..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

contention

'industry' is the title of a track on king crimson's three of a perfect pair', a yellow covered album released in march of 1984, the third and final studio album released by that particular band lineup (following 'discpline' and 'beat') consisting of adrian belew, robert fripp, tony levin and drummer/percussionist, bill bruford. entirely by coincidence, the specific track referred to, perfectly demonstrated the effects possible from a set of simmons electronic drums when played by a master of the art. bass player levin, in combination with bruford created a distinctive clatter that could only be appraised as representative of 'heavy' industry. that said, the cacophony bore no resemblance as to how most of us characterise the cycle industry.

it would by naive to place the cycle industry as the sole weatherer of economic headwinds, however apposite that might appear. for a wide variety of reasons, few are the industries that can currently claim to be on the rise, but it seems that the cycling industry has yet to figure out what works and what doesn't, despite what most of us would consider to be many years of experience. as we have previously discussed, the notion that dramatically increased sales during the pandemic would continue in perpetuity seems to have become the standard response throughout, despite clear evidence to the contrary. not unnaturally, this led to a whole lot more bicycles in the supply chain than was ultimately desirable.

make no mistake, the cycle industry was not alone in its mistaken perceptions; the whisky industry appears to have followed suit, a misapprehension, just like those bicycle companies, with which they are still grappling to come to terms. the cycle industry was effectively hit with a double-whammy as the pandemic ended; the need to replenish seriously depleted stock and a simultaneous requirement to increase advance orders to take account of supply disruptions from the far east. when the sales graphs dropped off the edge, those extra orders suddenly looked like a distinct over-reaction.

on a far smaller scale, situations such as those outlined above could happen to any one of us involved in producing all sorts of everything. but in our favour, few, if any of us are highly experienced, highly paid executives with access to copious amounts of sales and manufacturing data that ought ultimately to result in accurate results. quite why and where that failed has yet to be clearly explained. however, the pandemic ended several years ago, surely leaving adequate time for everyone to get their respective houses in order? unfortunately, that seems not to be the case.

the 2025 edition of eurobike ended yesterday, the annual exposition demonstrating every aspect of the industry that keeps our bikesheds replete with the latest and greatest. but it's also an opportunity for the industry to talk to itself, highlighting any successes and commiserating with its woes. conferences featured throughout the week highlighted approaches to sustainable growth, how to reach new target groups, and explore the potential of emerging markets. i'm sure you catch my drift. but according to a report in the financial times, the chief executive of lobby group peopleforbikes, jenn dice, predicted sales flatlining across the pond for the rest of this decade. and while europe appears to be faring better, it's not completely out of the woods.

partial blame might once again be laid at the doors of those trusted to negotiate industry headwinds. you and i may be well used to the vicissitudes of the cycle industry, accustomed to new stuff on a regular basis and ostensibly well-disposed to buy in to the paradigm. but many of those who bought bicycles during the pandemic, and there were many, are not those we would naturally classify as 'cyclists', at least not in the manner we consider ourselves to be. having bought a bicycle, they see no pressing reason to replace it only a few years later, opting instead, simply to have it serviced, repaired or, occasionally, upgraded. prior to 2020, that's not always the way things worked.

in a similar manner to politicians of any disposition you care to mention, it appears that the executives charged with managing their companies' commercial futures could well be too far distant from those whose behaviour they try to predict. well do i know that those of my acquaint who are not of the sunday morning peloton, would expect to have an entire bicycle (with mudguards) for the price you and i would happily pay for a rear derailleur. and having bought a bicycle for a few hundred pounds, none of them see any mileage in buying another one only three years later. that is presumably the sort of knowledge that would have industry executives rest lightly on future stock orders. but i would respectfully suggest that the circles in which they move, might not be as aware of this as perhaps they ought to be.

