John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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4 comments
neat machine, built in the far east, by decent artisans, fwiw i would like it in another colour than black and the current choice is powder coat and another wad of folding to do so, i agree with joemmo... who wants a quill stem and an inch headset today, they may be elegant, yes, but can seize, they aren't as stable when hauling on the bars, and make changing bars a hoo hah task.. give us 1.1/8 headstock and a neat silver stem and the ability to get decent carbon forks in the frame... ever searched today for inch carbon forks, they are as plentiful as hens fangs.. 631 is a nice material and a lovely ride..
I can't understand why anyone would want to go back to ao quill stem. Apart from that it's nice enough.
I can't understand why anyone would choose the ride a bicycle that DOESN'T look like this.
'Nostalgia trip'??
To my mind it's a long overdue return to good old British common sense and elegant straight lines after 15 years of twirly Chinese carbon.
If I want to ride something made from plastic in a despotic state by indentured labour I shall let you know.
Yours
Sir Hubert Sprocket
Bottom Bracket Cottage
Tunbridge Wells