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

interviews & features | dvds | equipment | clothing | books | videos

what are we waiting for?

i believe it well behoves me as a stalwart of the cycling media, to keep myself as up-to-date on velocipedinal matters as one can manage from this relatively isolated location in the hebrides. rather obviously, the rather singular means of so doing, is perusing ink and paper publications (the few that are left standing), but more commonly, the pixelated versions that are mostly updated daily. though i feel my strategy most often to be somewhat haphazard in its approach, it has become possible to detect certain trends; rarely in advance of their imposition upon the cycling psyche, but often retrospectively, depending on their perceived importance.

i have tried, though not always succeeded, to remain a step or too distant from the many factors that comprise today's cycle industry, which, for such purposes, i define as being everything from the design and manufacture of bicycles, to their various uses, including the sporting milieu. only by doing so, do i believe i can identify who is influencing whom, and possibly why.

like many an industry, great emphasis is placed on trade shows, ranging from individual distributors taking over the ballroom of a nearby hotel, to the likes of eurobike which often resembles the size of a small country. it is many a long year since i attended such an event, the last of recollection, being the uk cycle show when still held at the long gone earls court in london. even when there in person, i found them to be endlessly confusing in intent, particularly if combined as a trade and public event, where many of the stall holders seemed less than focussed on one or the other, effectvely, i would imagine, undermining any hoped for return on investment.

as one distributor informed me at the time "we can't reeally afford to be here, but nor can we afford not to be."

i would imagine that to be an even greater dilemma in these financially straightened times, where confidence in the product can be easily undermined apropos of nothing whatsoever, purely on the basis of the product, brand or distribution being seen to be missing in action. and while it might be an economic no-brainer to fill that hotel ballroom with bicycles and componentry, when it comes to national or international events, the price of admission rather obviously escalates quite dramatically. other than the "...can't afford not to" mindset, i do often wonder if such expos are ultimately worth the price paid? would our bicycles and components be significantly cheaper if the manufacturers and distributors opted to stay at home? of course, the same question could be levelled at the sponsorship game; campagnolo may have returned to the professional peloton in 2025, but did its absence in 2024 actually prove substantially detrimental? or were sales every bit as good as before?

however, if i might briefly return to the cycling media i mentioned in my opening gambit, a year without cycle exhibitions would surely result in greater difficulties filling column and pixel centimetres. nothing could be surer that, aside from encouraging attendances at such events, exhibitors are keenly aware that a few positive words in the media might have a disproportionately beneficial effect on subsequent sales. i can think of no other reason for the meteoric rise of public relations firms now concentrating predominantly on the bicycle world, though i often find it hard to divine why many of the companies could not handle such matters in-house.

however, as the core subject matter of today's monologue is principally that of cycle exhibitions, and not necessarily whether their existence is on-point or pointless, i might mention that the approach of the taipei cycle show in just over a week, was the catalyst for placing fingers on keyboard. however, you will perhaps forgive the trivialisation of this news, when i relate that it is not the impending commencement (26-29 march) of such an important gathering which prompted the above, but more the fact that the headline in one of the industry's highly respected journals stated "Taipei Cycle Show 2025 opens in 12 days'. that is surely the equivalent of the met office advising there appears to be weather on the horizon.

sensationalism is alive and well in the land of the bicycle.

almost coincidentally, several of the themes expected to be found at this year's visit to taiwan, include smart cycling (whatever that might mean) innovation drive (ditto), green forward and cycling ecosystem. though i will rather obviously be missing in action for a wide variety of reasons, not least of which is a temporary health restriction on long-haul flights, i do wonder whether any of the foregoing would be immediately apparent, if not signalled in advance. either way, i have now been provided with four more potential trends on which to keep an eye.

wednesday 19 march 2025

my mate dave

as we have seen and read on many recent occasions, there have been several initiatives engineered to encourage polite society in its adoption of the bicycle as a principal means of transport. though 'climate change' is often the identifier used to justify such methodology, taken purely on its own merit, cycling has a great deal in its favour, and not just because it's the daily topic of these particular pixels. as often mentioned, i do not own a motor car, nor have i done so for almost two decades, the most tangible result being a notable increase in the figure displayed at the foot of my bank statement. not for me the need for parking charges, petrol, insurance, servicing, repair and, not least of all, the price of acquiring such a vehicle in the first place.

