A Bike at Large II

Remarkably, Jo has survived long enough to write a second cycling book. Dick Van Bike is the fifth book in Jo’s ‘At Large’ series where he returns with an upgraded e-bike. He’s also added a campervan to his stable of vehicles, primarily so he and wife Jan can adventure together.

Warning: These are NOT the tales of a svelte, cycling icon, rather a porky, crumbling man in his seventh decade doing his best to remain above ground.

A highlight: Jo and Jan live a dream when they tackle a Coast to Coast trip, he on the bike, Jan in the van. They travel from Whitehaven on the west Cumbrian coast to Tynemouth in North East England, hopping from campsite to campsite across the Lake District and magnificent moors of Northern England. They conquer fears and feel a great sense of accomplishment as they arrive (in driving rain) at The North Sea.

A lowlight: The inaugural ride on his new bike when Jo fall off four times. He began to wonder if his sixty-fourth year might be his last. After one tumble, he heaves himself out of a patch of reeds on a boggy, Pennine Moor, and questions the maxim, ‘cycling is good for you’. But he ploughs on and decides, of course it is!!

Remember Mr Slightly Ratty in the first book? Well, while trundling beside the Gloucester Sharpness canal, Jo encounters Mr Moderately Enraged, a man incensed that his village is being consumed by the modern world. Leaving the seething native in his wake he discovers a ship’s graveyard on the banks of the River Severn. It's an astonishing place and due to his love of the waterways, one he finds very moving. Just one of many extraordinary surprises.

Jo says, ‘I have never experienced the endorphin rush of the supreme athlete. In fact, on a recent ride, I strived to complete the last mile in less than an hour so I could catch the off license before it shut.’