London - A commuter's nightmare?

Anonymous

Read more and watch the video

always_tyred

I just wasted 2 minutes of my life.

_Brun_

I only got half way through. It's possibly one of the worst things I've ever seen on youtube.

Wallace1492

Why is it so bad? Can't view at work.

greg66_tri_v2.0

A waste of time (the filmmaker's and mine) money and bandwidth. Utterly worthless.

il_principe

pob

Kieran_Burns

but why????

suzyb

Wallace1492 wrote:

Why is it so bad? Can't view at work.

It's just rubbish. I don't really know how else to explain it.

jrduquemin

I'll never get back those 2 minutes :-(

If people think that's what London is like to cycle in, don't cycle in London. Simples!!!

lost_in_thought

Honestly, Bikeradar, why on earth did you publicise such rubbish?

Complete waste of time, over-dramatized nonsense that provides no perspective whatsoever on what it's actually like to commute in London.

Oh and great for increasing cycling numbers. :roll:

attica

So the concensus is that we don't like it then?

I must admit, it isn't the greatest advert for getting out on your bike, perhaps the film maker should be encouraged to make a counterpoint film showing how much fun riding can be.

MadammeMarie

Wallace1492 wrote:

Why is it so bad? Can't view at work.

It's just the typicall London stereotype: cycling in London is stressfull, living in London is stressfull, blah, blah, blah, everybody in LOndon is horrible!

:roll:

attica

Il Principe wrote:

pob

Que?

il_principe

MadammeMarie wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

Why is it so bad? Can't view at work.

It's just the typicall London stereotype: cycling in London is stressfull, living in London is stressfull, blah, blah, blah, everybody in LOndon is horrible!

:roll:

I'd imagine that cycling in that bloke's get up would be less than comfortable...

stuaff

+1 to all the above. What a waste of space.

UndercoverElephant

For those who can't watch it goes like this:

Man comes out of flat, looking happy and gets on his bike.
Man cycles a bit and some dramatic music starts.
Man pulls annoyed faces.
Man passes bemused Londoners. Some look miserable.
Man cycles a bit more.
Man shouts at van driver, who shouts back.
Man pulls anguished faces in synch with operatic music.
Man gets off bike looking anguished.

Thing is, nothing much bad seemed to happen on his ride, other than his odd expressions.

Stuey01

London so isn't a nightmare to cycle, total myth.

Car drivers are relatively used to cyclists, there are plentiful bus lanes that keep you out of the bulk of the traffic and there are quite a lot of other cyclists giving an element of safety in numbers.
I'd venture it is better to cycle in London than other smaller cities and large towns in the UK.

purple rain

I thought everyone in London rode like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUTL3oKOCNw

oscarbudgie

Pants. With skid marks

MonkeyMonster

Whereas its usually

Man comes out of flat, looking happy and gets on his bike.
Man cycles a bit and hears music be it in his head or ipod.
Man grins.
Man passes bemused Londoners (be they peds or other slower cyclists). Some look miserable [at being overtaken]
Man cycles a bit more.
Man shouts/grins/shakes head at driver, who shouts/grins/shakes head/never realises they were a twunt.
Man grins.
Man gets off bike feeling awesome.

Man is replaceable with Woman for the ladies on here

mrc1

To be fair to the motorists if that bloke came past me doing the stupid faces he was pulling at the start of the film I would have been tempted to left hook him.

DonDaddyD

You guys give M.Cole/bikeradar far too much of a hard time. See thread about THAT facebookn group for an example

That said, I watched the clip/film/moving image. I found it a little uninspired and it didn't really address any of the issues cyclist face when commuting. Much rather, I found it gave a portrayal that cycling in London is a stress inducing experience. Despite the instances of stress, it really isn't stressfull. Overall the film came across as everything but pro-commuting.

I do wonder about the rationale to publish that over this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn29DvMITu4 - which holds a measurable amount of truth within its satire.

attica

DonDaddyD wrote:

You guys give M.Cole/bikeradar far too much of a hard time. See thread about THAT facebookn group for an example

+1

I was thinking exactly the same which was why I tried to give some constructive feedback rather than slagging it off

DDD, that video is class, thanks for posting, it made I laaaff it did.*

*Yokelese for "most amusing"

OldSkoolKona

Love that performance video every time.

My favourite 'commuting' video is the Paris one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAethD1Io_Y

UndercoverElephant

DonDaddyD wrote:

You guys give M.Cole/bikeradar far too much of a hard time. See thread about THAT facebookn group for an example

On the other hand, the last couple of articles M.Cole has linked to do try to emphasise negative aspects of cycling. I haven't been following his articles further back, but I find commuting by bike a purely pleasurable experience. Sometimes I come across things that make me mad, but that probably happens more when I'm in the car.

Eau Rouge

OldSkoolKona wrote:

Love that performance video every time.

My favourite 'commuting' video is the Paris one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAethD1Io_Y

That Paris one...oh my good god. I am so lucky I do not work in a city!

DonDaddyD

UndercoverElephant wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

You guys give M.Cole/bikeradar far too much of a hard time. See thread about THAT facebookn group for an example

On the other hand, the last couple of articles M.Cole has linked to do try to emphasise negative aspects of cycling. I haven't been following his articles further back, but I find commuting by bike a purely pleasurable experience. Sometimes I come across things that make me mad, but that probably happens more when I'm in the car.

I disagree that the site admin of bikeradar isfocusing on the negative aspects of cycling.

I don't understand the logic of that film, but then fil like art is arguably largely subjective. The facebook thread prior to this one, was an attempt at informing the online community on this website about a facebook group which advocated injuring cyclists, with instructions on how we could request the group be removed from the site. It should.

Clever Pun

the vid has been round for quite some time now.. it's tongue in cheek and I suspect aimed at non cyclists or freaked out nodders

PBo

Just watched the Paris one - my god. Makes London seem a breeze....

Fireblade96

UndercoverElephant wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

You guys give M.Cole/bikeradar far too much of a hard time. See thread about THAT facebookn group for an example

On the other hand, the last couple of articles M.Cole has linked to do try to emphasise negative aspects of cycling. I haven't been following his articles further back, but I find commuting by bike a purely pleasurable experience. Sometimes I come across things that make me mad, but that probably happens more when I'm in the car.

When I first read this thread, I thought some of you were probably being a bit hard on the video.

I eventually got a chance to watch it. It's pants, isn't it ?
I suspect (hope?) that it's meant to be tongue in cheek, blokey singing along to opera about how his ride to work is stressful. But I didn't really see anything shown in it to get serioously stressed about, save some blokes looking at him like he's a nob. And if I ride around singing I would expect some strange looks too (still do it though, but try to restrain myself in town)

I think Bikeradar are just doing their job, reporting bike-related news. However,
M. Cole, rather than just posting a link to things like this, give it a bit of context or maybe your opinion on it - otherwise the Hardened London Commuters will unleash the attack dogs. Half of them are on detox and post-Christmas diets, you can't expect them to be happy!

We country folks will just go "Ah, the Londoners are stressed again - must be commuting in all that traffic" ;-)

Mountainboy2465

I thought that is exactly what a London commute is like.

Whereas my rural jaunt is set to Satie's Gnossiennes No1, I am flanked by fair maidens spreading petals before my tyres, there is barely room on the handlebars for lights; what with all the Bluebirds perched on em.