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Live blog: Stop Killing Cyclists to hold major London protest, Jeremy Vine’s Psycho encounter, a shockingly close overtake, + more
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Wed, Oct 03, 2018 15:02
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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 11 hours ago
@FionaJJ These officers deployed next-level stupidity, and it must be difficult for the police to find people this dim. It doesn't even need rolling-roads or whatever, just a reputable bike computer on a quickly changed mount for the difficult cases where a proper EAPC has been modded, although you would need to look hard in Lancashire to find a police officer who knows how to make a pedal cycle go. Most illegal electric motorbikes are immediately obvious, not least because the crim is wearing a face mask. I saw an obvious one tonight coming out of Garstang Sainsbury's, not pedalling but without a face mask because everybody knows that the police only come into the town to hide away in the police station 200 yards away.
bikeman01 13 hours ago
Gustav Gullholm.. that's not a good look mate
mdavidford 15 hours ago
@Chris RideFar I think what you meant to say was "REMOVE this and put it on PODCAST CC".
jaymack 16 hours ago
As Mary Whitehouse never said - one doesn't have to read the article if one doesn't want to read about an off-road bicycle.
Rendel Harris 17 hours ago
@FionaJJ In London they're allowed to stop on single and double yellows to deliver packages or empty pillar boxes; in practice they take this as carte blanche to park wherever and whenever they want, such as this chap on the Brixton Road who pulled into the bus/cycle/motorcycle lane without indicating, as I approached at 20mph, to park on a red route, response to a remonstrance, "I suppose you never get post delivered do ya?"
FionaJJ 18 hours ago
@Rendel Harris We have a pavement parking ban, but around here at least, royal mail vans are already exempt, subject to certain caveats, such as allowing at least 1.5m, and only being stopped to do their work.
FionaJJ 18 hours ago
It was already embarrassing for the police that they made such a mess of their attempt to determine whether a bike was legal or not, but I had assumed it was a group of well intentioned, but under-trained officers acting on their own initiative, having spotted something they thought looked not quite right. I'm now discovering this was a planned activity, something sufficiently organised to have been given a name - Operation FRISLEN, designed specifically to identify and remove illegal e-bikes and scooters. It's apparent that the officers were sent out without adequate training, never mind the kind of equipment that should be used for this sort of work. I'm not saying they always need specialist equipment to spot all illegal bikes, but at least if they'd been given a demonstration with that equipment, they'd have realised why their approach was not going to end well.
Geoff Ingram 20 hours ago
Have put drop bars on a 2001 B1 mtb, a 2007 stumpy hardtail and a 2010 stumpy full suss. In all cases fairly basic conversións leaving gearing and wheels broadly the same and concentrating on correct positioning of bars and fit. Oddly, with all 3 I was happy with the result when recently done, but after a few months found that the extra speed on easy trails was more than offset by the lack of ability (probably mine) on tougher routes and finally preferred flat bar with slammed and inverted stem as best overall compromise. Good fun playing around, though.
mark1a 20 hours ago
The photos in this review look they are for a different bag?
mattw 21 hours ago
This is a strange reactionary knee jerk overall. But what is this "are essentially motorbikes in disguise" waffle? "One letter claimed that high-powered electric ‘e-bikes’ were “essentially motorbikes” in disguise, with many being used without lights, helmets, or any hi-vis clothing." Surely, they simply ARE motorbikes?
16 thoughts on “Live blog: Stop Killing Cyclists to hold major London protest, Jeremy Vine’s Psycho encounter, a shockingly close overtake, + more”
I do always wonder why only
I do always wonder why only private motorists are described as “hard working”: it’s never bus passengers or train passengers or cyclists. Aren’t *we* hard working too?
I’m quite lazy….do i have
I’m quite lazy….do i have to pay more fuel duty?
When I worked, often I was
When I worked, often I was quite lazy as well. Now I don’t work at all. Do I pay more fuel duty, or will we receive a tweet saying it’s another measure this government is taking to help leave more money in unemployed lazy people’s pockets?
