Cycling UK Forum

gaz wrote:Nothing to do with the rebrand. From the Wayback machine the plug was pulled somewhere between August 2013 when the site was still live and March 2014 when it was re-directing to the main ctc website.

So nobody at national office have cared enough to resurrect it within two years? They've just left the link to a dead site on http://www.ctc.org.uk/scotland all that time. I wouldn't be surprised if our northern friends felt a bit insulted.

Oh and as for "anglocentric"... CUK ain't exactly strong in Anglia despite the numerous cycling-common cities and boroughs here

Got this link from Twitter.
http://www.cyclinguk.org/scotland

The linked page on Cycling UK describes CTC Scotland as a MG, that is the defunct link that mjr refers to. I don't know what the structure of CTC Scotland is but I'd expect it to be staff led, a National Office.

CTC Scotland has yet to rebrand it's own Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/CTC_Scot which seems exceedingly odd if it is run by Cycling UK staff.

Can anyone else now use the name CTC then, that would a lucky grab for some other cycling group?

WrightsW5 wrote:Can anyone else now use the name CTC then, that would a lucky grab for some other cycling group?

No as technically C.UK is a trading name of the CTC. The company/charity is still registered as the CTC.

Re some references to british cycling above, isn't it rather associated with sports cycling, and at times a partucularly macho flavour of it? Am afraid that after the olympics i associated it with hoy and his, er, "gamesmanship", in advocating deliberate falling off bikes. Maybe hoy bikes should come with stabilisers.

Someone needs to edit the alt and title attributes

As I lay awake all last night fretting the fate of CTC, the world, etc. I was thinking how even though the League of American Wheelmen has 'modernized' quite a bit (too much for me); at least they kept the wheel: http://languagedept.com/work/identity-s ... lists.html, and still actively use it (recall this was the source of the CTC's winged wheel -- and by the way, the LAW winged wheel badges go for quite higher prices offa eb, so I'm not yet sporting one!).

Then I thought we ought to be thankful that CUK hasn't (yet!) gone overboard (in this one case) and messed with the wheel... But don't get too comfy (cf: the cuk website about the 'rebranding' where they go on a bit about how important the ww is to them.)

They could, for instance, put it into the Ukrainian national colours, 'wObblize' the wheel's shape and remove the spokes, add a few wormy squiggles to replace the wings, then put the ctc - er, cuk letters, in the new turds-typeface inside (someone fast on illustrator!! - hurry, make one to show here, then copyright it before cuk does!!).

But as I always say (and did here the other day), that's the problem with the modern world and satire: you can't tell anymore what's satire, what's real, and how long one will stay the other. It's like a perpetual April 1st... I can't believe how many times a year I now mentally calculate the date to decide if it's April fools' day... Call it the '$#@!! everything, we're doing five blades' phenomenon.

(best and most clairvoyant satire that became truth: HHGTTG's 'smart' computer Eddie! ... man, did he ever get THAT one spot-on!)

/please call me Eddie if it will help you to relax

April the first - the one day of the year people critically evaluate things they read online...

If - as it seems - Cycling UK - lets forget the stupid "we are" bit for the time being - is a "wholly owned subsidiary" of the CTC then why cant the CTC remain as the umbrella organisation rather than the other way round? Then we could have Cycling uk - the campaigning arm of the CTC or Cycling UK the training arm of the CTC.
That way the tourists keep their cherished identity and the campaigners have the identity they feel they need to make an impact at a national level. The CTC has always been a campaigning organisation - lets not forget that but it mustn't be at the expense of its original identity.

I had just been about to purchase a CTC jersey for a trip to Holland, (but they seem to have disappeared) - would I want to wear one with "we are cycling uk" emblazoned on it NO! That logo is just embarrassing.

Looking purely at the branding issue (and putting to one side other misgivings) Cycling UK seems to me to be too close to British Cycling as a name, as though it is intended to compete with the latter. BC has a strong identity, based on the sport side of cycling. Cycling UK is more shapeless as a concept. The name provides no clarification about its nature. Time, I think, for BC and CUK to amalgamate and cover all their interest areas together.

Whatever happened to the National Cycling Association idea of a name?

Mick F wrote:Whatever happened to the National Cycling Association idea of a name?

There are quite a few aspects to the change I think are bad. One is the name (CUK). I think that National Cycling Association is a name I would find OK (though I'd still be unhappy about the other changes and unhappy about the cost and resource spent when the organisation should be focusing on cycling and not getting wrapped-up in "management speak").

Ian

Mick F wrote:Whatever happened to the National Cycling Association idea of a name?

I'd have two reservations with that: it's confusingly close to "CycleNation" who CTC had a collaboration agreement with and ran joint annual conferences with; and Association would imply members rather than the charity-and-powerless-supporters model which CTC has been moving towards, mainly through incentivising groups and members to reduce to affiliates. Despite that, it's probably marginally better than CUK, though.

hujev wrote:As I lay awake all last night fretting the fate of CTC, the world, etc. I was thinking how even though the League of American Wheelmen has 'modernized' quite a bit (too much for me); at least they kept the wheel: http://languagedept.com/work/identity-s ... lists.html, and still actively use it (recall this was the source of the CTC's winged wheel -- and by the way, the LAW winged wheel badges go for quite higher prices offa eb, so I'm not yet sporting one!).

I'd forgotten about that! I think there are some other parallel's to the CTC's situation. When the League of American Wheelmen changed their name to League of American Bicyclists, they took a poll of the whole club. The vote came out in favour of retaining the old name, 'The League of American Wheelmen'.

The council changed the name, anyway, maybe three or four months after the vote. I think this was in '93 or '94 (I can't be bothered ot look it up). I had my first real job out of engineering school & had just joined LAW (I was too skint as a student to join). I probably don't need to tell any forum regulars which way I voted

p.s. LAB has reverted to their winged wheel