If all Christmas shopping was this easy...

Smugly, smugly past the endless queues of cars I cycle as they sweat and curse and struggle to park. A half hour Christmas shop on my bike (including coffee) would have been over an hour had I gone by car.

Online present reservations and folding bicycles FTW!

Veni Vidi Visa*

* With apologies to Latin speakers everywhere, "I came, I saw, I shopped."


On Saturday, I needed to get a little bit of shopping and pop some books back to the library.  To be honest, even as a regular cycle commuter, I would normally have hopped in the car but this week, fancied a change for the better.  Recent inspiration from a few blogs I've found via Twitter had a hand in the decision I’m sure, in fact I really ought to do a roll of honour at some point!

Anyway, with the decision to cycle made, I emptied out my rucksack (except for puncture repair items and a lock) and headed out on the Dahon.

Firstly, it was lovely to be out pedalling in the daylight for a change!  Most of my riding these days tends to be done in the dark or, at best dawn or dusk so broad daylight was a welcome break from the norm.  Saturday was one of those bright and clear, but cold winter days which I find so nice for cycling as it takes that much longer to heat up and get sweaty. 

Over all I probably covered about 7 miles on the round trip to the small town near where I live (dropping in the library book en route) and then out to Morrisons and back.  I could have used the smaller supermarket in town but (a) it’s more expensive and (b) I wanted to ride a bit further than that! 

And so, a short and pleasant ride later, I parked up outside Morrisons and got on with the shopping.  Like any large supermarket, it was exceptionally busy on a Saturday afternoon.  I however did not have to join the queue of cars crawling around looking for an empty parking space, I cycled straight up the shop and locked my bike to the rack without hindrance.  Another win for cycling over driving.  Smug? Moi?

After filling a basket with what I had come to buy, I paid at the checkout and loaded the groceries straight into my rucksack.  It’s a Lowe Alpine bag I have had for quite a few years and have used for all sorts from overnight trips, skiing, days out walking and more recently cycle commuting to and from work.  It is a very reliable bit of kit - not a specialist cycling rucksack but it holds stuff comfortably on my back so I can't ask for more than that really.  In total it has a 35l capacity but compression straps at each side allow it to be, well err, compressed I suppose if I don’t need the full volume.  It is water resistant enough to keep out a shower and usually anything important (clothes, phone, laptop etc.) get packed in plastic bags anyway.  With the compression straps loosened, it swallowed the shopping with ease. 

Hefting the bag up onto my shoulders, I knew that it was much heavier than it usually is fully-laden (which is about 7kg) but given the nature of some of my items (a large bottle of Pepsi and four cans of beer among other things) that was not entirely surprising.  Sometimes, you just have to grin and bear it for the greater good.  Furthermore, although heavy, it was not intolerably so and I cycled home without problem or incident.  Total fuel cost – nil.

As an afterthought, I had a bit of a weigh-in when I got back to the house and found that the full rucksack weighed 11.5kg.  As I said there were some bulky items but also enough food for Saturday dinner, drinks and popcorn for Saturday night plus Sunday breakfast and lunch.  Knowing the scale of the weight I had just lugged made me feel like I had earned those beers all the more.  “Hobgoblin” from Wychwood Brewery, if anyone’s interested.  Delicious.

And like any good cycling blogger, I was penning this piece in my head on the way back from the supermarket and so had the uncharacteristic presence of mind to take a few pictures:

My rucksack fully laden on the kitchen floor.  The orange hi-viz thing is a small viz vest folded
and held in place by the elastic straps on the back of the bag.  It's there to make me a bit more
visible when the rucksack is obscuring whatever bright clothing I have on.

And the goods laid out on the work surface.  The beer went down a treat and I could just
do with another right now.  Sadly, they all got drunk on the weekend.

