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complexity (again)

it's hard to figure out at just who the finger ought to be pointed, but i'm plumping for the target to be shimano, a reasoned choice that has nothing to do with any prejudicial thoughts. my first proper road bike, purchased through a mail order catalogue by mrs washingmachinepost (yes, since you ask, i have learned my lesson) featured a five-speed freewheel and suntour gearing, though sadly not from the upper echelons of the latter's range. in an attempt to familiarise myself with the inner workings of the humble (at that time) bicycle, i opted to begin with removing the cranks to gain access to the bottom bracket, which, i felt (mistakenly as it transpired), was in need of some tender loving care.

in the real world, removing a bolt from something or other, would usually result in that something or other coming apart quite easily. i surely cannot be the only one who removed the crank bolts from a chainset to find that, in fact, that made not one jot of difference to the situation. who knew that a crank removal tool was required to prise them from their tenacious grip on the square-taper bottom bracket?

however, once that particular problem had been taken care of, and a suitably formatted spanner acquired to remove the bottom bracket cups, tripped up only by the drive-side being a left-hand thread, ease of access to the bearings was then assured. and though those bearings were contained within a steel race for ease of manufacturer assembly, when it had outlived its use by disintegrating, a 50p packet of 1/4" bearings and a slathering of grease was all that was required to restore pedalling to its previously smooth countenance.

and while we're on the subject of bearings, think yourselves fortunate, in a way, that the cassette and freehub were invented, sparing you the iniquity of mistakenly removing the sprockets from a freewheel body and peppering the garage floor with millions of tiny bearings. to add insult to injury, the time, precision and frustration of replacing those million bearings on the freeheel body was a lesson well learned.

but then shimano invented the above mentioned cassette and freehub, along with the cartridge bottom bracket. that both offered a welcome degree of progress is not really in doubt, but in the process, they made all my freewheel removers and bottom bracket spanners redundant (as indeed did the - shimano once again - invention of the outboard bottom bracket cups and oversize b/b spindle). and when that cartridge bottom bracket began to show signs of lateral movement, the solution was not one of repair, but of disposal and replacement.

nowadays, everybody's to blame for the continued redundancy of the home mechanic, aided and abetted by the manuals and marketing materials of the big three, continually advising that, if their components are not installed or removed by an authorised dealer, the result will be a pestilence on the land and a curse laid upon your future lineage, coupled with the seven years of bad luck usually associated with a cracked mirror. this promised wrath is usually accompanied by the need to purchase inordinately expensive tooling that will be used approximately once every two years and which require a masters degree in physics to use.

i cannot deny a predilection for bike fettling, even if procrastination is never far away. yes, i purchased a new set of campagnolo branded cabling last november, but no, it has not yet become a part of the ritchey. with noticeable wear on the outer gear cables, it's only a matter of time before i am hoist by my own petard. however, enthused by the recent fad for cooking the bicycle chain in wax, i am disappointed that, should i have opted to apply such a procedure to my campagnolo 12-speed chain, i would require to purchase a set of replacement links that have need of fitting with the requisite and very expensive, campagnolo chain tool.

fortunately, since i possess a few campagnolo-equipped bicycles, ownership of said tool can almost be recovered via a suitable return on investment, but with the release earlier this week of vicenza's wireless super-record groupset, i fear the days of the home mechanic are pretty much doomed. granted, my luddism would hardly allow for personal purchase, even were i to have a spare £4,500, but the prospect of having to maintain not only state of the art electronica, but two hydraulic disc calipers is, for me at least, beyond the pale.

the past week has brought with it warm temperatures, virtually no wind, and wall to wall sunshine, the very conditions that would once have had me sat on the back doorstep, with a tub of grease, an old bathroom towel and a selection of spanners. progress, however, has removed that part of the equation. do not, however, misunderstand my lack of enthusiasm for the modern-day road bicycle; though i still believe many of the accoutrements that have surfaced in recent years have done so because they could, rather than because they were actually necessary, the contemporary road bike is often a huge delight to ride in all weathers.

it's just a shame that fettling has become outlawed. and it's just possible that bona-fide bike shops might feel the same way. referring to campagnolo's new wireless setup, uk distributors, chicken cyclekit are offering dealers complete support and technical expertise to install and service what amounts to computerised derailleurs. there must be major concern for all authorised campagnolo dealers that pestilence and curses will fall upon those who opt not to participate.

