Running The Rouge Is Officiellement d’Accord.

Parisian Cyclists Get Green Light To Ride Through Red Lights.

Eyes open, and be sure to pling that bell before you blast through that junction.

Responsivity to traffic lights by road users in continental Europe famously operates on the following North to South sliding scale – Directive, Suggestion, Christmas Decoration. So it was with interest at Boultbee Towers that we recently learned of plans to permit cyclists in Paris to “griller les feux” as they see fit.

Creams, Balms, Etc.

It could all have been avoided with a judicious slathering of chamois cream.

We’re only too painfully aware of the care needed to be taken with that most ample point of contact between rider and machine, the “naughty bits”, as it were.  And normally the use of a Brooks saddle is, of course, a sure-fire way to prevent nether-regional discomfort.

But when cycling in extreme weather conditions, or over extremely long distances, many people find it wise to take a step further than our Imperial line, and employ an additional precaution against what Mr. Brooks tactfully described a century ago as “perineal pressure”.

Chamois creams and other preparations which supposedly carry out a “chamois-cream-like function” have been snapped up hungrily by bikers since shortly after the first bicycles went into production. And of course, this was also a fairly universal quest for earlier generations too; anybody who spent an inordinate amount of time on horseback tended to be on the lookout for any relevant new treatments hitting the market as well.

Birmingham to Berlin- The Movie!

New film about a bike tour that ticks all the B's.

Readers will recall our record breaking attempt a couple of months back to cram more photos into a single post about long distance touring than had ever been crammed before. The fruit of our efforts, was, of course, this veritable behemoth, and the people at Guinness have said they’ll be back on to us before Christmas.

It was, and remains, an honest, engaging, fun and above all lengthy literary and visual document of a “B”-centric bike trip made between Birmingham and Berlin this year by a group of people seeking to raise funds for cancer research.

Conversations On the Coast.

Talking with craftspeople along the coasts of Britain and Ireland.

Nick Hand, pausing to catch a breath on his coastal cycling jaunt.

There’s something about Long Distance Touring that has an attractiveness for increasing numbers of people these days. By switching off the phone, packing up their panniers and seeing where the next road takes them, cyclists can find the time and space to follow their instincts, form their own ideas, and see the the world truly with their own eyes.

L’Eroica 2011 by Mark Reber

An incomparable vista. Riding the twisting, gravelly tracks of Chianti at L’Eroica. (Photo Dustin Nordhus, Cicli Berlinetta)

The dust has quite literally begun to settle once again in northern Italy, where a few weeks back Gaiole played host to a couple of thousand cyclists set on recreating the feel of a bike race entirely devoid of Carbon Fibre, Synthetic Isotonic Potions, System Pedals, or any other development conceived over the past thirty years to make a ride last less long.

Of course we’re talking about L’Eroica, and Brooks was once again a proud sponsor of the event. Shortly before this year’s instalment we managed to get in touch with our good friend Mark Reber, who was making the trip over from the United States. He kindly agreed to collect some of his impressions of the weekend and commit them to paper for us, while taking many fine photographs (MR), some of which are interspersed below with those of his friend Rodger Lynch (RL) and Dustin Nordhus (DN). Now read on…

We Can Rebuild It. The Six Million Mark Bicycle.

Inflation in 1920′s Germany would have made this a Six Million Mark Bicycle.

A bike restoration project is one of those happy undertakings in which those involved frequently wish they’d never started, yet secretly hope will never end. In this regard we have some good news, and also some bad news reaching us this morning from Hamburg, Germany, where Nico Thomas and his two sons have recently applied the final revitalizing touches to a machine first ridden over 80 years ago.

Crowdfund This. “Genre de Vie”.

Documentary makers Sven Prince and Jorrit Spoelstra.

There is no better way to get one’s bearings in a city than by cycling around it. Recently two Rotterdam residents have taken this truism and expanded upon it in order to tackle some of the more glaring social questions posed by Early 21st Century Metropolitan Living. And now they intend to make a film, perhaps providing some answers.

Our 2011 Brooks Employee of the Year

Malgorzata Krawczyk, 2011 Brooks Employee of the Year.

I returned from my most recent trip to the Brooks works at Smethwick last week having had all sorts of news- as well as some fascinating arcana pertaining to venerable English leather saddles- kindly imparted to me. In due course, we’ll be sharing all of it here.

First up on the Order of Business is the result of this year’s Employee Of The Year. Normally reported on in our annual paper, The Brooks Bugle, it appears that at the time the Bugle was going to the printers it wasn’t immediately clear which of the nominees had in fact been awarded the title.

Production Supervisor Barbara Lawrence was kind enough to introduce me to the winner on my visit. And Barbara’s a good judge. She has been a cornerstone at Brooks for over thirty years, as was her mother before her.

Office Manager Steve Green has been around at Brooks a while too. We let him take up the story…

A Blossoming Corn Poppy Flower – Malgorzata Krawczyk

B(r)ooks. Cycling Spring Classics

Finally, the gloves are coming off! And the mufflers. The overshoes too. But a century ago, north Italian winters, for example, were somewhat longer than they are nowadays. We were reminded of this recently, when a book landed on the desk at Boultbee Towers, exploring with beautifully translated words, and pictures worth one thousand of each of the aforementioned words, the history of springtime one-day racing on the Continent.

CMWC 2010 in the Brooks Bugle

Andy Zalan, one of the organizers of last year’s Cycle Messenger World Championships which took place this time out in Guatemala, has written a piece for the 2011 Brooks Bugle about the experience.