Cargo bikes come to Manchester

A new cycle delivery company is aiming to bring two-wheeled freight transport to Manchester. Manchester Cycle Deliveries carries loads of up to 180kg anywhere in the city centre, and offers a bike-train-bike service for long distances.

Mark Cavendish loses the way

The Tour de France is one thing: crowds lining the route, marshals and barriers prevent riders taking a wrong turn. Riding unsupported? Not so easy, as sprinter Mark Cavendish found this weekend. The Yorkshire Post reports that he was caught out in Leyburn, Yorkshire, after his GPS signal gave up. Modesty prevents us from recommending our easily printable PDF maps of the area...

Show me the way to go home: the homing hire bike

Frequent ‘Boris Bike’ hirers are familiar with the dilemma – you know exactly where you want to go… but the docking station is full. And the next one. If you can find it.

London developer Tom Armitage set out to create a solution: the homing bike. Named Columba, after the Latin name of the pigeon, the prototype clips to the handlebars and ‘homes in’ on the nearest docking station.

It uses Transport for London’s live datafeed to find out which docking stations have spaces, and updates a ring of LEDs accordingly. In Tom Armitage’s words:

“Columba sits on the stem of a hire bike, between the handlebars. A ring of lights acts as a compass – not pointing north, but always towards the nearest docking station with empty racks. As you near a station, the compass-point gets wider, much like the UI in a computer game. If a new station has become closer, the ring pulses green to indicate its ‘lock-on’ has changed.”

Columba exists only in prototype form for now. Its creator says his intention was to “demonstrate the value of civic connected objects” – showing that everyday objects, not just smartphones, can benefit from interpreting smart data on the Internet.

That said, if you do want to check out the concept on your phone, head to bikecompass.tomarmitage.com; or for more on the prototype, read the original blogpost.

Halfords booms thanks to cycling

National chain Halfords is thanking cyclists for a sharp upturn in its profits. In the fourth quarter, cycling sales jumped by a massive 42% over the same period in the last year; the rise over the whole year was 19%.

Print your own bike parts

Can’t find the right handlebar grip or iPhone holder? 3D printing website My Mini Factory thinks it has the answer with a set of downloadable blueprints for cycling accessories. The items available so far are pretty simple, but we can see great potential in the idea, not least for folding bikes and other unusually-shaped cycles.