John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Here's hoping it's just "internet" - however from the continual reports and poor behaviour I've experienced it seems there is actually a strain of...
I did Ride London over the Whitsun bank holiday with no more than my 35 year old sports watch. It was gloriously liberating watching so many others...
This all gets worse when you realise that other countries are currently at different levels of development in active travel. There are a series of ...
Indeed - there are always three sides to every story; your version, my version and the truth.
'With this funding we can react to the changing market, both in terms of Brexit and Covid-19, '...
I would agree with the comment about touring set up vs "racing" set up. For my commute I have panniers (with a Pass Pixi) and I find drivers much...
The shorts in that photo should be mosaic-ed. No one wants to see that.
I've tried my best to break these and failed. Dozens of tires fitted. The paperclip is only used when fitting and doesn't bend - it's clamped...
(Another rabbit hole) Word is that the French model wasn't a wonderful weapon and especially not for the battlefields but the story is complicated...
I have a set of vel 50's which am very happy with. Have greased freewheel pawls to quieten them down a bit ...