Much Ado About Cycling
The HandleBards are a unique cycling theatre company, who carry all of their set props and costumes on the back of their bicycles, performing charmingly chaotic Shakespeare’s plays at outdoor venues all across the UK.
The HandleBards are a unique cycling theatre company, who carry all of their set props and costumes on the back of their bicycles, performing charmingly chaotic Shakespeare’s plays at outdoor venues all across the UK.
Today the Tour de Yorkshire returned to the cobbles of Halifax and stage 4 of the race set off from the historic Piece Hall. In fairness, we didn’t get to see much of the riders themselves (not to the extent that I was able to see them in […]
Bright Eyes Art Garfunkel Is it a kind of a dream Floating out on the tide Following the river of death downstream Oh, is it a dream? There’s a fog along the horizon A strange glow in the sky And nobody seems to know where it goes And […]
Podcasts are on my mind. If you read the previous post you would have noted that I included a snippet from the next episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast that will be returning in early June. The topic of that podcast will be the purchase of a new touring bike and I have now edited the full interview with Alee Denham who is currently in Colombia en route to Alaska. I’m hoping to interview someone from Koga and will be taking my microphone to the Cycle Touring Festival later in May to record a few thoughts. It might be you… Watch this space.
Today has been a little like an episode of Line Of Duty; it starts all mundane and then quickly descends into all kinds of shenanigans. The day started with cats in Yorkshire and ended with a fall down a 30-metre ravine in South America. That should keep you […]
Theft is on my mind. I have just ordered a rather expensive bicycle and Josh Quigley, a man who wants to cycle around the world, had his bicycle stolen in London this week before he’d had the chance to even leave the country. Once my new Koga is delivered, I intend buying insurance but we all know that prevention is better than cure…
It’s been quite a few months since the last episode of The Cycling Europe Podcast and a new instalment is well overdue. Attentive followers of this website over the last few weeks will have noted that one subject has predominated; my investment in a new touring bicycle. At this time of the year, when northern hemisphere cyclists are beginning to think about where they might pedal off to in the summer, it seems a timely topic of conversation.
There is a risk that CyclingEurope.org might be entering a phase of being a useful website once again… In response to the post earlier in the week about the Denham handlebars on my new touring bike – the Koga WorldTraveller-S 2.0 – which also made reference to the USB charging device that is connected to the Son 28 front dynamo hub, I have received a detailed and very interesting email from David Sinclair.
If you search for the word ‘Denham’ on this esteemed website (yes, this one!), you’ll find it appears twice; once in reference to the handlebars for which I have opted on the new Koga Signature WorldTraveller-S 2.0 and once in a post from earlier in the year. Until yesterday, I didn’t realise that the two are connected, but they are and here’s why.
With the placing of the order for the new touring bike – see previous post – the fuse has been lit on the firework of a new cycle tour. But to where? And when? Tentative plans have been discussed over the past few months here on CyclingEurope.org but in the back of my mind, I knew that if I didn’t replace poor old Reggie – another long trip is beyond him I’m afraid – none of them would come to fruition. Now that he has (nearly) been replaced, the ball is back in my half of the court. (Not that, in fairness, it ever left my half of the court but let’s not quibble; you know what I mean…) I need to decide where I will take my new, as yet un-named, bicycle, the KOGA Signature WorldTraveller-S 2.0…
Today I took the plunge and placed an order for a new touring bicycle. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the KOGA Signature WorldTraveller-S 2.0 Rohloff Discbrake bicycle.
The team at Ilkley Cycling Club are gearing up for the eighth annual White Rose Classic, Yorkshire’s premier cycling sportive on Sunday, 23 June. Registration for this June’s event opened in 2018 and is proving as popular as ever, attracting riders from all over the country looking to experience challenging hills and serene beauty that Yorkshire has to offer.
The official colour of the race is actually blue but since the Tour de France visited Yorkshire back in 2014, the colour yellow has been difficult to displace. The yellow bunting has been going up in Halifax as we prepare to welcome, for the second year on the trot, the cyclists of stage 4 of the Tour de Yorkshire on Sunday 5th May 2019.
