Hosted by David Bernstein & Carlton Reid since 2006 Posts

October 27, 2022 / / Blog

27th October 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 310: Cycling legends roundtable with Mark Cavendish, Oscar Freire, Adam Blythe, Johan Museeuw & Matt Stephens

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUESTS: Mark Cavendish, Oscar Freire, Adam Blythe, Johan Museeuw & Matt Stephens

TOPIC: This roundtable discussion was recorded at LeBlanq’s Joyride in Ibiza

LINKS: LeBlanq

October 10, 2022 / / Blog

10th October 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 309: Old crew is back

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: David Bernstein

GUESTS: Tim Jackson, Donna Tocci, Jim Moss, Carlton Reid

TOPICS:

  • What is everyone up to these days?
  • The Hour Record
  • UCI Gravel Worlds
  • Cycling Tips Reporter Disallowed From Worlds in Australia
  • UCI Changes Rule to Combat Aero Advantages in Time Trials
  • Official at Finishing Line Gets Handsy with Lorena Wiebes
  • National Cycling League
  • Electric Bikes

David says:

Tim says:

  • UCI Gravel Worlds
  • UCI is “sport washing” some bad actors, still/ again/ as always … (link?)Can’t I just rail, as always? (TIM- part of a Twitter dialog, with Joe Lindsey, I’ll try to find. Lapartient gave a tepid response to reporter’s question about risk of sportwashing- basically, “we need the money.”)
  • Bike market is auguring like a lawn dart. (???)
  • e-Bikes are here to stay, even as Rad Power Bikes is getting sued into extinction, battery fires are making the news, Florida hurricane Ian e-bikes represent a huge fire risk through the damage/ flood zones … (David loves his eMTB) ?

Jim Says:

My truck last night bringing 19 bikes back from the BSA Camporee.

Josh Reid https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvtrjFpGvwkihRfAQxlywYg

October 6, 2022 / / Blog

6th October 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 308: In conversation with Legion’s Justin Williams

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUEST: Justin Williams

TOPICS: On today’s show, six days into Black History Month, Carlton talks about the inspirational 19th century black American professional cycle racer Major Taylor with his modern equivalent, Justin Williams. Like Major Taylor, Justin raced in Europe but unlike Major Taylor he’s entreuprenial, using his Los-Angeles-based Legion racing team, which he founded with his equally fast brother Cory, to increase the diversity of cycling. In this 45-minute chat they talk about Justin’s cycling mad dad and the crazy popular cycling scene of Belize.

LINKS:

https://www.ternbicycles.com

https://www.instagram.com/juswilliamz/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/l39ion.la/

https://www.l39ionla.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Taylor

http://majortaylorassociation.org

https://www.cyclekids.org

https://www.instagram.com/nationsnumber1beast/

https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/stories/legion-of-los-angeles

https://www.instagram.com/ayesuppose/?hl=en

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hook_Crit

https://www.therabody.com

TRANSCRIPT

Carlton Reid 0:13
Welcome to Episode 308 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was engineered on Thursday sixth of October 2022.

David Bernstein 0:27
The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e bikes for every type of rider. Whether you’re commuting, taking your kids to school, or even caring another adult, visit www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n bicycles.com to learn more..

Carlton Reid 1:02
On today’s show, six days into Black History Month, I talk about the inspirational 19th century Black American professional cycle racer Major Taylor with his modern equivalent, Justin Williams. Like major Taylor, Justin raced in Europe, but unlike Major Taylor, he’s entrepreneurial using his Los-Angeles-based Legion racing team, which he founded with his equally fast brother Cort to increase the diversity of cycling. I’m Carlton Reid, and also in this 45 minute chat, we talk about Justin’s cycling mad dad and the crazy popular cycling scene of Belize. Oh, and there’s a short bonus video clip of Justin on the-spokesmen.com because he set up his camera for this chat, even though I didn’t. Okay, first of all, thank you ever so much for for coming on the show and we’re being completely different time zones here so you are 9am Justin, is that right?

Justin Williams 2:12
Yeah 9am

Carlton Reid 2:13
Okay, is that early for you? Is that good or bad?

Justin Williams 2:17
That’s usually right time for me. So I’m typically I typically have breakfast I’m out the door. I’ll try to get out the door at nine. I live in the valley so it gets a little bit hot especially and winding down end of summer so still we still have some pretty intense days

Carlton Reid 2:33
when you think getting out the door that’s for training or that what is that?

Justin Williams 2:36
Yeah, yeah, that’s for training. That’s that’s usually that’s usually right time.

Carlton Reid 2:40
Yeah, that kind of makes sense – for here where we are it’s raining all the time. So that wouldn’t apply. You kind of go out in the rain showers in England, Northern England even worse than just being

Justin Williams 2:54
Yeah, that’s that’s rough man. I was in London maybe three weeks ago and it was amazing.

Carlton Reid 2:59
Well, talking about London and talking about the UK you’ve got the Legion kit is done by Rapha. So that’s that’s a London a UK a British brand had that deal, because it looks fabulous y the way, how did that deal with Raphaa come about?

Justin Williams 3:12
Now that’s a great question. The deal with Raphaa came about because I have a friend named Mark Alfred, who works for them. He’s the Marketing Manager for the Santa Monica store. And I went to a premiere with Gus and Morton’s we’re about there abouts. And we had this conversation after after, after the premiere had happened and I had talked to Mark and I said, Hey, man, like, I love this is really dope. And he had been trying to corner me because I was riding another brand. He was like, dude, you gotta come to Rapha. You know, the way we market things, the way we tell stories. It’s really in line with kind of what you’re trying to do and how you’re trying to tell stories. And me and him just chat. It was a couple other really cool people that I had loved from the brand and had good relationships with so I really considered it but really, you know, my friend Mark and an understanding of how Rapha operates and functions as a storytelling brand really, is what drove me to go go in that direction. Obviously, the clothing the clothing is amazing. And so that was a factor also. But the big factor was like the storytelling that the brand

Carlton Reid 4:32
Because that they’re obviously known for having very expensive, very slick, very, very nice kit. But yet that storytelling, you had mentioned that because they are doing an awful lot more for diversity in cycling, which is what you’re you’re absolutely about too?

Justin Williams 4:45
Right. And so the mission is aligned there, right. They wanted to they wanted to give more into that. And that’s obviously like most of what we’re trying to accomplish is creating diversity and inclusion within the space and giving people an opportunity to be the most authentic version of themselves. And so that alignment was very important. And they gave us that platform to tell that story on a bigger level.

Carlton Reid 5:11
Now my son, who is currently he did the Transcontinental race across Europe just recently, he’s riding back from that. And he rang just before we came on to record this. And I said, look, I gotta go, son, because I’m going to be interviewing you. And he said, he’s really cool. And I said, why? Why is Justin really cool? And then he gave me your life story. So clearly, I did not prime him on this. I did not say, you know, he just knew everything about you told me all the podcasts he’s listened to where you’ve been on, hopefully and he’ll listen to this one. And he knows about your, your brother and your background, all that kind of stuff. And then he made this really interesting point. And if this makes a Forbes story, then this kind of comes to the fore here in that he said — do you know that a guy called Mark Beaumont, have you heard of that guy? No, he’s a he’s a long distance cyclist. He is the guy who’s ridden around the world the fastest in a number of different ways. He’s that kind of guy. But my son said, Justin is like Mark Beaumont because they’re both business minded. So Mark has kind of like made a business out of his his prowess in in cycling, and you are also very, you know, founding or co founding a team. It’s that kind of ethos, as well. So tell me about your business acumen. And how it developed.

Justin Williams 6:42
Yeah, honestly, it’s come, it’s come very natural. To me, I have such an entrepreneurial mindset. And that’s something that’s always been just a part of who I am, I’ve always thought about how things work and why people buy things and what connects people to products and why I love Nike, and not you know, any other brand. And so that was always fascinating to me, I think it started with kind of like this fascination with marketing. And then, and then the stubbornness to want to do things my own way. I’m very much of the mindset that just because people have done it one way doesn’t mean that it doesn’t, it can’t be done another way. And I think that finding your why, and the truth of what drives you and then getting people on board to help you with that vision is something that’s very important to, to that understanding of, of having, but to my understanding of having a successful business. So yeah, I think it started in marketing, and then everything else is just learning and knowledge. I’m just really thirsty for learning and understanding of how things work in business. I love kind of the game that’s played with, you know, everything from you know, pitching to, you know, negotiations and, and trying to get the best outcome for for kind of whatever your goals are. So that that’s, that’s always been something that in being an athlete, I love riding my bike, I love travelling, that’s still a big love and passion of mine. But as I look to my future, it’s definitely something that I’m very, very interested in. So I figured why not get started a bit early and start taking the steps toward and learning kind of the different ways businesses run, how CEOs operate, looking at some really successful businesses, looking at some businesses that have failed, and kind of like really picking apart and understanding like why those things happen. So yeah,

Carlton Reid 8:55
You’re a bit old for me to nominate you for the Forbes 30 under 30.

Justin Williams 9:00
That was a dream of mine. That was honestly when I was growing up. It was it was definitely I missed it. I’m 33 now I missed it but that was definitely on my list of things to do, with 30 under 30.

Carlton Reid 9:13
Well, I couldn’t nominate you because you’re American anyway, because I’ve got to nominate European guys I did nominate a cycling entrepreneur to become one of the 30 under 30 and thankfully he actually he got that so he was super pleased with that they they kind of said they take pro clothing from from all the pro teams and then sell it to everybody else you know once the pros have used it. Let’s go back to your your pro kit and your Rapha kit. And and and and the graphics that you’ve unpacked your T shirt that you’re wearing there now, so the Legion logo has the 39 in it. So I’ve read where the 39 has come from I’ve listened to the fact that but for the for the sake of everybody who hasn’t heard of that This is a street. Obviously, we’re in Los Angeles, but it’s almost kind of like a district and it’s an area and neighbourhood. So tell me about that neighbourhood and why 39

Justin Williams 10:12
Yeah, it’s, it’s in South Central, actually, it’s 39th Street is in South Central LA. And it’s such a great contrast because USC is literally maybe a mile away from where I grew up. And I didn’t grow up in the most fancy of neighbourhoods, it was it was unpredictable, and it was rough. And it was you had to be really cautious. And my parents did a really good job of keeping us away from a lot of things without taking away like quality of life. And, yeah, the area’s just you know, it’s, there’s movies about it, there’s, it’s, it’s, it is very much or was very much I think that it’s, it’s getting a bit better now, it was very much kind of like, the Wild West, like, I’ve called the police before, and like no one showed up. Like, that’s the kind of area it was. And with, even with having all of that it’s such a great place. And it was such a great place. For me growing up, my family was all very close to me, we splay we had this really cool space, that was an alley that they have, like, blocked off at both ends. And then the wasn’t there was only one side of the alley was gated, the other side had led to our apartment. And so we had this like, it was probably like, a 50 metre alley, and we used to play football and basketball and, and that’s where I really fell in love with sports was in that alley, just playing sports every day, man every day with like, I have a lot of cousins with all of my cousins, like there’s, you know, upwards of like, 10 of us at a time playing sports in. And that’s where I learned to be really tough because my cousins were very, if you cry, you don’t play. Growing up in that environment where we had that little bit of protection of that ally and a hat and I didn’t have to go make friends because I had my whole family. It was it was you know, that was the that was a the blessing of it. You know,

Carlton Reid 12:13
And your dad kind of gave you a very similar experience I’ve read of putting you on a long bike ride when you’re 13. And then kind of leaving that ride.

Justin Williams 12:25
Trial by fire. I like long story. Here’s the long version of it. My dad bought me this Bianchi, it was this Celeste and orange Bianchi and it had Shimano on it. And I remember like it was yesterday. And I was riding his bike around, it was my size. And I was really young. I think it was maybe 10, 9 or 10. And I’m riding it around this alley. And it’s long I can ride it. It’s like a full effort, dude. And I remember my mom making me let my younger brother CJ ride the bike. And then my dad comes out Oh, my dad’s working in this like little corner because he’s fixed cars. But like he still fixes cars, but you still like fixed cars, and then like so on. And he stops working. And he looks out and I’m not riding the bike that he got me and this is like a serious thing because it’s like a foreign race bike. And he goes and he takes it away. And he goes, you’re not serious. Like you’re done. Like you’re not serious. You don’t want to do this, like the bike is a serious thing. It’s really hard. And so I like never, he never bought me that bike. And then so it took me like another two or three years to like, convince him and I convinced him by riding his trainer, he had his trainer already had his bike on the trainer. And one day I just like randomly started riding it. It was winter, and I wasn’t doing anything I was playing football wasn’t played basketball. I don’t know if it was raining outside. Maybe it was wet outside, but there’s no reason to be outside. But I had so much energy as a kid, I needed to do something. And and so I started riding his bike and my dad at this point is probably like five inches taller than me. So like it doesn’t fit. And he comes inside, he looks at me and I expect that I’m getting screamed at like I’m about to go toe the toe to read a book or do anything else. Like it was very known that you don’t touch my dad my father’s bike. And he just looks at me and he pauses and then he goes into the kitchen, he gets whatever he wants. And then he leaves and I think I ride the bike for like 30 minutes that day. And then I ride the next day. And then the day after that he like puts the seat down. And then the day after that he like makes the cockpit a bit shorter. And then he’s like, okay, and then slowly but surely, he gets me all of these new things. He got me like shoes and like the pedals to work with the bike. And before I knew it, I was riding this bike. It was way too big for me when I was riding and I had to ride it for a month before he would even consider taking me outside. So then or sorry, two months, so then two months go by. He’s like alright, great. We’re gonna go for we’re gonna go for a ride. And so we’re riding and I haven’t done any I have this before, I don’t know how much I need to drink. I don’t know how much I need to eat. I don’t even know that I need to eat. I’m thinking we’re stopping at McDonald’s or something. And we’re doing this right. And we just keep getting further and further and further and I kid you not like, at the point where we turned around, I was done. Like, I was done and and we had to turn around and I was like, oh my god, we’re going home. And at this point, I’m like, starting to bonk, which is, you know, when your body doesn’t have enough sugar in it to function properly. And yeah, and I’m just like struggling through this, right? And he’s like, pushing me up some of the climbs and I can tell he’s getting irritated with me. And we’re doing sting. And we get to this point, that’s right. At the beginning of Malibu, it’s like, we’re Malibu. It’s like when Malibu starts and when Santa Monica starts. And I’m just done. I’m like cramping, and I’m just, I’m ready to go. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to do it anymore. I’m done with the sport at this point, and he’s just like, trying to massage this cramp out of my leg. And I have shorts. I have box I was uncomfortable with the warning just the tight so I have boxers under under my like cycling shorts. And he’s like, I literally he’s like I told you not to wait, you don’t wear short cycling shorts under your you don’t wear boxers under your cycling shorts. What are you doing? And I was like, at this point, dude, I don’t care. I mean, just like, do your worst that. You just like, stay here. And I’m just on on Santa Monica. He’s just like, stay here. And I’m like, alright, cool. And I think he’s going to get help. And he’s gonna come back. And turns out he was just he was going to catch up with the ride that we were the group that we were what they were riding with. And, and I’m just sitting there for maybe five or 10 minutes. And I’m just, I’m a kid. I know better, right? Because I had gone. I’ve gone places I hadn’t known better. I just stayed there. And like 10 minutes later, my aunt pulls up and picks me up. And he was just gone. I didn’t see him until he got back until I got back to the house. So that was my introduction to cycling.

Carlton Reid 17:11
That’s a helluva introduction, surprised you ever got on a bike again.

Justin Williams 17:16
yeah, no, it was uh, at least the weather was nice. And my aunt took me to get food like immediately. So it was like it ended up being a really cool day. She’s one of my favourite aunts. So we got to hang out. And she was basically like a sag vehicle. So she’s basically just following us. Which I didn’t know, because I was so busy trying to like stay with the ride, right? And so hyper focused on trying to stay with the ride. But yeah, it was it was quite the introduction.

Carlton Reid 17:40
So my son overtook me as a fit cyclist at about the age of 15. So how long did it take before you know that that that incredible. And you described there? How long before you beat your dad anyway?

Justin Williams 17:55
Oh, that’s a great question. I was so lucky. So my dad raced the category threes when I was growing up, and he would do some one, two races. But for the most part, he just was very comfortable in threes in California when I was growing up the category threes are like the everyday man’s group. So it’s like very, it was super, super competitive. It had a lot of debt to it. But it was for the people that didn’t have the time to put in, you know, 25 or 30 hours of training, but they had the experience of being very good bike racers. And so when I was about, I would say 15. I started racing with my dad every once in a while. And that was really cool. And then when I was 16, I spent the whole season like having my dad as a lead out man. And I think I won like almost every big race in in California at that point. And it was really cool. I was second in the state championship which broke, which which broke my heart but but I had won some of the biggest races in California. My dad was my lead out guy. And so I think at the end of 16 is when I started. I think we’re pretty equal at the end of 16. But I think 17 is definitely when I was I was better I could like take him out on a ride and like smack him.

Carlton Reid 19:08
And does he still ride?

Justin Williams 19:10
Yeah, he rides every once in a while. I tried to shame him into riding because he has such a nice equipment now.

Carlton Reid 19:16
Because you has your handdowns? ,

Justin Williams 19:19
exactly. I’m like no one has a Legion bike and you have a Legion bike.

Carlton Reid 19:22
I get my son’s handdowns so he’s a Giant sponsored athlete. I get his — it used to be he used to get my bikes, now I get his hand me downs.

Justin Williams 19:32
I used to get my dad’s part I didn’t get a new bike. I didn’t get anything new until I turned pro. So I turned pro when I was 17. And my dad always gave me either his hand me downs or my uncle’s would have hand me downs or like Hassan would have hand me downs. Like those. We had a really, really incredible community. In LA actually of black cyclists Steve Pulliam this guy Orlando there’s there’s a there was a major motion named after Major Taylor, a cycling club. And it was this really amazing group of people. So like, there’s so many people that either gave me their old stuff on top of my dad gave me his old stuff, but it was. And I look back at that now and think it’s incredible that like, as a kid, I was so excited to get anything that was, you know, a higher quality of what I had, it didn’t matter if it was hand me down or not. And then it made it so much more special when I got my first fully pro, new bike

Carlton Reid 20:33
As a black athlete, aspiring cyclist when would you first hear about Major Taylor? Is it he’s somebody that, you know, does he transcend cycling as a black man? Or is that something you had to be a cyclist to have heard of him?

Justin Williams 20:48
No, I think that that moment is coming. I think that moment is coming. I think that there’s places where he transcends cycling, but I don’t think enough people know how incredible his story was. So you know, he’s a first American World Champion, I believe,

Carlton Reid 21:02
But he suffered an awful lot of racism when he was racing in Europe, a tonne of racism,

Justin Williams 21:08
again, an incredible amount, an incredible amount he like had to race a lot of races from the front just because of sabotage from other riders, because they just didn’t want to see him win, which, which is, which is funny and ironic.

Carlton Reid 21:22
He also made a lot of money.

Justin Williams 21:23
He, he also made an incredible amount of money. But like what happens with athletes, especially nowadays, he didn’t know how to invest it, or he didn’t know how to make it work for him. And so he I think he ended up dying with nothing.

Carlton Reid 21:37
Yeah, that’s a kind of common story. So let’s, let’s go back back to LA and Cycle Kids. So quite apart from you know, Legion, you know, with with, you know, that kind of level of cycling, you’re also trying to reach kids who you know, your seven year old, your 10 year old. So tell me a bit about Cycle Kids.

Justin Williams 21:57
Cycle Kids is amazing. It’s an amazing organisation. And it just gives us a platform, a platform to create, to start this process of pipeline, right. The thing about cycling that isn’t the same about other sports is that in America, in particular, there is no pathway to get from being a kid to the pros. And so something that we’re focusing on and partnering with someone like cycle kids is, let’s get bikes in schools as early as possible. Let’s get kids learning about bikes and having an understanding of about about bikes as early as possible. And then use that to them, like enriching the junior ranks, and then the collegiate ranks. And then you know, after that the category, that you have the categories that you have to climb on your way to pro. So we just have such a great relationship with them. It’s so fun just getting to interact and communicate with kids and stick them out on bikes. Everyone learns, mostly everybody learns how to ride a bike when they’re a kid. And somewhere along the line, they forget that journey. But that is step one, right? It’s getting kids a richer understanding of, of how bikes work. So in case, you know, you get a flat or something’s wrong with your bike, and your parents can’t fix it, it doesn’t get like parked in the garage, you they can go after it. And there’s a curriculum that’s like kids provides a school that they can get after and they can learn how to ride their bikes. It’s a really, really cool programme. And we’re really proud to be involved with them. Because it is like, like I said, it is step one, where we get to interact with these kids at a at a level where they’re just starting to understand things. And so teaching them how to work on a bike has been really cool. We’ve had a couple of stops already where we get to be Santa Claus, I say, we get to go and then and they do all the hard work. And we get to come in and just build the bikes with the kids and kind of answer any of their questions and get them stoked on everything from like how fast we go to all the junk food we get to eat on the road, which is a massive hit with kids. And yeah, and then just you know, teach them teach some of them how to ride a bike, some of them don’t know how to ride a bike and it’s funny watching my whole team run after these like tiny little kids as they try to like balance on this brand new bike. So that’s really fulfilling and very much in line with again, creating a pipeline to the top of the sport which is Legion.

Carlton Reid 24:24
You Ciclovias in LA but exactly have you noticed a difference in the that years you’ve been riding? Have you noticed a difference in cycling in in Los Angeles and hopefully you’re gonna say it’s getting better? Or is it

Justin Williams 24:42
almost hard around the world? Honestly, the difference that there’s been in like diversity in LA like, I was lucky enough to grow up in a we used to do a ride out of the Merc Park, which is like a very like central place for black culture and I like it And so I was lucky to see that at home. Now when I went to like different places like, you know, the valley, Orange County, yeah, there was there wasn’t a tonne of diversity and a lot of black people were racing at that point. But we had some, but when I travelled around the country, there was no black people. Like it was no, there was no people, barely any people of colour. And now that we travel, I kid you not, it is amazing to watch it be like a almost a 5050 split of like, you know, Asian people and black people and Spanish people and, and it’s incredible to watch this all happen in kind of in my time, I’d say. And then even around the world, when I, I did a project, it was like a panel in London last year at Rapha. And it was to celebrate a lot of talent and Black talent in cycling. And I’ll never forget how proud I was to see this room full of people of colour in London. And up until that point, I hadn’t realised a lot of the things that were happening, because I was so focused on building the team trying to change a sport, you know, redefining, like the relationship that like the general public has with cycling, I was trying to do all these things. And I was so focused in like, in a tunnel, that I didn’t notice it. And that really took me aback when I got into that room and heard the applause of all these people of colour that felt like they had something that they could be a part of, and connect to. That was probably one of my proudest moments thus far, in doing what we’re trying to accomplish.

Carlton Reid 26:46
You kind of I’ve read that you’ve one of your heroes back in the day, he’s not that much older than you anyway. But it was was was Rahsaan Bahati of the Rock Racing team. And cool, very cool strips they had the, the jerseys they had,

Justin Williams 27:08
I was lucky enough to be a part of that team. Rahsaan actually brought me on

Carlton Reid 27:12
So so he’s another famous black rider, then you’ve got Ayesha McGowan, who’s been on on this show a few times, starting in 2016, she’s she started getting much more visibility, you know, back then, as well as the only at that time the only black road cyclist in you know, getting sponsored and stuff. So are you definitely seeing a change, you know, these people that were just mentioned that, you know, including yourself are, are making a change. But do you see that carrying forward?

Justin Williams 27:45
Yeah, no, I think that as obviously, as we get more opportunity, we give more opportunity. And obviously, because we understand the landscape and kind of how some of these teams function and operates, we know that there’s people that deserve chances that aren’t getting them. And so I even last this year, this year at Tulsa tough, which is one of the biggest criterium series in the country. We took a picture with the Caribbean riders that were at the race because me and my brother race for Belize now. And there was like 10 of us. And before I remember there being like Amile Abraham, which was like one guy from Trinidad, like that was that was it. And it was like 10 of us it was like Bermuda and Barbados and Trinidad and Belize. And it was, it was incredible. That was so so so cool. To kind of see that change happening. And then obviously with everything that we’re trying to build, the more of those opportunities that we can give out to bring some of these talented athletes.

Carlton Reid 28:49
What’s cycling when your parents were in Belize? And is that how your dad was into cycling back then was the cycling culture in Belize?

Justin Williams 28:56
Oh my God, that’s like a big story cycle cycling in Belize is like cycling in Colombia, like the country loves loves loves cycling. We do a race every year. It’s called the Holy Saturday cross country race. And the whole when I say the whole country is on the side of the road cheering for this race. I mean like there’s 1000s and 1000s of people lining the road it’s an out and back so you get to see the race twice. And it’s like it is a national holiday. But like this This race is so important to the country that if it Belizian wins then everyone goes out and they celebrate for the rest of the week and it’s amazing and if a Belizian doesn’t win, it gets a foreign winner it’s it’s painful. It’s like everyone’s like talking about feeling disappointment come off from people. It’s a really big deal. So I think in Belize, soccer, cycling and track and field are like the sports but cycling is a really special one.

So your Belizian heritage has been important in and getting into you into cycling?

Oh, incredibly important. I remember being a kid and go into my uncle’s barber shop, and having these massive trophies. They’re like the same height as me at the time. And I remember these trophies and they’re all dusty and old. And I was like, why does this guy still have these like trophies? Like they look like they’re falling apart. And he had won this this race cross country. And so even for as long as I can remember, I didn’t know what it meant. But those trophies in that race was like so present in my life. And now I have a bunch of those massive trophies. Oh, my my mom has them, she doesn’t let me touch them.

Carlton Reid 30:44
So from Belize to Belgium, tell us about your time, your time in Europe.

Justin Williams 30:50
Yeah, my time in Europe, like when it was it was an exciting thing. I was on the US track national team when I was 17, 18. And a part of the programme was going over and racing road in Belgium to get ready for them, like the Mad at the six day season, the Madison season. And it was the best thing for me because the it was hard. I was a sprinter or I wanted to be a classics guy. And I was a sprinter. And I was really fast. And there was no real development in the US for that I didn’t even get a coach until I was 20. So I didn’t really know exactly what I was doing or exactly how to channel my energy and my training to get the best outcome. And then, like I said, the only thing I had was were Rahsaan as I had Rahsaan as a mentor on how to sprint but not in the systems or the direction that was going to take to get to being a sprinter on the highest level. And so when I got over to Belgium, cut, it was like so much change, you know, I had literally gone from, you know, not doing I don’t think I was doing anything the year before, because the team that I was on had folded halfway through the year. And so I was doing these races and I was getting, I was getting good results. I was doing this. And it was I definitely could see myself doing the racing, but I just wasn’t mature enough yet. And I didn’t have the kind of support and there was there was a few key things missing or what you will need to survive over in Europe didn’t speak the language didn’t understand how to function as an adult in the space where you’re on your own. And so ultimately is as cool as the experience was because my whole thing was I got to do under to be under 23 Paris Roubaix. And that was like the only thing that kept me going. And once I did that I was pretty much done because after that was gone, everything that I that was my Northstar. And then when I came home after that, everything that I had dealt with over there had really been prominent in the front of my brain. And I just it just wasn’t for me. It just wasn’t for me, I didn’t feel like I belonged. I didn’t feel like I had the support, I needed to be there. I definitely didn’t have the money to be there. I was constantly running out of money. So it just it was just too much for a kid at that point to be over in another country coming from South Central LA and trying to like become all of these things with all of these handicaps. And yeah, I just decided that the like the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, like what it was going to take for me to be over there. I was like no, I would rather be home and you know, I love criterium racing I would rather like try to make a life out of that. And at that point, like were Rahsaan was making decent money. So I figured like, Okay, well I can be I can be a criterium sprinter and like that’s, that’s good enough for me. So that was that was kind of my experience over there. But I go back now and it’s I still think it’s pretty incredible. I’ve been lucky enough to go to Worlds in Harrogate and then the worlds in Belgium. And those were both, like some of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had.

Carlton Reid 34:10
So you’re sprinter, you’re a crit rider. Do you? Are you like an all-bike guy as well? So you’ve got a mountain bike, you ride fixies What are you just a complete bike guy or you really on your your your track bike only?

Justin Williams 34:24
No, I’m an everything guy. Everything except for gravel. Except for except for gravel. I just I just don’t get it. But mountain bike, mountain biking. I love a good mountain bike ride. My problem with mountain biking is that I keep going out riding with my pro mountain bike friends, and they think that I’m as good as I am in criterium racing and mountain biking and I’m just not like I love mountain biking but again, I think it’s so fun but I’m not trying to follow like my pro mountain bikers like I’m not trying to ride down descents with like Lance Lance Heydrich or Christopher Blevins like I don’t want to do that to myself. But I do really love and enjoy it. Road bike always track bike love the track. It’s my it’s a secret weapon like if you want to build speed get on a track it makes you incredibly fast. Yeah, like BMX like oh hang out and riding BMX every once a while I’m not gonna do any jumping, but it feels like being a kid isn’t the style J and riding a BMX bike.

Carlton Reid 35:27
Fixie?

Justin Williams 35:29
Love fixie

Carlton Reid 35:31
Not a track bike as in like an urban fixie?

Justin Williams 35:34
Yeah, I’ll do fixie, I’ll do fixie, I was actually a part of I got to, you know, I was lucky enough to be a part of Red Hook, when that was kind of this big deal. And honestly, you want to talk about this crazy influx of culture and people from every walk of life being a part of this like really tight knit group Red Hook was this incredible space where everything that cycling needs to be Red Hook was and that’s that’s fixed cure races. I was second in 2018. And in the red, the Harlem or not the Harlem Red Hook, New York race, which was really cool. And then before that had gone to Barcelona on vacation, like my vacation from cycling was a cycling event. And it was it was a Red Hook Barcelona. So I do a little bit everything like even cyclo cross, I love in cyclocross and gravel to me are different

Carlton Reid 36:33
You’re cyclo cross is usty cyclocross.

Justin Williams 36:37
we’ve know Yeah, we know, our cyclocross is like a crit on dirt. Yeah. Which is awesome.

Carlton Reid 36:43
To us. Yeah.

Justin Williams 36:44
Exactly. It’s a crit on dirt. But it’s dope because it’s like, you have the display your understanding and like skill in handling of the bike, and what’s going to happen and it’s it’s so fun watching people kind of flail on on gravel. Like it’s so many people are going to gravel because they’re like, oh, it’s safer than road riding. And I’m like, Yeah, but have you been down like a, like a super dirty, dusty descent before like the ground moves under you on gravel. The ground has moved on to you on the road. But yeah, that’s how it is.

Carlton Reid 37:18
At this point Justin I’d like to quit for an ad break, and my colleague David will take over.

