Shocking close pass caused by ‘magic white line’ cycle lane; New material could lead to ‘indestructible’ bike lock; Cyclists “pollute air with strong body odour”; Quarter of National Cycle Network cut; 40th anniversary TI-Raleigh + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Weekend catch-up
Where have you been? Here’s what you’ve missed if didn’t read road.cc at the weekend…
Susannah Constantine apologises for “joke” about killing cyclists
Another Bikehangar break-in – but new security measures can now be installed
Poole watersports enthusiasts angry about protected cycle lane on National Cycle Route 2
Decision looms over Mavic’s future as court assesses rescue bids
Virtual Tour de France: Stephens and Clarke triumph on the Champs-Elysées
Near Miss of the Day 445: “Lytham on a Saturday lunchtime, bloody death trap”
Apparently, foxes eat cycling shoes
Top tip, if you finish a wet ride, don’t leave your @rapha shoes outside over night for the foxes to eat them… pic.twitter.com/A2YDja4AOz
— Rory McCarron (@CyclingLawLDN) July 19, 2020
And Rory McCarron found ourt the hard way… who knew?
Sustrans' CEO responds to reports that they've 'lost' 4,000 miles of the National Cycle Network
@sustrans + partners are working together to deliver a core network of #pathsforeveryone, scores of projects underway and we will still promote iconic routes like C2C and Caledonian Way. https://t.co/rCjuDYGCnh
— Xavier Brice (@_XavierBrice_) July 19, 2020
The Guardian reported at the weekend that from today, a quarter of the National Cycle Network has officially been cut off because of poor maintenance, signage and some dangerous sections that take cyclists onto roads with heavy traffic. The routes that will no longer form part of the official Network include the popular Coast to Coast path.
Sustrans, the charity who have the huge task of maintaining the network along with various landowners, say this is part of their wider ambition to make the Network “traffic-free, more consistent and accessible”, and say they want to see 5,000 more miles of traffic-free paths by 2040. This ambition forms part of the #PathsForEveryone campaign that was first launched in 2018, which includes a list of 15 recommendations to achieving Sustrans’ ‘vision’ for the Network.
Sustrans’ Ceo Xavier Brice says above that they will still promote routes that are no longer part of the official National Cycle Network, but their resources are now focussed on delivering the improved infrastructure that meets the ‘Paths For Everyone’ standards going forward.
Absolutely. We committed to doing this in our #pathsforeveryone report. It’s not easy where we don’t own the land but it’s essential. And we are working with a range of partners to make it happen.
— Xavier Brice (@_XavierBrice_) July 19, 2020
Join us at 7pm tonight on Zwift for the chance to win socks!
We’re back again for another Ride Your Socks Off! event on Zwift at 7pm BST. This week it’s a D week, so it’s a flat course and a gentler pace. Tonight we’re doing five laps of the Classique circuit in London. We might throw a couple of (optional) sprint drills in for fun. There will be a sock giveaway at some point too. Come ride with us!
"They pollute the air with their strong body odour": hilarious caller has some dubious reasons for disliking cyclists in public meeting
road.cc reader Mark has made us aware of this gem on YouTube, which was part of a virtual public meeting held by the San Francisco Recreation & Park Commission.
The caller seems super keen to ban cyclists from parks in San Fran, and even backs up his argument with ‘science’:
“We know from research that they are so entitled and self-righteous and rude.
“And we know from science that many of them, they smell bad and pollute the air by their strong body odour when they ride to the park. To deny it is to deny science.
“93% of San Franciscans don’t use a bike for anything. The rest of us want a better city with less bike dependence.
“I’m a supporter of bike-free streets, I have been hit three times by a bike. I see people biking recklessly and aggressive. I avoid the one side of the path because the bikes there are so aggressive…”
It gets better…
“Bikes are bad for the environment. Bikes create 12,800% larger carbon footprint per month than pedestrians. That is science. The self-righteous bikers are a shame. The park should be for people, the parks should not be for bikes.”
It seems we’ve been denying science all this time, so our sincerest apologies to this caller.
