As Baz Luhrmann said in his Sunscreen ‘song’: Look after your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Well, until they do finally give up the will to live and screech to a halt like a knackered bottom bracket, I’m just going to keep riding because that’s what I love.

A product of a family with a love for the outdoors, I suppose I’ve always had an affinity with cycling. As a kid, let’s face it, it’s really your primary mode of transport, and while the Weald of Kent was not exactly the plains of the Serengeti, the local bus service might have suggested otherwise!

MTB’ing for me kicked off well over 15 years ago when I got a 21-geared rigid Claud Butler (not sure they were even cool then?) in a rather dashing purple. That saw me through to University where I wasted no time in spending my student loan on a new Marin Bear Valley (I know, MTB’er in first-bike-was-a-Marin-shocker). A simple cromoly steel chassis with a mix of Shimano & in-house finery and rudimentary (at best) RST 381 forks was pretty damn cool for a student in 1995 I can tell you.

Since then I’ve had a brief dalliance with a race whippet Cannondale with a back end firmer than Joan Rivers and a slightly longer affair with a full bounce Specialized. Now I’m riding a Cotic Soul, one of the new generation of long travel steel hardtails. It’s that good, it might just be the last bike I ever own.

As my very understanding wife Ali will testify, mountain biking is my passion. It’s got everything. It keeps you fit, it gets you out and about, you get to meet fantastic people, and above all, you get to experience some of the best scenery this green and pleasant land can offer.