Carlton green wrote:Philip Benstead wrote:Please explain what you want in the magazine in more detail.
I’ve been a bit critical of the magazine in the past but this one seemed sort of OK if missing some opportunities to support ordinary cyclists. What’s an ordinary cyclist? Well, to be fair, cyclists do vary a lot and I might be on the extremes myself but by ordinary I mean the man or women who commutes by bike or otherwise has it as a form of transport that’s integral to their life in a practical and recreational way (though not ‘really’ including sport).
Did the feature in £4K Tandems give me value? No, not really as such a spend is outside of my perceptions of reasonable - anyone wanting me to change my perceptions is advise to ‘go away’. Do the features in products interest me, again it’s no as they’re well away from the budgets of ordinary cyclists. What did I like? Well, yes, the feature on King Alfred’s way was of interest and I read the letters page. I liked the article on the Highway Code and responsibilities. I kept the articles on lights and child seats for my file, not that they’re particularly good but rather a start point.
I’d really love to see an article in each mag about a rider’s sub £200 (resale value) bike that they have keep on the road with a minimal spend, that’s my type of cycling and it is rarely represented in the mag. Articles that talk you through someone’s day out on say a fixed gear or three speed bike would be enjoyable to read and better inspire people to attempt and likely do what’s within their reach. Be liberated and explore on the bike you have or can afford, and if you can afford ‘better’ then be even more inspired to have a go on your easier to propel velocipede.
Articles on disabled cyclists don’t always interest me much but one comment grabbed my attention. ‘What does cycling mean to you’ got the response ‘cycling means freedom for me’. That, my friends, hit the nail squarely on the head for me! Via the benefits of accessible transport Cycling is fundamentally about giving people freedom(s) in their daily lives that open up their horizons, and that (experience of and facilitation of) is, IMHO, what ‘our mag’ should be primarily about. Have a bike, have mobility, have a better life - and the moderate exercise can be good for you too.
I have read the article about cycle touring in interwar Germany.
I think the continuous point is the use of the word BUDDIES and the PHOTOGRAPH.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/buddyEtymology 1[edit]
1802, colloquial butty (“companion”), also the form of an older dialect term meaning workmate, associated with coal mining. Itself believed derived from 1530 as booty fellow, a partner with whom one shares booty or loot.[1] Alternatively, an alteration of brother.[2][3]
I asked a friend and ex-colleague and a CTC member (about 50 years of age) his view on the article, he said that it was historical and was not upset by it. BTW my friend is called Zvi and is a practising Jew from Israel.
The photograph I believe had two members of the Hitler Youth, how did you not know they may have forced to join because the German Boy Scots were merged into the Hitler Youth.
After passing of the enabling Acts all organisations (cycling clubs, Boy Scouts, sewing circle were converted into National Socialist version of their former self.
This article as in all subjects can/may upset somebody. The magazine has IMHO been going downhill for years rather poor in content for quite some time, being used as a marketing tool instead of information provider or frank exchange of views. If we blow to pressure to not have contentious articles, then the sloop of decline is assured.
Just a point I have read The Third Reich Trilogy
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Third-Reich-Tr ... 0140911677https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_TrilogySo, I aware of the events accruing before the coming to power of AH and the events from 1933 to the start of the war in 1939.
BTW Are people aware of the activities of IBM during the 1930’s and the 1940’s in Germany?
I suggest you this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust