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the mighty dave t's words of the week

"i'm starting a port wemyss sculpture park."

like wrestling a gorilla

californian designers, zuzanna licko and rudy vanderlans of emigré, prior to reconstituting themselves as a digital font studio, produced a regular design magazine of the same name. after david carson's raygun, a publication that, while concentrating more on the music scene, employed some incredibly bizarre type and layout ideas that, rightly or wrongly, gave graphic designers of the day a great deal to think about, emigré did likewise, but combined features about design, with a particularly effective and influential graphic sensibility.

as one of the cool kids who, in reality, was anything but, i relinquished my subscription to raygun just prior to its demise and placed my international order with california. in one of those moments where i confused the pointing finger with the moon, my first issue consisted entirely of printed text, minimally laid out on a white page. bearing in mind i had subscribed in the hope that the publication would energise my own sense of graphic design, an entire magazine of type wasn't quite what i thought i'd signed up for.

in retrospect, i cannot believe that i was quite so naive, for in the years since, i have longed for the opportunity to create a similarly minimalist publication featuring a square of justified text within a large dollop of white space. the design was always there, i was simply peering in the wrong direction at the time.

in his excellently titled book, 'one more kilometre and we're in the showers', author tim hilton informs the reader that, in his experience, there is a greater proportion of artists and designers riding bicycles than from any other type of occupation. i'm sure the same statistic applies to apple computer products which may, as an aside, explain why rapha have recently produced an exclusive range of sleeves and bags for the apple store. this would perhaps explain why the lugged steel of yesteryear was not only remarkable because of the artistic flair applied to those lugs, but why such bicycles and their era are still held in high esteem by the contemporary peloton.

though i have frequently made mention of the apparent cookie-cutter mentality applied to the production of present day carbon monocoques, the sensibilities outlined above apparently still exist. only yesterday, in the latest issue of ed pickering's well-designed procycling magazine (well done simon barnes) did i read that cube's lightening c:68 slt disc frame, is allegedly at "...the junction between art and engineering.". a tad hyberbolic in my opinion, but there you go.

thus, it seems not too much of an exercise to extrapolate this artistic predisposition across the bulk of the pelotonese, influences and desires that doubtless colour more than just our sunday mornings clad in colour co-ordinated sportwool and lycra. polti aficionados need not apply. yet, unlike our counterparts currently drooling over the endless sporting exhibitionism taking place behind the former iron curtain, we are inclined to favour subtlety and cogent design over that of having the name of a foreign superstar emblazoned across the back of stripey polyester. to say nothing of the big number.

thankfully and rather inexpensively, the folks at the northern line have our backs. midst a range of products that includes a lake district collection, music, comedy & sport art and baby gifts, there is a selection of artefacts exclusively designed for the velocipedinally inclined. and by 'designed', i really mean 'designed'. there are superbly produced a3 posters, retailing at a mere £18 dedicated to such stalwarts as charly gaul, eddy merckx, beryl burton and fausto coppi, accompanied by quotation mugs and a rather fetching t-shirt attesting to 'merckxist ideology - all cyclists are created equal, but some are more equal than others'.

you may well be thinking that surely mugs, posters and t-shirts are pretty much ten-a-penny in the world of cycling, but those on offer from the northern line have seemingly achieved the unexpected, by combining an intrinsic knowledge of cycle sport with exemplary graphic design.

in the words of licko and vanderlans "design is a good idea"

the northern line

wednesday 20 june 2018

methinks i doth protest too much

it would be naive to think that all bicycle owners are unilateral in their castigation of the motor car, a perhaps valiant hope that bears very little relation to reality. in the velo club peloton, there are three of us who are car-less; two who cannot drive at all and yours truly who prefers not to on the grounds of islay's roads being far safer if i only ride my bicycle. it would be safe to say, i think, that the vast majority of bike riders are also car owners, in which case, any criticism of the way certain motorists are seen to treat cyclists, comes from a place all but devoid of activism and paranoia.

however, though i have no statistical research to back my imprudent claims, i think it possible that many cyclists who are also car owners, would cheerfully relinquish the latter means of transport in an instant if their transportational circumstances would allow. and i genuinely hope that those who do own motor cars stridently refrain from parking said vehicles on the pavement (or sidewalk, to those of you across the pond). the british government frequently reminds us of the enormous investment they have made in the uk road network and thus i have frequently to ask why it then becomes necessary to use up the comparatively little space afforded the pedestrian portion of the polulation.

the scottish government is expected soon to outlaw the parking of motor vehicles on pavements, but until that glorious day arrives, it remains illegal to drive on the pavement, but not to park, despite the latter being dependent on the former.

i confess that, as of this very moment, i have little idea as to the number of motor cars produced in the uk on an annual basis, but i figure i'm on reasonably safe ground by assuming that their manufacture involves substantial quantities of steel. the latter is a material that was, at one time, a mainstay of british industry and the country's balance of payments through the export market. it therefore comes as something of a surprise to learn that, according to the bicycle association, in fact, the uk's bicycle industry is worth three times that of its steel counterpart, employing twice as many people. yet steel is regarded by the government as a market of strategic importance, while that of the humble bicycle arguably verges on being ignored.

