"Mainly in High Gear" available as e-book.

"Mainly in High Gear" our guide to cycling around Lake Constance will only be available as an e-book in future from Smashwords.com and shortly as a Kindle book. We have just published the new updated book on Smashwords and will prepare the Kindle version over the next few days.

Improvements to Mannheim's cycling network.

The work towards establishing cycling as a serious part of local transport can only be carried out here in Mannheim as a series of minor improvements. Germany already has a good, when it must be admitted, but not perfect cycling network. We were very pleased to see, for example, that the ramp between the Neckar bank and the cycle routes along the B37 north of Mannheim near to two of the major hospitals in the city has been finished. Before one needed to carry bikes, baggage and trailers up or down two flights of stairs. If you decide to follow the Neckar Cycle Route and wish at the start or finish of your journey to go to the Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (Central Railway Station) you will be very grateful for this "minor" improvement.

Mannheim City and Province encourage bicycle mobilty

The Baden-Württemberg government has started a project to encourage sustainable local transport in four cities in the province: Lörrach, Mannheim, Stuttgart and Tübingen. The cost of this project (€3 million) is financed by the tax on motor fuels.  Cyclists can take their bikes today to a mobile service centre parked on the Mannheim Wasserturm (Water Tower) near to the main shopping streets of the town to have their bikes checked by an expert free of charge. The team will be there next week (23 June, 2012) on the pedestrian zone as well, as part of the third Mannheimer Radsalon, a fair with 20 exhibitors and a bike parade.
If you are passing in the afternoon we should be on the ADFC stand for a couple of hours.

A motor club gets in on the act.

British and US cyclists have probably heard of the ADFC, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club. A word for word translation of the name would be the General German Bicycle Club. The British equivalent organisation is the CTC, the Cyclists' Touring Club to give its old name or as the organisation prefers to call itself,  The UK's national cyclists' organisation. Some of us prefer the old name which we think is clear, but both names describe the function of the club, whereas the "General" in the German club's name is superfluous. Why did the German club give itself a rather odd name when it was founded as part of the Green movement twenty-five years ago? It was intended to cock a snoot at the older well established German motoring club, the ADAC, Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club. This organisation which as a supporter of motoring was a bête noir of the Green movement in Germany at that time. The ADFC has had a successful time since then and plays an important role in cycle touring in Germany for cyclists and those in the know.
The ADAC still acts as though there is an unlimited supply of oil in the world, but at the same time it has recognised that bicycles, especially e-bikes have an important role in short distance mobility. The organisation has taken over the role of its younger competitor in this area and its speakers are often called upon to present short features on on e-bikes on German TV. Its magazine "Motorwelt" has just devoted four pages to e-bike tours.
In addition the ADAC has brought out an app called Fahrrad Tourenplanner Deutschland 2012 - Bicycle Touring Planning Germany 2012 with 1500 bicycle tour suggestions. The ADFC had better not rest on its laurels.