Thursday, January 29, 2009

cycling podcasts

What could be finer than to queue up a bunch of cycling podcasts, take out the tools, and tune up the bike? Well, maybe riding the bike would be better, but sooner or later you'll need to do some maintenance, and the time will fly by if you listen to a podcast while you're working. Here are my the ones I know about:

Bike to Work with Carlton Reid.

T-Chatter featuring Georgena Terry. Has a bit of an infomercial quality sometimes. Focused on women's cycling, though not exclusively. The interview last fall with Richard Schwinn about trends in bicycle fabrication was great.

Bikescape, a Bay Area podcast that is mostly about transportation cycling and policy. The audio quality is variable, but the content can be quite informative.

Bike Show from Resonance FM, a very entertaining British podcast with interviews and stories about curious events like the Stonehenge Solstice ride. The presenter's love of cycling is infectious.

The Fredcast is an encyclopedic podcast that covers all aspects from product recalls to racing to gear reviews. The Fredcast is well-produced and full of useful information.

The Spokesmen comes from David Bernstein, the fellow behind the Fredcast, but has a different focus. The Spokesmen is a roundtable with several commentators from the bicycle industry, sometimes including our own Fritz.

12 comments:

  1. don't most of those podcasts have each other on their shows? I enjoy them, but what an echo chamber :)

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  2. I wasn't familiar with "The Bike Show" out of that group. Will check it out though.

    I really like the Zippcast too. Of all the official bike company podcasts, it is my favorite.

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  3. No, the podcast hosts do not mostly have each other on the shows. The BikeShow interviewed Grant Petersen and several round-the-world cyclists, plus lots of Brits. The FredCast mostly interviews vendors of new cycling products and has also spoken to Phil Liggett. Georgena Terry interviews business partners of her company, including the excellent aforementioned Schwinn interview. Bikescape had the ciclovia originator guy from Colombia, plus several recordings of talks from the Car-Free Cities Conference. It's true that Carlton Reid has his own podcast (Bike to Work) and that he sometimes appears on the Spokesmen, but the Spokesmen also has Donna something, the Masi Guy Tim Jackson, and Fritz!

    For the record, I have never appeared on any of these shows: I am just a faithful listener.

    Thanks for the tip on the Zippcast, James. I'll check that one out.

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  4. Fritz : Thanks for this info.

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  5. @Ron: Thank Alison! She's the one who posted this. I'm a fan of Dave Bernstein's podcasts (when I can listen) and the Bikescape. Resonance FM Bike Show is new to me also!

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  6. Nice list. Any suggestions for video podcasts to watch on the plane or train? :)

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  7. Alison, Fritz : I'll certainly have to dig into that Schwinn interview.

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  8. @Ron: Terry's Schwinn interview was a good one -- worth taking the time for, and it's right up your alley of bike engineering discussion.

    I LOVE your Cozy Beehive if I havne't mentioned that lately :-)

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  9. Alison: Thanks for mentioning The FredCast and The Spokesmen. I hope I can live up to the term 'encyclopedic!'

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  10. CrankMyChain! Cycle TV is a great videopodcast out of Portland, OR

    The KBOO Bike Show has a podcast of their monthly bike show (also out of Portland, OR)

    NBG Mountain Movers isn't producing anything new but still has their archives up on iTunes as does the old Bike Talk Podcast

    Finally, it's not strictly bicycling but Portland State University's Center for Transportation Studies has been posting some good lectures including several on bicycling

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  11. Georgena Terry just posted a transcript of her interview with Schwinn on her blog.

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  12. I do a cycle touring focused podcast:

    http://travellingtwo.com/category/cycling-trips/podcasts/feed

    Love the Bike Show, one of my favourites.

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