About Me

I’m a cyclist.  No surprises there.    When I was 10 I wrote that happiness was cycling down hill and feeling the wind in my hair. Shortly afterwards I failed my cycling proficiency test;  an inauspicious start to my life on two wheels.  Undeterred, I spent the next year  renovating my Ladies Triumph Tourer to a standard that I thought would place it among the worlds wonders.  The restorative lengths to which I went astound me, to this day.

I progressed to a 5 speed, and then a 10, 12, 15, 21, 24, 27, and finally to my current 20 speed machine.  Will I continue the downwards trend to 11?  I’m thinking about it.  As I journeyed through the different styles, gear ratios & frame types of the 80’s & 90’s, I discovered the remotest parts of the UK and Ireland, the joys of cycle camping and touring, and even a stint as a London cycle courier, before the pressures of working in a city,  took hold.

My love of all things ‘bike’ re-emerged in 1999 when I was posted to Jakarta, Indonesia.  I got hooked on mountain biking in the foothills to the volcanoes just beyond the city.  In fact, so big was the hook, that in 2006 I decided to resign as a Geologist and set-up a Mountain bike touring company on the next door Island of Bali. So Bali Trailblazers was born.

After 5 years of trail blazing around Bali, I decided to return to the UK and, leaving my worn-out mountain bike to end it’s days out there, I returned to London, were there is a spectacular lack of mountains. I bought a road bike and joined the rapidly expanding throngs of lycra-clad roadies, but my heart was never quite in it and I found myself taking my bike on gravel paths and tracks, bridleways, and unsurfaced by-ways. I put 28mm tyres on my bike and changed the derailleur and rear-cassette to a mountain bike spec (a sort of proto adventure road bike), and a smile returned to my face!

I am currently living in London, digging the garden, singing, taking a part time Masters degree in Geographical Information Systems and preparing some ‘less ordinary’ maps.