…the population is on its bikes, cycling into town, looking for somewhere to park… But Reading Council haven’t got the wherewithal to remove the rusting wrecks that are permanent residents of the cycle racks. Shame on you Reading Borough Council. Nul points 🙁 The turquoise-coloured bike you can […]
Do you remember the episode of Blackadder The Third when Samuel Johnson turns up at the palace with his new dictionary? (If you can’t, watch it here.) Edmund tries to catch him out by offering the wise doctor his “most enthusiastic contrafibularities“. Well, someone in Italy has offered […]
Here’s a fascinating little picture… Well, perhaps not but I lead a sad little life. As avid followers of this blog will be aware, I have expanded into the pan-European world (is that possible?) of all the Eurovelo routes rather than just the Eurovelos 5 & 8. And people […]
Lee from the Czech Republic has read and reviewed Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie on Amazon. Here is what he has to say; All I can say this is a wonderful book to read and you really sense you are sharing the journey from Reading […]
I’d like to put together a list of independent websites that do what http://www.eurovelo5.com does at the moment and what http://www.eurovelo8.com will hopefully increasingly do in the future, i.e. to be a source of information about the route offering advice, links, perhaps a personal blog of someone having […]
An interesting list of recommended travel writing from the Guardian. Perhaps Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie will make an appearance next year…?
The Henley Standard writes: A teacher has had a book of his tales of cycling across Europe published. Mr Sykes, who teaches French at Gillotts School in Henley, rode 2,000 miles from his home town of Reading to Brindisi in the south of Italy last summer. Now he […]
And number 23 in the ‘Travelogue’ list! Could I make number the number 1 spot? It’s up to you! Click here (or here in North America).
On August 6th, 2009, I was cycling through the Yorkshire Dales on my pre-Eurovelo 5 shakedown trying to work out if I was suited to long-distance cycling. I wrote the following comments on the blog; “On passing through a pristine village called Airton, I stopped to enquire if […]
After having been contacted by one of the cyclists involved, I’ve had a link to these guys’ website on the front page of this website for sometime. They set off today! Their Twitter feed (@pompey2pompeii) describes their quest as follows; “…a gruelling 1500 mile bike ride, starting on […]
It seems too soon in the academic year – it’s only the second day back – to be battling wind and rain but it looks as though that’s what I’m in for when I leave the flat this morning. Doesn’t look as though we are going to have […]
Sorry cyclists. This entry fits 100% into the category of ‘Nothing to do with cycling’ but I think the idea merits some greater exposure. Impress me with a link! I was just watching the regional news from South Today. They reported that in the Oxfordshire Village of Chalford […]
Hi Andrew, I’m the artist that wrote to you about taking our 4 yr old on the EV5 next summer. First of all…I want to read your book, but Amazon says it’s not available to yankees! Good news: it is! You need to go to the Amazon site […]
Owen’s email below is well-timed. It being the 1st September today, the summer is over if you consider the season to be the three months from June to August. It’s also more or less over if you are a teacher as most of us go back to work […]
…in Germany, with a few caveats. My German isn’t great (as you will know if you have read the account of my cycle across German-speaking Switzerland), but it looks as though Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie is the top-selling English language cycling e-book in […]
Great way to start September!
Listen to my BBC interview about the cycle and the book via Audio Boo. Read the article that appeared in the Reading Chronicle. Watch a 25 minute film that combines the BBC interview with pictures and videos from the cycle. Read about my forray into the media world. […]
Now go on and download the book itself by clicking here! Remember that you don’t have to have a Kindle to read a Kindle book downloaded from Amazon; you can read it on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows 7 phone. More information on how to […]
My interview with BBC Radio Berkshire which will, unfortunately, disappear from the BBC iPlayer at the end of August, can still be listened to via Audio Boo. I have split the interview into seven parts and here are the links; Good Vibrations – Part 1 Good Vibrations – […]
It’s never like this on Downton Abbey. Mind you, there were ‘storm clouds over Europe’ at the end of the last series…
I have spent too much time this summer sitting at my computer either writing the book or marketing it. It was time to get back on Reggie and explore so we have cycled the well-trodden path along the canal in the direction of Newbury. Very tempted to keep […]
Click here, now!
The man behind the book.
Buy now while stocks last… Click here now!
