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studio time
i appreciate that it's a problem that afflicts a very small percentage of the population, but from a photography post-production point of view, bicycles, or more specifically, their wheels, are a flipping nightmare with which to deal. granted, now that radial spoking is a tad more prevalent, life has become a smidgeon easier. and though the day job calls for very little in the way of composites, on more than just a few occasions, i have either had need of placing a bicycle on the yellow background that pervades thewashingmachinepost, or attempted to execute a cunning plan and place a bicycle on a background entirely different to that against which it was originally photographed.
photoshoppers will no doubt recognise such a problem, even if they've not actually had to deal with bicycles per se, and it has to be admitted, there are a number of ways to get round the problem, depending on the original image and the background onto which it needs to be superimposed. i don't propose to offer a precis of such techniques, given that, for those who thought photoshop was somewhere to buy a camera or prints, i doubt it would make for particularly interesting reading. in an ideal world, the bicycle would have been photographed against a plain (preferably white) background, and not just from the front or side.
however, to place all this in some sort of 'real-world' perspective, the number of individuals to which this may prove of some benefit must surely be close to infinitesimal. i have seen the lengths to which car companies will stretch in order to present their vehicles in just the light they wish prospective customers to apprehend, and i don't mind saying that it was quite impressive. but the car market and the money it generates, easily outstrips that of the bicycle industry, no matter the popularity currently attributed to the world of the velocipede.
bearing that in mind, it came as something of a surprise to receive an e-mail recently from a long-time friend of mine, introducing me to a bike studio produced by poland-based orbitvu. this construction resembles a hut, of sorts, but with a solid back wall and celing, partnered with a platform on which to place bicycles, clothing models and lighting. as their website states, "Unleash your creativity with a large stage, changeable backdrops and flexible lighting control." though i can't pretend to comprehend every aspect of the bike-studio, it appears to incorporate bespoke software to allow recall of specific settings, and automatic background removal (leaving the image on a transparent background). the studio also offers a means of suspending the bicycle du jour from the ceiling and rotating it through 360 degrees to achieve any desired perspective.
now the intrigue resulting from this rather alarmingly expensive setup (starting around £63,000) is not necessarily either its existence or cost, but the fact that there must surely be sufficient demand in the first place. though i do believe top level photoshop experts charge a handsome hourly fee, i would imagine it to still be cheaper to pay someone like me to remove the background than find the budget, space and photographer to justify the orbitvu bike studio. that said, i doubt the manufacturer would have gone to such lengths if they didn't believe there to be sufficient demand in the first place, a supposition that i find quite comforting.
sadly, my own efforts will still likely make use of the top of my non-functional coal bunker in the back garden, and an hour or so in the engine room of photoshop. unless, of course, orbitvu are looking for a reviewer?
monday 03 january 2022
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................as others see us
jim mcewan, something of a legend in the whisky world, and the man at least partially responsible for the success of bruichladdich and ardnahoe distilleries, finally retired in the early part of 2020. he signed off with an online masterclass, hosted by the fine chaps at dramfool, in the process, raising an impressive £20,000 for the scottish air ambulance charity. and his autobiography 'a journeyman's journey' was also published in both german (big whisky market) and english.
though my only connection with islay whiskies is through the cycle jerseys at ardbeg, ardnahoe and bruichladdich, i also had a great deal to do with the writing and editing of jim's book, which is full of some fabulous stories of a stellar career in whisky. but aside from pride in his career, jim also harbours great pride in what he terms 'his' island, effectively having acted as an ambassador for islay across that lengthy career. and at the beginning of the book, he states, "Let me introduce you to Islay..."
fortunately, for the publishing world and the public at large, i have no intention of ever writing my autobiography, or any other book for that matter. i have, however, attempted to sneak in a few snippets of island life here and there, partly because i think our way of life is one in danger of disappearing, primarily due to an influx of 'newbies' from the mainland, many of whom seem less than interested in involving themselves in the community, but also because many aspects are radically different from the mainland norm.