cycling's value to the economy rests not solely on sales and employment on the bike shop floor, but substantially on annual cycle tourism. the report reckons that a bicycle is sold in britain every ten seconds, though i can't help viewing this as more than just a tad on the optimistic side.

but once again i can't help feeling that the bicycle association and associated strategists are in danger of taking the wrong fork in the road. the former's operations director, steve garidis has prophesied that that the uk has the opportunity to lead the world, making use of what he terms "...smart, clean bikes and e-cargo bikes [which could form] "a key part of a new green transport system..."

forgive me if i have misunderstood, but are we not already in possession of 'clean bikes'? garidis goes onto stress the need to lobby government on support "for the uptake of e-bikes and e-cargo bikes" claiming that the office for low emission vehicles currently doesn't recognise e-bikes as low emission vehicles. that is as maybe, but surely the same applies to regular bicycles, efficient machines that have no need of the electricity required by e-bikes and which quite possibly was generated by less than 'low emission' methods?

the same gent wants the government to provide financial subsidies for e-bikes alongside that of electric cars which, he believes will kick-start public awareness of e-bikes and improve their mass uptake. i do not deny that such may well prove to be the case, and i can easily see the case for e-cargo bikes, but i still query the emphasis on electric bikes at the expense of the non-electric variety. if the bicycle association believes that any subsidies and government support for electrons are based purely on the environmental emphasis, then surely purchasers of the completely emission-free velocipede ought also to be offered a similar subsidy?

after all, when garidis states that "More cycling also has the potential to stimulate the economies of our cities, making them function better", i see no reason why that potential resides entirely at the tyre prints of the overly praised e-bike. when i contacted steve garidis after my publishing of a previous, related article, querying his specific lobbying on behalf of the e-bike to the apparent exclusion of the humble bicycle, i received the following reply...

"I agree that the bicycle ought to be considered the lowest emission vehicle [but] the trouble is that cycling has been stuck in policy terms as a niche of 'sustainable transport' for many years. As such it has been easy to present as marginal. Meanwhile, the Government is almost entirely focussed on securing Britain's prosperity post Brexit and central to this is its industrial strategy in which they identify four 'grand challenges' to productivity.
"These are: 'the future of mobility' (i.e. how people and goods move around); 'Clean Growth'; 'Aging Population'; and 'Artificial Intelligence'. It's easy to see how cycling could be key to at least the first three of these. Cycling, however, does not feature at all. The Government is entirely focussed on electric (and autonomous) vehicles delivering the solutions, yet e-bikes are not even considered in the policy context of 'electric vehicles'. They are seen as enhanced cycling, still stuck in their niche.
"This is why the Association is pushing for e-bikes to be recognised as one end of a spectrum of electric vehicles.
"However, this is not to the exclusion of all the changes we need for cycling in general. We are, right now, working with Sustrans, Cycling UK, and British Cycling, amongst others, to lobby for the measures needed, including infrastructure, safety at junctions, priority vs motorised traffic, and cycle training to be extended to all children."

in view of mr garidis' reply, there would seem every likelihood that i am guilty of protesting just a smidgeon more than necessary or even welcome. but i'd perhaps have a bit more confidence in the bicycle association's methodology if the pressure for an e-bike subsidy were seen as one strand of a strategy to have government include all forms of cycling in their plans. i can't help thinking that the bicycle association is in danger of imposing an importance upon the electric-bike that it doesn't deserve, one that threatens to undermine and marginalise the value of the pedal bicycles we all know and love.

after all, britain's steel industry has been the historical recipient of more than a fiver from westminster's coffers in the past, subsidies that would probably have provided a free bike to every child in the uk and then some.

the uk bicycle association

photo courtesy specialized bicycles

tuesday 19 june 2018

hoist by our own petard

though the vast majority of you will never have visited the island delight that is the isle of islay, it has become, over the last three decades, a remarkably popular destination for holidaying or visiting. the latter is predominantly on the basis of a surprisingly large number of single malt whisky distilleries all within a few kilometres of each other. counting solely those currently in production, there are a total of eight, with a ninth at ardnahoe in the north, due to commence distilling later this year.

meantime, 'elixir spirits' have applied for planning permission to begin work on a tenth distillery a few hundred metres before laphroaig distillery on the island's south coast. and diageo, only a matter of years after demolishing the remnants of the original port ellen distillery, have decided to rebuild it once more, with the aim of getting started in 2020. that will mean a total of eleven single malt whisky distilleries, along with port ellen maltings and one more distillery on jura.

if the amber nectar is a liquid in which you have either a specific or passing interest, you can perhaps see why islay is the ideal place to be.

