..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
field tested
a number of months ago, i reviewed a cycplus bicycle tyre inflator, a rather expensive means of replacing those mini-pumps that many of us carry in our back pockets or affixed to one of the frame tubes. it's a device that runs off an internal, lithium-ion battery which, commendably, retains its charge quite impressively. however, most of us are familiar with this type of battery and the need to make regular checks that it is capable of fulfilling its promise whenever that might become pertinent. therefore, every saturday and sunday, i switch on the device prior to the grand départ in the hope that it will still display the maximum three bars. according to the sales pitch for said electronic pump, it is capable of inflating a 700c tyre to 100psi only once before the battery runs out. however, i run my tyres at about 60psi, so i figure that it would cope with two tyres at that pressure, assuming the battery to remain fully-charged.
in what would subsequently turn out to be a close call, having checked the battery level, i put the pump back on the kitchen table and almost left home without it.
the road surface leading from saligo bay onto coull farm and across to kilchoman, a few hundred metres from the distillery, was surface dressed several years ago, apparently only to hide the numerous dips and bumps present on the now covered surface. though i cannot claim to have been travelling at speed, after being thrown from pillar to post due to the irregular road surface, as we neared half-way along the coull road, i realised my rear tyre had flatted.
though i tested and reviewed the cycplus pump, all had been accomplished in the safety and comfort of my back garden, since punctures can rarely be achieved to order. therefore, yesterday's real puncture was the first i'd suffered since acquiring the electronic pump. by comparison with the challenge strada tyres previously fitted to the ritchey, the vittoria corsas currently in place are a darned sight easier to fit and remove, though i cannot but say that i still prefer the challenge tyres. however, it was simplicity itself to remove the wheel and inner-tube, and fit the spare in preparation for continuing the journey to debbie's.
the cycplus pump offers the facility to set a target pressure, at which point the pump cuts out, preventing over-inflation, but it's necessary to have the valve at the bottom of the wheel in order to view the gauge as the tyre is inflated. rather than fit the pump directly onto the valve, i prefer to use the short extension hose, which threads into the pump nozzle and is a push fit onto the valve stem. the latter is a desirable feature, since i have previously suffered from screw-on hoses that removed the valve core when unscrewed, letting out the air which was often a physical struggle to put there in the first place. keeping an eye on the gauge is not a concern over the cut-off point, but to ensure that the air is actually filling the tube as desired.
because the device is quite loud during the inflation process, it's almost impossible to listen for air that might be leaking from the hose/valve junction, so keeping a beady eye on the display strikes me as a good idea. first time round, i struggled to get the pressure above 45psi, simply because i failed to affix the hose correctly, however, i figured it would get me to debbie's and i could top it up from the safety and comfort of the outside seating. however, as luck would have it, only a matter of metres along the road, just at the entrance to the distillery, i realised that the tyre bead was not seated correctly, necessitating deflation of the tyre to re-seat it, and, tautologically, subsequent reinflation.
if you recall, from a few paragraphs further up the page, cycplus contend that there is only sufficient battery power to re-inflate a tyre of 700x28 a total of two times before it runs out. given that pilot error had ostensibly overused some of that power on the first attempt, i had to hope that my second attempt would be more successful. by way of a spoiler alert, it was, with the display still registering two bars of battery power even after it was up to pressure. so, for once, i fear the manufacturer may have been a tad conservative in its estimates, which is, i might add, of great comfort. having adopted this means of tyre inflation following a puncture, i no longer carry a mini-pump as backup, and now winter approaches.
you see, even if i mess up when attempting to engage a press-fit pump on the valve, a mechanical pump will never stop working. get the process wrong with the e-pump, however, and, just like those co2 energised pumps, the possibility exists that i might well be stranded quite some distance from home in wind-driven rain, with no available means of inflating my tyre. as i'm sure i've said on many occasions, "technology is great until it isn't".
even with the exchange rate having improved between dollars and sterling, we're still looking at around £60 direct from the manufacturer. you can buy an actual pump for between £10 and £20, one which, barring accident, will continue to work forever, without ever once having to be plugged in. granted, there's very little in the way of physical effort when using the cycplus, but it may take a few more enforced occasions before i'm totally convinced.
