£220 ‘banana’ riser stem sells out (all three of them); Sustrans-funded cycle lane wrongly criticised for wasting taxpayer money; “This is not anti-cycling”: 1000 residents oppose London cycle lane proposal + more on the live blog

Who says we can’t seamlessly segue from silly to serious…

> Rapha founder Simon Mottram becomes lead investor in independent British bike brand Quirk Cycles

Westminster City Council’s meetings became distinctly more lively last week as debate ensued over the fate of proposed cycle lanes intended to link together Marylebone and Kilburn away from busy main roads.

The Standard reported that the proposed lane, skirting Lord’s cricket ground, was opposed by more than 1000 people who signed the petition organised by the Hamilton Terrace Residents Association. Reasons given for opposing the proposal was the loss of 130 parking spaces, the council using outdated traffic data and two of the three proposal suggestions putting “cyclists safety at risk”.

However, the only proposal of the three which would significantly reduce the number of parking spaces would create a bi-directional segregated cycle lane down the middle of Hamilton Terrace, with an estimated cost of £500,000. That proposal would be most effective at slowing vehicles but has also, as you might expect, received the most pushback from local residents. The other two proposals concern ‘advisory cycle lanes’ one either side of the road, one immediately next to the pavement. 

The other would position the lanes to the right of existing parking spaces, but given cars would be likely to cut across the lane, and the proposals are being suggested to reduce road danger, this would be a rather bold choice to say the least.

The petitioner presenting the anti-cycle lane petition said the proposals would “endanger residents due to unintuitive and dangerous kerb-side cycle lanes” and added that they feared cyclists would be ‘doored’ by drivers getting out of cars.

“What about the need for additional lighting, with speeding e-bikes and scooters coming down [the road]?” Stephen Margolis said.

“What about cars coming out of drives, and people having to cross the cycle lane to get to their car, and the opening of car doors, or using the charging points in the lampposts.”

Westminster Council say that no proposal has been chosen yet and that the reforms are needed to address road safety in the area. Councillor Max Sullivan said 

“The proposal… that has a cycle lane in the middle of the road does have some serious drawbacks and would be a bit of an outlier if we went for it. We do have a clear need to address the high number of pedestrian and cyclist casualties that we have in Westminster.

“Westminster has the unhappy position of being at the top of the league table when it comes to people killed or seriously injured on our roads,” he added. House of Commons data shows there were more than 1100 casualties in the City of London and Westminster constituency last year.

With Conservatives in London also battling to oppose plans to partly close Oxford Street to vehicles, this is the latest part in an ongoing story of local active travel infrastructure that just won’t go away.

Maybe for the sake of your blood-pressure avoid the comments on this one…

Thanks to the Urban Cycling Institute (our favourite UCI, frankly) for bringing this to our attention once again…

‘Alexa, can you find a video that perfectly illustrates the status of cycling policy making around the world?’

?: ‘???? | ???? | ?‍♂️??’

(?️ by @ABC7Chicago) pic.twitter.com/arjxzHdklD

— Urban Cycling Institute ?  (@fietsprofessor) November 16, 2025

We reported last week on the political fallout of the suggestion the government may introduce a spending cap on the Cycle to Work scheme in the upcoming budget.

> Labour’s Cycle to Work limit “risks undoing progress to encourage cycling, decrease traffic, and reduce carbon emissions”, say scheme providers

Now UK-brand Quella have added their voice to the issue. General Manager Josh Hale has put out a statement warning that the move would “risk undoing years of progress in active travel”.

“There’s a misconception that Cycle to Work is used primarily by high-earners buying luxury bikes. That simply isn’t reflected in our customer base. Our bestselling commuter model starts at £399 for a simple, robust single-speed that suits short to medium city commutes.

“If the budget changes reduce access or increase costs for employees, we risk undoing years of progress in active travel. Many riders depend on affordable geared bikes which [are] built specifically for commuting and requires very little maintenance.

“Making these options harder to reach will only push people back towards car or public-transport dependency at a time when encouraging greener, healthier travel should be a priority.

“We hope that, as details become clearer, the Government recognises the scheme’s real-world value: it helps ordinary commuters choose a cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable way to get to work. Diluting that would be a step backwards.”

The scheme was first introduced under Tony Blair in 1999. The previous £1000 cap was lifted by the Conservatives in 2019, but it’s thought that that decision is what is likely to be reversed, at least in part. The move would most significantly impact the e-bike market. You can read more about the original speculation below:

> Labour clamps down on “tax breaks for high earners riding £4,000 e-bikes in the Surrey Hills”, as Rachel Reeves to reintroduce Cycle to Work spending cap in Autumn Budget

British Cycling this morning announced the dates of their 2026 National Road and Circuit series calendar, and next year’s calendar will see eight women’s events and seven men’s. The women’s series will kick off with the Women’s CiCLE Classic in Rutland on Sunday 22nd March before all following events (men and women) take place on the same day. The full calendar is as follows: 

The East Cleveland Classic, Saltburn – Sunday 12 April 2026
Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, Lincoln – Sunday 10 May 2026
Tour of the Reservoir, Consett – Sunday 7 June 2026
TBA – Sunday 12 July 2026
South Molton GP, South Molton – Sunday 19 July 2026
Beaumont Trophy, Stamfordham – Sunday 9 August 2026

North Yorkshire Grand Prix, Ampleforth – Sunday 16 August 2026

Meanwhile the National Circuit Open and Women’s series will take place on the following dates next summer:

Fort Vale Colne Grand Prix 2026, Colne – Tuesday 16 June 2026
2026 LOGCO Otley Cycle Races, Otley – Wednesday 1 July 2026
2026 Ilkley Cycle Races, Ilkley – Friday 3 July 2026
CANYON Guildford Town Centre Races, Guildford – Wednesday 8 July 2026
Dawlish Grand Prix, Dawlish – Friday 17 July 2026
Sheffield Grand Prix, Sheffield – Wednesday 22 July 2026

There was no news however regarding the national championships, which this year took place in Aberystwyth the week before the Tour de France. Fingers crossed we’ll have news on that front soon enough. And any excuse to attach a photo of a pro cyclist eating ice cream, they’re just like us…

A big question, and a rather serious, important answer…

> Why have deaths and serious injuries in collisions involving HGVs being driven in London halved since 2019?

