Commuter diaries – a tale of two rides

There is a pressing need for a kitemark type scheme for ebikes, their charging system and their batteries. We are regular users, touring in the UK and abroad and have problems both with transport and accommodation (trains and hotels etc) due to the lack of such a scheme

I have vague recollections of cases not being brought against careless/dangerous road users because..."we haven't received a complaint from the injured/aggrieved/close passed victim..." The police's zeal in seizing upon this minor infraction suggests one thing and one thing only...(over to you, little onion.)

The orchestra of the alpe…nice story Ryan. I reckon the madness is more rock concert than football stadium. Whatever, it’s the best stadium in the world! …more containment would kill it, yet some more effective policing of idiots might prevent someone dying one day. …But as you say it’s the tension that makes it. That’s d’Huez’ rock n roll.

I genuinely don't see how the police can consider this an offence. The rider goes no closer to the parked car than one would when filtering, so is that now an offence? The 1.5m rule is confusing for idiots on Facebook but you would hope the police would understand what it's there for.

What an odd clickbait title - considering that 99.9% focus of all cycling media, product development and marketing is about increasing speed. 🙄 …and the best part - 99.9% of us will never ride anywhere near that fast! 😂 …so it’s a mute point. It’s all for nowt.

@the little onion It's not great cycling, but I have the same from drivers practically every day on my commute. I don't imagine for a moment that, if I reported it, anything would be done. The key point here, which the police and court appear to have ignored, is the false equivalence of the two scenarios. If a driver leaves too little room, they endanger the cyclist. If a cyclist leaves very little room, they endanger themselves.

@ROADEAGL Have you cross-checked the HR strap with the computer? Very probably the culprit is the strap, not the computer. Or even more probably, the strap is not faulty per se, it's just that your skin is too dry (or maybe too hairy?) at the beginning of some training sessions. I used to have the same issue with Polar and Garmin, which are generally considered high-end, but still suffer major inaccuracy with some skin types. The problem went away as soon as I learned to moisten the skin, as well as the strap-sensor connection, before each ride. Good luck!

@Rendel Harris it says something about the police attitude that they went looking for it If it doesn't say something, I'll say it instead: the police are largely slow-witted, malevolent b******s who view their main enemy as people, mainly cyclists, who annoy them by submitting indisputable evidence of road traffic offences that they would rather not know about. They will take any opportunity to punish them, as is shown by this '£1200 fine' case and little onion's swearing case which the Filth were forced to abandon after many months of stupidity. Speaking of stupidity, how far back into the depths of hominin history did the police have to go to find the officers for ' hold that EAPC rear wheel off the ground, spin the pedal and I'll take a picture of the speedo to prove it's an illegal electric motorbike and get it destroyed'- a quotation which 'will live in infamy', although many police officers will still not have understood what was wrong with it. The police, unlike Skynet, have not yet become self-aware!

Poorly written. They have to prove it was less than 1m. It's 5 am here

@RayG "TWW didn’t claim there was a need to prove every detail of the statement, just that it was necessary to prove the passing distance beyond reasonable doubt". But is that correct? Or would it suffice if the prosecution can prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was some other distance that nonetheless fell short of the required standard of driving?