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the philosophical approach

every tuesday and thursday, the guardian newspaper publishes a long form article entitled the long read, a single article that fills four pages, and one to which i look forward every week (always assuming the newspapers arrive on the morning ferry). the subject of these articles varies considerably, from sociology, to technology, to politics, and so on and so on. this type of publishing must, i assume, have proved popular, since there now exists a saturday article in the main section entitled the saturday read, usually occupying two pages. and long-form journalism is a mainstay of their saturday magazine, once again covering a wide range of subjects, some of which prove of interest, others less so.

many of the features in islay's local newspaper lean towards the soundbite, even to the extent of including photographs with an extended caption. however, in the hope or expectation that others might favour longer articles, i endeavour to include one such in each issue.

it has occurred that journalism is in danger of being undermined by allegedly pandering to the reputedly less well-read; should you look for evidence of the latter, i recommend you take even a cursory look through the bbc website, where each sentence is published as a single paragraph. that i find somewhat demeaning, as i'd imagine the majority of the english-speaking population would not find it too hard to cope with a multi-sentence paragraph. event children's books often include more than one sentence per paragraph.

but there is still the nagging conundrum surrounding my enjoyment of long-form publishing: am i more entranced by the format or the subject? in other words, does my satisfaction arise from reading a lengthy dissemination on any particular subject, or does the satisfaction revolve around the specific subject under consideration? for there are many subjects dealt with in the long read that i find of no interest whatsoever, and therefore my experience is subjectively diminished on purchase of a tuesday or thursday copy of the guardian. the trick will be in identifying which satisficer is being left unchallenged.

which brings me neatly onto the subject of cycling, or more specifically, the individual bike ride.

i perhaps need not point out that we are discussing the physical act of riding a bicycle in the great outdoors, as opposed to the indoor variation of which i have previously made my feelings clear. i would imagine there are any number of reasons for riding a bicycle, but to keep it relatively simple, i think we could minimise this to two: the actual riding, or the world as seen from the saddle? if we look first at the act of riding a bicycle, were this to be related to the fitness and training aspects conferred by the bicycle, i think it possible we could reasonably exclude the scenery. i have reached this conclusion on the basis of the detail currently available to the more intrepid rider; power readouts, heart-rate, cadence, drag co-efficients. i'm sure you see my point. in fact, it's eminently possible that even the act of riding a bicycle is excluded from this process, considered merely as a vehicle of achieving a set of parameters, engendered by carefully scripted training methods several steps removed from the perceived joys of riding a bicycle.

there will be even those who eschew the detail provided by all manner of bar-mounted devices, yet are still keen to test their mettle on the bicycle; how easily can i ride this steep gradient? how comfortably can i suffer a sustained high speed?

but then there's the likes of you and i, happy to get out and about on the bicycle, no matter the weather, happy because it removes us from the day-to-day, allows us to see the lay of the land, get us somewhere we wish to be, and/or admire the surroundings through which we pass. of course, were we to resort to venn diagrams, i've no doubt there would be a sizeable intersection containing cyclists who experience a combination of the above. however, should we be more than happy just to enjoy the ride, or should we attempt to investigate which state of cycling it is that gives us pleasure? is it a means to an end, or an end in and of itself?

or am i guilty of over-thinking the whole affair?

monday 8 september 2025

sense and sensibility

for all that we are in thrall to the bicycle, eager and willing to ride in the saddle at the first opportunity, particularly when the years are advancing, there are times when pragmatism advises otherwise.

kilchoman distillery, islay's most westerly located, is twenty years old this year, an anniversary that, according to founder, anthony wills, was never a certainty in the first place. in 1995, when he first mooted the idea of building a new distillery on islay, more than just one person in the industry told him he was 'bonkers'. he, on the other hand, was convinced that the timing was right, and in 2005, the dream became a reality, constituted as a farm distillery, and sited on rockside farm on a leased portion of the former farmyard.

