The Bike Show Podcast from Resonance FM

Soon We’ll Be Wheelbuilding

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:08:28 +0000

The spoked wheel is the unsung hero of the bicycle. Jack Thurston embarks on a journey of discovery, to understand how a bicycle wheel works with the help of engineer and materials scientist Professor Mark Miodownik, and then tries to learn how to build one, taking a class at London's Cycle Systems Academy.

Eileen Sheridan: The Mighty Atom

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:41:31 +0000

Land's End to John O'Groats is a classic cycle touring route. But it was also the blue riband distance among the long distance record-breaking heyday of the 1930s to the 1960s. In 1954 Eileen Sheridan, a diminutive cyclist from Coventry sponsored by the huge Hercules Bicycle Company, set a new record that stood for decades. Now 89, Eileen recounts a truly epic journey and tells the story of how she became one of the best-known, and best-paid, cyclists in Britain.

What It Really Means to Go Dutch

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:52:41 +0000

To many UK cycling campaigners, David Hembrow is a Moses-type figure, handing down tablets of smooth, car-free red asphalt from the streets of Assen in the Netherlands where he lives and writes the blog A View from the Cycle Path. He's also a controversial figure, arguing that separation of cars and bikes is essential for mass cycling and that many UK campaigners are either on the wrong track or suffering from hopelessly low expectations. In an extended interview David explains why he moved from England to the Netherlands in search of cycling nirvana and what the Dutch have got to teach the rest of the world when it comes to making cycling friendly towns and cities.

Live from the V&A: Bike V Design

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:28:02 +0000

Contemporary bike culture is blossoming into a mesmerising kaleidoscope of bicycle-related art, craft and graphic design. Small artisans are leading the way while big brands try to cash in on the action. Alice Marsh of Bike V Design leads a discussion recorded in front of a live audience at the Victoria and Albert Museum, bringing together a panel that includes Tom Donhou, a former product designer turned bicycle frame-builder, the founders of The Ride Journal and Boneshaker magazine and James Greig, a graphic designer and bike blogger.

A Bright New Dawn for Cycling in London?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:53:07 +0000

London Mayor Boris Johnson's new Vision for Cycling has won widespread praise for its ambition of making London streets more inviting for people on bikes, following the successes of cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Jack Thurston is joined by three cycling activists for a look at the details and to share their views on what really needs to be done to make London a safer and more pleasant place to ride a bike. Featuring Trevor Parsons, coordinator of Hackney Cyclists, blogger Mark Treasure and ex-London bike messenger Buffalo Bill Chidley

When Will We Stop Lorries Killing Cyclists?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:43:21 +0000

As another cyclist is killed by a lorry in central London, Jack Thurston asks whether it's time to take a harder line to make the city's streets safer. Featuring Cynthia Barlow of RoadPeace, former bike messenger Bill Chidley and Mike Cavenett of the London Cycling Campaign, which has recently proposed a new design for lorries working in London. Plus news of Jack's new book, Lost Lanes: 36 Glorious Bike Rides in Southern England.

Podcast special: Did Cycling Kill Kraftwerk?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:30:41 +0000

On the eve of Kraftwerk's eight night residency at the Tate Modern, Jack is joined by David Buckley, music writer and author of a new biography of the German electronic pop pioneers. Among the revelations in his book is evidence that a serious obsession with cycling contributed to the slowing of the band's musical output in the 1980s and, ultimately, the break-up of the group's classic line-up. Jack and David talk about Kraftwerk's journey from experimental music-making to the pinnacle of influence over pop, rock, hip-hop and dance music as well as their love affair with riding their bikes.

Happy Christmas from the Vulpine Christmas Fête

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:03:23 +0000

In a seasonal podcast special, Jack heads to Balham, Gateway to the South, for the Christmas Fête organised by Vulpine, the London-based cycle clothing company. Featuring The Ride Journal, Artcrank, Michaux Club, Pannier.cc, Marsh-Mallows Cycling Holidays, Fresh Tripe and Nick Hussey of Vulpine.

Podcast Special: The Gospel According to St Grant

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:25:26 +0000

Grant Petersen thinks most cyclists need to 'unrace themselves', that is to say, stop following what professional racing cyclists do. Instead we should all ride more comfortable bikes in more comfortable clothes and be more relaxed about the whole experience. He's written a book called Just Ride and, in an extended interview, he tells Jack Thurston exactly what he means. Grant Petersen is a highly regarded bicycle designer, formerly of Bridgestone USA and founder and owner of Rivendell Bicycle Works in northern California.

Across Africa by Bike (part two)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:18:44 +0000

Pete Gostelow rode twenty thousand miles across Africa and passed through dozens of countries. In doing so he showed that the bicycle is the best way to travel. In this episode we continue our ride to Battersea Park and talk along the way about where he slept, what he ate, what his motivations were for making the journey and what it’s like to be back home after such a long trip. Pete also explains the inspiration he thinks ordinary cyclists can take from his long African adventure.

Across Africa by Bike (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 19:00:04 +0000

As November brings cold, dark cycling conditions to Britain, there's no better time to get out the maps and start dreaming up adventures for next year. How about 20,000 miles across Africa? That's a journey recently completed by Pete Gostelow. After crossing the Sahara, the Congo and the Namibian badlands, will Pete survive the mean streets of south London in a rolling interview? This is the first of a two-part feature.

Raleigh Recall

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:33:22 +0000

In the third and final instalment of the Raleigh mini-season, listeners to The Bike Show share their recollections of Raleigh bicycles they have loved - and loathed. Jack Thurston is joined by broadcaster and artist Ruby Wright and London man-about-town and Raleigh Twenty owner Jean-Marie Orhan. In a podcast-only bonus feature, Tony Hadland shares his thoughts on restoring old, neglected Raleigh bicycles. Apologies to 'Fun Run' Robbie who is of course not 'Fun Boy' Robbie at all (or maybe he is?!) and yes, the town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders is pronounced like this.

Raleigh (part two): The Fall

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:08:28 +0000

In the second of a two-part feature on the Raleigh Bicycle Company, historian Tony Hadland and Jack Thurston look at Raleigh's post-war success as the world's biggest bicycle manufacturing company and its long decline to a point where it was sold off to overseas investors and abandoned manufacturing in its home town of Nottingham. The Raleigh name lives on as a brand owned by Accell, a larger Dutch company.

Raleigh (part one): The Rise

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:54:09 +0000

In the first of a two-part feature on the Raleigh Bicycle Company, historian Tony Hadland and Jack Thurston chart the rise of the company from a small backstreet workshop in Nottingham in the mid-1880s to the mid-1950s when it was seemingly unassailable as the world's biggest bicycle manufacturer. Tony Hadland is the author of Raleigh: Past and Presence of an Iconic Bicycle Brand.

Spilling the Beans

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 21:16:29 +0000

Nick Larsen is founder and creative director at Charge Bikes of Frome in the west of England. Charge is a fairly new company, remarkable for many things and not least the fact that all its products are named after something you would normally find in the kitchen. There’s the Juicer (a road bike), the Spoon (a saddle), the Bowl (a pair of handlebars) and of course The Plug, a simple single speed bicycle that launched the company into the big time a few years ago. Nick talks candidly about the bike industry, his own motivations and inspirations, where future trends are coming from and the potential of the exciting new technology of ‘3D printing’. This conversation was recorded live at last month’s Bike V Design night at the Design Museum.

Bicycle Polo, Cosmic-style

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:58:58 +0000

Bicycle polo has been played for more than a century but the ‘hard court’ variety is a relatively new, urban development. Todd, Mat and Rupert of London’s Cosmic Bike Polo team (pictured, above) explain how the sport came about, how it has developed in its short history and how bike polo players are pursuing a [...]

Podcast special: Lionel Birnie’s People’s Grand Tour

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:55:02 +0000

On the eve of the summer edition of the People's Grand Tour, Jack goes for a spin around the back lanes of rural Hertfordshire with cycling journalist Lionel Birnie, a regular guest on The Bike Show, who writes about professional bike racing for the Sunday Times and Cycle Sport magazine. The People's Grand Tour is open to anyone willing to commit to riding at least ten days over a 23 day period, starting this Saturday 11 August. It's free to enter and a great way of increasing the amount of riding you're doing.

Live from Belgium House

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:36:09 +0000

In a live broadcast from Belgium House, a temporary Olympic Village and 'cycling paradise' in London's Middle Temple, Jack finds out about Flandrien cycling culture from Rik Vanwalleghem, director of the Tour of Flanders centre in Belgium. At the launch of the Rapha Cycle Club in Soho, Rapha founder Simon Mottram reflects on the eight years since the company was launched in 2004. London cyclist Nick Hussey of the recently launched Vulpine clothing brand talks about designing and making top quality, stylish apparel for the discerning cyclist. And Resonance FM engineer Chris Dixon rides up a virtual Koppenberg.

