Browse content similar to Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The bicycle - one of mankind's greatest inventions, | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
and the most popular form of transport in history. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:14 | |
I'm Rob Penn, writer and bicycle obsessive. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
I've ridden a bike most days of my adult life, and watched it evolve over the years. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:22 | |
They really are just about the most modern-designed bikes that I've seen for ages... | 0:00:22 | 0:00:26 | |
Now I'm setting up to build my dream bicycle, and to tell the story | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
of this remarkable invention and its impact on society. Look at that. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:38 | |
I'm going to travel the globe collecting | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
hand-built parts from some of the industry's finest craftsmen. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
Some Italians, they like to go... | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
Where am I going to draw this? | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
Erm... | 0:00:49 | 0:00:50 | |
I'll be meeting some fellow bike fanatics. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
That would rub against the wheel. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
Rrrrrr! | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
And some of the people who revolutionised the way we ride. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:01 | |
That was scary, but that was why you did it, right? | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
I'm going to explore how the bicycle has shaped the way we live, and how it continues to do so. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:10 | |
We need to go back to the future, we need to rediscover the joys of this brilliantly simple machine. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:15 | |
This is the story of the bicycle's evolution, from engineering marvel to modern transport icon. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:23 | |
I've always been fascinated by the bicycle, because for me, it offers so much. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:42 | |
I ride a bike to get to work. I ride a bike for work. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
I ride a bike to keep fit. I ride a bike to go shopping. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
I ride a bike to stay sane. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
I ride a bike to see my boys smile. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:52 | |
I've owned 18 different bikes. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
My first proper bike was a Raleigh Tomahawk, the diminutive version of the infamous Chopper. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
Then I graduated to a purple Raleigh Hustler, my pride | 0:02:01 | 0:02:06 | |
and joy for the summer of '76, and the first in a succession of racers. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:10 | |
This is my slightly strange bike collection. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
The old mountain bike, a bit of a restoration project going on here. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
The new mountain bike, which is a rather lovely bike, perfect for the trails around here. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:22 | |
The old racer, road racer, again, a bit of a work in progress, I'll have it fit for next winter. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:28 | |
And the new racer, which is a rather lovely Italian frame. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
And that's rather nice... Dogs! Out! | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
Go on, out! | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
The bicycle has transformed my life as much as it's transformed society. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
In my late 20s, I abandoned a career as a solicitor, swapped my | 0:02:42 | 0:02:46 | |
pin-striped suit for lycra shorts and spent three years pedalling 40,000 kilometres around the planet. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:54 | |
My old round-the-world bike. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
which I cycled 24,500 miles on over three years... | 0:02:58 | 0:03:03 | |
You know, this bike's got memories, I can't really bring myself to throw it away, so it sits in the corner. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:09 | |
None of these bikes reflect my lifelong passion for cycling. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
I want a new bike, a bike that I'll ride every day for the rest of my life. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:19 | |
Now obviously, you can go down the bike shop or go on the Internet and buy a new bicycle, and I could be | 0:03:19 | 0:03:23 | |
riding, you know, over the hill there tomorrow on a fantastic new carbon frame race bike. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:29 | |
But that's not right, I don't want that. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:31 | |
So I want a special bike, and I want a bike which I'm going to design and commission myself, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:38 | |
and then I'm going to go round the world looking for the perfect parts. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:43 | |
The perfect parts for that bicycle - not the most expensive, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
not the lightest, but the parts which match my bicycle. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
And that will be a bike which I ride off to the sunset in. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:56 | |
It will see me out of cycling. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
I'm only going to spend this kind of money on a bicycle once, so I want | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
to do it and get the best, I want to get my dream bike, basically. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
My journey begins in Stoke-on-Trent. I've come to Rourke Cycles, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
where I'll be having my steel frame hand-built. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
Jason Rourke is one of the UK's top frame builders, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
making five bespoke bikes a week. It's like watching an alchemist at | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
work, using gas and liquid metal to bring the bicycle to life. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
The earliest ancestor of the bicycle was invented by German aristocrat Baron Karl von Drais, in 1817. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:44 | |
He realised a dream as old as mankind - a mechanical horse with wheels. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:50 | |
Known as the Running Machine, it became the fashionable plaything | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
of the rich in Regency England, hence its nickname, the dandy horse. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
The world had to wait 50 years for the next evolutionary leap. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:06 | |
Around 1865, in Paris, the Michaux brothers put pedals and cranks on | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
a dandy horse, and the velocipede was born. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
With wooden wheels, it was still heinously uncomfortable, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
and deserved its new nickname, the bone shaker. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:22 | |
Things then gathered pace, quite literally, with the development of the high wheeler, or penny farthing. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:29 | |
The large front wheel increased speed and | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
comfort, and it was more affordable to the burgeoning middle classes. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:36 | |
The height of the bicycle of course had one major disadvantage - when you fell off, it hurt. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:42 | |
Finally, in 1885, a young engineer called John Kemp Starley from Coventry came up | 0:05:42 | 0:05:49 | |
with the safety bicycle - so-called because you could touch the ground with both feet. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:54 | |
Starley is the greatest British inventor you've never heard of, and he gave us the first modern bicycle. | 0:05:54 | 0:06:01 | |
All previous incarnations of the machine were obsolete in months. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:05 | |
Almost every bicycle made since has conformed to Starley's diamond frame. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:11 | |
The great thing about this is, you're plunging back through history here, because this is | 0:06:11 | 0:06:17 | |
effectively the shape of the bicycle that Starley came up with in 1885, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:22 | |
the first safety bicycle - two triangles. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
And like I say, a set of simple steel tubes has been turned into this extraordinary weight-bearing | 0:06:25 | 0:06:31 | |
machine, which will take you wherever you want to pedal. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
-I just want to get a rough idea of what you look like on it. -Yeah. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
Just to start off... | 0:06:39 | 0:06:40 | |
Jason's dad, Brian, is fitting me for my frame. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
Brian Rourke is a cycling legend, winner of numerous national championships and Milk Race veteran, | 0:06:44 | 0:06:50 | |
he's been fitting people to bespoke bicycles for 30 years. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:55 | |