to celebrate, this past weekend mr wills had invited a gathering of journalists, writers, vloggers, bloggers, distributors to kilchoman for a remarkably free and easy wander about the premises, followed by a grand dinner in the evening.

several months ago, an invitation arrived at the croft to attend said dinner, along with an accompanying invitation to join a press trip during the day. i can but relate that i was honoured to have been invited and to have replied in the affirmative. unfortunately, during the intervening period, a musical performance was arranged by the bass player in a trio of which i have been a part for at least the past 18 years, sadly without first checking with yours truly. on the basis that the dinner would proceed without me, but the gig likely wouldn't, reluctantly i had to tender my apologies for the dinner, though i re-affirmed a desire to attend the daytime press trip.

kilchoman distillery sits almost twenty kilometres from the croft, a distance easily covered by bicycle, a route i have covered on many occasions, and one i had every intention of repeating on saturday morning. granted, the cyclocross bike on which i had intended to travel requires the rear tyre to be replaced, a task i did not have time to complete prior to the impending trip west. however, the beginnings of a small hole in the sidewall have shown no great proclivity to increase, so i figured i'd be ok. the reason for the 'cross bike was the farm track that has to be crossed to reach the distillery, one that is not particularly road-bike friendly.

however, consider the situation: i had played a three-hour gig on friday evening, returning home at 12:30am, before arising again at 06:50 to distribute copies of this weekend's local newspaper. so doing, however, left very little time to ride to the distillery on what turned out to be a windy and rainy morning. so i capitulated and accepted the transport offered by kilchoman, and thus obviating any need to cycle home. though it truly pained me to do so, i should point out that i still had the saturday evening three-hour gig with which to contend, after a wholly worthwhile, but tiring day, being shown the ins and outs of a 20 year-old, successful islay malt whisky distillery.

so despite what many might well have viewed as the ideal opportunity to go for two bike rides with a defined purpose in the middle, i'm afraid i took the easy way out.

i might add that the final part of the day at kilchoman involved clambering aboard a covered trailer with bench seats, attached to the back of a tractor and being driven to view some substantially-sized, racked warehouses, a harvested barley field, and then through a herd of cows to overlook machir bay/kilchoman beach on islay's atlantic coast, where those with whom i travelled had the opportunity to sample drams of kilchoman's machir bay single malt whisky. contrived? possibly. but they were all cheerfully entranced with the experience and it was a delightful end to a marvellous day.

but i'd have been more proud of myself had i cycled.

sunday 7 september 2025

you mean us?

for whatever reason, there seems always to be surveys and research being undertaken into all aspects of modern living, whether concerning the average cost of rented properties outside of london, the average number of cars owned by the archetypal, nuclear family, or even the perceived trends within the cyle industry that will surely impact upon us all in the very near future. there's a certain surety allied to any such undertaking carried out by one of the major polling companies in the uk today, whether ipsos mori, yougov, or opinium, or perhaps one of the uk's more respected universities. cynically, i'd imagine that many of these surveys are the result of some opportune funding, ideally received from benefactors with no direct interest in the subject of research. but there have been occasions where the connection between one and t'other are not made manifest when publishing the results.

the data captured by strava and many city bike hires, provides correlated information which will almost always be of use to someone. if you harboured ideals of setting up in business anywhere in scotland, england or wales, statistics concerning the local demographic might be the very place to commence, hopefully available either free of charge or at a modest price; attempting to acquire the necesary information yourself might prove a tad uneconomic. but the mores of commerce often seem tolerant of the individual or business which portends to independently offer future trends, yet has a vested in interest in either directly creating such trends, or ultimately benefitting from bringing those to fruition. suggesting that a trend is soon to arise, could be the very catalyst required to make that suggestion come true.

