Cycling in Sydney Australia
let's challenge SBS
Did you get hooked into watching the Veledrome race coverage? I watched more than I planned. It occurred to me that it's high time SBS, which calls itself, Bike Central, devoted some substantial coverage to utility cycling.
Racing is all well and good, but its not going change our world for the better as we know that using bikes as transport, surely can. I don't have to list the ways. You know them already.
My specific challenge to SBS, which I spell out on my blog, http://situp-cycle.com, is to do an in-depth look as the public bikes of London, in the lead up to the Olympics
. Find out why there are working better than expected. Delve their ability to bring non riders to the idea of bikes as transport.Ask the key question, why cant we have the same?
Think this is a fair challenge? Then support it, please. Add your own variant on the utility bike story that you'd like SBS to get their teeth into .
To prime the pump further, I add this cut down version of one of my films, now called. The Return of the Speedwells.
Tags: Boris, Olympics, SBS, TV, bike, bikes, coverage, cycling, of, public, More…
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by DamianM on -
On this site (and everywhere else) we hear a lot of complaints about how the insidious marketing of sports cycling is hurting utility and transport cycling.
So why would a show aimed at covering sports cycling want to cover transport cycling in depth when the advocates for that are so vocal about not wanting anything to do with the "lycra brigade" ?
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Permalink Reply by Mike Rubbo on -
I think sports cycling is hurting in the sense that it takes so much space so that there's none left for other types of cycling.
I noticed that the Adelaide cycle company advertizing on SBS, , boasts of providing everything for every type of riding
And yet none of the bikes they showed came close to what 90% of people in the world ride for getting around. Not a single upright bike. Not a single Speedwell type like our Mums rode.
I have nothing against sports cyclist as long as they are prepared to share media space as well as the roads.
Younger riders, now very fit and fast, should see the logic of keeping people on slow situp bikes into their old age. The taxes they pay are going to have to support the ballooning older demographic. The sicker this group is, the more you younger ones will have to pay.
Right now the number of Aussie 70 and 80 years olds on bikes is miniscule whereas in big bike using countries, many are riding and staying healthy. This needs to be promoted for everyone's interest
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Permalink Reply by Si on -
I think sports cycling is hurting in the sense that it takes so much space so that there's none left for other types of cycling.
Eh? Is there any cycling programing concentrated on utility cycling anywhere in the world? I mean seriously how many variations of...
"So Bazza, where did you ride to today?"
"Work."
"And after that!?"
"Home"
"And Sheryl, what about you?"
"Shops"
"And what did you buy!"
"Milk and bread"
"And how did you carry it home?"
"In a basket on a rear rack"
...can their be?
Seriously, what is there to discuss that people other than utter bike geeks would be into watching without falling asleep?
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Permalink Reply by Bob Moore on -
A bit of controversy maybe? Shane Warne comments or latest from AGF, it needn't be dull. I mean BMX racing is dull.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Rubbo on
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Have you seen Bicycle thieves? Lives hang on an old beat up bike in that classic
. In this movie, http://youtu.be/Sb9jiIlN8fQ, I introduce Olive Riley who rode a bike for transport much of her long life Olive lived till 108. In the 1920's, she rushed her son Barnie to a distant doctor, he with a terrible earache. She dinked him on the crossbar.
Go back a bit further to the 1890's and then through to the teens, and you find that the shearers and gold miners all used bikes, their swags wrapped over the front forks. Despite the non existent roads, the bike was superior to the horse. It didn't have to drink and had a much greater range. I bet there's still drama to be found in the get-around bike.
Cars feature all the time in the media but how interesting is a car?
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Permalink Reply by sit ubu sit on
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Aw c'mon- if Bazza lived in Leach St, and worked at Bastion Printers, his daily commute would be the...
Leach-Bastion-Leach!
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Permalink Reply by baa baa on -
http://www.scalextric.com/shop/london-2012-games/scalextric-velodro...
Cant wait for the sleepness nights once the utility cycling version comes out.
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Permalink Reply by herzog on -
I actually think Mike's idea is a good one.
Note he didn't actually say they should do it as a segment on their Cycling Central program. He was saying that SBS should do a program on utility cycling. (See the linked Blog post).
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Permalink Reply by Bob Moore on
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You never know, SBS might be receptive to some general interest stories such as the London city bikes during the Lympics., or controversy about cycleways in Sydney . There is a fair overlap between sports cycling and advocacy these days, witness AGF , Ocean Beach, Shane Warne, Centennial Park. It would be worth a good pitch to them to include more of this on CC, and it wouldn't be hard to include more on their website. A link to Sydney Cyclist would be a start. But maybe then the punters mightn't hang around CC site and buy stuff.
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Go ahead, but "Cycling Central" (as it is correctly called) is a show (plus associated website etc) that purposely focusses on cycling as a sport. It would be a bit like asking Channel 7 to include aspects of car commuting during their coverage of the Bathurst 1000. Not necessarily a bad idea, but it just isn't going to happen.
If I was you I'd suggest talking to them about the great job they do in publicising cycling in Australia, but that CC broadly on one aspect of cycling, and as an organisation that supports cycling, could they see a place for having coverage of non-sport-related cycling in Australia? Or perhaps, is there room in CC to cover non-sport cycling?
The problem is that CC preaches to the converted - the people who watch it are (in the main) cyclists. Probably recreational sports cyclists, but like me, also a utility cyclist to some degree.
Truth be told, to achieve your aim you'd be better off going to one of the motoring shows (there used to be some) and get them to cover cycling. This would help "normalise" it as a viable transport option to the masses more than having a segment on CC - remembering their audience are by and large already bike riders.
I hate to say it, but I imagine the producers of any motoring show would laugh you out the door. But I support you in giving it a go. Remember, what you'll need to do is pitch the idea to whoever showing them what's in it for them, and what they're missing out on - not why you want them to do it for you.
© 2013 Created by DamianM.
