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a long time ago, somewhat dismayed that potential purchasers of electric vehicles would be in receipt of around £3,000 towards the cost of their new electric cars ( i should add that this is no longer the case), i wrote to my westminster mp. the above financial largesse was being provided by the uk government, and presumably derived from the taxes that you and i are compelled to pay to hmrc. the reason provided for such benevolence was to help kickstart ev production and to assist with britain's environmental ambitions; the latter being the case, how much, i asked my mp, would westminster be willing to hand over to purchasers of bicycles, undeniable as it is, that the latter provide the most environmental means of transport. i pointed out to my member of parliament that i was not expecting to receive the sum of £3,000, but an agreeable pro rata amount.

though my letter had been intended somewhat tongue-in-cheek, i have to give credit to the gent for contacting the treasury and posing my highly suspect question. the treasury's response indicated that such matters had been devolved to holyrood, an answer with which most would likely have been satisfied, offering a cogent response accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders. however, it appears that my representative in parliament was like a dog with a bone, immediately contacting the relevant department within the scottish parliament to ask the original question.

a bit like the archetypal chinese whispers, as my original query was handed from department to department, it's specific intent became slightly distorted, with holyrood claiming that it had delegated such matters to scotland's regional councils, who, quite obviously, were not in a strategic position to offer cash money to aspirant cyclists. argyll & bute council, under whose jurisdiction lie the islands of islay and jura, finally provided and answer, indicating that such delegated finance had been applied to cycling, walking and wheeling facilities, something that the uk government had also funded, alongside the £3,000 for ev purchasers that had started the ball rolling in the first place.

now whether the regional answer was a cold calculation to put me off the scent completely, i know not, but ultimately my query had got me nowhere; pretty much what i'd expected from the outset. however, the process had help illustrate the tenacity of argyll & bute's member of parliament. unfortunately, the gentleman lost his seat at the following general election; his replacement has been every bit as effective as a chocolate fireguard, in spite of which he was restored to the same position for a further five years.

democracy in action.

it could be argued that argyll & bute's msp (who, coincidentally, is a member of the same party as her westminster counterpart), is every bit as (in)effective.

cycling uk, working on behalf of britain's cyclists, frequently advises its members and those who share its views, to lobby candidates at each scottish and national election, to ask what they intend to enact on behalf of the nations' cyclists. ultimately, that is the very definition of a pointless pursuit, since politicians are more than inclined to provide whatever platitudes they figure will have them successfully elected. anyone who truthfully believes that a comprehensive national cycling infrastructure is mere moments away, needs to change their brand of coffee. bearing that in mind, one truly has to wonder about the ultimate point of french president, emmanuel macron, in presenting the g7 world leaders with their very own, custom painted , look 795 blade road bikes? granted, it could be a gesture designed to promote french bicycle technology, but i harbour doubts that we are likely to witness sir keir starmer joining cyclists in a few laps of richmond park anytime soon. nor does it seem even remotely likely that president trump, despite having once sponsored an american road race, could even place his large posterior on such a narrow saddle.

has anyone else noticed that this is a bit of an odd world in which to live?

photo: david lappartient via x

monday 22 june 2026

burning at both ends

several years ago, my son kindly offered to take mrs washingmachinepost and i to the ferry, as we left for our traditional summer holiday in late november. however, en-route to the croft, he discovered that his car, fitted as it was with almost every available extra offered by the manufacturer, had placed itself in a slow mode due to a sensor having failed. with a light on the dashboard indicating the error, a quick search of the manual informed that the offending article was that which determined if someone had stepped in front of the vehicle, at which point the car would apply the brakes. given the nature of our surroundings, a device such as this is not as much of a requirement as it possibly would be on urban or inner-city roads.

however, despite switching the feature off, the car persisted in slow mode, refusing to travel any faster than 40mph. while that would have been perfectly adequate for yours truly - not noted for my speed when still driving - it frustrated the heck out of my more alacritous son. when finally having the vehicle checked over by a mechanic, it transpired that the failed sensor had been as a result of two other sensors malfunctioning, necessitating all three being replaced and a disappointingly hefty bill being presented to its owner. though technology such as that described has become intrinsic to many contemporary motor cars, there's a case for continuing to argue that technology is brilliant, until it isn't.

