About Me

 I am not great at things such as this, it feels like that question you get in an interview "so tell us your greatest qualities" I hate those questions, the urge to be my usual self and say.......well I can drink a cider every lap in a 24 hour race, or I can clear a certain trail without dabbing, So here it goes.

I am Simon, a bike propelled nut in the beautiful South West of England, I am a qualified and practiced bike mechanic, albeit retired since my tumour, I love bikes, the freedom, and the joy or riding them, working on them and just looking at them. I have been involved in the mountain bike scene for a long time, I started racing in the South West MTB series in the early to mid 90's. I was never fast, but I could ride all day, and I was pretty handy in the tech stuff. Over the years my attachment to cycling changed, I moved from racer to photographer, and I used to be involved in helping out with the Soggy Bottom winter series in Plymouth, the title of Soggy Snapper was worn with pride. After a break of a few years I got back into riding with some frequency and I went on my first bike tour in France, an experience I long to repeat, not long after then I moved from the cycling gem that is Plymouth to Somerset, while it was a culture shock I have made it my home, I phased from photographer and office monkey to Bicycle Mechanic at Ralph Colman cycles, what become some of the happiest years I have enjoyed, it was here with a group of like minded nutter that I explored the joy of bike packing, something which has become a part of me and for the few years over covid and since my brain tumour I have missed very much.

My life took a very sudden change in 2020, in the first week of lock down I had my first seizure, many more followed and only once the lifting of lockdown and the severity of my seizures I started to get acknowledgment that something was wrong, I was barely able to walk, constantly exhausted, and I was getting weaker all down my right hand side, Epilepsy was suspect and appointments made, my body had other plans as a few weeks later I had my hopefully final and most severe seizure, Paramedics were needed as the seizure would not stop and I was rushed into A&E, in the small hours of the morning a brain tumour was discovered and 10 days later I was in Southmead Hospital to spend 10 hours in surgery to have it de-bulked, my life has changed forever, I was faced with the fact that I was never going to be top shelf again. it took several years and much introspection, and a help from a physio, I was back on the bike again and recently back out for a bivvy. The recovery is still on going, I have had to learn a new normal again, accept what I can and cannot do, and work when I am good to repair a little more damage, this blog, I hope will help with that recovery, and record my fun and adventures along the way.