Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => Rides and Touring => Ride Reports => Topic started by: alotronic on 22 December, 2015, 07:50:59 pm

Title: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: alotronic on 22 December, 2015, 07:50:59 pm
Hi all

I am doing a blog project, writing a piece about every bike I have owned, somewhere around 30. From my first kids bikes to Road Racing via BMX, then MTB and finally onto Audax - with some touring and a lot of commuting thrown in! I start in NZ and eventually make it to the UK via Australia.

Its a lot about bikes, and a lot about the experience of being a cyclist.

I have written my first two, you can find them here: http://bikeby.bike/ (http://bikeby.bike/)

Hope you like it. I will post further Episodes on here - feel free to comment or take the mickey or add your own experiences or memories of your bikes....

Allen
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: orejas on 23 December, 2015, 12:08:19 am
Nice read so far..
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: alotronic on 11 January, 2016, 01:39:10 pm
Ok, I've done another two.

First one about my first and last BMX: http://bikeby.bike/bikes/3-america-calling/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/3-america-calling/)

Second one about my first 10 speed: http://bikeby.bike/bikes/04-ten-speeds-and-true/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/04-ten-speeds-and-true/)

Al
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: alotronic on 27 January, 2016, 02:03:48 pm
And another couple:

One about wheels http://bikeby.bike/bikes/the-wheels/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/the-wheels/)
And one about first steps in racing and a 'Gios Torino' - sort of: http://bikeby.bike/bikes/5-gios-negra/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/5-gios-negra/)

A
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: hatler on 05 May, 2017, 07:39:43 am
For anyone who found this fun there's more on the blog.

ETA. I'm loving reading it. Almost feels like there's a book in it.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 29 May, 2017, 09:42:33 am
I'm supposed to be working today. This is wasting a lot of my time instead.

There might be a book in this. It's fascinating.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 29 May, 2017, 09:54:06 am
It is very interesting to read and rather revealing.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: Cudzoziemiec on 09 June, 2017, 04:14:56 pm
Like most of the best bike writing, the bikes are in introduction to the rest of life.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 22 July, 2017, 11:17:02 pm
I’m enjoying reading this blog. It evokes some memories. I’ve never been one for helmets but until seeing this photo I had thought I had witnessed all the stages of its development. But not this stage:

(http://bikeby.bike/assets/11-title.jpg)

That would have been as much use as a lump of polystyrene on your head :-)
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: Jakob W on 28 July, 2017, 04:20:24 pm
I missed this when first posted but just followed a link from another thread and it's properly excellent stuff. Now all I need to do is work my way through the archives...
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: alotronic on 19 September, 2017, 09:41:53 am
Hi all. Thanks for your comments.

I am still forging ahead, managing to write one piece every month. I have finally moved to the UK in the last two posts, so they should be a bit more relevant to UK audience.

My last one (bike 17) is about a crappy ridgeback, but is really about English landscape!

http://bikeby.bike/bikes/17-world-horizon/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/17-world-horizon/)

The next one, about my much loved Kinesis 4t, contains my first audax. I found it tedious and dull  :facepalm:

Allen

Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: Samuel D on 23 October, 2017, 11:37:38 pm
Hey, this is good stuff. I’ve had the site open in a tab for the last few days and have read all the way to the 16th bicycle. At the bottom of that page (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/16-again-again/), the link to number 17 (“Horizons”) doesn’t work. I guess you changed the URL at some point. I realised how much I was enjoying this series when I felt mild panic at the error message.

Mainly moaning about this to bump the thread in the hope that someone else hears about this blog.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: Vince on 24 October, 2017, 07:39:08 pm
Thanks for bumping. Now engrossed.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 24 October, 2017, 09:45:44 pm
You totally lost me with the post where you went cycling in yorkshire.

I know you are a southern wuss and don't understand our northern ways, but lads standing on corners inhaling out of plastic bags aren't sniffing petrol, they are inhaling the fumes of vinegar from their chips.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: fruitcake on 31 October, 2017, 06:21:08 pm
Having dipped in and out of some of the later chapters, one evening last week, I went to the beginning, read, followed the link to the next page, read, followed the link, and just carried on. After a while I noticed it was 4am.

I don't normally do that.

 :-)
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: hatler on 07 April, 2018, 09:30:17 am
Another two episodes added !!
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: Canardly on 07 April, 2018, 10:29:16 am
There are so many truths in there..
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: alotronic on 10 June, 2018, 06:19:06 pm
Hi all, thanks for your comments above. Re Yorkshire, I am indeed a southern Wuss, but now with many more years in England under my belt I *think* I get more of the various socio-economic undercurrents in the UK. It still baffles me a little how such a rich country can have so much deprivation in it, but I now have a better appreciation for what makes that money (finance) and how little that actually touches people anywhere other than London and home counties. It's a fascinating country to be sure, but sometimes the class/money stuff still takes my breath away.

