thewashingmachinepost




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pearson cycles greg coulton illustrates s/s baselayer

pearson greg coulton s/s baselayer

though you may lower your opinion of me by way of this admission, it's not that often that i consider the interiors of my drum shells. deliberations can be long, procrastinated and ultimately futile when time comes to choosing the exterior, ostensibly to impress upon an often less than interested audience, an inherent knowledge of the percussive portion of modern music. it would be foolish of me to deny that the vintage marine pearl finish-ply on the larger of my two drum workshop sets, is in homage to gene krupa and buddy rich. my exterior choice was also based on the fervent hope that this iconic finish might also bestow even a small portion of the musical ability displayed by either or both of the above.

pearson greg coulton s/s baselayer

so far, that has not materialised.

the smaller of the two drumsets features the same maple finish both inside and out, offering a more neutral stance when swing morphs to bop. but due to my traditional stance when it comes to drumset playing, the white-coated remo drumheads obscure the interiors from view. the exception would be both bass drums, which feature clear batter-side heads, but due to their positioning down below, their interiors are all but obscured from view.

until the mid 1950s, all drumheads were made from calfskin, rendering them fully opaque both top and bottom. not much altered when remo introduced the plastic drumhead, but more recently the bottom resonant head is most often transparent. if the drumset is on a riser, or the stage is several feet above the floor, only the less than interested audience might perceive the interior of at least the rack tom, and the logo screen-printed on the underside of the crash cymbals.

pearson greg coulton s/s baselayer

prior to my dw ownership, i possessed a british hayman drumset, the interiors of which were painted white, presumably taking their lead from america's ludwig drum company, who had long featured a similar interior finish. the gretsch drum company opted to paint the interiors of the snare drums at least, with a much sought after silver finish, something they still apply to several of their contemporary products. in the uk, the premier drum company once featured a resonator drumset in their range; these contained a secondary, very thin shell which sat against the top and bottom reinforcement rings, creating an interior resonating sound space which was promoted as providing additional volume, though i think it may have been more of a hope than a reality.

pearson greg coulton s/s baselayer

drum workshop varnish the interiors of their snare drums, but leave both toms and bass drums untrammeled by any specific coatings. you'd probably have to ask them why. when i was more of a newbie to this aspect of percussion, advice was usually to inspect the interior finish and wood-type; invariably this would alert the unwary individual, such as myself, to the real quality of the drumset, no matter the sheen displayed on the exterior shell.

while the foregoing might well appear to be wholly irrelevant to the intrepid velocipedinist, there is a corollary when considering the ubiquitous baselayer that the majority of us take very much for granted. i have several baselayers in the top drawer that are of a particularly mundane colour, predominantly on the basis that nobody but me will ever see it. i have an eyewateringly bright cycle jersey with a colour pattern based on a traditional african design, that can probably be seen by the astronauts on the international space station, but even if i leave the zip undone to my navel, few, if any, of my baselayers would give cause for concern in a brightly-lit branch of currys/pc world.

pearson greg coulton s/s baselayer

there's probably a good case for commencing a university doctorate on why baselayers remain entirely unremarkable, but there's nothing in the rulebook that says it always has to be that way. greg coulton is a designer, illustrator and typographer for whom the phrase 'the devil is in the detail' could probably have been invented. his work is meticulous throughout and can be seen on pub signs, book covers, drinks bottle labels and magazine covers. and, adding to the above, we can now include a pearson cycles baselayer.

pearson greg coulton s/s baselayer

produced entirely from recycled materials, pearson's maintain that this limited edition, polyester/elastane short-sleeved garment (which feels more like cotton) could also be worn as a t-shirt, a claim with which i'd be loathe to argue. however, while there's a certain frisson to wearing the baselayer 'neath even the plainest of cycle jerseys, i seriously doubt i'd have the chutzpah to adopt the t-shirt notion within my relatively straight-laced circle of friends and acquaintances. islay's considerable distance from and combined with a lack of knowledge about london's richmond park might excuse my total ignorance of the names emblazoned on each of the sleeves. further investigation indicates that these refer to the names of deer inhabiting the park. who knew?

pearson greg coulton s/s baselayer

so what would be the point of decorating a garment that only i and mrs washingmachinepost will ever witness? well, in my estimation, it parallels the drum shell interiors. my vintage marine pearl 14" x 6" jazz series, cherry wood snare drum, sports deeper than usual reinforcement rings and that varnished interior. nobody listening knows any of this; but i do. and, trivial though it may seem, that's exactly the point. when out cycling at the weekend, i know that i'm wearing a state of the graphic art baselayer underneath. it won't make me go any faster and i won't win any prizes, but...

