^
yeah, I would have liked to have seen hubs factory, or at least some emphasis on how key they are to a decent ride, could have put a bit of that in an cut out a bit of the nodders in blue bibs going round portland

custom steel road bike? yes please
campag? ok well I understand the attraction
cinelli likewise, not sure about carbon on that bike
king? yes I suppose
brooks? hmmm not my taste

But

orange and blue?

What was he thinking!!!!!!!

I thought that – shocking choice of colours!!

The Cinelli guy persuaded him to get carbon bars instead of alu as he originally planned. One aim was to build a bike that'll last so maybe carbon is expected to last for longer than alu bars? Or just prefers to comfort?

I was surprised that Chris King wouldn't be interviewed. I've met and spoken to him a couple of times on Cycle Oregon. He serves coffee in the mornings and he keeps cickens. Top bloke.

Charlie Kelly and Joe Breeze are great guys too, met them on Mt Tam and at a friends wedding in Marin. Shot the breeze with Gravy too without knowing who he was. He was building up some wooden rimmed track wheels. Fairfax is a great town for anyone visiting San Francisco.

I have to say I did think Chris King & company didn't do themselves too many favours there. Refusing to be interviewed and being a bit sniffy about the tour with the cameras makes you look a bit silly when your "secret" product is headsets and hubs! I've got a video I use with the kids at work (Design teacher) that shows some pretty in depth filming of Shimano & Campagnolo production lines. Their work force having a break looked exactly how I thought they would mind!

I thought that – shocking choice of colours!!

I liked the colours – blue and orange are complementary colours – check the colour wheel if you don't believe me. 🙂

They also missed out the visit to the DT Swiss factory for the rims and spokes, based on the sort of receptions he got, I wonder if he was frog marched to the DT gates at gun point.

Wot no Shimano?

Thought I spied Ultegra in the wheel building bit. Might have just been the skewer though. Does Campag Record fit on Ultegra hubs?

Liked the 2 colours. Just not together. Although it does have that retro feel.

The other 2 progs about bikes that followed were OK too.

orange and blue?

What was he thinking!!!!!!!

Of course, orange and blue can look great

He just didn't get the shades quite right. If I were choosing a colour for my 'ultimate all-time bike' I think I'd give it a bit more consideration than being rushed into it at the last minute.

I wonder if he went along as an 'independant'?

I'm sure he'd have had a much better reception if he had said "Hello, I'm making a documentary for The BBC in which we are building a bike using only the finest components from the best manufacturers……..".

I bet he wouldn't have had to pay for most of the bits either !

aaarrgghhh not doing the Tom Simpson prog on iplayer!

was a great programme.

Yeah the end result want to everyone's taste (well, not to anyone's except his but that's what it's all about).

Di danyone catch the Claire Balding one beforehand? I saw the last 10 minutes and that looked quite good too.

2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

I'm hearing a lot about the programme, and I see several flattering mentions of my name in this thread, but I haven't seen it because you can't watch it online outside the UK.

And yes, McMoonter is a personal friend. We met when he asked me for directions while he was lost on Mount Tamalpais.

Oops. Stand corrected. I missed the first fifteen minutes or so and got the impression he was after 'the best' after the way he kept banging on about his 'dream bike'.

I was probably a bit harsh last night but I stand by the essence of my previously stated opinions…which is really weird as I like steel, I like Campag and I like road bikes.

Oh…and for the person who wasn't sure. Yes, it was Reynolds 953 tubing.

Charlie (Repack Rider):
You guys came across so well, some beautiful cinematography and it just summed up perfectly the joy of riding.

Maybe someone will upload that clip to YouTube sometime.

RID, without getting hung up about his bike or reasons for building it, its hard to deny that it was a great programme about the history of the bike and how its markets have developed.

Wife's away this evening, think i'll watch this on iPlayer. Woohoo! Just need some ale.

Charlie Kelly, he said you guys were the saviour of the bike (or something along those lines). 😉

oh and these guys think blue and orange go together

I bet shimano would have given him a tour of the factory. How could any of their "secrets" possibly have been compromised by filming a few shots of people working? It's not like they're making space shuttles in there is it?!

No, I think Shimano would have been just the same. I read an article in MBR/WMB/MBUK and the jurno was saying just the same thing. All the photos were 'press released' and they were only allowed in the 'meet and greet' room.

Have to say that I really enjoyed it too and couldn't help thinking that the STW mob are going to love this 🙂

Hey CK,
I thought they were going to send us copies before it aired on the tele? Oh gee, another broken promise. Somehow, after flying the crew over from the UK and all, I bet they broke even…at least. 😉

Well I seem to be in a minority of one. Yes the guy was enthusiastic but it all got rather too formulaic for my tastes…he'd tip up somewhere, get refused an interview/factory tour, talk them around to selling him some kit and then go off somewhere else. The brooks factory and the US wheelbuilder being exceptions.

As for the history of the bike bit, it was interesting as far as it went but it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and I felt he massively glossed over several things, most notably the way his dismissed Shimano out of hand, carefully omitting to mention them by name if I recall. As for calling BMX and then Mountain Biking 'The Saviours of the Bicyle' I think is very much a britsh-centric point of view and didn't fit in with the items on how the sport was developing in Europe.

Still…if I'm the only person in the country that didn't rate it then that's a good thing as any positive coverage of cycling is surely a good thing!

I've just watched half of it and I'm enjoying it. Few have come over a bit sniffy, but in general I've come to the conclusion that folks that live and work with bikes are in general nice people.

Liked the artist girl in portland, loved the legends racing repack section. Silly old goats 😉

I liked the history of the bike bits. The bit about him building his "dream bike" almost got in the way. Do you really need to get your wheels built by one particular guy in the US, out of fairly common bits?

As others have said, the bit were a bit incongruous. All nice kit individually, but it didn't really seem to hang together as a bike.

I watched this on Sky+ last night. Absolutely loved it. I'd heard that Portland had a great bike vibe, but the reality looks even better than I thought. If only some UK cities could follow suit.