while i can appreciate that manufacturers want to achieve at least two results when adding features, sometimes it ends up being counter-productive. succinctly put, if last year's model possessed 37 technological advances, then this year's really ought to add at least another half dozen to make it a more attractive proposition than its predecessor. many of you may have noted a similar trend in computer software, particularly now that artifical intelligence has been positioned as a must have. in the latest update to my page-layout software, i can now ask a.i. to rewrite anything i may have composed, simply by directing it to lengthen, shorten, formalise etc., etc. any selected passage of text.

personally, i'm arrogant enough to think that i can manage those by myself, using ordinary intelligence, allied to many, many years of experience.

but, while the cycle industry is not the motor industry, just like all those who scrambled to convert analogue to digital systems, it seems that nothing today is worthwhile unless it is aided and abetted by artificial intelligence of some description. as that becomes more common, there will be those in the velocipedinal realm who expect the cycle industry not to become the odd one out. and, if that expectation seems likely to bring more sales, then who amongst the top manufacturers can afford to be left behind? just as when colour became a necessitous part of modern printing demands, it only takes one to invoke the use of artificial intelligence as a part of everyday cycling, and it becomes hard for their competitors not to do likewise. whether there is any real need to complicate cycling by doing so, seems to be a question that might not have been asked in the first place.

the first one to breach the a.i. barrier would appear to be canyon, which has created a concept bike (the predict) powered by a.i. and featuring a display integrated into the handlebars, augmented by sensors and cameras in a technological attempt to improve cyclist safety. surprisingly, instead of placing these features within a commuter style bicycle, canyon have opted to create a bike that, as cycling weekly commented, "has the appearance of a machine that could easily keep pace in the fastest of pelotons." whether that was an astute move or not remains to be seen, but with canyon's intention to display the predict at upcoming cycle shows, perhaps they figured that a race machine would attract more eyeballs.

reputedly the cameras, radar and sensors can 'see' obstacles ahead, figure out what they are and warn the rider by means of flashing lights on the brake lever hoods. as one who struggled to make cognitive sense of the data displayed on my garmin, the thought of warning lights while i'm riding, is not one that i would welcome. allegedly the bike has the ability to connect to canyon's smart helmet, providing a heads up display on the drop-down visor.

i am not a commuting cyclist, but even if i were, my surroundings simply do not compare with the conditions experienced by those in urban or inner-city settings. so any opinions i might have should probably be kept to myself. however, while i can appreciate that any attempts to improve cycle safety ought to be welcomed with open arms, i can't help thinking that the technology applied by canyon might solve one problem while creating another. i'm inclined to keep a lookout for potholes, for foreign drivers in hire cars on the wrong side of the road, oncoming traffic on islay's singletrack roads, all the while attempting to enjoy the scenery in between. flashing lights and a heads-up display might be intelligence just a smidgeon too far. and what of the maintenance issues when the technology fails?

because it will.

if the integrated bar display ceases to function, is it the display itself, or has one or more sensors given up the ghost? and how much will it cost to buy and how much to repair? i think we've all noticed the ever-increasing prices of bicycles of late, where £11,000 seems to have become almost entry-level in some cases. so i think it's worth asking the question: is this technology being implemented simply because it can be, or genuinely as a result of the safety demands of modern traffic conditions? in which case, is it being employed as an alternative to driver/cyclist education? that being true, maybe we're already past the point of no return.

