road.cc live blog: The various stances on the Froome case, the value of hi-vis, a fella with a bullet lodged in his stomach riding Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme + more

I ride expensive bikes wearing expensive helmets, my bike equipped with an expensive bike computer, fitness watch and cell phone. I carry my debit card. I worry. You would expect anyone living in Chicago to worry about bike jacking. Yet, for some strange reason. The Chicago land criminal community has not caught on to bike jacking. They like retail break ins and ATM smash ups.

@mattw "footpaths" Hmm... true this is an underappreciated resource and indeed in danger. But I think this is very location dependent. If we're taking in urban locations, are you talking alleys - narrow almost always no room for expansion? Or "footways" - also often not ample and we're back to "fighting over scraps" with pedestrians or even forced-conflict with "shared use"? In the countryside - perhaps? If what goes in NL applies more generally (and why wouldn't it - they're humans too) more people may be prepared to travel on bikes there than UK opinion holds. ("people depend on their cars... nobody cycles or walks ... the non-existent footway beside the A-road!"). Although that may depend on "cyclists and walkers get the direct route" which isn't always how we do it...

@james-o Cable brakes and gear shifters have have barrel adjusters to deal with the inevitable cable stretch, that most certainly occurs over time.

@mattw I believe this is exactly the kind of thing that The Ranty Highwayman and Robert Weetman worked on for Manchester City Council. Fixing it for pedestrians *ought* to be uncontroversial. It *ought* to be a path that actually "works" to move forward for the UK. I believe Chris Boardman had success in Manchester with an approach which largely emphasised this (plus buses). BUT... I do wonder if this leaves us stuck at pretty much the status quo - because it reinforces the current "either walking, or driving" split. First we'd get "can't have cycling infra because cycling gets in the way of cars and threatens pedestrians". Then most people simply won't walk far (especially if eg. carrying shopping). Which leads to "we still really need cars!" even for very local trips. Which then kills off active travel again, because cars take up too much space and suppress active travel.

@Geoff H, electronic shifting, like disc brakes and tubeless tyres is more reliable and less faff. A spare battery in with my tools, means I never have to worry about a flat battery. Only time I've ever used it was to lend to a mate just in case. The only two times I've had a torn tubeless tyres I was able to slowly and safely stop. It would have been a disaster with an instantly flat tube and loss of control when surrounded by cars or speeding downhill off road. In dozen years of using tubeless, I have had as many tubeless flats as I have had with tubes in that time. Except I've only used tubes for a few weeks in all that time. Plus and this is the really, really important thing, my ride is way more comfortable. I also have way more grip and more speed due to being able to use the correct tyre pressure - doing so with tubes would be constant pinch flatting. So a win, win, win win situation. Never been covered in sealant either. Which only happens if riding with too high a tyre pressure.

@quiff I think all human generated text should have the disclaimer "I am human and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses."

@jaymack I've seen a LOT of issues with old fashioned mechanical gear shifting/cables in my time. Modern electronic stuff is a lot les faff/more reliable. Personally I went electronic shifting with my new CX/gravel bike after the shifter cable self destructed inside my brifters on my older bike several times, the last two with zero warning. A nightmare to sort out. Astonishingly and thankfully, all three times it happened outside home, rather than the usual middle of nowhere I tend to cycle. Another nightmare with internal cables on my full sus ended up with me buying a wireless rear shifter out of frustration. Much better ergonomics of the shifter too. I hate cables in general, they stretch, get sticky, snap, fray, outers kink..etc. One of the best things about [hydraulic] disc brakes is the absence of flakey cables. My most recent nightmare with cables was swapping to a new dropper. An ostensibly simple 5 min job turned into a nightmare which involved buying a new lever for bars and a lot of challenging cable wrangling inside frame even after BB removal. Speaking as someone who is comfortable and quite competent at fixing bikes, cables can get in the bin. Badly designed internal cable routing can get in the bin, set on fire and dropped in acid.

Tempted until I saw the price.

@mdavidford Nah, only a human could have written this, whatever it means: "Cycling is inherently about people, so I think stuff created by AI shouldn’t mix it, or sports in general."

@chrisonabike For the unbundling we need to start looking seriously at improving and joining up say 10-20% of our public footpath network. We have the bones of a 3rd "Mobility" network from everywhere to everywhere already in place, but no one has noticed, and landowners want to steal it and police often want to block it off. Since my LHA (ie Highways) are now Reform UK controlled, and they just want to live in an episode of Terry and June whilst the world goes to hell in a handcart, improving this is my current activism focus with stuff that I can legally enforce.