My reorganisation of bikes has now, it seems, been completed. The audax has gone to a friend, the RST has bedded in beautifully, and now comes the solution to another problem.
Being a cyclist who jumps at the chance to ride whenever possible, but also the father of a 9-year-old, I was finding that the two main things in my life were beginning to cause conflict. Then I realised, in a rare moment of lateral thinking, why not combine the two?
And so I have now made room in the garage for this beauty - not a Thorn as you'll see, but another British brand - Circe.
It's a real beauty and today we have ridden 6 miles on it together - it has a Shimano Alfine hub (but can be specced with a Rohloff!!!) - and my old Brooks B17, now nicely broken in, has already been attached. I've also since fitted a Topeak DX rack that I had in the garage, and a single, excellent Altura Dryline 20l pannier for carrying stuff in (tomatoes, plywood, cuddly toy dogs.....)
So, you may be asking, why not a Voyager kiddie back? Well simply enough, the ones on ebay tended to be either too small, or at silly prices and also transporting them is an issue too. The Circe is designed to be small-wheel, small-frame, but with massively extensible telescopic seat posts for both pilot and stoker, such that you can have it set for (apparently) a 4-year-old where crank shorteners may be needed, up to a full size adult. IN addition, the stem, and both seat posts are QR and the bike basically dismantles for transport. The mechanic said he had got one into a Honda Jazz without problems!!
So, that's it for now; problem solved!
