Most of the content on this site is about bike touring, and that’s because it is pretty much my favourite aspect of bike riding.

I ride to work on week days, I ride every Saturday, I try to never have a week where I don’t ride a bike. But unless I am bike touring or planning a bike tour, something’s missing in my life.

2026 has been different. I had heart issues which started to make themselves known in November-December last year, and soon after New Year I went into hospital with atrial fibrillation and symptoms which suggested imminent heart failure.

And a week or so later I emerged after having a couple of arteries widened, and since then I have had a couple more cardio procedures, to ensure my continued living presence on this planet.

So that’s nice. I’m fine to commute to work on my lovely e-bike.

What does that mean for bike touring? Well, my riding at present is somewhat restricted, not directly by my heart health, but secondarily through the medication which makes sure my heart gets an easy ride.

Of all the medications that I am currently taking (and their name is legion), the one which affects bike riding is metoprolol. It’s a beta blocker, which works by “relaxing blood vessels and slowing heart rate to improve blood flow and decrease blood pressure”.

What that means is that your heart can barely get above a canter. For me, the maximum heartrate I’ve seen lately is about 115bpm.

And if you are a bike rider, you know that if you looked at your heart rate monitor and it says 115, you are just cruising along, barely raising a sweat.

So that’s me on the bike at the moment. Just cruising along.

But Andrew, why don’t you just try harder?

The answer is that when you try to go harder you just don’t. And about 15 seconds later you sit back on the saddle and say ‘where has all my power gone?’ And there’s a dull ache in your arms and legs that seems to be related to lack of circulation of blood.

So this might not rule out touring. It just means I need to adjust my expectations around how far and how hard I can ride each day.

I am in the middle of my own self-conducted tests around that right now, with the idea that maybe I can do one gentle tour before the year 2026 slips away entirely. And how are those self-conducted tests going? To be honest, not so great.

After this ride, which was not at all a difficult ride, I got home and needed quite some couch time before Annette and I could leave the house for a social appointment with a friend.

So, maybe watch this space, but probably don’t get your hopes up. It might be a while before a “proper” tour is back on my agenda. Sorry Emma, sorry Fi, sorry to all my other touring companions.

Bikes sold since 2024: Sholto Alpine GT, and Cannondale CAAD-X. They were both great bikes for many years, that I loved riding. But with the new gravel bike, and an impending down-sizing of my house, I’ve been thinning the herd, so to speak. I am back down to six bikes!

New bikes since 2024: 2025 Merida Silex 700 gravel bike, and Kalhoff commuter e-bike.

Road bike. Frezoni made by Joe Cosgrove, a framebuilder who lives about 2 km from me in Brisbane Australia. Joe’s primarily known for doing the paintwork on Llewellyn bikes. He built the frame for me in 2004, for my 40th birthday. Seeing that I just turned 62, I’ve had this bike for 22 years. My requirement when we designed the bike was to accommodate wider tyres than most road bikes could fit. Back then a road bike mostly had 700x23 tyres, with 700x25 being a common maximum tyre width. This bike takes up to 700x30, mostly as a result of designing for “long reach” caliper brakes. And as road tyres have got wider, I now run 30s … Grand Bois Cypres, which you can get from Kumo.

Gravel bike. Merida Silex 700. I was very fortunate to get a wholesale price on Merida through Bicycle Queensland’s links with Pedal Group, the importers of Merida. My thoughts on carbon bikes vs aluminium bikes are expressed elsewhere on this site, but suffice to say this 12-speed GRX 800 mechanical, aluminium-framed gravel-eater is serving me very well indeed. Since I got it for a great price, I did not have the slightest hesitation in splurging on Rene Herse tyres for this new machine. 700x44 Snoqualmie Pass are ‘road’ tyres, but as I have also said before, wide slick tyres are my favourites for bitumen and smooth gravel duties. If the road gets gnarly I am on the wrong bike, I should brought the Carve. One odd quirk about the Merida Silex is that the sizing is super stretched out. Mine is a ‘Small’, which is the first time in my cycling history that my bike has not been a ‘Medium’.