Remembering Albert Winstanley and announcing the Bicycle Reader

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:53:45 +0000

Tim Dawson and Jack Thurston talk about Albert Winstanley, the Lancashire writer, broadcaster and cycletourist who died earlier this year aged 95. Winstanley was a top notch nature writer and had the rare talent to convey in his writing the pleasures of a simple bicycle ride. One of Winstanley's articles features in the first edition of the Bicycle Reader, a new collection of quality writing about riding, co-edited by Jack Thurston and Tim Dawson, and available for Kindle and other e-book readers for the very modest price of £1.53.

Tour de France Rest Day Chit-Chat with Lionel Birnie

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:18:42 +0000

Today is the last rest day in the Tour before the race heads into the Pyrenees for tomorrow's frighteningly gruelling mountain stage around the Circle of Death. The rest gave Jack Thurston time to catch up with Lionel Birnie, The Bike Show's favourite cycling journalist. Lionel writes for Cycle Sport Magazine and the Sunday Times. You can follow him on twitter at lioneljbirnie and read his articles in Cycle Sport Magazine and in the Sunday Times.

Taking the Long View of The Tour de France

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:27:28 +0000

This year's Tour de France is the 99th edition of a bicycle race that is rich in meaning and symbolism for the French nation. Christopher Thompson is professor of history at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and author of a widely acclaimed cultural history of the Tour de France. He discusses how the race came about in an era of rising nationalism and how the route itself was loaded with political meaning. Professor Thompson argues the race projected carefully constructed role models and entrenched traditional gender archetypes. More recently, controversies over doping in cycle sport can be linked to concerns about recreational drug use in wider society.

How Ned Boulting Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Tour de France

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 04:19:00 +0000

It's July, that means it's the Tour de France. Jack Thurston talks with Ned Boulting, a sports reporter who has been covering the Tour for ITV since 2003. He talks about the rise in popularity of cycle sport and everyday cycling over the past decade and the high jinks he's got up to while covering the last nine Tours de France Ned's book, How I Won the Yellow Jumper, is out now, published by Yellow Jersey Press.

Vous Faites le Tour de France?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 19:59:06 +0000

With this year's Tour de France just a few days away, Kieron Yates and Jack Thurston talk about the best places to go touring by bicycle in France. They share their ideas on where to go, where to stay and how to get there and back.

Stephen Roche, twenty five years later

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:43:15 +0000

1987 was an annus mirabilis for Stephen Roche, one of a wave of world class Irish athletes that rose to fame that decade. He won the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the World Championship road race. The only other rider to have accomplished this feat, know as the 'triple crown', is Eddy Merckx. Roche has a new book out called 'Born To Ride' and talks about his life in cycling, winning the triple crown, as well as his thoughts on today's peloton, the scourge of doping and his own implication in an EPO doping conspiracy. His new autobiography, Born to Ride, is out now, published by Yellow Jersey Press.

To Coventry: Birthplace of the Bicycle

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:59:53 +0000

Coventry has a very good claim to be the birthplace of the modern bicycle, the "Rover Safety" invented in the 1880s by John Kemp Starley, one of the city's many bicycle makers. Someone very happy to make that claim is Steve Bagley, Head of Collections at the Coventry Transport Museum. We go for a ride around the city and a trip back in time.

To Copenhagen, City of Cyclists

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:48:53 +0000

A trip to the Danish capital of Copenhagen, city of stylish cyclists, where Jack Thurston meets Mikael Colville-Andersen, the force behind Cycle Chic and Copenhagenize. We talk about how a single street photograph set him on a new path of bicycle advocacy, fashion and city planning consulting. And lots and lots of blogging.

A Century of Italian Cycle Sport

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:41:56 +0000

At the start of the second week of this year's Giro d'Italia, we take the long view of cycle sport in Italy with John Foot, professor of modern Italian history at University College London. His book Pedalare! Pedalare! tells the fascinating story of how Italy fell in love with the bicycle and how cycle sport took a central role in national life.

Merckx, Merckx, Merckx

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:39:14 +0000

Cross Elvis Presley with Muhammad Ali, raise him in a grocery shop in post-war Belgium, put him on a bicycle and what do you get? The greatest cyclist of all time: Eddy Merckx. Cycling journalists Daniel Friebe and William Fotheringham have both treated us to new books about Eddy Merckx, the Cannibal, winner of 525 professional races, five Tours de France, five Giri d'Italia and countless Classics. He was world champion and broke the hour record. We talk about his career, his motivations and the challenges of telling the story of the greatest racing cyclist who ever lived.

Voting Bike at the London Mayoral Election

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:56:01 +0000

Bike blogger Mark Ames (ibikelondon.blogspot.com) joins Jack and Jen to talk about this week's elections for London Mayor. Is there a cycling vote? Which candidate is best? Views from blogger Danny Williams, journalist Sonia Purnell, Julian Sayerer of Londoners on Bikes and Mustafa Arif of the London Cycling Campaign

Burrows on the Bicycle (part two – laid back)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:28:13 +0000

In the concluding half of an extended interview with engineer and bicycle inventor Mike Burrows, we talk about Mike's biggest passion: laid back bicycles. He explains how these human powered vehicles came about and where he hopes they're going. Plus Simon Nurse discusses the possibility of a cycling equivalent of the London Marathon.

Burrows on the Bicycle (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:04:18 +0000

Mike Burrows is probably best known for his design of the Lotus 108 pursuit bike that Chris Boardman rode in the Barcelona Olympics, winning the first gold medal for a British cyclist in over 70 years. But Mike has made a huge contribution to pedal powered machines more widely. His compact road frame first developed for Giant is now a design standard and his designs have moved the world of laid back or recumbent bicycles on from the early, pioneering days in 1970s California. Burrows remains inventive, opinionated and passionate about bicycles. This is the first of a two part extended interview.

All the Young Dudes: The Revival of Bicycle Framebuilding in Britain

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:59:50 +0000

For a second year, the Bespoked show in Bristol has provided a platform for a new generation of British bicycle framebuilders to showcase their work. Featured in this episode: Paul Villiers, Tom Donhou, Ted James, Ricky Feather and Jonathan Paulus. In a podcast-only extra, cycle sport journalist Lionel Birnie gives his take on the spring classics thus far and a look ahead to this weekend's Paris Roubaix.

Summer’s here! Get on your bike and ride

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:48:00 +0000

With the start of British Summer Time we profile two upcoming mass rides: Velonotte London and the Edinburgh Pedal on Parliament. On the night of Saturday 23rd June, Sergey Nikitin's Velonotte (pictured in Rome, above) will come to London as part of the 2012 London Festival of Architecture. A night ride starting at St Paul's cathedral, traversing the East End to the Olympic Park and finishing with a live orchestra welcoming the dawn at the London Pleasure Gardens. The ride will feature a simultaneous broadcast on Resonance FM of soundscapes and Velonotte's expert guides including Peter Ackroyd, Ricky Burdett, David Adjaye, Sergey Romanyuk and Peter Murray.

Christian Wolmar on London’s Transport Choice

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:56:38 +0000

A rolling interview with Christian Wolmar, journalist, cyclist and Britain’s leading transport commentator. We ride from Tufnell Park to St Pancras and encounter a flood, demon drivers and Camden Council’s contraflow cycle track. Christian explains where it went wrong with London transport and what’s needed to get things back on track. He also offers his [...]

How to get more women riding bikes

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:15:25 +0000

To mark International Women's Day, a discussion of women in cycling, from bygone days of the Rational Dress Society of the late Victorian era to Britain's twenty-first century successes in competition on the track and on the road. We ask why women are still three times less likely to ride bikes than men. Jen Kerrison and Jack Thurston are joined by Ann Kenrick, a trustee of the London Cycling Campaign and Natalie Justice of the Breeze Network at British Cycling.

On Two Wheels in France

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:41:31 +0000

As governments around the world seek to improve conditions for cyclists, we take a look at France, a country synonymous with cycle sport but that has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to everyday cycling. From Paris, Kieron Yates talks about cycling in the French capital and the new measures being introduced by the national government to improve conditions for cycling. And Gregory Bossuyt tells of leaving Paris behind him and taking to his bicycle in search of a new life in a new town.

Raphaël Krafft: reportage on two wheels

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:48:18 +0000

is a radio journalist working for the French national broadcaster who for the past ten years has been finding his stories by bicycle. Krafft’s two wheeled reportage has taken him around Latin America, the Middle East, the French West Indies and on several occasions his own country, which he has toured during presidential election years, to find out what France really thinks. Kieron Yates visited Raphaël Krafft in Paris for this extended profile, which features audio material from his radio broadcasts.

