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Live blog: Vuelta highlights, jobless Aqua Blue riders make best of it by going on epic bikepacking adventure + more
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Thu, Sep 06, 2018 14:41
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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
60somethingcyclist 30 minutes ago
Arrogant obnoxious Tory.
Rendel Harris 37 minutes ago
How do you see them then? Do you regularly drive into black cars?
eburtthebike 56 minutes ago
@Blackthorne83 He'd love to, but some bastard's taken out the cycle lanes.
kil0ran 2 hours ago
I was a few bikes away from the fatal collision during Ride London a few years ago, I barely avoided the victim's dog which was running loose. Definitely one of those slo-mo adrenaline fuelled moments and I was only doing about 40kph. At lead out speeds it really doesn't bear thinking about.
open_roads 2 hours ago
@Xenophon2 "That’s a lot of batteries to keep track of, to the point that I have a dedicated charger with 3 m USB-C cable in my office, another one at home. Can’t imagine having to deal with another battery such as on the Flight Attendant." Top tip: In reality most of the SRAM stuff lasts a month or two even with pretty heavy usage. I just charge all the batteries on the last Sunday of every month and have yet to be caught out. The SRAM batteries are so cheap / small / light it's also worth keeping a spare in a saddle bag or similar.
ajuk.uk@gmail.com 3 hours ago
@chrisonabike There does seem to be evidence that 20 mph limits work on roads that already lend themselves to such low speeds, and I do think the lack of a 25 mph limit option is an issue for some roads. Speed limits should especially not be set very low in the hope that many or most drivers will only exceed them by a set amount because, not only is it not true that many people drive like that, the opposite can happen. Instead of targeting the drivers most likely to cause harm, you're putting the prohibition onto the behaviour of more sensible drivers and forcing the police to target them. The DfT guidance used to have a paragraph calling out this presumption. The extent to which road design and conditions at the time dictate traffic speeds is too stark to ignore. I've seen urban roads with signed 40 mph limits have lower average speeds than some roads with posted 20 mph limits. And yes, that road in Gloucester has signs openly inviting drivers to go faster, and almost none of them do: the non-compliance was about 2%. Compare that to over 99% non-compliance on some roads in Wales. What I'm mainly talking about is the increasing imposition of 20 mph limits on much higher-standard main roads. That's where you see extreme levels of non-compliance. In some cases, the average speed has even been known to go up after the limit has gone down. Showing such contempt just brings speed limits into disrepute and my contention is that drivers should take speed limits seriously.
ajuk.uk@gmail.com 3 hours ago
@chrisonabike There does seem to be evidence that 20 mph limits work on roads that already lend themselves to such low speeds, and I do think the lack of a 25 mph limit option is an issue for some roads. Speed limits should especially not be set very low in the hope that many or most drivers will only exceed them by a set amount because, not only is it not true that many people drive like that, the opposite can happen. Instead of targeting the drivers most likely to cause harm, you're putting the prohibition onto the behaviour of more sensible drivers and forcing the police to target them. The DfT guidance used to have a paragraph calling out this presumption. The extent to which road design and conditions at the time dictate traffic speeds is too stark to ignore. I've seen urban roads with signed 40 mph limits have lower average speeds than some roads with posted 20 mph limits. And yes, that road in Gloucester has signs openly inviting drivers to go faster, and almost none of them do: the non-compliance was about 2%. Compare that to over 99% non-compliance on some roads in Wales. So no, when speed limits match the road, compliance is much higher, but speeds are not. What I'm mainly talking about is the increasing imposition of 20 mph limits on much higher-standard main roads. That's where you see extreme levels of non-compliance. In some cases, the average speed has even been known to go up after the limit has gone down. Showing such contempt just brings speed limits into disrepute and my contention is that drivers should take speed limits seriously.
Rendel Harris 3 hours ago
@jaymack Yes...to an extent, and I'm happy at the moment with my twelve-year-old Dura Ace mechanical, but I must admit when I had Ultegra Di2 I did notice not so much the ease of shifting but the perfect trimming of the gears after every shift so that the chainline was always absolutely perfect and that did enhance the simple pleasure of being outside, for me anyway. At least until that day I forgot to charge the battery which died at the turnaround on an eighty-mile ride and had to ride a very lumpy forty miles home stuck in 50x14...