Updated National Cycle Network map is now live on Ordnance Survey
In case you missed yesterday – the updated Ordnance Survey map of the reclassified #NCN is live today https://t.co/q25e2Yut0G – and click the NCN layer https://t.co/61aN2BJmwC
— Laura Laker (@laura_laker) July 20, 2020
The new slimmed down map – minus Coast to Coast and the Caledonian Way amongst many other routes that have been taken out – is now live. You can find it here by selecting ‘National Cycle Network’ on the Map menu on the bottom right.
Wattbike rename flagship indoor training bike the Nucleus due to a copyright issue
Wattbike‘s top-of-the-range trainer was launched as the Icon last year, but today they’ve announced it will now be known as the Nucleus. Their CEO Richard Baker commented:
“When we launched two new products for the commercial market last year, we were made aware of a copyright issue with the ‘Icon’ in one country. We therefore made the decision to rename the product to ensure brand consistency internationally and to treat this as a positive opportunity to bring the portfolio of Wattbikes closer as a collective by name.
“Within science; the nucleus is the positively charged central core of an atom, consisting of protons and neutrons and containing nearly all its mass. This description fits both the product and the brand perfectly and will further help to bring consistency to our product portfolio.
“Our company history is steeped in working with the best sport scientists, so it seems fitting to continue to look to science as we grow our product range.”
The Nucleus has an RRP of £3,120, but is currently discounted down to £2,499 on Wattbike’s website.
Bernal, Quintana et al whisked to Europe on special 'sports flight' from pandemic-hit Colombia
Nairo Quintana cumpliendo con los protocolos para abordar el “vuelo del deporte” que llevará cerca de 120 personas entre deportistas y entrenadores colombianos a Europa. pic.twitter.com/NdPJvlaEAo
— Arley Durán Gómez (@arleydeportes) July 19, 2020
With COVID-19 cases rapidly on the rise in Colombia, some of the nation’s best cyclists were included on a special flight that has transported around 120 athletes and coaches to Europe. With all events of international significance on the cycling calendar taking place in Europe, it was perhaps inevitable that Colombia’s top cycling talent were best to get across the Atlantic before they were at risk of being banned from travelling altogether.
As noted by Pasión Ciclismo below, the flight landed in Madrid this morning.
🛫 ¡Ya están en Madrid❗️ pic.twitter.com/V6uGN7zRkX
— Pasión Ciclismo 🚴🏻 (@pasiociclismo) July 20, 2020
Could new wonder material lead to indestructible bike locks? University researchers say Proteus is world's first manufactured 'non-cuttable' material
You can have all the gold-rated bike lock armoury in the world, but unfortunately the strongest locks commercially available can still be bypassed by a very committed thief with a huge angle grinder (although they’re still a huge deterrent, so get the best one you can afford). That could all change if the claims of researchers from Durham University and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute are accurate, because they say that their new Proteus material – that is 15% the density of steel – cannot be cut by anything.
The video above posted by New Atlas shows an angle grinder is no match for Proteus, with an accompanying article explaining that while the outer layer can be cut through, the ’embedded ceramic spheres’ inside actually damage the sharp edges of the tool.
Lead author of the research Stefan Szyniszewski, Assistant Professor of Applied Mechanics at Durham’s Engineering department, told New Atlas: “Essentially cutting our material is like cutting through a jelly filled with nuggets. If you get through the jelly you hit the nuggets and the material will vibrate in such a way that it destroys the cutting disc or drill bit.
“The ceramics embedded in this flexible material are also made of very fine particles which stiffen and resist the angle grinder or drill when you’re cutting at speed in the same way that a sandbag would resist and stop a bullet at high speed. This material could have lots of useful and exciting applications in the security and safety industries. In fact, we are not aware of any other manufactured non-cuttable material in existence as of now.”
Could this stuff put bike thieves out of a job for good? We may have to press the researchers with some further questioning, but in the meantime the full paper can be found here.
Iain Duncan Smith says you're "more likely to die on a bicycle than from COVID-19"
The Tory MP made the comments during an LBC interview, in which he said there had been a “general hysteria” over coronavirus in the UK.