Bikepacking bike. Based on a 2011 Specialized Carve aluminium frame. Currently has a Trifox carbon fork. Fantastic device for long steady days on a rail trail or a back road through the bush. The carbon fork with its extra carrying capacity on the forks, and the Jack’s Rack upfront for the Buffalo Bag (it’s a Big Buffalo, size small, ha) work super well. Also love the Vittoria Mezcal tyres in 29 x 2.1. The Carve was the machine of choice for my most recent big adventure, the Munda Biddi Trail in Western Australia in September/October 2024.

Mountain bike. 2016 Kona Precept. 27.5 wheels, dual suspension. Cos singletrack is the best fun. I hunted around for ages when I wanted to buy a “new” mountain bike. Geometry for mountain bikes has changed so much, and these days really focusses on the downhill experience. For that purpose, the dropper post is an integral part of what makes the geo effective, cos when you are descending you’re off the saddle but still in the middle of the bike. This bike is a few years old, and slightly out of date geometry wise. Which probably makes it perfect for me. It goes great on the trails I ride in SEQ.

Folding bike. Brompton. Cos every home needs a Brompton. Not every day, but when you have a Brompton, it makes the suburban train network so much more useful! Any destination within 5km of a train station is now somewhere I can get to under my own steam. I just love being the custodian of a Brompton, thanks to my family friend Kate.

Commuter e-bike. This is a Kalkhoff Image LB Advance, which I am showing off with my friend Sam, from Electric Bikes Brisbane. The model name is horrendous, but the bike is very pleasant and chilled to ride. I run it with just a single pannier at the back to hold my clothes and/or lunch, and put my small essentials bag in the front basket. It has bulletproof Marathon tyres, a 7-speed Shimano internal geared rear hub, and a belt drive. All of which means that the sole maintenance required in daily use is pumping the tyres up every couple of weeks. Built-in lights and quality mudguards make this a commuter for all times and all seasons.

This is a regular ‘feature’ on the Internet BOB. So having prepared this on my Craft writing space, I thought I would share it here also.

Commuter/tourer. Main ride to work, also main machine for light or credit-card touring. 1994 Shogun Alpine GT, converted to 650B. Fork by Joe Cosgrove. Downtube logo says ‘Sholto’ in memory of a friend. Love this bike and ride it just about every work day.

Road bike. Frezoni made by Joe Cosgrove, a framebuilder who lives about 2 km from me in Brisbane Australia. Joe’s primarily known for doing the paintwork on Llewellyn bikes.

Cyclocross/gravel bike. 2011 Cannondale CAAD-X. Just a couple of years before cyclocross bikes switched to discs. I now run a 1x setup, and it has mini-V brakes rather than cantis.

Bikepacking bike. Based on a 2011 Specialized Carve aluminium frame. Currently has a Trifox carbon fork. Fantastic device for long steady days on a rail trail or a back road through the bush.

Mountain bike. 2016 Kona Precept. 27.5 wheels, dual suspension. Cos singletrack is the best fun.

Folding bike. Brompton. Cos every home needs a Brompton.

Here is an unpopular or perhaps unwelcome thought.

Imagine you are riding along on your bike tomorrow. And for whatever reason you lose control and crash.

Firstly, I hope you’re OK, and you haven’t damaged yourself too much. Your well-being is the most important thing to consider in this scenario.

So you are OK, now what’s the damage to your bike?

Oh. That looks expensive. I’m not sure that’s fixable.

Here’s the point where my opinion becomes unpopular.

Many people ride expensive bikes. That’s fine, we have varying capacity to pay. Spending $10,000 on a bike can be absolutely fine if you can afford it.

But if you are in an accident and your bike gets wrecked, or if you are sitting at a cafe and your bike gets nicked, and you can’t afford to replace your bike, then you spent too much on your bike.

Bicycles aren’t “forever”. I’ve had my favourite bike for 29 years, but it’s still just a bike.

Yes, you can insure your bike. I recently got a quote to insure my road bike, one of my seven bikes. I don’t know what it would be worth to replace, but a new custom steel frame would be around $3500. Insurance against theft or accidental damage will cost $20 per month, or about $240 per annum.

I’ve got seven bikes, which ones should I insure? And what’s the value proposition here?