ananda, i am led to believe, is a sanskrit word meaning happiness or extreme bliss, but also happens to be the name of a company specialising in electric motors, made and assembled at their five, worldwide factories (three in china, one in hungary, and one in vietnam). their professed mission and vision includes the very notions you'd expect, including teamwork, integrity, innovation and the buzzword of the moment, passion. i have no direct experience of any of their products and therefore not in any position to dispute their adherence to any or all of the above. in other words, i have no reason to doubt their veracity. however, and this arguably underlines my lack of velocipedinal awareness, not everyone will be aware of the existence or raison d'être of ananda; therefore, when an article on the bikebiz.com website affirms that ananda will share e-bike trends and predictions, you will perhaps sympathise when i believed that these would take the form of independent assessments.

as it transpired, each of the purported trends and predictions are rounded off with ananda pointing out how a current (pun not intended) product, miraculously satisfies each trend or prediction. what a stroke of luck. however, in one of those moments that might be categorised as "i read it so that you wouldn't have to", rarely have i seen the letter 'e' used as a prefix so frequently in one article. to wit: e-mtbs, e-bikes, e-city, e-gravel, e-road, e-cargo, surely outdoing apple computer's use of the prefix 'i'. effectively, the trends and predictions serve purely as an advertisement for ananda's product line; they may all be valid, but you will hopefully excuse my concern that these have been specifically curated simply to highlight the faux perspicacity of the e-motor company, while masquerading as diligent research and observation (however true those may turn out to be).

of course, you have to take all the above with a pinch of sodium chloride, given my reputation for cynicism; perhaps i am guilty of not offering credit where credit is due. and to be honest, apart from excessive use of the 'e' prefix, what really has me concerned is the embracing of iot - internet of things into the technology. was not one of the principal benefits of cycling, irrespective of genre, the ability to 'get away from it all', including the internet? therefore, this quote highlighting the in-house developments that will enable manufacturers to "...seamlessly integrate smart features into their bikes", is one that smacks of adding technology simply because they can, on the unproven basis that it is precisely what we desire.

so, "These solutions address every key aspect riders and brands are seeking: Battery & Motor Management (battery health monitoring, remote diagnostics), Rider Experience & Connectivity (dedicated app, personalised settings), and Data Insights (usage analytics, insurance integration)."

remember when we used to just go for a bike ride...?

image: ananda

saturday 6 september 2025

does this make sense?

mountain bikes were introduced to the uk in the 1980s, enjoying similar support as seen in the current gravel trend, with a bit added on for good measure. mountain bikes were, arguably, the very type of bicycle to suit many, even if their abilities were not all used at once. given that the trend originated in america, where a now well-known group of innovators had begun by throwing themselves down mt tamalpais and other big hills, on schwinn beach cruisers. the mountain bike developed from the demands set by such apparent recklessness. with not everyone quite so enamoured with the thought of needing a pickup truck at the bottom to drive to the top of the hill once again, the first production models featured triple chainsets which included a granny gear to ride back up the hills. tyres were, surprisingly enough, initially considerably narrower than those fitted to the average gravel bike today, and the flat bars suited the majority; drop bars are more of an acquired taste, even today.

but, as with almost everything in the late 20th century, fashion played its part, not only in developing the bicycles and their paint schemes, but ultimately moving the focus away from the mountain bike and back towards the road. statistics in the latter part of the mountain bike's era of fame, would eventually contend that less than 30% of those sold, ever reached anywhere near the road less travelled. the same fate has probably befallen today's gravel bike, with many purchasing such a machine harbouring ambitions to spend their weekends thundering through the undergrowth, while the reality is often somewhat different. the comparison would likely be the land rover defender, few of which are used on farms and even fewer which end the weekend with copious amounts of mud 'neath the wheel arches.

more aspirational than inspirational.

and while there may be dyed-in-the-wool mountain bikers ready to dispute the above, just like roadies, we tend to see what we want to see. but just when i could have pointed the finger at mountain biking (of whichever of the many internal disciplines you care to mention) for having become a part of the velocipedinal wallpaper, it seems that westminster and holyrood are in the mood to exercise their financial largesse, specifically at the behest of the offroad fraternity. and though personally i think the money to have been very appropriately targeted, there will surely be cycling advocates and activists who feel such an amount ought to have been better aimed at scotland's cycling infrastructure, benefitting the many, instead of the relatively few.

