It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a bicycle, must be in want of another one - Jane Austen (well almost)……The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. - Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green......Newspapers are unable, seemingly to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. - George Bernard Shaw......Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race. - H. G. Wells......Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls. - Bob Weir...... When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. - Arthur Conan Doyle......Life is like a 10 speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use. - C. Schultz......There are no hard days on a bicycle tour, only slow ones......There is no such thing as "picking up the pace" on a touring bike..... ......[Bicycling] has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood. - Susan B. Anthony, 1896...... The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. - Christopher Morley......A 50% chance of rain on a bicycle tour means you will still get 100% wet......A loaded tandem is as good as a dog or a baby for starting conversations......A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.....Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live. - Mark Twain...... Getting older is like riding a bicycle, if you don't keep peddling, you'll fall. - Claude D. Pepper...... Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. - H.G. Wells......Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle. - Helen Keller......Socialism can only arrive by bicycle. - Jose Antonio Viera Gallo......Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain -- at least in a poor country like Russia -- and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. . - Leon Trotsky......I thought of that while riding my bike. - Albert Einstein, (on the theory of relativity)...... Nothing compares with the simple pleasure of a bike ride.- John F. Kennedy......It's something I find enjoyable. Whether it is a road bike or mountain bike or tandem bike. I enjoy riding a bike.- Lance Armstrong......I relax by taking my bicycle apart and putting it back together again. - Michelle Pfeiffer......The sound of a car door opening in front of you is similar to the sound of a gun being cocked.- Amy Webster......Never use your face as a brake pad. - Jake Watson......Refrain from throwing your bicycle in public. It shows poor upbringing. - Jacquie Phelan......Who am I? Where am I? Oh yes-I'm at the Tour, so I should get on my bike and go. Where is my bike? - Djamolidin Abdujaparov's (first words after regaining consciousness after a crash, 1996)...... A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.. - Gloria Steinem in Time Magazine. (In fact, Irina Dunn, a distinguished Australian educator, journalist and politician, coined the phrase back in 1970 when she was a student at the University of Sydney)...... It was on the 10th day of May--1884--that I confessed to age by mounting spectacles for the first time, and in the same hour I renewed my youth, to outward appearance, by mounting a bicycle for the first time. The spectacles stayed on. - Mark Twain...... I suppose that was what attracted me to the bicycle right from the start. It is not so much a way of getting somewhere as it is a setting for randomness; it makes every journey an unorganized tour. - Daniel Behrman......She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life. - Frances E. Willard 1895……The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community. - Ann Strong, Minneapolis Tribune, 1895......A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle.- Vique......A man needs a bicycle between his legs like a woman needs a fish. - Wehr Reich......All Bicycles weigh 50 pounds; A 30 pound bicycle needs a 20 pound lock. A 40 pound bicycle needs a 10 pound lock. A 50 pound bicycle doesn't need a lock......To ride a bicycle properly is very much like a love affair; chiefly is is a matter of faith. Believe you can do it and the thing is done; doubt, and for the life of you, you cannot. - H.G. Wells......The term "loose woman" originated with the dawn of women on bikes and their desire to ride corset free- Terry catalog......Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things. - William Golding......Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois. - Pierre Elliott Trudeau...... Learning to ride a bicycle is not like studying German, where you mull along, in a groping, uncertain way, for thirty years; and at last, just as you think you've got it, they spring the subjunctive on you, and there you are. No--and I see now plainly enough, that the great pity about the German language is, that you can't fall off it and hurt yourself. There is nothing like that feature to make you attend strictly to business. - Mark Twain .

WELCOME TO CYCLING IN THE NEW FOREST

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This site is maintained by John and Sheila Ward, who live, worked and cycle in the New Forest. We have also toured by tandem extensively in Britain, France, Italy and Germany. Our aim is to promote and organise safe, responsible and enjoyable cycling in and around the New Forest.

We are members of CTC Wessex Cycling; Audax UK (the long distance cycling association); Lymington Tuesday Cycling; and the Tandem Club (Wessex region). More about each of these organisations on other pages.

We organise or help with a range of cycling activities in the New Forest:
  • Cycle events of various distances twice a year in May and September put on with CTC and AUK.
  • New Forest AUK Permanent Events (of various distances), which are self-led and may be entered at any time.
  • The runs list for the Wessex Tandem Club.
  • An informal Tuesday cycling group, which does easy-pace morning rides from Lymington every week

We don't race, but we can tell you about the New Forest Cycling Club who do.

Bicycles, animals, cattle grids, tourists and the New Forest

Before anything else, please read these few important words about cycling in the New Forest:
  • Animals roam freely and can be unpredictable in their behaviour. Foals, in particular, are likely to cross the road suddenly.
  • In the summer there are quite a few motorised tourists and, if they are staring at the ponies, they can be just as unpredictable.
  • There are quite a lot of cattle grids, which can be slippery in wet weather.
  • Horse riding and carriage driving (Pony and Trap) is an everyday part of New Forest life. Please slow down and make your presence known when passing or overtaking. Calling out is a good way to attract attention because horses are used to the human voice.
  • Off-road cycling in the Forest is allowed on designated and waymarked car-free gravel forest roads. These roads are also used by walkers and so, although ideal for family groups with young children or individuals wanting to enjoy the landscape, they are not suitable for fast mountain biking or large organised groups.
    Please do not cycle elsewhere on the open forest, because the fragile habitat is easily damaged.
CYCLING NEW FOREST is non-commercial and non-profit making
All our activities are provided by volunteers who give their time freely
CONTACT US
Cycling in and around the New Forest links:
The New Forest Cycling Club, established in 1934, is the New Forest road club whose main focus is on time-trialling. 
The club stages events for club members and visitors every Tuesday of the racing season, from mid-April through to the end of August.
CTC Wessex Cycling area covers the Avon Valley and west of the New Forest and the South Hampshire Cycling UK (CTC) area covers the Waterside and east of the New Forest. 
Both organise regular club runs some of which come to the New Forest. 
Lymington Tuesday Cycling as the name suggests mostly cycle from Lymington on Tuesdays, but someimes go further afield.
PEDALL provides off road cycling sessions in the New Forest for people who need extra support to be able to cycle for any reason, including age, health, mobility, physical and intellectual disabilities or special educational need. PEDALL is a partnership project funded by the Big Lottery Fund
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