i would be the first to agree, however, that my personal and locational circumstances are not easily replicated. mrs washingmachinepost does not drive, and works at the local primary school which is visible from our sitting room window. my own place of employ is but a five minute walk from the croft; should i have need of travelling farther afield, i have a phalanx of bicycles that are easily up to the task. given our respective ages, we both possess travel cards for bus and ferry, meaning we can comfortably reach glasgow town (a two-hour ferry journey and 3.5 hours bus trip away) for less than £5 return. however, even should your own circumstances be entirely different from those described above, cycling is a very good idea.

firstly, there is the health factor; britain, we are continually being told, is in the grip of an obesity crisis, caused predominantly by poor diet and lack of exercise. cycling's relation to the latter is easily grasped, but has the power to heavily influence the former. and while society rightly condemns the pollution caused by the infernal combustion engine, replacing motorised traffic with pedal bicycles, even including their electric usurper, would not only make it easier for folks to get about in cleaner air, but reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries that result from a large number of car/human interfaces each year. and if you've never seen one of those propaganda images demonstrating just how many bicycles can fit into a parking space occupied by a single car, then a quick search of google ought to easily remedy that situation.

of course, you might legitimately point out that i would say that, vested as i am in the future of the bicycle. but i am genuinely of the opinion that even cursory examination of my contentions will tend to confirm the veracity of my opinion. however, societal forces have effectively drowned out that opinion, along with others who proclaim the same set of sensible suggestions. but then many of us will be found to be members of either british cycling or cycling uk, apparently categorising us as prejudicial. oddly, the same tack is not applied to motoring industry executives and politicians who espouse the merits of motor transport by continually lobbying for more and wider roads, just as low emission neighbourhoods are summarily dismantled by local councils following cautionary edicts from number 10 downing street.

even i, however, can witness the less than subtle activism and disparagement contained within the above paragraphs. and no matter how well-meaning might be my motives, they will appear as a reactionary wall to those who believe otherwise, raising hackles and almost ensuring that there will be no conciliation from either party. the government, through various poorly funded active transport intitiatives, will serve to convince all and sundry, that their motives are unimpeachable and demonstrate a sincerity of purpose designed to move british citizens out of their cars and onto two wheels. unfortunately, their track record is almost non-existent; there are still considerably more new car registrations recorded each year than bicycle sales, while the number of cyclists tends to be on the decline. i can think of not one single school-age child on islay who eagerly awaits their 17th birthday in order to get hold of a new gravel bike.

however, if we accept that while the goalposts may be subject to continuous change while never actually getting any closer, perhaps there is a means of education that might engender some positive results with regard to pragmatic transport choices.

renowned cartoonist, dave walker, author of books such as 'what could possibly go wrong', 'from a to b (a guide to getting around by bicycle)', and 'the cycling cartoonist' has been producing his idiosyncratic, but nonetheless essential cycling cartoons for as long as i can recall. but, as you may have already considered, in a demonstrably car-dominated society, carving a professional career as a drawer of intriguing line images about cycling is not one guaranteed to acquire a holiday home in the bahamas. as a result, a couple of year's ago, dave brought the diagram club into fruition, inviting the great and the good to subscribe a modest annual sum for which he would provide regular e-mail newsletters featuring all manner of eccentricities illustrated with his unique style of imagery.

i have been fortunate in the past to have reviewed dave's books on the post, incurring concerted fandom of his work, so when he first broached the subject of the diagram club, i had no hesitation in signing up, in the hope that my modest contribution would help allow him to continue his brilliant work. but in the process of reading these regular newsletters and wishing i possessed a similar ability to observe the often unobserved, it dawned on me that here was the ideal means of proselytising the immense benefits of cycling without the preachy' overtones that i fear often intrude in my own ministrations.

so how would that work exactly? well, for paid-up members to the diagram club dave is often amenable to our making use of his artwork to aim at those less fortunate than ourselves, alongside unique and occasionally exclusive merchandise that underlines our collective point without doing so in a brazen manner. if you doubt my word, simply witness the two drawings atop this article which feature ten differences between them. paid up club members can download these in pdf format, print them out, and surreptitiously leave them in the barbers/hairdressers, dentists' or doctors' waiting rooms for others to while away the waiting moments. i scarcely need point out that the thrust of dave's illustrations concerns the humble bicycle.

see what i mean?

