Left the bicycle outside the University of London Union at the weekend for a long meeting – came back to find someone had attached, with an annoying great tangle of elastic bands (particularly for cold fingers in near-freezing weather), several leaflets. Not politics – but from “Camden street wardens” telling me that did not approve of the manner in which I had parked my bike.

No – it wasn’t attached to any railings, it wasn’t blocking pedestrians, it wasn’t in the wrong place at all. But it was NOT – shock horror – locked up in the approved manner, with the D-lock through both frame and wheel.

Now:
1. With the shape of bike stand provided it is exceedingly difficult to achieve this with a D-lock.

2. This is a very old, very rusty bicycle, with stickers indicating it is security tagged. (Which it is.)

3. It has a very expensive and good lock on it.

All of which mean that I consider the manner in which my bicycle was locked up was perfectly reasonable, and if it wasn’t, and the bike was stolen, that was my problem – I didn’t need three separate leaflets, with detailed diagrams, to tell me how I should do it.

Now I wonder, does it make sense to employ people to do this, or, to spend the same money to employ people to teach kids who are struggling to keep up in school, or social workers to help families with problems?

Well, no, I don’t wonder at all.

Good news that the £50m Sustrans bid for cycling improvements won a public bid for lottery money.

Hopefully this means there’s increasing recognition that this is one of the key elements of our transport future (with trains and walking).

Another government scheme, another mess. My employer has just joined the Cyclescheme whereby you can pay for a bicycle to cycle for work out of your tax-free income, spread over one year.

So I have in my hand a “cheque” for a bit more than I would probably otherwise spend on a bicycle, and I’ve found a bike I really like the look of, a Fahrrad S20 at Bikefix on Lamb’s Conduit Street. But, no, they no longer do the scheme (as they did when I checked about a month ago before initiating the whole process) since the middleman who manages it takes too much of the cash. And they can’t even be talked into taking more money for the bicycle, since to use this middleman they have to pay an annual fee.

(And I’ve already found at another shop that bikes effectively have two prices – the Cyclescheme price and the normal price, and there’s a serious difference between them.)

So, it seems, the government has managed to make money for a call-centre somewhere — until that is they realise the faults of the scheme and give it up suddenly, throwing the call centre people out of work. Somehow I don’t think that was the aim.

So anyone know any other stockists of Fahrrads in London or vicinity? What I liked about it are hub gears, very low step-through but light frame, friction lights front and rear, and a clever little spring designed to ensure that when you stop the bike and are locking it up, the handlebars don’t swing around – the sort of thoughtful European design that doesn’t seem to be very easy to find.

I’m not quite sure what to do while reading about the £6,000 Chanel limited bicycle.

But it does make me feel better about planning to splash out on a flash new bicycle, which will cost a LOT less than that.

And mine will NOT have a quilted chain cover. (Which will presumably mean that you can’t go out if it is raining or muddy…. although I suppose you are only ever meant to casually lean it in the conservatory – not to actually ride it.)