i got the bike bug when i was living in london. bikes are a cheap, reliable and sustainable way of getting around. a friend sold me a second hand aluminium mountain bike for £100, it started out in good nick and fully off-the-peg, but over two years of riding, locking up and crashing in all types of weather everything ended up being replaced except the frame, the wheels and a ripped up seat. i learned about bikes from that blessed old haro – by fixing things as they broke, which with my limited mechanical knowledge meant making repairs in the simplest and most robust way possible.
i quickly learned that you dont need knobby tires, suspension forks or 21 gears to get by in the city (though that will do just fine if thats what you’ve got) but with good quality tyres, a decent lock and a waterproof bag you can get just about anywhere, day or night.
a couple of years on I found an old reynolds steel road frame in a skip near my work. it was roughly my size, so became my first fixed gear. ive heard it said that fixed gear is a gateway drug and since then the illness has spread. ive come to ride and admire all types of bikes, some for fun, some for function. hoarding parts, modding up and swapping out have become a way of life.
im back in auckland, new zealand now (the city of traffic jams) and want to help motivate regular, everyday people to get out of their cars and onto their bikes. you dont have to spend vast sums of money, you dont have to worry about gear and what you wear, or tools and repair kits and batteries and trouser clips and whatever. just pump the tyres up, nudge the fear to the back of you mind, find somewhere quiet to start out and go for it!
over the next little while im going to be working on bringing some new, quality, functional bicycle products into nz. the idea is to help you fix up your old bike or customize your new one to get it set up to work best for you – so that you want to ride it everyday!
check in on this blog for articles of interest to bikey types, random posts about life or friends adventures, sneak peaks of products from suppliers im talking to, and general bike geekiness. the aim is to set up a web store to launch in Jan 2012.
ride safe!
woody 
woodysbikegoodies@gmail.com
follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/wbg01
