Whilst we were there, we bumped into some friends who’d just ridden from Marrakech through the Atlas mountains to the Sahara, around 500km through high mountain passes. The trip sounded absolutely incredible and has inspired me yet further to plan a long adventure on a touring bike. Where to go?

Most recently, I tested the Trek Domane 5.9 WSD, and struggled not to just write, ‘I love it, I love it, I love it!’ In the end I managed to get some technical info in there rather than breathlessly proclaiming my love for the machine. Take a look at this fine piece of carbon wizardry and read my review here.

The eye catching F20 is a limited edition, fun filled machine designed by Martin Hawyes of British folding bike company, Kansi. When I first saw it, I actually laughed, I mean what an odd idea, a cross between a folder and a vintage BMX! But accompanying the laughter was one great big grin; there’s just something so fun-looking about this bike and you can’t help but warm to it immediately.

The bike comes with original blue Skyway wheels and is all decked out in a complimentary colour scheme. In keeping with the BMX theme, it’s rolling on a  set of tan wall Odyssey tyres and boasts a pair of retro looking grips. Sadly it doesn’t come with matching frame pads, which would make infinitely more awesome, but a quick google did uncover some on ebay!

Like a BMX, this is a single speed machine, the one gear meaning you’re unlikely to need to do much in the way of maintenance. It’s also a cinch to adjust the seat height, so unlike a BMX you can actually sit down and pedal. The upright riding position and short wheel-base made the bike really easy to manouver and it felt sturdy and reliable without being heavy or clunky. I also enjoyed the fact you can wear a dress with this bike – the top tube is so low that you can totally get away with it.

As it’s an 80’s inspired BMX, Kansi have thrown in an original 80’s brake that is utterly useless, so losing that was the first modification I made. I also thought it kind of spoiled the look of it, but it’s probably only on there to make the bike road legal. The rear coaster brake was more than adequate and pretty fun too –  I’ve never actually ridden with a coaster before and it took me by surprise at first but I quickly learned to really enjoy it.

Whilst there are a lot of good points about this attractive looking bike, it’s not without it’s faults – the gearing at 46:16 is just way too spinny and I found that really frustrating. I just really wanted to go fast without spinning out and I couldn’t which was maddening! A friend of mine suggested that this might be my problem rather than the bike’s, saying that ‘perhaps that I was too strong,’ but as the gearing works out at around 55 gear inches, I reckon most people would agree that it’s just too light. If you like pootling/dawdling, maybe you’ll be fine.

But I haven’t yet touched on the best thing about this bike, which is the fact it folds (and unfolds) in seconds; a couple of clicks and you’re ready to ride with no faffing and no headache, it’s SO simple. I would like it to clip together slightly more sturdily – it unfolded itself whilst I was trying to get a bottle on wine from the top shelf in Tesco but perhaps I was too hasty in my effort to nab the last bottle of Sancerre. In truth, it’s quite big for lugging around a busy supermarket but for commuting and travelling, it’s spot on, and fits into the luggage rack easily.

Like many kids growing up in the eighties, I had a BMX of my own, the brilliant Raleigh Burner, complete with yellow Skyways and matching pads. Kansi have taken something we all remember fondly, swirled it around in time machine, and reinvented it as something you can use on the commute. Certainly wherever I rode it, people wanted to look at it, reminisce and jump on board for a ride – so don’t get this bike if you’re working undercover!

To me, the best thing about this bike is that it’s fun, it’s the kind of bike that makes you, and those around you, smile. It’s a real head turner and a conversation starter, so if you’re trying to keep a low profile, it’s probably not the bike for you. What’s genius is that Kansi taken something which has never been more than straight forward and functional, and looked at it in a new way. And the result is really good fun!

Who knows the reason, but whatever it is, I found myself saying yes when London Cycling Campaign asked if I’d like to ride the London Revolution, a 180 mile, two day cycling event. I said yes, even though the most I’d ever ridden was 50 miles, I said yes, even though I don’t have a road bike. And I said yes even though I wasn’t entirely sure I could do it.

That was two months ago, when full of spark and vigour about the ride ahead, I eagerly downloaded the training plan, positive that this time I would actually train for the ride. For no one can ride 100 miles in one day without training, can they?

The first week of training went swimmingly, I easily fitted in the required training, enjoying slow, long, easy rides at the weekend, and intense bursts of interval training during the week. I thoroughly enjoyed making time for training, as I love riding my bike, whatever the circumstances. I even squeezed in a couple of spinning classes. But then life got in the way; I had way too much work to do, a magazine to produce, articles to write. (I also had to go climbing, surfing, ride my BMX, play with the cats etc, but that’s another matter).

So here we are, several days from the ride, and I haven’t done the training. How will I cope with riding 100 miles in one day, sleeping in a tent and then cracking on with a further 80 miles, including a trip up the infamous Box Hill? My will is strong, so even if my legs aren’t, maybe, just maybe I’ll be ok, as long as there isn’t a head wind!

It’s a shame, because honestly, I love feeling my body getting stronger, I love getting tougher and faster, I love exercise, I actually enjoy putting the work in. I just never seem to have time. Just how do other people manage, do you have to put the rest of your life on hold?

