Hire to go Higher

Hello, it's me again, CycleShaz doing my second blog. (Yep, the title for this confused me too.) Massive thank you to everyone who read my first blog. If you haven't, make sure you do before or after reading this! (It's at the bottom of this page). This blog (or story) is going to describe what I did in 2017 that got me back into cycling, and that eventually led me into buying my own bike. It's more exciting than I make it sound, believe me. If you aren't inspired by the end of this, feel free to tell me off to my mum. Hopefully it benefits you in some way. After all, a small action can lead to bigger rewards!

As touched on previously, I resumed cycling back in June 2017. The main reason was to not just see, but discover the lovely locations that London has to offer. So I used Santander Cycles. The main, popular bike hire service in London. During that summer, I would go to my local bike docking station, grab a bike and set the GPS on my phone to go to a Starbucks in Central London. Every time I went out, it would be a new adventure as I would go to a different Starbucks to enjoy a nice coffee after a nice little cycle. Going on the Santander Bikes allowed me to get the feeling of being that 11 year old child again who loved the summer humidity and breeze hitting his face whilst cycling with a smile. I always enjoyed the rides. I was never really fussed on anything but the cycle journey. I didn't care about who was behind me or if I was ever worried of a potential accident. Those thoughts never crossed my mind because I was in a little fun world of my own. Enjoying every pedal, every turn on the handles and the nice music on my headphones. I loved using the Santander Cycles, but the gripe was that for my journeys to continue being free (after initially paying £2 for the 24 hours access), I have to dock the bike every 30 minutes, wait 5 minutes and unlock it again. Other than that, it was always fun jumping back into the bike and seeing what adventures were waiting. Everyday a new opportunity to discover, learn and do what I love! I didn't just cycle for Starbucks, but for other reasons such as visiting places such as mostly parks, the occasional bit of shopping and the odd cycle out to improve my fitness.

I did this all for 4 months and it helped so much to build my stamina and get my legs working again ... until one day I was a bit frustrated with the idea of having to go to dock the bikes in specific locations; I just wasn't free to discover more places. So you know what I did? Yep, I bought my own bike. I knew it was the right time. I was ready for more adventures. Little did I know, that this new bike would help me travel 1,500 miles. All because of Santander hire bikes. Pretty amazing, don't you think?!

I'll always be grateful for this service. It made me who I am. It got me ready for who I wanted to be.

That's why this blog is called Hire to go Higher. Because that's exactly what happened.

I hope you got inspired by this. One small action, can lead to big things. It did for me. It will for you. Try something new, and maybe one day you'll be in a little fun world of your own.

Thanks again for taking time out to read this blog. If you enjoyed, let me know by kindly tapping the 'Heart' below.

See you at the next one.

Shaz