of course, i have no specific remit so to do; i have not been recruited by the council or the local marketing group to assist in measures to attract even more tourism to the most southerly of the inner hebrides. that would probably only work if those doing the promotion were more widely known, such as mark beaumont and hank from gcn for instance.
and, as it happens, those two individuals visited islay and jura in september last year at the behest of wild about argyll and the islay and jura tourism and marketing group. the remit appears to have been the tenuous (at best) connection between whisky and gravel riding, the latter of which is surprisingly prevalent on jura, while islay provides predominantly muddy puddles and just plain gloopy mud. and beaches.
in the resulting youtube video (linked below) our heroes ride the lengthy gravel tracks at the base of the paps, before crossing the stretch of water known as the 'sound of islay' to sip a couple of drams at islay's ninth distillery at ardnahoe. their new-make spirit finally made it to scotch whisky status a few weeks before christmas (three years' old). while on that stretch of road, hank and mark popped along to speak to david brodie at islay's most northerly distillery: bunnahabhain.
the main things worth mentioning are that port ellen maltings is not a distillery and that kilchoman is pronounced kil-homann and not as mr beaumont affects.
but why read a blow-by-blow account of their short trip when you can watch the video for yourselves? i can but remark that the islands look far more remote and rural than they do when you live here, but i daresay that's the attraction for those more usually domiciled in urban or city dwellings. whether the video will bring about a dramatic increase in gravel bike visits remains to be seen, but i do know that, with the islay whisky festival returning to tangible form in may this year, there is likely to be a substantial increase in the number of whisky fans.
it all looks a lot less remote during that particular week.
mark and hank mix gravel and whisky on islay and jura
sunday 02 january 2022
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................give it all you've got
on wednesday this past week, following an idyllic, sunny, windless tuesday, the reputation of the hebrides for a smidgeon of unpredictability, brought winds close to 80kph and a morning of torrential rain. the latter died out befoe lunchtime, giving rise once again to some clear blue skies, but with little diminishing of windspeed, i figured it less than safe to ride, and discretion became the better part of valour.
though keen to take part in the bicycle fettling of which i wrote only a few days ago, with an almost two year old grand-daughter scurrying about, it seemed prudent not to bring wheels, chains and cassettes indoors; the current state of the bike shed has left no spare room in which to fettle. the idea was fine, but pragmatics failed to equate. thus, other than a brief trip to the newsagent for my daily paper, i spent the day indoors doing precisely nothing whatsoever.
i gather from the majority of books and articles i have read on the finer points of velocipedinal training, that rest is every bit as important as the pain and suffering bit, the latter always on the increase as the years roll by quicker than they did when i was younger. however my enforced day of rest appeared not to have gone down particularly well with my honed phsysique, arising on thursday morning to bear an uncanny resemblance to rip van winkle, sporting very little in the way of get-up-and-go. mrs washingmachinepost was wont to point out that it seemed as if it had got-up-and-gone.
sad to relate, my armoury of retaliation against such slothfulness contains only one solution, in which i doubt i'm alone: a bike ride. thus, at least keen to maintain daily kilometreage in the search for a festive 250, there was not only the lost distance from wednnesday to recoup, but a tad more that it still be considered advancement.
i have heard, on occasion, the mighty dave-t refer to having cycled "like a bag of spanners", a style of pedalling which i appear to have neatly replicated on thursday, at least prior to my single-egg roll for lunch (it was the last egg). along with a soya latte and a hefty chunk of mrs washingmachinepost's christmas cake, a modest salvation made the rest of my 64km worthwhile, though i cannot deny that it was accompanied by much huffing and puffing, groaning and grinding before sighting home. still, i gave it all i had in the process of bringing myself back to something approximating normality.
