The Bike Show

Podcast, programme notes and audio archives from Resonance FM's bicycle radio show.

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Entries Tagged as 'History'

Ron Cooper on Ron Cooper

August 4th, 2010 · 4 Comments

Ron Cooper is a legend in frame-building. He started as a fifteen-year-old apprentice with A.S. Gillott, and his frames have come to define the very best of the British lightweight style. He talks about the early days learning from master frame-builders like Jim Collier and Bill Philbrook, his own racing career and his commercial success [...]

 
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Tags: England · Gear · History · London · People · Podcast

Velocio’s 7 Commandments for the Wise Cyclist

July 22nd, 2010 · 1 Comment

Paul de Vivie (1853-1930), who wrote as ‘Velocio’, was an early advocate of the bicycle, supposed inventor of the derailleur and the father of French cycle touring. Here are his seven commandments for the wise cyclist:
1. Keep your stops short and few.
2. Eat before you’re hungry, drink before you’re thirsty.
3. Never get too tired [...]

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Tags: France · History · People · Touring

Talking Le Tour with Paul Fournel

July 21st, 2010 · 5 Comments

An extended, hour long edition of the show featuring French writer, poet, cyclist and cultural ambassador Paul Fournel (pictured). We stroll from the French House in Soho to the Rapha Cycle Club in Clerkenwell, to visit an exhibition of a hundred years of racing bicycles. The exhibition runs for two more weeks and is well [...]

 
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Tags: Advocacy · France · Gear · History · Literature · London · People · Podcast · Sport · Tour de France

Un Tour de France de Londres with Stephen Bayley

July 8th, 2010 · No Comments

As part of this year’s London Festival of Architecture, Stephen Bayley leads a ride around the best of French architecture, art and design to be found on the streets of London. Stephen Bayley is the Observer’s architecture and design critic, the founding director of the Design Museum and in 1989 was a made a Chevalier [...]

 
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Tags: Architecture · Art and design · History · London · Podcast · Rides · Tour de France

Reading and riding: Christmas books special

December 8th, 2009 · 16 Comments

Tim Dawson, cycling columnist for the Sunday Times, runs the Cycling Books website, the most compendious review website for cycling books. He joins me in the studio to discuss the literature of cycling, from Tour de France to cycle touring. Paul Fournel reads another extract from Need for the Bike. Below is a list of [...]

 
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Tags: France · History · Literature · Podcast · Sport · Tour de France · Touring

Cycle Chic

August 3rd, 2009 · 5 Comments

Riding with Amy Fleuriot, a young British fashion designer who’s Cyclodelic range of clothing and accessories is offering women a more stylish alternative to the typically drab clothing sold to cyclists. This is the final show in the current season. Thanks for listening!

 
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Tags: Advocacy · Art and design · History · London · People · Podcast · Rolling interview · Style · Women

From Sublime to Ridiculous

July 21st, 2009 · 1 Comment

Copenhagen is widely regarded as the world’s most cycle-friendly city. I ask Copenhagen’s Mayor Klaus Bondam what advice he gives to other city leaders in how to emulate the Danish capital. Multitalented musician, songwriter and cartoonist Peter Blegvad reads Alfred Jarry’s proto-absurdist short story “The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race”. Jarry (pictured, above) [...]

 
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Tags: Advocacy · France · History · Literature · People · Podcast · Politics · Sport · Tour de France

Podcast only: Theatre Review – Pedal Pusher

July 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Pedal Pusher is a play that follows three cyclists — Jan Ullrich, Marco Pantani and Lance Armstrong — in the most dramatic recent era of professional cycle sport: from the young prodigy Jan Ullrich winning the Tour in 1997, the doping scandals of 1998, Armstrong’s conquest of cancer and ending with Pantani’s exile from the [...]

 
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Tags: Bicycle messengers · Events · History · Literature · London · Podcast · Politics · Sport · Tour de France

Blazing Saddles: Inside the Brooks factory

July 13th, 2009 · 1 Comment

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. [...]