In the last couple of days I’ve been catching up with the new series of ‘Pilgrimage‘ on BBC Two. The programmes document the journey of a small group of celebrities as they walk some of the stretches of the ancient path from Canterbury to Rome, the Via Francigena. […]
Yesterday I received an online alert about an article on YesCycling.com – ‘a buyers guide to the cycling world‘ which featured a reference to ‘…on a Bike Called Reggie‘. I went to investigate and discovered not just one reference, but three! Here’s what was said about each of […]
…which, alas, still involves spending money. Much of my time over the past couple of weeks has been spent poring over the Koga Signature website (see posts passim). I think it’s fair to say that I have now reached a point of having convinced myself that it is […]
So… Tadcaster. Small market town between Leeds and York on the River Wharfe, famous for its breweries. Until a few weeks ago, a town that I had never previously visited. Under the blue sky of a crisp Friday morning in late March, it’s an attractive place, especially as […]
…watch this space
This advertising campaign encouraging young Germans to wear helmets when they cycle has been causing a stir in the Fatherland… …with some saying it is sexist. Yet, as the posters above reveal – you can view the full set here – male models feature just as prominently as […]
I make no excuse for the language nor for the topic. Yesterday was an important day that takes the country a step back towards the sanity that many – I believe the majority – in this country want. The People’s March in central London was a fun event […]
By Anees Saddiq Keeping your bike in good shape enables you to save your time and money at the same level in the long term, so you need to discover the ways how to keep your cycle in tip-top condition. In order to have a smooth and peaceful ride, you need to […]
Nearly 2.6 million and counting. Have you added your name? (The link is here.) I’m looking forward to joining the celebration of all things EU in London on Saturday at the People’s March. I hope to see, perhaps, some of you there. I’ll be wearing a blue shirt… […]
In the ten years that CyclingEurope.org has existed in this little corner of the worldwide web, one major thing has changed online; social media has taken over, or so it sometimes seems. Not that I’m complaining. It’s a great way of keeping up-to-date with others around the globe […]
This is a picture of one small part of a colleague’s bicycle that I took this afternoon. Rather beautiful, no? Here’s a bit of Sturmey Archer history: Go on then, let’s have a picture of the Rohloff Speedhub. I wonder if one day I might own one…
“Forty-three countries down, Hera Van Willick rides her bicycle across continents, fully self-supported. This is her journey and what she has learned along the way.” On Saturday evening I went to my local arts centre – indeed the arts centre where I spend much of the working week […]
As spring approaches… (it was snowing just now here in the Pennines), a fresh look for the website and social media. The return of a few familiar images all taken before and during the cycle from Tarifa to Nordkapp… …combined to give a unified look across this website, […]
Where Cycling Europe goes, the BBC follows… Well, kind of. I first met Andrew Edwards of BBC Radio Leeds way back in 2014 when he interviewed me and another long-distance cyclist Tom Bruce at an event organised by Leeds’ cycling impresario Ian Street (he of Leeds Bicycle Film […]
It took me a while to work this out – in fact, I think someone pointed it out rather than me doing any thinking – but you may (or may not) have wondered why the EuroVelo numbers go from route 1 (the Atlantic Coast Route) to route 17 […]
By Freddie Curtis Embarking on a long cycling tour is the ultimate way to spend some time off. Here on Cycling Europe we have done some long journeys across the continent, such as the 96-day tour from Tarifa, Spain to Nordkapp, Norway. A bike tour that takes multiple […]
An extract from a distinctive day during the hot summer cycle from southern Greece to southern Portugal as described in Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie. Saturday 17th August When I emerged from the tent at 7am, after a night of only brief spells of sleep, […]
Welcome to Andermatt… Alas I’m not there at the moment. Although if I were, I dare say it wouldn’t look like it did in August 2010 when the picture above was taken. I suspect it might be somewhat whiter. I was, of course, en route for southern Italy […]
The competition closed at midnight on February 28th and the judges have been locked away in a secret location to deliberate. OK, that’s not quite true. The judges – Laura and Tim Moss, round-the-world cyclists and organisers of The Cycle Touring Festival – probably did it on their […]
The Cycling Europe Cycle Touring Photograph of the Year Competition that was launched recently has been continuing to receive some top-notch entries: All of the photographs above are excellent examples. Just remember that the rules of the competition (see below) stipulate that the photograph must include a bicycle […]
I’m sure it will bite back soon but in this spring-like weather, can there be a better alternative to getting out on the bike? I doubt it… Today’s ride took me along the Calder Valley to Hebden Bridge… …over Oxenhope Moor in the direction of Haworth and then […]
I have received an email from Ian Johnston. It has provoked me to do a bit of digging in the Cycling Europe archive and as a result I am writing this longer-than-normal post. Enjoy. The Tende Pass is perhaps one of the lesser-known Alpine passes but it is […]
The Cycling Europe Cycle Touring Photograph of the Year Competition that was launched recently has been continuing to receive some top-notch entries: All of the photographs above are good examples of what you could be sending in yourself. Just remember that the rules of the competition (see below) […]
This bridleway is at the start of one possible route that I can take to travel from home into the centre of Halifax. I’ve just walked the route on this beautiful morning and I couldn’t help thinking why I haven’t used it more on the Cannondale. The CAADX […]
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to set off one day on your bike… and just keep going. Some people do it. The extreme example would be the German chap who kept cycling around the world for much of his life and when he returned, his home town gave him […]
Yes, only 99p for the Kindle edition of the book, but not for long so be quick!
