclists in Britain are hit by cars, they get very little sympathy from the public at large.

Campaigning for child safety is different. Very different. Children are not a minority group. Most families include children, all adults used to be children. Child safety is an issue which is important to everyone and difficult to ignore. All parents want their children to be safe.

It is clear that there is a problem with child safety on the roads in the UK. This is the underlying reason why it is that children are increasingly being driven to school. It is the reason why American style school buses are proposed for British kids, and even the reason why someone made the news for driving with his walking child on the school run. When British parents attack traffic wardens next to a school, they even do this in part out of concern for the safety of their own children. These are not solutions to the problem, but they are reactions to it. They demonstrate that parents are not remotely happy with the roads as they are.

Campaigners often talk about there being a suppressed demand for cycling in Britain. It's true. There is. When I was a campaigner in the UK, many people would tell me that they were very keen to take up cycling, but for one reason or another.

However, the suppressed demand for conditions in which children are safe on the streets is very much greater. This is what any campaigner who wants to see mass cycling return to the UK ought to be campaigning about. Get parents on your side and there will be a mass move to change infrastructure and improve conditions.

I can see the responses from a certain element of the cycling community in the UK. i.e. those who are concerned about being "forced" to use sub-standard shared-use paths next to the road. However, this is all part of the problem. Sub-standard facilities are of no use to anyone. Not only are they no good for confident adults to cycle on, but they will also never provide the level of subjective safety required for British parents to think their children are safe on a bike. I've seen many examples of what happens in Britain. Planners think that if they provide a couple of hundred metres of astonishingly bad quality shared use next to a school that they've actually done something. People afterwards ask why it is that such facilities are not used. The answer is very simple: they are not usable. The quality is much too low. Tokenism isn't the answer.

It's a grave mistake to think that low quality off road provision "for slow and inexperienced cyclists" is all that is needed, and that "fast cyclists" will always be better off on the road. If separate infrastructure is not good enough for a confident adult to use then it's not good enough for kids to ride to school on either.

The differences between British and Dutch streets are very easy to see. They're actually almost exactly the same as the differences between Dutch streets in the 1970s and now. i.e. British streets now resemble Dutch streets 40 years ago. It's not actually all that expensive to achieve such a transition - it simply takes a consistent policy over years.

Road casualties in the Netherlands have dropped steeply, even as cycling rates have risen. Now approximately 720 people per year die on Dutch roads. 180 of them are cyclists, and 22 of those are children. The cycling figures may sound high, but they are in part a reflection of the number of cycle journeys made. The Dutch now experience an overall risk which is less than a quarter of that in 1973, and for children it's now a twentieth of that in 1973. Dutch cyclists are now the safest in the world. Of course, the campaign goes on to reduce the figures.

Meanwhile, British roads have become safer for drivers, but they have not achieved such good results for vulnerable road users. It would only take about fifteen years to turn this around, following which even better plans can be made.

Between 1972 and 2013, fatalities on the roads dropped
dramatically in the Netherlands. Child fatalities have
reduced to just 2% of the previous level.

2014 update
Since this blog post was written, Dutch roads have continued to get safer. In 2013, there were a total of 570 road deaths in the Netherlands, just nine of whom were under 15. Five were child cyclists, four were child pedestrians. Even one death may be seen as too many, but this is still startling progress over the peak in the early 1970s.

How success was achieved
Note that this great success in improved safety was achieved with children still cycling en-masse, and without distractions such as bicycle helmets. The improvement in safety came due to improving the infrastructure which people use. The Netherlands now has an extensive grid of high quality cycling infrastructure which covers the nation. This doesn't only serve children, but all cyclists and cycling is safer in the Netherlands than in any other nation.

In 1989, "Stop de Kindermoord" changed its name to "Kinderen Voorrang" ("Priority for children"). In 2001 they became part of the larger road safety campaign, 3VO / Veilig Verkeer Nederland ("Safe Traffic Netherlands") who continue to campaign for lower road deaths. The statue in the photo is "Fietsles" ("cycling lesson"), by Kees Verkade. It's in Groningen, here.

Do you want to know more about the history of cycling in the Netherlands, read more stories tagged with history and the articles linked from here, particularly The Dutch Master Plan 1999. There are also many stories about school travel. Also another post referred to current work of Veilig Verkeer Nederland.

I recommend also reading responses to this post by Karl McCracken, Dave Warnock and NicoleP.

12000 km service

My Mango reached 12000 km last week. I thought it about time I gave it a service...

