Month: June 2024

Diving Into The Deep End At Bespoked 2024

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Scrolling through the archive of CyclingEurope.org (no mean feat as there are now getting on for 4,000 posts on here), I discover that I first attended Bespoked: The Handmade Bicycle Show back in 2013 when it was taking place in Bristol. Over a decade later, the show continues to take place but has been on its travels: to London and Germany and in 2024 to the Victoria Baths in Manchester. This morning, along with a cycling friend, I headed over the Pennines (in my friend’s Volvo rather than on our bikes…) to visit the show. Here are a few notes.

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 081 – Cycle Touring On Shetland (& Orkney)

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Shetland is the northernmost part of the United Kingdom, 170 km from mainland Scotland and only 220 km from the Norwegian coast. Of its 100 islands, only 15 are inhabited (by a population of just over 20,000) but according to the local tourist board, the remote archipelago โ€œโ€ฆhas everything a cyclist could hope forโ€. Tim Sanders, Anne Lawther and Jayne Moore have all visited Shetland in recent months and the writer Martyn Howe has been a regular visitor over the years both on foot and by bike. The Cycling Europe Podcast asked all four travellers to recount their cycling experiences. Does Shetland really live up to the tourist hype? Anne, Jayne and Martyn also reflect upon their visits to nearby Orkney. How does it compare to its near-Nordic northern neighbour?

Episode 081: Cycle Touring On Shetland (& Orkney)

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Shetland is the northernmost part of the United Kingdom, 170 km from mainland Scotland and only 220 km from the Norwegian coast. Of its 100 islands, only 15 are inhabited (by a population of just over 20,000) but according to the local tourist board, the remote archipelago โ€œโ€ฆhas everything a cyclist could hope forโ€. Tim Sanders, Anne Lawther and Jayne Moore have all visited Shetland in recent months and the writer Martyn Howe has been a regular visitor over the years both on foot and by bike. The Cycling Europe Podcast asked all four travellers to recount their cycling experiences. Does Shetland really live up to the tourist hype? Anne, Jayne and Martyn also reflect upon their visits to nearby Orkney. How does it compare to its near-Nordic northern neighbour?

General Election 2024: The Manifestos And ‘Cycling’

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There is good news as well as bad. The bad news is that the word ‘cycling’ does not appear in either the Labour Party manifesto for the 2024 General Election nor the Conservative Party manifesto. It does appear twice in the Liberal Democrat manifesto and three times in the Green Party manifesto. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t appear at all in the Reform Party manifesto. The SNP have yet to publish their manifesto. So compared to the last election in 2019, the two main parties – the ones that have a realistic prospect of forming the next government – have, it would seem, abandoned us altogether!

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 080 – Cycle Touring 1970s Style – Rob Ainsley

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Writer Rob Ainsley has cycled from Barmouth to Yarmouth because they rhyme. Heโ€™s cycled from Britainโ€™s smallest church in Rhos to its largest church in Liverpool. Heโ€™s cycled the London Monopoly board. And he continues to amass a long list of โ€˜end-to-endโ€™ country cycles. So for Rob, cycling from Morecambe to Bridlington along the Way of the Roses cycle route may at first glance appear to be a little, errโ€ฆ pedestrian. But think again. He decided to cycle the route 1970s style. In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast we chat to Rob Ainsley in York where he reveals all. Was the naffest decade of the 20th century as good a time as any to be on two wheels? Or better forgottenโ€ฆ

Episode 080: Cycle Touring 1970s Style – Rob Ainsley

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Writer Rob Ainsley has cycled from Barmouth to Yarmouth because they rhyme. Heโ€™s cycled from Britainโ€™s smallest church in Rhos to its largest church in Liverpool. Heโ€™s cycled the London Monopoly board. And he continues to amass a long list of โ€˜end-to-endโ€™ country cycles. So for Rob, cycling from Morecambe to Bridlington along the Way of the Roses cycle route may at first glance appear to be a little, errโ€ฆ pedestrian. But think again. He decided to cycle the route 1970s style. In this episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast we chat to Rob Ainsley in York where he reveals all. Was the naffest decade of the 20th century as good a time as any to be on two wheels? Or better forgottenโ€ฆ

Le Grand Tour: Cycle Touring Done Right… Or Wrong?

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It was with a certain amount of trepidation that I started reading ‘Will Cycle’s’ review of Le Grand on a Bike Called Wanda. He had written kind words about my previous books. He might even be in the category of a ‘fan’. Yet his tweeted link to the review that he had written suggested that he had fallen out of favour with my take on cycle touring. Somewhat hesitantly, I followed the link…

green bridge on seawater with ellizabeth s tower during sunrise

Election 2024: Cycling Manifesto Anticipation

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You may have noticed…. it’s election time here in the UK. For the previous two elections, I examined the manifestos of the main parties to discover how many times they mentioned the word ‘cycling’. I have posted the results of my research at the foot of this email but to summarise, in 2017, the Green Party made mention of cycling twice, Labour and the Liberal Democrats once and the others not at all. In 2019, things had improved, a little. The Greens were still top of the list with 6 mentions of ‘cycling’ with the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives equal second with 4. Labour mentioned the word twice and the other parties not at all.

The Cycling Europe Podcast: Episode 079 – The Cycle Touring Festival / Albania

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Most episodes of The Cycling Europe Podcast know where they are going from the outset. This episode is slightly different. We start in the English Lake District to take in the sounds of the recent Cycle Touring Festival in its new home of Coniston. We then head to India to hear from long-distance cyclist James Thomas. He lives in a coastal town in Goa on the shore of the Arabian Sea but often ventures into the mountains on foot and on his bike. He reflects upon his current experiences in India as well as past experiences cycling through Europe, especially Albania. We stay in Albania for an extract fromย Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie, Andrew P. Sykesโ€™ travelogue about cycling the EuroVelo 8 from Greece to Portugal in 2013. To explain if things have changed in the past decade, the podcast speaks to Dritan Kolgjini, a tour guide for Explore Travelโ€™s Albanian cycling trips. Does the country really live up to its reputation of being the โ€˜new Croatiaโ€™?

Episode 079: The Cycle Touring Festival / Albania

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Most episodes of The Cycling Europe Podcast know where they are going from the outset. This episode is slightly different. We start in the English Lake District to take in the sounds of the recent Cycle Touring Festival in its new home of Coniston. We then head to India to hear from long-distance cyclist James Thomas. He lives in a coastal town in Goa on the shore of the Arabian Sea but often ventures into the mountains on foot and on his bike. He reflects upon his current experiences in India as well as past experiences cycling through Europe, especially Albania. We stay in Albania for an extract from Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie, Andrew P. Sykes’ travelogue about cycling the EuroVelo 8 from Greece to Portugal in 2013. To explain if things have changed in the past decade, the podcast speaks to Dritan Kolgjini, a tour guide for Explore Travel’s Albanian cycling trips. Does the country really live up to its reputation of being the ‘new Croatia’?