Here it is. Not quite the double page splash I might have dreamt about but hey! it’s better than nothing 🙂 Clicking on the picture should make it much bigger and you will be able to read what has been written. You probably won’t need to do that […]
The strangest thing about being interviewed live on BBC Radio Berkshire yesterday was not actually the interview itself; it was sitting in my living room about three hours before the interview listening to me being named and discussed by the presenter of the programme, Suzanne Courtney (Pop Idol […]
Gavin Esler, has just blogged about how it is to be a cyclist in Berlin and has a fe suggestions as to how we could make life better for all road users here in the UK. I agree with him completely! Read what he has to say here.
Once you’ve finished reading my book (what do you mean you still haven’t downloaded it?! – click here immediately!), here is some more brain fodder for you to plunge into. It’s a report written by the LSE (London School of Economics) and commissioned by Sky & British Cycling […]
Alf Grant has posted the following on Amazon; I often wandered what on earth those Beach Boys were on about with those cheerful lyrics, but with this new book Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie by Andrew P. Sykes, I finally understand! Packed full of […]
If the effort put into this post doesn’t earn me an extra sale of my book, I don’t know what will! I have received an email from John. His words in blue, my replies in red; Hi Andrew, Hi Just been reading your website. Thank you for all […]
I love this! Mark Beaumont, cycling hero & inspiration to all is next to me in the Kindle ‘Cycling’ list; he is just one place above Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie with his book The Man Who Cycled The World. He has a few […]
Well, kind of. More of a poster tour really which consisted of me cycling around the bicycle shops of Reading asking them if they could possibly put up the poster in the window. But they all did, so a big thank-you to A.W. Cycles (Reggie’s spiritual home of […]
It started with me having a good moan about the estate agents signs outside the flats where I live and has ended with me booked onto a radio show to talk about the book I have written! And the very same book is now available for others to […]
That sounds familiar doesn’t it? I have received this very nice email from Alf in Newbury. He sounds as though he may be one of the first customers for my new book (big news about that within the next 24 hours, hopefully) although if I knew how to […]
New title for the book; what do you think? The ‘vibrations’ makes reference to cycling, obviously but more specifically the numerous cobbles that Reggie and I encountered en route to Brindisi. It’s catchy, implies something not too serious which again matches what is between the covers. And better […]
I have a category on this website that is called ‘Nothing to do with cycling’. I use it for all those bits and pieces that I put on here that are just that. The riots for example. Here is another one; property ‘to let’ or ‘for sale’ signs. […]
I know you are all out there checking the blog avidly every day to see if a publication date has yet been set for my book recounting my little adventure of summer 2010 along the Eurovelo 5 from Berkshire to Brindisi… No? Well, I can’t quite give you […]
Rioting is clearly not a good thing. Neither is the Iranian government (although I would imagine that the vast majority of the population are very nice people indeed – when did they last riot for no good reason?). Forbury Gardens in Reading are nice, but not that well-known […]
En route home from my morning coffee and newspaper in town, it struck me how harmonious and diverse were the people sitting, playing, reading, chatting, sunbathing, relaxing, smoking, eating, drinking, kissing, thinking… in Forbury Gardens, Reading. There are probably around 200 of them. None, as far as I […]
You’ve got to admire the comedian at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who took the initiative and sent this message to the British government. Pure genius which reveals as much about his country, if not more than it does of the problems in the UK. I’m still […]
Not my description, but my friend Basil’s description of his new website. Basil is the friend I stayed with in August 2010 at the end of my Eurovelo 5 cycle. He has just started his own WordPress blog and you can visit it by clicking here. His description […]
As mentioned yesterday I have started reading Mark Beaumont’s new book about how he cycled from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina in 2009/10 while at the same time scaling the highest mountains in North & South America. Well, not quite at the same time but I’m […]
Great little documentary on Radio 4…
This blog has become a little more generalist of late with me discussing a varied range of topics from trips to France with groups of school children to how the re-decoration of my flat over the last couple of weeks has been progressing. I need to get things […]
In the cyclist’s own words; Approaching the roundabout, preparing to turn right I make a shoulder check and a clear right turn hand signal before moving into the RH lane. There’s traffic on the RAB, so I stop and give way to it. When it’s clear, I move […]
Kate Belcheva is from Bulgaria, a country that has escaped the web of the Eurovelo network of routes. Routes 6 & 11 pass through neighbouring Romania to the north (route 6) and through Serbia and Macedonia to the west (route 11), but Bulgaria itself is devoid of Eurovelo […]
Unfortunately, I don’t live in Kensington & Chelsea. Perhaps if the book becomes a best-seller I might earn a million and move down the M4 to the big city to pursue a career as an author / Eurovelo consultant. You’re back in the room! Ah yes, shouldn’t spend […]
…although they have yet to contact me about being involved. 🙁 They keep telling me in emails that this isn’t a sign that I am not wanted as an Olympic volunteer so in the meantime, this Olympic preparation event at the end of next week may be worth […]
This is cool (& useful). Designed by someone called Aaron Kuehn in California (I think). More details here. I shall consult before I next take Reggie to A.W.Cycles.
