The Bike Show Podcast

Jack talks with founding father of the mountain bike Gary Fisher about his life in cycling, the subject of his new book “Being Gary Fisher”, published by Blue Train Publishing. After talking with Gary, Jack chats with Guy Andrews and … Continue reading → The post No Cops, No Cars, No Concrete: Gary Fisher's Life on Two Wheels first appeared on The Bike Show.

Bike technology is changing at a dizzying pace. There’s a bike for everything, from road racing and time trialling to gravel grinding and bikepacking to heavyweight touring and every shade of mountain biking. And that’s not to mention electric assist … Continue reading →

As we emerge from coronavirus lockdown, is there a better summer holiday, a better way to get a change of scene, than heading out on your bike to explore the country where you live? This episode of the podcast is … Continue reading →

A ride report from the time before coronavirus. Jack heads into the wild uplands of the North York Moors on an audax event organised by Dean Clementson and hosted by Mike Metcalfe. “Don’t Keep to the Road” promises gravel tracks, … Continue reading →

Jack goes for a ride with Dr Ian Walker, an environmental psychologist from the University of Bath and long-distance bike racer. Ian found global fame about fifteen years ago with an experiment he did to measure how close he was … Continue reading →

As a bike racer Isla Rowntree took on almost every discipline in cycling, rode professionally for the Raleigh MTB team and won the British national championships in cyclocross on multiple occasions. But it is as a bike designer and entrepreneur that she's made the biggest impact, transforming the market for children’s bikes. The high quality kids bikes she designs have given a generation of children the best possible start to a life of cycling. Jack visits Islabikes HQ just outside Ludlow, Shropshire to find out about how Isla got into cycling, how she got where she is now, and where she's going in the future. Bonus material available at http://thebikeshow.net/isla-rowntree Continue reading →

Tom Isitt has spent the past few years cycling around the battlefields of the first world war. He talks about his experiences on the Western Front and the mountainous border between Italy, Austria and Slovenia and tells the story of the extraordinary bike race that was held in spring 1919 across the devastated lands of Northern France and Belgium. The Rough Stuff Fellowship is the oldest off road cycling club in the world and club archivist Mark Hudson talks about unearthing a photographic treasure trove of inspirational adventure cycling from the 1950s to the present day. Continue reading →

Jack takes on his longest ever ride, as part of a weekend of audax events in memory and celebration of the late, great Mike Hall. Mike was the leading light in the current revival of self-supported long distance bike racing, twice winner of the Tour Divide, winner of the TransAm Bike Race and founder and organiser of the pan-European Transcontinental Race. In March 2017 Mike was killed by a driver while competing in a bike race across Australia Continue reading →

This year’s Tour de France starts on the island of Noirmoutier, on the Atlantic coast of western France. Jack rides the route of Stage one, in a touring style, taking in the rich landscape of sand dunes, beaches, tidal lagoons and salt marsh and sampling the gastronomic delights of the region. Continue reading →

Jack goes to Preston, Lancashire to ride with artist Gavin Renshaw. They ride out on some of the City of Preston’s bicycle infrastructure before heading for the wild uplands of the Forest of Bowland. Along the way they talk about … Continue reading →

Find out what happens when The Bike Show collides with its hipper and funnier younger sister the Wheelsuckers podcast, presented by Alex Davis from Look Mum No Hands! and Jenni Gwiazdowski from London Bike Kitchen. And hear frame-builder and cycle … Continue reading →

The return of The Bike Show sees Jack chewing the fat with Max Leonard, author of Higher Calling: Road Cycling’s Obsession with the Mountains. They talk a lot about climbing, about the evolution of cycling towards exploring and traveling to new places, about cycling in France, and about Max’s Kickstarter project to republish a long-lost cycling guide to the off-road paths and gravel tracks of the Alps. Continue reading →

Peter Walker is a political reporter at the Guardian newspaper. He set up the Guardian's bike blog and his new book puts the case for a healthier, safer and more people-friendly nation. In short, a Bike Nation. In conversation with Jack Thurston, Peter talks about his past life as bike messenger, how his views on cycling have evolved and why he believes now is a critical tipping point in Britain's long and chequered history of cycling. Continue reading →

This year marks 200 years since Karl Drais invented a two wheeled 'running machine'. Since then all sorts of people have ridden all sorts of bicycles for all sorts of reasons. Looking back at two centuries of cycling and cyclists is Dr Michael Hutchinson, former professional bike racer and author of several books about cycling. His latest is "Re:Cyclists - 200 years on two wheels" is an engaging and affectionate look back at the cyclists of the past two hundred years and has just been published by Bloomsbury. Continue reading →

