The last time the issue came up, my dad rated Percy Shaw as one of the 20th century’s most under-appreciated inventors, on the grounds that his cat’s eye road studs have saved more lives on British roads than any other single measure. Ojos de gato or tachas reflectantes are not (widely) used on Spanish highways,…
Being Barcelona Council’s corporativist scheme to marginalise private bike ownership and bike shops: 59euros is going round chaining random stuff to lampposts in protest at the council’s policy minimising facilities for non-council bikes and then removing perfectly roadworthy examples from the streets to make way for yet more council bikes and illegally parked motorbikes. Saltada…
Unlike motorcars, bicycles take you through village centres and allow you to park outside at any interesting-looking drinking hole you encounter. Friday afternoon on my way up-country for a weekend engagement I stopped at a village café in the mountains between Montseny and Montserrat, where a nice but weary barmaid was serving brandy to some…
One of the proudest memories of my musical career is of a mission undertaken on behalf of the Dutch nation to a Swedish folk festival, at which a programme of James Last covers was performed to accompany the wobblings of a display team of penny-farthing riders. Some believe that the deep affinity that exists between…
I met this bloke at around nine last Sunday morning as I was cycling along the old road from Manresa to Calaf on my way to the Aragonese Pyrenees. As you probably won’t be able to discern from this appalling photo–it was raining and I was quite surprised–he was brown and dishevelled, accompanied by a…
Jullie hebben mij niet geholpen en het beest heeft z’n lekkere lijffie op een erg ongeschikt moment laten zien. Ipv met hem tweezaam thuis te blijven, ga ik morgen op m’n Hollandse opafiets naar de Ordesa nationale park om bezoek te brengen aan een vrouw die zich teruggetrokken heeft met drie monstermoggies in een goed…
I’ve already posted Catalan translations of selections from Gerard Monnink (who travelled with Toon Damhuis) and Jan Cremer Senior; Harry Jutten – who cycled from Oldenzaal to Aswan and back between September 1985 and May 1986 – is the last of the quartet of Dutch cyclists who in the twentieth century endangered road-users from Denekamp…
Shop deliveries free on foot in Leeds LS1-8 & LS13 Dismiss