David Bernstein 37:24
Hey everyone, this is David from the Fred cast and the spokesmen and I’m here once again, to tell you about our amazing sponsor Tern Bicycles at www.ternbicycles.com t e r n bicycles.com Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day and dependable enough to carry the people you love. Speaking of being able to ride every day as a spokesmen listener, I’m going to bet that you are the go-to consultant for your friends who want to ride but are an enthusiast and need some advice on what to buy. In that case, you may have people in your life for whom you just haven’t been able to recommend just the right bike considering their stature, age mobility issues or just plain hesitant to get back on a bike. Finally, those family members and friends can experience a new bike day with the all new Turn NBD new bike day Nbd. Okay, the NBDd has been specifically designed to be confidently easy to handle and easy to ride even. Even for those folks who might be as Josh Hon, team captain of Tern Bicycle says are smaller in size and have a hard time finding a bike that fits or older riders who might not have ridden a bike in a while or riders who might have balance or physical issues or riders who are just intimidated by the sheer size and weight of the average ebike. As Josh goes on to say the NBD will be refreshingly easy to hop aboard and ride. Now how can Josh be so confident in that? Well, it’s simple. The NBD has the lowest longest step through opening of any premium ebike. So if you know someone with a knee or a hip injury or or somebody who just can’t lift their leg over the top tube of a regular bike, this alone could make all the difference plus the NBD is designed with an ultra low centre of gravity and a longer wheelbase. And what does that mean? Well, it means that it makes it easy to balance and handle. And with a lowered bottom bracket and motor the NBD is stable for all riders and particularly inspires confidence for shorter cyclists because they can easily get their feet on the ground when they come to a stop. But the NBD isn’t just for shorter riders. As a matter of fact, it adjusts in seconds. Without tools by the way to fit riders from four foot 10 to six foot three or 147 to 190 centimetres. The NBD is also super comfortable with its upright riding position, swept handlebar suspension seatpost and wide 20 inch balloon tires need to load the NBD into a car. No problem, it folds flat in seconds. How about getting into it into a smaller living space? No sweat. The NBD includes Tern’s vertical parking features, you can roll the bike into a small elevator and park it in a corner of your apartment. Now with a max gross vehicle weight of 140 kilos that’s 308 pounds, the NBD can easily carry an extra passenger and plenty of cargo with up to 27 kilos on the rear rack and up to 20 kilos on the front rack. And in fact, it works with a wide range of Tern accessories and with most child seats, as I’ve said before, and this is important to me really important safety is a core value at turn. And that’s why the NBD frame and fork have been rigorously tested by one of Europe’s leading bike test labs. That’s also why turn chooses to use the Bosch motor and battery system. It’s one of the few systems on the market that meets and passes the UL standard for battery and electronics safety read the news and you know how important that is. Now the NBD comes in two models with prices starting at $3,899 or 3999 euros and bikes are going to start arriving in stores in Q1 of 2023. For more information about the NBD or any of Turn’s wide range of bikes, just head on over to ternbicycles.com Again, t e r n bicycles.com. We thank Tern for their sponsorship of the spokesmen podcast and we thank you for your support of Tern. Once again, thanks for allowing me this brief introduction everybody. And now let’s get back to Carlton and the spokesmen.

Carlton Reid 42:00
Thanks, David. We are back with Justin Williams. And we’ve been talking about his Belizian background. We’re talking about now Black History Month we’ve been talking about Major Taylor. One question we have kind of skirted around, we’ve we’ve looked at it a little bit, but I would like to like just dig into it. So you’ve got you’ve got riders, riders like Kevin Reza, who’s been in the Tour de France. But you know, we really have got, you know, the digits of one hand can very easily accommodate the number of black riders have been in the Tour de France. So do you think we’re going to get more black riders coming in the Tour de France in the next 5, 10 years? And this is like African riders? Or do you think we’re going to see black American guys coming through? What’s where do you see it coming from in the future?

Justin Williams 42:48
Honestly, I don’t care where it comes from, as long as it comes. Honestly, I think that there’s talented or I think there’s talented writers everywhere. There’s a there’s a load of Caribbean talented, right, it’s I think it’s more about building a system in which they can like start that development process a bit earlier, in racing in Europe is completely different from racing anywhere else. And I think you have to be exposed to that. To really be competitive and understand kind of what the ebbs and flows are. But I think they’ll come from everywhere. It’s really cool that African riders have been integrated into European cycling in such a way I can only hope that the same thing happens with Caribbean riders. And there’s also writers from the Netherlands. I know Celin Alvarado’s brothers super talented, he’s he’s a cross guy. You know, he’s he’s coming up, I know, there’s a, there’s a kid in a kid right out of London, or he’s in England, he’s super talented riders. So I think that they’re everywhere. And I end up hoping that there’s more opportunities for that. And I think and I hope that there’s a bit more patience when it comes to incorporating them into these teams, because that’s kind of what I felt, I felt like there was a we’re giving you a chance and you’re lucky to be here. But as soon as you don’t fit into that narrative in a way that they want you to which is not specific to black people, I think that’s like just the way cycling is then you’re out the door, and you don’t really get a chance to develop. So I’m hoping that with the rise of African riders in showcasing their talent on the highest level that that will continue to open up doors for for other people, ther black people.

Carlton Reid 44:45
I looked on your Instagram before we came on here. And there’s a fair few of your you kind of the brands who sponsor you. So let’s talk about a few of them. Okay, so there’s one of those back four or five posts back you’re doing a recovery with a product. So what’s that product,

Justin Williams 45:05
Therabody. They’re such an incredible company, they do so many different, so many different things really well. And some one of my favourite things that they have is they make these these boots, these recovery boots. And they’re the best. So like, my favourite thing is, I’ll jump in them, if I hit buy, like I work a lot. So if I don’t have time to ride, but I have a big ride the next day, jump in the boots, kind of get my legs like ready and prepared. If I have a big ride and I’m wrecked and I’m trying to like get ready for the next day, I’ll jump in the boots on my computer, get some work done to kill two birds with one stone really flush out that kind of, you know, flush out that blood and get some fresh blood in there. And then when I’m travelling, they have this like Theragun Mini that I just take with me everywhere. And it’s just the best for everything. Like if my neck is tight from sitting on a plane, and if my legs are tight from sitting on a plane, it’s like, I just have something to kind of break things up.

Carlton Reid 46:05
So a massage gun?

Justin Williams 46:07
It’s a massage gun. Yeah. Yeah,

Exactly.

Carlton Reid 46:11
You might get funny looks on a plane if you get one of them out.

Justin Williams 46:16
I’ll wait until after. Honestly, it’s pretty discreet. I got I don’t know, if you would I think somebody might ask you to use it. They might be like, hey, when you’re done with that, feel free to pass it over here.

Carlton Reid 46:30
I think we’re drifting into a different kind of conversation. So other sponsors, because I’ve seen a fantastic and it’s just the last, it’s just dropped the last couple of days with Red Bull, which you’ve been in and there was a fantastic film that Rapha you were in so you’re you’re kind of like building up your your your brands who are supporting you, brands who are sponsoring you. So is that is that something that has come to you are you having to work at that?

Justin Williams 47:00
Yeah, that’s that’s what makes it a good partnership. A good partnership is someone that you can help build and tell your story through and like, obviously, discreetly promote their products and like who they are and what they believe in. But you can also do that for yourself, or you can tell your story. And so for us, we tend to lean toward partners that really understand the vision. And I want to tell it in an authentic way we don’t want to have, we don’t want to put out content that isn’t true to like who we are. We don’t want to put out content that’s like heavily, like overly branded, we want to just put out stuff that is very true to who we are and what the partnership is supposed to represent. And so we just been lucky enough, and I guess selective enough to have really great partners who want to tell the story, you want to have fun and want to change the sport and want to change lives and inspire people. And so that’s what we get to go out and do with a brand like Red Bull was a dream sponsor of mine. That’s what we get to go out and do with the brand like Rapha, who’s like, you know, their company identity is based in storytelling, that’s what we get to do. And even with companies like like Therabody, like there is a company that is very much invested in what the story is, and what the team is and what the identity that we created is and they just want to enhance, they want to make it better. And so that’s that’s a perfect partnership

Carlton Reid 48:34
On that kind of note because I did say to your people, that this would be like a 45 minute chat. So we are coming up to the end of those 45 minutes and I’m really appreciative of you taking your time and I’m sure you’ve you may have even done your ride but just to wrap this up, can you just give us all of your social media stuff so so anybody who’s listening to this, unlike my son who will know all of your social media channels, of course, but for everybody else who who anybody else who doesn’t know your social media channels, where can people find out about you, Justin?

Justin Williams 49:12
Shout out to your son, man. That’s That’s amazing. I’m really really excited about that. Yeah, most of my most of my social media handles are at juswilliamz. And then you can find you know, find a lot of me at Legion Los Angeles, L three, nine on Instagram on tiktok on YouTube, all the good ones.

Carlton Reid 49:41
TThanks to Justin Williams there and thanks also to you for listening to Episode 308 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. Show notes and more can be found as always on the-spokesman.com. The next episode will be a report from Brussels as I cover urban mobility at the sounds-boring-but-is-really-very-important 151st plenary session of the EU’s Committee of the Regions. That show will be out in the middle of the month but meanwhile, get out there and ride …

September 24, 2022 / / Blog

24th September 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 307: Kidical Mass: How, Why, Where, When

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUEST: Kat Heath, Kidical Mass, Reading

TOPIC: Hundreds of “Kidical Mass” rides are taking place across the UK and Europe this weekend. A more family-friendly version of Critical Mass, these rolling demos show decision makers – with an abundance of cuteness — that children need safe space to cycle and that roads are theirs too. Kat Heath of Reading’s ride explains more.

TRANSCRIPT

Carlton Reid 0:13
Welcome to Episode 307 of the spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was published on Saturday 24th of September 2022.

David Bernstein 0:29
The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e bikes for every type of rider. Whether you’re commuting, taking your kids to school, or even caring another adult, visit www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n bicycles.com to learn more.

Carlton Reid 1:04
Hundreds of critical mass rides are taking place across the UK and Europe this weekend. A more family friendly version of critical mass, these rolling demos showed decision makers with an abundance of cute purse that children need a safe space to cycle and that road of theirs to Kat Heath of Reading’s ride explains more.

Kat, you’re organising the Reading version of critical mass. First of all, what is Critical Mass is like a form of putting kids in the way of trouble because critical mass where does this come from, of course is famous for being quite an anarchic.

Kat Heath and son

Kat Heath 1:52
So Critical Mass is a worldwide grassroots movement that is intended to say that cars, not cars, the street should be for kids not cars, and that we need better cycling infrastructure to make it safe for our children to cycle. If you imagine an eight year old cycling to school, for most parents, that’s absolutely terrifying. And that shouldn’t be the reality. They’re not designed with the same principle that critical mass has a lot of these rides are fun, fun, family friendly rides that don’t even go on the roads. Some people do want to use them more as protest rides, which is absolutely fine. But the heart of these rides is just trying to raise awareness of the diversity of people on bikes, and why we need better infrastructure. I think, a brilliant point that we consider that a city that is designed to be good for children is good for everybody from your pensioner who’s out on a bike because is there any mobility aid? I have a friend that has MS and having an electric trike has completely revolutionised his life. And he’s been able to maintain a degree of independence he just wouldn’t have otherwise. It’s just a good thing in general, I think. Does that answer the question? I ramble, you can tell me to shut down

Carlton Reid 3:06
and that’s fine. So is this by using kids using this perhaps the wrong word probe? But by involving kids? Is that a kind of wave of almost softening the message? Or is it that’s the absolute message we need to do this for kids?

Kat Heath 3:21
That is the absolute message, we need to have this for our children. I my little boy is 18 months now. But we’ve been cycling since he was five weeks corrected. And my ability to cycle with him completely changed how I could cycle I couldn’t cycle defensively like I used to. I couldn’t fit in gaps that were there before and I became I had to be in traffic because I had a trailer behind me. And there was just no way that I could like how I used to if your child is five years old, our setup just does not allow the children to cycle and they need to be at the heart of these decisions. I think the other thing that like is really key for why it’s so important for children. They are the people that are going to be living on this planet long after you and I have died. And the reliance on car travel at the moment is fueling climate change. We have an obesity crisis. We have a air crisis, air quality crisis and enabling active travel whether that scooting or cycling or walking or wheeling has to be at the heart of everything. At the moment most of our towns and cities are just not set up to support that.

Carlton Reid 4:31
So by riding with with your kids and with families and is that something that you can try to get local politicians involved? So you know, you’re basically the message is gotta go to them to improve anything in your in your city. Are you getting the media involved? How are you pushing this message apart from the actual ride?

Kat Heath 4:50
So again, this will change from group to group. So I helped form the one in Inverness and the one in Redding. So I can speak for both of those. We have actively invite It counsellors to all of the right and we’ve seen different parties turn off different frequency. Inverness and reading, we’ve got the right mic normally me or somebody else invited to a lot of like the clean air or the active transport committees, so that we can start being that voice for, hey, this is a great design, but that’s not going to work for a child. So let’s rethink this. I think also the Inverness ones especially, every council meeting, we heard different counsellors reference them about why active travel was so important. People that weren’t turning up to the rides were using us as a really good example of why the city needs to be designed better. It also just highlights awareness, I think the amount of people that have stopped and chatted to me and my son, when we had a trailer and now is on the back of my bike to say hi, I’ll be like, Oh my God, that’s a brilliant idea. I didn’t realise you could cycle with a child. I think that helps other parents that maybe aren’t as confident doing it as well. So you start having that knock on ripple effect.

Carlton Reid 6:03
That critical mass, famously, was like once a month. So how often is critical mass,

Kat Heath 6:10
again, depends on this is all local people. So it’s normally local parents, but not always raising it. And it’s how many marshals you can have. So marshals are there to keep the children safe when you’re cycling. We reading is working we’re working on now. So we do ours every other month Inverness, there’s monthly bath has a different frequency, it’s really dependent on the city or the town, and how much time the people organising it have got to do it.

Carlton Reid 6:39
And how many places around the UK and perhaps worldwide are organising critical mass.

Kat Heath 6:48
UK, there has been so Germany who are incredibly good at this have been organising worldwide events. So they had one in May, there was 11 towns and cities writing and I think that had doubled from the year before. In September, were aware there’s about 15 or 18 rides happening in September. So it’s growing little by little, I can find the stats from the last ride and actually email it to you. But there was over 100 I think almost 200 rides across Europe in May. So it is growing. And it’s coming to the point about like raising awareness, the more people see these happening, and the more we can get word out about these very fun and very cute events. And I think more people will start doing them. I hadn’t heard of critical mass until last year. And now I don’t stop talking about them.

Carlton Reid 7:41
And, again, that this will be a question that your answer will be, you know, it depends on each town. But if you give us a broad spectrum here of kind of the the amount of people that have kids matter, parents, how many people are attending these events, so So give me a flavour.

Kat Heath 7:58
I think it’s about 100 people. So including parents and children that are coming. school holidays have a surprisingly big impact, which I didn’t think through. But yeah, most of the rides that I saw in May, were about 100 people that said some rides had 200 London gets a lot more. So yeah. Yeah, about, I’d say 50 to 100 on every ride that I’m aware of apart from one last month, which where we had 10 people turn up.

Carlton Reid 8:31
Was that bad weather? What was the 10?

Kat Heath 8:33
Heat wave? Oh, like we Yeah. Also, I think we put it in the wrong location. And a lot of it’s trial and error. You try new things and school holidays.

Carlton Reid 8:47
What’s what’s the right location?

Kat Heath 8:50
For the rides? I, I got the same answer. It depends on what you’re trying to achieve. So I think if you haven’t done that many of them sticking to safer paths that you know, well, is a really good idea. Edinburgh to have, like, I think they had 200 people came and they were on the road. And they gave people lots of warning. And it was just fantastic to see children doing these beautiful routes, we tend to go from Park to Park, one of the things we’ve been trying to do and reading is highlight cycle routes that take you to areas that children actually want to be to help inspire parents cycle with their children.

Carlton Reid 9:31
Because if you did it on, say, an existing bike path that was already great. Yeah. Which is which would be fine for the kids to ride on already. But kind of not really promoting the message you’re trying to get out there is it’s like we want bike paths here. Not to use the existing ones which we know are okay for kids.

Kat Heath 9:52
I slightly disagree with that. I think highlighting good infrastructure especially if you’re trying to inspire more people to cycle is a great idea. At the same time, highlighting where there needs to be more, because it’s a massive gap. So you want to cycle to things like your hospital, to your doctor’s, to your schools, to your parks, I want to be able to cycle my kid to nursery and not have someone tried to run me over and then be able to go to a coffee place. And I think it all needs to tie in and be connected. Have you read invisible women, where it highlights that most carers which predominantly are women, we don’t tend to go A to B, we tend to have these A to B to C network journeys. And what we need to show is that we need connected networks with secure bike parking, that are segregated paths so that we can get everyone cycling. And there’s a million different ways of highlighting that. But it needs to be designed with accessibility in mind. And I think some plans assume a confidence level that not everybody has all that it will work for every that it will work for a single person on a bike. But then that doesn’t account for having a trailer, it doesn’t account for being a recumbent or traffic lights are a nightmare when my son is in a bad mood with me because he was my bike. And it’s just something you’d never find. And I’m not I don’t shoot the red lights, by the way. But it’s just finding what’s right for where you are and how engaged your active travel teams are and how engaged your counsellors are, and also the maturity of the cycling infrastructure in your towns and cities.

Carlton Reid 11:29
So what’s it like in Reading already?

Kat Heath 11:31
awful, it is absolutely awful. And reading, it’s like being in London 10 years ago. I’ve lived in London, I lived in London for when I was 18 when I was in my early 30s. And I cycled most of that time. And it feels like that here, the drivers are not prepared to see cyclists on the road, where they do see cyclists on the road like I regularly get sworn out, I regularly get driven at. I have had one guy scream at me with my kid on my bike to get on the effing pavement. I’m just like, that’s not even legal dude.

Carlton Reid 12:06
Kat, why would you in that camp? I’m being devil’s advocate here. In that case, why would you then inflict such an awful activity on on children, if you’re getting, you know, this kind of part of

Kat Heath 12:19
the reason they’re behaving like that is because we don’t have segregated bike paths. And they see us as an intrusion is the dog really annoying in the background?

Carlton Reid 12:29
There’s dogs, there’s dogs everywhere, don’t worry about it.

Kat Heath 12:32
Dogs, my sister. At the moment, some drivers and not all see us as a conflict were to be less than 2% of freaking road traffic. But if we had better segregated paths that were safe to use, more people would be using them, there’s less traffic on the road, it is better for everybody. And I think this is why Critical Mass ride and engaging with your counsellor. Any form of activism that argues for active travel is so important, because we need to get people out of cars for short journeys and onto bikes and, or onto scooters or onto whatever it is. But that’s not going to happen until the infrastructure is there. And if these rides can safely and in a fun way, highlight the need for that infrastructure that has to be a good thing. Which coming back to your question of whether it should be on the road or on pavements, non pavements on like in existing infrastructure, show a family a route that they wouldn’t have dreamed of, to get between their school and their part. And that to me as a win as much as it is getting highlighted highlighting the need for why this road needs infrastructure on it. It’s got to come from every angle. And it’s got to be fun. Because again, you’re right. Why would children and families turn up if it’s not fun, and they don’t feel safe?

Carlton Reid 13:49
So I’ve been on my local one which is was in Whitley Bay, North North Tyneside, I find I felt kind of awkward, because I was invited along to take photos. But I didn’t have kids. And well, I hadn’t I didn’t have kids there. So my kids are, you know, flown the nest and stuff. So and they’re riding their own bikes now in other cities. So I didn’t have like a tot with me. So I felt a bit awkward. So these rides, do they welcome everybody to join in? Or is it if you haven’t got kids, you can’t come along?

Kat Heath 14:19
I again, this is going to be on an individual talent level. All the ones that I am aware of that I have been involved in or that everybody is welcome. I think one of the ways we’ve marketed it as please come you don’t need a responsible child to look after you. If you don’t have a responsible child and you’re interested in marshalling please chat to us about that because we always need more marshals. But again, the whole idea is diversity. My parents live up in Inverness, and my poor dad every right I was like, Dad, I need you to come with mom on the tandem. Just so we can highlight that we have pensioners cycling it’s important to show diversity in every area. I’m the person that organises them in Exeter, the Powell doesn’t have any children. He just thinks that cycling should be safe for everybody, no matter their age group and loves critical masses. So he’s led on organising one that everyone is genuinely welcome, the more people we have out there, and the friendlier these things are, it’s got to work for everyone, right. And one of the things I’ve been discovered when I talk to taxi drivers, and this is their living like livelihood, they obviously get anxious when we talk about or anyone talks about shutting down city centres. But actually, if you had less cars there and you had more bikes, the people that did need to get into there, we’ll be able to use the taxis or we need to start engaging everybody in his consultations and making sure that the best solution for the future is heard in my opinion. And we’re not doing that because we’re prioritising people’s convenience about using a metal box over our children’s future. And like I don’t, I don’t know how old you are. But if your children have flown the nest, probably, like, not in your 20s anymore. Like when I grew up, we had water fights in the street, and I could psych on the street. I’m teaching my little boy how to walk right now. And I hate taking him down our quiet road because the cars are parked everywhere, there’s cars racing up and down a residential street and it just doesn’t feel the safe area that I grew up in. And my dad was Army. So we grew up in villages and cities and towns like we moved a lot. But that’s not our children’s reality anymore. Because our streets are for our cars, not for our communities.

Carlton Reid 16:30
Let’s let’s dig down into any differences between this and critical mass because I’m, I’m struggling to see how it’s actually any different apartment, maybe there’s ice creams at the end and that kind of stuff. There’s more entertainment. Yeah, there’s like there’s the kind of that that blackmail at the end to get the kid to come. Because at the one at Newcastle, the one on the way into it was like we’re going to have an ice cream van at the end. And it was free, free brownies and stuff. It’s like okay, that’s not on critical mass. That’s that’s the difference. But just generally what what genuinely is the difference between because the describing events are actually pretty much similar.

Kat Heath 17:07
I think they come from the same ethos Critical Mass is started to raise awareness of the amount of people that were dying by bike. And sadly, that hasn’t dramatically changed has. To me, the main difference is someone’s organised both is the amount of planning that has to go into a critical mass. Critical Mass is you say a name a day, and then you cycle together. And you’ve got grown adults that know how to cycle. And you don’t have to worry about it as much critical mass we spend months sometimes figuring out routes that we can keep our kids safe on other people’s kids safe on accessibility as a huge issue for critical mass. Again, them having fun and enjoying this. So they want to carry on cycling outside of critical mass here is a thing. I do think it is a there is a lot of anger towards cyclists or people on bikes. And I think critical mass helps with that, because it shows that some of these people on bikes are children on bikes, and it is very difficult to have the same level of anger. So I think it raises awareness in a more positive tone potentially, then critical masses due and Critical Mass is a great fun. And I love attending them. And they still have the same bribery at the end, by the way, because they finish in a pub, what’s really the adult version of offering an ice cream. But they are all raising awareness that our roads aren’t just for cars, and it needs to be safe for all people on those roads, not just people in a metal box.

Carlton Reid 18:47
So Critical Mass is that famously, there’s no organisers of it are meant to be no organisers of it certainly no organisers who are named and can be contacted in in any named way. Whereas Critical Mass is very much you know who the organisers are? Yeah. It’d be easier for the police to come in and just stop this. So do you have to approach the police? Do you what do you have to do as an organiser to actually organise these things with your name on

Kat Heath 19:17
so we have recommendations on this you. We recommend you get in contact with your police force and let them know at least six days beforehand. Some of the police forces have been amazing sunrise, the police force are coming out and acting as marshals. Other ones there’s been more of a debate. I think one of the things if you are cycling on the road, you’re not holding up traffic, you are the traffic and that’s a really big thing to remember. You don’t have to ask permission you need to inform people that these rides are happening. In my experience, informing the council as well has been really, really positive. You don’t have to but in Vaness Council and Reading Council have been really, really helpful with us. In Venice, we had a problem with the route. And the event planning and road team helped me find an alternative route and got the permission to go through this area that was closed off by a private company. So we can keep the kids safe in reading, we were using a non we were using a lovely Riverside path, a part of the road that was completely overgrown with stinging nettles and I let them know and they went and cut it down for me. So I think there’s a huge benefit in working with your counsellors, but that very much depends on your councils and your relationship with your councils. I product managers live as a job. So communication and coordination and getting people to work together, I find makes anything in life work easier. But again, that comes down to your relationship in the city or town.

Carlton Reid 20:51
So the city or town that you’re in reading, have you seen any change? So organising these critical mass event? Have you seen any inkling that there might be some differences coming up? Or do you think this is a multi year, your child will be 23? Before you even get anything in? What do you see is the the progress?

Kat Heath 21:11
So I only moved down in February, I came down from m&s and wanted them here. So I said I’ve set them up here. I think the fact that we are sitting on council groups now is a great sign. So we can input on consultation, these things aren’t going to happen overnight. It can’t be 23 years. We just don’t have the time anymore. We are at a critical point in climate emergency. And we need to get more people doing short routes by active travel. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. Like realistically these infrastructure changes we’re talking about we’re talking years, not months. But I do think we need to start seeing changes a lot earlier than 21 years. And when I hear visions for 2035, or 2050 is like that, that’s too far away for my kid. I’m a very effective product manager. So I basically decided to take this approach with these.

Carlton Reid 22:14
Hmm, and how much organisation does it take and you get an inkling before that it takes more than a critical mass. But just just tell us exactly what you have to do.

Kat Heath 22:26
A high level you need a few people involved, definitely. You want to you need a route, you need a route that is safe for children and accessible for children. And just thinking things through like drop curbs. Or if you’ve got bollards, where you’d be able to get a trailer through or how a tandem would work. So a lot of route planning and that tends to be where the most focus is spent. You need marshals. So when you have kids going past junctions, just having a martial there to make sure someone doesn’t inadvertently or intentionally drive into the middle of the children, because they are like some of these kids are four or five on a balanced bike. And that’s not going to keep them safe. You need cake. So encouraging people to bake stuff. They’re fun, right? You do need that. What else telling the place that you’ve suggested is a good option. We’ve written a how to guide. We’ve also sorted public liability insurance. So people anyone organising critical mass can sign up to public liability insurance, which you don’t need to. But in my opinion, is a sensible idea to do. I think yeah, maybe and then you need to promote it. And whether that’s Facebook or parents, WhatsApp groups, talking to the local media, talking to the national news media, hopefully, I think it’s just raising awareness and getting people to turn up on the roads. That is most of it, find a safe route. Tell people about it. Make sure you’re keeping the kids and other vulnerable users safe.

Carlton Reid 23:57
I should be asking the kids this, but for obvious reasons. I can’t but what are kids think about this, this these rides.

Kat Heath 24:03
So mine doesn’t talk yet, but he seems to love cycling. He is so content on my bike is incredible. I can share a five year olds account of the last critical mass from one of the other organisers and he absolutely loves it. His main question after the last one was when’s the next one? Going back to Inverness. Some of the other people. Their children’s spoke to STV about what they thought about it and why these rights were important. And overwhelmingly the kids love it. They get to cycle they get to spend time with their friends on bikes, their parents on bikes and they’re safe. And then they get coke at the end or the he invested a lot working with 42 cycling to have ramps like mountain biking ramps so they could get exposed to that they got a pennyfarthing and a lot of the riders do have fun at the end and I think that’s me highlight head just how much we’ve lost that as well. Like you don’t play out on the street with your friends anymore because you can’t. And having those play out areas at the end have become a really important part for some rides on having that sense of community. But

Carlton Reid 25:17
yes, the ride I went on Whitley Bay was ended at a at a play park basically. So the kids could just leap in there, you know, jump off their bikes and go play together, which was, which was very cute. You mentioned before about the abuse, the sadly, the abuse that you get when you’re riding your bike, when you’re on the critical mass. Do you get any abuse from drivers then? Or is it the fact that there’s quite a lot of kids and parents on their bikes actually stopped any abuse?

Kat Heath 25:46
Very, very little. So I’ve probably done 11 right across in Vanessa reading. And I think maybe two or three drivers I’ve seen have been annoyed with the ride. For the most part, you just get these huge smiles and a few curious what’s going on. If you’ve been to the ride, it is a lovely, lovely thing to see small children on their bikes or on their parents bikes, ringing their bells or smiling. And for most people, I think it just makes them smile. We Inverness had a thing with the hospice, we went past the hospice room, and some of their patients would request to come over to the hospice window so they could see it. Because honestly, they just really enjoyed seeing it. I think the aggression towards cyclists has changed. I get a lot more aggression now than I did even 1015 years ago. A lot less sexual comments. But a lot. I mean, it could just because I’m older, right? But a lot lot more aggression than I did a few years ago, which is bizarre.

Carlton Reid 26:52
Yes, yes, it is very sad turn of event. And how long are these rides?

Kat Heath 26:57
In general? Three miles ish. You’ve got people on small wheels. Yeah, in general, just think through your target audience if you’ve got a small bike, a very small ride for you. Isn’t that small and also getting to them and leaving as well.

Carlton Reid 27:16
And when is the next event for you personally in Reading?

Kat Heath 27:19
Our next one is on the 25th of September as part of the European Critical Mass weekend. We’re going to do a combined ride so working on are going to start and then they’re going to join us at 1130 and Palmer Park, where we are going to ride together to finish at the reading Bicycle Festival where there will be cake and but also some stunts and tracks and cargo bikes so people can really see the breadth of bikes bikes available to them.

Carlton Reid 27:49
Thanks to Kat Heath there And thanks also to you for listening to Episode 307 of the spokesmen cycling podcast brought to you in association with Tern bicycles, show notes and more can be found as always on the-spokesmen.com. The next episode will be out next month. But meanwhile, get out there and ride…

September 22, 2022 / / Blog

22nd September 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 306: Eco Adventure on Proposed Sail-powered Bike and Foot Ferry From Dover to Boulogne

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUESTS: Andrew Simons, Brandt Williamson, Robert Tickner, Tom Treasure, Caroline Tyndall, Wayne Godfrey

TOPIC: A pioneering wind-powered cross-channel ferry for cyclists and pedestrians from Dover to Boulogne operated by startup SailLink had a series of test runs earlier in September, and Carlton Reid was on the first crossing to northern France. SailLink plans to commission a bespoke craft for its 12-passenger service, but the demonstration crossings used a smaller vessel, the Mago Merlino, a 12-metre catamaran certified to carry six paying passengers and two bicycles.

LINKS:

SailLink

Tres Hombres

Guardian article

TRANSCRIPT

Carlton Reid 0:13
Welcome to Episode 306 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was published on Thursday 22nd of September 2022.

David Bernstein 0:23
The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e bikes for every type of rider. Whether you’re commuting, taking your kids to school, or even caring another adult, visit www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n bicycles.com to learn more.

Carlton Reid 1:06
That’s the unmistakable roar of a Merlin engine

of a Spitfire, and that was coming from Biggin Hill, taking people on £3000 jollies over the White Cliffs of Dover. And that’s exactly what I’m looking at right now. I’m looking at Dover castle. I’m looking at the White Cliffs of Dover. And I’m looking at some ferries.

