My White Bicycle

From one mode of (highimpact) transport, to another (much lower impact) form.  I turned 52 today and can finally enjoy a present I’ve been looking forward to for several weeks.  After feeling some improvement in my creaky knees, in the latter stages of last year, I started to spend more time on my bike and started to get interested in the idea of acquiring a new one.  My trusty old purple steed still works, but is starting to show its age, having been purchased in 1992.  The choice was between a major re-fettle, or the indulgence of a new one.  Needless to say, after a few hours of online research and casually lurking around bike shops, consumerist indulgence won out.

Although much of my cycling is inevitably urban in nature, I take little pleasure in riding on traffic-clogged roads, and I'm always looking for the back routes, towpaths, unofficial cut-throughs, and those more liminal or derelict tracts of territory that feature so often in my photography.  Hence, I’ve always found that a Mountain Bike is the most versatile and comfortable form of bike for me, sacrificing a little speed in favour of the ability to scramble over less well-paved terrain, and possibly get out into the sticks occasionally if I need some respite and recalibration from the city.  I became intrigued by the changes in design that have affected MTB technology since I last bought a bike, (not least suspension, disc brakes and a more relaxed riding position).  More superficially, I’m still very attracted to the chunky aesthetics of such bikes too.

Having identified the model I wanted, I allowed a salesman to persuade me they were rapidly selling fast out due to desirability and bought ‘the last one of these we’ll get’ some weeks earlier than planned.  I'm sure it's the oldest sales trick in the book, but salting it away until today has allowed me the delicious anticipation of a birthday bike to look forward to, - something I remember with great pleasure from my childhood.  Of course, life being what it is, it’s been slashing down with rain today, putting a bit of a dampener on my slightly Tantric sense of deferred gratification.  Luckily, we got a two hour window of sunshine and I immediately jumped on the saddle to play out.  I’m also bemused by the fact that, almost as soon as I’d put down a deposit on the machine, my knee problems started to reappear.  Anyway, I may be an old geezer, but I’m not quite ready to give up just yet.  My legs will just have to improve again now, - I’ve spent the money.

There's A Bloke In Glastonbury Who'll Do This To Your Own Spec.  How Could I Resist?

Of course, this post is largely about showing off.  However, it also means that if some toe-rag tries to steal my bike, the whole Internet knows this one's mine now.  I’ve talked before about how cycling is one of my preferred methods of exploring the urban environment, and inevitably, many of the photos that appear on this blog in the future will have been accessed with my new two wheeled toy.  Mostly though, everyone just deserves a new bike from time to time.

Last Week Drag Racing,  Now This.  Conflicted? - Me?

Thanks should also go to my Mother for making it possible by chipping in with a bit of pre- birthday finance.  Cheers, Mum.