Welcome to my first cycling blog, an attempt to entertain and inform you about the journey I am on. Whilst I have cycled for as long a I can remember (early memories including several episodes of coming off bikes and causing myself injuries in all fairness), but over the Christmas of 2021 I made the decision to make my hobby of cycling a little more of a lifestyle choice.

Whilst I had been commuting to work on my bike for a number of years the lifestyle choice cycling decision linked in to a few other choices I took – to stop drinking alcohol permanently, to lose some weight and take my personal fitness and well being more seriously. Christmas day 2021 was (almost) the last day I consumed alcohol (more on the “almost” part in a later blog, don’t worry it’s a speed bump story), but the decision to get fitter involved a decision to cycle to work every day in 2022.

My daily commute is around 16 miles in total (8 miles each way), and where I live the summer cycle is invariably quicker than joining a queue of cars, so with a small investment in some kit this decision felt simple to execute. Whilst I am keen to keep the blog along one single timeline I would like to say that up until a recent bout of covid in late September I had managed to avoid any use of the car to get to work with the exception of one storm and a couple of days where the bike sadly wasn’t quite the right option.

So far so good – decisions made, some panniers purchased with a rack for the rear of my hybrid bike plus a new waterproof jacket and a year of cycling to work and back was all good to happen. I understand it may well be the Norwegians who say that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing, and for the first few months of the year the appropriate use of layers, gloves and a snood meant that sub zero cycling, rain and strong winds for the most part were manageable.

Anyone who knows me will know that being cold and wet equals a very miserable me, so to get through the winter months into early spring with an almost 100% cycling record felt good. As the days led into weeks of cycling I even got slightly faster, evidenced by my use of Strava to capture the miles and other associated data along the way. I’m sure other apps are available but who doesn’t want to become a Local Legend on a randomly named short stretch of road at sometime in their life!

The combination of no alcohol, a general effort to consider my intake of calories and the cycling was leading to my physical and mental wellbeing improving. A bit of weight loss, an improvement in physical fitness and the positive power of living life at a cycling pace at the beginning and end of each working day is from my point of view highly recommended if its something you can take on.

One of the winter storms with a name occurred on the 14th February 2022, Storm Eunice, and as a measure of the improvement I was making and the level of desire I had to cycle every day to work, it took three separate individuals (all of whom were probably right) to talk me into not cycling into work……..and whilst they were correct I’m sure, and had my safety at the heart of their reasoning, I was absolutely gutted to have taken the car to the office.

Only six weeks into the year and this feeling was the first moment I realised that the cycling bug might have bitten. As the spring rolled into early summer the miles of cycling were beginning to add up. Generally I was getting a little quicker on each ride, with the exception of the intervention of a head wind, and I began to give myself a target of riding a certain number of miles each month.

With an occasional day, maybe one per week working from home I set an initial target of 250 miles per month, approximately 4 days a week cycling times 16 miles per day, and after the mild frustration of not cycling in Storm Eunice in February another behaviour crept into my daily routine without me really noticing.

With some time off over the course of the year even my early challenge of 250 miles per month could be tough to complete, so I found myself adding a mile or two onto my commute home to bank a few more miles. With a tail wind, usually ever warming weather as the year progressed these odd extra miles were easy to complete, and mixed with a slowly improving level of fitness (or maybe contributing towards a slowly improving level of fitness) I managed to keep hitting the monthly target each and every month as summer approached.

One of the many benefits of cycling that I discovered over these early months of 2022 was the ability to have a little time to think, especially about the bike I was using and the inevitable maintenance it requires. Whilst my use of the bike had increased I began to consider if my commitment to riding to and from work could justify an investment in a better bike ?

My hybrid bike (racing bike meets mountain bike) at the time was good , I had suffered issues with the brakes / gears / usual bits of a bike that need regular maintenance or in the case of lots of miles of use replacements and servicing. As I crossed the 1000 mile total for the year so far, and well on my way to 1250 before I was even close to the end of May I started to consider my next steps, and the cycle to work scheme through my employer and the recommendation of the scheme through a colleague who had just invested in a new bike herself all played a part in what happened next.

An application for the cycle to work scheme was simple to complete, and whilst I’m sure the scheme varies slightly from employer to employer, the basic idea is that you apply for a voucher to spend on a bike (and potentially accessories) and then pay it back monthly over a period of time saving money in the process (tax, vat ?!? check small print for these details) One voucher arrived in my work inbox and off I went to pick a bike.

Sadly this particular exciting adventure should have involved the purchase of a bike at a local retailer, but after a disastrous visit to a local cycle shop where the bike I was considering was dismissed by bike shop employee, who then tried to sell me a bike around twice the value of my bike voucher, I took the decision to find an online bike retailer to avoid any further disappointment. I should point out that this is only my experience, I’d like to think there are thousands of excellent bike retailers around the world and I might just have encountered the wrong sales assistant on my visit (and I’m not going to name and shame the business in question, although I am sad they weren’t able to help).

I am however very happy to recommend the shop who did help; exact spec of bike and an incredibly helpful sales assistant to find almost all of my wish list of accessories (panniers, racks, helmets etc) which arrived courtesy of Balfe Bikes within a few days in a rather larger well packed box! My cycling Christmas had come at the end of May, and with a new shiny set of cycling wheels my daily commute became quicker, easier and much more comfortable overnight. What I hadn’t quite realised is that this new bike came with something I don’t remember ordering………