Author Archives: Jack Thurston

The Bike Show: Cycling, politics and ideology

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. Putting the case for the libertarian right is the leading political blogger and cyclist Guido Fawkes who explains why leading members of the British Conservative Party are so keen to advertise their taste for two wheeled transport.

This weekend get on down to Rollapaluza XI “Kingspin” on Friday night at the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes and Tour De Play, ‘a five mile cycle tour looking at playscapes as a form of outsider architecture’ starting at the South London Gallery at 12 noon on Saturday.

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

The Bike Show: Looking back at Le Tour 2008

TDF 2008

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 Tour De France themed edition of Ruby’s Chicky Boil Ups on Radio Nowhere, featuring Jack Thurston and a pile of cycling tunes over here.

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

The Bike Show: Sublime Nights: Dunwich Dynamo 16 and S24O with Grant Peterson

Dunwich Dynamo 2008This 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 the next Dunwich Dynamo on 4 July 2009 for a sublime overnight bicycle experience, as Grant Peterson of Rivendell Bicycle Works explains.

Play on links below. Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) here. Some photos from the DD 16 are on the flickr.

The Bike Show: Vive Le Tour // Civilised Streets

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

The Bike Show: 50 Quirky Bike Rides

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 known rule that allows bicycles on certain parts of the London tube network.

This week’s show was broadcast from the excellent Southwark Lido (pictured below – more pics here). Get there while it’s still open.

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Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

The Bike Show: London Lidos by Bicycle

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 Sam The Wheels.

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

Jason’s London links:

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

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Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) over here.

The Bike Show: London Festival of Architecture (by bike)

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 bikes. Plus the latest from Simon Mottram of Rapha, the London-based cycle clothing company and a short report about the Summer Solstice night ride to Stonehenge. To win the 2008 Etape du Tour reconnaissance DVD courtesy of CycleFilm, email the correct answer to bikeshow (at) gmail (.)com.

MP3

Other file formats available over here (Ogg Vorbis etc)

The Bike Show: From the Tropics to the Stones

The Bike Show is back for the summer season. This week’s show features two long rides: from Singapore to China with two small children in tow and a preview of Rolling to the Stones, a midsummer night ride from Central London to Stonehenge.

Plus music from Bucky: you can see the video version over here. The London Festival of Architecture has a fantastic programme of architecture and urban design themed rides coming up, running from a month starting on 21 June. Since being on air, Alastair Humphrey’s talk at Stanfords has sold out.

MP3

Other file formats (e.g. Ogg Vorbis) are here.

The Bike Show: Cycling Troubadours

Last show in the current season featuring an extended interview with Jimmy and Triin aka Too Dumb To Die, cycling jazz troubadours, back from a year and a half touring South East Asia with the Cyclowns Circus. The show also features Martin Low of Westminster City Council describing the Sustrans Connect2 project to build a cycle-friendly bridge across the railway in north Bayswater.

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