Live blog: Greg James forced to pause Sport Relief efforts, Armstrong helps test autonomous drone + your pics of cycling in the snow and more
All today’s news about snow and other cycling related stuff too
Thu, Mar 01, 2018 18:27
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
bikercub 17 minutes ago
I was referring more to the cycling computers they produce, but I’m sure an opportunity to snipe couldn’t be missed. The article you refer to is for the older of their radar lights. My suggestion was that they have several cycling computers in a popular price bracket that seem to offer good usability. It would be nice to see those reviewed.
AidanR 2 hours ago
Laudable effort. Will a full review of the bike be following?
TrainWalkWheel 2 hours ago
By their very nature the dockless bike schemes will result in bikes being parked in stupid places. The user has little incentive to find the correct place to park it. More so if they are tourists with a cruise liner to catch and only 3 hours to explore. So, if the operation can't be made to fit within the councils required operating method, then it should be removed. I'm pretty sure another operator will come in and propose a system acceptable to the council if they believe they can make money. I strongly suspect that the current operators can only make money by tacitly allowing bikes to be left where the tourist money wants to leave them, so time to rethink the financial model me thinks!
tomlew 2 hours ago
@bikercub "If they are good enough to be supporting the Groupama-FDJ United World TourCycling team, we should be looking at them as a contender." No, that only means that they paid enough to become a sponsor. Let's put the "pros use better stuff" myth to sleep, finally. And by the way, the trickiest part of a GPS computer is not data collection - that can be done by absolutely all of them. The hard part is the general user interface and turn-by-turn navigation, none of which really matters for a pro cyclist - and that brings us back to why any GPS computer could be good enough for just about any pro cyclist.
Rendel Harris 2 hours ago
@mdavidford Absolutely, I am assuming that the OP means those lanes where it's so tight it's actually impossible for a cyclist to get through if there is a large vehicle, obviously if they can squeeze by each other nobody needs to go back.
Mr Blackbird 2 hours ago
You are quite correct about uniform signage. However this seems to be a fairly atypical set up. Having experience and knowledge of it would in theory make mistakes less likely. Part of my job involved writing operating and maintenance procedures for food manufacturing machinery. I quickly learnt that people need to be given direct, simple, non-conflicting, non-ambiguous instructions. If it is possible to make mistakes, then they will be made. The best of of avoiding a mistake is to design flaws out of the system.
CD1997 2 hours ago
I do not in anyway support the Daily Telegraph's continually mad anti-cycling journalism but, it must be said, that this particular section of cycle lane on King Street in Hammersmith has been an absolute disaster ever since it re-opened. It certainly wasn't perfect for cyclists before but ever since they remodelled the cycle lane to run as a two way lane on one side of the road it has become much much more dangerous and confusing for pedestrians, drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists alike. I'm not saying that all cycling infrastructure is badly designed but, on my 12 mile commute from home in South London to work at the West end of King Street, this cycleway is where I feel most unsafe. It's not an inditement on active travel but it should be a lesson in planning because it's been closed on 5 or 6 occasions since to be remodelled to correct issues that should've been obvious before it opened. I have been using this road to get to work since long before the re-modelling and it has definitely, in my opinion, worsened not just the safety of cyclists but also the relationship between drivers and cyclists in this area.
quiff 3 hours ago
In principle, it shouldn't matter if you're familiar with a particular junction - that's precisely why we have (relatively) uniform signage across the country (I had this from a driver recently - Him: sorry, I don't know the area. Me: but a no entry sign is the same everywhere...). But in practice in a busy environment like this, simply adding another sign saying look out for cyclists is limited help. I don't love cycling on contraflows / a two way cyclelane on a one way street for that reason. In fact there's a crossing I don't love as a pedestrian which is look right (bikes) look left (bikes) look right (cars), island, catch breath, look left (cars), look left (bikes). (Yes, you could wait for a green man, but then it's still look everywhere (Deliveroo)).