and then, of course, there's donald's tariffs. according to the same ft report, brompton's ceo, will butler-adams told olaf storbeck that the latter had given him cause to reconsider. originally planning to open two niche stores in the usa, he had opted to postpone, suggesting that the president's on/off tariff threats were not conducive to signing long-term property leases or hiring staff.

however, a bit like watching a play or opera, what goes on behind the scenes is not of our concern. as long as we can buy a bike in the right size and colour when we so desire, who actually cares for the woes of the supply chain and the management reponsible? and even if you do care, there's really very little you can do about it. that said, and given the years of experience accrued since bicycles were first made, are we not entitled to expect better?

image: eurobike frankfurt: frank baumhammel

monday 30 june 2025

style victim

though i'll admit i rarely wear it, i own an bright green endura cycle helmet, a safety device that came with a zipped case to keep it in pristine condition. and in pristine condition it remains for that very reason. that said, i have always justified its bright appearance by alleging that bright green is decidedly faster than any other colour. and in the current climate, where any augmentation has to be justified by a lengthy period of wind-tunnel testing, what's undoubtedly missing from cycling's fickle firmament, is any attempt to quantify whether colour has any tangible bearing on the efficacy of any given product. surely an area that needs further research?

however i've noticed a preference of my own when it comes to tyres; partially this is as a result of my favoured brand (challenge) whose products principally favour amber/tan sidewalls. the question is, therefore, is my choice of tyre predicated solely on this aspect of their construction; am i impressed more by their tread pattern, or, have i fallen victim to the sponsorship paradigm that has impressed me more than i'd like to admit? or is it perhaps a combination of all three? i cannot deny that, having noticed that my american friend, richard sachs, rides challenge (admittedly of the tubular variety) and given his no nonsense approach to all matters velocipedinal, basically if they're good enough for richard, they're good enough for me.

but, i believe my choice of road tyres may be further influenced by a comment provided by a professional tyre technician several years ago at the glasgow start of the tour of britain. within a series of gazebos emblazoned with the continental marque, i enquired of a polo-shirted individual if it was possible to acquire a pair of clinchers featuring the bobble tread pattern favoured by their competition tubulars. his response was not what i'd expected.

according to the fellow's honesty, the tread pattern on the tubulars had remained the same for years, because the pros, he said, tend to ride whatever the mechanics fit to the wheels, and the latter will fit whatever the tyre company supplies. tread patterns on bicycle tyres are reputedly far less of a factor than on car tyres, for instance, predominantly due to the substantial difference in speed. however, the gentleman went on to admit that tyre treads on the clincher tyres constructed for you and i, have more to do with aesthetics, because the consumer is always looking for something new. having ridden a wide variety of tyres in my career, i tend to believe that.

but is there any real difference between all-black tyres and their amber-walled peers? reputedly the all-black version is a tad more rigid and resistant to punctures, while eschewing flexibility that champions a more comfortable ride on those with tan sidewalls. and it's notable that the latter are generally absent from the tubeless variety due to the aforementioned lack of rigidity. but that scarcely addresses the style factor that may, or may not have been of importance in the purchasing decision. i doubt i would see too much dissent from the contention that tan sidewalls just look far better than their black equivalent. i would argue there is little that's better pleasing to the eye, than a road or cyclocross bicycle sporting a brand new pair of tan sidewall tyres.

but like many desirabilities, there is a downside, one that, certainly in the hebrides, arises very soon after fitting if your road bike features rim brakes. as a pertinent example, i recently bought a brand new pair of challenge strada tan-sidewall clinchers, which display a finely judged herringbone tread pattern. except, on the very first day of riding, surface water and several rainshowers meant that, on return to the croft, it was already easy to see dirty streaks on those light-coloured sidewalls as a result of having braked several times en-route, leaving wet, congealed brake dust on my nice new tyres. this was particularly noticeable on the drive-side rear. conversely, the challenge chicane clinchers fitted to my cyclocross bike (which features disc-brakes), are still reasonably stylish after a year of use. at least there's one benefit of disc-brakes.