Across Europe by Bike

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:24:32 +0000

Andrew Sykes tells of his six week summer journey from his home in Reading to the southern tip of Puglia, in Italy, along the Eurovelo 5 long-distance cycle route, and reads from Good Vibrations, the book he's written about the trip. Jen and Jack talk about the horror of the Waterloo bridge roundabout and the Mayor's plans to remake it (again). Finally, a tribute to Henry Warwick, a veteran London bicycle messenger who was killed in a crash with a coach while working earlier this month.

Londoners On Bikes…with Votes!

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:52:44 +0000

In the studio with Stephen Taylor and Katherine Hibbert of Londoners On Bikes a new group of London cyclists who want to put cycling front and centre in the London Mayoral elections this May. Plus we hear about Ellie Carey, the 22 year old woman who was the 16th person to be killed while riding a bike on the streets of London last year. Her father talks about his family's loss. Jen Kerrison reports from the latest Bikes Alive protest - spiky or fluffy?

The Obree Way

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:36:15 +0000

Earlier this month, Graeme Obree was at Look Mum No Hands! for the London launch of The Obree Way, a training manual for cyclists. Obree is a two time individual pursuit world champion, has twice broken the world hour record and is multiple winner of British national time trial championships. He is renowned not just [...]

Down at the London Bike Show

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:12:12 +0000

Jack goes down to the London Bike Show, an annual fair of bicycles and cycling paraphernalia. He eschews the latest electronic gear systems in search of novel products made by interesting people. The following products are featured on the show: Georgia in Dublin: Stylish and waterproof clothing for women and men. Respro: High viz gear [...]

The Lost Cyclist with David Herlihy

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:14:10 +0000

In 1892 a young accountant from t, USA, quit his job and set off to cycle solo around the world. Frank Lenz rode a Rover Safety Bicycle, a revolutionary new design that would soon consign the traditional high wheeler – or penny farthing – to obscurity. It was the birth of the bicycle as we [...]

Looking back at 2011 and ahead to 2012

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:03:54 +0000

Listeners write in with recollections of their favourite ride of 2011 and most exciting plans for riding in 2012. Plus clothing designer Amy Fleuriot tells of her new Cyclodelic boutique on Columbia Road and shows a few of the her new lines. Jack, Jen and Amy offer a few of their own style pointers for [...]

Reading About Riding

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:36:22 +0000

A pre-Christmas books special is now a firmly entrenched tradition on The Bike Show. This year’s edition covers more literary ground than ever before. Amateur bicycle librarians Tim Dawson of The Sunday Times and Carlton Reid of Bike Hub join Jack and Jen in the studio. Tim Dawson’s excellent Cycling Books website is well worth [...]

Another day for you and me in Carradice

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:29:26 +0000

Jack travels over the Yorkshire moors to Nelson, Lancashire to visit one of the oldest and most venerable companies in British cycling. Cotton mill worker Wilf Carradice began producing his indestructible canvas saddlebags in the 1930s and in 2011 sales are booming. Owner and MD David Chadwick tells the story of a family business and [...]

Is riding a bike as easy as riding a bike?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:18:27 +0000

Jen Kerrison takes over the show for a week while Jack is away in Yorkshire, riding up hill and down dale. Jen asks if cycle training is necessary for adult cyclists. Or is riding a bike just like riding a bike? speak with three cyclists who have returned to cycling after years out of the [...]

Campaigning for a Civilised Cycling City

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:25:04 +0000

In the studio is Mustafa Arif, Chair of Campaigns at the 11,000 strong London Cycling Campaign. We look back at the weekend’s Tour Du Danger, a bicycle ride around ten of the most hazardous junctions for cyclists in London and hear how politicians Simon Hughes MP and London Mayor Boris Johnson plan to make London [...]

Is London Air Killing Us?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:45:08 +0000

Some people say that air pollution in big cities like London is a public health emergency, contributing to 4,300 premature deaths a year. But nobody seems to talk about it. Is the Government doing anything to deal with it? Are cyclists at risk more than other people? Is the Mayor of London more concerned about [...]

The Competitive Impulse

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:07:07 +0000

Why do some people like to race their bicycles? We discuss the world of amateur bicycle racing with Ian Cleverly, deputy editor of Rouleur magazine and Lydia Boylan (pictured, above) of the Look Mum No Hands! race team and current Irish national track sprint champion. We also hear from Dr Jo Corbett of Portsmouth University [...]

Team GB rules the track and Patrick Field tells it like it is

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:46:41 +0000

In this week’s show, Jack attempts to feign interest in the European track cycling championships and Jen gets her geography all confused. Patrick Field saves the day with an inspirational talk at the Intelligence Squared cycling festival (view more here). Plus details of the next Friends of the Bike Show ride on Sunday 6 November.

Paris-Brest-Paris: part two

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:11:18 +0000

Following on from last week’s documentary feature by Kieron Yates is a studio discussion of Paris-Brest-Paris, the world’s most venerable long distance bicycle race. In the studio are PBP veterans Judith Swallow and Dave Minter, and PBP debutant Pete Kelsey. Chris Ragsdale, one of this year’s stars, clocking in an exceptionally impressive sub-45 hour time, [...]

Paris-Brest-Paris: part one

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:08:33 +0000

The 1200km Paris-Brest et retour was first raced in 1891 and is the oldest bicycle race still in existence, currently held as a brevet de randonneur every four years. Kieron Yates shares the agony and ecstasy of his second outing in an event that is only for the toughest of the tough. Next week we’ll [...]

Jah Tweed

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:03:26 +0000

Jen meets Tim Jacques, one of the film-makers at this year’s Bicycle Film Festival, whose film “Peace and Lovely Tailoring” combines Rastafari, cycling and tweed clothing – a surefire winner here at The Bike Show. And we hear from Patrick Morgan, a Kiwi over in Europe on a fact-finding mission about cycle training and campaigning. [...]

Season opener: Time Travelling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:23:44 +0000

As Mark Cavendish wins the world championship road race for Britain for the first time since 1965, we’re back in the saddle for a new season. On this week’s show, a trip back in time. Blue Door Bicycles is a new bike shop in south London with a long history. Owner David Hibbs has been [...]

Blackfriars and Beyond

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:41:48 +0000

The ‘Battle for Blackfriars’ has united London cyclists and pedestrians in opposition to plans by the Mayor of London for an ‘urban motorway’ on a London bridge that is heavily used by cyclists yet has seen two fatalities in the past decade. Discussing the campaign for a better Blackfriars is blogger Mark Ames and Charlie [...]

The 2011 Tour de France: a modern classic?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:32:22 +0000

Looking back at the this year’s thrilling Tour de France are Lionel Birnie of Cycle Sport magazine and Alex Murray, London cyclist, amateur road racer and blogger at chasingwheels.com. Image by Neil Stevens, part of a series of illustrations for this year’s Tour, available to buy at Crayon Fire

Dunwich Dynamo Redux

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:20:17 +0000

From here: …to here: The 2011 edition of the Dunwich Dynamo, the cult mass participation night ride from London to the Suffolk Coast, as experienced by listeners of The Bike Show. Thanks to everyone who recorded their audio snippets. Put the 2012 Dynamo in your diaries now: 30 June / 1 July 2012.

All Night, All Right: Dunwich Dynamo 2011 Preview

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:31:16 +0000

In its 19th edition this year, the Dunwich Dynamo is London’s greatest mass participation ride – bar none. In the studio are Patrick Field, who first conceived the ride and two London cyclists planning to do just a little bit more than the usual Dun Run. Rosie Downes is planning to ride to Dunwich and [...]

Road Danger Reduction with Dr Robert Davis

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:30:34 +0000

Each year on the roads of this country upwards of 2,000 people are killed and many tens of thousands more are injured in road crashes. The perception of danger is one of the most common reasons people have for not riding a bicycle. Why do we, as a society, tolerate this level of carnage? What [...]

A Midsummer Misadventure with Dixe Wills (and a podcast bonus)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:15:23 +0000

On a Midsummer’s Night Dixe Wills, travel writer and author of a new book on Britain’s tiny campsites, guides us on a ride from central London up the Lea Valley to a wild camping spot for a ‘sub twenty four hour overnight’. Various pitfalls ensure that little goes to plan. The new Bike Show jersey [...]

Keep the Red Stuff In

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:04:38 +0000

In the studio is Bike Show regular ‘Buffalo’ Bill Chidley, who brings news of London’s burgeoning bicycle polo scene (note imminent rebranding as ‘urban bike hammer ball’). The London Open 2011 is on 30-31st July. Steve Evans, a bicycling paramedic from the Liverpool Century RC, gives some excellent practical advice on how to provide immediate [...]

