I-Spy bicycles

When I was a youngster, I-Spy books were a big thing - especially for children on long journeys. They were little spotter guides, of a couple of dozen pages, covering subjects such as I-SPY Cars, I-SPY Churches, etc. The idea was that you ticked off the different objects pictured in the book as you spotted them. When the book was complete, you could send it in for a prize, to Big Chief I-Spy, at his Wigwam, somewhere in London (I remember it as Fleet Street, but the ever-dependable interweb suggests it was Edgeware Road, or Paddington Green).

I never managed to complete an I-Spy book, and I always suspected that, since they were published in London, I was working at a bit of an unfair disadvantage up in North-East England.

On the drive home today I got to wondering what an "I-Spy Cycling" might contain these days. Presumably it would have to cover different types of bike (MTB, racer, tandem, etc), cycling infrastructure (Sustrans National and Regional Routes, Sheffield stands, branches of Halfords), different ways that bikes are used (postmen, messengers, rickshaws), and different equipment (derailleur, disk brake, wicker basket).

Whatever the categories turned out to be , I suspect that youngsters living in Cambridge would start with a massive advantage. There are bicycles everywhere - all different shapes and sizes, and being put to a host of different uses.