on return from a delivery trip to debbie's on friday afternoon, i grabbed my green oil great big brush, some soapy water, and scrubbed the rear tyre, more or less to little effect, but at least it made me feel better. i'm not even going to ask the question; i'm obviously unbelievably (stylishly) shallow.

sunday 29 june 2025

electric light

we've been here before, but in a slightly different guise, the revisit prompted by something new in the e-bike realm. however, as is my wont, i'll begin with drums, and in a notably thematic segway, e-drums. way back in the 1980s, the first practical electronic drums to make any impression on the percussive market, emanated from the expertise of dave simmons, whose octagonal and often brightly coloured drum pads were employed by many from duran duran to bill bruford. in fact, the formation of the latter's first edition of earthworks was prompted by the ever-expanding simmons technology, allowing the endlessly experimental bruford to connect the pads to a synthesiser, allowing him to play melodic patterns. the hexagonal pads made it relatively easy to keep the pads in close proximity to each other, and their lack of any substantial depth meant they were easy to pack into one case and transport, relative to acoustic drums.

oddly and markedly, bruford's interest in electronic drums was promulgated by the fact that they weren't acoustic drums, offering him the opportunity to play sounds not readily associated with the drummer in the band. however, simmons demise was brought about by a distinct lack of quality control as the electronics became ever more sophisticated, leaving a gap in the market eventually filled by yamaha and roland (two name two early pioneers of the commercially available and economically priced electronic drumsets). their pads were somewhat smaller than those developed by dave simmons and round rather than exotically shaped. however, the sole purpose of those early (and contemporary) electronic drumsets was portability coupled with ease of choice when it came to drum sounds. the thought of emulating bruford's synthesised sounds seems not to have occurred to the japanese.

however, despite no practical need for electronic drum pads to resemble acoustic drums, since there was no need for any resonant chamber or range of diameters, recent developments in the e-drum market have centred around making the drumsets look identical to regular acoustic drums, completely undermining any thoughts of portability, yet for no explicable reason. in those cases, the sole advantage would appear to be no need to surround them with microphones when playing larger venues, and allowing the drummers to convince their audiences that they are playing real drums. i'm sure i need not point out that even a set of quality microphones is likely a whole lot cheaper than a set of imposter e-drums. and while the electronic brain offers a myriad of different digital drum sounds, do the audiences actually care?

from casual observation of visitors aboard e-bikes hired from islay e-wheels, none of their bicycles could be mistaken for the ordinary acoustic version, sporting, as they do, massively oversized downtubes and bottom bracket regions from which could be launched a space-x rocket. but of course, in normal e-bike guise, none of these are exactly lightweight, a disadvantage that would only impinge if the battery runs out. in the case of islay tourists (and probably those elsewhere), that seems like a possible happenstance, purely based on observation of a common disregard for any cycling or road-safety concerns. once the battery has run out of juice, e-bikes, by and large, are heavy vehicles to pedal unassisted. therefore, the holy grail would seem to be the development of motor and battery technology that obviates the common bulk associated with both, allowing the resultant bike frame to be every bit as svelte as those ridden by jonas, tadej, wout and mathieu.

i chose the latter rider because his alpecin world tour team is sponsored by canyon bikes, a german company which has just released one of the lightest e-road bikes on the market, with a modestly sized motor concealed within the bottom bracket area, bringing the flagship endurace:onflysub10 in at a comfortable 9.8kg, and at a retail price commensurate with top range acoustic carbon-fibre road bikes. other manufacturers of slimline, high-end e-road bikes have achieved the profile by fitting the motor in the rear wheel hub, but that restricts the owner to the rear wheel supplied with the bicycle. canyon's endurace offers the same flexibility of component choice as possible on a real bike.

in truth, canyon - and there will be others along in the fullness of time - have effectively achieved the opposite of the electronic drum industry by taking a bulky starting point and slimmed it down, but is that an undertaking, the principal aim of which is to remove any visual differences between the acoustic road bike and its e-doppelganger, or simply the happy result of unrelated miniaturisation? and is/was it actually necessary?

