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gravel rides edinburgh, fife & the lothians - markus stitz. vertebrate publishing paperback. 139pp illus. £15.95

the sight of wout van aert winning the marly grav in valkenburg last weekend, if nothing else, underlined that, irrespective of author markus stitz' appreciation of the activity, gravel might well be viewed as every bit as important as the giro d'italia, particularly in the eyes of visma lease-a-bike. as jonas vingegaard attempts to capture the pink jersey in italy, the man who one would perhaps expect to assist the dane in taking his first podium top step in milan, was allowed to fly solo over limburg's unmade roads.

however, before anyone rushes to acquire a copy of 'gravel rides edinburgh, fife & the lothians' in the hope of learning how to emulate the belgian, the other side of the gravel coin depicted in markus' latest volume, tends to concentrate on a less frantic approach to gravel.

mr stitz has an enviable reputation in the world of gravel, having expertly navigated the world of social media to bring the joys of bikepacking to the great unwashed. while his last book from the vertebrate publishing catalogue concentrated on rides on my side of the country, this latest volume provides something of an east coast balance, presenting 15 gravel bike advetures around scotland's capital city. as with his previous explorations, the author has conveniently categorised the rides into three sections: easy, straightforward and challenging, ranging from an economical 17.2km to a somewhat alarming 244km around fife, added here as a bonus ride. thankfully, the accompanying challenging rides listed are curtailed to a less strenuous 56.9km (mark beaumont's edinburgh bypass) before topping out at 89.1km (the great polish map of scotland), starting at the city's haymarket station; ideal if arriving from other regions of scotland.

gravel riding is reputedly on the rise, though increased sales of gravel bikes may have more to do with the current state of scotland's (and britain's) roads than intrepid desires to explore the undergrowth. the majority of the velo club have moved to either cyclocross bicycles (yours truly) or gravel, in order to ensure we remain true to the rubber side down mantra adopted by most of us. but gravel is sufficiently new on the horizon to have acquired recent acolytes, many of whom may find themselves, if not ignorant of the locations, certainly apprentices when it comes to finding their collective way around its twists and turns. which is just where markus is ready and willing to help.

and, to paraphrase julie andrews, the best place to begin is surely at the beginning. to this end, the author explains not only how to use this book, but thoughtfully includes advice on access and legalities, including scotland's outdoor access code, wild camping, and taking care to avoid any deer stalking activities (a real concern even on this side of the nation). since the whole purpose of the book is geared (pun intended) towards exploring the region by bicycle, markus defines what he considers to be machinery capable of allowing comfort and joy midst the gravel to be found en-route. the advice not to leave a bike shop maintenance visit until the day prior to the grand départ is particularly pertinent.

then of course, there's the not insignificant question of just what to wear when attempting to be gravellous. it would take a brave and possibly foolish approach to dress in similar fashion to the aforementioned wout van aert (visma skinsuit), though i note that markus has creditably omitted this from his comprehensive list; ticking off each items on his lengthy checklist would make for a pragmatic initial approach. it is to be hoped that the majority of those heading out into the hinterlands will enjoy a relatively incident free bike ride, but the time to consider what you might do if or when things go wrong, is not in the middle of nowhere on scotland's east coast. in which case, it well behoves the reader to pay attention to the section on what do do if there's an accident.

and no book about cycling in scotland would be worth its salt if it failed to mention midgies.

each route opens with an overview of the terrain and location, augmented with a route profile, distance, ascent, required o/s maps, and parking with ev charger access. aside from being a hardy soul on the bike, an excellent videographer and writer, markus is no stranger to the digital camera, decorating each chapter with superb, illustrative photography. and though many will use smartphone maps or gps files (available for download) to navigate each ride, it's worth considering carrying paper o/s maps as backup, lest the batteries fail on your electronic devices. or perhaps confidently rely on the quality maps included along with each and every route, accompanied by more than comprehensive step-by-step directions.

accepting the knowledge of experts in every field of life is not to be underestimated, particularly if you're a tad unsure of just where you're going, and where you might end up. while markus can't help you ride your bike, he can help enormously at the pre-planning stage, ensuring that the ride itself is as enjoyable as you always hoped it would be.

wednesday 20 may 2026

adventure books

oh yes they did

i have employed this anecdote on at least one previous occasion, but since i believe it has a certain pertinence to today's monologue, with your permission, i'm about to use it once again.

in the 1980s, buoyed with the relative success of my percussive career, i decided to expand my drumset via the addition of a second, larger, bass drum mounted rack tom. the original drum atop the bass was 12" x 8", while its new accomplice would be a still-traditional 13" x 9" tom. the kit i owned at the time, was a beverley, a set manufactured by the premier drum company, in a tactile, gold foil finish, a wrap offered by the aforementioned premier company, but with a slightly different texture. however, it occurred that the majority of those to whom i would be playing, would scarcely notice, let alone care about the difference.