and, it will perhaps not surprise you to learn, some of those in thrall to whisky and the great outdoors, arrive either on or with bicycles, one or two of whom are you. yes, you. i'm sure you're all well aware of who you are. and those of you who are who you are, appear to have had occasion to read these black and yellow pixels, for i regularly receive e-mails enquiring whether the esteemed velo club peloton might be welcoming of a few interlopers on a sunday morning.

so, while we're here, let me make it perfectly plain, that any and all cyclists are more than welcome to join us, come wind, rain or shine and whether you're on road bikes, mountain bikes or anything in between. particularly wind, now that you come to mention it. i have no idea whether this is common practice amongst 'real' cycle clubs, but it's certainly one that figures uppermost in our own philosophy.

however, and this may be entirely my fault, almost every e-mail without exception, tends to suggest that those intent on swelling the sunday morning peloton, might not be up to our regular pace, apologising in advance of potential sloth when it comes to that average speed. though i have not done so deliberately, i may have inadvertently given the impression that we are the sort of chaps who regularly distance team sky, quickstep and the belgian national team without so much as a by-your-leave.

if that is the case, i can but apologise; yes, the chap who regularly trounces us all in the bruichladdich sprint might just be capable (in his dreams) of giving froomey a run for his money, but the rest of us just like riding our bikes. sometimes slowly and sometimes even slower. so, by all means, drop me a line if you fancy riding along, but rest assured, team-time trials are not within our ideals, let alone capabilities.

see you at debbie's on sunday at 10am.

monday 18 june 2018

prendas/santini bordeaux-paris jersey & cap

i've never been able to comprehend the importance of formula one motor racing, a 'sport' in which the particpants appear to be paid salaries that would make soccer players envious and yet one which, like the scottish midge, seems to have no fathomable function. as an admittedly very poor driver, i can see that driving a missile at such speeds takes considerable skill, but given the inequality of the various cars, i fail to see how it qualifies as a sport. indeed, one of the long-running reasons for its existence always centred around that of technological development, but other than an engine and a wheel on each corner, i cannot see the connection between the average family saloon and a mclaren f1.

yet the uci's programme of mondialisation of cycle sport, is allegedly based roughly upon the formula one motor racing model. indeed, each world tour team is required to send a selection of riders to compete in sanctioned events, but the key phrase there is 'a selection of riders', one that need not consist of any who rode the previous event. thus, having won this year's giro d'italia, chris froome is perfectly entitled to take a break in margate during the tour de france. if you'll pardon me for saying so, formula one doesn't quite work that way. and though i am hardly a close observer of the pinnacle of the world's motor sport, they seem to have been able to add races to the season without losing the more iconic circuits.

of course, motor racing is considerably better funded than that of cycling; you need only witness the vast sums paid to some drivers to verify that. therefore, when the uci lusted after the arabian dollar, many long-established events fell by the wayside. many of us steeped in the milieu and heritage of road-racing are wont to mourn the passing of several of these events, including the fine chaps at prendas ciclismo, who, with the co-operation of italy's santini have introduced a series of jerseys, caps and socks commemorating three of those forgotten races: trofeo baracchi, omloop van vlaanderen and, under review here, bordeaux-paris.

i asked prendas' andy storey why create a forgotten races series in the first place? "The very start of the Forgotten Races collection was really born out of the success of the 20th Anniversary kit (2016) and the Grand Tour Kit (2017).Ê With both designs, we offered a number of garments that were exclusively made for us by primarily Santini, but in the case of the caps, socks and gloves, three other different Italian factories.Ê Although we are very well known for our retro cycling jerseys, not everybody wants to wear one and we felt that by offering a these special edition capsule collections, our customers would have more choice.
"We are also keen to offer the kits across multiple seasons, so that if you do spend your hard-earned money with us, the items are not obsolete within months.
"As you attended last year's Rouleur Classic, you know we have a vast array of old books and magazines like Winning and it struck us recently how many races are no longer on the calendar.ÊSo the collection is here to pay tribute to races that were once at the pinnacle of our sport and enjoyed by many."

if push came to shove, no doubt we'd all have a selection of forgotten races we feel deserving of a modern-day jersey or two, so i asked andy why those specific examples and were others planned for the future? "I picked six different races that were once popular, yet no longer in existence to give (Santini designer) Fergus Niland some choice on what he went for. I left it with him for a few months and he came back with the designs and very few amendments.
"We certainly plan to add to the collection; the Grand Prix du Midi Libre was always a favourite of mine, as was the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. And I wouldn't mind adding a six-day too, like Dortmund or Zurich."

of course, with regard to the bordeaux-paris jersey featured here, andy was pretty much honour bound to present the corporate response as to its origination, but in truth, i believe this jersey to be most appropriate to clothe the honed physique of yours truly. i base this observation on the glaringly obvious fact that the initials bp cover pretty much every square centimetre of the jersey torso and well we know to whom those refer.

