Singletrack Staff Blog

I’m sorry to bring you this news, especially in the middle of August, but last night I got the first whiff of autumn… I was driving back from Leeds, marvelling at the solid looking clouds receding into an inky-black sky when I caught the smell of a wood-fire and was instantly transported into autumn.

Don’t worry though, it was a good feeling. I was suddenly jazzed up with the thoughts of clear autumn skies, favourite jackets, old familiar trails made sketchy once again under a layer of green. Our night riding group, that seems to disband every summer under the weight of holiday absences and ironic deadlines suddenly regroups, unbidden, on the first awful day of the autumn, not wanting to be the one that didn’t make it. For missing that first inclement ride means that your resolve is weakened for the whole winter. It may be three months early, but that first whiff of woodsmoke made me feel that the lengthening shadows and occasional nip in the air isn’t a bad thing.

The North Downs in this case. I spent the weekend ‘darn sarf’ catching up with old friends plus a spot of riding..
Saturday was a fabulous golden August day, buff trails and a seemingly flatter North Downs than I remember! (The Calderdale hill reps might be paying off after all) Joining me for the ride was my good friend Stephen plus a bunch of his freinds James, Richard and Natalie. Now Stephen rides and a fair bit and so does James, but Natalie and Rich apparently never do and the North Downs for a big loop now seems rather ambitious in hindsite.

Nirvana Cycles in Westcott Provided a couple of hire bikes for them lids and tool kits and were off, a little later than originally planned but hey ho…

James had a spectacular crash early on after involuntary brake grabbage and propelled himself down a drop in which i’m sure did the world of good for the confidence of our new riders.

After that I can only assume that the ride would have seemed entirely up hill to them (it always does at first doesn’t it) though Holmsbury hill’s views over the surrounding countryside seemed to ease the pain…

By the time we were climbing up the bridleway to Leith Hill some of our party were ‘quite’ tired.. Natalie had started to push and I think Rich as well, Both of them though uncomplainingly pushing on.. We’d taken a lot longer than planned

By this time I realised we were going to be late to Nirvana cycles, so rang to explain the situation..

“tough”

“I’ve had this with people like you before”

I explained we were late i was sorry and were on our way back , but was told not to bother the door would be shut and how annoying people like we were (not as politely of course) .I asked about Natalies hand bag she’s left there and was told they’d put it in the bin for her to get.

I understand his annoyance at us being late but not the way he was with us, Natalie & rich may well have been potentiol customers for all he knew, and a little bit of politeness goes a long way.He could even have said no with out being so alienating. As someone who used to run a shop there was many a Saturday evening where I had to stay late as customer had a race to go to or an emergency… they’d normally sort me out a beer and I hope remebered it when they were looking where to shop. Nirvana obviously thought otherwise..

Knowing we were scuppered we took refuge at a lovely pub in coldharbour and had dinner both Natalie and rich had done amazingly and I hope would be out again, riding with newcomers that put in that much effort is ace and reminds you of your own forays off road and just how hard it is!

I ended up loading up the van with all of the bikes driving them to London where James picked them up in the morning and dropped them off, only after another shitty phone call from Nirvana,where he told us that he had waited after telling us he wouldn’t !

So a great day really only mildy messed up..thanks to Nat Rich and James and of course Stephen for a great day, and I only hope Nirvana were having a bad one and are not normally like that ;]

It’s funny how easily you can justify excesses before, during and after a 24 hour race. In the week before Sleepless, it didn’t matter what I ate (or drank) because I was going to be doing a 24 hour race. Then the race was lived on a red wine hangover, bacon and mayo sandwiches and lots of Hill and Valley coffee. And then I returned home to a ‘well earned’ Chinese Takeaway. If I’m not careful, I could be indulging myself until Dusk til Dawn in October…

But then, it’s the reason we do it, isn’t it? So that we can eat and drink whatever we reckon we deserve… Or is it just me?

That old chestnut of an issue has just cropped up again and this time I couldn’t help myself and I went into full on rant mode. Not that that is in any way unusual for me as anyone who knows me and works with me will certainly testify, but this is an issue that crops up with seeming atomic clock like regularity. It is of course the issue of advertising and how it apparently, according to some, influences reviews.

