..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
not waving, but training
i can see how it would be perceived that i have become rather carried away with this training game (believe me, the way i cycle, it's a game) - filling in a training diary, checking heartrate, downing gallons of carbo stuff, and popping into the co-op for truckloads of granola bars. subsequent to the above obsessions, it's off into the wide grey yonder to complete many a kilometre on the way to stamina nirvana. and all this so that i can make it from hampton court golf club, to the eiffel tower over the course of three days, without too much laughing from the motorcycle escort. any racing professionals or serious amateurs reading must double up with laughter at such timid efforts. i'd be lucky to catch a cold, let alone a breakaway.
however, that won't stop me from continuing the weekend routine, building up to a frenzy when the weather and evening light improves somewhat. because i did promise velopress that i'd religiously fill in their training diary, and 200km a day for three days isn't quite a pootle to the shops - even if it is at my lanterne rouge pace.
however, my plight has not attracted purely derision - there are some human beings out there in cycle-land (edinburgh, in this case) who have obviously taken pity on the strenuously challenged, and offered a degree of pixelated assistance. douglas shearer, either prompted by the need to stop his sides from splitting, or convinced that there may be hope for me yet, has generously invited me (and subsequently, you) to make use of his online training diary. requiring only a few seconds to sign up, it is then a few simple steps to fill in date, time, distance, heart rate, altitude (?) and even who you went cycling with. and instead of rummaging through the pile of rouleurs, cycle sport, procycling etc, trying to remember where the safe place that you stashed the diary is, grab the mac, log on to mr shearer's web training, and watch the tiny graphs grow.
in fact, if i have a minor gripe, it's that the generated distance and time graphs are a tad on the small side. if all goes according to plan, i would be inclined to print them at a3 size and wave them in people's faces. because i'm like that. other than that, i can't see any downside to it all: it's easy to access, easy to fill in, and accessible from any web browser - maybe this is the perfect excuse to buy an ipod touch. i'm extremely grateful to douglas shearer, because not only can i keep better track of the small numbers pertaining to my intensive training schedule, but i can mess about with the digits that i am growing to love, and make like it has all to do with earnest research.
now, how much does it cost for an srm?
posted on monday 11 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................my new career
usually there are weeks, if not months of long negotiations, discussions and appraisals before joining a new cycle racing team. however, despite not having a clue how i managed it, particularly since i make malcolm elliot look young, my teams jersey turned up in the post on saturday. granted, i'm quite a bit away from team headquarters in perren street, but i had somehow hoped for a bit more ceremony - perhaps a photographer from cycle sport perhaps?
still, one shouldn't grumble - the jersey promises comfort, speed, and stylish visibility. after my first lengthy team training ride (and strangely, no apologies from the others for not turning up), i'm not only looking forward to my new career, i can tell you at first hand just how comfortable we are all going to feel in black, white and pink.
posted on sunday 10 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................it's not going well
it never seems to work this way in the comic. over the years, i have read countless articles on training, lots of them like diets, in that they frequently seem to contradict each other. one week we're doing intervals between telegraph poles (which have all but disappeared here by the way) next week we should be doing long, steady miles and ignoring the telegraph poles altogether. so it's probably a case of you pays your money and you takes your choice (if you'll pardon the pidgin english).
so having confidently told all and sundry, including jez, my training partner, that we are going to stick religiously to an average of no more than 130bpm for the next couple of months, it has all blown up in my face.
literally.
the plan this morning was to ride so that we would head downhill into the growing headwind, thereby maintaining, quite easily, the magic number on the way up, and simply freewheel down to maintain in the opposite direction. and i'm sorry if i keep harping on about the incessant winds that seem to concentrate on islay, to the exclusion of elsewhere, but when we finally dragged our sorry little bodies up the twenty percent (try that at less than 130bpm), we still had to pedal frantically in a very small gear, just to get us down to the bottom of the hill. where's gravity when you need it?
of course when it flattened out, true to form, that ruddy wind was still there. so yet again, the theory of training practice bore little resemblance to reality. there's at least the double espresso and a bit of cake to look forward to - as long as robert millar doesn't find out. i'm always mindful of his thoughts on training or not training. still, it's not going to look good in the training diary is it.
