Apple bikeability

Dear Reader,

While I have been wittering on for some time about the old ways being the best ways, and the height of cycling being somewhere between 1897 and 1938, I have decided to suspend my "vintagephilia" for a brief sojurn into the age of "New Technology".

Yes, yes,...quite so.... I am a traitor to my cause etc. etc..... I admit it..... Guilty as charged your honour...., but I have to profess that the subject of this aberration is probably having as much revolutionary effect upon me as the nuematic tyre had on our forebears. Might I hazzard that the "Ipad" may be to cycling, what the telegraph was to the Steam Locomotive.

Unlike most computers, rather than tying you to a desk, the ipad allows one to surf the net, respond to emails, and do all that is necessary to run a small business almost anywhere and almost instantaneously and it has placed upon me the most appauling dilemma; Should I or should I not get one?

At present I perform the task of emailing, writing this blog, managing my business interests, buying stocks, purchasing books etc etc from the comfort of my office/study. The ipad appears to offer the radical opportunity of allowing me to do the same thing at my morning coffee spot, at the side of the road lounging in the grass underneath the spreading oak or in the arms of some delicious nymph. Don't get me wrong, its not that I've refrained from thinking about work whenever I ply my 50 odd miles per day...its just that to date my trusty moleskin and pen have sufficed; the techno bit coming later in the day.

What has caused me to consider the options?

Well first of all portability. As you already know I'm not a frantic weight obsessed cyclist...(see previous blog)...an extra pound here and there helps me get fitter I believe...but the size issue has always precluded me from regular laptop cycle carriage....however at:-
Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
Weight: 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) Wi-Fi model;
1.6 pounds (0.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

....what is not to like?

The damn thing also fits wonderfully into the absolutely mint 1941 Russian Officers leather map case that I managed to purchase while on a visit to the South Caucasus one barmy afternoon in the company of one Katerina, who I met at a road junction wearing a glorious diaphanous peach coloured dress and riding a 10-speed "Sputnik" (and whose inner thigh, sampled later in the day, tasted like sweet alpine honey...see previous post).

It fits so well in fact, that it looks like the damn thing was made for the Ipad and not for maps of Mother Russia! I hardly notice it over my jacket, and it allows me to carry pens and stuff in the perfectly made pen holders section.....so beautifully made......must have been the property of a very special Comrade (and I'm not talking about Katerina!).

Secondly the Ipad is simplicity itself, even someone striding over from their 1897 time machine could not but help feel at home with it after a few minutes. The long battery life means that riding all day even with frequent stops and good usage will not daunt it.

Is the Ipad on a bike Liberator or Slave Master?

I muse on this question trying to consider; does it provide me with even more opportunity to take to the open road, or will it sap my resolve and draw me into its satanic techno lair only to fatten me up on the pleasures of sloth?

As I continue to agonise over whether the Ipad is a legitimate purchase for one such as I, a self affirmed "slow lifer", I guess the only real question is; "Will it distract me from my cycling forays.....or can my office now be anywhere?"

Tune in.... turn on.... and ....for god's sake don't drop it!