It makes my heart beat faster.

Das Museum der Arbeit (The Museum of Work) in Hamburg has an exhibition "THE BICYCLE, Culture, technology, mobility " until 1 March 2015. The 600 sqm exhibition has over a hundred iconic historic bicycles of the past 200 years. It details the technological development, the design, the diverse bicycle scene, and mobility aspects of present and future - from the "hobby horse" to the Hamburg "StadtRAD" and the penny farthing of dandies to today's cargo bike bicycle couriers. We will try to spend an afternoon there on our way to Denmark later in the summer.

Bicycles in ICEs?

The "Mannheimer Morgen" reported today that the next generation of ICEs will have provision for full sized bicycles. It might be a week or two though, before you can pop your bike on an ICE in Hamburg to go to Basel. The first eight train sets are due to be delivered in 2017.

World Klapprad Races in Berlin

The Giro starts today in Northern Ireland and the Tour de France starts on 5 July in Yorkshire, but both events pale beside the one on 17 May (next week) when the World Klapp Race Series takes place away from its Ludwigshafen home in Berlin for the first time.  The Merkel Loop, the 1.8km long circular course along the Straße der 17. Juni past the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag and Platz der Republik offers excellent viewing for the expected 20 000 visitors, including Chancellor Merkel from her office window. Brits should imagine a bike race from the Houses of Parliament, up Whitehall around Trafalgar Square and along the Mall to Buckingham Palace and return. In total 32 teams of four riders all of whom must wear moustaches*, will complete three circuits of the course riding Klapprads with carefully defined characteristics:

• The Klapprad must be at least 30 years old. Folding bikes like Birdies or Bromptons are not allowed.
• The Klapprad shall not possess gears or a duomatic gear. A suitable gear for Berlin can be mounted.
• Racing or time trial handlebars are absolutely excluded - use the original handlebars, or similar.
• Klapprad tandems are not allowed
• The use of click pedals is recommended
• Ideally, the Klapprad has mudguards, foxtail and a functioning lighting system

The time of the third fastest member of the team will determine the winners.  The winners will receive the Berlin Bear Trophy, with its cool shades and, of course, a moustache.

*In spite of this, ten of those taking part are female. 

Vennbahn: Cyclist-friendly accommodation in East Belgium

If you wish to cycle along the Vennbahn from Aachen, Germany to Trois Vierges, Luxembourg, then it will be good news that Tourist Authority of East Belgium in cooperation with the LVI, the Luxembourg Cycling Club and Velosophie tourism consultants in Luxembourg has organised a Bed and Bike guide similar to the German ADFC Bett und Bike Guide and the Luxembourg LVI Bed and Bike Guide. The guide will lead cyclists to cyclist-friendly accommodation along the 850km of cycle routes in German speaking Belgium. The easiest way of accessing the guide for non-German speakers is to log onto the English version of the German www.bettundbike.de by clicking on the Union Flag upper right. Belgium can be found under Countries. We have yet to find anything similar for the UK, pity really.

Cycling in Europe Guide updated

We have rewritten the "Cycling in Europe" collection of helpful hints and suggestions for touring cyclists. It is available from Amazon (search "Cycling" "Forsyth" in the Kindle Shop) and from Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/245564) now. There is a lot more information about where to cycle in Europe: The latest information on the instant fines levied by German policemen; downloading GPS tracks; a photograph of the best guarded bike rack in the world; putting bikes on trains and busses in Europe and how to save money by not buying mineral water.

