Cycling
I cover many aspects of cycling as a means of travel, including towing children about. Various aspects of recreational, commuter and competitive cycling are covered. There are Tandem bike reviews, child trailer reviews, time trialling advice and results, and lots more!
John's Background
John is now with Iceni Velo
I've been focussed on bikes ever since I started University and had to think about how to get about on a budget. Back in 1992 I used to cycle a few miles each way on a heavy but useful mountain bike (Carrera Kalarahi, a Halfords semi-cheapo brand).
A year later, and for the next few years, I rode the same bike 20 miles a day to Uni through some pretty attrocious Norfolk lanes. At the time I wasn't aware of optimisations to make a cyclist's life easier, such as lycra, but I persevered until 1995. The mountain bike went slowly downhill, changing colour a couple of times in the process and getting gradually more rusty. A brief foray into tri-bars did little to improve aerodynamics, but did add a few unsightly scars to my limbs.
1995: my awakening to 'real' cycling. I don't know what brought it about, but all of a sudden I was riding the same country lanes, in lycra, on a new Dawes Horizon tourer. After joining the UEA Cycling Club I was introduced to the club ride and was also persuaded to ride competitively. This was mostly time trialling (improved by the purchase of a dedicated bike that I could optimise for straight-line speed) and with the odd bit of cyclo-cross. I ended up racing for CC Breckland as they were (and still are) very strong in time-trialling.
In the years since my student life I had a break from organised rides. I was with Coalville Wheelers for a couple of years, but family life prevented me from being very involved there. On returning to Norfolk I got properly into cyclo-cross (after my eldest son Dan took it up as a youth rider, and I thought I might as well have a go too), joined Gt Yarmouth CC for a bit, and at some point switched to Iceni Velo where I dabbled with road racing. As I entered my 40's, longer rides became more appealing, and I racked up a lot of 125-mile rides before discovering audaxes. Most of my free time is now spent on these long rides, the longest of which is London-Edinburgh-London (1500km, ridden in 2022).
Enough rambling! What you really need is some useful information, either about places to cycle, performance cycling or how to look after yourself and your bike.
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Further Reading
- Year 2023 - 9 entries
- 2022 - 28 entries
- 2021 - 16 entries
- 2020 - 17 entries
- 2019 - 29 entries
- 2018 - 25 entries
- 2017 - 34 entries
- 2016 - 44 entries
- 2015 - 48 entries
- 2014 - 26 entries
- 2013 - 38 entries
- 2012 - 35 entries
- 2011 - 35 entries
- 2010 - 22 entries
- 2009 - 5 entries
- 2008 - 15 entries
- 2007 - 24 entries
- 2006 - 17 entries
- 2005 - 10 entries
- 2004 - 10 entries
- 2001 - 2 entries
- 1999 - 1 entries
- 1998 - 11 entries
- 1997 - 45 entries
- 1996 - 27 entries
- 1995 - 8 entries
- 1994 - 1 entries
Calendar
All Cycling events | All events
Coming soon...
01 April 2023 (Saturday): 300k 3Down London - New Forest
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About the author
My name is John Swindells and I'm a keen recreational cyclist with a preference for long one-day rides. I've also previously dabbled in time trialling and cyclo-cross. See more of what I get up to on Strava!
Latest Comments
- 04 Feb The important ones are already on here :)
- 04 Feb Hi Jef, thanks for your kind comments. My E-number is 126 (177 in metric
- 02 Feb I love this site. Having been on it for quite a while, only today fell
- 26 Aug Thanks Nick, and well done with your time too! Sounds like you had almost
- 26 Aug Nice to read your account - and well done on a really quick time! I managed
- 03 Jul Quite a few unknowns. But I suspect that the excellent support at the
- 18 Jun Like you, I've done plenty of longish day rides but I lack experience of
- 08 Jun Interesting thoughts Nick, and I like your strategy. A late start means
- 08 Jun I'm somewhat in your camp - reasonably quick rider aiming to finish each
- 30 Mar Glad you're enjoying it, David! As I recall this gap happens if you don