I used a touring bike handed down from my father to ride to secondary school in Walsall, for rides to Sutton Park and Barr Beacon etc – and occasionally to Aston University in Birmingham. I suppose like most youths I gave up cycling when I got my first car. In the mid 1970’s I got a folding shopper bike (a Raleigh Stoway) to use around Birmingham or to cycle to or from from work in the city centre when I cound get a lift the other way.

In 1979 I became a founder member of PushBikes a group campaigning for better facilities for cyclists in Birmingham. I’m still a member, but not very active now.

Although it’s still considered rather eccentric (although not so much as it was) I still cycle arund Birmingham. I have a 2012 Ridgeback World Panorama and a 1990 Dawes Galaxytouring bikes. I use the old Dawes for geting around Birmingham where I don’t want to risk the expensive new bike. I use the Ridgeback for occasionall rides in the country and where security isn’t a concern. I find cycling is the best way to get around – avoiding jams, easy parking, saving money and the environment, and getting some exercise. (I bought a new Galaxy, my third, in 2008 but it was stolen in 2011 – not having had a bike stolen for 35 years I had got complacent).

I am fortunate to have Route 5 of the National Cycle Network passing 100 metres from home: this goes N towards the city centre and S to the countryside..

I still have my Bickerton Portable small wheel folder which I take occasionaly when going away.

I report road defects in Birmingham using the Council on-line form