Tag Archives: Circulation

Which characteristics have Born Bike Tours Barcelona for chosing a good bicycle for the city

6th August, 2018

One of the most common questions made by those who have just started their urban cycling is: “What type of bike is the best for the city?” For us, it is important to select a model that will make the coexistence with the traffic in the city easier, so it has to be safe.

1. It should be easy to start and stop

Upon forming part of the traffic of the city, it should be easy to put the feet on the ground when you’re waiting for the traffic light to change.

2. There should be a good acceleration

This is important when you have to move the bicycle to cross and intersection or change lanes.

3. It should be easy to see

It’s important to maintain yourself visible to other users. For this objective, you should have good front and back lights.

4. It should allow you to see the traffic around you

The straighter up the cyclist rides, the easier it is for him to see what is happening around you.

5. The bicycle should be easy to control with one hand

Take into account that the hand signals are extremely important in order to maintain an adequate communication with drivers and other cyclists.

6. There should be an efficient range of speeds

The diversity of the speeds depends on the topography of your city and the distance that you have to go. More important than the number of velocities is the range you have available. If there are many slopes in your city, you need a low range of speeds. The contrary happens in a city that is relatively even.

7. It should be efficient

The back suspension and the common rims in the case of mountain bicycles are not recommended for a city bicycle. Even though this is useful for the mountains, the suspension (especially the rear one) absorbs part of the energy we apply to the pedal. If you plan to use your mountain bicycle in the city, you should make some modifications.

As we have already said, there are a great variety of bicycles. It’s important that you like the bike, that I has the right size and be according to your necessities.

Now you know some of the important things about our bicycles, so, start to pedal!

Autumn is back again and we don’t want you to stop pedaling around the city

October 11th, 2016

Photo by Lauren Ellis

Although the rain can be a bit annoying, the autumn’s temperature is perfect for circulating around the city by bicycle and for taking advantage of the weekends for doing excursions. The only thing that you need to keep in mind is to follow some safety tips which we want to remind you about.

You always have to be a prepared person

You should always take a comfortable raincoat with you (there are some of them that you can use that over your trousers) and a good footwear for circulating on bicycle, especially, and for any other occasion where you could be surprised by a rainstorm. So, keep it in a comfortable backpack and take it everywhere.

Pay more attention to the safety rules

When it is raining, inside cars people use to lose vision, for this reason it is even more important for you to have front and back bike lights, put emphasis on your safety signs and be sure that the other drivers pay attention to your next maneuver. Even though all these things seem a lot of bother, but if you drive a car or another vehicle, surely, you will have the same problems.

And, of course, don’t forget your helmet at home!

Photo by Briana Blum

Improve your adhesion to the road to the maximum, avoid slipping!

When it is raining, it is the only occasion where we can reduce the pressure of our wheels (only a little bit, because you could get a flat tire). It is also important to keep in mind that the zebra crossings and the other painted signs on the road could be very slippery, so try to avoid crossing them directly or if you can’t avoid it, cross them very slowly. Sometimes the cars lose oil on the road and this is very dangerous too. When it is raining, you can identify the oil stains easily, they are multicolor marks that appear on the road.

As you can imagine, neither is it advisable to go through zones with mud, unless you want to arrive at the first meeting of the morning with your whole back decorated.

If you keep these three tips in mind, you will enjoy one of the best seasons for doing sport or for going from one place to another avoiding sweating.

Enjoy the autumn in Barcelona or any other city!

Barcelona, a city which is continuously better for circulating by bicycle

September 6th, 2016

The City Hall of Barcelona is continuously working to obtain easier and safer the journeys through the streets of this city by bicycle. And it seems that they are achieving it!

Barcelona thinks that the bicycle is the best means of transport for circulating through the city. For this reason, as we indicated in other mails of this blog, it is working in order for the circulation to become easier and safer, something that the very neighbors of the city are perceiving.