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

image: canyon

sunday 21 june 2026

i'm not sure if i'm being indecisive

with a significant birthday just about on the horizon, i am toying with the idea of purchasing myself a new bicycle, or, perhaps, a frameset that i will subsequently build into a new bicycle. currently, the only hurdle against the latter option, is my total lack of experience with hydraulic disc brakes. obviously enough, i have sram discs on my specialized crux, but i've never actually fitted them from scratch. and before you tell me that there are umpteen videos on youtube demonstrating how it can be done, i have already taken that into account. but do i really want to go down that road, or wouldn't it just be simpler to buy the whole enchilada and be done with it?

the persuasive factor in favour of the do-it-yourself option is that i can spec the bike to my exacting requirements; in other words, i can fit a campagnolo ekar groupset, and a pair of challenge cyclocross tyres. almost every former cyclocross option has morphed into exactly the same bike, but with considerably wider tyres and categorised as gravel, nomenclature that sits uneasily with my preferences. and recent kilometreage has convinced me that, while the idea of a road bike still lingers at the back of my mind, pragmatism commends that i err more towards a 'cross bike, if only because it's more comfortable and islay's roads aren't.

but, for the purposes of being a smidgeon more realistic, i'm willing to at least pay literary cognition of the gravellous genre, as i debate at length the options currently available. as you are probably already aware to your inevitable detriment, i currently spend all my ride time aboard a specialized crux, a bicycle no longer in its first flush of youth, but still highly equitable to my simple demands. the fact that it features a carbon frame painted fluorescent red and green is not, you may be surprised to learn, of any great concern, despite today's bicycles having adopted a less fauvist demeanour.

however, the componentry is beginning to show its age, and while divesting the frame of its trinketry and replacing it with something more contemporary would possibly be a more economic and less troublesome road to travel, the time, tools and willpower available might well mitigate against a timely build programme. currently, i have no immediate ride option to fill the inevitable gap. you would be correct to suppose that i do have several other bikes in thewashingmachinepost bikeshed, but just like so many of us with the mechanical ability to replace any parts missing in action, getting round to doing so is an entirely different matter. which effectively brings me back to the potential iniquity of purchasing a frame and groupset, and becoming a pedestrian for longer than one would wish.

so, if you are willing to discount the self-build option, at least for the time being, what would i consider to be on my shopping list? in other words, i'm willing to agonise for my art, so that you don't have to (always assuming some of you are, or may be, in a similar situation, now or in the near future). firstly, do i spend hour upon hour searching for a bona-fide cyclocross bike, or do i pay attention to my own deeply held beliefs and realise that the word, gravel, is simply a euphemism for cyclocross and forge ahead no matter what? though i'm more in favour of the former choice, i fear that the cycle industry's marketing trends will have me succumb to the latter. deciding who has actually won the argument, is probably a discussion for another day and another peloton.

and, if i submit to my second, deeply held belief; that pretty much every carbon frame built in a taiwanese factory is essentially identical to its neighbour, but with a different marque on the downtube, then choice is more readily curated by the componentry options. an aside, however, is the encroaching reality that almost none of the above actually makes any difference; though i am a dyed-in-the-wool vicenza aficionado, who finds the downshift thumbshifter on the inner face of campagnolo's brake lever a work of genius, after a week or so of riding, it is simples to get the hang of whatever is fitted to the bike. at the level most of us find ourselves, nothing is likely to make a great deal of difference to the sunday ride, or the level of performance thereof.

that said, there is still a long-held prejudice that stops me opting for a shimano-equipped bicycle, no matter how big a discount the retailer is offering, and no matter how many victories are on its palmares. so despite my apparent even-handedness shown above, realistically, i'm likely to confine my choice to something featuring either sram or campagnolo, with a distinct preference in favour of the latter. the fly-in-the-ointment there, is the knowledge that campagnolo is very rarely fitted as original equipment on frames built in the far east. if i therefore continue with my newfound realism, that pretty much narrows my immediate choice to something featuring a sram groupset. ultimately a bicycle that confirms my indefensible prejudices.

i should point out at this juncture that while the original tack of this monologue had been to present a rational approach to purchasing a new bicycle, not necessarily carbon and not necessarily of the cyclocross/gravel genre, the result has turned out to be quite different. but while i find myself on the tentaitve subject of non-carbon options, should i be considering any aluminium options? granted, it's a metal unlikely to seriously challenge carbon fibre in any weight considerations, but as i have already acknowledged above, out-and-out performance is a mountain that few of us have (or need) the ability to ascend. however, perhaps unsurprisingly, there is at least one factor that could be seen to undermine that particular choice.

