Preparing for a New Golden Age of Cycling
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Chainlinks ChainlinksPreparing for a new golden age of cycling CHAINLINKS 2009 Issue 4, December 2009 December 4, Issue 2009 CHAINLINKS ISSUE 4, December 2009 MAGAZINE OF THE CYCLING ADVOCATES NETWORK (NZ) Editorial Chainlinks March From CAN’s new chair Bevan Woodward It’s an honour and a pleasure to be elected as Chair of CAN. It is also a long way from my first involvement in cycle advocacy, when in 1999 I began writing letters to Transit asking about the possibility of a walk/cycleway on the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Things evolved from there and a few years later I joined Cycle Action Auck- land, having the role of chair from 2005 to 2008. I now live 85 km north of Auck- land and cycle each day on rural (80 and Bevan Woodward 100 km/h!) roads to my office in Wark- sign road Taranaki worth. I’m a self-employed transport groups, so many key projects, and an consultant and am studying Transpor- outstanding reputation for the quality of tation through Canterbury University’s CAN’s advisory work, is a great achieve- Post-graduate programme. I had a few ment. previous careers, namely: Accountant, IT The new CAN committee is a great sales, and owning an outdoors store on bunch of talented folk who I’m excited to Articles by 12 Feb the North Shore. have the opportunity to work with. We’ll Local group content : 27 Feb be implementing a new structure for It’s been an eye-opening experience to be Bikewise stories and pics: 27 Feb an advocate for cycling. It’s so fascinating CAN which seeks to make the organisa- and challenging, yet can be so frustrat- tion more accessible to the local groups, Email content to: ing! The risk of burn-out is a hazard we and most importantly we’re going to have [email protected] mustn’t ignore. I urge all advocates to put fun doing it! Pictures: 1024 x 768 pixels preferred self-care at the top of your “things to do”, I’d welcome your ideas or questions, Advertising: [email protected] by 19 Feb and check that your fellow advocates are please don’t hesitate to contact me, doing likewise. 09 425 1928 | 021 122 6040 [email protected] I’d like to thank the CAN executive and staff who have worked so hard to get Bevan Woodward n CAN: Cycling Advocates Network CAN where it is today. Fourteen local See Axel's farewell as CAN Chair on p12. Ed PO Box 6491, Wellesley St, Auckland, New Zealand. Tel 04 972 2552 Letters to the editor Carbon Credits wanted [email protected] Dear Sir, www.can.org.nz I fully support all that the CAN network for ‘low-carbon Registered Charity no.: CC36909 strives to achieve in relation to cycling Chainlinks but I must express my extreme disap- ISSN 1175-9364 (print) pointment at it’s involvement with the tourism holidays’ ISSN 1174-3409 (online) 350.org campaign. Man made global Cycle Action Waikato wants walkers [email protected] warming is absolute propaganda and and touring cyclists to get credit for Editor: Miriam Richardson bullsh#@. The science is not settled and keeping New Zealand ‘clean and green’ Contributions manager: Al Gore and his cronies are complete as they go the slow, scenic way to see Stephen Wood scam artists and con men. the nation’s attractions. I thought CAN were intelligent but obvi- Being the only travellers whose land Next Quarterly Issue: March 2010 ously not and have not done any thor- travel is carbon-free, such tourists help ough research before committing to this save the planet as they enjoy the benefits crap. of leaving no carbon-footprint on the Webpage I will not be renewing my membership. environment. These tourists have no fuel can.org.nz/chainlinks bill, but they spend more on accommoda- Regards tion to stay along the way, because they The views expressed in Chainlinks are Craig Lawry don’t move as fast as those who rely on not necessarily those of CAN. Responses in regard to CAN’s involvement the internal combustion engine. with other organisations, whose goals we Cover photo: New Plymouth’s coastal don’t personally agree with, are welcome, If the carbon-free travellers could claim pathway attracts all sorts of bikers. but please no letters that address the global as credits half their budget on low-cost warming debate itself. Ed ©2009 Patrick Morgan accommodation en Continues p8 2 Chainlinks 4, December 2009 Chainlinks 4, December 2009 3 Contents 2 Editorial 2 Letters to the editor 3 Summer reading 4 Government news 4 Bike Wise month 5 Bikes on international flights 6 International snippets 7 Cycle Friendly Award winners 8 Cycling