sunday 4 june 2023

making sure

in the past few years, islay has seen an unprecedented level of housebuilding, both private and social. rumour has it that the only reason this situation hasn't accelerated to greater heights is that the region's planning department is proving something of a bottleneck, due not only to the large number of planning applications, but confounded by lower staffing levels. in itself, the housebuilding would seem to be at odds with contrary statistics emanating from both holyrood and the council itself. these would contend that the population of the council region is suffering from an annual 10% downturn, as people move elsewhere for any number of reasons.

you would not be the only ones to query how the population can be reputedly in decline, yet there remains stiff demand for new housing. however, that conundrum notwithstanding, any planning application has need of satisfying certain criteria, not least of which is an adequate level of car parking provision.

several years ago, a friend of mine had intentions of revitalising an empty cottage, plans that were confounded by the need to provide a concomitant amount of vehicle parking along with the proposed upgrade. despite the plainly obvious situation that there was more than enough space to park a bus, they eventually opted to demolish the original cottage and rebuild from scratch, as there were simply too many hoops through which they had need of jumping to satisfy the planning department's demands.

none of this will be news to those who have had interactions with their own local planning departments, but it seems odd that, in this day and age of climate change defences, there is only requirement to satisfy the parking of motor vehicles. what, we might ask, are planning considering in relation to associated cycle parking, particularly in housing developments that include flats on one or more level? and should it not be compulsory for any housing development to include, as standard, electric vehicle chargers along with that mandatory car parking. the most recent development near the croft had high-speed fibre to the premises broadband built-in at time of construction, yet there is not a single vehicle charger to be seen throughout the three existing stages of development.

of course, i speak from a position of parochiality; it may be that thee are some more forward looking planning departments across the nation, but it would seem more prudent that in respect of the latter facilities, there ought to be a level playing field across the board. but perhaps that situation is about to change for the better.

as of 1 june 2023, active travel england (ate) has become a statutory consultee for all large planning applications. tasked with delivering improved walking and cycling infrastructure across regions south of the border, all future large developments (including those exceeding 150 houses) will require to consult with ate, though it is noted that they do not posses any statutory powers to direct the outcome of specific planning applications. and given that the scottish government has its own active travel department, i now plan to engage with my msp (who happens to be an islay resident) to enquire whether holyrood has any similar plans for the future?

so what does it mean when westminster says that active travel england will have consultative powers? according to the government statement, they will be expected to aid the planning authorities to implement acceptable active travel design, such as ensuring there is suitable "...walking and cycling connectivity to schools and local amenities." granted, this is hardly a new initiative: the new town of stevenage was constructed along similar lines, but as pointed out in carlton reid's excellent 'roads were not built for cars', the cycleways included in the original plans were scarcely used because the planners had made it every bit as convenient for motorists to accomplish the same journeys.

the word 'incentive' had obviously been lost at the initial planning stages. as has been proven time and time again, if britain wants to get the bulk of the population out of its cars and onto its feet or saddles, there has to be an overwhelming incentive so to do, otherwise matters will not only remain as they are, but are likely to remain so into the future. perhaps it's time to scrap the need to build associated car parking alongside new housing, or at least reduce the amount, on the basis that, if there's nowhere to park, perhaps residents will look for alternative means of transport. if ate manages to do the job well, it could be made a lot simpler to walk or cycle, sidelining the car in the process.

and assuming that situation comes to fruition, replacing some of those parking spaces with secure cycle-parking might just begin to turn the tide.

maybe.

saturday 3 june 2023

the old and the new

as previously advised, this past week has comprised the 2023 fèis ìle, more robusttly known as the islay whisky festival. from the outside looking in, it appears as one festival, but in true parochial hebridean style, there are sometimes not so well concealed factions at play. i wont bother you with the details, but i think i might be able to illustrate what i mean by the two definitions at work. the distilleries, by and large, refer to the week as the festival of malt and music, while the other would prefer that you regard it as the festival of music and malt. whichever definition you employ, there's little denying that it's the whisky that all but doubles islay's population during the seven-day period.