the only solution i can think of, is to subject all the training advice i can find, to some wind co-efficient that i thought up earlier, and write my own book. in fact i'm composing a draft e-mail to velopress just after i've finished this.
they're going to kick themselves for not having thought of it first.
posted on saturday 9 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the maestro in fine fettle
starting today (february 8), in portland oregon, is the north american handbuilt show which, despite its lengthy moniker, is not restricted to bicycles handbuilt in north america. the title merely denotes its geographical location. so, aside from examples of the builders' art from such as sacha at vanilla, and ira ryan, there are also a few exhibitors from europe. that one such exhibitor is there at all, is a major testament to his tenacity and almost devil may care attitude. - dario pegoretti.
several months ago, in these very pixels, it was greatly disappointing to state that one of the world's greatest frame builders had been diagnosed with cancer. in what is apparently characteristic of the man, he continued building bicycles all through his chemotherapy, informing his customers that output might be a mite slower than usual, and that he hoped they would remain patient. how many of us would have carried on in the same way?
phil burnett from mosquito bikes went out to visit dario and crew last week in trento, and sent me the following:
"we visited dario last week and found him in fine form. the latest tests show him clear of the cancer which is great news. he still has some problems with his lungs related to the chemotherapy, but generally he seems really good.
"as you would expect with dario his spirit is as fine as ever - he is not a guy to let a cancer beat him. indeed his response is well summed in the name he has given to the personalised paint jobs he is doing on the responsorium, ciavete (veronese dialect for 'fuck off' - his reaction to the cancer!).
"the workshop was busier than we have ever seen. dario works with pietro (who has been with him for many years) and bepe, who is a hungarian guy who joined last year, he had been working as an art director in milan but had had enough, and decided to take a huge wage cut and go and learn frame building with dario!"
phil also sent me some photos taken at dario's workshop last week, and i've put them in an online gallery here.
so you see, sometimes the mountain gets you, but in this case dario got the mountain.
posted on friday 8 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................rouleur photography in paperback
in my disguise as a civilian, i have acquired skills other than the ability to build a decent wheelset and berating the cycle world for its misuse of the headset. one of these skills is my black belt in photoshop, a piece of software i use in my day to day working life (even in the post) and in which i have even taught classes. just shows you can fool some of the people all of the time.
however, one of the bonuses of being proficient in something and having a career in the media (this isn't beginning to sound too grand, is it?) is that publishers are quite happy to send review copies of their photoshop books, based, i presume, on my supposed ability to have the faintest idea of what i'm talking about. now, aside from the fact that i have discovered there are just too many books on the market about photoshop, the other common fact about most of them is their price. it seems that the world of photoshop and photography have settled on the £25 ($50) price mark as the most acceptable for their readership.
every now and again a book happens along, that really does have a different angle on this fabulous program, but most of them spend pages and pages, and colour picture after colour picture saying exactly the same as every other book. (strangely enough, in a manner pertinent to my geographical location, most malt whisky books insist on explaining the whole whisky making process - like anyone's going to try that at home). and some of the books are just an excuse for publishing a book of photos with a smattering of screenshots to disguise the fact.
however, something i would never profess to be is a photographer. i have the great good fortune to work with some exceptionally good photographers, which has presented me with the opportunity to better appreciate their art at first hand, often when preparing images for printed output. so you can imagine my delight when along comes a paperback, costing £25 ($50) and presenting some of the most wonderful cycling photography the world has ever seen. yes i reviewed the original limited edition signed hardback, which was very speedily succeeded by the second edition hardback (the ltd edition sold out in around a week), and in the fine tradition of publishing, it has now reached paperback status - and all this in a mere five months. cream cover to yellow cover to blue cover.
so complete in the following order: check my original review, type www.rapha.cc into the address bar at the top of the browser, and while it loads, withdraw credit/debit card from pocket and order a copy. if you already have the limited edition first issue, keep it in its musette, and place it in a darkened cupboard for those special occasions when the in-laws come round for dinner. you can now laze about the house, team bus or bike shed, casually poring over the full extent of the rouleur photo exhibition in softcover.
