Trans Pennine Trail post pics to promote cycle network… and it didn’t go so well; Silca’s bonkers $175 Bourbon Titanium kit; Shropshire hires £1k a day pothole consultant; Motorcyclist shows flaws with broken line bike lane + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Some might say... that's a strange comparison
If Dr. Ferrari is back on the scene I don’t see why the Oasis shouldn’t be
— Ginevra (@ginevragarga) February 4, 2020
But absolutely Ginevra, if cycling’s most prominent (alleged) doping doctor is back in the news then why not music’s most argumentative brothers? We’re feeling all nostalgic…
"When you have a Tour de France at 12:00 and a rave at 17:00": Balenciaga's new sneakers are not going down well
Tyrex Sneaker
— Balenciaga (@BALENCIAGA) February 2, 2020
For when you have a Tour de France at 12:00 and a rave at 17:00
— Matt (@ChelseaCF7) February 3, 2020
Bemused fashion fans are accusing Balenciaga of making these weird new trainers look like cycling shoes; although to be fair, we’ve never actually seen a pair of bike shoes this ugly. Back to the drawing board folks…
Aesthetic marginal gains for Cav
Cav has gone old school and put on a proper set of classic bars. That’s an extra 5 watts. pic.twitter.com/HediH641rz
— Adam Blythe (@AdamBlythe89) February 4, 2020
Being aero might save you some watts. But having classic bend bars saves more. Because science.
Is it miles or kilometres for you?
ICYMI: #OnThisDay 1978: The British public were not impressed at the prospect of switching from miles to kilometres. pic.twitter.com/nMZ4EUClAZ
— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) February 3, 2020
There were some strong opinions on the subject back in 1978…
There seems to be a slit in the road.cc office.
Cyclist in a serious condition in hospital after being run over and beaten up near Wolverhampton
Photos from @snappersk show the scene in Darlaston where a cyclist was hit by a car and then beaten up on the street last night.
Police are investigating and the cyclist remains seriously injured in hospital
Full story here: https://t.co/2OrzSkjfxY pic.twitter.com/1QuEoASqLN
— Express & Star (@ExpressandStar) February 3, 2020
The Express and Star reports that a 24-year-old man is still in hospital after he was hit by a car in Darlaston at around 7pm on Sunday night. The occupants of the car are then believed to have got out and beat him up, leaving the man with serious injuries. He was treated by paramedics and taken to hospital, where he remains in a serious condition.
The attackers fled the scene, and it’s not known if the victim was targeted deliberately. A cordon was put up where the attack happened, with debris scattered across the road next to the victim’s mangled bike.
Police have confirmed and are investigating after “a 24 year old man is believed to have been hit by a car before being attacked”. #CookStreet #Wednesbury #WestMidlands #BlackCountry All Image Rights Reserved #SnapperSK pic.twitter.com/5WaG1EHHdf
— SnapperSK OFFICIAL (@snappersk) February 3, 2020
Motorcyclist's footage perfectly demonstrates flaw with broken white lines acting as cycle lanes
would you want your kids to cycle in this bike lane? pic.twitter.com/vZTBuADCN3
— Alan D (@AlanDub13) February 3, 2020
The answer to our protagonist’s question would probably be a resounding “no” for most parents, as he attempts to ride on a Dublin bike lane segregated only by some broken white lines. There is barely a moment in the 15 second clip where a car isn’t either fully inside the ‘lane’ or seriously encroaching, the reason many cycle campaigners believe these advisory cycle lanes should be consigned to history (there’s a decent article from the Cambridge Cycling Campaign explaining the difference between mandatory and advisory lanes here).
Do you think there’s ever a use case for a cycle lane with broken white lines? Let us know in the comments as always…
Breaking: Ban on new petrol and diesel car sales brought forward to 2035
The BBC reports that the government have just announced that petrol, diesel and hybrid car sales will be banned by 2035 at the latest, not 2040 as previously stated.
The change has come about because experts warned it would be too late for the UK to achieve its net zero carbon emissions target by 2050 if the ban didn’t come into force until 2050. Speaking ahead of the launch of the COP26 climate change event in Glasgow, Boris Johnson said 2020 would be a “defining year of climate action”.
Banning sale of petrol & diesel by 2035 is better than 2040, but still too late to meet emissions targets
🚘It needs to be 2030 to deliver carbon budget
🚍Cover vans too & rule out hybrids
🚌 Include major investment in public transport https://t.co/Z6Zyjo2eq5— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) February 4, 2020
Extinction Rebellion have set up outside the Science Museum where Boris Johnson is due to speak this morning, launching COP26, the UN’s climate change talks.
