We discover why cycling and outdoor swimming are a good mix.

Jason’s London links:

Diamond Geezer (blog)
Londonist (blog)
Last Bus Home (blog)
The Way We See It (photo blog)

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

Play on link below, other file formats available over here (Ogg Vorbis etc)

In the 1970’s, Fluxus artists created games that subverted the seriousness of high art and encouraged participants to celebrate everyday occurrences rather than static art objects. Created in 1961 by the artist George Maciunas, the term Fluxus was originally intended as the title of a magazine that would document new art. Fluxus, a word chosen by Maciunas for its connotation of change, became a loose association of artists, some of whom were making work that the original Fluxus publication meant to document. Fluxus drew upon a combination of sources that included Dada, Duchamp’s readymades, Surrealism, Futurism, Spike Jones, and the music of John Cage to counter the belief that the experience of art was superior to that of life.

Games became an important means for Fluxus artists to disseminate and explore their ideas about art. Because games lend themselves to humor, often require physical participation, and undermine the seriousness of art that certain Fluxus artists opposed, they were a perfect medium for Fluxus expression and experimentation.

The usual International Olympic Committee Rules on slow bicycle racing applied over the 50 metre course: stay in lane, no feet down, freewheels only and no track-stand funny business. View the action replay:

Headlining is English psychedelic folk rock legend and occasional bicyclist Robyn Hitchcock (pictured below) with Terry Edwards; Kiss Akabusi, masters of deconstructed Black Metal/Chinese pop/Reggae and special guests from Quebec, the duo Mankind. Plus Resonance DJ Johnny Trunk of the Official Soundtrack Show and more.

photo by Carina Jirsch

Tickets are are bargain at £10, though you should definitely chip in a bit extra on the night, the station really needs it.

Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, 7.30pm. Leicester Square tube. Box office: 0844 847 1608 or book online. See you there!

The route covers 90 miles into the prevailing wind with a fair few hills along the way but the ride is being led by Dazzler, a London bicycle messenger, who has done it several times before and promises to make it to the church on time, so to speak. If you’ve ever looked at a bicycle messenger and wondered what on earth he or she did before the invention of the bicycle, the answer is clear. They were druids. Here is a recently unearthed archive shot of London’s favourite former bicycle messenger turned blogger:

And here is the modern version:

Ride leaves Marble Arch at 8.30pm. For more info, move it on over to Moving Target. I’ll do my best to be there, although I’m thinking it might be a bit more hectic than my usual gentlemanly sedate style of cycle touring.

In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history.
There lived a strange race of people…the Druids.
No one knows who they were, or what they were doing…
But their legacy remains…
Hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge…

And a few stills:

If all this makes you want to test yourself on the toughest single day course in cycle racing, the Paris-Roubaix cyclo-sportive on 8 June is still accepting entries.

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Photo by Deep Blue

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Earlier this evening I learned with great sadness that Sheldon Brown, the mighty, generous and wonderfully eccentric cyclist and repository of so much bicycle knowledge, has died. On behalf of everyone who helps to make The Bike Show, I extend our deepest sympathies to Sheldon’s family and friends.

Despite being a regular visitor to his encyclopedic website, I never had the pleasure of meeting the man, although he did twice appear on The Bike Show. Kieron Yates met and interviewed him for the show on the joys of fixed wheel touring and I made a rather primitive remix of Sheldon’s own homage to classic English three speed bicycles. Sheldon was usually quick on the uptake with new technologies and back in 2005 he made a few podcasts of his own.

In the fullness of time, The Bike Show will produce a proper tribute to Sheldon. If you want to your own memories and thoughts about the great man to be part of that show, then you can leave a video, audio or written tribute using the Comment link at the bottom of this post. It should work with any computer webcam/microphone and there is a preview available before you press ’send’. Tell the listeners of The Bike Show what Sheldon meant to you and to your life on two wheels.

