"How long does a bike's edgy, authority-challenging bikeyness survive?"

Even a folded Brompton is not always welcome on a train - at least not if it's a First Great Western InterCity, as reported by Ben Thomas in the Guardians's website.

Origami ride - Febrary 13th - Leamington Spa again !

Our February 13th Origami ride will start in Leamington Spa - more details here. Our January ride from the same place was cancelled because of the dangerous state of the roads - we're hoping the snow and ice have gone by next month.

Oyama folding bikes available in the UK

A range of folding bikes from Oyama, a major folding bike manufacturer based in Taiwan, will be available this year in the UK from Moore Large and Co. Eleven models over four ranges will be available in the UK priced from £299.95 to £899.95. The machines resemble Dahon bikes of the Speed/Vitesse and Mµ ranges and appear to fold in a similar way. Oyama also has distributors in Belgium, Germany, Spain and Greece. The machine pictured is the Crosstown Sports from the Urban Sports range.

Origami ride 9th January - Leamington Spa - inclement weather

We still plan to meet up at the Tea room in the Pump Rooms on Saturday as notified, but will review the conditions for the ride at that time. Currently, we expect to run the ride, but possibly shortened. The ride leader will recce the route on Saturday morning and report on road conditions. Suitable diversions around the canal towpaths of the original ride have been planned.

The current situation is that main roads are clear and cycleable but side roads and cyclepaths are snowy and slippery. This is not expected to change much over the next three days, except for a possible light snow shower on Friday. Saturday is expected to be sunny but cold. The
relevant BBC weather forecast is here.

If it is broadly safe to have a ride we will do so, although each rider should assume responsibility for their own judgement of the conditions vs their abilities.

If we do not have a ride then we will sit around and chat :-)

MBE for Andrew Ritchie

After being awarded the Prince Philip Designers' Prize in October last year Brompton designer Andrew Ritchie has now gone one better having been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for "services to business and to international trade" as reported on the Brompton website.

Origami ride - January 9th - Leamington Spa

Our first Origami ride of 2010 will be from Leamington Spa on January 9th. More details are here, along with an outline of our planned programme of rides.

Happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to all !