David Kitchen, aka Velocio, set up the London Fixed Gear and Single Speed Forum almost three years ago. In a short time it has spawned an active and inventive cycling community and in the process the forum has grown to become the world’s eleventh most visited cycling website. David talks about the success of the forum and gives pointers for anyone thinking of using the web to bring cyclists together including how to bridge the online and offline worlds.
The Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra combine music, theatre, sculpture and bicycles with a sometimes chaotic and often subversive DIY ethic. Their debut album Nine Doors is out next month as a free/flexible price digital download. Band members David Birchall, Zeke Clough, Josh Kopecek, Huw Wahl talk about the sonic potential of the bicycle, improvisation and creating culture out of nothing. Read a review onEast London Lines of the Orchestra’s performance last week at Barden’s Boudoir. Upcoming live dates are on the Orchestra’s MySpace page.
This is the last show of the current season. The Bike Show returns to the airwaves on 5 May 2010.
For long-distance cycling they’re a must and they’ll improve the look of any bicycle. Brooks leather saddles date back to the 1870s and are still made in Birmingham where they were first invented. Steve Green of Brooks talks about the history and the craft of the most venerable and most comfortable bicycle saddle there is. We also listen to some of the fantastic machines (pictured, left) that are still going strong in the Brooks factory.
Play on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) coming soon.
It’s the end of the road for The Bike Show. Find out why in this special podcast only final edition featuring many Bike Show favourites including Buffalo Bill, editor of Moving Target, cycle sport correspondent William Greswell, London bike messenger Nhatt Attack, Barry Mason of Southwark Cyclists, and Joe and Wes from the London Bicycle Repair Company.
Please note that this special episode was broadcast on 1 April and is what is known, in France, as Un Poisson D’Avril.
In the last of the current season we drop in on a police bicycle auction to pick up a bargain. Plus a bike pop epic from the Grave Architects (pictured above) and we hear from Jo Upton, presenter of Bike Love, a bicycling radio show in Sydney, Australia.
Play on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis), over here.
With the UK mired deep in recession, unemployment on the rise, the value of the pound going down and consumer confidence at an all time low, we ask what effect this is having on the cycling business. We hear from the owners of two of London’s new breed of bicycle boutiques (Tour de Ville and Bobbin Bicycles), from bike messenger Nhatt Attack, who has swapped her bike for a Christiania tricycle and is delivering flowers, from Carlton Reid, cycling journalist and Executive Editor of bike industry magazine BikeBiz.com and from BikeSnobNYC who adds his two pennies from New York.
Play on links below, other file formats (eg. Ogg Vorbis) over here.
This week’s show features Dave Brailsford, Performance Director of British Cycling, explaining how his team achieved a record medal haul at the Beijing Olympics. We also discover that Shanaze Reade (pictured left, racing in the team sprint with Victoria Pendleton) has never heard of fixed gear freestyling despite being a world champion cyclist in both BMX and track racing. Someone who is all too familiar with the fixed wheel phenomenon is BikeSnob NYC, who regularly wins gold medals for “systematically and mercilessly disassembling, flushing, greasing, and re-packing the cycling culture”. Over a few ales, the BikeSnob offers his reflections on 2008 and his hopes and fears for the coming year. We talk penny farthings, the Opinionated Cyclist and how to survive the New York winter on two wheels.
Photo credit: knackeredhack
Play on links below (MP3). Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.
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.
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