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Dan Tyte wants to be a cool rider – but where to start?

I THINK it was Freddie Mercury who said, ‘I Want to Ride my Bicycle’.

Until now, I haven’t really been one to follow the lifestyle choices of the late, great Queen front man.

Unless, I suppose, you count that ill-advised attempt to grow a pencil moustache one summer.

Ah well, at least I’ll always have the memories of South America even if the photographic evidence is infested by what looks like an underfed slug on my upper lip.

But just recently, I’ve found myself following in Freddie’s footsteps. And no, I’ve not been vacuuming in drag, or slipping into sequinned gold jackets and I certainly haven’t been hanging out with guitarists with power-fros.

I mean, come on, I’m 30 – my poor friends are mostly balding.

Where I have been taking life lessons from Mr. Mercury is thus: I’ve getting around town on two wheels.

You know, the old spokey dokeys. A bit of the old bikey wikey...what’s that? Get on with it? Right, okay, sorry.

A bicycle. I’ve been riding a bicycle.

It all started when my girlfriend’s dad visited in his camper van. In the back he had a well-loved but in need of attention Carrera.

He had me at the name. It just exuded cool. It sounds a bit like a Camaro, the ride of choice of pimps and cowboys in 1970s American B-movies.

I imagined small talk in the lifts at our office never being the same again. “How did you get in this morning?” a suit from the sixth floor would ask.

Not the 82 bus for me, but a Carerra. That’s right, uh huh, how do you like me now, sixth-floor man?

Not that anyone ever did ask that in the lift though. We generally talked about the weather or the length of time left until we’d get in the lift again to go home (“Nearly there, just a few hours left now”. “Oh aye, nearly there”.)

Anyway, I probably should make a concession here for you non-bikeys, I think that’s what you’re called. A Carrera is a make of bike. Up to speed? Then let’s continue.

Cycling to work and back has given me a new perspective. I now have the chance to see the world from the eye level of a very tall dog or a very small horse.

Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/columnists/2011/08/09/on-your-bike-91466-29200918/#ixzz1UWO15Zs5