Image from John Prolly

Date for the diary:

Bicycology evening of bike films, vegan pancakes and discussion of plans for a cooperative bike workshop and ‘radical bike group’.
Wednesday 6 February, 7.30pm
L.A.R.C (London Action Resource Centre)
62 Fieldgate Street, London E1

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“I want to go on a bicycle maintenance course because…..”

email to bikeshow@gmail.com

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For more on the draft byelaw banning cycling on the Thames Path, visit Southwark Cyclists’ website. To make your views known to the two Southwark Councillors responsible for this policy area, you can email them directly:

Lisa.Rajan@southwark.gov.uk
Paul.Noblet@southwark.gov.uk
Jeffrey.Hook@southwark.gov.uk

It might be a good idea to forward or cc any emails you send on this to the redoubtable Barry Mason of Southwark Cyclists, who is leading the campaign against the byelaw:

info@southwarkcyclists.org.uk

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Dear Matthew Parris,

I am writing in response to your article “What’s smug and deserves to be decapitated?” (The Times, 27 December 2007).

Whatever it is you’ve got against people who ride bicycles, to suggest that they deserve decapitation with piano wire is to step far over the often thin line that separates the wittily wicked from the plain nasty. Imagine an article that takes issue with Halloween in which the writer ‘jokes’ about giving trick or treating kids sweets laced with strychnine. Or piece against the war in Iraq that says British and American soldiers blown up by suicide bombers have received their just deserts.

The idea of cyclists meeting violent deaths on the road might make you chuckle, but I find it harder to see the funny side. Maybe it is because I know that every time I get on my bicycle I do face a small though very real risk of meeting a violent death myself. Maybe it is passing the spots where others have been killed, marked by floral tributes, bleached and withered by the sun and the rain. In London, where I live, around a dozen to twenty cyclists are killed each year, mostly in collisions with lorries turning left that have failed to see the cyclist on their inside. Earlier this month a woman by the name of Kate Charles was crushed under the wheels of a Tesco lorry in Brixton. In cases where the driver is found guilty of negligent or reckless driving, the punishment is invariably slight: a few points on the license, perhaps a short ban or a fine of a few hundred pounds. Custodial sentences are rare.

Indifference to the death and serious injury of people riding bicycles is commonplace and spiteful articles such as yours that seek to dehumanize people on bicycles only exacerbate the problem. There is a hidden assumption that people on bicycles are somehow ‘asking for trouble’, just as women rape victims are said to have asked for it if they were wearing a short skirt at the time of the attack. As for your idea that cyclists are all smug, self-righteous, self-satisfied, insolent jerks, I have no idea what your evidence is, since most of the cyclists I know are charming, cheerful and considerate souls (and that extends to not dropping litter, although there will always be a few exceptions). If you think about it, the very act of taking to the road without a two-ton box of steel to protect you means that you are trusting enough to put your life in the hands of others, and you have sufficient faith in humanity to believe that they will not run you down. I am sure your own antipathy an acute case of Freudian projection, with a side order of envy each time a bicycle glides past while you’re stuck in a traffic jam.

Normally I would not write letter like this in response to yet another unthinking newspaper diatribe against people who ride bicycles. Over the year, the best of your writing has been distinguished by its humanity, thoughtfulness and rationality. That’s why this particular column was such a surprise. Perhaps you were short of ideas in the last few days before Christmas and having seen the growing popularity of cycling thought that a bit of low rent contrarian invective would fill some space. Or maybe you just wanted to provoke a reaction.

Having risen to the bait, I’d like to make you a proposal. I present The Bike Show, a weekly radio programme on cycling, art and society that is broadcast on London’s experimental art radio station Resonance 104.4fm. The show features ‘rolling interviews’ with artists, writers, poets, scientists, philosophers and others, all of whom share the belief that, as John F. Kennedy put it, “nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride”. Someone once said that journalists should write about what they know. In that spirit, may I invite you out on a gentle afternoon ride (town or country) so you can find out what all the fuss is about. I’ll even lend you my spare machine. How about that for turning the other cheek?

Yours sincerely,

Jack Thurston
Presenter
The Bike Show

Update - 30 December 2007

I had assumed that piano wire decapitation was pure fantasy on the part of Parris. Turns out that it’s not. Chapeau to Treadly and me for compiling a list of real life incidents that I have reproduced below:

• Cyclist caught in wire road trap
• Bikers warned of tree wire danger
• BMX boy in wire agony
• Wire ‘traps’ set on cycle paths
• Warnings over fishing line trap
• Wire ‘trap’ is laid for cyclists
• Cyclist hurt in park wire crash
• Wire deathtrap injures cyclist (barbed wire in this case—a special Queensland touch there)
• Two teens accused of performing prank that injures motorcyclist
• Vandals’ wire attack
• Cycling injury: woman seriously injured but wire trap for cyclists in park could have decapitated victim
• Grand jury levies charges in terrorism of cyclists case (this bastard faced a maximum ten years in jail on each of two counts, but was sentenced to 600 hours of community service)
• Mountain biker killed by possible booby trap (not a wire, but the same lunatic mindset)

The Bike Show will be off air until Monday 7th January 2008, when Resonance FM resumes its live broadcast schedule after the Christmas break. Chapeau and Bonne Route for 2008!

