Guy Stevens

My two passions in life have been bicycles and music; strange combo really, totally unrelated. I have often written here on cycling history, here for a change is a little Rock n’ Roll history, concerning a man named Guy Stevens.

Guy Stevens was a behind the scenes man, a record producer with Island Records in the 1960s. He had a tremendous amount of knowledge of obscure American Blues artists, and was responsible for supplying the Rolling Stones with cover songs before they started writing their own hits.

He also had a flair for coming up with great names for bands and albums. Sticky Fingers, now famous album by the Stones was one of his. He once had a cat named Procol Harum that would become the name of a band he would manage with the hit record, Whiter Shade of Pale in 1967.

When Whiter Shade of Pale became a hit, Guy Stevens missed out because he was in Wormwood Scrubs Prison in West London, serving a short sentence for a drug related offense.

While in prison Stevens read a book by Willard Manus titled Mott, the Hoople, and thought what a great name for a band. Two years later the band would become a reality under Guy Stevens direction.

Here in the story we have to go back to a little known band called Silence, a somewhat strange name for a rock band. Silence originated in Hereford in the West of England, and incidentally next to Worcester, where I had my bicycle business.

They band consisted of Stan Tippins (vocals), Mick Ralphs (guitar), Pete "Overend" Watts (bass), Dale Griffin (drums) and Terry Allen (Organ.) The band paid their dues around the clubs and pubs of England, as well as doing the Hamburg, Germany circuit as the Beatles had done.

In 1969 Overend Watts went to London to audition as a bass player for the band Free, managed by Guy Stevens. He didn’t get the job but was highly impressed with Free and their manager. As a result Mick Ralphs went to see Stevens armed with his demo tape of the band Silence.

Guy Stevens eventually signed the band, but dropped the lead singer, Stan Tippins, and replaced him with Ian Hunter. This line up became Mott the Hoople. Strangely, the band never did well with their record sales, either in England or in the US, where they later toured.

However, their live shows were always a sell out and many big name bands of that era would not have them as an opening act, because they were too good an act to follow.

Mick Ralphs left the band around 1973, and went on to great success when he joined Paul Rodgers formally lead singer with Free, to form Bad Company.

Mick Ronson took over as lead guitar with Mott the Hoople. They are still relatively unknown outside of the UK, but do have somewhat of a cult following in the US and elsewhere. Had it not been for Mott, Mick Ralphs may well have remained in obscurity and Bad Company as we know it would not have followed.

Guy Stevens, the man who started it all, dropped out of sight for a short while after Mott the Hopple broke up sometime in the mid to late 1970s.

He reappeared in 1980, producing the highly-acclaimed album London Calling by The Clash. Sadly, he died shortly afterwards, having overdosed on prescription drugs he was taking for his alcohol dependency. He was only 38 years old.

Guy Stevens is one of those people, who although he was never a performer or rock star himself; he was instrumental in molding the way the music scene went. Had it not been for his untimely death, he may well have contributed much more.

San Francisco Police Bicycle Training Video

If there are any doubts as to cyclist's rights and where they should ride on the road, at least in San Francisco, watch this video. It was produced to train police officers to understand cyclist's rights.

[Via SFbikelaw.org]

Living in the Moment

I learned something the other day; I read that the human brain is only about 3% of our body mass, but it uses 20% of our oxygen intake. This is probably why a bike ride is so mentally refreshing.

Even if a person has some serious problems it is hard to even think of these and ride a bike at the same time.

I imagine the brain automatically cuts down on the thought process in order to conserve oxygen needed for the physical effort.

Meditation, clearing the mind of all thought, takes concentration and practice as you sit quietly; otherwise random thoughts constantly slip back into one’s mind.

On the other hand, go for a three hour bike ride at a brisk pace and you will probably not have a single extraneous thought the entire three hours. It would be extremely difficult to sit and meditate for three straight hours.

Much of our daily thought process is superfluous; idle chatter about nothing. When thoughts are bad such as worrying over a problem it is not a good thing.