for those less well versed in the spirit (ual) make up of the islands of islay and jura, aside from the nine working whisky distilleries on islay, and the sole malt whisky distillery on jura, there are currently another four distilleries under construction on islay. additionally, there are gin, rum and brewery producers on jura, bruichladdich and nerabus produce islay gins, there's a rum distillery in port ellen and one of the distilleries under construction will be an adjunct to a new brewery on islay. and coincidentally, the owners of the latter, islay ales/the islay boys, were the very fellows who employed the band in which i play, for their open day in bruichladdich hall, last monday.

this particular gig commenced at 11am on monday monring, and ended at 5:45pm on monday afternoon. while you may be standing back in admiration at the stamina of such an elderly percussionist, i should point out that there were, in fact, several breaks to be had during that period, including a leisurely lunch enjoyed at debbie's which is but a mere hop, skip and a jump from the village hall.

unusually, even for islay, the sun shone all day on monday, slightly tempered by a northerly breeze that refused to abate until later in the week. given that the art of drumming according to yours truly has need of being practised indoors, even in the face of wall-to-wall sunshine, the opportunity to dine al fresco was one too good to pass up. it might have been the end of may, but it's eminently possible that repeat opportunities may be few and far between. however, as i sat scoffing my double-egg roll, washed down with a soya latte, a gent arrived on a gravel bike of indeterminate origin (only because i can't remember the name on the downtube). he was obviously of the bikepacking persuasion as the majority of the bicycle was all but obscured by a myriad of less than aesthetically pleasing luggage, the constitution of which would have scared the living daylights out of any nearby aerodynamicists.

as i thanked my lucky stars it was not i who would subsequently be seen in proximity to said agglomeration of luggage, a more elderly velocipedinist passed by with a cheery 'hello', only this time aboard a regulation touring bike augmented by a tired but still practical bar bag and a couple of rear panniers. the perfect example of the old and new separated by a few metres and several decades.

bikepacking, as i understand it (and markus stitz might well wish to correct me) is closely allied to gravel riding, the design of those bikepacking bags influenced strongly by the likelihood of panniers proving less than pragmatic when hurtling through the hinterlands. those of you with a geographical knowledge of the bruichladdich area will know well that there are precisely zero opportunities for gravel riding, an affectation that predominates across the island. i concede that i had not enquired of the gravel bike owner as to the nature of his journey; for all i know, he may have been about to head to the west coast of jura, where civilisation has yet to arise.

despite a good friend of mine continually reminding me that to assume 'makes an ass out of you and me', i am going to assume that the graveller had adopted the bikepacking alternative to regular touring as a fashion choice. i can well accept that riding offroad in the quest to travel from a to b, substantially reduces the chances of an altercation between bicycle and motor vehicle, but in the uk at least, it seems likely to inhibit the very ethos of touring by bicycle.

there is, of course, a great deal of prejudice and cynicism at work here on my behalf. while cycle touring with panniers and bar bags has existed for many a long, happy year, it was born as a practical solution to a particular situation. bikepacking, on the contrary, seems just a smidgeon more contrived; i still believe it arose as a means of justifying the whole gravel thing in the first place (feel free to disagree). i have a sneaking suspicion we are witnessing a fashion statement that will subside as soon as mr stitz has run out of new routes to video or about which to write. but, before you reach for the e-mail to remonstrate, bear in mind that i've been wrong more often than i've been right.

judging by the bicycles witnessed on islay's roads over recent weeks, touring still enjoys a healthy subscription amongst the velocipedinally inclined. however, i cannot deny how satisfying it has proved, to witness gravel bikes featuring panniers and a low-rider front rack. regular touring surely allows greater versatility and opportunity; café stops, places of interest, shops, scenery and architecture to name but a few. the avid bikepacker would likely point out the opportunity to commune with nature, wide-open vistas and the opportunity to become more self-reliant and respectful of one's surroundings, none of which i would deny. and it's entirely possible that coffee, shopping and architecture are surplus to requirements in the world of bikepacking. but it still seems like an end in itself rather than a means to an end, one that has been carefully created by the cycle industry to sell more bicycles.

isn't it just as well we're all different?