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Get down to the Bicycology film night on Thursday 13 December at the RampArt Social Centre, London E1 and of course to Rollapaluza IX-mas at the Waterloo Action Centre, 14 Baylis Road, London SE1.

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One of four projects in the running is Sustrans, the excellent charity which makes bike paths and other good things in the cause of sustainable transport. If it wins the vote, Sustrans would spend the money on Connect2:

“A UK-wide project that aims to improve local travel in 79 communities by creating new walking and cycling routes for the local journeys we all make every day. By building bridges and crossings over busy roads, rivers and railway lines, Connect2 will get people to the places they want to go. Each crossing will link to a network of walking and cycling routes, taking you to your schools, shops, work and green spaces. Connect2 will also bring people closer together, making journeys quicker and more convenient and leaving more time to spend with family and friends.”

After the jump is a rather tacky video that explains all about it. Anyway, as the Chicago mob bosses used to say, vote early and vote often. By phone on 0870 24 24 602 (calls cost 10p from a landline, maybe a shade more from a mobile) or online.

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This week’s show also features the soundtrack of the fantastic short film Bicycle Samba, by Sophie Clements and John Hendicott.

Fixed Links:

London Fixed Gear Forum
Fixed Gear Gallery
Sheldon “Coasting is bad for you” Brown
Fixed Wheel UK
London Bike Polo

Update (5 December):

‘DVD extras’ from the Bike Snob NYC for podium finishers:

On why he came to write the blog (MP3: 1′44″)
On his true identity(MP3: 2′18″)

Everyone is guessing wrong for the Rouleur Annual quiz question, so there’s a clue after the jump.

Read Guy Andrews’s top cycling books Christmas list:

Rouleur Photo Annual 2007 (goes without saying…)
The Tour de France - The History, The Legend, The Riders - Graeme Fife (just re-issued and updated - a great read)
Flying Scotsman - Graeme O’Bree (Amazing story, better to read the first hand account, before watching the film)
Fall from Grace - Freddy Maertens (Has to be read to be believed, a quirky account from an enigmatic rider, albeit with a slightly iffy translation)
The Rider - Tim Krabbe (a classic, no, the classic)
The Vanishing - Tim Krabbe (not a great deal on cycling, but another classic from the Dutch master)
The Escape Artist - Matt Seaton (motivates and inspires)
In Search of Robert Millar - Richard Moore (perhaps the finest work this year, a superb commentary on the life of the Scottish Grimpeur)
Paris-Roubaix - a Journey Through Hell (excellent pictures from the world’s greatest one day race)
Need for the Bike - Paul Fournell (short stories and comments from the French essayist and keen cyclist)

And look out for these in 2008:

Six Day - Graeme Fife and Camille J McMillan (to be published by Rapha/Rouleur)
Need for the Bike - Paul Fournell (to be given the Rouleur treatment in 2008 as we re-publish with Jo Burt’s illustrations)
Rouleur Photo Annual 2008

Other file formats here.

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This season promises many highlights including: the story of the Moulton bicycles, one of which continues to hold the land speed record for upright cycling; a long hard look at the burgeoning cult of fixed wheel riding in hipster culture; the history of bikes in war; the 2012 Olympics; riding a bike while pregnant; a flapjack bake off and competitive pump test; reports from Paris-Brest-Paris and and a new sound-art interpretation of Alfred Jarry’s essay The Crucifixion Considered As An Uphill Bicycle Race featuring Peter Blegvad.

19 November

The Bike Show returns for its winter season with tales of the Tour de France in London and the sounds of the premier of the Symphony for Singing Bicycles still ringing in the ears. Guest in the studio are Buffalo Bill reporting on this year’s Cycle Messenger World Championship in Dublin and Kieron Yates on taking part in the epic and grueling 1200 kilometer non-stop race from Paris to Brest and back.

