The (mainly city-focussed) anti-car movement

[mik]

So you cycle?

But do you cycle for the correct reasons, using the correct type of bike?

[Gavster]

None of those are getting locked up outside Stratford station they'll be nicked in seconds.

The guy's got a point, those are all bikes used for sport. If you want people cycling for urban transport, to go to school or work, then the bikes need to be completely different.

Having said that, the advert says "win your dream bike", it's not saying "win a really average commuter bike"

[jamcg]

I’m really disappointed that the responses are genuine people complaining about the selection of bikes and no one saying “my dream bike is your mum”

[Jobbo]

Where are all the 'Win a Car' competitions offering a Kia Cee'd or Ford Focus, eh? Fucking stupid comment.

When I lived in Oxford I used to keep a second bike which I paid 50p for (probably not from the true owner, but it had been lying around for some years and I paid in good faith). It was a bit shabby, single speed (with freewheel, not fixed), had a saddle which was impossible to tighten so flipped around unless you sat on its balance point, only had a front brake on the left handlebar and had such shot bearings in the headset that the handlebars rattled about. Had to put in some new inner tubes in to make it functional - the old ones had disintegrated and bits of dried rubber were stuck inside the tyres so they had visible lumpy bits but I didn't invest money in replacing them.

It was really fun to ride, surprisingly quick (I wish I knew what gearing was on it because it's clearly my ideal single-speed ratios) and was never going to get nicked no matter where I left it, provided I tied it up - and I could use a nice cheap, simple and light cable lock to do that because nobody would ever have bothered cutting it to steal it. I miss it. Left it in Oxford when I moved to London; I hope somebody else loved it rather than it being chucked in a skip.

[dinny_g]

What am I missing here??

That the selection aren’t top end expensive bikes but a more mundane selection?

Or they’re expensive bikes and not a Bromham folding bike?

I haven’t had my coffee yet this morning so not firing on all cylinders yet but I don’t get it…

[V8Granite]

Utter dickweasel communist cunt.

Free choice is important and not a single persons view on what is acceptable.

Dave!

[Jobbo]

What am I missing here??

That the selection aren’t top end expensive bikes but a more mundane selection?

Or they’re expensive bikes and not a Bromham folding bike?

I haven’t had my coffee yet this morning so not firing on all cylinders yet but I don’t get it…

That they're expensive and quite specialised bikes (MTB, hardcore roadies) which are not well suited to cycle commuting. But I imagine a dickwad like that would have managed to find a reason to complain if it was all Bromptons.

[V8Granite]

Someone in Deeping uses a Penny Farthing in the summer, you see them go through the middle of town. More power to them, Aslong as you aren’t aggressively holding people up on purpose you should be able to ride a big wheel for all I care.

Dave!

[drcarlos]

There is at least 4 of those bikes that would suit my current situation as a commuter, which is 22 miles of road or a combination of road/off road depending on how I'm feeling and what I want to ride with a secure area to lock it up when I get to the office.
That is my current situation, there were about 8 that would have suited my previous one too, shorter ride but road/off road and again secure lock up at the office.
However when I was parking at the station they'd have been gone in a couple of days so I had a cheap 90's hardtail MTB that was decent but looked non descripts compared ot a modern bike so was never stolen.

[dinny_g]

Oh right, gotcha.

Cycling culture is how and who you cycle with. For me, it's meeting up with a few other like minded 40+ blokes in the woods in Woburn and cycling about it bit and then watching the youngsters do all sorts of amazing acrobatics on the ramps while convincing ourselves that the only reason we don't do the same is that "We've a busy week at work next week"

[mik]

Cycling culture is how and who you cycle with. For me, it's meeting up with a few other like minded 40+ blokes in the woods in Woburn and cycling about it bit

I didn't read all the responses to the walloper that created the twitter thread, but I liked "don't have a range rover but I do drive into the countryside to ride my mountain bike cause.... that's where the mountains are."

[dinny_g]

I ride it other places too you know…

[Mito Man]

Dinny likes to ride 40 year old men in the woods
Pass the bleach.

[Ascender]

I don't even understand what the original tweeter's beef is about the Cycling UK tweet. It's just a competition to win a fancy bike of your choosing because that's what people will like. And the bit about the Range Rover is just further evidence of him being an utter bellend.

[dinny_g]

Dinny likes to ride 40 year old men in the woods
Pass the bleach.

we often see LARP guys so I'd say they're the ones that need the bleach

[Gavster]

So you cycle?

But do you cycle for the correct reasons, using the correct type of bike?

Having read more around this it appears to be the kind of in-fighting that you get in food, where some poeple think they are right about how food should be done. Even when it's a completely invidivual experience.

[Swervin_Mervin]

It's really not difficult to understand his point is it?

Cycling UK is a charity setup to inspire people to take up cycling, "to fight climate change" (selectively quoted by me). One can therefore easily infer that their main focus or raison d'etre is centred on getting the general populous off their arses and using bikes in place of their cars for everyday journeys.

Now I don't know a lot about the biking world, but fairly specialised racing or mountain bikes don't seem like the most appropriate choices for such mundane/mainstream uses. Accordingly, are they really the representative "dream bike" for those who Cycling UK's attention should be focussed on?

That doesn't mean I don't think he's an arse for saying it though

[Jobbo]

Mike, I think that's missing the point. If they want to promote cycling then why not promote the type of cycling which many people do throughout the UK? I don't want to spend my weekends riding around on the ratty old 50p bike I used to own; that was for a purpose (leaving outside pubs, mainly).

[Rich B]

I'd agree if these pictures were on a poster for an initiative to encourage people to ride to work, but that's not what this is.