i wrote recently of the sad demise of procycling magazine, the final issue of which, edited by lizzie deignan, was also purchased yesterday. inside, 'real' editor, ed pickering attested to a lack of news-stand sales during lockdown having contributed to the magazine's untimely end, though subscriptions had increased over the same period. additionally, faced with increased printing costs, the figures no longer tallied in the magazine's favour, meaning we go into the new year with no uk monthly publication solely concentrated on the competitive milieu.
as if to underline the situation, rouleur magazine's executive editor, ian cleverly, paid tribute to their erstwhile competitor, pointing out that the "...cycling journalism world is a pretty tightknit family. We all know and respect each other's work, and share a common purpose - promoting the sport we love." he also made it plain that rouleur's independence made them (though being part of the monolith that is future publishing didn't do procycling any favours), "...in many ways more vulnerable to rising print and postage prices and all the other changes that the world has undergone in the last two years, (and) more reliant on our subscribers."
in the early days of rouleur, when both procycling and cycle sport magazines could still be found in branches of w h smith, along with rapha's pain and suffering meme, i was wont to mention that cycling udoubtedly benefited from the finest writing and photography of any world sport. it seems that claim may now becoming less true, and whichever way you look at it, it's all our fault.
there's no point all rushing out to buy the final edition of procycling (even though i really think you should); the doors are now closed. but we can make a salutory effort to retain the titles we still have. and though i have little truck with new year resolutions, if you still consider yourself to be one of the cognoscenti, one of the velominati, make the decision to subscribe or order a copy of either rouleur, cyclist, cycling plus, or the comic, in order that we keep the dream alive. the folks who contribute to the above publications are every bit as in love with cycling as are you and i.
let's show them we care too.
friday 31 december 2021
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................screw this
a couple of my acquaintances, as i believe i have previously mentioned, have recently acquired a brace of mountain bikes, likely in order to improve their fitness and wellbeing. at least, i think that may be the purpose, though i'm not sure that they have quite grasped the notion that they require to be pedalled somewhere in order to achieve either, or both of those outcomes. it reminds me of the mighty dave t's appraisal of those in thrall to state of the art carbon fibre: "at some point, you have to pedal it". you can have the finest aero equipment known to mankind, but it won't go anywhere on its own.
however, my principal point in this discussion is not the apparent lack of kilometres these two bicycles have yet to cover, but the fact that both items of machinery have lain dormant on the pathway since they arrived over a month ago, having to fend off not only storms arwen and barra, but the rather inclement weather that afflicted the principality during yesterday. this consisted of torrential rain and winds in excess of 75kph. bearing in mind our proximity to the sea, no matter where you are domiciled on the island (less than half a kilometre distant in our case), rain mixed with salt sea air is never going to be the ideal recipe in which to leave either steel or alloy componentry.
it gives me no pleasure to mention that i'd to discard a colnago c40hp carbon frame a number of years ago due to severe corrosion of the rear alloy dropouts. aside from irrepairable damage to the metal, the nature by which aluminium corrodes, destroyed the carbon into which the dropouts were inserted, meaning the bicycle became dangerous to ride.
however, the corrosive qualities of the hebridean atmosphere can be seen long before the problem outlined above. in the days when i regularly reviewed bicycles, it was a constant embarrassment to return them following a three week period, with substantial rust on the stem faceplate bolts, as well as the pinch-bolts n the brake calipers. in truth, i have no idea what happens to review models on return to the depot, but, the rust acquired in the hebrides would certainly undermine any thoughts of selling them on.
but does it actually have to be that way?
the groupset currently decorating the ritchey logic is campagnolo's record twelve-speed, costing, depending on where you choose to purchase, around £1800. yet despite a price exceeding the cost many would be willing to pay for an entire bicycle, the previously mentioned caliper pinch bolts, are not manufactured from stainless steel. meaning that it took mere weeks for my state-of-the-art mechanical groupset to show signs of corrosion. thankfully, ritchey seem to have got the message, since the stem bolts are of stainless steel.
