Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.

Sometimes attributed to H G Wells

Whether or not H G Wells actually spoke or wrote those words we know that he was a passionately keen cyclist. And we share his enthusiasm – though we can only speculate about what he’d make of our assisted ‘e-bikes’.

Perhaps he’d be as thrilled with them as we have been in the last three or four years. We experience mile upon mile’s worth of wind in my wheels in our decidedly hilly neighbourhood.

This afternoon we travelled five miles or so encountering no more traffic than a single horse and rider, quietly and slowly sauntering in early evening sunlight and a warm breeze.

And when, from time to time, an out of breath hill-climbing cyclist shouts after us ‘hey! they’re cheating!’ we unfailingly beam, broadly, and shout back ‘we know  – and we love it!’

Descending a Lakeland hill at 25mph on a bike, hair waved back by the wind, lungs full to bursting with good clean air, I reckon Wells knew what he was talking or writing (or not!) about.