It was luck that did it. Mary, who is superstitious about such things, came across a charm of a tandem couple and bought it as a pendant. “What do you think?” she asked when she showed it to me that night. She had planned to buy us mountain bikes this year – now a tandem [...]
Read all of Expectant Waiting »
When two Ottawa cyclists meet at a stop light, the Rideau Lakes Cycling Tour (RLCT) is probably the third most common topic of conversation (“great day”, “how far?”, “riding the Tour this year?”). It is the classic ride of the region, run by the Ottawa Bicycle Club on the first weekend in June. Because it [...]
Read all of Rideau Lakes Cycling Tour 2011 »
First of all, I have to apologize for being away from CycleSeven for so long. Things have been a bit busy and stuff recently and although I’ve been out cycling I haven’t done enough. In early May I was the victim of road rage – me as a pedestrian! and was attacked for having the [...]
Read all of Sorry for my absence »
... or How to cross the River Hull on a bike in relative safety: The Commute Part Deux (with apologies to Kern). I haven’t been enjoying my ride to work just lately. I have to get from the east to the west of the River Hull. On the route I usually take there is a [...]
Read all of The Commute Part Deux… »
I like cycling hills. What better place to live than on an island near Cumbria. Picture taken earlier in the season.
Read all of Audax Altitude Award Round the Year… May 2011 »
Gosh, doesn't a year go by quickly? Katie's gearbox broke a year ago and I haven't driven a car since then. I've pushed through the problems of a broken hip. Even with the time off, I've cycled more miles in the last year then I used to drive. I've tried not to become a fanatical [...]
Read all of First Year Free »
Why oh why did we think this was a good idea! Well, in November 2010 the Etape Caledonia ride in May was AGES away, and we had HOURS as yet to train for it. I could already cycle 100 miles, and I had proved I could cycle 80 miles a day over several days, therefore [...]
Read all of Manxcat cycling for her life at the Etape Caledonia 2011! »
I've hardly cycled for over a week. Once, actually, with Mrs Taylor to test our touring bikes with the panniers on. The panniers weren't fully loaded up but they will be soon, then I can make up for a lazy few days.
Read all of Non-cycling days and weather forecasts »
Brown Bike disapproved of my brilliant idea of strapping bananas to his rack. As we whizzed down Madingley Hill into Cambridge, he dropped them into his rear wheel, chewed them up and spat them out. We were joining the Cambridge Cycling Campaign and Cycle Cambridge ride to Reach Fair. It was a decent turnout, perhaps [...]
Read all of A Noisy Ride to Reach »
For some, bikes and beer don't mix. On occasion I have a drop, but not on a serious bike ride. A couple of weeks ago I stopped off at the Ship Inn at Sewerby during our Yorkshire Wolds Cycle Route ride. Before we got there, between Fordon and Burton Fleming, we passed the entrance to [...]
Read all of Wold Top Brewery: bikes, beer and betrothal »
Stephen Roche from Dublin was outrageously talented as a cyclist. As a young 18yr old in the Irish Milk Race, he was so much better than anyone else that they used to let him off in the morning and have their own race behind him. He won easily. When he was looking for a pro [...]
Read all of Stephen Roche knew a thing or two »
We had the teaching profession to thank for a week of the finest Easter holiday weather on record. Teachers didn't actually create this weather but they were responsible for the perfect timing of this year's family gathering at Beddgelert in Snowdonia. One of my brothers (who is a teacher) couldn't make our normal slot because [...]
Read all of Easter: walking and cycling from Beddgelert, Snowdonia »
Cycling with my brother in Beddgelert Forest last Thursday. He is quicker than me uphill but I reach the bottom first. My tyres were Schwalbe Smart Sam 700 x 40c (28" x 1.6"). They are excellent tyres. The main hazard is sheep running out from the trees. Part-way through the video my brother stops to [...]
Read all of Cycling in the forest »
Boxers hang up their gloves, footballers their boots and tennis players their racquets. What do cyclists hang up? Their bikes? Their wheels? My wheels are coming off the bike to be taken back to their builder to be trued. I've done a few hundred miles on them so they are ready for a bit of [...]
Read all of A heavyweight hangs up his… wheels? »
I have no experience of group riding and how this works alongside motorists. I work out theories of how to do this but wanted to see how it actually works. So I went out with a CTC Senior Cyclists' Group. At 53 I may not be particularly "senior" but nor am I massively fit. Starting [...]
