Cycle Parking Farcility of the Month

http://wylie.me.uk/cgi-bin/blosxom.c...7/01/23#cpfotm

A strange shiny stainless steel structure appeared outside work a
couple of days ago. It's probably not another work of art to join the
sheep and the chicken, so it must be a cycle parking farcility.

It's made by metalco.it[1], and is a stainless steel helix of rather
large pitch that I can only conclude you are supposed to put your
cycle wheel into.

It "supports" the bike I cycled in on this morning, with Shimano hub
brakes, on the brake fixing on one side and the spokes on the
other. In a bike with narrower tyres, and standard brakes, the wheel
would just flop around.

There is no way to lock the frame of the cycle to the structure.

This is what happens when artists choose things on their "shinyness"
factor, rather than asking the local cyclists what they want (good old
Sheffield stands).

[1] http://www.metalco.it/catalog/produc...67&id_cat= 14

There is an English translation, but the selection is stored in
javascript/cookies, so you have to navigate your way back after
selecting it.

--
Alan J. Wylie http://www.wylie.me.uk/
"Perfection [in design] is achieved not when there is nothing left to add,
but rather when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Alan J. Wylie" wrote in message
...

http://wylie.me.uk/cgi-bin/blosxom.c...7/01/23#cpfotm

snip some bits and bobs

This is what happens when artists choose things on their "shinyness"
factor, rather than asking the local cyclists what they want (good old
Sheffield stands).

The thing that gets me is that in Sheffield you get "Millennium cycle
stands".

On 23/01/2007 18:26, Alan J. Wylie said,

A strange shiny stainless steel structure appeared outside work a
couple of days ago..

This is what happens when artists choose things on their "shinyness"
factor, rather than asking the local cyclists what they want (good old
Sheffield stands).

....or even asking cycling employees whether this new shiny thing would
be any good for parking bikes in, before they buy it!

Personally, I reckon you've got it all wrong though. How dare you
commit such a sacrilege as to park your front wheel in the new
caterpillar sculpture :-)

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

"Alan J. Wylie" wrote in message
...

http://wylie.me.uk/cgi-bin/blosxom.c...7/01/23#cpfotm

A strange shiny stainless steel structure appeared outside work a
couple of days ago. It's probably not another work of art to join the
sheep and the chicken, so it must be a cycle parking farcility.

It's made by metalco.it[1], and is a stainless steel helix of rather
large pitch that I can only conclude you are supposed to put your
cycle wheel into.

It "supports" the bike I cycled in on this morning, with Shimano hub
brakes, on the brake fixing on one side and the spokes on the
other. In a bike with narrower tyres, and standard brakes, the wheel
would just flop around.

There is no way to lock the frame of the cycle to the structure.

This is what happens when artists choose things on their "shinyness"
factor, rather than asking the local cyclists what they want (good old
Sheffield stands).

With all due respect, it wasn't the artists (unless you work for some kind
of art company) who chose to put this complete waste of space at your work -
it was probably some kind of manager at your work! Who has now ticked the
box "cycle parking" Have you disabused them of their misbegotten notion?

To be honest, most architects/designers appear to drive cars, not ride
bikes, so they don't have the faintest idea what proper cycle parking is.
You might have assumed, that being highly trained professionals, they might
have realised their own limitations, and they would have sought advice,
which has been around in published form, from the DfT, for about 15 years,
or even bothered asking a passing cyclist. Doesn't appear to happen for
some reason, perhaps arrogance is part of the training?

Last place I saw something like this was at the Cardiff Bay Barrage, where
they had obvious spent squillions getting lots of things right, but the
cycle parking was those godawful corkscrew things, which, coincidentally,
no-one was using.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
It has removed 448 spam emails to date.
Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
Try SPAMfighter for free now!

Alan J. Wylie wrote on 23/01/2007 18:26 +0100:

There is no way to lock the frame of the cycle to the structure.

This is what happens when artists choose things on their "shinyness"
factor, rather than asking the local cyclists what they want (good
old Sheffield stands).

You've got it all wrong. It is the most secure cycle parking available.
You lay the frame down along the length of the spiral and then you can
use lots of D-locks to lock the frame and wheels at multiple points to
the sculpture underneath. You do need to advise them thought that they
will need one per bike for this to work ;-)

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:29:51 GMT, "burt" said:

With all due respect, it wasn't the artists (unless you work for
some kind of art company) who chose to put this complete waste of
space at your work - it was probably some kind of manager at your
work!

It's not who I work for, it's who manages the building that I work in.
One of them went to art college with David Hockney.

As well as offices, the building also hosts art galleries and a
theatre. In fact, looking at the web site, there is a large helix as
part of the artwork on the front page. I wonder if that is
significant.


--
Alan J. Wylie http://www.wylie.me.uk/
"Perfection [in design] is achieved not when there is nothing left to add,
but rather when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

burt wrote:
"Alan J. Wylie" wrote in message
A strange shiny stainless steel structure appeared outside work a
couple of days ago. It's probably not another work of art to join the
sheep and the chicken, so it must be a cycle parking farcility.
...
It "supports" the bike I cycled in on this morning, with Shimano hub
brakes, on the brake fixing on one side and the spokes on the
other. In a bike with narrower tyres, and standard brakes, the wheel
would just flop around.

There is no way to lock the frame of the cycle to the structure.

A company that will be nameless for now demonstrated a cycle rack to
cycling officers today. A very clever piece of engineering, but no
locking points where you need them, and bikes held mainly by the wheels.

They gave us all their catalogue. I got 2/3 of the way through the
cycle parking section before finding anything with a usable locking point.

But on the inside front cover of the catalogue they had a photo of
their offices - with two boring old Sheffield stands in front, marked
'visitor parking'!

If manufacturers stopped making this rubbish, it would be a lot easier
to stop people installing it.

With all due respect, it wasn't the artists (unless you work for some kind
of art company) who chose to put this complete waste of space at your work -
it was probably some kind of manager at your work! Who has now ticked the
box "cycle parking" Have you disabused them of their misbegotten notion?

To be honest, most architects/designers appear to drive cars, not ride
bikes, so they don't have the faintest idea what proper cycle parking is.
You might have assumed, that being highly trained professionals, they might
have realised their own limitations, and they would have sought advice,
which has been around in published form, from the DfT, for about 15 years,
or even bothered asking a passing cyclist. Doesn't appear to happen for
some reason, perhaps arrogance is part of the training?

Not just them. Facilities/Building Management depts do the same, even
in organisations responsible for specifying (planning dept) or
providing (highways dept) cycle parking for everyone else.

Colin McKenzie

--
No-one has ever proved that cycle helmets make cycling any safer at
the population level, and anyway cycling is about as safe per mile as
walking.
Make an informed choice - visit www.cyclehelmets.org.

Colin McKenzie typed

Not just them. Facilities/Building Management depts do the same, even
in organisations responsible for specifying (planning dept) or
providing (highways dept) cycle parking for everyone else.

Unsurprisingly, the cycle parking outside the new CTC National Office
(or whatever they now call their HQ) is very good.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

.......it's a (very!) uncomfortable seat surely? At least, if it WAS a
bench the complaints (and derisive laughter) would at least make them
change it!

Robert

BigRab wrote on 24/01/2007 08:47 +0100:
.......it's a (very!) uncomfortable seat surely? At least, if it WAS a
bench the complaints (and derisive laughter) would at least make them
change it!


Its not a seat but they must use bl**dy large slices of bread for that
toast rack ;-)


--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy