Jeremy Clarkson tells his readers to get on their bikes... but not to bother with a helmet

If you not have anything inside you don´t need to have anything on http://road.cc/sites/all/modules/smileys/packs/Yahoo!/grin.gif

More people riding bikes = a good thing. If it's a town bike, a twin-shocked monstrosity, a Brompton, Raleigh Chopper or whatever. Two wheels, pedals, leg powered, lights in the dark. My eyebrows may be going a bit crazy, but is all good.

Your all missing the point if you had hair as cool as clarkson would you wear a lid?

I think most of us could have a t-shirt which says 'I'm not driving my car today so you've got more room. You're welcome.'

Jezza is funny and I like his humour. I am a keeno rider and a petrol head, so have the fence right up my backside in respect of this article.

He makes a valid point, and if people can't see through he reactionary rhetoric, then they should lighten up a bit.

I do however take issue with the anti-helmet point. Having been knocked off mt bike by cars in central London twice in 6 years of commuting, I can say wearing a helmet makes a big difference.

Whilst a bike helmet is clearly going to be of little use if crushed under a vehicle or being smashed into at significant speed, I found that wearing a helmet prevented/minimised whip-lash when hitting the tarmac as my head remained level on impact. It also helped in that I had no surface head injuries or bleeding.

The simple point is, you have nothing to lose by wearing a helmet, so you should.

Clarkson is a fat, middle aged twat, who comes out with shitty reactionary 'dad' jokes.

When people say they think he is funny, I presume they have brain damage.

I go on various other forums for sea fishing, freshwater fishing (both fly and coarse) and the football forums.

Every forum has the same attitude towards people in the public eye being in it for themselves and this forum is no different. If in the end Clarkson helps other people get on a bike then its a good thing regardless of whether people like him or not or whether that was never his intention.

Some people take their dislike of a person to far and it clouds their future judgement of whatever that person does or says, you just have to look at Armstrong.

He makes some very good points about cycling needing to be normalised- as maccruiskeen points out, people like us making it look difficult and unattainable aren't necessarily helping there.

OTOH the line he (and others) usually takes in the media has a pretty big part to play in why cycling is in the state it is in this country so I'm reluctant to give him too much credit. Whether or not he's really mocking his fans as some sort of clever act is irrelevant- there are lots of people all too ready to lap it all up and incorporate it into their attitudes to the roads. Saying "Oh, he's only joking- he's really rather clever and it's just his TV character" doesn't wave it away.

And the roads are everyone's by right, aren't they?

Clarkson is funny and deliberately highly provocative of course. Can't disagree with most of what he says.

Top Gear and its presenters ceased to be of any use to consumers after their bad reviews had caused the closure of parts of the British motoring industry and, not being able to handle that responsibility, it morphed into a comedy show. They now only test the unassailable Veyrons, Mercs and Ferraris or do 'events' in 2nd hand cars.

The sting is in the tail. This is his message 'Motorists. Thank you for letting me use your roads.'. If he and his followers adopt this, one day you'll be asked why you're not wearing one.

Lord Clarkson, huh? He speaks and, like the Oracle at Delphi ... everyone listens.

This is wisdom - at its worst. His own unique brand of insane ugliness.

Have a fight with the tarmac, Clarkson, as I have several times - and every single time the hardened banana helmet I ALWAYS wear has stopped massive injury and even more ugliness to my unfortunate gurn.

Actually, Jez, old boy, by law the cyclists have right of way on the roads and, by process of evolution & invention - no doubt he will eagerly correct me if I'm wrong - it runs something like this ... man, horse, carriage, bike, car + Clarkson, self-crowned King of All To Do With Cars & Ultimate Arbiter of Everyone Else's Opinions.

I do so love riding my bike. For the most part it gets me away from windy old gas bags like him!!!!!