granted, it is not my forte to run a bicycle company, therefore i must bow to the greater experience and knowledge of those who do, but i was under the (mis)apprehension, that those of us who own the finest road bikes that our modest incomes might allow, did so to test our mettle against the elements, the roads and the other members of our respective pelotons. where is the toil and sweat in doing so aboard a bicycle that looks no different from its non-electric peers, yet offers sufficient pedal-assist to nullify the ascending competition? after all, many of those who regularly participate in sunday morning bike rides all across the world, possess the ability to achieve considerably more than the 25kph average speed achievable on bikes such as the endurace. granted, the lack of a weight penalty means that there is less grunt work required when exceeding the legal limit of that motor, but assuming that is within your physical capability, why an e-bike in the first place?

the marketing behind such velocipedes is often keen to point out that it provides the less than die-hard roadie the opporchancity to keep up with their non-electronic peers. but surely the number who fit into that market is uncommercially small? in which case, i can only suppose that bicycles like canyon's endurace exist because they can, rather than because of unfulfilled demand. or is it more a case of wishing to join the happy throng, but without having to pay any dues. i cannot be the only one who has heard e-bike riders attest to riding their cycles as 'cheating', to which i have generally replied "cheating who?". however, i can't help thinking that the latest in slimline carbon e-road bikes have been designed with 'cheating' in mind.

mind you, that probably says more about me than it does about canyon.

saturday 28 june 2025

pointedly excessive

my inbox yesterday was in receipt of a missive from colnago promising to reveal tadej's choice of bicycle for the tour de france; whether he might opt for the less than snappily named v5rs or the equally poorly named y1rs. in order to provide the answer to that question, the reader (in this case, yours truly) was invited to click a link entitled, 'read the full story'. i know i ought to have restrained my forefinger, but since i was already half-way down the rabbit hole, what else would you have expected?

of course, giving away tactics that might fall into the hands of kuss, jorgenson, van aert and vingegaard would be a major faux-pas only a week away from the start of those three weeks in july, so i was prepared for less than promised. and just to prove me correct, colnago completely failed in the fulfilment stakes, while indulging in the expected marketing ploy en-route. true to form, by the time i had ploughed through the hyperbole, pointing out the somewhat laboured differences between the two framesets, i was really none the wiser as to which bicycle tadej was likely to favour while in french france. obviously enough, given their differing selling points, he's likely to use both, depending on how things are going towards defending his yellow jersey and the conditions offered by specific stages.

in the process, however, i learned that either we've been told fibs all those years, or uae team emirates xrg have made progress unbeknownst to their rivals. for a majority of professionals have admitted, over the years, that training can never re-create the demands and vicissitudes of racing, explaining in part, why top riders often participate in certain events without designs on the podium. in other words, they are using race conditions to hone their racing skills. however, as we delved into the whys and wherefores of colnago choice, uae team emirates performance manager, david herrero, enlightened us that such decisions are not necessarily made in advance, having adopted a 'rigorous, data-driven process'. it seems tadej's preference is not just conditioned by pretty colours.

however, the phrase that undermines common apprehension? "we conduct specific training sessions that faithfully replicate race conditions...", a direct contradiction of all that is held sacred within the velocipedinal realm. just when you thought you'd gained a firm grasp on world tour racing.

of course, looking at the bigger picture, the e-mail from colnago is just one of a myriad of salvos that began earlier this year, including the written word and youtube videos from the great and good. though i haven't watched it, i have already come across a presentation from former hard-man, jens voigt, fronted by an image that clearly states, 'pogacar wins here' accompanying an arrow pointing to courchevel. if i might sidetrack just a bit, i quote from an episode of the big bang theory in which sheldon and raj sit down to watch a movie, pre-empted by sheldon pointing out to raj 'in the book on which this film is based, that man is the killer'. watching such a movie while aware of the final outcome would surely ruin the experience?

