by John Hayes

As some of you may know, I am a keen cyclist. I cycle to work every day, and I cycle during work, for example when visiting clients, or going to our data-centres, but I mainly cycle in my spare time. While cycling wouldn't automatically be associated with technology, the rise of the internet and other technologies such as GPS & 3G, especially in the last few years, has radically changed how I view my bike, the time I spend on it, and around it.

It used to be the case that you would go into a bike shop, buy a bike, buy a map, and that would be it, after that you would be on your own. If you wanted to cycle with other people you could join a cycling club, but of course you would have to know about them in the first place, largely through word of mouth.

When I was thinking of buying a new bike, I knew I wanted a single speed, fixed gear, road bike but other than that I had little idea of what I really wanted. So I started visiting the websites of national bike shop chains, such as Evans and Cycle Surgery, online retailers such as Wiggle and SJS but also local fixed gear specialists such as Brick Lane Bikes and Shop 14. This gave me me an overview of a huge amount of bikes, but also allowed me to compare different styles, give me a price comparison, check whether the bike I wanted was in stock, and of course the phone number so that I could reserve it. That meant I only needed to make one trip to the shop, and could cycle away a happy customer.

Once I had my bike I was able to use web communities such as the London Cycling Campaign and London Fixed Gear Single Speed to get information on anything from which lock is the best, to good routes to cycle. In addition these communities allow me to meet like minded people from all walks of life, and get together for a wide range of events, from bike mechanics workshops, track days, social rides, to bike polo.

But for me the biggest innovation in recent years is GPS and 3G enabled devices, such as my Nokia E71, in combination with gps mapping sites such as Nokia's own SportsTracker, Bikely, or RideWithGPS. This means I can  plan a route online (or use one someone else has planned), export that into a standard format such as gpx or kml files, and import it into a GPS device for when I go on a ride. On the other hand I can also record the route I am currently taking, and upload it in real time via 3G to the SportsTracker site so that others can see where I am currently riding, or I can export it to the same standard formats, and then upload it to the mapping sites, meaning that I can record where I cycled, how long it was, how fast it was, and share it with others so that they can then in turn use that route, for example this ride that I went on with 650 other cyclists in late March.

In conclusion, while you don't need technology to ride a bike, and it's great fun to just pick up a bike and cycle, the internet and other technologies have allowed me to do things that simply weren't possible 10 years ago.