Clarkson is more complicated than the media he feeds can cope with.
He's missing out on comfort and practicality on his supermarket mountain bike. Who reads his column anyway?
My bike gets me down the pub, to work, to the shops. He has a point in a way, fixies might be sexy and vaguely politically threatening but give me a dutch bike with mudguards, a dirty great box on the front for my shopping and enough gears to get up a hill (I find three is plenty).
It's just a shame that Clarkson on the BBC turned so much of this country into the self entitled bunch of petrol heads to think that they pay road tax.

he's still a tw*t

he's the main reason the 'emma way' type of driver exist
the youngsters worship him.

@Simon

" as it is impossible to ride a bike when drunk."

Lol, that is so not true, if I can stand then I can cycle, but I'm older now and refrain from drink cycling.

sigh, usual crap coming from this fat idiot, always to provoke reaction ... yawn ...

like ohmaghad you ghais

"“Ordinary people who ride in jeans and T-shirts and with no stupid helmet."" - perhaps Mr C hasn't heard of cycle chic?

http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/ and others or the slow cycling movement

Could people stop mixing cycling with politics, opinions of "celebrities" or world peace. If you want to ride a bike 10 metres or 1000 miles go do it or not. If you want to wear or not just do it. Its cycling, just riding a bike thats all. Why does it need to involve all this debate?

Maccruiskeen is exactly right - cycling seems to have acquired an image that it's the very opposite of normal.

I like Clarkson - behind his carefully managed persona of bluff laddishness he's actually a very good presenter and some of the stuff he says (if you look through the obvious jokes and the comments designed to get a reaction) is very sensible. However like any newspaper hack, he writes what is a) popular at the time and b) going to generate click throughs, comments, hits on the website, it HAS to be inflammatory.

Quote:

Clarkson on a bike, would love to see his face on riding up (or walking up more like) one of the Surrey Hills.

He's used a bike plenty of times, he just doesn't admit it. Many years ago in The Sun, there was a pic of him riding a cheapo MTB and a story about how he used the bike to lose weight. I believe his wife is a very keen triathlete. As above - he'll slag off cyclists when it means he can get a laugh, doesn't necesarily mean he wants us all run over by lorries...

On this one Clarkson is right, in that we do need to normalise cycling. Those who want to engage in cycle sport will still be free to do so, just look at the popularity cycle sport in places like Denmark and the Netherlands. However, for most people in those places the bicycle is just a means of transport, a way of getting from A to B.

Lets face, motor sport is not diminished by the fact that no one put on a flame suit to drive to the shops. Better still if we normalise cycling, more people will choose to take the bicycle rather than the car to pop down to the local shops.

So yes it is time that we Copenhagenized our towns and cities, if anyone would like to know more about this process then come to Mikael Colville-Andersen talk on Bicycle Culture by Design – Considering Design as a Placemaking Solution for Liveable Cities, in Edinburgh on the 15th June as part of the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling.

Agree with the point he makes about cycling being used as a political statement by die-hard, camera-wearing antagonists.

I see this kind of attitude frequently, for example on you tube or on this very forum, and it's frustrating and by no means representative of the cycling majority.

If more 'normal' people took up cycling (ie those without agendas), then it would be a great thing in helping driver/cyclist relations, getting cycle safety issues into mainstream consciousness etc.

Of course most of us lycra-wearing enthusiasts are normal, but I understand the point he is making and it is a really valid one, in amongst all his provocation, jokes and BS (which no one should take too seriously).

Fully agree with Maccruiskeen. I was out doing some laps of the local hill - trying to improve my fitness in my oh so perfect kit like the sad poseur Mamil I am and I met two families out for a spin and a granny and her 8 year old grand daughter.

It's so heartening that these people are out now taking the roads back and just making but normal and acceptable to find cyclists around every corner.

Clarkson over from the Darkside? Good for him. I don't watch Top Gear as it's childish and he's a bully but if he's seen the light cycling in the UK has received a real boost.

He is fab, i love him and i love watching top gear.

He comes out with some absolute crackers and who cares if he does or doesn't like cyclists or anyone else for that matter.

If it results in more people cycling or more drivers being aware of cyclists then its a good call but in all honesty i just like him because at times he is funny.

Clarkson on a bike, would love to see his face on riding up (or walking up more like) one of the Surrey Hills.
Anyone getting on a bike in London deserves respect in my book, car everytime for me.