Hi!

**Update 2024**

I’ve left my original bio below as it’s a nice memento of when I started this blog back in 2010. Fast forward 14 years and life, and me, has moved forward. I’ve gathered a few more stories in my pannier – of love, new life, loss and grief. And through the good bits, the bad and the ugly, I continue to feel grateful for every wrinkle appearing around my eyes, silver strands in my hair and aches in my body – they show I’m living this life fully immersed in it. May long this continues.

Bikes wise I now ride a Surly, which I love dearly. My trusty red Brompton is never too far from me, and of course our family cargo bike too. Pashley was sold to a good friend, after L was too big to fit in the front seat and I itched for a new, lighter and faster steed.

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I am an ‘adopted’ Mancunian, living car-free in a city that I love and in a household where there are more bikes than people!

In 2008, thanks to my partner’s love for cycling, I decided to start riding again… conquer the  worry of cycling in traffic… Manchester is beautiful but busy! However bit by bit my confidence grew and my love for cycling bloomed when I stumbled upon Vita, my Pashley Princess Sovereign.

She‘s now an extension of my body, always joint at the hip going onto little Mancunian adventures together! And now my own bicycle family is growing with the addition of Barolo, a 1997 Dawes tourer, ready for more adventures, this time farther afield! And since summer 2012, a red Brompton too.

I am also an architect and urban designer, but if you expect me to wear black polo necks, corduroy trousers and talk in complex jargon, that’s not me 😉 I work with individuals and communities to support – and hopefully enable – sustainable projects, I am a great believer of low carbon, low tech solutions and I love cycling because it makes so much sense on so many levels, as well as being fun!

This blog may have some structured posts about infrastructure analysis and perhaps comparison with other, more advanced countries that we can take inspiration from… but it’s mostly and simply about my passion for (bi)cycling, in going from A to B on my trusty bikes, which (crazily enough) I consider my friends of adventures!

I enjoy supporting the gentle but growing wonderful cycling culture in this city of Manchester… and that’s why Naturally Cycling: Manchester was born!

If you want to contact me, ask me anything about the blog, cycling in Manchester leave a comment under any of the blog posts.

All photography on the blog is by  yours truly, otherwise it is dutifully referenced back to the original source. All photos are Copyrighted of Naturally Cycling Manchester. If you want to use any of them for Creative Commons only, please let me know first, out of courtesy. Many thanks!