Posted on February 25th, 2010 by Karl On Sea
Whoever said that all the deep coal mines in England were closed in the 80s & 90s? There are still loads of them.
You’ll find them at random locations in the roads of North Tyneside, Newcastle and Northumberland. As well as speleology, some of them also offer excellent opportunities for cave diving.
Next week I’ll take my [...]
Filed under: Ashington, Cycle, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Road Safety, Whitley Bay | No Comments »
Posted on February 10th, 2010 by Karl On Sea
We’ve negotiated flexi-time at work! This means that as I work really very hard indeed (you just can’t do enough for a good boss*), I’m effectively getting an EXTRA 24 days holiday a year. Technically, that means I have enough holiday to take 52 days a year off. Tempting . . . but not so [...]
Filed under: Bike Culture, Community, Cycle, Friends, Newcastle, Photographs, Stuff, helmet | No Comments »
Posted on February 7th, 2010 by Karl On Sea
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, and [...]
Filed under: Cullercoats, Cycle, D-Lock / U-Lock, Gateshead, Newcastle, Weather, Whitley Bay | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 20th, 2009 by Karl On Sea
It’s a strange job that I do. Today I was at BBC Radio Newcastle for a bit of chat about triathlons. It’d been organised by Keith from Highlights PR , who does the business for our team of enterprise coaches .
I would have cycled into the studio, but I had good reason not to:
For some [...]
Filed under: Ashington, Bike Culture, Bike to Work, IronMan?, Newcastle, Triathlon | 4 Comments »
Posted on October 31st, 2009 by Karl On Sea
If you were campaigning to improve the quality of local cycle infrastructure, is this the sort of thing that you’d be demanding?
Make my journey a pleasant experience and not a daily struggle for space.
Give me and other cyclists priority over motor traffic.
Include sections free of motor traffic.
Stop buses, lorries and cars passing too close and [...]
Filed under: Bike Culture, Community, Environment, Everyday People, Goals, London, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Road Safety, Tynemouth, Whitley Bay | No Comments »
Posted on October 20th, 2009 by Karl On Sea
This weekend, Robbie and I met up in Amsterdam - we were in town for the marathon on Sunday, and had each flown out on Saturday.
It’s been a while (like 17 years) since I was last in Amsterdam, and on that occasion, I’d stayed in a tiny hotel (left) not far from the [...]
Filed under: Bike Culture, Goals, Netherlands, Newcastle, Photographs | 5 Comments »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 by Karl On Sea
So after yesterday’s jaunt, we went out again today. For some variety, we went through the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel (fitting a tandem in the lift is . . . a bit of a squeeze), and then through Jarrow & Hebburn, before taking the cycle path that runs parallel to the Felling Bypass to go down [...]
Filed under: Assassination Attempts, Friends, Newcastle, tandem | 7 Comments »
Posted on May 17th, 2009 by Karl On Sea
Von SmallHaussen came up for this weekend. It’s basically the only chance we’re going to get to ride together on the tandem before the Dunwich Dynamo, so we wanted to get out there and put some miles in, but also to do this in all sorts of traffic conditions.
So yesterday, we dropped Daughter off at [...]
Filed under: Friends, Newcastle, Silly Stuff, tandem | 3 Comments »
Posted on April 23rd, 2009 by Karl On Sea
This was the soundtrack of my ride today - Out Ta Get Me, from Appetite For Destruction.
(The bleeping out on this version of the song is really subtle - even if you’re not a G’NR fan, it’s worth watching for the awesome audio edit )
So, to my ride today - visiting a client on [...]
Filed under: Assassination Attempts, Bike Culture, Bike to Work, Gateshead, Newcastle, Road Safety, Video, Whitley Bay | 5 Comments »
Posted on April 15th, 2009 by Karl On Sea
It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden my road bike, Christine - last July in fact. So on Friday last week, I gave her a good spring clean and lubing. Along the way, I used the handy chain wear checking tool I bought to check her chain. Good thing too - it’d done around [...]
Filed under: Assassination Attempts, Cycle Infrastructure, Gateshead, Newcastle, Photographs, Too Much Information, Tynemouth, Where I Shop | No Comments »