SPEZi Special Bicycle Show Germersheim 2014

HG Wells is quoted as saying: "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." If he'd have been in Germersheim at SPEZI, the Special Bicycle Show, over the last weekend in April he would have been giggling with joy. Perhaps I have the wrong idea but I have the impression that the big bicycle shows like Eurobike, Taipei International  or Interbike are where the suits meet to talk business to create "comprehensive trade platforms" or "manufacturers, retailers, media & more conduct the business of cycling". SPEZI is where the real freaks come.  I read a comment by a representative of HP that SPEZI is "back to the roots". It is where the companies get to meet people who are prepared to dig deep and want decent answers. People with disabled family members who still want to cycle together or who want them to learn to cycle. People whose vision of towns and cities is without motor cars and diesel powered delivery trucks.  It is where the garage-based inventors come to show off new ideas or rejuvenate old ones.  Fans check out bicycles or tricycles that cost more than newish secondhand family saloons. In a word, it is wonderful. 
The two day exhibition covers three halls, an outdoor area and three test tracks (children's bikes and trikes, adult bikes and trikes, electrobikes and trikes). These are our impressions of the show. We did not see everything. We could only visit the show on one day this year.

Accessories

Recently we wrote about assembling a pair of gloves that could be used as direction indicators at night. If knitting a pair of gloves and assembling the electronic bits and pieces is too much work, then check out GTC Germany Ltd who offer gloves with a built in lighting feature. (http://www.blinkerhandschuh.com/) OK, it's a gimmick, but it could well be a gimmick that saves your life on a dark night in city traffic. Anything that makes you more conspicuous is a good thing.
Two other possible life savers are a Hubbub helmet mirror sold by Junik (www.junik-hpv.de)

and a mirror to fit a glasses arm sold by Pedalkraft (http://www.pedalkraft.de/spiegel.htm).

Cargo Bikes
In addition to the trike pickup models, long john etc. , we noticed a well designed trailer from Hinterher.com. This was so popular with visitors that we could not take a photograph as we couldn't get near enough.
The outdoor exhibition area had a number of cargo bikes on show:

Bernds has a steel frame 20” wheel Trike Pick-up. It has a load capacity of up to 140kg, and with its Pick-up holdall, it will handle a weekly shop. A low frame design, suspension rear, and balloon tyres make it an ideal vehicle for anyone  including people with physical limitations.

Maderna.MCS Trucks (www.maderna.at)

Radkutsche Rapid cargo bike as a transporter for children

A Radkutsche Muskatiere as a mobile home (http://www.radkutsche.de)

• Race This replaced the Saturday afternoon trike race that stopped two years ago. Participants had to move a number of car tyres and empty beer barrels across a short course.  It sounds like it is good fun and we will try to be there next year on Saturday afternoon to watch it.

Integrating people with disabilities

It is heartening to see the efforts to integrate disabled people into the cycling world with the Hase Pino as a good example. There are a growing number of companies offering human powered and electrically assisted bikes, trikes and vehicles for the ever growing number of older people who want exercise but not take part in the Tour de France.   

Enthusiasts

Although over the years SPEZI has lost some of its home made bike builders, there are still thankfully courageous pioneers who want to offer a different approach to cycling. We had a long talk to Christoph Lenz on the Maynooth Bike stand (http://maynoothbike.com). He has designed and constructed a semi-recumbent bicycle where rather than turning the drive wheel the rider pumps the pedals up and down. It looks like a lot of fun and should make an effective comfortable, city and shopping bike. It would also be helpful for amongst others people who have not cycled for some years, as one can put one's feet down quickly. The problem we see is that not only are engineers and cyclists very conservative, but also the conventional bicycle has over one hundred years development behind it. It will take a lot of effort on Christoph's part to persuade the cycling community to change its ways. We wish him well in his efforts. 

The Maynooth Bike

A foot braked Maynooth Bike for a customer who has difficulty using their hands. 

Mosquito

A velomobile built out of wood, carbon fibre and a plastic or fabric skin to very strict design rules by two Frenchmen in London and Valence (http://mosquito-velomobiles.com/index.htm).

Veloschmitt

A electro velomobile design based on the post second world war Messerschmitt Kabinroller (www.veloschmitt.de). These are on sale for about five or six thousand Euro.

Fitness

There seemed to be more interest in fitness bikes this year:
Elliptigo showed its stand up bicycles which use a cross country skiing motion to propel the bike at a rate of knots. It is probably very invigorating.
Both the Ruder-Rad and Varibike let the cyclist use their hands in addition to their legs to power the bike. This gives you a whole body workout. You need to move the Rudi-Rad handlebars backward and forward in a rowing action. (www.ruder-rad.de) The company builds recumbents, city bikes and tandems with and without electrical assistance.