He said: “Only 4% of those who have died have died without any known co-morbidity.
“If you’re under forty you’re more likely to die by getting on a bicycle than you are by having Covid, so we need to get the balance of risks right”
Raleigh release 40th anniversary edition of the TI-Raleigh in celebration of Joop Zoetemelk's 1980 Tour de France win
While some of his ‘training’ methods would most likely have been even more controversial by todays standards, Zoetemelk is still officially the most successful Dutch cyclist ever, and in 1980 he finally captured the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. In tribute Raleigh have made a special 40th anniversary edition of the TI-Raleigh that propelled him to victory.
With a number of retro parts that are almost identical to the originals such as a Selle Italia Turbo 1980 saddle, Reynolds 753 tubing and Cinelli bars, Raleigh have made things a bit easier by equipping the Campagnolo groupset with a 10 speed cassette. Only 250 will be available to buy, including a signed certificate of authenticity from Zoetemelk himself, with full details and prices TBC so far. You can sign up for more info on a special online event ahead of the bike going on sale in September here.
Cars blocking the cycle lane (again)
Seriously just going to start riding into douche bags like these full force. This stretch of Blackfriars Road is beyond pathetic.
Anyone know this cretin? He got shy when the camera came out, but he was full of colourful language and threats 😂👊🏼 #manchester #salford pic.twitter.com/rwvtrR2N6Q— Emily⚡️ (@just_barely) July 20, 2020
With today’s example coming from Manchester, it seems more than ever councils should exercise their new rights to fine drivers for parking in cycle lanes.
As racing returns, some good safety advice to fans from Deceuninck-Quick Step
This should all be second nature after four months … but it doesn’t do any harm to give a gentle reminder.
We’re just one week away from restarting the season after more than four long months.
Here’s a few rules we kindly ask our fans and everyone at the races to follow, so that they protect themselves and all those around.
Video: @lapedalecc pic.twitter.com/T6kFLQ72zD— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) July 20, 2020
20 July 2020, 08:25
20 July 2020, 08:25
20 July 2020, 08:25
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Latest Comments
@jackcycles I'm not sure my grandchildren got that memo. Cycling should not be just for hardened road warriors.
Chrisonabike There are a number of police forces in England and Wales that are using portable testing equipment already... How effective it is another matter, I haven't looked into the results of failing (I would hope they just seize and crush the motorbike without any faff but I am sure there are appeal processes, promises not to use them on public roads etc).
Woah there - a precision-engineered European-made product, with unparalleled adaptability, is somehow a ‘rip off’? Compared to what - Temu? As per the article, most quality through-axles go for £50-60+, but aren’t adaptable and don’t provide any stand or trailer capability. If you want to balance your £3-4-5k suspension or carbon bike, or bikepacking setup on a budget product subject to highly focused stresses, fair play. Cycling’s a broad church.
@eburtthebike I've found Spanish drivers to be almost entirely excellent around cyclists.
I agree, the study was made after cycle paths that had been introduced in Berlin during the 70’s and 80’s caused a big increase in cycling deaths. It is an interesting study for cyclists to read in order to know what dangers exist at badly designed junctions. Here in Paris we have very few bi-directional paths. The ones I have cycled on have no building entrances or courtyards (so no cars crossing the path) and every junction is traffic lights to prevent accidents.
We have enough regulation. They're running a motorbike without insurance/registration and possibly without a licence, and the punishment for being caught with all that is pretty severe already. The problem is lack of enforcement.
In my experience with anything less than one of those serious mid-bike two-foot kickstands, a wall / tree / hedge is the better option, or the bike will sometimes show you the alternative and lie down by itself. Maybe I've got panniers that are just too large and the wrong balance of (too much) cargo though? And of course Edinburgh streets are great at funneling gusts of wind...
