Welcome to your Tuesday live blog, with Simon MacMichael, Jack Sexty and the rest of the team.
Live blog: Poll – Would you care if your bike got stolen? Rule change scuppers World Champs ride, driver tells cyclist he hit “you were in the middle of the road”, expensive bike breaks (not hols), more pavement fines, Belgian rides + more
All today’s news from around the site and beyond…
Tue, Feb 19, 2019 21:47
SUMMARY
19 February 2019, 21:47
London Cycling Campaign offering free bike checks
Free LCC bike checks today in the @cityoflondon from 12.00 to 17.00. Find us in Aldgate at the corner of White Kennett Street and Gravel Lane https://t.co/KpKnCSiYG3 We’ll be there every Monday until April pic.twitter.com/9sVQurW1GZ
— LdnCyclingCampaign (@london_cycling) February 18, 2019
Every Monday until April, the London cycling charity will check bikes for free in Aldgate.
19 February 2019, 21:47
Drop in fines for pavement cycling - this time it's Reading
We reported last week that numerous local papers and news websites were up in arms about the drop in fines for pavement cycling – and Get Reading are the latest to jump on board based on figures from a FOI request suggesting incidents of pedestrians getting injured are on the rise – they report that 18 cyclists were fined for pavement cycling in Thames Valley last year.
While cycling on the footway, other than designated shared use paths, is illegal, official guidance issued by then Home Office minister Paul Boateng in 1999 and reissued by former transport minister Robert Goodwill five years ago makes clear it should not automatically result in a fine. The guidance originally outlined by Boateng says: “The introduction of the fixed penalty is not aimed at responsible cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out of fear of traffic and who show consideration to other pavement users when doing so.
“Chief police officers, who are responsible for enforcement, acknowledge that many cyclists, particularly children and young people, are afraid to cycle on the road, sensitivity and careful use of police discretion is required.”
19 February 2019, 21:47
Cyclist told he is to blame after getting clipped by driver on Dongegal road
Cycling in Donegal…. #NYSM #NowYouSeeMe pic.twitter.com/yxZ0fuoIvK
— Pauric Ward (@pward82) February 18, 2019
Posting on Twitter, Pauric Ward claims the driver stopped only to tell him he was “cycling in the middle of the road” and it was his fault. He says that the Garda haven’t been in touch even though the incident was reported, and luckily wasn’t seriously injured.
19 February 2019, 21:47
Cycling bridge collapses in Netherlands - no-one hurt
A bicycle bridge over a canal in the Netherlands has collapsed – thankfully with no-one hurt.
Eindhovennews.com reports that the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal in the village of Best collapsed yesterday.
The wooden bridge had failed a safety inspection two months ago, leading the local authorities to ban all traffic from it and put diversions in place.
19 February 2019, 21:47
No one watches women's bike racing...
It’s a pity @UCI_CX season is coming to an end, because women’s #cyclocross races were about to overtake men’s races when it comes to Flemish TV interest. This weekend, the women’s share exceeded 90% for the 1st time: 92% @SuperprestigeCX #noordzeecross & 95% @BricoCross #Hulst pic.twitter.com/3PB8hcoNEk
— Daam Van Reeth (@vrdaam) February 18, 2019
….unless you’re Flemish where women’s cyclo-cross racing is reaching a par with the men’s. Maybe because the lead woman doesn’t get a half lap lead by the third ronde
19 February 2019, 21:47
What's your most disastrous breakage?
It seems we’re not the only unlucky ones, as tales of catastrophic mech fails, snapped seatposts and crack carbon wheels have all made it into our unfortunate round-up of equipment fails… what’s the priciest bike bit that’s broke on you?
19 February 2019, 21:47
NZ track cyclist told he’s ineligible for world championships – an hour before leaving for airport
A cyclist from New Zealand has been told he is ineligible for next week’s track world championships – just one hour before he was due to leave for the airport and the 11,000-mile trip to Poland.
Team pursuit rider Dylan Kennett fell foul of a new regulation brought in by the UCI that riders at a World Championships must have competed in a World Cup earlier in the same season.
Cycling New Zealand appealed to the world governing body to be flexible given that Kennett’s absence from the World Cup this year was due to injury, but to no avail.
19 February 2019, 21:47
POLL: Would you care if your bike was stolen?
“Cycle theft is no longer seen as a priority: the feeling is that the public do not care if their bikes get stolen.”
In the final edition of yesterday’s Live blog we published a piece about the British Transport Police disbanding its dedicated bike theft squad to re-deploy resources to tackle violent crime. It was a decision that had angered members of the squad itself who see bike theft on the rail network as a major problem that will only get worse if not tackled.