Insurance is a scam which has all of us bluffed when it comes to high-consequence items in our lives (houses, cars, medical bills).

But for bikes, it’s easy. Don’t spend more on a bike than you would be willing to pay again the very next day if it disappeared.

Can I just post this here cos

1. It’s awesome
2. I want to remember it often
3. I agree with every single line in it.

Surly Bikes: Some answers to just about any bike forum post

Road bikes and cyclocross bikes and gravel bikes and all-road bikes all come with drop bars.

But most riders of these bikes that I see out and about don’t take advantage of the benefits that drop bars offer.

I ride on the road with a couple of different bunches. And I race cyclocross at Qld CX events. And I ride around Brisbane and SEQ a lot. And I would say 90-95 percent of riders I see almost never use the drops.

There are two major benefits of riding in the drops:

• more aerodynamic position than on the hoods
• better control when braking and descending

And there’s one reason that most bike riders don’t use the drops:

• their sub-optimal bike setup means that its not comfortable

So what do you get out of being able to use the drops as an option when riding road or cyclocross or gravel?

Well, firstly it’s an option. I don’t ever spend a whole ride, or even a whole race, in the drops. Hands on the hoods, elbows relaxed and bent, is still the most common position for me when on either the road bike or the cyclocross (CX) bike.

But there are two situations when I always move to the drops, and a third when there is also benefit to being down there.

The first situation is descending, whether on bitumen or gravel.

Before I go any further, I have to credit Anthony Mortimore as the person who explained these principles to me in a comprehensive and convincing way. He runs an excellent weekend course on climbing and descending on the road bike. If you get to the end of this piece and want to put some of these ideas into action, do Anthony’s course (although it seems these days that you might have to go to New Zealand to do it). It will make you a better, safer, faster rider.

So, when descending on a road bike or CX bike, you want to be in a position that gives you the best control for braking and the most even or centred weight distribution. Being in the drops (assuming that your bike fit is correct) gives you a position on the bike that is low and centred (fore & aft), and also gives a grip on the handlebars that is able to withstand unexpected impacts from the road surface.

If you descend with your hands on the brake hoods, as many riders do, a sudden hit to the bike from a pothole or bump in the road has the potential to weaken your grip or even dislodge it altogether. If you’re on the drops, the force of the same impact pushes your hands harder into the bars, rather than off them.

The second advantage when descending in the drops is in braking force. If you are in the drops, you can brace your weight through your arms against the bars, and get your weight nice and low when you are braking. Doing the same manoeuvre from the hoods again puts you at risk of your grip weakening, and your hands sliding forward off the bars.

The third advantage of this position when descending is that is gives you the best way of keeping your weight pushing down through your outside pedal, thus giving you the best possible traction, the best grip on the road.

The second situation to be on the drops is when riding single track trails.

This is probably only applicable to cyclocross or gravel bikes. I don’t think many people are taking to the trails in Gap Creek or Daisy Hill on their road bikes with 25mm tyres.

But all of the advantages that being in the drops gives you when descending, are ramped up to the max when riding single track. For me, it is mostly about leverage to get the maximum braking power. Riding a cyclocross bike on single track is already very challenging. Riding it on the hoods is just asking for a crash.

I’ve ridden my cyclocross bike on single track at Gap Creek, Daisy Hill and Underwood trails. And my experience of doing so merely emphasises to me that being in the drops is the position which gives the greatest level of control over your bike.

And the third situation when I like to be on the drops is when riding in the road bunch on a windy day.

Once again, there are situations in group riding where you want to be prepared for all eventualities, and also be as aero as possible. And that’s what being in the drops gives you, if your position is correctly set up.

On a windy day the bunch tends to be blown around a bit, and positioning can be tricky. In most non-racing situations, the bunch should not set up in an echelon, because the echelon increases your width in the lane, and will appear from behind as through the bunch is much more than two-abreast.

And so maintaining position in a cross-wind or a headwind in a two-abreast inline bunch requires greater concentration and your best ability to respond to a changing situation. As always, the solution to that is to be in the drops!

To sum it all up: Katie f’n Compton rides in the drops. You could learn heaps from Katie f’n Compton.