Category Archives: Cycling

Check it out! My pride and joy!

I have had it for a few weeks now and I thought I’d give my first impressions. I generally do between 45 mins to 2 hours cycling per day. I’ve never driven as pretty much everything I do day-to-day happens by bike. For the past few years my main bike has been a hybrid Trek which has been great, however as the distances I need to get to have been creeping up I felt it was time for me to invest a little more. I did huge amounts of research and hand wringing to decide and finally chose the Pashley Princess Sovereign. My main criteria was that I wanted a bicycle that was very very comfortable, the speed didn’t matter that much, neither did its capability with hills as Oxford is flatish. I had a price in mind that I of course went beyond. I also wanted a bike that would last a very long time, that was handmade locally (Stratford), and that looked nice. I’ve called it Gloria as I couldn’t think of a name until I was cycling along in the sunshine thinking “isn’t this glorious”… :)

On Sunday I took the bike for its first long distance ride by taking the train out West towards the Cotswolds and then cycled back. It was really great! 24 miles total in 2 hours isn’t bad. Downsides I’d say were that hills were pretty brutal, Gloria doesn’t have much momentum up them so it’s raw thigh power and I was afraid of being too savage as it’s a new bike before its first service. Even pushing the bike up hills was a workout as it’s so heavy. The downhills were brilliant though. I returned not very tired at all although Gloria has developed a slight creak somewhere that I will look into.

A general modification I have made was that I took off the huge front basket, I like to be able to see the road but also wanted less wind resistance and the basket is very very loud, constantly creaking. I haven’t yet removed the black bracket that the basket sits on, I may do this.

The other thing I did was to add Brooks Plump Leather Grips rather than the Pashley grips. I constantly have calluses across my palms from cycling so I really hope these will help stop that as I feel people notice them when we shake hands. The grips are also much more comfortable and warm to hold.

For the longer ride I added a Cateye Strada wireless bike computer, I’m going to keep it on this bike as it’s interesting to know the times and speeds. Gloria comes with lots of great features like a dynamo lighting system. Something I haven’t had in ages that I get here is one of those integrated pinch locks that is permanently fixed to the back wheel. No way would this be the only lock I’d use, I also have an expensive Kryptonite lock that I am very fearful of dropping on my foot as it is so sturdy. With integrated locks the key has to stay in the lock when it is not locked. I’m not so keen on having all my keys hanging there while cycling around so I have improvised a key ring for now with some gingham ribbon to tie the two lock keys together.

The Brooks seat has been great so far, very comfortable. I’ve been treating it with tallow.

So it’s a fantastic bike. There are quite a few differences compared to a hybrid. On this bike I sit completely upright which I really enjoy as it means my back and arms can be very relaxed and I can look around a lot more. The enclosed chain case means I no longer have to wear a bike clip or roll up my trousers on my right leg. Its balance is really nice, like a tall ship sailing along. The Sturmey Archer hub gears mean pausing cycling when changing gears which I am still getting used to, this I find particularly odd on hills as I’m used to gradually clicking through the gears as the hill gets steeper. I do miss the very fast acceleration that I have had on lighter bikes but once you get going on this bike you feel you could go forever which is a fantastic feeling. I will report back again in a few months to say how Gloria is doing.