The PM will call this a year of “climate action across the UK” but XR say the Govt’s goals are too little too late. @LBC pic.twitter.com/2MFPJh5GRA
— Rachael Venables (@rachaelvenables) February 4, 2020
Some environmental campaigners believe it’s still too little too late, with Green Party MP Caroline Lucas saying the ban needs to come in earlier, and it needs to be backed up by public transport investment. Extinction Rebellion have also set up outside the Glasgow Science Museum where Boris Johnson is delivering his plans, handing out flyers saying it’s ‘too little too late’ and calling for the scrapping of HS2.
Shropshire has its own £1,000 a day pothole consultant
If you needed reminding of the state of Britain’s pothole-laden roads, the BBC report that Shropshire Council have appointed a dedicated ‘pothole consultant’, charging £1,000 a day.
The council say this is “comparable with usual consultancy costs”, and say they hope the appointment will improve their current “unproductive” strategy and speed up repair of the 3,500 reported road defects in the county. Steve Davenport of Shropshire Council claims even though the consultant will earn £130,000 working five days a week over the six month contract, they will actually save millions in the long run by “getting the right people on the ground doing a better job.” Pothole repair in Shropshire is currently outsourced to construction and infrastructure company Keir, who the council say have been “allowed to mark their own homework” for too long.
We’re not sure if the consultant’s role is more hands-on or strategic, but a grand a day to ride around looking for potholes doesn’t sound like a bad living to us so long as we don’t end up in one…
Free Santander cycles for a year: TfL announces first 10 year anniversary competition winner
The competition aimed to reward those with particularly good stories about their experience of Santander Cycles, and the first prize has gone to Sakhr Al-Makhadhi.
Mr Al-Makhadhi, based in Harrow, says on the day the scheme launched on Friday 30th July 2010, he got up at 5.30am in an attempt to be the first person to hire one of the bikes: “I knew the scheme was launching at 6am so I went to the Dorset Square docking station and tried my key at 5.55am. It worked! I took a bike out. Within seconds, a taxi driver hooted at me and congratulated me for being the first one.”
His prize is a free annual membership to Santander Cycles, and a hire bike named in his honour. There are 11 more prize winners to be named and the competition is still open; if you reckon you’ve completed the most Santander Cycle journeys, have a good story to tell or hired bikes in their inaugural year, you can email cyclehire10@tfl.gov.uk for a chance to win.
Pinarello launch new Dogma F12 colours for Spring 2020
Nine months after its launch last year, the Dogma F12 as ridden by Team Ineos is now available in Blue Steel (above), Sideral Grey and Venice Blue as part of their Spring 2020 collection. Each colourway is available in rim or disc brake versions and can be ordered as framesets or complete bikes.
It’s always best not to be drinking tea or coffee when perusing a Pinarello price list, as there’s a good chance you’ll spit some out… this one is no different, with an F12 disc with Campagnolo Super Record EPS groupset and Bora wheels or SRAM Red e-Tap AXS with Zipp 303 wheels priced at £12,000. Deliveries can be expected at the end of March if you have the funds to splash out, see Pinarello’s website for more info.
Look stupendous in road.cc kit
Lookin’ good Filippo! If you want to look this dashing on your next ride, head over to the road.cc shop to get your jerseys, socks, tees and more.
Phil Gaimon's dog has her own Strava account
The ex-pro turned star of his own ‘Worst Retirement Ever’ YouTube series has made a Strava account for his faithful friend Nala. Her first upload was a 0.5km jaunt taken at a pace of just over 20 minutes per kilometre, with some discarded pizza crusts consumed to top up fuel along the way.
Silca's bonkers $175 Bourbon Titanium Kit, consisting of super fancy bottle cages and... straws?
Silca already launched their $30 reusable titanium straws in December, made because Silca realised they could fashion straws from the offcuts of titanium left over from making their Sicuro titanium bottle cages. They’ve now took things a step further with the Bourbon Titanium Kit, consisting of two bottle cages and two straws “inspired by Chris King” and anodised in a rich, bourbon colour.
The bourbon in the picture isn’t included for your $175 and we’re still unsure if these products will be sold from a UK distributor any time soon… but for this money you might as well whack some import fees on top and buy them directly from Silca’s US online shop.
