Aloha! (Sorry, the Scottish sun has been getting to me…)
It’s been a little while since last we spoke, dear reader. (The fact that you’ve kept your lack of concern on this front to yourself does you credit.) In fact, last time was just before the Pedal on Parliament 2017 crowdfunder launched, back in the slightly stressful days of March when the bill for Glasgow was going to be either five grand, or maybe a few hundred quid, or possible something in between.
The good folk of Scotland met that original target, and then the stretch target, and as a result we had a cracking weekend in April with four PoPs in four cities. With the SNP in Glasgow recently forming a minority administration with a committment to spend 10% of their transport budget on walking and cycling, and with a good few Green councillors as well, the next few years will be exciting!
On a slightly more sombre note, I sold my Urban Arrow (you know, this big ol’ cargo bike) just before PoP. We’d had it for slightly over a year, and in that time I’d only travelled a few hundred kilometers on it. It’s a six-mile round trip from our house to the nearest village with a shop, and it was always more tempting to take the faster bike, or the car… Plus being so big, it’s not as if you can stick it in the back of the car and then take mini- and micro-DarkerSide for a ride around one of several cracking parks vaguely nearby. And it was never completely happy with the 10% hills around here when fully loaded.
Laid Back Bikes had mentioned that a childminder up north was looking for a second-hand electric cargo bike, and with releatively little fuss a Deal Was Struck.
On the plus side, the proceeds have meant that I’ve replaced some bib shorts that really should have been thrown out a few years ago (the translucent bum look is never a good one), and got a shiny new drivetrain for the Metabike (some parts of which are nearly four years old). And the Arrow is getting a lot more use, which is good for cycling karma if nothing else.
Anyway, the bank holiday is calling, so see you in a week!