Here's what became of that Gold Charge Plug

I think it's a really cunty gimmick. Yet another bandwagonload of square tossers trying to cash in on something that's nothing to do with them, appropriating it and rendering it shit. Ooh, aren't we funny cooking up a bike we wouldn't actually insure when we're an insurance company? Well of course really we're just marketing.

well, they do insure bikes. Accusing a company of "cashing in", well I thought that "cashing in" was what companies do... they make money and advertise their services. i don't think there's any reason to get on your square tossers vs alternative heroes high horse, you don't know the interests of the people designing the campaign or running the company. would you rather that no non-cycling companies ever had anything to do with cycling? come on, this is a gimmick, but at least it makes cycling seem glamorous which might actually make some more people interested in riding a bike.

Charge have had to be involved in this at some point though they are barely mentioned - but at least they make the frickin bike. But it's all about the insurance company, who even appropriate not-for-profit status and the environment in order to market themselves.

well, they probably paid for it, so they deserve the PR benefit.

If this bike were a human it would be a twelve-year-old virgin being paraded round naked on a silver tray at a society orgy.

this analogy is completely broken.

The article is written so badly and so lazily that I feel like emailing someone. Noone has had time to spend three minutes checking over all the mistakes and yet an entire morning has been wasted cobbling together a photoshoot involving a grown man wearing a sticker.

There must be a thousand out-of-work writers who could come up better copy but Sophia Diogos gets the gig cos she's so far up her arse she thinks she's actually got talent enough to be a hack. Go back to your trust fund, Sophia, and stop butchering the English language in public.

i'll grant that it's not the greatest work of investigative journalism ever penned, but i don't think this is justification for such a strong personal attack. and accusing someone else of being lazy and then demonstratively "feeling like" emailing someone but not actually bothering does make me wonder.

I haven't gone on the Oxford ride today due to neck and knee problems and I guess it's coming out. Feel genuinely sorry for the mug being the security guard, though, either he's massively down on his luck or he's one of the ETA marketing bell-ends and thinks it's all a big wheeze.

This country.

i'm sure he got paid for it, and therefore probably doesn't mind. really, he only had to stand there for a minute or two - hardly a great hardship/injustice.

so much anger!! this all just sounds like you're being overly precious about your subculture and picking easy targets. LTFU!!