The Daily Mail….AGAIN

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

Ready-made rip-offs

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

My racer

As a kid in in South Africa I was the proud owner of a 10-speed Raleigh road bike, complete with drop bars & skinny wheels. I absolutely loved that bike! Having grown up in a small town close to the Botswana border, I was free to roam in ways that my kids would never be. About … Read more

Techie troubles

It started with an innocent text message. Something along the lines of “My mate’s PC has a virus & I’m struggling to sort it. Can you help?”.99.999% of the time my answer is a simple yes, and this time was no exception.My mate dropped the errant PC off at my house (given that it is … Read more

Hot air & public servants

I’ll hold my hand up and admit I rant from time to time. I cannot abide wingeing or moaning, but I’ll accept a rant now and then. This is a rant. I rant because I’m passionate about things. I believe we CAN save this planet, provided enough people start doing something. Call me naive, call … Read more

3 feet to pass

Tom Amos started a petition on NR10’s web site, and called it 3feet2pass. I signed the petition, as did a disappointing 2 600 others.What is important here is not the numbers, but rather the response. The Government’s response starts off by stating they will do nothing about the situation. It then continues with little gems like … Read more

Midnight ride

I’ve been a fan of night riding for a long time now, but pretty much all my night riding so far has been done on well-lit urban roads. This is easy to explain: for proper night riding you need a decent light and I didn’t have one. Being a natural-born-geek one of my favourite sites … Read more

Spreading the love, or not?

Idiots – the planet’s one commodity that is becoming ever more plentiful. Take for example this site: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Theres-a-perfectly-good-path-right-next-to-the-road-you-stupid-cyclist/190080667052 – God only knows the depths of depravity that spawned the mind that felt compelled to create this rubbish. And Facebook is washing its hands in an admirable Pontius Pilate impression. “Freedom of speech”, “No violence against … Read more

Changes

I’ve done it: changed my phone case, lights and bell from the black bike to the silver bike. From now on I’ll commute using the silver bike. I took it out for my first ride on it this morning and I was struck first by how different it is to ride, then by how smooth … Read more

Farewell 2009!

And suddenly 2009 is gone, vanished, never to be seen again! I’m not really one for analysing the past year, nor do I believe in New Year’s Resolutions. To be fair, I quit smoking on the 3rd of Jan, 2008, but that was pure co-incidence. I woke up that morning & realised that it was … Read more

Is it or isn’t it? Does the question actually matter?

With Copenhagen in full swing, and headlines all over reporting what progress (or lack thereof) is being made on reaching a global climate change deal, other things are happening. For starters, Denmark is full of German police vehicles (now THAT must trigger some unhappy memories!) as apparently they don’t have enough of their own. Whether … Read more

Teaching the kids

The Department for Transport have been running these very artistic animated ads aimed squarely at kids.There’s a few of them, and while I broadly support anything that makes kids safer, I have a problem with where the balance lies here: Have a look at the end: all three kids are wearing hi-viz something or the … Read more

“I thought of it while riding my bicycle…”

Even Einstein, world-renowned for being a genius, loved riding his bike! Not just that, he discovered his theory of relativity while out cycling.He also said “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”Clever man.

Haagen Dazs and traffic

Went for my normal evening cycle – nothing serious, normally just a 5 mile jolly. It was different this time, because I was under strict instructions to stop off at a Co-op supermarket in search of some Haagen Dazs Pralines and Cream ice cream. (If you’ve never tried it you’re missing out! SERIOUSLY good ice … Read more

Genesis…

….well, at least for this blog. Been thinking about starting a blog for some time, and actually started one for a charity cycle ride I was organising. Still, I needed a blog for me, hence this one. What is it about, you ask? Why should it be about anything at all, is the answer. But … Read more