While it’s hard in these times of slashed police budgets to quibble about the BTP making an operational decision to target violence over bike theft the remark at the start of this piece from the officer explaining the rationale behind his superior’s decision leapt out at us, and it seems a great many of you too. It also set us thinking because it’s not the first time we’ve heard that sentiment expressed – it’s fair to say that there are as many different types of cyclist as there are people riding bikes and not all of them care as much about the bike ride as we’d imagine most road.cc users do. But even amongst enthusiast cyclists it’s not uncommon to hear the sentiment expressed that having a bike stolen is an opportunity to get a new bike. Maybe that’s just putting a brave gloss on a bad situation, but how would you feel if it happened to you?
Let us know by voting in our poll and in the comments below.
19 February 2019, 21:47
Things you can do on a bike in Belgium…
Ride through a pond without getting your wheels wet*. In the Bokrijk in the Di Wijers region.
*You might get splashed though.
19 February 2019, 21:47
Phil Gaimon Worst Retirement Ever - Perth
The ex-pro goes in search of KoMs and tasty snacks while learning some Aussie-style English.
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
Gm_Crop 6 hours ago
I'll counter that by saying the Bryton 750se I have drives me nuts at times. Inconsistantly picks up on routes created on Komoot and the app re-syncs every few seconds when trying to set up the device and sends me back to the home screen. The most infuriating one is that I turned live track on. Once. It now won't turn off and repeatedly flags up the live track is starting, and then disconnecting every few seconds whilst riding. I haven't timed it but it wouldn't suprise me if 10-20% of the time the the screen is covered with an error message. That's been about 6 weeks now. Other than that it's great :/
IanGlasgow 6 hours ago
RE: Police launch road safety operation... by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge Meanwhile in Glasgow, Police Scotland are riding their motorbikes over the pedestrian and cyclists only bridge. https://x.com/FietserGlasgow/status/2065106152917012523?s=20
Rendel Harris 7 hours ago
@Paul J Van Schip certainly seems a bit of a dick, but he's a European and multiple World Champion on the track, pretty sure you don't get there without having some talent in your legs.
Bill H 8 hours ago
Poor Vincent cannot get over the simple fact that given the choice people prefer dedicated cycling spaces, rather than pretending to be cars like vehicular cyclists.
pbunyon 8 hours ago
What is the point of the fancy air sensor if it can't account for changing weather conditions?? If all you care about is a delayed approximation of aerodynamic watts in steady conditions, you don't need any special sensors for that. Just your speed on a decently flat course is enough to approximate rolling resistance and drivetrain losses. And the rest must be aero. If you assume a less aero body position at the same watts, your speed will drop while rolling resistance also drops, which means approximated aero watts goes up. And that's enough to demonstrate what you've shown in your testing protocol ("I sat upright and the number went up a little while later").
chrisonabike 8 hours ago
Your correction is accurate - it's almost always been "the (lack of) thought that (doesn't) count". "Massive" - less than a billion a year spent on active travel (trying to catch up / building a network across the entire country) Not massive - 6 billion every year (2026-2030) spent on road *maintenance* of existing "already built, goes everywhere, very convenient" road network for inactive travel Ultimately the reason "cycle infra" is *needed* is those unbelievably colossal amounts spent every year (and for more than a century now) on making mass motoring not just viable but apparently the "best choice" for most journeys. As the Dutch and others have shown, the majority of people *are* prepared to cycle and even mix with very light, slow local motor traffic *if* cycling is also made safe and convenient for the whole of their journey (including secure parking at both ends). (The history of the financial drivers of the current situation are a complex topic but note that while people complain about "crumbling roads" and underfunded motor infra - with some reason - by us continuing the fuel duty escalator freeze (for example) we're actually helping motorists pay *even less* for that activity / subsidising more of the cost of driving than ever.)
belugabob 8 hours ago
yes, but people will still object - which was my point.
Astralstroll 10 hours ago
So ' Priority of Road Users' and 1.5 metre clearance at 30mph has been been reduced to 'sharing'? NCN route 2 here in South Hams is an absolute scream with white vans, tractors and total idiots who refuse,or are totally incapable,to reverse on high Devon banked lanes ...means you have to get off and pedal back to a passing place....could be at that all day...so I don't bother...
Mr Anderson 12 hours ago
@MaxiMinimalist Agreed. The big problem I see now is today's parents grew up being driven to their schools, and therefore, see private motor vehicles as the only viable form of transport. The vast majority of UK infant and primary schools have a catchment area that is within easy walking distance from home to school. Yet, the traffic caused by pupils being driven to/from school is astonishing. Banishing the "School Run" should be a priority for all schools.
MaxiMinimalist 12 hours ago
When I was a kid (that was during the previous millenium when phones were connected to a plug in the wall), I rode my bicycle to school, music academy, sport grounds, parties even during the winter. The government didn't have to spend, correct that, didn't have to think of spending massive amounts of money to build cycling specific infrastructures. Over the past 3 or 4 decades, cars have grown bigger, taller, safer (for their drivers) and faster. Meanwhile, motorists have become abusive, aggressive, hypersensitive to people moving on two wheels, aka cyclists. Spending billions upon billions on new infrastructure won't address the crux of the matter. Sadly.
