CLAIRE BYRD

WHY, in an age when we can build luxury cars as cosy as a living room, has nobody invented a comfortable bike seat?

It's a question that has been troubling me, and my behind, for several days now.

To an extent it's my own fault. Maybe it was not such a good idea to set out on my first bike ride of the year while still aching from two days of vigorous exercise on a step machine.

Doubtless, my predictament was not helped by the fact my arms were trembling from three hours spent lugging heavy bricks and rubble from my back garden to fill a skip.

And perhaps, bearing in mind I had not been on my bike for several months, a ride from West Hove to the back of Saltdean was a bit ambitious.

But as I pedalled, not particularly fast I might add, along the seafront I began to suffer.

It wasn't the bits that I expected to hurt that did. My arms, legs and back were only showing slight signs of exhaustion. However, by about the Marina, my saddle was causing more than a few problems.

No amount of gear changing helped. The wheels turned more and more slowly as the number of bumps and pebbles I had to ride over seemed to grow.

Finally, towards Ovingdean, I suffered the ultimate humiliation of being overtaken by a jogger.

Doubtless, he was a good deal fitter than I am, but, as I continued painfully on my way, I noted that he wasn't being handicapped by a saddle that felt as if it was made of polished steel.

Maybe next time I set out on my bike I'll go barefoot and use my trainers to protect the bits that need padding.

THE RIGHT to roam is in the news again with a group demanding the Duke of Norfolk reopens a footpath on his Arundel estate.

Access to the countryside can stir passionate feelings in even the most law abiding members of the public.

My mum has never bent a law in her life, she and my dad have not even incurred so much as a parking ticket between them, but when a local farmer placed a barbed wire fence across a public footpath on the Downs she saw red.

Instead of lodging a complaint, starting a petition or any of the other actions I would have expected her to take, she pulled up the fence with her bare hands.

True, those actions were somewhat extreme, but perhaps not that extreme when you compare them to those of the farmer, who had attempted to block a path enjoyed by hundreds of walkers, dog owners and riders.

While landowners keep trying to control land they have no rights over ordinary people will continue to fight for the rights they believe they hold.

TALKING of the Downs, I've seen dozens of badgers and foxes, hundreds of rabbits and even the odd deer, but until Saturday I had never seen a wild hare at close range.

My friend and I stopped in our tracks as we watched two of them playing in a field just north of Brighton. We're hoping, if they manage to avoid all the dangers that face them, we might be lucky enough to see them again.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.