the premise behind the majority of sporting events is that of the spectators being unaware of the outcome. that extends from the few minutes that cover a track sprint, to the three weeks that encompass a grand tour. if you're a pogacar fan, you will doubtless believe every pundit who has chosen him as the likely victor, while jonas fans will have chosen the obvious alternative. however, the fact that nobody knows for sure, is the very principle upon which the whole circus is based. and there's always the possibility that someone else from neither visma or uae might find themselves atop the podium in paris.

i realise that i'm repeating myself, as i have done so for the last few years, but can we not simply call a moratorium on predictive punditry? in the true spirit of the sport, might not we experience at least one year of slouching in the armchair every evening to listen (for the last time) to ned and david recount the excitement of each day's stage? because on 27 july, we'll all find out together.

image: sprint cycling agency

friday 27 june 2025

shifting responsibilities

fairly recently, i was given a small yet powerful battery powered front light, usb chargeable and with a fitment bracket that matches with the garmin bar-mounted bracket on which i regularly place... well, my garmin. and while i welcome this level of compatibility, it does mean that i would either require to leave the garmin at home, or attach yet another compatible bracket to my handlebars. with the uci mandating changes in bar width for 2026, an extra bracket might well find suitable space, but do i really want to ride a set of bars festooned with brackets and gizmos?

as bertie wooster might say, i fink-nottle.

however, the knotty problem of incompatibility within the bicycle industry is one that often frustrates its adherents, a state of affairs that often seems deliberately curated to engender just such a result. freehubs are very definitely a case in point, and with the leap from eleven, to twelve, to thirteen, any legacy compatibility between the likes of sram and shimano, seems likely to evaporate remarkably soon (if it hasn't already done so). and it's not simply a matter of inter-manufacturer compatibility. as mentioned to the point of boredom, my ritchey features campagnolo's record twelve-speed mechanical groupset; not the most expensive that they offer, but pricey nonetheless.

suffering last year from untoward transmission sounds, it became evident that the inner chainring had worn beyond the point of no return, necessitating a far more complex replacement that would have been the case in campagnolo's polished alloy heyday. however, on learning of the eyewatering price of a 36 tooth record inner chainring, i was moved to compare the compatibility of a similarly sized chorus chainring. while the aficionados amongst you will have seen the problem from afar, it gives me no pleasure to inform other campagnolo enthusiasts, that the two are of a different bolt-circle species. apparently vicenza thought it a wizard wheeze to aim chorus more at the leisure enthusiast, and allow for smaller rings than record is capable of accommodating.

but, you might think, with the onset of electronica and the manifest indifference of the humble electron, matters might soon be about to improve in favour of the cyclist and less towards the manufacturer, and recent announcements might well be seen to prove this conjecture correct in its assumptions.

while i have yet to grasp the efficacy of the classified hub, designed to obviate any need for a front derailleur, it seems that either they, or shimano, or both have come to a potentially pragmatic agreement. this notwithstanding the evidence that, while a dura-ace di2 front gear mech retails at prices ranging from £200 all the way up to £300, a classified rear hub is priced at almost £700, and requires a proprietary powershift cassette, adding another £150. build the hub into a wheel, and suddenly that front mech begins to look really cheap by comparison. and, as far as i can fathom, replacing the front mech is the sole point in favour of the classified hub.

however, providing the opportunity to throw away that £200 - £299 front derailleur, is an announcement that classified now offers the opportunity to operate their rear hub directly from your shimano di2 levers; no extra buttons or gizmos required. well, apart from their smartphone app which, according to the website, is mandatory. as, i believe, is shimano's di2 app, in order to alter the shift assignment from the front mech you've just thrown away, and apply it to classified's smart thru-axle, which you have conveniently added via the classified app.

at the risk of repeating myself, remember the days when we just used to go for a bike ride?