for the answers to the spot the difference images, go to spot the difference answers | davewalker.com

tuesday 18 march 2025

cycle society

as intimated in earlier posts, i am prevented from riding my bicycle for a further three weeks, probably the aspect of my recuperation that causes me the greatest amount of grief, even though i am well aware of why the restriction was imposed. in truth, i know i could not confidently cycle anywhere right at this moment in time, but there are sill aspects of cycling society that, with the aid of others, i can still enjoy.

the hub of everything that transpires within this particular hebridean realm is that of debbie's café in bruichladdich, the watering hole on which we descend each and every weekend. though sunday morning sets the backdrop for a group bike ride, i have long been in the habit of riding solo on saturdays, inevitably punctuated with a lunch of double-egg roll and soya latte. being unable to cycle has, for the time being at least, removed them from any itinerary i may think to construct.

in the grand scheme of things that is hardly a case of life or death, but when those weekend visits have formed part and parcel of velocipedinal life for the last fifteen years or so, you really do notice their absence. however, two others in the sunday morning peloton have also been sidelined by different ailments, one of whom generously offered to drive us to debbie's on sunday lunchtime only slightly in advance of the soon to arrive peloton and, as it transpired, a visit from the mighty dave-t. thus, i was able to renew my acquaintance with the much-favoured double-egg roll (yes, even on a sunday, rather than a saturday) and an oat-milk latte; the first coffee of any description i'd enjoyed in over two weeks.

granted, the sensations were entirely different, if only on the basis that no amount of actual work had been undertaken prior to my arrival. there is little denying that any victuals consumed following even modest cycling activity, acquire a different, yet more appealing taste than when simply consumed as a matter of course. for instance, while i have commended the aforesaid double-egg roll to all and sundry, it is hard to think that i would indulge even on a weekly basis were it not to be preceded by pedalling activity. similar, in fact, to that of the oat-milk latte; though i definitely prefer soya milk to the oat variety, a large mug of coffee was certainly more than required. if a half-mug were on offer, i feel sure i would have chosen thusly.

however, no matter the circumstances of any visit to debbie's, provided it is in the company of other velocipedinists of my acquaint, there is no substitute that might be adjudged equitable. it means that, throughout my period of suspension, i will not remain increasingly estranged, maintaining the social ties that have been forged over more years than i care to recall. with the very best of intentions, it's at times like this that you discover who your real friends really are. and there's no denying that they are all true friends.

however, this is not, i believe, a singularly unique situation; i am inclined to believe, with not even the benefit of cursory investigation, that situations such as mine, persist in pelotons all across the world. though i was not cycling yesterday, and i will not be cycling next saturday and sunday either, i can appreciate the efforts the peloton has expended en-route to coffee and a toastie. i am also not excluded from the velocipedinal chat that inevitably fills the space between arrival and departure, meaning that, upon my return, i will not be estranged from (literally) the word on the street.

i doubt these are revelations new to my reader; these are happenstances hiding in plain sight, and scarcely geographically specific. what they do illustrate, however, is that cycling is not simply moving from point a to point b on a bicycle. nor is it confined to discussion relating to groupsets, frame materials, tyres, wheels or useless geegaws. even though dressed as a mere civilian, the only outward nod to cycling being an x20 badkamers duck hat, i'm happy to say that i was every bit as much a member of the peloton as would be the case had i been cycling.

only twenty days and counting.

monday 17 march 2025

the season begins

on one of my visits to portland, oregon, as i cycled across one of the many bridges traversing the willamette river, the fellow in front of me sat up, took his hands from the handlebars and proceeded to remove his rainjacket with consummate skill, subsequently folding into a neat package and placing it in the middle back pocket of his cycle jersey. i don't mind admitting that i was full of admiration, bordering on the unsafe, so transfixed were my eyes on thise demonstration of balance and nochalant skill, rather than on the substantial traffic through which we both were riding. it was and is, a skill i would dearly love to possess, one in which i doubt i am alone.

as the seasons move from winter to spring, effectivley signalled by the changing of the clocks at the end of the month and the addition of 10% to calmac's ferry fares at the same point in time, ostensibly, the need to wear a bona-fide waterproof jacket will surely give way to that of the stowaway jacket, one that is carried in a rear pocket, ready to be pulled into service should precipitation be on the cards. given that i write this from the outer edges of western scotland, such a happenstance is far more likely than unlikely. those studies that indicate cyclists are likely only to get wet seven times per year during the daily commute must surely be seriously flawed?

