My Eco Real commuter road ready
democracystreet.blogspot.com/2009/10/flickr.html
It's been two years since I divorced my car (see URL below for an explanation of how our marriage went sour) . Of course I'd been cycling for work and play for much longer than that, mainly reliant on my folding bicycles, but on an impulse, I got out the old bike I haven't ridden for a good while. Been sitting in the garage. Having been riding one or another of my four 16" wheel Brompton folders with 6 gears for over a decade, I got a yen to try cycling with 21 gears and 24" wheels. This Eco Real (I can't even find it on the web) was my first proper bicycle. I'd always had bicycles - usually second-hand, costing anything between £10 and £50. Staying in the Highlands, I dropped into Halfords in Inverness. For fun they let me try out this bike, on sale in 1995 for over £400. I went mad. I cycled out of the shop and up the long hill of the A9 south from Inverness without a break - nothing to an experienced road cyclist, but for me, at 53, being able to do that seven mile journey back to my mother's house in Strathnairn with such ease and pace was a revelation about the difference between the bikes I'd ridden until then and one in a different class. People have asked me about the cost of a Brompton. When I tell them they often go "phew!" (to avoid that exclamation and give a bit of encouragement I do mention that they start at around £350). Ignorance about the cost difference between a high and low quality bicycle is widespread. I switched to a folder because I needed to go to lots of places by train and bus - what the transport planners call multi-mode travel, and I call versatile. Taking full sized bikes by public transport is difficult; often impossible in Britain. So I've put up with the lower hill climbing capacity of the Brompton to be able to combine cycling with long distance travel for work and play. I cycled in and out of town this afternoon on the Eco Real and got no small pleasure out of the extra turn of speed I got, but - oops - it's a lot harder getting my leg over the saddle when dismounting. On the other hand cycling with toeclips is a renewed pleasure. But I need to do a bit of tuning yet and of course, because I can't take it into places with me like the folder, I'll have to go back to using a lock. I doubt it'll replace the Brompton, but it was fun.
My Eco Real commuter road ready
democracystreet.blogspot.com/2009/10/flickr.html
It's been two years since I divorced my car (see URL below for an explanation of how our marriage went sour) . Of course I'd been cycling for work and play for much longer than that, mainly reliant on my folding bicycles, but on an impulse, I got out the old bike I haven't ridden for a good while. Been sitting in the garage. Having been riding one or another of my four 16" wheel Brompton folders with 6 gears for over a decade, I got a yen to try cycling with 21 gears and 24" wheels. This Eco Real (I can't even find it on the web) was my first proper bicycle. I'd always had bicycles - usually second-hand, costing anything between £10 and £50. Staying in the Highlands, I dropped into Halfords in Inverness. For fun they let me try out this bike, on sale in 1995 for over £400. I went mad. I cycled out of the shop and up the long hill of the A9 south from Inverness without a break - nothing to an experienced road cyclist, but for me, at 53, being able to do that seven mile journey back to my mother's house in Strathnairn with such ease and pace was a revelation about the difference between the bikes I'd ridden until then and one in a different class. People have asked me about the cost of a Brompton. When I tell them they often go "phew!" (to avoid that exclamation and give a bit of encouragement I do mention that they start at around £350). Ignorance about the cost difference between a high and low quality bicycle is widespread. I switched to a folder because I needed to go to lots of places by train and bus - what the transport planners call multi-mode travel, and I call versatile. Taking full sized bikes by public transport is difficult; often impossible in Britain. So I've put up with the lower hill climbing capacity of the Brompton to be able to combine cycling with long distance travel for work and play. I cycled in and out of town this afternoon on the Eco Real and got no small pleasure out of the extra turn of speed I got, but - oops - it's a lot harder getting my leg over the saddle when dismounting. On the other hand cycling with toeclips is a renewed pleasure. But I need to do a bit of tuning yet and of course, because I can't take it into places with me like the folder, I'll have to go back to using a lock. I doubt it'll replace the Brompton, but it was fun.