Like a tailor on Savile Row, Brian is meticulous in his measurements, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:59 | |
and makes the frame to fit the customer. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
I would suggest we went to somewhere round about there... | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
The frame is the heart and soul of the bicycle. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:08 | |
All the components will wear out eventually and be replaced. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
The frame will only be made once. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
It's all ultimately about making you, the rider, as efficient as possible, isn't it? | 0:07:14 | 0:07:19 | |
That's right, yeah. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
That car just came past us like the Flying Scotsman at full steam! | 0:07:29 | 0:07:34 | |
Goodness knows how fast he was going, but we're doing a ton, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
so he must have been going about 130. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
That's miles per hour, not kilometres per hour. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
I'm on the autobahn in Germany, two hours north of Frankfurt, en route to buy the tyres for my bike. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:51 | |
Continental tyres have an unrivalled reputation for | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
reliability and quality, hand-built quality, in the bicycle world. | 0:07:55 | 0:08:00 | |
They mean more than that to me, because I had Continental tyres | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
on the bicycle that I rode round the world, and they were fantastic. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
Puncture-free tyres. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
The next evolutionary leap in the story of the bicycle was the invention of the pneumatic tyre. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:16 | |
In 1888, a Scottish veterinary surgeon called John Boyd Dunlop | 0:08:16 | 0:08:20 | |
stitched a rubber tube inside a canvas sleeve, | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
filled it with air, and founded a global business that's still trading today. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:28 | |
When Dunlop's tyres met Starley's frame in 1888, it was a catalyst for | 0:08:28 | 0:08:33 | |
the first golden age of cycling, and a turning point for human society. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:38 | |
The bicycle went into mass production. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
In 1895, 800,000 bikes were built in Britain alone. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:47 | |
The humble bicycle played a critical role in both the emancipation | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
of women and the subsequent expansion of the national gene pool. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
Young women could now travel to neighbouring villages and meet a wider circle of young men. | 0:08:54 | 0:09:01 | |
Suburbs sprang up around cities, as people could now commute. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
More than anything, the bicycle ushered in a new era of freedom and social mobility, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:11 | |
as working men and women enjoyed the first-ever affordable form of personal transport. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:16 | |
Continental is a global giant in tyre manufacturing. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
Though their main business is now automobiles, they've been making bicycle tyres since 1892. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:32 | |
I've only been here for about 15 minutes, and the noise and the heat and the smell, it's very intense. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:41 | |
You really get a sense of heavy manufacturing going on here. It's like being | 0:09:41 | 0:09:46 | |
in the bowels of a Victorian steamship or something. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:51 | |
The raw rubber is mixed with a cocktail of chemicals, heated up | 0:09:51 | 0:09:56 | |
and melded with vast rolls of nylon to form the basic casing material. | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
It's threaded with cotton to allow air bubbles to escape, | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
and then wound onto giant rolls and carried upstairs. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:08 | |
Brilliant, OK, here we go. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:10 | |
The rolls are then cut into thin strips and checked for flaws. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
Each strip will shortly be turned into a tyre. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:19 | |
The constituent parts of the tyre are then folded together by hand. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
Think of something like a Cuban cigar being rolled here. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:31 | |
It's the hands which keep the quality so incredibly high. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
Now, it's ready for the final part of the process. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
The last stage is called vulcanisation - | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
a chemical process using sulphur that's changed little since Charles Goodyear invented it in 1839. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:50 | |
This is still flat, you could pull it apart with your own hands if you really wanted to. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
By the time it's been vulcanised in one of these extraordinary machines, while still hot, it looks like that. | 0:10:54 | 0:11:01 | |
It has form and shape. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
Vulcanisation takes three minutes per tyre. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:06 | |
The end result is checked, and ready to ride. Right, here it comes. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
-So I can take that out now? -Just take it out. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
There it is. There's the tyre. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
Here comes the next one. Take it? | 0:11:23 | 0:11:24 | |
Look at them smoking, they're so hot off the press! | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
Fantastic. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
Brilliant, thanks, Will. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
-You're welcome. -I'm very, very excited to have these tyres. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
These would cost you 80 Euros. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
-80 Euros? -That's our dinner - for the two of us! | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
Ha-ha-ha! | 0:11:45 | 0:11:47 | |
At the outbreak of the First World War, Britain led the world in bike manufacturing, | 0:11:55 | 0:12:00 | |
and the bicycle led the world in technological advancement. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
Many components that were essential to the development of the motor car were first invented for the | 0:12:03 | 0:12:08 | |
bicycle - ball-bearings, tyres, chain-driven sprockets and spoke-tensioned wheels. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:16 | |
Birmingham was the bike manufacturing centre of the UK, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
and home to more bicycle factories than anywhere else in the world. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:23 | |
But in the second half of the 20th century, those | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
factories closed down, as production relocated to Asia. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
Today, almost all evidence of the industry has gone. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:35 | |
This is the Birmingham navigation canals. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
This place would have been alive with small workshops making bicycle components and bicycles. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:43 | |
There would have been hundreds of them. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
And now, they've all gone - with the exception of one. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
I've come to Brooks to buy my saddle. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
Brooks have been in business in Birmingham since 1866. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
They've been present throughout the entire history of the modern bicycle. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:03 | |
-Hi, there. -Hi! | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
-Looking for Mr Green. -You've found him! -Mr Green! -Hello. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
How do you do, Rob Penn. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:09 | |
-Hello, Rob. -Lovely to meet you. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:10 | |
Following the death of his horse in 1878, the company's founder, | 0:13:10 | 0:13:16 | |
John Brooks, borrowed a bicycle to commute to work. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:20 | |
He found the wooden saddle so uncomfortable, he decided to make one for himself, in leather. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:26 | |
The manufacturing process has changed little in over a century. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
Today, the company makes 150,000 saddles a year. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:35 | |
Some of the models are identical to those of the 1890s. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:40 | |
One of the fantastic things about the products that they make here | 0:13:40 | 0:13:44 | |
is that they don't deteriorate with age, they get better with age. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
So you buy a Brooks saddle, and you take it away and you ride it, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:52 | |
and every year you own it, it improves. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
