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bournemouth prom cycling story [ daily echo clickbait cycling hatred again]

by Gary's bike channel
Sat, Jun 20, 2020 21:49
5

this is the link- https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18529062.letter-editor-cycling-al...
and this is the video i was thinking of seeing if they would run. But i dunno. I'll probably just get hounded by the usual anti cycling commenters on there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uW56fDRSy8

should i send it in? it shows every point. One, if you want to go fast, use the road? the top cliff top one is great for speed, i dont get why you'd want to use the prom for time trialling if theres any chance kids or dogs could walk in front of you.
Beryl bikes ARE used and are a good idea- you can see people using them.
They used a couple of my videos before but now im not sure i want to help them out revenue wise- they keep running these, i think fake letters from anti cycling people, but never anything from an actual cyclist?
like some woman on there posted she had cyclists go past her at 30 miles an hour- i highly doubt it- more like 15-20 tops.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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5 comments

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hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
0 likes

I liked it but could have had some more shots of terrified pedestrians running for their lives.

You might as well send it in to them to help add a bit of balance, but I doubt it'll make much difference to the frothing readership.

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Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
2 likes

It's partly a matter of perspective. When you went down the ramp to the prom I clearly saw a cyclist being very considerate and giving the young family crossing the road a wide margin of care. Someone with an anti cycling bias will see, or at least claim to have witnessed, a mother literally snatch her young offspring from the slavering jaws of certain death.

As ever there will be a minority of a'holes zooming down those ramps inconsiderately. You cannot defend every moron who happens to utilise a bicycle. What you can support, if there is sufficient verifiable evidence to demonstrate an actual problem, is the enforcement of appropriate sanctions, in the same way that, hopefully, other antisocial behaviour on the prom is dealt with.

I do chip in to the occasional Bournemouth letter pages, you do have your work cut out with some utter retards on those pages.

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Gary's bike channel | 3 years ago
0 likes

yeah my speedo said i was going 30 mph along it, i thought that was quite good considering the bike weighs over 15kg. i sold it to an old chap the other day, for parts mainly and because ive got a carrera road bike instead. Much better as has microshift/ dual levers not friction shift like i put on the old one shown in the video. My point would mainly be look, you can all have a go at cyclists if thats your opinion, but it doesnt represent every single one of us- so you dont need to outright ban it. The advice would be cycle all you like, but dont get close to pedestrians, and certainly be ready to stop sharply, as you can see when the kids ran in front of me.  Its a shame but people generally form opinions on subjects once they've heard them from the majority of others, so tales of bicycles whizzing past people at 30 mph down there is likely to stick in their minds and further push people into disliking bicycles even more so.  Whereas a nice video showing how careful and considerate riders are welcome, including proving that beryl bikes are worthwhile, should shut a load of the commenters up. I imagine the most frequent are old retired men anyway but its still worrying to read if thats how they think, but theyre allowed to drive on the road with us.

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David9694 | 3 years ago
1 like

lt looks v quiet down there, David, quite late on? 23 May was a Saturday, so I'm suprised.
Chapeau! to your road riding - looked like a fair old clip you were doing. 
yes, send it in, but you've got to be clear what point you want to make in doing so. It maybe the rarity of incidents that drives the complaints.  We live in an uncritical "cars will be cars" world.  
there may be some trolls about in the DE comments column, but I fear many of them are all too real and drive that bad attitude all over town.  It's certainly lively, and I chip in occasionally to give some balance.
It's a pity about the clickbait aspect, but we're watching the gradual decline of professional local news-gathering and reporting, preferring instead our own generally ill-informed and inaccurate accounts on SM. Present company excepted, of course. 
I thought the Jack Crewe letter was an attempt at being constructive, but he can stick his additional two months of ban around the back of his beach hut (that's a joke: if you don't follow the B'mouth news, around this time, lots of visitors were coming, but the public toilets were still closed).  
I especially liked the "serious money" comment - he must live in cloud cuckoo land and/or have very little idea about how much things like that cost to install and maintain. 

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 3 years ago
1 like

I found the vid compellingly interesting. I don't know the area. I can understand why in parts of the vid cyclists wouldn't be welcome. Unless they are at very low speeds. On other parts (where all the parked vehicles are for example) it seems perfectly fine to cycle. Children should be exempt from any 'ban'. I think your advice at the end of the video is best; maintain a low speed. If you show respect you get respect in return. 

I can understand your reluctance to send the vid to the local press if it is used as a magnet for ignorant, hatefilled responses.  Which in the 'social media free speech' era seems to be the way. 

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