With my new bike, a Cube Cross Configuration model, I began 

riding to work in Mainz-Kastel. In the beginning a 23 km ride each

 way, however I was enjoying my rides so much that I started 

finding alternative routes, adding as much as 30 km to my 

distance. Every morning, I would admire that bike before starting my ride to work… 

what a beautiful bike!

                                  Soon, wanting to give Tanja the possibility to enjoy cycling too, we 

                                  purchased the first of our tandems, a city bike, and began a series 

                                  of biking vacations. We had a roof rack 

                                  specially designed for the tandem and so 

were able to enjoy cycling all over Germany and even Holland, 

Switzerland and Austria. 

                                                      We soon purchased a second Tandem, this time 

                                                      folding model, the KogaMiyata TwinTraveller. 

                                                      With this bike we were able to put the bike inside the

                                                      car which made transport and travelling even easier.

What with the tandem trips and my daily cycling trips to and from work, I was quickly becoming seriously infected with the cycling bug. Our Logistics Manager was a serious athlete doing triathlon racing. He not only arranged a

room where we could wash, keep clothes and our bike 

stuff, but also encouraged and helped me with my cycling

and it wasn’t long before I purchased my first road bike, 

an entry model, the Cube Peloton. 

That was it… I was hooked!

                                        I soon obtained my first carbon bike, from a Triathlon store 

                                        that had an arrangement with a Hotel in Majorca who sold 

                                        their rental bikes each season and refurbished them before 

                                        putting them out for sale.

On a tandem vacation in Friesland, I was searching for a bike store to purchase bike shoes (We had left ours at home) and not only found new shoes but found that they had well-priced Cube Agree bikes… with Di2 Electric shifting! 

After much discussion and a couple more visits to that store, 

we ended up buying one which they sent back to Dexheim for 

me even including the shipping costs with the price of the bike. 

A real bargain!

I retired in 2013 and having an insurance policy that paid out at the end of the year, I planned to use the money to purchase a new bike. I was thinking to purchase a Canyon bike but since I had to wait for the pay out, I spent a lot of time searching the Internet for bargains and actually found a Cannondale CAAD10 with 

Di2 shifting at a store in Bonn. Back in my Kaiserslautern 

days, there had been a bike store that I walked past 

every day on my way to work. They were one of the first 

stores in Germany to import bikes form the USA, Scott 

and Cannondale bikes. I have to admit that I spent many 

hours gawping at those beautiful, shiny bikes and I was really impressed with the Cannondale models. 

                                                      And that restarted my relationship with Cannondale 

                                                      road bikes, I rode the CAAD10 for some years until I 

                                                      found a top-of-the-line Cannondale SuperSix at a 

                                                      tremendously discounted price. So off we went, this

                                                      time to Dresden to test ride and purchase that bike. 

We even bought a Cannondale RoadTandem. 

The nearest Cannondale dealer was a store 

named WheelSports. They took it upon 

themselves to make it a project to build the 

Tandem with all my special wishes.

The beginning of our long relationship.They soon

became my "go-to" bike store, although quite a 

long way away from us but always worth the trip when we went there!

I rode many thousands of kilometers when in May of 2018, I suffered a serious accident, flying ovrer the handlebars and head-first into a fence at the side of the bike path. I had broken my neck and crushed several vertebrae and couldn’t move any of my body parts. 

I was rushed to the hospital for the first of three long operations where my spine was stabilized with a titanium plate and a couple of titanium replacement vertebrae. 

After 6 weeks in the hospital and a further 3 month stay at an Injury 

Rehabilitation Klinik, I began the long road back to cycling. The 

initial paralysis diagnosis was changed to just partial paralysis but 

there was extensive and permanent damage to my spinal cord and 

the central nervous system. Fortunately, I naively thought that it was 

only a matter of time until things reverted back to the way they had 

been before the accident, and I had many months to come to terms with, and to accept the damage that had been done.