Fix Your Own Bike

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:01:30 +0000

Community bike workshops are a beautiful idea. A place where anyone can learn the basics of bicycle repair by doing it for themselves with the help of volunteer mechanics – and have access to specialist bicycle tools. A stone’s throw from the Elephant and Castle, the venerable 56a food coop and radical infoshop has its [...]

The Millar’s Tale

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:09:44 +0000

David Millar, the British road racer, one of the best riders in his generation, had it all. His first day of racing in the Tour De France brought him an impressive stage victory over Lance Armstrong and he was instantly a celebrated figure in the professional peloton. But a few years later, it all fell [...]

Rob Penn on Looking for the Perfect Bike

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:38:10 +0000

Cyclist, journalist and author Rob Penn travelled the world to put together his perfect bicycle. We talk about how his journey of discovery sheds light on the history of the bicycle and the contribution of bicycle technology to modern life. Rob is speaking at the Hay Literary Festival on 3rd June and is organising a [...]

A Green Mayor? On the Campaign Trail with Jenny Jones

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 17 May 2011 10:37:39 +0000

Jenny Jones is a member of the London Assembly and is standing as the Green Party’s candidate in the 2012 London Mayoral elections. We ride from her home in Walworth/Peckham borders to City Hall and discuss cycling, liveable cities and the future of the Green Party.

The Life and Times of the Cycling Jersey

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:25:51 +0000

The summer season kicks of with an entertaining and borderline nerdy discussion of the past, present and future of the cycling jersey. From Bianchi’s 1950s classic celeste blue to Mapei pushed the dye sublimation process to its limits and divided fans in equal measure. We take the story as far as today’s trend for any [...]

End of Season: The Best Bits, 2008-2010

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:16:48 +0000

The final show of the winter season is a pleasurable romp through some of the best bits of the last three years of bicycle broadcasting. Featuring, in no particular order: Alistair Humphreys, Mark Miodownik, Cynthia Barlow, Klaus Bondam, Daniel Start, Rob Ainsley, Alex Moulton, Paul Staines (Guido Fawkes), Val Shawcross AM, Leslie Wacker, David Evans, [...]

Shame and Scandal in Professional Cycling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:53:42 +0000

Crusading, anti-doping sports journalist Lionel Birnie of Cycling Weekly gives his views on the latest revelations about professional cycling. You can read the 30,000-word transcript of Paul Kimmage’s interview with Floyd Landis at the NY Velocity blog. Mr NikBagTV presents the Lance Armstrong defence over on YouTube. Plus an appeal to listeners in the European [...]

Up the ‘Uts: The Slow Death (and Rebirth?) of the British Cycling Club

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:08:16 +0000

Kieron Yates‘s documentary feature on the countryside huts of the 32nd Association of North London cycle clubs sparks a discussion on the demise of the traditional cycling club and the possibilities for renaissance. With Nigel Wood, Chairman of the Dulwich Paragon club, who tells the story of how this 75 year old south London club’s [...]

Bike Blogging with Mark Ames of ibikelondon / Jan Gehl / Eric Pickles MP

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:56:13 +0000

Mark Ames writes ibikelondon, one of the best of London’s blossoming bike blogs. We discuss the city planning ideas of Jan Gehl, the intellectual godfather of Copenhagenization. We hear what British Cabinet minister Eric Pickles MP has to say about cycling and Mark (pictured, above, with two devoted readers) gives his top tips for aspiring [...]

Inside the 2012 Olympic Velodrome

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:51:27 +0000

On the day before the completion of the construction phase of London’s new 6,000-seat velodrome on the 2012 Olympic site, we are treated to a sneak peek. Mike Taylor of Hopkins Architects presents the design vision and explains how he hopes it will not only be fast but environmentally sustainable and a great place to [...]

Bart Kyzar: Man on a Mission

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:41:39 +0000

The messenger bag is one of the defining elements of the “new urban bike culture” and Bart Kyzar has been making bombproof bags for bicyclists since the mid-1990s, first with Chrome and now with Mission Workshop, based in San Francisco. Last summer Mission Workshop opened a new store at the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane. While [...]

A Christmas Stocking: Apprenticeships, L’Eroica and MyBikeLane.com

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:26:51 +0000

In the last show before Christmas, Jacqui Shannon reports on new opportunities for paid bike mechanic apprenticeships and Matt Sparkes files a report from Italy on L’Eroica, the annual vintage cyclosportive (pictured, left). Civic hackers Greg Whalin and Richard Pope talk about MyBikeLane.com, Greg’s website for crowd-sourcing bicycle lane violations.

Four Great Lives in Cycling: Kuklos, Robinson, Mustoe, Fignon

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:49:47 +0000

Studio discussion of four great lives in cycling: Kuklos, the prolific journalist who documented British cycling scene in the first half of the twentieth century; Brian Robinson (pictured, above), the first Brit to win stages in the Tour de France; intrepid cycle tourist Anne Mustoe; and Laurent Fignon, perhaps the last truly great French professional [...]

Season opener: Knutsford Great Race and all the fun of the Cycle Show 2010

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:54:19 +0000

Window shopping at the Cycle Show 2010 taking in the latest offerings from Brooks (saddles), Bisignals (lights), Bike Dock (storage), Carradice (bags), Schmidt Maschinenbau (dynamo lights) and the Moulton Bicycle Company. Matt Sparkes reports from the once-a-decade Knutsford Great Race, where upwards of 80 competitors raced their ‘ordinaries’ (penny farthings or high-wheelers) in a deadly [...]

Ron Cooper on Ron Cooper

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:02:12 +0000

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 [...]

Looking back at Le Tour and ahead to ‘Bicycle Thieves’

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:32:32 +0000

Lionel Birnie of Cycling Weekly shares his best moments of this year’s sensational Tour De France. Plus we look ahead to Bicycle Thieves, which combines theatre and BMXing on the streets of London, as part of the InTransit festival. Book tickets for just £4 here or by calling 0845 230 9769.

Talking Le Tour with Paul Fournel

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:26:39 +0000

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 [...]

Gavin Turk’s ‘Les Bikes du Bois Rond’

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:24:01 +0000

Tim Dawson joins artist Gavin Turk on the first of two rides in the East Anglian countryside. Plus a detailed look at the Mayor of London’s new cycle hire bikes, with Transport for London’s Gary McGowan, technical adviser to the special projects team. To join the second of Gavin Turk’s rides, starting in Ipswich, on [...]

Un Tour de France de Londres with Stephen Bayley

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:34:43 +0000

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 [...]

Now We Are Six (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:48:04 +0000

It’s time to blow out the candles on The Bike Show’s great big carbo-loaded birthday cake. 6 years old! To mark the occasion this week’s show features some of the more memorable moments from the first three years of experimental two wheeled art radio. Years four to six in due course. In this mix you’ll [...]

Lock it or lose it

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:53:39 +0000

Talking bicycle security with author and blogger Rob Ainsley and Anthony Lau, architect and designer of the excellent Cycle Hoop that cheaply converts street furniture into cycle racks. Anthony is also soon to unveil a new car-shaped bicycle storage rack (pictured, above) at the London Festival of Architecture. Rob gives his verdict on the new [...]

A Journey Into Tranquility

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:46:10 +0000

Sustrans is the sustainable transportation charity and lobby group that pioneered the national cycle network. It is also one of the UK’s biggest commissioners of public art. Today’s show is devoted to one of Sustrans’s new Prospectives series, a handful of deliberately experimental projects that are more conceptual and investigative in nature than the more [...]

A Life On Two Wheels

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:41:02 +0000

This week, a guest production by Stuart Watt. Life’s race from childhood to old age, as told by those who live it on two wheels. Original music by Chris Annetts. If you’d like to contribute material to The Bike Show, please get in touch bikeshow@resonancefm.com

Giro d’Italia at Look Mum No Hands

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 25 May 2010 09:19:33 +0000

As the Giro d’Italia enters its third week, we discuss Italy’s great stage race with Lionel Birnie of Cycling Weekly, in an experimental live broadcast from Look Mum No Hands, London’s newest and best cycle-cafe. Sam Humpheson shows us around the premises. The show also features a look back at Fausto Coppi, one of the [...]

Cycle Superhighways – Waste of Paint or Copenhagenization?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:46:35 +0000

A long, hard look at the Mayor of London’s plans for 12 cycle superhighways – bike routes from the outer boroughs along London’s main arterial roads. With Kulveer Ranger, Boris Johnson’s top transport adviser, Rob Ainsley of the Real Cycling blog, and Charlie Lloyd of the London Cycling Campaign.