Olympic mountain bike manager resigns
It’s the end of the trail 🇯🇵 I have taken the decision to resign from my position at Tokyo 2020. After much soul searching my health and well-being takes priority this time around. I leave behind an excellent team and the legacy of a beautiful course 🥇Thanks to all ❤️ pic.twitter.com/WhYWeHOFnB
— Paul Davis 🇬🇧🇯🇵 (@paul_davis67) February 3, 2020
Paul Davis has stepped down from his role in delivering and managing mountain biking at Tokyo 2020. Davis also worked at London 2012 and Rio 2016, and has stepped down from his latest role “after much soul-searching.”
Police searching for man 'inappropriately touching women' as he rode around Northampton
Northamptonshire Police are appealing for information after four women aged between 21 and 62 were touched inappropriately by a man who was cycling past them on a mountain bike.
The incidents all happened between 8.30am and 9.30 am on January 29th. A Police spokesman said: “In all cases the offender was cycling past on a mountain bike and is described as a white man aged between 25 and 30 with dark hair.
“A 25-year-old woman was walking towards the University of Northampton, as was a 34-year-old woman. In addition a 21-year old woman was walking along New South Bridge Road while the a 62-year-old woman was walking towards the town centre along London Road.
“If there is anyone with information or who may have witnessed these incidents, please call us on 101 quoting reference number 20000054336.”
The Trans Pennine Trail post pics on Twitter to promote cycle network... and it didn't go so well
The story of our ‘cycle network’ in two acts:
1. Horrible muddy surface, no lighting
2. Poorly maintained signage, more rocky muddy surfaceOnly navigable on certain bikes in the best weather conditions. We cannot ‘encourage’ more people to cycle with routes like this. https://t.co/bFLNrm4wtQ
— Hannah 😈 🚲 (@theeyecollector) February 4, 2020
Unfortunately quite a few of the replies have noted the muddy signage and rather unkempt-looking surface, the latter of which doesn’t exactly scream “ride me”.
In response to some of the criticisms, Trans Pennine Trail replied: “Thank you for your comments, this is something we’re continually working on, lobbying for a better quality Trail. Many sections are being improved with funding and if you have any sections in particular you have issues with, please do get in contact with us we can report it!”
Respect to the charities and community groups who work hard on these routes with what little they have. But this shows the chronic under-funding and lack of action on the part of national and local government
— Hannah 😈 🚲 (@theeyecollector) February 4, 2020
Do you think Trans Pennine have been given a hard time, or does a lot more need to be done to make sure these routes are useable for all, not just those who are happy to get real muddy?
Greater Manchester's Bee Network gets kudos from the Dutch Cycling Embassy
A revolutionary scheme in Greater Manchester is providing the UK with a national blueprint to reduce congestion and air pollution.
It includes plans for 17 Dutch-inspired filtered neighbourhoods that prioritize the movement of people over motor vehicles.https://t.co/MJk010Y1VD pic.twitter.com/PKMulK8fEo
— Dutch Cycling Embassy (@Cycling_Embassy) February 4, 2020
Meanwhile, in Utrecht ...
Just one year ago, Utrecht’s Croeselaan was a four-lane traffic sewer.
Now, the only traffic there is of the human variety: parents, children, office workers; cycling to work, school, and everywhere in between.@BicycleDutch films the rush hour at dawn: https://t.co/A6OVIvwHwX pic.twitter.com/MJ6QmqIPCv
— Dutch Cycling Embassy (@Cycling_Embassy) February 3, 2020
4 February 2020, 21:01
New Rapha 'comic book' kit for Canyon//SRAM: full story below
Rapha unveils new Canyon//SRAM team kit inspired by comic books
The best looking kit design gets updated for the new season
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Latest Comments
"All that's required is an to roads policing" - that's a big all... Although no doubt the "idiots just keep coming" aspect does apply: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9lel2wz93o "Man charged after car crashes through bowling alley" - luckily they only skittled over skittles.
Almost any change to roads and streets is accompanied by a period of heightened danger, and in the UK "look out for cyclists" will need to be learned... practically. And over the time it takes for cyclists to become a regular feature. OTOH once (if...) good designs are in and frequent enough such that drivers encounter them AND the cyclists on them regularly (another big if) I don't think they should be much more difficult than a footway to deal with. These things are all over NL - don't have the collision stats but they should. (NL isn't perfect but collecting info on the safety of designs to feed back into better designs as required is part of the "sustainable safety" philosophy - if they're really a killer I think they'd be altering these.)