monday 16 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................weird
following steve hackett's departure from prog rock band, genesis, in october 1977, the remaining three members released an album eponymously entitled, and then there were three, which, tautologically, was perfectly true. and on that particular album (and i'm happy to raise my hand here and admit that i may have the wrong song) there's a track titled 'the lady lies' on which, according to keyboard player, tony banks, drummer phil collins heard a different rhythm than that initially intended, resulting in arguably a more intriguing song than may originally have been the case.
it's a situation possibly equalled by a great number of drummers, self included. when introduced to songs i have not heard before, i have, on occasion, played a rhythm not present on the original recording, simply because i have unknowingly arrived at my own drum part from an angle not obvious to the band responsible for the original version. worryingly, on more than single occasion, on hearing the 'correct' version, i have failed to comprehend from which direction they approached the tune.
though i do not believe it was ever committed to tape, cd or vinyl, on attending a peter gabriel concert in the late-lamented apollo theatre in glasgow, he surprised every member of the audience by performing a startlingly original version of marvin gaye's heard it through the grapevine, one which blindsided everyone until reaching the chorus. there is a version available on youtube (link below), and though i confess it sounds a tad more obvious some 47 years later, at the time, midst an impressive light show and surrounded by glow-sticks, its origins were perceived a little differently.
the point here is that what seems glaringly obvious to one set of individuals, can easily be interpreted entirely differently by another. the velocipedinal realm may well be a case in point, though in essence we're looking at the subculture that has adopted the e-bike as its standard bearer. while car manufacturers strive to improve their environmental credibility by setting dates by which they will no longer produce vehicles featuring infernal combustion engines, the marketing budgets available to the majority can easily sustain some multi-directional thinking. by this i mean, production of, or at the very least, lending their brand name to the production of e-bikes.
though i believe porsche have included electric vehicles in their current range, it is the raspy roar of a rear mounted, air-cooled petrol engine that has earned them their performance stripes. so what better way to head the environmentalists off at the pass, by embarking upon a range of porsche-badged e-bikes? after all, following their consummate success within the sports car market, how hard would it be to repeat that success in the bicycle world? well, a bit like phil collins, different interpretations can provide quite different results.
rick vosper, writing on america's bicycle retailer website has probably hit the nail on the head. pointing out that athletics brand nike has made at least three separate attempts to enter the cycling apparel market, and arguably failed on each occasion. and why? mr vosper's well-supprted contention is that the bicycle market "is just too idiosyncratic, insular and downright weird to merge well with large consumer goods companies' business practices." so are we as weird as he contends?
probably, yes.
look at it this way; on a sunday monrning, in a ritual repeated all across the country, my compatriots and i climb aboard often inordinately expensive bicycles, clad in lycra shorts and frequently colourful jerseys, wearing invariably white or brightly coloured footwear that clips onto our pedals, topped off with a lump of polystyrene on our heads. to make matters worse, currently, there is no legal compulsion to wear that lump of polystyrene. and just to add to such apparent eccentricity, all the above is frequently to be witnessed in weather conditions most folks wouldn't take their dogs out. imagine, if you will, a motor car designed by the bicycle industry; i'm not sure what that would look like, but i'd imagine the design priorities of trek, specialized, merida et al, would be a tad different than those of ford, vauxhall and kia.
as mr vosper's acutely observed column states, "these are huge international companies with massive engineering departments and marketing budgets bigger than most bike brands' annual revenues. And they all clearly have expressed an interest in adding e-bikes to their EV lineups. Yet their meaningful success rate to date stands at exactly zero-point-zero percent."
if there is hope for the human race, i think it might rest upon the eccentrics of the world, but mostly those who remain unaware of their eccentricities. riders comprising the nation's sunday morning bike rides are the perfect example. those of us who make up the islay peloton reside within an island society in which agriculture and distilling predominates, so you can perhaps imagine just how we are perceived by the pot-ale tanker drivers and the farmers in their large, kick-ass tractors. there is no doubting their courtesy towards us, quite probably due the above mentioned perceptions, and the fact that we're likely regarded as harmless.
but come the revolution, eccentricity might be the very aspect that saves us all.