And I’m going to be going on a ferry very shortly from Dover Marina.

But not P&O, not DFDS. I’m going on a new ferry company, SailLink

And SailLink is taking cyclists and pedestrians across the channel from here in Dover Marina to Bolougne, in France, but not using big old boats.

The roll on roll off motorcar ferries, this is only for cyclists and only for pedestrians. And it’s a sailboat ferry. So it’s going to be the eco way of getting across the channel. And I’m waiting in the marina here for Andrew, who is taking his boat out.

For a bit of a test. He’s going to come back into the marina, very shortly. I’m gonna be getting on and I’ll be putting my Tern S8i onto the ferry. I’m guessing other guests is going to be joining us. And we’re going to be going across to France.

Andrew Simons 2:56
This is

Toby the Skipper.

Okay, you can pull up your head and lines on the floor.

Toby Duerden 3:08
Yeah. Right. So wear life jackets the whole time we’ve gotten just behind you that

Andrew Simons 3:15
I am Andrew Benjamin Simons Stolz.

Carlton Reid 3:19
we’re in the we’re not quite in the middle. Where are we in?

Andrew Simons 3:21
We’re not in the middle of the channel about where we are just coming in to the southwest bound shipping lane of the traffic separation scheme of the Dover streets.

Carlton Reid 3:35
Is that a dangerous place for us to be

Andrew Simons 3:38
Potentially, but there are very clear clear rules and for what we’re doing, and we all have a lot of equipment on board to avoid collisions. So there’s a lot going on. I don’t disagree. This is a really intense area if you look on a website like marine traffic and then focus in on the Dover Strait, all you will see is dots of ships. But that is not those those those markers on the website and not in real size, but it makes it look like there’s no way through it. But you can look around here. There’s lots of space, there are ships coming at us. But we can avoid those quite happily what we’re doing is perfectly permissible.

And we’ve followed the rules for doing what we’re doing. And there is plenty of space for this.

Carlton Reid 4:28
Toby has knocked the engine off now it’s the engine was ticking over to charge charge the engine basically

Andrew Simons 4:34
That was to charge the batteries we had some issue earlier. Yeah, that somehow for some reason the batteries not the engine battery, but the battery we have for things on board had drained quite a lot. So we were just charging up again. But now we have a hydro generator running in the water behind us because

Carlton Reid 4:51
you’ve got solar power,

Andrew Simons 4:52
we’ve got solar and now because we’re going along at a good speed there’s a good wind, we can drop this hydro generator in the water behind

us it’s not going to impact on our speed at all. And it’s going to charge the batteries using all using the wind.

Carlton Reid 5:06
And the wind is powering the sail.

Andrew Simons 5:08
Exactly. So we have a, we have an engine now above us in the form of the sails. And we have a fuel in the form of the wind that is blowing onto those. And it’s, it’s readily available for us and for the next person to use.

Carlton Reid 5:24
So Brandt there is walking. Yes. From here. Yeah, I’m cycling to and from here. So we’re green, the power that you’re generating from the solar and from the, from the hydro generator

And obviously the sails

Andrew Simons 5:41
Yes. Also, yeah.

Carlton Reid 5:42
Is that basically your schtick? You are taking people across who are pedestrians and cyclists using a green method. Is that is that that is at your sales pitch?

Andrew Simons 5:54
It isn’t actually no, it isn’t because we have to be careful of economies of scale. And if we would really do the calculation, you know, you’ve heard as we’ve on this vessel, we have one diesel engine and one electric engine, but the diesel one is more powerful. We use that to get in and out of the entrances to the to the ports where there’s tide running and things. So, you know, if we would boil it down and look at the co2, for example, or greenhouse gas emissions per passenger kilometre, we’re demanding, depending on how you’re doing, we might not be any better than a ferry. But it all depends how you make that calculation. And actually, I’ve worked in that field. So I know how complex and often misleading those calculations can be. So and the other reason I don’t sell it primarily on that basis is because we all have to go in the direction of being environmentally friendly, and reducing our impacts, also the big ferries. So if I, if that is my sales pitch in a few years, I hope I will lose my sales pitch, if that is it.

So I have to have other ones to keep my business unique and to keep that competitive advantage. And I believe that that that sales pitch is based on the experience,

but also provide in

connection with not only with the culturally with the places we’re going to and from, but also with the ocean we crossing we have in a completely different experience of the ocean, of the winds, you’ve already learned, I think just in this short time, an incredible amount about how a boat works and what we need to look out for. And what we’re using in order to get across. You’ve heard about tides, about winds, we’re using those natural prevailing conditions to get ourselves across. Yes, we have to use a little bit of fuel. But in the future, we’re also going to reduce that hopefully down to purely electric and be able to charge some of that onboard or recharge overnight at the the pontoon. And hopefully their sources of electricity are also going to be quite green.

Carlton Reid 8:14
So, how many people can you fit on here because this is not going to be the eventual boat?

Andrew Simons 8:18
This is yeah, this is this is

an interim boat. Yeah, this is purely for the pilot phase. And also I’ve used this boat in the past in the last couple of years with its skipper-owner, to explore the possibilities here and to to do the crossings and to yeah, really just run the feasibility on it.

Carlton Reid 8:41
Feasibility of it with the next boat is how many passengers?

Brendt Williamson

Andrew Simons 8:46
12, 12 People 12 passengers is a reg is an international maritime limit. Which means we’re actually if we stay with a maximum of 12 We’re not actually a passenger vessel, we’re not classed as a passenger vessel. And that means that we can use in theory any port we like we don’t need to go to a big ferry terminal in order to put our passengers through the passenger cross border procedures with a limit of 12 of course you are still a passenger on board. But we are permitted then to use a marina a harbour. And with good collaboration the border authorities, the agents come to us

or if it’s not possible we send out and they need. For example if a UK passenger is going to France now they must get stamped into France. And if the border authorities don’t come to meet us in France, then the passenger needs to go to

Calais to the port authorities and get their passport stamped in your case. You’re doing a very quick turnaround. It doesn’t matter it’s

it’s quite fine for us to arrive or a person to drive on

on this boat

on late in the evening, like we’re doing today and say, I’m going to go tomorrow, that’s alright. You don’t need to get your Passport, passport some immediately as you step off the boat. It’s just not practical. And they are very, they’re very pragmatic about it. But you do need to pretty much go straight there as soon as you can.

Carlton Reid 10:19
Now this this, this crossing isn’t the choppiest in the world.

But it still to me chopp to me compared to when I’m on one of those big boats.

Andrew Simons 10:28
Okay, yeah. Yeah, there’s some movement.

Carlton Reid 10:31
And that’s giving me a fresh appreciation of these these refugees in their tiny inflatables who are getting even worse bobbed

around the sea than than we are. So

what? How are you viewed by both border authorities? And secondly,

if you see

them coming across, did they come this way? What do you have to do?

Andrew Simons 10:59
Okay. Yeah. So to the first question, I had exactly the same sort of

anxiety about posing this concept, this very concept to the border agents thinking, they were just telling me, please, we have enough on our plates don’t come with this kind of thing. But I absolutely got completely the contrary, they greeted me with

welcome and enthusiasm for what I’m doing. And because I really, I spent the time of COVID really following up

on the regulations and making those connections and finding out how can we design this according to, to stay within the regulations we need. If we’re to operate the ferry day in day out, we have no other option but to work within those boundaries. And it’s only going to make our lives more easier if we, if we really cooperate, and if we can get them on our side and they cooperate with us. So I put a lot of effort into that before I really went to the public on this.

So actually, yes, you say, I actually, I did get a very warm welcome. And we’ve had a lot of exchanges and we found a way to do it. We’ve had them on the boat for discussion. I’ve been to the port to Police aux Frontiers offices in Calais now at least twice, to discuss with them. And they’re very, all very pragmatic and obliging.

And then to the to the, to the migrant issue, it is a very, very, very sad situation. It’s a very

personally, I feel a very, very sad reflection on on the UK

using its castle,

not only its castle status, but that castle.

fact that it is surrounded by this moat of the English Channel and they require

by not having an asylum procedure on the French coast, they they make these people have to cross the channel in order to claim asylum on French or English shores. But yes, they do not know what they’re getting themselves into, really, they launching themselves out into the channel into conditions that I really doubt they understand fully tides with the currents, the weather, the distance, where they’re going, how are they going to get there?

And yeah, the Dover straits is not a friendly place for the wheel now is this this is absolutely yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But that now they’re apparently they’re departing from quite a long stretch along the French coast are no longer focused on Calais

So that could be going southwest, passable on it could be going east, east, past to Dunkirk, you know, so, and then with the tides taken them back and forth, they could be they can find themselves anywhere within quite a large area and thereby a long way from shore if they’re not really on that Calais to Dover stretch, they can be a long way from shore.

Carlton Reid 14:18
And then what do you have to do if you spot them?

Andrew Simons 14:20
We are under obligation every ship passing the Dover straits operating in the Dover straits is under obligation to report to Dover Coast Guard, or to Cap Gris Nez on the French side, sightings of small boats.

There’s a little bit of

interpretation there because you know, anybody is allowed to be out at sea. And just because you say to small boat doesn’t mean you have to get reported. I mean, people do go around the world and all sorts of tiny things, but they don’t need to be reported as doing something wrong, you know. So these people are putting themselves out to sea in. What they are doing is something

are unsafe for themselves.

And so anyway, the first thing is, are they in danger.

So we spot one a little way off, we have the obligation to report it,

we might see people on it, we might not see people, any people on it depends how far away we are from it. And it can also be the case that the people have already been collected by the border agents, and the boat has actually been left in the water.

And I’ve had that now a couple of times that we’ve gone to investigate, and there’s been nobody on board, it’s just a drifting boat, no sign of anybody, they’ve probably been picked up. And actually, then if they if that is the case, then the border agents, mark the vessel, the votes were the number and

and that’s it, if there are people on board, then we have to think of our own safety first, were also quite a small vessel. And depending on how many they are, they can endanger our boat, if we somehow go to their rescue, and

we, you know, we can’t take an unlimited number of people on board, and that would endanger our own seaworthiness.

So we have to assess the situation, if there are people in the water, that’s a different issue, then, you know, everybody is obliged, under maritime law to go to the aid of people in distress. And that’s just what we have to do, regardless of who they are.

But we do have to be careful of our own safety, if there’s 50 people on board, we just cannot take all those people in the water, we can’t take them all on board. So but the you know, we’re in a very small, relatively small area of water. So if we report it, the the Coast Guard’s are going to be here, probably even almost just as quick as if we go to them. So we would stand by and make sure nobody is really suffering, and wait for them to arrive. And then we carry on. Okay.

And just to add to that, I don’t want to also in this whole SailLink thing I don’t want to,

I don’t want to make too much of it is it is a sorry, situation. And I would like to help their plight wherever I can

legally within what we’re permitted to do and

within the tolerance of the ports and the authorities that we’re working with. But

I also don’t want to make some sort of migrant safari out of this sailing issue that people come on board and are thinking they’re going to see migrants and have a look at it. It’s a big thing in the news. And

you know, we hear is reporting to hundreds of people arriving every day on attempting the crossing. What we don’t know is how many do set off?

Carlton Reid 17:45
And how long does it take you to get across with passengers? How long is this trip going to take?

Andrew Simons 17:52
Yeah, well, it depends on the winds today, we have good winds, we set off a little late for the title window that we have, but we should be fine. Now. We can always adjust our course to suit that.

So I think yeah, today we’re easily going to manage that five hour crossing

always takes a little time to leave the ports and to get into the other end. So between harbours Yeah, I think we have a for our Crossing, it’s at maximum, it’s going to be a nice, really nice crossing today. This is, as we’ve said, this boat that we’re using, now it’s a good boat, it’s commercially coated. On paper, it’s ideal, it’s all legal. For doing this in the future we need we need a bit of a faster boat, this has got a accommodation, you know, quite nice accommodation on board, all the facilities, we don’t need that.

We need a larger boat to get 12 people on and potentially their bikes, and to go faster.

A longer boat means going faster.

Carlton Reid 18:54
And then I mean those those big boats over there, they’re year round, you’re gonna be nowhere I can imagine at the moment doing something like from April to October, so Easter to sometime in the autumn.

Andrew Simons 19:09
Because, yeah, in winter, it’s when the big storms arrive. I don’t think many people are going to be wanting to come, we’re going to be setting off in dark in the darkness arriving in darkness.

It’s going to be a bit miserable, the boat will take a lot of beating. You know, it’ll take a lot of wear and tear in the winter. And I don’t think we’ll get much return for that and we need a time off. It’s going to be for the crew quite a demanding job. I hope it’s going to be really really rewarding and good job. But they need a time off in the winter. We need time to just get the boat back in shape for the next season. Make any improvements so no

additions, changes, all that sort of thing.

Carlton Reid 19:52
And how much is it gonna cost?

Andrew Simons 19:55
I don’t know. The moment we’ve got the prices that we’ve published.

And that’s simply based on

me putting that into my calculations, and together with sort of ideas on average passenger numbers and the number of days that we will be sailing, which are based on historical weather data.

But that can all be improved, with a better boat to have a better boat that can handle the conditions that meet, that we can go out in stronger conditions, but the cost the passengers remain comfortable and confident, then we can continue sailing longer, we’ll have clear cut off conditions where we simply say we can’t go out in that. But you know, with modern

today’s weather forecasting, we know about that at least two days in advance, so we can give our passengers prior warning and, and then the contingency plan is, if it’s still not too severe, then they can go on the normal ferry.

Or they can choose to alter the

travel and travel with us another time or they this is the thing I think with people travelling by bikes, and like brand is doing is pilgrimage. I think if people are already on this, they’re already out for some adventure, they have some flexibility with their bikes, I hope we can accommodate we can both work together to to, to build in this flexibility if needed,

without too much

discomfort to people’s plans.

So I think, you know, this sailing isn’t for everybody. I understand that fully. We don’t want everybody we have 12 places.

And but the people I think the people who will be appealing to

may be willing to also accept a little bit of flexibility. You’ve had to wait a little while on the quay till we got there today.

Yeah, but I think I think at the moment, that sort of special nature of the type of travel that it is, is, is okay. Yeah, we’re using natural conditions working with that. And I think I hope the passengers can accept that and tolerate that as well. And it’s also something novel for them, you know, not just to leave, according to a time a timetable

made according to I don’t know what, what, but we have our timetable is designed according to the tides, and that we can plan a year in advance, you know, the tides we know already next year, I don’t know if maybe we’re all

somewhere they’re known already many years in advance, but

so we can plan a year’s schedule. And then if we need to, we vary that a couple of days in advance. At the beginning or for the last year, let’s say we were thinking maybe we need to use have some different ports in mind. For example, on the French side, we have Calais, of course,

on the UK side we there’s not many honestly the either side of of Dover without going up to Ramsgate. There’s rye, which is not very usable for us. But maybe that could be our flexibility that we say okay, the winds are not very good that day, we’re gonna go to rye or we’re gonna go to Cali.

But I think now, it seems to be that by playing with the tides, we can actually

alter our course within this within the same overall course of trying to go between Milan and Dover for example that don’t belong we can we can alter our course

and tack and sail

and use the tides and the winds to still maintain that without I think that there’s more discomfort caused by a complete alteration the same we’re leaving from a different town or we’re going to a different town.

I want to try to avoid that if possible.

Carlton Reid 23:56
What’s your background? Andrew? Where do you come from? Why Why have you done this?

Andrew Simons 24:00
Yeah, well, this is sailing is the answer to my own.

Preferences to travel. I grew up in Yorkshire.

But for the last

quite a few years, I’ve lived in Switzerland.

Now I have a lovely family and home in Switzerland. So for several years now I’ve been travelling between Switzerland and the UK. And obviously, in the early years, I used the plane and I stopped doing that and use the Eurostar

done the ferries. My background is that I was I started off as a wooden boat builder,

working in various places, also went to Switzerland doing boat building actually, funnily enough with the opportunity to work in Bern in this capital city. I’d always worked on the peripheries of the coast. So that was quite an opportunity and then stayed in Switzerland and then I

Yeah,

I went retrained, studied environmental science and worked in the field of lifecycle assessment of transport and energy systems.

And so I guess what I’ve done is to combine all those sorts of things and the awareness through lifecycle assessment, and environmental impacts, human health impacts, all that sort of thing. And my own needs to get back and forth.

What I’ve also done in the last few years, is to revive my boatbuilding.

And to use that to help

cargo sailing

enterprises, there’s now been a resurgence that say of transporting products across the oceans, using sailing vessels. And that’s mainly Fairtrade organic, you know, nicely produced products such as coffee, cacao and rum.

And then selling in the markets in Europe. And they these ships, particularly the Tres Hombres, run by fairtransport, that goes back to Holland every year, after it’s done, its circuits. And then it has a big refit, like a renovation every year. And I go and help with that, because that has a wooden, they have wooden planks on steel frames. So I go and we there’s always a lot of work being done there. Lots of planks being done. So I go from Switzerland to Holland,

put in a load new planks and then go home again. And that’s my involvement there. And I’ve had the opportunity to sail with them. But it’s also inspired me to think, well, if this can work for cargo, then what about passengers.

So I’ve brought all of that together, the living in Switzerland, the being from the UK, the travelling experiences, the lifecycle assessment, all of that. Also, of course, I love sailing. And it actually started in the idea site in 2019. I went with my teenage daughter, from Cherbourg, in France, to Poole in Dorset to do a little bit of the southwest coast path. And so we were out for exactly for that for that a little bit of adventure. And we were thinking well, I was wondering, well, maybe one of the sail cargo ships just happens to be passing and they can take us across. And of course, they weren’t at that time. So we had to go with the big ferry.

And we arrived in Cherbourg by train. And then we walked to the ferry terminal. And in doing that, we passed the harbour with the yachts and small boats in two minutes down the road from the train station. And then we continue to walk for another hour and a half to get to the ferry terminal. And of course, in that time, we thought, Well, why do we need to go out to the ferry terminal? Sure, we can go on one of these boats. And that sparked the whole thing. And I started looking into it. And the thing is, I was thinking then to start up some sort of platform whereby all these boats that align in all these harbours can get used to take people across. But as soon as you start getting into commercial

exchanges,

then you need commercial certification of the vessel. The skipper needs to be commercially certified, and 99% of the boats out there do not have that. So

unless you’re having some sort of other exchange

is not permissible.

So that’s led it down this part of a boat specifically for this purpose with a professional crew

and operating on a very tight for shedule.

Carlton Reid 28:50
Can I ask about your wife?

Andrew Simons 28:53
my wife? Yeah.

Carlton Reid 28:54
Because your wife does bicycle infrastructure.

Getting people on bikes basically. Yeah, in a town or city in Switzerland.

Andrew Simons 29:06
That’s right. My wife runs the

is she’s she’s the head of the planning department for foot and for pedestrian and bicycle

planning for the city of Bern in Switzerland.

We were also very keen cyclists; we cycle as everyday cyclists.

But she does that professionally. Yeah. And of course in sailing, she’s a absolutely vital part of

this whole thing. I can’t do it without her, you know, she goes off to work.

And I get the the the possibility to develop this business.

And then from a professional point of view, yeah, she she’s

already involved in that and

I

very much helps to encourage and inform

the whole cycle the whole side of it with passengers with bicycles, yep.

Sailing, we’ve talked about the experiences of the sea and, and this is also a real a really serious sailing experience you’re sailing across international waters

on the open sea on a very tidally titled stretch of water. And you only really get to do this if you have connections with people with boats or you’re part of a club, it’s quite an exclusive thing. And so sailing is really a key part of it is to offer that just by buying a ticket for I think not that much

and gain that opportunity.

Also for children for groups for in the future also for people with wheelchairs, we want to be able to get bikes on and off easily but also people and people in wheelchairs. So

you know really open it up to to whoever wants to come.

Carlton Reid 31:04
And we’re arriving into Bolougne, fantastic voyage across, with the orange Harvest Moon. But now I’m going to hand over to David for a short break.

David Bernstein 31:16
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Carlton Reid 35:51
Thanks, David. And we are back and I’m back on the boat the ferry across and we’re leaving Boulogne now. And we are going to be about four or five hours before we’re in Dover. But we have a new passengers on board who are going to go all the way across to the UK.

Brandt Williamson 36:12
I am Brandt Williamson from Virginia in the United States.

Small town called Delaplane.

hadn’t been overseas in quite some time and very, very excited about this experience. So it’s already been quite an experience.

Carlton Reid 36:29
And what do you do when you’re in America? What do you do for a living for a profession?

Brandt Williamson 36:32
I’m a physician. I’m an emergency room doc.

Carlton Reid 36:35
And then if you hadn’t gone across the channel in a sailboat because the sail has now gone up a massive sail above our heads.

If you weren’t taking a sailboat across the channel, how would you have got across?

Brandt Williamson 36:47
Well, actually, this whole trip, my whole trip has kind of evolved. Originally, I was going to take the Chunnel across and then I realised well like that’s not going to be the most efficient way to do this. If I’m going to be going down to Dover walking,

because I don’t think you can get on to the channel there need to go back track to where you came from. So then I was just looking at going on one of these massive ferries that takes people across. But when I found out this was available, that was not that was not even a consideration anymore.

Carlton Reid 37:22
So eco we’re not burning any fuel here to get across is that was that part of the consideration?

Brandt Williamson 37:30
I think it’s part of the consideration. It’s also just the adventure of it all. This is just more adventurous than jumping on a car ferry.

Robert Tickner 37:39
I am Robert Tickner.

Carlton Reid 37:41
And Robert, what are you doing today? Why are you going across the channel in this eco friendly way? Or have I just preempted the question?

Wayne Godfrey

Robert Tickner 37:50
You have to a certain extent, yes. It’s it’s kind of a bucket list item.

You know,

I’ve always been looking for an opportunity to sell across the channel. And then I saw this this come up. I thought okay, that’s quite interesting.

Carlton Reid 38:06
How do you say where do you say it actually came up?

Robert Tickner 38:09
In a different publication with the independent Simon Calder. He’s he mentioned it and said that this was going to start, and I follow him on a regular basis. And I thought, yeah, that sounds great. Let’s do that.

Carlton Reid 38:21
And you’ve never been on a boat as small as this before always, maybe not across such a channel as La Manche?

Robert Tickner 38:30
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I’ve been on even smaller boats than this, but sitting not on a seagoing basis. So yeah, this is a bit of a new experience.

Carlton Reid 38:39
And what do you do for a living? Your Brussels based?

Robert Tickner 38:42
Yeah, I’m Brussels based. Yeah, indeed. So actually, I’m the head of PR for Toyota in Europe. So the other aspects of this is the sustainability angle, which, which has, you know, to Earth is very interested in that kind of activity. So looking at what’s happening here, I think aligns well with what I do on a daily basis.

Carlton Reid 39:01
And this has got some electric onboard

power certainly out of the harbour. Is that an interest of yours with Toyota?

Robert Tickner 39:12
Yes, indeed, we have a hydrogen fuel cell technology which

is also used for electric power. And we do have some, some prototype electric boats using hydrogen fuel cells

working on a on a transatlantic Trans Pacific bases. So I think it’s definitely something of the future and allied with sail. I think it can be a real boon.

Carlton Reid 39:38
So you’ve come across

from Brussels on the train. I presume?

Robert Tickner 39:43
I drove from Brussels to Calais.

Carlton Reid 39:45
You work for Toyota, of course you’ll drive, what a silly question? Okay, so,

okay, yes, a bit. Yeah. And you’ve parked up and you’ve you’ve got to here. What are you doing across there in Dover?

Robert Tickner 39:58
So I’m back I’m gonna get off this

Uh, I’m going to hop for it to the ferry terminal and go straight back to how you’re doing the full the full treatment and excursion. Yeah, I need to get back in, in Brussels for tomorrow morning.

Carlton Reid 40:12
What time is that? What time do you have to get to Dover?

Robert Tickner 40:17
Well, the ferry’s due leave at 10 to seven.

As well as a passenger, I need to be there about an hour and a half beforehand,

Carlton Reid 40:25
you should be fine. So because you were tracking the journey when you enter in vesselfinder last night.

Robert Tickner 40:30
I tracked it yesterday. And it took me six hours to get across. But I think if it’s six hours today, or less than I should be fine. You don’t have to run too fast to get to the ferry termina. It’s the hour and a half I have to be there beforehand, which is problematic.

Carlton Reid 40:48
And not every ferry company that goes from Dover will would accept you as a pedestrian or if you had a bike. So you basically they’re favouring car passengers,

Robert Tickner 40:58
They are there at the moment, which is a bit of a shame. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 41:00
the P&O are doing this, they’re not doing it for all of their crossings, just just a few . But the one that I’m targeting is the last one. So if I don’t make it then it’s gonna be a B&B in Dover.

Tom Treasure 41:15
I’m Tom treasure.

Caroline Tyndall 41:17
I am Caroline Tyndall.

Carlton Reid 41:19
Okay, and welcome on board. Why, why are you doing today’s trip?

Caroline Tyndall 41:25
Well, I saw the information about SailLink in a local newspaper.

Carlton Reid 41:35
French, expats or French, fully French.

Okay.

Caroline Tyndall 41:42
And I said to Tom, that sounds really interesting. And I’ve always wanted to sail across the channel. And as Boulogne is just down the coast from where we live, it couldn’t have been more convenient. And so we looked at the website and managed to secure two places for sailing today, which we’re very grateful.

Very easy for us to live we just drove down to Boulogne and parked very near the port. And the plan is to stay tonight in Dover.

and then come back to Calais tomorrow on P&O ferry, which is now allowing passengers after a long time.

So it’s a bit of a round trip.

Very enjoyable.

Carlton Reid 42:37
Yeah, well you’ve got some good weather. I was lucky yesterday.

Caroline Tyndall 42:41
A couple of days ago that was

sa y in French “souffle tempête”

Carlton Reid 42:48
That means a storm? Okay.

Caroline Tyndall 42:52
So Tom is a retired doctor

a rofessor cardiac surgery and so he’s still writing

papers for

medical journals.

Carlton Reid 43:09
So obviously this trip is attracting doctors

Tom Treasure 43:13
Yes, well

sailors

a lot of doctors go sailing it’s a favourite thing you know you have a boat keep boats on the channel Coast if any of my friends had boats but they might sell two weeks a year you know, but very busy. Yeah, and the channel is often inhospitable for the fun sailor.

But today it’s

always slightly envious but never really wanted to commit to a boat myself anymore because it doesn’t have to pass so she did have their time

Carlton Reid 43:51
and money

Tom Treasure 44:01
shred them under a shower.

Carlton Reid 44:02
That’s so this is this is poor man’s version of that so you’re you’re you’re going on a boat, but you’re not actually owning the boat and people are having to keep it exactly. You’re fostering this this ferry?

Tom Treasure 44:15
Yeah, well, it’s a very nice idea because crossing the Channel simply without having to take a car every time.

It’s something we lost for a while. I could do it again.

Wayne Godfrey 44:28
I am Wayne Godfrey.

Carlton Reid 44:29
Why are you doing this?

Wayne Godfrey 44:31
Making making the most of my time on the planet. I sort of read it in a local newspaper

and thought what a fab thing to do, combined with the opportunity to ride my bike, simple pleasures.

Carlton Reid 44:45
Wayne, what do you do for a living?

Wayne Godfrey 44:47
I am a removals man, which I find very enjoyable. It’s very physic, physical, physically active, physical when you’re part of people’s journey.

make people happy to bring calm to a situation.

Carlton Reid 45:03
So Wayne tell me your journey what when did you start and what have you been doing?

Wayne Godfrey 45:08
Started Friday morning, got the 9.15 ferry across in, arrived in Calais just before lunch, pedalled my bike down to Boulogne. Just do a record of where the sailing was from on Sunday.

Spent a pleasant evening in Boulogne. And then headed out

Saturday morning down past le Touquet into Berck. Again, some fantastic beaches, some fantastic cyclin. I can recommend France to everyone. And yeah, had a nice evening. Not too much to do there. But again, it’s what you make it and then headed out this morning bright and early. Watched the sunrise which again, I’d recommend everyone done now and again to make the most of every day. And yeah, cycled consistently 40 kilometres from Birck to Boulogne. Yeah, French road drivers are very considerare. And I had a wonderful time I’ve been on bike paths even on roads we’ve been on all mix yet.

The even in France, they accommodate bikes very well along. Most routes have a bike path. Again, it’s a road cycling again, the roadss in France are much more cycle friendly than in Britain. And yeah, the weather has been absolutely phenomenal. But again, it’s what you make it

as long as you’ve got warm clothing on top you

can generally tolerate most weathers. And I haven’t not worn shorts for five years because my skin is waterproof.

Yeah, I got soaked when I headed out from Margate on 6.30 Friday morning, but once I was when I was wet and I wasn’t cold. So yeah.

It was a very pleasant cycle as well.

Carlton Reid 47:06
So is this the kind of journey you would do

frequently?

Wayne Godfrey 47:11
It’s just I would say this

journey again and again. And again. Because it’s therapeutic. It’s environmentally friendly.

To spend your time, I find it’s always good to take time out for yourself, and do what makes you happy if something doesn’t make you happy.

Carlton Reid 47:30
Now when we get to the other side, how far you got to ride, what are you doing?

Wayne Godfrey 47:39
From Dover to my house is three hours cycling and it’s quite hilly and it’s about pushing yourself but there’s also within and making it enjoyable as well. So I’ll shift cycle to the train station and to get home and

Carlton Reid 47:58
where’s that where’s home?

Wayne Godfrey 47:59
home is sunny Margate, which I’ve been here for about 10 years now. And I used to live in the inner city. And it’s something so therapeutic about seeing the sea every day. And just being peaceful really.

The older I get, the more I try and deliver myself places under my own steam. Because I don’t find for most people it’s about the destination whereas myself, it’s part of the journey and the destination. I go to the Lake District, by train and by bicycle and a few times to come off the mountain. And I think I would like my car but once I start pedalling I’m free and I love it.

Carlton Reid 48:46
Thanks to Andrew Simons and SailLink’s first passengers for talking to me on what was a wonderful crossing between Dover and Boulogne and back again. Thanks also to you for listening to Episode 306 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. Show notes and more can be found as always on the-spokesman.com. The next episode is a chat with Cat who is a local organiser of a Kiddical Mass ride. That show will be out in a day or two. But meanwhile, get out there and ride …

August 29, 2022 / / Blog

29th August 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 305: Sexy Urban Bike: In Conversation with Knog CEO Hugo Davidson

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUEST: Hugo Davidson, CEO, Knog

TOPICS: Knog, 20 years young this year, started with a scattergun portfolio of bike products, a messy mix of messenger bags, shoes and cycling gloves, tapping into the zeitgeisty fixie-cum-singlespeed scene of the early to mid 2000s. But there was also the Tadpole, a LED handlebar light with front and rear facing LEDs. This turned out to be the Australian design company’s breakthrough product, far more in demand from a global audience than the eye-of-the-beholder soft goods. But it was the next LED offering which made the company’s fortune. Shaking up the technical but staid lighting market, Knog’s halo product was the Frog, a silicone-covered LED that, with its much copied stretchy tail, could be easily, quickly and securely strapped and unstrapped from seat posts and handlebars. More than 10 million of these iconic bike lights been sold since 2006.