 
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Tags: Art and design · Bicycle music · England · Gear · History · Podcast · Politics · Style

London to Bristol (part two)

June 29th, 2009 · No Comments

In an extended podcast edition of this week’s show, the journey from London to Bristol continues along the Ridgeway (pictured, left) to Avebury, one of the largest prehistoric stone circles in Europe. After a night by Lacock Abbey the route follows the Avon to Bath and the old railway track to Bristol. Featuring David Evans [...]

 
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Tags: Advocacy · England · History · Podcast · Politics · Rides · Rolling interview · Touring

London to Bristol (part one)

June 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

Part one of a ride from London to Bristol, in which presenter Jack Thurston is guided by listeners to the show. First stop is St Giles’ Church in Stoke Poges, home to the ‘bicycle window’ (pictured behind Jack and Denis Hartley, the Verger of the Church). One element of the window dates from 1642 and [...]

 
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Tags: England · History · Podcast · Politics · Rides · Sport · Touring

Podcast only: Spring Classics Special Edition

April 11th, 2009 · 5 Comments

The Bike Show may be off air, but come with us on a trip to Belgium, home of the Flemish hard men and De Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders). Along the way I get a surprise tour of the legendary showers at the Roubaix velodrome (pictured left).
Don’t forget to take The Bike Show’s [...]

 
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Tags: France · History · Podcast · Politics · Rides · Sport

9 March 2009: Legends of the Rás

March 10th, 2009 · 2 Comments

The Rás Tailteann is an 8 day stage race in the Republic of Ireland held each May since 1953. A particularly gruelling race, some say it is Ireland’s ‘Tour de France’ and it is a much cherished tradition, far more so than the Tour of Ireland. John Herety, Directeur Sportif of the Rapha-Condor road racing [...]

 
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Tags: Bicycle messengers · History · People · Podcast · Politics · Sport

6 October 2008: The Moulton Story (part two)

October 6th, 2008 · 3 Comments

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, [...]

 
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Tags: Architecture · Art and design · Bicycle music · England · Gear · History · People · Podcast · Politics · Sport · Touring

29 September 2008: The Moulton Story (part one)

September 29th, 2008 · 4 Comments

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 [...]

 
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Tags: Art and design · Bicycle music · England · Gear · History · People · Podcast · Politics · Sport · Style · Touring

22 September 2008: Grant Petersen on overnight trips and a visit to London’s ‘anti-bike shop’

September 22nd, 2008 · 4 Comments

 
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Tags: Bicycle music · England · Gear · History · Italy · London · People · Podcast · Politics · Rides · Rolling interview · Sport · Style · Touring · United States

4 August 2008: Cycling, politics and ideology

August 6th, 2008 · 7 Comments

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. [...]

 
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Tags: Art and design · Bicycle music · England · History · People · Podcast · Politics · Rides · Touring

21 January 2008: Hidden Treasure

January 21st, 2008 · 6 Comments

Paul Wonnacott has been buying, repairing and selling on used bicycles in the English countryside for almost thirty years. In an extended interview he looks back at the changes he’s observed in the bicycle manufacturing industry (most of them bad) and grapples with a hoarder’s inner demon as he watches his huge stock literally pile [...]

 
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Tags: England · Gear · History · Podcast

24 July 2006: Remembering Major Taylor – the fastest man on the planet

July 24th, 2006 · 4 Comments

In this week’s show we remember ‘Major’ Marshall Taylor, a world champion cyclist from the 1890s and the first black American sports superstar. Kieron Yates talks about Major Taylor’s life with Lynne Tolman of the Major Taylor Association. We also ride the 2006 Etape Du Tour with Alex Murray.
MP3 Download
Ogg Vorbis Download
MP3 Stream (lo fi)

 
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Tags: History · Podcast · Sport · United States

8 August 2005 Show: History of the bicycle; London-Edinburgh-London audax ride

August 13th, 2005 · No Comments

This week’s show features an interview with David Herlihy, author of ‘Bicycle‘ the recently published definitive history of the bicycle (Yale University Press). Kieron Yates reports on the London-Edinburgh-London audax/endurance ride.
MP3

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Tags: History · Literature · Podcast · Touring