I love cycling. Some people may have noticed this. I love the freedom, the pain, (perhaps more particularly, the sensation when the pain stops at the top of a climb), the speed and the countryside. I love having to think about what I’m doing in traffic. I love the great feeling of being alive that comes from a good cycle ride. There are two kinds of people: those who love cycling and those who are wrong.

I don’t love plastic hats, yet a tedious number of people who risk their lives by eating too much for their sedentary lifestyles, by not exercising enough or by stressing about other people’s wellbeing, seem to think that I and other cyclists am stupid for wearing a stylish cycling cap (well, I think it’s stylish) to keep the sun out of my eyes (at the moment the sun seems to be wet and forming puddles), rather than a plastic hat to act as some form of talisman.

If you are one of those people, please read on.

Dr. Mark Porter in The Scotsman writes:

Boris Johnson was recently pilloried for cycling without a helmet, but what sort of impact has their introduction really made? How much safer is Boris now that he reluctantly coats his cranium in carbon-fibre?

It may seem counterintuitive, but the benefits are far from clearcut. On the positive side, there are numerous reported cases where helmets appear to have protected cyclists from serious head injuries that could have left them permanently disabled or dead. Yet, on the negative side, these cases appear to be the exception rather than the rule, and need to be weighed against the fact that the wind-in-the-hair sensation appears to be one of the attractions of cycling, and that forcing cyclists to wear protective headgear discourages them from using their bikes.

[…] The Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation estimates that the average cyclist would have to pedal the roads for more than 3,000 years to suffer a serious head injury, let alone one that would be mitigated by a cycle helmet. And children are four times more likely to suffer a head injury as a pedestrian than when they are on their bikes (so why don’t we make them wear helmets when they are walking along the pavement?)

I’m not sure that I have ever in my life been truly impressed by the actions of a serving Tory MP (the Blue in the title of this blog refers to my footballing affiliations and has no connection with my political thoughts). However, as the Government continue to turn their backs on the dream that was their 1997 Manifesto, I was overjoyed to see David Davis taking a principled stand before our nation sleepwalks into being a police state. I’m not at all surprised to find that Mark Hendrick voted for 42 days detention without trial.

I was surprised this morning to receive an unsolicited letter from my MP, Mr Mark Hendrick, accusing me of posting unfair criticisms of him. He claims to have been assiduous in responding to my communications and asks that I be big enough to accept that [he has] been responsive to [my] enquiries. He then suggests that given the nature and the content of your website, it would appear that this is not the case and you would appear to wish to peddle fiction rather than fact.

I have asked Mr Hendrick to clarify quite where he believes I have been unfair or have resorted to fiction. As usual, I await his response with unbated breath.

The February half-term weather having been unusually kind, I set off for my third 50km ride of the week in cool, almost windless conditions under a glorious blue sky armed with six Geobars, a multitool and inner tube, a credit card, a car key, my trusty Garmin Edge (and paper map in case of technical difficulties), a waterproof and contrasting Rapha sportwool jersey and arm warmers. Read more

I blogged the best part of eleven months ago about various of my feeble reasons for not cycling and followed up by suggesting that I might achieve an Eddington number of 30 by the end of last summer.

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Straight from Andrew Collins’ blog, this is The Manners Manifesto (edited here, in full on his blog).

It’s time for a return to— or a formalisation of— good manners. Here’s how we do it: Read more

Christmas had, for me, rather a cycling theme to it this year: a stylish Solo cap, a substantial saddlebag and a Garmin Edge 305 GPS cycle computer.

Potential purchasers of the Edge are cautioned that it is a better training device than a navigator and Frank Kinlan has a handy guide to using it for navigation. He suggests naming waypoints simply and sequentially Read more

I recall, back in the day, that the good people of Wesley Methodist Church, Leigh-on-Sea would go carol singing in aid of the local hospice at Christmas time. I don’t know whether they still do this, indeed I hope they still do, but I also recall that they used to do this on the Highlands estate, a good couple or three miles from the church and certainly far closer to another church.

Strangely enough, Highlands always was the area in which Leigh’s higher earners dwelt.

Nowadays, I live in Preston and it recently occurred to me that I haven’t been visited by church-associated carol singers for a long time. I wonder whether this is related to my area’s average income, not least because Fulwood (where we don’t live) seems to have no shortage of carol singers. We were recently invited to a local church’s Christmas party at which an admission charge was levied. We didn’t go. Largely because of the admission charge.

I wonder how many churches consider that Christmas is a fund-raising activity rather than an evangelistic opportunity.

Via Steve’s blog, which has sourced its information in turn from Better Transport, I am reminded that the fuel tax has, in percentage terms, not been so low since 1993.

Even though I am reminded elsewhere elsewhere that VAT is payable on fuel, it appears that the VAT element actually serves to stabilise fuel prices.

I thought it would be handy to find out quite how the rise in cost of a litre of fuel has compared with inflation as a whole over the last twenty years or so. Do my readers (for I now know there are two of you) know?

Royal Mail has traditionally alternated between sacred and secular designs for their Christmas stamps and this year it is the turn for a religious image. Royal Mail has issued two sets of designs this year. The main set of designs, available in all the main denominations is of angels, which is vaguely Christian but not explicitly so and certainly not specifically Christmassy. They have also issued a ‘Madonna and Child’ design for first and second class only. Post Office staff have been instructed to only sell this design if people specifically request it, but obviously people can’t request it if they don’t know it exists! If people don’t buy these stamps, Royal Mail will claim there is no demand for religious Christmas stamps and not produce them in future.

This year’s Christmas stamps commemorate the tercentenary Read more