road.cc live blog: Chris Froome up for Sports Personality of the Year + pedalos have come on a bit, Times correction spotted & more

I've used Challenge, Vittoria, Veloflex and Continental tyres. What stands out for me regarding Challenge is how robust their supple tyres are. Usually there is a tradeoff there, but Challenge somehow manages to keep both.

Well, many of them are more correctly "emit elsewhere". However as we do successfully move away from "coal, oil, and latterly gas and wood" the fraction that is actually emitted does go down. So overall, welcome. (It's complicated... the renewables business is just business like any other so we aren't keen to discuss all the resources being used / new places that get trashed. Example being how much steel (mostly still "dirty") and concrete we need for the new infra. And of course where humans can, they will, as much as they can afford, so Jevons Paradox applies).

RE: Royal Mail 4-wheeled "bikes" - hadn't they been trying to ditch the bikes for ages (like society overall)? When they did they dumped them in favour of vans plus those trolleys. Overall if this means it ends up more "micro-van" rather than "walking plus full size vans" I guess a degree of pedalling is an improvement? When Royal Mail and parking came up before someone said they can ditch their vehicles where they want (if they have to/within reason... but nobody's going to do anything about it). The real issue is all the other commercial deliverers do that anyway. Plus most of the rest of the population...

@david21 Such as this one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY6fhhmen8w

Will Royal Mail release facts and figures that really matter - costs of acquisition, costs of maintenance, impact on productivity, depreciation, loss of residual value? Zero-emission vehicle means carbon emissions are released upstream.

RE: Royal Mail 4-wheeled "bikes" - should be worried in case they get Fujitsu to manage the routing and logistics...

One thing that's missed out is upgradability. By which I mean, what is the benefit of upgrading my bike? Over the last decade or so , we have had, electronic gears, disc brakes, fully intergrated cable free designs, more aero frames, there has always at lease one reason to eye up an upgrade. Lets use the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9. What is the difference between that and the SL8? its so marginal. same can be said for so many new releases. the upgrades are so marginal and when they are always boasted about in ridiculous terms like a 5 seconds saving over 80km averaging 45kph. its preposterous to the average mere human non pro rider. Its like the evolution of the iPhone. the leap in every new model was always worth the cost of upgrading. bigger screens, higher resolutions, better camera etc etc. but now each new model is almost identical to the last and people stopped upgrading every year, to maybe ever y 2-3 years instead with the new contract etc. In the last 4-5 years, with the exception of a few radical bikes like the Factor One or the Colnago Y1RS etc, upgrades are not worth the expenditure. Especially when people are more prepared to buy Chinese instead. Why spend 5 figures on a top end Dura Ace clad superbike from a marquis brand when you can get a very good alternative from China for almost half the price? Its happening in bikes, phones, electric SUVs. Big brands took the piss and now they are paying for their greed.

Not a reply to car drivers but one I do like using on the fairly regular occasions some mean-spirited grumbler complains about bikes on trains (almost invariably when the train is less than half full and the bike is neatly tucked in the legitimate bike space!), muttering, "You've got a bike, why aren't you riding it?" to which I like to reply, "You've got shoes on, why aren't you walking?"

My favorite rude driver retort was when I had two teenage children and there were four cars in my driveway. Driver: Get off the road! Me: How many cars do you own? Just the one? I own four. Get off my road!

@Bungle_52 The ones I have seen don't, as I said they are not much wider than a large cyclist with MTB bars so they can safely (and I presume legally) park on pavements when making their deliveries without obstructing pedestrians, given that, in London at least, segregated cycle lanes almost always run alongside wide pavements. If they were to stop in cycle lanes that would be annoying, although at least they are narrow enough to ride around without having to use the road/pavement, unlike the motorised vans.