visiting a premier dealer in glasgow, i placed an order for the suitable replacement, configured to be placed on the right hand side of my drumset, necessitating the tom holder being fitted to the left. assuming it to be drumshop humour, i was mildly surprised when the shop assistant informed me that there may be a slight wait for my order, as the factory was currently producing left-hand drums, but would switch to right-hand products at the end of the month. you may not know anything at all about drums, but i'm willing to guess that you'll be aware that they are round. that being the case, why would there be right-hand and left-hand designated products?

the answer revolved around placement of the manufacturer's badge, intended to face outward and advertise the brand to a less than caring audience. thus, if the badge on my new drum were to be seen correctly, the tom holder would require to be on the left, if the drum were to be placed on the right hand side of the bass drum. it transpired that the premier drum company manufactured tom toms to be seen on the left during one month, before switching to right-mounted drums on the following month. this odd state of affairs persisted until the company was bought over by the yamaha corporation who advised that they simply placed manufacturer badges on both sides, thus obviating the problem completely.

glaringly obvious when pointed out.

my rather convoluted point revolves around the recognition that certain manufacturing advances, however simple, can genuinely solve a hitherto unforeseen or undesirable problem, as illustrated above. no doubt there are similar examples that pertain to the cycle industry, but purely from personal observation, this particular industry usually seems hellbent on either reinventing the wheel, or creating a solution that subsequently has to seek out a problem. and to my mind, absolute black are rapidly becoming a prime example. i will agree that most recently, i offered untrammeled praise for their hydraulic brake piston press, which promises to make the replacement of disc pads a tad more efficient than before. but one can only recognise that they persist with the production of oval chainrings, a shape which many contend, achieve nothing whatsoever.

they also produce those fashionably enormous derailleur jockey wheels, which look ridiculous, and, according to shimano, do not achieve the promises made. but they have now released valves designed for use with tubeless tyres, a product which appears to fulfil precisely what you'd expect, at a lower weight, yet similar price to the aluminium competition (£22.95 per pair). it strikes me that the bulk of purchasers will be just like either you or i; recreational cyclists with aspirations above our station, for whom the promise of a few grammes of rotating weight reduction would achieve precisely nothing whatsoever. while absolute black are quoting weights of around two grammes less than their peers, is there anyone alive today who could detect the difference? manufactured from a carbon reinforced polymer, while they resemble a standard presta valve, absolute black has adopted 'a bottom-sealing mechanism, inspired by early valve concepts dating back to 1915, where the sealing interface sits at the base rather than the top.'

i am not a fan of tubeless tyres, a club in which i am joined by many others, but i'm readily willing to admit that none of the problems i have experienced with the tubeless system have involved the valves. and though this rests entirely on yours truly, i have been unable to figure out how it's possible to fill the tyre with gloop with the valves in situ (though i have every confidence that's my problem and not one experienced by absolute black).

try as i might, i can see no point whatsoever in this particular product; as mentioned above, i have experienced no valve problems whatsoever during my limited experience of tubeless setups. and anyone who thinks that two grammes less of rotating weight is likely to make any difference whatsoever is definitely a flying buttress short of a cathedral.

cycling is a wonderful activity or sport; stuff like this seems completely pointless, the sole saving grace of which is its comparable pricing.

tuesday 19 may 2026

no time like the present

last week, while staying at my daughter's house in glasgow, we travelled south to attend a funeral, a journey i had originally intended to make by bus from buchanan bus station directly to the bus station closest to my ultimate destination, whereupon, i would have covered the last few kilometres by taxi. in effect, this would also have formed the return journey in the opposite direction. however, when ultimately four of us were to make the trip, it was adjudged more pragmatic to travel in my son-in-law's motor car. though the location of the crematorium was known to us all, to ensure that our arrival would be timely, an iphone was attached to the central screen on the car's dashboard, and via an app on the phone, a photographic, constantly updating rendition of our intended route was clearly displayed to the driver.

in fact, once out of glasgow, the route was quite direct, and the imagery on the centre screen was probably a tad surplus to requirements. but seemingly gone are the days of poring over automobile association road maps across several pages, and making copious notes, which might subsequently be referrred to as the journey was undertaken. later that same day, my daughter drove my son and i to glasgow airport for the return flight to islay, using the same means of route finding.

i have to say that my status as a fully paid up luddite really wanted to disapprove of this navigational augmentation, but due to a strange fascination with the process, coupled with its inherent efficiency, i simply sat back in the rear seat and enjoyed the trip. though i figure i could have handled the section from the kingston bridge along the m77, and subsequently the a77, there's not a chance in christendom that i could have driven us out of suburban glasgow. however, my unconcealed admiration for contemporary navigational wizardry has failed to impact upon my month-long experimentation with cycling minus any gps device attached to my handlebars.