image: vertebrate publishing

friday 2 june 2023

adsr

there was a time, around the turn of the century, when it was commonplace to announce, with great fanfare, the existence of a brand new, all-singing, all-dancing website. with the benefit of hindsight, it's actualy quite humorous to realise how little singing and dancing those html pages actually featured. let's face it, if the carefully crafted flash intro featured a skip intro button, you would have been right to wonder about the whole point of that flash intro in the first place.

there was, of course, a definable point in announcing, either by way of a press release, or inclusion in a media article, that unspecified website. if it was a corporate venture, it indicated that said corporation was obviously well ahead of the curve, and au fait with contemporary trends and technology. if a personal website, such as thewashingmachinepost (originating in 1996), there was no hoo-ha whatsoever, the proprietor (that would be me) relying entirely on someone finding it by accident and mentioning it to someone else. unfortunately, one of the first to find it was a famous central london hotel, enquiring about spin dryers and commercial washing machines. i presume someone failed to read further than its listing on alta vista.

strangely, in certain quarters, it is still considered current practice to announce the launch of a new or upgraded website, long past the point where anyone actually cares any more. and i find myself wondering if there will ever come a day when it becomes oh, so passé to announce the release of a component groupset, particularly if you may well be the the last to join the party?

the interwebs were all afroth earlier this week, with reviews and videos about campagnolo's latest expense; the super-record wireless groupset, priced well in excess of the cost of an even half-way decent complete road bicycle. in fact, its price point equates to more than the price of replacing my beloved, campagnolo-equipped ritchey logic.which, as i never tire of repeating, changes gear perfectly well and stops considerably more than adequately on a pair of record rim brakes.

regular readers will hardly be surprised, particularly in the light of my repeated contention that electronic gear shifting remains a solution searching for a problem. however, those selfsame readers might also recall that i have long favoured vicenza's componentry over both its peers. for the time being, that might still be true. though, like many, i favour their shiny metal era, the carbon that festoons the ritchey still possesses a certain italian style and a functionality that satisfies my every sprocket-based need. however, they are trying very, very hard to alienate those of us who have long preferred italiana over the japanese equivalent. it will take only one look at the image atop this article to provide an answer to the question 'why?'

i recall an article that appeared in an early edition of rouleur magazine, which compared shimano to microsoft and campagnolo to apple. were that article to be updated today, things might not be quite so cut and dried. apple have long been at the cutting edge of product design, so i'm pretty sure they would never have allowed an object as patently ugly as the wireless super-record front mech shown above, to leave the factory. i don't doubt that there are a number of constraints predicating the design of a battery attached to a front mech, but the above pictured example would suggest that few alternatives beyond the obvious were ever explored.

the groupset's rear derailleur fares not a lot better in the visual stakes, with even the jockey cage having become less fluid and a tad more industrial looking. granted, i'm no engineer, and it's my son who's the electrician, but with campagnolo's long history of beautiful design, you'd have hoped that they'd have brought some of that to the electronic party. and leaving aside the aesthetics for a moment and concentrating on the functionality, i fear greatly for the ag2r spring classics riders next year, when they try to have their thermally gloved fingers distinguish between those two small adjacent flip gear-levers. despite campagnolo's contention that the inboard thumb-shifter bit the bullet because it was 'segmenting the market' (in the present context, i have no idea what that means), i've never had any problems, physically or aesthetically, with the downshift button on any of the campagnolo groupsets i've owned or ridden.

and though campagnolo have always maintained that by far the best means of joining a chain is by rivetting, using a very expensive chain tool, with this groupset they have introduced their own 'in-house' power-link. according to what i was told, with 'groadie' use, it apparently doesn't matter how often campagnolo say a road groupset isn't for off-road use, they know that's how they will be used, especially with strada bianche and roads like 'planche de belle filles' being so much a feature of modern racing. the desire for roadies to remove chains for cleaning, waxing etc has driven vicenza to make a c-link in-house.

campagnolo have intimated that chain compatibility is becoming a bigger and bigger issue and if they want to keep users on their own chains to ensure groupset function is unimpaired, then the view from the factory was that they had to develop a quick link of their own.

no doubt there will be customers happy to shell out almost £4,500 to be the electronic kings of the peloton, but i, unsurprisingly, will not be one of them. i was once told that the italians were so blissfully unaware of what they possessed in the style department, that it bothered them not one jot to jettison it all for no good reason. with the introduction of the wireless super-record groupset, it looks like that was every bit as true as i hoped it wasn't.

