Are petrolheads and cyclists really all that different? JayEmm on the road.cc Podcast + women’s racing discussed

On episode 46 of the road.cc Podcast we're joined by James Martin, also known as JayEmm, who you may know from his very popular YouTube channel JayEmm on Cars. A small snippet of one of James’ videos, in which he explains how it’s important to respect cyclists as fellow road users, got us thinking about the crossover between car and bike enthusiasts, and who better to talk to us about it! We're also talking women's racing on this bumper episode, our longest yet. 

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Often in the media, and even in coverage here on road.cc, the differences between motorists and cyclists are highlighted all too often; but as statistics will tell you the vast majority of cyclists drive cars too, and especially amongst car and bike aficionados – your mechanics, tinkerers and hardcore enthusiasts – that crossover is even more prominent. 

> Confessions of a former petrolhead

It was a small section thee minutes into James' video above, in which he says that the crossover between car enthusiasts and cyclists is "more than you'd ever imagine", that prompted us to arrange this chat in the first place, and everything from the general appreciation of cars, bikes and beautiful bits of engineering, James’ “live and let live” attitude to road etiquette and even Jeremy Vine’s Twitter feed is discussed. 

On the general appreciation of 'nice things' shared between car and bike enthusiasts, James says: "I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people out there who are just as obsessed by the machine itself. I would love a Lotus bike to go on the wall. I wouldn't ride it, I'd love to just look at it, because it's a piece of art. A lot of cars, they're a piece of engineering art. 

"The benefit of something like a bike is you can see much more clearly what's going on, how it all interacts. I think there's a lot of people out there, and I include myself on the fringes of this, who are just fascinated by the 'how it works' aspect of it.

"I'm sure there's loads of people out there who have really expensive bikes who aren't actually very good on them... but they just love the beauty of it, the artistry of it, they love having something a little bit different to somebody else."

James even offers a refreshing perspective on cyclists riding two abreast: "I think it's a genius idea.

"It might wind road users up, but only the simple ones because they then know they can only overtake when there's space. Whereas a single cyclist, people seem to think for whatever reason that it's easier to get past a single cyclist than two cyclists riding two abreast. 

"It's one of these things where I smack my head against my desk quite a bit."

We'd fully recommend listening to the whole discussion, as these quotes barely scratched the surface!

Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

Part 2, recorded on International Women's Day, sees Suvi, Ryan and Dan talk women's racing. How far has professional women’s cycling progressed in recent years as a spectator sport, and is enough being done to ensure it gets equal billing compared to men’s races?

Up for discussion is how those developments are going right now, what we want to see from race organisers and how broadcasters could do better. What do you think? 

The road.cc Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music, and if you have an Alexa you can just tell it to play the road.cc Podcast. It's also embedded further up the page, so you can just press play.