Peee eSSSS Ayyyyy Top Gear this Sunday – Jezzer rides a bike this week…

Ok.
Thanks.

Came across to me as very us & them.
And the best they could come up with is that ‘they’ should be grateful to ‘us’?

Not one positive, pro cycling message in the whole section.

Cycling is dangerous.
Cyclists are not quite as good as the rest of us.
Cycling is painfull.
Car drivers are all saints.
Public transport is dangerous.
Give them an inch etc.

It seemed designed purely to reinforce the prejudices of non cyclists.

Harry, if you don’t like it, don’t go online to flame it!

A missed opportunity to get any of the positives about cycling across to the masses… and I’m not sure any of the relatives of those who died last year would be chuckling at the throwaway comments about cyclists getting hurt…

Pandered to too many negative stereotypes and too London-centric. FWIW, when TfL published a study (teams of researchers standing on multiple junctions counting cyclists) in 2007, 84% of cyclists stopped at red lights.

Boardman et al massively missed the opportunity to put out all the positive messages and stats. That fake disapproval to the ‘films’ was weak – they really should have countered with a load of myth-busting facts.

Maybe it comes across as taking it too seriously but given every regular cyclist I know has tales of harassment and near-collision and the main reason people give for not cycling is fear of getting hurt, I’m not convinced light-hearted humour’s quite the solution TBH

The good point about Top Gear doing a cycling piece however is that Clarkson and BBC have clearly realised that being anti-cyclist is inappropriate and out of touch… as more and more people take up cycling despite the negativity, the tide is clearly turning and the antis are realising they’ll just look stupid if they carry on being anti… so we’re definitely making progress even if it’s not always obvious…

A new low for Top Gear in my opinion.
I just hope the TG relationship with cycling ends there – no good can come from this.

in 2007, 84% of cyclists stopped at red lights.

They should redo that study, things have changed, a lot.

You are assuming that CB and the others didn’t do this and everything that was filmed was put in the final cut

Cycling has no reason to be on Top Gear, it’s a motoring programme

We have threads on here taking the piss out of a potential war in Ukraine and we get het up about Top Gear???

We have threads on here taking the piss out of a potential war in Ukraine and we get het up about Top Gear???

We have threads on here about how to replace lead water pipes; get some perspective!

They should redo that study, things have changed, a lot

They should – the absence of official figures mean people fill the vacuum with personal anecdote – which more often than not will come from confirmation bias and availability bias ie: people seeing what they want to… which I assume you are, as much as the next person…

Oh and they should have talked about Bikeability and the fact it’s often free of charge – their riding skills were exceptionally poor… the point about cycling in traffic is it gets a lot easier when you do it skilfully…

I thought it was a light entertainment show, according to the fans? 😀

I wish you’d make your minds up.

They should redo that study, things have changed, a lot.

I seem to remember that there was a bit of a sleight of hand with that study. The red light people stopped led across 6 lanes of traffic, so it is hardly a surprise that the figures are so high.

I have got plenty of perspective – it’s TG, what would anyone expect? JC to make a serious (or otherwise) case for cyclists??

I was a bit shocked at how distasteful it was to be honest. I dunno, I normally take TG with a pinch of salt, and I know I will see it though different eyes than your average person who doesn’t spend a lot of time riding bikes, but it seemed a bit extreme.

surprised Boardman put his name to it to be honest.

Boardman didn’t know the take on it. Obviously he knew it might not go the way he liked, but he did say the other day that he put his thoughts forward with the hope that it would be shown in a positive light.

No, thm.
I expected them to make a sneering, mealy mouthed ‘comedy’ routine with a nasty subtext.

Which they did.

This study here

Five separate junctions actually…at two separate times of the day… pretty comprehensive. I wish they’d also recorded the number of amber-gambling and RLJing cars for some perspective

Do you have a link to what Boardman thought. Why would anyone seriously expect TG to change the habits of a lifetime? Surely Boardman would be more savvy than that.

Has the bloke behind may had a lobotomy?

Plus he was the only person in a shirt and tie.

Personally I only had eyes for the absolutely stunner behind Jezza.

THM. I dont watch Top Gear. JC is an utter ****, sometimes people like him can go too far in their daft **** ways. Maybe tonights show was an example of this in some peoples eyes. Saying its Top Gear and shouldnt be taken seriously is missing the point, some things just are serious.

Having said that I didnt see it 😉

Do you have a link to what Boardman thought.

