Ride of My Life – BBC2 iPlayer link

"Author Rob Penn travels around the world collecting handbuilt parts for his dream bicycle and charts the social history of one of mankind's greatest inventions…"

Features Charlie Kelly, Joe Breeze, Chris King and a tour of Campagnolo 🙂

For those who missed it first time round….?

and a tour of Campagnolo

-don't get your hopes up.

'Tis worth a watch though.

The maudlin, pedestrian response above, is a typical example of precisely why I never bother posting anything in this place anymore.

Have you ever considered – that if you've nothing positive to say – don't say anything at all.. 🙄

Be happy 🙂

Cheers for that, I was looking for something to watch, I missed that one…

Link doesn't work though 😉

dont let them get to you no eyed dear, i get the impression that some folk on here are a tad uptight, highly strung, doesnt take much for them to post negativity over something not worth getting negative about, stressheads perhps?

Enjoy the programme, worth a watch

Chris King – 'Gone Fishing'

imo it's worth watching alone for the Charlie Kelly, Joe Breeze section.

Just watched it after recording it. Very good I thought, well worth watching 🙂

Check out the Scottish Moonters just after the Charlie Kelly and Joe Breeze section.

not sure on the final spray job, still that can change. that cool wheelbuilders voice was so laid back i almost fell asleep. repackers was great. plus the lovely hills round lake como.

I think headfirst was refering to the fact the campag basically told them to 'do one'. Happily took his money though.

Pretty much the same with CK. Don't see our factory, see where we eat lunch, give us your cash, sling your hook.

Aye, the letters BBC obviously don't have the same cachet they once did.

And wasn't that our own 'Repack Rider' (Charlie Kelly) firing down the dusty trails?

Ride of my life? Random Aussie woman, single mum, years ago. mmm…. happy days… 🙂

Back on topic, the guy wrote a book IIRC, got good reviews in the Economist. Wouldn't mind seeing it – is it still on iplayer?

I found him quite annoying and was very disappointed to see his front QR on the wrong side. The Kelly/Breeze stuff was fun though.

simondbarnes – Member
I found him quite annoying and was very disappointed to see his front QR on the wrong side. The Kelly/Breeze stuff was fun though.

Agreed.

A typical MAMIL doing the whole Rapha/Campag/Pretentious twaddle.

The maudlin, pedestrian response above, is a typical example of precisely why I never bother posting anything in this place anymore.

Have you ever considered – that if you've nothing positive to say – don't say anything at all

he was just pointing out it was on a month or so ago and there was no tour of campag. nothing wrong with that IMO.

That girl was a bit perky though wasn't she!

Have you ever considered – that if you've nothing positive to say – don't say anything at all

but the bloke was so unrelentingly positive about everything, it was rather wearing … and it was a bit of a celebrity-fest. Surely one of the great things about cycling is its accessibility to everyone, and the fact that you don't need to spend a lot of money on flashy parts as they make scant difference to the riding experience?

2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

And wasn't that our own 'Repack Rider' (Charlie Kelly) firing down the dusty trails?

Just last week Joe and I re-enacted the bit with a couple of UK riders. I met "ltheisinger" here on STW when he asked what might be a good US MTB holiday and I invited him to take a ride in Marin County. He arrived in California with a mate last week, and Joe and I took them on a singletrack ride and a run down my namesake racecourse, the "Repack" depicted in Rob Penn's programme.

"ltheisinger" has posted a few photos from his continuing journey to take in the best MTB trails to be found in California on this thread. So far he has hit four of the most famous: Repack, Downieville, the Flume Trail and Mammoth Mountain, and the holiday isn't over yet. I'm sure we will get the exhaustive tale when he gets home.

I live in California. He and his friend are getting around to more and better California trails than I could dream of in a single vacation.

Bloody hell, some people dream of ferraris or yachts but id die happy if i could have a couple of gos on that hill in california, with you two repack……

Off to retrobike to further my nostalgia

A typical MAMIL doing the whole Rapha/Campag/Pretentious twaddle.

I think his palmares suggests otherwise, although he was so enormously upbeat about everything.
I did think that it seemed very odd to go to see Gravy and get Royce hubs built onto Swiss rims in the US. I remember Gravy from when he was working for the Yeti team, that ages me…

I knew Rob a long time ago and he is just one of those really positive individuals, who as alluded to above did ride around the world in his youth.

As far as getting the wheels built in the US, I think this was a device to enable him to cover the early days of mountain biking.

but the bloke was so unrelentingly positive about everything

But why wouuldn’t he be? He was jetting round the world to some fantastic locations, meeting some great people, building his dream bike and most likely getting paid for making the programme.

I know I would be prettey damned positive about that as well!!!!!

Why can’t they get me to do a programme like that? It’d be far better entertainment than that bloke. Sorry, but I thought the programme was quite boring really.

“Riding for my life: Elfinsafety goes around the UK, annoying people and rummaging in skips and people’s sheds for bits of old tat, gets chased off in quite a few places, has a couple of fights, ends up at PeterPoddy’s garage to build the thing up. Tears, tantrums and tools being slung about the place. CAUTION: Contains scenes of an obscene and upsetting nature, and foul language pretty much the whole way through. And nuts.”

Winner! 🙂

(Scampers off to BBC headquarters)

It wasn’t geeky enough for me.

An OK watch but nothing great IMHO.

dont let them get to you no eyed dear, i get the impression that some folk on here are a tad uptight, highly strung, doesnt take much for them to post negativity over something not worth getting negative about, stressheads perhps?

They’re the sort of people who, if you gave them a twenty quid note, would complain it wasn’t two tenners.
STW is full of them….

😆

As the aforesaid so called ‘maudlin type’. May I firstly bring to your attention my closing remark:

‘Tis worth a watch though.

Thats quite positive, n’est pas??

May be this:

-don’t get your hopes up.

misled you. Having now watched the programme you will realise this was regarding

and a tour of Campagnolo

which does not happen – Campag hardly even let him get in the factory door and aren’t very welcoming.

I knew this because I hadn’t

missed it first time round

HTH

Elfin, I think you have the makings of a shamelessly derivative magazine article, in which you (oh it would be so much funnier if it was Glupton but he’s either gone or hiding) build an xc bike out of other STW-ers’ cast-offs. All you need to do is either enter a race or go riding in each place you visit, plus obligatory sampling of local pubs. And I think you need to get the spotty lad in Evans to help you build it in their workshop at the end.

Oh don’t start me off…

I was doing well until you mentioned that spotty arrogant little knob. Now I’ll have to get me Valium. 🙁

A typical MAMIL doing the whole Rapha/Campag/Pretentious twaddle

Nah, surely he did what most MAMILs wish they’d done – bunk off their dull career and cycle round the world… Good retrobike tee placement, too.

A good prog, imo. I was actually quite moved at the end. 😳