A rowing and pedalling recumbent from Ruder-Rad

On the Varibike cyclists pedal with both hands and feet. How difficult both bikes are to steer when using the hands to propel the bike is not easy to say. I suppose you can stop using your arms to propel the bike and just use your feet if you need to concentrate on steering.

Mainstream

On the ICE stand we saw the trike that Maria Leijerstam cycled from the edge of the Antarctic to the South Pole in 2013.

An amazing effort

mmmm!

We were interested to hear on the HP stand that one of their trikes is now offered with 8cm higher seats, as OAPs like ourselves have difficulties getting up from near the ground. We noticed too that most manufacturers now offer an upright pole as an accessory to aid owners of rheumaticky limbs in getting up.  This has been a feature on Anthrotech trikes for many years.

 Anthrotech trike seats are high above the ground anyway. 

There is a definite trend towards building folding bikes and trikes. This is not so much to make the bike or trike small enough to carry on a train when commuting, but more to load it in to a car or store it easily at home. Both HP and AZUB had folding trikes on offer. Gobiidae Trikes from Barcelona, a new company for us has three models, one of which is a folding model (http://www.gobiidaetrikes.com/).

PedalPower one of the growing number of bike fabricators in Berlin had a folding tandem on its stand.

PedlPower folding tandem.

Miscellaneous

In the outdoor area one could try a Quattrocycle, a Dutch built four wheeled four passenger human powered and/or electrically assisted rig that would be ideal to bowl along a promenade on a sunny day. (http://www.quattrocycle.com/uitvoeringen/quattrocycle/index.php).  Although all four passengers can pedal in whatever gear they wish or not pedal at all, only one steers and brakes. It appears to be a somewhat complex matter, though from the serious discussions between family and hire company taking place:

Osborne's Delight

The British government is trying to encourage manufacturing rather than high finance and so we were pleased to see Union Flags on Airnimal, Bromptons,  Circe Tandems, ICE trikes, KMX trikes and (virtually) AVD's Windcheetah trikes. We would be even more pleased if Her Majesty's Government would invest more than fine words to cut down cyclists' accident rates,  in cycle paths, e.g. and worked out a way of encouraging more folk to invest in industry rather than bricks and mortar. It is apparent from the experience of both Berlin and Copenhagen that investment in cycle ways spurs development of a bicycle building industry.

We were somewhat surprised on the AVD stand to be accused of being from Yorkshire as we are both Lancastrians, but the next time we are in Bolton we will try to nip up to Darwin to observe production there.  

We are always pleased to visit SPEZI, because Voss, the German Brompton importer, sells spare parts that are difficult to find elsewhere without paying p&p for mail order. Both our Bromptons are pushing 20 years old and it is not surprising that the elastic cords on the baggage rack for example, have given up the ghost.

Test Areas

• Children
  
• Adults
  
• e-Bikes I am afraid our tea addiction drove us home at this point.

Practical

• Travel 
• There are airports in Frankfurt, Hahn, Strasbourg, Baden and Stuttgart, if you must fly.
• Good high speed train connections from London to Strasbourg via Paris and Mannheim via  Paris or Brussels. 
• Good regional train services from Karlsruhe and Mannheim. Connections from Strasbourg via Lauterbourg and Wörth.
• There is plenty of free car parking space available, but you might have to walk for ten minutes.
• Tickets
• Tickets can be ordered in advance about two to three weeks beforehand with payment using SEPA and picked up on the door. Getting in is less of a problem than it used to be. Then are now four ticket sales points at the main entrance, one at the back of Hall 2 and one in Hall 3.
• Accommodation.
• Lots available locally. Talk to the town's tourist office.
• Catering
• Excellent. If you don't fancy the three course menu for €12.50 in the restaurant, there's a cheaper self service area downstairs or you can walk into town to eat in a pub there.

PS The next SPEZI will be held on 25-26 April 2015.  