to become a tad more specific, the scottish and uk governments have provided £19 million for a mountain bike innovation centre at innerleithen, following approval of a planning application submitted in june of this year. the main building at the long defunct caerlee mill will now be demolished to make way for a new construction designed to house the centre. £4 million of the government money will be apportioned to tweed valley adventure bike park and trail lab. it has been asserted that the new centre could provide up to 400 jobs over the next decade, and contribute £138 million in added value to the region. but the question remains, what will it do?

the cost of building a cycle path varies greatly, depending on the type of facility desired, but on average, it costs around £1.3 million per kilometre. therefore £19 million would provide approximately 14.5km of cycle paths; not really an awful lot, in the grand scheme of things. compare that with a price of over £750,000 per motorway kilometre, and it's easy to see who the poorer partner is, particularly in the light of bicycles being excluded from all uk motorways. however, that is likely a discussion for another day. the question remains, what will a mountain bike innovation centre achieve?

according to the project website, "the centre will offer a place for businesses - both local and international - to showcase their innovative products in the heart of the uk's leading mountain bike destination. not that i wish to be a party pooper, but isn't that why there are bike shows? additionally, "the project will also host academics and research by edinburgh napier university across the cycling sector." again, is that not perhaps what edinburgh's napier university already does? in edinburgh? and finally, "the centre will include bike engineering workshop space, brand experience units, events space, offices, meeting rooms and teaching space." i will leave you alone now, to consider just how important (or otherwise), those might be.

it is very easy to poke at initiatives such as the above, especially if, like me, you have no mountain bikes in the bike shed. would i be so hypercritical if both governments had opted to fund a road or cyclocross centre on islay? quite probably, though i'd find myself with far fewer questions, if centres such as that proposed at innerleithen were in addition to concerted spending on a national cycling infrastructure. as it stands, i'm sure the centre will be everything that everyone involved hopes it will become.

but...

friday 5 september 2025

hyperbole

in 2017, the trick drum company produced a buddy rich 100th anniversary snare drum, replete in white marine pearl and with the approval of buddy's daughter, cathy rich, and her partner, gregg potter, a man holding the drum chair in the current version of the buddy rich big band. for those who could care less, the trick drum company was founded in chicago, illinois in 1990, about three years after buddy died. if you will forgive me for stating the obvious, at no time during his long career, did buddy ever play trick drums (the bulk of his career was behind a ludwig set, but he also played rogers, vox and slingerland), not least because they were simply not in existence. apparently cathy rich's approval rested upon the reputed favouring of chicago as one of buddy's favourite american cities.

there has been a ludwig buddy rich snare drum and also one from slingerland, both of which have a touch more credibility because the world's greatest drummer did actually play similar models of snare drum. the trick drum has, therefore, very little credibility, simply another opportunistic money-making scheme, irrespective of the drum's unknown quality. no doubt royalties were also claimed by buddy's estate.

such vacuous statements as the above are no stranger to the cycle industry, though i confess i am unaware of any company issuing a tribute model to a rider who never actually rode one of their bicycles. however, colnago's claim that their limited edition c68 rosso is the official bicycle of la vuelta, while probably true, makes no sense at all. how can one bike be the official model for an entire race, particularly when the only colnago sponsored team (uae emirates), don't actually ride that specific model? at a price of £19,900 each, i think we are, once again, looking at a money-making scheme. and intriguingly, this level of hyperbole appears to be in the habit of following colnago around.

the oddly-named danish cycle clothing company, pas normal, have apparently teamed up with cambiago to present a limited edition (only 35 available) c68 bicycle to celebrate the 10th anniversary of pas normal (price is 16,900 euros). on following the links included in the press release, i was led to a page on colnago's website clearly stating that their partnership with pas normal was 'a meeting of vision and passion', a slogan which might have had greater gravitas, had the link button not been labelled discover the campaign 'it's not a bike'. this is presumably engineered to confuse and confound, because, at the risk of undermining what seems to be a sales campaign above my pay-grade, colnago actually make the very bikes their campaign seems to be intent on denying.