one day you'll thank me for this. (and yes, it really is a campagnolo chainring on the cover)
posted on friday 8 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................stating the obvious
as is often the case within almost every industry or business sect, the uk bicycle business is well served by its very own trade magazine, demonstrably entitled 'bike biz', run with an enthusiasm and vigour that i would dearly love to call my own, but which in fact belongs to carlton reid. the magazine has received a recent facelift which has enhanced the reading experience considerably, and has doubtless given a freer degree of rein to the magazine's advertisers.
the current issue, which dropped through the letterbox of washingmachinepost towers in the last day or so, bears a 'false cover'. that which is made to look like the cover of bike biz is, in fact, an advertisement for madison, possibly the third largest country in the world if their range of products is anything to go by. you may know them better as 'ultimate pursuits'. amongst their most prized possessions on the distribution front, is the long standing representation and import of all things shimano, from the humble pieces of bent tin that purport to be gear mechs on £50 supermarket bikes, to the entire dura ace groupset sported on this year's rapha condor recycling bicycles, as well as a large proportion of the professional peloton.
with the sram corporation being the new kids on the block (a fairly meaningless term on this side of the pond, since britainshire is not renowned for its 'blocks') it is they who are clamouring for market share, already in the tight grasp of both shimano and campagnolo, but it is an unwise person who drops their guard in the face of what could be growing competition. so aside from highly visible sponsorship, it well behoves s and c to maintain their advertising regime, despite a perhaps comfortable market share enjoyed by each.
and now, after a lengthy, and seemingly pointless digression, we return to that 'false' cover on this month's bike biz. on a blue/green coloured strip along the bottom of this front page are the words 'shimano works'. bearing in mind we are appraising a magazine known for finding out stuff that people would prefer that they didn't (sometimes), are we to infer that this is a vindication of shimano's components - perhaps somebody inferred that the contrary were the case? or is it a simple statement?
ranked up there with eight out of ten cats prefer whiskas it's a rather bald and empty statement to make. particularly since a large number of cyclists bought their groupsets or components on the basis that the truth of the statement was a pretty much accepted fact in the first place. or perhaps shimano were attempting to align themselves with microsoft: buy a new windows pc, and you will more than likely find that it has microsoft works (an oxymoron, if ever there was one) pre-installed. is this shimano's continuing bid for world domination encapsulated in microsoft speak ie shimano works?because if it's none of the above, should page two of bike biz not have explained what they meant.?
posted on friday 8 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the eternal second and a scottish first
in the current issue of cycle sport, there is a guided tour of the 2008 pro-tour teams (if we can still call them that) rather undermined by a yellow 'sticker' over each, letting us know when their sponsorship ends. somewhat of a pessimistic outlook as the 2008 season drags itself into being. of course there are reasons behind the current dearth of cycling sponsors, but in the good old days of yore, when men were men and bicycles were sponsors, some of the latter stayed around for considerably longer than they seem to today.
one such long-lived sponsor was mercier cycles, founded by emile mercier, a man who had the foresight to see the value of sponsorship. in fact, through various guises, mercier cycles sponsored a team from around 1935 all the way through till 1969. the purple colour, for which it became recognised, emerged in 1946 and in 1950, the purple with yellow collar and cuffs joined the peloton.
however, mick and andy at prendas have had the great foresight to revitalise my own monogrammed version of the mercier bp hutchison jersey that resulted from british petroleum's sponsorship from 1956. that it stayed that way until the team's metamorphosis into fagor-mercier in 1970, means that it was worn by louison bobet in a team directed by anton magne (or it would have been, if he hadn't been wearing his own bobet bp hutchison jersey).
but the most famous rider to wear the purple and yellow was the eternal second - raymond poulidor - a rider who spent his whole career with the team. at only £35 for one of these tastefully revived jerseys (it's in lycra, not wool), it is due in at prendas in the near future, and all will be revealed sooner rather than later. and there are more exciting revived jerseys to come from prendas, believe me.
