rain miles count double

What’s the correct number of bikes to have? n+1, goes the wisdom.

Today I took delivery of a new +1: a Carrera Virtuoso road bike, courtesy of Halfords and the government Cycle To Work scheme, and accompanied by a good haul of accessories. Tax free, thank you very much.

I’ve been commuting for some time on my Commencal Normal – aka “The Mutant Freak” – a midrange mountain bike that’s been converted into more of an urban commuter ride, but, for a few reasons, the time had come for a change. Mutant Freak is a heavy freak, tipping the scales at over 14Kg; the Avid BB5 disk brakes never quite worked properly, seized in the winter and rubbed continually; it’s difficult to hang on to the bar-ends in the wet; it lacked the frame lugs for mounting proper mudguards and pannier racks for cargo, which meant I’d had to carry my heavy work laptop in my backpack, and that hurt.

So when the Cycle To Work scheme re-opened at my place of employment, it was upgrade time.

My commute is all roads, and having ridden the BeOne for some time too now I find the narrower road bike handlebar position more comfortable than that of wider mountain style ones, so a road bike was an obvious choice. On our Cycle To Work scheme my choice was effectively restricted to Halfords’ own brands. I was drawn to the Carrera Virtuoso as BikeRadar loved it, the frame had the rack and mudguard mounting points I needed and it was already on sale at a hefty 25% discount. For a low cost, workhorse workbike, it was a no-brainer really.

Carrera Virtuoso Road Bike

Not me in action on a Carrera Virtuoso

I also picked up a good selection of accessories, including a pannier rack and bags, mudguards, cleaning and maintenance tools, spares and – scarily – a turbo trainer to keep up my fitness on those all too numerous winter / wet / too-busy-to-ride days. All of these fell under the Cycle To Work scheme too and so benfited from the generous discount it provides. Excellent!

A nice selection of tax-free accessories

I’ll fit clipless pedals and maybe change the stock bar tape (as it feels rather thin and uncomfortable), and for now the Carrera is still in the wrapping as I haven’t had a chance to do any of that, set it up or go for a test ride yet. But hopefully I’ll be cycling the roads to work on my new Cycle To Work road bike very soon!