Pact Coffee – £5 Off

Cycling and coffee go hand in hand, a good quality coffee can be hard to find, Pact Coffee is a popular choice in our office. Beans, ground or pods delivered through your letterbox whenever you choose – brilliant! The ordering system is really easy to use and the coffee is delicious, plenty of choice from small independent growers who are nurtured by Pact.

Pact source via Direct Trade. To find incredible beans their Head of Coffee, Will, travels the world to visit growers, tasting hundreds of different coffees in the process.

By trading directly with farmers they’re able to cut out the middleman and pay farmers a better price for their top quality beans.

Sign up to Pact Coffee and you will get £5 off.

Cycliq Fly6 Rear Light & Camera Review

What can one say if your editor says to you that we have been sent some techy kit to try out, and would you like to review it? Yes please?

Cycliq Fly6 is a high powered rear LED light unit, with a difference. There is a rear facing HD cam built into the sealed all weather lamp that records what’s happening behind you as you travel along on your bike ride, daily commute or just out with friends. Got your rear covered is what it says on the box.

There’s no need to worry about anything else once you have set up the lamp on your bike and done a quick test to make sure you have a decent field of view. Just remember to switch the light-unit on EVERY time you go out!

All the factual information you need about Fly6 is on their website cycliq.com. It’s an updated design from the original, so here at Cycling Shorts, we are simply going to take it out of the box, fit it to the bike, and run it for a week or so.

Firstly, at just shy under one-hundred-pounds, it seems a lot for a rear LED. Is it worth it? Let’s see.

It comes packaged all nice and neat in a stylish black and red box, padded with shaped foam to keep all the components secure during transit to the shop, or direct to the consumer via mail order.

Once opened, there is a quick set-up guide and notes about recent improvements from your customer feedback.

The lamp feels solid, robust and of a quality build. I liked the fact there were two mounting plates and bands to accommodate a multi-bike set-up. The rubber stretch mounts are more common-place these days and means you can easily remove the lamp should you park-up and leave your bike unattended, being an expensive bit of kit.

I fitted the lamp straight onto my Trek road bike without any problem. Using the aero-seat-post adapter, I found it sat perfectly square to the ground, the body design aligned to take a standard 71.5° rake.

Not knowing what sort of view would be recorded, I positioned the lamp as high as I could without it touching my small tool pouch that was sitting tightly under the saddle.

I found the re-designed mount plate difficult to handle. I’d clipped the lamp unit into the plate slot to check the fitting prior to mounting and couldn’t remove very easily at all. It certainly wasn’t going to come loose, which isn’t a bad thing. But it made me realise that fitting the two mount plates to my two bikes, probably wasn’t going to work as well as I imagined. Maybe they would free off slightly over time if I separate them from time-to-time.

To run the test, I first had to fully charge the built-in Lithium battery. Although it comes pre-charged I wanted to see how long it would take to re-charge and how long it would last, running at full LED power. You can reduce the out-put level several times to conserve energy, or reduce the glare that the main LED emits. [Via the Courtesy Dimmer, opposite the power button].

I plugged the unit into my laptop with the provided USB lead early afternoon. I’d read that the charge LED would go off once charged. Having used re-chargeable lights this Winter gone, I knew that they took a while to fully charge up at work plugged into the USB slot on my PC, and I was right. It was late evening before the LED extinguished. Ok, I’ll test the unit tomorrow then!

Setting off on my Sunday morning bike ride, I’d set the lamp to full power and off I went. Three and a-quarter hours later, back home I switched the unit off. The unit had created a folder on the media card and sliced the ride into ten-minute videos. So they were twelve time indexed files created. I’d noticed that the first hour or so files had already been deleted, not a problem as the unit is there to safeguard any footage of an incident an hour prior to an incident and an hour after the trigger has been set through the bike laying on the ground.

Aimed as a safety back-up device designed to tell a story of what you were doing prior to any incident, then this lamp is a great way of providing additional evidence after the event. You simply must use it on every occasion that you jump on your bike, especially if commuting through town where things can sometimes get a bit more demanding.

