So I bought my first new bike - a Ridgeback 501 - in 1994.

At first my challenge was a 10 mile (16 km) route that I tried to do in the evening. I was exhausted when I finished this ride. Soon a friend I worked with suggested I get a bike computer (this you fit to the bike and can tell how fast you are going, and often other things, such as average speed, how long you have been riding and what the time is). At first I thought it was a silly idea, but I was persuaded to get one. Now every time I went for my 10-mile ride, I had to go faster, do it quicker. Always I checked the numbers on my computer to see if I had improved - this is still true today!

When I was able to do this ride without getting too weary, my next challenge was using maps of cycle routes. In the United Kingdom we are lucky to have books of routes that are about 30 miles (48 km) long published by Ordinance Survey. These books have lots of help about how and where to ride, with maps for each route, togther with easy to follow instructions for the route. Some of these routes were too far away from my house to ride by bike, so I bought a bike rack to attach to my car and drove there carrying my bike with me.

I started to see more of the part of England that I live in, than I had ever done before!

About a year after this, I spent one week on holiday taking my bike on trips like these. It was a very sunny summer and I had a wonderful time exploring a part of England called Sussex.

Read about my second bike.