FLCUK News and Info

New startclock at UK Bike Park. Courtesy of FLC. http://twitpic.com/1sk772

Well done Ben and Dan. 10th and 4th respectively. Good result gents.

Juniors looking quick. Rock garden causing problems for many. Looking around a 1.20 for the really quick ones.

Southern champs at UKBP today. Good luck everyone. Course drying up nicely. Report to follow.

Life is too easy for thieves looking to steal a bike in London but cyclists, companies and government can make it much harder.

There are good reasons why London Cycling Campaign recently launched its Beat the Thief campaign. In recent years, bike theft has grown to pandemic proportions, with the Metropolitan police’s own figures showing bike theft increasing 75% per year in the worst areas.

A doubling in the number of London cyclists over the past decade, along with the introduction of the Cycle to Work tax scheme giving some employees as much as 50% off a new bike up to the value of £1,000, has meant there are simply more good bikes out there to be pinched.

In a recent survey, 80% of respondents reported having at least one bike taken – and one in six said they had recognised a stolen bike for sale on the internet. The evidence suggests this is a problem that has got out of hand.

In London alone, an estimated 80,000 bicycles are stolen every year, with a total value as high as £30m. Some of the thefts are opportunist crimes but there are also knowledgeable and efficient gangs in operation: it’s not unusual to hear about vans pulling up outside suburban train stations or City offices, with thieves liberating the 10 or 15 most valuable bicycles and motorbikes in some cases before startled onlookers have even reached for a phone.

Bike theft has also been identified as a route into more serious crime for young people because the pickings are rich, while convictions are low considering the number of crimes.

Most frustrating for Londoners is seeing the plundered wares brazenly sold on the internet and at street markets. A trip down Brick Lane market looking for your own stolen property has become a sad part of London bike culture.

And you don’t have to wear a deerstalker to pick out the dodgy “bargains” on Gumtree. Cyclist Amelia Coulam, who saw her bike for sale on the site after it was stolen, said: “I was so angry, because this person was selling at least 20 bikes under various names.

“Some are quick to blame the police, who have been accused of treating bike theft as trivial. But the police are not always in control of their own priorities, so lobbyists have to focus on changing politicians’ attitudes to ensure cycle theft becomes a law enforcement priority.

Surely bike theft is equally frustrating for politicians? Yes, cycling budgets are tiny compared with spend on roads and public transport, but millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is still spent encouraging this non-polluting, congestion-busting, health-boosting mode of transport.

How discouraging then to discover that according to a French study one in four victims doesn't replace their stolen bike – because of frustration or lack of funds – and that two-thirds of London cyclists report using their bike less often because of the risk of theft.

So what can be done? Well, the Dutch had an overwhelming problem with bike theft but halved it during a decade of concerted efforts from national and regional government, law enforcement agencies, manufacturers, internet sellers and bike shops. They standardised bike numbering and encouraged bike sellers to sign up to a code of practice that encourages buyers to choose honest sellers and not buy stolen goods unwittingly.

London Cycling Campaign has for a long time been calling for a specialist bike-theft police squad to make life tougher for thieves. And internet sites must work with the police to make selling stolen bikes much more difficult. Consistently strong policing of street markets and a Dutch-style bike shop code of practice would make a difference too.

Longer term, the UK needs more secure cycle parking. Employers who provide car spaces should be compelled to provide secure bike spaces too you can fit at least 10 bikes into the space for one car, and every UK city needs secure parking in city centres, at transport hubs and around residential developments.

A central repository for stolen bikes in each city, like the vast facility in Amsterdam, would help reunite ownerswith bikes, many of which are never returned to their owner because the individual cannot be traced.

The good news is that persistent lobbying by campaigners seems to be having some effect. Recently, Gumtree has shown a willingness to address the problem; the police are making the right noises; and Transport for London has been asking cyclists what more can be done.

Cynics might say the imminent arrival of 6,000 of the mayor’s own bikes on to London’s streets has something to do with these latest signs of action. Whatever the impetus, with luck this year will see moves to reverse the longterm increase in bike theft.