Can’t remember where it was now. Might have been road.cc. He didn’t say much, just that he couldn’t really comment because he hadn’t seen it, didn’t know how they would cut it, expected that it might not be in a glowing light, but thought it was worth a try. Which sounds a fair plan to me. It’s a big audience, so worth a punt.

AAY. Strip away the (attempted) humour, the point about RLJ (whatever the stats) was worth making alone. The issue is serious (personal experience but with cars not bike) so I am not belittling safety. Sometimes absurdity is a good path to a result.

They should – the absence of official figures mean people fill the vacuum with personal anecdote – which more often than not will come from confirmation bias and availability bias ie: people seeing what they want to… which I assume you are, as much as the next person…

I’ve ridden the streets of London almost every day for 7 years. There are probably more than 30 sets of lights on the route I take and it’s popular with cyclists. I would bet my house on the fact that proportionately more cyclists RLJ than in 2007.

Cheers butcher. I hope Boardman is more savvy with his bike business!!!

I laughed

Do you think that there was a valid point in there about buses maybe, I. have found they are the biggest and most serious danger to me riding.And even if the rest was aload of rubbish maybe something good could be taken from that, I struggle to find much else to be positive about

It’s an entertainment prog, lighten up. It was all done for (cheap) laughs, just like everything else TG does.

Those who get huffy miss the point completely. Waste of effort to preach on here about how horrendous it all is.

Good show really, cycling bit was both funny, a good piss take of cyclist, and got cycling issues more coverage on TV to a bigger audience than would otherwise be possible.

Nice Porsche too

I find buses are generally well driven and respectful to cyclists.

FD, totally agree, the Porsche is mind-blowing, first one that actually makes me want it. Thought the Beemer trying to off Jezzer was funny, he really looked shaken. Confirms my dislike of them, liked the Golf, though.
Aaron’s drive in the RPC was damned impressive, too.

Aye, I liked the spin in the beemer. I’m no fan of Jezza but his car racing experience can’t be criticised. It must have been scary spinning out at 120 in the wet and he was fairly calm throughout.

If you’ve ever been going backwards at over 100mph it’s quite un-nerving, especially not knowing it the car will roll if a wheel digs in as it goes over the grass…….

(I’ve spun at over 160mph on a frozen lake, not my fault, but that’s another long story…….)

The Porsche made me feel 8 years old again. A proper supercar that.

I found bits of it quite funny, bits of it were really too close to the bone to be funny (in fact, some of it was edging towards distasteful) and some of it was the same tired joke trotted out again (oh look, wearing all the labels on the clothes, not done that before have we…? 🙄 )

Programme was hilarious, Some people in this thread are a joke and hilarious. Win win 🙂

I was impressed that someone who looks frankly, as fat, jowly and unfit as Clarkson, could even pedal a bicycle for more than five minute without having a coronary. I kind of assumed that was the joke.

The rest of it was just predictable. I think I’d have found it more entertaining if they’d simply have gone for the cycling jugular as they perceive it, I kept waiting for the punchline, but it never came. Wasn’t offended particularly, wasn’t infuriated, just found it bland, lazy stuff.

I thought it was supposed to be entertainment, that’s my gripe if anything.

Gota love it, some people on here are are so up there own ass to get so worked up about anything. The internet must be a curse for these poor souls. If only they new how to switch it of and shut TFUP. Take it for what it is

😉

Mangled bike combined with dead Londoners in the news = very bad taste. If they had any balls, they’d have shown a bombed London bus as a good reason not to travel by bus.

Now *THAT’S* bad taste.

Was worth it alone for the red or green learn the difference bit! 😆

Those who get huffy miss the point completely.

Not really. Humour is a powerful way to normalise behaviour. If you don’t think cultural output can affect society then you need to think again.

You can’t just dismiss anything by saying ‘it’s only supposed to be entertainment’. Yes, it is, and that’s the issue.

I’m glad I don’t have to have a pint with the majority of posters on here, as I’d probably stab myself in the eyes to lighten the mood.

100% of the people I do choose to have a pint/ride with wouldn’t have taken offence at tonights TG, as they actually don’t give a **** about getting het up about light entertainment.

Top Gear is one of the best programmes on TV. Jez is fantastic and his satire is sometimes brilliant. It’s a total petrolhead programme and if you take your head out of your arse you might actually enjoy it. Bikes are ace, cars are ace. Vive la difference!