John was born in England to Irish parents. They moved back to Dublin, Ireland when he was three, and he lived there until the age of 24 when he moved to the US. John holds an Irish passport and an American greencard. In 2002, John (and Pamela) gained residency in New Zealand, and made the move there in October of 2002. About two years later they returned home to New England.

John has cycled all his life. He is so committed to cycling that he vowed never to drive, and so far does not possess a driver's license. John has always used his bike for transportation, riding it to and from school, college and then work. Moving to New England did not slow him down. He has continued to bike commute year round, through rain, wind, snow and ice. For many years, the commute to work was 17 miles each way.

John does a little of every type of riding. In addition to transportation, he races, both USCF and ultra marathon, does fully loaded tours (and occasionally supported ones), casual recreational rides, offroad riding and lots of tandem rides with Pamela. He qualified for RAAM the first year he was in the US at the Tour of North Texas. The desire to do RAAM comes and goes. He has taken part in numerous BMBs and PBPs, both on single bike and tandem, and both fast and leisurely.

John did a bit of racing as a schoolboy in Ireland, and did a bit more recently in the US. He prefers races with lots of climbing, and his favourite is the Mad River Road Race in Vermont, where he has always done well. In 2001, the Mad River race was part of the Green Mountains Stage Race. John won the prologue, and the Mad River Stage, and did well enough in the other stages to take the overall in his division. These days he does a few masters road races and lots of hill climb races.

John has raced up Mt. Washington numerous times on his singlew bike, always finishing within the top 10. He and Pamela have raced the tandem up a few times with respectable results and He and Kristen Gohr hold the tandem record on Mt Washington.

He has ridden between 10,000 and 17,000 miles per year for the last 25 years.