Category Archives: Science

29 January 2007: Going the Distance and the Physics of the Bicycle

Posted on by
Reply

First run in 1891 as a race designed to demonstrate the practicality of the bicycle, Paris Brest Paris has since become a four yearly event that attracts long distance cyclists from around the world. This year is a Paris Brest Paris year and Kieron Yates – this week standing in for Jack Thurston – talks to Richard Phipps of Audax UK, the British long distance cycling association, about preparing for the ride and what to expect should he make it to Paris.

Also on today’s show Kieron tries to discover just how it is that we stay upright on our bikes as we pootle off down the road. Physicist, Dr Helen Czerski, provides the answers, describes the ‘Einstein flip‘, and confirms the efficiency of the bicycle. Helen is a member of the NOISE network of scientists.

MP3 Download

Ogg Vorbis Download

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

20 November 2006: Experimental music and the bicycle

Posted on by
1

It’s cold outside, so stay at home and turn your bicycle into a musical instrument! Featuring performances by Stephen Schweitzer’s
Bikelophone (pictured left), electro-acoustic composer David Berezan and the Tea and Toast Band.

And we set a new challenge for London’s musical cyclists in 2007, the year that the Tour de France comes to our city… A performance of Godfried-Willem Raes’s Second Symphony for ‘Singing Bicycles’.

MP3 Download

Ogg Vorbis Download

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

13 November 2006: On a Bickerton in China, the Sideways Bike and cycling with disabilities

Posted on by
2

This week’s studio guest is none other than David Thurston, my very own dad. A London cyclist since the 1970s when he lost his driving license, he explored China in the early 1980s on a Bickerton folder and is now discovering that with Parkinson’s Disease, cycling is more fun than walking.

Also featuring an interview with Irish nutty professor Michael Killian, inventor of the revolutionary Sideways Bike (pictured) with independent front and rear steering, news of Sheldon Brown’s struggle with Multiple Sclerosis and an report by Alex Murray on a high end off-road wheelchair.

MP3 download

Ogg Vorbis download

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

31 July 2006: The folding miracle: inside the Brompton factory

Posted on by
2


In this last show of the current season we’re getting technical, with a visit to the Brompton factory. Bromptons are the best all round folding bicycles in the world and the invention of Andrew Ritchie, who started making them in his flat more than 25 years ago. They are still made in west London – in fact the only form of transportation still manufactured in the capital. Matt Tempest is awed by the brazing, bending and bashing that goes into a Brompton. Plus the demystification of wheelbuilding with Ian McCormick.

The Bike Show will be back with the falling of autumn leaves.

MP3 download
Ogg Vorbis download

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

4 April 2005: Rosie Walford

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s show features Rosie Walford, psychologist and founder of The Big Stretch explaining how cycling helps improve your powers of creative thinking by moving your brain into an alpha state. We take a ride around Islington and the City of London.

MP3

Track List:

Cars – Desperate Bicycles
First Love Never Dies – The Cascades
Natural Harmony – The Byrds (Notorious Byrd Brothers LP)
Banana Splits Theme (Tra La La) – The Banana Splits
Sights Unseen – Soledad Brothers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS