"The bicycle is its own best argument. You just get a bike, try it, start going with the thing and using it as it suits you. It'll grow and it gets better and better and better" 

Many acute observations have been made and memorable things said and written about cycling but this line from bearded, crepe sole shoe wearing '70s cycling legend Richard Ballentine emphasises the bike's versatility; how it can be many things to many people. 

This versatility has led to a divergence of bike design to create specialised bikes which in turn has seen the emergence of various cycling tribes. A cursary roll call would see touring cyclists riding their bikes to see different places and for the love of riding, mountain bikers (with many sub-tribes) availing themselves of the thrill and challenge of the trails, retro hipsters using their bikes as fashion accessories, club riders doing traditional Sunday runs with a cafe stop, road racers testing their mettle and professional road racing riders earning a living doing the same. And of course people using their bikes simply to travel from place to place or enjoying being out with their pals, taking in the countryside and getting some exercise in the fresh air.

Some people enjoy the tribalism; of being part of an exclusive groovy gang. Others can't get past the snobbery and cliquey behaviour and others don't give a hoot and just get on their bike and ride. Whichever way your cloth is cut, the trick is to follow Ballentine's advice and ride your bike to suit you. It's a trick that a few may be missing as a result of the way cycling is marketed and a culture of copying the pros in some of cycling's tribes.

Professional road racing cyclists are a source of inspiration for cycling fans and a fair share of envy too for their prowess and the fact that they are making a living from riding their bikes. They get to take all of those drugs as well the lucky bastards. But then there's the pain. Lots of it. And most are in the unenviable position of having to take a reductive approach to bike riding. Their riding is either training or racing and both are a means to an end. The training is to allow them to race better and the racing is to earn money. There may be other factors for some - like glory and even enjoyment. But these aren't the main considerations.

Tiny improvements to performance can translate into big improvements at the finish line. To that end, most pros and their coaches reduce their training rides to numbers in an attempt to better improve performance. Heart rates, power outputs, cadence; measures of pain.

Many cyclists copy the pros. The bikes they ride and the way they set them up, the clothes they wear and how they wear them and the way they ride their miles (but rarely the miles themselves). Marketeers know this and package cycling in images of pain to entice customers to part with their hard earned cash to buy products that allow them to be more like the pros. The logic is simple - the pros are the best cyclists in the world and copying everything they do might make me stronger.

Even if the logic wasn't flawed (it is), it would still be missing Ballentine's point. Which is that pain and numbers suit the pros and getting stronger is what pays their bills. It may suit amateur racing cyclists to copy the pros approach to some extent to enjoy racing more; the more thoughtful will avoid turning their training rides into a means to an end and enjoy all of their riding. The rest of us are better served by just riding our bikes, pushing on when we fancy it, forgetting the numbers (other than the price of a slice of cake at the cafe), enjoying the scenery and the company if we have anyone else along for the ride or the contemplation if we don't.

By Antoine Ventouse

Following on in your fathers footsteps is something many people aspire to do, dependant on your fathers trade of course. My Dad was a miner when i was growing up, he worked at Maltby pit in Rotherham. When Thatcher closed the pits in the 80s he decided, like many others, to strike. Not wanting to waste any time he trained as an electronical engineer, something he still does today in Germany. 

My Grandad however worked within the famous Sheffield steel industry. Sheffield has been and always will be known for it's amazing steel. The city has an International reputation for metallurgy and steel-making. It was this industry that established Sheffield as one of England's main cities during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. However, due to increasing competition from imports, it has seen a decline in heavy engineering, thus streamlining its operations and laying off the majority of local employment. My grandad just about scraped through uneffected when he retired after 50 years of service. 

As a leaving present and token of appreciation from the the company, he was given an engraved tray. I can't remember what material the tray was made from, but I can remember it being shiny, possibly silver plated? I was too young to remember and I doubt I even cared back then, but I can remember it's purpose clear as day. It sat on his bed-side table and when he came home from Bramley club (a place where he goes most night like many men of his day, to play dominoes and snooker) he'd empty his lose change from his pockets onto the tray. Being a cheeky scamp back then, I used to sometimes (not always) help myself to a few quid for some sweets. Until the day I was caught! Embarrassingly I was given a good telling-off by my Dad and felt truly ashamed and embarrassed, even at 10 years old, I knew I'd done him wrong. 

I still think about that tray and what it represents. 50 years of service to Sheffield's steel industry, Mr Eric Barnett, a small cog in a huge machine. The Mamnick 'Made in Sheffield' collection is a small way in which I can carry on my grandads efforts by using the same material he helped put on the map over 50 years ago and it feels good to know those 50 year of graft he put-in is now inspiring me to continue to work with the material that he worked with day-in day-out. 

Who knows, maybe one-day I'll make a tray to keep my pocket change in. 