In this half-hour episode you’ll hear how Hugo invested to protect the company’s IP and how the edgy marketing of its early days — a punk messenger aesthetic — morphed as Knog matured.

TRANSCRIPT

Carlton Reid 0:13
Welcome to Episode 305 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was recorded on Monday 29th of August 2022.

David Bernstein 0:24
The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e bikes for every type of rider. Whether you’re commuting, taking your kids to school, or even caring another adult, visit www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n bicycles.com to learn more.

Carlton Reid 1:02
Knog, 20 years young this year, started with a scattergun portfolio of bike products, a messy mix of messenger bags, shoes and cycling gloves, tapping into the zeitgeisty fixie-cum-singlespeed scene of the early to mid 2000s. But there was also the Tadpole, a LED handlebar light with front and rear facing LEDs. This turned out to be the Australian design company’s breakthrough product, far more in demand from a global audience than the eye-of-the-beholder soft goods. But it was the next LED offering which made the company’s fortune. Shaking up the technical but staid lighting market, Knog’s halo product was the Frog, a silicone-covered LED that, with its much copied stretchy tail, could be easily, quickly and securely strapped and unstrapped from seat posts and handlebars. More than 10 million of these iconic bike lights been sold since 2006. I’m Carlton Reid and today I’m talking with Knog’s co-founder and CEO Hugo Davidson. I’ve been reporting on the company from the very beginning, including trade mag scoops on Knog’s successful sashays into the world of copyright infringement protection.

The Chinese-made Frog was easy to copy leading to what could have been crushing sales losses for the putative innovator. In this half-hour episode you’ll hear how Hugo invested to protect the company’s IP and how the edgy marketing of its early days — a punk messenger aesthetic — morphed as Knog matured.

Hugo, people listening to to this will, I’m sure know your product. They perhaps have had a Knog Blinder, or any of the other ones that you’ve brought out over the years or perhaps even sad to say the copies that have come on the market. And you did.

Hugo Davidson 3:23
There’s been a few of those.

Carlton Reid 3:24
Yep, absolutely. There has. But I know where you’ve come from because I was there when you first sprang on the on the scene in the early 2000s. But but tell everybody else, because you weren’t originally lights. You had a broad, a very broad portfolio of products, didn’t you?

Hugo Davidson 3:44
We did. Yeah. And yeah, it’s interesting. You were there, you were one of the first to, I suppose recognise maybe the potential, maybe just that there were a couple of, of guys who really didn’t know much about the bike industry.

So we this is our 20th year this year. So we’re having an anniversary, which is very exciting. And we stemmed from design, consulting background. And so we’ve been designing and developing products for all sorts of other companies doing computers and mobile phones and toasters and kettles, the typical sorts of industrial design products that you would you would associate with a design company.

And then back then in around 2002, we wanted to develop our own product. So the the idea I think, stemmed from one of our employees who had worked at a bike store, and that was about as close as we come to bikes besides the fact that we, you know, we rode bikes when we were a little bit younger, and so we It wasn’t necessarily a passion for the sport. It was a passion for products and

developing things that were unique and were different. And so we thought it was a great industry because the people were very

straight up and there was they had a passion for what they did. And that was far more exciting to us than maybe

working with consumer electronics, per se. And so

Carlton Reid 5:24
Hugo, can we just stop there? Can we could Can you just define “we” and where because it was telling me the company name and your company, founder, co founder. And where you are, because we have only discussed where you work is your Copenhagen, where Knog is based?

Hugo Davidson 5:41
We’re from Melbourne, Australia. And Malcolm McKechnie, who’s my business partner, and an engineer, and myself,

who I’m an industrial designer by profession. We had had this consulting company back in Melbourne working for all sorts of company. So it was one of our employees back then who was a designer who said, look, the bike industry has lots of generic Chinese products.

And really, there’s so much scope for doing something which is different. So we started exploring that. And that’s when we realised, look at this, these, these lights really don’t offer anyone terribly much. anything terribly exciting. If you remember back 20 years ago, a black light was to double double A batteries and a couple of little LEDs.

And that was a really, you know, that was starting to use halogen lights for the front. And there was. So we started doing that. But we realised very quickly that we could, you know, there was, there were shoes that people needed, and all black shoes look the same. So we thought, let’s look at let’s look at some shoes that are completely different. We did waterproof jackets. And in fact, one of the first distribution partners we met was a British company called Extra.

And Brian, I met at one of the bike shows. And he said to me, you know, there’s lots of opportunity, because it’s so wet in the UK, you should be focusing on these sorts of products. Another distributor, we may have, we found in Australia that I think you should be doing this sort of a product, so and they were looking looking at luggage, so we ended up doing

luggage, saddlebags, backpacks, you know, all these sort of things, we and the other thing, which was interesting, from our perspective, probably I don’t know if it was interesting for anyone else’s. But we because we’d had a consulting company, we had really very strong

links with a lot of manufacturers in China, who worked in particular areas. And so some were some worked with fabrics and textiles, some work with luggage. And all these are all areas that I designed products for in a previous life, probably in the previous 10 years. And so we just went back to the same factories and said, Look, you know, would you be interested in working with us on a new range of bags.

And so it was a very easy, quick entry for us into the industry with products that

we could manufacture and sample quickly. And so we turned up to the first, our first tradeshow in Taiwan,

with just a hand a bag full of samples that were we had no idea if anyone would buy them. And we had no idea if there was any interest in them. And we’d we’d gone to one of the factories that made bike lights and picked a few of their products that we thought we could re-badge as well, which we don’t do anymore. But that was our first strategy as well. Plus this very unique bike light, which plugged into the end of your handlebar, which was our first real product.

So that’s how we started it was it was a sporadic approach across a whole range of different products based on the background we had as a design company. And it was it was so exciting. I just remember thinking, oh my goodness, we’re, I think that first trade show we we ended up signing up 16 countries and we looked at each other I think I think we’ve got a business here you know, I think we’re

so that was really the that was the start

20 years ago so yeah, fascinating.

Carlton Reid 9:31
Well, congrats and happy birthday. Now I’m looking at one of my original stories through the beauty of archiving on the web. And it’s not my first story that must have been in like in Bikebiz the mag but I can see on the website by BikeBiz.com I can see for 2003 that that you had 35 cycling accessories at that time, which is clearly massive. So you must have very, very quickly whittled that down

So is it just what sold the most? Or cos you said you know, Brian from Extra say do this and your other people? So how do you kind of like fixate on the handlebar? Light?

Which then, you know, which then developed into the silicone, you know, wrap around light, which is

for I say know you for anyway. So how did you very quickly narrow it down?

Hugo Davidson 10:29
Look, we had

probably the 2003 or thereabout anyway, we maybe I can’t exactly remember that the year when we did develop the first of the silicon lights. And they really were the that was the product that captured people’s imaginations that predominantly because it was it was a redefinition of what of how you put a bike light on your bike and how easy it was, and, and colour. I mean, everything before that was black. So we’ve ordered that in 12 colours. And so the end, the success of that particular product of the first little Frog light meant that we ended up with a Beetle and a Bullfrog and a Toad. And, you know, we ended up with a 1,2,3,4,5 different LED products for front and rear and

and it was at that point, actually, that the these early distributors that we had picked up in different regions, looked at and said,

these are clearly the front runner, these are the things that sell most, why I don’t really want to have a warehouse full of bags. And I don’t really want to have you know, clothes are difficult. They okay, we like what you’ve done, but they’re not your core skill, you know, could you please not design not develop any more products quickly, because we can, we can’t afford to put them in our warehouse. So we were very unique, not unique. Naively, we were of the opinion that we’ll just design anything, and people will buy it.

And we found that very, very quickly that that product sold in America has to be a very different product to those sold in Europe. And similarly something sold in Switzerland is very different from something’s obvious that Spain

or South nearly so every, every region has a particular nuance or requirement and learning that was probably the well, we had some very understanding distributors who just sort of bought things because we made them and then told us six months later that they hadn’t sold and that they wouldn’t buy anymore. So it wasn’t like it wasn’t very long before we realised that lighting was our feet. And that’s where we, you know, we, we were most successful. And so we really just, we just decided that we would focus our efforts in trying to actually master what it was as a lighting company in relation to optics and performance and function. And when we did that things

were very much more focused. And our approach was very much more focused.

Carlton Reid 13:05
So quite apart from the brilliance of that, that Frog light, which I remember vividly, I remember,

probably hadn’t got them in the garage today, in fact, orange ones and you said that there’s lots of different colours there. But I remember vividly the orange ones and how they wrapped around and that definitely was was very different for the time, but quite apart from that you are known certainly for the first few years.

A good five years probably for your really your your punk marketing. And and your your show. Sure, you’re probably told by your distributors. Why are you doing here? This is so out there. Because you were really, really out there weren’t you?

Hugo Davidson 13:47
We we loved I mean, you got to understand, I suppose, having worked. For my perspective, he worked in a consulting company where you would provide some ideas for someone and your client typically would choose the most conservative idea.

Suddenly having an opportunity to to build a brand

yourself and to to determine the tone and the approach yourself without anyone saying that you could or you could do it was absolutely liberating. And so I mean, we had we were very lucky because the the chap that we’d found to help us with all the marketing, it was himself a genius, Michael Lelliot. He was a creative. Yeah, he was really out there and had worked with brands like Crumpler in the past. And he came to us and said, you know, guys, I know you want this to be a brand about safety and but safety is not that sexy.

What I think I think what we should do if you really want to make a difference, we should. The key phrase for that or the byline should be “sexy

urban bike.” And you know, that’s what people are after they. So I was listening intently trying to work out what that meant for me and suddenly realised that when the first images for the catalogue came out there were there was a lot of imagery, which I wasn’t expecting.

But

it was it and it was polarising. It was, it was no question it, it got it, it grabbed people’s attention. I, you could recognise suddenly the engaging the engagement from everyone around you. And of course,

you don’t deny that you sit back go well, if that’s what’s going to happen. If we do this sort of thing, then I think that’s a that’s let’s start here and see where it goes to. So

Carlton Reid 15:46
let’s just describe Mike because Mike, Mike’s a tall guy.

A bicycle messenger type aesthetic. So here’s tall, cycling cap, beard,

Hugo Davidson 16:01
Big red beard, deep, very thick rimmed glasses looks a little bit like a gnone on steroids.

And he needed a look at when he started with us. He

he was far more conservative, but I think he took on the brand as well. And so he was with us for quite some time. Really, until I think we realised that the, you know, we had a polarised

a large portion of the market that were that, that no longer wanted to buy our products, and people were growing up. And the fixed gear scene had moved from being fixed gear and those cyclists were moving on. And we were at risk of actually just becoming irrelevant, because we’d sort of had moved with time. So

you know, Mike had had made incredible impression and was quite happy then to move on to other projects. And, and we decided we would try and sort of consolidate consolidate what we’re doing and broaden our appeal a little bit more see became like,

Carlton Reid 17:04
You went to the adolescent phase in effect and you’ve mature, but those those early days, they still they I’m sure lots of people who are back there in the day will will still associate you with those old days, because that absolutely propelled your brand quite a pop and the brilliance of the product. It was the brilliance of of the market that you can’t sustain that clearly, because there was some very anarchic marketing going on those and I remember some incredible Euro bike booths with was it like, Action Man and and Barbie dolls, you know intertwined in strange ways? Yeah, there’s some, there’s some pretty strange stuff out there. But then that just propelled you into a moment mature company, because you couldn’t sustain that.

Hugo Davidson 17:52
So I think that’s true. And I and I do think too, given I mean, it wasn’t just Mike. We have, we had a whole stable of people. And what I loved about that particular period of time, is that if you provide people with the licence to go and do, you know, to work within a framework, and to have fun, then they did so the people who were designing the the trade shows and the booths and the exhibitions, along with all the trends in the photography in the video. There will, there were a lot of people involved, and everyone just was we were having a lot of fun, I think I think it showed.

So I think we still have a lot of fun, but it’s just that I’m 20 years older than I was back then. Yes, you say it’s not sustainable. Yeah.

Carlton Reid 18:38
And then with the success of a product that is groundbreaking, and is new, you very quickly suffered from from knockoffs. So you’ve had a fair few intellectual property fights over the years. Would that be fair?

Hugo Davidson 18:53
We have Yep. Yeah. And we quite and thank you, Carlton, for your support over the years, because you’ve actually been very, I suppose, influential in your ability to report on those. And that’s been great that we, we take it very seriously. And

we certainly didn’t initially, because we didn’t realise how it would impact our business. And when the first of the knockoff silicon products came, I think our sales dropped by 50% in six months.

So we really went from from writing quite a high

you know, being on a bit of a high and then realising that actually, no one everyone was associating the silicone products with cheap Chinese products. They’d lost their

their boutique interest and they would ever they were flooded the market. So we had to change approach. The first patent I think we wrote we wrote ourselves because we couldn’t afford to get a patent attorney

And we held that up, and they laughed at it. So we started getting proper advice from intellectual lawyers, property lawyers. And we from that point on we’ve registered and or patented every design that we’ve done.

And it’s been really interesting because while it’s very expensive to run a patent case, and actually chase people down,

it has been a great way of stopping Chinese factories copying, and probably the most effective was a few years ago, when

we’d found that there was a company who had blatantly copied our products, and was advertising and they were going to show it your bike, and we knew, we managed to get the customs police to

take

take everything, they stand out and removed all the products from the stand. And we got some of the international press to to record that. So when that happened, and it was sort of broadcast to the world. It clearly the Chinese factory suddenly took notice. And we’ve had very, very few direct copies from that point on. Because I think people realise that we take it seriously. You know, does it does work? It’s expensive.

Carlton Reid 21:18
It must take a big part of your budget, I’m guessing, to protect IP?

Hugo Davidson 21:23
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It does. Yeah, it’s probably half a million dollars a year we’ve spent on intellectual property, which is, you know, it’s an awful amount. That’s the sort of straight profit that goes back in but it does allow us to, to stop

to stop the copy products. And there’s also a wonderful company in Italy, that that now searches the web for any Chinese copies, and it’s like whack a mole, and they actually shut them down. So that’s another part of the strategy. And together I think

all of these things help to, to fight and to ensure that if a company like ours is being innovative, and is developing products that are unique, and we invest so much energy and time and

add passion in coming up with something that’s new, then it’s only fair that someone else shouldn’t profit from that. So, you know, I’m a very strong believer that that’s, that’s the way we’ve got to go.

David Bernstein 22:20
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Carlton Reid 26:55
Because you then branched out or

eight years ago maybe with with the bell. So that was a kickstarter. Didn’t you do that that was a Kickstarter product to begin with we yeah, we did.

Hugo Davidson 27:07
We did. We’ve done a few things on Kickstarter. And so the Oi bell was

pretty, it’s actually probably been our most

successful product as far as just sales. It’s one of the products I’m most proud of, because it does sort of redefine what a bicycle bell is. And we had this crazy idea that that’s, you know,

kicked out as a great way of marketing products as well as selling them. And so we thought that’s what would happen if we put it up there because it was so unique. And

it was it had a crazy response calendar, we ended up with a video

that you put up on the Kickstarter site, I think that was viewed 580,000 times. In those 30 days the campaign was running.

And we raised I think, 1.2 million Australian dollars or something like that. And we sold it into

40,000 Bells into 92 countries or something crazy, like the stats were incredible.

And

it was such a great marketing tool. Because all of the I think bike stores typically look to kick started generally just out of curiosity to see what is coming up. And so our distributors were getting calls left, right and centre from, from companies who often retailers who wanted to get their hands on this belt, you know, when’s it coming? When’s it coming? So, I think was, at this point in time, we’ve probably sold over 4 million units since that point,

which is, you know, that’s a fantastic achievement. And it’s just one of those those things that,

you know, we we didn’t know how long it would last. But I think it’s really has

found a place within sort of bike culture is a piece, it’s a piece of equipment that people really like to have on their bikes.

Carlton Reid 28:59
It’s simple, very loud. And well and striking, you could say literally, literally striking.

So again, that’s kind of your ethos of doing something quite interesting and different. And then do it really, really well. If you don’t mind me saying.

Hugo Davidson 29:18
Thank you. Yeah, no, thank you. And look, that’s, that’s what I say. I’m quite proud of it. It’s it came around the sort of philosophy that we wanted something that was more like jewellery for your bike, you know, something that was that was

people say to us, road cyclists don’t use bells. And that’s quite true and fair enough to because they’re bloody ugly, and they’re,

they’re a stain on what could be a beautiful bike. So we just said about trying to develop something which which would be sympathetic to the bike and where people would look at the product and go, Oh, my God, I love that. Then and that’s, I mean, that’s sort of what we try to do with all our products. You know, it’s got to have something

trigger something is unique and something that makes people go oh, yeah, that’s great. So people still doing that with the way bell I show people who haven’t seen it and sort of reaction. Yeah. So it’s, it’s a lovely, it’s, that’s the satisfaction you get as a designer. I think if you walk down the street and you see something like that on someone’s back, it’s nice. They appreciate it.

Carlton Reid 30:23
Let me go back to that story I did a few years 19 years ago, in which I actually used a bit of Shakespeare to introduce the word. No, because I back in those days, where did not come from. And and there’s a there’s a Shakespeare in phrase where he says, I will “knog his urinals.”. So when it was I was looking at your, you know, your anarchic punk phase, I thought, well, maybe that’s where that came from. But then you told me back in the day that no, it’s not it was just the noggin. The head is that right?

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III Scene I, A field near Frogmore:

SIR HUGH EVANS: “Pless my soul, how full of chollors I am, and trempling of mind! I shall be glad if he have deceived me. How melancholies I am! I will knog his urinals about his knave’s costard when I have good opportunities for the ork. ‘Pless my soul!”

Hugo Davidson 30:58
Yes, it’s not as exciting as your “knog your urinals”

we, I know, you told me that with great, great, great glee and pleasure. I think

it’s interesting, I think, I’m not sure

if we would have named it that had that.

We, yes, look, we were the first products we were looking at developing for for ourselves under this brand was were helmets. And

we ended up not doing how much but that was that was the idea. And so I we were trying to find a name that

for helmets that would work and noggin was where it stemmed from and then clearly, I can’t spell save myself. So we put a silent K in front of it and thought if we, if we reduce it to a four letter word that we can get a good website and, and something which is sort of recognisable. And we also, I mean, interestingly 20 years ago,

there was quite a if you are an Australian brand, or if you’re an Australian, you didn’t really want to associate yourself with Australia, there was in Australia, you would have, you know, flying kangaroos, and there would be Australian-made, it was always sort of very

I thought it was crass anyway. So we were happy to be considered as more European style and Knog had a certain ring about it was that maybe more Scandinavian than Australian so so it was just for those all those reasons we thought that’s it’s a, it’s a vessel. It’s an empty vessel. We’ll use it and we’ll fill it up with our own meaning. So that was that was where it came from.

Carlton Reid 32:39
Thanks to Hugo Davidson of Knog, and thanks to you for listening to Episode 305 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast, show notes and more can be found at the-spokesman.com Episode 306 will be out next month. But meanwhile, get out there and ride

August 10, 2022 / / Blog

10th August 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 304: In conversation with e-bike guru Ed Benjamin

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUEST: Ed Benjamin

TOPICS: The growth of electric bikes since the 1990s and their future, with e-bike guru Ed Benjamin.

TRANSCRIPT

Carlton Reid 0:12
Welcome to Episode 304 of The Spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was published on Wednesday 10th of August 2022..

David Bernstein 0:23
The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e bikes for every type of rider. Whether you’re commuting, taking your kids to school, or even caring another adult, visit www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n bicycles.com to learn more.

Carlton Reid 1:03
Hey there I’m Carlton Reid and on today’s show I’m glad to welcome back e-bike guru Ed Benjamin. Veteran e-bike guru Ed Benjamin, the go-to guy for e-bike growth stats and also the go-to guy for bike industry folks who want to figure out a complex sourcing challenge. And I said “welcome back” because Ed has been on the show before, but not since 2009 and I can’t link to that episode because it was recorded at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas and was streamed live to a TV audience of … well, a TV audience. We talked for a little under an hour and you’ll soon hear why I call him a guru.

You were basically

telling the global bike industry, there was an E bike boom coming back in the days even of lead acid batteries. So 2025, perhaps even more years ago. So are we at that future? That you said back then we should expect? No, I think we are the My understanding is that

PADI IDC Staff Instructor Ed Benjamin

Ed Benjamin 2:22
No, I think we are. My understanding is that Europe, European European market is going to be about 5 million units this year. The American market is not far from a million units. I’m predicting it at 700,000 for this year, 880,000 for last year, but things are cooled off a little bit here. The Chinese market is more than 30 million. And

hey, we’re there. This is we are a significant and important part of the transportation mix for most of the world.

Carlton Reid 2:54
So you were saying that before? Well, people are saying you’re crazy. When you were saying that 25 years ago? Probably I was saying you were crazy as well, Ed. And I have known you for an awfully long time. And you were saying those things and people were going yeah, that’s not going to happen. And absolutely, as you’ve just said that it’s absolutely happened in China. First, it absolutely happened in Europe. I mean, America has been a slower burn, hasn’t it?

Ed Benjamin 3:19
You know, adoption was very quick in Asia, partly because the vehicle was perfect for the dense Lee inhabited coastal cities of Asia. And because there was strong government encouragement that the Chinese governments in particular, recognise that the small vehicle was what their people were going to use and the small vehicles were emitting a lot of pollution and they’d better do something. And so they basically provided as they put it, strong encouragement for the electric bicycle by discouraging two stroke engines by discouraging mopeds, gasoline assisted bicycles, etc.

So they were fast, you know, from the time that the technologies that enable electric bicycles to be a commercial success were available, which I’ll suggest that they were available at the correct price starting in 1994.

From 1994 to the time the Chinese were reacting was two years to the time that the Chinese electric bicycle was all over the place in many hundreds of 1000s less than 10 years. And today, there’s probably more than or something very close to 300 million electric bikes used in China, everything that acid may still lead acid mainly. Well, yeah, lead acid is still a major, major energy storage device. There’s a lot of the wire lithium is the primary battery metallurgy for the Western market. Lead Acid is still the

Primary metallurgy for most of the Asian markets with lithium making some grounds make gaining ground I should say. So yeah, and that’s been an issue, you know, lead acid batteries, they for heavy daily use, they typically last about a year, and now they need to be recycled. And, and most of the cities of Asia now have vigorous lead acid recycling,

where in the West, we are using a lot of lithium batteries. And we don’t really have a way of dealing with the old lithium batteries yet. Because in the EU that just brought in a new rule that you’re going to have to recycle those. So you say manufacturers and suppliers are going to have to do something with their then EMI and batteries.

Well, and they would say we are doing something.

And maybe a more honest thing would be for them to say, we’re in the process of figuring out what’s the best thing to do with it. An awful lot of lithium battery recycling today is shred it and put it in a landfill. But I’d like to personally, I believe that it won’t be very much longer before some of these outfits will succeed in commercially viable recovery of the lithium materials, which have a significant value.

Carlton Reid 6:19
We got somebody but you got companies like Redwood materials who are doing it for cars. So that was that was a former

executive from Tesla who realised that this is gonna be a big thing. So presumably of if Tesla can do it for a company that sprang from Tesla can do it for for cars, bikes can surely do it?

Ed Benjamin 6:38
Oh, yeah. And I think that we’re in the process of getting there. Keep in mind that the battery package for car which can be 1000s of cells, and the battery package for bike, which might be 40, maybe 60 cells, different, different size of scale. But if we look at lead acid battery recycling, which is something the western economies do very well, if I have a lead acid battery, whether it comes from a car or an electric bike, I think there are four or five places that will accept it for recycling within one mile of my home. And we’ll see the same thing happen with lithium. In the end, we’ll see the lithium recaptured lithium metal, the lithium salts have a value that are going to have more and more value as we build more and more electric vehicles that use lithium for energy storage. So we’ll get there and there’s probably some lithium guy that will be listening to this and going hey, wait a minute my company’s blah blah, blah. Yeah, we’re making progress.

Carlton Reid 7:43
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe you’re speaking to us here from Fort Myers in Florida from Fort Myers, Florida that’s in the news at the moment is Florida I know you’re about 125 miles away from completely opposite from from the building that’s in the news at the moment but you’re in your you’re in Florida.

Ed Benjamin 8:01
I’m in Florida and we are often in the news.

Carlton Reid 8:04
Now the reason I bring up Florida because it’s I’ve never been there in the in that have never been ever but I know that in the summer. It’s meant to be incredibly brutal to live in Florida. Now. Know what correct is that?

Ed Benjamin 8:20
Oh, no. I’ve been reading about the temperatures in the UK recently. You guys have a tougher than we do. We have a lot of air conditioning you don’t.

So you know, yeah. It’s warm here in the summertime.

Carlton Reid 8:34
And that’s a different sound. Where I was going with that was just is that not just somewhere perfect for an ebike because you don’t want to sweat you don’t want to you know go on your your standard bike and ride around but you might within a bike is that well, it’s a good place for e-bikes.

Ed Benjamin 8:52
There’s a couple of markets that really stand out for the electric bike. One of the markets is the older person who wants to ride his electric bike around often in the evening, often staying in the neighbourhood and chatting with his neighbours or her neighbours. Often couples riding together and we have a lot of that in Florida we have a lot of retirees that live in areas that are quite pleasant to go for a casual ride. And they’re finding that electric bike is something that they enjoy riding, it’s easier to ride and it’s something to talk about when they when they visit with their neighbours. I look at my new electric bike. So there’s been a lot of that that market is very strong in Florida. Another. Market builders very strong is dense urban environments, cities where parking your car is a major expense or a major inconvenience. places like Boston, San Francisco, New York City, South Miami. These are all places where they have owning a car is just a pain in the butt. And in Florida we do have

have year round cycling weather, although we also have some very serious rains that visit us most afternoons in the summertime.

But that’s manageable. So yeah, so the electric bicycle in the cities of Florida, it’s a natural, but the electric bicycle in the cities of the world is unnatural. If we look at where our electric bicycles used most, the most, I would say it’s flat coastal cities all over the world.

Carlton Reid 10:27
You mentioned the oldest demographic. And of course, that’s that’s what the industry was very frightened of promoting to, and they very much wanted younger people to get into into E bikes, it took an awfully long time of marketing to that demographic. Do you think the bike industry has succeeded? Is the bike a young person’s product?

Ed Benjamin 10:47
Well, one aspect of it is yes.

There are two things that have happened. One of them is the young people, I’m talking about the United States. But I think there’s a lot of overlap here with Western Europe. The young people of America are broke, they’ve got school debt, they’ve got challenging in income issues for most of them. And owning a car is expensive. So riding a bicycle. And remember, these are young folks are still perfectly capable of riding a bicycle. But the electric bicycle means they can go farther, they can live farther away from the work or farther away from the metro station. It means that they get to work without being without perspiring without needing a shower. So we have young people turning to this as a mode of transportation that suits today’s reality. We also have them turning to it for recreation in the United States of bicycles have been sport, fitness and recreation, that we even though there’s always been a relatively small percentage of our bicycle riders that have used them for transportation, we don’t think of them as transportation now and in Asia, the first thought you have is that’s a way to get to work or that’s a way to get to the metro station or the store. And you almost see that attitude. You see it in some Western European cultures to a greater or lesser extent of bicycles transportation, of course, in America that there’s no of course, a bicycle sport, fitness and recreation but but but but but mountain bikes, ah, mountain bikes, we love go mountain biking, we love to ride off the road, and somebody has been turning gravity up every year of my life. And as they turn gravity up, I find an electric bicycle allows me to continue riding in the mountains that allows me to continue having a totally enjoyable afternoon and rather than the embarrassment of walking up the hill, the so the electric mountain bike fit very neatly into American ideas about what the bicycle should be. It’s fun. It’s it’s fitness is recreation. And it was like somebody threw opened a couple of huge doors into the electric mountain bike world and said, Come on in here. It’s fun. And I think I’m quoting Gary Fisher correctly, Gary Fisher, of course, is a an institution, a legend in the mountain bike world. And Gary said at one of the trade shows that the electric mountain bike adds 15 years to your mountain biking season.

Carlton Reid 13:21
So that worked out there. Also, there was friction there with with with getting it on to certain mountains and in certain

national year properties where the Rangers didn’t want mountain bikes to be electrified. And they didn’t even like mountain bikes if if truth be told. So there was not much in there to

know there.

Ed Benjamin 13:43
Yes, there’s, of course there’s friction there. And

but I would suggest it’s really more from other users. A few years ago, actually, a couple of decades ago, I was doing an internship in Boulder, Colorado, and I was fascinated. They have a wonderful bicycle path that goes up the mountain stream. And I was fascinated by all of the friction, I guess would be the way to put it. The dog walkers hated everybody. The roller skaters hated everybody the bicycle riders are going this is our bike path. You dog walkers and rollerbladers need to get out of our way. And then there’s the skateboarders. And then there’s mom with us baby stroller. And all of these groups were trying to share the same piece of asphalt and none of them were happy with the presence of the others. What this taught me was people are a messy bunch. I don’t care what it is how far from the road it is, or how sensible it is. Somebody is going to bitch about it. And by the way, let’s not forget the horseback riders on the mountain trails in the back country. They don’t like bicycle riders, they also don’t like walkers. So are human beings going to just instantly say, Hey, this is great. Let’s share

not my experience. So I don’t you know Yes, I observed that there is this kind of conflict I observed that P

Pull for bikes and some of the other organisations have done an awful lot of good work to try to formalise the where you can and where you shouldn’t and to negotiate peaceful coexistence as best they can. I’m really impressed with the work they’ve done. But human beings are a messy bunch. They’re gonna grow up in each other.

Carlton Reid 15:21
Tell me how you got into the bike industry. And that’s before the ebike stuff. And before you owned a bunch of bike shops in Florida, so how did you originally get into bikes?

Ed Benjamin 15:34
Alright, my first bicycle shop job was in 1969. But before that, I was working at a McDonald’s as a teenager. And there was this nutcase guy there that had this incredibly expensive bicycle, I think he paid more than $200 for it back in back in the 1960s $200, paid for a bicycle was mind bending. And this guy was a big, strong, good looking guy. He was also working in McDonald’s. And I was fascinated by his bicycle. And I said, What is this all about? This is this is a racing bicycle. It’s a real racing bicycle. And I thought that was just the coolest thing. I just was absolutely fascinated with the bike, I was fascinated with the idea of racing bicycles. And I got started racing bicycles as a result of Bob Easton and his Raleigh professional that he rode, rode to McDonald’s as his way to get to work. So I followed along behind Bob Easton, learned to be a bicycle racer, won a few races last a lot of races, wound up working in bicycle shops, as many bicycle racers do. And so I was a skinny teenager on a crappy bicycle, who rode so much that he won races and that allowed him to buy a better bicycle. And that’s how I got started.

Carlton Reid 16:48
So that was your archetypal bike, boom. 70s bike boom person in 1969, you know, 70

That’s, that’s when the, you know, the National Geographic is covering it and saying there’s a boom in bikes happening. So you’re that guy?