but while we're here and getting all excited about historial jerseys, prendas have now put their entire maglia storico treasure trove online. and as befits a website that prides itself on being the virtual repository for most, if not all things pertaining to robert millar, i have great pride in directing you to the magnificent original wool jersey shown here. while prendas have santini lycra peugeot bp jerseys in stock pretty much all the time, these wool/acrylic, peugeot/michelin/shell jerseys are extremely limited in numbers - when they're gone, they're gone forever.
available in hopelessly impractical sizes (for a human being), these are too good to be worn on the bike anyway, and should be destined for a life behind glass. cost is a not insubstantial £99.95 ($195), but that's mere pennies to pay for not only a piece of history, but arguably a piece of scottish cycling history. (and there are buttons on the pockets).
posted on thursday 7 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................where did you get that jersey?
retro is in. in fact retro seems to have been in ever since it stopped being contemporary and became retro. so now that retro is in, it's all contemporary again. and this is the ideal line of defence (if needed) as to why a grown man is wearing a wool jersey with flock lettering on the front. oh, and there's buttons on the three rear pockets. while i wouldn't always rush out to acquire a jersey in these specific colours (it is available in black and white as well as red and white, and a reverse of the colours (almost) seen here.
but the single most important feature of this jersey is the lettering across the front, back and sleeves which absolves it of all other sartorial faux pas - colnago flock lettering. manufactured as part of santini's now defunct maglia storica range produced in the 70s and 80s (i also have a del tongo colnago jersey from the same range), these have surfaced during prendas ciclismo's move of premises. mick says they have space to put stuff now, and room to play, which is very much in our favour if they can find jerseys like this. it's a 20/80 acrylic/wool mix which makes it amenable to machine washing, and i for one, can't wait til the weather warms up enough to allow the wearing of short sleeves. probably around mid-august.
prendas have these in three eccentric sizes: 3 = 36" chest; 4 = 37" (the one on display); and 5 = 38". i was very surprised to fit into the size 4 and still be able to breathe, but despite a slight tightness about the chest area (which may ease with wear) it's ok, and perfectly acceptable bike wear. the length is really good.
these are only available in limited quantities, so if you're as nuts about colnago as i am, rush to prendas' website right this minute with plastic in hand. it will be lighter by £59.95 ($118). if you're larger in firmament, buy one anyway, and have it framed, cos that's what's happening to the del tongo jersey.
posted on wednesday 6 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................tarnished
it seems that my article regarding chrome plating has opened a can of worms, and not just on the post. the eu directive quoted - rohs 2002/95/ec - ostensibly applies to the use of hexavalent chromium used in electrical and electronic components and refers to their remaining in existence after the product has ended it's useful life. however, it appears that there is major controversy over whether this applies to chrome plating as well. some say no, some say yes, and some say it only applies to hexavalent chromium and not metallic chromium.
in my defence, i don't really understand any of this at all, and it really is too trivial a matter in relation to bicycles to spend too much time on. i was informed that the problem with chrome plating on bicycle frames and similar products was being outlawed (and may well still be in the future) due to the hazardous waste incurred during the process. so thank you to all those who e-mailed regarding this, but i'm not quite clever enough in this area to continue any educated debate.
the darned stuff still rusts quickly on islay - i'm sticking to carbon.
posted on wednesday 6 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................a scottish coat of many colours
the great brintoni (he of les heroes du velo fame) sent me a copy of a jersey design he'd done for an 'old guys' club in boulder, colorado, and a stunningly good design it is too. i could let you see it, but then i'd have to come round to the house and unplug your broadband. now dave has seriously good connections with pearl izumi, so there is every likelihood of his being able to wear the jersey in glorious technicolour sometime during the coming season.
if you're anything like me (you poor unfortunate), on those long, stamina increasing rides, when the mind wanders through plates of porridge, oatcakes and cheese, or perchance some carrot cake and a double espresso, it sometimes takes a detour into the realms of just how cool a piece of kit could be designed, if only there was an easy and economical way to do it. and it helps if the sewing elves happen to be nearby. quite how nearby you think livingstone in scotland actually is (all distance is relative - my british telecom local business adviser is in perth, which is not even on the same side of scotland) will depend on your grasp of geography, but this is where the custom kit wing of endura lives - tal custom clothing.
