Cycling for ever

Closer and closer it gets. The day of our departure for another mad cycle touring adventure  approaches and inevitably this focuses our minds upon making sure we have all our ducks in a row. We have a box of 'not to be forgotten' items into which we toss more things from time to time in case when it comes to the final packing we inadvertantly leave something behind. We also watch YouTube videos featuring cyclists touring around Europe to see whether they can provide us with more detail on what to expect on our intended route, or what not to forget. The most recent of these featured someone who forgot to bring his wallet with him and who also left his cycle helmet behind but despite this he still managed to continue and indeed to film the whole journey quite successfully!

One of the main reasons why we choose to travel to Holland for our cycle touring is that the infrastructure has so much more to offer when it comes to cycling on safe, quiet paths and roads. To find this locally we have to transport our bikes some distance away from home by road to a location that has a recognised cycle path then unload them to go for a ride. This has proved quite easy up to now but with recent troubling world events now impacting all motorised forms of travel we find ourselves imagining how we might continue to live the way we want to live in a future world, preferably without moving house to a new location. We have electric bikes and at the present time these are considered by many public transport operators as too dangerous to be carried safely due to the risk of fire should their batteries become damaged. Like so many other things, our news media will focus disproportionately upon instances where the lithium-ion batteries fitted in bikes, scooters and cars have caught fire or exploded and this is used as an excuse even when the risk is very small for a properly made machine. Our local long distance buses will carry bikes in their storage area but not if they are electric, which means we have to use our own vehicle if we want to go off cycling somewhere else.

But what if there was another way, something that defeats the system, perhaps.

We think back in our lives to a time when we were living and working in London and, having made a conscious decision to be car-free, a pair of folding bikes were our means of getting around. We later had them with us whilst living and travelling around Britain on our boat and they gave us the means to move around easily on land close to where we were berthed or moored up. We notice that some of our travelling YouTubers are riding folding bikes, the smaller wheels and a frame that hinges in several places allowing the machine to be collapsed so that it can be fitted inside a bag. At this point, of course, the bike becomes invisible! It is no longer a bike at all - it is merely a piece of luggage. One of the big attractions is that these bikes can be folded up for travel by train or bus then unfolded at the other end and for those living and working in a city the 'foldie' can be easily taken into the office and stashed next to a desk until needed for the journey home.

Then we discover that there are now electric foldies on the market, expensive but practical alternatives to a full-sized bike in some situations. So could one of these perhaps be used where a full sized electric bike is not welcome? Of course as soon as we discover this then YouTube begins to bombard us with videos of travellers using such machines, a feature we suspect some form of artificial intelligence is responsible for, but this soon gets our brains buzzing with ideas on whether we might invest in a couple of electric foldies for ourselves at some point in the future. We note that there is one model in particular that has its battery inside a removable bag, hidden from view and mounted on the front of the bike when in use.

We may live a long way from the nearest train station but we do have long distance buses which we use regularly. So here's how it goes...

We wait at the bus stop with our bikes neatly folded, minus their batteries which we carry in their conveniently small bags slung across our shoulders, a bag similar to what most passengers are carrying. The driver opens the bus storage space and we put the bikes inside. Should he ask whether they are electric (unlikely if the bikes themselves are enclosed in a bag) we can say that they are not, which of course is correct if there are no batteries attached. The perceived risk associated with lithium-ion batteries does not extend to phones, battery packs or other devices which use them nor does it include electric wheelchairs, which have quite large batteries. All these things are allowed to be carried on public transport. The restriction on electric bikes seems to be associated with the risk when carried in the storage area beneath the bus where they could be thrown about in transit resulting in the batteries getting damaged. In this case our batteries would be safely contained in our rather attractive  bags.

At our destination we unload, unfold and reassemble our folded machines then head off on the ride of our choice.

Again, based on those YouTube videos, we learn that these machines, small though they are, can carry considerable luggage on racks at the front and the back which gives us even more wild ideas. We already do shopping trips to distant supermarkets using our buses (travel on which is free for us) so this is really just an extension of the same thinking, one that opens a whole world of possibilities. The possibility of a future cycle touring holiday using public transport has been born, in our minds, if nowhere else. The world we live in is changing, more rapidly than we would like, but unavoidably. Some of these changes are already impacting on our lives - higher fuel prices being the main one that will not go away quickly no matter where our world leaders take us. At present we have a motor caravan, smallish but still a large vehicle and we ask ourselves whether we could manage with a smaller vehicle, perhaps electric. Then we think back to that time when we had no car at all. On the odd occasion when we wanted to venture further afield we might have hired a car but generally we were happy to be car free and it was only when we moved into a house in a remotely located village that our needs changed. This car-less period gives us a background of knowledge and experience which we can apply to our present situation, enabling us to ask the right questions; how would we do our shopping, get to hospital appointments, travel to see the family, get about in the cold of winter and so on.