as with pretty much everything leaving the santini factory, the jersey's fit is impeccable, sitting midway between a relaxed fit and that of the bona-fide racer. the short sleeves are of admirable length and the three rear pockets are almost large enough to contain a spare wheel (i may have exaggerated that last part). unceremonious stuffing of a waterproof in the centremost example was simplicity itself and aside from the bordeaux-paris graphic adorning one of the three, there is also the obligatory, fourth zipped security edition. the cap and socks are, as expected, a perfect match.

sadly, even regular wearing of any of the three jerseys on offer are likely to resurrect any of the events, but there's no doubt that they are part of a racing heritage worth celebrating and what better way than via such well-designed and crafted jerseys?

the prendas ciclismo 'forgotten races' series jerseys are available in sizes xs all the way through to a very impressive 8xl, at a price of £59.99 each. socks retail at £6.99 while the caps cost a very reasonable £7.99

prendas retro jerseys | prendas 20th anniversary jersey | prendas grand tour celebration jersey | prendas forgotten races collection

sunday 17 june 2018

d. i. s. c. o.

a matter of days ago, should the aged amongst us not already feel we're living in an era intent on leaving us behind, the national newspapers featured an article that pretty much set the seal not only on nostalgia but a dawning realisation that we're really not getting any younger. this is a state of affairs that has, no doubt, been already underlined on the sunday ride as chaps and chapesses many years our juniors, slide effortlessly past on climbs that were once our very own fiefdom.

being forcibly informed that it is 41 years since john travolta strutted his stuff down a brooklyn street to the sound of the gibb brothers' falsetto harmonies, proclaiming to be 'stayin' alive', conferred a knowing perspective on modern-day existence. in the opening scene of 1977's saturday night fever, travolta, playing the part of tony manero, orders two slices of pizza from lenny's pizzeria before making them into a double-decker pizza sandwich. it's a scene that has apparently been recreated by 'fever' fans ever since, bringing fame and fortune to the real-life 'lenny's peatzeria'.

i was never one much in thrall to the disco craze of the late seventies/early eighties. far more interested was i in live music, however badly played some of it might have been. though i like to think i have a good sense of rhythm, one that has enhanced my percussive abilities on many an occasion, i have two left feet and an acute sense of embarrassment when it comes to dancing. that, and a susceptibility to flashing lights, kept me well away from the mirror-balls of the twentieth century, in favour of playing drums while others embarrassed themselves in white suits with wide lapels.

when i first moved west, the island featured both live music and discos, quite often in the same venue on the same night. i once attended a bill bruford's earthworks gig in glasgow's sauchiehall street where, after enjoying a marvellous evening of intelligently written and produced jazz, we were unceremoniously ushered from the venue in order that the glittering lapels could dance the night away to louder and more mundane sounds into the wee small hours. and this was on a school night.

i am too advanced in years and too far separated from what passes as urban society to know whether the disco retains its tony manero aura, or even whether such events are still referred to as 'discos'. however, i can tell you that it's not a question that keeps me awake at nights.

but were evidence required that the so-called disco revolution is not only still breathing, but occasionally emerges from the depths in ways you'd scarcely think credible, i note that the eccentrically named, vienna-based cycling apparel provider 'brilliantbrilliant unicorn' are party (pun intended) to one such regeneration. you'd scarcely think it possible that a john travolta style caricature could make it onto a race-fit cycle jersey, but that's precisely what has happened in bbuc' latest disco collection, one that they claim is "...a state of mind, where the sunbeams dancing through the trees become your disco lights and your feet move to the rhythm of the road. Now you have the kit to take you to nature's dancefloor..."

hmmmm...

it appears that their copywriters are every bit as unique as is the company's branding. whether you desire to join the sunday ride clad in bibshorts with the word 'disco' brightly emblazoned on your shorts is, of course, entirely down to how comfortable you are with your exhibitionist side. the jerseys are available in four, plain variants consisting of black, rose, yellow and white and just in case you fear i'm reading too much into the tony manera connection, bbuc state that "Every jersey features a logo inspired by the king of disco, John Travolta, to the left chest."

it would seem there is yet life left in the boogie.

bbuc disco collection

saturday 16 june 2018

london-paris: later that same century

for those of us of a certain age, there is the opportunity to luxuriate in what might have been compared to what, sadly, certainly is. as a relative latecomer to the joys of road riding, there was never any danger of my having been recruited to the professional cause, at the time blissfully unaware there was any cause to be recruited to in the first place. not for me the lengthy days and nights of inveterate training, acquiring skills and fitness that would have me see off my peers in no uncertain fashion come the weekend.

yet, professional cycle racing is still one of the few sports where estrangement from those deserving of hero worship is considerably less than that of formula one motor racing, for example. that in itself, however, is still barely sufficient for the wannabe or distinctly 'has been' pelotonese to identify with the travails of the modern-day cycling pro. yes, we can all jest about going back to the team car during the sunday ride, or make merry about the likelihood of mavic lending a yellow skoda for neutral support on the way to debbie's café, but what's that really like?