I'm in the happy position of agreeing with everybody here! I've never considered a bike with a stand, yet I'm impressed by the ingenuity and adaptability of this axle. I tow a Yak Bob with a Robert Axle, employing my El Cheapo Vitus gravel bike and I just have to be very careful where I stop. Hedges are generally a dead loss, and I seek walls, telegraph poles and signposts and generally lean the widest part of the Bob against it. One very awkward task is removing the two steel pins which lock the trailer arms onto the special mounting slots on the Robert axle, and when you have one out, the sodding weight in the trailer can twist the whole caboodle and bend the Bob fitting before you can get the other out and unhitch. I doubt if a stand would help with that. You can imagine that this combo is a real pain when you have to get it over the bridge at railway stations, and it nearly resulted in Merseyrail nearly parting me and the trailer on the platform from the bike on the train. It's a long story for another time. Another axle example recently featured on here, with a 12mm front axle bearing the Herculean weight limit of a monster American front rack.
This has nothing to do with the type of bike - it's the type of behaviour that's the problem. Banning the sale of such bikes will not curtail the behaviour. They'll just find another type of vehicle and continue to drive dangerously as there's such a lack of enforcement. I'd sooner see them ban the bally. But really, all that's required is an improvement to roads policing.
The EAPC Bill is welcome, but full of holes. What's to stop an overpowered but temporarily limited e-bike being sold and subsequently delimited? This is often a trivial process.
@KiwiMike Yeah, in my over four decades of riding all over Europe I've never 'been for a ride in the countryside'. That must be it. Or, and I know this is a wild concept, you just accept that I just voiced my personal experiences and never missed a kickstand, like I wrote. Anyway, what's the big horror of laying your bike on its side for the very few occasions where there is nothing to lean your bike against?
They may have looked, but did they see?
Ds2025: where they are going wrong is that they are crushing the motorbike rather than the person sat on top of it. If they did the latter this issue would be solved in less than 24 hours.
I came this way today with the car boot sale in operation. There was a marshal at the entrance, who stopped a car turning right across the cycleway as I was approaching. So that certainly works. I think it necessary for the marshal to be there, I couldn't say if the driver would have turned if he hadn't been there but you always have to suspect the worst. Unfortunately there is no marshal at the exit, and there was certainly a car stopped across the cycleway as I was approaching it. But he pulled onto the road before I reached it, and the following car stayed off the cycleway as I went through. Ideally there should have been a marshal there too. On the whole, though, it's a really high standard piece of infrastructure. Just a pity it doesn't extend a bit further.
“absolute carnage” So right! Just look at the bodies piled up, blood running in the gutters and injured people limping away. It's a bit of a problem with a road, delaying some people for minutes at a time: it isn't carnage, let alone 'absolute carnage'. Anyone who exaggerates so ridiculously really shouldn't be allowed to comment in public, unless they want to demonstrate their idiocy to all and sundry.
26 thoughts on “Trans Pennine Trail post pics to promote cycle network… and it didn’t go so well; Silca’s bonkers $175 Bourbon Titanium kit; Shropshire hires £1k a day pothole consultant; Motorcyclist shows flaws with broken line bike lane + more on the live blog”
That old Beeb footage from
That old Beeb footage from 1978 just goes to show how things have changed over the past 40 years or so…oh, hang on…err…
Highlights being the first woman who thought she would use more petrol because there are more kilometres per trip and the bloke at the end who spent 10 years in a war that lasted 6!
Inching towards metrication.
Inching towards metrication.
Metric inches or imperial?
Metric inches or imperial?
Well now that BREXIt is done
Well now that BREXIt is done and dusted, why stick with this tacky French system?
I prefer cubits and stadia myself.
Adrian
Born in 70s and everything at
Born in 70s and everything at school was in metric. Work in science, everything is metric. The imperialistic system was a bit esoteric, and confusing as no base 10 with different bases at different times and with British imperialism being different to American Imperialism.
But there is some things that have come to make some sense, in that some subdivision can become easier and it is created on a human scale, I only discovered relatively recently but an inch is about the width of my thumb. Stuff became a lot easier when I understood that.
Yup, indeed. I once asked a
Yup, indeed. I once asked a brexthicker why he hated the EU so much and he replied cos of all the laws. Such as? I asked. Well there’s hundreds of them, he replied. You don’t have to tell me them all, I suggested. Just give me your top ten. Well there is loads of them, he helpfully replied. Give me one? I asked. At which point his companion shouted (honestly) ‘my dad didn’t suffer in a Japanese prison of war camp so I have to listen to your crap’. And stormed off.
Never mind km or miles, I can
Never mind km or miles, I can’t wait until we really leave so that we can go back to stones, pounds, ounces, threp’ny bits, sixpences, 240 pennies to the pound. The kids today won’t have a clue.
