the bike show

I previously wrote about last months’ City of London Police’s recent Road Safety Forum. I mentioned some statistics that were presented by Sergeant Alan Rickwood. Sergeant Ringwood was kind enough to send me his slides afterwards, and I can share them here. [Read more →]

The latest on moves by the London Assembly to reduce the dangers posed by lorries to cyclists. Plus an extended talk by Andrew Ritchey, inventor of the Brompton, the folding miracle that is the toast of London’s bicycle-train commuters. The talk was given over the summer at the iFest 08 in Barcelona. It tells the story of how an idea became a commercial success, largely through the vision and determination of one man. This is the last in the current season. The Bike Show will return in early 2009.

Play on links below. Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis, 64kb MP3 over here).

 

 20 October 2008: The invention of the perfect folding bicycle [29:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

After a summer of fun on two wheels, we turn to more serious matters. The entire show this week is devoted to the problem of lorries killing cyclists in London. With Barry Mason of Southwark Cyclists and Cynthia Barlow, chairwoman of RoadPeace, the national campaign against deaths on Britain’s roads. We also hear from London Assembly Member Val Shawcross who is tabling a motion this week urging more action to make the roads safer for London’s cyclists.

To write to your elected representatives about this issue, visit WriteToThem.com. It takes a matter of minutes and works. You’ll find excellent coverage of the lorry/cyclist issue over at Moving Target, including some very good sample letters for inspiration. Barry Mason’s full notes of last week’s inquest into the killing of Nga Diep are available here.

Play on links below. Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis, 64kb MP3) over here.

 

 13 October 2008: Emergency - Lorries Killing Cyclists [33:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This morning I attended the Road Safety Forum organised by the City of London police, at their Snow Hill police station, near Smithfield Market. It was a good meeting, well attended by a range of officers, including at a senior level, plus those responsible for implementation on the streets. There were also representation from Corporation of London and Transport for London. Among the most interesting things I learned was that during a single day of random spot checks of lorries (HGVs) by City of London Police on 30 September this year, every lorry stopped was found to be breaking at least one road safety law. [Read more →]

Nice to see the police setting an example. Today at 2.20pm on Webber Street, corner of Blackfriars Road, SE1.

For those who don’t know, this is an Advance Stop Line, a ’safe place’ for cyclists to wait at junctions. If it wasn’t filled with two tonnes of Plod, that is.

The license number of the van is LX54 JBE.

‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ roughly translates as ‘Who watches the watchmen?’

Over the summer BBC Radio 4 aired a half-hour programme about life as a bicycle messenger here in London. First of all, what the programme does really well is convey the magic of daily cycling in London - the vistas, the skies, the sun, the wind and the rain, the secret places. This is something that any everyday London cyclist can appreciate, whether or not they work as a messenger. The documentary avoids the usual traps of romanticising the job, focussing obsessively on risk and danger, the bikes, the machismo, the fashions and so on. It’s telling that there is not a single mention of ‘fixed wheel’. The contributions from working messengers and former messengers are honest and thoughtful.

This half-hour radio documentary is way better than any film, television or radio feature about bicycle messengers that I have ever seen and, thanks to the marvelous Bicycle Film Festival, I have seen enough for a lifetime! In short, if you like The Bike Show, you will love this.

It should come as no surprise that the documetary features friends of The Bike Show like Buffalo Bill & Nhatt Attack, the latter I hope will be making her Bike Show debut on the next season of the show. Of course, where The Bike Show leads, the BBC follows. For the two part rolling interview with Buffalo Bill that aired on Resonance FM back in May 2005 click here (part one) and here (part two).

Listen to the BBC Radio 4 documentary over here, courtesy of Messenger of Doom rjs.

The concluding episode of a two-part feature on the story of Dr Alex Moulton and the reinvention of the bicycle. We pick up the story with the launch of the Moulton space frame design (pictured left) in the early eighties. Featuring interviews with eaturing interviews with Dr Alex Moulton, Shaun Moulton, Tony Hadland, Michael Woolf, Paul Villiers, George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, Chris Mahon, Patrick Doocey and Mog from Brixton Cycles.

Play on links below. Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis, 64kb MP3) over here.