i heard it through the grapevine - peter gabriel
sunday 15 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................bricks
moore's law, is effectively not a physical law as such (like ohm's law, or the law of gravity), but more of an observation. it originated in 1965 from the co-founder of fairchild semiconductor and contended that the number of transistors featured on an integrated circuit, would more or less double every couple of years. it's a prediction that has pretty much held since 1975 and thus been categorised as a law, though currently there is much debate over whether the law persists; nvidia says no, intel says yes. but just like the quest for persistent economic growth, it has to come to an end at some point. however, irrespective of whether it will be possible to cram even more transistors onto circuit boards, doubtless technology will move to concentrate even more on artificial intelligence and the late gordon moore can fade into history.
what we need now is a prominent member of the velocipedinal world to portend of a 'law' that might govern the application of electronics to the cycling realm. not to forecast its eventual demise, but quite how progress will be made and which particular aspects might be affected by an influx of electrons.
when i was a small boy, my bicycle featured a three digit counter attached to the front fork, actuated by means of a metal pin clamped to one of the spokes. quite what this counter was intended to represent, i'm not sure i ever knew. certainly thre was no glory to be gained from informing my parents that i had cycled 132. digital cycle computers emerged in the early 1970s, but the one that most of us of a certain age will recall, is the once ubiquitous avocet which clamped to the handlebars and featured two large buttons, a digital readout, and a circular bracket on the end of a wire that fitted to the front wheel hub flange, allowing the calculation of distance and one or two other notable parameters.
the problem for ham-fisted mechanics such as myself, was remembering to disconnect the wire before removing the stem and bars. i (and probably many others) ruined any number of cycle computers by such means. the advantage that those long-forgotten devices provided over modern gps units, was the ability to rack up a few extra kilometres by simply spinning the front wheel. it was suggested to me by more than one cheating cyclist, that affixing two magnets to the spokes would effectively double my speed and distance with no extra effort.
almost everyone nowadays, however, is in thrall to a wireless gps unit affixed to a handlebar bracket, measuring and displaying any number of informative numbers to those who care about such things. though i would scarcely class myself amongst their number, my own garmin offers time-of-day, distance, speed, average speed, number of calories, gradient, temperature and battery level, with plenty more in reserve if i ever get bored. i can also race against a virtual cyclist, see a map of where i've been or where i'm going and a lot of other stuff i don't understand. it's capable of connecting to a heart-rate monitor, a cadence sensor and i've even used it with an ant+ power meter.
and only last sunday, on emerging from debbie's after my toastie, an information screen provided an access code for the smartphone that i do not own, something i've never seen before, and didn't realise it could offer.
other members of the sunday peloton are fastidious about uploading their recorded data to strava on return to the homestead, but i'd imagine that the holy grail is so doing without having the device tethered to a smartphone in a rear pocket, or needing to connect to a computer after that welcome shower. and wouldn't you know that someone else has not only had that idea, but had the technical disposition to achieve it on our behalf. the swiss tech startup jaspr will make the notion of connecting to a phone, something that we'll only have to remember with a grin. jespr's bike computer features an 'always on' mobile data connection via an internal sim, meaning everything can take place in real time within the computer, including over-the-air route and training plans, as well as synchronisation with strava, training peaks and komoot, to name but a few.
and as something of a spoiler for those who have splashed out on an expensive crank-based power meter, the manufacturer has said that the device can estimate live power output from other available data. and on the safety front, it can be paired with a bicycle radar, providing the ability to show approaching traffic on the large display. early-bird customers will receive a free data plan until the end of 2025 before a £4.25 per month subscription kicks in. but the best bit for those early adopters is that it's available now at a price of £480.
of course, it sounds very much like the device that might well open pandora's box, connecting cyclists to the big wide world from which cycling once acted as an antidote.
saturday 14 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................not all black and white
when i was a teenager and still at school, i rode a raleigh twenty shopping bike, featuring a sturmey-archer three-speed hub gear, flat handlebars and a large tartan covered, removable wooden box attached to the chromed rear rack. while the 'cool' factor was not only non-existent, but possibly in negative figures, for a school pupil with a daily paper round, it was the very embodiment of pragmatism; that tartan box could carry a substantial number of over-sized sunday newspapers. recognising that this particular bike (which i tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully to have replaced with a ten-speed racer) was not only a necessity for said paper round (and an after-school job delivering prescriptions for a local pharmacy) but a means of getting to and from school, my parents insistently enforced a systematic method of maintenance.
