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"Best ever quotes about cycling"

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  1. chdot
    Admin

     "
    Poets, presidents, prime ministers and prime-time newscasters have said great things about cycling. Here’s a sprinkling of bicycle-related quotes…
    "

    http://quickrelease.tv/?p=486

    Posted 13 years ago #
  2. ruggtomcat
    Member

    great link, thanks!

    Posted 13 years ago #
  3. kaputnik
    Moderator

    TopGear "news" tonight, on the subject of this week's helmet-cam news item on the BBC.

    Mr J. Clarkson (to much guffawing from the hand-picked audience of boy racers, strategically placed beauty therapy students and middle-aged men with cars worth more than most people's mortgages and matching polo shirts)

    "They deserve it"
    "If you'd just work harder you could have a car"
    "Who pays the road tax?"
    "I don't mind if cyclists want to come on the road with their silly Victorian distractions"

    Mr. R. Hammond put up a limited defence, but did come out with (directed at Clarkson)
    "You are exactly the reason why I want a camera on my helmet"
    "You're another fat car in your Mercedes
    " (it had earlier been revealed that the Albanian word for gentleman's tackle sounds like car)

    Posted 13 years ago #
  4. ruggtomcat
    Member

    Yeah, wonder if we can get them to apologize again?

    Posted 13 years ago #
  5. kaputnik
    Moderator

    It's hardly worth bothering. It will be held up by Clarkson and his ilk of proof of the "war on the motorist"

    Posted 13 years ago #
  6. SRD
    Moderator

    Haven't seen last night's episode, but what got me about the Mexican thing is that none of what they said was funny, except the jab at the ambassador, which did make me laugh. Coogan's piece in the Observer was good though.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  7. ruggtomcat
    Member

    Here we go!

    Warning! They are not so civilized over there..

    Posted 13 years ago #
  8. kaputnik
    Moderator

    For what it's worth, I lodged a complaint. I can't keep moaning about things if I'm not willing to moan at the perpetrator I suppose, hopefully if enough other cyclists follow suit there can be a significant mass of complaints to force the BBC to take some sort of action.

    In my complaint I suggested;

    I don't think Jeremy Clarkson should be made to apologise. I think the best punishment would be to open his eyes and his mind a little - give him a bike and a helmet camera and tell him to cycle across London and capture the abuse and poor driving that he encounters.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  9. ruggtomcat
    Member

    yup me too :)

    Posted 13 years ago #
  10. SRD
    Moderator

    d'you think he'd make it?

    Posted 13 years ago #
  11. recombodna
    Member

    I love top gear and last nights episode was pretty good. I don't mind Clarkson having a go at cyclists....it's what he does.....he's a profesional T\/\/@T and at least you've got Hammond there to back up the cyclists.....it's just entertainment. BUT I have to say I didn't see the Mexican thing but when I googled it today I was pretty shocked.No excuse for that sort of blatant racism on the BBC........or anywhere really!!.................and it's not even funny.....at all......none of it!

    Posted 13 years ago #
  12. chdot
    Admin

    "I love top gear and last nights episode was pretty good."

    That's a brave thing to admit on here!

    One of the great things about this forum is that it attracts people who like bikes/cycling for all sorts of reasons.

    I assume most/all want to see more people cycling - especially in Edinburgh.

    Certainly time more politicians and transport professionals realised that there aren't just two sorts of people 'cyclists' (who have to be listened to a bit) and 'everyone else'.

    This is where 'pedestrians' (i.e. people who walk - i.e. most people) tend to get ignored completely in favour of 'keeping the traffic moving'.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  13. steveo
    Member

    That's a brave thing to admit on here!

    I enjoy topgear too, people just need to learn not to take Clarkson seriously, much like the right thinking people of the world don't take the Daily Fail seriously.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  14. chdot
    Admin

    "people just need to learn not to take Clarkson seriously"

    That's true and I'm sure most people manage - it's the people who have their view that they are in a persecuted minority re-inforced that are the problem...

    Posted 13 years ago #
  15. chdot
    Admin

    A couple of years ago I was in various primary schools after the TG where a bicycle won a cross London race.

    A lot of them had seen it and were impressed. It really was quite a surrising result and obviously not a fix.

    However most weeks there are very different things/attitudes to be remembered by children and adults.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  16. recombodna
    Member

    "That's a brave thing to admit on here!"

