Cycling is an Oxford pastime, I used to love the feeling of tearing up the streets and the ease of hopping on and off my bike where I grew up. My only experience of cycling lately has been after a few beers when I hold onto the base of my mate’s seat and we ride off in a slightly dangerous and chaotic side car adventure.

In rehab we used to go for cycles on the hand bikes... I have toyed with the idea of getting one for some time.

For those that don’t know these are bikes powered by your hands with the crank coming from a two handles in front of your body.

The one problem is that because I can’t just hop out of the bike at my destination you can only go on a circular route ending up where you began and where you left your wheelchair. That was until I found the commuter style. This connects onto your wheelchair and then you just unclip it when you are done i.e. at your destination.

That way you can happily go about your business which is much more useful for a busy man like me.

There is only one problem – it is £1,600. That’s a lot of money to me.

But I had a brain wave. The cycle to work scheme – that means it is tax free (I think) and paid off in instalments which would lessen the blow.

Earlier this week I enquired about how it works and sent the sales team a link to the bike I had chosen. To be honest there isn’t much choice in this genre.

Previously I had tested the hand bike in question – it’s good – 21 gears and comfortable to get up some speed. Here comes the bad news... the cycle to work scheme only offers one type of hand bike – not the commuter style but the fixed seat version.

Somewhat ironic I think; I’ll just ‘cycle to work’ and stay in my bike all day shall I? Can you imagine?

I would trash the office and be in a reclined position reaching for my keyboard.

The guy who I have been corresponding with said there are no exceptions as the bike must be purchased from a bike store affiliated with the scheme and that given that what I need to be able to cycle to work is not technically a bike I don’t qualify.

I have yet to resolve this but it seems discriminatory to offer Joe Public thousands of bikes and yet me with my very specific needs gets offered nothing or one that is utterly useless for commuting. Oh well time to shell out once again for expensive equipment I guess.