and let's face it, the sunday morning bike ride doesn't quite fit the practice of commuting, but islay is reckoned to receive over 1300mm of rain per year, spread over a total of 185 days of precipitative meteorology. that's a great deal more than seattle in the united states' pacific northwest, a city often cited for its prevalent rainfall. so, if we're content to accept that rainfall on the west coast of scotland is likely to be a noticeable occurrence, even though the clock change is humorously referred to as british summer time, rain jackets are hardly an option you'd wish to discard.

however, no matter the inherent competitiveness of the sunday ride, which, i am assured by my pelotonoic colleagues, will now be missing in action since my unfortunate medical emergency, there is always the option of stopping in order to don the aforementioned rainjacket. only in the heat of competitive battle, where one is being paid to reach the finish line as speedily as possible, can it be deemed necessary to put on, or remove just such a garment while continuing to pedal in a forward direction. the same could be said, i believe, for riding no-hands, a component part of the exercise described above.

i have always maintained that the very reason i failed to undertake a career as a professional cyclist, was the potential embarrassment of winning a stage of the tour de france and being unable and unwilling to raise both arms aloft as i sailed serenely across the finish line. but as a practical skill, it's also a component reason for my inability to remove or wear a rainjacket without stopping by the roadside. and now that i think about it, i fear i would also be compelled to exit any race in which i was chosen to ride for reasons of starvation; there is no way on this earth i could grab a musette at speed, sling it round my neck and proceed to investigate the day's menu without decimating a row of soigneurs in the process.

so while i have frequently decried any propensity to pin a number on my back due to an absence of the competitive spirit, it seems there may also be a wholly pragmatic reason.

as amateur cyclists we are, of course, just a flock of sheep, eager to imitate the professional classes with scarce concern for the differences between us and them. while listening to podcast only the other day, a shop mechanic queried why so many customers were swayed by the aero principle despite rarely being able to ride at the speeds at which aerodynamics might offer an advantage? and i do not recall any particular admonishments aimed at perren street, when early models of their bibshorts featured a small pocket in which to contain the race radio.

of course i undermine my argument completely, not only by harbouring desires to emulate the rainjacket removal described in my opening paragraph, but an overwhelming need to learn the cyclocross skills of mounting and dismounting, despite no demonstrable need for either. abilities such as these, for other than the professionals, must surely be outward signs of egotistical desire, skills with which to impress one's peers, by drawing attention to them while nonchalantly pretending not to draw attention to them. of course, from my own point of view, this is a conclusion with which i feel most comfortable; there's not a chance in hades that i'm likely to learn any of them.

when the rain arrives, as it inevitably will, i'll just stop and put my jacket on.

image: rapha

sunday 16 march 2025

no, you don't understand

many of you will have read my self-immolating article from last weekend, where i pointed out that my recent heart-attack, while far from being a trivial matter, was at least partly down to the arrogance and smugness of an almost-athlete who should have known considerably better. the cardiac arrest, reputedly suffered as a result of a hereditary condition, was something that confounded me at first, unaware that i had any such condition in the first place. for many a year have i read articles in the press, maintaining that twenty-minutes walk each day would stave off the likelihood of strokes or heart attacks, while a vegetarian and largely non-dairy diet did wonders for one's cholesterol, as indeed would abstinence from salt, a healthy attitude towards sugary foods, and at least one decent sized coffee per week.

at no point which i can recall, was it mentioned that all the above went up in a puff of smoke if over-ridden by a congenital heart condition. perhaps the authors of both the research and the newspaper articles hadn't banked on their words being read by a numpty?

as matters go, i appear to be slowly on the mend, accomplishing more than many, including mrs washingmachinepost, figure i ought to be at this stage. however, it seems vary unlikely that anyone who walked 8km per week and cycled at least 130km, would have the capacity to be satisfied with sitting in an armchair, watching daytime television interspersed with the odd snooze. i'm afraid that, in common with others, i'm sure, need to become less and less of an invalid each day, and with tangible proof of it actually happening.

how will i know, i have equitably reasoned, whether i am on the foothills of improvement or not, if simply confined to a sedentary lifestyle, albeit relatively briefly? admittedly there have been unidentified twinges of pain that i fervently hope are not heart-related, but surely it's not entirely iniquitous to want to find out? after all, i have to down six different tablets every morning; there has to be some recompense.

however, as i may have paid lip service to on more than a single occasion, islay is one large community comprised of several smaller communities, and in which either it is very easy to be a big fish in a little pond. purely on that basis, not only does everyone on the island seem to be aware of my original misfortune, but nearly all of them seem to be traversing bowmore main street at lunchtime. there are, of course, those who are surprised to see me out and about, and others who have kindly commented on just how healthy i'm looking, which gives cause for concern because, does that mean i didn;t look healthy before the heart-attack?