The footage the camera produced was of a decent quality to see how the bike ride unfolded. Coming in ten-minute bite size pieces, it provides great footage that can easily be shared amongst friends and family. The file sizes produced are around four-hundred and fifty megabits each, and on the supplied card will hold around eighteen full files.

The recommend free Video Editing software worked a treat too. I found it reasonably easy to cut a couple of pieces from two files and join them to make a short demo.

On my first full power test, I achieved five-and-three-quarter hours recording before the video switched off leaving only the light working. This should last for another hour before being fully depleted.

I would imagine a normal user would need to re-charge the unit twice a week to keep the video camera working on the loop.

On the whole, having used the Cycliq Fly6 for the past four weeks, I would recommend it for my main rear light. Although a bit pricey on my initial glance, considering the beneficial footage that this device records and stores, then it’s a price worth paying.

It may not be something that you would consider buying yourself when looking for a lamp for your bike. But it would make a great gift for someone, for those who are looking for additional safety for their loved ones when out riding the bike.

RRP: £99.00

For more information on the Fly6 visit: www.Cycliq.com

Best price we can find online: www.amazon.co.uk

All Images, Video and text ©www.CyclingShorts.cc / www.chrismaher.co.uk

Nikki Juniper National Road Series Champion 2016

Our writer Chris Maher caught up with 2016 National Road Series Champion Nikki Juniper of Team Ford EcoBoost after her win at the Ryedale GP. Click below to listen.

 

Nikki Juniper National Road Series Champ 2016 by Cycling Shorts

Our writer Chris Maher caught up with 2016 National Road Series Champion Nikki Juniper of Team Ford EcoBoost after her win at the Ryedale GP. @TeamFordEB @junipernikki @britishcycling @CyclingShortsUK @chrismaher_UK

Jadan Press Women’s Circuit Race Beverley 2016

All images ©www.chrismaher.co.uk | CyclingShorts.cc

 

Gabriel Shaw [Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa] win’s the third Jadan Press Women’s Circuit Race in Beverley, East Yorkshire.

Pam Wainman Director of Jadan Press flagged the rolling start to the third-successive Jadan Press Women’s Circuit Race around the partly cobbled one-point-two-five kilometer circuit in Beverley town centre.

Flora Gillies [Team22WRT] set the initial pace over the line in a hotly contested forty-minute race shortly after seven in the evening.

The main group of fourteen riders settled down into the opening laps to the shouts of encouragement from a packed town centre audience. Ellen McDermott [Team Jadan-Weldtite] and Amy Gornall [Podium Ambition] setting the pace.

It wasn’t long before Gornall piled the pressure on gaining over fifty-meters on the chasing group.

Pam Wainman Director of Jadan Press flagged the rolling start to the third-successive Jadan Press Women’s Circuit Race around the partly cobbled one-point-two-five kilometer circuit in Beverley town centre.

They all came back together before Shaw pushed off the front and then being reeled back.

Gornall went once more stringing the eight-rider-group out and leading them over the line for the first sprint bonus prize, twelve laps remaining.

Gornall, Rosie Walsh [High On Bikes], Shaw, Sarah Bradford [Team Jadan-Weldtite], Gillies, Sarah King [Unattached], Rebecca Longthorp [Cliff Pratt Racing], Elizabeth Burrows [Team Jadan-Weldtite].

McDermott headed a group of four, now around thirty-seconds behind.

Pressure now being applied by Podium Ambition squeezed the lead group down to four rides with Bradford and King for company.

Gornall puts fifty-meters into the leaders with five laps remaining. Taking the second sprint bonus prize, Gornall leads across the line well ahead.

Chasing hard behind, Gilles puts another burst in to try and bridge across to the leaders.

Two laps remaining and Shaw joins Gornall out front.

With the bell lap being rung, Shaw and Gornall are the clear leaders with King in hot pursuit. Unable to hold the pace Bradford just misses out on a podium finish and Gilles sprints into fifth.

