The Guardian's bike blog

So if, say, just hypothetically, a sarcastic northern ponce wanted to contribute to the Guardian's bike blog how would they go about it?

Purely hypothetically.

Well no, I think.

:)

I would also say that if I were selling dangerous, horrible bikes and a man from the Grauniad came along and said "hullo old chap may I take one of your bikes out for a spin? I am doing a piece for teh Grauniad" I would be doubly sure to see him ride off on the least shonky BSO I had available.

Does anyone actually say "old chap" any more? Boris doesn't count

It's quicker to type out than "my dear fellow" which was the only other possible option :(

Bothwell & OZ & nuknow & others:

You get me wrong. I'm not suggesting it benefits anyone to ride a dangerous bike. I'd certainly never recommend one. As I said before I can't speak for other brands, but on the evidence I saw the No Logo bikes aren't dangerous. If anything they seem engineered a bit on the side of solidity. That brake cable faux pas in the picture earlier in the thread is a bit alarming, but it could well have been a bike hastily assembled by a photographer, I don't know. The bulk of their bikes are sold via independent shops, so ultimately it would be up to them to make sure they're properly assembled. It's quite a strong statement to say, categorically, that a brand of bike is "dangerous". Is there any evidence to back this up, other than that they a/ cost £270 and b/ are made in China?

wiganwill: hypothetically, a good place to start is to email me - first name dot last name at guardian.co.uk

Peter, echoing some other comments above, I think that you will find that cheap shit bikes will wear out their welcome very quickly. This country's full of cheap bikes that didn't keep their unfortunate owners riding. There's one very simple reason for that, apart from the safety aspect, which is that it's simply not very enjoyable after the first couple of rides. These bikes often feel OK when people first get on them, but material fatigue and components failure will set in soon afterwards. It will then become annoying, in need of constant repair, squeaky, with poor power transfer and whatnot. The 'premium' you pay for a good bike, in addition to safety, is mainly that it sustains your enjoyment.

Also, if something is cheap, you are more likely to use it less than if you've made a greater investment. Yes, some people get 'hooked' once they've had cheap bikes, but those are probably for the most part people who would have cycled, anyway. It takes a lot of luck if you start off on the wrong foot.

Nonetheless, keep up the good work; the blog is often enjoyable to read, and one duff review isn't going to change that.

TBH I'm actually quite glad Peter's come in here to directly engage with you monsters. It does show a level of professional integrity that in the (fairly short) time I've been here I haven't really seen very often from journalists (thinking specifically of that awful creature from the Hackney Gazette and the various hack job articles that were done after interviews / material was provided), so fair play to him.

Do you mean the Hackney Hive?

Do you mean the Hackney Hive?

Oh, yes, yes I do. Is there more than one local paper in Hackney or did I just invent a new one?

I did indeed mean the Hackney Hive and its incredibly horrible woman in any case. Apologies to the blameless Hackney Gazette, if it even exists.

Oh, yes, yes I do. Is there more than one local paper in Hackney or did I just invent a new one?

There are (deep breath): The Hackney Gazette, Stoke Newington Gazette (both pretty much the same apart from different front pages and a few other small differences), Hackney Today (the Council paper), and the Hackney Citizen (free paper). The other 'papers' are magazines (e.g., N16 magazine) or web-sites/blogs, etc.

I did indeed mean the Hackney Hive and its incredibly horrible woman in any case. Apologies to the blameless Hackney Gazette, if it even exists.

It does. In response to Dan Cox' death, they started a cycle safety campaign which ran for weeks.

Peter, echoing some other comments above, I think that you will find that cheap shit bikes will wear out their welcome very quickly. This country's full of cheap bikes that didn't keep their unfortunate owners riding. There's one very simple reason for that, apart from the safety aspect...

blah blah material fatigue blah blah squeaky blah blah 'hooked' blah blah duff

Big +1. It would be interesting to know how much difference there is between a properly set up one of these 'no logo' bikes and a properly set up 'Create'. I suspect not a lot looking at the photos. I also suspect that the mystery Chinese manufacturer is the very same manufacturer that makes Creates. I know that the big shop on Chapel Market in Islington used to sell Creates and is now selling these [strike]Naomi Klein[/strike] No logo bikes so I suspect they at least come from the same distributor.

Interestingly that shop are selling them for £250, £20 less than direct.

Peter,
thanks for joining the best and friendliest cycling forum on the internet.
now,
forum---,
every week the Grauniad weekend has a motoring column review, it would be better as a bike review for everyone,
who would be up for writing a bike review for an OTP and submitting it?, a few hundred words each, there is easily enough talent to do it on here.
dont mess about, go straight to the organ grinder Rusbridger with the idea
list
1.*m.f

wiganwill: hypothetically, a good place to start is to email me - first name dot last name at guardian.co.uk

Roger roger.

His name's peter walker..

every week the Grauniad weekend has a motoring column review, it would be better as a bike review for everyone,

To be fair, the Guardian already do bike reviews, albeit during the week (I think). Do other papers do them? No national newspapers are going to get rid of the car reviews, as they contribute to bringing in car advertising revenue:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/feb/17/cycling-advertising-cars

Roger roger.

Looks like you passed the audition, will.

Well done...

I dont know anything about car advertising,
but it strikes me that there are hundreds of OTP likes on here.

Seriously how the fuck is anyone supposed to review the levels of material fatigue on components without robots or machines?

By using crystals and magnets, you fucking cretin.

Some of the comments on that article are sickening.

I know what you mean:

*Can we replace Peter Walker with wiganwill? *
He's a much better writer and clearly knows a lot more about cycling.
He also makes me LOL...

That was me...

To be fair, the Guardian already do bike reviews, albeit during the week (I think)

No, it doesn't.

No, it doesn't.

Ah well, you're not wrong to pick me up on that, but in my defence, I was thinking specifically of the bike blog lot.

The author has made a point about novices who are further drawn into cycling through their initial encounter with these bikes.

What about those who are totally put off for good by the constant mechanical breakdowns. "Ah man, I did give it a go once before but it kept breaking down and was costing me money to get repaired. You're better off on the bus mate, breaks down you just catch the next one."

Ah well, you're not wrong to pick me up on that, but in my defence, I was thinking specifically of the bike blog lot.

'The Guardian already do '

Tsk...