Season opener: Berlin, bikes & public art, Dunwich Dynamo

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:44:43 +0000

Can London ever be as good a cycling city as Berlin? Helen Pidd of the Guardian and Matt Tempest give their views. Artist Mila Lipowicz talks about East London Local(Eyes): an interactive video installation that recreates the feeling of riding a bike around East London. Katy Hallett of Sustrans on commissioning public art for the [...]

Lorries/HGVs/LGVs killing cyclists: an appeal to London listeners

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:00:12 +0000

Last Thursday, on what felt like a warm, sunny first day of Spring, I was witness to the immediate aftermath of a collision involving a cyclist and a 32 tonne articulated lorry. It was a truly horrible, chilling sight. The lorry was stopped in the middle of the road and the crushed remains of a [...]

The Racing Year with Lionel Birnie

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:05:06 +0000

In an off-season podcast-only extended episode, Lionel Birnie of Cycling Weekly joins me to talk about the year ahead in professional road racing. We talk about the season-openers in the Gulf, the Monuments and Cobbled Classics and of course the Grand Tours, where Britain’s Team Sky is hoping to make a big impact in its [...]

Do It Yourself

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:14:40 +0000

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 [...]

If the bike fits…

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:18:58 +0000

Following on from last week’s show on well-being, we look at the importance of getting a good fit between rider and machine. Scherritt Knoesen of The Bike Whisperer, is a leading London-based bike fitter. We talk geometry, contact points and pedaling action. Read Grant Peterson’sPetersen’s article The Shoes Ruse on the folly of clip-in pedals [...]

Well-being

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:34:56 +0000

January is the perfect month to take a closer look at how to stay feeling good on the bike. In the studio to share their expertise are Michael Crebbin, a sports physio specialising in cycling-related problems, and Rebecca Bogue who teaches a yoga class designed especially for cyclists. Contact Rebecca via the Bodywise studio in [...]

Jumble Jumble

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:41:29 +0000

It’s the tenth day of Christmas and this week’s show is like a Christmas stocking with bulges in all the right places. Dr Steve Fabes is about to set off on a four and a half year cycle ride around the world, crossing six continents. He talks about his route, preparations and apprehensions. Any lover [...]

Red light means go (or does it?)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:44:39 +0000

Should cyclists stop at red lights? Why do we feel such a strong urge to keep rolling? Should our behavior be guided by the law of the land or the laws of common courtesy? What would Isaac Newton and Thomas Aquinas have to say about the matter? Bringing their expertise to a discussion of the [...]

Reading and riding: Christmas books special

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:30:31 +0000

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 [...]

Montreal-New York City by bicycle (part two)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:44:57 +0000

The cycle camping tour continues into the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, through Vermont and into Massachusetts. Struggles with thunderstorms and flying insects and a visit to the Crane paper mill where US dollar bills are made. Picture above shows the view back down the road from the summit of Whiteface Mountain. Play on [...]

Montreal-New York City by bicycle (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:34:53 +0000

The first of two features on a north American cycle tour undertaken over the summer. Starting in cycle-friendly Montreal and Quebec’s routes vertes and camping on the shores of Lake Champlain, this episode ends with a mildly disturbing encounter with an over-talkative former NYPD officer and child abuse investigator. Plus more from Paul Fournel’s Need [...]

Wanted: Bicycle Mechanics

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:34:38 +0000

This week’s show looks at the chronic lack of bicycle mechanics with the Ninon Asuni of Bicycle Workshop. Ninon founded Bicycle Workshop nearly thirty years ago after deciding she’d had enough of working as a librarian. She’s now among Britain’s most highly regarded bicycle mechanics with a devoted following in London and the rest of [...]

Calling Time on “Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You” (SMIDSY)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:07:03 +0000

The Bike Show moves into advocacy mode this week with guest in the studio Debra Rolfe, Campaigns Director of the Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC), Britain’s largest cycling organisation with 60,000+ members. Debra is spearheading the CTC’s new campaign against bad driving by motorists called Stop SMIDSY. The aim is to draw attention to the dangers [...]

Season Opener: Childhood Daze

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:18:10 +0000

A youthful feel to this season opener with a visit to Lockleaze Primary School in Bristol, one of an number of Sustrans ‘Bike It’ schools acros the country. Plus childhood memories from Paul Fournel, reading from Need for the Bike* in person at the Calder Bookshop. We get the inside scoop on the much-awaited Sturmey [...]

Cycle Chic

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:00:07 +0000

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!

Le Tour Redux

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:27:35 +0000

Joining me in the studio is Graeme Fife, author of the definitive account of Le Tour de France, updated each year. He’s also author of the beautiful Rapha Guide to the Great Road Climbs of the Pyrenees. We discuss this year’s Tour de France, the most spectacular for some time, featuring the drama over the [...]

From Sublime to Ridiculous

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:20:07 +0000

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) [...]

Podcast only: Theatre Review – Pedal Pusher

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:07:28 +0000

Pedal Pusher is a play that follows three professional 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 sport [...]

Blazing Saddles: Inside the Brooks factory

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:21:02 +0000

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. [...]

Tour de Farce?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:18:55 +0000

A long, hard look at doping in professional cycling, with journalist Lionel Birnie of Cycling Weekly and theatre director Roland Smith, whose play Pedal Pusher, opens in London on 7th July. Play on links below.

London to Bristol (part two)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:05:42 +0000

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 [...]

London to Bristol (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:53:32 +0000

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 [...]

No Bike Week: What happened?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:00:29 +0000

A report on No Bike Week, in which a handful of courageous cyclists agree to abstain from two wheels for seven days. Find out what happened. And to read how the No Bike Week meme is evolving into something more akin to a direct action protest, check out No Cycle Day over at Crap Walking [...]

Radiocycle

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:04:15 +0000

The Bike Show emerges from its late spring hibernation into the bright sunlight of the summer season. This week’s show features a ride south from the Resonance FM studio to the southern limit of the station’s 5km FM broadcast signal at the Herne Hill Velodrome. With guests James Wilson, lecturer in radio at Glasgow Metropolitan [...]

Podcast only: Spring Classics Special Edition

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:35:04 +0000

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). Photo credit: Garmin Slipstream Play on links [...]

The end of the road

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:52:36 +0000

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 [...]

16 March 2009: End of season finale – a bike pop epic

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:41:08 +0000

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 [...]

9 March 2009: Legends of the Rás

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:31:25 +0000

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 [...]

2 March 2009: Riding and writing

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:53:11 +0000

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 [...]

23 February 2009: Bicycle Polo and No Bike Week

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:20:23 +0000

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 [...]

16 February 2009: Cycling and the recession

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:00:10 +0000

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 [...]

9 February 2009: How British Cycling conquered the Olympics

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:54:10 +0000

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 [...]

26 January 2009: Cycling the Northumberland Coast

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:35:12 +0000

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 [...]

20 October 2008: Inventing the perfect folding bicycle

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:33:36 +0000

The latest on moves by the London Assembly to reduce the dangers posed by lorries to cyclists. Plus an extended talk by Andrew Ritchey, inventor of the Brompton, the folding miracle that is the toast of London’s bicycle-train commuters. The talk was given over the summer at the iFest 08 in Barcelona. It tells the [...]

13 October 2008: Emergency – Lorries Killing Cyclists

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:24:57 +0000

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 [...]

6 October 2008: The Moulton Story (part two)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:43:30 +0000

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, [...]

29 September 2008: The Moulton Story (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:00:56 +0000

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 [...]

27 September 2008: Bicycle Film Festival comes to town

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:37:31 +0000

The Bicycle Film Festival comes to London from 1-5 October. Laura Fletcher is the BFF’s London ambassador and she previews a handful of highlights from the seven screenings at the Barbican Cinema plus all the parties, art shows, polo matches and roller-racing that make the Festival a veritable jamboree of bicycle culture. Plus a very [...]

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

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:32:20 +0000

15 September 2008: Are cargo bikes the future of urban transport?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:53:03 +0000

Do the rising oil price, the growing concern about man-made climate change and breakthroughs in cycle design mean we’re on the verge of a pedal-powered cargo revolution? Discussing the past, present and future of cargo bikes and pedicabs is Leslie Wacker, a Chicago native who placed second in the cargo bike race at this year’s [...]

8 September 2008: Ian Hibell – Paying respects to a legend

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:59:45 +0000

Remembering Ian Hibell, the world’s most accomplished and intrepid long-distance cyclist and adventurer, who was run down and killed on a road in Greece last month, aged 74. He’d been on a ‘training ride’ which began in Hull (England) in preparation for his next trip to Nepal and Tibet. Nic Henderson talks about his friend [...]

1 September 2008: Around the world the hard way (part two)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:43:51 +0000

Alastair Humphreys has cycled round the world ‘the hard way’: four years, sixty countries and forty-six thousand miles. In the second of a two part special he tells the story of his epic adventure: from Mexico to Alaska, through Siberia, Japan, China and central Asia. Thunder and Sunshine, the second volume of his travelogue is [...]