pearson's greg coulton illustrated short-sleeve baselayer is available in sizes ranging from small to xxl at a retail price of £45.

pearson greg coulton illustrates s/s baselayer

monday 22 june 2020

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re-tyrement

re-tyrement

as the not entirely proud owner of a green raleigh 20 shopping bike in my early teenage years, my parents were keen to impress upon yours truly that a bicycle was not just for christmas, even though i received my raleigh somewhat later in the year. it was common and oft-repeated knowledge that "that chain won't oil itself", hence the small tin of three-in-one oil that sat on the shelf just inside the door of the garden shed. and though nowadays, drowning the chain in spraylube is a remarkably habitual happenstance, in truth, the only bits of a chain that require lube are the rollers between the inner and outer links.

yesteryear, however, had not yet invented the aerosol cycle lubricant, so, once each week, it was regular practice, after mornings delivering newspapers and daytime cycling to school, to place a single drop of three-in-one on each of those chain links. and though subsequent familarity with the mechanical side of the velocipedinal world has educated me to the contrary, my father advised that i ought best to check each and every nut and bolt using the swiss-cheese, all-purpose spanner that had arrived in an envelope along with the bicycle handbook.

and to digress just a tad, well before i actually get to the point, those were the days when bicycle handbooks bore fairly accurate resemblance to the bicycle with which they were associated. i still recall reading through the generic booklet included with early muddy fox mountain bikes, explaining the correct manner of adjustment for caliper brakes, when the bicycle in question was fitted with suntour (remember them?) cantilevers.

however, to return to my original train of thought, the self-sufficiency survival advice did not stop at lubricating the chain, or adjusting a sturmey-archer three-speed hub, via the tiny chain that disappeared into the right-hand axle. it well behove the nascent teenager to be au fait with the technique of repairing a puncture, an occurrence that i recall being far more regular than today, despite the roads in the past, being in arguably better condition.

a shopping bike with steel wheel rims, neither of which offered much in the way of stopping power, could be safely attacked with two steel tyre levers. (i shudder to think what those would have done to a campagnolo bora carbon rim). lifting one tyre bead from the rim to allow removal of the inner tube, a nearby basin of water would then be brought into action to find the source of the air-leak, having partially inflated the tube for the purpose. hole located, a yellow crayon marked 'x' at the spot, before drying the tube and slathering both it and a suitably sized patch with rubber solution, allowing partial drying of both, before bringing them together to form a bond closer than that of ant and dec.

to prevent any stray rubber cement subsequently attaching itself to the inner side of the tyre, liberal application of chalk dust was required before re-fitting the tube and reseating the tyre bead, prior to reinflation. apparently, the multitude of decades that have intervened, have produced considerable technological advancement, but nowadays, for the life of me, i cannot get a repair patch to stick to the average inner tube. so what do i do? i simply replace the inner tube after checking inside the tyre for any sharp objects.

in a better world, the punctured tube would later be repaired at my leisure, but it does my credibility no favours whatsoever to inform you that the bike shed is overflowing with bust inner tubes that are very unlikely ever to see a repair patch. and that's not taking into account all those that have been flung in the bin, often along with worn-out, or damaged tyres. there are many craft producers who offer recycled or upcycled tyres and tubes in the shape of trouser belts, wallets, musette straps and the like, but the vast majority of bicycle tyres and tubes simply end up in landfill. 30.5 million tyres and 152 million inner tubes each year in the uk alone. if you could fit them all into a big box, it would weigh more than 44,000 tonnes.

surely there's a better way?

for those of us who think likewise, the association of cycle traders - (act) intends to introduce a national bicycle tyre recycling scheme later this year. bike shops, workshops, cycle hire providers and refurbishment centres that join the scheme will become local collection points, while the cost of running the scheme will be funded by charging a levy on every scrap tyre received.

chief executive of the hitherto unheard of (by me at least) operator, velorim, dave hawthorn said that "It is important that we, the UK cycling industry, get our house in order before the government makes the disposal of bicycle tyres illegal. Once we have, we can then rightly re-claim the position of being the most environmentally responsible of sports."