Germersheim

Germersheim is a town set in the remains of  19C fortifications. It is an interesting little place. It is set in Rhineland Palatinate whose southern portion was part of Bavaria from 1814 to 1946. Germersheim's Bavarian rulers started to build a fortress in 1831. It was completed in 1855, although excavations for underground passages continued until 1861. By this time, however, the fortress was outdated, as artillery had improved greatly in the thirty years since work began. The fortress was destroyed in 1921/22 under the Treaty of Versailles. Some parts still exist. As you approach SPEZI you pass a number of 19C buildings that were part of the fort. The town is home to the University of Mainz Institute of Translation.

Fine parks

A memorial to to some of the Bavarian units that were stationed in Germersheim.

Cycle route planning in Germany with GPS download

Germany is a federal republic and cycle routes are the responsibility of the provinces, so formerly you had to check a number of sites if you wished to plan a cross country route. However those provinces that have online official route planners have got together under the VeRa website: http://www.radroutenplaner-deutschland.de/. Although it is in German it is easy to use. When you open the website there is a map showing the various provinces. Those that are brightly coloured offer route planners that cover the province and a few kilometres over their borders. Click on the map to use its cycling information systems. These programs also offer the possibility of planning routes into other provinces. Using the Baden Württemberg planner, for example, you can work out a route from Basel, Switzerland to Cologne through four different provinces.  

At the time of writing the following provinces offer route planning with GPS download: 

• Baden-Württemberg: German only, iPad Android App available.
• Bavaria: German only.
• Hesse: English available iPad Android App available.
• North Rhine Westphalia: English available.
• Rhineland Palatinate: English available.
• Schleswig-Holstein: English available.
• Thuringia: English available.

Bremen can be accessed via VeRa. The website is in German only with no GPS. It is a very small area.
Berlin also has a route planning program available, but not via VeRa: The http://www.bbbike.de website offers a German language route planner with the option of Android and iPhone apps

Copenhagenize your cycle touring instantly

There is an excellent website about cycle way design based on experience in Copenhagen called http://www.copenhagenize.com. It is almost heavenly to cycle in Copenhagen, but it has taken 40 years of hard graft to get to the point where over a third of all journeys in the Copenhagen metropolitan area are made by bike.
We and well over a hundred others managed to achieve this nirvana this morning. The German Cardiologists Society met in Mannheim this week and today there was a cycle ride as part of a campaign to popularise exercise as a way of keeping heart problems at bay. Our cycle club, the ADFC supplied experienced cyclists to ride with the group. We were amongst these and left the Mannheim Congress Centre with about 100 others. When I heard the route described which included riding along Mannheim's ring to the then dive under the railway lines to reach the Rhine, I was not happy. However we had four police motorcyclists with us and they blocked off traffic on any road joining that could have given us problems. This is a cheap and simple way of finding out what it is like to cycle in Copenhagen, but it might be difficult to arrange for a Sunday club run.

Booking a self-guided bicycling holiday in Europe

Two German companies have done what we suspect should have been done for years. Various companies in Austria and Germany offer cycling holidays, but their publicity materials are in German.  
Radweg-Reisen  offer self-guided tours for English speakers in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands on amongst others the :

• Altmuehl Cycle Path,
• Drava Cycle Path,
• Rhine Cycle Path Mainz-Cologne,
• River Main Cycle Route,
• The Weser Cycle Path,
• The Loire Valley Castles.

Radweg-Reisen GmbH, Fritz-Arnold-Straße 16a, D-78467 Konstanz, Germany,
Phone +49-(0)7531-81 99 3-0, www.radweg-reisen.com

The Mecklenberger Radtour company (http://www.mecklenburger-radtour.de/en/cycling-holidays)  offers guided and self-guided tours for non German speakers all over Germany and Austria. It is well worth checking out if you would like to tour by bicycle in either of these cyclist friendly nations.
If you fancy cycling in Europe but are worried about the language, booking hotels, finding a hire bike and/or planning routes then try one of the holidays offered by these companies. The prices seem reasonable to us.

Somebody is offering one of our books free of charge without permission.