and it would be far easier for me to tell you what they don't custom make, than what they do. fortunately, their web page allows the download not only of a design sheet, to give you something for you and your crayons to colour in, but also the colour catalogue detailing a huge range of mtb, triathlon and road apparel. so you can go and look for yourselves. and here's where it gets even better. if you have ever trawled the sites of other companies who offer a similar service, you may have eventually gone off and done something less mentally taxing instead. there seems usually to be an interminable display of costs and discounts and quantities and minimum orders, and whether there's a 'z' in the month, that you really have no idea how much all this is going to cost. tal have made life delightfully simpler: each item has a cost adjacent to the illustration, and at the beginning of the catalogue in the large small print it shows the discount. as an example, once your total order for whatever you fancy wearing, reaches £750, ($1400 approx) they give you 10 percent discount. and to prove what excellent chaps they are, this discount increases the more value your order accrues. a piece of carrot cake indeed.
so, if you would now like to emulate the design prowess of the great brintoni (which i'm still not going to show you), scotland is the place for you.
posted on wednesday 6 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................fixing stuff
i have always regarded the profession of bicycle mechanic to be on a par with that of an artist, and something that one should aspire to (always assuming you're interested in bicycles in the first place - and i do not regard my low level fixings to equate with my opening statement). it always puzzled me that in my early days of bike wrangling, at least three perfectly competent, professional car mechanics would bring me their kids' bicycles for repair. initially i put this down to busman's holiday syndrome - ie, after fixing motor cars all day, the last thing they wanted to do when they got home was to mend more stuff. this, however, proved to be not the case. these chaps didn't quite understand the mechanism that is the modern day bicycle.
while this is always good for the ego (i can manage to put petrol in a car, but little else), it did rather highlight the differences between the two vehicles and the necessary steps to keep them in motion. i learned to build wheels, adjust gears, recognise different tyre sizes, strip out bottom brackets before they were cartridge-ified, strip freehubs - you get the general idea. and because islay is a popular cycle touring destination, it was/is often necessary to come up with mechanical solutions in the face of adversity (i don't have the parts to fix it). the fact that a solution was generally attainable is testament to the flexibility and relative simpicity of the bicycle itself - one of the reasons i have little truck with internal headsets, hydraulic disk brakes and variable size bottom brackets. closer to the hub of so-called humanity, such problems would be merely sorted by installing the appropriate replacement part - in the more remote parts of the globe the bicycle can often still be fixed with a bit of string, blu-tack and ingenuity.
so the numerous people throughout the world who devote themselves to understanding how the various parts from different component and cycle manufacturers all fit, or don't fit together when you really need them to, are artists of a higher nature. it's all very well being a devotee of cycling and its heritage, to immediately know the bosberg from the kemmelberg, the galibier from the col du tourmalet - the more superficial aspects of cycle related lore. but to know that the inner bearings on a camapgnolo freehub are 7/32" and not 1/4" and whether the cassette sprocket spacers can be fitted out of turn, is of far higher value.
one such person who became a byword for such cycling knowledge, even engendering his own abbreviation on cycle forums: aashta (as always, sheldon has the answer) was sheldon brown, who sadly died on february 3rd 2008. like many with mechanical aspirations of a velocipedal nature, i had occasion to consult sheldon's pages (and there are many) often to find out whether two parts that i was attempting to have co-operate with each, were ever likely to do so. between barnett's manual and sheldon brown, it was usually possible to make the sad bicycle well again. while there are others who dabble with similar intent and expertise, there will never be another sheldon brown.
rip
posted on tuesday 5 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................promises, promises
i prefer not to make promises that i can't keep, so more often than not, any promise left unkept would be due to good old memory loss. it affects us all at sometime, and some more often than others. however, in this case, i haven't forgotten to bring the update on the lumie bodyclock 100. if you missed the original posting, have a look here before you read this bit.