I’d have been happy enough just to while away the weekend sipping espressos and nibbling delicate pastries, such was the charm of the place. But L’ Isle Jourdain has more to offer than talented patissieres; this delightful town also boasts its own permanent miniature cycling track, housed inside a museum dedicated to cycling, Veloscope. There’s also a disused outdoor track and a fully automated wake boarding set up on one of the beautiful lakes.

I was in town to compete on the mini velodrome in an event hosted by one of my sponsors, Met Helmets, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to arrive. The sun was shining, the hotel was lovely (I was so keen on our room, I’d have happily moved in) and all I had to do was enjoy myself and ride around in circles! We decided to celebrate by drinking copious amounts of fabulous red wine – we picked a ten euro bottle from the shop, which must have been roughly equivalent to a twenty quid bottle in the UK, such was it’s velvety richness.

The next day, we headed to the velodrome to try out the track, heads slightly fuzzy. I’ve ridden Red Bull’s minidrome three times so I knew what to expect, having done quite well in the past (as well as having crashed out!). The Veloscope ‘drome was a little longer and slightly less steep than the Red Bull one, which you might wrongly assume makes it easier to ride. In fact, I found the extra length made it incredibly fast and you were able to build up greater speeds, so the only thing limiting me was guts – I could pedal as hard and fast as I felt comfortable with, it wasn’t ever a case of wanting to go faster and being unable to do so.

After a mishap in the qualifications, my lovely Charge Scissor was out of action, so at the very last minute I had to race the final on a borrowed bike – thanks Damien! I actually found it a hell of a lot easier to ride than my Scissor, which had an insanely hard gear and massive tyres… so I’ll bear that in mind next time.

As Coven Magazine sponsored the women’s category I was slightly embarrassed to win, seeing as I’m the Editor, but I was also very pleased as I got to take home a trophy! Big thumbs up to Met for having a women’s category, it’s so important. Yes, there were fewer women than men, but if we ever want more women to race, we have to make them feel welcome. And a big thanks to Met for getting me over for the event. Love you guys.

Here’s the video of the event.

We decided to make the kit available to both men and women, and although Coven is a women’s magazine in content, I think good design is universal. Anyway, I hope people like it! The bib shorts and the jersey are £70 each and we’ll be shipping worldwide, so get in! Pre-order here

If you’d like to read the post in full and work out whether you fall into the category I’m poking fun at, look here! I can certainly tick off a few of the defining characteristics of this breed of cyclists myself!

It was a really fun time, people were so amped on getting together to ride; it was like when I first started snowboarding – if you saw another person riding fixed (or a snowboard), you’d say hello.  We were beginning to explore the possibility of learning tricks on a fixed gear, bike polo was getting bigger and everyone was talking about fixed gear.

I mention in the new video that fixed gear was ‘new’. Just to clarify, I meant new to me, and new to the vast majority of people… Yep, I know track bikes have been around for an age!

Anyway, hope you like the new video. In it, Alex asks me what I’ve been up to since the first video, and discovers that a lot has changed.

If you’d like to watch my first Charge Bikes video, you can find it here, and if you’d like to see the second one, it’s here. The third one is here.

Once I’d decided I wanted to produce a magazine which wasn’t all about being thin or what pointless reality TV stars are wearing (or not!), I wasted no time in getting it going – the first printed copy was in my hands three months later when we launched at Red Bull Studios.

A year has passed, and now issue four is here. It wouldn’t have been possible without all the brilliant people who contributed their words and pictures. So a big thank you to you all. Nor would it have been possible if I’d have spent my money on fun stuff rather than printing, but that’s another matter.

Self publishing is brilliant but tough work… I hope you’ll take a look at our latest issue and think the long slog has been worth it! If you like what you see, make sure you grab a printed copy from one of our stockists from Wednesday.

I guess it’s because all the things I’ve learnt in the past, everything I’ve progressed in has been so fun, that I didn’t even realise that was I was doing was in effect, training. Putting those hours in when learning tricks on my fixed gear or BMX was training in a way, I just didn’t know if at the time.

Back when I was a pro-snowboarder, ‘training’ was laughed at, even frowned upon, in fact taking anything seriously was just ‘not done.’ And when I started learning tricks on my fixed gear bike (and then my BMX), I did it with light-hearted abandon, I certainly wouldn’t consciously make a decision to ‘train;’ I just accidentally found myself spending a lot of time learning things. Training was for other people, not for me. Actually trying, well you shouldn’t really, should you?

Over the last year or so, I tested my no training theory. I signed up for a few races, sure that training wasn’t strictly necessary, that I was just naturally fit. I entered the races confident that I would do reasonably well, but with a carefully nonchalant attitude in case I didn’t.

And guess what, I sucked  and I hated being it!  I didn’t like being slow, I didn’t like being at the back and I didn’t like the fact I couldn’t breathe properly and felt like dying. Being shit, is well, shit!

So I made a pact, not to be scared of trying nor of training. I’ve begun riding more, consciously riding more, and pushing myself on purpose. I want to be faster, fitter, stronger. And it’s amazing, I can feel it happening! The only problem is, that with only four weeks to go until the 180 mile London Revolution Ride in May, I might have left it a little late!

But we all have to start somewhere, and now that I’ve decided to get tough, I’ve got some races and rides in mind. I’ll keep you updated on my progress!