on a side note (once again) and just to be more pedantic than usual, i do wish that many within the cycle industry (and i'm sure they know who they are), would cease referring to cycling as a 'sport'. despite the existence of formula-one racing, you'll never hear a motor industry spokeperson refer to everyday motoring in this manner. if you're chris froome or peter sagan, it's a sport. for the rest of us, it's either a leisure activity or just transport, plain and simple. to refer to generic cycling as 'sport' does nothing to endear the activity to those we've been recently asked to bombard with hashtags.

sunday 21 june 2020

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fortune seeking

#choosecycling

i mentioned yesterday that one of the sunday morning peloton had been astute and eco-friendly enough to collect his copies of the local newspaper from my front porch. since the timing was serendipitous, i was ready with bicycle in hand, to join him on the ride as far as debbie's in bruichladdich, where we both stopped for a refreshment. or at least i did.

alongside his village store, is the village petrol pump, existence of which initiated a conversation round whether he might consider installing an electric recharging point in the future. however, unless elon musk comes up with a battery that can be recharged in a matter of minutes, he was less than enthusiastic about having a car parked on the forecourt for several hours at a time, for the pittance that can probably be earned from recharging.

this, in turn, brought us to the financial implications of a wholesale change to electric vehicles, replacing petrol and diesel vehicles. the uk government currenty receives an impressive 57.95 pence per litre of petrol or diesel sold at the pumps. if everyone does the right thing, and goes electric, that's a substantial amount of revenue that will disappear from their fiscal grasp. it transpires that a substantial number of recharging points throughout the country are free to use, perhaps implying that those are paid for by the local authority in which they reside. it therefore seems even more likely that, this being the case, and with the likelihood of a rapid increase in the number of electric vehicles on britain's roads, the latter free-at-point-of-sale may have to be seriously reconsidered.

as a result, the government may then decide to look at how it can apply duty to electricity. but how will it know which volts head into cars, and how many are for home use? leading to the conceivable situation where a little old pensioner in an island cottage may effectively be paying towards the cost of running a jaguar e-pace that they've never seen, nor in which they've been taken for the weekly shop.

uk car sales currently realise an annual turnover of over £82 billion, adding £18.6 billion to the economy. so between sales and petrol duty, the government is in thrall to the motor car, explaining, in part, why the bicycle receives fairly short shrift, and why the roads budget is several orders of magnitude greater than anything spent on bicycle facilities. we all know that the world would be a cleaner and greener place if many car journeys were replaced with bums on saddles, and we've also learned that many more folks say they'd feel safer undertaking those bike journeys if there were more bicycle-specific facilities to help them feel safer.

statistics produced prior to lockdown showed that remarkably few schoolchildren travelled on foot or by bicycle each day, than were driven to school by mum or dad. evicence shows that the latter is decidedly on the increase, while tautologically, the former continues to decrease. this can be viewed as a self-fulfiling prophecy; parents drive their kids to school on the grounds that they figure it less than safe for them to walk or cycle, despite the knowledge that the safety problem is as a result of all the cars heading to and from school.

islay is already home to nine malt whisky distilleries, with construction of a tenth delayed purely due to the coronavirus restrictions. as if that were scarcely enough, a planning application for an eleventh has been recently lodged with the council's planning department. on reading through the objections to the latter, it is readily apparent that, unless those objections are within the criteria on which the department bases its judgments, they are summarily dismissed, however, valid they may seem in a larger context. for instance, it was pointed out by one that it is eminently possible that islay's current ferry service may struggle to cope with eleven distilleries on a fairly small island. while not denying this may well be the case, the planning department have simply stated that this would be calmac's problem, not theirs.

therefore it is an objection they claim is not material to the application. logic often plays very little part in such matters.

if this is a case applicable to local authorities, where arguments and decisions must be based on the same criteria, then is it not logical that those of us who favour the bicycle and are keen to lobby government to do likewise, must frame our arguments in a manner that the decision-makers will be happy to understand? for instance, if the motor car is worth a great deal of revenue to the exchequer, it would seem salient to adopt a stance demonstrating just how much the bicycle might be financially worth their attention.

according to recent figures published by mintel, around 2.5 million bicycles were sold in the uk last year at a total value of £940 million. obviously, that's a figure so far below the amount realised by the motor industry as to be scarcely worth considering. however, mintel's analysts are predicting that, by 2023, bicycles sales will be in excess of £1 billion. if we're willing to accept that bicycles proffer health benefits, and thus nhs savings, plus a considerable reduction in infrastructure costs compared to the nation's road-building programme, there is likely to be a balance point where cycle sales, though far lower in value to that of the motor car, electric or otherwise, will make the bicycle every bit as valuable overall.

