Some years ago the main farming publication asked their readership what was the single most beneficial advance of recent years that had impacted on their daily lives.
It was the mobile phone.
Conceivably if the question had been put to any number of professions or trades they may well have returned the same answer.
Would cyclists have concurred, it’s hard to say, but when this survey was conducted the mobile phone was exactly that, a means to make a call anywhere at anytime.
Farmers and cyclists enjoy hidden similarities. Not least an ability and desire to escape the maddening crowd, that then often involves spending a good deal of their time alone. Unfortunately this simplicity of desire and purity of endeavour gives those on the outside an impression that, like farmers, we somehow have shunned the world of technological advance.
Cycling as an activity through the bicycle as a piece of equipment has undergone huge advances yet still remains essentially recognisable as it was from its earliest beginnings. Now, with the addition of electronic gear shifts and rumours of battery-powered cranks creeping into our sport, is that integrity threatened?
Today the humble mobile is no longer just a phone. There’s a new kid on the block. You’re nothing unless your phone has Apps. In fact, using the words mobile phone shows your age -it’s “smartphone”, grandad. Blackberry and iPhone were the words to use until Nokia made the spoken word redundant with the text-only sounding (if that’s possible) OVI hand-held resource unit, which I have been asked to give a test ride.
I will do once I can get it to do more than make a phone call.
