C4 newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy giving away his Ridgeback bike (+ video)

Channel 4 newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy is giving away his Ridgeback Speed bike after wrestling with a problem familiar to anyone who has been properly bitten by the cycling bug – letting go of your former pride and joy when another has taken its place in your affections. The broadcaster, who is preparing to ride from London to Paris in aid of the Duchenne Children’s Trust in May, will give the bike - frame size 17 inches - to someone drawn at random who sponsors him and expresses an interest in it through Twitter.

In a blog post on the website set up for the ride, which will see 30 cyclists including his Channel 4 News colleague Jon Snow set off for the French capital from the TV channel’s headquarters in Horseferry Road, London, aiming to arrive there within 24 hours, Guru-Murthy says:

How do you give away something you don't want anymore without sounding like nobody else would want it either? I'm giving away the Ridgeback Speed I've had sitting under a tarpaulin for years until I decided to get properly into cycling and splashed out on a Pearson. It isn't a masterpiece. I think it cost about 400 quid. But it has an aluminium frame, Shimano gears and Shimano pedals which flip over to use with SPD cleats if you want and mudguards to keep you dry. It is a bike to get from A to B - and I've ridden it the 10 miles to work a couple of times recently. But I don't need it anymore. So I'll give it away to somebody who sponsors the London-Paris bike ride and expresses an interest via twitter (@krishgm) in coming to pick the bike up at Channel 4 News. All names will go in a cycling helmet and I'll draw one lucky winner. You can come watch the show too if you like.

You can sponsor Guru-Murthy by following this link, while full details of the ride are available on the Bike4Good website.

Last month, the newsreader and some of his colleagues undertook their first training ride, which in a kind of Olympic road race meets Milan-San Remo way saw them head off towards Box Hill in the freezing cold and under falling snowflakes. Here's a brief video.