so, while it might often seem as if proselytising the bicycle via campaigns such as #choosecycling and #bikeisbest are a long, long way from making any serious inroads, tailoring the argument to match any governmental counter-argument might just be more effective sooner than you'd think.

saturday 20 june 2020

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deliverance

newspaper delivery

the population of islay, according to official figures, rests at just a handful of folks over 3,200. most of those are concentrated equitably in the two villages of bowmore and port ellen, with the remainder spread across several smaller, rural conurbations and sporadic individual houses. the island's transport infrastructure consists predominantly of a local, but infrequent bus service, which has been even more infrequent during lockdown restrictions. and where once taxis were an endangered species, when life returns to near normality, there will, once again, be a substantial number of options.

several years ago, villages and houses that remained outside of the regular bus route, were often served by the post bus, two of which plied their trade across the island, adhering to a passenger timetable, while delivering mail in the gaps in between. however, royal mail implemented wholesale changes across rural scotland, and the last of the post buses left the island around eight years ago.

islay's community newspaper is compiled and printed in a small group of offices about half-way up (or down) bowmore main street. when printed, each fortnightly edition is boxed up, ready for distribution to newsagents across the island. from time immemorial, the task of distribution has been sub-contracted to the local royal mail sevrice, who collect the boxes of newspapers early on saturday morning for delivery along with the rest of the island's mail. collection was originally left to the postie on the post bus, because their timetabled route took in all the smaller villages and ensured that the papers reached them in timeous fashion each alternate saturday morning, in time for morning opening.

however, the demise of the post bus meant that no longer was it possible for the latter conditions to be met, and the newsagents who are considered to be off the beaten track, subsequently received their sale copies of the newspaper along with their saturday mail delivery. the fact that this was often in the afternoon, meant that they potentially lost business to retailers in the larger villages, or were left with several unsold copies.

however, it is not known as a community newspaper for nothing. the woman in charge of the fortnightly print run lives on an isolated farm on the island's west coast, the home journey to which, takes her past three of the smaller newsagents. thus, on a friday afternoon, when printing and collating has been completed, she takes the three boxes of newspapers and hand-delivers them to each outlet, well ahead of saturday morning 'publication'.

then lockdown occurred.

in common with pretty much all the nation's newspapers, the local edition's advertising virtually dried up overnight, altering the fragile economic balance in one fell swoop. currently, all but two staff members remain unfurloughed; unfortunately, neither of them is the print lady. matters had, therefore, been resigned to the west coast newsagents once again, receiving their sale copies along with the mail, possibly losing sales at a time when the paper needs every sale it can get.

at which point, the bicycle entered the fray.

tom hunter, along with his wife lynn, have been joint proprietors of port charlotte village shop for the last two years. tom had been a welcome member of the sunday morning peloton prior to his arrival on the island, and, speaking with him on thursday, he intimated that, in order to side step the potential lack of on-time delivery, he was happy to cycle over to the croft early on friday evening to collect the newspapers earmarked for his attention. and since the weather on islay is currently providing wall-to-wall sunshine, little in the way of wind (i know, i know) and comfortably warm temperatures, in order to appear both opportunistic and altruistic at the same time, i decided to play hooky from the office on friday afternoon, and take a quantity of newspapers by bicycle to debbie's in bruichladdich to meet the hoped for, saturday morning demand. the fact that there was an opportunity for a takeaway coffee at the same time, was simply fortuitous.

so, as far as i'm aware, for the first time in its forty-seven year history, islay's newspaper will break new environmental ground by having an admittedly small proportion of its distribution handled by bicycle.

remember where you were when you read it.

as a disclaimer, before i had the chance to head off with the papers for debbie's, they were collected by van. however, due to a miscommunication, i'm now heading further south to portnahaven with a bundle of newspapers on saturday morning.

the ileach newspaper

friday 19 june 2020

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#choosecycling

#choosecycling

though i try manfully to keep it to a minimum nowadays, at one time, in the early days of a lack of interest in print and increased appreciation of pixels, i designed and buiilt websites for a number of islay's accommodation providers. i was fortunate to have done so in the early years of the commercial internet, when the skills required to do so were considerably less onerous than is presently the case. for a fellow inured in the demands of halftone linescreens, cmyk separations and the finer points of serif design, training oneself to comprehend the basics of html, cascading style sheets and more internet protocols than at which you could shake a gif or jpeg, was more than just an uphill struggle.