 

 The Moulton Story (part two) [29:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[Read more →]

The first of a two-parter telling the story of Moulton bicycles: the radical reinvention of the bicycle by Dr Alex Moulton that, despite some commercial setbacks along the way, continues to push the boundaries of cutting edge engineering. Moultons have been feted by architects and designers, won races and broken speed records, and are taken to the hearts of their riders, the Moultoneers, many of whom consider them to be the best kept secret on two wheels. Over the next two weeks The Bike Show will trace the history of the Moulton bicycle from its inception in the late 1950s and its sixties heyday, look ahead to its future and try to capture something of the Moulton spirit. Featuring interviews with Dr Alex Moulton, Shaun Moulton, Tony Hadland, Michael Woolf and a cast of Moultoneers. Image, left, shows the young Sheldon Brown on his Moulton Deluxe in 1971.

Play on links below. Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis, 64kb MP3) over here.

 

 The Moulton Story (part one) [29:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Bicycle Film Festival comes to London from 1-5 October. Laura Fletcher is the BFF’s London ambassador and she previews a handful of highlights from the seven screenings at the Barbican Cinema plus all the parties, art shows, polo matches and roller-racing that make the Festival a veritable jamboree of bicycle culture. Plus a very special message from the Founding Director, Brendt Barbur. Buy tickets online here.

Play on links below. Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis, 64kb MP3) over here.

 

 Podcast-only special: Bicycle Film Festival comes to town [22:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

OUTING CANCELLED DUE TO SOUTHERN TRAINS ENGINEERING WORK OVER THE WEEKEND MAKING TRAIN TRAVEL FROM LONDON IMPOSSIBLE. GRIDIRON STILL GOING ON BUT WITHOUT BIKE SHOW / TWEED.CC

The Bike Show is joining forces with the splendid Tweed Cycling Club for an autumnal outing next weekend. The 16th “GRIDIRON 100″ Randonnée, through the scenic roads of the New Forest, is on 5 October. It’s among the biggest Randonnées of the cycling year, attracting more than 500 riders.

10am start at Boldre Village Hall (halfway between Lymington and Brockenhurst). The route crosses as many cattle grids as possible in a 100km loop. Route information provided at the Registration. £5 entry on the day, £3.50 entry in advance. Cheques by post to the organisers, Wessex CTC, who have more information at their website. Let us know if you’re coming in the comments.

For those coming from London on the day, it means an early start (6.30am or 7.35am trains), but there may well be an overnight camping option under development.

Two cyclists have been killed and another injured in collisions with lorries on the streets of London in the past week. This brings the unofficial total fatalities in 2008 to 8 or 9, depending on whether you count someone killed while wheeling their bike a cyclist or pedestrian. Whichever way, it’s 8 or 9 too many. Raising awareness, calling for action to make London roads safer and educating cyclists on how to minimise risk are the objectives of CycleSafeLondon.com, set up this week by members of the London Fixed Gear and Single Speed web forum, myself included.

Critical Mass is tonight and we’ll be distributing a basic leaflet explaining the problem and what can be done. You can download it to print yourself from here. [Read more →]

Grant Peterson of Rivendell Bicycle Works urges us to get on our bikes for sub-twenty four hour overnight camping trips. Plus a visit to a fantastic new ‘anti-bike shop’ in Finsbury Park, specialising in classic English and Italian steel road bikes. The shop doesn’t have a name yet, but you can drop in at 74 Mountgrove Road, Finsbury Park, London N5 2LT - MAP. Some photos below, more here:

Play on links below. Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis and 64k MP3) over here.

 

 Grant Peterson on overnight trips and a visit to London's 'anti-bike shop' [31:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On this week’s show I promised some documentary evidence of my cycle tour in France last month. Well here it is. All filmed on a cheap and cheerful Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07 compact digital camera with a video mode, so please excuse some less than perfect audio quality.

Part one:

Part two:

My route took me from Biarritz on the Atlantic coast to Brioude in the massif central via most of the big Pyrenean cols, through Cathar country to the Mediterranean coast, Narbonne & Montpellier and then up across the Cévennes to Le Puy-en-Velay and the Auvergne. Train back from Brioude to Clermont Ferrand, Paris and London.

