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Live blog: Rafa Nadal jumps on bike to go shopping in Wimbledon, Greg Van Avermaet riding yellow BMC Teammachine + more
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Tue, Jul 10, 2018 14:25
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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
mark1212123 41 minutes ago
Maybe people do not have the capacity to look out for everyone on the roads because there are so many users squeezed onto small roads in the uk. Brains are not 100% functional, as we know they lapse. Maybe we should have a country wide chat regarding vehicle usage. Maybe radios, satnavs, fones should be removed from cars, or restricted to passenger use. Maybe we have to accommodate homo sapiens are a murderous bunch, so when someone's mown down it can be forgotten easily, after the 'ohmygod' ten minutes. Segregated cycle lanes, or a complete ban on the motor vehicle, lol. Essentially the human race is speeding up and the average cyclist cannot keep up. In the midst of these problems as we are, I personally have to not care about my well being if I wish to continue using bikes. This is a strange and interesting dilemma, yet it sits in harmony with the current zeitgeists twisting as they are.
OnYerBike 51 minutes ago
"Illegal e-bikes" seems like a reasonable phrase to me. It's not strictly accurate if you're very pedantic (it's currently perfectly legal to own and even use such a bike in certain circumstances; it's the use of the bike on public roads that is illegal), but it's good enough. "Illegal (motor)bike" doesn't disambiguate between illegal electric and petrol powered bikes - illegally used dirt bikes etc have been around for decades, long before the current electrification. Whether or not that distinction is relevant depends on the context. In fact, without context, I think I would wonder if "illegal bike" was talking about normal pedal bikes that are somehow illegal (maybe circumventing anti-dumping laws or not complying with relevant safety standards etc.) "Electric motorbike" is technically accurate, but I would only apply it to Sur-Rons or similar - I can see that legally it applies to any non-EAPC ebike, but doesn't fit well with less motorbike-esque versions or homebrew conversions. It also doesn't distinguish between legal and illegal - it's perfectly possible to legally ride an electric motorbike or electric moped, and some people do. So to use "electric motorbike" to mean "illegal electric motorbike" falls into the same trap as using "ebike" to mean "illegal ebike". “Illegally modified e-bikes” is also inaccurate - firstly, many of them are not modified in anyway; you can just buy them like that straight from the internet. And again, there's no law against modification, or owning a ebike that has been modified to no longer be an EAPC. It's the use of an ebike that has been modified to no longer be an EAPC (if it ever was one) on public roads that is illegal. So of all options, "illegal ebike" seems like the least problematic.
OnYerBike 1 hour ago
@Jem PT Scottish Gaelic - under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, public bodies (including the police) have certain duties regarding "promoting, facilitating and supporting the use of the Gaelic language."
Paul J 1 hour ago
@Jem PT Scots Gaelic for Police. And yes, it does seem very similar to the Scots English. ;)
Paul J 1 hour ago
I would use "illegal motorbikes", as there is never such a thing an illegal non-motorised bicycle.
Jem PT 1 hour ago
What's with the bi-lingual 'Police' on the Scottish Police van?? (Or is the lower line 'Glaswegian'??
mitsky 2 hours ago
@stulemanski "... if drivers decided it was okay..."
mdavidford 2 hours ago
Really? They lost me at "SUV".
chrisonabike 3 hours ago
@mitsky in theory there's a purpose, being it should mean steps to doing something about this can be skipped if they do this again or penalties could be higher etc. Since in practice nothing of consequence happens however (and certainly not like them immediately being banged up / car crushed etc - plus of course there might be a long period before anything might happen under the current system) it's simply "don't do it again, or we'll tell you not to do it again, again"...