#choosecycling

however, once having reached my own cutting-edge, and uploaded a series of words and pictures to the interwebs, i generally considered i had provided value for money. the hard part, was often the bit that followed. mere minutes after informing many clients that their website (such as it was), had now been placed in a public forum, i would receive replies complaining that even after several search engine requests, the site appeared not to be showing across any.

a series of e-mails would ensue, pointing out that search engines generally took several days to catalogue new websites, rather than mere minutes. i was also keen to point out that it was all very well sponsoring a formula one car, but you had then to tell people you'd done so. in other words, don't keep the website a secret; tell even the people you don't particularly like.

#choosecycling

however, as with many of us, i have often found that i ignore my own advice. not with websites, you understand, but often with cycling. rather than be perceived in my local community as a cycling activist, daubing red paint over illegally parked cars, or vehemently castigating those who have driven mere metres from home to work, i have preferred to take a more subtle approach. the latter has merely consisted of ensuring i am seen to be riding my bicycle in all weathers and to and from every known corner of the hallowed isle.

i'm not sure it's working.

#choosecycling

thankfully there is many an organisation with a tad more chutzpah than yours truly, forcefully pointing out to the great british public, motorists and pedestrians alike, that opting for the bicycle rather than bus, train or steering wheel, might be part of the very solution that would take us guardedly out of lockdown. cycling uk and british cycling are two of the usual suspects, along with sustrans and london cycling campaign, plus the inestimable chris boardman and one or two others with clout. but adding their welcome voice to this #choosecycling campaign, are the intrepid folks at london's imperial works.

#choosecycling

rapha ceo, simon mottram, confirming his company's enthusiastic participation, said, "Rapha was founded with the vision to make cycling the most popular sport in the world and there has never been such an opportunity - or urgency - to promote riding in our cities. We have always believed cycling has the power to transform lives - it's just about the most uplifting thing someone can do with their time - and we're excited to bring all our efforts to bear on showing people just how inspiring cycling in the city can be."

where i might take slight issue with mr mottram, is over his final remarks. though it's fairly clear that cities and larger towns can inarguably benefit greatly from increased cycling numbers , not all of us are confined to such urban conurbations. the countryside cycles too you know?

however, pragmatically speaking, the biggest changes can be realised in the nation's cities, and promotion of the #choosecycling campaign on billboards across london town and through rapha's cycling clubs makes a great deal of sense. i daresay rapha would lend me a billboard for the bus stop in bowmore square.

this campaign, which hopes to get another 14 million people onto bicycles, begins in earnest this saturday (20 june). rapha would like you and me to use social media to engage with new cyclists on a personal level, and to nominate someone we know with a cycling story to tell. If enough of us tell the world why we ride, we can make the world a better place to be even for those who don't ride a bike.

rapha: choose cycling campaign

thursday 18 june 2020

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virtual velofete

virtual velofete

ubiquity is a word that doubtless sends ripples of pleasure and contentment through any marketing department you may care to mention. achieving product ubiquity in a competitive market must surely be the ultimate aim of many, whether attained directly through impressive marketing and pr, or even accidentally due to circumstances outwith direct control. either way, accrued benefit to the balance sheet will be welcomed with open arms.

such has been the case for two software companies within very different, yet similar markets.

prior to world lockdown as a result of the coronavirus, zoom was a relatively small, largely unknown communications software business, with aims to connect individuals and groups over the internet, allowing for conference calls with a greater degree of sophistication than offered by either skype, or facetime. its recently exploited, manifest benefits to all and sundry, have seen its share price rise and rise, resulting in an estimated market (over)valuation of $42 billion.

the other z, is well known to my reader, particularly from continued debasement of its proffered benefits to the confined cyclist. zwift commenced life as a the gem of an idea by founder, eric min, but recent history has elevated it to all but necessitous to many. it would be naive to claim zwift to have been an insignificant pixelated blip on the velocipedinal landscape, prior to covid-19, but with restrictions in many european countries denying cyclists the opportunity to venture out of doors for weeks on end, zwift rapidly became the only alternative to chess or scrabble.

from 18 june, for four days, the ubiquity of both software companies will be receiving praise and enhancement broadcast from a small corner of london town. according to pursuit books' james spackman, last year's friends of herne hill velodrome fundraising festival of racing, talks and music, was ace. conditions this year are dramatically different, necessitating the velofete displaying its wares and attractions in digital format, making extensive use of both the above enterprises to offer virtual racing and online talks.

