CATALINBREAD
BICYCLE DELAY
REVIEW BY DAVID A. EVANS
STREET PRICE $199.00
In April 1943, Albert
Hoffman deliberately
dosed himself with LSD,
a substance which he’d
synthesized some five years
beforehand. Famously,
Hoffman rode his bicycle
home from the lab that
day. Yet this was unlike
any previous ride: space
seemed distorted, sounds
were unusual, and the whole
world appeared to have
gone crazy.
I suspect that Catalinbread’s
new Bicycle Delay has been
crafted as an homage to
or at least with Hoffman’s
bicycle ride in mind. The
Bicycle Delay is unlike other
delays in that it seems to
simulate, in audio form, an
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GEAR REVIEW
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acid trip. Weird echoes,
distorted repetitions of
sound, and a generally
random character of all the
sounds it produces lead
me to think this. Even after
some experimentation, I
was never really sure what
to expect from the Bicycle
Delay. In this respect, I
believe the pedal to be
even more like an acid trip,
in which unexpected and
strange visions, sounds, and
moods appear.
At first glance, the Bicycle
Delay might confuse the
typical delay aficionado.
Catalinbread has painted
non-standard labels on its
new pedal rather than the
traditional names associated
Catalinbread Bicycle Delay
with delay. Level, delay,
tone, repeats—none of
these will be found on the
Bicycle Delay. In their place
one can find (respectively)
Lucidity, Expanse,
Radiance, Reflect, and a
special additional knob
called Mood. Curiously,
the Expanse knob works
exactly opposite of the
way one would expect. At
its 5 o’clock setting, the
delay is actually set to its
minimum time of just a few
milliseconds.
The Bicycle Delay produces
up to about a two-second
delay, and will go as low
as just a few milliseconds,
so it’s capable of slapback
echo and the spacier sounds