Demand for Brooks saddles has soared 300% in six years. | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
Clearly, people want parts that are made to last. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
The leather comes from British cows, and it is processed in Belgium to meet Brooks' exacting standards. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:11 | |
The first step, much like cutting pastry, is to cut out the basic leather shape. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:19 | |
These are immersed in tepid water for an hour to soften them up. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
Now that they're wet and pliable, we can start to make the correct shape. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
Pure pressure, bring down the press, one flat piece into a first shape like that. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:36 | |
That's the start, is it? | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
That's the start. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
-It looks like a machine where you might lose a finger quite quickly, Diane. Is that right? -Yes. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:54 | |
-You've got all 10, have you? All 10 still going? -Yes. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
Look at that. Quality. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:06 | |
So what he's doing here is a chamfering the sides, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
which is literally just shaving a piece of the leather off. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
By doing this, it would stop them cutting the inside of the legs. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
It's all done in one continuous motion. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
You could make quite a mess of a nice saddle there, couldn't you? | 0:15:20 | 0:15:24 | |
Yes, it could go horribly wrong. If you slip or make a mistake, you've ruined the leather top. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:28 | |
Do you get paid double what everyone else gets paid? | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
No. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
After knocking in the copper rivets, a feat of hand-eye co-ordination, | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
the last step is to connect the metal structure to the leather top. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:40 | |
One final buff and polish and hey, presto! | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
Fantastic. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:46 | |
Well, it's doubly exciting having seen how it's made | 0:15:46 | 0:15:51 | |
and to know that, you know, it's all made by these. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:55 | |
-That's right. -Absolutely fantastic. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
£90 later I'm the very proud owner of a Brooks team professional. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:04 | |
Ha-ha, look at that! | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
Brooks. You beauty! Look at that. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:13 | |
The golden age of the bicycle ended abruptly in America | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
when the Model T Ford went into mass production in 1908. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
The love affair with the car had begun and | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
the bicycle was left out to rust until its revival in the Seventies. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:38 | |
But it seems that, whenever it dies in one place, the bike comes back stronger somewhere else. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:45 | |
In Europe, bicycle racing took off, becoming a hugely popular and glamorous sport. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:53 | |
The Tour de France was first staged in 1903, followed by the Giro d'Italia in 1909. | 0:16:53 | 0:17:00 | |
Like today's footballers, cyclists were the celebrities of the day, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
and their private lives no less scrutinised. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
Speed was the currency and a new generation of racing bikes | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
evolved that took men faster and further than ever before. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:16 | |
One of the greatest innovators of the time was Italian, Tullio Campagnolo. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:26 | |
More than anyone, he's responsible for the make-up of the modern racing bike. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
He introduced the quick-release wheel, the modern derailer and the first group sets. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:37 | |
I've come to Vicenza in northern Italy to visit Campag's HQ. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:42 | |
Buon giorno. We've come to meet Levi Piazza. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
You are? | 0:17:46 | 0:17:48 | |
Robert Penn. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
He knows we're coming. Thank you. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
I've got my saddle and tyres, now I need some gears, brakes, cranks and sprockets known as the group set. | 0:17:53 | 0:18:01 | |
Campagnolo are world renowned for their high quality precision componentry. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:06 | |
With global bike sales rocketing, the industry is more cut-throat than ever. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:11 | |
Campag are keen to protect the secrets of their success | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
and won't let us film the manufacturing process. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
You can sort of understand why, you know. It's an incredibly competitive business, | 0:18:18 | 0:18:25 | |
a business which is dominated by one large Japanese company. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:29 | |
And they're probably constantly under threat from them and constantly paranoid. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:34 | |
So you can sort of understand why they're not going to let us in. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
As we've come all this way to buy my group set, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
I pleaded to be allowed in and I was granted a brief interview with their head of marketing. Shall I sit here? | 0:18:40 | 0:18:46 | |
-Will you come next to me here? -Yes. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
Great. God, I feel like | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
I'm the MD at the end of the table. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
One of the questions I'm behest to ask is: We've been to quite a lot of | 0:18:54 | 0:18:58 | |
factories and some of them have been reluctant to let us in, but most of them have, in the end, let us in. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:04 | |
But here, you know, you're not going to let us in. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
So I have to ask why. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
-We own many patents. -Yes. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
And it's... | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
important to understand that the bicycling business owns | 0:19:16 | 0:19:22 | |
a lot of technology. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
There's a certain jealousy in keeping this know-how a bit secret. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:32 | |
-Within these walls? -Yes, within these walls. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
Finally, it's time to collect a record group set - the top of the range. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:42 | |
Lovely looking things, aren't they? | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
It's not cheap - 1,800 Euros - but these exquisitely crafted components are like the jewellery for my bike. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:52 | |
-It's like Christmas, isn't it? -Yeah. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:53 | |
Great! Levi, thank you, thank you. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
Fantastic. It's been a great pleasure. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
It's been lovely to meet you. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:00 | |
I leave Campag a lot poorer, but happy. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
WOMAN SPEAKS ITALIAN ON RADIO | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
RADIO CHANNEL CHANGES | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
RADIO CHANNEL CHANGES TO ITALIAN OPERA MUSIC | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
I'm on my way to the Cinelli factory in Milan, | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
another name synonymous with excellence in Italian cycling. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
And I'm going there to buy my handlebars. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
Just the name Cinelli, I couldn't really put a bike together | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
without something with the Cinelli name on it. It's a mark of flair, | 0:20:36 | 0:20:41 | |
rather than the precision engineering that we've seen at Continental. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:46 | |
OPERA SINGING CONTINUES | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
Mi scusi, mi no parlo Italiano. Parlo inglese. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
-Buon giorno. -Buon giorno. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
I'm here to meet Antonio Colombo, a bike builder, art dealer and one of Italy's cycling philosophers. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:07 | |
Cinelli dominated the pro-racing world for half a century. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:12 | |
Their hand-built bikes have won 28 Olympic gold medals. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
