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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9 comments
This actually solves a cycloc problem I have, when I hang my bike up my front wheel turns (I think it's because of the break/gear cables).
But I would either be wiping my butt with cash or a shreddy square short of a box of cereal to actually buy this…..guess my wheel is going to continue to bang the wall until I need new break cables.
That sum bought me a classy leather & metal Brooks trouser strap; no wonder their grooved plastic waste-paper-basket, sorry, bike rack costs £60.
What happened to bungee cords too?
I know they were probably made by enslaved toddlers in a sweat shop but aldi recently had 4 Velcro straps with scotchlite and LEDs for 3.99. Might still be some left if you dig around.
Am I the only bloke to still put his trouser leg under the sock?
No you're not. I had some old school cycle clips years ago that I lent to my then housemate. Being the dunce that he was he then lost them. He said that if I bought some new ones he'd give me the money and I said he should just buy me some, but he never did, despite there being a bike shop just around the corner. I started tucking my trouser leg in my sock then instead and have done ever since.
This looks great – but why is it £12.99. Are they designed by Paul Smith or something?
Agree. A velcro strap from B&Q/Wilkos looks like it would do everything these could.