I agree there's a clear legal line * but I do see something here. Like much tech it's entirely opaque from the outside (without even invoking things like the VW emissions cheating).** I know in NL they have trialled semi-portable "test stations" to check max motor speeds. However with the latest "but there's no money" crisis I can't see that over here. Indeed it's hard to see the police being motivated to do any more roads policing, with this even further down the priority list. Hope I'm wrong... While I guess many of us *would* be fine with EAPCs as a means to attract "non-cyclists" ... perhaps there's an "attractive nuisance" element to this? We're ushering people into an apparently effortless, easy and minimal consequence mobility mode without the "learning experience" of managing a lighter, unpowered machine on roads. And it's still (busy) *roads* where the new power-assisted riders will often find themselves. Not like in more advanced countries where people usually cycle in much safer and more controlled environments. OTOH we should always balance such concerns against "but cars and full-power ICE motorbikes now" though! Number plates, licences and insurance aren't necessarily mitigating that well... * As soon as there are laws games will be played. How long can you be above the "continuous rate power" for? Can we have *multiple* legal motors on one machine? ** Is the power / speed actually regulated by software, and how long will that keep a child armed with the internet from unlocking it?
And maybe a planning obligation to have traffic Marshalls controlling access out of the site not obstructing the path and restricting it if cyclists are likely to be obstructed …one can hope
I'll stick to my low rider with Karrimor Kalahari dry bag panniers and Karrimor Kalahari barbag thanks.
42 thoughts on “Shocking close pass caused by ‘magic white line’ cycle lane; New material could lead to ‘indestructible’ bike lock; Cyclists “pollute air with strong body odour”; Quarter of National Cycle Network cut; 40th anniversary TI-Raleigh + more on the live blog”
I’d always presumed that the
I’d always presumed that the NCN was a map of ‘preferred’ routes rather than a map of ‘strictly off road and traffic free’ routes. You live and learn.
I think part of the problem
I think part of the problem is that previously no-one knew what being part of the NCN meant. It included everything from fairly busy roads to muddy off-road tracks not suitable for a road bike.
OnYerBike wrote:
Including Sustrans. They either need to commit to a single focus, or distinguish between different networks for different uses.
The NCN / Sustrans news is
The NCN / Sustrans news is actually terrific. Truly brilliant. Because for so long, I’ve genuinely believed that Sustrans do a lot of harm for cycling, by endorsing any old crap as a ‘national cycling network’ without any consideration about whether it is suitable for cycling or not. There are sections with stairs, sections that are actually a beach submerged for several hours each day by the tide, and so on.
If they are beginning to endorse minimum criteria (suitable for all criteria of bikes in all weathers, and all competent riders including small children, handcyclists etc) we may actually end up with a usable network.
the little onion wrote:
Except that that would can, er, pretty much all of it, at least around these parts. In fact, it’s pretty much unachievable at all, since the requirements for different uses (say, a commuting route and an adventure route) are contradictory.
I don’t see why they can’t have different classifications for different sections – e.g. green routes for access to natural areas with maybe some gravel etc.; blue for quiet, family-friendly, and well-surfaced; red for faster routes suitable for commuting; and black signage for sections which are not officially recognised as part of the network due to being substandard, but link between those that are (which should help get around the issue of claiming network mileage without investing in it).
Agreed,just look at the OS
Agreed,just look at the OS map now,theres no NCN bike route to/from the continent via Harwich which was a popular route with tourists, a chunk of East Suffolk is now NCN free, the Norfolk coast similar. And yet in many cases the roads theyve retained are no different to cycle on than the ones that theyve dropped.
The road from Dunwich I’d consider to be far more heavy in terms of traffic than the road around Leiston Abbey yet the Dunwich road stays NCN,Leiston doesnt.
These changes feel like weve made a bad situation far worse,for absolutely no gain in terms of making it safer to cycle on roads.
Good proposal. In my area it
Good proposal. In my area it’s required to bite on a peice of leather to prevent your teath shattering when you take to an NCN route. The quite roads selected as NCN are quite for a reason…
Having ridden in SF a few
Having ridden in SF a few times it’s amazing how many people ride considering how hilly it is.
I love it that one side of the Golden Gate Bridge is bikes only.
Good to see gammons are the same the world over though.