Rendel Harris 4 hours ago
@Daclu Trelub Well no, given that I object to the use of derogatory slurs against people with mental health issues I think I'll "bother" the person who's using derogatory slurs against people with mental health issues. Have a little think, if capable: if your mother or someone else close to you had dementia or mental health issues, would you be happy for people to be pointing at them mockingly saying, "Looks like she's a few chips short of a fish supper"? Stop it.
16 thoughts on “Live blog: Vuelta highlights, jobless Aqua Blue riders make best of it by going on epic bikepacking adventure + more”
So that’s where the sheffield
So that’s where the sheffield ofo bikes end up!
Well done Daniel, even if the
Well done Daniel, even if the perp seemed a rather sad person. I’m sure the police will learn the lesson and equip all officers with a decent bike to catch criminals on foot.
burtthebike wrote:
Yeah, felt a twinge of sympathy for him there.
Re. Tavistock Place. All that
Re. Tavistock Place. All that fuss (how long in consultation?!?) and looking at the map it’s about 50 inches long.
The taxi lobby in london have too much power.
StoopidUserName wrote:
it’s part of a very significant cycle corridor. It’s been a cycle lane for years, maybe 10 years – I’ve been using it for at least seven years. I use it a lot more now that they’ve replaced the previous kerbs separating the lanes. This is a good result.
What they need to do now is resurface Tottenham Court Road, which is pit-holed to fuck.
I love these professionals
I love these professionals doing their bike tour just for the hell of it. I wonder how many accountants lose their job but then go off and do some double-entry bookkeeping together for a couple weeks, just because.
So dark shoes aren’t even
So dark shoes aren’t even acceptable now. Get Sir Chris Boardman on the case.
Organon wrote:
They have form for bringing this shit up for motorcyclists on their FB page too, they never apply this to car drivers, bunch of victim blaming cretins. HC needs to be changed ASAP, lighting regs need changing too. Get rid of reflector requirements and static and/or british Standard lights because that’s so ridiculously out of date.
If you can’t see any person or vehicle on the road during the day or at night by your own headlights then you’re travelling too fast, driving distracted or not competent mentally or physically to be allowed on the road other than by foot
So, ignore your own rules to victim blame, wankpuffins
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
As you no longer drive a car, thought you might be interested to see this from a drivers point of view.
Please note that as a driver, I don’t want to see you at the range of my headlights, I want to see you at the greatest distance possible even if that is 1/2 a mile away so that I can adjust speed, take road position and generally plan well ahead for your presence. Even to the extent of protecting you from other traffic.
As for dark shoes? In this video, pretty much the only visibility of the peds is motion of their light coloured trainers.
Mungecrundle wrote:
You have so much to learn about safe driving and what the statement in the HC means. You can’t even grasp that driving faster because you can see stuff further means shortened thinking time, massively increased braking time and more incidents.
Congratulations on proving how much you know about safety, the sqaure root of nowt.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Who said anything about driving faster? I think I was explicit in stating that I want to see vulnerable road users at the earliest possible moment exactly so I can plan for their safety.
Probably best that you have given up the car. Not only are your driving skills rusty but your powers of critical thinking are also on the wane.
Anyway, winter is coming (in Sean Bean accent) so another season to test out your theory and maybe as the nights draw in you will be able to regale us with a few more anecdotes of incidents where drivers claim not to have seen you.
I’m finding that dog really
I’m finding that dog really annoying today. Look at its grin, and its puffed-up stance. Little git.
It’s gonna be a long Friday… roll on the weekend.
davel wrote:
Grumpy today, are we?
davel wrote:
Haters gonna hate.
Much better now. Chris bless
Looking at the vid, Munge has
Looking at the vid, Munge has a point. Once the light starts to fail why stack the odds outside your favour? You can make your point that drivers SHOULD see you in your ninja gear and maybe they should but the reality is they need a helping hand. God knows what sort of people are out there.
I had eye surgery the other day and whilst I was walking back to the car (wife drove!) with a patch on one eye and the other blurred to hell, I said to her “I bet there’s people out there with worse sight than me at the moment”. I bet there are. Don’t become a pair of shoes you see at the last moment. Maybe you can’t get Rapha in hi-viz but whatever.
Flashing xmas tree posse in tha house!