Ride as much or as little, as long or as short as you feel. But ride.
— Eddy Merckx.
Prologue
Between 1x brief b’cycle around a large Belgrade lake in 2009 and a hired b’cycle to Saltford (near Bath) in 2015; I b’cycled precisely 0x times.
The trip to Saltford triggered inside me a desire to possess and ride my very own bike. In August 2015 I found myself in an industrial unit, just off The Gloucester Road: Roll Quick
For the princely sum of £I-can’t-remember (something like £125) I purchased 1x vintage Raleigh Pursuit racer b’cycle. A magnificent machine of such splendour & beauty – it was love at first sight and I was now well on my way to becoming a proper b’cyclist.
Not half-an-hour later, on a damp August afternoon I was lying in the road having slid off while negotiating a slippery, off-camber junction. My foot came off the pedal on the side that was heading toward the asphalt and my knee bent in a way it wasn’t designed to and slammed into the road. A quite painful experience which left me with a badly bruised and swollen knee. I was to remain injured for 4 months and my b’cycle was locked up permanently, until the following April.
April 2016
T’was a French girl who convinced me to break it out of storage, 8 months since the accident. She wanted to ride up to “The Downs” to see where she was about to start a new job. Once again the rain was coming down and I was deeply concerned about getting back on the bike and returning to the scene of the accident. I survived, hurrah! And once again I was hooked on b’cycling! (Thanks Eva).
I then started to regularly commute to-and-from work by b’cycle and my confidence grew. Even after falling off again at the bottom of Granby Hill, my resolve held and I stuck at it. I was now regularly commuting by bike to work and back, up a considerable hill. My Alpe d’huez. But it was only 10km a day at most.
I moved closer to work in October 2016 which drastically reduced my daily commute to 4km a day. I would still pootle about town but the longer rides and the busier roads remained intimidating and elusive.
Sometime in Early 2017
My colleague Sam sold me his lovely Planet X Kaffenback around this time. A serious b’cyclist who had cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats upon it. It quickly became the new love of my life, a quite magnificent set of wheels upon which to continue enjoying my ridy lyfe.
May 2019
Still commuting daily, and never going more than a handful of km’s at a time a life event occurred upon my 39th birthday: I planned a road trip to Stuttgart, Germany!
Having spent many hundreds of pounds on my lil’ old Ford Fiesta motorised vehicle in order to get me there somewhat reliably, I also decided to spend many pounds on a full service and detail of my lovely b’cycle. For I was to take my bike with me and cycle around the city of Stuttgart.
I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of this splendid city. Upon returning I was compelled to ride my bicycle harder and longer than ever before having spent a great deal of pre-Brexit English pounds upon it. It was riding quite resplendidly.
My first proper solo long ride, busy roads, roundabouts, junctions and all, was to be to Chew Magna (29km). Being unfamiliar with the plethora of apps and widgets for b’cyclists to get about the place, I just followed google maps. But I had a wonderfully summer’s day ride along country lanes, cycle paths and main roads. I was exhausted but hooked.
With in the week I increased my ride to Chew Stoke (32km), then Clevedon (48km) and a week later my first attempt at Dundry Hill. I was now using the marvellous Komoot app, which changed my life. The routes were off the main roads and I was exploring country lanes and places I never knew existed.
As of this blog post, officially my longest ride (on Komoot anyway) has been from Bristol to Salisbury at 86.3km. However my phone died about 10km from home so it shoudl really be 96ish km.
I also did a Grand Tour from Bristol, over Dundry Hill and to Weston-Super-Mare, then Clevedon, Portishead and back to Bristol but Komoot stopped recording at Clevedon so officially that one was only 67km but was more like 100km. But if it’s not in my Komoot profile it doesn’t count!
B'Cycle Rob Blog 