GoCycle – Grand Union Canal

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144  miles  in  total,  mostly  flat,  with surfaces  ranging  from  excellent  to  dire The Industrial Revolution laid the groundwork for the world we live in today, and the UK gave birth to the Industrial Revolution. Nothing in that sentence is contentious. What you may find surprising is that the canal network, and in particular the ... Read more

The Primrose Trail

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In the late 1960s, the UK engaged in a staggering act of self-harm, during a process that became known as the Beeching Cuts. Under the scheme, spearheaded by Dr Beeching, the UK’s very wide rail network was decimated, while roads building was massively ramped up. As has been repeatedly demonstrated, induced demand is a real ... Read more

Camping cooking

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I’m not much of a foodie, and doing a post on food isn’t exactly how I envisioned myself spending a number of hours. Having said that, the fact remains that – regardless of how much, or how little you enjoy food – your body will need fuel to power each pedal stroke of your cycle ... Read more

Do you chart a course by the stars?

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Map showing the route of the Grand Union Canal
While being able to navigate using the night sky is a great skill to have, there are far better options available to you, starting with a simple map. I freely, and even proudly admit that I’m a map geek. I’ve always been one, since I can remember. Maps, you see, tell stories, and if you wanted ... Read more

Creatures of the night…

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Have you ever cycled in complete darkness? Night cycling is a totally different experience, and judging by rides such as the Dunwich Dynamo, it’s popular, too. And yet, so many people have never gone night cycling. There’s something magical about cycling at night. No, I’m not referring to urban night cycling, along roads with streetlights. ... Read more

SheCycles – Helen Langridge

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SheCycles is a series of posts in which I ask women some questions, and I post their responses. All women are asked the same questions, and are obviously free to answer as much, or as little, as the please. The very first SheCycles was about Annie Kopchovsky , who was the first woman to travel ... Read more

Cycle touring and Sustrans routes

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In the UK, there’s a charity called Sustrans, and they’re behind something called, perhaps overly optimistically, the National Cycle Network (NCN for short). NCN: a quality lottery NCN routes vary massively in terms of quality – from smooth, sealed, traffic-free surfaces, to swampy quagmires, to busy roads, congested with cars. As a result, many British cyclists ... Read more

Book review – Getting Hold Of A Gun Is Easy, by Alwin Wiederhold

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This book hit home for me. So much so, that I had to wait quite some time after I finished reading it, before writing this review. I need to explain that: I grew up in South Africa, during the Apartheid years, and many things touched upon in this book are things I lived through. If ... Read more

SheCycles – SuziQ

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SheCycles is a series of posts in which I ask women some questions, and I post their responses. All women are asked the same questions, and are obviously free to answer as much, or as little, as they please. The very first SheCycles was about Annie Kopchovsky, who was the first woman to travel around ... Read more

Things YOU can do for International Women’s Day

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Happy International Women’s Day! The single biggest reason why we still so desperately need International Women’s Day is simple: sexism remains rife in everyday society. Now, there’s a saying that goes like this: “If it’s to be, it’s up to me”. Like all change, every one of us need to do our part. Remember, it isn’t ... Read more

Online scratch map

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You’ve seen those scratch maps you can get, haven’t you? They allow you to scratch off the foil covering of places you’ve visited on a map, revealing more and more of the map underneath. Though they’re really cool, they do have drawbacks. For starters, the map is a fixed-scale, and usually the scale is such ... Read more

No Girls Allowed – a post aimed squarely at men

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A few days before International Women’s Day, this post is aimed just at men. Like you, I’m a man, and as a man, I have limited insight in what it means to be a woman. However, even as a man, I can see the severe inequality that exists in the world, and I recognise that ... Read more

Just ride for the sake of riding

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We live in the Information Age. Most people don’t seem to realise that information consumes time. In fact, it has a voracious appetite for devouring whatever time you may have. In this Information Age, we’ve become accustomed, even addicted, to living in an always-on, always-connected world. Don’t believe me? Try leaving your phone switched off ... Read more

Ask not for whom the bell tolls…

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On Sunday, I went for a lovely ride in the early-spring sunshine. It was gorgeous out! The route I was taking deliberately avoided busier roads, as low sun had often been used to get a driver off without charge, after having driven into a cyclist. COVID lockdown is (supposedly) still in full swing, though the ... Read more

Will’s Caveat

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You’ve heard of Sod’s Law, Murphy’s Law, and Occam’s Razor, plus a myriad other laws, suppositions and more. Well, today, I’m adding to it. Allow me to introduce to you Will’s Caveat. At this point, I’ll briefly deviate, to say that I like hills. So much so, that I have a life philosophy, which started ... Read more