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Bicycle Kicks SOS - back in the saddle and heading for Wrexham

…on a new Ridgeback, then on to Hayes and Gateshead

Things looked bleak last week for Simon Hood and there was a real possibility that his Bicycle Kicks quest to spend a season following his team to every game in the country by bike to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society would come to a grinding halt before it had even started.

Despite the best efforts of Kona UK and the regulars of the Schoolboy pub in Norton – who got him back on the road when the spigot supporting the rack on his Kona Sutra snapped – he was stuck with a broken bike and a series of tricky away fixtures that meant he needed to get back in the saddle by Sunday.

We didn't want to see him have to stop before he'd got started so we stuck out an SOS for an emergency back-up bike and the guys at Ridgeback rode to the rescue. Via his local bike shop (and one of his sponsors) Cycle Heaven they sorted him out with one of their Ridgeback Horizon tourers. Si went down to pick it up on Saturday and the good omens continued to stack up for him as York won two – nil against Forest Green Rovers.

“I'd really like to thank Albert at Madison for helping me out like this at such short notice, and Andy at Cycle Heaven for building the bike up for me so quickly too, they've both been incredible” he told us on Saturday. 

Si is now out on the road on a two week marathon that will tack in Wrexham on Tuesday, then down to the London suburbs for Hayes and Yeading on Saturday, followed by a quick sprint up to Gateshead for Tuesday for a fixture brought forward from Bank Holiday Monday to accommodate an athletics meeting. Last we heard he was heading west. By the time he gets back to York a re-fettled Kona Sutra could be waiting for him. Madison have told him that he can raffle the bike off at the end of the season. Nice one!

You can follow Si's adventure via his website at www.bicyclekicks.co.uk/ and his twitter feed twitter.com/bicyclekicks, and you can make a donation at www.justgiving.com/bicyclekicks/

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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4 comments

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hammergonewest | 15 years ago
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Nice looking bike Si, so how does it compare to the Kona?

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bicyclekicks replied to hammergonewest | 15 years ago
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It's very solid, up over the Pennines, Shropshire Hills, Cotswolds, Chilterns and North York Moors in a little over a week. No fishtailing at all with a full load. Neat gearchange on the brake levers. Really nice bike, well put together down to the mudguards and how the pump is stowed. A proper tourer.

The Kona is a lot more idiosyncratic, but I love my idiosyncracies.

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bicyclekicks | 15 years ago
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I should point out that Andy at Cycle Heaven has also supplied me with a solid Topeak rack which should do the trick on my new Kona frame. Also, it's a Ridgeback Voyage, ie a better model, hope Albert knows this!.....

I'm just east of Chester, so a simple 25 mile tootle tomorrow.

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G-bitch | 15 years ago
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Wow, that's exactly the weakness that many reviewers have picked up on with Kona (and other) disc equipped tourers that haven't got a decent rear rack fitting solution. Just goes to show that one weakness/bad idea on the drawing board might just ruin your tour....

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