Bolsover & District Cycling Club

Watch now on BBC IPlayer

Author Rob Penn travels around the world collecting handbuilt parts for his dream bicycle and charts the social history of one of mankind's greatest inventions

http://bbc.co.uk/i/t6ylx/

Worth watching - might get a repeat on BBC4 or BBC2 if you missed it. Interestingly, Rob opted for a steel frame (Brian Rourke) rather than one of current 'trends' such as carbon fibre or alloy. As they say...steel is real.

My only real gripe was that this was all a bit of a nice jolly, the premise being that Rob collected the parts in person from the factory where they were made, whether that was in Stoke on Trent or San Francisco. He could have bought most from a good LBS, so his eco-credentials were rather lost in the process.

Still a nice bike at the end...£4,000 later!

Me again...'The Story of the Bicycle' is being repeated tonight on BBC4 at 1:20am - set your recording device if you missed it first time round.