Cullercoats

65 mile bike ride: Just exactly how can the chuffing wind be in my face the whole way round? And given that it’s nearly the middle of May, why is it so sodding cold? And why are the road surfaces still in such shamefully poor condition? And how come no-one told me that when the sun shines,...
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So having realised that my running shoes had done somewhere over 500 miles, and that even short runs (like last Saturday’s jog around the park with Von Smallhaussen) were causing my knees problems, it was time to get a new pair: Yep - I went for another pair of Asics Gel Cumulus (my fifth...
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Thursday is a bike day. We won’t let the weather, the clients we have to see, or the errands we have to run put us off doing it all on two-wheels. And this week, I had all three - cold & drizzly first thing in the morning; a meeting with a client that required...
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There’s a reason that fewer women than men seem to ride their bikes in the UK. As explained in Beauty & The Bike , it’s the infrastructure - we’re expected to just mix in with the traffic, and it often just doesn’t feel safe, whatever the official statistics say. Warning: sweeping generalisations ahead. The thing is,...
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So my Decadent In-laws are here to stay and it’s the school holidays. Normally I’d do my long ride on a Sunday, but we’d hatched a plan for a picnic on Holy Island - the family would drive, and I’d cycle there before hitching a lift home. I plotted my route . . . ....
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Gotta take it where you can get it sometimes. Late home from work, and with Daughter keen for some time with me, I managed to squeeze out a short ride - 40 minutes of ladders up through the gears on the turbo. I’m not entirely sure this was fun… Workout: Type: Cycle Date: 04/13/2010 Time: 17:17:12 Total Time: 00:40:00.00 Calories:...
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This weekend I was in That London for my oldest friend’s birthday party. An evening of booze and banging techno - I participated in the former, while enjoying observing the effects of the latter. Anyway, I took the train down, which left me with the problem of how to get from our house to Newcastle...
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Remember earlier in the week, I was asking how much water you take with you on longer rides ? Well there are obviously other problems on longer rides - all that water’s got to go somewhere, but you also need a comfortable saddle. Which I guess, is where these guys’ invention pretty much hits the...
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Pedestrian refuges / traffic islands - put there for your safety. On the one hand, they mean that pedestrians can cross roads one lane at a time. And drivers, get a greater perception of their speed, which hopefully means that they slow down. The trouble is, that there isn’t always room for a car AND...
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Well three cheers and a "Huzzah!" for the weather this weekend - the roads were neither covered in snow, nor frozen with sheet ice! What better excuse do you need to get out in the elements and experience some wind-in-your-face cycling? I did one of my favourite loops, taking in the three hills at Sidegate, Stanley,...
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