Two million page views passed. Thank you!!

Sometime in the last 30 minutes my humble blog passed two million page views. I rarely look at the statistics of my blog or the multitude of statistics available, however knowing that I was close to hitting this amount of views, I had been keeping one eye on them. 

This blog has always been an online diary of my cycling adventures and it has been something I have always enjoyed doing. Some of you have been here from the very start and for many of you it coincided with the time you bought a Brompton for the first time as well. 

At the start in the life of this blog there was a pressure to write as often as I could. This became a chore and I did think about packing it in. I then thought back to what this blog was meant to be and simply posted whenever and whatever I wanted. 

Over the years I have corresponded lots of you from all corners of the world both by email and physical letters. It has been wonderful hearing from you - many for over ten years. Some of you I have actually met in person. Strange to think that it is all because of a folding bicycle!

I wanted to say thank you to all of you out there who have read my ramblings, left a comment, sent me a message, followed me on Instagram and even sent me the odd gift. I am very grateful. 

There are of course many more Brompton adventures to go on and I will keep posting away. 

Until next time, stay safe out there people!

Wind!

Wow! Today in London it has been windy to say the least!! I type this entry a few hours ago, sitting in a cafe off High Street Kensington, with a pot of tea, recovering from cycling straight into a relentless headwind.

Unusually for me I had one of my larger front bags with me sitting on the front carrier block and I had two very different experiences. 

The first was a slog, cycling into a headwind and not going that fast. An onlooker might have likened me to Robert Falcon Scott battling the elements in the South Pole! This was quite ironic as I cycled past his statue in Waterloo Place! The second was with the wind behind me, it was it I had a Brompton Electric with my front bag acting as a sail! Ironically moments later near Admiralty Arch I passed the statue of Captain James Cook! Of course moments later I was back to Robert Falcon Scott again! I battled the wind for a while before retiring for said pot of tea! 

Until next time, stay safe out there people!

Cloud Blue amble in London

Yesterday morning I rose without the aid of an alarm and I definitely needed the extra sleep it afforded. Having made the right decision to not go on a long ride today, I decided to take my Cloud Blue for its first real outing in 2022. 

My Cloud Blue has become my go to Brompton for ambles in London. Normally it goes between NW8, SW7 and into the City and back again. Today I did all of those and decided to take it further east. 

I have to say that I love the colour of my Cloud Blue. The fact I only ever bring it out to play in fairly good weather only enhances the colour. Most of the time the sky does its best to match its shade of blue. One other unintentional feature of riding this Brompton is that I am usually kitted out in normal clothes. Strangely though, very occasionally it does not stop people asking if I am that Orange Brompton chap. Perhaps the decal advertising my moniker gives it away?

I cycled from NW8 to Hyde Park, down to Hyde Park Corner, through a bit of the square mile and then to Canary Wharf. From there I cycled to Greenwich, travelling under the river Thames via the foot tunnel and then back again. 

In all, I clocked up just over 20 miles, enjoying every minute. I have to say that I am a little bit of a fan of the Brooks Cambium c17 carved saddle I have on this bike. I actually have another standard c17 that is brand new that I was going to sell but might just keep it. 

I am sure that my Cloud Blue and I will venture out again - weather permitting and I look forward to taking it to locations I have not been to on it before. (Basically so that I can take a photo of it at these locations)!

Until next time, stay safe out there people.