Put a stop to the idiots who ride single speed bikes mascaraed as fixers. You can spot these wannabes who ride a freewheel and only a front brake. This is fine if you are on a fixie as you can apply resistance to the back wheel through your pedals but the folk who are riding with only a front anchor are missing the point and I’m guessing that they are not very experienced cyclists which makes it an accident waiting to happen. Rant over.
- Opinion
This has got to end-o
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Thanks Liam. Good to know. I do get over to FOD at times and plan to give Sam or Katy a call. Appreciate it. Neil
Yes. Such is the case with most sports. Cyclists can develop their riding skills and racing experience, footballers have yoga sessions and improve their conditioning in order to minimise the chances of injury, but it still happens. Most athletes have to learn to deal with setbacks if they are to have long successful careers.
@Psi Squared I'm lucky enough to have had 2 sets of the 'modern' series of Roval wheels, the first generation CLX and the second generation CL II. They have 21mm internal rim width and the wide (35mm-ish) front wheel. I haven't tried this third gen CLX wheelset (and cannot afford to!), but none of my 28mm tyres measured anything close to what the reviewer has stated: - Conti S TR 28mm >> 30+mm - Tufo Comturo Prima 28mm >> 32-ish mm (they come up large on all my rims) - Spesh Turbo Cotton 28mm (tube-type) >> 30+mm once "stretched in" I think the reviewer has made a mistake or has a dangerously stretchy set of tyres and should stop riding them immediately!
They did the towns pretty quietly too. It's only [certain elements in] that there Oxford that's really kicked up a fuss about this stuff. Mind you, most of the time, you'd be doing well to get over 20 going through town anyway.
You're conflating the throttle and the pedal assist. The throttle should only get it up to walking speed; about 6kph. Once it takes it past that, whether or not it's capable of 15mph or 58mph is entirely irrelevant.
@ktache Isn't it "LTNs BAD, cul-de-sacs and a quiet village green good*"? * As long as we can drive into town, of course...
@Robert Hardy As Rendel suggests, I'm not certain that any wheeled mode of transport - even at speeds well below the limit - would have avoided tragedy here. Although the road around the *outside* of the park where IIRC this occurred (Outer Circle) isn't "the main drag" (that would be e.g. Park Road / Marylebone Road) it is wide enough to put a question mark over "casual crossing". And indeed there are signalised crossings... Leaving aside "but racing cyclists!!" for now, looking at how safety might be improved here let's see how others do this. For example: West End of the Vondelpark in Amsterdam is on a "main road" (Amstelveenseweg). (The rest are very much "streets"). What happens there where pedestrians are crossing to and from the park? As it's a main road (and with tramlines) there are cycle paths (in this case unidirectional). That means that everyone knows where everyone else is and what to expect. The cycle path is really obvious, and it's only a couple of paces wide. People expect cyclists in that section, but being narrow compared to the road lanes it's simple to cross - so much so that no lights are used. cross. (Although unusually - presumably due to very high flows of pedestrians and cyclists - there is a *marked* crossing point). Once you've negotiated the cycle lane you can then wait (again in "pedestrian space") and concentrate on "watching for the cars" at a signalised crossing if needed (because it takes longer to cross the road part). I think there is space in the Regents Park case for cycle paths of some kind...
Oxfordshire very quietly made all it's villages 20mph a couple of years back.
My favourite bit was when they passed The Lion & Snake at the top of the hill. I had a nice burger with bang bang cauliflower wings and chips there a few years ago. Maybe an alternative refuelling option for the cyclists.
Those high pressure slick roadie tyres exert more pressure than a landing jumbo jet...

5 thoughts on “This has got to end-o”
Ouch!
Think that about covers it.
Although that fella’s problem appears to be that he was riding while holding an umbrella
Umbrellas
Riding while holding an umbrella doesn’t seem to be a problem for these people:
http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/search?q=umbrella
I think the guy’s problem was two-fold: (1) too self-consciously cool and (2) something unseen and nasty in the road (e.g. a drain cover).
Yes, I’d say he’d definitely
Yes, I’d say he’d definitely got some storm drain issues there.
Those people in Copenhagen don’t look to be going as fast as this fella, they do sort of make we wish I lived in Copenhagen though.
Obviously all definitions of cool are to some degree subjective (I should know I’m a hamster) , but he doesn’t look that self consciously cool to me… not with that umbrella, and what looks like a knotted hanky on his head. His main problem seems to be that he has persisted with the crappy umbrella long after the point where it has ceased to do him any good – doesn’t look like he’s any wetter after splashdown.
Safety first
I think the umbrella may have been some sort of emergency canopy, ejected at the last second to soften the fall?
Not as cool as I first thought
You’re right – he looks like a middle-aged golf pro…
I’d assumed his choice of classic steed made him cooler than that :p