Ed Benjamin 17:04
Well, if you look at the movie, Breaking Away, some of the people that were extras in that movie were the people that I rode with, and, and that movie resonated with us. That was us.

Even down to the very ugly shorts that caused every girl that saw us and them to go, ooh.

Carlton Reid 17:25
Okay, and you’ve segued from that into owning bike shops. How did that happen?

Ed Benjamin 17:33
Oh, I Well, I worked at bicycle shops assembling bicycles. I later wound up managing bike shops. And then, you know, I went to the University learn to went and got a degree that would not allow me to make a living, got out of the university and said, Well, one thing I do know how to do is work in a bicycle shop. And my father and I identified Fort Myers, Florida as a promising market. We bought a bicycle shop that existed in Fort Myers and we started operating that store and we kept we expanded it into four stores. And then to, to, to beat you to the next question in the in the 1990s. My father passed away from cancer my, what my chief financial officer who was my wife, decided she didn’t want to be married to me. So she became an ex wife, my store manager, my brother got hit and killed in a car bicycle accident, and I’m going I don’t want to be in the bicycle shop anymore.

I’d been good at it, but I didn’t want to do it anymore. But I was totally fascinated with this new thing called electric bicycles. And that’s how I got interested in started chasing electric bicycles

Carlton Reid 18:45
that kind of Lee Iacocca kind of period?

Ed Benjamin 18:52
Lee Iacocca was talking about electric bicycles very close to the same time. And I frankly, I found his vision or the things that he said I found him inspiring,

Carlton Reid 19:03
describe, describe who he is, an executive from the motor trade basically?

Ed Benjamin 19:09
Yeah, here’s an executive who had had been involved at the Ford Motor Company and and Chrysler Motor Company, highly articulate, very good crews, charismatic.

You know, and here was a guy who was famous for bringing the Ford Mustang into existence. He had been involved in every aspect of the automobile industry, and he was an icon of the automobile industry in a very, very big deal. And here, he was fooling around with electric bicycles, really. And but what that gave me was validation. Not only was he articulate and and charismatic, and he was saying things that really resonated with me. But here he was making this stepping from the automobile industry, which in American minds is the main event, stepping from the automobile industry into the electric bike business.

Now it turns out that Lee was not very good at the electric bike business. But he definitely shaped a lot of my early interest. And unfortunately, Time magazine asked me, I think it was a 1997. Time magazine asked me for a quote about how do you think Lee Iacocca is going to do and I said, Well, he’s not going to sell 50,000 bikes in his first year. And leave parently took personal offence to that, and my chances of becoming least buddy died in that statement.

Carlton Reid 20:36
But did he? Did he not sell that? Were you right?

Yeah, no, his his his business success with EV global motors. There wasn’t any business success.

Ed Benjamin 20:45
You know, it was inspirational. But he, the market was not ready to buy an EV until he wasn’t ready to buy electric bikes, the United States and it wasn’t ready to buy the global motors bike. And Lee, who apparently was quite brilliant in the world of automobile companies appeared to be not very good at a small company, small startup company.

Carlton Reid 21:12
That wasn’t a pedal assist bike that was almost a electric motorbike.

Ed Benjamin 21:16
Yeah, yeah, that’s what we call a class two bike.

Carlton Reid 21:19
Now it was controlled by a throttle, but they did open a lot of people’s eyes, including yours by the sound of it to their sector. And then other people came along and started doing stuff. So what what were you doing in E bikes at this time? What are you physically? How are you connected to the industry?

Ed Benjamin 21:34
Well, in 1996, I decided that I was going to focus my attention on the electric bicycle world or electric bicycle industry. Now keep in mind that electric bicycle had really become a commercial success starting in 1994 in Japan, and there was we were in 1996, we’re reading about oil to Europe, the Chinese government is banning mopeds and encouraging electric bikes and so on. And, and I was

had, we had a customer in the bike shop, a guy named Dr. Frank Jamison, and Dr. Jamison had been investigating and researching the electric bicycle business since 1993 94. And Dr. Jamison got to know him because he’d bring these electric bikes in and he would need them fixed. Most of the problems were bicycle problems, by the way. So we took his bikes for him. And I got to know Dr. Jamison, and then Dr. Jamison, who was not a young man asked me to go to China for him and visit a trade show. And, of course, I was strongly interested in doing that. Although I was a boy from Kentucky who had never travelled, I’d never been out of the country, I’d never certainly never been to Asia. And here Dr. Jamison was sending me on this this fact finding or information gathering mission. And wow, that was such an eye opening thing is a result of Dr. Jamison’s introductions, I wound up going to a trade show in Germany, and then to a trade show in Shanghai. And by the time by 1997, 98, I was convinced that electric bicycles were going to be the main event for the bicycle industry, they were higher price they were they used up their battery, they they were going to be written more, they’re going to need more service.

This was going to be the moneymaker. I was absolutely convinced starting in 96, 97, that this is going to be the main moneymaker for the bicycle industry. While most the bicycle industry thought that was absurd. And I was reasonably well known in American bicycle industry, because I operated these bicycle shops and had operated them successfully. And I’d been around for a long time. And I had people telling me that you’re going to be broke forever, you’re never going to make this consulting company work. And, and there was a lot of doubt in my own mind. But

that relationship with Dr. Jamison, he is encouraging me to go out into Europe and Asia, and learn about it and, and make friends. And one of the things that happened quite a lot at that time was I would go to a factory, for example, TN di or Small Antelope in in Suzhou. And I would go to the factory to visit the factory and the people in the factory would say, what are you here to to buy? And I’m not here to buy anything. What are you here to sell? I’m not here to sell anything. Why are you here? I want to make friends. And that turned out to be a really good thing to really good approach to this. So I spent five or six years basically travelling around to the electric bike events and electric bike factories, electric bike component makers, battery makers, motor makers, etc. And my only intention was simply to develop a network to make friends to get to learn from these folks. And that worked. And the result was that I was early in and and

got around a bit. And that created the the foundation for a future consulting business and the foundation for what would become the Light Electric Vehicle Association.

Carlton Reid 25:11
Lever. Lava. How would you pronounce that?

Ed Benjamin 25:14
Well, I usually say l e v a. But we have other folks that say laver. Yeah, you know, I think doesn’t matter. Because

Carlton Reid 25:23
obviously, so that’s vehicle. So that’s not just, you know, e bikes. So what classify what that what that encompasses?

Ed Benjamin 25:34
Well, a vehicle, there’s a device that carries somebody from A to B. And, you know, we could say that, automobiles, buses, trains, aeroplanes, skateboards, the list is a long of the devices that human beings used to get from A to B. And when we, when we named the Electric Vehicle Association, we had thought about calling it the electric cycle Association. But the problem was that, or the challenge that we saw was that we were going to see a lot of, of categories of electric powered micro mobility vehicles that have that are not electric bicycles. They were going to be, we didn’t know exactly what they were going to be. But we could see these electric mini scooters that people stand up on, we could see

a lot of innovative electric vehicles coming out of Europe, such as the trike.

And since then, we’ve seen continued to see a very interesting innovation in micro mobility vehicles. So is the electric bicycle, the ultimate ultimate micro mobility vehicle. It’s a very good one, and it’s working really well and it’s selling really well. But isn’t the ultimate one. I don’t know. I kind of doubt it. I suspect that we’re kind of, you know, if you think about the automobile industry in its early days, 1906 1910. They call them horseless carriages. And we if we saw horseless carriage today, we would chuckle and say, Boy, they’ve certainly evolved. I think we’re going to see similar evolvement from the electric bicycle. My grandkids may be looking at electric bicycle and chuckling and saying, Well, that’s not what we use today.

Carlton Reid 27:19
Is your dog okay by the way, is it like panting to see you or?

Ed Benjamin 27:24
No, there’s some landscapers that have arrived. And even with the door closed, she feels that she has a secure security duty to inform the landscapers that she’s got her eye on them. I apologise.

Carlton Reid 27:37
What kind of dog have you got there, Ed?

Ed Benjamin 27:39
She’s a Labrador.

Carlton Reid 27:41
Okay. Labradors are not normally that barky. I was thinking of a different breed to that, but okay.

Ed Benjamin 27:47
Now she’s a four year old Labrador who takes if if we let her outside, she would run up to each one landscapers and greet them enthusiastically, and then come back inside and be quiet.

Carlton Reid 27:59
Yeah. No, I’m with you there. So going back to

vehicles, electric vehicles. I do see I did a story a while ago, two years ago now. Time flies, but on the the Canyon kind of electric car. So

you know, the Canyon than the mountain bike and the road bike people clearly think there’s a potential future there for an electric vehicle,

basically, but they were very adamant that they were in fact, when I mentioned the Sinclair C5 to them, they kind of knew exactly what I meant. And they knew that’s what they had to not do. Does that Sinclair C5, you know, not hold that category back?

Ed Benjamin 28:46
You know, I have to confess that I don’t pay a lot of attention to

anything more than three wheels. And so I would suggest that

the human race is going to by are going to start using a wide variety of vehicles that

have many sizes and many characteristics, but

I have reasonably informed opinions about ones that have two or maybe three wheels, and anything more than that. I can say I see it coming. But I don’t pay that much attention to it.

Carlton Reid 29:19
So your ltva Could one of the categories. There are the one of the kinds of . It’s not four wheels.

Ed Benjamin 29:27
Yeah.

I’m sorry, I must have missed something there. Maybe I am not familiar with the Canyon vehicle.

Carlton Reid 29:36
I think the Canyon is a trike it I’m pretty sure. I think on it certainly smart it was small enough to fit into, into into a bike lane. That’s where they that they’re, they’re pitching it.

Ed Benjamin 29:47
Alright, how are we spelling this?

Carlton Reid 29:52
Canyon, like the bicycle company, the bicycle company, it’s basically they’re doing a light electric vehicle as a concept vehicle

Yeah, which they did, basically electric, you know, they would they would have it was actually before they started doing electric bikes, but they knew they were gonna be doing this electric in effect small car. It’s not commercial yet, but just the fact that they were looking at this space, you know, for Canyon to do that was really interesting.

Ed Benjamin 30:18
Yeah, it’s been I found it it’s been around for about a year

the

this you know,

this kind of light electric car, I see it as a no brainer for

the dense urban environment that human beings are moving into more and more often.

Carlton Reid 30:38
But it’s also and we could probably build it using mostly electric bicycle monitoring. And I think that’s their idea. So this could be quite light, quite inexpensive and quite functional. But I’ve not been paying attention to this category. Because we do. I mean, if you go to the Netherlands and you go to Amsterdam, you see these kind of vehicles already dotting around that, you know that the bike paths of Amsterdam, you know this

Yeah, since at least 20 years they’ve been tottering around, but they haven’t taken off massively. So I’m just wondering what would it take to make them take off probably access to safe roadways, and of course the Dutch ride those things on the bicycle path.

Ed Benjamin 31:23
But again, it’s a simply a category that I have not been paying much attention to I recognise that exists. I probably would own one myself. If I were riding through the rainy days of Amsterdam, but I’m afraid that not my not my area of knowledge.

Carlton Reid 31:42
Okay, so um, wasn’t gonna go, I won’t go into like the villages type, you know, golf cart, electric car. That’s kind of not your territory. It’s got to go shape thing.

Ed Benjamin 31:54
The Villages using an electric golf cart. If they could buy one that had a diesel exhausted put up black smoke, that’s the one they would like better.

case you don’t know what the villages are a hotbed of everything that’s stupid about the baby boomer generation of which I’m a member. Yes, yes. But the villages are a concentration of conservative, upside down right wing. We don’t like anything that’s good for anybody else thinking. I’m sure somebody will hear this and say something nasty about me. Because that’s what they do in the villages.

Carlton Reid 32:30
I’ve done a few stories on it. So it’s an interesting place. So mid motor, hub motor, bolt on accessory to make your wheel go round. Do any of these things matter? Is it just the fact that you should be getting an electric bike? Or do you think there should be a form of technology here? That’s that’s better than the others?

Ed Benjamin 32:50
Well, they’re they’re different. They have different strengths. They have motor bike, the motor is inexpensive, it works really well. It’s almost absurdly reliable. It uses a space in the bike that nothing else does, you can bolt it into an ordinary bicycle frame. Wow, lots of advantages. Disadvantages, well, if you can’t use the bicycle, Trent, you can’t run the power of the motor through the bicycle transmission. And it’s, that’s what the great advantage of the mid motor bike where you’ve got the high torque motor of the human being, somebody called it the meat motor one time or the muscle motor, that’s a very high torque motor, and you add to it and an electric motor, and then you run it through the sophisticated and broad range of a bicycle transmission. And we have one impressive vehicle, we can climb mountains, we can go fast we can do we can wow, this is a great combo. The downside is that it’s more expensive, partly because there’s a lot more machined parts in there. And partly because it’s a generally speaking, it’s a more sophisticated and tightly integrated system. But the performance advantage is significant.

Other types of electric vehicle or electric bicycle propulsion, they’re very small by comparison, today, we’ve got a lot of motorbikes, they’re by far the unit, the dominant in Unit numbers. Motorbikes by far the dominant in terms of attention, because of their superior performance and higher higher prices. And because the people that saw them have got good marketing skills, the bikes that don’t fall into either those two categories, ones that might have a motor mounted outboard of the rear triangle or a motor that rubs the tire or some other innovative way, but for the most part, they’re really small at this time. Is there something lurking out there that’s just going to take over? Maybe? I don’t, I don’t, I don’t see it right now. Most of the other ideas are find that their useful niche or their commercially viable niche is as a DIY kit or an aftermarket kit, for example.

A unit that rubs the rear tire or uses a rear wheel as its gear reduction

is very inexpensive and very easy to instal. And that makes it a very attractive aftermarket kit, but it doesn’t climb hills worth anything and it you run it through what anything wet road or a puddle and doesn’t work at all. So the, you know, all of these systems have got their pros and their cons, but the dominant ones, the hub motor and the mid motor. Both of them have their particular strength, their particular application where they’re great.

Carlton Reid 35:37
Don’t be accessories, you know, those add ons, which there are, you know, any number on Kickstarter, anyone on Twitter, do you think that just basically shows you the interest in the concept, people might be frightened by the cost, so they kind of attach themselves to these lower cost options, but then eventually, they might buy that equipment and it to attach it to their existing bike. But at the end of the day, it’s been far better for them just to buy it in an electric bike, and then that’s what we end up doing.

Ed Benjamin 36:05
And that’s, that’s often their conclusion. In fact, earlier today, I was reading a interview from the guy that was running, super pedestrian, super pedestrian, commercialised the Copenhagen Wheel, which was an all in one wheel battery motor controller everything inside the rear wheel of the bicycle, very tidy. Got a tremendous amount of media attention got a tremendous amount of excitement. And I’m sorry that I don’t really remember a soft last name but a soft commented that one of the things they had learned as they sold the this all in one wheel was that an awful lot of their customers would come to the to decide that what they wanted was just a complete bike. You know, this business of installing a wheel fiddling with a wheel when you make a conversion like that. There’s no matter how skilled you are, or how good that kid is. There’s always a period of oh, I needed to adjust that or I needed to add this. And what what a soft says in his interview is they’re super peds.

Carlton Reid 37:05
Time challenge. Were the people who said I’m just gonna buy a complete bike. Oh, telling pedestrian, does that come in a bike, I’d buy the bike. I’m not interested in the wheel. Give me the bike.

Ed Benjamin 37:18
I’m sure they heard that a lot. Mm hmm.

Carlton Reid 37:22
At that junction, and I’d like to go across to my co host, David. And we’ll split for, in fact, an electric bike themed ad break.

David Bernstein 37:32
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Carlton Reid 42:07
And we are back Thank you, David we are back with with Ed Benjamin. And Ed

is I think it’s pretty safe to say is an ebike guru and is and has been talking about E bikes for longer than 27 years. Most people are 27 years old, Hannes Neupert is probably now harnessed Norbert was doing this since the 90s

Ed Benjamin 42:33
You know,Hannes was also an inspiration to me a young guy full of energy, he’s really smart.

You know, and immersed in the details of the early days of this business. And of course he had his partner

I don’t mean partner in that sense. I mean, his coworker Susanne Bruesch did a was really good at articulating ideas and spreading information. And so we had Hannes Neupert who was absolutely visionary and and Susanne Bruesch, who was absolutely a terrific communicator. And then they had this large group of smart young motivated people that would come and go you know, they would

sitting down to dinner with that group at a trade show was a cross cultural

extravaganza and quite an interesting bunch and and very very influential over the long haul about what happened with electric bikes in Europe.

Carlton Reid 43:38
You went consultancy they went a different way they kind of went into

letting people ride these things so taking them out on the road on like a road show Yes. The extra energy roadshow in effect so that was obviously you know, lots of trade shows would have them but they would go out to other places and just get people on because isn’t that the crux of this is whenever you get somebody on an electric bike it then clicks it’s like you’re gonna grill that’s what it does I like

mm hmm yeah, the kind of the the the tailwind affect you kind of give you a sense maybe not so much with a with a hub but centre where the mid motor it just you feel like Superman or Superwoman you know it’s you know, it’s right

so if that’s the case, why hasn’t it? Why did it take so long to take off in America because you’re talking about you know, America is big into into cars is that just the only reason that the the ebike took so long to?

Ed Benjamin 44:46
I alluded to it a little bit earlier.

The electric bicycle was presented to the entire world by s transportation. The Chinese developed a transportation vehicle and they were the main event for it.

reduction of product, the Germans and the French and the Italians that were involved in the earliest days of electric bicycles also thought of them as transportation and presented them as transportation. Honest. And Susie presented this as transportation. And in America, bicycle is not transportation, a bicycle if a bicycle is being used for transportation, in the 1990s, early 2000s, that’s because you’re poor, it’s because you can’t afford anything else. And bicycles are for sport, fitness and recreation. And the electric bicycle of those days was

not very interesting for Sport, Fitness or recreation. So what happened in America, I think, was a simply a cultural phenomenon. We were shown this interesting transportation vehicle, and he said, No, we used cars for that. And it took a couple decades before the American public woke up to the advantages are the benefits that an electric bicycle could bring to them?

Carlton Reid 45:58
You also like I mean, our Europeans like this as well, of course, but

more power, more torque, and specifically a throttle. So in the US, UK, and in the EU, we generally don’t have the throttle.

Ed Benjamin 46:11
Yes, US has got on one class of bike has got the throttle. What’s the sales differentiation between those which which is bigger in the US? How are those sectors doing? Well, the unit volume is heavily in favour of the throttle. But one of the things that I’ve learned is this, the majority of the people united states don’t ride bicycles, they may have written a bicycle for a while as a child. But they’re not bicycle has not been for most people, like maybe all but one or 2% of our population. A bicycle has not been a major part of their life than one or 2% of our population that has been very interested in bicycles. They’re used to buying nice bicycles at the bicycle shop. And they’re used to controlling the speed of the bicycle with their feet, the harder they push, the faster they go, that’s to them. That makes all kinds of sense. But the vast majority of our population did not grasp that idea. As an intuitive, this is the way a bicycle should be. So they were presented with an electric powered two wheeler, and told this is an electric bicycle. And you have to pedal it for the motor to run and they’re like what, but when they were presented with this, and you said here, twist this throttle, they got that they understood it, it was intuitive, and it’s also easy. So in the United States, the class to bike is the unit volume leader. Now the bicycle industry has a hard time with that because the bicycle industry, the wreath at every level in the United States, is people who like to ride bicycles, or they are maybe often former competitors. So your BMX bike race or your next BMX or x triathlete, I shouldn’t say x, you’re you have this background and you’re working in a bicycle shop. Of course, you think that controlling the bicycle by how hard you pedal is totally the the correct way to do it. But the people that come in to talk to you about buying a bicycle may not see it that way. In fact, the people that come into your the most of the people, most of the American population will not go into a bicycle shop because they that’s not where they buy bicycles, they buy bicycles at Walmart.

And at Walmart, they read the cardboard card that’s hanging on the front of the display, and choose which bike they’re going to buy with very little in the way of expert input. And the that’s our normal American bicycle buyer. And the bicycle industry doesn’t like to confront that because, frankly, it represents a gigantic failure. We have not connected with most of our population. But most of our population does understand what a bicycle can do for them. The United States typically by something in the neighbourhood of 15 million bicycles every year, that’s a lot. And do we ride them a lot? Then? No, most of our bicycles stay in the garage with the been working as a laundry rack.

And if we look where do people use bicycles for transportation? You know, I used to tell people who want to see electric bikes, you go look at the back door of restaurants, the back door of hospitals, the back door, where people are who are working for low wage rate jobs, need to have transportation to get to work and there you will find a cluster of bicycles, or including some electric bikes. So that stigma, I don’t want to people think I’m poor. I’m not going to have a bicycle that I use for transportation. What really helped us with that problem with that with helped us with that cultural disconnect was when the electric mountain bike became a thing. Because when the electric mountain bike became a thing, it became absolutely culturally acceptable for you to be interested in electric bikes and to go out and get one and guess what they’re fun. One of one

No, my good friends is Estelle Gray and Estelle Gray and her partner, Sally? Are they sell the Edward Selia words as a former, I guess, not former, she’s still doing triathlons.

There, she’s a prominent person in the triathlon world, and still is one of the holders of the women’s trans continental tandem record. And I’ve known Estelle for decades, and we have discussed electric bikes off and on over the years. And she was, she would put up she’s a strong, sturdy girl, and she doesn’t need no stinking motor. And then she got an electric bike. And I think she got the electric bike because there was a mountain in between her and work. And she wanted to pull I remember the story, and I may have it wrong. She wanted to pull a trailer with a dog. That was a dog that works with kids. She wanted to pull a trailer with the dog over the mountain. And so she decided to give electric bikes a try. Last time I talked to Estelle, which was a couple of weeks ago, I think she told me that they now had four or five electric bikes, her and Sally. So wow, that’s actually not a bad synopsis of what’s been happening in the bicycle world, with a undercurrent that is really important, and it goes like this, we don’t make much money in the bicycle business, we don’t make much money on bicycles, we’ve managed to create the razor thin margins to the point where it’s almost a waste of time to try to sell a bicycle. And then electric bikes came along. And electric bikes were bigger ticket, a bigger margin, need more service, wow, we can make money with these. And so what we’ve seen in every market is the bicycles, companies and distributors have embraced the idea that with electric bicycle, they can make money. With a normal bicycle. It’s very tough with electric bicycle, not so bad. So all over the world electric bikes are the main moneymaker of the of the bicycle industry. And that means that’s the main attention focus of the bicycle industry.

Carlton Reid 52:03
So Hannes has famously, he’s rowed back from this a bit subsequently, but he famously said, and he said it in in various symposium or what have you in various shows over the years, that the mechanical bicycle is dead, it’s gonna go the way of the mangle

of the mechanical typewriter.

What you’re just saying there was almost going towards that. So is that something that you also see happening that just at some point in the near future, or maybe the far future, the mechanical bicycle is going to be the dodo?

Ed Benjamin 52:40
I think that the typewriter is a good analogy. I’m old enough that I learned to type on a mechanical typewriter, and I used to be able to type on a mechanical typewriter. But the electric typewriter was so much easier. And then the computer came along and we stopped even talking about it.

And I think we’re gonna see the same thing happen to electric bikes, I think we are in the process of seeing

an electric component to the bicycle transmission, we’re going to see that become almost ubiquitous, it’s going to become almost universal. And the result is going to be bicycles are much easier to ride and we might not even be completely aware of why

Carlton Reid 53:18
Is DI2 almost a stealth way of bringing, you know, electrification of the bike into a mechanical bike. So you’ve got the Shimano electronic gears, and you have a battery on on your frame, and you recharge it every every now and again. But it’s still a mechanical bike. But it’s not too much of a leap to think will, you would just have a smaller battery than a slightly bigger bed, but inside the frame, you wouldn’t see it. And that just becomes the form factor for the bicycle.

Ed Benjamin 53:48
Every bicycle will be electrified in some way, shape or form in the future.

Carlton Reid 53:53
Thanks so can you can you hear the gasps of horror? A? That that that that that? Just your acceptance of that, that the gas is horror from the global fan.

Ed Benjamin 54:07
I’ve been hearing it shouted into my ears for as long as I’ve been doing this and and you know what? I’m a bike guy. I grew up working in bicycle shops, I raced bicycles. I’ve competed in triathlons. I rode long distance bike rides, I commuted on a bicycle most most of the time when I’ve gone somewhere in my life. I’ve gone by bicycle more often than any other vehicle. I’m a bike guy. I’ve got big thighs.

And I get it. I understand it. It’s not. It doesn’t fit into our paradigm. And you know what, I also am willing to embrace change. And I understand that most human beings have difficulty with change. It’s not one of our skill sets of embracing change. But guess what? It’s going to happen. Change does happen. It always happens. Doesn’t matter whether you participate or not. So guess

What bike industry bike guys everywhere, electric bikes are coming, I shouldn’t say are coming, they’re here. And we, it’s in one respect, it is a terrific, wonderful, upbeat, bright future that we face. And yeah, if you’re the kind of guy that deliberately types on a manual typewriter, because that’s what you think is cool. You may have difficulty with this.

Carlton Reid 55:30
So you’ve got a consultancy, as you’ve said,

Tell me the name that consultancy, what’s

Ed Benjamin 55:36
Ecycleelectric and we provide research, we monitor imports, mostly to the United States, we were networkers, if if somebody wants to know, just you take out an example, if somebody said, which, which Chinese motor factory is the one that I should be talking to about this requirement, we probably know and we probably know approximately what the price should be. And we can probably introduce that client to the bosses at that factory, save them a lot of time and say and usually save them a lot of money.

And I would say that the that’s basic premise carries over to batteries, controllers, complete vehicles. So we we leverage our connections and our history, to help people that are new to the industry or need this kind of help.

That’s our primary function in the consulting business that and tracking and reporting on the industry now focusing almost exclusively on America, for tracking and reporting. We used to try to cover the entire world, but it’s gotten way too big. And then we have the light Electric Vehicle Association, which is perhaps a more important activity. As my wife put it, she says he’s like electric just makes money. That’s all it does. Light Electric Vehicle Association helps expand the utility of the electric bicycle or electric two wheeler. And that was the electric two wheeler and electric bicycle electric motor scooter, is improving life or offering options to hundreds of millions of people. That’s an important thing. And like Electric Vehicle Association has played a very small part in that. I’d like to point out harnesses played a much bigger part in that, but we’re all going in the same direction.

Carlton Reid 57:23
So my wife, you’re describing my wife there as well, actually, because we’ve got an electric car of hers that sitting on the drive doesn’t doesn’t move much. And she just rides to work. She’s, she’s a hospital doctor, and she she works at the top of the hill. So she goes on her electric bike pretty much every single day. What you’re saying there about, you know, improving people’s lives? Well, I would say if I had to ask her why did you go on your bike? She would say because it’s good for her mental health. It’s certainly good for exercise, because you know, you have got to pedal the bikes in the UK.

She just likes, likes, likes doing it. So this is this is a product that improves her life. Yes.

Ed Benjamin 58:02
Getting out and riding your bicycle, whether it’s an electric bike or a manually powered bike, or just getting out and walking to work or walking to your grocery store, is I think it’s something that resonates inside the human spirit. We get out, we move ourselves under our own power. It’s a glorious thing that we get to do. And bicycles. You know, you and I have had the same experience. bicycles have been a very important part of our lives. And they are an invigorating moment in every day.

Carlton Reid 58:33
Thanks to Ed Benjamin ofecycleelectric there and thanks to you for listening to episode 304 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. Show notes and more can be found on the-spokesmen.com. The next episode will be out at the end of the month but meanwhile get out there and ride.

July 20, 2022 / / Blog

20th July 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 303: How five US cities built 335 miles of separated cycleway networks in two years

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUESTS: Sara Studdard and Zoe Kircos

TOPICS: Urbanists Sara Studdard and Zoe Kircos of Denver-based nonprofit City Thread discuss how the Final Mile project and People for Bikes enabled five US cities to build 335 miles of separated and often protected cycleway networks in only 24 months, several years ahead of schedule.

LINKS:

TRANSCRIPT:

Carlton Reid 0:13
Welcome to Episode 303 of the spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was published on Wednesday 20th of July 2022.

David Bernstein 0:23
The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e bikes for every type of rider. Whether you’re commuting, taking your kids to school, or even caring another adult, visit www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n bicycles.com to learn more.

Carlton Reid 1:02
Widening a city street to squeeze in more motorists often goes through on the nod. But dare, instead, to devote space to cyclists and many times all hell is let loose with fear mongering about increased crime, elevated pollution and even worse congestion. Bizarrely and frustratingly, the planning for bike infrastructure often gets bogged down in NIMBYism, arcane budget negotiations and think-of-the-disadvantaged tropes that never get raised when it’s car infrastructure being laid down. I’m Carlton Reid and on today’s show I discuss these issues with urbanists Sara Studdard and Zoe Kircos of Denver-based nonprofit City Thread who reveal how by taking communities along with them the Final Mile project and People for Bikes enabled five US cities to build 335 miles of separated and often protected cycleway networks in only 24 months, several years ahead of schedule.

Sara Studdard 2:09
The Final Mile is a really exciting programme that was a partnership with people for bikes and a national funder, myself, Zoe, and city thread, which we’ll get to third partner, Kyle, all worked at peopleforbikes. Previously, the final mile really set out to answer a hypothesis that we believe that cities could move faster when implementing public projects, specifically, mobility projects, I would say everyone on listening in has experienced a dream mobility network project that, you know, takes over a decade to implement. And we really wanted to ask us cities, the question is, you know, is it possible to move faster, partner better, engage more honestly, and then actually deliver better quality mobility network, and I’m really emphasising the network piece, a network of comfortable, safe and convenient connections for people who walk bike, take can’t take the party, take transit, and also drive their car. So also kind of removing this single approach, single project approach. And what we discovered is the answer was yes, we had the privilege of partnering with five US cities, Austin, Denver, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Providence. And they constructed 335 miles of new safe and connected bikeways moving those projects from concept to completion in only 24 months, and they’re now on pace to fully build. They’re playing networks 25 years earlier than expected.

Carlton Reid 4:01
Because famously, and annoyingly routes for cars and for motorists kind of go in nobody even questions. They just they just go in and nobody votes on it. It just they just go in and routes for for pedestrians and possibly even transit, but certainly certainly for pedestrians and cyclists. They somehow need to be voted in and that can take many years to to actually get past that stage. So what you’re saying is you can cut pass that

Sara Studdard 4:32
that is exactly what we’re saying through polling across the United States. We know that on average, 65 to 70% of residents have voters regardless of demographic and really location in terms of where they live support protected bike lanes, they understand that a variety of options for mobility helps reduce traffic congestion. You know that benefits, climate change, etc. What our communities have been doing is not supporting our elected officials not supporting city staff, and letting the vocal minority the individual with the power and privilege you can call a mayor on their cell phone to really hold up and water down potentially end projects. And we’re working to communicate, use political campaign strategies to help cities deliver projects that we know people want.

