Fuel Price Increases

Norman Baker - Liberal Democrat shadow environment secretary writes in yesterdays Guardian:

"...no driver welcomes price increases, but isnt this reaction a bit over the top. Since 1974 the cost of motoring has actually dropped by 5%, while its 84% more expensive to go by train and 70% more expensive to take the bus. Yet I don't here plans to blockade bus or train stations. It seems to me that car ownership can too often create a rather cocooned and unhealthy concentrtion on the self to the exclusion of others.....The car driver is not a victim. That mantle actually sits better on the shoulders of the public transport user."

It astounds me the lack of money that go's in to public transport. If we are going to tackle this culture of dependency on the car, alternatives have to be made available, cheap, and usable.
As much as I'd like it you couldn't expect everyone to ride a bike, but at the very least we need to get people using their cars less.

Fun with one wheel

This week has been building up to the Lord Mayors show in Belfast. On Thursday night we had all the kids that were taking part practicing their unicycling skills in a local park. I arrived on my normal bike and at one point I had them all following behind me with one of them grabbing on to my mud guard, I felt like a mummy duck with all the baby ducklings behind. As usual at this type of event I was riding my giraffe unicycle. The parade route is quite uneven in parts, not so bad when you are on two wheels, but quite tricky to negotiate when you are on one. And I did come off once, which isn't usually too bad but this time the seat followed me to the ground and whacked me in the back of the calf muscle.
Its still quite sore, I hope its OK for Monday as its a bank holiday but the kids are at school and my wife will still be in college so it will the first opportunity I've had in a while to go out on a long ride.

Well football may be the sport of choice this summer, but we cant forget the Tour De France. Last year was the first year i'd really watched it with interest and I was hooked. Can't wait for this years.
Posted by Dave

Summers here!

The weather this last couple of weeks has been glorious.
The long winter nights seem like an age ago.
When you've cycled all through the winter you forget what summer riding is like and its always a pleasent surprise when summer comes round again. Last week there was a gentle breeze behind me, just strong enough to give me a bit of a push and strong enough to blow the blossom off the trees. It was like riding through a snow storm - but a lot more pleasent obviously.
Hopefully over the next few weeks i'll sort out posting pictures to the site and things like that so if for some strange reason you have stumbled across this site in its infancy thank you for reading and check back soon.

Another Bike Blog

I started this page with the intention of having somewhere to record the many interesting things I have come across to do with cycling on the net. As well as adding a few of my own thoughts on the subject.

Keep checking over the next few weeks and hopefully things will start to take shape.