We went away but now we’re back

AHahahahhahaaaa. No.

Whenever I hear/read a cycle helmet trope I know immediately the source doesn't cycle, is most likely a thoughtless petrolhead, and likely gets their knowledge from GB News. As for those not councillors, the public can be as bad.

@ajuk.uk@gmail.com Coming next from ajuk, there's no point in having a drink drive limit of 0.80 BAC, let's increase it to 2.0 and then we'll catch the really drunk people without bothering those who have just had a few drinks. Honestly, what a lot of nonsense, "lots of people are ignoring the law" is an argument for stricter enforcement and harsher sanctions, not "oh, people don't like it so let's not bother". Speeding is not "normalised and socially acceptable" because of 20 mph limits – the majority of motorists admit to ignoring 30 mph limits as well – it's because successive governments, councils and police forces are reluctant to enforce perfectly reasonable laws for fear of being labelled "anti-motorist". Meanwhile every year 1750 people are killed by drivers (with 56% of fatalities having excessive speed as a factor) and 25,000 more seriously injured.

@Mr Blackbird Definitely my experience in my brief and inglorious year as a motorcycle courier, delivering £10,000 of aeroplane tickets to someone in Belgravia, not a chance of a tip and the snottiest attitudes imaginable, taking work out to some freelancer in a council flat in Leytonstone often a tip, always a chat and an offer of tea. Many very rich people really do regard the rest of the population as a totally different species. I guess if they started thinking of them as equals that might lead to some uncomfortable thoughts that maybe they should be equally rewarded for the same level of work, and that would never do.

I think the issue about speed limits isn't actually a debate about what the speed limit should be. Moreover, It's people talking past each other because they working from different frameworks of what the speed limit is. There's one group of people who say the speed limit is a legal tool there to single out reckless drivers, and there's the other group who assume they're traffic calming by fiat, because, they don't understand how speed limits work. There is evidence to suggest lower limits work on the sort of narrow residential streets that already lend themselves to such speeds, when it comes to much wider main road where you see non-compliance rates of well over 90%, those people who limits were previously able to single out and target are the sort of drivers most likely to hurt of kill a cyclist. Meanwhile you help to make speeding normalised and socially acceptable instigated by people who claim to want the opposite.

If motorists stopped drinking and/or drug driving and driving faster than the speed limit, that would reduce the head injuries to cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists.

Our window cleaner told me that he rarely gets Christmas tips from his customers in the wealthier areas of town. Maybe it's part of the go getter / climb the greasy pole mentality. I once read that many Olympic gold medalists share a lot of common personality traits with psychopaths - the need to dominate, to come out on top, to soundly beat your opponents. Perhaps the same applies to some high fliers in business?

The only important characteristic for me is whether I can mount a front derailleur, so I can have my preferred 550+% gravel-bike gear range with no large gaps (for doing long, steep Alpine climbs and also have a gear for pedalling on the downhills)?

38x10T on 32in wheels? Sounds like some solid leg power there!

Imagine how their brains would react, if they ever visited the Netherlands (on so many other levels, too)