Carlton Reid 5:32
Okay, I definitely want to dig into not just the, the what what you’ve kind of described there, but absolutely want to get into the how, you know, how did you do this? That’s going to be the probably the most interesting thing for people to take on board and see if they can replicate these things around the world. But first of all, let’s let’s go into what city thread is.

Zoe Kircos 5:57
So City Thread is a partnership between Sara Studdard joining me here today, Kyle Wagenschutz and myself Zoe Kirkus and we formed a nonprofit just a few months ago, Kyle and Sara started off in February, I joined them in April, as a nonprofit organisation, consulting firm group that wants to work with cities, local partners, community based organisations, elected leaders to do exactly what Sara just described in the final mile. And we all used to work for people for bikes. It’s a national bicycling organisation, it’s a great group. And we felt that we would be able to focus better and deliver more if we kind of branched out on our own and and focused our energies on doing the great work that the final mile demonstrated was possible. So we’re super excited to be you know, talking to a lot of cities and hoping to kind of spread the word.

Carlton Reid 7:00
And tell me where you’re both actually physically situated right now. So I’m in the northern England where where are you guys?

Zoe Kircos 7:07
I Zoey, I am in Boulder, Colorado.

Carlton Reid 7:11
Nice.

Sara Studdard 7:13
And Sara is currently in Denver, Colorado.

Carlton Reid 7:17
Also nice and also famous for bikeway networks. So you’re hoping to make what’s happened in Colorado after the last 20 years? become more common in the rest of the US and certainly in the bigger cities? Yeah.

Sara Studdard 7:37
Absolutely. Really a city of any size can follow what City Thread is delivering to cities, which is our mobility playbook, not only in the in North America, but we do believe we have some models that could also be applied globally.

Carlton Reid 7:54
Why the Final Mile? Where’s that coming from?

Zoe Kircos 7:57
Yeah, I would say that we talk a lot in the US about first and first mile last mile connections, you know that we have transit systems that can get you generally from kind of close to where you live to generally kind of close to where you work, or go to school or need to shop. But those first and last mile connections are the tricky bits that really, you know, present the barriers to people using an option besides an individual car to get where they need to go. And so if you solve for that first mile and last mile, if you get them from their door to transit or all the way to their destination, in a comfortable, safe and accessible way, then people are willing to consider options besides their car. If you can’t do that safely, then it’s it’s kind of off the table for a lot of people.

Carlton Reid 8:48
Now, I’m guessing each city is clearly going to be different. But in your playbook. Do you go in with an idea that a city is going to have a set number of miles of bikeway network, in effect, almost equal to the network for for motorists? Do you have to have a set number of transit routes what’s what is your playbook involve? In templating?

Sara Studdard 9:14
Great question. I would say we look at the US acknowledging that our streets and road network far exceeds the ways that people can get around outside of a single car. So low expectations on that piece. What we are really looking for is is there a elected leadership that understands the value of we’re having the residents have a variety of options to get around town. And are they willing to think boldly and move quicker push against the status quo, particularly in the US where our infrastructure projects just take like it’s a glacial pace. Second is, we believe that the best bike advocates are not necessarily people who ride bikes. So we are wanting communities that either have existing diverse coalition’s that represent public health, workforce development, climate, etc. Or understand that there is an opportunity for residents and community organisations to partner and campaign together. And then thirdly, it’s a city staff that is excited about being able to be bold and move faster. And then kind of back to the question around sort of metrics. We’re really, we really believe that if a community has a commitment to a network, any percentage that that network is built out is a benefit. The five US cities that we just discussed, all reached 50% of completing their bike network in those two years. So that means they’re halfway done with their planned bike network, Austin by 2025, will have completely built out their current plans mobility network, which I don’t know if anyone in the US has done, I’m unsure what you do with that plan. I don’t know if you frame it, or shred it, or put it up on a shelf. So really looking for kind of those key stakeholder groups, and then a commitment to high quality, safe and protected networks.

Carlton Reid 11:32
Yeah, that’s the next question to actually define bikeways. You kind of just said it there, though. So So basically, it’s got to be protected. For it to be considered part of the network, we’re not talking about sharrows. Here, we’re talking about curbs.

Sara Studdard 11:49
We’re definitely not talking about sheroes. That is an unfortunate piece of paint that has been sold to engineers and bike advocates for far too long. So do you want to share kind of what our definition of protected and separated as

Zoe Kircos 12:06
well, I would say that we definitely focus on what’s comfortable and safe. And in on busier streets for sure, that means separated, but it can also mean neighbourhood bikeways you know, slow residential comfortable streets that people are already riding our bikes down with our kids to get to the park or or get to a nearby store. But identifying kind of where those are and how those routes might connect. So wayfinding can play an important role. They’re all street trails and paths that already additionally usually exist in a lot of places. I in my previous position, I funded a lot of bike infrastructure projects. And usually the first thing that goes in is is a multi use trail. And people are really excited to have those and they are very well used. So that trail network, even social pas neighbourhood, slow neighbourhood streets, plus those protected bike lanes, on busier streets all together kind of form what we consider to be a safe protected comfortable network.

Sara Studdard 13:07
I would just add that intersections are also part of the network. And so ensuring that you know whether it’s a curved protected bike lane on a busier street or an intersection, you know, in your neighbourhood that when we’re talking about complete, we’re truly talking about providing people with the same experience they get when they’re driving in their car, very little doubt you’re going to get to your destination and kind of creating that connected network to ensure that people biking and walking have that same consistency.

Carlton Reid 13:40
Pete Buttigieg is has he’s walking the walk talking the talk, all that kind of stuff. But is the money coming to cities from from the from the infrastructure act is is the money likely to be there in the future for for putting a lot of the stuff that you’ve been talking about here, actually physically into, into on the ground?

Zoe Kircos 14:01
Well, I think the infrastructure Act is a huge inspiration and message to cities that the federal government is interested in investing in this network. And the cities that I’ve spoken to are, you know, really excited, and also really interested to see how that comes down the pike. But I’ll just note that for the final mile cities, none of them use federal funds. They all use local money to build that infrastructure. And well, we’re super excited about that infrastructure bill, you know, those dollars that are going to be coming the reality for federal money is that it’s usually pretty cumbersome to apply for it takes a while to actually arrive. And so you can’t if you’re going to build quickly, you can’t wait for that federal money to to start and cities in fact, have other sources of money, and they can direct it to starting that infrastructure and knowing that the infrastructure bill will hopefully support additional improvements down the road

Carlton Reid 15:02
you’re getting a huge kickback in the US at the moment for the the increase in in the price of gasoline and the cost of driving? Do you see that as something that you don’t want to gloat? You don’t want to say, you know that that’s that’s absolutely what we need here because you’d get shot down in flames. But is it something that you think will absolutely benefit you? Because this is not something that’s probably going to be the next, you know, few months this is going to be, you know, down the line, it’s going to be increasingly expensive to drive.

Zoe Kircos 15:39
Yeah, well, you said it, we’re not, you know, I mean, we’re not. We Sara drives, I drive, we recognise that people have many reasons for needing to, you know, use personal vehicles and in no way. I mean, I’m from Detroit, Michigan, like the home of driving a car and how else, you know, did not intend to for to get around for heaven’s sake. So you know, but I think you raise a good point that the increase in gas prices, and the technical technological improvements that we’ve seen come about in the past few years, really sort of set the stage for people to consider other options besides their individual vehicle. So E bikes, e scooters, shared Micromobility, I just saw a picture the other day of a new ups, quote unquote, truck that’s pedal assist, that fits in a bike lane for deliveries, all these different options are now available. So people, you know, have other choices. And when gas is getting up to six $7 A gallon in the US, you know, people are really interested in seeing what other ways they have of getting around. And now there’s legitimate options. And so we want to build on that of like, Hey, you can you can get an E bike, you can give up one car, maybe that’s doable for you. And then the other piece, though, is having a safe way safe place to use that, that ebike, you know, you’re not going to take your kids out, if you’re going down a 45 mile an hour road with cars whizzing by you and you only have a stripe of paint separating you from them. So I think the gas prices, that technology technology, improving more cities, kind of you know, being very serious about addressing climate change issues, and seeing reduction of cars on the road as a real and needed part of how they address that are all kind of coming together to help create this moment.

Carlton Reid 17:34
Because it’s the one less car thing, it’s if there are if there are fewer cars on the road, that’s a benefit to the individual motorist, for sure. For sure. Other people out of cars. I mean, yeah, okay. It’s tough to get an individual out. But as long as other people get out of cars, you kind of

Zoe Kircos 17:50
Yeah, you know, I mean, number one, it’s safer for everybody when more people are on bikes, and number two, you know, like, I have neighbours who are like, Oh, I’m not getting on my car. And I’m like, Yeah, but you want me on my bike, because that’s one less person that’s, you know, trying to get out of our neighbourhood at rush hour on Monday morning, you know, so that’s a good reason why if even if, and that’s been a central part of the final mile and city threads approach is that we’re not trying to tell anybody that they have to get on a bike. That’s not our interest. We’re just saying that it’s to everyone’s benefit and make it safer and easier for maybe not you but your neighbour to get on a bike. Hey,

Carlton Reid 18:27
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Carlton Reid 23:02
Thanks, David. And we are back with Sara Stoddard and Zoe Kircos. Give me the elevator pitch on this the city thread mobility playbook. I know you’re kind of this is all a secret sauce thing. And you’ll want to actually get cities to come on board to do this, but just summarise the how how do you physically get cities to put these these mobility networks in so fast?

Sara Studdard 23:32
So the how I’ve got to acknowledge the why, which is city leaders face a variety of challenges. And we are also as communities failing to unlock mobility based solutions that help solve for those challenges like climate change, housing, affordability, distrust in government income, inequality, etc. So what the mobility playbook that city threat is bringing to a community near you, hopefully, is by creating an aligned partnership between elected officials, city staff, community partners, that establish a mutual beneficial goal that they all agree on. In this case, it’s building a safe, comfortable bike network in a short amount of time. And we do that by ensuring that those three stakeholder groups are resource that everyone who comes to the table has the information the funding that they need to be the best partner that they can be. And so from an elected leader perspective, persuasive media campaigns, polling city staff, we streamline political engagement and construction activities to accelerate mobility network implementation. And community advocates are a resource to do what they do great which is As grassroots organising community events, you know, local grant main theme to directly support residents on the ground. And with sort of kind of that, how we know that cities can move quickly, and deliver high quality places for people to get around their city in a very short amount of time.

Carlton Reid 25:25
And how white is this? How middle classes this perhaps not in reality, but maybe in just perception?

Sara Studdard 25:33
That’s a great question. I’ll start but I know Zoe loves to talk about this subject, as well, which is, you know, we can all have a piece piece, you know, we can all feel good about getting where we go, where we want to go, if we all have kind of a piece of the road access to the road. And because sort of our ethos is not behaviour change, it’s acknowledging the power and privilege that white people in America have to make a variety of choices, whether it’s to get in their car, or their electric vehicle or their ebike. And it’s also acknowledging that there are identities and communities in this community in this country that have been barred from a lot of the access that the current kind of white supremacy model in the US has supported them. And so you know, by working in cities like New Orleans, and Providence, we’ve seen that we’re able to create diverse coalition’s with diverse elected leadership, that represent a variety of identities, and that really look at mobility as through a lens of anti bias and anti racist as a connection to creating a more just and fair world. And I will pause there, because I just had a brilliant thought, and I lost it. So I’m gonna turn it back over.

Zoe Kircos 27:03
Well, just to pick up that thread, what we found in the final mile was, as Sara mentioned, these really put together these really diverse coalition’s of people who were supporting these shared visions, and the shared vision wasn’t always centred around, I want to ride a bike, a lot of times it was centred around, I want my neighbourhood to be comfortable to be safe, I want my kids my grandkids to be able to go out and play without worrying about a car speeding down jumping the curb and hitting them, I want to be able to get down to the corner store with my kid, you know, on a bike or on their scooter, I want, you know, a place that feels vibrant and alive. And where, you know, kind of the life that I want to have is is realised and part of that is usually not having cars driving down at 45 miles an hour like that, that vision, like we can all kind of envision that lovely neighbourhood residential street, and it has people outside enjoying that space. And usually, you know, just an empty space with only cars is not the vision that we have in our heads. So when we build these coalitions, it’s not saying you gotta want bikes, it’s saying, What do you want? What do you want in your neighbourhood? How are you coming together to support that? And what can be part of that? And, you know, is getting to where you want to go? Are your kids getting where they need to go kind of part of that? And what does that look like? And how do we weave those things together? So that sort of

Carlton Reid 28:35
interesting book that just jumped in my head that could that not just be what I want more car parking, I want to make it easier to you know, to drive at 45 miles an hour, I want to be able to go 55 miles an hour on the streets. If you leave it up to people. Wouldn’t that just be if you genuinely left up to people, which is what I want? I want to make driving easier. What’s your problem? Come on?

Zoe Kircos 28:57
Well, do you want to live on that street? That sounds like a highway to me. I don’t want to live on a highway. So when we talk to people, the places they most want to live, don’t look like that. And they often and I think you raised this point, Carlton is that we you know kind of that privilege culture assumes that everybody has access to a car. So naturally, you want to be it to be most efficient if you’re to for your car to get from A to B, but the reality is that most people that a lot of people, especially in urban areas don’t have a car. So they’re relying on other other modes of transit already. They’re relying on the bus or the train, they’re walking, maybe they’re riding a bike. They’re already relying on that. And so we’re just kind of glossing over the fact that reality that a lot of people don’t have access to a car when when we as white privilege, people kind of say, let’s make it easier for the cars to get around. Well, that’s not actually serving everybody in these neighbourhoods.

Carlton Reid 30:00
In certainly in the UK, I’m guessing also in the in the US those those high speed roads, those those highways with 50 miles an hour plus streets and roads, strode, as they’re called. Often people of colour live on those kind of highways. Right now, lower income people often live on those kinds of arterial roads now. So how are we going to be making anything that’s going to be good for them? When are cities genuinely going to be wanting to rain in those arterioles?

Sara Studdard 30:41
That’s a great question. I think it goes back to I A don’t have a solution today. I think if I did, I would hopefully be making a lot of money that I could get back to communities. But I would say that our diverse coalition’s that we’re building that are being built locally that are resident led, are at sort of the intersection of the question you just asked, which is looking at policy at a local and federal level around housing, affordability, workforce development, stopping more, you know, kind of working to stop highways to expand, acknowledging that we cannot build streets for cars, like we can’t build, that does not solve traffic congestion, or climate change. And so it just becomes a policy as and then kind of a true practical effort at a local, state and federal level. And I think there’s great examples of Providence and Detroit and Baltimore that, you know, had highways that ripped and separated communities, usually communities of colour, and they have through federal funding and local support, built green spaces and parks and neighbourhoods over those highways and reconnected neighbourhoods. And I think that, you know, there’s a lot of national groups that are really fighting to take those strobes back, and have the residents decide what they want to do with it.

Carlton Reid 32:18
And can I ask you both individually? How long have you been working professionally, in this sphere? When perhaps even before people have bikes? How long have you each individually been been working in, in this area?

Zoe Kircos 32:36
So I’ve been working in kind of the specific area of sort of bicycling and mobility for coming up on 12 years, I’ve been working sort of my role within city thread is as a grant maker and a grant recipient. Funding, you know, development, that area and that work I’ve been doing for who I’m going to show my age, let me think 20, 20, plus 22 years.

Sara Studdard 33:09
Okay. And I have been in the mobility space for seven or eight years, I came up through Bikeshare, in Memphis, Tennessee. And then before that, my background is in communication, community, organising, and coalition building, really around all things that make cities great from local food, to agriculture, to arts, to economic development. And so that’s one of the reasons I’m personally so passionate about mobility is in my 15 years of experience, you know, mobility is a key thread, and everything that makes a community great will go

Carlton Reid 33:49
for that lower number than, say, 15, 20 years. So that’s a goodly number. So my question and the reason I’m asking that question was, and I want to ask you, how has this space changed. So if you imagined back to when you started, both started in this space, and where you are today with what you’re able to do with with city thread, and the fast build out of, you know, not just one bikeway which used to be how it used to be done, but like networks, how different is it? And then imagine 10 years, 15 years from now, how different is going to be again, so each each same question to both of you.

Sara Studdard 34:32
I’ll go first.

Sara Studdard 34:34
So Zoe is that okay?

Zoe Kircos 34:35
Yep, you go.

Sara Studdard 34:38
So, for me that the change that I have seen is a real reckoning in in this is not necessarily for kind of the entire mobility sort of like culture in the US but a real reckoning. Even with how white supremacy has built our neighbourhoods in the in the places that people live in the United States, particularly around highways, which we’ve talked about redlining, you know, for borrowing certain communities and identities from creating general generational wealth through purchasing homes. And so I just see those conversations, you know, not not being led by someone who’s white, which is me, but by people that, you know, have been affected by, by how our country has been built, and how our country has barred people from being mobile, whether it’s socially economically, or getting from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. And then this is a little radical won’t surprise Zoey. You know, if I were to look 15 years in the future, I like would not, I would like to never see the word bike advocate. Again, I think that we are doing ourselves a disservice by whether it’s peer pressuring, or over messaging, trying to convince people to choose one mode over the other. And I think that positioning the bike, as part of just general community advocacy, is, in my opinion, a much more successful and inclusive, and really kind of concrete, comprehensive way to look at our cities.

Zoe Kircos 36:27
Oh, well, that was such a good answer. Now, how do I follow that up? So I guess when I look back to say, 12 years ago, when I first started kind of getting into the mobility space, and I’d been riding my bike for years, mostly because I’m really frugal, and I and I just bike was like, all I had when I lived in Chicago, I, I took the train, but or the bus. But you know, since moving to Boulder, I mean, the bike was how I could get around, and I didn’t want to have to buy a car. So. But when I look back, like 12 years ago, I was grantmaking. So I was giving out funding for bicycle infrastructure projects. And I would get and fund projects that, you know, you we all kind of joked about sheroes. But I was like super excited when some uncovered, you know, an unusual suspect town or or city said, we want to put more sheroes in I was just like, Yay, they’re paying attention to bikes, like I’m gonna give them money for sheroes. And then, you know, sorry, folks, but now, like, I would no more give money for sheroes. And I would give you money to, you know, paint the sky green, because it’s just like, it’s not really going to make a difference for people that is not going to make people feel safe, safe and comfortable to get on their bike. And so I think the shift in sort of what our expectations that are around how and why and where people will use a different mode of transportation, besides a car have just really shifted, and for a long time, you know, we had these people telling us well, I’m comfortable on a road, you know, I know how to obey the rules of the road, and I know how to ride in that environment. And we thought, oh, okay, if we just teach everybody that then we’ll be successful. And then we suddenly woke up and said, No, like, if I’m riding with my kid, like, that’s never gonna make me feel safe. And if that’s my only option, then I’m not gonna ride. And so I think that, that shift of like that, pardon me, guy that told us that we can just share the road with cars and to a different different understanding of, we need to create safe, comfortable spaces that really serve everybody and that everybody can benefit from is a huge change that I’ve seen, and in 12 years, and looking ahead to the future. I’m with Sara that I don’t want it to be around bike advocacy, I we don’t have vacuum advocacy, and we don’t have no lawnmower. You know, it’s just a way you get around and you don’t define yourself that way. Like I don’t define myself as a cyclist. I’m a person that does a lot of things. One of the things I do is ride a bike, and I just think we need to open that identity up to more people and not have it be so central. It’s not It’s not saying anything about anything else about who I am except for how I want to get around

Carlton Reid 39:22
Might people. cynical people of course, say you’re kind of hiding your bicycle advocacy? You know, wolf in sheep’s clothing kind of thing. Really, really you want just loads and loads of bike friendly streets and you talk about transit and you’re talking about pedestrians and what have you, but it’s the bikeways in reality. Yeah. Yeah,

Zoe Kircos 39:51
I’m sorry. Go ahead.

Sara Studdard 39:54
You know, I’m sure you and your sceptical people also believe that the bike lobby is like the Illuminati of bike advocacy sneaking around, but I was just, you know, people are dying on our streets. I think traffic fatalities is like the top way to die in the US. And that is horrible. Like, that’s awful. And so I would say to folks that think I secretly want a protected bike lane on every street. So I can cruise around every community I visit, I would say that we know that protected safe places for people to drive by walk, reduce people dying. And I think that’s something really personally Carlton, I’d be interested on your scepticism, hard to argue with.

Zoe Kircos 40:49
And I think too, that if we take, you know, like, in the winter, when it’s really snowy and icy, where I live in Colorado, I take the bus. And when it’s beautiful out and a lovely spring day I walk. And I think a lot of people just want to be able to choose the mode that makes sense for the weather, for their mood for their physical, state for whatever for where they’re going. They just want to have some choices and not always be stuck with one.

Carlton Reid 41:20
Okay, so tell me a bit more of where we can actually find out about city thread and the last mile part of it. So is there a website people can go to? Is there a Twitter feed? What can people go and have a look at when they’re listening to this?

Sara Studdard 41:36
Yes, we have a website, you can find us at Citythread.org. We also are increasingly active on Twitter and LinkedIn at City free city thread. org. And on both of our social pages, we have links to videos, articles, that talk more about the final mile and talk about you know what city thread is going to be up to now and in the future.

Carlton Reid 42:09
And individually, tell me about your your where people can find you on social media? If If indeed you are on social media, not everybody is.

Zoe Kircos 42:20
So I’m really not on social media very much. So pretty much LinkedIn, you can find me Zoe Caracas on LinkedIn. And yeah, besides that, I leave it to my kids, they would have to Oriole and they would be very frustrated with the tutorial they would have to give me on being able to you know, that.

Carlton Reid 42:43
I was very honest, if

Zoe Kircos 42:45
There you go Carlton can put that with you.

Sara Studdard 42:49
It’s, it’s really fascinating, not only starting your own organisation, but really seen pretty quickly where your gaps are. And I feel confident that the three of us were probably more on the Luddite side of technology and social media. And you can find me I’m on LinkedIn. And I’m also on Twitter at Sara stud where I don’t tweet about anything related to bikes. But I think I have interesting perspectives anyway. Another thing she does, really

Carlton Reid 43:22
Thanks to Sara Studdard and Zoe Kircos there and thanks to you for listening to episode 303 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. Show notes and more can be found on the-spokesmen.com. Episode 304 will be out early next month but meanwhile get out there and ride.

July 18, 2022 / / Blog

18th July 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 302: Three ultracyclists explain how and why

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUESTS: Kabir Rachure, Josh Reid, Ruth Sutherland

TOPICS: Kabir Rachure was the first Asian to podium at the Race Across America, or RAAM, which finished a couple of weeks back. Ruth Sutherland was a rookie rider at this year’s 620 mile All Points North race in northern England. Josh Reid also rode All Points North but in preparation for the Transcontinental, a 2500 mile unsupported race across Europe from the cobbles of Flanders to the shores of the Black Sea.

LINKS:

Kabir’s RAAM podium result

Ultrahuman

All Points North

Transcontinental

Giant Revolt

Luchos Dillitos banana leaves wrapped energy food (use code “JR25” for 25% discount)

Specialized Ruby

Arkel bags

76 Projects 3D-printed Garmin mount

Hutchinson tyres

Robens mountain bivvy

Stages computer

Exposure lights

TRANSCRIPT

Carlton Reid 0:13
Welcome to Episode 302 of the spokesmen cycling podcast. This show is published on Monday 18th July 2022.

David Bernstein 0:28
The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e bikes for every type of rider. Whether you’re commuting, taking your kids to school, or even caring another adult, visit www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n bicycles.com to learn more.

Carlton Reid 1:02
Pain, sleep deprivation, hallucinations, why to ultra distance cyclists do it. I’m Carlton Reid. And on this episode of The spokesmen, I talked to three ultra cyclists including my son, Josh, he’s preparing for the transContinental, a 2500 mile unsupported race across Europe from the cobbles of Flanders to the shores of the Black Sea. I talk with Josh, along with Ruth Sutherland, both of them were first timers on last month’s 620 mile all points north race in northern England. But I start with a conversation I had with Indian lawyer Kabir Rachure, who recently came third in the solo men’s category at the Race Across America, making Kabir the first Asian to podium at RAAM. Well done on on your achievement at the race across America RAM.

Carlton Reid 2:11
This isn’t wasn’t your first attempt, was it? This was your second ride.

Kabir Rachure 2:15
This was my second this was my second.

Carlton Reid 2:17
So the obvious question is gonna be why?

Kabir Rachure 2:21
Yeah, because I was not satisfied with my 2019 attempt. Because I knew I can do better. I was trained properly, to do it and good timing. But you know, there are always mistakes when you do it for the first time. And you learn from those mistakes. So the first thing that I was not satisfied with my own performance. And the same day when I finished the RAAM, I told officials that I’m gonna come next year, but the next year was COVID. Then thereafter things were a bit dicey. So we went for 2020 to attempt

Carlton Reid 3:07
And tell me how long does it take? I’ve got here written how long it’s taken you but tell tell the listeners how long it took you to ride across.

Kabir Rachure 3:18
So it took 11 days 20 hours 43 minutes. And the cutoff time is exactly 12 days. So when when when I 15 minutes before the cutoff time.

Carlton Reid 3:33
My question before was was when I said why it wasn’t so much why’d you come back and do it again a second time. Although that was that was a good answer. It was why do these events anyway. So why can you Why are you a long distance endurance cyclist? Why are you doing that? Why are you pushing yourself like this?

Kabir Rachure 3:53
Maybe this is kind of an addiction. When we get a chance to test our own limits, that how much we can push as a human body. Okay? Normally, we are not going to stay awake for the entire day and do cycling without any event. So these events are a platform for us to test our own limits. It’s like someone is doing F1 The goal is to test their speeds test their equipment is the science behind all the machines and all. So it is platform for endurance cyclists to test ourself and to try to do better and always try to unlock ourself when we do it for the next time.

Carlton Reid 4:41
There are many ways of doing Race Across America. So you can do it in a pair. You can do it in a team, you take it in turns and somebody slips how were you doing it?

Kabir Rachure 4:51
I was doing in solo, so I was riding solo. So yeah, I feel the solo. attempt is the most difficult one, because the clock is still ticking when you are, you’re taking a sleeve break, or you’re taking some short break or something like that. So the in pair, somebody is on the bike when some other guys taking some break. But in solo attempts, your clock is not going to stop for you

Carlton Reid 5:23
and tell me your sleep strategy, because 11 days, how much sleep were you getting? And what were you? What were you getting?

Kabir Rachure 5:32
So last in my last attempt, I was suffering with a lot of sleep deprivation issues a lot of hallucinations. So this year, my main motto was to take ample sleep from day one. So I used to sleep after every 24 hours of riding for around two eyes. And thereafter, I used to guide for like 24 to 23 to maximum 27 hours until I feel tired and until I feel sleepy. So that was the strategy to guide 24 hours and to sleep for two hours and

Carlton Reid 6:11
tell me the navigation did because in many ultra endurance events, you can choose your route. But I’m presuming in the race across America, you’re not choosing your route. You’re you’re following a route.

Kabir Rachure 6:24
Yeah, exactly. So we get the proper route book before the gays it has like two months back the case, we get GPX files, that is also beautiful task for this case, because your team has to be super accurate with the navigation. Okay, you miss a turn and you go off Route for like entire 1520 kilometres maybe, and you lose time. So the route is planned route is fixed, and we have to follow that exact route. And then maybe we get some D detours in between if there is a flood or they get some construction going, or they get some forest fire or something like that. So we get detours. But yeah, it is pretty planned.

Carlton Reid 7:13
So whereabouts are you in India right now?

Kabir Rachure 7:18
So I’m from Mumbai.

Carlton Reid 7:19
And basically you ride like events in India? So you’re doing long distance events there too? How are you? How are you training for this?

Kabir Rachure 7:29
So yeah, you mostly I do entertaining because traffic in India, not that cycling friendly. Okay, so I can’t do vo to max session, so maybe sweet spot sessions on the road, because that becomes difficult or maybe dangerous. So I do most of the training indoors. And we do attempt a lot of endurance races down here. Because the crew needs that the touch, I need that pressure of racing, and we need that practice sessions. So we do attempt a lot of cases here.

Carlton Reid 8:08
And that’s, that’s, I’m kind of like sitting here thinking that’s amazing. So you’re doing an awful lot of the training for this indoors on a static bike. Yeah.

Kabir Rachure 8:21
That’s yeah, yeah. So 95% of the time.

Carlton Reid 8:26
When in previous, you know, Paris-Roubaix riders aren’t, you know, famously, you know, just come into the race and I’ve just done indoor training, but what you’re doing is endurance. How long are you spending on a bike indoors if you’re training for this?

Kabir Rachure 8:43
so usually, I train for 10 to 12 hours a week. One of out of that when riders endurance ride like four guys for maybe three hours on weekends. And most of the sessions are pretty planned like some of them are sweetspot sessions. Some of them are highly paid some of them are vo two Max maybe twice a month I go outdoors to keep my bike reflexes alive. I go downhill practice I do downhill practice I go some climbing practice. So that is how I do it.

Carlton Reid 9:26
That is so amazing. They are doing quite so much indoors. So it was quite a shock to be paid you riding outdoors for so long.

Kabir Rachure 9:37
Yeah, so I have done 24 times while also indoors and which I covered accounts 762 kilometres and I was off the bike for around eight minutes out of 24 hours. So yeah, I do like to ride indoors because there is always some entertainment in front of me like I can watch. Net lakes, I can watch some motivational series or maybe some movie, I can regulate the temperature. So body’s less fatigued because I do train in AC. So yeah, that that becomes easy to recover for the next session when I do training.

Carlton Reid 10:18
Now I’ve interviewed Mark Beaumont, who he’s told me about, he’s using glucose monitoring, to. So this is normally diabetes control, normally, but now athletes are using glucose monitoring. So I believe you’re using glucose monitoring, in the same way that Mark is used for performance.

Kabir Rachure 10:43
Yeah, of course. So we have seen lots of athletes like Jan Frodeno, you know, or maybe a lot of triathletes who use glucose monitors to get some gain in their performance. So I use it to keep my glucose levels and proper numbers so that I can perform well. I can recover well. And and, and I find I take care that I’m not training when I’m not fueled myself, well. Okay, so I use it to perform better and to recover properly overnight. So that is that has become super important gadget for my training. So yeah, I have been using it from last seven months,

Carlton Reid 11:35
I guess. So you didn’t use it in your first attempt, but you have used it in this attempt. So what is the diff differences? That is? Because you’re using ultrahuman? Yes.

Kabir Rachure 11:47
Yeah, yeah, I’m using Ultrahuman. And so on my first attempt, I was like a raw rider. I didn’t pay attention on these micro gains, like to be aerodynamic or to, to pay attention on your weaker. We saw on this attempt, I was pretty much technical about these things. So I used it in this attempt. And I can say that I was very much I had a very strong finish. Maybe I was the the winner of the guider who was vague if looking very fresh at the finish line, even after guiding 5000 kilometres. That was because I was fueling myself properly. I never under fueled myself, we were keeping tabs on our glucose level. When I was on higher range we used to take off for an hour, I used to concentrate on my hydration. So that was a big difference compared to 2019.