                            I hadn’t been home for long before I began trying to cycle, at first on

                            my trusty Cube cross bike with the saddle down low so that I could 

                            keep my feet on the ground and moving on to my SuperSix (which 

                            had survived the accident in much better shape than me!)

I heard that Endurance bikes were built with much more relaxed 

geometry and a more upright seat position. The Cannondale Synapse 

                       was one of these so I bought myself one, albeit not a 

                        top-of-the-line model. My bike store offered me a black 

                        and white bike and I took it gladly. 

                        However, I hadn’t had it for long when I discovered a “Hi-Mod” frame in

                        Cannondale Team Edition green what with that and upgrading to carbon 

                        seatposts and handlebars on all bikes to absorb road bumps, I spent a 

                        small fortune on upgrades!

Slowly but surely, I progressed with my recovery until I was able to ride all my bikes again. In 2022, the Cannondale Pro Team changed their sponsors 

and became Cannondale Education First. I quickly fell in love with 

the new Team colours, a deep blue with pink highlights and I found 

a Team Edition model at a store in Freiburg, and it was just a matter

of time until I ordered one.

Unfortunately, what with the damage from the accident and of course, with passing years, I found myself losing strength. I had long since given up trying to ride any hilly routes and I was beginning to find that the slightest gradient, even headwinds, would slow me to a crawl. I realized that it was finally time to break down and begin riding with a motor, at least a road bike version of the eBike where the motor was just used as an 

                                 assistance on climbs etc. Cannondale’s Model was the Neo and I 

                                 was able to locate one in Chemnitz. I wanted to

                                 test ride one before purchasing to see if I would 

                                 manage with the motor. I loved it and brought it 

                                 back home right away. 

                                 Suddenly I found myself able to ride routes that 

                                 I hadn’t attempted for over 5 years. 

It gave my cycling a new lease on life!

For about a year, I enjoyed any number of cycle tours, long climbing routes with

                                          hundreds of meters of elevation but then at a road junction, 

                                          a motorist didn’t see me and drove into me. 

                                          Luckily for me, he was just starting out so 

                                          although the bike was wrecked, the frame 

                                          seat stays were completely broken, 

I suffered only scrapes and cuts. 

                             Since there were no Cannondale Neos to be had I decided to go with 

                             a Scott Addict, having found one quite close to home.

                             The Scott proved to be a great investment and I was enjoying riding it

                              however, it occurred to me that I had become so dependent on the 

                              motor on my bike, any problem that happened 

and would take a longer time for repair would leave me without a 

bike. My bike store are also Orbea dealers and they had been trying 

to get me to switch to one so I decided to get one as a backup ride.

                             Murphy’s Law…. No sooner did I get a nice shiny 

                             Orbea M20 Gain, this time with a 1 x 12 drivetrain from Sram, than

                             the on-board battery of the Scott bike broke down and with a 

                             probable long repair time, the bike store offered me a great deal on a

                             top-of-the-line Orbea Gain M10 that I couldn’t resist.

Man, that was the fastest bike I had ever ridden. Sadly I didn’t get to 

ride it for long. After just a few short months, I once again got taken out 

by a motorist who hit me from behind, and the bike 

                         was totalled! I suffered a broken rib 

                         and with suspicion of concussion, I 

                         spent a couple of days in the klinik 

                         under observation before I was 

                         released and could go home again.

I had to wait for at least 10 weeks until the rib healed and thanks to terrible weather conditions, I had to wait an additional 6 weeks before I could 

                           cycle again. After a while, I was able to ride 

                           indoors and spent many hours on the trainer. 

                           Better than nothing I suppose but no substitute for riding outside!

                           I seem to have lost so much strength now, 

either due to all the falls and accidents causing further 

deterioration of the nervous system or just natural aging 

(or maybe a bit of both!), I am not able to manage such long 

rides anymore. 

But that’s OK! I’m happy that I still can get outside and enjoy 

the exercise and fresh air. I enjoy my bike rides so much 

and in the end, that's what it's all about!