thus, once a week (usually a saturday morning) i was required to oil the chain with a can of three-in-one oil that occupied pride of place on the window shelf in the garden shed, check that the tyres were appropriately inflated, and that the gears continued to function as mr sturmey and mr archer had intended. i would be fibbing if i said i could recall the cost of a can of three-in-one oil in the early 1970s, but a quick check yesterday elicited that, today, a can is priced at around £5.
as is still the current advice for lubricating a bicycle chain, avoidance of aerosol lubes and spraying them indiscriminantly in the direction of said chain is paramount. since the principal degree of wear occurs on the rollers that surround each rivet, those are the strategic points to which a single drip of lubricant ought to be applied. though neither of my parents had any experience in the realm of cycle maintenance, they were sufficiently aware to instil such lubrication methodology in my brother and i (who rather unfairly, did possess a ten-speed racer).
it may remain an essential truth even in the present, but those 1970s cans of three-in-one appeared to have been prioduced in the same factory that manufactured magic porridge pots for i can scarcely recall a time when the oil ever ran out.
modern velocipedinal maintenance techniques are several levels more sophisticated; i can but imagine if team ineos' mechanics were to wield cans of three-in-one oil when fettling the corporate pinarellos, i tend to imagine they would be the subject of untrammeled derision by their reputedly more enlightened peers in the hotel car park. though i have previously indicated that my favoured means of lubricating my twelve-speed campagnolo chain was that of a can of wd40, i have moved closer to the 21st century by making use of a bottle of liquid wax chain lubricant. i can't say i comprehend quite how that is formulated, but it does appear to work reasonably efficiently, though heavy rain disperses it a tad quicker than i'd prefer.
what i have not paid attention to, however, is whether there are any notable speed differences to be observed between either of the above methods. because, essentially, i lube the chain to prevent it turning bright orange after a few hours in the rain, and to reduce the maintenance bill by having to replace the chain less frequently. i have not conducted any meaningful research into the subject, but i tend to think the above strategy is common to the majority of the pelotonese.
however, the day of the simple and effective chain lube (such as three-in-one) is apparently no more. i have, in the past, reviewed a number of chain lubricants which, other than their once sole purpose, promise to reduce friction to the point where it will register as additional watts on the power meter integrated with your expensive crankset. the fact that the majority who find themselves responsible for purchasing such products are the same as you and i, and more than likely to arrive at the coffee stop along with our compatriots, no matter how many extra watts we have at our disposal. it is an often disregarded point.
as a case in point, the once disparaged folks at absolute black, have recently issued a 50ml, drip bottle of their graphenlube, advertised as the 'world's fastest & longest lasting hydrocarbon based chain lube containing graphene'. leaving aside the fact that the majority of the world seems committed to freeing itself from the tyranny of hydrocarbons, it underlines how chain lubes have excused themselves from the mundane task of preventing the chain from rusting and wearing out, to being at the forefront of making us all ride increasingly faster. you have to admit; it provides far better marketing copy.
however, as with every promise of free speed, it comes at a price. firstly the promises provided as part of the contract were arrived at by rotating the humble chain at 40kph, 25 degrees celcius and 25% humidity. it's a speed that very few of us will attain frequently enough to verify, while islay has reached such a temperature only once this year. and i'm embarrassed to admit that 40kph is not a number that has troubled the display of my garmin for several decades. it's just like those car adverts promising miles per gallon with the caveat that your driving style might not achieve similar results.
but assuming temperature, humidity and velocity are within your sphere of influence, you might baulk at the cost. the aforementioned price of a fiver for three-in-one brought you 200ml. absolute black's graphenlube provides only an eighth of that for a shade under £35, making the equivalent quantity a somewhat alarming £280. that rather undermines their claim to be the 'longest lasting'. you could re-lube your chain with three-in-one, far more often for the same money, and still be in time for coffee.
but which one to choose?