We often have to pop out for a few bits from the shops – often fewer items than I had been to get on Saturday.  It just goes to show that cycling is definitely a sensible and practical alternative to a short hop in the car.  With so many journeys under five miles (according to the oft-touted statistics) I think that more people should cycle for small shopping trips.  Yes, my rucksack was pretty heavy but had I used panniers the load on my shoulders would have been much less.  Or had I used both panniers and the rucksack, I could have carried much more shopping.  All on a folding bike.  I’ll be doing it much more.  Maybe I’ll get really committed and buy one of those extra-long shopping bikes like this one or even a Dutch-style “Bakfiets” cargo bike with a huge front bucket.  A guy I follow on Twitter has even built his own - the details are here.  A fine bit of engineering indeed and a very useful bike.  I could probably haul a whole week’s shopping in one of those!

It’s really easy to talk ourselves off the bike and back into the car, especially with things like short shopping trips, where driving has been our default for so long.  However, as with many things in cycling (rain, wind, hills etc.) the reality is always much easier than we imagine it will be.

For me, another small part of my life just became car-free.  A happy feeling indeed. 

Mileage to date

It was another monster day of traffic on the way through the city today.  I have no idea what the problem was that caused it all (it never seems to take much to be honest) but it didn’t slow me down one tiny bit.  Having just checked on Google maps, one of the queues was a full mile long!  I simple cruised down the outside of it, to the front of the queue and turned right at the traffic junction as usual.  No fuss and no delays – lovely!

OK, so it wasn't quite this bad but you get the picture!

As predicted, the week before last was a big week on the bike for me and certainly the longest to date since buying the Dahon.  Five full days in the office plus a bit of to-ing and fro-ing from a clients resulted in a total of 117.5 miles for the week.  Last week was much shorter though, in large part because I worked from home for a couple of days.  Not so good from the point of view of exercise but very restful and my legs thanked me for the time to recuperate!  As a result, Thursday and Friday last week were (almost) effortless blasts of cycling fun in beautiful Autumn weather. 

Mileage to date:

Week 28 – 117.5 miles

Week 29 – 48.5 miles

Grand total so far:  1,992.5 miles

So I’m only a whisker away from the 2,000 mile mark.  I think I’ll allow myself a small moment of self-congratulation and a celebratory cup of tea!

I blame Bradley Wiggins!

I do love to see another cycle-commuter out there on my way to work.  If little else it means one car fewer to clutter things up but it's nice to have that sense of kindred spirit so lacking in car-commuters.

Over the summer I've noticed a huge increase in the number of bikes out there.  Both on the train in the morning and locked up at work when I get there.  I have joked, though I do also believe, that the upturn is due in no small part to the fantastic achievements of our Olympic cycling team and a certain Mr. Wiggins in "Le Tour".  In general, I think that this is a brilliant thing though it does have a couple of downsides.

Our small commuter train has a bespoke space to carry two full sized bikes and for ages it was only another lad and I storing their bikes in it.  Now however, there can be as many as seven bikes (including my folder) packed into both the storage space and the doorways at either end of the carriage.  To the train company's credit, they do get as many on as they can, and I've never known them to leave a cyclist behind, but it is somewhat congested at times!  Of course I have the advantage of being able to fold the Dahon which opens up another couple of places on the train that it will fit in comfort.  The lady who gets on with a Brompton from time to time has it even better.  I cannot believe how small those things fold up - a fully functional and very capable bike which will fit in the smallest of luggage spaces.  A versatile combination and (fingers in your ears please Dahon) very tempting when the Cycle Scheme comes back around.

There's also the issue of more bodies waiting to use the only shower at work once I get there.  Again, we've gone from one or two regulars to a gang of about five or six all wanting to shower in the morning.  I get on well with many of my workmates, but draw the line at cramming into a single shower cubicle with them.  Eurgh!  Pass the mind-bleach!

Inevitably, once summer turns to autumn (as it now seems to have done) then numbers will drop off.  In one way that is a shame but will make the experience more comfortable for the rest of us.  On a more serious note though, it just goes to show that if the government and employers want us to make greener choices in our transportation arrangements, the infrastructure needs to be improved to make that possible.  Unfortunately, the way the system works at the moment, it is reliant on more people using an overstretched system in the hope that some of th eprofits get diverted into making those services better for all.