26 November

A Christmas books special with guests George Theohari (author of the newly published Cyclist’s Companion), Guy Andrews (editor of Rouleur) and Graeme Fife (the UK’s leading cycle writer whose memoirs were published this year).

About The Bike Show

The Bike Show is a weekly radio show about cycling. It is broadcast in central London on radio art station Resonance 104.4fm. Through its podcast it reaches thousands of listeners all around the world. The show looks at the links between the bicycle and art, society and politics. According to listeners, the most popular bits of the Bike Show are the so-called ‘rolling interviews’, which are basically a bike ride combined with a live interview. Over the years, Bike Show presenter Jack Thurston has developed the unique blend of skills necessary to ride a bike, handle a microphone, not get lost, run over or fall into canal, all the while conducting an interview with his guest of the day. Among past rolling interviewees are Jeremy Deller (artist and folklorist), Rosie Walford (psychologist and author), Daniel Start (wilderness guru), Mark Ellen (music journalist), Patrick Field (writer and actor), Rose Ades (Ken Livingstone’s top adviser on cycling) and Julia Lohmann (artist and designer). On location the show has come from every part of London, but also further afield: Provence, Flanders, Brussels, Berlin, New York and Paris.

The Bike Show is broadcast on Resonance FM 104.4fm in central London and via internet streaming and podcast worldwide. It goes out on Monday evenings from 6.30pm-7pm and is repeated at the same time on Saturday evenings.

What people are saying about The Bike Show

‘Very on the ball unlike some of those personality-crisis tossers at the BBC’
-Johnny Green, author of ‘Push Yourself Just a Little Bit More: Backstage at Le Tour De France’ and former road manager of The Clash.

“A gem on the airwaves”
-Zoe Williams, The Guardian

“Moving Target likes the Bike Show. No, Moving Target loves The Bike Show.”
-Buffalo Bill, MovingTargetZine.com

“A very welcome addition to London’s bike culture that’s building a loyal following and, yes, doing its own quirky bit to get people on bikes”
-Southwark Cyclists

“Critics Choice”
- The Independent, 3 July 2006.

Contact

http://www.thebikeshow.net
Jack Thurston, Presenter. 07973 155 278 bikeshow@gmail.com

Well-known London fixed-wheel playboy Rakan informs me that a bicycle version of the game is played regularly on Sundays on a vacant parking lot in east London. And this month the Bicycle Film Festival (London edition) is sponsoring a championship no less, to be held on 21st October 2007 at 11am (on the grounds at the corner of Brick Lane & Shacklewell Street in London’s ritzy E2). Teams comprise three riders and anyone looking to enter should have their manservant dispatch an email to polo@bicyclefilmfestival.com as soon as possible. It is rumored those two-wheeled toffs David Cameron and Boris Johnson are looking for a third player to complete their team…Bill?

Check out the champagne-quaffing bicycle aristocracy mid-chukka on the YouTube and the MySpace. Okay, yah?

Confession: Some fifteen years ago I played a vicious three-man game of bicycle polo in Kensington Gardens after too much cheap cider. Never seen so much blood.

Earlier today the American Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Floyd Landis’s positive doping test and awarded a two year ban, which will mean Landis will be able to compete again in 2009. Spain’s Oscar Pereiro was declared the winner of the 2006 Tour de France. “You never want to win a competition like that but after a year and a half I’m just glad it’s over,” said Pereiro.

Resonance FM is having an “open day” from 4pm to 6.30pm on Sunday 23 September. A tour of the new studio will take approximately seven minutes. Later that day there will be a RELAUNCH PARTY at the Roxy Bar and Screen, 128-132 Borough High Street, from 7.00pm

Jack Thurston, presenter of the Bike Show, will lead a celebratory ride the short distance from the site of the old studios at 9 Denmark Street, just off Charing Cross Road to the new studio at Borough High Street. The ride will leave at 4.30pm and take a scenic route through the City which will be dead quiet on a Sunday afternoon.

The new studio is located about thirty seconds from Borough underground station. 144 Borough High Street, r/o Willcox House, London SE1 1LB. MAP.

Access is through the black iron gates to the right of Willcox House.