The Indian Pacific Wheel Race is a gruelling 5,500 km coast-to-coast bicycle race across Australia. The race features the two leading long distance bike racers in the world as well as dozens of other cyclists determined to push themselves to the very limits of physical and mental endurance. Jack is joined by Australian cycling journalist Craig Fry and long distance cycling expert Chris White to discuss what it takes to win the race, or even to get to the finishing line in Sydney, plus the long history of overlanding in Australia and the possibilities of making the journey in a more leisurely cycle touring style. Continue reading →

Mike Parker is the author of the best-selling Map Addict, an affectionate history of Ordnance Survey maps and the people who can’t get enough of their beautiful maps. He’s an accomplished guidebook writer, a former stand up comedian and has presented TV and radio programmes about Wales, his adopted homeland. In 2015 he stood for Parliament for Plaid Cymru, the party of Wales and has written a book, the Greasy Poll, about the experience. We go for a spin from Castle Meadows in Abergavenny, as it hosted the National Eisteddfod, a huge annual festival of Welsh language, culture, music and song. Continue reading →

Chris Boardman has done it all. Born into a cycling family he became a domestic time trial demon and won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1992. He set world records for the Hour on the track and raced on the continent as a professional, wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. His R&D team helped British Cycling to world domination on the track and he founded Boardman Bikes, now the best selling brand of bikes in Britain. He has thrown himself into campaigning for everyday cycling with passion and is one of the most effective advocates for cycling, whether in the media or lobbying politicians. He has just written a new biography and is in conversation with the author Rob Penn, in front of a live audience in Monmouth, organised by Rossiter Books. Continue reading →

Jack Thurston heads to mid-Wales to meet Emily Chappell, former London bike messenger turned author turned ultra endurance racer. Plus the social enterprise that's finding a new use for the Royal Mail's unwanted fleet of postal bikes, as Elephant Bikes. Continue reading →

In a recording of a live event held as part of the CycleScreen bicycle film festival at the Watershed Cinema in Bristol, Jack Thurston talks with author Herbie Sykes about his highly acclaimed book The Race Against the Stasi. It’s … Continue reading →

Is bikepacking the most exciting new thing in cycling since the invention of the mountain bike or a much needed rebranding of the venerable pastime of cycle touring? Or is just another cynical ruse to get us to buy more stuff, an attempt to commercialise that wonderful thing called adventure. Jack heads to mid-Wales for the Bear Bones Winter Event to find out, and meets up with Beth Barrington of WildCat Gear to hear about the homespun beginnings of a small company that makes some of the best bikepacking gear available. Continue reading →

In a live event Jack Thurston talks to double Olympic gold medallist and top Team Sky rider Geraint Thomas about his life in cycling as told in his new book The World of Cycling According to G. Continue reading →

Tim Dawson has the lowdown on a major new exhibition of bicycles at London's Design Museum, including cargo bikes, city bikes and the bikes used by Merckx, Moser and Wiggins to break the Hour Record. He speaks with the shows curator Donna Loveday and consider the show's strengths and weaknesses. Tim and host Jack Thurston then wonder if it's right and proper to fall in love with a bicycle and discuss other great cycle collections in the UK and overseas. Continue reading →

Bespoked, the UK's Handmade Bicycle Show is Britain's biggest annual showcase for custom bike builders. It's full to the rafters of beautiful bikes but Jack Thurston went in search of the most useful bikes at the show, from an off-road porteur to a separable road bike to a childback tandem in titanium. Continue reading →

It’s the end of the second week of this year’s Tour de France, just time for us – and the riders – to catch our breaths before the final week and the showdown in the Alps. Joining Jack Thurston for … Continue reading →

After eight varied and exciting days of bike racing, the riders in the Tour de France take a well-earned rest day. Cycling journalist and author Edward Pickering has been following the race and is on hand to review the first … Continue reading →

With just a few days until the start of the 2015 Tour de France, cycling author, journalist and photographer Guy Andrews joins Jack Thurston to look forward to one of the most eagerly anticipated grand tours in decades. With four … Continue reading →

Three months and 17,000 miles into his attempt to break the longest-standing record in cycling, Steve Abraham suffered a road crash with a moped, leaving him with two broken bones in his ankle. We hear more from Steve as well as from some of his many well-wishers. Continue reading →

