Streetwear company Carhartt which has some heritage in BMX has joined forces with UK fixie bike company Charge. The result is this Carhartt x Charge fixed gear bike.

Described as a fixie the bike does have a flip-flop hub so you’ll be able to ride it as single free as well.

Oh, who’s that girl? None other than Juliet Elliot – a Charge team member.

Want to see another bike model? Checkout the latest Charge Plug Racer.

I was speed reading through an advertising booklet that fell out the Sunday paper and happened to spot an article about leading online cycling and sports store Wiggle.

The founders, Harvey Jones and Mitch Dall started out running a small catalogue business selling small bicycle parts from Butlers Cycles, a small independent bike shop setup in Portsmouth in 1920.

Having decided that their customers weren’t browsers but cyclists who knew exactly what part they wanted, Jones had the idea of selling bike parts online to speed up the whole shopping experience for his customers. So wiggle.co.uk was born and today it’s a leading online bike store, shipping to over 70 countries. Apart from selling bikes and accessories wiggle sell running, swimming and triathlon gear.

Go take a look for yourself.

Congratulations to Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy (pictured) who got married at the weekend.

Sir Chris, 34, married Sarra Kemp at St Giles’ Cathedral on the Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Hoy was born in the city.

Among the guests at the private ceremony was fellow Olympian, swimmer Rebecca Adlington.

The Boris bikes are coming!

Transport for London (tfl) has announced that residents and visitors in London will be able to make use of thousands of hire bikes by summer, 2010.

Anyone aged 14 and over will be able to hire a bike from any of the proposed 400 docking stations, 24 hours a day, all year round. There is a sliding scale of fees based upon duration of hire with the first 30 minutes free. You won’t be able to pay on an Oyster Card.

Such schemes aren’t unique of course. The Paris Velib scheme was launched in 2007 and since then 8,000 bikes have been stolen and 18,000 have been damaged beyond repair. The sun baked city of Nice in the south of France also introduced a cycle hire scheme in 2009 (I’ve got some photos that I’ll post next week).

Apparently the Royal Mail has decided to phase out the traditional postman’s bike due to road safety concerns.

Newspaper reports suggest that tens of thousands of bikes are to be taken out of service and shipped out to Africa. Many of the bikes are to be replaced by vans or push-trolleys in some areas. A recent House of Lords debate provides more information.

This to me seems to be a poor decision. With all their eco-friendly credentials you’d have thought that Royal Mail would be keen to promote their use of bikes. Bikes are way cheaper than vans, ultra reliable, very practical and emissions free. I suspect that this has got nothing to do with safety issues but more to do with some future rationing of staff numbers.

What are your thoughts?

Paul Heaton of House Martins and Beautiful South fame is touring in May.

What’s different about this forthcoming Pedals and Beer Pumps Tour is that the musicians will be riding from one gig to next and each venue is a pub.

Heaton wants to promote the causes of both cycling (apparently he’s always loved cycling) and it’s green credentials and pubs because they’re facing a hard time during the recession.

Tickets are priced at £15. More information here. Bikes supplied by enigma

We were on a short family trip to London last week and I’d had plans to snap a few photos of some fixie bikes. I noticed quite a few, including one sighting of the new Boardman Road Comp SC.

Pictured above is a fixie that I spotted on Brompton Road, Kensington. Judging by the frame clearances I’d say that this is a fixie conversion project. Notice anything missing? Yep… there aren’t any brakes. Naughty.

Here’s another view of the bike, front on. What make is the bar?

It’s been widely reported that Cardiff council has spent £2000 on an 8ft cycle lane.

Thought to be the shortest cycle lane in the country, the council has been on the receiving end of some harsh criticism as a result.

I’ve not seen it myself but from the picture I’ll go along with all the common consensus that it’s a waste of money. By the time you’ve ridden in to it you’ll be a wheel revolution away from leaving it again.

What do you think …a waste of money or safer riding for cyclists?

Think you can pedal fast? Got a competitive streak? Want to enjoy yourself?

Then the Rollapaluza roller racing events might be right up your street! If you’re not aware then rollers are a way of riding your bike whilst staying stationary. The back wheel sits on either one or two steel rollers and when you pedal your back wheel makes the rollers go around. You can pedal like crazy but you won’t move an inch. Sometimes rollers are called turbos, turbo trainers or cycle trainers.

Rollapaluza race night gives riders the opportunity to race against one another…

Two cyclists battle it out on a pair of custom rollers connected to a huge dial over a simulated 500m distance at speeds in excess of 50mph!

As you can see from the photo above the bikes used are often fixed wheel or single speed, so if you’ve got or are about to get yourself one then you might fancy having a go of rollapaluza. Checkout the official site for more info, photos and upcoming race nights.

Don’t try this at home. A lot of it is most probably illegal.

With acknowledgements to Leader Bikes.