You thought Boris was
You thought Boris was actually going to come up to Glasgow to launch the climate summit? Nah, that’s the London Science Museum, Glasgow doesn’t have one. We do have a transport museum which is arguably more appropriate though!
At least he’s using less carbon emissions I suppose.
jacko645 wrote:
I doubt he will ever set foot in Glasgow again….
We do have a Science Centre though, which is again possibly more appropriate than a museum!
I doubt he will ever set foot
I doubt he will ever set foot in Glasgow again….
That thought has just brightened my day.
I don’t think that broken
I don’t think that broken white line cycle lane tweet video is from a motorcycle. Might be a recumbent…
Yeah, not a motorcycle (which
Yeah, not a motorcycle (which would raise its own questions). Cargo bike I think. That person’s Twitter feed also has a glorious video of someone failing to negotiate a car park ramp https://twitter.com/AlanDub13/status/1224239296984637440
Twitter profile pic seems to
Twitter profile pic seems to suggest it’s a Bullitt
£1,000 a day for consulting
£1,000 a day for consulting on potholes? Will they actually have any money left to fill them in?
Far better would be to have enrolled the support of local cyclists and pay them a bounty for each pothole they report; cheaper, more effective, much better optics.
Kier have done a rubbish job
Kier have done a rubbish job and the council have done a piss-poor job of managing the contract after getting rid of staff and outsourcing the work.
I know only too well how rubbish the roads here are, riding on them every day. I wouldn’t like to count the number of potholes I’ve had to report a second or third time after the cheap 5-minute bodge patching job falls apart, sometimes just weeks after the so-called repair.
Whether a consultant (definition: someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time) is needed… well that depends on what he/she can do that the council highways team – what’s left of them – cannot.
Simon E wrote:
Consultant here. My current
Consultant here. My current client (not public sector) don’t have a watch, or even know what one is, but they have heard of them and hired me to build one from the pieces they have collected over the last few years, which include a slice of Billy Bear ham, a pair of fake joke hands and a tiara.
Trust me, the “pothole consultant” (civil engineering specialist) will be earning his grand a day!
Anyone seen this one, yet?
Anyone seen this one, yet? (first NYC cyclist death of the year, apparently: 30th January so pretty late)
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2020/01/30/breaking-cyclist-is-killed-by-trucker-in-williamsburg-first-of-the-year/
It was linked to from the
It was linked to from the twitter replies on the other story about the “Close Pass” which should have been assault with a deadly weapon. I suggest no one watches the video though as it continues on from the Picture at the top which is bad enough.
I think the worst part of the story though was that the driver performed an illegal U Turn manouvre, ie it is against the law just to do a u-turn. Killed a cyclist doing it, and the NYPD decided not to charge him at the scene with anything as “no criminality was suspected”.
After this and Josh Quiqley being taken out at 70mph and no charges with that driver, I don’t think I will be cycling in America anytime soon.
That’s horrific. Killed
That’s horrific. Killed someone and smashed into a car, yet NYPD didn’t charge him for anything criminal!
Yeah should have been done
Yeah should have been done for criminal damage to property
There is a problem with
There is a problem with protected bike lanes: they accumulate road debris more than unprotected ones, and street-sweepers can’t clean them out. On my daily commute, there’s a short stretch of bike lane protected by pylons (or whatever those waist-high plastic strips are called), and I avoid it entirely because there’s so much debris in it. The irony is that there’s so little motor traffic on that stretch I can’t see why the city bothered.
On the protected section of
On the protected section of cycle path I use (Cycle superhighway 3 next to the A13 dual carriageway) street sweepers can easily clean it but rarely do. They often use it for access but with their brushes up.
Meanwhile it’s basically a light gravel track with the gravel removed and replaced by glass and flint flicked up from the dual carriageway next to it (and any glass from the routinely smashed cars is kindly swept into the middle of the lane and left there by the recovery vehicle people). So anyway, tyres have a 1500 mile life by the end of which they are cut to fuck and puncture every other wet ride.
But it’s still way better than the alternative…which tells you something about the alternative…
Clearly for cyclists a blend
Clearly for cyclists a blend of metric and imperial is the ideal – 100km with 3,000 feet of climb looks far better for Facebook boasting than 62 miles with 900m of climb.
Kilometres on the bike,
Kilometres on the bike,
Miles in the car,
Chains, links and rods for everything else — a measurement system that is both decimal (100 links to a chain) and imperial
I for one do not want my
I for one do not want my countryside trails overly sanitised by pristine tarmac. It’s one thing to expect a pothole free ride to work in the smoke, quite another to expect or want that off road through national parks.