Winter is sneaking up on us, and it won’t be long before we have ice on pavements and cycle paths. Obviously we won’t have ice on most roads, as roads actually are gritted by the respective councils. In Plymouth, I want to set up a cycle gritter, which would basically mean a trailer towed behind ... Read more

Last night’s Dark Side Ride was quite a break in format, in that it took place at a sensible hour, and the weather co-operated completely. The two previous rides took place during torrential downpours and gale-force winds driving the rain almost horizontally, so having a light breeze and perfectly clear skies was a very nice ... Read more

This Saturday, starting at around 20h15, we’re having another Dark Side Ride. For those that don’t know, a Dark Side Ride is a bicycle ride in darkness. Previous rides all had a common theme: lashing down with rain and gale force winds. As a result, at my friend Simon’s insistence, I wasn’t allowed to pick ... Read more

On Sunday I took the chance of cycling out to Yelverton and back again. There’s nothing unusual about that – in fact, I do that regularly, yet today’s ride was slightly out of the ordinary for several reasons, as I’ll explain in a minute. I would’ve liked to have gone further, but other, and more ... Read more

Simon, the Olympic double gold medalist Simon Richardson is a cyclist, but no ordinary cyclist. Instead, he is a cyclist that has shown a remarkable tenacity to overcome enormous problems. In 2001, Simon was struck by a car that was being driven at 60mph. The impact of that crash broke his back in two places and ... Read more

On the 15th of September I cycled out to Yelverton, where my friend Simon lives. The Tour of Britain’s Devon stage was taking place on the day, and we had a cunning plan to ride out to Merrivale (a King of the Mountains stage) to watch the riders go by, and return to Yelverton via ... Read more

There are new roadworks in Plymouth, at the junction of Laira Bridge Road and Finnigan Road, as well as on Laira Bridge itself. This is part of a larger, ongoing project to improve traffic flow (for motorised vehicles!) to and from the eastern side of Plymouth.The big picture is that a new town, Sherbourne, will ... Read more

Yep, Ashmill bridge has been opened, which means the whole new section of NCN27, from Tavistock to Gem Bridge is open, and going by this morning’s experience, it’s rather popular! I lost count of the number of cyclists I saw. The really good thing is it included many very young cyclists, and many quite old ... Read more

Having been on leave, I went out for a ride last Thursday, with the rough idea of heading out towards Tavistock, via Yelverton. First though, I had to drop a letter off near the river Tamar, which is pretty much on the other side of Plymouth, from my house.After having delivered the letter, I set ... Read more

UPDATE: The DC-14 has been discontinued for a long time. I have a more up-to-date post with other, better options. Almost exactly a year ago I posted about having fitted a Nokia DC-14 bicycle charger to my bike. There were, for me at least, many unknown factors, such as the surprisingly commonly held opinion that ... Read more

It’s no secret that I’m a supporter of The Times’ Cities Fit For Cycling (or CycleSafe for short) campaign – just look near the top right of my blog and you’ll find the link. In light of this, I was very pleased when my home town of Plymouth finally formally expressed its support for the ... Read more

Recently I took the opportunity to go and see for myself what progress has been made with the cycle path through Grenofen tunnel, which will be the new route for NCN 27. To complete the path from Gem Bridge to Tavistock, a few things still needed doing: 1) The path from near the end of ... Read more

Haven’t you heard? Devon Coast-to-Coast, a.k.a. NCN27 has a brand new name: Velodyssee. Well, shall we say a brand new additional name! This is part of the on-going programme of integrating NCN27 into the Euro Velo routes – it forms part of Euro Velo route 1, or EV1 for short. All 1200 km’s ofVelodyssee! This isn’t ... Read more

As a family man, my cycling often comes last on a lengthy list of priorities. This is a statement of fact, and not a complaint, and I’ve mentioned it as it ties in directly with this post. My youngest badly wanted to learn to ride a horse, so we signed her up for Pony Club ... Read more