Dell Ireland promoting cycling - but not brakes

daymobrew

In today's Irish Times (Mon Jun 16) there is a photo of Aongus Hegarty, the head of Dell Ireland (?), on a bicycle as part of Dell's promotion of cycling.

For some bizarre reason the front brakes on the bike in the photo are disconnected :eek: And it doesn't look like the helmet he is wearing has any straps.

While well meaning, these photo ops are just that. Hopefully the programme is better than the photo.

Anyone work at Dell or know someone there? What are the programme details?

What section is it in? Am looking online, I don't have the paper copy.

Gavin

http://www.ireland.com/business/

can't seem to upload image. This is worthy of a letter to the times

That's an excellent spot!

blorg

Hard to tell from the online photo but it looks like they could be traditional cantilevers connected properly, rather than disconnected looking V-brakes? I'll try to have a peek in the printed copy to diagnose ;-)

penexpers

Yep they look like properly connected cantilevers.

The helmet defintely doesn't have any straps though.

Gavin

No, gotta go for v-brakes. Zoom in and you can see the noodle on the right hand side of the pic. There is also no 'pull point' (?) for the cantilever to hook into above the brake.

penexpers

Ah that's a good point.

TinyExplosions

That'll be why it looks like he's squeezing the rear brake

Caroline_ie

Agh,,, guys, don't be mean ... I think it could also be his first day without stabilisers ... ( that's the only explanation I can think of ... I mean ... that lady IS pushing him along ... isn't she ?)

:pac: sorry ...

hardCopy

Cue lawsuit: "I disconnected my brakes because Dell done it first"

cyclopath2001

Dell's a high-tech company, I reckon it's a Wireless braking system and he's wearing a Virtual Reality helmet (held on by virtual straps).

It's not the first time an IT company has tried for a bit of PR with cycling. Oracle famously declared that 'North Dublin has an extensive network of cycle tracks'.

As with everything in IT, best taken with a pinch of salt.

beans

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

Oracle famously declared that 'North Dublin has an extensive network of cycle tracks'.

Oh, but it does - on every footpath, at every left-turn... you may even find some more under those parked cars

Supercell

There is no cycling specific scheme , there is a "green week" this week though..

flickerx

Yeah looks like a five year old kid getting off the stabilisers for the first time with his proud ma next to him.

IT companies like cyclists cos they show up at the same time every day instead of the driving heads who come in 20 mins late saying the M50 was jammed or the like (as if it ever isnt).

daymobrew

flickerx wrote: »

I'm getting 'file not found'. Can you attach the image to a post?

IT companies like cyclists cos they show up at the same time every day instead of the driving heads who come in 20 mins late saying the M50 was jammed or the like (as if it ever isnt).

Unfortunately it can be hit-n-miss wrt providing facilities, though every company I worked for has had showers.

zzzzzzzz

Can someone paste the article up here?

Ghost Rider

I'd say you're spot on to identify this as hollow PR. I worked for Dell some years ago and the place was absolutely gripped by the car culture. I'd estimate about 90% of the employees (and there were several hundred) drove to work every single day. Despite the horrific traffic jams coming in and out of the facility every morning and evening, the company itself did nothing whatsoever to discourage the car culture. On the contrary, they provided a gigantic car park and, as I recall, cars were occasionally even provided as incentives for the top-performing sales staff. Needless to say, the bike facilities were extremely limited...

Of course, times could have changed in Dell. Maybe they do have a cycling culture there now. But I have my doubts. Thrusting young sales staff generally prefer to symbolise their status in weights of 1000kg and upwards rather than 10kg or so!

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

It's not the first time an IT company has tried for a bit of PR with cycling. Oracle famously declared that 'North Dublin has an extensive network of cycle tracks'.

As with everything in IT, best taken with a pinch of salt.

zzzzzzzz

Ghost Rider wrote: »

I'd say you're spot on to identify this as hollow PR. I worked for Dell some years ago and the place was absolutely gripped by the car culture. I'd estimate about 90% of the employees (and there were several hundred) drove to work every single day. Despite the horrific traffic jams coming in and out of the facility every morning and evening, the company itself did nothing whatsoever to discourage the car culture. On the contrary, they provided a gigantic car park and, as I recall, cars were occasionally even provided as incentives for the top-performing sales staff. Needless to say, the bike facilities were extremely limited...

Of course, times could have changed in Dell. Maybe they do have a cycling culture there now. But I have my doubts. Thrusting young sales staff generally prefer to symbolise their status in weights of 1000kg and upwards rather than 10kg or so!

I work in cherrywood at the moment. I don't think there's that many people cycling in to work here, to the best of my knowledge anyway.

Shower rooms in here are a BIG plus!

It's fine with me if nobody else wants to cycle - means I don't have to queue for the shower in the morning.

cyclopath2001

Ghost Rider wrote: »

I'd say you're spot on to identify this as hollow PR.!

Not sure I'd buy a computer from a company that misses out on important details like brake cables. The PR person deserves a spanking.

blorg

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

Not sure I'd buy a computer from a company that misses out on important details like brake cables. The PR person deserves a spanking.

Luckily, most computers don't need brake cables.

daymobrew

There wasn't an article, just a photo with the following caption:

Aongus Hegarty, vice president and general manager of Dell small and medium business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with Aoife Mooney, head of the Dell green team, encouraging employees at the company's facility in Cherrywood, Co Dublin, to cycle to work. Mr Hegarty was launching Dell Ireland's annual Green Week, which runs from today to Friday. The initiative aims to highlight environmental issues to staff. Dell says it is savinf $2 million (1.3 million euro) a year by boosting efficiency and cutting waste.

You can see that the brake cable is out of the housing at the brake lever, the brakes are away from the rim and the metal routing portion is disconnected from the right brake (on left in photo).

daymobrew

Full scan attached. Apologies for brutal quality.

blorg

Good detective work there daymobrew, I think we can conclude that is indeed a disconnected V-Brake.

zzzzzzzz

daymobrew wrote: »

Full scan attached. Apologies for brutal quality.

Cheers for that

dub_skav

Has she been listening to the studies that say pedestrians should wear helmets too.

Capt'n Midnight

maybe it's a fixed wheel

blorg

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

maybe it's a fixed wheel

I doubt it, he is distinctly lacking in any Zen-like sense of connection to the bike.

Raam

blorg wrote: »

Good detective work there daymobrew, I think we can conclude that is indeed a disconnected V-Brake.

And so ends another mystery for the Internet Detectives (see El Tonto's/Blorg's excellent work in another thread)

Supercell

They are looking at car pooling apparently as being more Green..the cycling commitment is about as sincere as Angus's attempts to actually ride that bike.