Here’s a sad tale but also one that brings back fond memories that make me smile. We all remember our school teachers but some stick in our minds more than others. I grew up in a small Yorkshire town and attended the local comprehensive school. Some of my […]
It has been a good week; daffodils are on sale in Morrisons (meaning that spring can only be a few weeks away), Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie has re-entered the best-selling lists on Amazon (mainly because the publishers are selling the Kindle edition – for […]
I like this app. It’s a fairly simple thing but, for those like me who are fans of the EuroVelo network, it’s rather nifty. I stumbled upon it via the Wikipedia EuroVelo page the other day as I wanted to check a distance of one of the routes. […]
Pennine West Yorkshire defies definition as either ‘rural’ or ‘urban’. Or, rather, I struggle to know whether I live in the town or countryside. Away from the nearby moors, it’s hard to find land that isn’t put to use (I refrain from saying ‘good use’) and hopefully this […]
I shall probably reblog this a few times before the end of March…
By John Mullins What makes the Tour de France so special? Why is it that this one cycling competition transcends all other events on two wheels? Even if cycling isn’t your thing, you’ll know what the Tour de France is all about. Since 1903, the world has been […]
Following on from the previous post, it appears to be ‘update Sunday’… Here’s another, reflecting upon the reaction to my post of a few days ago: The Butterfly Effect. Before reading on, you may want to hop back to that post to read what I said at the […]
The Cycling Europe Cycle Touring Photograph of the Year Competition (bit of a mouthful but there you go…) that was launched recently has been receiving some top-notch entries: All of the photographs above are good examples of what you could be sending in yourself. Just remember that the […]
If you want to feature your event on CyclingEurope.org there’s an easy way to do it: send me a cracking poster! It works almost every time and has always worked for Eroica and their ever-expanding list of sportives that have grown out of the original one that took place in […]
I was an Olympic Games Maker back in 2012 (can you believe it’s now nearly 7 years ago?!) and had a wonderful experience. The Olympics won’t be coming back to Britain anytime soon (and post-Brexit, you can’t blame them…), but every year the organisers of the Tour de […]
In its ten-year history, CyclingEurope.org has never really had a competition worthy of the name. However, a few days ago I posted a small collection of photographs of my own bikes in a short article about the freedom of movement in Europe. This got me thinking… We all […]
Yesterday I posed a question regarding the availability of touring bicycles that come with butterfly handlebars as standard. I had a couple of responses. At the budget end of the spectrum there is the Dawes Karakum suggested by Paul (and also Craig via Twitter). Curious name and, actually, […]
I’d be interested in knowing… My Ridgeback Panorama came with drops (as do most bikes of this type) but Reggie’s Achilles’ Heel has always been the fact that, post purchase, I changed to butterfly bars.