    Yeah well I'm a total petrol head at heart. I've watched top gear since I was a kid and have always enjoyed tinkering with engines and motorbikes.

    Nothing beats cycling though (quite literally in the city centre). chdot's right it's the persecuted minority reinforcing that's the problem.Listening to kaye adam's show this morning whilst stripping wall paper and they were talking about introducing a jay walking law to stop people throwing themselves under cars.......jeezso! ( Obviously cyclists running reds and cycling on the pavement came up......begs the question why do we have traffic cops if all drivers never break the law?) As a driver /pedestrian /cyclist I don't understand why people don't just chill out/slow down/look where they're going/ communicate with their fellow human beings.....peace man!

    Posted 13 years ago #
  17. recombodna
    Member


    Posted 13 years ago #
  18. steveo
    Member

    "As a driver /pedestrian /cyclist I don't understand why people don't just chill out/slow down/look where they're going/ communicate with their fellow human beings.....peace man! "

    This.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  19. recombodna
    Member

    This?

    Posted 13 years ago #
  20. steveo
    Member

    "I agree with what you have said". "This" is easier to type.... ;)

    Posted 13 years ago #
  21. recombodna
    Member

    Oh I see. sorry my bad! Cheers. :-)

    Posted 13 years ago #
  22. steveo
    Member

    So back on topic... Just found this one, should forward it to Borris and cc "Call me" Dave.
    “When Cameron’s Conservatives come to power it will be a golden age for cyclists and an Elysium of cycle lanes, bike racks, and sharia law for bike thieves. And I hope that cycling in London will become almost Chinese in its ubiquity.”
    Boris Johnson, The Guardian, March 18, 2006

    Posted 13 years ago #
  23. recombodna
    Member

    "The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart." ~Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green

    or

    "Mankind has invested more than four million years of evolution in the attempt to avoid physical exertion. Now a group of backward-thinking atavists mounted on foot-powered pairs of Hula-Hoops would have us pumping our legs, gritting our teeth, and searing our lungs as though we were being chased across the Pleistocene savanna by saber-toothed tigers. Think of the hopes, the dreams, the effort, the brilliance, the pure force of will that, over the eons, has gone into the creation of the Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Bicycle riders would have us throw all this on the ash heap of history." ~P.J. O'Rourke

    Posted 13 years ago #
  24. LaidBack
    Member

    rcbda Listening to kaye adam's show this morning whilst stripping wall paper

    Hope you didn't gouge the plaster too much!
    Bring back Lesley Riddoch - she's much better for stripping wallpaper to.

    Posted 13 years ago #
  25. recombodna
    Member

    Heh heh!! I figured Kaye Adams might be able to strip the wall paper with her voice alone..........Her show really is the lowest common denominator!

    Posted 13 years ago #
  26. chdot
    Admin

    "

    The best thing about school was riding my bike there and back

    "

    http://www.josiedew.com/about-me

    Posted 7 years ago #
  27. Frenchy
    Member

    http://www.josiedew.com/about-me

    What a great page.

    "we spent several long-winded hours getting lost looking for a place called Doorgaand Verkeer (on-going traffic)"

    "Thought I wouldn’t survive more than two weeks on my own. Ended up cycling 7000 miles in six months"

    "Had planned to cycle through Syria, Jordan and Israel to Egypt but Iraq invaded Kuwait"

    "Found myself cycling around Japan instead of New Zealand"

    Puts some surprise rain or missing the turn off to Roslin in perspective, doesn't it?

    Posted 7 years ago #
  28. Chug
    Member

    Reasonable books too. Interesting perspectives on Japan.

    Posted 7 years ago #
  29. chdot
    Admin

    “You get a bit out of practice – it’s not like riding a bike,” he says of restarting fatherhood

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/20/the-more-children-you-have-the-more-laissez-faire-you-get-mick-jagger-on-ageing-rage-and-missing-charlie-watts

    Posted 6 months ago #
  30. gembo
    Member

    Not a quote as such but the new statue of Michael Collins just unveiled in Cork City has him with his bicycle that he used to cycle around Dublin when there was a bounty on his head. He always kept a couple of those coconut chocolate bars inside his Homburg Hat for the purposes of energy.

    Posted 6 months ago #

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