Today’s dose of Facebook brain comes from Greenock, Scotland where Inverclyde Now reported earlier today that Inverclyde Council have contracted out repair works and upgrades to National Cycle Route 75, replacing temporary infrastructure with a new segregated cycle lane. The contract is to the value of £190,000.

Cue the usual comments. “Think Inverclyde council should get a grip I’m sure there is a lot more projects they could put this money into ? ? ?” wrote one.

“What a fantastic idea, must be awesome to waste £190k” said another, alongside the usual smorgasbord of derision at never having seen anyone cycling in the lane.

The rub of all this though, is that this isn’t taxpayer money but a grant received from the WalkWheelCycling Trust (the Sustainable Transport charity formerly known as SusTrans). It’s part of a wider funding allocation of £550,000 designed to support various active travel projects in the district. 

A calm island in the comments section storm, David Whitelaw was there to attempt to soothe his fellow social media users. “Maybe folks should try reading the full story in Inverclyde Now. The money is coming from Sustrans and is to improve an existing temporary cycle route and make it safer for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists. Not a great fan of our Labour run council but in this instance they aren’t spending any of our council tax.” 

In slight defence of the hotheads, Inverclyde Now didn’t link to their own article in the Facebook post and left out details of where the money was coming from in their original Facebook post, making it too easy for some people to rush to conclusions. Still, our thanks to you, David, for your public information service.

Occasionally a social media post breaks out beyond the world of cycling. This is good, we want to share our appreciation and wonder for our weird little niche. But that invariably means dealing with slightly irritating comments.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Canyon (@canyon)

Canyon posted a video of their star athletes Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel competing in a track stand-off in front of a small crowd of smiling, adoring fans. The result, unsurprisingly, went in favour of the seven-time World Cyclocross champion, though his cheeky foot on the wheel has not gone unnoticed in road.cc HQ. But that’s all alien to some.

“Why’s he on an all yellow bike?” “Dude in the yellow bike has good skills ?” “Yellow Bike guy still standing there” “Why did the yellow bike dude start early?” Those are our favourites, seems like Van der Poel might have a new nickname now.

Perhaps our favourite comment came from someone in the know though: “yeah fair a 7 time cyclocross world champion vs a sprinter who can’t keep a line ??” 

We don’t normally bring you news of every positive doping test but this one slightly blew our minds.

18-year old Artyom Proskuryakov has been suspended by the UCI after testing positive for methamphetamines at the World Championships in Rwanda.

The positive test occured following the junior road race on the 23rd September, a race which the Azerbaijani rider did not finish.

Proskuryakov has the right to request the testing of his B-sample and in the meantime there’s not a lot more to say. But for an 18-year-old junior to test positive for a substance like this raises a lot of serious questions for the wellbeing and protection of bodily autonomy of young riders, and for the national cycling federation of Azerbaijan.

Premier Tech’s withdrawal from the Israel cycling project left the strangest of things, a company openly willing to fund a cycling team without requiring the begging and arm-wrangling of a general manager. Speculation had grown over where exactly the Candian agri-tech business were going to place the money and now we have an answer…

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by St Michel – PREFERENCE HOME – Auber93 (@auber93cyclisme)

The move puts Premier Tech in partnership with Alison Jackson, a former Paris-Roubaix winner and one of the most marketable athletes in the sport. Oh, and she’s Canadian.

> “It has become untenable for us to continue”: Israel-Premier Tech’s title sponsor steps down

Notably, this partnership doesn’t prevent Premier Tech from becoming a title sponsor of another team, and italian oracle Ciro Scognamiglio recently tweeted that Alpecin were the favourites to attract title sponsorship to replace Deceuninck as a title sponsor.

A Bolton bike lane? A residential “rat run”? Really wish I could think of a third bit of alliteration for this story but that’s what a comments section is for…

> “It’s like a motorway”: Furious residents blame bike lane for speeding drivers using their road as cut-through, as former councillor claims “people can’t get off their drives”

For years, consumers and industry insiders have yearned for fruit-themed adaptations to their bicycles. Well, we needn’t wallow any longer…

East London frame builders Stayer have released their Banana Banana riser stem for the price of £220 and it’s described as being “ideal for cargo bikes, retro MTBs, commuters and tall riders”.

We’ll have to take their word for it though as only three have been produced and they’ve already sold out their extremely limited run. Stayer say they plan on making more, available with both a 60mm and 100mm reach.

And, price point aside, there does appear to be some utility to the funky stem, with the stem design first built in 2021 so that a bike could run drop bars and a front basket. Here’s a prototype from a couple of years ago, efficiency in every sense of the word..

And if that’s not enough, because no one wants a perfectly yellow banana, for an additional £20 you can customise it to be any colour you want, though Stayer recommend “an unripe green, an over-ripe brown, or another never-before-heard-of banana-phase-of-life entirely.” As a fan of both the tropical fruit and the Velvet Underground though, it’ll be trusty yellow for me…