Mr Blackbird 3 hours ago
I'm not familiar with Jeremy Vine's favourite cycle lane. However I do have sympathy with drivers if they have to deal with "Look both ways for cyclists" as well as "One Way" and "No Entry" signs. Especially if the driver is not familiar with the junction.
chrisonabike 3 hours ago
@mitsky Alas for a second there I was awarding the motorist in the window there points for wearing hi-vis in their car, then I realised they were also wearing a motoring helmet...
23 thoughts on “Live blog: Greg James forced to pause Sport Relief efforts, Armstrong helps test autonomous drone + your pics of cycling in the snow and more”
Snow day for me, woke up at 6
Snow day for me, woke up at 6, a wall of red cancellations on the live train board, went back to bed. Thing is the ride part of the commute has been fantastic all this week. On Monday the mud had frozen and it had not been that dry since June. Got a bit sketchy on Tuesday evening so fitted the spike tyres. After a hearty brunch I’m off for a big off road ride.
Getting some use out of the
Getting some use out of the IceSpikers this year.
Drinfinity wrote:
that looks nice. Where is it?
ConcordeCX wrote:
Cadshaw farm to The Strawbury Duck. Just off the A666 Bolton to Darwen.
It’s part of my regular off-road short loop. There’s a whole set of bridleways and farm tracks that link up to form decent circuits, and access the PBW feeder routes.
A good long freeze and spikes also makes the top of the moors accessible. Most of the year it’s bog, but when frozen solid extra circuits open up.
Drinfinity wrote:
lovely round there. Spent many a fine summers evening at or outside the Strawberry Duck in my youth before moving away
Drinfinity wrote:
thanks, that’s near my ancestral homeland. Looks good on the OS maps too. PBW is on my list of things to do.
I’ve just got a road bike
I’ve just got a road bike with 28mm semislick GP4000s. Remember discretion is the greater part of valour; have the weekend off, Mother Natures free rest day. It’s going to be a long summer.
Leviathan wrote:
Also riding a road bike with GP4000s. Around the same area (Manchester). Don’t know what the fuss is about. Bit of white stuff on the side streets but once on the reasonably frequently used A & B roads its fine.
CygnusX1 wrote:
Oh yeah. Do you know Rufus Brunt? I wonder if you are one of my Velofrenemies. As easy as it is the quote Rule 5. I’d rather not take a needless spill and be off the bike for days or weeks when it will take literally one day to melt this lot if the wind turns. I’ve lots of shopping to do and haven’t seen Black Panther yet.
And my work site is closing
And my work site is closing from tonight and all day tomorrow. Double snow day, Yeah!
ktache wrote:
Me too. Paid leave. Awesome. Long may it continue!
RE those drones, they could
RE those drones, they could be a godsend for cycling coverage in years to come. No need for a road full of motorbikes.
Turbo @ 6am and then a(nother
Turbo @ 6am and then a(nother) day of WFH 🙂
“The drone pursues him like
“The drone pursues him like an Irish journalist.”
Hmm.
“The drone pursues him like
delete
“The drone pursues him like
delete
Lance who?
Lance who?
CygnusX1 wrote:
Armstrong.
His name’s Casey Neistat not
His name’s Casey Neistat not Casey Neustat. At least get his name right!
greenphotos wrote:
yeah we know – slip of the finger, but you can’t edit an embed on the live blog unfortunately
Warming up after a 20 mile
Warming up after a 20 mile off road snow day adventure.
Spike tyres, Yeah!
ktache wrote:
Yes, they are great aren’t they? I got to work through heavy snow shower and packed snow on the minor roads no problem. In fact I would have struggled to get to work in the car on wednesday.
Then two hours later they shut the workplace down (University campus) so I did it all over again! Great fun knowing you can keep rubber side down in these conditions.
Having said that, I don’t think we in South Cumbria have had it that bad, compared to the rest of the UK – still hasn’t stopped work closing the campus until next monday.
I’m with you on this 110%
I’m with you on this 110% Leviathan. This’ll be gone in a couple of days and no point risking 6 weeks off the bike with a broken wrist. PS. It’s rule #9
.