Well, firstly let me say there really isn't one. This is just an exercise in finding excuses for the lack of recent cycling in my life, but having thought about it while I've been typing this first sentence I think my semi-fertile grey matter may have conjured up a very tenuous connection that I can …
Continue reading The Link Between Marine Fishkeeping and Cycling
Let me start with a little story. It's a true one, it happened just last week and it happened to me. I was winding my way home on my road bike, just cruising along through the last 10 miles or so of a fifty mile odd loop through some of my favorite local country lanes. I …
Continue reading Why can Cyclists be some of the rudest people on the planet?
In preparation for the long-awaited rebuild of my poor long-suffering and chronically neglected Lapierre Zesty I've been watching a few 'how to' videos on the wonderful world of YouTube. And what I've concluded is that they can quickly lull you into a false sense of security about the task you're about to attempt. Take the …
Well, as I've mentioned before my knee hurts. Its grumbled on and off for a good few years. It likes to remind me of the misuse and neglect I've subjected my moving parts to since I've been capable of moving around under my own steam. It likes to remind me that I'm not 21 and …
Theres a well-known cycling adage that the formula for the perfect number of bikes for a cyclist to own is n+1 where 'n' equals the number of bikes a rider owns at any given time. The implication that a true cyclist is always thinking about the next bike they're going to buy as they toil …
Continue reading The Hopeless Quest for Cycling Nirvana via eBay and Mindless Optimism
One of the lesser mentioned and debated side effects of not riding as much as one used to is that bikes and kit simply don't wear out as fast as they did when one is young and keen. I once reckoned that if a cartridge bottom bracket (remember them anybody? - you know the ones …
Continue reading So here it is, Merry Christmas, every bodies having….. hugely rising costs!
A recent extended trip away with work has kept be off the bike for over a month. In the last 40 odd days I've stayed in about 15 different hotels in various countries from Chile to Australia. Sounds idyllic? Well, somebody has to do it I suppose but it certainly doesn't do anything for ones …
Firstly let's get something straight right off the bat. I'm not going too bang on about Polish frame builders or Romanian wheel truing experts coming over here and stealing our jobs. Nor am I going to advocate the wholesale repatriation of families who have come to this country and discovered to their delight they don't have to cycle …
Guilt is a very corrosive emotion. It nags and niggles and eats away at you from the inside. Insidious thoughts begin to pervade your waking hours and darken your dreams. Its even worse when the cause of your guilt is based and founded on your own wilful neglect of something that once was so special. Once she was …
First the usual disclaimer - I've never met Shane Sutton, Victoria Pendleton, Jess Varnish or indeed any of the current GB cycling team past or present. (Actually that's not true, Dame Sarah Storey bless her once cruised effortlessly past me with a lovely cheery 'hello' a few years back as I grovelled up a minor …
The Declining Cyclist 