Darkmoor is by its very nature unpredictable. It is a semi-organised bike ride over Dartmoor, through the night and there’s NO registration. As a result, there is simply no way to know beforehand how many people will turn up. When Simon and I started talking about setting up Darkmoor, we deliberately wanted to emulate the ... Read more

Politicians so love the sound of their own voices! Sometimes they drone on endlessly, hardly ever saying anything at all, and we, every single one of us, to some degree or the other are guilty of letting them get away with it. Politicians have devolved into quite a different sub-species, often unable or unwilling to ... Read more

I do a fair few miles per week, averaging around 160 miles, with most of those done on rural lanes. Now some lanes are quite good, but others are in shocking condition. All rural lanes are often debris-strewn, especially in winter. As a daily cycle commuter, cycling to work and back in winter, more often ... Read more

Some mindless individual, R Henshaw of Liskeard, Cornwall, saw fit to write the following letter to the Evening Herald, Plymouth’s local newspaper: As ever, clicking the image will enlarge it on-screen, which should allow you to read it.For the benefit of those who can’t clearly read the picture, I copied the text of the letter ... Read more

I’ve always viewed the start of a new year not as an event to be celebrated zealously, but rather as simply moving forward by another day. As a result, I don’t make grandiose resolutions and I don’t ponder the past year too much. That also explains why this post wasn’t posted at the start of ... Read more

Last year I did a little over 5 500 miles of cycling, most of it with laden panniers on my bike. I ride a B’Twin Triban 3 road bike, which (although the frame offers anchor points for a rack) was never really designed for heavy-mileage, weight-laden commutes over often bumpy and poorly-kept country lanes. In ... Read more

From the eastern parts of Plymouth, short of taking a huge detour, there are almost only two routes into the city: Embankment Road, or Laira Bridge. This is true for cyclists as well as drivers. With very short notice, Plymouth City Council published notice of a new flood defense wall, funded by the Environment Agency, ... Read more

The city of Plymouth is mostly situated between the rivers Tamar and Plym, and as anybody with just a moderate degree of intelligence would gladly tell you, rivers tend to be disruptive to roads.To cross the Tamar, drivers can choose between the Torpoint Ferry, the Tamar Bridge, or a very long detour via Tavistock.To cross ... Read more

No, South West Water (SWW), this is NOT how you do things! On Billacombe Road in Plymouth, South West Water are doing works to install a new water main pipe. This is essential work and disruption to road traffic is inevitable. In parts, the pavement had to be dug up, and the footway was therefore ... Read more

Lately I’ve taken to cycling on Saturday mornings with a group called the Yealm Roleurs. The ride normally starts at the Yealmpton post office at 08h00 and the starting point is a fair few miles from home. This Saturday I was running a bit late, so I didn’t check my phone, other than to start ... Read more

It’s that time of year again where my birthday comes around. To be honest, I’ve never really made much of a song and dance about my birthday, nor have I expected or really even wanted others to do so. After all, it isn’t like an analogue counter that suddenly clicks forward by one unit of ... Read more

Quite some time ago I was playing around with maps, looking to see if there was a half-decent route along rural lanes that I could take to avoid cycling on the rather unpleasant and busy A379. The route I found led me up a very nasty little lane, potholed, half overgrown and debris strewn. As ... Read more

I’m a cycling commuter and my commute is 12 miles each way, unless I take the long way round. This means I typically do around 120 miles per week just cycling to work and back. I have some rather steep hills on my commute and all truth be told, there are days when I really ... Read more

Back in January 2013 I got a new B’Twin Triban 3 road bike. I’ll not bore you with the build-up into buying this particular bike, though I will point out that I was swayed above all else by four factors:1) My friend Simon had one and he was very happy with it2) I found several ... Read more

Just to pre-warn you, this post deals more with getting to and from the Tour of Britain than the event itself. Last year (2012) I cycled out to Merrivale with my friend Simon and his wife, to go see the Tour of Britain. Merrivale is a hill between Princetown and Tavistock, on Dartmoor, and is ... Read more