Super Cycling Man - Inspiring children to ride.

It would be easy, having visited the website http://www.supercyclingman.com/ and watched the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eDhUhsN_Qs to come away with the impression that what Super Cycling Man Will Hodson is doing is a lark.  He's so chirpy and ridiculous, so full of fun that you might not notice 100 miles a day back-to-back, in all manner of conditions, carrying everything, for blocks of 5 weeks is an extraordinary feat.

He's no ordinary cyclist.

He's a familiar figure, nicknamed coincidentally Will Supersocks, in the local chain-gang.  He turns up in knee-length football socks with hairy legs and looking, if we're honest, a bit heavy.  That might not sound an unusual way to look but it stands out amongst the lean, pro-mimicking and very capable, race-winning amateur racers who make up the rest of the group.  And Will is well-up to the pace. 10 riders at the start.  Lap 1: 7 riders left with Will still there.  Lap 2: still 7 riders, though some looking uncomfortable.  Lap three: 5 riders and Supersocks is still there.  Lap 4: it's down to three and Will is still not amongst those shelled.

He's a proper cyclist.

But what's fantastic is that he's almost completely hidden that.  There's no bragging, no banging on about suffering and hardship.  It's such a ridiculous feat and so playfully communicated that it is close to feeling like the unreal comic-book adventure he's kidded us it is.

Instead of drawing attention to the enormity of the physical effort, Will has focused on the more important bid to do something worthwhile.  He's getting children cycling.  And it works.

If that weren't enough, he's raising money, target £100,000 for charities.

Help him if you can.  http://www.supercyclingman.com/

Avanti Inc 3. The dream commute bike?

My Genesis Day Alfine is an exceptionally good commute bike.  It's done great service (3400 kilometres and counting) and I'll be using it a few years yet.

A commute bike needs to be jump-on-and-ride-able.  Low maintenance.  This is less true for me because I'm ok maintaining bikes and happy to do it.  But for a new cyclist who's not up for oiling and cleaning a chain, checking chain wear, replacing chains every few hundred miles, replacing sprockets and chainrings: less maintenance is better.

I've just seen this new Avanti.

 Avanti Inc 3

As in, I've seen it on the website.  I haven't seen one or ridden one.

But it looks so perfect.  It's got everything.  And apart from pumping the tyres up now and then (get a track pump) and checking the tyres for shards as often as you can be bothered (every day if you never want a puncture) there's nothing to maintain on this bike at all.  New brake blocks every two years?  But that's it.

James Bowthorpe rode his belt-drive Santos round the world and never changed the belt.

Disc brakes mean clean wheel-rims that don't wear out.  If this sounds trivial to you, I promise it's not.  It's fantastic.  Rim-braking brakes are one of the most disgusting, messy parts of a bike.  Horrible grey gunk builds up on the pads and forks and rim.  Fixing a puncture = getting covered in crap.

Hub gears need maintaining every 5000km or so.  But with the new Alfines that just means an oil change.  Personally, I don't plan to do squat to mine for a few years yet.  Then I'll think about changing the oil, which I expect to be a 20-minute job.

So there you go.  I've no reason to big-up the Avanti.  I'm sure there are others out there but this is the first I saw.  There's probably even a drop-bar version somewhere.

Hoodies and Tees now available.

You can now buy all quickerbybike kit from yourclubshop.  Click the jeresey on the right.

Use code YCS10 to get 10% off until 1st June.

I've still got stock of s/s jerseys, bib-shorts and shorts and it's a lot cheaper from me, while it lasts.  See monday 4th February post, below.

Lycra Kit from YourClubShop.

I've got stock here of bib-shorts, shorts and ss jerseys in most sizes.  See the thread below.

If the size you want is no longer there or if you want full-zip jerseys, skinsuits, gilets, long-sleeve jerseys or the like, then please order from Yourclubshop.

All club kit from yourclubshop.co.uk is made to order.  It can take 4 weeks.  If you need it sooner or have other special requirements, put a note in the "special instructions" box and they'll contact you.

Or just ask me.

All kit now in stock. Lycra and baggies.

The new Lycra kit is here, made by Impsport and much improved.  See images on the right for a look.  Photos will be up later this week.

In the future, quickerbybike.com lycra kit will be supplied via YourClubShop.  This relieves me of the burden of taking orders and payments and posting kit out.  It's brilliant!  They make the kit just-in-time: that's to say they only manufacture when they get an order.

Lycra kit prices will be:

• Bibshorts £62.40
• Shorts (non-bib) £52.80
• Short sleeve, short zip jersey £48

In order to set up this service it was necessary to order an initial batch to be photographed.  This batch is now under my desk and ready to be posted out to whoever wants it.  Because the quantities were greater, the prices are lower. 

Prices (and live (ish) quantities in stock) are:

• Bibshorts (S-2, M-3, L-1) £48
• Shorts (non-bib) (XS-2, S-3) £41
• Short sleeve, short zip jersey (XS-3, S-2, L-1) £37 
• Postage £3

Email me at martin at quickerbybike dot com with your address and SIZE and I'll post it out to you.  You can pay me by BACS (internet transfer).  I'll email you the details.

If it helps those who know me I'm a Medium short and Small jersey.

Baggy shorts are Endura Singletrack shorts and are £40 posted.  See photos on the right.  Just email me if you'd like a pair.

New lycra kit is in production.

The new batch of lycra quickerbybike.com kit is now in production, due to be ready for sale 2nd week of February.

The kit is much improved with more and larger logos.

Jersey looks like this:

and shorts look like this:

The kit will be available to buy direct from http://www.yourclubshop.co.uk/ which makes my life far easier and your deliveries far more reliable.

Happy days.  I hope the entire new batch will be out and about on bums on bikes, passing traffic, before the summer comes.