Over the past month or so I have been drawn inexorably into the world of unracer cycling, all of which has prompted both a forehead smacking but-I’ve-always-done-that and a guilty why-is-my-best-bike-languishing-unloved. With the purchase of a bike repair stand to help with the other bike, I was seized with the idea of fixing up the road bike. I mean, how hard can it be?

On Saturday I made good on a promise to myself: I went for a bike ride with a bunch of strangers. It was great fun, and while I didn’t make any friends, I did chat to a couple of people and took those first important steps.

View Bike ride 2012-03-18 in a larger map

Rome is not a cycle-friendly city. It could be, if the Romans could be persuaded to give up their beloved motor cars, of which, in 2008, there were 2.4 million to 2.5 million people. Not sure whether that is people people, or people old enough to dri...

A glorious day. A bike ride beckoned, and as ever I need a goal. People rave about Pizzarium’s pizza as if it were manna from heaven, and it’s far enough away to give me the idea that I might even deserve the slice when I got there. So off I went, detouring via Piazza San Cosimato for supplies of t...

Rome, like Paris before it, has a green bike scheme in the centre of the city. Lots of bike racks, lots of bikes, and you pay 50 cents for each half hour or part thereof. Nifty. Of course, it isn’t quite that simple. You have to have a special smart card to unlock a bike and return it to a rack, and...