Bike sales are up, cycling is all over newspapers and magazines. We in Britain are in the middle of a bonafide bike boom. So says veteran cycling journalist Carlton Reid, who's writing a book about the bike boom, that's called, imaginatively, "Bike Boom". But fellow long-in-the-tooth cycling journalist John Stevenson of Road.CC disagrees. Cycling in Britain is far from booming, it's flat-lining. The pair lock horns on air, joining host Jack Thurston to debate the bike boom. Continue reading →

With the recent reawakening of interest in the Hour Record, host Jack Thurston is joined by Michael Hutchinson, a professional bike racer who has dominated the UK time trialling scene for more than a decade, setting national records for distances from 10 miles to 100 miles. He's also an accomplished writer and his latest book Faster: The Obsession, Science and Luck Behind the World's Fastest Cyclists documents with forensic detail and wry humour his career-long quest to ride his bicycle very, very fast. Jack and Michael also reveal the Listeners' Hour Challenge. Continue reading →

It's the toughest and longest standing record in cycling. Only a handful of people have attempted to break the record Tommy Godwin set in 1939 for the greatest distance ridden on a bike in one year. But this year two extraordinary cyclists are having a crack at it. In an in-depth interview with British long distance legend Steve Abraham, who is already almost six weeks into his record attempt, Jack Thurston finds out what kind of person takes on the challenge of riding an average of 205 miles for 365 days in a row. Author Dave Barter is on hand to put the year record in historical and sporting context. Continue reading →

Jack Thurston’s guest this week is self-confessed angry young man, Julian Sayarer, who, five years ago, set a new record for cycling around the world. Having taken a strong dislike to Mark Beaumont, the previous record-holder, whose record attempt was backed by big business and, according to Sayarer, represented everything that was wrong with the world. He wanted to beat Beaumont and take the record back ‘for the people’.  They meet on on the banks of the River Wye a few miles downstream from the city of Hereford. Julian Sayarer’s book Life Cycles is published by John Blake and available in paperback and on the Kindle.  Continue reading →

Statistics tell us that for the same distance travelled you're more likely to come to physical harm on a bike than on most other modes of transport. But even so, crashes are quite rare. Much more common yet much less studied and understood, are the almost crashes, the near misses, that are so much a part of the experience of cycling in Britain. The Near Miss Project is an academic-led study that seeks to find out more about the experience of near misses. Joining host Jack Thurston to look more deeply at near misses and perceptions of road safety among cyclists are Dr Rachel Aldred, of University of Westminster, Dr Kat Jungnickel of Goldsmiths College and John Dales, a leading UK traffic engineer and transport planner. Continue reading →

Jack Thurston is joined by a galaxy of stars from the world of cycling literature to pick over the cream of this year's crop of bike books. Nominating their cycling book of the year are Feargal McKay, Ned Boulting, Herbie Sykes, Daniel Friebe, Tom Southam, Richard Moore, Max Leonard and Emma O'Reilly. Guy Andrews, founding editor of Rouleur magazine, is on hand with his crystal ball to look at what cycling books we might expect in 2015 and years to come. Continue reading →

Electric bikes are a rapidly growing area of the bicycle industry, offering the promise of effortless two-wheeled travel. Professor Mark Miodownik of University College London tests a Smart E-bike (pictured, above) as part of an in-depth look at e-bike technologies, … Continue reading →

Jack rides with singer-songwriter and cycle-tourist Jet McDonald, setting out from Bristol on a summer evening, riding along the banks of the River Avon, through the industrial landscape of Avonmouth to the banks of the River Severn and beyond. Continue reading →

The Bike Show and the cycle clothing company Rapha share a birthday, and while The Bike Show keeps on keeping on, Rapha has grown into a global brand and is toasting its success on the Champs-Élysées as suppliers of clothing to the Sky Pro Cycling Team. Jack checks in with Laura Bower and James Fairbank at Rapha to talk about Chris Froome's fishnets and what the company is doing to encourage more women to ride bikes. Summer is festival time and Jack chews over the Rapha Tempest and the Eroica Britannia with Howard Smith, author of The Jersey Pocket cycling blog. Continue reading →

Klaus Bondam, Director of the Danish Cyclists Federation and former deputy mayor in charge of cycling in Copenhagen rides with 'Buffalo' Bill Chidley to the Hackney Cycling Conference. En route they try to find out how London's roads compare with cycling cities like Copenhagen. Then Bill joins Kieron Yates and Jack Thurston to discuss what happened at the conference, and where things are with the Mayor of London's much heralded cycling revolution. Continue reading →

