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Live blog: N Yorks campaigner calls for infrastructure not prestige events, Addison Lee plans to put driverless cabs in London by 2021, sneak peek at the new Pinarello gravel bike + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond as we start a new week
Mon, Oct 22, 2018 14:19
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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 10 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 12 hours ago
Gustav Gullholm.. that's not a good look mate
mdavidford 14 hours ago
@Chris RideFar I think what you meant to say was "REMOVE this and put it on PODCAST CC".
jaymack 15 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 16 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 16 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 17 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 19 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 19 hours ago
The photos in this review look they are for a different bag?
mattw 20 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?
24 thoughts on “Live blog: N Yorks campaigner calls for infrastructure not prestige events, Addison Lee plans to put driverless cabs in London by 2021, sneak peek at the new Pinarello gravel bike + more”
I do hope both Alex Dowsett
I do hope both Alex Dowsett and Chris Boardman have a punch up to decide this, it’s the only real way to find out who’s most right*
*that and graphs obvs. Everyone knows a graph always wins a debate.
I think we’re beyond graphs.
I think we’re beyond graphs. After St Sir Chris Lord Boardman’s latest vanquishing of the most recent addition to the Order of the Helmets, nothing less than a tapestry will do.
Just how small is the number Alex can count to, or are we really expected to believe that he hears multiple hundreds of stories per day. Also, loads of my friends tell me of the good times they have when pissed, countless stories. Should we make alcohol consumption mandatory?
I say this as someone who had a positive experience of a collision and a helmet, I still don’t think it needs to be compulsory…
Chris Boardman and Superman
Chris Boardman and Superman once had such a heated arguments about helmets that they bet that the loser would wear their underpants on the outside.
Cycling into Manchester (from
Cycling into Manchester (from the North West – Liverpool Street) is a joke at the moment. Roadworks on other nearby roads is forcing too much traffic into too small a volume of roads and the traffic lights at some junctions are just pointless as people just drive through them. Some cyclists too, sure, but absolutely shitloads of cars.
Chris Boardman was banned
Chris Boardman was banned from participating in time trails after the judge sentenced time to life imprisonment.
So if driverless cars a made
So if driverless cars a made to brake if there is an obstruction ahead then surely the safest place to cycle would be in front of one?
Ratfink wrote:
Only if the tech “sees” the cyclist, and that is the nub of the problem with driverless car in a nutshell.
usedtobefaster wrote:
Would take my chances with the tech versus the average Addison Lee driver!
gonedownhill wrote:
Good point …
usedtobefaster wrote:
And in the case or Mercedes cars, whether it chooses to prioritise people inside the car or outside of it.
When Chris Boardman crosses
When Chris Boardman crosses the road, the cars look both ways.
hawkinspeter wrote:
Chris Boardman doesn’t cross the road. The opposite pavement comes to him.
davel wrote:
I was going to ask “why does Chris Boardman cross the road?”, but no-one questions Chris Boardman’s intentions.
hawkinspeter wrote:
There is no ‘Chris Boardman’s intentions’; there is only ‘Chris Boardman does’ and ‘Chris Boardman does not’.
davel wrote:
I heard that Chris Boardman sleeps with a nightlight on – not because he’s afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of him.
.. hang on a min.. the
.. hang on a min.. the ‘Grevil gravel bike’… all I can think of is G G G Granville the G G G Grevil G G G Gravel bike…
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… WTF… is that Alex Dowsett, he’s getting everywhere today!
Dowsett vs Boardman sums up
Dowsett vs Boardman sums up the helmet debate; one uses myths, rumours and apocryphal stories, the other uses facts, research and data. ‘Nuff said.
Except perhaps from “shut up Alex until you have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
The scary thing is that many
The scary thing is that many are saying, we don’t want compulsion but compulsion via the back door by encouraging people to wear them, all the whilst utterly ignoring the stats both for professional racing types, amateur racers and the ‘others’, also ignoring that head injuries sans helmets riding a bike is massively less than walking, driving and most other activities.
Or maybe types like Dowsett think the 1.3million annually reported head injuries (A figure accepted by the head injury orgs in the UK) are totally false, the c.160,000 hospital admittances from such are also false OR that they are all cyclists?
Given that the official figures are c.3100 serious cyclists injured (and the majority caused by errent motorists) maybe he thinks somehow this number are all head injuries and that somehow even if they were this is a much bigger issue than 160,000 that are admitted to hospital.
As I’ve said elsewhere when you have a ratio greater than 1000:1 if just comparing the admittances alone to 50% of all (seriously) injured cyclists being to the head, to then only promote helmets for people on bikes is not only ludicrous, it’s ignorant of basic stats, ignorant of studies that show the effects of helmet wearing.
It’s insideous creep, sickening and a slippery slope of only making matters worse as we have seen in the UK, in France, in US, in Canada, in Australia, in NZ, basically any country you want to pick that has seen significant increases in helmet wearing or compulsion. Time and again this has been shown to be true.
So we get compulsary helmet wearing and if you don’t, then what, NSW levels of fines that the police only focus on instead of killer drivers, and from that more injuries and deaths of cyclists who are then forced off the roads, more victim blaming by police, government, judges and cycling organisations?
DOWSETT YOU IGNORANT UNEDUCATED CUNT, YOUR WAY MAKES CYCLING MORE DANGEROUS AND PUTS ME AT MORE RISK, GO FUCK YOURSELF!
If I headbutt something then
If I headbutt something then I’d want to be wearing a helmet – I’d stand with Dowsett.
Thing is, I’d rather not headbutt anything at all – Boardman for PM!
2Loose wrote:
For ‘headbutting’, I hear you.
But most definitions of ‘headbutt’ don’t include drivers rear-ending, t-boning or left-hooking you, and helmets are a weird fixation in relation to such situations.
And I’d also rather not head
And I’d also rather not head but anything regardless of my mode of transport or activity.
Dowsett knew the reaction his tweet would get and was just being an attention whore.
The real debate here is how
The real debate here is how has Still Open All Hours ran for as long as Open All Hours? By eck they didn’t make much telly in them days.
Organon wrote:
That’s a tricky one.
Do we go by the time period or the number of series? The original ran from 1973 to 1985 although 1973 was just the pilot episode, so we might want to consider 1976 to 1985. Still Open All Hours has been running since 2013, so that’s just 5 years. If we go by series, then the original only had 4 series and the new one has just started its 5th series.
I can see the arguments carrying on for a long time.