Panic at the Disco

Pretty sure you don't need 'grounds' to complain to the BBC. In fact, their complaint form even mentions complaints that are a matter of 'personal taste, opinion or preference'.

The difference is colloquial usage vs legal definition. Colloquially it's an electric bike (as used in the regulation you quote) or an e-bike for short; legally it's a motorbike because it's been modified to go over 15.5mph and therefore being used illegally because it's not registered and not being used on private land with the consent of the landowner. It's not incorrect to call it an e-bike, so I fail to see what grounds a formal complaint to the BBC would be made on.

@chrisonabike I hear he wants to rename Canada geese, "Donald ducks".

@AidanR Well, not under UK government regulations: "If your electric bike does not meet the EAPC rules then it's classed as a moped or motorcycle." As the BBC article is about a machine being seized by the police for not complying with the UK government regulations then it would seem logical to employ the official terminology of said regulations.

"Pidcock seemed to be losing contact" As he maintained a 20-30s gap from the race leader during a 'recovery' lap after passing 20 riders over the opening lap and a half. This report reads the same as the BBC commentary; as if no-one has ever watched how he competes in XC races when he starts mid-pack or further back. Was anyone else disappointed with the interviewer in his post-race interview? Tom dedicated his race win to the Tarling family, and the memory of Finn, and the interviewer was utterly clueless.

@lawrence18uk Not a civil engineer, but just how much of an issue is this and is the cause as you suggest? First, for a significant degree of wear reduction in the "before" situation I'd imagine you'd have a *very* wide road. That is a problem in itself in terms of encouraging higher speeds (as stopping faster from those will definitely wear the road more). Particularly as motorists do in fact tend to take the same line *. Indeed - surely this is even more argument for narrowing major urban roads to give space for separate cycle tracks (or better - a Dutch-style network level "disentangling of modes")? First that means less road to redo when that's needed. Second the surface of the cycle path should remain safer for cyclists for much longer (it's not the cyclists causing the potholes) **. Edinburgh certainly suffers from great waves of tarmac (which then become holes) at many bus stops. Nothing to do with cycling, and it would be safer AND more convenient if there were bus stop bypasses... It may well be that many roads are in fact under-strength for modern levels of traffic (and the general upward trend of vehicle weights isn't going to help). And if we do manage to get more public transport via buses since wear is very dependent on axle weight we may have to address that. (And perhaps change the driving mentality - if you're driving a bus do not drive like the motorists in cars - it's smooth starts and stops). It seems another indicator of the overall need to promote motor traffic reduction, speed-smoothing etc. * See e.g. Robert Weetman's article about this on his blog - "Redundant carriageway". Albeit I'm not sure the "winter tyre marks" illustration is quite such a compelling example. ** When some road space is taken for a cycle path that can mean that "services" are now under the cycling part. So we have to ensure that any utilities work is properly restored afterwards. But that would apply anyway...

@redimp That adds yet another thing to the very long list of what professional cyclists can achieve but I can't, riding past a Greggs five times without nipping in for a vegan sausage roll seems next to impossible.

So off it would make you sic.

@GMBasix It's not just the end that is off, the whole thing is.

On “Massive” cycle lanes... There is an issue with the amount of road width left - this is small enough for all vehicles, especially buses, to travel down identical trajectories, which wears the carriageway in particular places causing rutting in only a short period of time. On wider roads, vehicles spread the wear over greater parts of the road. So a higher strength underlay/surface is required, which may exist already, but may have to be developed specially. We have several arterial roads in Cambridge which have been rebuilt with cycle lanes & narrower carriageways, which are great, but the roads have deteriorated badly.