Carlton Reid 12:54
So you’re saying “we” there? So you obviously have a support team? And they’re helping you with a navigation and that they’re helping you with the glucose monitoring? Are they like, are they looking at your statistics as you’re riding along?

Kabir Rachure 13:07
Yeah, exactly. So that sensor is connected via Bluetooth on the mobile. So somebody from the following cycle. So there is always 24/7 Follow a call which follows me to keep me secure. And we are always connected with the Bluetooth system. So there used to be someone who used to check my glucose levels every arc to see how my body is doing with the nutrition. And they used to do all micro corrections when according to the heat, according to the cold weather. So yeah.

Carlton Reid 13:47
So in my wife’s a diabetes specialist, she’s a hospital paediatrician so I actually quite know quite a bit about diabetes, just from picking it up from her. So So an awful lot of the modern ways of of monitoring and coping with diabetes is there are pumps on your body that that feed you the insulin when you need it. So the equipment that you’re talking about here doesn’t do that. It just monitors how much you need and then you’ve got to physically put in the right amount of food is that right?

Kabir Rachure 14:20
Exactly. So how it works is there is a small carbon needle which goes into your skin and it gives you real time glucose levels, okay. So you have to train with it. You have to know your accurate levels. If I feel strong in 120 to 140 MG DL that that is not same with some other person. Okay, you have to know your own graph. Okay, sometimes I feel that I am pretty I’m riding strong when I’m my glucose is above 120 So I used to keep my glucose levels above 120 When I’m writing in RAM, okay, so we have to train with it, and we have to know our body. And thereafter we can do all these changes.

Carlton Reid 15:16
Do you find that using this in your everyday life as well? Or is this purely performance?

Kabir Rachure 15:22
No, actually, I use it in my everyday life, because as an athlete, and when you’re planning to do RAAM and all, you have to be fit 24/7. So I used to the habit 24/7, I used to monitor my glucose level, because I always do gym, yoga, even I’m working as a lawyer. So I have to pay attention to these glucose levels. So yeah, 24/7, I used to use it.

Carlton Reid 15:57
So you mentioned that you’re a lawyer that says an advocate in India. So I’m assuming your training has got to fit in with what I presume is a very, very busy job. And your training, there’s got to be quality, not always quantity, would that be right?

Kabir Rachure 16:15
Exactly. So a lot of people have understanding that. If you want to do RAM, you have to train for like 25 hours a week, or maybe 30 hours a week. But I always felt that it is always quality, what matters, not the quantity, because when you train more, you have to pay attention on your recovery. And if you don’t recover, well, then you’re going to damage your body. So I used to pay attention or my quality of the training.

Carlton Reid 16:50
So let’s hope for all of us we can ran just by running an hour,

Kabir Rachure 16:54
actually, because I just think that you have to do some long races, some good experience with it. And at the end of the day, Ram is all about your mental strength, and how do you cope up with your sleep? And how do you train because if you have good FTP, if you have good experience with the ultra day events, then your body knows how to survive with it.

Carlton Reid 17:22
Because it’s got to be you’re right about the mental stuff. And this is this is what I’m imagining is physical is one thing, but it’s it’s I’m just thinking of these hugely long roads in the Midwest, where they go on forever. They’re very straight, and it must be incredibly boring. So how do you how do you get past the stretches of America that are incredibly boring, long, long, neverending stretches.

Kabir Rachure 17:49
So I just wanted to share a very good incident what I encountered this time. So Arizona was pretty hot and 2019. So the temperature was about 55 degrees centigrade. And this year, I was mentally prepared for it. But this time I was on I was pretty pleasant like it went till 41 degrees Celsius maximum. And I knew in a long race like cram, nothing is going to be permanent. So if I’m getting a favourable condition at the start, there is something will go wrong on later part or maybe in mid part, and we finally got super strong crosswind in Kansas, and those patches are pretty straight. If it’s a crosswind, then it’s gonna be a crosswind for like 400 kilometres or maybe 200 kilometres and the crosswind was so strong, I was not able to guide beyond 1718 km pH on a flat route that is gradually down actually. So, so mentally I was prepared that it is going to happen and it is all about hanging there. So I knew that this is not even this is again not like permanent, okay, it is going to be changed the text will change and all but you have to train your mind accordingly that this is just going to be a face and it is going to pass. So yeah, this all is about keeping your head strong. And pushing till the finish line.

Carlton Reid 19:26
And hallucinations. You had no hallucinations this time compared to the first

Kabir Rachure 19:30
time exactly this time. I didn’t have any hallucinations. I was sleeping well. The feeling was proper. I was hydrating properly. I took proper sleep. And last times attempt in 2019 I literally forgot how to cycle and last 200 kilometres because you develop your mental fatigue and my who used to tell me that you have to pedal down and pedal you have To keep your balance, so it goes to that extent. And what you will do when you forget how to cycle in a bicycle guys, so that was pretty awkward. And luckily, I got my senses back when it was just 70 kilometres from the finish line. And I did my best average for that last 70 kilometre patch.

Carlton Reid 20:28
And tell me because the when there’s long stretches of nothing in Arizona, that 55 degree heat is like, it sounds incredible. But there’s no real huge worries about other vehicles and anybody running you off the road. But when you’re coming through cities, and you say the beginning and the end, I guess you’re then having to go through through traffic. So so how are you coping with that?

Kabir Rachure 20:57
There are a few states who are not cycle friendly. I think and the rest of the states are pretty helpful. I experienced a lot of vehicles were guiding, driving behind me and diving, diving for like 1010 minutes to get a sick, safe pass. Okay, so luckily, I get friendly people around me work not that the only trouble what we face is riding through the city in a daytime, you have to encounter a lot of traffic signals. So that breaks your momentum because you have to stop and you have to start again. And it is not something a training right? When we are bodies superfresh it is like you are guiding from last 10 days you are feeling sleepy, you don’t want to get out of your bike because your body will go go into rest mode. So that is the most irritating part. What I feel that encountering a lot of traffic signals.

Carlton Reid 22:09
Contrast as well. Because if you’ve if you’ve come from Arizona, and you’ve come through Kansas, where there’s just as long roads, and then you’ve suddenly got quite busy stuff, so you’re seeing literally the whole of America in one trip. So it must be a culture shock for anybody, not the fact that you come from India, but anybody would find that to be quite a big culture shock.

Kabir Rachure 22:33
Exactly. So I was even reading about the USA, and any US citizen visits 11 state states in his entire life average 11 states, and we crossed 13 states when we do RAM. So we actually cross more states than any US citizen. So that is huge. And as you said that the culture, of course that you can say it like Arizona that is entirely looks empty, like there are no homes for like 100 100 kilometres, everything is isolated, then you goes to Utah. That is pretty beautiful. It has some historical values. Then we entered into Colorado’s that is pretty cold. I climbed Wolf Creek pass and rain full time rain. So it was pretty enjoyable for me. Because riding in cold weather, I always enjoy it because I can push my body to some extent. And I don’t develop that fatigue. So I was enjoying that. And again, we enter into cancers and also everything changes like the landscape, the people. So yeah,

Carlton Reid 23:59
so tell me what are your plans? What are your next events? And are you going to be doing RAM again,

Kabir Rachure 24:04
of course, I’m going to do RAAM again in 2024 I’m planning to do it because this time I saw want to win it. And I can see that that is possible after doing for two times I know my negative points where I can improve where team can improve. And I have a lot of time and in 2023 I’m planning to do Race Around Austria, because that is very good guys. If we see at its climbing graph, so I still want to do the Race around Austria and 2023 and then RAAM in 2024

Carlton Reid 24:53
Thanks to Kabir Rachure there and now before I introduce Ruth Sutherland and my son Josh Here’s my co host David, with a message from our sponsor.

David Bernstein 25:05
Hey everyone, this is David from the Fred cast and the spokesmen and I’m here once again, to tell you about our amazing sponsor Tern Bicycles at www.ternbicycles.com t e r n bicycles.com Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day and dependable enough to carry the people you love. Speaking of being able to ride every day as a spokesmen listener, I’m going to bet that you are the go-to consultant for your friends who want to ride but are an enthusiast and need some advice on what to buy. In that case, you may have people in your life for whom you just haven’t been able to recommend just the right bike considering their stature, age mobility issues or just plain hesitant to get back on a bike. Finally, those family members and friends can experience a new bike day with the all new Turn NBD new bike day Nbd. Okay, the NBDd has been specifically designed to be confidently easy to handle and easy to ride even. Even for those folks who might be as Josh Hon, team captain of Tern Bicycle says are smaller in size and have a hard time finding a bike that fits or older riders who might not have ridden a bike in a while or riders who might have balance or physical issues or riders who are just intimidated by the sheer size and weight of the average ebike. As Josh goes on to say the NBD will be refreshingly easy to hop aboard and ride. Now how can Josh be so confident in that? Well, it’s simple. The NBD has the lowest longest step through opening of any premium ebike. So if you know someone with a knee or a hip injury or or somebody who just can’t lift their leg over the top tube of a regular bike, this alone could make all the difference plus the NBD is designed with an ultra low centre of gravity and a longer wheelbase. And what does that mean? Well, it means that it makes it easy to balance and handle. And with a lowered bottom bracket and motor the NBD is stable for all riders and particularly inspires confidence for shorter cyclists because they can easily get their feet on the ground when they come to a stop. But the NBD isn’t just for shorter riders. As a matter of fact, it adjusts in seconds. Without tools by the way to fit riders from four foot 10 to six foot three or 147 to 190 centimetres. The NBD is also super comfortable with its upright riding position, swept handlebar suspension seatpost and wide 20 inch balloon tires need to load the NBD into a car. No problem, it folds flat in seconds. How about getting into it into a smaller living space? No sweat. The NBD includes Tern’s vertical parking features, you can roll the bike into a small elevator and park it in a corner of your apartment. Now with a max gross vehicle weight of 140 kilos that’s 308 pounds, the NBD can easily carry an extra passenger and plenty of cargo with up to 27 kilos on the rear rack and up to 20 kilos on the front rack. And in fact, it works with a wide range of Tern accessories and with most child seats, as I’ve said before, and this is important to me really important safety is a core value at turn. And that’s why the NBD frame and fork have been rigorously tested by one of Europe’s leading bike test labs. That’s also why turn chooses to use the Bosch motor and battery system. It’s one of the few systems on the market that meets and passes the UL standard for battery and electronics safety read the news and you know how important that is. Now the NBD comes in two models with prices starting at $3,899 or 3999 euros and bikes are going to start arriving in stores in Q1 of 2023. For more information about the NBD or any of Turn’s wide range of bikes, just head on over to ternbicycles.com Again, t e r n bicycles.com. We thank Tern for their sponsorship of the spokesmen podcast and we thank you for your support of Tern. Once again, thanks for allowing me this brief introduction everybody. And now let’s get back to Carlton and the spokesmen.

Carlton Reid 29:40
Thanks, David. And now over to Ruth Sutherland and Josh Reid.

Ruth Sutherland 29:47
Okay, it would it would it be possible to kind of have just a little three way warm up chat. So because you you might know a bit about me, but I don’t know anything at all about you Josh, apart from the fact that you’re a civil engineer but not for much longer and you like riding your bike? Yeah, just just so so so that we can feel comfortable with chatting instead of going in cold. Would that be okay? Yeah, of course.

Carlton Reid 30:11
Well, let’s let’s, let’s let’s go for that we can we can do that for everybody here, Ruth. So So Josh, tell us about yourself then.

Josh Reid 30:19
Well, I’ve ridden my bike almost all my life pretty much as I could walk I was I was put on a bike on my dad. And then we’ve been on the cycling holidays as kids and started racing, did a lot of racing when I was a kid, what kinda did a lot of road racing, as I was moving through the youth, and then the junior ranks, did some of the national series. And then after my A levels, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So I left the country and I went on a working holiday visa in Canada for two years, planted trees in the summer and was a ski instructor in the winter. And that, like allowed me to, like with a tree planting anyway, the ski instructing didn’t make any money. But the tree planting allowed me to save a bit of money. So I was able to travel afterwards did a bit of bike touring, and then went on a on a big trip from with some friends around Southeast Asia and but my plan was to cycle home. So everything with me that I needed to, to ride a bike back from Asia. With me, it’s all upon us. Almost I can get all my tools, everything on my back. So I was like a turtle?

Ruth Sutherland 31:39
Did you take spare tires?

Josh Reid 31:41
Not spare tires. Pretty much everything else I’d need.

Carlton Reid 31:47
And what sort of price point you didn’t have a bike at this point did you, Josh?

Josh Reid 31:50
I didn’t know where I was getting from. Then, like I was gonna think in Cambodia, but the brands out there don’t really take products off the product line all the time. They’re not they’re like more batches. So I got in contact with Giant and they helped me out massively and went to their factory in Shanghai and cycled home from Shanghai.

Ruth Sutherland 32:14
Wow.

Carlton Reid 32:18
And then you’ve got a very, very popular video of that trip. Haven’t you? A YouTube video?

Josh Reid 32:24
Yeah, it’s doing doing very well. Over 2 million now.

Ruth Sutherland 32:28
Wow.

Josh Reid 32:30
So yeah, then want to try and make that a thing and do more trips and see if I can fund myself by by going on these trips.

Carlton Reid 32:42
So Ruth, same same questions to you then. Pub chat. Who are you? What do you do? And how do you get into cycling?

Ruth Sutherland 32:50
I’m just searching for Josh’s video. So I’m I’m at the opposite end of my of my career, I suppose Josh, because I I’ve got four grown up children who will be your sort of age, who started to do exactly the sort of things you were doing and going across the world having adventures that hadn’t really been an option for me when I was their age. And so I became quite envious. And my husband took early retirement. And it seemed a bit silly for me to be going out to work every day while he was home. And we both wanted to ride our bikes. So I took a gap year later in my life. And that was the start of over long periods of riding bikes. We we went off travelling we did we hadn’t been riding bikes, we’ve always I’ve always written a bike, but like you I kind of grew up with a bike. But I never did any competitive cycling or any sort of really serious cycling and I just had a functional bike and never really a bike was a bike to me in the in the old days. And now I have a shed full of bikes for every purpose as you probably identify with that my husband’s always been very competitive and he got into cyclocross racing. And after a couple of seasons pitting for him, I thought, Well, I’m here every weekend, I might as well ride. I might as well race myself, I might as well do this. And it wasn’t really for me about racing. It was just about having a having a workout, having a bit of fun having a ride of my bike instead of hanging around all day. But then I sort of got the bug and started, you know, seriously being interested in the race because I was in the veteran women’s category. So I found as I moved into a new age category, I was actually quite competitive in my in my category. So cyclocross kind of was something I did for a couple of years before locked down, but I wouldn’t say that it was a love of mine and I’m not really a competitive person in the same way you sound to be Josh. I I’m more sort of interested in competing with myself or challenging myself. I was never any good at sport when I was at school. And I used to always be the last one to be picked for teams and I was really slow runner. And so I’ve always had this sort of perception of myself as not really being an athlete. And these things, these things live with you. Anyway, we joined the gap year went off to New Zealand and we cycled an event called the TA which starts at the north tip of New Zealand and goes down to the southern South tip of New Zealand, it’s a brevet. And when it was the first time we’ve really done any serious bike packing, with some borrowed and some bought equipment, it was very much a sort of try it out and work out how it works. And that was so enjoyable and so successful that we came back to the UK and I decided to take another gap year or just to extend my gap year. And to cut a long story short, I’ve never actually been back to full time paid works. Just cycling is taking over my life. So I became I became a cycling coach. We both started doing some ride leading for British Cycling in the days when they had sky rides, and then Leps rides. And we joined a cycling club. And we I became, we both became mountain bike leaders and to take people out sort of on more wilderness trips. And we took part in quite a lot of organised by holidays and bike trips, we went to Chile, we went to Nepal. And then we went back to New Zealand and we did another long brevet, which was an inaugural event from east to west cape of the North Island. And then then, we ended up in Tasmania, just before lockdown, we went there for a race, a mountain bike race, a three day race called the dragon race. And as we landed, we were told the race was cancelled. And there was a global pandemic. And we’ve kind of been in the, in the back of beyond and hadn’t really been aware of the World News at that point. And that was the start of the of the COVID pandemic. So we eventually made our way back to the UK. And during locked down, we got involved with local cycling, we set up a community cycling group we opened a pop up bike shed my husband’s a good mechanic. And we’ve been sort of cycling from home with our local immediate community ever since then.

Carlton Reid 37:26
You’re both living the dream, but from different. You’re different ages. So you kind of like you’re gonna meet in the middle at some point. You’re both living the dream?

Ruth Sutherland 37:36
Yeah. Precisely.

Carlton Reid 37:41
Based on that, and the dream, there are better clarify that is lots and lots of cycling, because you’re clearly both doing tonnes and tonnes of cycling.

Ruth Sutherland 37:49
Yeah, indeed. Yes. The

Carlton Reid 37:51
So that kind of brings me into and the reason why we’re talking today apart from that sounds fascinating. That bit of all that background, I know that. But because you’re you’re a rookie, in a race that both of you did so. So All Points North, so just tell me what All Points North is.

Josh Reid 38:12
Ultra distance bike packing race. We all start in Sheffield. And there’s 10 checkpoints, you need to get to all over the north of England. And you’ve got them all on a Brevet card. And then you you go to all these checkpoints, take a timestamp photo, and then make your way back to Sheffield. And this is the first first one back wins, or? Well, it’s not always a race. But that’s pretty much the gist of the event.

Carlton Reid 38:43
So how long did it take basically

Josh Reid 38:47
took me 70 hours, I believe.

Carlton Reid 38:50
With you not sleeping much.

Josh Reid 38:52
I slept for an hour in total to half an hour now. But then, in my time was about 56 hours. So it’s it’s crazy how much time you you stop and don’t realise you’re stopping.

Carlton Reid 39:07
And now I’m going to ask you your route in a second. I’ll go back to Ruth first. So Ruth, how long did it take you? And did you have that same amount of sleep deprivation? Or were you a bit more sensible?

Ruth Sutherland 39:17
Well, I for me it was sleep deprivation. But compared with Josh, it was it was a lot more sensible. I’d worked on the principle that I would need about five or six hours off every 24 hours. For me it was a it was a case of entering the all points north being on the start line and then getting to the finish line. And it was going to take me as long as it took me I had no illusions that I was racing or anything and for me it was just a personal challenge to to get to all the points in the shortest possible time and to and to make it over the finishing line. So I suppose I set off with slightly different no ambition to Josh. I was I would think I was back in about 102 hours. So substantially longer, you know, like, like a whole day longer than Josh.

Carlton Reid 40:14
But I’m guessing here that the fact you finished means you’re still way up ahead of how many people actually started because an enormous amount of people, I’m guessing here, just don’t finish these events.

Ruth Sutherland 40:24
Yes to that there were there were I think there were 29 rookies, rookie riders of the people who’ve never done an event like this before. And we applied for sort of special dispensation that there were 30 places available to people who were given an eight hour start Headstart. Our our time was still measured in real time. So my, my 102 hours started eight hours before Josh’s 52 hours. I think that’s how it worked. But I got an eight hour head start, essentially. And off those people that started with me, two of us were were vying for the finish. And we came back within about four minutes of each other, but the other rider beat me into fifth place. So I was the sixth finisher, in the rookies. And I was very happy about that.

Carlton Reid 41:14
I bet. Yeah. So just tell me about your route, and why you chose that route. And then route, I’m gonna ask you exactly the same question. And let’s see where you differ here, just in not in time. But in routes.

Josh Reid 41:29
Well, at the start line, a lot of people were thinking about going towards the Lake District first to get all the hills out of the way. And I was thinking of going that way. And then I looked at the weather forecast, and it was tipping down with rain. So I changed my route last minute. And when I went to the East Coast, first up to Horney Mare, Mere, and headed towards Bamburgh Castle, and I didn’t have a drop of rain until the last two hours in the race. And a lot of people dropped out with hypothermia from going the wrong way. I think. So.

Carlton Reid 42:07
So that was a choice you’ve made and you’re happy with that choice? Yeah. Yeah,

Josh Reid 42:11
very, very happy. Even though the climbing was very back ended, that meant I wasn’t like suffering from hypothermia or struggling with a lot of rain.

Carlton Reid 42:22
As you can imagine doing those because they’re massive, massive hills in the Lake District doing that after 60 hours,

Josh Reid 42:29
I’d rather be dry.

Ruth Sutherland 42:31
Josh, I think that’s really interesting. And I think, as a rookie, I have been writing up my experience, and it’s just a whole series of rookie errors. And I think possibly my first rookie error was choosing to go round the course the opposite way to you. So I went clockwise, I headed off into the Yorkshire Dales into the storm didn’t pay the price, I suppose, because I was actually able to find somewhere to sleep. I carried the the gear and I didn’t use it on the whole race. But it was a huge comfort to me, as I was sort of pedalling into the unknown and not having any idea where I was going to finish each day, it was a huge comfort to know that I did have a very good bit of a setup that I could use if I needed to. However, the rain was a huge problem. And the wind was unfortunate, because I had a very, very strong headwind as I went from west to east across the northern hills. I think I had no flexibility on that start line because my was, was rehearsed and embedded and imprinted in my mind. And it had never crossed my mind to veer from that. And it made me quite agitated at the start when I heard other riders talking about, oh, well, I might just tweak my route. I might just as thinking how can you possibly, you know, taking all my energy and emotions to hold myself together, knowing the route I’m going to do the thought of changing that at the 11th hour was was just, you know, unthinkable?

Carlton Reid 44:09
We might change. Sorry? So would you change that then in a any future race you would you be more flexible? Or do you think you would always want to have that route in your head?

Ruth Sutherland 44:19
No, I would definitely be more flexible. I you learn a whole lot of lessons when you do an event like this. And I’ve I was looking at Josh’s route. And the it doesn’t it isn’t clear from the map on the on the website, which way round Josh went and I haven’t looked at his splits. But I imagined that he’d gone the same way as me because he did the tech points in almost the exact same order, but in reverse. So yeah, I’d be interested Josh, did you did you plan and rehearse that route? Had you heard you were you wedded to it before you set off?

Josh Reid 44:56
Not completely, but then this would be my first one. Ultra distance bike back and races Well, I’ve never done one before. I’ve done a lot of bike touring. And a lot of racing I thought was like a happy medium between the two. And then I’d booked onto the transcontinental, like three years ago for all the lock downs, but it’s been cancelled three years on the trot. So I thought I needed to do something like old points north or an event like this prior to the transcontinental. So I make all the mistakes in this one. And then I’m got more of an idea for the transcontinental which is my main goal for the season.

Carlton Reid 45:31
What mistakes did you make Josh? Well, we’ll describe what the transcontinental is in a second, What mistakes did you make you change,

Josh Reid 45:39
I would look at my route a lot more. Like I looked at it. The first bit was was okay. But then the back end of it, like, I basically just pick the shortest route possible. And what I didn’t realise is Halifax has some incredibly steep 30% climbs. And instead of just going on, on the main road, and relatively flat, I’d chosen the shortest route, which happened to go up every 30% climbing in Halifax, and with 600 miles in the legs that kind of kills you. But then there’s this climbs in the Lake District way, you’re gonna have to go over anyway, like rhinos, and no matter when, whether you do that first or last, it’s always gonna be a grind, and it’s always gonna hurt. So I didn’t really think that was a didn’t really matter when I did it, it’s always gonna be

Carlton Reid 46:31
about equipment choice, because gloves would have helped wouldn’t a big gel gloves. So tell us about that.

Josh Reid 46:37
So like, even like two weeks later, my hands still vibrating a little bit from not wearing any gloves and just the vibrations from the road. And so some of the shortcuts I took on that, that route, were a bit sketchy. So I’d go on like bridleways and trying to cut off little sections of road shortcuts, what weren’t always shortcuts, having to fall through rivers and stuff. Yeah, definitely a lot more route planning as needed for future events.

Carlton Reid 47:10
So Ruth, same same question to you, and especially about equipment, would you would you change equipment in future, right?

Ruth Sutherland 47:19
The only elements of my equipment that was worrying and and unsettling was a rim mounted Dynamo that I had been given as a present. And I had used it on training rides, and was confident with how it functioned. And that I knew, you know, I knew what to do with it. But my mistake was that I hadn’t really used in anger, I hadn’t gotten to the point where all of my power packs were empty, and all of my devices had lost charge. And I needed to get power from my Dynamo as my only option. And when I got to that point, partway around the ride in a really remote place, I discovered that the Dynamo had significant limitations in its ability to or my ability to pedal to make it generate power, because it only generates power above a certain speed, and it needs a certain distance at that speed to activate the the internal generator. So at a certain speed, I had to go two or three kilometres before anything happened. And then as soon as I hit a hill and my speed reduced, I lost that power. And I also lost the internal sort of generator power. And so on hilly terrain, my Dynamo really did not work to do what I needed it to do. It did work on long flat sections laterally in the ride, but at the time that I needed it, it was a real crisis. And so I had basically my my message here as to myself is that I needed to have pre tested my equipment better. But in terms of the equipment, I carried personal equipment, I was really well equipped. I had some really good lightweight kits used every single thing that I took with the exception of my bivvy bag or my bivvy gear which stayed packed in the bottom of my rear carrier bag for the entire trip but I wouldn’t have gone without it. And I was going to say to you Josh, what did you carry? Did you did if you intended not to sleep? Did you take anything for for an emergency or were you just relying on the foil blanket that they issued on the start line?

Josh Reid 49:41
Well, I definitely on the start line I was second guessing myself and thinking do I take my baby do I take my sleeping bag because that just looking at other people’s bikes you kind of second guess yourself and yeah, I did take my baby and took a sleeping bag and I’m very glad for it was a 30 hour 30 minute Kip In a bus stop, and a 30 minute kid on a park bench. So I rode through the first night, the whole way through and then the second and the third night had half an hour Kip in each one. And it’s like it without those sleeps I would have been struggling on the downhills just to stay upright, really, I needed I needed to get my head down for just those half an hour and helps massively.

Carlton Reid 50:21
And you set an alarm on your watch or something or you did say wake me up in half an hour.

Josh Reid 50:28
I did. But I tended to wake up before the alarm, you’ve just got so much adrenaline pumping through you and thinking I need to keep on writing that you just wake up anyway.

Ruth Sutherland 50:39
I’ve heard other people say that Josh, about the transcontinental and another really long races that actually you become able to just lie down in a ditch and take a power nap for 30 minutes and then get back on your bike. And I found even though I was I was sleeping for two hours, maybe once I slept for three hours. But I always set an alarm. And I always woke up before my alarm. And I was back on my bike before, you know before I’d planned to be back on it. So it is it’s amazing what your body can do. And it’s amazing how how that sleep wait pattern?

Josh Reid 51:15
Yeah, I feel like it’s very, very different in a race stitching up scenario where you think you need to keep on going. Yeah. But before before I did this event, and thinking of the trans content over here, and like you have three, four hours of sleep at night. I was like, wow, that’s that’s not very much and then doing this and only having half an hour in the second or third night, then it’s like opened my eyes as I realise this is this is okay, this is this is doable.

Carlton Reid 51:44
I did this go back, sorry, go back to light just because Ruth was talking about having dynamo, you didn’t go down that route. I know you’ve thought about that route. But did tell me about the power options you have.

Josh Reid 51:59
I’m using Exposure lights so that they last a long, long time. So my rear lasts 40 hours, and then the front lasts for 36. And then I’ve got a battery pack for the front as well. And Exposure one. And I didn’t like with that short amount of race, you’re not going to be riding for long enough that those would run out. So I just think by using a dynamo and it costing you some of your power. It’s just it’s not worth it. And then for stuff like the transcontinental I think you’re going to be going in hotels and being able to charge so I just think I’ve gone for the no Dynamo option.

Carlton Reid 52:41
And that same for your electronics, your charging from a removable Power Pack.

Josh Reid 52:46
Yeah, so yeah, just got two power packs and charge on my phone and the white computer with with those.

Carlton Reid 52:56
So tell me now, right. Yep, just about the trend. We’ve mentioned this a few times. What is the transcontinental? Where does it start? Where does it finish? How long will it take?

Josh Reid 53:04
So it starts in Belgium up the up the famous climbing in tour Flanders. it wiggles its way all the way to to Bulgaria, on the Black Sea coast through like four checkpoints. I think 2500 Miles should take 10 days to two weeks. But we’ll see. Got that in a month’s time.

Carlton Reid 53:36
That’s July. So that’s probably one of your it will be with the heat wave. And Ruth, what have you got planned next? Have you got any more now that you’ve done this and you’ve you’re the rookie rider, financing and really good place there? What’s your what’s your your your next potential event?

Ruth Sutherland 53:57
Well, when I got off my bike, first thing my husband said to me was, I hope you’re not going to acquire a taste for these events. And my reply was, I am doubting whether I’m ever going to get on a bike and then less than bone do another event. But that was that was two weeks ago now. And it’s funny, isn’t it? How? How your point of view changes. And I kind of feel it’s it’s my time because I’m not getting any younger. And I’m not going to you know, I haven’t I can’t put these things off and think oh, I might I might do that in five years time, because I might be in a bath chair in five years time. So I think I probably have to start thinking about what I might do next. But I haven’t actually started about that. I’m still a little bit like you Josh. I did wear gloves and I too have got really numb fingertips particularly on my right hand. And I still feel I’m feeling the effects and I think that’s possibly to do with being a bit older and probably to do with having been less fit than you to start with. But yeah, my legs stopped aching and my bodies sort of coming around. But I feel that the four days took a real toll on my on me physically. So I’ve not thought about what’s next. I don’t know if you’ve got any suggestions, Josh?

Josh Reid 55:24
Not sure, I’m pretty … there’s a lot of a lot of events like coming out the interesting ones but not really thought about anything after the Transcontinental I’ve just been so focused on that for the last three years basically.

Ruth Sutherland 55:38
Did you ever need to did you read Ian Walker’s endless perfect circles? No, he describes the Transcontinental race, it’s an extremely good read, I really strongly recommend it. And that was, that was one of the things that inspired me to do the all points north.

Carlton Reid 55:56
It’s been on the show. He’s a he’s a good friend of the show in his he’s a fabulous athlete as well, again, another person who just sleeps for half an hour in a bus stop. Yes, and and then gets back back on his bike.

Ruth Sutherland 56:10
And in his book, he describes the the, the process of becoming, sort of refining his technique of going from being a rookie himself, being a beginner and making all the mistakes and learning from them and doing it differently next time. So he described a series of different races. And it’s very, very readable. And yeah, I’d love to meet him, huh?

Carlton Reid 56:34
Yes. Ian’s a nice guy, and a fabulous athlete, and a great psychologist as well, of course. So you don’t know exactly what you’re going to be doing next, Ruth, but you haven’t dragged your husband into doing one of these events. He’s definitely not going to , by the sound of it, he’s not going to join you.