 

Reaction after the race.

Cycling Shorts: Was there a plan?

 

The plan was just to be aggressive.

Gabby

Podium Ambition

Just see how it went.

A couple of the other riders had a few of digs, we were just following to begin with. After the race had gone on for a few laps we started to rack it up a bit.

Amy

Podium Ambition

Cycling Shorts: What did you think of the course tonight here in Beverley?

It’s a great course, the cobbles really strung it out. You can put the power down over the cobbles – that was really good!

You can get out of sight, out of mind around the back through the little streets.

There’s quite a lot of support here in the town centre. It creates a good atmosphere.

It’s really good. People were shouting all the way round, especially on this backside out in the Sun. They were all enjoying it. It was really good.

Gabby

Podium Ambition

Provisional Race Results

 

  1. 18 Gabby Shaw Podium Ambition p/b Club la Santa
  2. 20 Amy Gornall Podium Ambition p/b Club la Santa
  3. 14 Sarah King @18
  4. 6 Sarah Bradford Team Jadan Weldtite @33
  5. 5 Flora Gillies Team22 WRT @1.03
  6. 16 Rosie Walsh High On Bikes @1.05
  7. 3 Rebecca Longsthorp Cliff Pratt Racing Same time
  8. 8 Ellen McDermott Team Jadan Weldtite @1.51
  9. 4 Sophie Thackray SunSport Velo Same time
  10. 13 Sarah Burke Team Jadan Weldtite Same time
  11. 19 Lucy Farquhar Holme Valley Same time
  12. 11 Hannah Righini-Brand Team Vertex-pedalpowersport.com Same time
  13. 7 Elizabeth Burrows Team Jadan Weldtite Same time
  14. 10 Louise Scupham Team Jadan-Weldtite @1 Lap

Jon Carver – Favourite Ride – Four Counties Ride

With no particular place to go…

Sometimes, your favourite rides just happen out of the blue.
I don’t normally go in for favourites as I don’t like that kind of rigidity. This route though, that came out of a rough idea of where to go coloured with, “If I turn here, I can always turn the opposite way later… there are road signs after all” is a beaut.

When I do that, I find little gems of hills both up and down that go on my list of favoured (not favourite) I don’t live in a particularly hilly area, but when you find one it’s usually spiteful. This has the lot. Fast flat runs, long uphill drags, hills and throw caution to the wind descents. It’s actually a tad longer than recorded. I forgot to start Strava until I was around 4 miles in.

The scenery on this ride, crossing Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntindonshire and Northamptonshire; is wide, woody and rolls from tranquility to tranquility.

Click the VeloViewer link below for the route.

Enjoy

Jon

with no particular place to go – VeloViewer

93.23 kmroutes with 424 m of climbing. Check it out!

#ShareTheRoad Campaign

With an ever increasing number of cycle related road accidents, Lincoln-based photographer, film maker, cyclist and organiser of Lincoln Bike Night, Phil Crow who has decided to do something about it.

Having spoken to the emergency services and to Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, Phil put together a short script back in October 2015 and Share the Road began to take shape.

I wanted to present a balanced argument to try and show motorists and cyclists that, with a bit of care and thought, we can all use the UKs roads carefully and safely.

Everyone has been really positive about what I’m trying to achieve and when I got Jason Bradbury to agree to present it I was beyond pleased! I just want as many people as possible to take a few minutes, watch the film and share it with their friends… Facebook, Twitter, email etc and if this saves just one life, then I’ve done my job.

I regularly cycle (and drive) on Lincolnshire’s roads. It’s a wonderful county and always great to see more and more people out on two wheels. However, I am always amazed by some of the incidents and near misses I regularly see. My hope is that this film can go some way to raising awareness of how motorists and cyclists can share the road and hopefully reduce some of those incidents.

Phil Crow

Photographer, #Share the Road Campaign

Share the Road is on Twitter @sharetheroad_uk

So please follow, message and RT the film so you spread the word. There will be car stickers also available so keep an eye on social media so you know where to pick one up!

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