Creators, manufacturers, producers; they’re central to our lives. Through their hard work and talent, they make things that will hopefully make our lives that little bit better. I group directors, brewers, framebuilders, photographers, artists and architects all together. But what these people need is someone to make sense of their output. A connoisseur, a person with refinement of taste and a discerning eye, who is able to sift through the mass of stuff and say, “this is good.”

This idea is unfashionable at the moment. Every marketing campaign is adding “my” as a pre-fix to their tag-lines, social media encourages everyone to have an opinion, a general democratic feeling permeates that everyone’s opinion is valuable.

I’m not saying that Andy White is the David Stratton of bicycles (if anything he’s more like Margaret Pomeranz) but he is of the same tradition. In a world where we are bombarded with choice, we need people like Andy who have done the research, know what’s what and generously share their knowledge with a wider audience.

I’ve heard Andy say that life is too short to ride bad bikes, just as others will say our days shouldn’t be wasted on bad coffee, poorly designed objects or terrible food. If you want to know what a good bike is, just ask Andy.

It was a pleasure to interview Andy and get him talking on a range of topics. A few stories include how he became a messenger in London, his attachment to his Llewellyn road bike, the story of when he broke his neck and how the online Fyxo space merges with the physical. He says one thing that succinctly represents his all-inclusive approach to bike projects, “in the end it’s all about turning pedals.”