thursday 26 june 2025

good grief charlie brown (no. 243 in an ever-increasing series)

way back in the early 1990s, i converted one of the original muddy fox couriers (the white one) into a touring bicycle because i figured it would garner more use in that mode than it did pretending to be a mountain bike. this was relatively easily accomplished; the gearing was already sorted out, i had a pair of wheels built with 36 x three-cross spokes on campagnolo road hubs, and swapped the knobbly tyres for something a tad smoother and narrower. in my opinion, flat bars are not the ideal cockpit for touring, so i installed a stainless steel quill-stem with very short reach, but considerable height adjustment, and cinelli touring drop bars, before utilising the rack mounts to equip it with blackburn front (low-rider) and rear and seek out some excellent karrimor panniers (whatever happened to them?), the rear pair offering concealed rucksack straps for off-the-bike use.

sadly, my touring ambitions were well in excess of either my abilities or horizons, while my notion of just how to pack lightly were well wide of the mark. a few exploratory rides around the island with full panniers taught me just how much one lost in manouevrability with those front panniers, but the bicycle did ride as if on rails. there were a few trips around the west coast before family and work effectively put the kybosh on my projected world tour. that and the fact that my sense of geography was scarcely at primary school level (and it hasn't improved one iota). however, this all too brief fascination with the touring eventually became more heavily concentrated on the roads of islay and jura, a situation that remains to the present.

i was once a member of the cyclists' touring club(ctc), an organisation which subsequently became cycling uk in 2016, leading me to believe that i'm not the only one who doesn't tour any more. that conversion only nine years past, might well have been at the behest of the now uibiquitous gravel scene, when those intent on touring the four corners of the world (and the west coast of scotland), began fastening aesthetically challenged bike bags designed to fit snugly in all the nooks and crannies of the latest in bicycles; on top of the top tube, filling every last millimetre of the main triangle, under the down tube and those ludicrously trumpet-shaped bags sticking incongruously from the rear of the saddle. almost the sole survivor from ctc days was the bar bag, though in the transition, many seem to have lost the clear map window on the top.

there is a certain amount of undeniable logic in those often ridiculous looking bags. if thundering through the undergrowth, with nary a concern for one's surroundings, outboard panniers would be unlikely to survive the many points of contact with the aforementioned undergrowth. fitting bags in and around the frame tubes keeps bag and contents within the confines of the chosen path, and arguably aids and abets the bicycle's inherent stability. however, while bicycles can be more than just aesthetically pleasing, festooned with little, oddly-shaped bags that often seem woefully unequal to their contents inevitably results in a hideous looking object with little or anything in common with the sort of stuff that tadej and jonas ride.

i was recently moved to pen a piece for islay's local newspaper, offering hopefully useful advice for drivers and cyclists faced with the largely single track road network that pervades the outlying areas on islay and every part of jura. those of us domiciled in the centre of the universe deal with such pathways on a daily basis, but they seem to cause no end of problems for visiting traffic, velocipedinal and otherwise. included within said article was the acute observation that, were you in a hurry to scoot around the principality before heading off to one of our neighbours, a bicycle may not be the ideal mode of transport. cycling in the hebrides is more geared (pardon the pun) towards those with time to spare, intent on embracing the anecdotal manana attitude reputed to pervade the west coast mentality. but it seems this apprehension may be in error.

the gravel bike, it would appear, has morphed into two distinct species: one is aimed at those i have referred to above, while the other bears velocity dependent aspirations. the former is considered far closer in genus to the cyclocross bicycle, or mountain bike, while the latter is, in effect, a race bike with buckets of tyre clearance, and it's the latter that has fostered the charlie brown quotient. should evidence be required for such a brash contention, perhaps the latest range from bike bag manufacturer apidura will salve your concerns.

