The City of Amsterdam has just released new figures on bike use - it's inspiring reading. Just when you thought they couldn't squeeze another bike into the place, cycling is growing.



http://richardtullochwriter.com/2013/03/28/amsterdam-cycling-facts-and-figures/

This despite all the reasons cycling should never work in Amsterdam - wind, cold, rain, ice, snow, cobblestones, canals,…

Just some of the conventional saddles I have known and not loved (enough).

L to R, Top row: Selle Royal Lookin Gel, Avocet Touring III, Scott SCT-21, Selle Italia FK(!?)…

As often happens in the lazy hours over Christmas and New Year when you spend time with family, there's ample opportunity for reminiscence and discussion of family history. On my mother's side, we know a great deal of this going back many generations; my uncle is retired and an amateur history buff. On my late father's side, we know very little at all, even only a generation or two back.

My mother casually mentioned this latter fact to my uncle during the break and he chose to…

A pretty poor turnout this morning chaps... and especially you ladies.

My continuing totally un…

If you're tired of doing your own maintenance stop on by Blue Mountain Bikes in Woodford, we've got multiple servicing options ranging from a simple service at $40 to a full bike strip down/ clean, adjustment, and resizing for $140. We also have our cafe happy to serve coffee all day just how you like it with freshly ground beans to order. Free wifi and shower usage for after a long ride on the trails! You can't really lose at BMB! …

Last weekend, out on an easy ride without any goal in mind, I ended up at Brighton Beach, and so yesterday after a quick googlemap, I decided to head down to Cronulla, the National Park there, and back. I didn't actually work out the distance, I just noted there was a bike path all the way! I was expecting to be home in 60km... but still, I'm quite chuffed to have completed my first 100km+ ride, despite it being pretty much as flat as Sydney can possibly be all the way.

The…

Americans love their cars, but Chicago is trying hard to define itself as a bike-friendly city, and it's working:

http://richardtulloch.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/cycling-usa-chicago-gets-it-right/

I haven't been around much recently, as we've been in the UK visiting family. All a bit of a whirlwind, but I did manage to do one thing I had planned – to go for a bike ride.

I borrowed my father-in-law’s bike to go for a spin through the Warwickshire countryside. It was nice to get out, and riding…

Yes, you read that correctly. On my 2011 Christmas-morning ride I saw a grand total of 66 other cyclists on a 77 km route from Artarmon to West Head via Roseville Bridge, Forest Way and Mona Vale Rd, returning via Pymble and Pacific Hwy. This is up from 37, on an admittedly different route in 2009, but actually rather similar to…

What were they thinking?

A photo essay on bicycle engineering disasters

Sometimes when I’m riding I come across such engineering messes that I stop and wonder, what were they thinking? Here are some of the best examples in Sydney’s West: 

 …

On Monday I had to go out to Quakers Hill, a suburb in western Sydney just north of Blacktown. It's on the M7 and quite well served by bike paths, though I've never ridden there directly before, so the precise route was newish to me. Only trouble was it was 41 deg and rising, and it was 2pm. My kids were waiting at high school for me to meet them, I had no choice but to go by bike as the missus had the only car. Fortunately I have double water bottle cages for long rides so I filled up and…

You can meet some "interesting" people while cycling. I don't refer to the type who, safely ensconced in their metal cocoons, abuse you verbally and sometimes hurl missiles. No, it is sometimes people who are not in cars and who you are not expecting to be "interesting" who surprise you.

Last night I decided that I really must get some miles in if I was to have any chance of completing the 250km Alpine Classic Extreme course out of Bright in a matter of days.

Friday is probably…

I had no idea that I had a blog page at Sydney Cyclist until I happened to run across it today via a Google search that turned up some messages back and forth from last year.

Well, since you have given me this forum, let me encourage you to have a look at the new, much improved MOMENTUM magazine website at:…

On Saturday night, June 19, I had the privilege and pleasure of again meeting one of Australia's greatest cycling athletes. A more modest, understated and self-effacing human being, and a more unlikely extreme athlete, it would be hard to imagine. Peter Heal, a dinkum Aussie in his early 50s and commonly known to his mates as “Poit”, had just completed a superhuman feat of endurance by cycling, alone and unsupported, around the coast of…