Should have increased it and
Should have increased it and used the money to subsidise stopping up roads for motors in towns and cities everywhere and converting car parks into covered cycle parking.
yet more fuckwittery from the cons but Labour will do no better and has no cycle/active policy of any note.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
£9 bn a year that has cost the UK economy – £81,000,000,000!
The estimate for the cost to fix all of the UK’s potholes is…..£8.9bn
alexb wrote:
the state of the roads is utterly disgraceful at the moment. In London, which is supposed to be a global city and stinkingly wealthy, some of them are worse than third world countries that I know – worse even than Blackburn, Lancashire. You could fill Wembley Stadium with these holes.
I have recently started cycling after work to a regular event in North West London. To get there I cycle along Tottenham Court Road, and to get home I have to cycle along Chamberlayne Road, in Kensal Rise. You’d think a fucking aeroplane had crashed onto them, they’re so pitted.
And now that the evenings are drawing in they become even more dangerous as the craters are difficult to spot, even with lights, and with traffic all around me I should not be having to concentrate on the road surface while I cycle.
You can bet your life, perhaps literally, that they won’t be repaired anytime in the next six months, because of the approach of winter, so they’re only going to get worse. God knows what they’ll be like in spring if we have a lot of freeze/thaw cycles.
While writing this I’ve been asking myself, ok moaning is all very well, but what are you going to do about it? So I think I’ll spend a day photographing all the potholes with Fix That Hole, and bombard the councils with them. It may not get them fixed, but at least if I’m killed or injured the councils can’t turn round and say they weren’t aware.
Bloody hell that pass is the
Bloody hell that pass is the closest I’ve seen… to the point I’m not sure the driver even saw the rider and missed him by luck.
Re fuel prices, the price of fuel has gone up by over 30%, so the VAT take has risen.
It gets on my nerves that the cost of high value EVs (BMW i8 for example, £124k and you get a £2.5k rebate because its a hybrid!) is subsidised by us ‘hard working people’. Why aren’t bikes and accessories lower VAT rated?
PRSboy wrote:
Its not. The i8 gets nothing because it is over £60k. Theoretically expensive hybrids with very low emissions could get the grant, but in practice there are no cat 1 hybrids of any price and it is only pure EVs.
However, I do agree about VAT on bikes and bike accessories, which would make a huge difference, but equally I can bet most of the savings would be made by people buying £1k+ N+1 bikes rather than cheap commuters, and also I do understand that changing VAT rates is not simple, at least whilst we are in the EU (although I would keep paying a bit more for my bikes if it meant staying in).
John Smith wrote:
Ah, you’re right… not realised the i8 was excempt. That said, the Tesla S and the i-Pace get £4,500 rebate as they are cat 1, but are mega money. Should be a sliding scale or cap based on list price IMO, give a bigger rebate to cheaper EVs where there is a potentially bigger market.
Jesus, that pass was
Jesus, that pass was horrendous. Looks like the driver saw him at the last second as the car appears to swerve away. I don’t think even the most ardent cyclist hater could close pass that close on purpose. Just plain not paying attention.
My guess is driver was
My guess is driver was distracted, cyclist seen at the very last second. So close!
Surely the real hard workers
Surely the real hard workers are those working long hours on low pay to try and make ends meet, who can’t afford to fork out the initial investment of a car so instead, they have to use public transport – why not sort out public transport first?!
Pretty much everyone I know drives to work (single occupancy) this causes pollution and congestion. Why drive? Because the public transport and active travel infrastructure are appalling/non-existent.
I’m lazy and get the train
I’m lazy and get the train and cycle to work, so I guess it’s my fault. Sorry everyone.
Teresa May can only rectify
Teresa May can only rectify this by getting a good deal in the Brexit negotiations; no import duties on Campagnolo gear sets.
F**k me that was close. I
F**k me that was close. I just can’t cycle at night now, or at rush hour either end of the day, or at lunchtimes when pedestrians have their faces in their phones, or mid afternoon during the school run. Basically I ride between 1030 and 1130, unless it’s a weekend which is when the drivers who still have alcohol in their system are on the roads. Basically, I just Zwift.
Driver checking Facebook I’d
Driver checking Facebook I’d wager.