and we're all invited.

the full programme is listed here, but as a brief taster of events, james intimated that he'll be interviewing track rider, dan bigham about optimising our performances, while an all-star panel, including katie archibald and eurosport's orla chennaoui, has been lined up to discuss the past, present and future of women's cycling. author of 'where there's a will', emily chappell, will be interviewing rapha's simon mottram, while mr spackman will be talking to dr marlon moncrieffe about the black-british experience of cycling. Discussions concerning 'the cyclist and the law', jack thurston telling us about adventure riding and the 'streets ahead' podcast, featuring ned boulting and his pals will also feature.

there are still many for whom lockdown and a lack of 'real' cycling experiences are all too present realities. this online smorgasbord of virtual cycling is aimed directly at you.

virtual velofete

wednesday 17 june 2020

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#bikeisbest

bike is best

on sunday morning's traditional bike ride, un-traditionally undertaken as a duo, rather than the accumulated agglomeration that had taken a couple of decades to build, i was pointing out to my socially-distanced colleague, that though i'd noted an upsurge in local cyclists at the commencement of lockdown, it seemed to have died away every bit as quickly. of course, as if simply to prove my lack of prophetic nous, we then met around five individuals on bicycles who do not form part of the usual set, indicating that i may have been looking in the wrong direction for the past thirteen weeks.

bike is best

social media, or at least my perception of a little corner of its reach, has frequently mentioned local bikeshops with sales floors playing host to very little indeed. all their pre-lockdown stocks had disappeared like snow off a dry-stone wall, and the supply chain has yet to recover from the fright this unprecedented demand has given it. and, of course, such a state of affairs, and not one which the bike industry is used to, has provided something of a conundrum, one probably easily solved in the long-term, but possibly not in the immediate future.

bike is best

when living as a student in aberdeen, many, many years past, my daily travel to and from college was most economically undertaken by bus. and, as is the case for most passengers, i would be offered a ticket in return for my handing over the requisite fare. on the back of this ticket were the largely unnecessary words 'travel by bus'. since the only way of reading those words was to have undertaken bus travel in the first place, it seemed a somewhat misguided attempt at advertising.

under our present covid-19 pandemic, many people have taken a serious second or third look at how they conduct their day-to-day lives, from shopping, to workplace, to transport. a recent statement from scotland's airline, loganair, indicates that they currently require all passengers to wear a facemask, effectively from entering the airport, or at least the passenger lounge, until disembarking at their destination and clearing baggage reclaim. government advice north of the border is to similarly wear a mask when travelling by bus or train.

bike is best

it would be an intrepid individual indeed who opted to cycle from glasgow to islay, rather than board a plane, but for those who fear contracting the virus while using public transport, yet have no wish to entrap themselves in car-induced gridlock, cycling makes a great deal of sense, as well as an ideal way to indulge in daily exercise. as i have probably reiterated to the point of ubiquity, around two-thirds of all journeys in the uk are less than five miles, a distance easily covered on a traditional bicycle, let alone the new breed of e-bikes. in a normal, equitable world, no-one would have to waste breath or column inches expounding that fact.

bike is best

however, in a society dominated by the motor car, the words 'normal' and 'equitable' are perhaps skewed in the wrong direction, certainly as far as cycling is concerned. thus, many of the great and good of the bicycle industry, have pooled their resources behind the hashtag #bikeisbest, described as "The most extensive coordinated promotional campaign for cycling since the 1970s". it is a welcome show of solidarity, easily appreciated at present, and no doubt eagerly acted upon by some of those at whom it is aimed. the problem, as i see it, is the apparent lack of available bicycles as described above.

granted, it might just be a temporary shortage; there may already be container-loads of taiwanese built bicycles on the high-seas as i write, heading directly towards a major seaport on britain's south coast. but, should that not be the case, the #bikeisbest campaign may have to extend its reach just a smidgeon to persuade slow adopters, that #bikewillstillbebesteveninamonthortwo. the campaign itself is greatly to be applauded; it's scarcely the fault of the promoters that they may have been hoist by their own petard, with thousands having already decided that they're right and bought every available bicycle from right under their noses.

#makehaywhilethesunshines

bike is best

incidentally, it's not just bicycles. mopeds and scooters are experiencing sales levels three times greater than this time last year.

tuesday 16 june 2020

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