but, if you accept my contention that, between diet and fitness, never would i have expected to suffer from any cardiac problems, then that apprehension has been one reflected by almost all those i have met. as my son told me last weekend, someone had said to him "if your dad can suffer a heart-attack, then we're all f**ked." while a neighbour of mine said if he had a list of those he thought likely to have heart problems, i would not be on it. however, that has also led to many instances of my being told "i always said cycling wasn't good for you." offered up as the reason why several would definitely not be taking up cycling anytime soon. in this, i fear i may inadvertently have done cycling a dis-service, and far from being its poster boy, i will now be seen as the chap who blighted the future of cycling in the hebrides.

everyone so far has been tactful enough to respond that they were sure it had been something like that, and not laid blame at my professed fitness, but i can tell that this particular happenstance has provided the ideal get out of jail free card for those who truthfully, had no intention of taking up cycling in the first place. perhaps when i am once again to be seen traversing the highways and byways at speeds only marginally less than before, those excuses will evaporate and i can, once again, become overbearingly sanctimonious about the joys of cycling, safe in the knowledge that it was the fitness gained through cycling that has helped keep me alive?

just give me a month or so.

thank you to all those who have sent good wishes in the past week. very much appreciated.

saturday 15 march 2025

why wasn't this invented years ago?

i'm sure there are still way too many home mechanics and well-intentioned amateurs who think nothing of turning the bicycle upside down in order to carry out any minor or, in some cases, major repairs. i've even seen this done with relatively expensive carbon fibre frames and bars, the owner trying manfully (yes, it's always been males) to shrug off the subsequent scrapes showing past the bar tape. on the occasional instance, perhaps to try and get the chain back on the ring, or to change an inner tube, the upside down method might be justified, but certainly not if planning to undertake routine maintenance or upgrades.

where spending inordinate sums of cash on something as fundamental as a seatpost or saddle rarely seems to be out of bounds, few riders/home mechanics seem quite as keen on spending their hard-earned on a basic workstand. and particularly if working on a carbon bike, the ability to have it securely clamped by the seatpost will not only mitigate any potential damage to the frame tubes, but allow the bike to be set at a height and angle that saves having a bad back for the rest of the week. for workshops, industrial strength workstands are all but mandatory; they might be expensive, but the return on investment is likely to be quite substantial.

without taking a trip out to thewashingmachinepost bike shed, i couldn't honestly inform you of the brand which i possess, but it is constructed of light alloy, with a wide, retractable tripod base, and adjustable to a convenient height and pretty much any angle you care to mention. for even simple jobs, like lubricatiing the chain, or adjusting the gears, i will happily grab the workstand from the bike shed, set it up outside my back door and proceed with the requisite fettling. on the admittedly few times i opt to give either bicycle a decent wash, out comes the workstand once again.

however, my own incentive to acquire a workstand, one that i have owned for at least two decades, was the frequent need (at one time) to work on other people's bikes, left in for repair. the thought of spending an entire day with a series of bikes turned upside down in the back garden, while kneeling on damp grass, was not an inviting prospect. and i doubt there's a mechanic of any standard, the length and breadth of the country, who hasn't groaned at the excessive weight of a child's steel, full suspension mountain bike, even if their often convoluted tubing makes it a krypton factor exercise to manhandle them onto the workstand in the first place.

in the modern-day world, substitute e-bike for child's full-suspension mountain bike and what follows might make a bit more sense.

even if, like me, you wouldn't know one end of an electric motor from the other, e-bikes still feature gears that need adjusting, chains to be lubricated, and punctures to be repaired. unfortunately the average e-bike arrives with an almost insurmountable problem; either the bike has to be lifted towards the clamp to set it in place, or, if clamped while still sitting on the ground, it then has to be raised to a suitable work height. either way, a great deal of effort will be required, and perhaps a bit of assistance from him or her indoors. generally, that's not an endlessly repeatable situation. and with sales of e-bikes reputedly on the increase, there are simply going to be more of them needing to be placed in workstands.

the solution is glaringly obvious: if acoustic bikes need acoustic workstands, might not e-bikes benefit from electric workstands? and apparently the answer is yes.

