Sunday Times Article

[purplepolly]

"Ignore the pleas of the eco-warriors and the greens, rise above the bullying of the antimotorist brigade and the terrible costs of public transport and car parks; ignore the examples of politicians like Boris and Dave, who like to impress us with their bicycling zeal, or intellectuals who enjoy despising gas guzzlers and pedal righteously to fringe theatres in the suburbs."

eh? I cycle because I want to.

 

[purplepolly]

It sounds as if she is a 'beginner'. With a bit more experience I'd imagine her ability to cope with cycling in the city would soon improve and she'd find it less stressful. If only she'd not had a newspaper column to write and been rather short on ideas..

Aw bless, she's cycling in the door zone

maybe there's a solution such as cycling further away from the parked cars

 

[fossyant]

To quote;

It is also good exercise, for those who feel they should worry about such things, and as a means of transport bicycling is quite astonishingly fast and quiet.

Yes we should worry about exercising - that's what our bodies need....

 

[purplepolly]

Yes we should worry about exercising - that's what our bodies need....

ah yes, that's the other reaon why I cycle. Because I want to and because I need the exercise.

Why is that people who cycling is dangerous never see any problem with
people sitting on their backsides in cars and public transport.

 

[ComedyPilot]

What an absolutely fuggin stupid cow. Irresponsible, over-dramatic, sensationalist, ill-informed, narrow-sighted and naive.

Don't ride a bike, but buy my paper with it's SENSATIONAL headlines.

[Come on...!!! a tree died for that shoot]

Not a violent person, but she (and thousands of 'journalists' like her) need a swift kick up the @rse.

 

[Garz]

I think everyone who disagrees on this forum should politely email her a nice message!

Hmm couldnt find her personal or work email but nearest was her agent:

jonnyg@curtisbrown.co.uk

 

[smeg]

"I will not even mention the problems of how to look clean and well ironed straight off a bike, or how to get to a dinner date in a floaty dress which hasn’t got snagged in an oily chain"

Ah diddoms! Is that the Boris cycle to work in a suit politician method? The sort that makes the seat of your trousers shiny? If she had a proper job she wouldn't require a suit in any case. Looks like it didn't occur to her to cycle in something more appropriate and take a change of clothes along then? Doh! How many times has she gone for a dinner date via bicycle anyway, what a load of fabricated rubbish silly cow. I suppose her experience of a one off ride in London also means the same applies to everyone else in the rest of the country too.

If that ignorant article was in print as well as published online the best thing for that is to put it down on the floor for your muddy tyres/dog or at the bottom of your cat's litter tray.

 

[Garz]

Sounds fishily like the dribble article the belfast paper had too.

 

[purplepolly]

"I will not even mention the problems of how to look clean and well ironed straight off a bike, or how to get to a dinner date in a floaty dress which hasn’t got snagged in an oily chain"

Ah diddoms! Is that the Boris cycle to work in a suit politician method? The sort that makes the seat of your trousers shiny? If she had a proper job she wouldn't require a suit in any case. Looks like it didn't occur to her to cycle in something more appropriate and take a change of clothes along then? Doh! How many times has she gone for a dinner date via bicycle anyway, what a load of fabricated rubbish silly cow.

To be fair this very subject was discussed by several female members of CC only last week in the cafe. I do take a change of clothes when cycling to events, but as I use the bike for most things there is a middle ground where there isn't opportunity to get changed but I want to look 'normal' when off the bike.

 

[PBancroft]

I think everyone who disagrees on this forum should politely email her a nice message!

I suspect that she won't be all that bothered.

I imagine that her editor asked her to write an article on cycling. That sounds nice and easy, so she accepted. She didn't really want to try cycling, hadn't cycled in years, was possibly unfit and probably ill-prepared.

No wonder she didn't enjoy it. And no wonder she wrote a fairly negative article about it.

 

[tordis]

Oh my. I haven't read such a negative, judgmental, one-sided article for a long while.
But, as someone pointed out earlier, this drama queen of an author is a fiction writer. So, there.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Oh my. I haven't read such a negative, judgmental, one-sided article for a long while.
But, as someone pointed out earlier, this drama queen of an author is a fiction writer. So, there.

You saw it, I saw it, and most other people on the forum saw it, but the lemmings that queue up at paper shops day in day out to buy that sh1t (and deplete forests) believe it as if gospel.

 

[Lizban]

Hello - this is an opinion article - her opinion is cycling is bad and guess what shock horror people on a cylcing forum like cycling and think that she is wrong!

There are plenty or pro cycling opinion articles out there if they only published the ones we agree with wouldnt it be rather dull.

 

[Crankarm]

Hello - this is an opinion article - her opinion is cycling is bad and guess what shock horror people on a cylcing forum like cycling and think that she is wrong!

There are plenty or pro cycling opinion articles out there if they only published the ones we agree with wouldnt it be rather dull.

Ha! That's rich Lizban coming from a petrol head who recently trolled a long pointless thread on cyclists not paying VED.

No there aren't lots of pro cycling articles out there as you put it. Pretty much everyone that is published has some sort of rant or message against cycling or cyclists.

 

[Lizban]

Ha! That's rich Lizban coming from a petrol head who recently trolled a long pointless thread on cyclists not paying VED.

No there aren't lots of pro cycling articles out there as you put it.

I love it how people on this forum jump to conclusions - really makes me chuckle. If you asked my mates if I was a petrol head they would fall about the place.

These forums encourage opinions - just disappointing that at times it descends into name calling rather than discussion.

I can assure you I considered what I did on the other thread was a discussion - not trolling (is that a word!) If you think otherways then you are entitled to that view - I disagree with you and I can further assure you it was never my intention.


I see plenty of pro cycling opinion articles in the press the Evening Standard (sorry for the LOndon bias) had a weekly one, the Sunday telepgraph has 3-4 I can think of and the Times (I think) had a good article about a cycling widow who took up cycling to be with hubby.