"Clive George" <
[email protected]> wrote:
>"Jeff York" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> David Damerell <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>Quoting Jeff York <[email protected]>:
>>>>This is not the place.
>>>
>>>For the endless cager self-justification? Quite. As I said; for once,
>>>spindrift was on the money.
>>
>> "Cager"... Look sonny, I've probably been riding a bike since before
>> you were born. And from comments that you've posted, probably a lot
>> more safely.
>
>You've said you're pro-motorist. You've not described your cycling at all.
>
>Tell us more about bits of your life which are on-topic for this NG - what
>sort of riding do you do, and how much?
>
>(me - mostly road riding, several thousand miles/year, at least half on
>major A-roads. Not quick enough to be a racer, but not pootly either. Also
>ride tandems on and off-road - maybe a thousand miles/year for those :-( )
Virtually 100% road, though there are a few bridleway/cyclepaths
around where I live - which is in the Severn Valley and consequently
going almost anywhere apart from up/downstream starts with a steep
climb...
At least the paths have a gentler gradient than the
roads!! I'm getting on a bit and my health isn't too wonderful, so
I'm fairly restricted on how much I can ride nowadays. To add to the
"fun" I've also been diagnosed with Meniere's Syndrome, which can
severely effect one's balance! Not the most conducive to staying on at
times.
In keeping with my antique status I ride a fairly antique bicycle - a
1960s Carlton Clubman, complete with Simplex gears, which miraculously
still work beautifully! I remember a few years ago at the end of one
of the British Heart Foundation rides standing in a carpark in Oxford
with some bloke who'd just turned up on one of those all-kevlar "Chris
Boardman" efforts, about 5 grandsworth, who was waxing rhapsodic about
the old Carlton, "Is that a *genuine* Carlton Clubman? Look at that
lugwork, you don't see anything like that anymore, Simplex gears!!..."
I thought he was going to offer me a swap!
Up until tow or three years ago I used to do a couple of thousand
miles a year, but now it's probably less than 25% of that - and it
shows in my fitness, or lack thereof.
My wife hankers after a tandem - she used to ride one with a boyfriend
when she was a teenager - but she's none-too-fit either so I reckon
we'd be a menace on one!