When a business has been in a family for years you will usually find that they know a hell of a lot about the field in which they are working. Our buttons supplier is no exception. They've been making buttons in Sheffield for decades - special buttons, buttons that have a life of their own. 

We're always keen to hear a story and benefit from the experience of the experts, we'd be stupid if we weren't to listen so when we  visited the factory recently to place an order for our forthcoming Pilsley shirts, we took a camera and documented the entire place to share with you. 

Photo's by India Hobson

I remember Tony once saying to me when we were coming down Ringinglow road after one of my first 'bonk' rides. "Enjoy that feeling, you can't buy it". I must admit that at first I had no idea what he was talking about but in hindsight I now understood what he meant.

We had been out for 6 hours riding through the Peaks District as far out as Goyt Valley. We had set off early on a sunday morning and met a few more lads at Hathersage before heading over Abney and then on to Dove Holes. A steady Sunday ride is a great thing to do in the spring or summer. A couple of cafe stops, usually for a brew and tea-cake after noon and then a longer stop for some proper scran and a full rest. On that day we had stopped at a great cafe at Flagg after going along the Goyt valley road in blissful sunshine. I was already on the back foot then but managed to hang in until we arrived.

Its great how you can recover on the bike if you've not pushed on into the red too much. It's one of the best parts of bike riding; if you go steady enough you can ride all day. It's the climbs that really take it out of you and if you want to ride in the Peaks, there's no way of avoiding them. I'd hazard a guess that we did about 9,000ft of climbing that day. 

 

As we went over the last climb of the day, Burbage, a climb I've always had a love-hate relationship with, the "wheel's had come off" so to speak. I was on my arse. Slightly dizzy and numb, faint with the feeling of low-blood sugar. That's when Tony said "Enjoy that feeling, you can't buy it".

It's a part of cycling that you can't fake, that goes beyond todays culture of just throwing money at it. It's where the real value lies, and it's completely free.

We've used Oxford cotton on four of our shirts so far; white and sky for the recent Clough shirts and white and marine stripe for the first Backtor shirts that we made back in December. The cloth has been woven for us in a Lancashire mill which we work closely with. 

Oxford cloth has a basket-weave structure. The threads are interlaced to form a criss-cross pattern which looks like a checker-board up close. There are a few types of Oxford cloth; Pinpoint and Royal Oxford are the formal variants which tend to be used to make dress shirts. Our shirts are made using plain Oxford which is more durable, better wearing and better suited to casual shirts which is why we use it. 

Linen has as good a claim as any to being the fabric of Kings. Or even Gods. Expensive to manufacture, valued for it’s exceptional coolness in hot weather, known to be worn by Egyptian royalty and believed to be worn by the angels in heaven.

Linen possesses a near perfect set of vital statistics. Beautiful, versatile, strong, durable and easy to take care of; it can be dry-cleaned, machine-washed or steamed. Also resistant to the enemies of all fabrics; stretching, staining, pilling, damage from abrasion and even moths.

One blot on this perfect landscape for some is the fact that linen creases easily. For someone who wants to remain perfectly pressed throughout the whole day this fact is a deal-breaker. For a more relaxed dude however, this characteristic is part of linen’s charm. Think of James Bond’s many excursions to hotter climes; his fabric of choice is invariably linen.

The linen we've used for the new Backtor shirts is called Denim Marl. Its aesthetic qualities are in the name; indigo colored with a fleck slub-weave detail. The perfect material for the natural Trocas shells to blossom. Warm enough for a nippy spring evening, cool enough for nice summers day. 

Whilst the finishing touches were being made to our Clough shirts, we decided to take a small break from the snowy Peaks of Derbyshire for a week in the slightly warmer climates of Mallorca. Silky smooth tarmac that snakes up mountain sides were on the menu so how could we resist? 

Normal service will resume this forthcuming week with the release of our 'Made in Sheffield' Mamnick book-marks, our second shirt release - 'Clough', plus and a re-run of the 'Backtor' shirts in a linen marl ready for spring. First we'd like to share a few visual delights from our trip. Natural splendor that's equally as inspiring as riding the bike in Derbyshire. 

It's very early days for Mamnick. There may only be three pieces in our current inventory at this moment in time but trust, we're working morning, noon and night on new items before spring arrives. We will be extending our 'Made in Sheffield' collection with a couple of new additions in February including the stainless-steel bookmark, a cycling commuter clip and a useful envelope opener.

As well as the 'Clough' shirts that we're just about to release, we are expanding our inventory with a limited run of pieces we've manufactured in Japan. Having sourced some of the finest seersucker your ever likely to feel, a perfect material for spring, along with a chambray cotton that's become know to us as 'dungaree' we're excited to share with you these samples. As before, these pieces will be available in very limited numbers in the UK.

Note, the 'Made in Japan' shirts will be identifiable by the black woven Mamnick label. 

Mamnick Black Label is due to be available mid-April.