belgian-based remco tools has introduced a version of their electric repair stand to the uk market, at a starting price of £534 (which includes shipping, but is exclusive of vat and import duties). an additional £255.91 is required for a baseplate, however. it's capable of lifting bikes weighing as much as 45kg and can be raised to a height of 152cm. it's even height pre-programmable for those jobs that occur on a regular basis. fortunately for my bank balance, i no longer require such gargantuan assistance, having largely retired from cycle repair duties, but should the day ever arrive when i am compelled to ride electric, i can assure you, i will include the price of the remco e-stand in my budget.

remco bike stands

friday 14 march 2025

local knowledge

as mentioned to the point of boredom, islay has no local bike shop. granted, i can fix some stuff, and a friend of mine undertook a professional mechanics' course a few years ago, and has most of the tools and the knowhow to keep the modern-day bicycle running smoothly. but there's no denying that neither of us could be mistaken for a shop; i have no space in my wreck of a bikeshed, so any work has to be carried out al fresco, while my colleague works from a larg(ish) shed at the bottom of his garden. neither of us offer any services beyond repair work. for instance, you can't pop round to my bikeshed in the hope of acquiring a set of wheels, a casquette or a gee-gaw to attach to the handlebars.

either of us would be quite willing to offer advice should it be sought, but while i have a day job in an office in bowmore main street, the other fellow works in the control tower at islay international airport; a not exactly convenient location to drop in for an informal chat about helmets.

when i was in a band at college, the local branch of thomson's music store was the saturday hang-out. doug, the salesman, who ruled the roost upstairs from the white goods floor, was most amenable to having members of a number of bands hang out in the shop of a saturday morning, offering no resistance to lifting guitars off the wall and plugging in, pretending to be rick wakeman on a nearby keyboard, or a passable john bonham impersonation on a drumset sat on the rostrum. while few, if any of us left the building with expensive purchases (we were students after all) overall, the shop benefitted greatly from this laissez-faire attitude, as we all bought our pa systems from there when gig money was good, drumsticks, drumheads, strings (a guitarist friend spent a morning trying every guitar in the shop, then bought the plectrum). more or less the very welcome most of us would appreciated in a local bike shop.

like musical instruments, bicycle stuff isn't cheap, and not everyone who wanders into a bike shop has the intention of leaving with an £11,000 specialized, or £16,000 colnago. but the best of bike shops are usually quite happy to host inveterate browsers; it's effectively a public relations job. few of us would deny that a friendly welcome allied to browsing tolerance augmented with the occasional idiotic question ("which pair of gloves would you say is quicker?"), is quite likely to lead to future business both retail and mechanical.

after all, the internet won't fix your bike.

unfortunately, the world has apparently moved on, and not necessarily for the best. nobody buys newspapers these days, though vinyl appears to be managing an impressive comeback, amazon can send everything that used to be bought from local shops, deliver it in a day and charge about half, and though folks used to send text in an e-mail, superseded by attaching as a word document, now they send a link to a document in the cloud that you need a google or microsoft account to access. so buying bicycle stuff is no different; where once it was chain reaction or wiggle, now it's tredz or condor. difference is, condor has a bricks and mortar shop, with real people who understand bicycles and to whom you can speak if it turns out you don't understand whether you need dot3 or dot5 hydraulic fluid. or what a schrader valve looks like.

i'm not dissing the services offered by tredz; i use them regularly, but only because i don't have a local bike shop, the result of which is, i have had to learn a great deal more about bicycle components and mechanics than perhaps is seemly in polite company. i think we're all more than aware of the so-called economic crisis; does it really make sense to buy a chain for £45 from the bike shop, if the same can be found online for £35? my grasp of economics is certainly not the sharpest in the peloton, but it's not hard to comprehend that buying chains by the hundred is quite likely to be cheaper than buying by the dozen.

i'm guessing that an online store like tredz probably sells more than 100 chains per week, whereas the bike shop round the corner might not even reach ten. but it might well be possible, if your chain breaks unexpectedly, to get hold of one the same day, and possibly have it fitted there and then. i have bored everyone to a ludicrous degree about my £150 campagnolo workshop chain tool, a price that might well make sense for a shop, but didn't really make financial sense for me. but then, i don't have a bike shop and my mechanic friend doesn't own a campag tool.

so on 3 may 2025, the uk's local bike shop day, if you have just such a retail outlet near you, make sure you go along, buy something and give them some love. and then do the same thing the next week, and the week after, and so on, and so on. when you need bike bits, ask if they can help; when your bike needs some tlc, drop it in. and when time comes to buy a new bike, assuming they can get stock of the one you've chosen, give them first refusal. cycling reputedly has a long and sparkled heritage, much of which has involved bike shops.