15 thoughts on “Live blog: Poll – Would you care if your bike got stolen? Rule change scuppers World Champs ride, driver tells cyclist he hit “you were in the middle of the road”, expensive bike breaks (not hols), more pavement fines, Belgian rides + more”
The cyclist was more of a
The cyclist was more of a threat to the gutter than the white line, the driver in a massive vehicle is a massive tool!
As for the CX audience, who cares? More females watch I’m a celebrity than males, it is what it is…
I wonder what a Freedom of
I wonder what a Freedom of Information request would show for the number of drivers being fined for driving illegally in cycle lanes?
Cycling on pavements #firstworldproblems
ChrisB200SX wrote:
I suspect it would show that there haven’t been many such fines, which would then be interpreted as demonstrating that the act rarely happens and so need not be a focus of police resources.
ChrisB200SX wrote:
I have reported vehicles parked in a mandatory cycle lane and provided video evidence. The police refused to prosecute and told me to contact the local community police.
ChrisB200SX wrote:
.
“cycling in the middle of the
“cycling in the middle of the road” I have had that in secondary road positioning. Hooted going passed, then at the lights ‘you were in the middle of the ‘kin road, mate.’ What they mean is, that ‘you weren’t in the gutter where you belong’…
dassie wrote:
And yet if they’re driving in their car on their own, they are a lot further over into the lane than any cyclist would be…
(OT: I was on the bus this morning, and counted cars we passed on the dual carriageway section queuing to get into the city. I counted 29 cars, and only 2 of them had more than one person in them).
brooksby]
And yet if they’re driving in their car on their own, they are a lot further over into the lane than any cyclist would be…
(OT: I was on the bus this morning, and counted cars we passed on the dual carriageway section queuing to get into the city. I counted 29 cars, and only 2 of them had more than one person in them).
[/quote ]Average occupancy of a car is 1.1 people.
dassie wrote:
Had similar when overtaking parked vehicles, because of course I simply need to crash into the back of the vehicle so you can go on your way. I ignore most of them, only the nutters who try the pulling alongside etc get the hairdryer treatment, unfortunately for one person it turned out they live at the bottom of my street so when he and his missus got out as I’d seen them turn into my street and was 4-5 seconds behind I asked him what he was going to do now he wasn’t in his tin box trying to threaten me with it, blah blah blah police, blah blah blah dash cam. I said great, we can then see your illegal use of the horn, tailgating me, talking bullshit about ‘middle of the road’ and also you reversing back down the road directly at me which is an assault. I even gave him my address to point plod toward!
Was tempted to leave him a little present but not even worth the effort as sweet as the end result might be.
My worst break was a seatpost
My worst break was a seatpost. I was trundling up a slight incline at about 15mph and bam!, I’m on the road. The lady riding behind me couldn’t understand why I was sitting in the middle of the road on such a nice day. Luckily, landed right on my butt – was off the bike for 2 weeks but nothing broken on me.
Amost destroyed my old Cannondale. But, I got a new Trek Domane out of the accident so alls well that ends well.
And there is no justice for bikes on the road. Best to realize that cars outweigh us by orders of magnatude and we need to look out for them regardless of the laws involved. Always seems to be the bicyclsts fault regardless. Even when the accident is on video.
Confiscate the car from that
Confiscate the car from that knobhead and let him walk back to Derry or whereever – might even make it before he needs a visa (I’ll get me coat)
Edited to add: …and he hasn’t even paid any road tax in Donegal
I’d be proper gutted if
I’d be proper gutted if either of my bikes were nicked, despite both being insured. As self-builds they’ve had a lot of work put into them and they’re also literally irreplaceable as Bowman & Fairlight don’t have any replacement frame stock.
I’d probably be less bothered if they were from Spesh/Cannondale/Giant/Trek etc because, well, new bike excuse 😀
Most disastrous breakage for
Most disastrous breakage for me was my ego – I was cycling home from work on my Triban 540 (10sp) and stopped at a set of lights. when the lights changed I got out of my seat to put the power down, started to pull away then my foot just went straight through the tarmac without any resistance, I lost my balance, hit the ground and almost ended up under the wheels of a bus that was behind me.
It turns out that the quick link or ‘easylink’ in the chain couldnt take the power and had completely disintegrated while i was out of the saddle
my Castelli Alpha jacket had a few small holes ripped into it from the fall
My reaction to my bike being
My reaction to my bike being stolen woud range from homicidal to mildly irritated: Homicidal if my best bike was nicked; mildly irritated that a 15 minute walk awaited me if someone had stolen my “Bahnhof bike”.
A really stupid and insensitive comment from the police!
Christopher TR1 wrote:
Exactly
(If my bike was stolen I would be devastated, as I truly cannot afford to buy a new bike…).