considering the number of nuts and bolts that any of the major manufacturers purchase, how much extra would it add ot the retail price to have those replaced with stainless steel, maintaining, if nothing else, the shiny aesthetic of a new and often expensive piece of kit for longer than a matter of weeks? but having said that, it's possible, despite this scarcely being a recently noticed problem, that those potentional costs might be about to rise.
though britain is no longer a member of the european union, aspects of its operation and economics will still impact on factors within the uk. for instance, in order to enforce anti-dumping rules against the chinese, nuts and bolts from that nation are soon to have a whopping 86% duty increase. there are plenty of nuts and bolts manufacturers in the uk to whom such duties will not apply, but since many european bicycle and component manufacturers have their bases in mainland europe, sourcing many of their supplies from china, it's more than likely that the costs associated with bicycle manufacture will soon increase.
perhaps the manufacturers could offer the consumer (you and me) a minor bonus towards this extra cost, by fitting stainless steel nuts and bolts?
thursday 30 december 2021
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................for what we are about to receive
having been presented with an itunes voucher for christmas, and not having any particular recording in mind, i searched online for favoured jazz albums of 2021, in case there was something that piqued my interest. from a list of ten albums, the only one that seemed worthy of my voucher, was a 2018 live recording of chick corea's akoustic band featuring the late pianist along with john pattitucci on bass and dave weckl on drums.
it turned out to have been an astute choice, for there is some excellent material amongs the thirteen tracks, including 'you're everything', sung by gayle moran corea. those of a similar age to myself may recall said vocalist on keyboards along with john mclaughlin's mahavishnu orchestra in the early 1970s. however, the track in which i was most interested was the old standard, written by bronislaw kaper, 'on green dolphin street'.
this is a composition i have played many times at the islay jazz festival, along with several pianists, and i also have a recording by keith jarrett's standards trio, but nothing that compares with corea's interpretation on this particular album. the pianist with whom i most recently played, is not, by his own admission, a jazz player, requiring his 'improvisations' to be written out, as opposed to the majority of jazz musicians who use those particular sections as their means of expression or research and development. chick's version describes the huge chasm that exists between a competent pianist and a genius.
it is possible to classify musicians in this manner, if such is even desirable, based predominantly on their ability to improvise and place their own stamp upon, as i mentioned above, a standard tune. prior to this christmas purchase, my only experience of chick corea's playing was through youtube videos when checking out the percussive skills of drummer, dave weckl. it seems, however, that my jazz appreciation has been sadly lacking, made all the more tangible with corea's untimely passing earlier this year. i would have counted myself a tad more blessed had i paid more attention when his brilliance was still alive.
for that reason, but not purely for that reason alone, i congratulate myself that i have long been a close follower of the fortunes of belgian wunderkind, wout van aert. many, other than devout cyclocross fans, will now be more aware of his skills as a rider, following the winning of a mountain stage, a time-trial and the final day's sprint during the 2021 tour de france. although only 26 years old, he has already been world cyclocross champion three times, and is rarely mentioned these days, without including his so-called nemesis, matthieu van der poel.
there have been several magazine articles, podcasts and youtube videos asking the question, who is the better of the two, despite the pointlessness of such inquisition. a matter of weeks ago, van aert commenced his 2021 cyclocross season with a resounding victory at boom, of almost two minutes. a week later, he consolidated this with another victory in the snow in italy. on sunday in dendermonde, van der poel began his 2021 'cross season, conceding defeat to van aert and subsequently abandoning the race in zolder on monday, some two minutes behind a flying van aert, who went on to take five victories from five starts.
i mention all this not because i necessarily think van aert to be the better of the two; van der poel has suffered from a recent knee injury and it's more than possible that this has hampered his training schedule prior to getting muddy. but van aert's domination of cyclocross is nothing less than impressive (as indeed have the results of britain's tom pidcock), and i think we ought to consider ourselves particularly fortunate that we're in the ideal position to witness the rise of a rider who will doubtless feature prominantly in the rich heritage we're always told belongs to the velocipedinal world.