Like Campagnolo, they've stayed ahead of the pack through constant innovation, | 0:21:16 | 0:21:22 | |
while Antonio manages to bring his own style to the manufacturing process. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
We have a nice, round bottom bracket, which is unusual. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:31 | |
Yeah. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:33 | |
And one day I said, "Well, there could be a nice face here." | 0:21:33 | 0:21:39 | |
So I think it is something which is new on a bicycle. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:44 | |
I think it is something that's new on a bicycle. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:46 | |
-This is the essence of cycling. -Yeah. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
The handlebars are now made in Asia, but they are developed and tested here in Italy. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:55 | |
I had wanted an aluminium bar, but Antonio is keen for me to go graphite. | 0:21:55 | 0:22:01 | |
-Well, I think I may have changed my mind. -Of course. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:04 | |
Everybody is here to change minds. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
You've convinced me that... | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
I rather like the idea of this, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
so it combines the classic "D" of the loop, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
which is something I wanted. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
And I like the way a bike looks from the side with the classic handlebars. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:21 | |
The bicycle I'm having made is going to be... | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
You know, it's going to look better than I ride. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
-You know what I mean? -OK. Everybody wants something better than what... | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
It's true. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:35 | |
Unless you think you're perfect. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
No, well I certainly don't think I'm perfect. Look, brilliant. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
This is what I'm going to take away. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
Can I come and pay for this? | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
-OK, let's go to the cash. -Let's go to the cash shop. Brilliant. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
300. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
-OK. -Brilliant. -Thanks. -Thank you. That's fantastic. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
It's been a fascinating morning. | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
I have one of your beautiful handlebars to take away with me, which I am very pleased about. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:04 | |
I want to see the bicycle completed. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
-I promise you I'll send you a photograph. -Great. -Fantastic. Thank you. -Ciao. -Ciao. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
I felt I couldn't leave Italy without going for a ride, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:23 | |
so I've joined Antonio and two friends | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
for a Saturday-morning jaunt. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:27 | |
HE SPEAKS ITALIAN | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
Marco is a lawyer from Milan and a fellow bike obsessive. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
Lodovico works for Cinelli and is a typically well-turned-out Italian cyclist. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:38 | |
We're 50 kilometres north of Milan, pedalling along the shores of the majestic Lake Como. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:48 | |
We're on a famous signature ride of the Giro di Lombardia, one of Italy's of most prestigious races. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:56 | |
Italian cyclists are hyper-style-conscious. | 0:23:56 | 0:24:00 | |
Their passion for the perfect look is embodied in the expression | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
"bella in sella", which means "looking good in the saddle". | 0:24:04 | 0:24:08 | |
What you see is all the Italian cyclists out in the team strip of their heroes. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:13 | |
It's quite difficult for British people to sort of interpret it, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:18 | |
but it's like my son who gets up on every single Saturday morning | 0:24:18 | 0:24:22 | |
and puts a Liverpool shirt on with "Gerrard" on the back. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
It's the same for these guys - they get out of bed on Saturday morning | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
and the first thing they do is they put on the team strip of their cycling heroes, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:34 | |
whether it's Columbia or Lampre or one of the other great road teams. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
There are employees | 0:24:42 | 0:24:45 | |
who earn, I don't know, 1,500 bucks a month. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:51 | |
And they ride bikes of 5,000 Euros. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
And they change it every two years. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
Really? Amazing. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
We're climbing 554 metres above the lake, | 0:25:00 | 0:25:04 | |
on a pilgrimage to one of the spiritual homes of the bicycle. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:09 | |
We're halfway up. I haven't puked! | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
And I'm really enjoying it. It feels good. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
I'm on a very beautiful bike. I'm slightly nervous that people think I might be part of team Cinelli. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:21 | |
OPERA SINGING | 0:25:21 | 0:25:26 | |
Our destination is the beautiful chapel of Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of cycling. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:54 | |
In 1949, Pope Pius XII declared Madonna del Ghisallo as the patroness of cyclists. | 0:25:54 | 0:26:01 | |
Since then, this small chapel has become a shrine to cycling legends, living and deceased. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:08 | |
It's also a memorial to those who have fallen by the roadside. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:13 | |
Cyclists come from all over the world to pay homage here, to the bicycle and the Madonna. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:17 | |
Very evocative, looking at all the little photographs. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
There are various plaques with it the names of Italian cyclists on the walls. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
It's very lovely, very lovely. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
It's a fantastic opportunity to come up here, so it's a bit of a pilgrimage, | 0:26:28 | 0:26:33 | |
in the middle of our journey to put my perfect bike together. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
I feel we ought to come here and pay respect to Madonna del Ghisallo. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:41 | |
And maybe the patron saint of cyclists will look out for me in future. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
May I raise a glass to you, gentleman? | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
-Thank you very much for a fantastic morning's cycling. -Thank you to you. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
-Thank you for coming. -Thank you to you. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
A second golden age of bicycle production followed the Second World War. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:24 | |
VOICEOVER: Bells on bikes ring in duel fashions, | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
which enable you to dive out of the saddle and into the sea. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
In fact, a costume for the bike or the beach. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
And this is the modern girl's answer to an old problem, a bicycle dress made in two. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
No more flapping shirt tails. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
When times are hard, people turn to the bicycle. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
Petrol rationing and post-war poverty led to a boom in leisure bike sales. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:50 | |
On the Continent, they were still obsessed with racing, and its glamorous icons. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
In the UK, the fashion was for cycle touring. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
Britain's roads were cluttered with people clutching maps and Thermoses, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:03 | |
as a hostelling craze swept the nation. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
In the 1970s, the bicycle evolved again, for a new market, as a child's plaything. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:13 | |
Most famously, Raleigh came up with the Chopper. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
They really are very modern bikes indeed. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
I think they're just about the most modern designed bikes that I've seen for ages. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:24 | |
They remind me of American dragster racing bikes because the front wheel is much smaller than the back wheel, | 0:28:24 | 0:28:29 | |
and the rider sits right at the back end here, | 0:28:29 | 0:28:32 | |
with these high roll bars behind them. It looks extremely sporty. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:35 | |
