You can read about my early years of cycling here. I then had a hiatus from cycling of about 20 years due to a combination of an interest in cars and also having a narrow garage that hindered storing a bicycle in a way where it was quick/easy to get it out past the car. I kept the Marin mountain bike I’d bought post-university but it ended up languishing first in a bike locker at work and then in the attic at home.
Then, a few years ago, myself and my partner moved to a residential suburb of Oxford. I didn’t have any particular plan to start cycling again but this house had room on the driveway for both our cars so it was easy for any bicycle to be used. After a few months of exploring the immediate area on foot both for food shopping and wildlife photography (plus finding the bus route into the city centre being less than ideal) I decided to give cycling another go.
Marin Bobcat Trail – It Still Lives!
At that point it had been 10+ years since the Marin had last seen any use and about 20 years since I’d last ridden it properly. The condition still seemed pretty good – the frame paint was a little bit marked, but mechanically it still seemed decent. I pumped up the tyres (still original), checked the brakes worked, greased the chain and gave it a tentative short ride through a quiet housing estate just to see how wobbly I was. I had been running 1-2 miles daily at that point so I had some fitness, but not cycling fitness and my bike balance was out of practice – that first ride went ok but I wasn’t entirely comfortable riding one handed and I lacked endurance. However, I figured I’d quickly get back my balance so I started doing regular short rides, often to local supermarkets with a backpack to shop for food.
During the first couple of rides I noticed the brakes sounded very rough – it’s a rim brake bicycle and the brake pads were still the originals so the rubber compound had gone very hard in the 25+ years since I bought the bike (they were basically just removing rim material rather than wearing). New brake blocks easily sorted that! It was also on the original knobbly tyres and since I would mainly be doing road cycling I got some more road-oriented tyres – that had the added bonus of making the bike feel way more stable for one handed/no-handed riding (it had never occurred to me the tyres could have been making it feel so unstable).
Over the course of the next year I made some additions: mudguards, pannier rack, road-oriented saddle and strapless toe-clips. When the hubs on the original wheels became noisy (they had never been serviced) I bought a second set of wheels as backup in case I screwed up servicing (the servicing went fine). We had some icy conditions during that first winter and having the memory from my paper-round days of how dicey it is cycling in icy conditions I also picked up some new-old-stock studded winter tyres (very noisy on paved surfaces, but give confidence that I won’t risk fracturing my wrists when the temperatures drop below zero).
Despite having subsequently acquired several other bikes I’ve kept the Marin for winter duties/city centre duties. Although I could get studded tyres for the gravel bike I’d rather not subject that more expensive bike to road salt and since there’s room in the garage to keep the Marin it makes sense just to use that still when conditions are slippery. I also bought some cheap non-studded knobbly tyres for bird photography rides around the unpaved parts of the Thames path and Port Meadow when conditions get too boggy for the gravel bike (as its tyres are more oriented towards harder surfaces).
Going Hybrid – Pinnacle Neon Two
I gradually started increasing the length of pleasure rides on the Marin over the course of that first post-hiatus year, enjoying exploring all around Oxford and its outskirts. However, the Marin wasn’t ideal for longer distances – its weight (steel frame) and geometry made the rides harder work and less comfortable than they would be on something more road-oriented. Since I was enjoying cycling so much I decided it was worth spending a little to buy something that more modern and a little better suited to longer distances. Since my cycling routes still included some rough ground, such as unpaved sections of the Thames Path, I figured a hybrid bike (flat bar, relatively relaxed geometry) made sense rather than a drop-bar road bike and so I started looking for a second-hand hybrid bike locally.
I kept an eye on online marketplace adverts for a month for anything suitable in Oxford but nothing quite right was coming up (the closest was a Marin Larkspur but rust on the cassette concerned me about its mechanical condition). I then found a used bike dealer a little further away who actually had three bikes that might be suitable so I popped over to see him, tried the three out, and came back with a 2015 Pinnacle Neon Two.
As hybrids go the Neon Two leaned a little more towards the flat-bar road bike style – that meant the riding position wasn’t as upright nor handlers as shaped as the more city/commuter style of hybrids on the market. It was fitted with a Claris 2×8 drivetrain rather than the mountain-bike-esque 3-by groupsets many hybrids of a similar age had and it also had rigid forks.
I could feel the difference in how it rode compared to the Marin straight away – it was less effort and much more comfortable for distance. The Claris drivetrain shifted nicely and was lovely and smooth, although it lacked true “granny” gear ratios for steep climbs. Thanks to the increased comfort for longer rides I gradually extended the distance I was riding until I was regularly cycling to places 10 miles away (Witney and Woodstock being among my regular destinations).
Conveniently it already had a pannier rack fitted. The tyres were very road-oriented though (and a bit cheap and thin) so I got some slightly wider Schwalbe Green Marathon tyres for better grip on rougher surfaces (and better puncture-resistance) and I also fitted mudguards as autumn rolled around.
Unfortunately, after less than a year of owning it, a careless driver drove into me out on a ride injuring me and writing off the frame. You can read about the accident and my next bicycle here.