A while back, I posted something about a geography teacher called Lisa from London who was hoping to cycle to the Arctic Circle this summer. She is currently in Oslo by the looks of it – see her website for details. When we exchanged emails she said that […]
Cute safety message at the very end.
…the woman who had the idea of selling toys through the Internet was very proud of the fact that her website had ‘over 5,000 visitors’ per month. So do I! July 2011 has been the third most popular month since January 2010 (the peak by the way is […]
The following email arrived earlier today and the first line comes straight from a pitch on Dragons’ Den; Hi Andrew, You don’t know us but we are a new company that will focus on eccentric races and charity events, we are planning a 2600km bike ride across Europe […]
It’s a Sykes rather than a Rothko. Sorry to disappoint. Twelve months ago today I had just arrived in Strasbourg along the route of the Eurovelo 5. Today, I have spent much of the day in deliberation as to what colour to paint my living room, if at […]
My quest to clean / renew the flat has arrived in the living room and I have just untangled the spaghetti-like web of cables that have remained hidden behind the TV for the past few years. It makes an interesting picture but it does frighten me that I […]
366* days to go (*it’s a leap year).
The largest pile is fiction, the smallest poetry.
I can’t really say that I am renovating the flat – it’s only seven years old – but it certainly feels that way. The results so far are two-fold. Firstly, on the positive side, I have a main bedroom and en suite bathroom that could come from a […]
He is a well-known cyclist so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Jon Snow has made a report for his own show, Channel 4 News about the risks of cycling, especially when around lorries and the curious statistic that although overall deaths on the road have decreased by 14%, […]
A chap from BT has just installed Infinity, high-speed broadband. It is lightning fast! The engineer did his test and said the speed was 39mb/sec with an upload speed approaching 2mb/sec. The online test I have just performed puts the speeds at around 30 & 1.5 respectively (and provides […]
1a. Finish correcting / editing the book. 1b. Make an effort to get it published…and then stick on Kindle. 2. Sort out flat (including cleaning carpets which, in a strange way, excites me) 3. Sell all my unused chattels on e-Bay. 4. Watch pile of DVDs that have never […]
Of course not, you fool! It’s Reggie’s new back wheel, a Mavic A319. ‘Even better than the Alexrims DH19’ to quote the guy at A.W. Cycles. Any thoughts? And why is it necessary to tell me that the ‘rim [is] subject to wear’? The apples in my fridge are subject to […]
…I set off to cycle to Brindisi. Just thought I’d let you know. Click here to read about what I thought about it at the time…and click here to read about some of the journey in extracts from the forthcoming book. If you like what you read, there […]
This Sunday – the one before the last week of the academic year – is the one on which I set off on my long cycle south from Reading to Brindisi. The date was actually 18th July which is of course tomorrow but let’s not quibble. It seems […]
…has mentioned me! 🙂 Not just in isolation, but in the same breath as the esteemed @jonsnowc4 , the Channel 4 News anchor. He is clearly a man of taste as he also has a WordPress blog. For those of you that don’t but can, follow me @apsykes .