i, along with others i suspect, can but hope that either vicenza continues to produce mechanical, rim-brake groupsets for many years to come, or that my record mechanical groupset lasts well past the age of retirement.

thursday 1 june 2023

picture perfect

i'm pretty sure i've mentioned this before, but since it appears to be marginally relevant to today's monologue, i thought it worth repeating. if i haven't actually made previous mention, then just forget i said that.

when i was a teenager and still in thrall to the percussive realm, i opted to purchase a second rack tom for my drumset, though if i'm honest, i can't actually recall why. at any rate, on a trip to the big city (glasgow), i enquired at my nearest authorised dealer, if i might order a 13"x9" tom which was to be sited on the right hand side of the bass drum, alongside my existing 12"x8" tom. you will understand that i thought the salesman to be in humorous mode when he replied that it might be a month or so before i received my drum, on the purported basis that the factory was (then) currently manufacturing left-side toms.

having spent a few days convincing my younger and more impressionable brother that a left-handed piano was a real thing, i was well aware of the potential humour to be gained from the musical life. however, it transpired that the gent was not joking at all. since the toms were required to place the manufacturer's badge towards the audience, a location predicated by the siting of the tom holder clamp, the factory apparently spent one month completing toms with the badge to the front and the tom clamp to the right, before swapping over and placing the clamp on the left. if you think about it, the latter, which i had ordered, would necessitate the badge being applied to the opposite side of the drum.

it was a situation that was eventually remedied when the company was taken over by a larger drum manufacturer, one that immediately pointed out that, if the badge was placed on both sides of the drum, it wouldn't matter one whit on which side the tom clamp was placed, and the manufacturing process could be suitably streamlined. when pointed out in that fashion, it's not hard to see how bizarre and illogical the previous situation had been, but probably one that wasn't entirely obvious until bluntly revealed. i can only imagine how foolish the previous production manager must have felt.

in today's tenuously related example, the cartoonist dave walker is the chap responsible for pointing out the glaringly obvious, as can be seen from the cartoon that appears atop today's monologue. the mainstream media and the majority of motorists at large have a distinct tendency not only to view, but categorise people on bicycles simply as 'cyclists'. it's a term that effectively paints all those of us who ride a bicycle with a single brush, despite the fact that we're every bit as different as is a similarly named category of 'motorists'.

however, the number of motorists, killed, maimed or injured by cyclists, on an annual basis, can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. that's not a statement that can be qualified with the appending of the words vice-versa. as mr walker's illustration points out, those people riding bicycles could be your neighbour, a doctor, your best friend, or somebody's father or daughter. my apologies for pointing out that to which dave walker has already referred above. perhaps it's easier for an errant motorist to justify sideswiping someone with their enormous wing-mirror, or for causing them to fall into a roadside ditch while they valiantly attempted to avoid being knocked-down and injured (or killed). you and i are well acquainted with the paradigm, but it does no harm to have mr walker's foresight and illustrative qualities to help make the point more forcefully. and in order to help support his ability so to do, he is inviting you and i to join the diagram club, a new way you can support his work, while receiving some practical benefits at the same time.

dave has had his work featured by the guardian, cycling uk, greenpeace, church times, christian aid, and many more. and given the disposition of the majority, as incentives, dave is offering the opportunity to help fund his work, and enable it to continue, allowing most of his work to be free to anyone who needs it, and to join a community of likeminded people (hosted on facebook). in the quest to 'do the right thing', there's also an opportunity to suggest ideas for new work, non-profit usage of diagrams, in talks, print, and on social media, and participation in online events, such as question and answer sessions.

he's also offering things you can print, such as planners and colouring pages, discounts on future merchandise, regular update emails, and other benefits as they come to mind. all this will cost as little as £2 per month, something i would see as the very embodiment of value for money.

it has been frequently said that a picture is worth a thousand words, a statement that might conceivably have been invented to describe dave walker's illustrations. assuming that statement to be verifiably correct, though i have very little difficulty in writing thousands of words that arguably make little difference to the velocipedinal realm, i'd be one of the first to admit, dave is far better placed to achieve the goal to which many of us aspire.

the next bit is up to you, though i should advise that i'm one step ahead of you.

dave walker's diagram club

wednesday 31 may 2023