i ask that question because few of us possess the fitness, skill or tactical nous to replicate even a short stage race. but that scarcely undermines the quest to find out what it's like to 'simply' ride a bike all day. that bike, all but hypothetical, would be devoid of spare tubes, tyre levers and multi-tools; the ride would be over closed roads, with motorcycle outriders to stop traffic and in place of a mavic car, there would be at least a fully equipped following vehicle with a mechanic ready and willing to leap out and perform a wheel change in the event of a puncture.

and best of all, there would be a luxury car (maserati anyone?) up front, announcing your impending arrival.

under normal circumstances, the foregoing would be the fairy dust of which dreams are made of. indeed, it's not hard to convince yourself even during a lone saturday ride, that a chasing peloton is hot on your heels, if only you can maintain the breakaway till the coffee shop or reality intervenes.

however, the dream outlined above, need not remain the articles of fiction; there is a way to emulate the professional peloton without straining much over 25kph, yet accoutrements such as luxury coaches, neutral service and closed roads can all be had as you wend your merry way towards paris, just as froomey and his pals do every july. the annual hot chillee, london to paris ride, once the province of late june, now arrives on the champs elysées on the saturday afternoon before the tour de france gets there and in 2018, it will take place for the fifteenth time. it's a ride i undertook in 2007, 2008 and again last year, along with hot chillee's founder, sven thiele.

as this year's ride approaches, i asked sven what his background in cycling was prior to 'inventing' the first london-paris ride in 2003?

"My only experience was as a passionate newcomer to cycling, looking for events to participate in. I was racing 3rd cat, badly, in the Surrey League. My real job was in technology and certainly in those days cycling was nowhere near as cool as it is now. In terms of 'sportive' style events, there were stunningly few in the UK. As it turns out the Dragon Ride and the Fred Whitton Challenge started up at the same time as we did with the London-Paris."

sven makes a good point, for it is only in the last decade or so, that the sportive market has not so much blossomed as exploded. however, the majority of sportives take place over a single day, with one or two of the shorter routes being accomplished in a matter of hours. and with no disrespect to any on the calendar, aside from timing chips, feed stations and the occasional event featuring closed roads, there is little to identify them with the professional milieu. the hot chillee london-paris event, however, occupies three whole days. but the question still remains, why ride from london to paris in the first place?

"Probably my passion exceeded my ability! Our thought was, "how hard can it be to ride three long (200km+) stages?" It so happened that we could create a 630km route from London to Paris; with Paris being the home of the Tour de France, it seemed to be a natural finish."

it's hard to argue against the french capital being the ultimate endpoint for any lengthy bike ride, if only due of its long-standing association with arguably the greatest sporting event in the world. however, though paris is currently the event's finish line, that hasn't always been the case. in my first year of participation, we rode to plymouth and took the overnight ferry to st malo in southern france, heading north to versailles that year. when did the route change to its present parcours?

"You will have ridden the 'long route', which included two 200km+ stages. The following year in 2008, we replaced St Malo with Calais and the stages became 3 x 100 milers which was more manageable from both the riders' and crew's perspective. The route still changes in part every year, like including parts of the Tour de France route, but visits London-Calais-Amiens-Paris. It is surprisingly hard to get 600 hotel beds for riders and crew!"

the last time the tour de france made use of a few of the paris-roubaix cobbled sections, vincenzo nibali took the stage victory, while several others claimed the stage to be barbaric and dangerous. yet, from a spectator's point of view, it provided a real sense of drama and derring-do in a race that sometimes seems to have gone soft at the edges. hot chillee have provided in the past for those who wish to put their handlebars where their mouths are and ride from dunkirk to roubaix, but in 2008, a few of those lumpy stones featured en-route to paris, and to be perfectly frank, i'd have gone back and ridden them again, if i hadn't worried about everyone else riding off and leaving me behind. in the light of this year's tour incorporating cobbles once again, does sven have any plans to do likewise?

"Yes we did include cobbles. We found that many riders were nervous of this, and so separated out the cobbles into a different event, the HotChillee Roubaix, where we cater for more hardcore classics-style riders!"

as i mentioned above, the annual london to paris ride was once the preserve of a late june date in the calendar, but last year's superb event moved tantalisingly closer to the tour de france heroes we were all emulating in our heads, arriving in paris on the eve prior to that of the real tour. there are no words to describe the elation of riding up the champs elysées in a combined peloton of 400 riders, round the arc de triomphe and down to the eiffel tower, all on closed roads and on a saturday afternoon in july, the day before the tour de france does much the same thing (albeit a tad quicker and without a texting australian weaving all over the road in front).

at the time i asked sven if he thought london would offer the same luxury if he opted to reverse the route? but was getting to paris the day before the big boys always the ultimate plan?