Fun and fashionable as it was, the Chopper sounded the death-knell for the bicycle in the UK. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:42 | |
Some say it put a generation off cycling. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:46 | |
The small front wheel and the tall handlebars made it almost unrideable. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:52 | |
Raleigh tinkered with Starley's frame, and it didn't work. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:56 | |
The bicycle was on its knees. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:00 | |
Everyone now wanted a car. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:02 | |
But what happened next was truly remarkable. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:06 | |
It was saved by a bunch of hippies having fun. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:10 | |
I'm heading north out of San Francisco | 0:29:17 | 0:29:20 | |
to get myself a pair of wheels, and to visit a very special place in the evolution of the bicycle. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:26 | |
We're heading across the bridge, out to Marin County, which is where mountain biking began | 0:29:31 | 0:29:37 | |
in the mid-1970s. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
These crazy guys riding up and down Mount Tamalpais invented the mountain bike. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:44 | |
And everybody wanted one. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:47 | |
The mountain bike was born out of the counter-culture of the 70s in northern California. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:53 | |
It was an era of change and freedom. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
And, as it turned out, of innovation. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:59 | |
An adventurous band of young, hippy cycle nuts began staging informal | 0:29:59 | 0:30:04 | |
downhill races in the hills, pushing the bicycle to its limits. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:08 | |
They took old cruiser bikes, known as "clunkers," | 0:30:08 | 0:30:11 | |
and adapted them to the off-road trails, with knobbly tyres, better brakes and gears, | 0:30:11 | 0:30:16 | |
and other parts salvaged from old bicycles and even motorbikes. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:21 | |
It was always scary, | 0:30:27 | 0:30:29 | |
but that was why you did it, right? | 0:30:29 | 0:30:31 | |
I mean, if it was safe, it wouldn't be fun. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:35 | |
Amazingly enough, heck, we didn't even have helmets. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
All things considered we came out of it pretty unscathed. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:43 | |
I actually never broke anything in my life. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:46 | |
I don't know how I've been so lucky. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:50 | |
The original downhill race course is known as "repack." | 0:30:53 | 0:30:56 | |
So-called, because by the time the riders got to the bottom, the bearings in their brake hubs | 0:30:56 | 0:31:01 | |
were so hot the grease literally boiled away, and they had to be repacked. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:08 | |
The first repack race in 1976 was won by the only rider who did not crash. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:19 | |
I've come for a ride with Charlie Kelly and Joe Breeze. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:27 | |
If repack was the birthplace of the mountain bike, Charlie and Joe were the midwives. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:32 | |
This turn here is rudely off-camber, and very slippery. You're coming into this turn, | 0:31:32 | 0:31:38 | |
your foot's down over here, and your other foot's on the pedal. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:42 | |
And if you're really good, no hands on the brakes. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:44 | |
Charlie and Joe are on a trip up memory lane, and still proudly bear the scars 30 years on. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:52 | |
Right hand, left-hand? | 0:31:52 | 0:31:54 | |
Notice the large deformity? | 0:31:54 | 0:31:55 | |
-Happened up there. -What, hand on the ground? | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
That was everything on the ground. That was hitting very, hard and laying there for a while, | 0:32:00 | 0:32:04 | |
because I didn't want to discover what was broken right away. | 0:32:04 | 0:32:07 | |
And then realising, if I don't move, somebody's going to ride right over me. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:11 | |
So I'd better. And it turned out that not too much was broken. At least no more than that. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:15 | |
This would be my tree right here. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
I can demonstrate, perhaps. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
If I can get the right aspect here. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
-Whoops! -But here's the thing. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
When Joe Breeze hits something, or goes down really hard, he'll say, "Oh dear." | 0:32:29 | 0:32:35 | |
Here's a man that's never used profanity. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
Not in my presence, anyway. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:39 | |
And if he says, "Oh dear," | 0:32:39 | 0:32:41 | |
it means it hurts. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
Oh my goodness. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
# Early in the evenin' Just about supper time | 0:32:48 | 0:32:52 | |
# Over by the courthouse They're starting to unwind | 0:32:52 | 0:32:57 | |
# Four kids on the corner | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
# Trying to bring you up | 0:32:59 | 0:33:01 | |
# Willy picks a tune out And he blows it on the harp | 0:33:01 | 0:33:06 | |
# Down on the corner Out in the street | 0:33:06 | 0:33:10 | |
# Willy and the Poor Boys are playin' Bring a nickel, tap your feet. # | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
The trail record is 4 minutes 22 seconds, held by Gary Fisher. | 0:33:16 | 0:33:21 | |
Thankfully today, no one's trying to beat it. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:23 | |
It may not look that fast, but it's lethal. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:26 | |
Dressed in old-school 70s denims, Joe and Charlie show me how to perfect the skid, | 0:33:29 | 0:33:34 | |
using boots rather than brakes to corner at full tilt. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:39 | |
# People come from all around To watch the magic boy. # | 0:33:39 | 0:33:46 | |
Joe goes in for a big slide at the end, but doesn't quite pull it off. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:51 | |
I can do that! | 0:33:51 | 0:33:52 | |
I'm sorry, I explained that earlier, didn't I? | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
I did explain that to you, didn't I? | 0:33:57 | 0:34:00 | |
Great, thank you so much. I mean really, what a great, great pleasure to ride the repack with you guys. | 0:34:02 | 0:34:09 | |
Thank you very much indeed. That was fantastic. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:11 | |
If you hadn't come out here, I'd probably have to work anyway. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
I wouldn't have been here without you, so thank you. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:17 | |
As one American cycle historian put it, "The mountain bike saved the bicycle industry's butt." | 0:34:17 | 0:34:25 | |
In 1983, 1 in 20 bicycles sold in the US were mountain bikes. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:30 | |
A decade later it was 19 out of 20. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
The mountain bike was comfortable and easy to ride. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:38 | |
Like Starley's safety bicycle, it was a true people's nag. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:42 | |
They couldn't be made fast enough. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:44 | |
Factories sprang up in Japan, Korea and China to meet spiralling demand. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:51 | |
Even today, it's very hard to wrap around emotionally | 0:34:51 | 0:34:54 | |
that something that my friends and I, and there were only half a dozen of us, really, the key people. | 0:34:54 | 0:35:00 | |
That we could influence anything so huge. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:02 | |
It wasn't about the technology so much. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:04 | |
We were pushing the bike, there's no question about it, but that social side, the camaraderie, | 0:35:04 | 0:35:09 | |
getting together for that sunset ride, the, "Hey, let's stick around and catch the sunrise," ride! | 0:35:09 | 0:35:15 | |
It was a great time. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:19 | |
We had a whole lot of fun, and I've got lifelong friends from it. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
The town of Fairfax in Marin County is now world famous as the birthplace of the mountain bike. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:34 | |
It's also home to another bike legend | 0:35:34 | 0:35:37 | |
called Steve 'Gravy' Gravenites, who's going to make my hoops. | 0:35:37 | 0:35:42 | |
-Hey. Rob. -Hi, Rob, thanks for making the trip. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:46 | |
Very good to be here. Very good to be in Fairfax. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
-I'm doing awesome. Welcome to the shop. -Fantastic. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:51 | |
Gravy has been making wheels for 30 years. | 0:35:53 | 0:35:56 | |
He earned his spurs on the pro circuit, | 0:35:56 | 0:35:59 | |
travelling the globe as a wrench, or mechanic, for the world's top mountain bike teams. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:04 | |