Rob Ainsley has been mentioned a few times recently. He’s the Yorkshire-based cyclist and writer for Cycling Plus with whom I’ve exchanged emails in the past few months. Last week we finally had the opportunity to meet up, in Halifax, as he cycled beside the River Calder from […]
There’s an interesting, if somewhat depressing, article in today’s Observer: How millennials have put a spoke in the wheels of Britain’s bicycle shops. The sub-heading reads ‘Youngsters say cycling is ‘too scary’, bike sales are static and stores are closing, as highlighted by James Corden [in a tweet] […]
Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet up with the cyclist and journalist Rob Ainsley over a coffee in Halifax. I mentioned Rob a few weeks ago here on CyclingEurope.org and it was good chatting to him about his ‘Yorkshire Ridings’. More details of his cycling exploits are […]
The BBC are currently airing a fascinating series on BBC Two called ‘Icons‘, eight documentaries dedicated to the great and good of the 20th century. Last night’s episode was dedicated to ‘explorers‘ and the four people that had been chosen to be celebrated (and, potentially, voted for) were […]
Sunday 13th January 2019. No, I haven’t got the date wrong. I know that today is Wednesday 9th January but my mind is focussing upon the 13th. Here’s the forecast: Looks OK for January, no? Now, when the Cycling Europe Podcast returned for its second series of four […]
In these dying days of Britain being within the European Union, a retrospective photographic look at what the freedom of movement – across a peaceful continent of countries with shared values and aspirations – means in reality… That freedom is about to be curtailed for most people within […]
A message from the people at the Brain Tumour Research charity by Farel James. Former cycling champion Phil Corley has launched a national fundraiser to help find a cure for brain tumours. Phil, ex National Road Race Champion, who now runs one of the UK’s leading independent cycle […]
The Cycle Touring Festival has featured frequently on CyclingEurope.org in recent years and I’m delighted to say that it is back in 2019. Here is how the organisers – Laura and Tim Moss – explain it: “We really believe the Cycle Touring Festival is different. Unlike other festivals, we don’t […]
Continuing from the general theme of recent posts, looking forward to cycling (or other) exploits in 2019, trying to put aside the concerns of ageing, this entry in the ever-increasing canon of CyclingEurope.org introduces you to an inspirational film from Lynnea Salvo. If the name is familiar, it […]
An interesting report from NICE – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – entitled “Physical activity: encouraging activity in the general population“. It’s the kind-of report that will make the average consumer of the Daily Mail / Top Gear foam at the mouth. In my opinion, […]
“Oh to be 50 again – get out as much as you can…“ That’s what ‘brendaintheboro” has commented on the first post of 2019 on CyclingEurope.org. She has a point. Sir David – in the previous post – would, without doubt, agree. But just how much should I […]
There was a hint of this in yesterday’s post but 50 is clearly a number on my mind… Today is Wednesday 2nd January 2019 but I’m writing this on December 27th 2018. My 50th Christmas is over. My 50th New Year is about to take place. Christmas 2018 was […]
Welcome to 2019 and let’s kick off by talking books. I’m sure I’m not alone in having a small section of my bookshelves that looks like this: Sandwiched between some dictionaries and a satirical updated Enid Blyton take on the impending horror that is Brexit, a small collection […]
…see you in 2019!
Bearing in mind Halifax once looked like this… (did you watch?), tonight’s seasonal son et lumière was pretty spectacular. First up was The Minster… …then Square Chapel Arts Centre (where I happen to work)… …and finally the Georgian splendour of The Piece Hall. Happy Christmas!
I occasionally receive emails from people who are aspiring to cycle one of the routes – or parts thereof – that I have cycled myself in the past few years; England to southern Italy, along the coast of the Mediterranean from Greece to Portugal and, most recently, from […]
I live near Halifax so I’m not complaining, but it’s curious that stage 4 of the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire will be almost identical to stage 4 in 2018. The only difference I can spot is that from Halifax the cyclists will head north out of Halifax in […]
Signed copies available for Christmas: more details on this page of CyclingEurope.org.
By Tom Butcher I cycled the Great Glen Way earlier this summer and, apart from the infamous midges that Scotland’s famous for, it was a great ride. It took me two days in all. Due to the terrain and the nature of the route, this is a mountain […]
I remember cycling from the southern tip of Spain to the northern tip of Norway back in 2015 – my third crossing of Europe by bike – and coming to the conclusion that however wonderful the experience was (and it was usually just that), I had inadvertently sacrificed […]
Episode 003 of The Cycling Europe Podcast was film-themed. One of the participants – Harry Bunnell – has alerted me to the upcoming Bicycle Film Festival in London, the details of which are below. Before you read, you might want to catch up on that podcast from November […]
Yorkshire 2018 never happened. It was my great plan to cycle all of the National Cycle Network routes in Yorkshire during the calendar year 2018. If you are seen as an optimist even by those at the positive end of the thinking spectrum, you might point out that […]
Autumn trees, fields and colours in my ‘secret space’. Well, it feels that way as I have never met anyone whilst walking or occasionally cycling along its path… The best thing of all? It’s only two minutes from my front door (if I walk quickly).
