I've always ridden bicycles, from when i was a small child.

My first adult bike was a Dawes SuperGalaxy, bought in 1983 for what was then a month's salary!

Although it looks rather old-fashioned by today's standards, it was an excellent all-round machine, doing everything from London commuting to forest tracks and touring holidays.

When I moved out of town a bit and started commuting by train, I bought a Brompton:

Bromptons are fantastically practical city bikes: you can carry them on both trains and tubes, even on rush-hour services, and they take up virtually no space at home.

However, any folding bike involves some compromises, and once I started working from home, I could return to a full-sized bike. As it was much more for pleasure than practicality, I decided to treat myself to a pure road (race) bike.

I got some excellent advice on Ixion (despite being ostensibly a list for cyclists of the motorised variety, there are quite a few of the <1bhp variety), generated a short-list of four cycles and then went for test-rides.

Italian design flair won out, and I opted for the Bianchi Via Nerone 7.

However, when that failed catastrophically a few days after I bought it, and it was going to take weeks to get the parts from Italy, I decided to get a refund and look again.

Someone suggested I try a recumbent:

I liked it. I liked it a lot. So much so that I quadrupled my budget to pay for it ...

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