don't let it end anytime soon.

thursday 13 march 2025

trying too hard?

i am generally not one for joining clubs, a state of affairs that i can probably trace back to the local tennis club i joined on becoming a teenager. following a wholesale upgrading of the tennis courts near my home when i was a kid, the nets became so much more, with a bona-fide clubhouse, shop, and applicable discounts for members. i'd be fibbing if i said i could recall the price charged to play a game of tennis, but whatever it was, members paid less. during long school summer holidays, in the days when summers were always warm and sunny, if in the habit of playing regularly, any reduction in cost was to be welcomed with open arms. so, despite being probably one of the worst players and not all that interested in improving, i went ahead and paid the annual membership fee. the euphoria of becoming someone with possibly more than a passing interest in the game was remarkably short-lived on discovering, the following day, that i'd been entered into the opening rounds of the club's tournament.

as you may have learned from years and years of these monologues, the competitive spirit is not one with which i was blessed at birth. as far as cycling goes, i'll quite happily be last across the line, as long as i enjoyed myself in the process. the saving grace, as far as i'm concerned, is that i'm well aware of the competitive milieu, but happy to observe from a distance. so the thought of being utterly humiliated in the opening rounds of a tournament that was likely to attract an audience, albeit a small one, was not the introduction to sport for which i had been hoping.

however, something worth mentioning, the relevance of which will hopefully become clearer as we progress, is that the tennis court upgrade was financed by the local council, though presumably at the behest of those considerably more enmeshed in the game than yours truly. insofar as i can recall, there was no recruitment drive to ensure the facilities were used to their optimum potential, and no distinctive campaign to promote the worthiness of tennis as a healthy sporting activity in which you could wear white shorts.

my averseness to joining clubs persists to this day. even when at college, where there was one day per term devoted to the various clubs available to the student faculty, joining any one of them was never on my horizon. i confess to my complete ignorance of the existence of local cycling clubs as i progressed from teens to twenties; those solo riders and yellow jacketed marshalls often to be seen on the dual-carriageway at weekends remained a mystery for years. that said, had i actually read the posters in the local bike shops, i very much doubt it would have made any difference anyway.

my present day reference to the velo club is merely euphemism for the unruly crew which meets at springbank of a sunday morning. yes, most of us have the option of wearing an ardbeg, debbie's or port charlotte stores jersey, but throughout my hebridean velocipedinal life, there's never once existed anything like an organised (or disorganised) meeting. neither are there membership cards, membership dues, or an annual dinner dance in the phone box at carnduncan.

it does sometimes grate that the likes of islay and jura dolphins swimming club is seen as attractive enough to recruit a large number of youngsters, or that the islay motor club finds it necessary to print around 30 membership cards every year. all this while the velo club exists with numbers that have scarce entered double digits over the past two decades. surely, we have reasoned, watching our honed physiques sail quietly past of a sunday morning, makes it look good enough to engender a desire to join the happy throng?

apparently not.

however, to an extent, that aligns with my appreciation of such matters, whereby external pressures, however subliminal, ought not to be necessary. an activity is either worth embracing, or it isn't; if it becomes necessary to resort to various persuasions, then just maybe, it doesn't suit everyone. a bit like a work of art, if you have to explain it, then perhaps the artist has missed the point. which is why i'm probably not as welcoming of british cycling's newly announced, four-year strategy to change the country through bikes. uk cycling's governing body intends to 'support and grow' cycling in all its forms, aiming to 'lead on the world stage' and 'drive social impact'.

all three are perfectly laudable aims, but have we ever stopped to ask why? has there ever been a national campaign/strategy to encourage increased use of the motor car? building more roads seems to easily increase the amount of traffic, so surely if the same is applied to the number of cycle paths... if government were truly serious about adopting cycling as a major factor in the nation's transport strategy, they'd have done a lot more a lot sooner. and though i would dearly love to be proved completely wrong, i have a notion that, in four years' time, pretty much nothing will have changed. those who want to cycle, probably already are; there will be a small section of the population open to gentle persuasion, but the majority are quite content with their lot. car travel is easy, and has deliberately been made so over the decades. make it harder, and cycling or walking may gain some attraction, but i'm fairly sure that british cycling does not have the wherewithal to achieve that.

