Overtaken by events

It's been a little while since we've posted on the blog, although those of you who follow us on Twitter, @FamilyByCycle, will have an idea as to why!

The list of recent events waiting to be published (the pictures and some of the text having been put aside in preparation!) goes a little bit like this:

• Thomas Ivor has met and ridden with touring legend Mark Beaumont, given his first illustrated lecture at the Cycle Touring Festival in Clitheroe, has moved house, started at a new school, won some more races, appeared on the podium at the Women's Tour of Britain, moved up to a larger bike, and climbed Scafell Pike as part of a project to climb and cycle between the 'Three Peaks'

• Rhoda is balance biking and has progressed to using the Rothan rather than the Strider.

• Ruth now has her Cnoc 14 and is riding confidently on her own two wheels. She has started to use our new Islabikes trailerbike, and then stopped again, and then started again, because...

• Mummy and Daddy had our touring bikes stolen from the rack on the back of the car hours after this picture was taken. We lost both our Trek tourers, the Islabikes trailerbike rack, the bike carrier was badly mauled; the car damaged. We've replaced the bikes for the short term, and now the car's exhaust has dropped off in sympathy, a week before the MoT is due. We had a great time in Clitheroe and we've celebrated our wedding anniversary with a #Microadventure of our own, we've made a few little films, carried on finding ways to be adventurous and to ride bikes one way or another, and, er, neglected our blog.

We're still sourcing bits and fettling our new bikes with the hope of having some kind of a touring trip this summer when we had almost given it up as a bad job.

The good news is we have lots of things to write about and share, from the lows of seeing over £3000 of stuff stolen or broken outside our home, to the joys of seeing another child pedal off into the distance. We'll turn the story above into links to those individual tales, just as soon as we can, and we look forward to sharing our experiences once more.

Meantime, why not visit our YouTube Channel and subscribe? There are new films of all kinds on there and more in the pipeline...

A car crash and an anxious inspection

It's fair to say that we had an inauspicious start to our trip to the Outer Hebrides. An hour's drive up the road to Scotland, I stopped the car at a red traffic light on a busy roundabout on the outskirts of Stoke on Trent. The Yodel van behind me did not spot the traffic lights and did not stop. I had one of those slow-motion rear view mirror moments; I heard the wheels lock, realised that we were about to be hit, knew there was nothing I could do about it except let the brake go and hope it didn't hurt too much.

A short verbal altercation ensued ( "What are you playing at, you can't just stop"...."No, mate, what are you playing at- can't you see the RED traffic lights?"). We exchanged details. We pulled off the roundabout, worrying about how well the dropping mechanism on the bike rack would hold up post impact, and whether our bikes had been damaged.

We got very lucky. The impact was low, so the bikes didn't have even a scratch. The bike rack picked up a crack to the light cluster. We worried about the locking mechanism, which seemed bent, but gave it a very hard shove and confirmed it was still securely in place. And that was that- no injuries.

Tom took over driving duties, and we set off for a second attempt to reach the Premier Inn in Dumbarton for an overnight stay on our way to Oban. The children love the Premier Inn- we race Thomas to be the first to yell out "Premier Inn!" whenever we pass one, so with no expense spared, we checked in, charged up every electronic device we own and enjoyed the last wifi for a while!