in the early years of this century, i bought a colnago c40hp frame, campagnolo componentry and built my own wheelset. despite treating this as a major object of desire, fettling it within a centimetre of its existence, islay's salt atmosphere and the acidic nature of peat dust, eventually corroded the aluminium dropouts to the point of destruction. even the plugged sections inserted into the seat and chainstays expanded and delaminated the carbon fibre, well beyond the point of economic repair. a similar situation has made less than subtle inroads to the alu dropouts on my original colnago c40, so you can perhaps understand my retircence to follow that particular frame material trail.

but perhaps i doth protest too much? maybe i should simply acquiesce to the influence of sponsorship, and make my choice accordingly. fellow scot and british cyclocross champion, cameron mason, rides a stevens cyclocross bicycle which doesn't seem to have done him any notable harm. or perhaps a trek boone as ridden by tibau nys? yet when it comes to cyclocross, the name synonymous with the sport is most likely ridley, the choice of michael vantourenhout's sponsor, pauwels sauzen. or maybe i should opt for colour and favour, choosing a yellow cervelo on which i can practise my world famous wout van aert impersonation? yet the nearest i'm likely to get is the aspero, and that sports a set of dropped seatstays, against which i have a particular beef on the grounds that i'm not at all sure there is any good reason for their existence. add to that, the tyres are 45mm wide and i'd need to immediately replace those with some challenge 33s.

and what on earth would i do with the crux i already own?

life's hard.

saturday 20 june 2026

progress?

i recall watching channel four's half hour daily tour de france highlights programme when it began in 1985, fronted by the inimitable, gary imlach. with scotland's robert millar having secured the highest placing by a british rider in 1984, just off the podium in fourth, but wearing the polka dot climber's jersey, presumably someone figured that britain was ripe for a daily slice of french france. five years later, eurosport began broadcasting live coverage of the race on satellite tv, with commentator, david duffield, accompanied by former green jersey winner, sean kelly.

initially, the host broadcaster's live coverage tended to commence around 2pm in the afternoon, before graduating to start-to-finish broadcasting of mountain stages in their entirety. in celebration of the latter, i would arm myself with a wedge of brie, a baguette from the co-op's faux french bakery selection, make myself a coffee and settle down to watch the action from beginning to end. things were never quite the same when duffers retired.

in 2001, itv4 took over from channel four, presenting a daily highlights show each evening, with phil ligget and paul sherwen on commentating duties, but in 2016, they were replaced by ned boulting and david millar. this provided relief for those of us who had begun to tire of eurosport's increasingly over-the-top punditry, phalanx of former cycling personalities and teams of commentators. i have often wondered why it is possible for professional riders to ride from the grand départ all the way to the finish line with only a musette and a side-of-the-road call of nature, yet eurosport's (and by implication, tnt sports') commentary team could only cover the same ground, so to speak, in shifts. how hard can it be to carry out a normal day's work in return for an impressive paypacket?

anyway, itv4 (and appreciate the fact that the event was broadcast on a channel that did not interrupt soap opera fans' viewing; soccer fans take note) eventually graduated to live coverage of every stage, before losing out to tnt sports last year, thus excluding the majority of uk cycling fans who baulked at the thought of paying £30.99 per month for the privilege. along with many others, i have opted not to swell the tnt coffers, particularly when i find subtexts like the post show punditry hosted by orla chennaoui, just a tad too much to suffer, and rob hatch's authentic pronunciation of riders' names and the foreign locations through which they travel.

many of us had thus resigned ourselves to following this year's tour via daily newspapers or the online cycling media, but thursday brought a certain level of succour to the downtrodden, on learning that channel five had negotiated with tnt to present a daily highlights show of both the men's and women's tours de france. which, if i'm not mistaken, more or less returns us to the days of 1985.

a bit like snakes and ladders, if you see what i mean?

