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Live blog: Epic finish line fail, Body painting L’Etape Colombia sexism row, new UCI approved bikes, TfL ‘Exchanging Places’ sessions invite cyclists to -drive’ HGV using VR + more
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Wed, Aug 22, 2018 13:51
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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).
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Latest Comments
wtjs 34 minutes ago
I'm in the happy position of agreeing with everybody here! I've never considered a bike with a stand, yet I'm impressed by the ingenuity and adaptability of this axle. I tow a Yak Bob with a Robert Axle, employing my El Cheapo Vitus gravel bike and I just have to be very careful where I stop. Hedges are generally a dead loss, and I seek walls, telegraph poles and signposts and generally lean the widest part of the Bob against it. One very awkward task is removing the two steel pins which lock the trailer arms onto the special mounting slots on the Robert axle, and when you have one out, the sodding weight in the trailer can twist the whole caboodle and bend the Bob fitting before you can get the other out and unhitch. I doubt if a stand would help with that. You can imagine that this combo is a real pain when you have to get it over the bridge at railway stations, and it nearly resulted in Merseyrail nearly parting me and the trailer on the platform from the bike on the train. It's a long story for another time. Another axle example recently featured on here, with a 12mm front axle bearing the Herculean weight limit of a monster American front rack.
HoarseMann 3 hours ago
This has nothing to do with the type of bike - it's the type of behaviour that's the problem. Banning the sale of such bikes will not curtail the behaviour. They'll just find another type of vehicle and continue to drive dangerously as there's such a lack of enforcement. I'd sooner see them ban the bally. But really, all that's required is an improvement to roads policing.
AidanR 3 hours ago
The EAPC Bill is welcome, but full of holes. What's to stop an overpowered but temporarily limited e-bike being sold and subsequently delimited? This is often a trivial process.
Sredlums 4 hours ago
@KiwiMike Yeah, in my over four decades of riding all over Europe I've never 'been for a ride in the countryside'. That must be it. Or, and I know this is a wild concept, you just accept that I just voiced my personal experiences and never missed a kickstand, like I wrote. Anyway, what's the big horror of laying your bike on its side for the very few occasions where there is nothing to lean your bike against?
mdavidford 4 hours ago
They may have looked, but did they see?
jackcycles 4 hours ago
Ds2025: where they are going wrong is that they are crushing the motorbike rather than the person sat on top of it. If they did the latter this issue would be solved in less than 24 hours.
Rod Marton 4 hours ago
I came this way today with the car boot sale in operation. There was a marshal at the entrance, who stopped a car turning right across the cycleway as I was approaching. So that certainly works. I think it necessary for the marshal to be there, I couldn't say if the driver would have turned if he hadn't been there but you always have to suspect the worst. Unfortunately there is no marshal at the exit, and there was certainly a car stopped across the cycleway as I was approaching it. But he pulled onto the road before I reached it, and the following car stayed off the cycleway as I went through. Ideally there should have been a marshal there too. On the whole, though, it's a really high standard piece of infrastructure. Just a pity it doesn't extend a bit further.
eburtthebike 4 hours ago
“absolute carnage” So right! Just look at the bodies piled up, blood running in the gutters and injured people limping away. It's a bit of a problem with a road, delaying some people for minutes at a time: it isn't carnage, let alone 'absolute carnage'. Anyone who exaggerates so ridiculously really shouldn't be allowed to comment in public, unless they want to demonstrate their idiocy to all and sundry.
Jakrayan 5 hours ago
I'm criticising them for not riding in secondary position, not primary. At least 60cms (2 feet) from the edge of the road as the HC explicitly recommends. Leaving aside the small minority of riders who find mounting and dismounting a bike difficult - which sounds suspiciously similar to the motorists "but, but what about disabled drivers?" when talking about LTNs - what's wrong with able bodied riders walking the few metres over that narrow, Victorian bridge? Sure, if there's clearly no-one on it I wouldn't condemn anyone for riding it slowly, but if it's not clear forcing pedestrians to stop and squeeze to the side is, frankly, a rather entitled opinion. Plus it's easy to hold a road bike a little ahead of you and hold the saddle - normally no need to hold the bars if it's straight - so you're really not taking up much more room at all. There's a railway underpass near me that links to a shared then segregated path. It's narrow, and the path approaches at an angle so you can't see if it's clear, but many riders still choose to pedal through despite the clear 'no cycling' signage. Why?? Personally I don't go that way, except on foot, preferring the surrounding roads.
bensynnock 6 hours ago
I think you're giving drivers too much credit. Many would not think twice about blocking the road if it makes their life easier, such as when turning right onto a busy road.
10 thoughts on “Live blog: Epic finish line fail, Body painting L’Etape Colombia sexism row, new UCI approved bikes, TfL ‘Exchanging Places’ sessions invite cyclists to -drive’ HGV using VR + more”
Mikkel Conde needs to see
Mikkel Conde needs to see Lance for some testosterone patches.
Looks like a nice aero jersey
Looks like a nice aero jersey, quite light too I expect.
Christopher TR1 wrote:
Can’t get much in the pockets though.
pruaga wrote:
Am sure it would remove the need for hi vis.
Boobies!
Boobies!
Are they selling those
Are they selling those posters anywhere? Want.
Oh so ‘teaching’ cyclists
Oh so ‘teaching’ cyclists where the failings in large vehicle design is going to save lives, you blame shifting twats … AGAIN! Are these people related to the THINK wankers who like to victim blame those being killed by left turning HGVs/buses who overtake and turn in without any fucking consideration or bothering to look or a failure of vehicle line to see anything.
Get Fucked!
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Or find yourself naively on the inside track of an HGV turning left REGARDLESS OF WHO IS TO BLAME AND HOW THAT SITUATION CAME ABOUT, and get killed.
Knowing the hazard does not remove the need to fix the problem, but general awareness of the dangers in the world around you is not an unreasonable thing to teach.
Mungecrundle wrote:
Oh so ‘teaching’ cyclists where the failings in large vehicle design is going to save lives, you blame shifting twats … AGAIN! Are these people related to the THINK wankers who like to victim blame those being killed by left turning HGVs/buses who overtake and turn in without any fucking consideration or bothering to look or a failure of vehicle line to see anything.
Get Fucked!
— Mungecrundle Or find yourself naively on the inside track of an HGV turning left REGARDLESS OF WHO IS TO BLAME AND HOW THAT SITUATION CAME ABOUT, and get killed. Knowing the hazard does not remove the need to fix the problem, but general awareness of the dangers in the world around you is not an unreasonable thing to teach.— BehindTheBikesheds
Maybe teaching the drivers, operators and designers of these vehicles (maybe MPs, police, CPS and juries too?) would be more effective in reducing road deaths to zero by the time we’ve destroyed the planet and civilisation has moved on to another solar system. Sorry, I mean the ambitious target of the year 3147.
I won’t bother taking an early lunch to pop to Elephant and Castle just to confirm that lorries have poor visibility and can easily kill people. (Even though I’m curious about the VR tech.)
VR could help dozies
VR could help
doziesmotorists appreciate what it feels like on a bike when squeezed by a lorry / nearly T-boned by a turning car / taken out by an earphone-wearing pedestrian / close passed / aggressed by cars on roundabouts.Maybe the police could require drivers to experience 30 minutes when they drive badly …