The Mango has a fully enclosed drive-chain. This is a very important feature for a velomobile. Because abrasive dirt stays on the outside of the body, maintenance is very low compared with most bicycles. All that's needed for a long life with little hassle is that you regularly oil the chain (a few drops every 500 km) and wipe off any excess. You also need to put a couple of drops of oil into the top of the suspension struts. Some people have ridden as much as 40000 km on their first chain by taking care like this. I was a bit more lax with the regular oiling and just managed 12000 km. However, this is still a very good chain life. Chains exposed to the elements will often last only a quarter so long.

Testing with a chain wear checking tool (new chain above, old chain below) it was apparent that my main chain had "stretched" a little beyond the point where I should already have replaced it. To say a chain has "stretched" is a little misleading. The metal does not stretch. What actually happens is that abrasive dust gets inside the bearings in the chain links themselves, wearing it out from the inside. The result is that chain no longer fits the chainrings correctly and it starts to wear them out. Also efficiency is lost. However, all this happens later and to a lesser extent if your drive-chain stays clean.

I replaced the existing KMC chain with brand new SRAM 9 speed chain.

I had a brand new cassette ready to replace the old one. I took apart the old cassette and looked at each sprocket individually. The photo shows the most worn tooth of the most worn sprocket on top of its new replacement. This tooth is where the sprocket is narrowed in order to make shifting easier, but which also means that this tooth wears out quicker than most. However, there is almost no wear at all. That's really very impressive. It helps a lot that the cassette is mounted inside the body, away from any dirt. The front chainrings were also not worn.

The second chain in the Mango uses 3/32" chain, but an 8 speed chain will do in this locations, so I used a PC-830. This chain was really only half worn, but I replaced it anyway. As you can see, the teeth on this sprockets for the rear chain barely have any wear at all. Even most of the paint remains on the sprocket on the intermediate drive.

The idler wheel under the seat looked a bit rough. The plastic from which it was made has actually distorted. That curvature is real, not just an artifact of the photo. Perhaps this was due to the effect of oil on the plastic. However, I'm not complaining. This was a prototype idler from Alligt, made of softer plastic than the production versions. The teeth on the wheel inside folded over quite soon, and the wheel itself had actually started to deform quite quickly. I rode with it for a whole year because I wanted to see how long it would last. While it looked bad, it didn't fail. Actually, it still works just fine except that the deformation has got bad enough that it now rubs against the bracket which it was mounted on. The replacement is the new design of idler from Alligt.

There's now quite a bit of play in my steering so I also need a new plastic block for the universal joint. That will come from the Ligfietsgarage next week.

To check your transmission you need just the chain wear checking tool. To replace it you need chains and other parts available here. For a main chain of the Mango you need about 2.5 normal chains (buy 3 the first time you do the job, and you may need just 2 the second time) and for the secondary chain you need just one.

I'm looking forward to more adventures over the next 12000 km, but shouldn't have to do much maintenance.
Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.

Cyclists' Special

Way back in 1955, this popular film was made of cycling in Britain:

Part two can be viewed on youtube

It's a great film. I find it interesting to see that once-upon-a-time, British Rail bent over itself to make taking bicycles on trains easy even occasionally for large groups - this film was made by an organisation which existed specifically to make films like this.

Britain was a very different place when this film was made. It was normal to cycle. When that film was shot, in 1955, British people still each cycled an average of over 350 km per year, a figure very similar to modern day Germany, and about a third of that now in the Netherlands. This was a time when people travelled in total a lot less than they do now so these are significant figures. British people made these bicycle journeys over the very same landscape as where many people now make excuses about hills and the weather to explain the current low cycling rate in the UK:

Many British people don't realise that even within their own lifetime, before motoring took over from everything else, it was quite normal for all sorts of people to ride bikes for everyday journeys.

Of course, the group in the film aren't entirely average. They're cycle-tourists, and have relatively fancy bikes. You can see that from the dropped handlebars (British touring bikes traditionally have dropped handlebars, usually set a little higher than most racers would have them) and from the derailleur gears which many of them have.

"Hills or headwind don't put me off,
A Sturmey Archer hub gives wings to my bike."

The film was made a time of transition, when tourists started to use derailleurs instead of the same three speed Sturmey Archer hub gears as normal everyday bikes had. Yes, those hills were once ridden on bikes with three gears, and little was made of it. In fact, contemporary advertisements tended to stress how easy it was to climb a hill with the luxury of three gears.