On the whole probably a bit much to lay entirely at Wiggo's doorstep, he is an awesome athlete and all round hero after all.  But it is something that needs to be thought about in order that more people can make cycle commuting a practical reality.

Having just won the TdF and an Olympic gold,
he deserves a sit down, I'd say!

All in the mind

The mornings are getting noticeably colder now although the damp Autumn air is also wonderfully fresh. There is a golden quality to Autumn sunlight that you just don't get at other times of year. Nevertheless I've not been feeing too well this week and it's been a bit of a mental battle to get on my bike in the morning. I have managed it though and the fresh air has been sorting out my rough chest quite nicely.

With cycling, as with many sports and activities, an awful lot depends on the mind. There is the obvious battle with oneself to get out and ride in the first place but recently I have been experiencing another.

I find that, geared as it is, my Dahon is good for an average speed of 12-13 mph. However, "pub wisdom" from fellow, generally lycra-clad, cyclists has it that 15 mph is the benchmark of acceptable average speed. This sums up the obsession with speed that many of us have with cycling. Any cyclist in front of us is a target to be overtaken, whereas when we are overtaken it's time to bring out the excuse book!

I myself find the latter situation the one to battle with. If a much faster cyclist on a racing bike passes me, my first instinct is to think about what I need to do to get that fast. Maybe a faster bike or a lighter load? Maybe my Dahon needs re-gearing? Maybe I should be using my hybrid (obviously with slimmer, faster tyres) etc, etc, etc...

Then mercifully, common sense kicks in and I realise that:

1. My bike has other, big advantages that a racing bike does not, especially for its primary purpose of commuting
2. "Pub wisdom" could just be a crock of bull
3. The other rider could well just be much fresher, faster and fitter than me and...
3. I don't really care that much that I've been overtaken!

It just goes to show though that mind games are an easy trap to fall into! Just ride the bike you have in the way you want to as often as you can and simply enjoy it. Life's too short for anything else!

My Dahon, chilling while waiting for the train. 
Those bar-ends are an absolute God-send!

A random musing

I’ve written before about the need to plan ahead a bit when cycle commuting, especially if (like me) each commute could be to one of a few different locations. 

Now that I have taken the plunge and sold my car though, the need for planning is even more important.  With one car for the family, which is needed most days by my wife for running the kids around, the option to just jump in the car has disappeared.*  Car driving friends are full of such cautionary, critical advice as “Oh, it must be really difficult having just one car”.  Well no it isn’t, not at all - it is a wonderful and liberating experience!  You just have to be smart about it.

A simple week is, well, simple really.  If I am in the same office for five days running (which happens but not too often), all of the heavy kit (lapdog etc.) can be left there and I cycle pretty light.  Once things get more complex than that, I have to think around the issues a bit.  What I’ve found though is that I’m becoming less afraid to ask people for help.  I have a number of workmates who live nearer to the office than me and cycling to their house for a lift in makes a heavy day (or one that starts at a train-unfriendly time) much easier.  I don’t need to do it that often, but it’s nice to have the option there if required.

I think that as a race, we humans have become more and more insular, suspicious of others and self-absorbed.  Hardly anyone asks for help these days (maybe it’s seen as a weakness?) but I find to do so genuinely humbling.  All the more so when you then find out how generous and happy-to-help people really are.  For centuries, monks and nuns of every denomination have known that to live for a spell in poverty, dependant on the goodwill of others is rich development for the spirit.  I’m not planning to go that far, but the principles work on a small scale too.

I knew that cycling to work would benefit my health and cost less.  I never expected it to be so good for my soul. J

And in response to the comment about a lack of pictures, here's a gratuitous
"waiting at the train station" picture of my beloved Dahon.  How's that for client-focused? :-)

*As a side note, my wife has mentioned that she’d also like to cycle now and again when taking the kids to school.  We live a little bit out of it in a village and school is a good four miles each way.  However, my older two kids ride competently and my wife would pull our youngest along on the trail-gator.  Excellent stuff!  I doubt we could ever go totally car-free – I wouldn’t want to as they are very useful for certain things but cutting back bit by bit can only be a good thing.  In even the smallest way, being personally fitter and less dependent on the volatility of oil prices and fuel taxation has to be an all-round win!

