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…we approach style in its broader meaning: style in the sense of what is distinguished and distinguishing. Here we leave solid ground. Who can confidently say what ignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in the mind? Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent? These are high mysteries….Style takes its final shape more from attitudes of mind than from principles of composition, for, as an elderly practitioner once remarked, ‘Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.’ This moral observation would have no place in a rule book were it not that style is the writer, and therefore what you are, rather than what you know.

Well, the only way I see this happening is in an extended ride north. When I say that I mean a long, terrible, trying trip…
- The Idea of North, by Glenn Gould, 1967

Script work, feature write-up and riding for the first Rapha Continental UK film, shot in Assynt, Scotland. Now on Rapha.cc.

[The Broomway]

[The Broomway]


[Short article I wrote about handmade bicycles and NAHBS, Monocle, June 2012]

[Short article I wrote about handmade bicycles and NAHBS, Monocle, June 2012]

“If you ask an alpinist why he climbs a mountain he’ll reply: ‘Because it’s there.’

“… As far as I know, no one has ever pointed out what nonsense that is. The alpinist’s will isn’t prompted by the mountain, it’s there even without a mountain. The alpinist’s will is not so petty that it needs something as random as the shape of the earth’s crust in order to exist. Even if the earth were as flat as a billiard ball, there would still be alpinists: the true alpinists. The true alpinist would actually be ashamed to have his will moulded by things of an order as low mountains. So only one question could rightly be asked of the true alpinist: why do you never climb mountains?”

Tim Krabbe (from The Rider)

Teaser for the first Rapha Continental UK film - I did some work on the script.

Teaser for the first Rapha Continental UK film - I did some work on the script.

[London Fields, after the great storm, October 1987]

[London Fields, after the great storm, October 1987]

[English craftsman, Italian steel, Occitan cross]

[English craftsman, Italian steel, Occitan cross]

“Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports…

… but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.”

David Foster Wallace: ‘Federer as Religious Experience’. New York Times, August 20 2006

(Source: The New York Times)

rjmccotton:

BBC CC: The most exclusive of all cycling clubs.

rjmccotton:

BBC CC: The most exclusive of all cycling clubs.

…we approach style in its broader meaning: style in the sense of what is distinguished and distinguishing. Here we leave solid ground. Who can confidently say what ignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in the mind? Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent? These are high mysteries….Style takes its final shape more from attitudes of mind than from principles of composition, for, as an elderly practitioner once remarked, ‘Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.’ This moral observation would have no place in a rule book were it not that style is the writer, and therefore what you are, rather than what you know.

Well, the only way I see this happening is in an extended ride north. When I say that I mean a long, terrible, trying trip…
- The Idea of North, by Glenn Gould, 1967

Script work, feature write-up and riding for the first Rapha Continental UK film, shot in Assynt, Scotland. Now on Rapha.cc.

[The Broomway]

[The Broomway]


[Short article I wrote about handmade bicycles and NAHBS, Monocle, June 2012]

[Short article I wrote about handmade bicycles and NAHBS, Monocle, June 2012]

“If you ask an alpinist why he climbs a mountain he’ll reply: ‘Because it’s there.’

“… As far as I know, no one has ever pointed out what nonsense that is. The alpinist’s will isn’t prompted by the mountain, it’s there even without a mountain. The alpinist’s will is not so petty that it needs something as random as the shape of the earth’s crust in order to exist. Even if the earth were as flat as a billiard ball, there would still be alpinists: the true alpinists. The true alpinist would actually be ashamed to have his will moulded by things of an order as low mountains. So only one question could rightly be asked of the true alpinist: why do you never climb mountains?”

Tim Krabbe (from The Rider)

Teaser for the first Rapha Continental UK film - I did some work on the script.

Teaser for the first Rapha Continental UK film - I did some work on the script.

[London Fields, after the great storm, October 1987]

[London Fields, after the great storm, October 1987]

[Best Road Bike, Bespoked Bristol 2012]

[Best Road Bike, Bespoked Bristol 2012]

[Contract face]

[Contract face]

[English craftsman, Italian steel, Occitan cross]

[English craftsman, Italian steel, Occitan cross]

“Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports…

… but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.”

David Foster Wallace: ‘Federer as Religious Experience’. New York Times, August 20 2006

(Source: The New York Times)

rjmccotton:

BBC CC: The most exclusive of all cycling clubs.

rjmccotton:

BBC CC: The most exclusive of all cycling clubs.

"…we approach style in its broader meaning: style in the sense of what is distinguished and distinguishing. Here we leave solid ground. Who can confidently say what ignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in the mind? Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent? These are high mysteries….Style takes its final shape more from attitudes of mind than from principles of composition, for, as an elderly practitioner once remarked, ‘Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.’ This moral observation would have no place in a rule book were it not that style is the writer, and therefore what you are, rather than what you know."
“If you ask an alpinist why he climbs a mountain he’ll reply: ‘Because it’s there.’
“Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports…

About:

bicycles, pictures, books, picture books, picture books about bicycles.

from @m_xl, author of fixed. also writes on occasion for esquire, grafik, monocle, rapha, road.cc and others.