The change in British attitudes regarding cycling took place over many years. Rather like the proverbial frog in a pan of boiling water, many people didn't notice what was taking place around them. Drivers in Britain, who have had the infrastructure of the entire country altered to suit them, now quite commonly believe that they are the victims of a "war on the motorist". Indeed, the government has just taken more steps to placate them.

Meanwhile, many British cycle campaigners have continued to campaign for the same thing as they always have. i.e. the "right to ride on the road", even though those roads have become a far more hostile place for cyclists than they used to be, and decades of campaigning on these same issues have not resulted in any progress. The reason is quite simple: the over-abundance of motor vehicles makes British roads an unpleasant place to be on a bike. This is now the main reason why people don't cycle.

It makes me very happy to see that there is at last a move in the UK now towards campaigning for the same sort of infrastructural change as prevented the Netherlands from suffering from the same fate as befell the UK. You can find examples of this here, here and here. It took time for the decline to occur, and it will take for cycling to grow back. However, there is enormous pent-up demand, as can be seen anywhere that something attractive to ride on exists.

A change in attitudes can come, but only due to a real change in how it feels to cycle. Go back and look at the people in that film again. There are no reflective vests and no helmets. In 1955 people felt safe on a bike on Britain. Remember what I said about pit canaries a while back ?

The chart appeared in a previous post, but I think it worth repeating in a different context. Another small point: Have you ever seen such a large group on a CTC ride ? Touring cycling thrives when more people cycle. All types of touring are popular over here.

New year cycle

A group of us went out for a huneliggers ride today, as usual on Sunday mornings. It was a bit warmer than two weeks ago, just hovering above freezing point for most of the day.

Wonderful weather for a morning ride in the Mango.

Last week it was quite cold. -8 C when I rode to work on Thursday morning, for instance. However, by New Year's Eve it had warmed up a lot and much of the ice was melted. As a result, we could enjoy the fireworks without getting frozen.


Today started with a very light sprinkling of snow. This meant I could tell in advance that Peter was taking part in the ride, as I followed the three tracks in the snow left by his Mango's wheels between Assen and the starting point.

There were four of us humans today, Anton (who lead the ride), Georg, Peter and myself. Georg brought along his world famous "velodog", Russell.

As usual, we rode through the countryside along cycle paths and minor roads. We were again lucky with the weather - everything looked wonderful. We had some very light snow fall on us for a bit, but it was nothing troublesome.


Our lunch stop was by a lake in the forest. It's not really a touristy spot. In fact, it's really a quarry where sand is extracted (hence the "no entry past this point" sign and the pipes. However, it was completely quiet today and it looked really beautiful.

One energy source on top of another...

I'd not got around to making sandwiches for lunch. However, I had something else: Kendal Mint Cake which my Mum gave me for Christmas. It's perhaps not normally the healthiest thing to eat, with the proud boast on the packet of "350kcal per 100g", however even though we weren't putting in quite so much effort as the British Everest expedition of 1975, it was very enjoyable.

I rode through Kendal back in 2006.


We stayed at the lunch stop for quite a while, talking, admiring the view, enjoying the sun and taking photos.

Most of us wrapped up to stay warm but Russell, like all dogs, seemed to enjoy rolling in the snow.

Last Thursday I had a bit of a fright on the way home from work as I crashed my Mango on black ice. It had been quite cold in the morning, but had warmed up just above freezing in the day, rained a little bit, and then gone back below freezing by the time I left for home. Very dangerous conditions. Even though the gritters were out on the cycle paths and roads before I went home, there were slippery patches.

I found one of these on the way home. I put the brakes on just before a junction on a minor road and my Mango span on the spot, fell over and slid to a halt on snow at the edge of the road. Luckily there was no damage to me or to the bike. When I went to look I could immediately see the cause: Where I'd brakes, there had been ice under the rear wheel and one front wheel, while the other front wheel was still on asphalt. When I got home I fitted a Marathon Winter to the rear wheel of my own Mango and went for a short test ride. In the same treacherous conditions the bike remains in a straight line, whatever is under the wheels when I brake. Much better.

Today was the first proper ride with this rear tyre and I'm very happy with it. Of course, I'll change back to a non-studded tyre when the danger of ice has passed.


After lunch, just as we were starting to cool down a bit, it was time to go, heading through more of the beautiful countryside.

We started off heading North, towards Groningen, which was good for Anton and Georg, but not really the right direction for Peter and I, so after a bit we left the other two and turned towards home.

Just under 65 km in all. Not a long ride, but a very enjoyable one.

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you've also been able to get out on your bikes, whatever weather you have.
Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.