Performance enhancement

Since starting to cycle more regularly, I have become more aware of the factors that influence my ability to cycle quickly (or not as the case may be…).  Nowadays, I generally make sure that I’m eating enough of the right things and not too many of the wrong things, drinking plenty (of water) and more recently trying to get enough rest and sleep. 

However, on my cycle all the way home the other Friday, I knew I needed a bit of a pick-up for the extra effort.  I don’t usually cycle with headphones in, but on a whim I decided to and was amazed at the effect that the right tunes had.  I now have a playlist on my iPhone entitled “Power and Motivation!” which is compiled from the hardest rocking and motivational songs from my collection. 

I tried it out the other night.  Fuelled by a medley of Sabbath, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Green Day, Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Skunk Anansie and Iron Maiden, I blasted home in what seemed like record time!  I love rock music and find that hard-rocking, riff-based metal is just the job for pushing me on to greater efforts. 

I even found the breath from somewhere to “sing” along and must apologise to the residents of one village who were subjected to my rendition of “Children of the Damned” at full volume!  Fortunately, one village further on, I held my tongue during the chorus of “Killing in the Name of..”  It’s a sleepy little place and I don’t think that they’d have got over it!

So keep your nandralone, EPO and other performance-enhancing drugs.  All of our nation’s sportsmen and women should be boosting their results using the pure, unbridled power of metal!

Let’s rock!!!

Olympic-cycle-mania!

Well since the opening ceremony of the Olympics the other week, it’s gone absolutely sport-mad over here in the UK!  The atmosphere is fantastic – helped in no small part by our impressive medal haul.  I’ve been so inspired to see how many of our medals have been won by our cyclists and in particular the track team in the velodrome.

The road race on the first Saturday was a bit of a disaster – I think the team just picked the wrong strategy and let the breakaway group get too far ahead.  It has to be remembered though that several of them had just completed the Tour de France little more than a week earlier (including Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome – first and second respectively in the Tour) which puts their enormous effort into even sharper perspective.  Most mortals would be forgiven for spending months recovering after such an endeavour, not racing a 250km world-class road race so soon afterwards!

The men and women in the velodrome have been truly awesome.  Years and years of planning and preparation have gone into our success but ultimately it comes down to the person on the bike.  To see how much sheer power they are able to turn on in an instant for a sprint to the finish is stunning!

It seems like there are more cyclists out on the roads at the moment, no doubt inspired by Team GB.  Personally speaking, there has been more than one occasion that I'm sure I’ve dug deeper than usual – spurred on by our efforts on the road and track.

Team GB you have been simply amazing and I salute you!

On a considerably more human note, my mileage to date:

Week 21 - 95 miles

Total to date - 1,333 miles

Mileage to date

Well last week was a pretty big week for me, mileage wise.  I was already up to four full days commuting to the office before choosing to cycling all the way home on Friday night and then popped out for a short spin through the lanes on Saturday with my eldest daughter.

That was a lovely 8.5 miles actually, fairly short but at a reasonable pace.  It wasn't so long ago that she had to climb the hills with me pushing her for help - on Saturday we bombed down one at 35.1 mph! :-)

I haven't done a mileage post for a while so here are the stats:


Week 17 - 64 miles
Week 18 - 64 miles
Week 19 - 1 mile (ish.  On holiday - bike only used for odd trips to the campsite shop or toilets)
Week 20 - 111 miles (That's more like it!)

Total to date:  1,238 miles

It was only the other week I'd topped 1,000 miles, now I'm rocking on towards another 1,000!

