#tbt – Presenting… the Bike Basket! (Jan 2007)
Remember when Cycling.TV burst onto the scene, revolutionizing cycling broadcasting, opening up small races and new disciplines to enthralled new audiences around the world, and providing an entirely new platform for incredible cycling-related content? We do! We also remember when they tried to launch a cycling goods TV shopping channel on their network. That… did not revolutionize cycling broadcasting.
They emailed us about it. I wrote about it, not knowing I’d be working there just a couple of months later. When I started, the head of production took me aside to personally tell me that this article wasn’t funny.
Welcome to The Bike Basket, the first, best and ONLY cycling shopping channel in the world! It’s created by Cycling.tv, who we like a lot, so we’ve made this update really long and probably a little bit sycophantic.
We made a note before it had even started that just read “QVC with lycra.”
But straight away we knew it was going to be worth watching.
She’s a very good presenter too.
With a lovely Irish accent.
But she seemed pretty impressed with Brian Smith, so we probably don’t stand a chance. We’re going to get our revenge by posting lots of pictures of her with her eyes closed.
The very first thing ever sold on a cycling shopping channel was a Bianchi bike. That’s good, because we love Bianchi bikes. She referred to it as “Bianchi blue” and not “celeste”, but that’s just about forgivable.
“Ideal if yours have broke.”
“It’s like putting on a pair of boxing gloves.”
It doesn’t seem tacky like QVC. Because it’s limited to a specific time-slot and subject matter and sells quality products at bargain prices rather than just tat from Hong Kong, this could REINVENT THE TV SHOPPING GENRE!
That said, we’re not sure if we’d just tune in and umpulsively spend £1000 on a bike. Maybe if you’re already in the market to buy a new bike it would be worth watching the show to pick up your steed at a bargain price. Accessories were cheap though, and we’re quite surprised we managed to resist buying any more things that say Pearl Izumi on them.
We could go on, but you should just watch it yourself.
We mean, really, what else would you be doing at 7pm on a Thursday anyway?
The only viable alternative that we can think of is The Simpsons on Sky One, and that’s probably a repeat from 1993 that they showed last week.
Stimulate the economy
It’s on Thursdays at 7pm on Cycling.tv. Buying cycling-related products just got scarily easy.