As much as some of us would like, we can’t ride our bikes all day long, but we can train ourselves to remain in the same wonderful mental state we experience while riding. That is living in the moment.

The moment is the only thing that is real; most idle random thoughts are either about the past or the future and by engaging in such thought we slip out of the moment into realms of imagination about the future, or memories of the past; neither of which are real.

What is life but a succession of moments one after another? If the moment you are in is a pleasant and happy one, then you have a pleasant and happy life.

If at this moment you have a problem, the great thing about living in the moment is, if one moment is not particularly pleasant, there will be another along right after it.

Dwelling on the past is a pointless exercise; no matter how hard you try your past will never get any better or worse for that matter. What is the point of reliving unpleasant experiences and feeling the pain all over again? Or longing for happier times you may have previously experienced. It is not real; it is in your head.

Worrying is another futile pursuit; often the problem is only imagined in the first place. I heard worry described as "Praying for something we don't want."

Even if a problem is inevitable, time enough to deal with it, if and when it arrives. Why torment yourself in the days or weeks leading up to the event? Remember with any problem; before the problem you were, after the problem you still are. The problem is transient, you are not.

How do you get to live in the moment? Ride your bike is one way, or practice meditation, but often we can slip out of the moment once we stop bike riding or meditating.

What worked for me was to become an observer of my mind; I become aware of my thoughts and recognized when I was slipping out of the moment and into the past or future. Just by being aware of these thoughts is enough to stop it.

Another thing we tend to do and not realize we are doing it is to compare ourselves to others. Family members, co-workers, even strangers on the street.

By doing this we feel either inferior or superior to the person we are comparing; both are not good. If you feel inferior it is not good for your self esteem, and if you feel superior then you are pre-judging that person and not having pleasant thoughts towards them.

The old cliché “Money can’t buy happiness,” is true. Happiness is not dependent on material things; it is a state of mind. And by simply being aware of the mind, and its thought processes, it is fairly easy to reach that state.

Life is but a journey through a succession of moments, but it is a more pleasant ride if you are aware of each moment. The following is part of one of my song lyrics.

The unknown road I travel on is of my own creation, and the journey means more to me than the destination.

"The Pursuit of Happiness," I feel is not a good term. It implies that we have to chase happiness in order to reach it. To pursue something puts it somewhere in the future, which if you believe what you have read so far, the future is only imagined and therefore unreal.

If you take the attitude that when I have achieved certain goals in life, or when I am in the right relationship, then I will be happy, you are in pursuit of happiness. Choose happiness now, this moment. All else will follow.

3 Feet of Space: It’s not much to ask

More and more states are bringing in a 3 Foot Passing Law as part of a safety package for cyclist. If common sense prevailed, or there was just plain old respect for the safety of another road user, such laws would be unnecessary.

It should be pretty obvious that you don’t buzz by a cyclist at a high rate of speed, missing him by inches, however, in the absence of common sense laws have to be enacted.

Whenever a state proposes a 3 foot passing law, inevitably the naysayers ask, “How can you enforce such a law?” Short of every cyclist having a 3 foot measuring stick attached to the back of the saddle, with a flag and preferably a sharp spike attached, it can’t be enforced to the letter.

In spite of this, legislation such as a 3 foot law is a good idea, because if someone passes a cyclist and the vehicle’s rear view mirror slaps the bike rider on the back of his head, then obviously that driver did not give the cyclist 3 foot of space. Incidents like this do happen, much too often.

If a law is in place, it is my opinion that most people will at least attempt to comply. Where there is a speed limit, most will drive no more than 5 or 10 mph over, the speed limit stops the majority from driving at 30 mph over. Notice I said the majority, there are always exceptions.

Speed limit laws act as a guide line; this is the speed you are supposed to drive. So too is the 3 foot passing law a guide line, it makes people aware that when you see a cyclist up ahead you are going to have to make an attempt to go around him, not hold your current line and just skim by.

