Cycle mag

rotavator
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by rotavator »

mediumbird wrote:Pedant alert: just received the Feb/March 2021 mag. Slightly concerned that they can’t even spell pedalling correctly....or is it me? Headline article on “keep peddling”.....is that not to sell illicit goods.... :lol:


Yes, that is what I thought at first then I figured that it might be a double entendre, or pun or something like that, in that it is about the success of the bike industry selling or peddling more stuff than usual during the pandemic.
mediumbird
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by mediumbird »

rotavator, you are more generous than me :D . I did wonder that as well. So bikes are now illicit goods :lol:
Tim Holman
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by Tim Holman »

Our poor old fashioned langwidge is definately being dealt a blow by the flashes of lightening that orientate our ears as we listen to our CD's and LP's while peddling into the sunset with the Cyclists' (sic) Touring Club as was and ever will be, world without end. Mea maxima culpa.
KTHSullivan
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by KTHSullivan »

A former colleague of mine, once replied to a local college seeking someone with "a full spectre of engineering experience". He dutifully informed said college that "he thought he was eminently suitable for the post, as when in the RAF he had worked on phantoms". Needless to say he never got a reply.
Just remember, when you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed. :lol:
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Traction_man
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by Traction_man »

My copy arrived today, completely soaked, it's now dry but wrinkly...

IMG_20210205_104323470.jpg


I like the mag, there are no 'normal' cycling magazines on the shelves, just ones for sporty types or mountain bike types, I'm neither of those.

I just wish the mag was longer or more frequent, and better packaged for the post...

Cheers,

Keith
PH
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by PH »

mediumbird wrote:rotavator, you are more generous than me :D . I did wonder that as well. So bikes are now illicit goods :lol:

I thought it was so obviously a pun I'm a little surprised that anyone genuinely thought it was some error and I think you might need a better dictionary, as many items are peddled that are not illicit.

Just flicked through the magazine so far, plenty in it that I'm looking forward to reading.
PH
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by PH »

Traction_man wrote:My copy arrived today, completely soaked, it's now dry but wrinkly...
Keith

I hope you complain to RM, waterproofing mail shouldn't be the responsibility of the sender, I'm glad it's not wrapped in plastic.
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Traction_man
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by Traction_man »

PH wrote:
Traction_man wrote:My copy arrived today, completely soaked, it's now dry but wrinkly...
Keith

I hope you complain to RM, waterproofing mail shouldn't be the responsibility of the sender, I'm glad it's not wrapped in plastic.


I have indeed, it's affected other stuff I've received lately, though the weather here has been atrocious.

I'm sure there's some sort of biodegradable packaging that doesn't disintegrate so readily as the paper used for sending out the mag...

All the best,

Keith
Gade
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by Gade »

When my wife and myself saw the headline in the latest mag ‘Touring through Bavaria’ in 1937 we felt a sense of misgiving.

My father escaped from a Nazi prison camp in Poland and was lucky to make it alive to Britain. I know what his response would have been to this apparent endorsement on the growth of Nazism in Germany at the time.

This was the height of Fascism in Germany and the concentration camps were in existence. The author’s father can be forgiven for being naïve and not knowing what was going on in Germany. My mother-in-law who was Jewish and a socialist, was well aware of what was going on at the time as reports were coming out of Germany. However to talk about a group of Hitler Youth fellow travellers as ‘brudders’ without any comment on the role of Hitler’s youth in the fascist policies of Hitler is unbelievable. I am sure I’m not alone when I felt a chill in my stomach when I saw the picture of the 4 Hitler’s Youth members in uniform. Are you really not aware of its Aryan ideology? The only comment in the article was wondering what happened to those four Hitler Youth who the authors father and friends had embraced. No reflection on the historical context other than it was 2 years before the outbreak of 2nd WW.

What was the editor thinking when he read this article and allowed it to be published. The reference and photos to the Hitler Youths could have been excluded without affecting the narrative of the tour. Why hasn't the editor ensured some critical comment was made on the dreadful political situation in Nazi Germany that led to WWII?

Those"brudders"would have paid to join the Hitler Youth [it was only truly compulsory when it became free in 1939]. Hitler Youth were indoctrinated and used as conduits for Nazi ideology into families and all that meant for the incarceration and death of trade unionists, socialists, Jews and all those who stood in their way.
Trois
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by Trois »

Gade - you are not alone in finding the editorial approach to the 1937 tour article misplaced. I was so concerned that I wrote to the editor. I am aware of at least two other members who have also written. I have copied my letter and Dan Joyce's dismissive reply below:

My letter:

I was surprised and disappointed to read in the article 'An Interwar Tour' [Cycle, February/March 2021] that 'Germany...all looked so peaceful and well ordered as they passed through.' While this may have been the impression gained by a group of young cyclists in 1937, the repetition without any contextualisation in 2021 shows a remarkable degree of editorial insensitivity.

We now know that the dictatorship established in 1933 had already opened a network of concentration camps and that 'order' was being maintained through terror. The young tourists' naivety is excusable, the unqualified repetition of their impression eighty years later rather less so.

Dan Joyce's reply:

Thanks for writing. I think the context is provided the date of the tour and the knowledge that those on the tour had then. I would expect every reader today to be well aware of what the Nazis were and did, and would be flabbergasted if anyone thought that either the article or Cycle itself were ‘pro Nazi’.

Best wishes

Dan Joyce
Editor, Cycle magazine

I was not convinced by his 'every reader' line and consider he missed the point about the lack of sensitivity
thirdcrank
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by thirdcrank »

By coincidence, the cUK website is having a moan about IPSO.

Press watchdog needs to show its teeth over misleading photos

https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/press-wa ... ing-photos
Trois
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by Trois »

thirdcrank wrote:By coincidence, the cUK website is having a moan about IPSO.

Press watchdog needs to show its teeth over misleading photos

https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/press-wa ... ing-photos


Ha! Very well observed.
Gade
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by Gade »

Hi #Trois #thirdcrank

Apparently Cycle Mag is contracted out to a publisher.
I presume it is they that appointed Joyce who I understand is a freelance journalist.

Whoever in Cycling UK is responsible for the oversight of the magazine needs to take this up.
As it stands it is causing reputational damage and will lead to loss of members.

They need to protect Cycling UK's good name.
thirdcrank
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by thirdcrank »

Dan Joyce has been the editor of this mag for over twenty years.

I think it's important to note that there's no direct connection between this forum and cUK, in the sense that when the forum was established it was made clear by the then CTC leadership that posting on here was not a means of communicating with the CTC and in particular, CTC staff would not be monitoring it, even less replying officially to points raised.

I think that the point recently made about the portrayal of aspects of pre-war Germany is important. I fancy that the reason the latest part of this tread has raised so little comment on here is that this mag itself is not seen as what may be described as a big issue. ie a thread titled "Cycle mag" is not a crowd-puller.

I mentioned the (toothless) press watch-doggy. DJ has had a letter to the editor and replied. FWIW, I don't doubt that that reply ticks all the boxes.

This mag is in an unreal position in that as it's "given away" with cUK membership, it's not directly market-sensitive: the circulation is unaffected by readers' views on its content. That may change. CUK has apparently been wrestling with the notional value of member benefits in connection with Gift Aid relief on subscriptions. The cover price of the mag must be quite significant in this calculation.
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Philip Benstead
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Re: Cycle mag

Post by Philip Benstead »

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/buddy

Etymology 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 ... 0140911677
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_Trilogy

So, 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
Philip Benstead | Life Member Former CTC Councillor/Trustee
Organizing events and representing cyclists' in southeast since 1988
Bikeability Instructor/Mechanic
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