road.cc live blog: abominable bus driving and more
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Thu, Dec 07, 2017 12:40
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
Rendel Harris 40 minutes ago
@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.
Rendel Harris 1 hour ago
@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.
ajuk.uk@gmail.com 5 hours ago
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.
kingleo 6 hours ago
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.
Mr Blackbird 9 hours ago
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?
Chris RideFar 9 hours ago
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)?
tomlew 9 hours ago
38x10T on 32in wheels? Sounds like some solid leg power there!
belugabob 10 hours ago
Imagine how their brains would react, if they ever visited the Netherlands (on so many other levels, too)
chrisonabike 11 hours ago
@mdavidford Perhaps it's for lycrist infiltration - or maybe they're doing anti-doping work with the UCI? Breaking into the peloton disguised as avid cyclists?
ktache 11 hours ago
Hexlox to protect your bits. Pricey but oh so ingenious...
19 thoughts on “road.cc live blog: abominable bus driving and more”
I’d love to know what (if
I’d love to know what (if anything!) was going through that bus driver’s mind as they approached a red light with a bike stopped in front of them… Glad the rider wasn’t injured
brooksby wrote:
I would imagine it was complete surprise – to find one of these damned cyclists not jumping a red light – after all don’t they all jump red lights all of the time!
That Fuji bike isnt ‘totalled
That Fuji bike isnt ‘totalled’.
totalled means completely written off. In the picture, the frame is completely fine as are the forks, the front wheel, BB, Cranks/crank set and shifters.
All she would need is a new rear wheel, cassette, rear derailleur, new chain and the bikes ready to go again as soon as you’ve tubed and tyre’d up.
I estimate the damage is going to cost at least £200-300 to repair but the bike is in no way a complete write off. It just needs nursing back to health.
However… If TFL want to pay for a new bike then thats also very a very welcome outcome.
RoubaixCube wrote:
Bloody hell! You’ve got good eyesight.
don simon wrote:
Just zoom in, the frame doesnt look bent up or mangled at all.
Another thing to consider is the angle of the impact. The bus almost hit it dead on and not from an angle. The bike looks at an angle in the picture is because the bus pushed it there when it came to a stop. There wouldnt of been barely ANY stress to the frame or rear triangle as the pressure was on the back wheel and the backwheel obviously collapsed from it. The frame didnt hit the ground or get dragged under the busses wheels either so its not crushed.
Bike is still fully salvagable and serviceable once its been repaired. Unless the bike has been in several other potentially serious accidents/collisions before that we dont know about. Im saying is the frame still looks pretty much good to go from the picture.
—
You all dont need to agree, but this is just my own opinion based on my observation.
RoubaixCube wrote:
The main issue in all your observations is that you aren’t liable when it all goes wrong. Presume a shop (which will have to fill out a warranty form for TFL’s insurance) says the frame is fine and then something does go wrong, the shop is fully liable.
Also, given most shops don’t have a scanner to confirm the frames integrity it is a write off
RoubaixCube]
And yet you seemed so sure in your first post. I’m just glad that you’re not a bike mechanic.
don simon wrote:
I still am pretty sure actually. I think the bike is OK apart from the mangled wheel
RoubaixCube wrote:
My arse.
I would say that the cassette, rear derailleur & chain will have a better chance of being ok than the frame.
Biggest surprise for me is that the seat looks ok, if that had been my bike I think I’d have made a mess of it…
RoubaixCube wrote:
If the cost of repair is greater than the value of the item then it’s a write off.
*I don’t know the value of this bike though
Oh yes, no stresses will have
Oh yes, no stresses will have been passed through to the rear triangle (at minimum) at all.
1961BikiE wrote:
I was rear ended by a car which turned into a hit and run, the rear wheel, a 36 spoke Open pro/Dura Ace was completely pringled so the forces were pretty significant. Bike frame has being going strong with no alignment issues, or any other physical signs or out of place feelings in the 6 years since. Massive carbon seatstays IMO were the saving grace, that and the effect the tyre and wheel itself has at taking out some of the forces. People in the twatter thread were saying it would be on the axle/dropouts but actually it’d be a lot on the spokes/tyre/rim as they deform. You’d be surprised how much can be put on a well built wheel, I croggied a friend whilst fully loaded on a 32 hole OP/Ultegra, total all up weight on the bike was 190kg, not even a murmour.
It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if the frame was useable but for most they simply wouldn’t trust it even if it was and rightly so.
Why the polic were not called is anyone’s guess as a criminal offence has being committed.
Rear hub could have easily
Rear hub could have easily knocked rear triangles out of true.
Is it relevant that the
Is it relevant that the Twitterer’s freind (the cyclist) is a doctor?
simonmb wrote:
Absolutely. It means that if DM picks up the story, it can lead on heroic member of our beloved Nhs surviving terror attacks by (insert derogatory label based on bus driver’s origins here). Or bloody cyclist holding up traffic gets just desserts. Either works at Fail Towers.
Looks like the wheel’s been
Looks like the wheel’s been twisted enough for it to be touching the seat stays and the rear mech looks like it’s touching the ground.
I’d want a new frame, rear wheel, rear mech, chain, brake disk and reflector at the very least.
And a P45 for the driver!
LastBoyScout wrote:
It’ll buff out.
Exactly the same happened to
Exactly the same happened to me at London Bridge, with less damage. Bus driver just looked at me and shrugged. Amazing.
drosco wrote:
Did TFL or the bus company pay for the damages?