What did you think of “The Cycle Show”?

Gary Fisher?
I thought that
Gary Fisher?

I thought that was Wilf from Vision On

Watched half of it last night – don’t understand why they’ve gone for allowing that much ambient noise. The Box Hill feature was pretty annoying as they mentioned cyclists of [cough] mixed abilities (Wouter Sybrandy?) but didn’t even introduce them by name.

Frustrated that there wasn’t any time or inclination to explain what Graham Obree was doing with his land speed attempt, showed nothing of the mechanics of his bike (other than wobbly head shot) Wilf from Vision On obvioulsy didn’t give a shit who he was and knew nothing about him. It perpetuated the myth that Obree is an eccentric pottering oaf who has no knowledge of engineering.

Probably won’t be upset if I miss the next seven and a half episodes…

Me and Mrs Didds were fairly
Me and Mrs Didds were fairly underwhelmed too. I did think that when they advertised the show as “all cycling for all cyclists” etc that whilst it was a laudable attempt to not just have a roadie show for roadies, or a all-britches-and-camelbaks for MTBers etc, that they may end up spreading themselves very thinly as a result, but fair goes on them for trying. They are also in the difficult position of being all things to all men… which to a degree the TdF commentary has to be too… it has to encompass those new top cycling without any ideas, those that have been doing it their entire lives (possibly still without any ideas!)… then to cover commuting areas but also keep the track heads happy.

As for last night, I thought it was pretty cheesy, fairly hokey. Coming from a cycling cafe was an attempt to keep it matey and a connection with the activity, but there were clear sound problems for whoever was stuck on the right hand end of the seating (from a viewers’ perspective). Top marks for the commuting but.. but the advice was useless. “Keep away from trucks”. Very helpful I am sure when cycling in a busy city. It did get mentioned in passing, but a better _emphasis_ might have been “don’t get up the inside of trucks and stay in a primary position in heavy traffic”. I appreciate they don;t want to post negative impressions, and that is laudable too, but the safe cycling piece was fairly unhelpful (with Bikeability instructor’s hat on there

Oh – and Gary Fisher was a nightmare. I thought Obree was gonna chin him at one stage when Fisher prodded him for about the 5th time!

didds

Too much ad-hocish waffling
Too much ad-hocish waffling on the couch. Doesn’t work when the show is so short! Also, some non-TV people aren’t good at the short & sweet sound-bites that are needed for that format.

Obree, for one, would have been better served up in a separate report, with a structured and edited interview. They could have given a proper introduction too! A lot of people won’t know have known who Obree is and what he’s done.

Ditto for Fisher – he at least got a brief introduction as the father of mountain biking (I didn’t know that).

Finally, the patronising helmet promotion was annoying. Some of their reportage at least showed some normal cyclists, going around in normal clothes. However, anyone working for the show appears to be required to toe the “Cycling: Danger! Fear!” line when it comes to their apparel – which I think is terribly damaging. Even the sequence with the guy in the business clothes on the fold-up in the city has a helmet. Then they had Mansell deliver a, presumably pre-arranged, little sermon about wearing helmets.

Overall: Good to see a general cycling programme on TV! Good first effort, though some tweaks still need to be made (and no doubt will be).

I never thought I would see a
I never thought I would see a Cycling Magazine programme on mainstream TV. It has rough edges, but it is here, and could help to encourage more people out on their bikes, which can only be a good thing, cant it?

I set it to record, but ITV
I set it to record, but ITV and Cycling do not go together, so I know what I expect 😉