Friends

It’s that time of year when we kid ourselves that we can become better people by making New Year’s resolutions. Actually, we CAN become better people, but only making resolutions that are set up to succeed from the outset. No, I’m not talking about aiming low (the biggest risk of setting ourselves low...
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I was lucky enough to get one of Carlton Reid’s Christmas E-cards today, and this little thingamajig caught my eye midway through the animation: Some sort of cool, carbon fibre modern version of a Penny Farthing? I had to get more information - I could almost see this coming in really handy (because after...
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There’s been some chatter recently about road signs. Apparently there are a whole new set of ‘em being rolled out across the US, as shown here on cyclelicio.us : In the UK, we’re seeing more of these ones, which allow bikes to contraflow the wrong way down one-way streets: Strangely, I’m not so...
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Last Friday I got an email from Fat Rob asking if I’d be interested in doing a double century next year. I love the idea of this - an unsupported 200 mile, single-day ride. The only problem is that his suggested route of Cambridge to Scarborough left me a bit cold. So I’ve spent a...
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No, I’m not talking about the kind of segregation that creates second-class citizens , and makes people sit at the back of the bus - that’s not a Good Thing at all. No, what I mean is having decent, direct routes for bikes that keep them out of the way of eejits people driving motorised...
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This weekend I was supposed to be doing the Coast to Coast. But unfortunately my training buddy had to go to Luxembourg for the week. So Tall Robbie and I did the Great North Bike Ride instead. I was really impressed that he was allowed out to play for this, as it was...
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So if I’m going to be riding wearing non-regular clothes, I thought I’d better take a look at my wardrobe. Remember just over a week ago, when I was wondering about muggle-repelling cycling jerseys ? Well I eventually decided on a design that I liked, and doesn’t use any recognised UK police devices, thereby not...
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What a night. I mean, really, what a night! Here’s how it started - last year, Von SmallHaussen volunteered to come and collect me, Doktor Seth and Tall Robbie from the beach. Seeing us there, I think she probably mistook our spaced-out exhaustion for some sort of Zen-like being at peace with the world. So a...
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I mean, really. Just WTF? I’m hardly an expert when it comes to ‘long’ rides, but in this year’s Dunwich Dynamo I’ll be accompanied by some genuine novices. For one of these, the practicalities of 120 miles overnight, unsupported, with just one actual lavatory (at about 65 miles, and with a queue of ~200) might...
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Due to my training buddy’s inability to manage his diary, I’m having to move our Coast2Coast ride this year to mid-September. Basically he’d forgotten that the weekend we’d planned on will be . . . His wedding anniversary His wife’s birthday Just a couple of days before his wife’s PhD viva Actually, now I write it down, it’s...
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