We were test driving a new car at the weekend. As most people will know we've got a Mini, which is absolutely fab, and flies in the face of 'impractical' accusations by having quite happily taken us all over the country and into France with a loaded up, seats-folded, boot.
But. When it comes to bikes it's a bit of a pain. Roof racks scratch roofs (certainly did on our first Mini) and the boot carrier we used for the Western Isles dented the boot (and scratched the bumper). So are we seriously looking at a different car to make carrying bieks easier?
Damn skippy we are.
Of course it won't be much of a change. Mini Clubman (Cooper S). Roof rails. Hurrah! roof bars, bike carriers, job's a good 'un. Weekend cycles with Mel will suddenly become an option again.
This will seem strange to many as there is a (dare I say slightly arrogant?) school of thought in cycling circles that you just ride form your house, you don't take the bikes somewhere to cycle. What this pre-supposes is that both members of the car-pool are cyclists, and confident cyclists at that. Mel has hated riding on Edinburgh's roads ever since Saxo-boy tried to (deliberately) hit me with his car, and routes directly from the house all necessarily involve some busy roads, and soon become a little monotonous.
Taking the cars up to Loch Leven, or Kinloch Rannoch (an old favourite route) we can get away from the urban cycling atmosphere, and can start working on Mel's confidence on a bike again, in a way that the Trinity paths helped when we lived there (could do the house to Cramond, or out to South Queensferry almost entirely off-road or on quieter routes).
Oh. And for our French escapades we can fit more wine in the boot (the space is astonishingly bigger inside given the car is only about 20cm longer...)
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