John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Add new comment
37 comments
Are you f-ing kidding? Hazard to whom beside themselves exactly?
Though in certain social circles they'd call you a 'grass'!
I do think maybe there is a bit of an issue about everyone being under constant video surveillance when in public areas. Actual crimes are one thing, but anything stupid or embarrassing you do in public is now potentially going to get an audience of millions, forever!
But that's just the modern world, cycle-cams are only a small part of it.
I only saw that for the first time recently. Got so used to motorists being so impatient they jump the red it really baffled me to see one failing to move when the lights were green - till I noticed they were hunched over their mobile.
Kettle. Pot. Black.
Watch the video. Make your own mind up.
There is a point here, the rider should be looking at where he is going, not craning his neck to get better video and provide a loud running commentary to all and sundry.
A shake of the head would have done.
Call them what you like, but some of these amateur traffic cop types on bikes with helmet cams just put other cyclists at risk by pissing everyone off and getting us all tarred as vigilantes.
Half the videos posted, I don't understand myself as a cyclist what the indignation is about, the other 25%, yeah bad driving, but no harm done ( if it was motorist to motorist, would result in a FLASH or PARP) and yeah , sure the final 25% are serious and dangerous fully deserving of a bollocking.
Flying Scot wrote
No it wont)
A shake of the head would have done.
(
Call them what you like, but some of these amateur traffic cop types on bikes with helmet cams just put other cyclists at risk by pissing everyone off and getting us all tarred as vigilantes.
No it wont)
(
Half the videos posted, I don't understand myself as a cyclist what the indignation is about, the other 25%, yeah bad driving, but no harm done ( if it was motorist to motorist, would result in a FLASH or PARP) and yeah , sure the final 25% are serious and dangerous fully deserving of a bollocking.
Well ask yourself this, when you walk out of the morgue after identifying a loved one whether you really want to carry on shaking your head, tutt tutting or sighing in resignation or do you want to highlight the crass stupidity, recklesness and outright lawbreaking on our roads and get the authorities to do something about the criminal activities on our roads.
It's interesting that a video of a guy eating his breakfast while driving attracts 2 schools of comment:
1) He is eating breakfast while driving - WHAT?
2) Someone is filming him eating his breakfast (while driving) - WHAT?
Now, I completely agree that not arguing with motorists if you are a cyclist or pedestrian is a very good idea (especially in Glasgow - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-26303925), and can understand that criticism of ones driving is hard for people to accept. However;
- cyclists have been passively shaking their head and tut tutting dangerous driving for decades. This strategy hasn't done much to highlight the danger of bad driving.
- Imminent technologies such as google glass are going to render this sort of thing totally normal in a few years.
I think the best approach is to let it go at the time, don't get annoyed (& you can't educate them) - and then feel free to upload it to youtube to demonstrate the reality of cycling in Britain.
Pages