I’ve lost track of when I first heard of the Via Francigena. I think it was from a Reddit post a few years ago, on some kind of cycle touring community, where someone wrote up their account of doing a ‘mini Francigena’, riding from Milan to Rome. This when I first learned about the existence of this >1,000 year old pilgrimage route from Canterbury to the Eternal City, which really captured my imagination. I’ve felt like this would be the dream adventure and I’ve related how much I want to do it to a many people, but after some agonising, I’ve decided to put it on indefinite hold. This is a short write-up of why I wanted to do the Via Francigena, why I’ve decided not to, why that’s worth writing about, and what I’m thinking about doing instead.
Tag Archives: bikes
What I’ve learned about first aid and how it could help you with your cycling
I’ve been carrying a compact first aid kit in a hip pack for a few years now. It comes with me while cycling and running, and when I’m out at work too. I’ve used it a few times now and thought this short post about how first aid might be something you should think about more and prepare for. But emore importantly I’ve done a variety of training which is honestly more important than just ‘having the gear.’ I’ve tried to condense this into a shortish article about my reflections on the topic, and hope it’s useful.
Skipped a quarter of the Brother Big ‘Un 2025 and drove there late: Learnings and observations
Ordinarily with a cycling event I’ll turn up the night before, camp, do the ride, camp again, and get the train home the next morning. This was the draft plan for 2025’s Brother Big ‘Un ride in Kent, but events conspired and I just didn’t finish and get home from work until around 7.30 pm the night before. The good news was that I’d been lent an electric van to go with, so my thinking was I’d just drive in the morning and do the ride. This is a post about what I learned and observed in so doing.
What I learned cycling some of the Cantii way the wrong way round with a new camera
August is dead quiet for my 9-5 job so I took Tuesday-Friday off this week (the week before August Bank Holiday 2025). I decided to ride some of the Cantii Way in Kent, which is a cheapish 90 minute train ticket away from London, and also had a Panasonic Lumix GF1 camera, which I hope will mark an improvement in the output on this blog. I should also add this is the first blog post following a trip done on my new bike, which is a titanium frame with bits and gubbins from the Merlin swapped on to it. This is a short article outlining what I learned and observed.
Learnings and observations about doing a gravel ride fixed-gear with an Olympus OM Tough 6 camera, and why I returned it
I am very aware that the quality of the photos on this blog aren’t exactly something to call the Pulitzer nomination committee about, which I’m working on. To this end, I bought an ‘OM Tough TG-6’ camera for bringing on rides, with the idea being that it would improve the blog without leaving me constantly paranoid about the state of the gear. This is what I learned from doing so.
What I learned and observed doing the Dunwich Dynamo fixed – again
The first time was so nice, I had to do it twice. It didn’t hurt that my other bike had a cracked frame either. For the second year in a row I took the fixed gear commuter bike on the ride to Dunwich, and there were a few bits I jotted down you might beContinue reading “What I learned and observed doing the Dunwich Dynamo fixed – again”
What I learned and observed riding the 2025 ‘Surly 100’ in the Cotswolds
The Cotswolds is not a part of the land I’d much cycled in. Pasting in from Wikipedia, the name means literally “sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides.” It’s a great off-road cycling location that an experienced route-setter like Graham Foot knew how to get the best out of with this year’s Surly 100, a two-day ride that takes one out of town straight in to the hills, but on wisely-chosen trails that, while tough, are definitely rideable. I’ve written up what I’ve learned and observed over these two days and hope they’re helpful. A big thank you to Graham, and the wider team who made this event well worth the train trip.
Four learnings and observations from riding the 137 km Stone Circle Gravel ‘Rebel’ route with no bibs and arguably the wrong bike
Having put up my tent in the grounds of Old Sarum fort at gone 2130 hours, I was dipping in to my bag to prepare my clothes for the ride the next morning, and laughed bitterly. My neighbour asked me if something was wrong, so I gave the news; I’d left my bibs on my bed and would have to ride with the pants and shorts I was wearing. ‘The adventure starts here,’ they reassured me, clearly finding this very funny.
This is a short blog post about what I learned and saw at this amazing event which went down on Saturday 28 June 2025. Hopefully you learn something from it yourself and avoid a mistake – or at least get some amusement from it like my very gracious neighbour did!
My top 3 ways to ruin your bike and get an expensive repair bill
As a teacher at London Bike Kitchen, and doing my own bike maintenance work, one of the first things I talk to people about is how much money maintenance can save you. It’s tempting to tell people that cycling is ‘free once you buy the bike,’ but this quickly becomes untrue if you let maintenance problems build up, and let your more expensive components become unduly damaged and worn ahead of time. This is a short blog about the best ways to ruin your bike through lack of maintenance, which hopefully you’d use more in a what not to do sense. But it’s more fun to talk about it this way!
Learnings and feelings after 6 months of cycle educating in London
The other day at London Bike Kitchen, where I teach as a freelance tutor, I ran a ‘introduction to maintenance’ class for two people who were several decades older than me. Correspondingly, they probably had in the order of 40 years more of experience regarding riding bikes than I did, since I only really began cycling properly (in the sense of leisure and transportation) in around 2017. Writing this, I’ve been teaching classes like this, or working as a community mechanic, for about 6 months now, and thought a blog post about what I’ve learned and how I’m feeling about it may be interesting to you.
Calum On Wheels 