reading further down the page, i learned that the 'it's not a bike' campaign is not an existential exploration of the bicycle's place in the firmament, but one "drawing inspiration from vintage print ads and conceptual art" a campaign celebrating the dialogue between product and nature, object and emotion. whatever that means. pas normal and colnago would have us believe that their collaboration "proves that when elegance meets performance, something truly unique is born." a subjective call at best, and probably not verifiable by independent scientific means. a companion link takes the intrepid explorer off to the pas normal website, being immediately greeted by an image of said limited edition bicycle, painted in what appears to be a golden hue, and underneath which we learn that "it's not a bike. it is so much more than that."

no doubt there will be those eager to avail themselves of what is admittedly a very pleasant looking bicycle, despite such strenuous efforts to deny it being a bicycle in the first place. but was it really necessary to sell this bicycle by spouting such utter nonsense? it's a bike; it has been painted a very pleasant colour; it has nice enve wheels and a sram groupset. and it costs a lot of money. is anyone actually fooled or persuaded by the use of words such as vision, passion, vintage, emotion and elegance?

whatever happened to pain and suffering?

thursday 4 september 2025

choice

i have previously detailed my daily perusal of the cycling industry online news, eager to keep myself abreast of the latest industry developments, lest i fall behind due to my geographical separation from the rest of society. whether that has any specific bearing on my day-to-day existence is something of a moot point, but, a bit like an islay rumour, if i didn't investigate, i'd feel a total fool if i missed the next big thing. similarly, i'd hate to be the guy arriving at the party, totally ignorant of the principal subject of discussion. however, as i carry out this daily observation, i think i may have identified two, or possibly more, infringments in the continuum which, if true, might severely limit future party conversations.

firstly, though i have not kept particularly accurate records (or, in fact, any records at all), i believe i have witnessed a disturbance in the force. where once the columns were rife with technological innovation, matters appear to have stabilised to the point of disinterest. while industry news has always included who has become the distributor of what, who has taken the place of the deposed ceo, and more disappointingly, which industry giant has seen an unforeseen drop in annual profits, these were once peppered with cycle or componentry purveyors who had chanced upon that which would soon (they hope) bring them fame or fortune. granted, more than just a few of these developments resided under the heading of 'solutions looking for problems', but haven't those always been the very mainstay of velocipedinal foolhardiness?

but my cursory examinations, combined with less than coherent recollection, would tend to suggest that, while the industry transfer market is no different than it has been in recent history, technical innovation appears to have become dormant. when you read that shimano has partially redesigned its original 1995 spd cleat, that might suggest to the cognoscenti that technology has been on sabbatical for the last thirty years. as has been proved by stock analysts over the years, no matter how high they place their quarterly expectations, profits and share prices cannot continue to increase exponentially for ever. technological development would appear to have a finite number of days in the sun, before suffering a similar period in the doldrums.

it is, it seems, the way of the commercial world.

but sadly, it doesn't seem to end there. while i was once a regular visitor to the annual cycle expos held in london town and occasionally farther afield, it was the realisation that the acres of frames on show at such events, minus their occasionally elaborate paint schemes, were pretty much all the same. it appears that members of the cycle industry harbour fear over being thought as different. as an oft repeated (by me) example, i have yet to be provided with an engineering explanation for the current practice of joining the seatstays half way down the seat tube. nor, indeed, am i even faintly convinced by the explanation that fitting a few cables inside the bicycle tubing, actually makes any appreciable difference to the members of sunday rides all across the world.