friday 13 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................think different(ly)
despite my many misgivings over the need for quite such a large number of so-called technological developments surfacing recently, on the whole, this must be one of the best times to be alive as a cyclist. though there are price tags high enough to start divorce proceedings, there are also many considerably lower, offering stunning value for money. granted, the need for much of the above is a debate that might continue even when mathieu van der poel has retired, and the jury is out on whether they can deliver all that they promise, but if you want a quality road bike, with carbon wheels and electronic shifting, such can be acquired at remarkably favourable (all comments are relative) cost.
only yesterday, i was on the receiving end of a press release from french wheel supremos, mavic promoting their cosmic s 42 disc wheelset, featuring, as the name might suggest, 42mm carbon rims. the standard j-bend, flattened spokes are laced between those and an instant drive 360 freewheel which is available for shimano/sram and (surprisingly), campagnolo. all-up weight for a pair is 1.6kg and the price tag is expected to be less than the magic £1000. it's only a shame that mavic haven't seen fit to offer a matt black version.
if that last sentence has engendered a quizzical look upon your brow, you may have missed camapgnolo's release on tuesday, of the 's' version of their super-record wireless groupset, a set of componentry that is available only in a matt black finish. according to vicenza this release "marks the new frontier of technology applied to cycling", proving, if nothing else, that the italians are not backwards in coming forward. with that letter 's' abbreviating the definition special edition, you and i would be well within our rights to query just what it is that makes it so special?
though press releases occasionally take a sentence or two to get to the kernel of that which they announce, on the first read-through i can only confess that i was concerned i'd missed something. on second reading, i was leaning more towards the concern that campagnolo had missed something. first off, the price. a quick perusal of the interwebs elucidated the knowledge that the original super-record wireless groupset can be acquired for a mere £3,800. according to the press-release, the special edition will retail at £3,500; common thought would seem to centre around the possibility that, if the original proved a (large) smidgeon too pricey, this new version is unlikely to make much difference. in other words, it appears to be aimed at precisely the same market as its more expensive brother.
there are, of course, a few differences to justify its existence in the shape of three new solid carbon cranksets: 52x36, 53x39 and, for the sturdy of thigh, a 54x39, reportedly a mere 150g heavier than their more svelte predecessors (there is a power meter version available, but it is considerably less svelte than the standard version). these cranksets can be combined with three cassette combinations: 10/27, 10/29 and a new 11/32. the former two are presumably able to take advantage of the revised freehub developed for the ekar gravel groupset. but in true nonsensical fashion, the promoted highlight of the emergence of this special edition is that it arrives only in matt black, as indeed, do matching bora ultra wto and bora wto carbon wheelsets.
and that, said charlie brown, is it. though i was and will likely remain a dyed-in-the-wool campagnolo enthusiast, this must surely be the non-event of the year? it might have made more explicable sense had vicenza simply offered the original sr wireless groupset in a matt finish, but this is being positioned as something desirably new. it features not even a veneer of bling by way of enticement, for vicenza added that the groupset makes, "more moderate use of extreme materials." disappointingly, there has been no apparent attempt to improve the aesthetics of what is possibly the least attractive groupset on the market (particularly if married with the power-meter crankset).
i consider myself underwhelmed (though i have not yet ridden a bicycle equipped with its matt blackness).
thursday 12 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................big brother
the recent ticketmaster debacle brought about by the sale of tickets for next year's reunion between the gallagher brothers, has highlighted two connected, yet separate sets of circumstances. firstly, i feel it prudent to point out that lucifer's place of residence would first have to freeze irretrievably before i would make anything like even a half-hearted attempt to attend an oasis gig, but so full of disdain has been the media for the so-called dynamic pricing fiasco that has blighted tickets sales, that, whether oasis is a subject of interest or not, it has been very hard (ie impossible) to avoid. only yesterday did which? recommend that the band and its agencies refund the additional costs unwittingly incurred by those queuing online for tickets. given that one of the gallagher brothers has already implored disgruntled fans to shut up!, the likelihood of any refunds taking place, seems akin to the chance of my sitting anywhere near one of next year's stages.