"It was a dream from the beginning and along the way opportunities and contacts aligned to make this possible. Being able to ride with rolling road closures into Paris a day ahead of the Tour finish is special and very emotional. We have now also developed a TdF finish line hospitality package which means we watch the pros finish on the Sunday, which is a wonderful way to finish off the ride."

not only was the london-paris peloton able to experience such a fine finish, but the luxurious parisien hotel in which we stayed overnight, was pretty much slap, bang in the middle of the city. which beggars the rather obvious question, how on earth did he manage all that?

"I'm really not sure! I think if there is a strong enough dream or passion, then one works incrementally over many years to make something happen!"

aside from a lead car ahead of each group (a maserati ghibli in 2017, now that you ask), announcing the presence of an oncoming peloton and ensuring that a breakaway is a complete non-entity, the five london-paris pelotons are accompanied by a set of burly but highly jovial motorcycle outriders who, once across the channel, simply shut down everything: roads, roundabouts, traffic lights; you name it, they close it. within each group of riders on the road, there are also several hot chillee 'ride captains', making sure everyone is coping with the pace and pulling into line those who don't always look out for their own safety. have there always been ride captains as part of the event?

"We introduced the Ride Captains in 2007. It was actually an idea of the GC winner, who felt that with a few 'Peloton Patrons' we could better manage large groups on the road from a safety and etiquette perspective. Some of the group riding skills in those days was below par compared to now."

i can vouch for sven's appraisal of those group riding skills, for as one, resident on a small rock in the atlantic, there is a dearth of others with whom to practise the necessary ability to ride in relatively close formation. aside from such a mitigating factor, a distinct lack of top line speed and a desire to see france at a more leisurely pace encouraged me to join one of the slower groups on each of my three years of participation. however, had i had the option of riding the event more frequently, i have little doubt that such skills would have become second nature. as the ride prepares for its 15th year of existence, other than himself, has anyone ridden the lot?

"I did actually miss one year (regrettably), but we have a fairly significant group in the '10 Club', for those riders who have completed ten editions. The first person to ride ten consecutive editions was Ian Whittingham, founder of Sigma Sports!"

i'd be fibbing if i said that those three days in july come cheap. on my first ride in 2007, i recall the cost of entry being not much more than £400; today it's almost four times that amount of money. however, pretty much everything has increased in price over the last ten years and very much in favour of hot chillee, not only has the route and support noticeably improved, but the standard of accommodation and food is immeasurably better. and it was pretty good then, too. to be honest, i left paris last year wondering a) how they managed it all for the price, and b) how can it possibly get any better? in the light of the latter question, are there any cunning plans afoot for the next fifteen years?

"I have been very fortunate to be part of this wave in road cycling and have thoroughly enjoyed it; and I do see it growing even more. For the last three years, I have been working on launching a seven-day point to point gravel race; the Rainmaker Rollercoaster in the Western Cape in South Africa. I always regretted not getting into road cycling earlier, but with gravel riding I'm so glad I started when I did! I think this is the next big wave."

this year's hot chillee london to paris ride takes place between 26 - 29 july and is all but sold out. if you fancy participating in the 2019 event, sign up for hot chillee's newsletters on the website linked below. however, there's still time to enter the inaugural 'rainmaker rollercoaster' seven-day gravel stage race taking place between 6 -12 october 2018 across south africa's western cape.

hot chillee bike rides

friday 15 june 2018

vèlocité

in common with many a cycling club across the world, it is traditional for the members of g.c.ristorante debbie's, who can be bothered, to sprint for the speed sign on entry to bruichladdich village. participation in this display of competitive flair is rarely, if ever, joined by the mighty dave-t on the perfectly sound reasoning that he's done it all before and has no need to recapture the speedy days of his youth. i, on the other had, can rarely be bothered to even think of an excuse for my characteristic restraint, let alone to slip into the big ring and ride hell for leather.

unsurprisingly, there is a small coterie within the velo club peloton who feel it their onerous duty to do precisely that and one in particular who regularly stands atop the hypothetical podium at debbie's in the aftermath. you, me and the mighty dave t can righteously scoff at such blatant competitiveness, but the guy takes top honours more often than not because he rides his bike more often than do most of us and he's a fit lad. very much a case of the best man winning.

mind you, on the rare occasion that he fails to reach the imaginary finish line in first place, the excuses are rarely as creative as his sprinting technique.

in the case outlined above and probably one reflected all across the panoply of sunday morning bike rides, the fastest rider got there first. though we all ride different bikes, ranging from boutique steel to mass-produced carbon fibre, in truth there's little to separate them technologically; the winner would probably still be the winner even if we all swapped bicycles. it is, essentially, 'mano e mano' as the saying goes.

however, there really is nothing at stake here other than bragging rights and to be honest, they're not worth that much. the winner of the bruichladdich sprint doesn't even get his coffee paid for. but rather obviously, it's a different story in the upper reaches of the professional peloton, where a string of victories can not only help guarantee an extension to a team contract, but conceivably a healthier pay cheque to boot. collectively, for one team to consistently beat their peers undoubtedly aids the sponsor's confidence and makes it easier to, surreptitiously, increase the annual budget.

