Product Review – Shapeheart Magnetic Bike Mount Phone Holder

If you’re just starting out, a phone holder makes a lot of sense. Using technology that you already own to track rides and add a bit of navigation. 

If you have a dedicated GPS cycling device like a Garmin/Wahoo then you’ll still be taking your phone, just in a pocket for emergencies and probably photos. 

The design of the Shapeheart actually suits both of these markets quite well. Housing the phone in a protective wallet means it can be used on the bike and also to protect a phone in a jersey pocket.  

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Essential French Phrases for Cyclists + 10 Tips for Free Language Learning

France has an obvious appeal for cyclists

My first foreign cycling trip was also my first completely solo adventure. Cycling onto the Dover to Calais ferry early one morning and heading across France, over the Swiss alps and onwards to Venice in Italy. It was both incredibly exciting and scary as hell. Not least because I barely spoke any French or Italian. I could order a croissant or beer, say please/thank you and apologise for being English, that seemed like the absolute basics I would need – until inevitably I got a bit stuck.

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A cyclists guide to parenting – Part 1

The short answer is yes, the long answer is that you need to adapt to get the best of both worlds.

Will becoming a parent ( Mum / Dad ) affect my cycling?

How tired do you have to be not to notice the big shiny (literally) 700 lumen light has fallen off your handlebars? Where’s my brand new gilet? I distinctly remember putting it in my pocket this morning. Both of them lost on the 10 mile cycling commute to work that’s been keeping me sane through the first few months of parenting. It’s been an expensive morning replacing them, but lack of sleep can be brutal and right now I’m too tired to care.

When we were thinking about having a child our thought process went something like this: “We’ve got loads of energy, you’ve just run a couple of marathons, and I can cycle hundreds of miles! We’ve got stamina, we’ll find parenting easy! How hard can it be?” 

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Creative cycling – Exclusive designs by, erm… me.

Rouleur T-Shirt Designed by me, available from RedBubble

So as I write this we’re in lockdown in England. Government advice has been to exercise outside once a day, which I have saved for taking my daughter out for a walk (or roll around on the bikes) to get her to sleep as she’s only a year old. So my main cycling has been on a turbo trainer, getting sweaty in the garage in front of Youtube. So nothing interesting to write about actual cycling wise. Being a designer I have used my time to do something creative however, and as this is my blog and I make the rules I thought it appropriate to do a bit of shameless self-promotion on it.

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