We love this stage of the process of producing a new issue of the magazine, especially as this will be our first anniversary edition.
This is how our latest issue looks hot off the press, before it's trimmed and folded down to become that compact little masterpiece you see on your bookshelf.
Even in its raw uncut state, the magazine has a beauty to it that you just don't find with digital publications, we reckon. Cyclists like things that are tactile and tangible - qualities that you just can’t find with an electronic device.
One of the ways we’re marking our first anniversary is to offer two lucky readers the chance to ride the L'Eroica Britannia with the Simpson team in our exclusive competition. This is one you definitely don’t want to miss!
It's been just over a year since we introduced ourselves to the bike world at last year’s London Bike Show and launched our website. No, we can’t believe it either! Time most definitely flies when you're having as much fun as we've had over the past year.
On the eve of issue four we revisit the ExCel Centre this week for the 2014 show. We’re really looking forward to catching up with the latest developments in the cycling industry. We'll be there for the opening day – this coming Thursday, 13 February – soaking up the atmosphere and drooling all over those lovely bikes.
Please do come and say hello if you spot a Simpson T-shirt or musette in the crowds. There’s nothing we like more than meeting our readers in the flesh and hearing your comments and feedback about Simpson at first hand.
Today London was pretty much Tubeless and will remain so until tomorrow evening. The impact this has had on getting around the capital has been nothing short of catastrophic. With wind and rain forecast throughout the two strike days, many commuters have either stayed at home or resorted to the car.
Given there was so much advanced warning, it seems odd that so many cars we passed this morning only contained one person. Surely if you were driving in you’d want to share the cost and ease congestion and pollution by doubling up?
With many employers adopting a 'no show, no pay policy' during the disruption, lots of commuters had no choice but to bus, walk or scooter in. Others, of course, chose their bikes.
The cyclists we encountered on the road were an eclectic mix of hardened commuters and strike victims – in some cases apparently cycling for the first time in years, on machines more used to languishing in the garden shed than actually hitting the road, judging by the amount of punctures and squealing brakes in evidence.
We were courteous (as usual) to those around us but kept our heads down and got on with the commute. This evening we did it all over again, but this time in the rain and the dark. We shudder to think how the cycling strike victims fared on their homeward journeys.
The ever-increasing popularity of cycling has generated a growing demand for kit specifically designed for those who ride bikes. We have grown to expect cycling-specific fit and function from everything from jerseys to jeans. Gone are the baggy, flapping garments that cyclists of previous generations had to put up with.
With eBay running amok with retro kit disasters, here at Simpson we’ve identified a new cycling vogue. Inspired by the wettest winter since records began and the proliferation of indoor training equipment, 'turbo fashion' has arrived!
Indoor training presents us with a more intimate cycling environment – a private domain away from the prying eyes of the world. Here you can sport the kind of outdated strips, unwanted Christmas gifts, or bizarre kit combinations you would never normally dream of wearing. The possibilities are endless!
Taking pride of place on the indoor training catwalk at Simpson Towers right now are the disgraced or defunct team kits of yesteryear. We could never again publicly wear Armstrong era kit without feeling like we were disgracing our beautiful sport. But the quality of the kit is as good as it ever was. Indoor training allows us to revisit this and other unthinkable outfits behind closed doors!
No one need know how outlandish your choice of training kit is. Anything goes – the wilder the combination the better! But for those brave souls who are prepared to share, we would invite you to send photos of the look rocking your turbo sessions at present to info@simpsonmagazine.cc. We’ll keep them to ourselves, honest!*
*We won’t really.