We picked up a website supposedly offering our Romantic Road book for free. We would like to stress that we have no connection with this website and if any of our books are on offer free of charge it is so without our permission.
The website concerned looks serious, but… The supposed ISBN changes every time that one opens the link. The publisher is supposedly a reputable scientific book publisher. We self-publish. Interestingly enough another guide book about the Romantic Road is also supposedly available from this website and this publisher. We have no connection with the supposed publisher neither does the other guide book publisher.
I have not attempted to download the book because it could be a phishing ploy. I am very suspicious. I would suggest that if you wish to read our book you log on to Amazon or Smashwords and pay the few dollars it costs. It is safer. You could lose a lot of money otherwise.

Protecting your banana

Like a lot of cyclists and walkers we enjoy eating bananas when underway.  They give a quick boost of energy, are fibre rich and less sugary than energy bars as well as being a good source of potassium, although there are better sources: See (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/potassium-foods-banana_n_1898078.html). Surprisingly these include squash, potatoes, beans and dates. However eating a baked potato or a plate of beans on the road might be difficult when powering over the Alps.
The big problem with bananas is that although they come ready packed, the packaging disintegrates under pressure. You are quite likely to end up with a soggy mess at the bottom of a rucksack or in the rear pocket of your expensive cycling jersey. Protection is called for and the best banana packaging we have found is called Banana Guard (bananaguard.com). Banana Guards are plasticiser-free and dishwashable. There are retailers all over the world. We bought ours from Lakeland Plastics in the UK: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/10380/Banana-Guard.
The one thing we don't understand is that the Banana Guard company is Canadian and can only think that it is so difficult to grow bananas in Canada that somebody felt it necessary to develop protection methods for the fruit.

Bike Hire in Provence (France) near Mont Ventoux

If you are planning a holiday in Provence and would like to cycle up Mont Ventoux or wander round the lanes thinking about climbing the hill, rather than taking a bike with you, you could hire one from VELO RELAX DU VENTOUX, T: 04 90 11 72 65 / 06 27 33 05 55,  N°2 Le cours, 84570 VILLE SUR AUZON (FRANCE),    www.velorelaxduventoux.com (in French)

The shop offers e-bikes, road bikes, touring bikes and children's seats for hire, has a repair shop and sells bicycles and accessories. It is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 9 am to 12 am and 2 pm to 6 pm. It is open Sunday mornings. Bikes can be reserved but only if you are hiring for more than one day. There are reductions for groups. The shop will deliver to local hotels and holiday flats at a cost of €1 per km.

• E-bikes (v.a.e) cost €35 per day and €180 per week. Returnable deposit is €750.
• Road bikes (Route) cost €30 per day and €170 per week. Returnable deposit is €300.
• Touring bikes (v.t.c.) cost €20 per day and €80 per week.  Returnable deposit is €200.

Bike hire in Dubrovnik, Croatia

The Teuta travel agency, Trumbićev put 3, 20210 Cavtat, T: +385 20 479 786 & +385 91 882 5797, E: info@cavtat.biz, hires Trek bicycles for €15 a day with reductions for longer term hire.
Cavtat is between Dubrovnik and Dubrovnik airport and can be reached by bus or boat from Dubrovnik. The first days hire includes a shuttle up hill to the start of the local cycling trails, which sounds a bit ominous. Check www.cavtat.biz for more details.

You are paying a pound for a bottle of drinking water? Are you off your trolley?

