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Live blog: man wearing cycling gear and helmet goes on rooftop rampage in Cornwall, Lazer Helmets show support for Rachel McKinnon, Trek-Segafredo update on Steven de Jongh’s condition + more
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Tue, Oct 16, 2018 14:57
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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
wtjs 11 hours ago
@FionaJJ These officers deployed next-level stupidity, and it must be difficult for the police to find people this dim. It doesn't even need rolling-roads or whatever, just a reputable bike computer on a quickly changed mount for the difficult cases where a proper EAPC has been modded, although you would need to look hard in Lancashire to find a police officer who knows how to make a pedal cycle go. Most illegal electric motorbikes are immediately obvious, not least because the crim is wearing a face mask. I saw an obvious one tonight coming out of Garstang Sainsbury's, not pedalling but without a face mask because everybody knows that the police only come into the town to hide away in the police station 200 yards away.
bikeman01 13 hours ago
Gustav Gullholm.. that's not a good look mate
mdavidford 15 hours ago
@Chris RideFar I think what you meant to say was "REMOVE this and put it on PODCAST CC".
jaymack 16 hours ago
As Mary Whitehouse never said - one doesn't have to read the article if one doesn't want to read about an off-road bicycle.
Rendel Harris 17 hours ago
@FionaJJ In London they're allowed to stop on single and double yellows to deliver packages or empty pillar boxes; in practice they take this as carte blanche to park wherever and whenever they want, such as this chap on the Brixton Road who pulled into the bus/cycle/motorcycle lane without indicating, as I approached at 20mph, to park on a red route, response to a remonstrance, "I suppose you never get post delivered do ya?"
FionaJJ 18 hours ago
@Rendel Harris We have a pavement parking ban, but around here at least, royal mail vans are already exempt, subject to certain caveats, such as allowing at least 1.5m, and only being stopped to do their work.
FionaJJ 18 hours ago
It was already embarrassing for the police that they made such a mess of their attempt to determine whether a bike was legal or not, but I had assumed it was a group of well intentioned, but under-trained officers acting on their own initiative, having spotted something they thought looked not quite right. I'm now discovering this was a planned activity, something sufficiently organised to have been given a name - Operation FRISLEN, designed specifically to identify and remove illegal e-bikes and scooters. It's apparent that the officers were sent out without adequate training, never mind the kind of equipment that should be used for this sort of work. I'm not saying they always need specialist equipment to spot all illegal bikes, but at least if they'd been given a demonstration with that equipment, they'd have realised why their approach was not going to end well.
Geoff Ingram 20 hours ago
Have put drop bars on a 2001 B1 mtb, a 2007 stumpy hardtail and a 2010 stumpy full suss. In all cases fairly basic conversións leaving gearing and wheels broadly the same and concentrating on correct positioning of bars and fit. Oddly, with all 3 I was happy with the result when recently done, but after a few months found that the extra speed on easy trails was more than offset by the lack of ability (probably mine) on tougher routes and finally preferred flat bar with slammed and inverted stem as best overall compromise. Good fun playing around, though.
mark1a 20 hours ago
The photos in this review look they are for a different bag?
mattw 21 hours ago
This is a strange reactionary knee jerk overall. But what is this "are essentially motorbikes in disguise" waffle? "One letter claimed that high-powered electric ‘e-bikes’ were “essentially motorbikes” in disguise, with many being used without lights, helmets, or any hi-vis clothing." Surely, they simply ARE motorbikes?
17 thoughts on “Live blog: man wearing cycling gear and helmet goes on rooftop rampage in Cornwall, Lazer Helmets show support for Rachel McKinnon, Trek-Segafredo update on Steven de Jongh’s condition + more”
I am actually in favour of
I am actually in favour of punishing cyclists who are using their phones. In Copenhagen, there are far too many people texting or calling while cycling, and it is very obviously making them terrible cyclists.
As well as being a distraction, it makes it much harder to keep control of the bike itself by having just one hand on the bars. They drift around in the bike lane and are a hazard to people overtaking because they aren’t paying attention to what’s going on around them. If you absolutely need to make a call, at least use earphones so both your hands are in control of the bike (even if you’re still not listening to what’s going on).
fixedwhip wrote:
Yep, phone using cyclist is a bad cyclist. No excuse for it, especially when pulling over and stopping is a hell of a lot easier on a bicycle.
I hate those mats. Send the
I hate those mats. Send the wrong message – personal experience from a close pass “discussion” – “You’re not supposed to be more than 75cm from the kerb mush, get the fuck out of the middle of the lane” (this on a country lane not wide enough for two vehicles to pass side by side, when I was doing 27mph according to Strava)
kil0ran wrote:
That was my fear when they introduced these mats. That without the police officer explaining the inconsistancies with the measurements, they’d end up being prescriptive.
Both the 75cm and the 1.5m measurement are wrong but Cycling UK went ahead with the mat anyway.
kil0ran wrote:
Many of us CUK members told them that, they ignored it, I’ve seen an Australian version that was made up and it stated the word ‘minimum’ for both the 75cm and 1.5m part. This distinction is massive in terms of the message it would portray.
Also the distance is only suitable up to 30mph, for 40 and over it should be minimum of 2metres, i.e. overtaking in the opposite lane for most scenarios.
Cornwall police want to speak
Cornwall police want to speak to this man.
pockstone wrote:
Ah…that would explain…
“I just wish sometimes I could control these FUCKING MOOD SWINGS!”
Well, the Rachel McKinnon
Well, the Rachel McKinnon debate is over, then. If Katie f-ing Hopkins opposes something, you know that ‘something’ is alright
brooksby wrote:
Bollocks
The bloke below competed in the womens weightlifting, now tell me again that anything Katie Hopkins opposes is alright.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Am I showing my age/privilege/*something* if I do admit how difficult I find the current trans debate? My only comment to that picture is, “Errr…”
(But I do still think that you can generally work on the safe presumption that Katie f-ing Hopkins is wrong about everything
)
brooksby wrote:
It’s ok to find it difficult – it is difficult. The problem is that you’re not expected to rule on it, but the Internet expects you to have an opinion on it, and it better be a strong one, and you need to be real angry about it.
brooksby wrote:
I don’t think she knows what febrile means – it makes no sense in that phrase.
brooksby wrote:
I’d normally agree with you about Katie Hopkins.
But this example does make me scratch my head a bit about the point of having separate male and female sporting events if the line between male and female is increasingly blurred.
Do Brisbane police charge the
Do Brisbane police charge the same if a motorist is using their phone? Although its presumably more difficult to pull over a phone-using motorist…
“Dorset Police smash
“Dorset Police smash misconceptions about cyclists and the law”
Clearly not. Just click on the link and read the comments; every single driver myth about cyclists is paraded. Every. Single. One.
burtthebike wrote:
Gave up reading after the first 5 or so. They need their license taken away asap. Depressing as usual…even when they’re told something by the people who are upholding the law they make up their own shit and carry on…
Interesting that the QLD
Interesting that the QLD police state that cyclists should obey all motorists laws if they wish to cycle on Queenland’s roads, so operating their vehicle without a helmet is okay then as that is what you allow motorists to do. Basically you want them to obey other rules which doon’t protect them, has a hefty fine attached to it for not obeying said rule so by definition is discriminatory as you aren’t applying it to the other vehicle operators and from that your enforcement of such breaks your sworn oath you bent criminal cunts. No wonder cycling is going backwards numbers wise in oz!