Read all of The Joy of Slow »
'South to meet the Spring' is the title of an article on the Isle of Wight that appeared in the CTC Gazette in February 1958. The article was illustrated with sketches by Frank Patterson from an earlier era. On a day more like summer than spring, I cycled to the places mentioned to see what, [...]
Read all of South to Meet the Spring »
I don't really do numbers. I'm not competitive even against myself, preferring to enjoy the scenery and weather. I even enjoy cold windy rain, so long as I'm in suitable clothes. The numbers are less important than the ride. Perhaps this is an excuse as my numbers are pretty horrendous. But I usually zero the [...]
Read all of Personal Best »
Mary is a gadget person. Her birthday is coming up, and I know she would really enjoy a GPS for her bike. But which one should I get?
Read all of Which GPS Should I Get? »
First ride of the season – bliss!!
Read all of Happy St. Patrick's Day »
The way Roberta hogs the limelight you could be forgiven for thinking that she is my only bike. This is not so. For about a year now I've also had a heavy duty tourer made by Why?Bikes, a little known make who made women's bikes as part of Swallow Tandems. Roberta is my pride and [...]
Read all of Why?Bikes »
On a longish ride last week, it occurred to me that instead of taking photographs to describe where I've been, I could use the technology available on the 'net. I know this isn't ideal, but it goes some way towards it. I thought I'd use Google Streetview to give a "virtual bike ride" and point [...]
Read all of Virtual Cycle Tour »
There are some good photos on today's BBC web site.
Read all of Bicycle Photos »
The left leg is good. It works well, takes my weight, bends properly, walks and pedals, and generally gives me no grief. Fit and forget, you might say. I've nothing against my left leg. Remember classic Pete and Dud? "The problem is, neither have you."
Read all of Exercising »
Guy Martin's bike was apparently stolen a couple of weeks ago – not his racing motorcycle but an Orange Alpline 160 mountain bike, stolen from his van. This is not the first time someone has fancied owning Guy's bicycles. In 2009 his Scott Ransom 10 and an Orange 224 GBR were stolen from a farm [...]
Read all of Guy Martin's bike »
Sandra at Frederick's Ice Cream Parlour
Read all of 1st March and Spring »
Spring is coming, so in anticipation of better weather (and before the forthcoming poverty of fatherhood) I thought I'd treat myself to a new pair of wheels for the Kinesis. I say treat, but the rim wear indicators on my Alex 18s have already disappeared and the original hubs are too cheap to justify simply [...]
Read all of Spinning in to Spring »
Titanium Man is a wimp. He doesn’t work hard enough. So I’ve stopped riding with him. Instead I am riding against myself.
Read all of What a Difference a Day Makes »
Brown Bike's odometer and speedometer have stopped working, although the cadence function is fine. I suspect a busted wire, but when I compare the two sensors and spot a tide-mark on the chain stay, I realise the wheel sensor has slipped backwards. Easily fixed.
Read all of Minor maintenance »
One of two exercise bikes at East Park's outdoor gym in Hull. This time next week, if all goes to plan, I shall be striding over the North York Moors National Park on 10-mile walk that one of my companions for the day has probably found on the Internet. That's the sort of thing I [...]
Read all of Exercise and the Great Outdoors »
Fenstanton is the birthplace of John Howland (c1591). He may have worked in Leiden, Netherlands, before at the age of 29 sailing with his boss on the Mayflower to the New World. On the voyage, Howland fell overboard but was rescued. If he had drowned, the world would now be very different. He married a [...]
Read all of Two Bushes and a Bogey »
I'm still not sure what to make of Twitter. Ken Roberts, cycling 45,000 miles round the world, has only just begun tweeting after 10,000 miles. I hope this doesn't mean he stops blogging as did, for example, www.goingslowly.com whose previously interesting cycling blog more or less dried up last December when they went over to [...]
Read all of Cycling tweets & cyclists on Twitter »
Just before Christmas I was given a folding bike. One of my reasons for getting the Dahon Piccolo was so that I could take it on a train to somewhere on the Yorkshire Coast Line and do one or two short cycle rides. The idea was that I could get to places a bit too [...]
Read all of Choosing the next small-wheel vehicle »
You have probably gathered by now that I'm quite keen on cycling history. I can't resist old cycling magazines and the window they open onto a byegone world. At first glance, cycling in 1910 appears so very different from cycling in 2011, but a closer look reveals that some things have not really changed.