Writing the book about my journey along the Eurovelo 5 has taken over the posts of this blog in recent times (I am still at the red pen correcting stage by the way and haven’t made much progress in the last couple of weeks) but the time is approaching […]
My eventful week continued (eventful, that is from the perspective of the pupils I hope but uneventful from that of a teacher, thank goodness) with two more visits to Boulogne following the previous post and then a visit to the cinema yesterday morning in Henley to see a […]
Being back in Boulogne (for the first of three visits on consecutive days this week) today with this lots, suitably obscured in this photo, reminded me very much that it is just over a year since I set off on my journey along the Eurovelo 5. It’s difficult […]
It has now been a week since Reggie was deposited back at A.W.Cycles for his repairs and end-of-academic/commuting-year service. And he is sorely missed. I appreciate that when he does return – perhaps towards the end of next week – he will look fantastic and purr like a […]
The former News Of The world reporter, Paul McMullen appears on every programme going and you have to admire his willingness to be mauled in public. He reminds me of an arsey teenager who will continue to argue despite not having a leg to stand on…
This could be worth a fortune one day… How much do Shakespeare’s First Folios go for? If it is, I’ll sell and donate the proceeds to my employers who have (unknowingly) paid for the ink to print it. They will thank me, I’m sure. Evening update: quite scared […]
It’s not every day you can say this, in fact I’ve never said it before in my life but I have written a book! It’s finished; 1 book, 302 pages, 998 paragraphs, 10,546 lines, 112,850 words and 498,698 characters. Goodness that took some counting! I started on the […]
This is scarily reminiscent of the gap in the wall in Dr. Who… But it is of course the rim of Reggie’s back wheel which after having sailed one sea, climbed three ranges of mountains, crossed a continent, been repaired in the backstreets of Airolo & Parma (& on […]
The University of Reading have given up on adult education. Not that they think the adults of Reading are so full of knowledge that they don’t need educating any more (if only that were the case), but it doesn’t make them any money so they shut down all their […]
Rachel, an artist from Grand Junction, Colorado has been in touch. Ever the teacher, my answers are in red; Hi, Love your blog Thanks! and I’ll have to get the book when it’s ready! Know any publishers? My husband, son, and I are considering doing the section from Colmar to […]
This is what the book currently looks like, all 42 chapters, 294 pages, and 107,835 words of it. It doesn’t look like a book when it’s all put together like this does it? The last couple of rows of pages are those that have yet to be transformed […]
What is it with cyclists also tending to have good taste in design and photography? I’ll let you make your own mind up about my taste in design and the qualities of the photos you can see on here but so many cycling-adventurers have cracking websites that have gorgeous […]
Here’s a man with a film waiting to be made about him; John Adrian Short. He has just posted a comment on The Book section of the site about his cycling journeys (presumably prompted by the discussion between my cousin Richard ‘Bill Bryson’ Birkby & me about Portugal). John […]
This may be an idea… unless you make me a better offer 🙂
Street View is a great tool for fact checking. As I write the book I have to piece together bits of information from many sources; the original blog, comments on the blog, photos, maps, books as well as my own memories of course.* It can be frustrating however when […]
Have a read of the following short extract from the book. Pay particular attention to the final sentence and bow down to the small inoffensive (French) word ‘en’. It is number 100,000 in the book… My short break also allowed me to look at the map in a […]
The view through the window of my flat earlier this evening was a spectacle of colour & light…
Kicks off next Saturday at the annual ‘Water Fest’ on my end of town and then continues all week, culminating in a big bike event at Prospect Park on Saturday 26th…
If you wake up at 3am and can’t get back to sleep, what do you do? Check your emails! And here is one from Hannah; Dear Andrew, Firstly, thankyou for your website it has come in extremely useful helping me plan a similar route! Thanks. It’s a pleasure. […]
The news is out! ‘Do you have a blog sir?‘ the pupils at my school have asked quite a few times in the last couple of weeks. A lot of them would benefit from a nudge in the right direction when it comes to finding a more environmentally friendly way […]
This article on the Bike Hub website is a good read and it’s worth taking a few moments out of your day to read it. Some interesting truths for the converted & unconverted cyclist.
I did one of these for the blog when I returned home to the UK last summer after the long cycle to Brindisi along the Eurovelo 5. The blog words totalled about 30,000. Now they are in the process of being re-written and I have so far got […]
Now available online for reading! Click here or follow the links at the top. Pisa to Siena was mosquito-ridden and the signs were not on my side either. The evening of the 12th August was a bit of a low point… Read on.
I think last time I mentioned this I was at number 15. I wonder why I don’t have a ‘proper’ title like the other blogs mentioned? Perhaps it’s in the WordPress settings somewhere. That said, does this blog have a name? Perhaps it should… I’m still not that […]
Thanks to Simone (now in Venice, not Pavia), I have updated the Part 2, Cycling Day 18 extract from the book. There were a few factual errors and things that needed clarifying. It does make me wonder how many other such errors and omissions I have made elsewhere… […]
Allan Muir writes; I wrote to you in the early days of your preparation for Eurovelo 5 – about GPS tracking, I think (I still enjoy dipping into your blog to see what you’re up to). At the time I and a couple of folk were planning a charity […]
