Now this isn't a Brompton bicycle related blog post in any way and is all about a fountain pen. If this is not your thing, I will not be too offended, however, it is a particularly fine pen and you might find it of interest.  I think that regular readers will probably know that I do have a thing for fountain pens. I have owned and sold lots and lots of pens. I have written with pens by ..read more

This weekend has been rather lovely in terms of weather. Taking advantage of this unseasonal sunshine, I decided to head out and confine myself to parts of Fitzrovia, Mayfair, South Kensington, Chelsea and Belgravia to find a few Blue Plaques of the great and good and a few other versions of the same that aren't the official blue ones. The official scheme for Blue Plaques has its origins in ..read more

Crossing the River Thames can be a bit of an issue at times. Bridges are usually quite busy and the one at Hammersmith has been indefinitely closed to everything but pedestrians and cyclists - for the moment. If you are on your bicycle and heading east, a good way to cross the Thames is by travelling under it. One such location is the Greenwich foot tunnel.The construction for the foot tunnel at ..read more

Several weeks ago, the announcement came that there would be no Ride 100 for 2025. That of course means all the rides complementing it with lower mileage would also be cancelled. I am not sure what thoughts lead to this decision and whether it will return in 2026? There might be several reasons.I did the Ride 100 in 2024, gaining a charity place quite late in the day. The charity concerned ..read more

The other day, I needed to go to a physical bookshop so that I could buy a book, take it home, wrap it up and give it to someone. The closest was Daunt Books. I took my G-Line with me and cycled to Marylebone High Street. Daunt Books is either eerily quiet of rammed. For my shopping experience it was rammed and not really the best of ideas to bring a now folded G-Line inside. Several elderly ..read more

Two blog posts in one day! Surely not?On the Brompton bicycles I have owned, the idea of getting one with a rear rack or retrofitting one, has not been given a second thought. With my G-Line, it was a must as it was either rack with mudguards or no rack and no mudguards. Living in London/UK where the weather is as unpredictable as what seems to appear in the news at the moment, having a rack was ..read more

Yesterday, I parted company with my Cloud Blue. It has been several months since I used it and as many months since the decision was made to sell it. I bought this bike as I really liked the colour and designated it the job of being my commuter Brompton. It served me well for this purpose and also worked well when the wet stuff arrived and I couldn’t bring myself to take one of my Orange ..read more

A stones throw from Baker Street station, if you look carefully enough, you might just stumble upon the best Blue Plaque in London.‘Danger Mouse’ was a cartoon series that all began in 1981. It followed the exploits of British Secret Agent, Danger Mouse and his sidekick, Penfold. It had a wonderful theme tune and memorable for many reasons.So, a wonderful find this morning and my favourite Blue ..read more

Hello you there dear reader. I have finally managed to get a subscribe by email widget which will make it a great deal easier for you to know when a new blog post it out. It is rather simple. You simply enter an email address you would like a notification to go to and then an email will be sent to that address which you click to confirm. Once that is done, you should get a notification ..read more

On a Christmas lights ride (I went on three) I had a commitment beforehand that meant cycle specific clothing was not an option. So, I simply wore my normal outside of work attire that have pretty much acted as a sort of uniform or as long as I can remember. This did get me pondering the question of whether or not you actually need cycle-specific clothing all the time?That uniform I mention for ..read more