Russell has written about some of his recent ambient explorations and thoughts about performances of them.
Listening to some of the work reminds me of the music we had to one of the JoyRides a while back. The ethereal soundtrack to a night ride through the woods in Croxteth, adding to the other-worldly experience of cycling through the woods with just the lights from the bikes.
It's something that Danny (who organises the JoyRides) has experimented with more too. There was the time we added a projector to put crazy patterns onto the trees as we rode the Loop Line; and he and I have also talked about the overlapping soundscapes when, once or twice, we've had two soundsystems running at the same time at the front and back of a ride, and how they blend (or interfere) in the middle.
We're also always wondering about having lots of small speakers on many bikes, rather than one or two big soundsystems trying to cover the whole ride. What if we leant into that more, and gave each speaker something different to play? That would solve the perennial problem of trying to wirelessly sync so many speakers, and the "piece" would morph and adapt as riders moved around the pack.
So if you ever fancy coming for a ride Russell...
I do a lot of cycling these days—partly because it's my sole means of transport, but mostly because it's fun—but don't write about it much. Not here at least.
I see from my blog post at the start that it's been over five years that I've been marking my #InTheSaddle rides. I have no idea how many there've been though, because Instagram has no interest in my interest in my photos; and the set of embedded posts that they've broken on that blog post reinforces how they're web-hostile and is one of the reasons I'll be leaving them soon. I should really have known better, but it's never too late to make the change.
Anyway, this isn't the post about why Instagram are terrible, you've all got that to look forward to when I find time to write it. This is about sharing a nice ride that I've found of late.
Every other Friday, Peloton Liverpool (not the exercise-bike startup, this is a local bike coop doing lots of good bike-related activity in the city) run a social group ride after work. It's great fun—a real mix of people and abilities; they can lend you a bike if you need one; the pace is pretty relaxed; and you can be as chatty and sociable as you want (or just keep yourself to yourself and get some exercise).
Gorgeous evening for another @PelotonLiv group ride. Had to wait for a while at the marina entrance for the RNLI to tow this yacht In #InTheSaddle #LateNightAdultRiding pic.twitter.com/KSr10LypDB
— Adrian McEwen (@amcewen) June 5, 2021
We do somewhere between 15 and 25 miles, over a few hours. I've started tracking the routes and adding them to this map of Peloton Rides.
Recently I was wondering if I could find a suitable route for us taking in my regular ride through Croxteth Hall and the Stocksbridge Village and Gellings Lane greenways. They're part of the route I've been doing for years, to get out into the countryside and across to Rainford to visit my parents and sister. It'd be nice to get out onto the Coach Road, but there's not a good way to loop back from there.
The National Cycle Network actually has a route from Knowsley Industrial Estate through Kirkby and over to Fazakerley. I knew how to get onto the Loop Line from there, although my routes around there tend to either involve a section on a major road and/or a gated look-both-ways-to-check-for-trains crossing over the railway. Neither of which would work well for a group ride!
I've found a better route through Fazakerley, and have reccied it a couple of times now (the first time, I got caught in a hailstorm and then torrential downpour), and last Sunday got a decent GPS trace and not a terrible timelapse video to give a feel for it.
It's the gold track on this map of some of my routes shows the route. It's about 17 miles in total. Ice-cream at the top of Everton Brow overlooking the city is optional, but recommended.
Over the past few months I've been getting out on my bike lots more than I used to (at least, since I lived in Cambridge and my commute was far enough to warrant it every day).
I'd already found some good routes along the river South of the city centre, and through the Southern parks but have been seeking out some alternatives too. I've now added some regular rides out to the North - through the parks, along the loop-line, and the canal and dock road. There's a lovely variety to be had - parkland, brick terraces, industry, countryside and docklands.
It's coincided with me getting a new phone with a decent camera, and an Instagram account. As a result I decided to start recording each ride with a photo (or short video). Not for any particular reason, but there are often nice or interesting things to see, so it wasn't much of a leap to take a photo on every ride.
There's only one photo each time, to force me (arbitrarily) to think about what I'm going to photograph, but also one photo each ride, which also forces me to pay even more attention in order to find something. Especially when I'm riding the same route regularly.
I'm tagging all my out-for-a-ride Instagrams with the hashtag #inthesaddle, but sadly Instagram don't appear to have a very good search facility, so I can't point you at anything better than my Instagram feed - @amcewen_.
Tim Bray has had the same idea too, although he's using the #Bike2WorkPix hashtag, and as I'm not always biking to or from work I'm not using that one.
The photos are far from all being worth sharing, but here are a few of the nicer ones...