Observer Article

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marinyork

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
I did think it odd that when I went out on Friday night around Sheffield, it turned into a very pleasant evening and cyclists were whizzing round the city centre like Imperial Storm Troopers on the death star. Similarly on Saturday (very pleasant evening) evening I went back through Manchester and various bits of the Peak District. Virtually nobody.
 
MajorMantra

MajorMantra

Well-Known Member
Location
Edinburgh
Nice article. I thought it did a good job of avoiding most of the stupid clichés that most journalists produce when they write about cycling.

Matthew
 
swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
I was irritated tho' that they not only failed to mention CC, but had not a single forum site listed among their top 5, tho' they did manage to find a place for Cyclechic.co.uk ('Smart accessories for women, from funky lights and floral panniers to vintage-style cycling capes' - give me strength.)
 
blazed

blazed

220lb+
[quote name='swee'pea99']I was irritated tho' that they not only failed to mention CC, but had not a single forum site listed among their top 5, tho' they did manage to find a place for Cyclechic.co.uk ('Smart accessories for women, from funky lights and floral panniers to vintage-style cycling capes' - give me strength.)[/quote]

Seems like a top site to me.
1.jpg
 
Wheeledweenie

Wheeledweenie

Über Member
Location
Hanwell, west London
[quote name='swee'pea99']I was irritated tho' that they not only failed to mention CC, but had not a single forum site listed among their top 5, tho' they did manage to find a place for Cyclechic.co.uk ('Smart accessories for women, from funky lights and floral panniers to vintage-style cycling capes' - give me strength.)[/quote]

Ah but that's because Cyclechic is the only site that does lady accessories and the current fad is all about encouraging lady cyclists. I intend to buy a pannier from them. I was a little disappointed they didn't pick my blog as a top five though. Harumph.
 
T

Twenty Inch

Guru
Location
Behind a desk
Time was when only a tiny number of people cycled in Britain,

What a load of twaddle. Time was when cycling was the only way to get around for most of the population, from about 1900 - 1980. The dominance of the car is a new phenomenon. It wouldn't matter to what is otherwise a well-written article, except that he uses the statement as the starting point of his whole argument. It would be more accurate to say that we are returning to a previous set of circumstances when cars were NOT king.

I told my 62-year-old pal that I had bought a fixed wheel, he said "oh yes, my dad had one of those when he was a kid". Every generation thinks it has invented sex, and, it seems, cycling.
 
Davidc

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
A good article. The comment about Team Sky being the first British outfit in the Tour de France is wrong. The Holdsworth team (co sponsored by Campagnolo) were very successfull but never winners for many years in the 1970s and possibly into the 80s.

Twenty Inch obviously wasn't around in the 1960s and 70s.

The "Car is King" culture was well established by the mid 60s, and riding a bike was probably worst in relation to cars in the early 70s than at any other time I can recall between the early 60s and now.

The rot really started when in 1961 a man from the petro-chemical industry was allowed to shut down our railways, leaving no option for much of the population than to go out and buy a car. (He went back to the petro-chemical industry after he'd done his job)
 
swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
I was wondering about this last night, and particularly in relation to the thread about how ebay are abusing their monopoly to increase their fees, force people to use paypal and so on, and it made me think, whatever happened to anti-monopoly legislation? Did the internet + globalisation just shaft it for good? (Operating systems = Microsoft; search engines = Google; online auctions = ebay.)
 
S

skwerl

New Member
Location
London
The rot really started when in 1961 a man from the petro-chemical industry was allowed to shut down our railways, leaving no option for much of the population than to go out and buy a car. (He went back to the petro-chemical industry after he'd done his job)
Click to expand...

Beeching was a scapegoat. He was just the man that pulled the levers and a lot of what he did made sense. A lot didn't but mainly with hindsight. Government have never beengood at looking past a couple of terms.
 
S

skwerl

New Member
Location
London
[quote name='swee'pea99']I was wondering about this last night, and particularly in relation to the thread about how ebay are abusing their monopoly to increase their fees, force people to use paypal and so on, and it made me think, whatever happened to anti-monopoly legislation? Did the internet + globalisation just shaft it for good? (Operating systems = Microsoft; search engines = Google; online auctions = ebay.)[/quote]

it still exists. MS got well and truly fined for their bundling of IE with Windows. ebay isn't really a monopoly, they just have little/no competition. they're also not considered a necessity. Anti-monopoly focusses more on prevention of monopolies by the merger/acquisition of rival firms to create an unfair market share, primarily amongst necessity industries such as banks, supermarkets etc.

What bothers me is that legislation isn't used against utilities - water especially. There are plenty of energy 'suppliers' but they all run an agreed pricing model. Water. How the hell do you get to choose who supplies your water? Ofwat regulate prices but so what? they still allow room for excess profit. Rail travel's another one.
 
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