i believe the apellation applied by apidura (the aero range) may give the game away, but it's much worse than you may already have imagined. apparently what has now resulted in a marketable product, began life as a one-off for the unbound gravel event in 2022. the scary part is that, in the subsequent three years, those bags have been subjected to (and i jest not), a concerted campaign of wind tunnel testing. if ever proof were required that the cycling industry has finally divorced itself from reality, this is surely it: wind-tunnel tested bike bags.

for the remainder of this summer (such as it has turned out to be), even when aboard my bicycle, i will deny any association with cycling whatsoever.

people already think i'm quirky enough.

wednesday 25 june 2025

keep up

only the other day i was keen to undermine the razamatazz that tends to accompany the release of a new groupset, or even of components that might ultimately contribute towards a groupset. this monologue had less to do with the regular upgrade cycle that persists throughout the industry, whether hardware or software, and more to do with the publicity machine which surrounds any such release, largely pretending that said marketing process has not previously been seen. however, it occurred over the weekend that said releases may also (albeit inadvertently) bring with them feelings of inadequacy. not on the part of those eagerly queuing to make their latest purchase, but those who own the previously trumpeted product.

for instance, my ritchey logic is marvellously equipped with campagnolo's twelve-speed mechanical record groupset, providing, as recently admitted, probably at least four more gears than are truly necessary for a velocipedinist of my stature and deportment. for the past four or five years, i have been able to hold my helmeted head high in public, well aware that, no matter how much faster any of my colleagues proves to be, i am, at the very least, on parity when it comes to the number of sprockets affixed to my rear wheel. and though quite possibly mistaken in my apprehensions, the fact that those sprockets originate in vicenza, confers a possibly misguided sense of superiority.

it may also be an indicator of my estrangement from reality, that being regularly found aboard a steel frame is confirmation of my better judgment over those who have been suckered into buying carbon.

but campagnolo has totally undermined my sole claim to fame by introducing super-record wireless with one more gear than i currently possess. yes, it is clearly true that, while in motion, it is all but impossible to determine just how many sprockets are to be found affixed to my campagnolo record rear hub, but such is my concern about such matters, that i even heard myself suggest the possibility of placing a sticker on the left-side chainstay, clearly stating, 'thirteen speed', and fervently hoping no-one ever bothers to check.

i can live with the lack of electronics, since obviously any member of the cognoscenti would surely disparage the ousting of physical wires with those capable of transerring electrons from levers to derailleurs? one can but imagine the embarrassment experienced by those who plumped for batteries, depleting their bank balance to a far greater degree than those of us still in possession of at least a smidgeon of sanity. the situation, as outlined above, can be captioned as 'keeping up with the joneses', though it occurs that for that to be true, at least one of the peloton would have to have purchased the latest technology.

in the meantime, i am still comforted by the salient notion that i frequently ride a cyclocross bicycle and not one of those new-fangled, but completely identical gravel bikes. back of the neck hair bristled on saturday when a cyclist in debbie's referred to my fluorescent orange and green specialized crux as being of the latter species, rather than the former. if it were a gravel bike, would i have fitted challenge chicane 700x33c tyres?

exactly.

but i do seriously wonder whether the release of new product is designed to accomplish two things, one nested inside the other? any new product is, by design, expected to provide more than that it is designed to replace. just how much more depends on the level of function and decor demonstrated by the earlier model. but it is eminently possible that the very release of any new product, even if simply the old one in a new colour, contains an inherent sales pitch within. if my theory proves correct, the potential for embarrassment in those still riding yesterday's technology could prove much to bear, potentially leading to a rash purchase strategy. those will be the poor souls sent back to the team car to get water bottles for those riding wires and thirteen sprockets. and unless your team leader is the sort of guy or girl likely to win the jersey overall, thus splitting the prize money amongst the peloton, that is surely a level of humility just too hard to bear?

however, it has been pointed out to me more than once that, were the cycle industry to adopt my particular brand of ludditery (a made up word), we would all still be aboard reynolds 531 or columbus tubing, reaching to the downtube to change gear. in which case, you do have to wonder how civilisation ever made it this far?

tuesday 24 june 2025