During the year 2015, the journeys through Barcelona increased a 2.7%, which has turned into 4.9 MILIONS of internal journeys, of which more than 96% have been carried out by the people who live in the city. For us, these figures are an irrefutable evidence that bicycles are going to be the means of transport of the future in these streets, improving, in this way, the traffic, the pollution levels and, in general, the good mood of all the people who are moving through the streets of Barcelona.

In order to guarantee this result, Barcelona has created a new manual about the bike lanes’ signposting. With this manual, it pretends, among other goals, to improve the cyclists’ security, reducing the conflicts with the pedestrian and also improving the routes’ connectivity. You can find this manual in the Bicycle section of the Barcelona’s City Hall web, together with other audiovisual resources which completes it.

If you are not already circulating through the city by bicycle, it seems that you will run out of any excuses to avoid trying it.

The 200km of bike lanes in Barcelona

Related to last week’s mail and in order to complete our safety guide a bit more, here you have a map and some tips to circulate through the bike lanes in Barcelona. carril-bici-bcn

It continuously results easier and safer getting through Barcelona on bicycle; this fact is thanks to the 200km of bike lanes in a lot of streets of the city which connect us with almost every district (it would only be necessary to have an extension through the peripheral zones).

At first, if we don’t know all the streets exactly, Barcelona on a bicycle might seem quite big. For this reason we can access to this City Hall updated map of the different bike lanes.

mapa-aj-barcelona-carril-bici

click on the image to access to the map

 

google-maps-carril-bici-barcelonaAlthough, if we have problems for getting orientated, and we want to consult if we are on the right way while we are circulating, we will be able to do that through our Smartphone thanks to the Google Maps application, which, among its different options, allows us to highlight the different bike lanes of Barcelona on our map.

In order to circulate in the bike lane, in addition to wearing the necessary bike equipment and always respecting all the sign posts, it is also important to follow these basic tips:

  • Signal your next manoeuvre with your arms for the benefit of the rest of the cyclists.
  • You should circulate in the right direction: not every lane is two directions; pay attention to the direction of the road marks; it’s possible that you sometimes need to cross to the other side of the street.
  • And, specially, keep calm with some pedestrians; warn them kindly if they are walking in our lane. They are almost never conscious about this error. Remember that at the crossings they have priority.

To get to know more details, consult Article 14 of Pedestrian and Vehicle Circulation of Barcelona.

Remember that our security is the most important factor for arriving at our destination!

2 simple tips for a safe circulation with the bicycle around Barcelona

If you like to move around Barcelona on bicycle like us, you need to keep 2 basic points in mind in order to avoid some risk situations.

1. Take care of the maintenance of your bicycle

The maintenance of your bicycle is very important for your security, especially if you have to pedal every day, and it’s more simple than the maintenance of a motorized vehicle, so you don’t have any excuse for not looking over your own bicycle. It’s important to maintain it clean and greased; in addition you need to check that the brakes work perfectly. The tires have to have clear treads. If they are worn they could lose the adhesion to the road and it might be dangerous, mostly when it rains.

These are some of the most important points to keep in mind. As time goes by you will learn more about your bicycle, even though at the beginning, if we have to assemble and disassemble anything it’s important to take note or make some photos of every step that we make. And if you don’t feel quite confident with your mechanical qualities, you should consult a professional.

2. Keep the ordinance in mind

You should take into account that the rules about circulating with a bicycle according to the city ordinances can vary depending on the city you’re in. This is very important if we don’t want to get a fine, but also to avoid dangers for us and for others (especially for the pedestrian). Something really basic about of Barcelona is that whenever possible, we always circulate in the bike lane. We can circulate on the sidewalk if we don’t have any bike lane near or if circulating on the road is dangerous. Nevertheless, it needs to be wider than 5 meters and not have too many pedestrians. If one of these two points are not present, it’s better to walk with the bicycle. We can also circulate on 30km/h roads. We will be able see that these are duly signalized, and it’s recommendable to circulate in the middle of the road so that we more visible for the motorized vehicles.

Even if the helmet, the bell and the lights are sometimes not obligatory elements, we will avoid risk situations if we use them.

If you follow these simple tips, you will avoid dangerous situations and you will continue enjoying your bicycle as always.