participating in the late-lamented hot chillee london-paris ride, the motorcycle outriders on this side of the channel could only keep us safe. once across the channel, they had the powers to close any roads they deemed necessary, including those encircling the arc de triomphe. and despite my declared aversion to joining anything, i have been a fully-paid up member of british cycling for decades (though admittedly mostly for the third-party insurance). that does not, however, explain why we need strategies and persuasions; against the british weather, pretty much all are bound to fail.

wednesday 12 march 2025

safety first

saturday's strade bianche had an almost predictable ending, perhaps a sign of just how cycle fans must have felt during the merckx years, when the cannibal hoovered up 512 of the victories on offer. to an extent, it's not really tadej's fault, but those of his competitors having failed to cultivate a higher level of fitness in order to challenge his dominance. of course, that is extremely easy to say, and a great deal harder to enact; were that not the case, i'm pretty sure that a sizeable number of world-tour professionals would already have done so. not for the first time, however, have i read comments alluding to the slovenian's possibly questionable dominance in apparently any type of event he cares to enter. not only do many of us recall the seven years of lord voldemort, but are well accustomed to the phrase 'if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.'

that said, victory in tuscany was not without its trials and tribulations, tadej overcooking it on a corner and sliding, limbs akimbo, into an adjacent field. and he wasn't the only one to suffer the slings and arrows of road rash; at least one other rider slid off on the selfsame corner as did tadej, and many others experienced 'incidentes' all of their own, resulting in a relatively high number of abandons, and a concomitant sparsity of finishers. it highlights the concerns of several riders, that, as cycling has become faster, it is becoming less and less safe.

if a finger requires to be pointed, i'm not sure there would be too much in the way of dissension, were it to be pointed at the bicycle manufacturers. it often seems that, over the past four or five years, every season's new machinery brings with it declarations of increased speed, quantified in percentages that compare this year's model with last year's. i think it likely that we're all sufficiently well-educated round these here parts to take such claims with a large pinch of sodium chloride. the quoted numbers often have a great deal in common with the advertised economy figures for any motor car you care to mention.

the latter are invariably achieved by a professional driver, in a perfectly tuned sample, on a closed-road test circuit, at a constant speed of 56mph. hardly a valid comparison with the day-to-day driving experienced by most contemporary motorists. when witnessing the front-to-back shuffling that persists in the peloton, it seems perfectly obvious that the aerodynamic forces acting upon the average bicycle and rider are hardly consistent, surely fuzzing any meaningful comparisons with anything? personally, i have a healthy disregard for any aerodynamic claims, if only on the basis that real life's rarely like that.

however, since late last year, there have been contractors working on the bonded warehouses of bowmore distillery, clearly visible from thewashingmachinepost sitting room window. i have lived here for close on 40 years, during which time those warehouses have possessed the same corrugated iron roofing. presumably the latter had now reached end-of-life, with each and every roof section having now been replaced. to achieve this replacement, the contractors erected vast amounts of scaffolding, augmented by angled bannisters situated on the gable-end of each stone warehouse. though the staff appeared to be perfectly agile when clambering over the old and new roofs, those bannisters prevent any untoward movements tipping them, unceremoniously, to the ground.

that, might i suggest, is a factor that appears to be missing in action in the professional peloton. while powerful motorbikes frequently sport twin discs to aid stopping power, these reputedly faster and faster road bikes appear to have garnered little, if anything, in the way of enhanced safety features. tadej's colnago no doubt eased the effort of his reaching escape velocity at strade bianche, but thought little of keeping him upright when he got there. we are all well aware that world-tour professionals harbour bike-handling skills at which we can only marvel. but while those may have increased, along with the speeds, as far as i'm aware, the laws of physics have not, nor will ever, experience a similar percentage upgrade.

as richard sachs has pointed out on more than one occasion, braking is only effective when the tyre remains in contact with the road (or gravel) surface. and there remains a direct correlation between the angle at which a bicycle can be tilted, even if offset by centrifugal forces, before it loses contact with the road on which it rides.

though i've yet to hear it said that this continuous increase in race speeds is "because the fans want it", the implications are there for all to see. far more likely, i believe, that endless aero is a result of marketing folly; the persistent need to provide even incremental 'improvements' over last year's model. to hark back to eddy's day, i dare anyone to say that racing in the 1970s was any less exciting than today. the tour has frequently been likened to 'chess on wheels', but isn't chess considered a rather slow game?

tuesday 11 march 2025