: hobbies :
cycling

The only way to travel
Bikes are just the prime means of transport in any built up area, you can reach speeds of 30 mph easily on the flat or a slight incline and with the versatility of bike lanes and multipole shortcuts I can generally beat any vehicule across a city. Plus I waste no petrol and the only fumes are those from the curry the night before.

My speedy bike of four years

Racing bikes
I would like to take this oppertuinity to publicly diss all city dwelling mountain bike owners: get a proper bike you fools! - There is no reason to have a ountain bike if all you do is ride around the streets, they are not safer and think of all the energy you waste hauling that great lunk of metal arroud with you. Oh and the noise - ghastly.

Road or racing bikes are the key to success, they are quiet, low friction, high stiffness, highly efficient machines designed to allow the human rider to become one with the bike and travers great distances at great speed with minimal effort hence increasing endurance.

Long Distance
Man and bike, day in, day out, a fantastic experience. I rode from John o'Groats to Lands End in the summer of 2002 and what an experience it was. In total I did about 4 hours training but that was no hinderence at all, it seemed just so natural to get on the bike, weighed down with panniers, and ride south. There were four of us riding and we took fourteen days to complete the 990 miles that we traveled.

For me it rarly felt like a strain to 'keep going' and we endured just one day of rain and didn't get lost once on route (a couple of wrong turnings but that's all). Then when we got to Lands end I really didn't want to get off, in fact I didn't and cycled round for a bit longer.

My advice to anyone planning this is to go for it! Really totally worth it and if you ride daily anyway you should have no problems (though take some of those strechy tube things which are great). I would also seriously reccomend going the opposite way - head North not South, that way you leave the rubbish Lands End and have all the exciting terain ahead of you (plus the wind is more likyl to favour you).