Broadsheet cycling columns

patchy

Anyone else read these? the Indy and the Guardian do one each on Thursday.

INdy is Cyclotherapy - today, James Daley is whinging about pedestrians

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 87017.html

while the Guardian's Two Wheels is extolling the virtues of fixies and singlespeeds

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... nvironment

I kinda like them both, but Two Wheels has been wildly inconsistent quality-wise since Matt Seaton quit, and James Daley can be a complete ar$e at times (today's column is a case in point). Anyone else have a view?

Belv

Based solely on the links above, i think another article criiticising a different mode of transport doesn't help anyone. The singlespeed piece just seemed to be a bit of filler - a few opinions, vague description of fixed wheel bikes, noise about the Tour de France (for current relevance, presumeably).

Hope they are usually better.

il_principe

Besides it's Fixed not Fixie.

biondino

James Daley's column is rubbish, and I just can't take the moans of anyone who cycles while wearing headphones seriously. Perhaps he also drives with a blindfold on.

CanterburyTailwind

I've been reading the Guardian one for some time, but, like you said, the quality/focus seems to be all over the place. I occasionally read the Independent one, but he does seem a bit of an a*se. It's weird, for such a popular/common passtime, that they're restricted to one column a week, to cover all forms of cycling - mtb, road, commuter, with children etc etc.

hamboman

James is a friend of mine and a pretty decent guy, maybe he just comes across badly in his column!

pst88

James Daley (The Independent) wrote:

...and cyclists not jumping red lights if it's going to interfere with the flow of traffic

Shouldn't that be "not jumping red lights AT ALL". Rides around wearing headphones and advocates jumping red lights. Tsk tsk.

dondare

hamboman wrote:

James is a friend of mine and a pretty decent guy, maybe he just comes across badly in his column!

Tell him to stop and wait at all red lights and to give pedestrians all the time, space, care and consideration that they need regardless of how irritating he finds them. Tell him it's a cyclist saying so and invite him to post here if he wishes to debate the points.

andrewc3142

Often read both. Sometimes interesting, sometimes not. Sometimes agree, sometimes not. Bit like newspaper columns, really. Apart from Mark Steel, which is consistently sharp and funny, although not about cycling in any way.

Interestingly, the Guardian didn't mention the hubs that flip from fixed to freewheel. Quite relevant in the context of the piece, I'd have thought.

homercles

andrewc3142 wrote:

Often read both. Sometimes interesting, sometimes not. Sometimes agree, sometimes not. Bit like newspaper columns, really. Apart from Mark Steel, which is consistently sharp and funny, although not about cycling in any way.

Interestingly, the Guardian didn't mention the hubs that flip from fixed to freewheel. Quite relevant in the context of the piece, I'd have thought.

Is this not that??

"Commercial models are mostly sold with a flip-flop rear wheel - and two brakes. On one side of the axle is a standard freewheel that still allows you to coast along: anathema to the hardcore fixie. On the flip side is the true solitary fixed sprocket whose movement is married to that of the wheel."

ronstrutt

The Sunday Times also has a cycling column in its In Gear section. Mixed quality.

saveswalking

biondino wrote:

James Daley's column is rubbish, and I just can't take the moans of anyone who cycles while wearing headphones seriously. Perhaps he also drives with a blindfold on.

+1

article starts off ok with

" For me, arguably the biggest danger – and without doubt, the biggest irritation – are pedestrians, who, since the proliferation of the iPod, are more likely than any other moving object inadvertently to place themselves directly in my path while I'm cycling,"

then admits that he cycles with headphones on :roll:

the proliferation of the iPod/mobile kiddyphone pedestrian scourge is a right pain innit? - I just wondered what the cyclist/pedestrian collision/accident rate is these days

sw

markhr

hamboman wrote:

...maybe he just comes across badly in his column!

He's certainly getting in a lot of practice. :roll:

andrewc3142

homercles wrote:

Is this not that??

"Commercial models are mostly sold with a flip-flop rear wheel - and two brakes. On one side of the axle is a standard freewheel that still allows you to coast along: anathema to the hardcore fixie. On the flip side is the true solitary fixed sprocket whose movement is married to that of the wheel."

Umm, yes :oops:

passout

This is a classic example of a 'non-story'. It doesn't make you laugh and doesn't pass the 'so what?' test though either. He's not wrong & writes quite well but it's to 'moany' and inconsequential.