Cycling

Off to a bad start here because I'm no cyclist, I'm just a bloke who rides a bike. I own no Lycra, wear normal clothes, have no bikes with skinny tyres, always ride alone, follow the rules of the road and don't really do speed records. Having said that, I do at least 200 rides a year and cover a fair old distance.

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This started just before lockdown, I was finishing a work contract and planning a couple of months off so bought a 'cheap' ebike, indeed most of my miles (not all) are on ebikes.

 

During lockdown, a bike was a good excuse to get out on 'exercise' (I was doing a 25-mile daily trip for a bacon sandwich and that was just the morning trip). It became a habit to do things by bike. The car was old and tired, I'd not changed it because I'd not been using it much so it went to the scrapyard and was replaced with.... a bike.

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I now have four I use regularly, one for leisure (a mountain bike), one for shopping (big panniers), one for longer day trips and a cheap local runabout. I still have no car.

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Some will say I have spent a fortune on bikes, I don't see it that way and would point out that I have spent £2,000 less than I would have on running the car and this saving is increasing by around £2,000 per year.

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Anyway, my bikes are from the budget range and secondhand but they work well enough and I'm in no rush to replace them. Here are the main four (and my trailer, yes I'm odd), I do also have a couple of 1980s Steel MTBs for the local cliff tops.