before beginning this rather unscientific experiment (and how many of us test anything scientifically?) i confess i had no real problem getting to sleep at night, and other than the usual grumpiness in the mornings, getting out of bed wasn't particularly harder in the winter than in the summer. however, mrs washingmachinepost was less disregarding of the dark, grey mornings, and she, in fact, has benefited more from this bodyclock test than i have. there is something cosily satisfyling about dropping off to sleep when the light is in sunset mode - softlty dimming from its intial, user set brightness, all the way to complete darkness. i can't think of a single night over the past week when i haven't fallen asleep before the light has gone out altogether.
and while i do have a clock radio to wake me up, a steadily brightening, artificial sunrise is a very cool backup. what i didn't manage to experience was leaping into action of a weekend morning, ready to do battle with the elements from the leather saddle of my bicycle of choice. this is no fault of the bodyclock, simply that it snowed most of saturday morning and 90kph winds on sunday morning were not quite what the doctor ordered. so wide awake, all dressed up and nowhere to go - or at least, no way of getting there.
so we're convinced. neither of us thinks we really have seasonal affective disorder, or at least, no more than anyone else hereabouts, but the use of the clock in a regular fashion has definitely provided more than we expected. £59.95 is not a small amount to spend on a bedside light, (admittedly a sophisticated bedside light), but by my reckoning it might just be worth it - most of us need to train now, in order to have a reasonable degree of fitness when it matters. anything that aids that process is seriously worth considering - heck you'd spend a lot more than this on a heart rate monitor, and some folks even spring for an srm, and we're talking very serious money for one of those.
definitely a bright idea.
posted on monday 4 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................shiny
a colleague and i were looking at steel bicycle frames the other day (as you do), or to be more precise, at a specific steel bicycle frame. surprisingly enough, it was a british made frame - surprising because the forks and rear triangle were chromed, something more expected on something emanating from italy. chrome bits on the frame, however, may be a delight when whizzing through the tuscan hills, miles from the salt sea air of the coast. it's generally not a good idea on steel bicycles resident on scottish hebridean islands. or anywhere else in britain for that matter. this is not least because our roads departments (featuring rather a lot at the moment) tend to ensure our increased safety, by dousing the road surfaces with a mixture of sand and salt. since chrome is a porous metal, the salt water engendered by either road gritting or coastal influx makes its way to the steel underneath, and proceeds to form ferrous oxide.
now chrome is quite a hard metal, which is part of the reason for its initial use on bicycles in the first place. of days gone by, if there was only one piece of chrome on a steel frame, it was usually on the right hand chainstay, where it could laugh in the face of a good battering by a flailing chain. however, unless you are particularly particular in the care and attention you lavish on your chrome bits, stones and other road detritus, will eventually hammer their way through, leaving the underlying surface rather prone to the fe2 mentioned above. i have a forlorn colnago superissimo languishing in thewashingmachinepost bike shed where the chainstay, lugs and forks are all testament to this.
the almost total dominance of carbon frames these days, and various alloys prior to that has diminished the need or opportunity for chrome plating - one of the few still adhering to the age old style is colnago's master x-lite in its saronni red: specced with steel precisa forks, you'd have chrome on those, the head tube lugs, both chainstays and both seatstays. but even this may soon go the way of the down tube gear lever. from july 1, 2006, the european union rohs 2002/95/ec directive has, effectively, outlawed the process of applying hexavalent chromium to rule out the use of excessively dangerous chemicals used in the process.
the replacement is trivalent chromium, but there are concerns over colouration and brittleness using this process, not something destined to find favour when applied to an otherwise classic steel frame. while this may signal the end of an era of essentially italian style, there are likely to be few tears shed this side of the tuscan hills. but if you really, really want a chromed frame, now might be the time to move it up the wish list.
posted on sunday 3 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................withdrawal symptoms
has anyone ever sent you that e-mail that begins...you know you're a cyclist when..? me too, and i never know whether i should read with a sense of pride, or concern, because much like most of you, the answers are very close to the bone. but probably the very worst part about being a cyclist is not being able to get out on the bicycle.
three of us from velo club d'ardbeg were due to go out for a spin this morning, two of us desperately trying to maintain a faltering training regime and the third because he can. except, unusually for islay, we woke up to snow - or, to be more precise, to slush. to qualify that statement, there was snow on thewashingmachinepost bike shed roof, and lots of white stuff in the gardens, but the roads were slushy.
