Keegan, in those days one of Britain's most celebrated footballers, ended up looking daft - and in a single instant set the image of cycling on television back by years.

Still, at least cycling made it on to television screens back in those days. While the BBC and Channel 4 now occasionally screen professional racing, an alien from Mars watching our TV sets would otherwise have no way of knowing that man had ever invented the bike.

Pity the research team at Cycling England, the charity set up to promote the activity. They've just spent four weeks watching Britain's leading soaps, in an effort to track the way cycling is portrayed as part of normal life on television - or if it is portrayed at all.

Their conclusions won't come as a great surprise to anyone who cycles regularly, since riders are used to being thought of as misfits who have taken up some weird obsession.

In four weeks of watching EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, the Cycling England researchers identified 95 lead characters. Only two of them were shown to own bikes (Mickey from EastEnders and Amy from Coronation Street).

Of the four times lead characters were shown with bikes, viewers were hardly given the most positive image of cycling - the most noticeable way in which a bike featured was when poor old Stacey from EastEnders was mowed down by a rogue rider.

Given that three of the four shows are set in city locations, where all the figures suggest that cycling is booming, the lack of two wheels on the streets of the shows seems odd. Emmerdale characters, given the hilly location of the show, might be forgiven for being less inclined to ride regularly.

Does the lack of cycling on television in general and the soaps in particular matter? Well, yes, if you believe that what people watch on television influences how they behave in their own lives.

Soap operas are meant to feature characters with whom viewers can identify - if the characters never ride a bike, it's less likely people will think about this form of transport.

Phillip Darnton, chairman of Cycling England, certainly takes this view. It's no coincidence, he suggests, that 50 per cent fewer children cycle regularly compared with a generation ago - or that the UK has one of the lowest levels of cycle use in the European Union, in terms of the average mileage covered by bike by each citizen.

"There's a real sense of excitement about cycling at the moment - we're doing brilliantly at competitive cycling with the recent wins in the World Track Cycling Championships, we're hosting the Tour de France in July and we've announced a radical overhaul of cycling proficiency," Darnton says.

"We believe it's now time for soap stars to get back in the saddle to help the British public rediscover the benefits and pleasure of cycling."

Worryingly, Hollyoaks, the soap that is most likely to be watched by children and young adults, was the worst offender in its portrayal of cycling. Despite the fact that its cast is almost entirely made up of people under the age of 20, Cycling England's researchers didn't manage to spot a single bike in four whole weeks of watching the programme.

Hollyoaks was much better, however, at portraying another national pastime. Over a period of four weeks, its 20 or so cast members ordered 128 alcoholic drinks.

Strangely, soap-opera characters' obsession with boozing - and complete failure to do any exercise - rarely seems to have the same consequences as in real life. Most cast members, particularly the younger ones, remain fit and athletic looking.

Contrast this with the real picture of Britain today. Cyclists in Denmark and Holland ride more than 10 times as far as Britons, according to the Commission for Integrated Transport, and suffer half the obesity rates prevalent here.

The more cycling is portrayed as an everyday activity for normal people - on television and throughout the media - the more likely it is that the rest of us will feel more comfortable riding. If driving is always shown to be the default mode of transport for Britons, it will continue to be so.

But maybe we shouldn't have such high expectations of mainstream television. After all, at Christmas, BBC One's flagship sports show, Sports Personality of the Year, asked Adrian Chiles to interview Nicole Cooke, who last year won the women's Tour de France and cycling world championship. His first question to one of Britain's most successful - though unsung - sporting stars, was how often she fell off. Kevin Keegan has a lot to answer for.