at this level, it's not necessarily as straightforward as man against man, if only due to the continual fulfillment of dave brailsford's oft mentioned, marginal gains. as soon as large sums of money are involved in competition, someone, somewhere, will start looking for an edge over their competitors, not necessarily restricting themselves to more efficient training methods.

this is not a situation that constrains itself to that of professional cycling. many sports have had competitive aids banned on the grounds that, though technically legal, they hardly sit within the spirit of the regulations.

the most recent case to infect the peloton surfaced during this year's criterium de dauphiné, when the lotto soudal team were seen to be riding both the individual time-trial and team time-trial using so-called 'speed gel'. the product itself can be sprayed onto the riders legs, leaving behind washing powder-like ball deposits which allegedly provide a similar effect to the dimples found on team sky's aero suits and the rims of certain carbon wheels. though the latter have been deemed legal by the uci, the regulations do not allow for 'non-essential elements that have been added with a view to improving the [riders'] aerodynamic properties'. spraying little aerodynamic balls onto your legs would rather seem to contradict the above regulatory advice.

naturally enough, lotto soudal have pointed the finger at patches featured on the sleeves of team-sky's aero suits, but the ruling on those seems to hinge on the latter being an integral part of the clothing and thus allowable, whereas, no such leniency could be applied to smothering the lower limbs with speed gel. though i can well comprehend the vast sums of money spent in the furtherance of cycle sport, though not always the reason why, i truly wonder if the teams at the top of our sport ever take time out to consider those of us whose confidence in their methods has taken a severe beating over the past two decades?

is there even one amongst us who would not prefer to watch a bike race in which each individual rider achieved success purely on the basis of their training and aptitude for the job in hand? for once, wouldn't it be nice to know that rider a had beaten rider b due to a greater level of fitness, more time spent training or simply a 'wile e coyote' strategy that outfoxed the others? essentially, that's what sport ought to be all about and certainly not whether my speed gel is better than your skinsuit dimples.

meanwhile, back in the real world...

thanks to james lamont for the seeds of this article.

thursday 14 june 2018

i couldn't make this up. really, i couldn't

with the threat of trade sanctions from donald trump's administration regarding the import of aluminium and steel, the possibility that the eu will impose a tit-for-tat response on such staple american items as bourbon whiskey and harley davidson motorbikes, it's hard not to point out the relative disparity in moaning about trivialities (and by comparison they are) that may or may not affect the world of the velocipede.

only a matter of weeks ago, i was brought to mention that the selfsame european union, obviously stuck for some legislative impetus after a busy weekend's gardening, intended to make third-party motor insurance compulsory for owners/riders of electric bicycles. despite the fact that ordinary pedal cycles, in the right cleats, are able to exceed the limited speed of the former by quite some margin, someone in brussels thought this to be a bit of a wizard wheeze.

the onset of this apparently illogical decision originated in slovenia, where an unfortunate farm worker was knocked from a ladder by an uninsured, reversing tractor. with the case ending up in the eu's court of justice, the subsequent ruling, that the incident should have been covered by compulsory motor insurance, elicited chinese whispers ultimately bringing them to a decision that vehicles normally not necessarily intended for use on the public highway (including, believe it or not, racing cars), must have this compulsory insurance.

but, as with pretty much every eu legislative ruling you can think of, it failed to stop there, with the court deciding to extend this compulsory need for insurance to any vehicle which could potentially travel on the public highway, including the hapless e-bike. for the time being, at least, pedal bicycles are not subject to the designation 'vehicle', though i often wonder how much longer that state of affairs will last. so the e-bike industry, long aware that this very situation might occur, is now to increase its lobbying to have this questionable decision overturned, one that is almost bound to have a detrimental effect on the sale of such electric friends.

currently that lobbying has centred around the salient fact that such bicycles are motor assisted and not reliant on the motor alone for propulsion. it seems that the eu financial directorate resonsible for the decision (i told you i couldn't make this up) may have simply reacted to the word 'motor'.

but on a slightly different tack, another situation has occurred that is almost directly related to yesterday's reported plea from scott snaith of 50 cycles regarding an increase in the speed limiter applicable to pedelec classified bicycles. you will recall that mr snaith's heartfelt request to the european parliament was to increase the speed of such 'vehicles' by 8kph on the spurious grounds of increased safety. yet only a day before mr snaith put metaphorical pen to paper, the city of london, in league with london cycling campaign, announced their own initiative to improve cycling etiquette and encourage a reduction in speed within london's square mile.

apparently the speed they have in mind is precisely half that promoted by mr snaith for electric bicycles, predominantly on the basis that cyclists ought best to travel at a speed "where you can easily stop if a person walking happens to step out." in other words, for safety reasons.

remember when they moved the headsets inside the head tube and told us it was to improve stiffness? then moved the bottom bracket bearings outboard and told us that was for reasons of improved stiffness? well, this is exactly like that; an increase of 8kph will improve safety in exactly the same way as a reduction in speed of 8kph will improve safety.

