Top Gear Cycling piece

[J4CKO]

Cant argue with any of that, very fair and much better than I could have imagined they would do, suspect riding round our nations capital gave them a decent insight.

[Kermit power]

J4CKO said:

Cant argue with any of that, very fair and much better than I could have imagined they would do, suspect riding round our nations capital gave them a decent insight.

I'm just watching it now recorded (Hammond just doing the Porsche bit), so I assume there may be some more to come, but from what I've seen so far, I really can't understand what Boardman and co thought they stood to gain???

[y2blade]

I enjoyed it, some genuinely funny moments


Yes I'm a cyclist (obviously, otherwise I'd not have posted on this thread in here).

[anonymous-user]

Personally I thought it was a waste of time and in poor taste given the number of cyclists killed in the last few months, to condense all that into an obvious "you cycle because you are poor" routine is sad. The glib, throwaway comments were old cliche stereotypes, the fact that they were given space by cars and taxis is most likely due to the range rover camera car twenty yards ahead of them, and all that from a man who spun a car on an, albeit wet, straight piece of tarmac some 10 minutes earlier in the show and proceeded to blame the car!??!?! Yeah I probably need to get a sense of humour but for thousands of motorists, he has reinforced their bigoted opinions on cyclists which does no one any good... thanks for my inch.

[Johnnytheboy]

London buses didn't do themselves any favours, did they?

[J4CKO]

pablo said:

Personally I thought it was a waste of time and in poor taste given the number of cyclists killed in the last few months, to condense all that into an obvious "you cycle because you are poor" routine is sad. The glib, throwaway comments were old cliche stereotypes, the fact that they were given space by cars and taxis is most likely due to the range rover camera car twenty yards ahead of them, and all that from a man who spun a car on an, albeit wet, straight piece of tarmac some 10 minutes earlier in the show and proceeded to blame the car!??!?! Yeah I probably need to get a sense of humour but for thousands of motorists, he has reinforced their bigoted opinions on cyclists which does no one any good... thanks for my inch.

I thought they did a good job considering where they are coming from and the type they are generally appealing to.

[anonymous-user]

Yeah it probably wasnt that bad, but like many Top Gear things, it could have been so much better... the centre of London is dare I say it, actually quite used to cyclists, there are hundreds of them riding around all day. Clarkson would have been better heading out to one of the towns in Surrey or Hampshire to see what sort of treatment they get which would be more representative of cycling in Britain... moan over!

[NicD]

Belly laughed!

a first for me and TG.

[anonymous-user]

I've just come up with a better idea for Mays playground footage.

The same footage, but ending with the tag line "Give our medical and emergency services the day off. Look, before you move"

[Kermit power]

Well, having seen the whole thing, I thought Boardman and the other two made themselves figures of ridicule for absolutely no discernible reason.

I suspect cycling forums will be laying in to them for setting back the cause of cycling in London, and I'd say they'd be quite right to do so.

[TheCarFather]

and all that from a man who spun a car on an, albeit wet, straight piece of tarmac some 10 minutes earlier in the show and proceeded to blame the car!??!?!
[/quote]
The car aquaplaned, nothing he could've done about it..

[ro55a]

I bet all the families that have recently lost loved ones in cycle related RTAs would have literally been pissing themselves with laughter, especially the film with the crushed bike laying by the side of the road, sooo funny, but hey ho, freedom of speech and all that, can't be too sensitive eh?, Top Gear wkers!

[sjg]

It was just lazy and playing up to the idiotic end of the TG viewership. Surprised (and a bit disappointed) that James May was just playing along - he's been riding a Brompton around London for many years. Felt like filler in an otherwise pretty good episode.

[paranoid airbag]

J4CKO said:

pablo said:

Personally I thought it was a waste of time and in poor taste given the number of cyclists killed in the last few months, to condense all that into an obvious "you cycle because you are poor" routine is sad. The glib, throwaway comments were old cliche stereotypes, the fact that they were given space by cars and taxis is most likely due to the range rover camera car twenty yards ahead of them, and all that from a man who spun a car on an, albeit wet, straight piece of tarmac some 10 minutes earlier in the show and proceeded to blame the car!??!?! Yeah I probably need to get a sense of humour but for thousands of motorists, he has reinforced their bigoted opinions on cyclists which does no one any good... thanks for my inch.

I thought they did a good job considering where they are coming from and the type they are generally appealing to.

+1.

[555 Paul]

It brought the life of the cyclist to the masses and highlighted the dangers that they face and they did it in an entertaining manor so what's not to like? Most motorists have no idea what it's like to cycle on the road these days but now they have an insight into it.

Jeez some of you guys take it too seriously, chill out and enjoy life.

[garrykiller]

I thought it was quite funny, it was a little tongue in cheek but they also raised a few good points with the buses.

I am sure there will be a few people in the cycling community who will be banging on Clarkson’s door this morning.

[upsidedownmark]

555 Paul said:

It brought the life of the cyclist to the masses and highlighted the dangers that they face and they did it in an entertaining manor so what's not to like? Most motorists have no idea what it's like to cycle on the road these days but now they have an insight into it.

Jeez some of you guys take it too seriously, chill out and enjoy life.

This.

I'm quite sure Boardman et-al went into it with their eyes open; as to what it achieves: AWARENESS. Plain and simple - "There's no such thing as bad publicity."

Plenty of people are killed in cars, and in other mundane ways, many of which are not their fault, every day. Yes we should do what we can to minimise that, but behaving like it's a big conspiracy against cyclists every time someone dies is a bit silly.

[Kell]

For years, when anyone else has a go at TG for doing a half-arsed job, my response has always been:

They're doing it for entertainment, if you wanted a genuine review read TG magazine or better still, seek out user reviews.

So by my own criteria "What did you (I) expect?"

Unfortunately, being a cyclist in London, I just see it as a missed opportunity.

[Johnnytheboy]

Kell said:

For years, when anyone else has a go at TG for doing a half-arsed job, my response has always been:

They're doing it for entertainment, if you wanted a genuine review read TG magazine or better still, seek out user reviews.

So by my own criteria "What did you (I) expect?"

Unfortunately, being a cyclist in London, I just see it as a missed opportunity.

I wonder if anyone has ever sat down to watch an episode of TG saying "this episode has a feature with direct relevance to something I own/do" and not come away disappointed?

[Podie]

As I posted on the other thread about this...

Take the TG "humour" out of it, and what did we get?

• If a cyclist is courteous, they are shown similar courtesy
• Bus drivers cut you up - a lot - and something really needs to be done about that
• Other road users hate cyclists jumping red lights
• You need to maintain a bike properly
• Drivers should give cyclists some room

Actually, I'd say that was spot on.