On another note, it's always a pleasure to find another folding bike related website or blog.  Dahon popped a link up to this one on Facebook this morning:

http://www.foldingbiketravels.com/

It looks really good and hopefully full of information for others like me who want to do some big miles and over-nighters on out "little" bikes

Mileage to date and a bit of a disaster

Last week was a much shorter one than usual owing to my staying in a hotel all week.  However, I managed to clock up a few miles as mentioned earlier.  This week I'm back on the cycle commute but on my hybrid and not the Dahon.

On Monday morning, I set off as usual but felt my rear brakes rubbing slightly as though the wheel was out of true.  I couldn't figure out why until, about a mile and a half from home at the bottom of a hill, I braked and heard a "ping" from my back wheel.  Stopping to investigate the matter revealed this:

Broken spoke(n) - not one, but two!

Well I had a little bit of time in hand and didn't think it was wise to proceed all the way to work on a damaged back wheel.  I turned around, limped home and grabbed my hybrid out of the garage.  It's going to be at least the weekend before I can get it to the bike shop, although it's due a service and so needed to go in anyway. 

Therefore, the mileage tally on my Dahon stands as follows:

Week 15 - 34.5 miles
Week 16 - 3 miles

Total to date - 998 miles!!!

So tantalisingly close to the 1,000 mile mark but that's not going to happen for a week or so.  Shame.


However, having the "luxury" of 21 gears at my disposal has allowed me a little leeway to experiment.  I have a long-held plan to build a single-speed, fixed gear road bike.  I love the simplicity of a fixie and one or two sites I've seen recently have featured riders doing really long tours/randonee on such machines.  Rugged, simple and capable. 

So last night I tried to find one gear ratio that worked pretty well for all situations.  Such a gear needs to :

• Be comfortable for pressing along at reasonable speed on the flat
• Be low enough (but still have something to "push" against) when climbing hills
• Enable me to spin down hills without running my legs round at a crazy cadence

And I found one.  It works out to about 65 gear inches but bearing in mind I was fully laden with a heavy rucksack, a slightly higher gear should also do the trick nicely.  I have a Shimano crank-set to fit to the fixie project and so by using its 39T chainring and fitting a 16T rear sprocket (commonly available)  I'll hit my perfect ratio pretty much dead on.  Happy times. 

I have an old but barely used early 80's Raleigh donor bike in the garage just waiting for a new wheelset and fixed gearing.  Maybe a summer project if I can free up a bit of spare cash!

It's been a while!

Well it’s been an eventful cycling week!  In a break from the norm, I spent last week away on a training course which entailed me spending the whole week in a hotel at Manchester airport.  Having had a look for cycle routes in the area, I found a link to what looked like a really pleasant eight mile loop around the airport.  And so, hoping for a nice way to unwind at the end of each day’s training, I packed my Dahon into the car along with my luggage.

The Dahon, tucked in the corner of my hotel room

I’ve had some fine experiences on national cycle network routes and so it was with some excitement that I ventured out on Monday evening.  The first part of the route followed a dual-use footpath alongside a fairly busy road.  That notwithstanding it was lovely to be out on my bike just for the hell of it.  A couple of miles into the ride came a real treat though in the form of the tunnels that take to road and footpaths under both of the airport’s runways.  I’ve cycled in some odd places before but I think this has to take the biscuit.  There are two large car tunnels a couple of hundred metres long (one in each direction) and to the outside of each a smaller tunnel solely for the use of bikes, pedestrians and (judging by the odd pile of poo) horses as well.  All of the pedestrian/cycle tunnels are surfaced with the smoothest and most cycle friendly tarmac in the world.  If only all cycle paths were so pleasantly covered.

The tunnels under the runway (pedestrian tunnels on the far left and right)

Inside the tunnel

Just after the tunnels, the route turned left, away from the main road and onto some lovely tracks and trails alongside the airport runway itself.  The route turns away from the road but unfortunately on Monday I did not.  It took until the hard-won top of the next hill for me to realise my route finding error and turn back.  At least I got to cycle down the hill again.

After riding alongside the runway for a while (and pausing to watch a few jets take off and land – the big kid in me, I’m afraid) the route joined some lovely leafy lanes for a couple of miles.  This route certainly had variety of terrain in spades!

