WillCycle

At Whitsand Bay, just outside Plymouth and across the Tamar in Cornwall, there is a little holiday resort where you can rent chalets, or pitch a tent. In the shop there are a few old bicycle posters, so I snapped a few photos (amidst bizarre looks from the lady behind the cash register!).Here they are: These … Read more

I have posted before about my dealings with Plymouth City Council, and I must admit that after having met the man in charge of Sustainable Transport I thought we’ve made some progress. You see, he’s listened to my frustrations regarding poor cycling infrastructure in the city. When I inquired about Cycling Group he informed me … Read more

I’ve been on holiday for two weeks – one of those laze all day by the poolside holidays – in the searing Turkish summer.The resort was impressive, the food was good, the beach was nice and the pool was awesome! In fact, apparently it is the largest pool anywhere on the Med. And I got … Read more

Right, I’ve threatened enough, now it’s time to organise an actual midnight ride. All that remains is to decide the route and to pick a date. I’m thinking of two possible routes:The first starts at the Coypool Park & Ride, then follows the Plym Valley cycle path all the way to Plym Bridge. From Plym … Read more

In Plymouth there is a disused railway track that has been converted to a footpath/cycle path. It starts just off the Morrison’s roundabout and heads towards Radford lake. It actually used to end close to Mountbatten, but sadly a bridge was removed a long time ago.The rough yellow line in the following image shows the … Read more

For those of you that don’t know what Copenhagenized means, head on over to Copenhagenize.com, one of my favourite blogs.In essence, it is all about the pervasive bicycle culture that Copenhagen’s become famous for. Mikael Colville Anderson, the man behind that blog, says even he is not quite sure about what exactly Copenhagenize means, but it … Read more

I went for my usual night cycle ride last night, at around 22h00. I have this route that follows Embankment road out of Plymouth, before taking me on part of the Plym Valley cycle path.At Plym Bridge I get on the road to Plympton, which includes quite a hill. From Plympton I head up Cot … Read more

I 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

I’ve left my job. Not spur-of-the-moment and not unexpectedly. Can you imagine the conversation: “Honey, I’m home”, “You’re early!”, “yeah, that’s because I quit my job”.No, in this case it was a known thing that was creeping closer and closer. Will I miss it? Sure, at least some aspects of the job. But there are … 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