 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
This might be quite interesting:
Gregg Wallace explores the largest bicycle factory in Britain, which produces 150 folding bicycles every 24 hours, and joins a multi-stage manual production line to make his very own bike. He learns how to put together 1,200 individual parts and attempt to braze a bike frame together using extreme heat of a thousand degrees, a skill that takes years to master. He also visits a leather saddlemaker in Birmingham that has been making saddles for 150 years and discovers how they use cowhide from UK and Ireland cows because the cold weather means they have thicker skins.
Meanwhile, Cherry Healey gets some tips from Cycling Team GB to help us all improve our pedal power, including how lowering your body position can make a 10% improvement to speed and efficiency. She also learns how to paint a bike frame fit for the British weather using an electrostatic charge and a 180 degree hot oven, and investigates why cyclists and trucks are such a deadly combination - in London alone there have been 66 fatalities since 2011 and half of them were collisions with a truck.
And historian Ruth Goodman reveals that folding bikes date back to the 1870s and discovers how 70,000 folding 'parabikes' were manufactured during World War II, some of which played a role in the D-Day landings. She also finds out how the invention of the safety bicycle in the late 1880s was used by Suffragettes to ride to rallies and spread the word in their fight for equality.
Cheers for that. 🙂
Apart from his annoying fat cockney face and inane dribble ruining the show.
Greg Wallace's script...
"Awesome!"
"Amazing!"
"I'd never have believed it!"
"You went from that to that!"
"No Way!"
...repeat in various configurations!
Cowhide doesn't get tougher than this!
Can't help thinking that clashing a program about bike making with the Olympic cycling on the other side might limit the viewing numbers.
Another potentially good show ruined by the presenter.
I found last weeks programme about the baked beans absolutely fascinating!
"REPEATS WORD FOR WORD EVERYTHING FACTORY WORKER HAS JUST TOLD ME!!"
Ugh why Wallace?
On now.
22 Bromptons an hour?! Corr limey
22 BROMPTONS AN HOUR?!
etc
That half-bike thing looks great. Could imagine cycling that to the shops with a rucksack on to do the shopping...
That half-bike thing looks great.
Until you have to slam the brakes on and do a face plant!
Looks like it is rear wheel braking only - presumably for that exact reason.
"[i]...1,200 individual parts...[/i]"
Does that include individual ball bearings and chain links, bits that are assembled into units by a machine on the other side of the world before arriving at the Brompton factory ?
I suppose if they're building their wheels on site there's a decent number of parts there but the bods on the assembly line aren't dealing with 1200.
I was looking forward to the program, but it was really dull! Yawn!
Actually it was a cunning combination - get the missus interested as she would like a brompton and to ride a bit quicker, but in actual fact the goal is to get her to see the safety bit so that maybe she will consider riding with more situational awareness than a rock.
Thought I would give it a go, and watched the crisp episode first.
It's just too painful. Why do we need to be talked down like we're idiots? Why do we have to involve the public in some crazy vox pop street test stuff? Just do it like a normal ****ing documentary.
Quote of the episode: "I find buying potatoes daunting".
*stomps off to BBC4*
Anybody watching? Really really want some biccies now. Shame Greg Wallace makes me want to vomit.
Yes watched because my home town made a showing tonight. Good ole Huntly and Palmers. Also really want a packet of biscuits now! Never buy the things though so will have to make do with some dark choc with salt.
Shit the bed. There's millions of biscuits around the corner from my house. 😯