chrisonabike 3 hours ago
@flowboy "Shared space" - this is a thing that some urban planners / designers got wildly enthusiastic about *. A couple of UK ones still do, long after the Dutch ones abandoned this as being dangerous and unpleasant for people not in motor vehicles. The take-home is it doesn't work well for humans. Safety is not best served by creating uncertainty. And motor traffic dominates as normal, except under very specific conditions **. Plenty on that online (see eg. David Hembrow's "a view from the cycle path" blog for that mostly in NL, Aseasyasridingabike for some UK examples). * I can only conclude they love being able to have more of a blank canvas to create on, so they can be more free to play with "blue sky" designs. Also perhaps they like the "cleaner lines" to spaces without all the paint, signs, marked areas for different modes etc. ** There is in fact an opportunity to have "sharing" and indeed "clean lines" - that is by having a genuine "home zone" / "play street" / "woonerf" (Dutch term). But that requires this is not a) still principally a space for motor vehicles, which in turn means b) those areas should not be permeable for driving through, and everything should promote very low speeds and indeed not much driving (or even parking) there.
13 thoughts on “Live blog: Rafa Nadal jumps on bike to go shopping in Wimbledon, Greg Van Avermaet riding yellow BMC Teammachine + more”
Well actually, the real blame
Well actually, the real blame lies in the massive lobbying of our government by the haulage industry who are against anything that puts their costs up in the name of safety… they fought like heck with side bars for lorries, eventually selling them to companies outside London when the deadline came in. Same with mirrors… and no doubt high vision cabs and camera systems.
BJ has built a whole career
BJ has built a whole career out of transparent bullshit. It’s a deep criticism of this country that that absolute wanker has had the power and authority he is apparently granted.
I’m sure that if Boris had a
I’m sure that if Boris had a superior safety system to the EU offering, the EU would have looked at it and incorporated it if it were indeed superior. They are kind of good like that.
don simon wrote:
The EU has all the strengths and weaknesses of a collection of 28 members with sometimes complementary and sometimes competing interests. Lots of extensive discussion, horse-trading and compromise.
On a related safety issue – longer cabs with better visibility – France and Sweden opposed the proposals on behalf of their truck manufacturers. But the case for change was a good one, supported by most, so a compromise was reached (IIRC) which meant the change would happen, but a few years later.
Of course, once outside the EU, Johnny Foreigner will just do whatever we tell him
Borris is an idiot and will
Borris is an idiot and will say whatever suits his own agenda at the time. Let’s stop taking him seriously.
harragan wrote:
Parallels with Jeremy Clarkson…?
Slides? They look like
Slides? They look like sandals to me. These are slides (I think these are by United Colors of Benneton)…
de Pfeffel Johnson has always
de Pfeffel Johnson has always been a self-serving tosser. (I never refer to him as ‘Boris’ because hes no friend of mine)
He only started to do somehting about cycling provisions in London when there was a cluster of 6 cyclist deaths in a 2 week window and he knew that would be his legacy. Prior to that he had argued against it for nearly 6 years, even going as far to suggest prosecuting cyclists wearing headphones not long prior to the death cluster.
The much missed Twitter account @BorisWatch put it most succinctly in 2015:
If Boris gets run over we
If Boris gets run over we should give the EU credit for it.
What a self serving prick.
“Shimano show off Greg Van
“Shimano show off Greg Van Avermaet’s yellow BMC Teammachine he’ll use to start TDF stage 3”
It’s amazing that BMC knew he’d be in the lead before they started the time trial. And they even had the confidence to give him a road bike to ride it!
dst wrote:
“Shimano show off Greg Van Avermaet’s yellow BMC Teammachine he’ll use to start TDF stage 3”
It’s amazing that BMC knew he’d be in the lead before they started the time trial. And they even had the confidence to give him a road bike to ride it!
— dst
Often “special edition” frames are painted, delivered overnight, and then built first thing in the morning in Grand Tours.
Rapha Nadal wrote:
Often “special edition” frames are painted, delivered overnight, and then built first thing in the morning in Grand Tours.— dst
That may be the case, but my point was that he didn’t use that bike for stage 3 (the team time trial stage) as the artical headline suggests.
Ref: Rapha Slides.;
Ref: Rapha Slides.;
What do you call a French Pro Cyclist wearing sandals?
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Julian Alaphilippe Floppe