pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

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simonineaston
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pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by simonineaston »

screenshot of bike shape
screenshot of bike shape
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
Stoneybatter
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by Stoneybatter »

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Last edited by Stoneybatter on 20 Aug 2022, 1:08pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Chris Jeggo
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by Chris Jeggo »

Wot, no pedals?
peetee
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by peetee »

simonineaston wrote: 18 Aug 2022, 10:07pm Screenshot 2022-08-18 at 22.05.51.png
Poised at that angle it needs - to give the picture a proper European look - a distressed rider mid-flight and looking worried for its destiny superimposed on the UK and a gorse bush on Eire.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
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Cugel
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by Cugel »

In what way do these rather infantile antics encourage anyone to take climate change or cycling "more seriously"? Isn't it just another empty gesture at best; a lookitme at worst? It's all overlaid with some far-fetched PR claim to be doing good, but ...... Will thousands now be scrapping their cars and buying bikes, as they stop flying on holidays to spend the money on solar panels instead? I'm guessing not.

Cugel the cynic.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
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simonineaston
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by simonineaston »

Oh Cugel, you're almost as cynical, world-weary and defeated-sounding as I am! Maybe their effort is all for nought, maybe nobody at all will take any notice of what they've done - but I think we must both agree, they probably had great fun doing it! :D see their story here
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
Jdsk
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by Jdsk »

simonineaston wrote: 18 Aug 2022, 10:07pm Image
: - )

Jonathan
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squeaker
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by squeaker »

Interesting ('home built') bikes, especially the dog carrier (which uses cable steering). Chapeau! 8)
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pwa
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by pwa »

Cugel wrote: 19 Aug 2022, 9:36am In what way do these rather infantile antics encourage anyone to take climate change or cycling "more seriously"? Isn't it just another empty gesture at best; a lookitme at worst? It's all overlaid with some far-fetched PR claim to be doing good, but ...... Will thousands now be scrapping their cars and buying bikes, as they stop flying on holidays to spend the money on solar panels instead? I'm guessing not.

Cugel the cynic.
On the other hand, they were probably having a nice time on their bikes, just as you do, but with a project going at the same time. Something to do, but with a message. Perhaps if they hadn't been doing that they would just have had another bike trek but with no pattern to it. I can't see any harm in it, unless they ran up carbon emissions on flights etc.
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Cugel
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by Cugel »

pwa wrote: 19 Aug 2022, 10:32am
Cugel wrote: 19 Aug 2022, 9:36am In what way do these rather infantile antics encourage anyone to take climate change or cycling "more seriously"? Isn't it just another empty gesture at best; a lookitme at worst? It's all overlaid with some far-fetched PR claim to be doing good, but ...... Will thousands now be scrapping their cars and buying bikes, as they stop flying on holidays to spend the money on solar panels instead? I'm guessing not.

Cugel the cynic.
On the other hand, they were probably having a nice time on their bikes, just as you do, but with a project going at the same time. Something to do, but with a message. Perhaps if they hadn't been doing that they would just have had another bike trek but with no pattern to it. I can't see any harm in it, unless they ran up carbon emissions on flights etc.
Well .... the "harm" is the trivialisation of an issue that requires some extremely serious and radical fixes if these issues are not to utterly transform the planet for the worse - worse not just for we humans but a lot of other life forms. "Ah, isn't that clever, funny, nice, etc.. I might take a flight to Italy (rather than Cyprus) to do a similar thing". It's all a bit of a larf, eh?

It often dismays me that purported media champions of taking many such issues seriously, such as The Guardian, are full of contradictory trivia about the best foreign place to fly for a holiday, the best gizmo products to buy and throw in the landfill so another can be bought, and all the other distracting elements of The Spectacle that lull us into a state of childish comfort, as we suck at the media-blankey and go "Ahhh" at the pretty pictures and amusing antics.

But perhaps it's just my new model skepticism, aka cynicism. I find it more and more difficult to take even myself seriously, as I sit here passively with everyone else waiting for doom to sweep away everything we know & love, from the environment to "peace in our time" to the well-being of my children & grandchildren. We'll all be reading mass media pap about someone making map-pictures of the atom bomb that just went off in Pakistan or the shape of the latest virus that's about to wipe us out with the latest in wens and bubos!

