Date of birth request

News

Following discussion in the PCTC committee, we'd like PCTC members to consider providing us with your date of birth. That would allow us to:

  • Identify any upward drift of age that could indicate a recruitment issue
  • Produce a more accurate return to Cycling UK which asks us for an age analysis each year
  • Campaign for cycle provision - for example, a recent planning application by McCarthy and Stone implied that old folk are not interested in cycling!

Entry of your date of birth is optional. If you are concerned that your birthday might get into the wrong hands, you can use a date that is a day or so out. That will have no material effect on the stats but will obscure the real date. For what it's worth, I've entered my actual birthday.

To provide your date of birth:

  • See the new 'Date of birth' section of your profile:
    • Click/tap this link; or
    • Log in to the site and click/tap the 'Your profile' link shown at the foot of every page
  • Alternatively, send me or Tricia Farnham your date of birth so we can enter it for you

Note:

  • You can remove your date of birth at any time via your profile or through a request to me or Tricia
  • Dates of birth are visible only to site administrators
  • Dates of birth are used only to aggregate statistics based on age for use in campaigns and reports
  • Statistics generated by the site will not disclose individual birth dates

There's more information in our published privacy policy.

Please let me know if the above does not address all your concerns.

Thank you,

Andy Henderson
Secretary, Portsmouth CTC

Why our emails always come from portsmouthctc.org.uk

Featured

You might receive an email with a reply address: emailer@portsmouthctc.org.uk. It also includes a 'blue box' telling you who originated the email.

That's because:

  • We use Amazon Web Services to send our emails. It's lower cost and more reliable than other methods, but AWS requires us to specify in advance which 'from' addresses it should accept. AWS accepts any address ending in @portsmouthctc.org.uk so we always send emails from PCTC addresses.
  • That approach allows us to implement an email protocol called DMARC that maximises the chance that our emails get delivered to the recipient's inbox.

If the originator uses a personal address we send messages from 'emailer@portsmouthctc.org.uk' and include a blue box in the email to explain who originated the email.

If you are logged in to the site and you use it to send an email, it automatically suggests you use your personal PCTC email address to avoid the 'blue box' and make it easier for people to reply to you.

When composing a reply to the emailer, you can:

  • Select the highlighted address in the 'blue box' and paste it into the reply address.
  • Right click the highlighted address, select 'Copy link' (or similar) and paste that into the reply address.
  • Simply reply to the emailer. Provided you leave the 'blue box' in your email, the emailer will attempt to forward your email on for you.

If you want to start a completely new conversation with the sender, you can normally click/tap the sender's name in the 'blue box'.

By the way, we're aware there's a standard mechanism that allows us to specify replies should go to an address other than the 'from' address. However, some email software obeys that mechanism while others ignore it (presumably because spammers can use it to mislead you). Given we can't predict whether that mechanism will work for you, or not, we decided not to use it.

Sharing your location via Whatsapp

General interest

I’ve used Whatsapp for many years but have only recently looked into using the ‘location’ facility and on speaking with various folks it seems that many do not know about this very handy utility.

It seems to me that cyclists in particular could use this facility to great advantage when out and about, either solo or group riding. So here is a quick guide for Android smartphone users (with a supplementary note for Apple iPhones at the end).

Assuming the smartphone has GPS/Location Services enabled and Whatsapp is installed and mobile data is switched on...

Step 1

Open Whatsapp and under the CHATS tab, select a user to create a message in the normal way.

Step 2

In the message box area select the ‘paperclip’ icon and from the displayed options, select ‘location’.

Step 3

The next screen allows the option to ‘Send your current location’ or ‘Share live location’

Step 4

Assuming you select ‘Share live location’ you then have the option to share for either 15 mins, 1 hour or 8 hours. Plus the option to include a message in the ‘Add comment’ box.

Step 5

Send the message in the normal way – the sent message appears in the sent messages area which includes a ‘Stop sharing’ option if you which to terminate the share prematurely.

The recipient on receiving the message can on opening and clicking the Google map, see your current location updated at various intervals (but not if in Step 4 you selected ‘Send your current location’ which is just your location at the time of sending the message).

Note for Apple users

With the exception of Step 3, the procedure is I understand, broadly the same as for Android users. In Step 3 you will not see a ‘paperclip’ but instead hit the ‘+’ symbol to display the options.

Please tell Hampshire to support cycling

Campaign update

*** UPDATED - EASY RESPONSE, DEADLINE SUNDAY !!! ***
The deadline is midnight Sunday 26-June to respond to Hampshire County Council's consultation on version 4 of it's Local Transport Plan (LTP4 for short), which will determine our transport policies over the next 20 years, especially cycling and active travel, and how we can reduce the 50% of Hampshire's CO2 emissions that come from transport. Continue reading →

The Spring 2022 edition of The Pedal is now available

News

You can read the latest edition here. If you are not already logged-in to the Portsmouth CTC site, you will need to log in to see it.

Contents list:

  • Stormy weather
  • Editorial opinions
  • Presidents' thoughts (that apostrophe is in the right place)
  • Fine weather for a bike ride
  • Going tubeless
  • Blueybells
  • The rain in Spain
  • Col ascents
  • Transcontinental cycling
  • Wildflower rides
  • Home automation 3
  • Mrs Pink and her sister go cycling again
  • Far east adventures
  • Dartmoor Ghost
  • Hill climb and freewheel competition 2022
  • Puzzle page

That's a good variety, I'm sure there's something to interest, if not inspire, you.

As you read the articles, remember to click photos - most will show you a larger version and you won't lose your place.

I'm looking forward to getting your contribution to the Autumn 2022 edition.

Martyn

the Pedal - Spring22 (2nd Call)

News

Dear PCTC member,

Just a gentle reminder that work will start soon on the Spring edition of the Pedal.

Thanks to everyone who's submitted an article to date, but we could do with a few more. Let us know what you've been up to over the Winter and early Spring, or maybe what you're planning for the Summer. Articles on rides (however long or short), reviews of bikes or associated equipment, or maybe more technical articles on cycling issues. Essentially, anything loosely related to cycling. We'll even publish non-cycling articles if it's of interest to other members.

The deadline for copy is Saturday 30th April.

There's still time.

M

editor@portsmouthctc.org.uk

the Pedal - Spring22 (1st Call)

News

We're going to start work soon on the Spring22 edition of the Pedal. Please can I ask you to consider submitting an article.

The article doesn't necessarily need to be that long. As a guide, somewhere between 250 and 1250 words supported by photos/maps/diagrams/charts etc, is about right.

I thought it might be useful to have a theme for the edition. So with the recent poor weather conditions causing issues for cyclists, I thought "Stormy Weather" might be appropriate. Articles and photos loosely based around the theme would be good.

It doesn't of course exclude articles that have nothing to do with the weather. Articles on tours, rides, technical issues, reviews of bikes and associated kit, cycling issues etc, would be welcome.

So as ever, whether you've cycled from Havant to Havana, Bedhampton to Bedford or simply Westbourne to West Dean, we'd like to hear about it.

Don't forget, the Pedal is written by the members, for the members.

If you've got an idea and would like to discuss further, please do contact me. The deadline for articles is the 30th April.

Set your creative self free!

Martyn
editor@portsmouthctc.org.uk