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@bashthebox
What’s your name/nickname? Seb / Bash
Where do you live? (area) Nunhead
Age? 33. Still time to ride the Tour, right?
How long have you cycled for? Always had a bike, didn't ride properly until getting a road bike around 2010 though. Before that I had a couple of gateway single speed bikes. Even earlier than that, mountain bikes forged from pig iron. Pig iron bikes are not fun to ride.
Assuming you do, what do you love/like about cycling?
Pretty much everything. It's a deep and dark pit of obsession, being into bikes. First and foremost, the freedom of riding a bike is incredible. All you have to do is get on and ride. (And make sure you've got tubes, pump, tool, food, phone, garmin, water, checked weather for rain, faff a bit, have another coffee, remember some money, faff, check sock game is strong, look for keys, check weather again, oh bloody hell grab rain cape, leave house, lock door, realise tyres need a bit of air, unlock door, pump, wave goodbye to cats, lock door, ride).
No but really - just pootling around London opens the city up. Remove tubes and buses from the equation and suddenly the city becomes a lot smaller, easier to get about and more interesting.
The aesthetics of the thing is another massive appeal - though I never thought it would be when deciding to take up road riding. Just thought it was all a bit ridiculous. Lycra? What the fuck? Carbon fibre? Who needs that? Groupsets costing over a grand? You what? And yet here we are. Here I am. Comparing saddle widths, shaving grams and spending saturday afternoons washing bikes. I wash my bikes more often than my bathroom, and my bathroom's clean as a whistle.
What do you not like about it? Motorised traffic. That's about the only thing.
What do you primarily cycle for? (i.e. Commuting, training, leisure)
All the above. Shopping too I guess.
Describe a memorable moment while you’ve been cycling, good or bad.
Climbing the Col de Colombiere. First famous Alpine pass I've done - you can almost hear the crowd cheering as you wind your way up the same roads icons of the sport have ridden on in years gone by. You can almost taste the EPO... Any HC climb is tough, but the views are worth it. And descending 1000+m is something else.
Is there anyway you think cycling could be improved in the UK/London? Yup, segregation. And better attitudes from drivers. And possibly from all other road users too, though to be fair cyclists don't often kill people with their shit attitudes.