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.

4 August 2008: Cycling, politics and ideology [ 30:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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 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.

21 July 2008: Sublime overnights: Dunwich Dynamo 16 and S24O with Grant Peterson [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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: Vive Le Tour // Civilised Streets [ 30:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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.

MP3

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

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)

MP3

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

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)