in the process of highlighting the ticketing iniquities, it transpired that the three promoters with an interest in the gallaghers' reunion tour all have links to a single company: live nation, a multi-national company which not only owns ticketmaster but has fingers in several related pies. for instance, one (df concerts), is 20% owned by a mr simon moran, the remaining shares possessed by a subsidiary of live nation. given the purported velocipedinal nature of this blog, i do not propose to follow this down the rabbit hole, but sufficie it to say that america's live nation effectively controls access to a vast swathe of contemporary music entertainment. it's probably safe to say that's not a particularly equitable situation.
however, though considerably less predatory at our expense, we are, to a certain degree, at the beck and call of an industry that appears to be providing us with the very items of which we dream. the reality is, however, that those products have, to a certain degree, been foisted upon us at the behest of said industry; we only think those products originate from our strongest desires. for instance, i would be interested to hear of any production carbon bicycle that can be purchased from the shop floor featuring what i might euphemistically refer to as 'proper' wheels. by this i mean those which feature alloy rims, laced three-cross to similarly constituted hubs by thirty-two, double butted stainless steel spokes.
to a certain degree, it matters not at all whether you harbour desires to possess such a wheelset, the point is, that being the case, you'd likely have to commission a wheelbuilder. almost every stock bicycle these days, whether from trek, merida, bianchi, colnago, specialized or the other guys in the band, will feature factory-built wheels, often superlative components which we have been educated to desire predominantly on the basis that their often proprietary straight-pull spokes were effectively designed to make them more economic to manufacture.
it may also be possible to make a similar case against the carbon frames with which we are presented, the majority of which are indistinguishable from their peers, other than by the name on the downtube. how many of you knew you needed a gravel bike before the industry decided for you? how many of us ride fast enough to harvest the benefits of aero? likewise, electronic shifting and hydraulic disc-brakes. thankfully, carbon is not totally ubiquitous, but the 'problem', if perceived as such, is an industry apparently concentrated on continual change to ensure we remain their annual customers. i might illustrate my contention with a recent example.
a relatively recent recruit to the sunday morning peloton returned from a mainland visit with a new bicycle, purchased from one of britain's most respected frame-builders and retailers. the frame is of welded titanium, cleanly built and augmented with a pre-purchase bike-fit. however, the shimano groupset is of the electronic variety, not because the gent specifically desired electronics, but because that was the only option available without a custom, and therefore more expensive build. and that has arisen from shimano's desire to sell electronic groupsets, which, ubiquitously, are likely to feature hydraulic disc brakes. as does my friend's new bike, affixed to stock mavic aero wheels - another non-optional extra.
we've been over this ground on several previous occasions, but the demand for disc brakes did not emanate from the professional classes; famously, leisure riders had access to this technology long before the uci granted easement to the professionals. at no time in history did any professional rider exclaim "i would have won, had my bicycle been equipped with hydraulic disc brakes." of course, despite this monologue appearing to take the shape of a rant, it's possibly not the rant you believe it to be. in essence, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with carbon, electronica or hydraulics, individually or collectively; that they work precisely as advertised is undeniable. what is of concern (for some of us, at least), is the foisting of such technology upon the great unwashed, promoted by marketing campaigns that seek to convince us that not only was it our idea, but that we have longed for such technology for many a long year.
of course, the only suffering to be witnessed under this scenario is an incalculable number of bank accounts, the owners of which are (mostly) perfectly satisfied with their occasionally expensive purchases, even if much of the technology is largely surplus to requirements (how many of you 'really' need a power meter?). but when the bicycle industry eventually turns to the dark-side, leaving the jedi to its own, depleted devices, don't say i didn't warn you.
wednesday 11 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................movement
in law, a bicycle is defined as a carriage for use on the highway, but cyclists are demonstrably not in charge of 'mechanically propelled' vehicles, so, in law, do not have to adhere to exactly the same rules as motorists. this state of affairs was first made clear to me by a police constable with whom i once perambulated the highways and byways of islay. as we returned to the village of bowmore via the descent past the hydro generating station, i was briefly able to exceed the speed limit advertised by 30mph signs on each side of the road. convinced that i had managed to escape censure for those few salutory seconds above this legally imposed ceiling, my colleague pointed out that, in uk law, bicycles were not deemed to be filed under the heading of vehicles, exempting me from any potential prosecution.