Ignoring bike theft for years has created a serious problem: now it will take years of effective policing and policymaking to fix it. In the meantime, lock your bikes up securely watch the video above and Beat the Thief.

• Mike Cavenett is communications officer at the London Cycling Campaign

via How to stop your bike being stolen | Mike Cavenett | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

The 1st and 2nd of May saw the Welsh Downhill Champs at Llangollen a Town close to Wrexham in North Wales.  Waking up on Saturday morning to the field full of hungry downhillers, ready to get their hands (and bikes) on the fresh new track; we knew the competition was going to be very close!

Not like the normal tree infested Llangollen NPS track, the new track sported a much muddier slate scattered surface with long open sections of traverse with switch backs, drops and steep shoots!

Saturday practice initially saw more people on the floor than their bikes as the track still had that fresh and rather muddy feel, as the day went on I don’t think the number of crashes fell but the track started to dry and the line selection was endless.

Saturday night saw a medium rain fall on the Llangollen track which was already as loose as a Turkey’s neck, this hindered the rider`s choice of line which was going to make for some extremely exciting racing come Sunday afternoon.

1st race runs saw some silly time variations across the board ranging from a full 5 minutes to Brendan Fairclough’s, 1:54.62 which made many a man question why & how! Dan Burchell riding for FLC race team would have a crash mid race run, losing him valuable time.

After a short stop for lunch the 2nd race runs got underway many people hoping to improve on their 1st run times.

Elite men saw Brendan Fairclough take the top step with another silly time of 1:51.24 followed by Joe Smith in 2nd and Alex Bond in 3rd.

Elite women also saw a famous face take the top step in the form of Rachel Atherton who posted a time of 2:09.71 which saw many male heads drop as they realised they had been beaten by a girl.

Following another crash Dan only managed to take a few second off his 1st run time so leaving him very mid placed for the weekend but with a lot more experience under the wheels.

All in all a very fun track, beautiful location and most of all some really fun racing!

Full results can be found on Roots and Rain link bellow;

http://www.rootsandrain.co.uk/race149/2010-may-2-welsh-series-1-and-welsh-champs-llangollen/

If you were ever to organise an event of this magnitude the tick list would include great weather, great atmosphere, challenging but awesome course, and a smooth operation from start to finish….Si Paton from BDS and his team ticked all the boxes.

Apart from being one of the most challenging downhill tracks on the planet the duration of this course was the killer, full on arm pump before the half way point had been reached and just as you were going through the pain barrier the technical wooded area appeared!

The course from start to finish was going to be a challenge not only to complete using the best lines and carrying speed all the way through but avoiding punctures and getting a fast time combined to be a very interesting but demanding weekend.

Only two of riders from Team FLC competed this weekend, Marc Mchale ( Team Manager / Owner ) and Ben Hargreaves. Practice went well on Saturday with a nasty crash on the last run of the day from Ben Hargreaves who managed to avoid damage to himself but the bike required some TLC that evening.

By Sunday the track was starting to bed in on the corners helped by a little rain mid morning. Target for seeding run was under 7 minutes so team FLC had to make the most out of every section of the track.

With the bikes repaired and ready to rock, Marc pulled off a seeding run of 6min 40secs and Ben just behind with 6min 50secs following a spectacular no footed jump through the Nissan portal near the finish which nearly ended his weekend! These times put team FLC about half way through the masters category so further effort was required to get into the top positions.

The final runs from Team FLC followed the right line choices and a smooth decent, carrying speed through each section was key, Marc managed to knock a further 4 seconds off his seeding run to finish 22nd with a time of 6min 36secs. Although a smooth run not carrying enough speed through the technical sections slowed Ben down and finished in 30th with a time of 6min 56secs.

An incredible weekend for all involved, spectators, organisers and competitors. Next race is Caersws then back to UK Bike Park for Round 2 of the summer series.

MPORA Action Sports >>