argyll and bute council have a bizarre gritting policy, in that responsibility for calling out the gritters lies not with the local roads department, but with head office in lochgilphead. which is on the mainland, some considerable distance from here. therefore we had the ludicrous situation on wednesday of this past week when, midst gale force winds, there was sand being spread on completely dry roads being blown away as soon as it landed.
but this morning's snow had been forecast for at least the past three days, and yet no roads were gritted. this prevented the local bus service from running, and effectively prevented us from going out for a bike ride. while we would probably have stuck to the smaller, single-track roads, if the main roads hadn't been gritted, there was precious little chance of the less frequently trafficked byways being snow free. and in a commendably conscientious fashion, we figured that the island's car drivers probably had enough to contend with, let alone the mobile obstacle of slow moving, and probably nervous cyclists.
but it meant that the company colnago remained snug in its shed, while i remained frustratingly indoors, getting up every few minutes to look out the window and see if things were improving on the weather front. they didn't.
there really is nothing more unsettling than a cooped up cyclist - and don't even suggest a turbo...
i feel that i should point out that the non-gritting of the roads turned out not to be the result of incompetence on the part of argyll and bute roads department - the roads department was on strike.
posted on saturday 2 february
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................your bicycle needs them
i got into cycling - or more specifically, into road bikes, because i built one. this was not because i specifically wanted or needed a set of drop bars, but because i wanted a way to advertise my mechanical skills, and i thought a road bicycle would be higher profile in a, then mountain bike dominated, world. you will, perhaps, be unsurprised that this particular marketing scheme failed miserably - simply reinforcing most folks perception of my apparently generally eccentric behaviour (untrue - i'm just a wee bit different).
however, having built the darned thing - including the wheels - it would have been a bit stupid (or eccentric) not to have ridden it. so i did, and what great fun it turned out to be. that red 531 lugged steel bicycle is still around bowmore somewhere, and still in robust health - my tastes have become more italian in the intervening years. but whether on-road or off-road, one the very best things about cycling is that it can be done solo. there can be few pleasures to match taking the bicycle out of the bikeshed, and heading off into the blizzards for a few hours with only my own puffing and panting for company. however, the attendant pleasure of cycling is also that of going out in a peloton with fellow eccentrics - apart from the sunday ride, there's the ride of the falling rain, london-paris and the annual braveheart ride as well as the hundred of sportives constantly mentioned in the cycling press.
but are we/have we become self-satisfied with the current status quo? we've tried locally to involve school age kids to join us on the sunday ride, and one or two have, on occasion, joined in the pedalling revelry. but very infrequently, with seemingly more effort put into their excuses as to why it's not possible to come out cycling, than to the necessary solo training that would allow them to keep up. while the regulars can steam along at an embarrassingly slow pace, the junior contingent seem to struggle to keep up even with that, often ignoring advice on more efficient ways of cycling in a group, as well as accepted road etiquette.
i know we're not alone - many more serious and well constituted clubs than the motley bunch on islay are seeing the average age of their associations rising as time goes by, with relatively few juniors joining the fray. there are a multitude of reasons for this, many of which cannot be laid at the cleated feet of the converted, but does that mean we should wear blinkers when cycling (that conjures a rather frightening mental image)? where you live, will depend how you attack this problem - it's probably a lot easier to spread the word on an island of 3400 people, than it is in a big city, and maybe you don't think that it's any of your concern whether younger folks get the cycling bug or not. to be honest, that's fair enough - if you figure that going out cycling and being seen to enjoy it, should be adequate advertising for the great unwashed, then i'm not inclined to disagree. otherwise we surely risk being categorised along with such as the aggressively proselytising jehovah's witnesses, and that would probably be counter productive.
but it can't do any harm to be available and willing to answer any questions about cycling, about bikes, about cycling personalities: you get my drift. because, in a frantic bid for self-preservation, if all us oldies grow older and join that great peloton in the sky (or eurosport), while our potential replacements are off playing on their playstations, who's going to read all this black writing on a yellow background?
posted on friday 1 february
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