Conference 2009 9 CAN Do 2009 12/13 CAN news & contacts 12 Goodbye from a human being 13 Bike mirrors & bike parks got nothing to do with pushing that bike. Summer reading It becomes a business. If you’re contracted 15 History of cycling part 4 to win, you’ve got to win. It doesn’t matter 16 Regional group news Drugs. Scandal. Race-fixing. And how you do it. But if you get contracted to 17 After CANDo - Forgotten help, then listen mate, you just help. Don’t Highway cycling. you dare win!” 17 Join CAN Tino Tabak – Dreams and demons of a Readers looking for insights into the 18 The Bike Truck New Zealand cycling legend source of Tabak’s extraordinary drive, 18 Get Across Reviewed by Patrick Morgan or details of family life, may feel a little 19 On the web frustrated, but all will be awed by Tabak’s Tino Tabak, New Zealand and Dutch cy- passion as he tells it like it is from behind cling champion tells his story for the first the handlebars of a professional bike time in this new biography by Jonathan racer. Plenty of fine photos complement a Kennett. memorable tale of hardship, hard lessons spires the reader to plan a trip covering Aggressive, rebellious, and unbeatable: and the fragile successes of a gifted rider. an impossible range of places immedi- conservative New Zealand in the 1960s ately. Allez, Tino. wasn’t ready for the raw talent and un- Author Stephen Lord said he aimed to compromising attitude of the teenage Published by Kennett Brothers Ltd write the kind of book he wanted to read star. kennett.co.nz, 154 pages RRP $20.00 but couldn’t find, and he’s succeeded. Dutch-born, Canterbury-raised, Tabak Adventure Cycle-Touring: ‘The The cover is a great start — it has a pho- was the only rider ever to win all three to of the chic Cara Coolbaugh pictured major New Zealand tours (Tour of kind of book I wanted to read but against a desolate mountain landscape. Southland, Dulux Six-day Tour, and Tour couldn’t find’ She reviews bikes and other gear in the of Manawatu) in the same year — and he UKs Cycling Plus magazine and has did it twice. Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook cycled extremely rugged routes in the Worldwide Cycling Route and Planning After winning everything New Zea- Himalayas. The book is divided into three Guide land had to offer, he headed to Europe main sections: Practicalities, Route Out- to prove himself against the best in the Reviewed By Cathy Sheehan lines and Tales from the Saddle. world, fighting his way through loneli- Adventure Cycle-Touring Practicalities covers plan- ness, hunger, unfamiliar languages and Handbook Worldwide Cy- ning, health, documents the arcane conventions of the peleton. cling Route and Planning and choosing a bike, As Tabak carved out the best race record Guide by Stephen Lord. clothing and other gear. of any New Zealander in Europe, the This book spoke to me. It has Route Outlines includes offers and opportunities came — along places I want to go to, and vi- interesting places such with temptation. This book lifts the lid gnettes by and about people as Jordan, the Caucasus, on a life of pro cycling, race-fixing, and whose cycle adventures I fol- Central Asia, northern drugs. low on the internet. I picked India, Tibet, Indonesia, Patagonia and Algeria. We follow Tabak as he goes wheel to up this book from the library, Its page on New Zealand wheel with Eddy Merckx, crashes on the expecting over-generalised says: New Zealands roads Galibier, and cuts deals in the peleton. and out of date information that focused on the USA and are narrow and in places Kennett has the sense to let Tabak talk. Europe but I was soon jolted crowded. Buses and Passages extracted from interviews pep- out of my jaded attitude. It is trucks can pass by faster per the text, giving Tabak his voice: written with a real sense of than any cyclist would “You become a professional because achievable adventure that in- like, and there are also a Continues p4 you’re a good bike rider, of course, but it’s 2 Chainlinks 4, December 2009 Chainlinks 4, December 2009 3 Government news NZ Transport Agency funding cut Summer reading cont. has put cycle and walkways at a dead end in Hamilton lot of old cars well past their scrap-by National Cycleway funding date which look none too safe from a Applications to the National Cycleway More than half of Hamilton’s planned cyclist’s point of view. This indicates to Fund are open until December 18th. cycle and walkways have been scrapped me that the information about the other http://tr.im/EYwP or put on hold after the NZ Transport places is accurate too.