Roads that have lanes of 15 feet or wider are often more dangerous for a cyclist than narrower lanes. The reason, speeds are higher, and a car passing a cyclist will not deviate from the line he is taking straight down the middle of the lane. In his view the lane is wide and the cyclist has plenty of room.

A problem arises when there is another vehicle following close behind. (Tailgating.) This driver does not see the cyclist because the car ahead is obstructing his view. If this driver is one of those who hug the right hand edge of the road, he doesn’t see the cyclist until he runs into him.

A 3 foot passing law encourages the first driver make a conscious effort to move to the left; thus alerting the driver behind that there is something ahead in the lane.

Also by moving over there is a chance the driver behind can now see the cyclist.

In some parts of the US they are enacting laws to give a cyclist “Half the lane,” this I feel is a sensible approach, possibly even better than the 3 foot idea. It is easier for a passing motorist to estimate half a lane, and it automatically allows for varying road widths.

Where these laws are implemented, drivers need to be educated and told that it is okay to cross the double yellow to pass a cyclist if it is safe. (As the car shown in the top picture is doing)

A cyclist is about seven feet in length, taking three or four feet in width and traveling at as relatively low speed. It is not like overtaking an eighteen wheeler semi. Incidentally, I can practically guarantee someone overtaking a semi truck, will give at least three feet in passing.

I would also like to see the old “Share the Road” signs replaced with something simple, and similar to the one shown above, left. A sign that says “Give a cyclist 3 feet,” makes a “Share the Road” sign obsolete. It says, we are here, we’re entitled, just give us a little room

Life is Absurd

Sometimes I am serious here, occasionally I am not. I find life is absurd, people including myself are often absurd and the only way to deal with it is to laugh at it. Every now and then I will write something that is satire, humor, not meant to be taken seriously.

At times the humor is subtle and not immediately apparent. To me that is the hallmark of good satire, it sucks you in and you are not immediately aware the piece is not serious. As you read on and things begin to sound a little strange, you start to get the joke.

A joke is not funny if you give away the punch line before the end, and it is not funny if you have to explain it afterwards. For those who just don’t get it, there are tags at the end of the piece that say “satire,” “humor.”

I wrote such a piece back in 2006 about the “Mixte” bike. Some argue that the mixte is a unisex bike, designed to be used by a man or woman. Probably true, but in my eyes any bike that has a dropped top tube is a “Girls” bike. They have been made that way since the late 1800s so that women can ride them while wearing a skirt.

This was 2006 almost three years ago, before the hipster fixed wheel craze had really taken off. Hipsters at the time were buying up and riding mixte bikes. This to me was one of the absurdities of life that anyone would seek out and ride a certain type of bike for no other reason than it is trendy to do so

No reason why they should not either, it is a free country. However, when people do absurd things you can either let it annoy you, or you can laugh at it. I chose to write a satirical article about it.

Fast forward to today, 2009 and someone is selling a Peugeot Mixte on Cleveland Craig’s List. The seller links the above mentioned article to the advert. He obviously didn’t read the piece.

Why would anyone reference an article to help sell a bike, when that piece made fun of the people who rode this type of machine?

The result was the piece got a lot of hits, and the insulting comments start to appear, including one from a female who somehow thought the piece was demeaning to women.

Somehow the biggest insult you can make about a man is to suggest he is acting like a woman. (Riding a girls bike,) And that in turn made it an insult to women.

I have taken a lot of flack in the past over this particular piece, and I was not about to start up the whole controversy again. I deleted the article along with all the comments, both from this site, and on my old blogsite.

The piece was trivial, nothing of importance has been lost. Please don’t link articles that are meant to be humorous where people might take it out of context and mistake it for serious comment.

As absurd as this whole episode is, and knowing that I really should try to laugh at it. I am having a hard time at this moment finding any humor in being unfairly accused of being sexist. But at least if I am unable laugh about it yet, I can write about it and get it out that way. 

To the Hipsters with their stupid trendy bikes....go away and leave me alone, and to the feminist chick who left the comment....Screw you. (I mean that in the nicest, non sexist way of course.) Excuse the rant.