Are bikes always going to be the answer? Probably not. Age and infirmity will catch up with us some day but if the immediately foreseeable future is what we imagine then our thinking is helping us to prepare. Maybe those reading this will also be encouraged a little too.

First ride of the year

So far, as I start to write this, we have yet to get out and about on our bikes this year as the Spring weather where we live has been either too cold or too wet for us. We seem to be caught in a pattern of weather which shifts randomly between cold squally showers and bright sunshine which bursts through in between. If we leave home with the sun shining then almost certainly there will be torrential rain before we get home. We try to be patient. Surely Summer will soon be here.

Winter has passed, or moved on somewhere else, and our daffodils know that Spring has arrived as they are bobbing their flower heads about in each gust of wind. And there are plenty of them. In fact there seem to be more every year as we view them from the house. On the rare occasion that the wind has abated it has been raining, maybe only a light drizzle but enough to justify us staying indoors. Not that this is where we want to be, far from it. Our bikes are lying idle waiting for us to take them out, and we are keen as ever to bring them into action but cycling in the rain has never been appealing. We might be tempted out and find ourselves caught in a shower but setting off in the wet is not our thing at all. We do get the odd dry day, clear blue sky, which calls us outside to stumble around the garden wrapped up against the cold. Once again the thought of cycling does not enthuse us. The cold air rushing past our bodies, chilling our fingers, making the eyes water and the nose run. Once again, this is not our thing.

Then one day we hear a weather forecast which gives us an idea. We need to do some shopping to top up the food supplies, something we would normally do on foot with a shopping basket on wheels to make the return uphill journey easier. Rain is forecast for later in the day but the morning is sunny, warmth in the sun, and the wind is reasonably light too. We decide, suddenly, that our bikes should take on the mission. We both have panniers which fit easily onto the rear carriers and, of course, we have electric power which we can make use of to ride back up the hill for the journey home. Then, maybe before loading up the bikes with shopping, we think about cycling a little further so we can justify waking the machines from their winter storage. This has become our first ride of the season and it will also be an opportunity to try out our latest bike modification, the handlebar extensions.

We move quickly. The weather forecast gives us a timeline to meet if we want to avoid the rain so we don't hang about. We don some appropriate clothing - light but windproof - fit the panniers then wheel out our machines ready for action. Can we still remember how to ride? Might we have forgotten how to use the gears or the brakes since last year? It seems not. After a quick wobble we are both riding smoothly, chased along our narrow road by an impatient car driver (who we ignore) and soon we are flying down the steep hill to the main road. We swerve across the carriageway so we can turn off to ride alongside the harbour quay then start to relax. Here most of the hazards are pedestrians strolling about in the sunshine, walking their pet dogs or else pushing a pram. What wind there is feels cold on our faces and on any exposed fingers but we press on past our ferry terminal then follow the shore road to its end where there is a viewpoint across the loch. This is our turning point so we dismount here, smiles all over our faces brought on by the experience we have just completed.

We pause there for a chat with a local man who is out for a walk and, so it turns out, is also a keen cyclist. Before we know it we are comparing different ride experiences, both local and further afield. He has yet to experience the joys of cycling in Holland but  understands perfectly why we have chosen this particular day for a ride. He is even perhaps a little envious. But then we recall our mission, which is to do our shopping, so we bid him farewell, remount and ride back into the village. Our local supermarket has recently undergone a complete refurbishment so it is disappointing to discover that there are still no cycle racks outside but after locking the bikes securely to a railing we enter the shop. Our shopping mission doesn't take long and we trolley everything outside so we can transfer what we have bought into the panniers. We can immediately feel the extra weight but set off undeterred back up hill to our house. Some firm pedalling and a boost of electric power is required for the steepest section but we are soon back home, mission accomplished. This short ride has given us so much joy and the new handlebars work well too.

As it turned out the rain held off until mid afternoon in the end. Not that we cared in the slightest. Each day now we study the forecast in detail for the coming days, looking for the next cycling weather window.