and to think we were concerned about donald trump.

thanks to carlton reid of bikebiz for invaluable, if unwitting, assistance with this article.

wednesday 13 june 2018

more assistance please

several years ago, i experienced my first meeting at first hand with an electric bicycle. made to look every bit the same as your average hardtail mountain bike, the game was only given away by the enormity of the rear hub making no attempt to conceal the motor and a sizeable rack platform where the battery hid in plain sight. so, nothing like a mountain bike at all.

the machine was prospectively to be purchased by the local leisure centre, who had requested that i, as an 'experienced cyclist' might take it for a short perambulation of the estates in order to satisfy that they were receiving value for their more than one-thousand pounds. as you may be aware, particularly if you read my recent review of specialized's turbo vado, the european union classifies electric bicycles in two ways: pedelecs, which are restricted to 25kph, and s-pedelecs which bear the lesser restriction of 48kph, but which are subject to licensing, insurance and helmet requirements.

on taking that original bike for a spin, though the gent who brought the bicycle to islay patiently explained the legal speed governance, he also pointed out that, were i to hold the two display buttons simultaneously for five seconds, no longer would 25kph be my ceiling. and though the bicycle was of the common pedal-assist variety, it also sported a handlebar-mounted throttle, allowing me the infrequent luxury of remaining personally motionless, while i terrorised any livestock ruminating in the adjacent fields.

specialized, quite correctly, offered no such speed hack.

however, though all pedelec electric bikes feature motors capable of up to a 250w output (as do s-pedelecs; it's another eu regulation), the seemingly arbitrary restriction to their top speeds doesn't necessarily bear close examination. a few days after the arrival of the turbo vado, i rode my usual saturday route that takes me around the perimeter of loch gorm on islay's west coast. realising that any speeds above 25kph were unassisted and thus rather contrary to the ethos of an electrically assisted bicycle in the first place, it was all too soon that i became a passenger, adopting a mentality that rarely dropped below 25kph, but almost never exceeded it.

what would have been the point?

thus, on returning home, my average speed was shown to be 23.8kph. hardly revelatory, but under the circumstances most enjoyable and relaxing. the following week, i undertook the same route on my campag equipped ritchey logic, returning to the croft with an average of 26.6kph. once again, hardly the sort of speed that would give tony martin cause of concern, but tautologically, almost 2kph faster than the specialized.

in which case, i would be more than interested to hear the reasoning of the european legislators who saw fit to make electric bicycle owners liable to insurance, a licensing and compulsory helmet wearing should they desire their electrons to be capable of more than the stated 25kph. though i have clearly stated on more than one occasion that i think all cyclists ought to have at least third party insurance for their own peace of mind, leaving me free to plough my own, faster furrow doesn't actually make any logical sense.

but there are several ways of applying logic and i'm not entirely sure that scott snaith of 50 cycles is fulfilling the word's definition when he calls for the eu to increase the speed of pedal-assisted e-bikes on the basis that it will make them "safer on the roads". his justification for so doing is to allow that extra boost of power to speed the cyclist out of harm's way in town or city traffic. and even though he credits 32kph (20mph) as likely a sufficient top speed, i'm not entirely sure his argument is based on sound reasoning.

granted, i am not one who has any need to circumnavigate busy rush hour traffic, so i might be well wide of the mark on this one. i do agree with him that the top speed of e-bikes ought to be raised, but predominantly on the reason pointed out above, that a standard, non-electric bicycle is capable of considerably higher speeds than its electric counterpart, yet remains free of legislatory restriction. how many serious motor accidents occur at low speeds? so how would making e-bikes faster make them safer?

answers on a postcard please and sent to brussels.

tuesday 12 june 2018

tell them we sent you

quick mention for those intending to visit islay's shores on a bike during the summer. velo club d'ardbeg recommended coffee/tea stops - in no particular order.

club headquarters at the old kiln cafe, ardbeg distillery. excellent food as well as designer coffees with froth. the single malt is apparently just ginger peachy. open monday to saturday from easter to september, seven days from june to september.

bruichladdich mini market (debbie's cafe), a few hundred yards from the distillery. highly commended designer coffees with outside tables. we like. open all year round with a cycling wall in the coffee corner.

welcometogreatcoffee.co.uk

port mòr bistro. now that the original debbie's is run by her mum, aileen, debbie has taken over the catering franchise at port charlotte's port mòr centre, where you can have some of deb's famously wonderful coffee as well as a wide range of foodtsuffs. highly recommended.

braehouse gallery, portnahaven. sited at the entrance to portnahaven village, the gallery also offers takeway coffees and a range of cakes. there's also quite a wide range of photos, islay souvenirs and other desirable odds and bits. though you can't sit in for coffee and cake, there is a table and chairs outside along with an adjacent bicycle rack for parking.

and recently opened in islay house square, bridgend in the islay studios photo gallery, a fine selection of designer coffees are now available while you admire the surrounding imagery.

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