By a quirk of fate, I spend quite a bit of time in a suburbs of Queens, New York.  Queens New York has many good things going for it; it is a vibrant, tolerant and accepting place. But, for cyclists, let us just say – it is the opposite of Amsterdam. Quite a few people […]

One of the attractions of cycling is its inherent simplicity. As is often remarked, the basic shape and frame of the bicycle has remained unaltered since the first ‘safety bicycles’ of the 1870s.     Cycling is big business (one of biggest sports in world) so we have a whole industry catering to offering technological […]

I’m taking a short break from the warm and sunny climes of England to travel to New York. I won’t be taking a bike, though I do have a trusty 1981 Trek road bike over in US for a bit of training – It’s more battered and dinted than a Robin Reliant left for several […]

Cycling up Kirkstone Pass Last Sunday, I felt a loud clunking of the gears. Involuntarily I found the only gear to work to be the lowest – the 28 sprocket, but it was much noiser than usual. Thankfully, I didn’t mind being in the 28 sprocket, if it had been any other gear, I might […]

In the early days, cycle helmets were like an old fashioned Volvo – they gave a feeling of safety but by abandoning all pretence to style and good looks. It was that kind of safety feature which cried out ‘if you’re that ugly, it must be really safe’. It’s a bit like being made to […]