only yesterday, during my rounds of the latest industry news, i came across an announcement informing me that a hitherto unheard of cycle manufacturer, megamo had recently introduced the latest iteration of its silk gravel race bike. the accompanying illustration showed a bicycle that looks identical to pretty much every other gravel bike in existence. which beggars the question, why would i care from which brand i purchase?. i am well aware that the double-diamond frame design leaves little room to manoeuvre, and that similarities abound throughout the motor industry, but should it be of concern that everything is made from carbon, everything has internal cable-routing, almost no-one fits campagnolo and everyone's wheels feature deep carbon (or alloy) rims? paint them all the same colour, line them up against a wall, and i'm convinced you could scarce tell any apart.

but still the question remains: 'where did it all go so very wrong?'

wednesday 3 september 2025

wishing our lives away

during the covid years, at the outset, nobody had much of a clue quite where the world's future lay; there were probably doubts as to how much of the population would survive. no doubt there were all manner of bucket lists created in the free-time that had suddenly been imposed upon the majority. islay, and by inference, the majority of isles off scotland's west coast, fared considerably better than many of the mainland communities. reduced to a single, return ferry sailing each day, and none at all on sundays, the restriction to essential travel by islanders provided a remarkably peaceful time for us all, even those of us still tasked with the daily grind. while the mental health of many mainland dwellers suffered from the insecurity of the pandemic, for those domiciled on hebridean shores, the stunning change of pace, accompanied by a total absence of visitors, was welcomed by many.

though my daily job continued through the mass furlough of many friends and colleagues, there was still the weekend bike rides, unfettered by any government restriction on exercising locally, advice that we interpreted as confined to the entire island. the local police seemed wholly untroubled by this approach, and the knowledge that weekend cycling would continue uninterrupted, even if performed as a solo career, made it a tad easier to get through the week, in which the world of six was being handled by two. perhaps more than is the case since the pandemic subsided, saturday and particularly sunday, were now to be looked forward to with anticipatory joy.

with no means of knowing when or how it might all end, looking forward became a daily or weekly occupation; very much a case of, as nick kershaw sang, "wishing our lives away."

i cannot deny that, more frequently than i care to admit, when monday dawns, i, and probably a great many others, are already looking forward to the following weekend. a bit like the three grand tours getting in the way of cyclocross season. come the end of february, i'll happily admit, i'm already looking forward to october. eastern philosophies frequently encourage their practitioners to inhabit the moment and avoid looking forward or back. in a recent interview with comedian, jimmy carr, he quoted from the observation that depression is tied to the past, while anxiety is always about the future. so perhaps we ought best undertake minimal preparations for the weekend bike rides, or training holidays abroad, while living in the moment and paying attention to each as it passes?

however, modern society would seem to mitigate against such a strategy, rested as it is on future events; holidays, appointments, sporting events, television series, birthdays, anniversaries... the future is overpopulated with pitfalls for which planning is thought essential. in fact, the very ability to plan for the future is regarded as a superpower in modern society. i cannot be the only one to note that many bands and artists are already advertising tours and concerts due to take place in 2026 and beyond; should you harbour desires to attend any of these, it is prudent to now, this very minute, acquire tickets, book travel and accommodation and start learning the words to the hits. leaving it until the moment arrives might not be the best means of defence. and there is no doubt that the cycle industry has bought into futures in a big way.

at the risk of stating the glaringly obvious, we have now reached the second day of september. i already have five gigs booked for this month and, as a non-car driver/owner, i now have to consider arrangements to transport my drumset to and from the venues, even three weeks in advance. but on availing myself of the industry news provided by bike biz, i was somewhat taken aback to be assailed by advance notice of three cycle events taking place well past new year's day. firstly the annual trade show, icebike is slated for february 2026, while the celebration of all that is hand-made cycling, bespoked, is set to retreat from manchester to london in april next year. taking place simultaneously, albeit farther north in kilder forest, is the dirty reiver gravel event.

all of the above defy any possibility of gravel racers, industry players and framebuilders living in the moment. so doing would almost guarantee non-attendance at all three. entries for the dirty reiver event opened yesterday, but i should make it clear that by the time i learned of the event, it had already sold out. given its date in late april, that means at least one thousand eager gravellators for whom it is no longer possible to live in the moment.

tuesday 2 september 2025