Much more like it :-)

At the end of the lanes, the next section started to get a little more built up.  However, it was still well signposted and alongside the busier roads consisted of traffic free, dual-use footpaths.   Finally the route turned off the road again and through an urban park (complete with feral kids and bull-terriers galore) before rejoining the original road, about half a mile from my hotel. 

On Tuesday night, I managed this final section without a hitch.  Monday night was a different story.  I missed the turning into the park and ended up following the main road into really rough looking estate!  I had the route on my phone but needed to take care finding somewhere safe enough to stop and get my iPhone out.  I know I’d have been fine with a paper map but my ongoing disgruntlement with satellite navigation continues.  The root of the problem (other than the fact that I got lost in the first place) was that the little arrow on the Cycle Network app seems not to point in the direction you are facing all of the time.  This resulted in me stopping, checking and retracing my tracks more times than I care to remember.  All this at the same time as trying very hard not to look like someone worth stabbing for their phone/wallet!  I did eventually find my way back on track though after adding a couple of miles or so to the total distance ridden.

A fellow course delegate knew the area and told me the next morning that the estate I got lost in is where the sitcom “Shameless” is filmed.  I certainly looked like it too!

Requiring  something a little more restful on Wednesday I chose to follow the first part of the loop as far as the runway tunnels before turning right off the main road, away from the airport (and “Shamelessland”) into a network of lanes and villages.  I had much more luck with the sat nav this time especially as it was on terrain that I’m more used to riding.  I even managed to find a really rather good pub for a mid-ride pint and bag of pork scratchings.  There’s nothing quite like it in a sunny, summery evening!  In the end I covered about 16.5 miles and arrived back at the hotel feeling grand.

Lovely!

All in all, a nice week’s cycling really and it served to show yet another benefit of folding bikes.  Whenever I’m away with work from now on, I’ll be packing the Dahon along with the rest of my stuff.  Adventure beckons!

The scores so far (and other rambling)

We're having a bit of a wet spell round here at the moment and it really doesn't feel much like Summer.  Last Thursday, I took a look at the weather in the morning and judged the liklihood of rain to be minimal and so didn't bother looking around for my waterproof.  Wrong.  I got rained on most of the way there and all of the way back.  I've observed as much before but once you're out in it, rain isn't as bad as it looks to be from inside a house or car.  I think we've grown used to the fact that rain is something to avoid as we cower hastily from house or office to car. 
 In my martial arts days I read a book called the "Hagakure" which was penned centuries ago by some samurai or other.  It's intended as a bit of manual for samurai living and is full of nice little snippets of wisdom.  Some are not immediately useful, for instance the one about taking boys to the execution grounds to practice beheading condemned criminals, but others still stand true.  Once that I always remember on a wet day goes something like:

"When it's raining, you can either walk cowering from it or walk tall.  You'll get wet just the same and this thinking applies to all things." 

I paraphrase but it's true enough and that sense of relaxed acceptance of things you can't change does make for a less stressful life.  When I can remember to, that is!

In other news, I notice via Facebook and Twitter that the IG Markets London Nocturne race was won by a guy in a Dahon.  There's a link and photos here:

http://raleighuk.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/raleigh-gac-rider-wins-folding-bike-race-on-a-limed-edition-carbon-dahon/

And blimey - what a Dahon!  Just have a look at the photos.  I like that a lot and have almost started wanting one more than a Vector X27!  I noticed via a tweet from NYCE wheels in the US that theVector X27 is now available after quite a long wait.  Hopefully they'll be releasing it in the UK intime for my next cycle0scheme purchase.  I'm sure a bike like that would shave ages off my commuting time because obviously it's all down to the bike and not the guy riding it...

So the scores so far for my Dahon Vitesses D3HG and I are:

Week 12 – 18 miles

Total to date – 776.5 miles

A really short cycling week (bank holidays etc.) but rendered even shorter by the fact that I used the family car on Friday.  The weather was truly awful (howling gales) and my wife didn't need it.  She offered and, after a short internal battle, I sucumbed.  The thing is, I think that going most places by bike has affected my spacial awareness.  The phot below shows why I should not have driven on Friday and why I must take greater care parking next to small brick walls in future.