After calculating the exact specifications for my wheels, Steve gets to work. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:13 | |
The first part of the process is called lacing. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:17 | |
Steve literally weaves the spokes on to the hubs, and the wheel slowly starts to take shape. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:24 | |
One of the reasons I make my wheels so good is my patience, really. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:30 | |
And ability to just take my time and really fine tune it. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:34 | |
I really do equate it to a musical instrument. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:38 | |
You're going to tune and tune until it's perfect. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:41 | |
you don't want it any other way. | 0:36:41 | 0:36:43 | |
You don't want to have it out of tune, don't even listen. | 0:36:43 | 0:36:47 | |
The strength of the wheel, actually, is the way it's dispersed along its width. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:54 | |
And the weight of the wheel, it pushes down on the hub, your weight is pushing down on this hub. | 0:36:54 | 0:37:00 | |
But it's all these spokes pulling down on the rim that are holding you up. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:05 | |
But it's rim strength itself that is actually riding you on the ground. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:09 | |
The spokes don't work at all in compression, they only work in tension. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:13 | |
There you go, the wheel is on its way. It's laced. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:15 | |
And now Gravy is going to do the truing process, which is... | 0:37:15 | 0:37:21 | |
the artistry, I suppose you might say? | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
Yeah. You're trying to make it perfectly straight, side to side and up and down. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:29 | |
So, by tightening or loosening spokes, I'm able to move the rim around side to side. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:34 | |
Or if I tighten a big group of spokes, it will actually pull the rim towards the centre of the hub. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:41 | |
Or if I loosen a group of spokes, it will allow the rim to move away. | 0:37:41 | 0:37:45 | |
And the objective of all this is to make it perfectly round? | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
Perfectly round, equal tension so each of these spokes will be the same tension with each other. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:54 | |
And over the years, I've got it to the state where it just almost happens by itself. | 0:37:54 | 0:38:00 | |
You know, a fine result is a nice wheel, | 0:38:00 | 0:38:04 | |
really as fine as you can build it. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:07 | |
It just comes together perfect at the right time. Like Michelangelo mixing paint! | 0:38:07 | 0:38:13 | |
If it's not mixed right the first time, start over. | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
I like to see it come through the first time. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:23 | |
Every subtle adjustment of the truing process is done by hand and eye, but Steve insists on scientific | 0:38:23 | 0:38:31 | |
levels of precision, checking the tension on every spoke with minute accuracy. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:36 | |
Some Italians, they like to go... | 0:38:36 | 0:38:38 | |
..right? They're like, "Oh, that one's tighter, this one's looser. " | 0:38:38 | 0:38:42 | |
But you cannot really ever measure nearly as fine as you can here. | 0:38:44 | 0:38:49 | |
-Of course not. -Just make sure it's true. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:52 | |
Well, it's an absolute joy to see this coming together beautifully. | 0:38:57 | 0:39:01 | |
-It sure is. -You can't quite imagine, | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
when you've just got the hub in your hand and the spokes in the other, | 0:39:04 | 0:39:08 | |
and a rim hanging from a hook on the ceiling, | 0:39:08 | 0:39:10 | |
you can't quite imagine there ever being one, being a wheel that's going to go on your bicycle. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:15 | |
That really comes true, watching Gravy work. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:19 | |
You can see the fineness, the adeptness of his hand movements. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:25 | |
The way that he handles the tools, like they're appendages to his body. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:30 | |
It's a lovely process to watch. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:32 | |
A wheel that's taken care of properly, overhauled, and not left out to rust, | 0:39:34 | 0:39:40 | |
can last decades. | 0:39:40 | 0:39:43 | |
And give you all sorts of fun rides. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:49 | |
It's super straight, you really can't see, because of all the stickers moving. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:55 | |
But it's super straight. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
It's way in the middle. | 0:39:58 | 0:39:59 | |
I leave Steve to start work on the other wheel, and head out for a random encounter | 0:39:59 | 0:40:05 | |
with one of Fairfax's home-grown cycling characters. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
Last night we're in a bar in Fairfax, and we get talking to the landlord. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
And he says, "If you're writing a book about bicycles, there's one person you have to see in Fairfax. | 0:40:14 | 0:40:20 | |
"He's called Rudy." He says, "He down this alley, turn left and you can't miss him." | 0:40:20 | 0:40:24 | |
His picket fence is made of skis, and he's got a 15 ft blue marlin on the wall. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
And inside he's got a fantastic collection of beautifully restored, ancient American bicycles. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:34 | |
So we're going to have a look. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
-I had no problem finding Rudy's house, and he's more than happy to show me his bikes. -Come on in. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:42 | |
Thank you. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:44 | |
Come on back, I'll show you the fleet. | 0:40:46 | 0:40:48 | |
Rudy has an extraordinary collection of beautifully restored American Art Deco bicycles, | 0:40:50 | 0:40:57 | |
from the 1930s to the 1950s. | 0:40:57 | 0:40:58 | |
These were the precursors to the clunkers that Charlie and Joe were trashing on repack. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:04 | |
I suspect they don't repay in miles the care Rudy puts into them, | 0:41:04 | 0:41:08 | |
but you cannot fault a man who loves his wheels like this. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
This is a 1939 Shelby Traveller. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
And this is a 1940 Hiawatha. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
This is the men's bike, | 0:41:19 | 0:41:21 | |
with the tube here. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:23 | |
And a girl's bike, back then, she would step through. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
Because, back in the day, they would wear skirts and whatnot. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
-Wouldn't have to suffer the indignity of cocking a leg over a bicycle? -Correct. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:34 | |
And this is a 1948 Schwinn DX. | 0:41:34 | 0:41:38 | |
I transformed it into what I call a fireman's bike. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:43 | |
You would pull this, that would rub against the wheel, and it creates the... | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
HE IMITATES A SIREN | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
So you'd pull that, it would rub, then release. | 0:41:50 | 0:41:55 | |
They have a tremendous feel. | 0:41:55 | 0:41:56 | |
They make you feel like a kid when you get on the end of the handlebars. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:59 | |
Isn't that lovely? | 0:41:59 | 0:42:00 | |
What I it really like about bicycles is the way the rack is designed, the way the lines flow. | 0:42:02 | 0:42:08 | |
The colour patterns, the horns. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:10 | |
HONKS HORN | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
I'm just intrigued. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:15 | |
Once I'm done with this particular bike, it goes back with the rest, and I'll start yet another one. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:20 | |
It's my quiet time. It's just a pleasure, you know, | 0:42:20 | 0:42:26 | |
when I snap the tank together, and you just get that feeling. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:30 | |
And then, "OK, I want to do another section," | 0:42:30 | 0:42:33 | |
but then it's back to the patience part of it, when you're building. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
I'm popping back to Gravy's to pick up my brand new, hand-built wheels. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:47 | |
There's the rear one. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:49 | |
-My God! -And here's the front one. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:52 | |
I gave you one of my old postcards. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:55 | |
-That's actually my hair, believe it or not. -Is it really? | 0:42:55 | 0:42:58 | |
-Back in the day. -Fantastic! | 0:42:58 | 0:43:00 | |
Just a little something to stick on your wall. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:04 | |
-Great. That's tremendous. -Isn't that awesome? -Yeah, it really is. My hoops! | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
-Your hoops. -I'm so chuffed. -You're so happy. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
That's 360. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
