2 March 2009: Riding and writing

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Jack Thurston

The Ride Journal was launched last year to widespread acclaim. Issue two is at the printers. Philip and Andrew Diprose, editor and art director, explain how they came to start a journal of personal stories about how bikes have changed people’s lives.

Among the articles in Issue 2 of The Ride Journal is Rediscovered by Rona Sutherland and is read by Ruby Wright. Ruby presents a fortnightly music podcast on Radio Nowhere called Ruby’s Chicky Boil-Ups. It’s great!. And if you want to read the article on the Highway Cycling Group from Issue 1, it’s here.

We also spotlight the new issue of Rouleur, the quarterly magazine from the Rapha stable, including an extract from Jean Bobet’s Tomorrow We Ride, translated by Adam Berry and read by Jean-Marie Orhan. To win a copy of issue 12 of Rouleur, send the correct answer to the question by email to bikeshow@resonancefm.com.

Play on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) coming soon.

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23 February 2009: Bicycle Polo and No Bike Week

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Jack Thurston

Bicycle polo. It’s the latest sensation that’s sweeping the nation. After an account of bicycle polo played with Hungarian counts in 1934 from Patrick Leigh Fermour’s classic Between the Woods and the Water, we travel to De Beauvoir Town to find out how the game is being played in 2009. The European Hard Court Bicycle Polo Championships will be held in London this August. For more on where to play, there are lots of listings here.

No Bike Week – what happens to a cyclist when he or she can’t ride for a week? Let’s find out. More details soon. It’s likely that No Bike Week will take place at some point between now and Easter 2009. Expresssions of interest to bikeshow@resonancefm.com

Picture credit: Roxy Erickson.

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

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9 February 2009: How British Cycling conquered the Olympics

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Jack Thurston

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.

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26 January 2009: Cycling the Northumberland Coast

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Jack Thurston

Riding the Northumberland coast from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Newcastle-upon-Tyne with Daniel Start, author of the best-selling Wild Swimming, a guide to natural swimming spots in Britain. Wild Swimming Coast (the salt-water version) will be published in the late spring. To enter the competition to win a signed copy, send an email detailing your favourite wild swimming spot to bikeshow@resonancefm.com.

Andrew Stevenson’s account of his Ed Ruscha-inspired 12 Bakeries ride from London to Paris is available to download (PDF).

Some excellent photographs of the LFGSS’s Tweed Run available here and here. For more information about the Tweed Cycling Club, there is a website.

Play or download MP3 on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

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6 October 2008: The Moulton Story (part two)

Posted on October 6, 2008 by Jack Thurston

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.

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29 September 2008: The Moulton Story (part one)

Posted on September 29, 2008 by Jack Thurston

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.

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

Posted on September 22, 2008 by Jack Thurston

Grant Petersen 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: