Live blog: World Naked Bike Ride in London to take place tomorrow despite expected disruption, THE COOLEST overshoes ever, plans to pedestrianise London’s Oxford Street binned, BMC TT bike recall + lots more
All the cycling news from this site and beyond…
Fri, Jun 08, 2018 14:00
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.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn’t especially like cake.
9 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
jackcycles 5 minutes ago
Quite. There's also a demand side story to accompany your eloquently written post, in that domestic demand has dampened from the captive COVID market of a few years back, and less international demand due to tariff-led policies and anti-dumping laws. On Chinese competition, I don't think it's necessarily Western profit-seeking behaviour which has caused increased Chinese supply and competitiveness as much as higher Chinese investment leading to higher quality output, innovation, and economies of scale. I don't know about Chinese frames as I haven't bought one and haven't seen one, but for wheels I don't see any inherent quality advantage for Western brands. Indeed, innovation seems to be coming from Chinese brands along with lower prices, just like we're seeing with electric cars. So higher quality and lower prices.
kingleo 2 hours ago
They should concentrate on the road users who do most of the killing and injuring: car drivers.
andystow 2 hours ago
I've used the "why aren't you on the motorway?" one before, except here it would be "highway" or "Interstate." The other one I like is: "Get on the sidewalk!" (pavement) "On the side what?" "On the sidewalk!" "So it's not called a side-bicycle then?" Also one I've used a couple of times: "You're not a car!" "Neither are you!"
rookybiker 3 hours ago
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.
chrisonabike 5 hours ago
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).
chrisonabike 5 hours ago
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...
mitsky 5 hours ago
@david21 Such as this one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY6fhhmen8w
MaxiMinimalist 5 hours ago
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.
chrisonabike 5 hours ago
RE: Royal Mail 4-wheeled "bikes" - should be worried in case they get Fujitsu to manage the routing and logistics...
Smoggysteve 6 hours ago
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.
9 thoughts on “Live blog: World Naked Bike Ride in London to take place tomorrow despite expected disruption, THE COOLEST overshoes ever, plans to pedestrianise London’s Oxford Street binned, BMC TT bike recall + lots more”
Cowardly WCC bowing and
Cowardly WCC bowing and scraping to their fuel burning overlords as per
roadmanshaq wrote:
It’s a dreadful decision.
Come up with a better plan, sure, but this is bad for the street, bad for the millions who use it (not just a few NIMBY locals) and bad for the city. Bad, bad, bad. And it’ll get worse when Crossrail starts pouring tens of thousands of passengers out of Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street.
As I understood it the Oxford
As I understood it the Oxford Street pedestrianisation would have been just that – pedestrianisation, with no provision for cycling.
I’ve mixed feelings about
I’ve mixed feelings about this. Removing the buses and taxis is a good thing but removing cycling is bad; it is used heavily as an East West cycle corridor, there are no alternatives either side of this corridor.
What really needs to be done, as in many European cities, is a high quality cycle path along the street and motors removed.
Neither WCC nor TfL would ever consider doing this so cancelling the whole thing is the least bad option for cycling.
As a regular London cyclist
As a regular London cyclist commuter (100 miles plus every week) I wouldn’t want cyclist allowed onto a pedestrianised Oxford Street. The speeds at which some cyclists seem to think they are entitled to go at on shared paths etc, I think it would simply put pedestrians at risk.
Cyclists are no more entitled to any special dispensation than motorists are if the question is one of pedestrian safety.
perfect1964 wrote:
I think I agree. Central london when busy (in the city, and around it) is horrible for peds walking into the road without looking or caring…and there will always be a minority of cyclists who ride like car drivers – rushed and with no consideration for others. This (now scrapped) scheme would only mean one thingif cyclists mixed – people will turn even more against cycling in the capital. Not what we want.
Not sure of the solution…but proper segregated routes away from here would be best?
Oxford Street is a pretty
Oxford Street is a pretty miserable road to cycle down, not only because of the traffic, but also the sheer number of pedestrians. Even with a cycle lane (which wasn’t in the plan anyway), riding next to a largely pedestrianised Oxford Street would be hellish.
I use Mortimer Street instead.
srchar wrote:
Yep, OS to be avoided at all costs. Likewise Rye Lane on my commute home. I stick an extra mile on each way, just in keeping it as pleasant as possible. Always slightly baffled to see cyclists slogging it out down roads from hell when parallel gems exist. Colleague of mine does it, saying he’d get lost using my routes. Rode home with him on his route once and it was enough to put anyone off cycling in London.
I am a keen cyclist and as my
I am a keen cyclist and as my club demands it a member of Britsh Cycling so have insurance.
I work close to spitalfields and each week have a least one near miss with a cretin on a bicycle going far to fast on the pedestrian area.
If Cyclists wish to have other road users respect them some of them need to start obeying the highway code and laws relating to where they can ride bicycles. That said I no longer cycle commute because after being kocked off no less than four times by innatentive and arrogant car van and truck drivers I am fed up with missing club riding due to injury, I firmly belive the driving test should include on bike cycle training.
As for their pavement hog and unaware road based twits on bikes THEY do nothing to help their own safety ridng along texting, with headphones on or earbugs in, without lights, cutting up the inside of large vehicles, jumping lights etc is just begging to be killed in London.