Ouch!!! :-(

The things you see when you're out and about

I'm quite a country boy at heart and am very happy with my own company. However, I've also always loved being in towns being around people and "people watching". I'm just nosey I suppose.

Now that I cycle and use the train I see more of people than I ever did when driving to work. And I really do see all sorts! Like, for instance:

• The guy in funky clothes who always drinks a can of cider on the train home
• The young chap who clearly works in an office job but spends his commute drawing busty graphic novel heroines on a Mac Book
• The Chinese computer programmer who just about stops tapping code into a laptop to get on and off train
• The man this morning (who usually wears fairly dull office dress) splendidly attired in a cream linen suit and straw hat
• The girl with a peroxide beehive and fake tan the colour of mahogany
• The man with pink, patent leather shoes
• The elderly Indian lady meditating on a small patch of grass next to a subway
• The guy in a pinstriped suit and carrying a briefcase and umbrella but wearing those split-toed ninja shoes
• And trainspotters....so many trainspotters

I love the variety and the stories each person looks like they have to tell. It makes you realise just what a vibrant place the world is and that you don't need to travel to far flung places to meet interesting and unusual people.

Of course, as they say, when you point a finger at someone there are three pointing back at you. So when my fellow commuters look at me what do they see?

Well, a guy in shorts and sometimes geeky glasses who rides a shopping bike and reads the Bible on his iPhone. So nothing out of the ordinary at all then...

Variety - the spice of life. It would be dull indeed if we were all the same.

A casual commuting chat

There are some things that don't happen much in cars, especially when commuting. When every other car is seen as an adversary (and I've had days like that myself) being sociable with your fellow travellers is one.

However bikes are different, certainly folding bikes at least it seems. I had to wait to cross a busy main road just now on the way home. As I pulled up to the traffic lights, there was a gentleman already waiting on a folding bike. Closer inspection revealed it to be a Raleigh Stowaway in very good condition indeed. I commented on the fact that it could be considered a classic and a good conversation about folding bikes began. Turns out that this chap owns a few of them. Anyway we ended up riding the same way for the next half mile or so and carried on our conversation as we rode.

OK so only a short chat with a stranger - not like I have a new best friend or anything. However, these things seem to happen when you're on a bike. Several people have stopped to ask me about my bike when at railway stations. No one has ever done that about my car!

I guess it's just nice when commuting can be about fun and conversation and not trying to beat the car in front across the next gridlocked roundabout.

And I should review my previously blinkered opinion about what cyclists are like to each other!

Inspiration

It's another beautiful day out there today and motivation to get out of the door on my bike is not generally hard to find. Sometimes though, especially when tired on the final, station-to-home leg of the commute, those negative thoughts can creep in. Suddenly, it all seems like so much hard work and a lift in the car would only be a phonecall away...

It's at times like those that I draw a bit if strength from some of the other cycling blogs and websites I read. Some are just regular commuters like me and some full-on around the world travellers. It's important though not to look for the differences between my exploits and theirs but for the similarities. If you're as reactionary as me, it is too easy to end up feeling rather inadequate - like I should be riding further, faster and somewhere more exotic. However, no matter where and why we cycle or what bike we ride, all of us are choosing a different path to the norm. All are getting fitter through their own efforts and are spending less on oil-based fuels than the majority.

And so as I haul my way up the long hill on my way home, although i'll be on a road I've ridden many times before, in my mind i'll be planning my next adventure. Sometimes something as simple as the next ride out with the family and sometimes huge and far-flung which may never happen. However I drift away in the confines of my head, it's that sense of kinship with other cyclists, (commuters, racers and hardened cycle adventurers alike), the knowledge that we are all out there really doing it, that keeps me going and keeps it fresh.

As some sage once said, "Those who will tell you something cannot be done should not interrupt those out there doing it!"