11 August 2008: Around the world the hard way (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:29:09 +0000

Alastair Humphreys has cycled round the world ‘the hard way’: four years, sixty countries and forty-six thousand miles. In the first of a two part special he tells the story of his epic adventure from Yorkshire to South Africa and Chile to Colombia. Thunder and Sunshine, the second volume of his travelogue is out now, [...]

4 August 2008: Cycling, politics and ideology

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:02:05 +0000

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. [...]

28 July 2008: Looking back at Le Tour 2008

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:32:33 +0000

Looking back at this year’s Tour De France, with Guy Andrews, editor of Rouleur magazine and author and broadcaster Graeme Fife. As well as discussing the racing, we go into what it means for a small towns when it plays host to a stage of Le Tour de France. You can listen to an hour-long [...]

21 July 2008: Sublime Nights: Dunwich Dynamo 16 and S24O with Grant Peterson

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:42:36 +0000

This year’s Dunwich Dynamo was perfect: a dry, moonlit night, a tail wind and a hot sunny morning on the beach. Around 500 people enjoyed the sixteenth edition of the classic British night ride that covers some 120 miles (190 kilometres) through north east London, Essex and Suffolk. But you don’t have to wait until [...]

14 July 2008: Vive Le Tour // Civilised Streets

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:09:22 +0000

Celebrating Bastille Day and the first week of Le Tour De France plus a discussion of civilised streets with Louise Duggan, streets advisor at the UK’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). Just six days until this year’s Dunwich Dynamo…. Play on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

7 July 2008: 50 Quirky Bike Rides

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:46:04 +0000

A ride along the splendid London end of the Grand Union Canal with Rob Ainsley, London cyclist and author of 50 Quirky Bike Rides, a new book about weird and wonderful places to go on bicycles in England and Wales. We visit a canal that passes over a motorway and take advantage of a little [...]

30 June 2008: London Lidos by Bicycle

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:12:58 +0000

A tour of London lidos by bicycle with Jason Cobb, a lido enthusiast, cyclist, photographer and author of Onion Bag Blog, a blog devoted to life in the Stockwell-Oval-Brixton triangle. Taking in Brockwell Lido, the ghost of Kennington Lido, the Serpentine Lido, the refurbished London Fields Lido and an unexpected audience with Brixton’s wheelbuilding legend [...]

23 June 2008: London architecture by bike and a Rapha exclusive

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:48:34 +0000

Featuring an interview with Stephen Bayley, design editor of The Observer, about his guided cycle ride around the houses and homes of celebrated London artists and architects which kicks of a fantastic programme of bicycle tours as part of the London Festival of Architecture. Stephanie Laslett of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios explains why architects love [...]

16 June 2008: From the Tropics to the Stones

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:10:47 +0000

3 March 2008: Cycling Troubadours

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:36:38 +0000

18 February 2008: Hanging with the Trixie Chix

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:25:39 +0000

Jack Thurston is away and in his place Amy Cooper presents a show devoted to the swashbuckling Trixie Chix, London’s female fixed wheel freestylers. Will Amy and her sit-up-and-beg town bike cut the mustard with the trackstanding, bike polo playing, long skidding, backwards circling Trixies? Find out… MP3 | Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis)

11 February 2007: Love

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:10:19 +0000

In a special Valentine’s Day edition, sultry Southwark Cyclist Miss Alex Crawford explains why cycling is so good for flirting while love goddess Venus Kamura tells of the fifth annual Reclaim Love ‘happening’ on Saturday 16 February at the Eros Statue on Piccadilly Circus. Over the past few days, all across the bicycling world, there [...]

4 February 2008: Reclaim the Street(maps)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:56:10 +0000

Private companies and revenue-hungry government agencies have always had a stranglehold on the world’s best maps, until the arrival of Open Street Map, a volunteer-driven effort akin to Wikipedia for mapping and cartography. OSM offers endless customisation possibilities, is entirely open source and in many parts of the world is rivaling the best online and [...]

28 January 2008: Transition Town Bicycling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:12:53 +0000

Totnes in South Devon is where the rapidly growing ‘transition town’ movement all began. Transition towns are a response to the problem of resource depletion, peak oil and climate change and embrace the practical and more esoteric aspects of changing lifestyles and mindsets. Totnes and the surrounding countryside – like many rural areas – remain [...]

21 January 2008: Hidden Treasure

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:56:09 +0000

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 has 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 [...]

14 January 2008: Are cycling Waterloo sunsets under threat?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:45:04 +0000

Southwark Council plans to ban cyclists from a key stretch of the Thames Path, which runs along the south bank of the Thames, alongside the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre. Jack Thurston canvases the (mixed) opinions of passersby and rapidly discovers that no one has been consulted about this proposed new byelaw. Koy Thomson, [...]

7 January 2008: New Year’s Resolutions

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:47:30 +0000

The closing of one year and start of another is the time where many of us resolve to turn over a new leaf, change our life or otherwise embark on a virtuous but most probably doomed attempt at self-improvement. London cyclist and underground bicycle advocate Amy Cooper joins Jack Thurston in the studio for a [...]

17 December 2007: London Olympics 2012

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:08:06 +0000

Does the coming of Olympics in 2012 spell disaster for cycle sport in London or will it bring much needed regeneration of a neglected part of the city? A ride with Patrick Field around the perimeter fence of the construction site in north east London and an interview with Michael Humphreys, chair of the Eastway [...]

10 December 2007: How to Win at Roller-Racing

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:24:25 +0000

Reigning Rollapaluza champion and two-time ‘Raphapaluza’ winner Simon Jackson gives his tips on how to win at the frenzied sport of static bike racing. Plus a preview of the upcoming ITV comedy-drama series Bike Squad (aka “The Bill on bikes”) with Robert Collins of the Daily Telegraph. Get down to the Bicycology film night on [...]

3 December 2007: Fixed Fever

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:50:24 +0000

Over the past five years a craze for riding bicycles with only one gear and no freewheel has taken off, in New York, London, Sydney and cities all around the world. We take a long hard look at the merits and excesses of the scene. Featuring an extended interview with the mystery man behind the [...]

26 November 2007: Christmas books special

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:25:09 +0000

A Christmas books special with guests George Theohari (author of the newly published Cyclist’s Companion), Guy Andrews (editor of Rouleur) and Graeme Fife (among the UK’s leading cycle writer whose memoirs were published this year). Includes readings from Tim Krabbé’s The Rider, Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men On The Bummel, Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman [...]

19 November 2007: Tales of the summer

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:38:38 +0000

The Bike Show returns for its winter season with guest in the studio 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. Ogg Vorbis | 64Kbps MP3

2 July 2007: The Lowdown on Cyclosportives

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:27:49 +0000

In conversation with Julian Bray, a journalist and rider with the Rapha Condor team. Julian came to competitive cycling after falling in love with the continental tradition of the cyclosportive: mass-participation road races of historic or cultural significance, such as the annual Etape du Tour and the Gran Fondo Campagnolo. We discuss the appeal of [...]

25 June 2007: Flandrien

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:21:44 +0000

Preview of a new exhibition of stunning photographs by internationally acclaimed photojournalist Stefan Vanfleteren that capture the essence of Flemish cycle racing. Interviews with Vanfleteren and with British former world champion Tony Doyle and three times Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Museeuw aka ‘The Lion of Flanders’. Live music from the sensational Orchestre International du Vetex. If [...]

18 June 2007: Style on two wheels

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 02:04:20 +0000

T’ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it. Andrea Casalotti of Velorution and Jean-Marie Orhan (Frenchman-about-town and founding member of the Tweed Cycling Club) offer sartorial advice to urban cyclists. Tribute is paid to the stylish riders of the golden era of professional bicycle racing, including a pilgrimage up Le Mont Ventoux [...]

11 June 2007: ‘Slow Bicycling’ in Italy; on two wheels in Provence

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:37:58 +0000

The Bike Show this week has a distinctly Mediterranean and gastronomic feel. Kieron Yates reports from northern Italy, the world capital of the Slow Food movement, on a ‘slow bicycle’ ride along the length of the River Po (for more on ABICI bikes, look here) Meanwhile, Jack Thurston is joined by William Greswell in the [...]

28 May 2007: Graeme Fife’s life in cycling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:33:56 +0000

This week features a ride in the hills of north Kent hills with writer, broadcaster and cyclist Graeme Fife. Graeme is the author of several of the best English language books about cycling and Le Tour de France. His new book has just been published. It’s a very personal memoir entitled The Beautiful Machine: A [...]

