Benefits of cycling

Cycling on a regular basis can help you lose weight, improve your fitness and reduce stress. You will find plenty of tips on equipment and road safety.

Cycling is the third most popular recreational activity in the United Kingdom. An estimated 3.1 million people ride a bicycle each month.

Recommended physical activity levels

Children under five should do 180 minutes every day.

Young people (aged 5-18) should do 60 minutes every day.

Adults (aged 19-64) should do 150 minutes every week.

Older adults (65 and over) should do 150 minutes every week.

As an exercise activity, cycling has broad appeal. Toddlers, pensioners, the able-bodied or people with disabilities can all enjoy cycling if they have the right equipment. Read our guide to cycling for beginners, which includes tips on staying motivated.

Cycling is a good green form of transport and an excellent way to keep fit without putting undue stress on your joints. It saves you money, gets you fit and is good for the environment.

If is much easier on your joints than running and other high-impact aerobic activity and it still helps you keep in shape.

For example, someone who weighs 80kg (12st 9lb) will burn more than 650 calories with an hour’s riding, and tone their legs and bottom. If you ride up hills or off-road, you’ll also work your upper body.

The best way to build your cardiovascular fitness on the bike is to ride for at least 150 minutes every week. You could cycle to work a few days a week or do a couple of shorter rides during the week with a longer ride at the weekend. You’ll soon feel the benefits.

Safety tips

Look behind you before you turn, overtake or stop.

Use arm signals before you turn right or left.

Obey traffic lights and road signs.

Don’t ride on the pavement unless there’s a sign that says you can.

On busy or narrow roads, don’t cycle next to another person.

When overtaking parked cars, watch out for car doors opening suddenly and allow room to pass safely.

Don’t use headphones while cycling.

Never use a mobile phone while cycling.

Cycling equipment

We recommend wearing a cycling helmet can help prevent a head injury if you fall from your bike.

Your cycle helmet should meet the following criteria:

•It is marked as meeting the EN1078 Standard.

•It should be a snug fit and positioned squarely on your head. It should sit just above your eyebrows, not tilted back or tipped forwards.

•It is securely fastened by straps, which aren’t twisted, with only enough room for two fingers between your chin and the strap.

Replace your helmet every five years. Don’t buy a second-hand helmet – it may be damaged and may not protect you properly.

Being seen

If you use your bike at night or when visibility is poor, it is compulsory to have:

•a white front light

•a red rear light

•a red rear reflector

•amber/yellow pedal reflectors – front and back on each pedal

Reflectors fitted to the front and the spokes will also help you be seen.

Additional lights and reflectors

You can use other lights as well as the compulsory ones, but they must:

•be the right colour – white at the front, red at the back

•not dazzle other road users

If they are flashing, it must be at a rate of one to four equal flashes per second.

Check your bike is functional and safe.

Regular check the condition of the wheels and tyres, ensure that they are in good condition and running true

If you have a front mudguards check that they are secure and not in contact with the tyre

Check that the saddle is secure and in line with the handle bars.

Brakes must function and adequately stop the bike, check that there is sufficient brake pad. Cables should not be frayed inside the brake levers.

Handlebars should be free of play and straight.

Chain, gears and pedals should be free running and secure.

Bike security

The level of lock security should be increased the longer you intend to leave your bike unattended. Where you lock your bike and for how long are two important considerations when choosing your security level. Generally, bikes locked for longer periods of time or bikes locked on college campuses or in urban areas should use higher security.

Do not opt for low-cost combination locks they are very easy to open with little effort, a 3 digit combination lock has only got 1000 possible combinations, a 4 digit lock has 10000.

It is better to select locks with a key a good quality lock with a 6mm shackle would be sufficient.

If you select a lock that just secures the front or rear wheel on thing to consider is that the wheels can easily be removed and you don’t want to find that all you have left is the wheel securely fastened to a bike rack.

A better method is to select a good quality chaise with a nylon cover or a 10mm, flexible braided steel cable with a nylon cover. You can then secure frame and wheels and secure this with a good quality padlock.

Bike shelters and racks

Total Locker Service provides an extensive range of bike shelters and racks. Our bike shelters are all galvanised with an option to powder cot the frame in one of our range of attractive colours. Our bike racks are available in stainless steel, galvanised steel and galvanised steel powder coated. Get in touch If you are interested in a free no obligation quotation from our friendly professional staff

John Scott

Lockers at Lords

As part of the ongoing work to ensure that Lord’s remains world-class, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) – owners of the world-famous cricket ground – have invested in new storage equipment and keyless locking facilities in the MCC Cricket Academy, event catering and hospitality spaces.

John Dawson, Estates Project Manager at Lord’s said “Having worked with Total Locker Service for many years, their work ethic and knowledge of the industry is excellent. Nothing is too much trouble and MCC looks forward to working with the team on future projects.”

We at Total Locker Service like to work with our customers to ensure that they achieve the best solution. For the MCC Cricket Academy, we offered 6 different combination locks and talked the MCC through the benefits and weaknesses of each lock before they decided on using Digilock. Digilock provided both the functionality and the look that they needed in such a high profile venue: keyless access for shared use lockers. Users access their belongings with a self-selected 4 digit code while
management access is provided with a unique electronic bypass key.
We also offered a cost-effective solution by supplying new doors for the original lockers. This met budget constraints as well as the ‘green’ aspirations of the Club and provided an appealing impression in the changing room.

We carried out the installation in a couple of days; mounting the 100 new laminate doors onto the lockers, and fixing the Digilocks into position, together with number discs and instruction panels. Once the installation was complete, the locks were programmed and MCC’s staff were trained to deal with any questions and problems for the new users. We also prepared to support

MCC with any queries. Our engineers are on hand to carry out locker and lock maintenance at regular intervals.

MCC also requested a bespoke storage solution for their hospitality staff – the previous system of managing keys and padlocks for the hundreds of catering staff was problematic. Our solution was to optimise the space for lockers efficiently for maximum compartment numbers plus sloping tops to keep the place tidy, in addition to providing a keyless lock. We offered a number of keyless options, and chose the L&F 4 digit reprogrammable combination lock with master key override. This allows visiting staff to easily program
me their pin number, and management to quickly reset any locked lockers ready for the next event. The catering management team were very pleased with the result.
Following the refurbishment of the executive hospitality suites, MCC also wanted to increase the security of the cabinets within the boxes. We proposed a number of electronic combination locks and this time chose the Ojmar OCS battery operated electronic keypad lock for two reasons. The first was the white colour and sleek style which matched the white furniture and modern impression of the suites. The second was the functionality of the lock: which provides a 4 digit combination pin code for the user and a 6 digit combination pin code for emergency override by management.

Our team planned the installation and tested the lock for functional correctness. We completed the installation in one day. This has been so popular with the users of executive boxes that now, all executive patrons request a similar provision.

Total Locker Service works with customers to provide cost effective solutions for new changing rooms and provides service and spare parts to assist customers get the best out of their equipment.

To find out more ring us on 01283 749211 or 01284 718771

More about Digilock:

Digilock shared use locks are designed for lockers that are shared by multiple users throughout the day. Users lock and unlock any available locker with a self- selected code while management has access to a manager bypass key.

When unlocked, the lock will stay unlocked until locked by another user. For other product features ring Total Locker Service 01284 749211, or see DigiLock info.