If any teacher had told us at school 50 or so years ago that people would pay serious money for the stuff that came out of the tap for almost nothing we would not have believed them. It now happens all the time in Germany. Even people on basic social support payments (Hartz 4) buy the stuff at the start of the month when they have been paid. The mind boggles. We went on a two day course last weekend and most of the group slurped commercially bottled water for much of the time. Some of these bottled waters are just filtered tap water, anyway. Why one needs to drink so much water when sitting about listening to a lecture on First Aid we have no idea. We were not powering up Mt Ventoux in summer and in urgent danger of dehydration.
Then it seems that a plasticiser used in many of these bottles to improve their flexibility, can leach out into the water. This compound resembles a hormone. The long term health effects of absorbing synthetic compounds that resemble hormones has yet to be established. It is however probably better to avoid them if possible. There are plastic bottles available that do not contain plasticiser, such as water bottles from Dopper, Klean Kanteen, and Sigg, for example.
We were much impressed by the Dopper water bottles we saw at VELOBerlin. These are stylish, plastic or steel bottles that come with an integral drinking beaker. Two sizes are available: 500ml (plastic) and 800ml (stainless steel and plastic). The plastic used is inert without the addition of plasticiser. Unfortunately the stand only had  the 500ml variation on offer and these are too narrow to fit in a bike water bottle holder. They are ideal for a rucksack or even to carry on a belt while jogging. They normally cost €12.50. The steel bottles cost €27.50 which is about par for quality steel water bottles. We like the concept of the integral cup which means that one can offer others a drink without them slurping our bugs down or adding to the bugs in the bottle.
The other thing we liked about Dopper is that these guys are serious about water. They support a Dutch charity in Nepal bringing clean water and decent sanitation to a particular region and have also set up a foundation to try to educate people about the misuse of plastics and the problems of plastic litter in the oceans and lakes of the world. Having both helped in our town's annual volunteer clean up of the woods and roadsides we think a German foundation would be an excellent idea as well. When we return to the UK we notice unfortunately that as in the slogan of our youth: "The litter lout is still about!". Much of this litter in the UK is plastic drink bottles.
Price wise the quality bottles in steel are much of a muchness. I reckon around €30 buying them mail order. A thought experiment suggests that if you go out on club runs at weekends and have a two week cycle touring holiday you will probably get through at least 32 750ml bottles, i.e. 24L annually. Bottled water bought from supermarkets costs between 20 and 50 cents a litre. Bottled water from a kiosk or bakery on a railway station will cost at least €1 for 500ml. Within two years your steel water bottle filled with tap water will be saving you money and will continue to do so.
Dopper offers an app to help you find a source of drinking water when travelling. What the app does not mention is that most villages in Switzerland have drinking water fountains in the main street. We also look for public toilets, in cemeteries and sports fields in France and Germany, where the wash hand basins have water taps. The words to look out for are Kein Trinkwasser (Germany, Switzerland) or eau non potable (France) - Not Drinking Water. Obviously Trinkwasser and eau potable are drinking water. What we often do as well is fill our bottles in the toilets/restrooms of cafés after we have had coffee there.

Guided cycle touring in Germany

I was pleased to find the http://www.mecklenburger-radtour.de/en/cycling-holidays website (in English) today. The company offers guided and self-guided tours for English speakers all over Germany and Austria. It is well worth checking out if you would like to tour by bicycle in either of these cyclist friendly nations, but don't want the bother of booking hotels in a foreign language.

Over the Hills of Rheinhessen on a hired E-Bike

Rheinhessen is a wine growing area of Germany south and west of the Rhine knee near Mainz. It is an area of rolling hills with smooth roads through the vineyards which makes it ideal for tours made easier using an e-bike. We put a route through the area in our book "Following the Rhine gently upstream, Rotterdam to Basel, a Cycle Tourist's Guide" available from Amazon and Smashwords. It was hard work surveying the route and so we were pleased to read that the local utility company EWR together with Riese and Müller, the bicycle manufacturer, the Rheinhessen tourist authority and three cycle shops have organised an e-bike hire system to take the hard work out of cycling through the vineyards of Rheinhessen along one of the ten regional cycle routes with a total length of about 600km:

The pedelecs used are Blue Label Swing from Riese & Müller, fully sprung with hydraulic brakes and a range of about 70 km. Chargers are on the e-bikes, so that the battery can be charged during lunch. The new rental system now allows a ' one way rental', - so you can rent the e-bike at any rental station and return it at any other rental station. Costs are  EUR 21.00 per day or EUR 15.00 for a half day, 

More details available from: 

