An open letter to Tudor Evans, leader of Plymouth City Council

Dear Tudor Evans, On Monday, 22 July 2013, while cycling along Billacombe Road in the late afternoon, I found the cycle lane was blocked by roadworks warning signs, as you can see in the photo below: I tweeted @PlymouthCC the photo, asking why the signs were placed in such a manner that they completely blocked ... Read more

Plymouth City Council are up to old tricks again…

If you were in the middle of Plymouth and wanted to cycle to the eastern edge of the city, chances are you’ll find yourself cycling along Billacombe Road. Now Billacombe Road is a bit of an enigma – it was built as a dual carriageway but at some point in the past one lane has ... Read more

Brixton – Yealmpton Cycle Path

There’s a brand-new cycle path being built alongside the busy, but narrow A379, between the two villages of Brixton and Yealmpton, just to the East of Plymouth. This takes in part of my commute, and especially lately I’ve had a great many close overtakes at speed along that road. Being in Devon, the road is ... Read more

Bike-Rail

Liskeard Station I regularly need to travel to Truro, Liskeard, Bristol or Newquay for work. Seeing as I’ve sold my car and my bicycle’s my main form of transport, this means I take the train often and I typically take my bike on the train. From Plymouth, effectively the greatest majority of trains will be ... Read more

Perfume!

There’s an old saying (that I’ve used on here before) that goes like this: If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got. This is an absolute truth in so many different aspects of life, with cycling advocacy somewhere near the top. See, for years, decades even, cycling advocacy has taken ... Read more

Plymouth City Council discriminates against cyclists

Some time ago I posted about some really iffy road “features” put in place in Devonport, Plymouth.Basically, the roads have many cobbled strips inserted that span the full width of the carriageway. The gap between the cobbles is in places well over an two inches, and in places perhaps of that depth, too. This doesn’t show ... Read more

NCN27? Here? I don’t think so!

In Devonport, Plymouth, I recently came across this sign: This is on the corner of New Passage Hill and St Aubyn Road and clearly shows the route to be signed as NCN27. Now NCN27 is the Devon Coast to Coast route that runs between Ilfracombe and Plymouth, but that ends at Millbay Docks in Plymouth, ... Read more

NCN3 – Truro, Cornwall

I love Cornwall. It is a simply gorgeous county with stunning scenery and friendly people. Cornwall is home to the Camel Trail, and has many more traffic-free cycling routes. There is a downside to Cornwall (aside from the roads that don’t skirt hills, but instead perform a full frontal attack, up-and-over, every time) and that ... Read more

Your council is failing you

The title of this post may seem harsh, but it is nonetheless a fair and accurate description of the reality cyclists find themselves in. This taxi driver came too close to CycleGaz Spend five minutes talking to any cyclist that regularly rides on the road and chances are they’ll tell you about near-misses and other run-ins they’ve ... Read more

Rebuilding my hybrid

Since getting my new bike I haven’t ridden my hybrid even once. This isn’t because I don’t like it, but rather because it actually needs quite a bit of work. My hybrid, aka The Trusty Steed So this had me thinking – perhaps I should rebuild it completely. It’s a Raleigh Pioneer, strong enough to ... Read more

Losing my bearings

I’ve been annoyed for a while now by a clunking noise my bike was making. It’s a new bike and I got it in January, but I have already put 1000 miles on it, mostly commuting but with several leisurely rides thrown in for good measure. It sounded like it was coming from the chainrings ... Read more

My Tour of Britain Predicament

With great expectation I’ve been awaiting the route and dates announcement for the 2013 Tour of Britain.Last year, I cycled out to meet up with my friend Simon and his wife, after which we cycled out to Merrivale (a Devon stage King of the Mountains segment outside Princetown) and I was rather hopeful that the ... Read more

Crash!

OK, so it was well overdue. Yes, I came off my bike, something I hadn’t done for years. Now I’d love to be able to say that it was during a race, or perhaps while doing some trick riding (I do ALL my own stunts, you know) but the reality is far more mundane:I clipped ... Read more

Dear Police…

Dear Police, Like most people, I admire you for the often tough job you do and I understand that you are under-resourced, and your budgets are being squeezed from all sides. Yet despite this, you continue to do the job, and I’d like you to know we’re grateful for that. Since they were small, I’ve ... Read more

Cycle Routes

A good cycle route is one that goes somewhere people want or need to go. That’s a very simple concept to understand, but apparently some people have trouble with it. On NCN27, between Yelverton and Tavistock, lies the hamlet of Grenofen. Once, before Grenofen Tunnel was re-opened as a cycle route, NCN27 skirted the edge ... Read more