The official Games Lanes were painted onto London's roads last night, restricting traffic, and posters are pasted all over the capital, telling people that cycling will be faster than public transport.
With that in mind, Barclays, sponsor of Boris Bikes and Barclays Cycle Superhighways, took time off from fixing bank rates to help London's fair weather cyclists fix their bikes.
Four free bike clinics took place yesterday along Cycle Superhighways, to coincide with research that showed that three in five cyclists are riding bikes that could be in better working condition. 28 per cent say they ride with flat tyres, over a fifth 21% take to the road at night without lights and one in seven get on bikes with un-checked brakes.
Manned by graduates of the Barclays sponsored ‘Cycle Into Work’ scheme, which skills disadvantaged Londoners into working within the city’s growing cycling industry, thorough bike checks were made during the morning and evening rush hours along three of the Barclays Cycle Superhighways in Tower Hamlets, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth plus an additional clinic in Hammersmith & Fulham.
If you missed out on a once-over, you can claim a 15 per cent discount on servicing, and a 10 per cent discount on parts at Evans stores throughout July.
Ashok Vaswani from Barclays said: “Cycling is a great, cost-effective way of getting around London quickly, especially this summer. We want the millions of cyclists who take to the capital’s streets to ensure they are on a well-maintained bike."
After an unpromising start, having to be bribed by her parents to learn to ride without stabilisers, Sarah became rather keener on cycling in her university years, and was eventually persuaded to upgrade to proper road cycling by the prospect of a shiny red Italian bike, which she promptly destroyed by trapping a pair of knickers in the rear derailleur. Sarah writes about about cycling every weekend on road.cc.