A new cycle sharing scheme has been made available for students and staff at Newcastle University.

WhipBikes is the newly launched, self-service bike share scheme that students at Newcastle Uni can now make use of. WhipBikes are available for uni staff and students who join the scheme by paying a one-time £14.95 registration sign-up fee.

From then on, participants can use a WhipBike whenever they need one, choosing from the 150 or so bikes located across the university campus. When they want to rent one, users simply pick a bike and text its bike number to WhipBikes, which will text back with the lock code for that bike. The user then has 30 minutes to ride wherever he or she needs to go and then relock the bike at the nearest WhipBikes rack. The cost of 50p per ride is simply added to the user’s mobile phone bill.

There are designated WhipBike cycle racks around the campus, predominately by halls of residence.

As a company WhipBikes also aims to generate revenue by accepting advertising for display on the rear wheel cover of the lime green bikes; pricing is £35 for two weeks for one bike. The business is the brain child of two ex-students Robert Grisdale, 24 and Jack Payne, 23.

Online cycling and running retailer Wiggle has reported a record sales year with increased profits.

The specialist online store increased sales by 67% to £55.6m in the year ending January 2010. Pre-tax profits reached £7.1m according to accounts filed at Companies House. These figures should please the retailing supremo Andy Bond – a non-executive director of Wiggle and the former boss of supermarket ASDA.

Wiggle suggests that part of its recent success is down to The Mamil, the nickname given to the new breed of middle-aged men in lycra (though perhaps not all the size of the chap in the photo!).

Buried in the Wiggle sales figures are some good indications of where their cycle sales come from. Less than 20% of sales are for complete bicycles and the main driver for sales being bike accessories and parts. Between 30%-40% of sales were generated from orders outside the UK. Staff numbers at Wiggle rose from 70 to 92.

Along with cycling gear the online store sells a wide range of running, swimming and triathlon equipment. You can see their current offers by clicking here.

A team of cycling enthusiasts are attempting to break a cycling land speed record using a bike made entirely from wood.

The Splinter Bike team (official site) aim to build a completely wooden bicycle – no nuts and bolts, just wood and glue – and then ride it to set a new land speed record.  The Norfolk based team started this project on 16th September 2010 and have been filmed as they design, build and ultimately ride the wooden bike. They are also aiming to raise money for the Shelter Box charity.

If you follow the Splinter Bike blog you’ll  be able to see how the components on the bike are coming along. I’m more than a little curious to see what they come up with for the transmission …I’m not sure they’ll be able to make a traditional bicycle chain out of MDF.

You can also follow Splinter Bike on twitter.

Debrett’s, publishers of the guide on good manners and social pleasantries has produced an etiquette guide for cyclists.

In an attempt to promote harmony between cyclists and pedestrians and runners, Debrett’s have published the guide after being invited by British Waterways. British Waterways have received complaints that cyclists riding along towpaths were refusing to slow down, causing collisions. Apparently more and more cyclists are riding to work since the 7/7 bombings in London and many routes are alongside the canal network.

Debrett’s suggest in the guide that cyclists should:

• give “two tings” on their bells to alert people of their presence
• be considerate to pedestrians
• be courteous and considerate, smile and say “thankyou” if someone lets you pass

British Waterways’ towpath ranger, Joseph Young, said:

In most instances pedestrians and cyclists share the towpath with no problems, but we are seeing an increase in the number of speeding cyclists, who seem to forget, or aren’t aware, that pedestrians do have right of way. Sometimes cyclists can forget how fast and threatening they can be if they are passing you at speed.

British Waterways, working with Transport for London, is promoting the Two Tings campaign asking cyclists to slow down, and pedestrians to listen out for bikes. It’s all about sharing the route and remembering how your actions could be perceived by others.

A nude cyclist (not the one pictured) may face prosecution for outraging public decency after being caught riding through a speed trap.