Rheinhessen-Touristik GmbH
Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 17
55218 Ingelheim am Rhein
Telephone (06132) 44 17 0
Telefax (06132) 44 17 44
Email: info@rheinhessen.info
Website: www.rheinhessen.info

An easy way to carry shopping and loads on a bicycle

Two of the many things that cause my blood pressure to rise are seeing people riding a bike with a heavy rucksack or trying to steer while clutching one or two heavily laden shopping bags. To be fair it is not always possible or convenient to use panniers while shopping or you may not want to buy shopper pannier bags or a trailer. We were both pleased to find a sensible device at the VELOBerlin bike show last weekend that modifies a normal baggage rack to carry shopping bags, rucksacks, IKEA blue carrier bags and almost anything else safely.

Copyright: Darius M. Hajiani

It's simple to build yourself either in cardboard, in metal or in metal/plastic sheet. There are plans to manufacture and sell the product or offer licences to manufacturers. Check www.hangload.com. It would be quite useful for touring especially when camping too. It is a good, simple, cheap idea that brings flexibility to load carrying.

Vennbahn revisited

We went to the annual Frankfurt cycle touring fair yesterday, We spent some time talking to the LVI - the Luxembourg Cycle Club about what to to do after cycling the Vennbahn. This starts in Aachen and finishes in Troisvierges in the North of the Grand Duchy. We learned several items of interest:

• The signposting on the Vennbahn has been improved.
• The Vennbahn is not all tarmac
• Cycling on after the Vennbahn in Luxembourg is not easy. You can cycle East into Belgium and pick up the Ravel route to Bastogne. From there you can cycle to Wiltz in Luxembourg, then cycle along the Piste Cyclable des Ardennes to reach the Sûre Valley to cycle to Echternach or on to Wasserbillig on the Mosel. Once on the Mosel you can cycle downstream to Koblenz, turn off on to the Saar Cycle Route to Saarbrücken or cycle upstream to Nancy. From Echternach take a pleasant cycle route to Luxembourg City.                                     
• OR you can take any Luxembourg Railway train from Troisvierges to Luxembourg for €2 per person with free bike transport. If you want to travel further by train a day ticket costs €4 within Luxembourg.

Fines for mobile phone users in traffic

If you keep your eyes open in traffic in Germany you observe that the use of "Haendys" - mobile or cell phones by drivers although illegal is very common, even while driving in heavy traffic on motorways. This law applies to any driver in charge of any vehicle from a articulated 35 tonne  lorry/truck to a bicycle. However for some reason unknown the law does not apply to pedestrians. I wonder why not. We observed a number of people in Mannheim today texting while crossing quite busy roads. Whether they too are completely aware of their environment is questionable. What this means is that cyclists need to take especial care when cycling on mixed pedestrian/cyclist footpaths.

Mind that pedestrian! They might be using a mobile.

Good Ideas for Bikes in Cities: Cycling after illness

In the West at least people are living longer, but not always that healthier, so there is a need for new and modified bicycles and tricycles to solve problems caused by disability.

• Heavy Pedals Lastenrad Transport- und Verkauf OG in Vienna (www.heavypedals.at) construct a cargo trike that will carry a wheelchair. The company offers courier services in Vienna and sells and has a range of cargo bikes and trailers for hire. 
• Anton Wiegers builds recumbent bikes and tandems, including the Janus Tandem where the captain and stoker face in different directions. He also constructs kits (Opus 3) to modify bicycles to be used as tricycles in cases where illness has removed balancing capabilities. He usually has a number of bicycles available that can be hired for a (half) day trip. If you fancy especially whizzing around quiet country roads backwards give him a call to book an appointment and to ensure that the bicycle of interest is available. Altena-Bike, Anton Wiegers, Korn 19, 4271 BM Dussen, NetherlandsT: 031 (0)416-391420 Email: info@altena-bike.nl Web: www.altena-bike.nl (In Dutch but much of it is understandable)
• In about a months time SPEZI Special Bike Show in Germersheim will be opening its doors (26-27 April 2014). The exhibition is good place to talk to experts about special bikes or trikes. Many of the major constructors are present.