The Guardians report says
The Guardians report says they are canning anything that’s faster than 20mph urban road or 40mph rural road, which borks their whole Isle of Wight route, but I’m surprised it means they only lose a quarter of their miles in that case as that feels like most of East Anglias routes gone as well then,as there are only a few traffic free bits linking up the road sections.
Whilst I might have agreed the standards were poor in some cases,I dont agree the solution is pretend those routes no longer exist.
I think it makes it far
I think it makes it far clearer to people as to what to expect. Imagine taking your family on a cycle route and find yourself dumped into a semi-busy road with just a bit of paint to protect you.
I think pretending that the routes exist makes it less likely for those routes to be improved as politicians can bandy around the total mileage figures and make the situation seem a lot better than it is. If we’re going to call something a National Cycle Network, then it needs to meet a sensible standard.
I agree that to be labelled
I agree that to be labelled an NCN it needs to be clear what quality to expect for the average family group ride & nobody wants to be left stranded riding on some very busy roads,though some of their traffic free routes arent much of an improvement a mix of variable quality shared paths and tracks across fields, which are now even more disconnected than they felt before.
I just dont think the solution is scrap whole chunks of a route based on their criteria,surely its find out what makes those routes bad and improve that first and only if you cant improve it scrap it,just feels like chucking baby out with the bath water.
OS maps provide a handy overlay of NCN routes that you can see which bits are on road or traffic free, and if you assume the on road bits no longer qualify due to speed limits theres great chunks now missing from very popular routes that maybe had only a few problem areas that could have been fixed imo
Quote:
Really? I wonder if he can point us at some peer reviewed papers on this subject? I’m sure that road.cc would have covered it before now (if it wasn’t just in his imagination, of course…).
Twitter is full of evidence.
Twitter is full of evidence. Completely peer reviewed and echoed repeatedly. The peer of an idiot is another idiot…
Top marketing BS from the CEO
Top marketing BS from the CEO of Wattbike
Eh – it appears to have cut
Eh – it appears to have cut through a good few inches before getting stuck on the ‘nuggets’ – if my bike lock has to be several inches thick to defeat the thieves, I’m not sure how practical it’s going to be.
Also, what’s going on with Quintana’s multiple masks? Takes off one to reveal another one underneath, then puts a third one on over that, and by the time he gets to check in he seems to have the first one on again – seems like slight overkill.
The NCN/Sustrans news is
The NCN/Sustrans news is stupid and contrarian that I wonder if its a con job to save them money by ignoring the crappiest 1/4 of their routes.
If you believe their stated reasons they could have been accomplised by relabeling them as the equivalent of “B” or “C” roads.
Or have the NCN and the SCN where S stands for “S**tty”
Quietly hoping they will go away is a terrible idea.
That close pass was
That close pass was terrifying, and even though it was clearly dangerous, it’s probable that the driver would never be convicted as he didn’t intrude into the cycle lane. Andy is right, and the infrastructure is dangerous.
The highway authority has undoubtedly ticked the cycle provision box on some government application form, and they claim that they are getting so much done for cyclists, while actually putting cyclists more at risk. If there have been collisions there, they should be held to account for endangering highway users. There’s something wrong with any system which didn’t identify the clear and obvious danger created by those narrow, worse than pointless, cycle lanes. I hope Andy has submitted the vid to the council responsible, and demanded action.
I know I’ll be getting a
I know I’ll be getting a reputation for my unwavering views on this… but I would simply never cycle in a dangerously narrow cycle lane. Instead I would use the road and take the flak rather than an impact.
The cycle lane’s hidden danger is that it requires an additional shot of road-confidence to decide affirmatively NOT to cycle in it.
LetsBePartOfTheSolution wrote
Yes, but when you get run over, they’ll say “If only he’d been riding in the cycle lane.” Catch 22.
We need safe infrastructure, not this shit.
LetsBePartOfTheSolution wrote
My initial reaction is that the council has rather lazily turned the area to the left of the carriageway boundary into a de facto cycle lane. I’ve been accused of not using this area in the past by work colleagues who have never realised that the line is a boundary and not a cycle lane. The only purpose it serves is to provide an area for a pedestrian to walk on country roads.
giff77 wrote:
That is what it looks like – how wide is it?
