London to Hastings ride

@Smoggysteve Same here, mine never seemed to work properly. Ended up buying a cheap one from Wilko which has lasted years.

So Merseyrail have finally realised that they've cocked up big time, and despite having made the decision without any justification or warning, they're pausing it to gather evidence. A welcome reverse ferret, but this doesn't exactly give one confidence in the ability of their management. Any competent management would have consulted, gathered evidence, then come to a logical decision. But I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies.

@Surreyrider The basis of H&S is to reduce exposure to the risk first, and lastly, only if all other measures have failed, mandate Personal Protective Equipment: except in the case of cyclists, where the order is reversed.

@Rendel Harris “Don’t you think we should stop cyclists riding dangerously everywhere” That was my first thought: what was the question. Can we find out?

From my limited experience of cycling in Spalding, parts of the historic centre are narrow streets with narrow pavements and cycling on the pavement, even extremely carefully, is very likely to bring you into conflict with pedestrians so pushing is the best bet but also from memory these areas have no vaguely secure bike parking to speak of which makes spending money there a stressful experience. The roads around the edge are busy and uninviting as a cyclist unless you enjoy being close passed at every opportunity. Always been a place I visit for the shortest period possible, usually just to stock up on food and drink for the next part of my ride.

@Smoggysteve Really? everyone seems to rave about the JoeBlow pumps. Years ago, we had one at work that I used to use occasionally. it did perform really well but not sure about how long it lasted. I have the Bontrager pump also though. Picked it up cheaply, I think in 2011, and that still performs effortlessly

@chrisonabike There was story going around about the turn of the millennium that a government watchdog had written to a particular government-run organisation to enquire as to why a certain form was not available in braille: the RAF replied that they really weren't anticipating that many blind or partially sighted applicants for the fighter jet pilot training programme. Mind you some people do think it's okay to drive blind, there was a genuine case a few years ago when the police attended the scene of a single-vehicle crash and were surprised to find that the elderly driver was quite clearly almost completely blind; his wife explained that the crash hadn't been his fault as she usually told him where to steer but had been distracted by looking at a microlight aircraft at the time.

insert fancy pads, record deceleration video using FLIR camera. repeat with 'normal' pads. post-process video with FLIR tools to exclude imaging under ~35°. compare. organic/resin pads dump more heat into the rotor, compared to sintered pads which conduct it into the caliper and fluids.

@mdavidford If it saves one life... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4626205/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022480418306656

@mdavidford It's vanishingly rare that someone gets prosecuted for driving into a cyclists when there is no independent witnesses or camera footage. The defense of the single-witness-suicide-swerve (i.e. "yer honour, I was driving perfectly safely when the cyclist suddenly for no reason swerved three meters to the right, in front of my car, and I couldn't avoid them") means the CPS are very unwilling to prosecute.