WillI know these are very common in the Netherlands, but they certainly aren’t common in Plymouth. Spotted this one parked up just outside the aquarium. In the Netherlands this is known as a bakfiets, which translates as container bicycle, although most people would call it a cargo bike. From the fully-enclosed chain to the drum … Read more
Gdynia Way is a main arterial route delivering traffic into Plymouth. Having said that, perhaps I should also point out that Plymouth seems to have been designed with gridlock in mind and typically it only takes one road to be obstructed (even partially) for the city to become gridlocked. Anyway, as part of a major … Read more
OK, I did, but then I go cycling every day. So what is so different today, you may ask. The honest answer is that I don’t know why it was different, only that it was. I set off from home riding in the sunshine, with the temperature a reasonably pleasant 16 C. All the way out … Read more
My silver bike, the hybrid I commute with, is nothing special. It is a Raleigh Pioneer with mudguards, a rack & straight bars. It has some honest components: Shimano hubs, Shimano derailleurs (front & rear) & Shimano crankset and SKS mudguards. I do not for a moment consider it a top-of-the-range bike, but rather a bike-next-door kind of bike, … Read more
OK, so I liberated the title of this post from the creative genius that was Douglas Adams, but let’s not get stuck there and instead move on. I’d have liked to have started this post with something like “been doing some thinking” but the reality is I’m ALWAYS doing some thinking. Mine is a very … Read more
My sister passed away two years ago yesterday, and I miss her. I’m not morbid, or in denial or anything like that – I just miss her. Have you lost someone and found yourself thinking of them? Then you’d know how I’ve been feeling these past few days. I suppose bitter-sweet would best describe the … Read more
Two things happened recently:1) I’ve been thinking about cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats as a charity fund raiser. As such I’ve been reading LOADS of blogs of people that have done either LeJog or JogLE (the other way round).2) I took my youngest cycling to Radford Park in Plymouth, where we fed the ducks. … Read more
As the number of winters I’ve seen clock up I’m becoming more and more a fan of Open Source software. Many people mistakenly think Open Source = free, which isn’t always the case, but I’ll not spend any more time on that.Instead I want to talk about Openstreetmap.org, which is an Open Source site and … Read more
A old friend of mine taught me something simple, many moons ago: whatever you focus on will seem bigger & more important than things you don’t focus on. And therein lies the problem: In my hometown of Plymouth I would dearly love for the cycling infrastructure to at least rival the best in the UK, … Read more
OK, I know I said Friday night’s Midnight Ride in Princetown was going ahead regardless, but I cannot make it! I’ve had a small handful of people tell me they were thinking about going, and one that almost guaranteed they’d be there. Given this rather less than overwhelming response, I thought I postpone it until … Read more
I have an on-going disagreement with Plymouth City Council. It started after some blasted idiot nearly killed me at a then brand-new build-out on Ham drive. I enquired why no cycle by-pass was included in the design and received the following as reply: ” Due to lane widths available on Ham Drive and Fore Street … Read more
I call it night CYCLING as opposed to night riding for fairly obvious reasons: I want to avoid any connotation with a seriously naff actor in an even more seriously naff 80’s TV show! Seriously, the Hoff is about as cool as Cliff Richard and Sir Cliff may be a lot of things, but cool certainly … Read more
There is this recurring theme through Daily Mail articles: cycling is bad and cyclists should be burned at the stake. OK, they don’t actually say that in as many words, but with that idiot James Martin bragging about running cyclists off the road and other anti-cycling rants regularly appearing, they’re not far from it. The … Read more
I’ll start by saying I make no excuses for who and what I am. If you find me too acidic, or too cynical, well I suggest you hit the “Back” button on your browser and we’ll part ways. The thing is I don’t suffer fools gladly and I have absolutely NO time for self-serving corrupt … Read more