[Read more →]

 Summer antics: Cycle Camping in France [12:33m]: Download

Do the rising oil price, the growing concern about man-made climate change and breakthroughs in cycle design mean we’re on the verge of a pedal-powered cargo revolution? Discussing the past, present and future of cargo bikes and pedicabs is Leslie Wacker, a Chicago native who placed second in the cargo bike race at this year’s World Cycle Messenger Championships, Buffalo Bill author of Moving Target Zine and controller at Creative Couriers. We also hear from Mark, controller at from Zero Couriers, London’s first and only dedicated cargo bike courier company about the challenges his company has faced convincing potential commercial clients to choose pedal-powered cargo delivery. 8Freight photo thanks to BikeFix.

To donate to Resonance FM, follow this link.

Play on links below. Other file formats (64kb MP3 and Ogg Vorbis) over here.

 

 Are cargo bikes and pedicabs the future of urban transport? [32:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Remembering Ian Hibell, the world’s most accomplished and intrepid long-distance cyclist and adventurer, who was run down and killed on a road in Greece last month, aged 74. He’d been on a ‘training ride’ which began in Hull (England) in preparation for his next trip to Nepal and Tibet. Nic Henderson talks about his friend and hero. For more about Ian Hibell’s life, adventures and bicycles, including some superb photographs, visit Nic’s excellent website. From the Tour of Britain we hear the latest news from the Rapha-Condor-Recycling team and a protestor from Climate Camp who has something to say about energy company E-on’s sponsorship of this year’s Tour.

Update: Subsequent to this broadcast, The Economist published a superb obituary of Ian Hibell.

To donate to Resonance FM, follow this link.

Play on links below, other formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

 

 8 September 2008: Ian Hibell - Paying respect to a legend [29:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Alastair Humphreys has cycled round the world ‘the hard way’: four years, sixty countries and forty-six thousand miles. In the second of a two part special he tells the story of his epic adventure: from Mexico to Alaska, through Siberia, Japan, China and central Asia.

Thunder and Sunshine, the second volume of his travelogue is out now, published by Eye Books.

Play on links below, other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

 

 The Bike Show: Around the world the hard way (part two) [27:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Alastair Humphreys has cycled round the world ‘the hard way’: four years, sixty countries and forty-six thousand miles. In the first of a two part special he tells the story of his epic adventure from Yorkshire to South Africa and Chile to Colombia. Thunder and Sunshine, the second volume of his travelogue is out now, published by Eye Books.

The studio at Resonance FM is closed on 18th and 25th August so there will be no show on those dates. The second part of this two-show special will be broadcast on 1 September.

Play on links below, other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

 

 11 August 2008: Around the world the hard way (part one) [29:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On this week’s show we ask whether the bicycle and cycling are inherently left-wing or right-wing. Featuring Ruth Beale and Karen Breneman, two artists who recently rode together from London to the Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home in Liverpool in search of cycling’s socialist and non-conformist past, present and future. Putting the case for the libertarian right is the leading political blogger and cyclist Guido Fawkes who explains why leading members of the British Conservative Party are so keen to advertise their taste for two wheeled transport.

This weekend get on down to Rollapaluza XI “Kingspin” on Friday night at the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes and Tour De Play, ‘a five mile cycle tour looking at playscapes as a form of outsider architecture’ starting at the South London Gallery at 12 noon on Saturday.

Play on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

 

 4 August 2008: Cycling, politics and ideology [30:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Looking back at this year’s Tour De France, with Guy Andrews, editor of Rouleur magazine and author and broadcaster Graeme Fife. As well as discussing the racing, we go into what it means for a small towns when it plays host to a stage of Le Tour de France. You can listen to an hour-long Tour De France themed edition of Ruby’s Chicky Boil Ups on Radio Nowhere, featuring Jack Thurston and a pile of cycling tunes over here.

Play on links below. Other file formats (Ogg Vorbis etc) over here.

 

 28 July 2008: Looking back at Le Tour [29:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This year’s Dunwich Dynamo was perfect: a dry, moonlit night, a tail wind and a hot sunny morning on the beach. Around 500 people enjoyed the sixteenth edition of the classic British night ride that covers some 120 miles (190 kilometres) through north east London, Essex and Suffolk. But you don’t have to wait until the next Dunwich Dynamo on 4 July 2009 for a sublime overnight bicycle experience, as Grant Peterson of Rivendell Bicycle Works explains.

Play on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) here. Some photos from the DD 16 are on the flickr.

 

 21 July 2008: Sublime overnights: Dunwich Dynamo 16 and S24O with Grant Peterson [29:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download