Rob Ainsley visits Eddington the new bike-friendly ‘village’cience nerds know
Science nerds to know Eddington: the 20th century British astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington, whose 1919 eclipse observations confirmed Einstein’s relativity theories, and who once calculated all the protons in the universe.
Strava nerds also know Eddington. A keen cyclist, he devised a measure of cumulative long distance, now called the Eddington Number. He just referred to it as ‘n’ – nothing to do with ‘n+1’, famously the ideal number of bikes to own where n is the number you currently have.
Your Eddington Number is the maximum n such that on n days in your life, you cycled at least n miles. (Strava won’t calculate n, but apps such as VeloViewer will.) Looking over my touring stats, for instance, there are hundreds of days when I did over 40 miles, and a handful when I did over 100 – but the max across both, my Eddington Number, is 66: on 66 days I did at least 66 miles. Eddington reached 84; hardcore audax cyclists might eventually top 140; Amanda Coker, who recently rode 100,000 miles in a record-breaking 423 days, did 235 days of over 235 miles in that period.
This story is from the March 2018 edition of Cycling Plus.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2018 edition of Cycling Plus.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.
No limits
Not every adventure needs to be that epic, says bikepacking Scotland founder Markus Stitz
UNBOUND UNLEASHED
Josh Patterson was one of 34 starters for the inaugural edition of Unbound in 2006. Now, with more than 5,000 riders taking part in today's event, he charts the rise of the most important race in gravel
FOREST COMMISSION
Looking for a goal race in 2025 that'll stimulate the synapses and live long in the memory? You'd struggle to do better than ENID CRV in Finland
15 OF THE BEST ADVENTURES
Featuring Yorkshire, the USA, Sri Lanka and more, here are our picks of the world's greatest gravel races and routes
The stuff of dreams
Ned sings the praises of the Paris Olympics road-race course
"I rode 3,000 miles around Britain on a bamboo bike to highlight our climate crisis"
Recordbreaking cyclist and triathlete Kate Strong, 45, took to the road to raise awareness of environmental issues
FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
We venture into the hidden gem of the glorious Creuse, one of France's least populated regions
STAR TREK
New tube shapes and carbon lay-up makes the eighth generation of Trek's legendary Madone an aero and climbing bike all rolled into one
GOLD RUSH
With conflict around the world, Paris 2024 was a ray of light. Here are our highs of a mighty Olympics