for 2027, channel five will apparently offer live coverage of the uk stages of both men's and women's tours.

friday 19 june 2026

brought to book

when reprising my review of ned boulting's 'the accidental tour-ist when recently released in paperback format, i mentioned my slight confusion at the publishing habit of bringing the hardback versions to retail first, following up with the paperback version, usually about a year after the hardback went on sale. i have, of course, no figures to substantiate whether one outsells the other, nor indeed to learn whether the hardback version is discontinued when the paperback arrives. obviously enough, the former tends to cost about one and a half times the published retail price on the back cover of the latter (your mileage may vary), but may be considered to justify the higher costs of production. however though i have a large library of cycling books, predominantly in hardback, i can but admit those are rarely opened following the initial reading and reviewing.

and, as far as i'm aware, many of us are exactly the same, despite the vague notion that those will be re-read in the course of time.

i have been in correspondence with liveargyll now for over a year, following the disappearance of islay and jura's mobile library due to the departure of the former driver/librarian. argyll & bute council apparently has a statutory duty to provide a library service to the islands, a duty that it has failed to fulfil for over one year. liveargyll is the council department responsible for recruiting a replacement, which it took its sweet time to enact, but subsequently placed three successive adverts on job scotland for the position which occupies only 14 hours per week. unsurprisingly, it has so far, failed to recruit any "...suitable applicants". both i and our local councillor have suggested advertising in the local paper, but to no avail.

led by the department for education and the national literacy trust, 2026 has been designated a uk-wide national year of reading, encouraging the population to 'go all in' and enhance their interest in hobbies and passions by augmenting them with relevant reading. islay has one bookshop in bowmore, offering a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, and will happily order any title you care to name. failing that, there's always amazon, where it is possible to acquire books on pretty much any subject you care to mention. from that point of view at least, there's no real excuse for excusing yourselves from enjoying the written word.

of course, the very fact that 2026 has become the national year of reading, would tend to suggest that official encouragement and endorsement is something very much required. if reading was as enjoyable and rewarding as the great and good would have us believe, it would pretty much sell itself; book shops would not find themselves as endangered as we are often led to believe, and perhaps we'd still have a library to aid and abet the government's laudable aims. as someone who writes many thousands of words every week, it will not surprise you to learn that i am very much in favour of reading, struggling as i am to find a footing with the crowning glory of james joyce's career, ulysses. as spock would have said, "it's a book, jim, but not as we know it." however, despite its many pages and convoluted use of language, i am determined not to let it beat me.

in the book one more kilometre and we're in the showers, author, tim hilton, implies that the velocipedinal realm features more than its fair share of writers, artists and actors, which, i have taken to mean, we are more likely to purchase or read books than those with an obsessive interest in the world cup, for example. that might explain why there are so many cycling books published, even when, occasionally, the content would suggest it would have been a better idea not to bother. and i have extrapolated this bookish desire to include the latest volume proffered by colnago, in the shape of atlante colnago, translating as an atlas of the marque, augmented by the front cover proclaiming, 'we are the ace of cycling', a direct reference to ernesto's ace of clubs logo.

depicted in the photographs as a luxuriously produced volume, with a gold-lettered spine and constrained to a limited run of 2000 copies, according to colnago, it runs to 480 pages, featuring two dozen stories describing 52 iconic bicycles, and illustrated with over 300 archival photographs. it's hard to tell from the limited number of images, whether those 480 pages demand much in the way of reading, but it seems safe to say that this is the coffee table book to end all coffee table books, aimed fairly and squarely at the true cambiago enthusiast. though i may have considered purchase of a book on the history of gretsch drums, despite owning not one of their products, i very much doubt that atlante colnago will find many, if any, buyers outside those who own colnago bicycles.

but just before your enthusiasm gets the better of you, and you reach for the corporate credit card, you should be advised that, just like the bicycles, there is a premium to be paid. the website places this premium as from £186. i'm willing to contend that tadej didn't pay for his copy.

