Well I should begin with why I bought a bike. Like most 40 something’s I had come to the conclusion that my life was becoming far too Sedentary (as opposed to seditionary - the stirring up of discontent, resistance, or rebellion against the government in power; Archaic revolt or rebellion. Which in all honesty I am a bit of a fan of as well). So what to do?
Well at the same time, I was also becoming increasingly tired of my train service – cancelled trains, lazy staff and connecting trains leaving the station as my inbound train arrived 6 minutes late – followed by a cold 30 minute wait for the next train and an argument with staff. Now I could have got all “seditionary” on the train operators, but if my advanced years have taught me anything then the only way you can hurt a company or powerful individual by hitting them in the “pocket”. Granted my miserable few £’s a year in fares is not going to bring down the train company all by itself but I figured every little helps (well they are always telling us this when it comes to global warming). So this decided, I came to the logical conclusion that I would buy a bike – get fit, save money and give “the man” one in the eye.
So what is this blog all about and what is a MAMBO. Well let’s start with MAMBO – it a phrase I heard being used in a bike shop – it means Middle Aged Man, Bike Owner. I missed no longer being a “YUPPIE” and felt the need to be part of another clan. MAMBO’s are the perfect customers – we have deeper pockets and we need every edge we can get via more and more expensive equipment to help us go the extra 0.3 mph faster and to make up for our increased years. Another way to look at a MAMBO is to think of a middle aged golfer – we will buy into any gimmick that we hope will give us an edge and we will spend a fortune! Shops love us and young people love riding past us on their bikes that cost 1/10 to set up – but we will never say die.
So why the blog – well reading the web as a starter rider – all I could find where blogs from what I can only describe as super human athletes – there speeds and distances seem almost unreal to me as a mere mortal, and I have to say, with no direct correlation to what I see on the road.
I have been cycling into work (weather and old muscles permitting) a distance of about 11 miles each way a few times now (I also try and cycle up to 10 miles 6 times a week) and the so called crawling speeds I was doing seem to be more than adequate compare to 80% of cyclist. This blog will therefore be honest and I hope humorous and offer the middle-aged commuter cyclists a touch of reality about what to face, what to buy and about what happens in the real world. I have been cycling regularly now for about 3 months so the early parts of this blog will be retrospective and if I can get enough interest I will then keep it going.
I would dearly love to receive article from other MAMBO’s to make up for my journalistic failings – so please email them to me and I will add them.
What we think we look like -
What we really look like -
What we sometimes look like -