The bare cheeked cyclist who pedalled faster when confronted, shocked a Neighbourhood Watch team in the Suffolk village of Acton who were carrying out speed checks in the area.

Pictured is Gareth Williams, the suggested MI6 worker whose body has been found inside a holdall in a London flat. Mr Williams is pictured competing in a cycle time trial race (an against-the-clock race) and the RTTC lettering under his number 78 stands for the Roads Time Trial Council (official site).

For more news on the death of Mr Williams, visit the BBC News site.

Nice as in Nice, South of France. We’re not long back from a holiday in Nice and I’d thought I’d mention the Velo Bleu bikes again.

I saw quite a few of these hire cycles being ridden around, by tourists or Nice locals I’m not quite sure. The bikes still look in good, clean condition and I didn’t see any trashed ones anywhere. One thought I have …who pumps up the tyres? This must be a maintenance issue for any cycle hire scheme, including the new London hire scheme of course. If you know how they keep tyre pressures up do leave a comment.

The Velo Bleu bikes have a handlebar mounted pannier which is evidently used by some locals as a means of transporting a small dog around town! Or in one case, it can be used to transport a teenage girl around the streets of Nice!

The London Bicycle Hire scheme launched last Friday and there are reports that there were more than few Boris Bike blips. In fact Transport for London is to make refunds to people who used the bikes last week.

It’s estimated that about 6,000 rides were made on Friday but many cyclists struggled to lock or unlock the bikes at the docking stations. As the docking stations are used to record the hire time many journey times have been incorrectly recorded. One user who didn’t actually ride a bike because he couldn’t get the bike out of the docking station said the system reckoned he’d had the bike for 11 hours.

Due to the difficulties TfL says it will waive journey fares for everyone who used the blue bicycles on the launch day. Most of the journeys were under 30 minutes and are therefore free anyway.

There are 400 central London docking stations offering a total Boris Bike count of 6,000. Made in Canada at a cost of around £850 it was presumed that the bikes would be targeted by thieves but none of the bikes have yet to be reported as stolen.

There have been a couple of magazine supplements in our newspaper called The Red Bulletin, sponsored by Red Bull. I’ve just been speed reading an edition and come across an article about the legendary mountain biking pioneer Gary Fisher. Fisher is widely regarded as the daddy of mountain biking, pioneering the use of off-road bikes back in the 70′s in California.

Fisher and his biking pals salvaged old single speed Schwinn paper boy bikes for a small fistful of dollars and rode these klunkers downhill. The old bikes were really heavy, some weighing in at over 40lbs so the boys raced them downhill on gravel fire roads in the Cascade Canyon. It was a decent descent, dropping some 420 odd metres in just 3km …pretty precarious on a bike that only has a pedal-back brake. Fisher, who was an able tweaker of bikes was the first rider to add derailleur gears to his ride, along with drum brakes to make stopping a bit easier.

After a period of downhill racing, tinkering and experimenting Fisher hooked up with Tom Ritchey (another well known biking brand) and that meeting set Fisher off with a business idea. His new company was formed in 1979 – it was simply called MountainBikes (all one word). Talk about branding!

The first bike cost $1320 which I guess back in 1979 was a lot for bike. There were sales of 160 in the first year of trading. In year two, MoutainBikes sold nearly 1,000 bikes. After a few bumps, over steers and a pretty good fall the original company buckled in 1983 and was replaced by Gary Fisher Bicycles. By then, Specialized were producing the iconic StumpJumper on a large scale. Fisher Bikes was sold in 1991 to a Taiwan company called Anlen and Gary Fisher was an unhappy company president. But Trek came to his rescue in 1993, buying the company and giving Fisher free reign to innovate and design mountain bikes to his heart’s content.

So the hippy cyclist, hitting 60 years old and still riding strong and fast and still firmly believing in the pure biketastic-ness of the bicycle.

This is what happens when a bike needs repairing in Super Hero suburbia. It’s by Monty Python so it’s completely daft of course!