Live blog: Is this the new Ronnie Pickering? The Mirror make epic Tour de France preview fail + more
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Tue, Jul 03, 2018 14:08
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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
IanEdward 7 minutes ago
Agreed for the most part, especially on mileages. I took a punt and added a Silca Endurance chip AND 1/3rd bottle Synergetic to my wax pot (after seeing a Silca YouTube video suggesting trying this). Still runs clean like a good hot wax, but seems to ladt longer in the wet, I've managed ~200km of mixed gravel and tarmac in a ride, including rain and river crossings, with the chain only just starting to grumble. I would have topped up with pure Synergetic to get me the final few km but as you say, then I would have to deal with the black goo cleanup!
Mr Blackbird 24 minutes ago
Media such as the BBC help fuel the resentment towards cyclists. Lizzie Deignan was on BBC breakfast this morning talking about a podcast that acted as a couch to cycle for about an hour programme to encourage people to cycle to get fit and lose weight. The BBC presenters were John Kay and Sally Nugent, who always seem to argue from Daily Mail readers' viewpoint. At the end of the interview, John Kay asked "And what would you say to motorists who think there are already too many cyclists on the road?" A totally meaningless argument, which translates as "What would you say to motorists who believe based on no evidence that any cyclists on the road, slow down their journey and mean they have to allow realistic journey times to reach their destinations while avoiding speeding etc?"
Mr Blackbird 1 hour ago
I'm a cyclist and many of my friends are house clearance auction specialists. Surprisingly they aren't all arses. Maybe it's the Grimsby factor? Wasn't it Grimsby where that tosser mayor banned all cyclists within 40 miles of the town centre?
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
Agree that cycle lanes are pretty poor "infra". But although that "taking away and suffocating the freedom of other road users" is a weird phrase *... ... there is a "fairness" perception at work here. But simply "riding like a car" won't fix it at all! That means cyclists fall foul of the psychological "cheater detection" mechanism: we're using the same space but not playing by the same rules (not paying "road tax", we can filter past etc. ) Cyclists are visibly an "other" and people have been shown to expect "respect" (submissive behaviour) in those circumstances. But cyclists can't help being "provocative" - we're "in the way"! People may tolerate cyclists where they're a rare occurrence. But for mass cycling either the cyclists have to be in their own distinct space OR motorists have to be cued to be "guests". So not many of them, cyclists likely to be in the majority, speed reduced to that of cycling, in environments where there isn't an expectation of rapid progress such as residential areas with plants etc. * I think that's not even in the heads of most who are irked by cyclists. Reminds me of Monty Python - "Help, help, I'm being repressed!" For one it sounds like that concern is only for the road users who are a lot "more equal than others" (by design) - the motorised ones. And in reality NO "freedoms" are being lost! In fact the reverse is true: the growth of mass motoring has literally taken away freedoms. Like the freedom to get places - other than by driving (dual carriageway in the way now). And the freedom from serious "inconvenience" - but not "being delayed by a few seconds" / having to walk a few extra tens of meters than the minimum possible - inconvenience to vulnerable road users includes injury to health or even death...
Dadams7378 2 hours ago
If there is an issue with water ingress as the review suggests, forking out another £500 on ceramicspeed bearings will be £500 down the drain. The response of Scope doesn’t exactly inspire confidence either.
jackcycles 2 hours ago
The Grimsby man's views are symptomatic of the inherent unfairness of cycle lanes taking away and suffocating the freedom of other road users. If you're on wheels, you should generally share the same road space (except for designated off-road areas). It annoys other road users if cyclists don't use the rubbish, unfit for purpose nonsense that councils have installed at great expense. Because many drivers haven't experienced these awful facilities themselves, they mistakenly identify cyclists as self-entitled wind-up.merchants, rather than people just trying to avoid poor infrastructure.
Jakrayan 2 hours ago
And even swung in as they passed 🤦♂️ Police action - warning letter to the company, didn't even identify the driver. This is in Kent - they seem as bad as Lancs.
Jakrayan 2 hours ago
Some of their drivers are feckin dangerous.
HLaB 3 hours ago
He "never thought of that" and "some of my best friends are" . Sounds like he doesn't think of much and is just blinded by his hatred into inventing things. Why is road.cc giving him air space!
18 thoughts on “Live blog: Is this the new Ronnie Pickering? The Mirror make epic Tour de France preview fail + more”
Mirror – chateau!
Mirror – chateau!
davel wrote:
Chateau!?
UK Cycling Expert daftness.
UK Cycling Expert daftness.
Well canal guy was, err, what
Well canal guy was, err, what I can only describe as a throwback. I was into eugenics I’d be round his with a pair bricks to the knackers to stop the line.
Trouble with pricks like that they are looking for any ‘good guy’ excuse to be a bad guy.
“but the cyclist was doing 11mph, I had to drown them so nobody got hurt”
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
there was a time, before British Waterways was turned into the charity Canal and Rver Trust that it is now, only in 2012, when you were supposed to have a permit to cycle on the towpat. So perhaps he’s emerged from a pre-2012 time tunnel. Don’t tell him the Olympics have been and gone.
I thought the cyclist did
I thought the cyclist did very well to keep so calm with that idiot by the canal. you know some people are trouble just by their cammo shorts and T. It sounded like he’d been on the booze too just to add to his already minimal IQ.
DrG82 wrote:
— DrG82you know you’re unintelligent when boozing increases your IQ.
I look forward to the video when I get home.
The term ‘mouth-breather’
The term ‘mouth-breather’ springs immediately to mind…
I still have my permit, sits
I still have my permit, sits in my bag.
never ridden on a tow path,
never ridden on a tow path, can’t say this would ever lure me to do so either.
Pedestrians should walk in
Pedestrians should walk in single file on the side of shared paths, and wear a bright yellow jacket so they can be seen.
kingleo wrote:
They should have clanging bells too, like Alpine cows.
PRSboy wrote:
And helmets and Mae Wests.
Its actually difficult to
Its actually difficult to tell if Canal Guy is genuinely trying to be doing something for the public good or if he’s just a bit pi$$ed and being an @rse. Even the worst of the “This. Is. A. Footpath!” type people don’t ever actually stand right in front of you with their arms outstretched (at least, not in my experience).
(BTW – is that his boat or is he just nicking something from it?
)
brooksby wrote:
Dunno, but there is something oddly compelling about his “Dismount when there’s pedestrians!” and the rallying cry “Pedestrians have the privilege!”
His camouflage outfit adds to the aura of canal path commando.
Less impressive was the cyclist pedalling off and leaving the lady cyclist in the clutches of the bloke who’d threatened him.
“Angry Canal Man”. One too
“Angry Canal Man”. One too many Cs in that.
burtthebike wrote:
No there is definitely one C in that picture.
Leviathan wrote:
Canal! Do I win a prize?