Gravy, thank you. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:17 | |
I can't wait to get these on my bike. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:19 | |
-I can't wait to see it, so you've got my e-mail address? -I'll send you a photo. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:24 | |
I fully expect a photo, maybe a little blurb, a little video blurb of you riding it down the road. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:30 | |
Thanks, Gravy. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:35 | |
Have fun with those wheels. | 0:43:35 | 0:43:36 | |
Look at those wheels! Yay! | 0:43:36 | 0:43:38 | |
My wheels! | 0:43:38 | 0:43:40 | |
# Somewhere out on that horizon | 0:43:40 | 0:43:44 | |
# Out beyond the neon lights... # | 0:43:47 | 0:43:50 | |
I think there is definitely a return to craftsmanship. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
People are looking for engineering excellence. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:55 | |
They're looking for components which have longevity and durability. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:59 | |
I can see that in all the component manufacturers that I'm talking to, they're incredibly busy. | 0:43:59 | 0:44:04 | |
Their order books are full. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:06 | |
You can probably relate that to a renaissance in quality bicycles. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:10 | |
People are looking for hard-wearing, beautifully-made components. | 0:44:10 | 0:44:15 | |
Which will last. | 0:44:15 | 0:44:18 | |
I've travelled 600 miles north of San Francisco, to the city of Portland, Oregon. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:30 | |
Straight away I feel at home here. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:32 | |
It's the most bike friendly city in America. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:36 | |
The city authority has invested over 100 million in bike infrastructure | 0:44:38 | 0:44:44 | |
over 10 years, adding 200 miles of cycle lanes. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:48 | |
The people of Portland now make more bike journeys per capita than any major city in the US. | 0:44:48 | 0:44:53 | |
A cycling revolution is quietly taking place here, and it's cause for optimism. | 0:44:53 | 0:45:00 | |
I've come for a coffee with Slate Olson, who works for a bike clothing company, and is heavily involved | 0:45:03 | 0:45:08 | |
in the Portland cycling scene. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:09 | |
He believes, whenever the world is in crisis, the bicycle shows its face. | 0:45:09 | 0:45:15 | |
What we've seen is, especially with gas prices last year really | 0:45:17 | 0:45:20 | |
raising the idea of a different mode of transportation. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:22 | |
Average people, normal people, they've left the car and started to get around by bike, | 0:45:22 | 0:45:27 | |
because they realise how simple it is. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:29 | |
They say that recession or rationing are the two sure-fire ways to get the bicycle industry moving. | 0:45:29 | 0:45:35 | |
We've really seen it. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:37 | |
A lot of people have lost their jobs, or are just looking to be smarter | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
about how they're spending their money. Among the easy ways to do that are car, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:45 | |
car insurance, gas and all of that. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:47 | |
As Portland's such an easy town to get around, there's such a culture, and bike corrals and all of this, | 0:45:47 | 0:45:52 | |
it's really a simple way for people to be smarter about where they're spending. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:56 | |
So you're seeing that right, left and centre. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:58 | |
That's interesting, back there, by the way. Sorry, I'm a bit distracted. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:02 | |
She just jumped on top of a lamp post there to have her photograph taken. Hello! | 0:46:02 | 0:46:07 | |
I don't think that's a tattoo, I think that's actually... it might be tattoo. I think it's pen. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:12 | |
It's all going on in Mississippi, that's all I know. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:15 | |
It turns out our tattooed lady is an art student, asking members of the public to draw on her body | 0:46:16 | 0:46:23 | |
as part of a living art project. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:26 | |
My hand was a bit shaky, but I couldn't resist the offer. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
-Where am I going to draw this? -I have a leg. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:31 | |
OK, perfect. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
-Is my leg OK? -That's absolutely grand. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
You'll have to hold still. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:38 | |
It's perfect for Portland, yeah? | 0:46:38 | 0:46:41 | |
-Cool. -Have fun. | 0:46:41 | 0:46:43 | |
Be good. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:44 | |
Well, there you go. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:46 | |
God knows where we are now. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:55 | |
The main reason I've come to Portland it is to buy a headset for | 0:46:57 | 0:47:00 | |
my bike from a company called Chris King. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:03 | |
Well, we're truly lost. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:08 | |
Do you know where Nela Street is? | 0:47:11 | 0:47:13 | |
-I don't know, you might ask them. -Thanks very much. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:17 | |
Go down to 29th, take a left. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
I finally found a man who knows, | 0:47:20 | 0:47:23 | |
or at least has heard of, Nela Street. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:25 | |
He said "It ain't much of a street." | 0:47:25 | 0:47:28 | |
But he knows where it is. | 0:47:28 | 0:47:31 | |
Chris King! | 0:47:31 | 0:47:33 | |
I can see it written on a truck. Hallelujah! | 0:47:33 | 0:47:36 | |
When I arrive, I'm told that the company owner, Chris King himself, | 0:47:36 | 0:47:40 | |
doesn't give interviews, and doesn't normally allow cameras in. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:44 | |
But the head of marketing, Chris DiStefano, kindly allows us | 0:47:44 | 0:47:48 | |
through the door for a quick but controlled glimpse of the factory. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:53 | |
This would be the culmination of almost everyone else's tour. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
-In fact, everyone else's tour ends right here. -OK, good. | 0:47:56 | 0:47:59 | |
But, because it's you and your dream bicycle... | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
-You're very kind. -We'd like to take you past the red door. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:05 | |
Past the red door! | 0:48:05 | 0:48:07 | |
Like Campagnolo, Chris King is trying to compete in an aggressive marketplace, | 0:48:09 | 0:48:15 | |
and guards its patents carefully. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:17 | |
The headset joins the handlebars and stem to the frame of the bike, | 0:48:17 | 0:48:21 | |
and Chris King's are world famous for their craftsmanship and longevity. | 0:48:21 | 0:48:25 | |
We finish our whistle-stop factory tour just in time for lunch. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:30 | |
-Come on in to the cafe. -Thank you very much. | 0:48:30 | 0:48:33 | |
You're welcome. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:35 | |
There's a very strong bike ethic at this company. Employees are actively encouraged | 0:48:35 | 0:48:40 | |
to commute to work on two wheels, rather than four. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:44 | |
One of the main ways that we promote cycling for our employees | 0:48:44 | 0:48:48 | |
is, when they ride to work, they get credit. | 0:48:48 | 0:48:51 | |
-And that credit can be used in the cafe. -Oh. good. | 0:48:51 | 0:48:53 | |
Also, two months out of the year, we have a bike commute challenge. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:57 | |
Where, if you ride your bike to work and home every day, you get two extra days of paid time off. | 0:48:57 | 0:49:02 | |
After lunch, it's time for me to collect my headset. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:06 | |
Despite all the dazzling colours available, I plump for plain old silver. | 0:49:06 | 0:49:11 | |
Going for a touch of class. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:13 | |
Your headset's lined up, ready for your dream bike. | 0:49:13 | 0:49:15 | |
along with all these other headsets, they're going to go on somebody's dream bicycle as well. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:20 | |
-That's it. -That for me? -Yes. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:22 | |
Thank you very much indeed. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:24 | |
-Thank you for putting that together. -No problem. -Very kind. Chris... | 0:49:24 | 0:49:27 | |
-All right. -I really am very, very excited to have this in my hand. | 0:49:27 | 0:49:31 | |
Now, pack that up, fly over, and we'll do a ride here. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
-Great, that would be lovely. I'll be back. -Great. -Thank you. | 0:49:34 | 0:49:38 | |
The city of Portland celebrates the bicycle with an annual event called the Bridge Pedal. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:47 | |
The major bridges and the city centre are closed to cars. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:51 | |
18,000 people turn out on bikes in an emphatic statement of the city's commitment to two wheels. | 0:49:51 | 0:49:58 | |
It makes a powerful impression upon me. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:00 | |