Now this topic can appear anywhere. On our own forum and the like or on bike industry trade forums. I even expect that this is not an issue unique to the bike industry and I fully believe that if I was to delve into the passionate online world of cross stitch magazine that I’d surely find ranting, silver haired old dears moaning themselves puce about how that company that makes computerised cross stitch patterns out of customer’s photographs always seems to get good reviews when they pay for a double page spread.

This particular incarnation of this crock of shit argument appeared on Bikebiz, the bike industry website forum. It began in the usual way with someone pointing out their belief that certain companies seem to get excellent reviews the more ads are run. While I did start to read the thread with a resigned sigh of ‘here we go again’ it was one particular so called statement of insightful truth that just made me snap and I am sorry to say I ranted! I wrote thus…

“Spend more money with them and they give you a better write up. (a very effective tool for them to use to promote sales growth).”

Total Bollocks!

In my 8 years experience or both writing reviews and publishing mags, I have found that the very LAST people who could give a monkey’s chuff about advertising are editorial staff who write up the reviews.

The number of times I have almost pulled my hair out when an advertiser has renaged on his contract and pulled his ads because he didn’t like the review he got would put this argument into some kind of perspective. but then no one notices an ad that isn’t there. And of course I can’t name names as that would be commercial and political suicide for me.

Mags are in buisness like shops and distributors. Our business relies on two equal markets.. readers and advertisers. Each likes to think that they are the larger influence and the result is mags sit in no man’s land in the middle of both. Please one and you often piss off the other. Truth is, bullshit the readers and they WILL notice and you will lose them. Publish honest reviews of honest opinions and even if it’s not a good review the advertiser will on the whole and in the long term respect it and business will continue. Any mag that panders to one side at the expense of the other is not going to be around very long.

That’s all really.. Just more ignorant cherry picking and… well.. I’ve just come to the conclusion that no matter how often this topic gets brought up and how often people like me try and add some insight based on actually producing a mag and dealing with advertisers into the debate, reality won’t make the blindest bit of difference to a good conspiracy theory

I just threw a perfectly good pair of handlebars in the bin. Nice ones too - Easton Monkey Lites. The trouble is, they’ve been on my Soulcraft since 2000 and have covered a couple of thousand miles - and while I still have great faith in Easton’s stuff (I’ll probably replace them with the same model, to be honest) - I just figure it’s time to retire them. And rather than put them onto a town bike (where they’ll get another seven years of hard work) I thought it best to chuck them. Wasteful, but then so is landing on your head.

OK, so Donna from Kryptonite challenged me in her blog to come up with eight random things that people probably don’t know about me. I normally ignore round-robin email things, but Donna’s always nice to us, so I thought I’d humour her. Besides, I’m not sure if I can come up with eight things, so the challenge is fun.

1. My first name is William
2. I’m not northern (a common misconception about me) and until I started Singletrack (with Mark and Shaun who are both from up north), I’d never lived north of Bristol. Being the only single guy without a mortgage, I got outvoted about where Singletrack would be based and had to move up from near Bath to Todmorden. After a couple of dark, wet, poor years, I learned to like it here and have now bought a house, so I’m stuck here for the time being.
3. I make kick-ass sushi - I’ve been practicing for a couple of years and I’m getting pretty good, if I say so myself.

I can’t do it with anything like the showmanship of the sushi chefs though and need to learn more.

4. I used to own a black 1959 Cadillac Sedan DeVille. 6.2 litres, huge fins, pillarless windows and power everything. It was great. Unfortunately it had to go to become my house deposit…
5. I play guitar. Not particularly well, but I do love guitars themselves and have too many of them to justify how well I play them. A bit like having more bikes than I can justify.
6. I’m never at work on time and I never leave on time. I’ve surprised a number of readers who’ve called at 9pm expecting to leave a message who find themselves talking to the Editor who’s not got round to leaving the office yet.
7. I worked on a goat farm when I was 16. This means I put ‘Ex-goatherd’ on my CV.
8. I haven’t had a television for seven years. Quite how people have time to watch telly when there’s so much other stuff to do, I haven’t a clue…

There, that’s eight. Not the most exciting facts, but hey, I’m not the most exciting of people eh?
Cheers all
Chipps