The cyclist and writer Rob Ainsley emailed me last week with a few thoughts about cycling places from ‘end-to-end’ (Land’s End to John O’Groats, Tarifa to Nordkapp, Cape Sōya to Cape Sata etc…) and also about cycling in Yorkshire. I’ll write more about those two topics in the […]
Here’s a teaser of a video project that I’m working on at the moment. Can you spot the cyclists? Can you recognise the town?
A short film about birds going about their way on a Sunday morning in Yorkshire…
(No cycling here either… – see posts passim)
Following on from the previous two posts (“I Have Made No False Promises On Brexit – I’m Free To Tell You The Truth” and “Stick To Cycling Content”) which focus upon the ludicrous car crash that is Brexit, I’ve been pointed in the direction of the Freedom of […]
Two days ago I posted the text of a speech given by former Prime Minister John Major. He was speaking about the folly that BREXIT. It is sad, and a little ironic, that we live in a world where many current politicians are so terrified of offending the […]
By Sir John Major “Until now, every US president I have known has considered [the UK’s] relevance to America to be enhanced by our membership of the European Union. Yet very soon – on our current course – we will no longer be able to argue from within […]
The sunlight yesterday was beautiful. It was the early morning / evening sunlight of summer for a full twelve hours and I took advantage by walking some of the way to work in Halifax. It also afforded me the opportunity of working in RAW for the first time. […]
I was recently contacted by a cyclist called Dean Fletcher. Dean lives in northern Portugal, close to the border with the Spanish region of Galicia. He explained that he had just set up a website extolling the virtues of cycling in the north-western corner of the Iberian Peninsula […]
The host towns and cities for the 2019 edition of the Tour de Yorkshire were announced yesterday… …and two things should stand out. Firstly, that ‘Hors Catégorie‘ classification (or, as Sir Gary managed to mangle it into, ‘whore’s category’ which is surely a ranking system used for a […]
The 10.19 from Bradford to Leeds It’s a train, not a bike But for the sake to National Poetry Day Let’s imagine That I’m cycling Speeding down the superhighway (That they have built) Except, I’m told It’s a bit of an obstacle course for cyclists Perhaps the train […]
His name is Colin Baird and he wants to see all of Scotland by bicycle. So says the short biography of ‘Cycling Scot’ on his website, CyclingScot.co.uk. He likes cycling, he likes Scotland… and he also likes cycling books. He even has a short hall of cycling book […]
As someone who experiences close passes almost every time I ride my bike, I hope you don’t mind me sharing this letter that’s just arrived from Cycling UK… “Dear Andrew, Support our campaign to help end close passes today! As cyclists, we all know that horrible feeling of a […]
Way back at the start of August, I set myself two challenges. The first was to climb the national ‘Three Peaks’ of Britain in three weeks. I did just that, ascending to the summits of Scafell Pike, Mount Snowdon and finally Ben Nevis over three consecutive weeks in […]
Here’s an interesting idea… and there doesn’t appear to be a catch: Boom25.com. Cyclists and travellers – you are probably one or the other or both otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this – can and do spend hours poring over the websites of online retailers looking for that […]
Britain has decided to shoot itself in the foot (ankle, leg, stomach etc…) by leaving the European Union so, unless we manage to wrestle power from the current lunatics who are attempting to run the asylum that is the UK, come late September 2019 we may need cheering […]
If you think of ‘cycling‘ and ‘marginal gains‘, you tend to conjure up images of Team Sky, Dave Brailsford and the success of the British at international sporting events such as the Olympic Games. Indeed Dave Brailsford, head of Team Sky defines the concept of ‘marginal gains‘ in […]
Cast your mind back 12 months; more specifically to 15 minutes and 13 seconds into film-themed episode 003 of The Cycling Europe Podcast: You heard an interview with Jimmy Hyland who, in 2016, set off on an adventure across Mongolia. He made an award-winning film about his travels – Mohon […]
By Jamie Osman You need not be familiar with the latest cycling statistics to understand the growing apprehension among cyclists globally regarding bike safety on the road. In South Africa, Stellenbosch-based cycle tour company Cape Vélo believes this is just one reason cyclists are turning to gravel riding; they are […]
Every six months or so an email arrives from The Netherlands announcing the publication of a new edition of Bicycle Traveler. We’ve had to wait a little longer for the 13th issue but it’s now available, and best of all, it’s free! There are some familiar names in […]
By Ron Ferguson When they go on holiday, most people feel the need to relax and have fun. Others want to spend their getaway in the most glamorous areas. There are also those who want to spend time in the middle of nature. What about combining all this? […]