02/03/2026
PEOPLE OF ANDOVER 🚴♂️💛
Meet Brian Elsey.
They said he'd never ride again, Brian saw this as a challenge.
“I’ve been on a bike nearly all my life. It started as a kid watching Kickstart on TV in the 80s — they were riding motorbikes over obstacles. Mum wouldn’t let me have a motorbike… so I tried it on my push bike instead. It just grew from there.”
Brian went on to spend 23 years as the mechanic at Just Bikes at the top of the High Street — becoming a familiar face to generations of local riders. Trials riding became his forte. National rounds. Big trophies. And in his 40s, he finally won a national round he’d chased for years.
“It took me time to win it… but I finally got one.”
Then in 2023, everything changed.
On what was meant to be a simple training ride with a mate, five minutes in, Brian hit a two-foot brick wall — something he’d tackled hundreds of times before.
But this time, something didn’t feel right.
A twisted landing.
A dislocated knee.
Multiple fractures.
He came dangerously close to losing his foot.
Four weeks in Basingstoke Hospital. Multiple operations. A long road of rehab. And then the words no lifelong cyclist ever wants to hear:
He’d never ride again.
“Being a trials rider, I’ve never walked away from an obstacle put in front of me.”
So while lying in hospital, he set himself three goals.
London to Brighton off-road.
The South Downs Way in a day.
And up and down Snowdon — on an ‘analog’ bike.
To prove the doctors wrong.
Last year, he completed London to Brighton, raising nearly £900 for the British Heart Foundation.
“Nerve-wracking” was how he described getting back on the bike.
But when faced with a choice between the easier route and the harder one?
“I went for the hard route. If you don’t try, you’ll never know.”
Today, Brian runs his own business, A2B Cycles, supporting local riders including BMX athletes chasing national and world competitions. He’s involved with Tidworth Freeride, Andover BMX Club, Andover Wheelers and more — helping build the cycling community he’s been part of his whole life.
“I just like working with my hands. Old-school mechanics. And I like the community — seeing people come in smiling and hopefully leave smiling too.”
From nearly losing his foot — to riding 100 miles for charity.
In Andover, we don’t walk away from obstacles.
We ride them.
— Brian Elsey 🚴♂️💛