however, such a get-out-of-jail-free clause was quickly undermined by his pointing out that, should i have been able to persist with such a lofty velocity, any attendant (on-duty) police presence would doubtless have resulted in my being apprehended on an appropriately related charge.
however, though i'm very poorly versed in legal technicalities, the lack of the bicycle being legally defined as a vehicle, would presumably explain why, currently, we, as cyclists, find ourselves exempt from any of the relevant taxes frequently aimed in the direction of the motorist. it's also possible that those selfsame regulations have staved off any potential helmet regulation, though i'm sure that safety concerns might confer some consideration in the future. in 1920, prime minister, david lloyd george, introduced a road tax to help pay for a road network upon which the new-fangled automobile might reach the parts that other means of transport had failed to reach. however, seventeen years later in 1937, under the premiership of neville chamberlain, this road tax was abolished, moving the burden of road construction and maintenance costs to general taxation. yet, despite the gap of eightly seven years, cyclists are still frequently brow-beaten by irate motorists delayed by a few seconds, forcibly suggesting that we "pay road tax".
an educated riposte that this is something to which we already contribute financially, never quite seems to result in the apology that ought surely to have followed. but then again, it's essentially an undeniable truth that bicycles are incapable of inflicting as much physical wear upon britain's road system as are today's overweight crop of sports utility and heavier electric vehicles. it is surely imprudent that those responsible for the bulk of wear-and-tear on our roads, do not castigate their fellow, two-wheeled, road users for an iniquity of which they are not guilty?
however, the reality of such a situation was brought ever closer on receipt of an e-mail in today's inbox, suggesting that i might wish to support a petition against prime minister, keir starmer's proposed introduction of changes to the tax bands for vehicles (an important distinction in our discussion), and the introduction of a 'pay-per-mile' system. in order to garner my sympathy for the cause, the missive continued to assert that this proposed imposition represents a 'potential threat on multiple fronts', striking as it does "...at the heart of hardworking caregivers, delivery drivers and businesses across the uk", combined, as it is apparently likely to be, with planned fuel-duty increases come the month of october.
in mitigation, it's worth pointing out that businesses and delivery drivers (which i would have thought live under similar categorisations), are likely to simply add any additional costs onto the amount charged to the customer. i did observe, however, that, while dissension was also extended to sympathy for the 'average motorist', it was something of an afterthought. those responsible for recruiting my attention to such motoring devastation, also accorded these government proposals as a threat to our right of privacy and freedom of movement. it seems that exaggeration is alive and well and living at change.org.
the principal thrust of the argument seems to revolve around the contention that the proposed changes are not in the interests of the uk public (apparently an interchangeable term for 'motorists') or uk businesses. however, if i might return to an assertion of my own, outlined above, cars, trucks and the like are almost exclusively responsible for causing damage and wear to the uk's road network; if current levels of general taxation are insufficient to maintain those roads, then perhaps implementing a 'pay-per-mile' tariff, is the most appropriate solution? should it indeed, come to pass, it might deal with the problem on two fronts; firstly it could potentially generate sufficient revenue to fix the ever-growing millions of potholes spreading across the country. and secondly, if dearer fuel and increased taxes might cause one or two second thoughts on behalf of those about to drive a few hundred metres to the local averagemarket, or inclined to drive to their place of work when the same could easily be accomplished by walking or cycling, then i'm afraid that, in this case at least, i believe i might find myself on the side of government.
i have related at length the number of islay residents who drive considerably less than one mile to reach school, the shops, or work, a possible subject for reconsideration if likely to diminish their bank accounts. i would imagine that such instances are greatly multiplied in larger, mainland conurbations. anecdotal evidence would suggest that a majority are in favour of measures that might improve britain's environmental credentials, but often solely on the basis that it not inconvenience the anointed. would i be quite so smug were the government proposals to include cyclists? probably not. but considering the lack of weight imposed by our tyre tracks upon the firmament and the complete lack of any greenhouse gas emissions, it would be a brave government which strayed onto such hallowed ground.
personally (and in common with many others), my own environmental contribution consists of choosing not to own or drive a motor car, walking where pragmatic, and riding an 'acoustic' bicycle around 160km per week. persuasion, even if allied to economic concerns, can take many forms. i won't be signing the petition.
tuesday 10 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................