Enjoying nature has always been one of the pleasures of cycling. This week we hear from two organisations working to protect and improve Britain's natural places. Andy Byfield of the charity Plantlife explains his charity's new campaign about road verges while Garfield Kennedy of the Woodland Trust, which manages hundreds of woods and forests across the country, explains why mountain-bikers and other cyclists are welcome in their woods. Continue reading →

In the opening week of the Giro d'Italia, or Tour of Italy, Feargal McKay joins Jack Thurston to cast a historian's view over the race, looking into its origins, its rivalry with the Tour de France and where the race is heading in the years to come. Continue reading →

In what may well be the biggest electoral campaign ever mounted by a cycle campaign group in Britain, Space for Cycling makes a very clear series of demands on candidates for local councils. To talk about Space for Cyclingand about the changing landscape of cycle campaigning is Ashok Sinha, chief executive of the London Cycling Campaign. Continue reading →

Cycling in the countryside can be an unparalleled joy. But too often fast, hostile roads and make it worse than cycling in Britain’s urban streets. What’s gone wrong? And more importantly, what can be done about it? Ralph Smyth, transport campaigner at the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, explains what the problems are and what his organisation is doing to improve conditions for cycling in the countryside. Continue reading →

New York Times reporter Juliet Macur has covered the Lance Armstrong doping story for almost a decade. Her bestselling new book Cycle of Lies, reveals how he won a record seven Tour de France victories and how the truth about his team's doping finally came out. We discuss whether cycling is cleaning up its act and the risks of sports journalists becoming over-invested in the success of the stars they report on. Continue reading →

Mary Erskine of the band Me for Queen talks about their forthcoming album 'Iron Horse', inspired by cycling. And Grant Young, MD of London's Condor Cycles explains why steel bikes are selling like hotcakes, and how the London firm is helping breathe new life into the Italian bicycle manufacturing scene. Continue reading →

Resonance FM needs your help to stay on air. Anyone who donates £2 or more to the station will receive a special edition of The Bike Show "A Night on a Bare Mountain". Continue reading →

What makes a 40-year-old man take up bike racing? Jack Thurston talks with Bill Strickland, American cycling journalist, author of a clutch of cycling books including a memoir, Ten Points, which tells of how his quest to make a mark on his local amateur bike racing scene helped him come to terms with his own inner demons caused by the torture he suffered as a child at the hands of an abusive father. Bill also talks about the fallout from the disgrace of Lance Armstrong, the state of doping in today's pro peloton and his #CapsNotHats campaign. Plus Jon Spencer tells of his journey to become a Super Randonneur. Continue reading →

In the middle of possibly the worst week for cycling fatalities in London Mike Cavenett of the London Cycling Campaign talks about what his organisation is doing to change things in the city and how an effective cycling campaign requires a single, simple message clearly and imaginatively presented, mass mobilisation and relentless pressure on political decision-makers Continue reading →

Hub gear manufacturer Sturmey Archer sits in the pantheon of iconic bicycle brands, most famous for its hugely popular three speed hub gears. Tony Hadland tells the intriguing story of the invention of the hub gear, a story of gifted … Continue reading →

For many cyclists, breaking through the 100 mile barrier opens up a whole new world of long distance cycling. Kieron Yates, a two time finisher of 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris, joins Jack Thurston to talk about the allure of going the distance, with advice from a handful of members of the global randonneuring scene. Continue reading →

Since the very earliest years of the bicycle, adventurous cyclists have been unable to resist the allure of the mountains - the challenge of riding up and the thrill of freewheeling down the other side. Mountains are also the crucible of many of the most dramatic moments in professional bike racing. Daniel Friebe and Pete Goding, the authors of 'Mountain Higher: Europe's Extreme, Undiscovered and Unforgettable Cycle Climbs' join host Jack Thurston to talk about the quest for ever more exhilarating climbs and breathtakingly beautiful places. In a podcast-only extra, Bill Chidley reports back from the Annual General Meeting of the London Cycling Campaign, where important details of the Space 4 Cycling campaign were agreed. Continue reading →

In the last show of the summer season, Jack goes for a leisurely spin around the Welsh borders with local cyclist Owen Davies as his guide, from Abergavenny to Monmouth and back, past Raglan Castle, Rockfield recording studios and the unlikely Welsh residence of the notorious Nazi politician Rudolf Hess. Continue reading →

This year's Tour de France was the hundredth edition of the world's biggest and best bicycle race - and it proved to be a race to remember. Jack Thurston talks with 'Buffalo' Bill Chidley about three weeks of outstanding bike racing. Next year the Tour will begin in Yorkshire and cycling journalist Peter Cossins is already excited about the race passing right by his house in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Continue reading →