# When I'm out on my bike It's a different mood | 0:50:02 | 0:50:04 | |
# I leave my brain at home Get up in the saddle | 0:50:04 | 0:50:06 | |
# No hanging around I don't diddle-daddle | 0:50:06 | 0:50:08 | |
# I work my legs, I pump my thighs | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
# Take in the scenery passing me by | 0:50:10 | 0:50:13 | |
# So come on Get up on your bike... # | 0:50:13 | 0:50:15 | |
You really have got the full spectrum of the cycling world out today, which is wonderful. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:22 | |
Guys on their hand-built recumbents, and people on some pretty obscure tandems, right the way through to | 0:50:22 | 0:50:28 | |
kids on their bike, and people who get their bike out of the garage once a year for this. | 0:50:28 | 0:50:32 | |
And it's really, really lovely to see. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:35 | |
The full spread of humanity on bicycles. | 0:50:35 | 0:50:39 | |
Riding around Portland. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:40 | |
American cities are still enslaved to the automobile, | 0:50:43 | 0:50:46 | |
but Portland is proof that, if you create the right environment, people will ride bicycles. | 0:50:46 | 0:50:52 | |
Health concerns, climate change, oil prices, | 0:50:52 | 0:50:54 | |
these things are driving the bicycle back into public consciousness. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:58 | |
I've got my wheels and my headset, it's time for me to leave America and head for home. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:04 | |
Portland's not the only city enjoying a renaissance in cycling. | 0:51:14 | 0:51:18 | |
In London a new era of the bicycle is dawning, heralded by its own celebrity mayor. | 0:51:18 | 0:51:23 | |
# London calling to the faraway towns | 0:51:25 | 0:51:28 | |
# Now war is declared And battle come down... # | 0:51:28 | 0:51:32 | |
Around 50,000 Londoners have hit the streets for the mayor of London's Sky Ride. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:39 | |
The bicycle is right up there with the printing press and the | 0:51:43 | 0:51:47 | |
internet as one of the great liberating forces of humanity. | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
With the automobile itself. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
It's clean, it's green, you can look up at the trees, you can absorb the beauty of the city, | 0:51:52 | 0:51:58 | |
and you feel good. | 0:51:58 | 0:52:00 | |
You get to your meeting or whatever you've got to do, | 0:52:00 | 0:52:02 | |
with your endorphins coursing through your bloodstream, in a good frame of mind. | 0:52:02 | 0:52:07 | |
Ideas popping out of every orifice. You're there to work. | 0:52:07 | 0:52:12 | |
It's a fantastic way of commuting, and obviously we hope very much to increase it. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:17 | |
We might, perhaps, be at the dawn of a new golden age of the bicycle. Do you get that sense? | 0:52:17 | 0:52:23 | |
-Don't forget, that in about 1904, 20% of all journeys in London were made by bicycle. -Is that right? -20%. | 0:52:23 | 0:52:30 | |
But we're now back down to 1 or 2%. | 0:52:30 | 0:52:33 | |
We need to go back to the future. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:36 | |
We need to rediscover the joys of this brilliantly simple machine. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:40 | |
The number of cyclists in London almost doubled between 2000 and 2007. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:46 | |
Once famous for its congestion and smog, London is slowly earning a reputation as a cycle friendly city. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:53 | |
What do you think about when you're riding your bicycle? | 0:52:53 | 0:52:56 | |
I think about absolutely everything. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:57 | |
I compose poems in my head, I think about the next meeting, I have ideas. | 0:52:57 | 0:53:02 | |
What I really feel is a sense of sympathy and sorrow for those | 0:53:02 | 0:53:07 | |
-who are stuck, pointlessly, on their own, in motor vehicles. In traffic jams. -Aye to that. | 0:53:07 | 0:53:12 | |
Bending their steering wheels like pretzels in frustration, | 0:53:12 | 0:53:15 | |
-and I really urge them to get out and get on their bikes. -Brilliant. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
OK, love, you ready? Follow me. | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
I've come back to Rourke's Cycles, where Brian's son, Jason, is going to paint my frame. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:31 | |
It's the moment I've been dreading most of all, as I finally have to decide on the colour. | 0:53:31 | 0:53:36 | |
That's been popular over the last few years, that sort of dark grey. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
-Has it? Really? -That's the colour we've just done Muhammad Ali's bike. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:43 | |
-The colour of blood. -If it's good enough for Muhammad Ali, it's good enough for you! | 0:53:43 | 0:53:47 | |
Pink? | 0:53:47 | 0:53:49 | |
Pink, no! Purple? | 0:53:49 | 0:53:53 | |
20 years ago, I'd let you have that colour. | 0:53:53 | 0:53:55 | |
That Bianchi blue, is it? It is quite nice, that, isn't it? | 0:53:55 | 0:53:59 | |
-You talked about a dark blue, didn't you? -Yeah. | 0:53:59 | 0:54:02 | |
There's a dark blue. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:04 | |
-How would that go with the orange, do you think? -I wouldn't go that way. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:09 | |
-We're never going to agree on this, are we? -No. It's my idea of hell. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:13 | |
I'm great at procrastinating about which socks to put on in the morning, | 0:54:13 | 0:54:18 | |
now I've got to choose what colour my bike's going to be. Oh, no! | 0:54:18 | 0:54:23 | |
-Here we go! -There's a few more. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:25 | |
Where's an orange? Give me an orange! | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
-Electric orange? -Electric orange, come on! | 0:54:29 | 0:54:32 | |
That's actually, as Jeremy Clarkson calls it, ASBO orange. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:37 | |
I have got a slightly brighter orange. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
-So that would come out brighter, would it? -Yeah. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:45 | |
After an hour of agonising deliberation, I finally make up my mind. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:54 | |
OK. Blue and orange. | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
-I'm going for it. -Let's do it before you change your mind. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:02 | |
Hang on! | 0:55:04 | 0:55:05 | |
I'm joking. | 0:55:05 | 0:55:07 | |
I really like it, I just hope it goes with the blue. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:20 | |
Look at that! | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
With its final coat of lacquer, my bike is hung up to dry. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:36 | |
At last, it's time to assemble all the parts I've collected from around the world. | 0:55:36 | 0:55:43 | |
Brian's lead mechanic, Matt, works his magic on building the bicycle. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:47 | |
My dream bike is finally coming to life. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:55 | |
It's cost me just over four grand, and a journey of 11,000 miles. | 0:55:55 | 0:56:01 | |
It might just have the largest carbon footprint in the history of cycling, but I'm not that worried. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:06 | |
I'll be offsetting it daily for the rest of my life. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:10 | |
There's an element of sadness, of course, | 0:56:16 | 0:56:18 | |
because it's been a great journey we've been on, | 0:56:18 | 0:56:21 | |
and this really is the culmination of it, the bike being put together. | 0:56:21 | 0:56:26 | |
But, with that, there is also a silver lining to that cloud. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:32 | |
And the silver lining is, this millimetre-perfect | 0:56:32 | 0:56:38 | |
incarnation of one of mankind's greatest inventions. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:42 | |
My bike! | 0:56:42 | 0:56:45 | |
I'm about to go on my new bike for the very, very first time. | 0:56:57 | 0:57:01 | |
Again, enjoy the ride! | 0:57:05 | 0:57:08 | |
This bike reflects my lifelong love affair with the bicycle. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:15 | |
It also carries my future hopes. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:16 | |
You make a covenant with a machine like this, to look after it for as long as it spirits you away. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:24 | |
We're equal partners, then, in a relationship that will last decades. | 0:57:24 | 0:57:29 | |
It's very alive. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:33 | |
Alive with the... | 0:57:33 | 0:57:36 | |
skill of the people who made it. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:39 | |
Beautifully balanced. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:41 | |
It feels very tight, obviously, because it's brand new. | 0:57:41 | 0:57:44 | |
It's magic. | 0:57:47 | 0:57:49 | |
Absolute magic. | 0:57:49 | 0:57:51 | |
I want to ride around the world! | 0:57:52 | 0:57:55 | |
Everything I've seen on this journey suggests the bicycle is in good hands. | 0:58:05 | 0:58:10 | |
Our ancestors thought it one of their greatest achievements. | 0:58:10 | 0:58:14 | |
This idea is coming back into fashion. | 0:58:14 | 0:58:16 | |
Guided by craftsmen, expert engineers and innovators. | 0:58:16 | 0:58:21 | |
And by the strong communities that exist wherever the bicycle thrives. | 0:58:21 | 0:58:27 | |
We are at the dawn of a new golden age of the bicycle. | 0:58:27 | 0:58:30 | |
Long may you ride! | 0:58:30 | 0:58:33 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:43 | 0:58:46 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:58:46 | 0:58:50 |