Tandem Cycling Have a Go/ Training Workshop

 

My Tandem cycling club MSSC organises events so visually impaired riders can get out and enjoy cycling.

We are looking for people to front ride (pilot) our tandems. Please come along and give it a go.

Saturday 25th January 2019 (10.00am to 1.00pm).

The Guardian Centre, 67 Clarendon Road SW19 2DX

To find out more or register your interest, please e-mail: cycling@mssc.org.uk
or Call Richard on: 07500913223 

coddiwomple

Have you heard of the word 'coddiwomple'? It means to travel purposefully towards a vague destination. 

In the past my cycling has taken me on tours where I've covered so much ground so quickly that I've not taken in the surroundings. Journeys seem like a blur between where I start & finish cycling each day.

Piloting a tandem with a visually impaired stoker & describing all the sights we are passing has really opened my eyes to all the things I've been missing while I've been in my speedy bubble. While planning some of my own solo cycling adventures, I'm taking a conscious effort not to try & cover lots of ground but to instead, pick certain areas that I can explore. I guess I'm going to coddiwomple around more.

Foldie Forth Clyde Canal Ride

My friend Anna & I put our folding bikes on the night bus to Edinburgh, (with no sleep & a headwind that followed us ALL DAY) rode over the Forth Road Bridge, west along the north bank of the Forth, across the Kincardine Bridge to the amazing Kelpies, along the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Falkirk Wheel (mind blown), on to Kirkintilloch where we stayed with a wonderful family from warmshowers.org. 

Folded up and ready to get on the coach

Edinburgh

The Kelpies

The Falkirk Wheel

In the morning (after the best sleep of my life & an epic breakfast) we carried on along the canal to Bowling where it joins the Clyde River. Then we returned back along the canal and joined the disused railway track route to Glasgow. All because we wanted an adventure and really like bridges and canals.

Glasgow

A big shout-out to to the Scottish sun, our bikes that aren’t made for 50+ mile rides and of course our bums that we have condemned to life on a saddle.

For more information on this ride read Anna's piece for Cycling UK here

10 London Ghostsigns

Brixton

Cycling around London you often see blasts from the past in the form of ghostsigns. I adore these hand painted advertisements that are slowly disappearing. 

The other day I was waiting at traffic lights in Notting Hill, talking to an old man on a vintage Raleigh Sprite. He described the ghost sign looking down on us as a 'faded echo of the past'. 

Here are some I've seen while cycling around town:

Cycling Snapshots// Cargo bikes in Mexico

Whitstable to Margate// Bye BMX

I have window boxes. When I’m away, I genuinely worry about them not being watered. I watch Countryfile. The other day I remembered a sunhat and a child asked me for a tissue. I’ve also got really into bridges, like really into them. I have a list of favourites. In short, I'm growing up.

For these reasons and more, I’ve decided to get rid of my BMX.

RideLondon 46 on what I believe was the heaviest tandem there

While 24,000 riders took part in the 100 mile route, we had a lie in and joined the 4,000 riders taking part in the 46-mile version also known as ‘Bunking Box Hill’.

Nailing Ditching Beacon on a heavy tandem (again)

At the start line in Clapham Common

This is sort of a ride report of the British Heart Foundation's London to Brighton ride on 19th June 2017 (the hottest day of the year so far).

Cycling Snapshots// Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Japan

Tsundoku (n.) Japanese word for a pile of unread books. I'm taking next week off to make a dent in my pile, go on a cycling adventure and turn 35 (shh). Last year I was cycling around beautiful Kyoto. This was the view from my bike.

Kyoto is really flat so very easy to cycle around. You can cover a lot of ground by bike so if you are only there for a short amount of time hiring a bike is the best way to see as many sights and the amazing scenery between. Many hostels offer really cheap bike hire.

There are cycle lanes and if they aren't you are allowed to cycle slowly on the pavements. They drive on the left so if you are from the UK, you don't have to translate your cycling. 

I got politely told off by a policeman who asked me to cycle on the pavement as the road I was on was a bit dangerous.  

If you are planning a trip to Japan (Japlanning), read my book recommendations in Wanderlust Magazine.

  

🚲🇯🇵❤️🎎🎋📚📚

Cycling Snapshots// And the award for biggest bike shed key goes to...

The Wee Row Hostel in New Lanark, Scotland.

When you are staying in hostels with a bike, they usually give you a key and point you in the direction of some form of bike storage. On my travels this has varied greatly and included scary cellars, bike sheds, underground carparks, boiler rooms, staff rooms and fully pimped up rooms with bike stands and a world of repair tools for your use. I've seen some weird behind-the-scenes stuff while stashing my bikes, including what I think was a hotel staff female fight club in Antwerp.

Anyway, this was during my 2014 JOGLE ride in New Lanark, a village on the River Clyde famous for its cotton mills. You can visit the historic site of a traditional mill right next to the hostel. I just happened to ride into town during Lanark Lanimers Week so all the houses were decorated and they were rehearsing for fancy dress processions. My bike had the bike storage room (it was a room, not a shed) all to itself.

Just so you know, if you are ever caught short and have to stay in a Travel Lodge, they let you take your bike up to your room. How romantic.