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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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