Toothsome TV presenter Christine Bleakley (pictured), fiance of Chelsea player Frank Lampard, has this week helped to promote the fundraising efforts of Barclays.

Barclays, sponsors of the London cycle hire scheme known as Boris Bikes, are to donate £1 to the 2011 Royal British Legion Poppy Campaign for each ride made on the bikes on Thursday 3rd November. In addition, selected bikes will have the poppy emblem fixed to the handlebar basket for two weeks to create further awareness of the campaign.

Christine Bleakley, said: “I’m delighted to lend my support to London Poppy Day and would urge people to take to Barclays Cycle Hire on 3 November. The cycles have transformed London and will provide a perfect way to raise money and awareness of the appeal.”

A visitor to the Taipei Fine Art Museum studies the work entitled ‘Forever Bicycles’ by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei.

The installation is one of the latest works from Ai Weiwie who recently filled a floor of Tate Modern with millions of handmade ceramic sunflower seeds. The world-famous artist was earlier this year arrested and then released by the Chinese authorities.

The more you study the above photo, the more bikes you see. Hence the title ‘Forever Bicycles’!

I’ve just spotted that leading bike shop chain Evans Cycles are opening a store in Liverpool.

The new Evans bike shop, scheduled to open on Monday 3rd October 2011, will be located at 37-39 Hanover Street, L1 3DN which is around the junction with Seel Street. That’s a pretty central location though maybe not ideal for a quick road test on a Saturday afternoon with all the traffic about!

Evans are inviting applications for staff, although when you visit their jobs page, you can’t currently see any Liverpool jobs listed for some reason.

Of course, you can also shop for bikes and accessories at the Evans Cycles website:

The company managing the London cycle hire scheme has been told to improve the service.

In a recent newspaper article it is reported that SERCO, the company managing the cycle hire system, must improve the service offered. Since the launch of the “Boris Bikes” last July almost 15,000 refunds for incorrect hire charges have been issued.

SERCO has been issued with a “critical improvement plan” by Transport for London, who have also withheld a £5m payment to the services company. SERCO was awarded a six year management contract, worth more than £140m.

The first of a chain of private cycling clubhouses is being located in Soho, London.

The first H2 Club is being built by construction firm William Dixon Interiors at Dufours Place, Soho. The new centre will include 230 parking bays for bikes along with lockers and 40 showers for cyclists and runners who join the club. H2 Clubs believe that there is a rising market for commuters who are spurning public transport and travel to work either by bike or running/walking and who need changing and storage facilities in the city centre.

H2 Clubs will also offer gym classes, fitness clubs, drying cleaning and a retail offering. Developers Reef Estates consider there is sufficient demand for approximately 20 clubs across London.

A Polish bike rider who was arrested on suspicion of drunk cycling now faces up to 10 years behind bars after allegedly attempting to bribe the officers with fudge.

The man named Leszek has been charged after he was found fast asleep beside his bike in the town of Minsk Mazowiecki. The man is reported to have said “Gentlemen, would you like some fudge as an act of kindness and can you let me go because I live right next door?”.

The drunken cyclist now faces a jail term 10 times longer than the 12 months he would have probably received for drunk cycling.

According to a recent newspaper article cyclists have the dirtiest feet. That’s dirty in a bacteria-ridden way as opposed to being covered in mud when riding off-road.

Researchers tested 50 students, putting them through their paces in a variety of active sports such as football, squash and tennis along with cycling. After the workouts the athletes feet were swabbed for bacteria samples.

Cyclists came up top with the most affected feet – they had 25% of the different bacteria detected. Basketball players smelled sweeter as their feet had just 5% of the foot bacteria.

Whilst the number of participants is possibly too low to be conclusive the tests do act as a reminder to make sure you clean both yourself and your cycling gear. Remember the rule: the rider gets cleaned first and then the bike.

Pictured is the Chieftain airbag collar for commuter cyclists, a new product from Swedish company Hovding. Here’s how it works:

When deflated, the Chieftain is a like a collar that can be worn around the neck. The collar contains a folded airbag along with an auto-release mechanism that is triggered should the cyclist be involved in an accident. The outer shell of the collar is removable and can be replaced for another one in a different colour etc. The outer shell is washable though the actual collar isn’t. The manufacturers envisage a range of stylish outer shells that might appeal to the more fashion-conscious bike rider.

When trigged by abnormal movement a small gas cannister inflates the airbag helmet within 0.1 seconds. The in-built accelerometers and gyro-meters are able to record and detect abnormal movement of the rider in an accident. The sensors then sends a signal to detonate the gas generator for inflating.The hood subsequently deflates slowly after keeping constant pressure for several seconds. There’s an on/off switch on the collar along with an audible alarm and LED to indicate that the collar is active. It’s powered by a rechargeable battery that can be recharged via USB.  The collar also includes a “black box” that will save 10 seconds of data from the cyclist’s motion in (and just before) a bicycle accident.

Whether or not this particular product is a commercial success it does highlight some of the current innovations in the world of bike rider safety.

What do you think of it?

Note I used an auto-translate tool to translate the Swedish content of the manufacturers site into English.

I’ve just stumbled upon a press cutting that I’d kept about the award winning Copenhagen Wheel.

A small team of designers from SENSEable City Lab, MIT have come up with a revolutionary new rear wheel hub that contains a motor and sensors in what is being called a “smart wheel”. Back in August the Copehagen Wheel won the USA round of the James Dyson Award. The designers hope to win £10,000 if it goes on to win the international prize of the design engineering awards.

Inside the red hub is a motor that can capture and save energy that is dissipated when the brakes are applied and can be used as a subsequent power boost. The hub also includes environmental and location sensors that provide data for cycling-related mobile applications. When used in conjunction with a mobile phone fixed to the handlebars the rider can view the sensor data and turn the electric motor on. Its also possible to lock and unlock the bike via phone and also change gears.

The price of the Copenhagen Wheel is expected to be in the region of £380 which is pretty pricey and it has to be said that there are many smart phone apps that already provide traffic and air quality data. Personally I think the ongoing research into using kinetic energy within a smart hub is key here. When the technology improves maybe a smaller, lighter smart hub could power LED lights or recharge a phone, etc. What do you think?

Here’s a video of the Copenhagen Wheel in action.

Here’s one of those products were you think …why has nobody thought of doing that before?

It’s a backpack with a difference as the bag has got an intelligent LED system built into it to give indication to trailing traffic what the rider is going to do next. The LED lights in the backpack work in conjunction with a simple wireless control panel mounted on the handlebars.

The LEDs work in two modes: driving mode and emotion mode. In driving mode LED display works like stop lights and turn signals and in emotion mode you can display emoticons.

Designed by Lee Myung Su design lab.

Not a bad idea for cycle couriers or commuters I reckon.

Here’s a nice little video of the LED bag in action:

Seen here.