Ready to Ride

But what about the bike I hear you ask.

The bike, I must tell you, is my close companion and dearest friend. We are inseparable. It lives in the car, ever ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice to transport me across town, down a country lane, along a canal path, over to the station, around to Tescos etc.

I may have already mentioned my abhorrence of paying good money for parking. I know that councils have to cover the costs of providing parking lots and all that stuff, but there are plenty of people obviously quite happy to pay up so good for them. In six weeks I have paid exactly two pounds and forty pence for parking. I'd say at that rate I've paid for half the bike in saved parking fees already!

I've cycled on the Isles of Lewis and Skye, around Dingwall, Strathpeffer, Inverness, Forres, Fort Augustus, Mallaig, Stirling, Falkirk, Aberdeen, Appleby, Temple Sowerby, Coniston, Windermere, Keighley, Haworth, Ripon, Harrogate, Grewelthorpe, Thirsk, Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Shrewsbury, Ironbridge, Llandudno, Glatton, Mildenhall, Ely and Wicken Fen.

In fact I've put a new slant on 'Park and Ride', normally associated with leaving your car in a parking lot and taking the Park and Ride bus into town. I Park in the street and Ride into town. Or ride to the station, and take the bike on the train.

There's scarcely a day when it's not in use. Britain is a bike friendly country, and motorists are very considerate of cyclists. Even so, I'm surprised to find that the standard headgear for a day's cycling is a floppy hat!