Cugel, probably just having an angst attack.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
mattheus
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by mattheus »

simonineaston wrote: 19 Aug 2022, 9:44am Oh Cugel, you're almost as cynical, world-weary and defeated-sounding as I am! Maybe their effort is all for nought, maybe nobody at all will take any notice of what they've done - but I think we must both agree, they probably had great fun doing it! :D see their story here
They have entertained thousands. (I'm sure some are entertained by Cugel's charming and unique CUK forum posts, but I fear they have a slightly smaller audience.)

I have no doubt that many took notice, some were inspired, and MAYBE a few have been moved to do something useful with their lives (even if only for an hour or two - but who knows).

In this often bleak world - where so many become as "world-weary" as Simon and Cugel - are spectacles such as this not of value?
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Cugel
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by Cugel »

mattheus wrote: 19 Aug 2022, 3:04pm
simonineaston wrote: 19 Aug 2022, 9:44am Oh Cugel, you're almost as cynical, world-weary and defeated-sounding as I am! Maybe their effort is all for nought, maybe nobody at all will take any notice of what they've done - but I think we must both agree, they probably had great fun doing it! :D see their story here
They have entertained thousands. (I'm sure some are entertained by Cugel's charming and unique CUK forum posts, but I fear they have a slightly smaller audience.)

I have no doubt that many took notice, some were inspired, and MAYBE a few have been moved to do something useful with their lives (even if only for an hour or two - but who knows).

In this often bleak world - where so many become as "world-weary" as Simon and Cugel - are spectacles such as this not of value?
Of course. Let's "have fun" as we burn, absorb the radiation or offer ourselves up as virus-fud. If everyone makes a cycling map picture of a unicorn, we'll soon be on those sunlit uplands! :-)

Cugel, still trying to get Western Power to allow batteries and more solar panels. (I suspect there are CEOs & shareholders vetoing the notion).
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
mattheus
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by mattheus »

Cugel wrote: 19 Aug 2022, 3:35pm Of course. Let's "have fun" as we burn, absorb the radiation or offer ourselves up as virus-fud. If everyone makes a cycling map picture of a unicorn, we'll soon be on those sunlit uplands! :-)
Of course, if everyone got their kicks from micturating on others, wouldn't the world be a lovely happy place! :-)

Imagine a world full of wise-yet-cynical Cugels, competing to put each-other down in ever more flowery language; like a more educated Steptoe-and-Son.
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simonineaston
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by simonineaston »

I agree with cugel in that the time for radical, unthinkable, coordinated action on several fronts is upon us. But as far as I can tell, none of that's going to happen in time for us to reach the safety we all fondly imagine we have a right to... but hey, I'm just a tiny, miniscule, insignificant speck in the soup of life - nothing I do, say or think makes any difference to anything.
But the pedallers who drew the bike are young enough and hopeful enough to think otherwise. Good for them. I wish them tons of Good Luck... they're going to need it. At least they have the bravura/energy/optimism to try something.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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Cugel
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Re: pedal, pedal, pedal - it's a bike !

Post by Cugel »

simonineaston wrote: 20 Aug 2022, 10:16am I agree with cugel in that the time for radical, unthinkable, coordinated action on several fronts is upon us. But as far as I can tell, none of that's going to happen in time for us to reach the safety we all fondly imagine we have a right to... but hey, I'm just a tiny, miniscule, insignificant speck in the soup of life - nothing I do, say or think makes any difference to anything.
But the pedallers who drew the bike are young enough and hopeful enough to think otherwise. Good for them. I wish them tons of Good Luck... they're going to need it. At least they have the bravura/energy/optimism to try something.
Well, hard to disagree that the pedalling ones themselves are, at worst, just a bit naive in thinking their "drawing" will persuade anyone of anything. It might persuade the climate deniers and cyclist haters to do a bit more of both, mind. "Bluddy tree-hugging cyclists". :-)

My objection is to the use of such doings to fill newspaps with "have fun and a larf" messages, along with those mind-deadening sleb stories that displace more pungent news concerning the various options for imminent doom. No need to care about changing your habits in ways to reduce your carbon footprint, as what some eejit off a not-reality idiotbox show did is much more important. And Shapzy is going to get them bluddy cyclists so let's vote for him despite that swivel-eyed spivy look.

Down the banks we all go, singing and chuckling and going "lah lah lah" at anything unpleasant, living our one lives (for just a bit longer ... we hope).

Cugel.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
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