Sydney Cyclist

I challenged my colleague Alex to write his first cycling blog as he embarks on a pretty big challenge in about a month's time. It's his first time on a proper road bike, hence the title I gave him 'Training Wheels'.... So this is what he has to say about cycling and the challenge.  

"I’m not sure when “mid-life” officially starts.  My kids are getting older, 40^th birthday is imminent and increasing numbers of friends have been squeezing into lycra over the last few years. …

Well, the rear tyre on my fixie finally needed replacement. As you can see, it really was down to the last fragments or rubber covering the casing. I was actually rather pleased it got to this point, as this is the same tyre that was on the bike when I had…

So I took my wheel to the bike shop to get the spoke fixed yesterday. I didn't ride the fixie; I just took the wheel on the cargo bike, and dropped it off on the way to work. After work, I duly popped into the bike shop and picked it up, all fixed and ready to go.

As I strapped it back on to the cargo bike,…

I’ve been riding bicycles for a long time – since I was about four, I suppose, although there was a fairly long hiatus when I was in my twenties and early thirties. And, remarkably, in all that time, I’d never broken a spoke.

Others I know seem to face this as a perennial problem. They break spokes if not daily,…