Bikes to sell cars… Danny MacAskill does it again

Fabian Cancellara and BMC celebrate tenth anniversary of Swiss star’s Olympic time trial gold medal - Which he won riding a Trek! hmm. So what that he's Swiss, BMC didn't provide the machine. If Trek had done this I could kind of understand it.

@HarrogateSpa the question is: does it encourage Nigel Garage et al. to keep coming back to this site?

No mention of Le Col's financial troubles... Buying a pair of bib shorts might be low risk compared to e.g. a bike, but I would definitely suggest using a credit card if you do buy anything, and be aware that they may not be around to honour returns or warranty claims if you do have problems. (I believe the latest is they have been bought out of administration and are currently trading as usual. They have bought themselves some time, but I suspect they need a significant change to their business model if they want to turn things around, and if that is not forthcoming, that time won't last long.)

I'm not keen on Mr Loophole content, or the other rage bait stuff that road.cc relentlessly serves up. It probably is hard to find enough substantial cycling-related stories to fill a daily blog, but still.

Is the ultimate conclusion/TLDR (too long don't read) of this article simply: If the cyclist had a nice safe segregated cycle lane, I would not have been held up for 15 minutes but was still ultimately going at more than 0mph the whole journey. ? (And yet I won't ever complain about being stuck stationary in queues of motor traffic, even when some of the cars in front of me are much slower than mine and the drivers should get out of the way.)

@DaveSpokes we simply disagree with this position. When your behaviour doesn't actually reflect peoples attitudes towards you, changing that behaviour won't fix those attitudes. Cyclists get really tetchy about it because we are sick of being told that its our own fault that people hate us and that by definition, its partly our fault when people intentionally put our safety and lives at risk to save (in most cases) fuck all time. Cyclists could magically become model road users tomorrow breaking zero rules and attitudes towards cyclists would barely move.

Freeman said: “This is exactly why I believe cyclists should have number plates. An Ilkley cyclist uploaded helmet camera footage hoping to get a Volvo driver into trouble.”... This is exactly why I believe barristers and solicitors should have a modicum of intelligence.

@BroomBroomBroom could not agree more! I have a pair of Madison freeweel bibs, £40 - £50 why pay more?

@Rendel Harris Rendel, Rendel, Rendel. Stop taking yourself so seriously. Road.cc is part of a business. This business makes money through advertising and subscriptions (and content licensing?), and I would hazard a guess that it's the advertising side that makes more money than the subscriptions side. In order to make revenue from advertising, visitors have to come and view online content. Some content is sponsored, and some content is generated by journalists: staff members who get paid a salary, pay tax and therefore economically need to justify their salary. This means that the stories have to be engaging and enticing. I happen to believe this is a pertinent, engaging and timely story, because (as you are well aware) it aligns with public perceptions of cyclists, and I wholeheartedly endorse its conclusions. It tells a story of someone (George) who has the perspective of a cyclist, but became frustrated by the selfish behaviour of someone else cycling. I have had similar experiences myself, and as you mention you've also been frustrated in different ways due to antisocial behaviour of a minority of cyclists. George is concerned that the behaviour of the cyclist in question reinforces negative public perceptions of cyclists. His disgusted reaction is perfectly reasonable. I've seen a similarly disgusted response from black people about Jason Arday. Arday "let the team down" because his downfall gives succour to racists to claim black people are given an unfair advantage in academia and aren't competent. Cause and effect. Just like this article. And on to comments. Comments are part of what makes this site appealing. They enhance stories with personal anecdotes and lived experiences. When I comment, I take the time to articulate a well-reasoned, interesting point of view. I do this to create discussion and examine my own beliefs. You are perfectly free to ignore anyone else's comments if you disagree with them and don't want to engage, or even if you just think the person is - as is the tag line of this article - an arsehole.

This hot weekend I went up Ranmore Common and Box Hill. I wore a pair of Van Rysel bib shorts that cost me £40. I came home with sore legs but my 'saddle area' was blessedly unchafed. Can anyone out there tell me how my ride would have been better wearing bibs at 6x the cost?