Live blog: Alex Dowsett’s top tips for a rapid commute, three riders taking on Britain’s 100 best climbs (and riding between them) in 29 days, driver ‘forgets’ he’s not a bike + more
All the news and views from the site and beyond
Wed, Jun 20, 2018 13:49
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £2.49. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to ebiketips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
5 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
Pub bike 2 hours ago
All the side streets where I live are blocked by cars parked on either side of the road so that they are too narrow to cycle in if there is a car or van coming the other way. It makes it really difficult and dangerous to cycle on my local roads. I used to cycle to the shops but now I walk because I could no longer face the regular unyielding motorists when I was already in sections too narrow for them to enter. How is this any different to Lime bikes blocking street corners?
chrisonabike 3 hours ago
@Sniffer well apparently he's a keen motorcyclist, so perhaps he's projecting...
Sniffer 6 hours ago
Surprised this review didn't mention the Magicshine EVO 1300. It was reviewed very favourably on this site a while back and is much the same concept. I have been using it on my commuter for the last year or so.
Sniffer 6 hours ago
@chrisonabike I heard this too. Very disappointed in Evan Davis ill informed comments, but I thought Alexander responded appropriately, explaining the law. Considering how many politicians spout falsehoods in this area, at least she clearly understood the rules.
andyk 7 hours ago
Yes, @jonhall it's really easy to avoid Ox St and use the roads running either side. In fact, as a cyclist myself, pre and post pedestrianisation, it's more pleasant to use the roads running either side - who wants to try and meander through thousands of pedestrians? So, I can't help feeling this is a bit of a fuss over nothing.
chrisonabike 7 hours ago
Ah - "pm" on radio 4 on the Beeb coming with "ebikes can often go at 30 or 35mph"... Even Heidi Alexander (not always the most vocal supporter, though she really is a rider herself) was pushing back on that, a bit... Alas not enough on the "get the suppliers in order" eg. the shared dockless bike companies, sales etc.
tomlew 8 hours ago
Probably the coolest thing about this lamp is that it can be sandwiched between the mount and a Garmin, which means it uses net zero mounts. How cool it would be if lamps like Magicshine Hori did the same and provided a Garmin mount at the bottom for another piece of kit! BTW I wouldn't judge it too harshly about its battery life. I take this lamp primarily as a compact DRL, which uses flash mode and offers decent battery life. The way I see it, the full mode is for emergency rides back home only.
mdavidford 8 hours ago
Nothing necessarily wrong with enforcing against people cycling under the influence, but it's the performative song and dance about it and the implication that new rules and punishments are needed because 'they can get away with anything at the moment' - when actually the powers already exist and they could just quietly get on with using them if they wanted to.
Steelisreel 9 hours ago
@cardch Or we could support actual UK made rather than rebadged Chinese brands. Gloria are made by Waltly and you can even just order direct from them for far less.
Memyselfandaye 9 hours ago
@mdavidford the new No10 North office at First Street doesn't allow ebikes in the bike storage which is inside this new build site
5 thoughts on “Live blog: Alex Dowsett’s top tips for a rapid commute, three riders taking on Britain’s 100 best climbs (and riding between them) in 29 days, driver ‘forgets’ he’s not a bike + more”
To be fair the vast majority
To be fair the vast majority of the overtakes I get are of this variety. I can definitely recommend the thumbs up and wave also. If you commute or otherwise travel the same route at the same time a lot, over time you can help build the goodwill in the local area. Also I think if there is a line of cars and the first overtakes well, some highly visible thanks can encourge those following to do the same.
Morgoth985 wrote:
Completely agree!
Morgoth985 wrote:
This is true, and most overtakes are at least reasonable, but the problem is that it only takes one bad overtaker to kill you, and there are still a lot of them out there. If you are a novice cyclist, and you get passed badly at least once every ride, you are likely to give up and go back to the car.
The reverse of what you say about good passing being copied by the following drivers is also true of bad passes. I’ve lost count of the number of times the first driver in a convoy passes me dangerously close, to be followed by the other five.
While I take your point about most drivers being not too bad at passing, we need all of them to be good, so that cyclists don’t feel their lives are threatened on every ride.
Burt, I don’t disagree with
Burt, I don’t disagree with any of that, and I’m conscious that I might just be lucky in having a slightly lower density of nutcases in my area than elsewhere. I’ve still had enough close passes that I don’t minimise the issue by any means. I’m just saying that positive reinforcement of good behaviour is one tool among several that we can adopt to change attitudes.
Alex Dowsett in not having a
Alex Dowsett in not having a clue about safe cycling shocker.
Advising that cycling right behind someone in their slipstream and then shoot out quickly only to then count to three and simply pull back in front of them is a good idea is fucking bullshit. You don’t know the person in front, slipstream if you are in a chaingang or you’ve asked for a tow and they’ve ok’d it, optherwise stay the fuck off someone elses back wheel, it’s not wanted and it’s dangerous.
Sorry but advice like that comes from a cretin with no idea whatsoever about safe cycling, stick to what you know because safe commuter cycling isn’t one of them!