Mudguards and turbos

The darker evenings are upon us and the weather is clearly on the change with temperatures slowly getting colder. As every seasoned cyclist knows, this is the time to start focusing on the season ahead. Target those events that you've always wanted to ride, get some dates in the diary and round up your bike buddies to get a group together. At Simpson we've had a mixed season, missing a few key rides we had targeted, through injury, family commitments and just life in general getting in the way! Now is the time to invest in long steady miles and weekly turbo sessions. Keeping the legs ticking over. We hate fair weather cyclists who pitch up to events with all the kit, with minimal mileage clocked up and not much in the tank. In our books you have to earn summer fitness right here in the winter months. The 2014 season sees us anticipating a greater presence on rides and sportives through out the year. We're at the planning stage right now, putting together some like minded riders to make next year's rides the most enjoyable yet, more details to follow ...

Just a race between the lights

You know what it's like, you're cycling along and spot another cyclist ahead of you, from that moment they become your target - the thing you have to beat. It's the same philosophy, in our opinion, as having a number pinned on your back, it changes the mind's chemistry, you become a competitor! With the rise in popularity of the logging/mapping app Strava, the competitive stakes now have a new champion. If you commute to work you cannot help but notice a) the rise in the number of cyclists out on the roads at rush hour and b) the increase in more performance style cycles sporting expensive, specialised equipment like deep section aero wheels, tri-bars and kit that's more at home on a club time trial than a ride to work. Although cycling is a multi-faceted discipline, it's the interjection of human nature that pushes things to these levels. The need to beat another cyclist takes over the primary function of morning/evening cycling. Ride and let ride but keep it safe for all on two (and four) wheels - remember we all get tarred by the same brush!

Pencil, paper and print

The volume of ideas, images and stories contained in issue 3 has meant the magazine has had to 'upsize' by 8 pages to accommodate all the content. Why 8 pages? Well the way in which publications are printed means additional pages can only be added in units of 4 or 8 page sections. Without getting too technical, if you were to take a sheet of A4 paper and fold it horizontally across the longest edge, then fold it in the middle and then fold it again, you would create your own 8-page section. Sure, it seems old school but this is how paper and print work and we love it! In order to establish a logical, harmonious flow (also known as pace) of content, making sure the magazines articles, features, regulars and single pages all sit comfortably together we rely upon a flatplan. This gives us a birds eye view of the running order of pages and how they work with next to one another. We expect a flatplan to change several times during the production of each issue especially when more pages are added - we're now on version 5. These planning stages go on behind the scenes remaining hidden from the reader but without them you would have a very different looking magazine but shhhhh, keep it a secret though!

The hottest ticket in town

It's not everyday you get invited to a book launch, let alone one at Paul Smith's Covent Garden store in London, but when it's a book celebrating Sir Bradley Wiggins' historic TdF win in 2012 - you've just got to go! When we arrived the store was abuzz with people, it even had 'minders' at the door. Once in, we were greeted with the news that our colleague/associate (who shall remain nameless) had had a slight accident with a waiter carrying a tray of beer which had resulted in a bottle being partially spilt over Sir Brad's tassled loafers - not the best of starts to an evening!

There were few opportunities to chat to Wiggo, as he himself wanted to be called, in-between doing a photoshoot downstairs and speaking about '101', a book of photographs taken by Sky photographer Scott Mitchell, documenting his three week Tour win, both on and off the bike. He came across as a genuine, down to earth kind of guy, a bit annoyed by the media attention that fame had earned him but still his own man.

For us the evening was about savouring the occasion. We had a few photographs taken with the star of the show but didn't go hunting for autographs, we just respected the man for who he was. One of the highlights was Simpson Magazine being recognised by a couple of our readers and to talk frankly about who we are, our aims, our plans for the future and what they as readers liked about the magazine.