colnago atlas

thursday 18 june 2026

right

based on real experience, i believe that many media outlets strive for relevance, timeous reportage and originality, amongst other considerations. and then there's the matter of topicality. in political terms, a current pressing topic surrounds the possible election of andy burnham, potentially leading to the subsequent deposing of prime minister, sir keir starmer. though i have been unable to determine any relevant velocipedinal connection to that story, publishing any hitherto undiscussed aspects of the above, would certainly count as topical. unfortunately, in a thirty year-old cycling blog, so doing would certainly undermine the relevancy aspect.

i am, self-admittedly, simply not clever enough to combine even a portion of the previously discussed aspects, without looking decidedly contrived into the bargain. however, by some strange quirk of fate, i have found myself perilously close to both topicality and relevance, without malice aforethought; and to further distance myself from skillful wordplay, along with my reader, i simply didn't see it coming.

only a matter of days ago, i brought to your attention the pitfalls being brought to the public eye, when otherwise non-cyclists, availed themselves of either e-bike hire when on holiday, or purchase of same direct from the shop floor. in the latter case, even should the shop staff query senior customers' ability to assimilate themselves into the realm of the cyclist, a combination of arrogance and embarrassment will usually ensure that few, if any, will admit that the last time they rode a bicycle was around the time they left primary school. in the case of e-bike rental outlets, with no disrespect to the more professional examples, the majority simply don't care, as long as the bike is returned in one piece.

thus, the lack of any recent, up-to-date experience in the saddle often leads to on-road behaviour that brings the rest of us into local disrepute. let's face it; who amongst the great unwashed can tell the difference between an acoustic bike and an e-bike at fifty paces? so when these generalised miscreants ride six abreast along a single-track road, ignoring every passing place that hoves into view, well do i know that in only a matter of hours, someone will feel honour bound to bring this to my attention. or, if the tables are turned, you.

scarce had twenty-four hours passed before i read in monday's guardian newspaper, an article announcing that the dutch had tabled a trial 20kph speed limit for cyclists on the nation's network of cycle paths, due to an unwarranted rise in e-bike use. this has been tabled for trial in houten, near utrecht, after almost 81,000 cyclists ended up in accident and emergency following cycling accidents. cyclist deaths had also risen by 14% to 281 in 2025. houten's transport chief, wouter van den berg, was quoted as saying, "pretty much all of the primary schools in houten are on the bike paths, and you don't want parents to say they will take their children to school by car because it's not safe."

a spokesperson for doctors for safe cycling told the guardian, "safer cycling requires a package of measures, including a minimum age of 16 for e-bike riders." however, it would be naive to solely blame the e-bike for all of the netherland's cycle woes. the first official cycle path appeared in utrecht in 1885, meaning the country has successfully developed a nationwide cycle network over a period of 140 years, but it's only since the advent of the e-bike that problems have begun to arise, caused both by too many cyclists of all genres attempting to ride on paths that cannot be widened, and young and old residents riding fast e-bikes without the requisite skills or training to handle them safely.

admittedly, britain's relationship with the e-bike is always going to be different, given a complete lack of cycling infrastructure on which such problems might occur. however, i would think we've all heard of or seen at first hand the use of unregulated e-bikes by fast-food delivery cyclists. on at least two occasions, i have almost become another accident & emergency statistics while walking in sauchiehall street's pedestrian precinct, where hooded riders aboard throttle controlled s-pedelecs show scant regard for those on foot.

of course, just like nuclear weapons, it's not the weapons (e-bikes) themselves that pose the problem, but the humans in charge. e-bikes bereft of pedal-assist are not legal in the uk, but if the rider is pedalling, how are the authorities or the police to visually distinguish between legal and illegal?

that said, the more widespread problem is created by allowing the inexperienced to be in charge of bicycles they undoubtedly do not have the skills to control, and that returns us neatly to the lack of enforcement behind bikeability, the artist formerly known as the cycling proficiency scheme. if you're going to allow anyone, from children to senior citizens, to ride acoustic and electric bikes in the midst of ever-increasing traffic populated by ever-larger and faster vehicles, surely there needs to be some means of having them prove themselves worthy?