It looks narrower than the handlebars on my hybrid.
brooksby wrote:
They can range from 6″ to 24″ depending on the road and the verge! That was me looks about 2 foot. As said. Laziness on the councils behalf in their eagerness to tick boxes. They’ve put effort into creating a refuge for crossing to what looks like a bridleway or off road NCR so why not develop infrastructure on the main carriageway?
giff77 wrote:
Because, “bicycles”, isn’t it.
I had ‘gone on holiday by
I had ‘gone on holiday by mistake’ along a short section of the A66 near Brough. The edge strip there looked even wider than this sorry excuse for a cycle lane. Scary, but at least it was a dual carriageway, and my bars just about squeezed in. (Maybe I should have taken the lane, but discretion…valour etc.)
I’m surprised Surrey County Council didn’t have to fit the ‘bike’ marking in sideways!
pockstone wrote:
Is ‘going on holiday by mistake’ a similar thing to ‘going to Barnard Castle to check my eyesight’? 😉
Every bit as dangerous!
Every bit as dangerous!
Are you the farmer?
Are you the farmer?
Oh, its a Withnail reference.
Oh, its a Withnail reference…!
(You know, that’s a film I’ve never actually seen?)
I heartily recommend it. Just
I heartily recommend it. Just don’t try the drinking game.
I heartily recommend it. Just
I heartily recommend it. Just DO try the drinking game.
(Which, for the avoidance of doubt, includes other pharmacalogically active ingredients.)
I was trying to think of my
I was trying to think of my favourite scene, but it’s one of those films that is almost entirely favourite scenes.
Withnail: [seeing a road sign reading “ACCIDENT BLACK SPOT. DRIVE WITH EXTREME CARE”] Look at that, accident black spot! These aren’t accidents! They’re throwing themselves into the road gladly! Throwing themselves into the road to escape all this hideousness!
[shouts out of the car window at a man standing on the pavement]
Withnail: Throw yourself into the road, darling! You haven’t got a chance!
It’s the surely ironic Blind
It’s the surely ironic Blind Spot Take Care sticker that really gets me…
That is not a cyclepath.
That is not a cyclepath. Someone has put up some signs and painted little bicycle glyphs in the strip of tarmac between the carriagway edge marking and the grass. Some sort of in joke or dare at the council highways department perhaps?
eburtthebike wrote:
But blaming the infrastructure shouldn’t get the driver off the hook – he completely failed to give the cyclist adequate room when passing.
There is NO WAY you can blame the white paint or the cyclist for that. I’m sure West Midlands road safety team would have something to say about it!
I’d not hesitate to contact the local plod, provide a link for Heverin Haulage via https://www.heverinhaulage.com/contact-us/ and an invitation to swap places with the driver.
Simon E wrote:
Thanks. You are right of course and it should be reported, but I doubt that plod would take any action and even if they did, would any jury convict?
Nice to see Iain Duncan Smith
Nice to see Iain Duncan Smith maintaining the tories almost unanimous failure to understand cycling in any way shape or form, and to deter some more people. Without wishing to get too political again, the only tory who gets cycling is Boris, and he is an incorrigible liar, cheat and hypocrite.
For some reason they are
For some reason they are dragging IDS out a great deal at the moment.
ktache wrote:
They think he makes Boris look good.
Jetmans Dad wrote:
Yes, but so does Goofy.
“Within science; the nucleus
“Within science; the nucleus is the positively charged central core of an atom, consisting of protons and neutrons and containing nearly all its mass. This description fits both the product and the brand perfectly”
I’m not sure that “containing nearly all the mass” is the best marketing for a cycling company.
That retro Raleigh is
That retro Raleigh is gorgeous, but – looking at their website
puts it a bit out of my price range…
(I wonder if I could start a Gofundme for “Sh!t I really want to buy”?)
If anyone is interested,
If anyone is interested, there’s a review of the Raleigh over at the Retrogrouch blog:
http://bikeretrogrouch.blogspot.com/2020/07/retro-raleigh-new-team-replica.html