Cyclist's death descending from Mow Cop could have been due to speed shimmy

Tony wrote:

I'd also consider swerving to avoid Mr Hyde and his car as a possibility.  It's not unknown for a motorist to blame the cyclist where the motorist is the only living witness.

You won't find a coroner speculating that as it might infer blame on a motorist, they're quite happy to make wild speculations based on bugger all facts (similarly to the MET police and the MM case) that make out that people on bikes are the main contributers to their deaths.

if it's a route he'd done many times before he'd be aware of the conditions on that road and IF it was a problem and/or the camber etc affects your direction then you must slow down and use caution.

30 mph might sound fast to non cyclists and even those that just potter but comparatively it's moderately fast, less speed than 99.9999% of motorists on high density urban streets in fact.

A speed wobble at max indicated 30mph on a downhill section that he'd likely done faster on that same bit of road with the same bike and never experienced issues would seem more than a bit doubtful, certainly more to this than what the police have reported but we'll never know.

A video camera would have revelaed a heck of a lot and I've had one for a few years now but rarely take it out these days.

Interesting no mention of clothing or helmet.

RIP to family.

Kestevan wrote:

I came down the back off Mow Cop last week on the Cheshire Cat Sportive.

Surface of the road was like the fucking Moon. There was certainly more than a single small pothole to avoid.

I'll second that.

Kestevan wrote:

I came down the back off Mow Cop last week on the Cheshire Cat Sportive.

Surface of the road was like the fucking Moon. There was certainly more than a single small pothole to avoid.

Wasn't any better this year.

I wonder if the organisers have alerted the roads authorities to the conditions. Councils often otherwise claim ignorance.

unconstituted wrote:

Very sad, another freak accident. Can be a great rider, check your kit regularly and sometimes the die just don't roll in your favour. 

 

Isn't really the place for it, but I wonder if the future will bring cycle computers with algorithms that can detect precarious situations and relay some warning or response well in advance. Sounds ridiculous now, but who knows what's possible. We've seen lazers hit the road to signal motorists of our presence, perhaps they could be used to highlight potholes or other objects on the road ahead via a scanning system once the tech is there. That tech will definitely be there, cars are using it and it'll simply become smaller, lighter, more accessible to entrepreneurs. Think driverless tech has already been opensourced on the market for example. 

Be nice to actually have roads that aren't made of gyspy tarmac in the first place. I don't think most drivers realise how crap the edges of the roads are. An uber-cycling-pothole-scanning-computer would probably just tell you to put the bike back in the garage and not bother.