Spinning circles

Edward has bought himself a new helmet and some overshoes. Truly the cycling bug has bitten (although his enthusiasm may have been helped by the pictures of Rebecca Romero and Victoria Pendleton, both naked, in this week’s Cycling Weekly). To try them out (the new kit, not the naked cyclists) we were due to take a spin around Beausale together. But he, being a teenage boy, failed to get out of bed in time, so I took a spin on my fixie instead. It was a bright fresh morning, freezing again with thick ice covering some of the roads. I was only out for 45 minutes but was glad of the endorphin rush and the fresh air.
Monday morning brought more freezing temperatures, so I dug my mountain bike out, thinking fat knobbly tyres would be more protection against the ice. A wise move. Fat tyres enabled me to take my route to work along the canal towpath. It’s a while since I’ve done this and I had forgotten how pleasant it is. A sprinkling of snow covered the frost causing my wheels to crunch beneath me, an orange sun filled the sky ahead of me and glistened on the frozen water of the canal. I had also forgotten how much like hard work it is turning knobbly tyres and low MTB gears. But I enjoyed it never the less.
I think my MTB only came out twice last year, once for the Rough Ride (http://www.roughride.co.uk), which despite the fact that I moaned continuously for the 5 hours it took us to complete, I thoroughly enjoyed, especially the fast singletrack descent to the finish line and once for a spin around Kenilworth bridleways with Peaches to break in his new MTB (which he bought from me….).
So, in the last four days I’ve ridden my gazelle like road bike, rocket like singlespeed (man and machine welded in zen like oneness) and my full suspension mountain bike. Who says I can’t justify them all? Here’s to spinning circles, whatever the dynamics of the bike.

I came home along the canal, in the dark. Night riding is a big thing in MTB circles but it has never appealed to me. Now I know why. Its really scary!