Issue 46 – Wheels
‘Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.’ – Steve McQueen
Let me preface this with a small confession: I can’t drive a car, and the closest I’ve ever come to a motorcycle is the leather jacket (in my defence, they say that always comes first). My road cycling proficiency is so poor that it would be upstaged by my miniature dachshund, and despite my childlike zeal and unrelenting enthusiasm for extreme sports, my skateboard has been almost entirely relegated to an Instagram prop. You might think that this admission of complete and utter road illiteracy renders me entirely unqualified to curate an issue around the subject of wheels. That’s why I’ve employed the help of a few Essential friends along the way. To wit: David Gandy talks us through the maiden voyage of his newly-restored Jaguar XK120, Andrew Almond of Bolt gives us the lowdown on the London custom motorcycle scene, and Rapha’s very own Jess Morgan provides her insight into the evolution of road cycling. So, I guess it’s true what they say: It’s not what you know, but who you know (and, of course, what they ride). Enjoy.