Read all of 101 Years Ago – CTC Gazette Jan 1910 »
The weather, we all agree has been terrible. Last January, we had 'New Ice Age 1', and then we went into 'New Ice Age 2' in December. The north of the country copped it more than the south, and although our weather here is now mild – thank goodness – it's wetter, and every so [...]
Read all of Cycling weather frustrations »
I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable – Dwight Eisenhower The weather outside is somewhere between bitter and miserable – hardly the sort of day to hop in the saddle and set out for a century or two. So pull up a chair, thrust the tin heater well into the [...]
Read all of How It Was We Took Up Cycling »
This is the time of year when cyclists start looking through their diaries or studying their computers to see how many miles they covered this year. I'd like one day to hit 10,000 but I never have and I suspect that I never will. This year's total will be almost 8,000. Its a respectable distance [...]
Read all of How far can you ride in a year? »
December has been a horrible month as far as cycling has been concerned. My last Audax ride was on the 12th of December and that was the very last day I rode my bicycle... not like me at all.
Read all of Christmas, gettin' out and about again, and a Paramo review »
It is two degrees Centigrade, there was rain overnight and now it is foggy. The roads have salt, slush and that slippery black stuff I dare not name. My larder is still well-stocked, and my hip has been in "discomfort" (as the medics euphemistically call it) since I went by bus to the supermarket before [...]
Read all of Après snow »
Best Wishes To All For Some Splendid Safe Cycling In The Coming Year. As James Arnold wrote in 'The Joyous Wheel' (1940) 'Happy is the cyclist who rides throughout the year, taking what comes his way in weather, choosing only his itinerary. At the end of the year he will scoff at the poor soul [...]
Read all of Season's Greetings »
How many times have I been out on my bike since this weather started? Three times. The frost came, and I stayed in. I had a cold, I stayed in. I got better, more frost and ice, I stayed in. The sun shone, melted the ice, so I ventured out. That happened only three times, [...]
Read all of Non Cycling Weather »
My recent cycling ambition was to travel to my eighteen-week fracture clinic on my bike. Not, you understand, to actually cycle around the clinic and X-ray department on the bike, though it is tempting: Addenbrooke's is a big place. Recent icy weather put the kibosh on any cycling, so I couldn't build up to the [...]
Read all of Dem Bones Dem Bones »
This afternoon I was cycling up Sheep House Lane from Rivington Village in Lancashire. The temperature, I reckoned, about 4°C. After a rise from Rivington the lane turns left towards Dean Head Lane and Yarrow Reservoir. There's a short steep descent just after the turn and I could see black ice on the road, so [...]
Read all of Black ice and dodgy cycling »
We spent this weekend in London so I thought I'd give the London Cycle Hire Scheme a try.
Read all of Borrowing Boris's Bike »
In the current issue of CTC's 'Cycle' magazine there's an article by Chris Juden, the Technical Editor. Chris normally knows what he's talking about. The article compares two electrically assisted bikes. One has the battery higher than the other and he wrote: "The Trek has the battery high up, which makes the bike a little [...]
Read all of Bicycle stability and centre of gravity (or mass) »
This is worth a look.
Read all of Danny MacAskill: Way Back Home »
Snow this afternoon. Yes, I probably should have stored the garden furniture for the winter. Last year I got a new bike for Christmas and we had the worst winter for years. On Friday I took possession – albeit possibly temporarily – of a fun little bike for a plan I've been thinking about for [...]
Read all of Cometh a new bike, cometh the snow »
Title is a Tina quote, in reference to a rather superb mountain bike ride we did today!
Read all of Its OK, follow me, I know where I am going… (Mountain biking Isle of Man) »
Today, I rode my bike for the first time since the 10th of November. This was a proper ride, not just riding our utility bike into the village and back. I managed all of 12.3 miles! I've not been well. Also, the Poppy Appeal has taken up a great deal of my time, and now [...]
Read all of Back on the Road »
I've been car-free for six months now, counting from when Katie's gearbox failed. Things I miss: Comfort, especially being sheltered from the weather. Fast startup and shutdown time. The car took about 15 seconds. A bike takes a few minutes, including heaping on clothing, checking lights and tyres, strapping the crutch on and wheeling the [...]
Read all of Being car free »
As anyone who has read my earlier post will know, I am a great admirer of this remarkable woman. I was therefore very pleased to discover that a biography has just been published in her native New Zealand.
Read all of 'Louise Sutherland, Spinning the Globe' »
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