drop back a few years and you'd have been hard-pressed to find anything other than a dodgy internet feed of the cyclocross season, beset with adverts that simply would not go away, and commentary that was voiced in endearingly authentic flemish, but completely inscrutable to scottish ears. now most of the season is being shown in high quality broadcasts on eurosport/gcn. cycling may still count as a minority sport, and cyclocross as a minority within that minority, but it seems that our time may have come.
grab it with both pedals while it's here.
wednesday 29 december 2021
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................what friends are for
in the early nineteen nineties, my introduction to bicycle mechanics came via the local bike hire outlet, principally on the basis that though i knew not a great deal about the activity, the owner knew considerably less. the bicycles that formed the bulk of his hire fleet were relatively low cost when new, and scarcely improved greatly across their working lives.
between bowmore and islay airport lives a lengthy stretch of beach known as the big strand, which, for no discernible reason, proved of great attraction to those hiring the gentleman's bicycles for a day or so. this meant that, on their return, on hubs featuring little in the way of decent seals, and bearing races all but devoid of grease, the crunching noises to be heard were hardly a good advertisement to subsequent hirers. thus it became one of my weekly tasks during the summer months to sit on the step of the bike shed, surrounded by axles, bearings, grease and a couple of cloths.
to keep the hire fleet in motion, i'd remove the cassettes and freehubs, throw away the bearing races, fill the bearing cups with liberal amounts of grease, and insert loose bearings before refitting everything in place.
i cannot pretend that such a process was not repetitive, for the cycle hirers seemed less than inclined to heed our advice not to ride the bicycles along the big strand, so constant maintenance became a necessity. however, having recently assumed a career that is a great deal more onerous than those halcyon days of yore, i am now more aware that those idyllic sunny, summer days with nothing more than bearings to fit in wheel hubs and bottom brackets to take care of, should possibly have been savoured a great deal more than they were.
a timely reminder of the powers of bike fettling were brought to me by e-mail earlier this week, when a good friend of mine, a fellow who frequently has to relocate a great deal more often than many, had suffered from the stress that the process generally entails. he wrote "Finally had an hour, yesterday, for some bike maintenance. Funny how regreasing a headset, pedals, and fitting a new chain just takes me away, somewhere else, and helps ground me." i'm sure many could attest to the veracity of such a statement.
i replied to the effect "bike fettling is a bit like yoga. those of us who really ought to indulge, are usually too busy to do so." no doubt there are professional bike mechanics all across the nation asking "really?" however, the principal difference between them and us is that not only do we rarely have to undertake such fettling, but even when we do, there's rarely any time pressure, and no irate customer exclaiming that we said it would be ready yesterday.
of course, bike fettling relies on the fettler having at least a rudimentary notion of how to carry out the mechanical procedures demanded. no point in walking back into the kitchen, dripping with hydraulic fluid because it seemed like a wizard wheeze to dismantle the braking system, despite having no comprehension of the princples of hydraulic action. additionally, technological development has undermined many of the simpler pleasures to be gained. for instance, the last time i required to replace the headset bearings on the ritchey, 'twas a simple matter of popping out the old cartridge bearings, and dropping in their replacements before re-assembling the stem.
i am encouraged by the knowledge that my campagnolo bora carbon wheels feature regular cup and cone bearings which i look forward to replacing when that day finally arrives.
strangely, those loose bearings (or bearing races) seem to roll with less friction than those with cartridge bearings, and i begin to suspect that cartridge bearings, for all their professed superiority, exist more to simplify the manufacturers' assembly process than to improve our finish-line speed. press-fit bearings, hydraulic discs, integrated headsets and other such benefits have all but undermined the process of meditative fettling.
so, as indirectly pointed out by my friend, a bicycle can be a great deal more than the sum of its parts. it's a concept worth thinking about if you've a few days away from the grindstone over the festive period.
tuesday 28 december 2021
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