21 May 2007: Poetry on a country ride with Martin Newell

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 22 May 2007 00:37:01 +0000

The Bike Show returns to Essex and Martin Newell, writer, poet, musician and horticultural assassin, for another helping of Spoke N Word. This year’s programme features a new route from Wivenhoe to Bentley Green, reported to be the largest village green in England. We cross fields, pass through woodland and finish on a series of [...]

14 May 2007: Road Peace // Floyd Landis

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 15 May 2007 00:06:51 +0000

Returning for the summer season, The Bike Show turns to the trials of US cycling star Floyd Landis, whose sensational victory in the 2006 Tour de France was thrown into doubt after he failed a test for the banned drug testosterone. We also hear an extended talk on road danger in a global context by [...]

1 May 2007: Podcast special: ‘Stannerd’ comes out for cycling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 01 May 2007 18:22:46 +0000

The Bike Show is officially off air at the moment, but I couldn’t resist a podcast-only edition to discuss the Evening Standard’s Damscene conversion to the way of the bicycle. For years, London’s leading daily newspaper has been in thrall to unreconstructed petrolheads, but this week the paper has come out for cycling with a [...]

12 March 2007: The word from San Francisco and a singing bicycle prototype

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:07:35 +0000

We test out Andy Cox’s prototype singing bicycle, for use in the performance of Godfried Willem Raes’s Second Symphony. Down the line from San Francisco, Jon Winston fills us in on Bay Area cycle culture and his own Bikescape bicycling podcast. This is the last in the current season of the Bike Show. Thanks to [...]

5 March 2007: Green London?

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:19:33 +0000

A look at London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s ambition for London to be the greenest major city in the world. Host Jack Thurston and Erica Jobson of Futerra, the London-based sustainable development communications consultancy discuss the role of government and the part that individual lifestyle choices can play in reducing the emission of climate change causing [...]

26 February 2007: Calling All Bicycle Filmmakers!

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:52:43 +0000

Looking ahead to the 2007 Bicycle Film Festival, which has plans for screenings in 15 countries including a third year in London. In the studio is the BFF’s London coordinator Roxy Erickson. We discuss how to make a great bicycle film, even if you’re not an experienced filmmaker. We also tap our feet to the [...]

12 February 2007: More experimental bicycle music

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:30:07 +0000

Another thrilling dip into the world of experimental music involving bicycles. With guest in the studio Andy Cox, guitarist in The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals and Cribabi, who is known to play the occasional bicycle. We feature Frank Zappa’s first ever TV appearance (see below) – playing a bike! Plus music made by Sylvia Hallett, [...]

5 February 2007: Cyclosportives, bicycle podcasting and Budapest

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:06:56 +0000

In this week’s show we hear from Patrick Field about how to survive the grueling Paris-Brest-Paris: by riding a recumbent. Also a look at the blossoming world of bicycle radio and podcasting and a look ahead to the best in cyclosportives in 2007. Links: Bikescape podcast from San Francisco. Rapha’s ‘Culture Clash’ Roller Race at [...]

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

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:17:00 +0000

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 [...]

22 January 2007: Looking forward to a great year for cycling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 11:19:00 +0000

Could 2007 be the best year yet for cycling in London? In the studio with Guy Andrews, editor of Rouleur magazine and Barry Mason of Southwark Cyclists. We discuss the coming of Le Tour de France to London, the 15th Dunwich Dynamo and other group rides organized by Southwark Cyclists and ask whether London cycling [...]

15 January 2007: Women bike messengers and a ride through a very long tunnel

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:07:00 +0000

Women bike messengers might cut a better figure on the roads than their grungy, bearded and tattooed male counterparts, but are the girls better at their jobs than the boys? The answer is yes, if a handful of London’s women bike messengers are to be believed. For details on the upcoming Roller Races, look here. [...]

8 January 2007 – Doorstep Adventures with Patrick Field (part two)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 13:41:00 +0000

In the second half of a ride with London cyclist Patrick Field, we cruise on the Woolwich Ferry, ride along the Thames Path through Greenwich before crossing in a tunnel under the Thames to the Isle of Dogs and from there onwards to old pumping station in Wapping converted into a arts space and cafe. [...]

18 December 2006: Doorstep adventures with Patrick Field (Part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 02:01:00 +0000

Riding with Patrick Field, legendary London cyclist, thinker and writer, on a leisurely route east from Hackney along the top of a giant Victorian sewerage outflow pipe towards the River Thames. We take in ancient trading routes, cross the River Lea and pass through land that will be home to the London Olympics in 2012. [...]

11 December 2006 – The Christmas edition

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:36:00 +0000

Back in the Resonance FM studio with Danish bike messenger elf Therese Bjorn to talk Christmas on bicycles. What to buy, what to do… and we take a look at the new London Scorcher bicycle from Velorution and Therese gives a thumbs up to Pac Designs messenger bags. MP3 Download Ogg Vorbis Download

4 December 2006: Sur le pavé in Brussels

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:33:00 +0000

In the Belgian capital of Brussels, road-testing Cyclocity, a new concept in bicycle hire – sturdy bikes you can pick up and leave in different places around the city that cost just one euro an hour. Jack Thurston and William Greswell are soon distracted by EU monumentalist architecture, horse meat steaks and a winter wonderland [...]

27 November 2006: Berlin special

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 22:49:00 +0000

A special edition from the German capital city and well-known haven for cyclists. Riding with Berlin blogger Maisie Hitchcock, we discuss the changing face of Berlin, the legacy of the Cold War and the achingly hip Berlin music scene, all the while finding out what a great place this is to ride a bike. MP3 [...]

20 November 2006: Experimental music and the bicycle

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:56:00 +0000

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 [...]

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

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:58:00 +0000

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 [...]

6 November 2006: Edinburgh by train, low carbon travel

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 00:27:00 +0000

It makes perfect sense to travel to Ediburgh with a bicycle overnight on the sleeper train. Once there, I find out what it’s like on two wheels in Scotland’s capital city – watch those cobblestones! Also chatting with Ed Gillespie, who’s about to embark on a round-the-world odyssey of slow travel / low carbon travel: [...]

23 October 2006: At Cycle 2006 – Eddy Merckx and a hunt for gadgets

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:41:00 +0000

Jack Thurston and Jo Upton in search of the best bicycle gadget at Cycle 2006, the UK’s biggest cycling exhibition and trade fair. Glow in the dark pedals, GPS tools, bike storage, heart rate monitors and lights galore. We are also granted an exclusive audience with the legendary champion of all cycling champions, Eddy Merckx. [...]

9 October 2006 – Mississippi Tales (part two)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 20:47:00 +0000

Second half of Kieron Yates’s ride down the Mississippi. He crosses the Mason-Dixon line and enters the realm of the South. On the way he encounters juke joints, folk art, learns about the role of bicycles in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and has an fascinating encounter with The Voice. MP3 DOWNLOAD Ogg Vorbis DOWNLOAD

2 October 2006 – Mississippi Tales (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:33:00 +0000

This week’s show is the story of a long, long ride from Fargo, North Dakota to New Orleans, Louisiana following the Mississippi River. Kieron Yates made this journey over the summer just passed, on a fixed wheel bike with just a saddlebag for all his worldly possessions. Safely back home, he joins me in in [...]

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

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:12:00 +0000

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 – [...]

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

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:07:00 +0000

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 [...]

17 July 2006: Le Tour down le pub

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 13:49:00 +0000

This week’s show is a Tour De France special recorded at the Charles Lamb pub in north London. The Charles Lamb is one of the few places in London that is showing Le Tour this year. I am joined by Therese Bjorn, a former European Bicycle Messenger Champion and Matt Seaton, cycling correspondent at The [...]

10 July 2006: The Hour Record with Michael Hutchinson

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 22:08:00 +0000

This week the Bike Show is in the presence of time trial greatness and (almost) sporting immortality. Michael Hutchinson has just written a book about his recent attempt to enter the pantheon of cycling legend by breaking the record for how far you can ride in an hour. The Hour: Sporting Immortality the Hard Way [...]

3 July 2006: Creativity, design and the bicycle

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 15:42:00 +0000

Riding with London-based desiger and artist Julia Lohmann. We begin at the Velorution bike shop in the West End, where Julia’s giant backlit illustration of animal-bicycle metamophosis is on display. We ride down through the park via the Serpentine Gallery to her studio in Fulham and then south over Wandsworth Bridge and via Wandsworth Prison [...]

26 June 2006: Extreme Cycling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 10:27:00 +0000

This week’s show has an extreme flavour. Kieron Yates visits Sheldon Brown for advice on fixed gear touring and Alex Murray tells us about his preparations for taking on this year’s Etape Du Tour. Plus Dominic Gabellini on the new Rapha-Condor cycle racing team and a 43 inch bunnyhop by Rich Johnson, Britain’s leading trick/stunt [...]

