Excellent film here on the bicycle’s history – possibly the best I have seen, it is so comprehensive and so obviously in love with the machine. Ignore the quality and settle in for a treat, really cool to actually see the old bone-shakers being ridden.
Especially likes the Scot who rode his invention to Glasgow from his home and was “arrested for knocking down a small child.”
Did you know cycling was banned in Central Park due to the mass of bikes flying about back in the late 1800s?
The section on the Keirin school in Japan at 55mins is also very good. When I lived there I once managed a time for the kilometer on the local track that would have gained me entry to the school if I was to become a naturalised Japanese and to laser off all my tattoos. The first wasn’t going to happen as my written Japanese wasn’t good enough to take the prerequisite test, and neither was the second because my Mum likes them.
The Keirin guys were pretty minted, all driving Beemers and Mercs, and most of them smoked like chimneys too.
Great section on the Tour and Tommy Simpson at 46:00, with a touching interview with Albert Beurick, the Belgian guy who looked after Tom when he was on the Continent. He talks about doping briefly also, and the video moves on to Greg Lemond saying how the sport has ‘really cleaned up’!
The joy of cycling is considered at about 1:15:00, with a cycling flautist saying “I find when I ride that my face opens up. It takes away the wrinkles in my mind and my face.”
Hmm, think I need to ride harder, these wrinkles might need intervals…
And the brilliant Beryl Burton pops up at 1:18:00.
This is cycling, if you ask me,. This is the sport I love.
And check out the cops on wheels at 1:47:00, proper Village People stuff!
