Rob Ainsley's home page

About me

Rob Ainsley writes on cycling, music and travel, and edits websites. See examples here.

Real cycling
Read my new blog about everyday cycling in London

British Library: Taking Liberties
I edit the website for the Taking Liberties exhibition (ends 1 Mar 2009)

Three Pictures of Time Studio music compositions inspired by paintings: Bosch Hell; Vermeer Milkmaid; Mondrian NY Boogie Woogie	Collies Short acoustic piece for guitar and flute, May 2005, inspired by sheepdogs
Opera Gold Opera company of Goldsmiths, University of London: I'm in it and do the site	Crazy days My blog for Opera Gold's 2009 production, Marriage of Figaro

Selected publications

Bizarre Biking
Published by Eye Books: 50 quirky things to do by bike in England and Wales

Giya Kancheli
Small book on the music of the outstanding living Georgian composer

Bluffer's Guides
1988-2004: Website of Bluffer's Guides, of which I did four and half

Shostakovich
1992: Musical jokes in the Preludes and Fugues Op 87. Hilarious, seriously

Carols round the world
BBC Music Magazine Xmas 2006. Italy, Russia, India, Japan, Georgia, Argentina

Are you a real cyclist?
1999: Written for Cycling Plus magazine, now on www.bikereader.com. Well, are you?

Traveller's tales

World Bath Tour 1999-2000
My year out visiting every place called Bath in the world, its twins, and some baths

Cycling the Coast to Coast 1998: Four men, three days, 120 miles, 583 pints of Guinness. Photos, amusing commentary	Land's End-John O'Groats 1998. As published in Cycling Plus, but uncut: more photos, out-takes, etc
Japan on a Brompton Cycling round the home of capsule hotels, walkmans and origami on a folding bike	Steep thrills Ups and downs of the world's steepest cyclable hills (mainly downs)

Fun stuff

Handwriting generator
Enter any text and this turns it into my handwriting. Ideal for forgers and time wasters.

Talking rubbish on BBC World Service
Me on computers and how great they are. Not (.wav, 50 sec, 0.5M)

On Blue Peter
Talking on the Baths trip, live on BBC1, 13 Jun 2001. Pics, transcript, video clip

Playing the koto, sort of
In concert in Japan in 1986, in front of a slightly bewildered audience

Photo album
At the top is a pic from the scrapbook. See all or select one from the menu, right

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Updated 1 Feb 2009

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