could it be that the dutch are, once again, ahead of the curve?

wednesday 17 june 2026

it's like it never happened

as mentioned but a few days past, the village of bowmore has become awash with saltire flags flying from lamp posts and drainpipes, which could be seen as support for yet another independence referendum, but which, more specifically, was directed at the scottish football team's first qualification for the world cup in goodness knows how many years. the fact that they managed to beat haiti by a single goal, more or less confirmed that the flags are likely to stay put for a few more days at least. it seems that this historic event, which fostered government support for an extra bank holiday on monday 15 june (though apparently not fulfilled by the royal bank of scotland, whose mobile banking van passed me when i was out cycling), has provided a particular talking point; prior to saturday, conversations centred around who was and who wasn't likely to stay awake until 4am to watch the match, transforming, by monday, into who actually did.

what surprised me slightly was a complete lack of discussion on the match itself as i supped froth and scoffed a cheese and onion toastie at debbie's on monday lunchtime.

given the lack of competitive success by scotland's national team in recent years, the current interest cannot be said to be unexpected, but what can also be seen as not unexpected, is a complete lack of profile for this year's national bike week uk, which allegedly took place between monday 8 june and saturday 14 june. however, acknowledging that i do live a somewhat detached life, could i ask for a show of hands from those who were aware of the event's timing this year?

nope, me neither.

even for football/soccer agnostics such as yours truly, it would be hard to avoid knowledge of scotland's participation in the world cup, even if it was remarkably easy to avoid the match altogether. not so, however, for mrs washingmachinepost, who has been visiting our daughter in glasgow for the last few days, and who was given no escape route from watching by a family which seems besotted by the sport. and we thought we'd managed to bring her up correctly. i will cheerfully confirm that i have no truck with social media of any flavour: no tiktok, facebook, x, whatsapp or instagram, so i apologise to the well-meaning folks behind national bike week, if they spent their last marketing pound coin flooding those platforms with announcements about bike week.

yet, though the youth of today may well be entrenched in their addiction to social media, there is a sizeable number of folks who still prefer traditional media, such as tv, or the daily newspaper. if evidence were required in support of the latter, during recent disruption to the arrival of the daily newspapers on the morning calmac ferry sailing, i received a notable level of enquiry as to what might be the cause of their persistent non-arrival (i should also perhaps mention that, once again, no daily newspapers arrived on the islands on saturday past, but with no explanation as to why). such was the disfavour over this situation, that i'd to publish an article in a recent issue of islay's local newspaper, outlining the reasons provided by the appointed carrier and calmac.

so, extrapolated across the nation, if there is still a healthy number of daily newspaper readers, why, oh why, was national bike week not highlighted somewhare within their columns? i'm sure several of the dailies would have been happy to provide a few column centimetres of editorial, or better still, an advert prior to the beginning of bike week to advise of its impeding arrival. according to the cycling uk website, "Run by Cycling UK for more than 100 years, Bike Week is the UK's biggest celebration of cycling and a chance to show how cycling can make everyday life better for people and communities across the country." i was very surprised to learn that the even has taken place for at least a century, but completely unsurprised to note that, such being the case, it seems to have made no difference whatsoever.

i'm pretty sure that no-one actually cares (or knows).

i've said it almost every year for over a decade, if you want folks to take up cycling instead of driving their cars, then initially at least, you'll have to provide some sort of incentive. because it appears that saving money on petrol is of little to no interest.

as i wandered back to the croft from a short walk down main street to purchase my daily paper (remember those?), i noted a surprising number of cars parked on the road leading to the local primary school. wondering why this was the case, laughter and chatter emanating from the playing field behind the school provided the answer: school sports day. but considering the fact that almost every pupil within the school resides in the village, and, as i have made plain, to the point of boredom, bowmore measures less than two kilometres end-to-end, one really has to query why it was found necessary, by a large proportion of parents, to drive to the school to watch their little darlings win prizes in races?

perfect evidence of the utter pointlessness of national bike week.

tuesday 16 june 2026