Since the horizon above I've been forging ahead and my last post was Number 24 on my Tripster and doing PBP and LEL... I've come a long way as a cyclist in the last ten years;

18. Kinesis 4t 'Good enough' http://bikeby.bike/bikes/18-good-enough/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/18-good-enough/)
19. A forest - about discovering Epping Forest and MTB (again): http://bikeby.bike/bikes/19-a-forest/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/19-a-forest/)
20. Urban Assault - about the scariest incident on my bike, ever: http://bikeby.bike/bikes/20-assault/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/20-assault/)
21. Salsa - about my Salsa La Raza steel roadbike and discovering Audax: http://bikeby.bike/bikes/21-salsa/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/21-salsa/)
22. Guilt Trip - about my Orbea carbon racer and climate change: http://bikeby.bike/bikes/22-guilt-trip/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/22-guilt-trip/)
23. The London Hipster Fixie thing - about authenticity and the fixie boom: http://bikeby.bike/bikes/23-london-hipster-fixie-thing/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/23-london-hipster-fixie-thing/)
24. Magical Mystery Tripster - Ti wonder bike and PBP and LEL: http://bikeby.bike/bikes/24-magical-mystery-tripster/ (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/24-magical-mystery-tripster/)

I have one more bike to go, my Genesis Datum and a few interludes to put up...

Once again thanks for the comments above, it's take quite a bit of time in among the busy life and family stuff and riding, but comments like that make it worth it!

Cheers

Allen
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: fruitcake on 10 June, 2018, 08:58:44 pm
This is compelling writing. And enlightening. Your descriptions of your sleep derived riding experiences are scary. but they are clear depiction of the hallucinations. The selfies illustrate the story vividly.

Having done some long shifts this weekend on not quite enough sleep I've been at the stage where I have felt I was pulling myself through the air when moving around. Very occasionally I've sensed the ground tilting momentarily then righting itself, previously during long days with jet lag. Not so much a physical sensation but a momentary glitch in perception. So I can just about relate to these stories. But you've gone to another level of sleep deficit - to numerous other levels. And you've finished rides despite the hallucinations.

I like the photo of you at the end of LEL, especially given the determination this ride required.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: hatler on 10 June, 2018, 09:03:37 pm
I know a chap who, on the TCR about two years ago had Alberto Contador pull up alongside him and chat for ten minutes. (In perfect English.) That sounds like an easier hallucination to deal with than what was going on for you in LEL.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: Pedaldog. on 20 June, 2018, 12:43:00 am
Read #12 and really enjoyed it. Planning to start at number one and do, maybe, one a day. Looking forward to it.
Have you though about this, I think it's called, "Crowdfunding" to Publish it as a book?
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: alotronic on 02 July, 2018, 06:11:20 pm
Read #12 and really enjoyed it. Planning to start at number one and do, maybe, one a day. Looking forward to it.
Have you though about this, I think it's called, "Crowdfunding" to Publish it as a book?

Hi pedaldog; well something has to happen with it for sure! It's about a novels worth of words. First aim was just to get through it without boring everyone then go back, reread and edit it down somewhat and then look for an agent or publisher, failing that self-publish for sure, either direct or via crowd funding. I am just putting the final touches on the last bike and then adding in two more interludes and then that will be finished for the time being. Will also be looking for opinions on what could go in a book version - I realise I over-write and I haven't read from the beginning myself yet.... 

Thanks for reading, if there are dull bits let me know ;-) It'a actually 1quite difficult to keep to the formula and make each bike different enough to be interesting.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: hatler on 09 August, 2018, 09:20:32 am
Whoop whoop !!

New instalment just added. One to savour when I get home tonight.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: fruitcake on 09 August, 2018, 02:44:19 pm
Enjoyed reading that, alotronic. Thank you.

I like the photo of the bike in the bath! (You took that picture to show Baxter, didn't you?)
Bikes *are* interesting objects. They're functional items capable of efficiency and elegance. They're near-miraculous in the way they work, because they ought not to work. All that nearly-toppling-over. Add to that the odd fact that they're more difficult to ride slowly than fast - when it really ought to be the other way round. You've just got to commit and then correct as you go along, as you've said to Baxter.

I'm left thinking about the idea of work as laborious and cycling as a means of getting out of a rut. Particularly the question of bringing our 'whole selves' to work - or, rather, being our whole selves - with our passions, enthusiasms or eccentricities applied to work - ought to be profitable, in a self employed mode. Because you hear about people whose work is their passion, where their work doesn't feel like work to them. They just see it as fun; fun that they get paid for. And if you're passionate about something which already exists as an industry, and your skills are of an 'industry standard', you have a calling.
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: hatler on 09 August, 2018, 09:16:52 pm
Absolutely bloody brilliant !!

I'm very sad this has come to an end.

Let us know when you're published !
Title: Re: Bike by bike - A life, one bicycle at a time
Post by: Samuel D on 17 August, 2018, 12:27:21 pm
You’ve put your finger on something with the bit about cycling being about curves and arcs rather than harmful straight lines (the six paragraphs starting with “Perhaps there is a signal …” here. (http://bikeby.bike/bikes/coda-the-balance/)

The whole series was a pleasure and I hope you manage to get it published.