It was with a very heavy heart earlier this week that I broke the news to the WalkRide GM steering group, and even more painfully to the members of my local WalkRide Prestwich & Whitefield activists’ group, that I would be...
Banging on about bikes
On the new GM bike-hire scheme – a sneak peek
Ever since the unfortunate demise of Mobike in 2018 after just a year of operation, Greater Manchester has been devoid of a workable bike-hire scheme, with much speculation around what would replace the briefly iconic brushed-steel and orange cycles from China....
November 5, 2021
On the current state of active travel in Bury: a Walking & Cycling Forum and a vanishing popup cycle lane
It’s fair to say that Bury Council hasn’t traditionally been a leader when it comes to providing quality infrastructure for active travel – especially not cycling. Remember for example the manifold frustrations of trying to convince them to cycle-proof Prestwich High...
November 3, 2020
On turning a road bike into a tourer: the magic of bikepacking gear
This is a companion post to my video of my mini-tour of the Morecambe Bay Cycleway, which I cycled over a weekend in August 2020. Given that bikepacking is a comparatively new form of cycle touring (or rather, carrying gear on...
August 11, 2020
On the lockdown cycling boom: notes from a front-line bike mechanic
One of the few positives to have emerged from the coronavirus lockdown has been a veritable boom in cycling. People have turned to the bicycle not only for daily exercise, but perhaps more importantly for commuting to avoid the risk of...
June 12, 2020
On how the bicycle could prevent a tailback all the way to Derby in the post-COVID-19 bounce-back
Yesterday (9 May 2020) the government announced a comprehensive package of measures to boost walking and cycling (“active travel”) as we emerge from phase one of lockdown. These include: £2 billion investment in active travel including £250 million for immediate pop-up...
May 10, 2020
On a (pre-lockdown) visit to Paris, one of Europe’s premier cycling cities
Background Admittedly, a travelogue about a few days in a European capital may seem somewhat untimely given current circumstances, but I have photos to share, an urge to write and it’s vaguely escapist. Plus there’s a little pandemic-related epilogue if you...
May 5, 2020
On Brompton docks and the Birmingham blue routes
One of the hazards of taking an interest in active travel is that novel or innovative infrastructure projects become niche tourist attractions and bike-lane geekery informs how you perceive the places you visit. Just as my first visit to Copenhagen was...
November 17, 2019
On the Great Ancoats Street Swindle of summer 2019
[This is an extended version of an article commissioned by The Meteor in their series on Manchester City Council’s calls for greater community engagement: that piece can be viewed here] In June 2019, Manchester City Council (“MCC”) announced that it was...
October 29, 2019
On a grand day out at the bicycle race
Blog chums, forgive me for the long silence. Since getting back from the Hebrides a lot has happened, and I’ve chronicled very little of it. It’s been something of a period of introspection, with the rigours of life sapping any spare...
September 17, 2019
