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cycling science: the ultimate nexus of knowledge and perfromance. edited by stephen s cheung & mikel zabala. human kinetics softback 555pp illus. £22.99

cycling science

there's a video on youtube featuring drummer gavin harrison, where he breaks down the mechanics and musical processes behind the drumming on the song 'unsettled', ultimately performed by the band porcupine tree, a group much favoured by frame-building supremo, dario pegoretti.

as one of the more technically aware percussionists within the progressive rock genre, harrison opted to start this song with a drum riff that could be followed by the other instruments; quite the reverse of the more normal means of composition. gavin's sonor drumset is more or less symmetrical, with three rack toms over the bass drum and two floor toms to the right. opting to start the riff on the middle-tom (the third over the bass drum), he moved the pattern outwards with both hands before repeating.

in his analysis of this opening gambit, he points out that it consists of eighteen notes, which can more practically be devolved into a 9/8 pattern. he then proceeds to split the first four notes over the middle tom and the snare, but opts to introduce basic mathematics to group the phrasing into something that could be perceived more as a standard 4/4. i cannot disagree that all this makes not a lot of sense to even those with percussive leanings, so i can only imagine how it comes across to those who could scarcely care less. for your further edification, i've appended a link to the video at the end of this review in the hope i may have piqued your interest.

at a certain point in my occasional bouts of drum instruction, i ask the students whether, having grasped the basics of co-ordination and rudimental accomplishment, whether they want to go down the road presaged by gavin harrison, or whether they would be more keen on playing it by ear. few of them choose harrison's course of action.

and such similarity can be seen in this human kinetics publication cycling science, a hefty tome that explains in excruciating detail quite how and why each and every aspect of the sunday ride is as it is. in truth, this is not necessarily a book to read at bedtime; more practically it is a reference book with the ability to settle any particular argument concerning the stuff none of us understand anyway. for instance, how many of our number who don't build frames for a living, were aware that the ultimate tensile strength of reynolds 853 is 290mpa? (disappointingly, i couldn't find anything explaining to what mpa refers.) additionally, when considering bicycle design in relation to aerodynamics, while aero drag outweighs rolling resistance by a factor of almost 10:1 on the flat, ride that bicycle up even a 2% slope and gravity contributes as much to slowing us down, as does the previously mentioned drag factor.

reading through the various sections and chapters has, if nothing else, underlined my adherence to the get-on-your-bike-and-ride school of thought. but then, i'm not on strava. for those in thrall to cycling's facebook, there's little doubt that perusing the relevant parts of this substantial work would provide salient answers as to how you might retrieve that hard won k.o.m. for ensconced within those 555 pages are chapters such as 'the aerodynamic rider', 'cycling nutrition', 'recovery interventions', 'assessing cycling fitness' and 'altitude and hypoxic training' (yes, really).

the editors are also honest enough to deal with the archetypal bike-fit under the heading 'applying the science'...

"Bike fitting and rider positioning is a mixture of science and art [...] Relying on statistical or static approaches to rider positioning could potentially detract from optimal contact point positions by not factoring in how the cyclist sits on a saddle..."

it's that kind of a book.

the honesty surfaces once more when discussing crank lengths. "...excessively long or short crank lengths relative to the rider's leg length can change the range of motion at these two major joints. Over long-duration cycling, this change could affect performance and place a rider at risk of injury. No data, however, exist to support or refute that statement."

as you would perhaps expect in a book with the word science in the title, there are equations, graphs and charts; most of these make as little sense to me as does owning recordings by runrig. however, i'm pretty sure i've gained more than enough information from this book to justify its relatively modest purchase price, though i cannot deny that the chapter on 'air pollution and cyclists' is of scarce relevance this far west.

as the nights darken and the hours available for frenzied pedalling diminish, what better activity to occupy this potential downtime, than acquainting oneself with the scarier facts behind what it is we do for a living?

but on the downside, the cover is truly dreadful.

gavin harrison video

sunday 10 september 2017

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................