Urban Cyclist

There's not a great deal going on right now. Beautiful Wife Jo and I rode into town this morning, minus four degrees registering on the thermometer. She took a bit of persuading!

But it was great! A little tricky at a couple of junctions, but crisp - a little nip on the nose and ears perhaps, but then we stayed in town for three and a half hours - at least five pounds on the parking meter - so a good saving, enabling us to have a marvellous coffee and mince pie, followed by a lunch of Spicy Tomato soup with a Granary Roll to mop it all up.

Is 'Soup and a roll' a British thing? Random wonderings such as this often spring to mind. However, not for long, as I then set about reading 'Urban Cyclist' - issue 2 of a brand new magazine - aimed at the urban cyclist.

So I ended up wondering - am I an Urban Cyclist? Is Jo? Or are we Roadies? I have friends who make a big thing about eschewing carbon over steel, others who wouldn't be seen dead in lycra, and still more that think anybody on two wheels needs their head examining, followed by a lobotomy. I have two feet only, and I want to manouvre them into all camps!

Looking at Urban Cyclist, I want to be one. They're just dead cool. The bikes are cool. The clothes are uber cool. But I'm too old, and most definitely not cool. I still think the 'Star Wars' Christmas joke is the funniest ever - that's how uncool I am.

That said, I did ride a singlespeed road bike for a while, and that's just one step away from being a Fixie rider. So close .... but not quite there. Shucks.

But looking at other cycling magazines I want to be a modern roadie too, and I do ride a lovely carbon Specialized Roubaix, and wear lycra and white road shoes and a heart rate monitor. I don't shave my legs ..... and wont. Draw the line somewhere.

And then I want to be classic and retro - my into town bike has a Brooks saddle and a big 'ding dong' bell - and I enjoy copenhagencyclechic as a blog . There are times when I just want to be Danish.

But then I think about the Pashley Sovereign - and I'm glad that I'm British. I don't own one, but I will - one day.

So, as I cyclist, it would seem that I want to be everything. It's expensive - so many magazines.