framing it as an experiment is, i agree, somewhat melodramatic, for there will be entire pelotons of cyclists who have never bothered to affix anything more than a cycle computer, or simply ride with bare bars. the fact that i have opted to make this sound like something more scientific is effectively a construct to make it seem as if thewashingmachinepost has more serious intent than is actually the case.

that dubious explanation notwithstanding, how have i survived so far?

well, at the risk of being disappointingly underwhelming, i have surprised myself by coping admirably. as i have made plain on several occasions, the main reason for having a garmin clamped to the bars in the first place is due to my preference for underlining the difference between yours truly and mathieu van der poel, by riding without a wristwatch. in order that i know just how slow are my weekend perambulations, the clock on the garmin was, i believed, an absolute necessity. the accompanying data was, for the large part, surplus to requirements; in any case, in the light of my advancing years, the actual and average speed displays now bordered on the embarrassing.

it has since occurred to me that perhaps all i needed to do would have been simply to limit the garmin to a single data-field: the time alone. but that somehow seemed a smidgeon counter-productive, and certainly wouldn't have provided this opportunity to pull the wool over your eyes and convince you of the sociological importance of that which i may or may not end up proving. as it transpires, i've simply not missed having that screen in front of my eyes; there hasn't been a succession of stares downward when i have been aided and abetted by a worthy tailwind, or the need to see just how much grovelling is taking place when ploughing into an icy headwind. and not once have i inadvertently taken the device with me when intending to affix front and rear lights to the bicycle.

the intention is to continue this experiment until the end of may to provide a definable sample, but it's definitely looking good so far.

monday 18 may 2026

told you so

everybody has 'one of those weeks'. i'm sure there are many for whom every week is like that, and i count myself fortunate that i'm not one of them. but every now and again, several factors agglomerate over a short period of time, ensuring it becomes a collection of days that you hoped would not arrive, but ultimately, you'd like to get out of the way as quickly as possible. last week was mine, though, thankfully, it's the first occurence in many a long year. i don't propose to go into all the needless details, but suffice it to say that everything came together in a newspaper production week, ensuring that matters would be as awkward as they could be.

i am not in ther habit of travelling to scotland very often, quite content to enjoy life on a hebridean island for the majority of the year. but after waiting almost a year for a hospital appointment related to my health scare in march last year, on monday i'd to travel to oban, 90km north of the ferry terminal at kennacraig, for a scan to ensure that my heart is doing what everyone hoped it was doing. because of the idiosyncracies endemic in scottish bus timetables, it's a trip that would normally require an overnight stay, since it would be totally impossible to return in time to catch the evening ferry back to civilisation. however, fortunately, there is such a thing as argyll patient transport, whereby, i was met at the ferry terminal by a gentleman with a motor car, driven to oban hospital, where they kindly moved my appointment forward by half-an-hour, allowing me to arrive back at kennacraig in time for the 6pm ferry back to islay.

though incidental to the principal thrust of my narrative, both ferry journeys were aboard the mv isle of islay, the turkish-built vessel of which i was honoured to be present at the launch in march 2024. and just to add the icing on the calmac cake, the captain invited me up to the bridge for part of the outward journey.

some folks have all the luck.

my second visit to scotland in the same week, took place on thursday, requiring a return flight to glasgow to attend a funeral, arriving back on islay on thursday evening because i had agreed to read for a maths exam at bowmore's secondary school on friday morning. this was for a pupil with reading difficulties. in between, on tuesday and wednesday, i had to produce this week's issue of the islay newspaper, ensuring scant time to catch my breath.

thankfully, with the exam concluding at lunchtime on friday, i was able to ride my bike south west to debbie's with sales copies of the newspaper, providing the ideal antidote to the previous four and a half days. believe me, that was one of the finest bike rides of recent times, even though it only amounted to a smidgeon under 30km.

however, to return to monday's hospital appointment, the scan, which was diligently and expertly carried out by a cardiology nurse, turned out to provide good cause for celebration. after her lengthy deliberations in front of a computer monitor, she announced that my heart had made an excellent job of repairing itself (reputedly the original damage was considerable, but given my squeamishness about such matters, i have never read the copious notes provided by the cardiology department at glasgow's golden jubilee hospital).

at the time of my first cardiology follow up visit in june 2025, having enquired about my proclivities for exercise, the nurse had opted not to recommend me to a local exercise class, claiming that my weekly cycling and walking activities were likely in excess of anything such a class might provide. it would seem that her obervation was particularly perspicacious, given the initial results provided by the above-mentioned scan. of course, this has now made yours truly even more impossibly smug than before, since i have long claimed that cycling cures everything.

in this case, it would appear i was correct.

sunday 17 may 2026