I FEEL I should be allowed a reply to AP Cox's criticisms of me (Letters, April 12).

Firstly that I'm a narrow minded cyclist. Actually I love driving, and cars. After retiring from professional motor sport, and writing for Classic Car magazines, the cycling bug bit me hard in the mid-Nineties.

I am a qualified Institute of Advanced Motorists assessor, I've owned about 60 cars, and I still cherish my Morgan sports car.

As to my comments to Liz Edge, I did state how sorry I was to say that after her lifetime of service to the city, and I stand by that. Liz has done a lot more for York than most of us, but nobody's perfect.

You have a point about the bendy buses at junctions, A.P. Blossom Street is one of several junctions on bendy routes that still needs its traffic lights re-phasing.

The congestion caused by "bendies" is still not as bad as the brewery trucks delivering The Windmill, though.

The fact that cyclists can cut through the likes of Minster Yard, is yet another benefit of cycling, rather than an unfair advantage.

As to my timings, and the accusations that I ride illegally, here's a challenge. Come and ride tandem with me, AP, from Holgate Road to the Tap and Spile, Monkgate. If we make it in ten minutes, you're buying!

Andy Scaife,

Suffolk House,

York.

Updated: 11:05 Friday, April 16, 2004