Ruth Sutherland 56:53
He’s, he’s fond of his sleep. And the thoughts that we’ve in the past done, we’ve done 24 hour races together like the the mountain mayhem, and he’s hated every every lap that he’s had to drag himself out of bed to ride in the middle of the night. Still written really well. But I think I think I think it’s unlikely that I’ll persuade him. Who knows?

Carlton Reid 57:19
See, I’ve done the mountain mayhem. And I’ve done the 24 hour events and my logic there. This is what I told Josh, when he was doing this event that you’ve you’ve both done is just finish, that’s got to be your goal. Just finish. Because when you’re doing a long distance event, and I found this with the 24 hour mountain bike event is if you finish you basically place because so many people just overcook. You know, they they you can see they’re so the adrenaline kicks in, you go faster, you try and keep up with people. And it’s like, Be not really racing against other people. In many respects, you are just trying to just finish the event. And that that, to me was always the goal. And I always found that actually came up relatively high in the rankings, just because so many people just overcook themselves. So that must be an incredible temptation, you must but the question to both of you, you must have to really bring back your competitive spirit. Because you can’t be chasing after people who, for instance, in a 24 hour mountain bike event, it could be a team for so it can be one person who’s actually relatively fresh, and it’s not a solo rider. So you mustn’t go chasing after people is what I’m trying to say. Is that something that you physically have to stop yourself doing, Ruth and then just the same question.

Ruth Sutherland 58:41
It is, but the All Points North is quite a lonely event. Because I don’t know about you, Josh, but I didn’t really encounter many other riders. And although I was very keen to be dot watching to see what was going on in the overall event and around me, I became very anxious about the amount of power that I had left. So I spent a lot of time with my devices all switched off, because I wanted to preserve what power I had. So I wasn’t really able to watch what other people were doing. The times that I was aware that the only time really that I was aware that I was neck and neck with someone was as I was coming into the finish for the last for the last sort of five hours. There was somebody who had been riding overnight and was closing in on me a much younger, faster seeming rider. And that did really spur me on because I think I would have I think I would have been like a snail otherwise getting back from home and the mere. It’s the most tedious straight section of writing that you could possibly imagine. And my legs were were finished and I was very hungry. I was exhausted. I fell off my bike at Horsey Mere just turning round an 880 degree turn from the control I just literally fell off and I couldn’t unclip and I just burst into tears and thought I’m never going to finish this race. And then it was the knowledge that someone was worth close that made me think guesser get back on your bike, you can do it, you can do it. And so yes, it is a motivating thing.

Carlton Reid 1:00:12
And Josh, what about you? Were you were you dot watching? Were you looking at other people when when you met them on the course? Maybe you met more than the room? Did you go faster? Do you always thinking No, I’ve got to stay with my own limits. Forget other people.

Josh Reid 1:00:25
Oh, no, I’m very bad at getting egged on by other people. The first like, it was so much fun. It was like an Alleycat race. The first little bit like people weaving in and out of different routes, you’d be riding on a road and then someone else’s swing onto your road. And you’d be egged on by them to carry on to try and chase them down. Yeah, it was so much fun that that first little bit. And then you just got to get your head down. And I would I would be watching the dots and seeing where other people were.

Carlton Reid 1:00:58
But would you then go faster to try and catch up? Or would that demotivate you what was the dot watching doing to your head?

Josh Reid 1:01:06
Oh, it was definitely motivating to start with and then through the night, you’d see your red lights in the distance and you’d chase after those. Yeah, that really helped. And then then I started getting punctures on my on my rear tire and I couldn’t couldn’t see that with the, the sealant so I had to put a tube in, in my rear tire. But because I couldn’t resist the tubeless I couldn’t get the valve out of my wheel. So luckily a kind guy in a recumbent came past and lent me some tools to take off. But then

Carlton Reid 1:01:45
you disqualified yourself basically. Yeah. You’re not allowed to you’re not allowed to get help.

Josh Reid 1:01:50
No. So I rang the organisers and told them what happened basically disqualify myself. But I still wanted to finish the race and see what time I could get it all preparation for the transcontinental ready

Carlton Reid 1:02:05
and let’s let’s talk about food. Because you mentioned a walker before and the conversation I had with him he he’s said on on his his long distance rides. He’s done the one from Norway as well. He just went into and this turns out a lot of riders were doing it they would go into the service stations and buy these crappy crappy croissants filled with with gloop. And he said he would never eat this normally, but they’re incredibly calorific. And he would just eat you know, loads of them and read them sickened himself by these these these horrible, horrible Garriage kuasa croissants? Are there any food options? Because obviously you join one, obviously, but Josh, you’re vegan. So you’re kind of like giving yourself an extra bit of a hill to climb. They’re just on your food choices. So what did you eat? How did you eat? And would you change anything? And I’ll ask the same question in a second.

Josh Reid 1:03:04
I set off with a lot of food. So I had my pocket stuffed I’d like three bananas, two blocks and marzipan. A couple of saurians gels and these banana leaf wrapped energy products from Colombia called Lucho Dillitos those I think and yeah so you just open them just pack for the sugar and then you check the banana leaf because it’s biodegradable and then that lasted me pretty much through the first two days really well the night and then the whole first day and then got to Carlisle basically stopped at my first place to stock up got a McDonald’s which I wouldn’t usually get a the vegan new vegan burger and then pack myself with four vegan sausage rolls and just kept on kept on going but yeah, I carried a lot of food start with probably weighed myself down quite a bit. I only really need to stop to to get water

Carlton Reid 1:04:07
and where do you think your food choices through the ride? were the right ones you did okay on food or did you did you run out of energy?

Josh Reid 1:04:15
I never run out of energy. I was I was eating constantly. I knew I knew I had to keep on eating. And I also like before the event started I had a lot I don’t mess about like 500 grammes of pasta. So off off the start line how I felt really sick. Like almost as if I was going to throw up for the first like four, four or five hours partly because of nerves. But I think in the long run it did me really well because even though I was digesting for those first five hours, like it made the blood sugar and kept my energy going the whole way through.

Carlton Reid 1:04:50
And Ruth, what was your your food strategy?

Ruth Sutherland 1:04:54
Um, I think I’ve had a lot of experience of feeding myself on a Long Distance and endurance events. And I feel that that’s something that I’m very, very comfortable with. And I know what works for me. And I don’t like eating junk and I don’t like eating sugars and gels. So I try and get my nutrients from natural products. I, I also set off with bananas, and two substantial granary, cheese and tomato sandwiches, one for eating that day and one potentially for eating through the night or for breakfast the next day. And I’d eyeballed where, and at what times a day I would be able to stop to pick up food. And it worked pretty well. I did have one desperate moment where I hate to admit this because I’ve never been in before but I went into a Burger King, which was the only thing that was open. And what I suppose I really prayed with was a bag of chips, just something faulty and something hot and comforting and filling. But I made the mistake of buying what I thought was an Aberdeen Angus steak in abundance. I think it was it was some terrible it was terrible thing I had I was so guilty and so ashamed of myself, I had to WhatsApp my family and confess. And that was a mistake because that didn’t go down well or stay down very well. But the rest of my food I managed to have I managed to have some hot soup somewhere. I’ve managed to have some decent pick up some decent sandwiches on Route. I didn’t ever go into a supermarket I didn’t want to leave my bike. So I just literally picked up what I could I had a good feast at a station cafe in oxen home. I think from for me the the eating and the feeding. Went well I didn’t carry on like you Josh. I didn’t go out laden, I didn’t carry an excess of food. And I did have I did have my obligatory emergency rations stuffed down with my beefy gear and I didn’t break into those. So I always knew that if the worst came to the worst, I had enough calories there to keep me going for a few more hours.

Carlton Reid 1:07:09
And what are you riding? Ruth? What’s What’s the bike that you’re riding, the type and the brand.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:16
It’s a Specialized Ruby, which is I think it’s a women’s specific version of the Roubaix. It’s a beautiful lightweight road bike with some suspension in the in the front stem and in the seat post.

Carlton Reid 1:07:34
Because Josh you were running a gravel bike so so so Ruth why are you riding a road bike? Do you have a gravel bike, do most people doing this on road k? What were people riding when you were starting on the start line?

Ruth Sutherland 1:07:49
I think there was a there was a complete mixture. Josh, would you agree with that? There was there was a really a really wide range of different bikes. I was surprised.

Josh Reid 1:07:57
Yeah, as people on really fast road bikes and people are on more of a touring setup.

Ruth Sutherland 1:08:03
And I saw one woman riding on a mountain bike.

Josh Reid 1:08:08
Oh, wow. That would have been tough.

Ruth Sutherland 1:08:09
Yes, it would have been tough. So I put I put tougher tires and higher volume tires on my road bike, the largest that would be accommodated by that by the fall. I have got two cyclocross bikes. I haven’t got a gravel bike. And my cyclocross bikes are not as comfortable to ride in this bike. I was really happy and I also had tri-bars. And that was one of the things that I don’t know whether I would do again, I didn’t really use them in anger until the very last day when I had that very long straight stretch. You can’t benefit I don’t think very much from resting on tri-bars when you’re in very hilly terrain. And it does put maybe 1.2 kilo kilos on the the weight of the bike I think so. It’s always a bit of a trade off isn’t it?

Carlton Reid 1:09:02
So just what are you riding and you were riding with tri-bar so describe how how much you use them?

Josh Reid 1:09:08
I use them quite a lot. I try and get into them as much as possible and more to just change the position and get the weight off the hands than anything. Yeah, I’m running a giant revolt. Gravel bikers just the same not the same bike but the same type of bike that I rode back from China and I’ve had great experiences with it. I’ve never really had any issues. And then I took the gravel tires off and put some Hutchinson sector road tires on so just the email. Still pretty wide but smooth to lower the rolling resistance and then running Arkel bags and so add a seat Packer on frame bag and then a top to your bag but that was pretty much it and stuff to Robens mountain bivvy with a sleeping bag and then your tri bars with the Exposure light and Giant computer Stages computer mountain to the top onto the tri bars using a I think it’s 76 Projects like 3d printed thing that goes on to the dry bars and you’re able to fit the exposure like on the computer onto onto one thing.

Ruth Sutherland 1:10:32
Oh, that’s really neat.

Carlton Reid 1:10:35
Thanks to Kabir Rachure, Josh Reid and Ruth Sutherland for joining me. And thanks to you for listening to episode 302 of the spokesmen cycling podcast, show notes and more can be found on the-spokesmen.com. The next episode is a chat with American urbanists Sara Studdard and Zoe Kircos, meanwhile get out there and ride.

June 25, 2022 / / Blog

18th June 2022

The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast

EPISODE 301: A Milan-shaped Conversation with Janette Sadik-Khan

SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles

HOST: Carlton Reid

GUEST: Janette Sadik-Khan

TOPICS: The miracle of Milan, with Janette Sadik-Khan.

TRANSCRIPT

Carlton Reid 0:13
Welcome to Episode 301 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was published on Saturday 25th of June 2022.

David Bernstein 0:28
The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e bikes for every type of rider. Whether you’re commuting, taking your kids to school, or even caring another adult, visit www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n bicycles.com to learn more.

Carlton Reid 1:03
Last week’s episode was a travelogue about my Tourissmo bike holiday in Sardinia, including some chowing down of the world’s most dangerous cheese. I’m Carlton Reid and I travelled to Sardinia by train. One of the benefits of overland travel is the ability to stop off en route and I spent a bit more time in Milan than I was originally planning because of today’s guest. Janette Sadiq-Khan has been helping Mayor Sala of Milan with that city’s ambitious reimagination of the public realm. As a principal at Bloomberg Associates, Janette advises city mayors from around the world on their streetscapes. When she was New York City Transportation Commissioner, between 2007 and 2013, she famously transformed Times Square into a plaza for people, not cars. The same tactical urbanism — or try it, we think you’ll like it — was used in Milan. Guided by a Google Maps route through some of the city’s newly built people-friendly plazas I was able to see at first hand how, as Janette puts it, the miracle of Milan is taking shape. Milan also has an ambitious bikeway programme, and I rode on some of the newly minted protected routes as I criss crossed the city. I’ll include lots of photographs on a forbes.com story soon. But meanwhile, here’s my 20 minute conversation with Jeanette. Tell me about Milan’s Piazza Aperte. Am I pronouncing that right? Open squares. What’s it all about?

Janette Sadik-Khan 2:59
Well, I mean, we started working with Mayor Sala and his team in 2018. And we were coming up with a plan to bring life to streets in every neighbourhood in the city. You know, he had had this 2030 plan for a city, you know, that works better that’s more affordable and resilient, and, you know, cooler and cleaner in 10 years, you know, and you obviously can’t get there by you know, tearing down buildings or building new roads, you have to make better use of the streets that you already have. And you know, we know a lot about this having gone through a large scale sustainability plan with Mayor Bloomberg in New York City creating, you know, 400 miles of bike lanes and 70 plazas in six and a half years. So and it was something that I don’t think that a lot of New Yorkers thought was possible. And so we did meetings and workshops with Mayor Sala’s mobility and environmental teams, and and then in 2018, we launched this Piazza Aperte programme, and so and we inaugurated new piazzas in Durgano and Angilberto. Did you get to those two?

Carlton Reid 4:03
I did. I went to Spoleto. Yeah, I went to Durgano. Durgan was the first one about three years ago?

Janette Sadik-Khan 4:10
Yeah, exactly.

Carlton Reid 4:11
And then I went to the ping pong one. I mean, they’ve all got ping pong tables, but this one is now known as Ping pong. So Piazzale Bacone.

Janette Sadik-Khan 4:18
Yeah, I mean, the popularity of ping pong. In in Italy. I certainly didn’t.

Carlton Reid 4:25
I am assuming that the Olympic team in about 10 years time has come from

Janette Sadik-Khan 4:30
We’re going to be looking for that in 2024, actually. But we started with those two neighbourhoods, and those streets had had just become parking lots. And so it didn’t take years or millions of euros. We just we moved really fast with paint brushes and benches, and we transformed those spaces into, you know, places for people. And, you know, the result was really spellbinding. I mean, from the moment we put down the first benches people were sitting in them; even before we’ve finished bolting them to the ground. And so, you know, we actually have pictures of people sitting there while we were doing it. And it was, I don’t know, if you remember it was it was just like Madison Square Plaza in 2008, when we were just putting out the construction barrels, the orange construction barrels and an art class, you know, sat down in the paving, you know, in the first 30 minutes just to start sketching the buildings, you know; people are just so hungry for for public space. And we saw that in Durgano I mean, and particularly the kids, I mean, the kids came out in droves, you know, and they’re playing ping pong, and they’re running around, and their parents are on the benches, and, you know, people were doing exercise classes and boxing and again, can I say ping pong, I just, I had no idea it was such a big deal. I think it’s like the local sport. You know, at Times Square where we had beach chairs to unlock the spaces potential. But, you know, in Milan, if you really wanted to an empty space into an active space, you can’t miss with ping pong tables. So and you know, the thing that was really interesting, too, is that the local businesses hold the balls and the paddles. So people just, you know, pop in and check them out and return them. Isn’t that cool?

Carlton Reid 6:12
That was gonna be one of my question is like, yes, great to have the tables, but where do you get the ball? And where? Yeah, yeah. So you’re going to actually create custom there? Yeah,

Janette Sadik-Khan 6:20
Exactly. And it builds it just knits together, the community and all these new ways. So you know, the programme was just three theatres in 2018. And it grew to 13 Piazza isn’t in 2019. And it grew to a team during the very tough months of 2020. And, you know, you know, Milan is one of the first COVID epicentres. But you know, at the end of the day, and I think you have the report, the summation is 30 APR is in four years, which, you know, is particularly the infrastructure entire city, and now you’ve got, you know, five and a half acres of plazas, almost the size of Madison Square, and, you know, you’ve got to all these benches, you know, 250 benches, to entertain planters, bike racks, ping pong tables, you know, and now you’ve got 80% of residents within reach, you know, public space in a protected cyclepaths. So they literally change the map of Milan and showed that, you know, cities can move faster than the status quo. And I think that’s what’s so exciting about Milan,

Carlton Reid 7:27
and they can also move faster than national leaders, because that’s what I always hear is mayors can actually have more impact on climate change their national leaders, because they just, they’ve been able to move much quicker.

Janette Sadik-Khan 7:40
Absolutely. And, you know, I think you’re starting to see the kind of changes that you’re, that are you seeing in Milan are happening in cities across Europe and the Americas and all around the world? And, and because your mayor’s can make that difference? You know, you’re, we’re used to hearing this kind of ambition from from like Paris, right? You know, Mayor Hidalgo, converted Rue de Rivoli into a carfree corridor during the height of the pandemic. And this year, you know, she announced his $300 million plan to remake the Champs Elysees into this, you know, extraordinary garden of great pedestrian spaces, and reclaiming half of the city’s 14,000 parking spaces. And you heard about what Mayor Khan did in, you know, central London and creating this bus and bike and people, people focus zones, you know, all of these cities showed, you know, reclaiming space is more than just a local amenities. It’s really a global planning principle that can help save the planet and the way streets are designed. Its transportation policy, its economic policies, health policy, its equity policy, its sustainability policy. So, you know, I think if you want to transform a city and have an impact on the world, I think one of the most effective things you can do is reclaim and reimagine your streets for people. And that’s why you’re seeing these mayors embrace these changes. And these changes are popular, you know, the, you know, it used to be that, oh, we can change these, you know, you’d have a guaranteed job for life if you just follow the status quo. Right. And

Carlton Reid 9:09
the changes are also quick because of tactical urbanism. So where you can you’re testing stuff out with, you know, planters before you put the concrete in is is that is that is your modus operandi, obviously when you’re New York City’s transport Commissioner, is that something that Milan did as well they put these things in softly first.

Janette Sadik-Khan 9:31
Exactly. I mean, you can move quickly. I mean, we certainly saw a sea change in New York City 10 years ago. And you know, again, just showing what’s possible, you can paint the city you want to see in paint, you know, it doesn’t take years it doesn’t take millions of euros, you know, you can paint the outline of the city that you want to see and and doing it that way showing the the paint of the possible allows you to bring things down the anxiety that people have about the change, right? Because people think, okay, you’re doing this permanently, you know, I don’t like it, I don’t want it. And yet, if they think, you know, you’re trying out, we’ll see if it works, we’ll keep it, if not, we’ll put it back to the way that it was, you know, people are comfortable with that type of change. And you can’t argue that like, nothing should ever change, right? Think about how much has changed in our, in our society, in technology, economically, socially, politically. And yet, so many of our spaces stay the same way. They’re like, Jurassic Park streets, you know, they’re, like, trapped in amber. And so, you know, showing that it’s possible to make them work better. is, you know, it’s certainly been a recipe for success. And I think, you know, one thing that I didn’t mention is that, you know, Mayor Sala was reelected in the middle of this, you know, kind of miracle in Milan, and some of the candidates ran against the changes, you know, that he made during the pandemic. But you wouldn’t have known that from, you know, the 60s 56% of the support that he got in October. And, you know, and people do need to have their say, you know, but once you have city streets and public space filled with people, it’s hard to make the argument that it should be any other way. You know, it’s not the municipality space, it’s the people space, you know, and that’s what you see in Piazza after Piazza, you know, once the temperatures dropped in these complaints, you know, they’re, they’re actually replaced with the voices of other people who now who now want to be yachts in their neighbourhood.

Carlton Reid 11:35
Well, the before and after photographs in the PDF, the report, the piazza Pardo report, a very stark, they’re very welcoming. And you could show that to anybody and say, which would you rather have that with the cars or that with the people and the ping pong and the paint and the nice, and it’s like, you couldn’t really have a sense of like, with anybody who’s ever Well, I want the one with all those cars.

Janette Sadik-Khan 12:00
It’s so true. It’s so true. You know, I was, I visited, you know, in, in May, you know, last month with some of the leading actually some of the leading planners from Tel Aviv to show them the Milan story firsthand. And they were floored. I mean, they couldn’t believe what had happened in such a short time. And they, you know, they marvelled at it because they knew, you know, great urban spaces appear obvious, but you know, that can be difficult to design and implement. And, you know, I saw when we went to a coney, you saw that, you know, and when I first saw that first space in 2019, you can see the problem that was written in the street, you know, it’s it’s obsolete, traffic tangling next to the school, there was already a parka there, but it was out of reach, and it didn’t help the school kids. You know, and you know, the people that their caregivers who pick them up and drop them off every day, because the cars rolled the road, and they could drive everywhere and they could park anywhere and they double parked and triple parked everywhere. So, you know, redesigning it, narrowing the road and making the road one way and today it’s the kids not the cars that were on the road. And so you see the benches and the you know, where where it used to be car only spaces and you see these kids doing chalk drawings or you know, art projects and picnic tables and ping pong tables again, ping pong tables, you know, the ping pong tables, even a point on Google Maps.

David Bernstein 13:19

Hey, all you spokesmen listeners, I hope you’ll excuse the interruption. But this is David from the Fred cast and the spokesman. And I want to take a few minutes out of the show to talk to you about our sponsor Tern bicycles at www.tern bicycles.com. That’s t e r n, like the bird bicycles.com Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day, and dependable enough to carry the people you love. Now, last time, I told you about Tern’s Quick haul ebike but today I want to talk to you about a sibling to the Quick haul. And that is the Short haul compact cargo bike. The Short haul is a practically priced wait till the end for the price. You’re gonna love it cargo bike that’s been designed to get a rider plus an extra passenger and cargo from home to work, to school, and everywhere in between. And I think that when you see a Short haul, you’ll realise that it may be unlike any cargo or city bike you’ve ever seen. That’s because most cargo bikes are big and unwieldy. And most city bikes while they’re easy enough to handle well, they’re just they’re just not able to carry much cargo. And that I think is why Tern designed the short haul. The Short haul is shorter than a regular city bike making it nimble and yeah fun to ride. But it was also designed with an extra long wheelbase and low centre of gravity then that gives you a stable ride even when you’re carrying heavy loads. In other words, the Short haul offers the best of both worlds packing a sturdy build and a hefty cargo capacity into a compact package that just simply rides better. With a mass Max gross vehicle weight of 140 kilos or just under 310 pounds. The short haul can easily carry an extra passenger and plenty of cargo. It’s got extra long extra strong rear rack and that is rated to carry a hefty 50 kilos or about 110 pounds. And it can be configured to carry a child and a child seat, an older kid, a small adult, maybe even a dog. In addition to its rear cargo capacity, it can also carry up to 20 kilos or about 44 pounds with an optional front mounted rack. Oh. And the Short haul accepts a wide range of Tern accessories, frankly to many dimension here, so that you can carry everything from a yoga mat to fishing poles to an ice chest or as I said before, even the family dog, and because of its size, you can easily manoeuvre in crowded or small places, including buses and trains plus like the quick haul, the short haul includes Tern’s vertical parking feature, so you can roll the bike into an elevator and park it in a corner of your apartment. Now, like I said before, safety is a core value at Tern. So that’s why the Short haul was designed and independently tested to ensure rider safety and that’s also why they use respected independent testing labs and why every turn bike undergoes rigorous testing to ensure that every bike meets or exceeds comprehensive safety standards. Oh and did I mention the price before we’ll get this at a suggested retail of $1,099 or 1249 euros. The Short haul is turned most affordable cargo bike yet. Bikes are scheduled to start arriving in stores in q3 of 2022. So start getting your orders in now. And for more information about the short haul or any of terms wide range of bikes, just head on over to tern bicycles.com That’s t e r n bicycles.com We thank turned for their sponsorship of the spokesmen podcast. And we thank you for your support of Tern. Also, thanks for allowing this brief interruption, everyone. And now back to Carlton and the spokesmen.

Carlton Reid 17:22
Thanks, David. And we are back with my conversation with Jeanette Sadiq Khan. Now Bloomberg has a programme called paint for streets, isn’t it? Yeah,

Janette Sadik-Khan 17:32
it’s the asphalt art, the Bloomberg asphalt Art Initiative.

Carlton Reid 17:35
So how did the cities apply for that? Do you

Janette Sadik-Khan 17:38
Yeah,

Carlton Reid 17:38
where did where did they where? How could somebody get that for their city?

Janette Sadik-Khan 17:42
Yes. So we started in North America and you applied. We gave $25,000 grants to cities to 25 cities. You can look it up on the website. There’s all the information is there and beautiful, beautiful pictures and I can send you some others if you’d like and now and we’re going to launch at City Lab, we’re going to launch the European version of the asphalt Art Initiative. And so cities will be able to apply for asphalt art grants from Bloomberg Philanthropies starting in October.

Carlton Reid 18:15
Oh, that sounds good. Okay, I’ll prime my city for that one, please. Yes, yes. Apply for that, please. Newcastle. Going back to Milan. It hasn’t just got these piastres which are wonderful. It’s already I mean, partly this is done in the Coronavirus crisis, but it was I think was before there as well, which is the star day or per day so the open streets the bike lanes based in Milan is going to become this this effect on Amsterdam. You know we you know, we mentioned Paris went to New York, but Milan is really going ahead with a really ambitious scheme but before 2035 of 750 kilometres of protected bike lanes. So how much of that was Coronavirus? Or was Coronavirus? Just kind of like gave it a little bit of a fillip.

Janette Sadik-Khan 19:06
You know, I think it was a an impetus, right? I mean, I think what you saw was mayor’s around the world, actually, you know, when city shut down, you know, when you saw like just these empty streets everywhere, right? I mean, they were like ghost towns, you Times Square, you know, which used to be, you know, crossroads of the world became the epicentre of the pandemic, it was like, you know, look like a horror movie. I mean, I saw this picture in Chicago coyotes like walking the streets of Chicago, you know, but it also showed what the possibilities were in the streets and so as many cities shut down one of the first things they did was open their streets, you know, when they open their streets for people to walk they open the streets for restaurants giving them a lifeline you know, open their streets for sidewalk cafes. It was it was incredible to see what was possible new pop up bike lanes, new bus lanes. And so but I think that Elon really kept the momentum going through the pandemic. And I think now that the worst is passed, you know, they’re ready to move into the next phase. And there’ll be actually announcing the next phase of their Piazza is and started a party’s this fall. So I really think if you want to see the future of cities, you can look to the streets of Milan, they’ve created an architecture of public space, but, but also a process. It’s kind of a master class for what cities everywhere could do with the same raw materials, and a little imagination.

Carlton Reid 20:34
Yes, but it’s, it’s kind of ambitious, what they’re doing, and what other many other cities are doing. But in your 2016 book, I’m going to plug your book here, street fight, doesn’t always have to be a fight. Because the other thing that was a subhead to your book was revolution. These are these are these are, these are strong words, these are fighting words, but does it have to be a fight?

Janette Sadik-Khan 20:59
Well, you know, I think that in almost every case, you know, whether it’s Durga, no ankle, berteau Times Square, you know, root of everybody, you know, they’re strong reactions, right. And when Milan first proposed turning parking into places for people, you know, there were very strong reactions, people have very strong feelings about their streets, you know, I like to say they’re 8.6 million New Yorkers, and they were 8.6 million traffic engineers, because everybody has very strong opinions about their streets. And that’s a good thing, right? We want people to feel strongly about their streets, their, their front yards, that’s where life is lived is where the first that’s the first experience of the day. You know, but I think it’s really important to have a, you know, a community process, you know, too, as part of the programming. And so, there was an involved community process in Milan, on everything from the concept of the design, to the programming in the space so that each Piazza reflected local colour. And so, you know, the whale shaped Piazza outside Tommaso school, on stiletto came straight from the imagination of the students themselves, you know, the planters at Viva la marina were specifically requested by the locals to plant vegetables, you know, and the locals helped pick up the paint brushes at porta Genova. And, you know, I’ve been put on a spot and, you know, started painting at porta Genova. And many passers by did too, you know, we had food, food delivery workers that parked their bikes, and came to help us paint. So it really took a village to, you know, bring these places to live. And so, you know, and once we saw after the painting was done, you know, the benches, the benches were there, and the nets were on a ping pong tables, you know, people love these places, and the complaints were really replaced with, with really the kind of sounds of support from communities and, you know, community involvement as a part of it, not everybody’s going to be on board, not everyone’s going to agree that there’s even a problem. And it’s so important that the municipality show leadership and, and respond not to just what you think your short term needs are. But But But building in New possibilities so that when you open your door in 10 years, you have more transportation choices, you have safer streets, and you have, you know, better cities than you do today.

Carlton Reid 23:28
It’s kind of like that, that very famous cartoon, at a climate conference where there’s somebody, you know, standing on a podium saying, you know, we’re going to have all of these things that are going to improve our lives. And hear you it’s not just clap, if you if you mitigate against climate change with these kinds of measures. Not only are you mitigating climate change, you’re also making it just much much nicer for people.

Janette Sadik-Khan 23:53
Exactly, exactly. You know, you invest in you, and you see the direct results, you know, it’s not about talking about or pledging that it’s making change happen on the ground. And that’s what’s so powerful. One of my favourite cartoons was the New Yorker cover, which was a picture of like, I don’t know, if you remember this, it was like people in a gym working out on bikes, and then you know, people parking in other city bikes in front of the gym. It’s, you know, you can build in all sorts of possibilities and choices for getting around and sitting around and enjoying and socialising. You can build that in, you know, to your city, working with just the materials you have on hand. You know, the materials that any Department of Transportation has on hand, you can make these changes and, you know, there’s no you know, it, it’s great, the most important time to do this as now, you know, and and you’re seeing mayor’s walk the walk and I think it’s really exciting to see

Carlton Reid 24:51
should we have more transit strikes because here in the UK, I don’t know if you’ve seen but we’ve the whole of the country has shut down for the best part of this week. because of a train National Train, strike, but what you’re seeing from from newspapers, and the mainstream media reporting, this is people who would never normally get on bikes are suddenly getting on bikes and are probably realising for the first time. Like, that’s only a 10 minute journey. Why have I done that by, you know, other methods when this is just so easy and nice as hell, but it’s quite nice wherever I was in the UK, but should we should we somehow get people to experience these things? You know, you can’t mandate transit strikes, but somehow getting people to try these.

Janette Sadik-Khan 25:41
Look, I think I think what it shows again, it’s also building resiliency, right? That’s another piece of it. Like, it’s another way of getting around, we saw you know, during the pandemic, people turn to walking and biking and other modes of getting around because there was, you know, the early fears that you know, transit was a super spreader, which of course, it was not as it turned out, and people turn to the private automobile, but you saw a skyrocketing number of people cycling and I think you’re seeing on in London too, particularly now that you’ve got the infrastructure in place, you know, you can’t wish people onto a bike if they don’t feel safe riding right? And so creating the safe infrastructure is really key. And, you know, also people you see the city in a new way, you know, and if they feel like they’re in a safe lane and they see their city in a new way, you know, it’s joyful and and it’s also better for business. You know, when we put down protected bike lanes, very first ones Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue in New York City, retail sales along those corridors went up 49%. So you know, you know, if you want a better city, you can start by building a bike lane.

Carlton Reid 26:52
Thanks to Janette Sadik-Khan and thanks to you for listening to Episode 301 of the spokesmen cycling podcast. Show Notes and more can be found on the-spokesmen.com. The next episode is a chat with two finishes of the all points north Ultra distance cycling race. Meanwhile, get out there and ride