19 June 2006: It’s Bike Week!

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 01:49:00 +0000

This year’s Bike Week coincides with the London Architecture Biennale, which has got a lot of cyclists thinking about architecture and a lot of architects thinking about cycling. At the launch of the Reinventing The Bike Shed exhibition, I speak with organisers Adam Thorpe of Bikeoff and Stephanie Laslett of Feilden Clegg Bradley and Associates [...]

12 June 2006: A ride in the Royal Parks

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 23:59:00 +0000

London’s eight Royal Parks stretch from Greenwich in the east to Richmond in the west and make London one of the greenest big cities in Europe. Between them, the parks’ 5500 acres of land are the lungs of the capital. But they have remarkably few paths where cycling is allowed. Mark Camley has been Chief [...]

24 April 2006 – Martin Newell and Spoke N Word in Essex

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:44:00 +0000

In the last of the current season of the Bike Show, Kieron Yates rides around Essex with poet, musician and horticultural assassin Martin Newell, as part of the Spoke N Word project.

17 April 2006: Cycling in New York City (part two)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 08:54:00 +0000

As he crosses the Hudson River into Brooklyn, things take a turn for the weird on Jack Thurston’s bicycle adventure in New York City. A visit to the drummers’ circle in Prospect Park, a one man bicycle soul machine and sociological analysis of ‘hipsters’ in Williamsburg. Ogg Vorbis

10 April 2006: Cycling in New York City (part one)

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 03:50:00 +0000

In the first of two shows devoted to cycling in the NYC, Jack Thurston takes to the streets of Manhattan on a sunny spring Sunday and meets cyclists and assorted Gotham oddballs. Listen to Part Two.

3 April 2006: Standing up for Cycling; Tall Bikes

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:30:00 +0000

Barry Mason of Southwark Cyclists is on hand this week to demolish all those annoying arguments used against cyclists by angry petrol-heads. Plus we witness the beginning of a 4,600 mile ride around Britain on tall bikes. MP3 DOWNLOAD OGG VORBIS DOWNLOAD

27 March 2006: Bicycle recycling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:40:00 +0000

Owing to a technical meltdown at Resonance fm HQ, we have no archived version of Monday’s show on the Waltham Forest Bicycle Recycling Project. In it’s place we have a special podcast-only version of the show recorded at the Scooterworks cafe in Waterloo. Also features the Re-cycle project that takes old bikes to Africa. Presented [...]

20 March 2006: Deadley Treadleys live session

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 00:02:00 +0000

This week’s show features a long-awaited live session by London’s best bike messenger band, the Deadley Treadleys. MP3 DOWNLOAD

13 March 2006: Bike Show Jukebox Jury – part two

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:25:00 +0000

Second half of the Bike Show’s ‘Jukebox Jury’. Cabaret star Sarah-Louise Young joins Alex Crawford and Jack Thurston in casting a critical ear at another cluch of bicycle-themed songs. Find out which come out top and which are the howlers… MP3

6 March 2006: Bike Show Jukebox Jury – part one

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:41:00 +0000

Part one of the Bike Show’s ‘Jukebox Jury’, with cabaret star Sarah-Louise Young and Alex Crawford joining Jack Thurston to listen to a selection of bike-related songs. Which are hits and which are misses? MP3

27 February 2006 – Bicycles on trains

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 18:57:00 +0000

In this week’s show we discuss the growing problems cyclists are experiencing in putting bikes on trains. In the studio is Dave Holladay of the Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC) which is running a campaign to improve cycle-rail integration. We also catch up with Tom Kevill-Davies aka The Hungry Cyclist on his epic ride around the [...]

20 February 2006 show: Cycling in the media

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 23:49:00 +0000

In this week’s show we look at cycling and the media. Do newspapers, TV and radio do justice to cyclists? Does it matter? As more and more people get on two wheels, is media coverage of cycling changing at all? Featuring comment from Buffalo Bill who runs the Moving Target zine and Matt Seaton who [...]

13 February 2006: Tour De France in London in 2007!

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:28:00 +0000

The Bike Show returns after a winter break to the news that the Grand Depart of the 2007 Tour De France will be in London!! Featuring the formal presentation by ASO’s Jean-Marie Leblanc and a press conference by London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Also in the show is Kieron Yates’s impressionistic and thoughtful account of a [...]

21 November 2005 Show: Sheldon Brown

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 14:31:00 +0000

Featuring the mighty Sheldon Brown on the marvels of classic English 3-speed bicycles. Sheldon Brown is the technical guru at Harris Cyclery and owns one of the world’s greatest collections of weird and wonderful bikes, including a bizarre fixed gear tandem, a bike that allows its rider to choose between drop and straight handlebars whilst [...]

31 October 2005: Roller-racing, Ghostcycle and Critical Mass London

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 16:38:00 +0000

Joining Buffalo Bill and the hardcore of London’s bike messengers for chaotic indoor racing action at Rollapalooza IV (and live music from the Deadley Treadleys). In the studio Scott and Steve explain their Ghostcycle project to mark and map traffic collisions involving bicycles. Jack and Rakan court controversy by saying enough is enough to London [...]

24 October 2005 Show: John Peel memorial ride and the Bicycle Film Festival

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 12:00:00 +0000

Kieron Yates joins Southwark Cyclists for the inaugural John Peel Memorial Ride in homage to the great British broadcaster and champion of the underdog. Jack rides with Brendt Barbur, founding director of the Bicycle Film Festival on the day after the festival took London by storm. MP3

(Archive) 17 January 2005: David Ferry

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 18:10:00 +0000

Guest is David Ferry, photo-montage artist and serious road biker. Talking about escaping seaside town drudgery by cycling into the hills. MP3

(Archive) 3 January 2005 Show: Christmas Day on the South Downs

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 18:06:00 +0000

Christmas Day ride across the south downs of East Sussex, including a climb up Ditchling Beacon with writer and film-maker Nicky Hamlyn. Followed by hot bath. MP3

(Archive) 13 December 2004: The Dunwich Dynamo

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 16:43:00 +0000

Dunwich Dynamo night ride special. Four hundred plus people ride 120 miles to the Suffolk Coast, through the night, under the full moon. MP3

22 August 2005 Show – a countryside trip

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 19:37:00 +0000

A ride on the Kent-Sussex border with my old school friend, writer and wilderness guru Daniel Start. We evoke the Edwardian spirit of genteel cycle touring and our ride takes in a ruined castle, ancient woodland, a dangerous cliff excursion, an encounter with a barn owl and a visit to a man buried in a [...]

16 May Show: Riding with Buffalo Bill

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:39:00 +0000

Today’s show features the first part of a two-part interview/ride with ‘Buffalo’ Bill Chidley, Chair of the London Bicycle Messengers Association. The LBMA works for London’s 400-500 bicycle messengers (also known as couriers) and has run a prominent campaign to reduce the risks to cyclists posed by Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs). Bill and I visit [...]

4 April 2005: Rosie Walford

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:17:00 +0000

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 [...]

24 January 2005 – Jeremy Deller

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 09:41:00 +0000

Riding with Jeremy Deller, London-based artist and recent winner of the Turner Prize, who dedicated his win to ‘all London cyclists’.

27 December 2004: Mark Ellen

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:21:00 +0000

Riding across London with Mark Ellen, bon rouleur and editor of Word Magazine. Mark is the founder of Q Magazine, a former presenter of the Old Grey Whistle Test and the bassist in Tony Blair’s college band Ugly Rumours.

10 January 2005: Kraftwerk and Cycling

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 16:09:00 +0000

Discussing German electro-pop pioneers Kraftwerk and their love of the bicycle. With Kraftwerk aficionados Maisie Hitchcock and Chris Bloor. MP3 format and Real Audio. Read Jack Thurston’s feature on Kraftwerk and cycling first published in Rouleur magazine.

13 June 2005: Bike Week Special

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 10:40:00 +0000

This is the audio for the Bike Week special, recorded on 13 June. Guest in the studio is Barry Mason of Southwark Cyclists. Features recordings of Bike Fest in the Square and highlights from the past 12 months of The Bike Show. The show was 90 minutes long, so this is a larger-than-usual download. Streaming [...]

23 May Show: Buffalo Bill // Giro D’Italia

bikeshow@resonancefm.com (Resonance FM) — Tue, 24 May 2005 02:46:00 +0000

Today’s show is a Giro D’Italia special, recorded from Bar Italia in Soho. Also featuring the second half of my ride with Buffalo Bill Chidley, chair of the London Bicycle Messengers Association. Music: Adriatica – Calicanto Hung Up – Salt Dwyck – Gangstarr featuring Nice and Smooth Bartali – Paolo Conte