Tell us about your cycling journey

I guess my transition to “proper” cycling was buying a copy of Dirt Mag from the news agents in Durham bus station, around ’98. I must have been attracted to the DIY, un-polished dirt jump aesthetic. I got a Club Roost Stinger frame (in polished chrome) for Christmas, the one with two gussets per weld, and transferred all the parts off the shonky Y framed Saracen RAW I had at the time. The steerer on my Rockshox Judys was too short for the Club Roost massive head tube. So, my step dad pinned an extension tube to it and we hoped for the best.

I rode that for a couple years, building 4x tracks in the woods and doubles in the local disused quarry. Riding down the slide in play park, and folding paper-thin 20th Century 26” rims busting 360’s out of bomb holes. Until my riding mate moved to a school with a BMX scene and made the jump to that, I followed soon after.

I bought a second-hand S&M Dirtbike for £50 and spent the next decade or so riding BMX, street riding predominantly. After grinding down all the old Dear’s handrails in my village, we’d ride the 5 miles or so into town and spend all day sessioning the streeeetz.

Durham, and the North East in general had a big scene at that time, and when it came time to go to Uni, Sheffield was my only choice. It was the epicentre of UK progressive BMX at the time. I moved into the Sheffield BMX house (HHH), had some bits in mags, video parts, travelled (Barca - BMX/Skate centre of the Universe) etc.. Until we got a bit older, people moved away / got responsibilities, and the scene fizzled out.

I had a couple years of not riding bikes until I got a second-hand roadie for commuting. A purple Mercier with chrome Campag Veloce. Fell back in love with bikes, and started to explore the Peaks around Sheffield. This was around 2010/11.

I liked the early Rapha, Rouleur aesthetic at the time, with their storied imagery of the mountains and grainy gravitas. This was also my introduction into riding a bike as a form of exercise. Fitness was never really the primary reason for why I rode, but was a nice consequence.

I rode some crits, and did okay in some hill climbs. But mostly, I just liked giving it the big legs around the Peaks with my mates who’s also swapped the BMX for the roadie.

I was working at Planet X/On-One at the time, who were probably the earliest adopter of gravel bikes in the UK. So, around 2016, I got a gravel bike and realised that it doubled the routes I could ride in the Peaks. Linking roads that I’d ridden countless times with the off-road sections that bisected them.

I’d been largely on the gravel bike for the past few years, until I rode Pan Celtic Gravel Rally in North Wales last May. With a proper 50/50 mix of MTB’s and gravel bikes (with the podium 100% MTB) it made me think about getting a MTB for the first time in nearly 25 years. So that’s where I am now, largely into the whole Marathon / Ultra / FKT type thing. Old school MTBing if you will. Full circle.

It feels like a golden age in cycling right now. When I started riding it was rubbish bikes and jokes about doped up roadies and or nu metal dirt jump moshers. Really tribal. Nowadays, thanks to gravel as an intermediary, people are just riding bikes again. It doesn’t really matter what kind.