“Please be sound and don’t block cycle lanes,” council politely asks drivers… only to be met with barrage of “whataboutery” and anti-cycling comments; London thief vs angle grinder-proof lock = bike stripped of everything + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
London thief vs angle grinder-proof lock = bike stripped of everything?
Good news: your angle grinder-proof lock did the business and kept your frame safe.
Bad news: they got everything else.
[Reddit/Aggressive-Celery483]
The Reddit user who spotted this at Paddington station wrote: “Well, just locked my bike (with Hiplok) up at Paddington. Clocked that the bike on the other side also had an anglegrinder-proof Hiplok D1000 that had survived an attack. Wow, impressive real world evidence they work! Unfortunately, um, not sure the owner will be delighted with the overall outcome.”
Stripped? Or was it just a frame locked in the first place? If it has been taken apart, that would seem to be some pretty extensive part-stripping surgery for a busy London station’s bike parking? Then again this is London bike thieves we’re talking about, so maybe I shouldn’t doubt their ‘skills’.
Cyclists "don't contribute to town" and "already have all its roads to cycle on", claim businesses as controversial bike ban eased in "short-term tactical move to appease cyclists"
Paris-Roubaix outlines new pre-Arenberg routing after confirming controversial chicane to be scrapped after just one year
Here’s the map confirming the new pre-Arenberg route Paris-Roubaix will follow this year, that short detour being used to reduce riders’ speeds before hitting the notoriously brutal cobbled sector and removing any need for the controversial ‘chicane’ that debuted at last year’s edition.
What do we reckon? Is it going to improve safety and offer a better solution to the chicane? Something tells me the fight for that left turn off the D313 is going to be pretty hectic.
Warner Bros. Discovery tries to tempt disgruntled cycling fans back with half price for seven months offer sent to viewers who cancelled subscriptions
Apologies for the break in blog action, I was putting something together on everyone’s favourite subject…
Wiebes wins again as crosswinds blow UAE Tour to pieces (+ new Colnago Y1Rs)
Two from two for Wiebes.
Crosswinds blew the race apart, a trio of UAE Team ADQ riders aboard their new Colnago Y1Rs making up 60 per cent of the front group that put 1:16 into the peloton by the finish. Elisa Longo Borghini was one of them. Irish rider Lara Gillespie another and continuing her impressive week, following up yesterday’s ninth with a third today. Wiebes, unsurprisingly, was the fastest at the finish and took her second stage win in as many days.
Colnago will be happy, the Y1Rs getting its first outing, the UAE Team ADQ riders’ crosswind-taming ride a solid advert for the bike’s “defy the wind” marketing tag.
We all channel our inner SherLOCK Holmes to try to get to the bottom of Paddington bike case
Some of your comments about the Paddington ‘bike theft’ picture.
Nighttrain123 reckons it might have been bolt cutters used on the lock too, not an angle grinder. “The clean cut to the plastic trim,” potentially a giveaway.
It’s got to have been left locked as a frame? Surely?
Ineos Grenadiers and other teams refuse to continue French stage race after motorist almost drives into cyclists at roundabout – day after another driver strayed onto course and caused crash
"Monkeys in a circus": Reaction to mass exodus at Étoile de Bessèges
What a mess over at Bessèges. The remaining teams are out racing, but Ineos Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, EF Education-EasyPost, and several other teams have long-since headed to the buses in protest at the latest near miss involving a motorist on the course and the race organisation’s apparent inability to guarantee safety.
Thomas De Gendt took to social media to say he hopes the UCI “will start to listen” to riders about race safety. Otherwise “we just stay monkeys in a circus”, he added.
EF boss Jonathan Vaughters also spoke out: “Happy to see the riders took the responsibility of leaving Étoile de Bessèges today over public traffic blatantly on the race course, unimpeded. If others cannot manage to safeguard the riders, I’m happy to see the riders will take action.”
CPA President Adam Hansen also addressed the situation: “The CPA within SafeR will push a new deliverable for the top race organisers to help share their knowledge with the smaller organisers. We currently have the four biggest race organisers in SafeR, RCS, Unipublic, ASO, and the Flanders Classics.
“We need to help and support the smaller organisers put on races at a certain level. There should not be a difference in the organisation of race. There should only be a difference in a race route and format.”
road.cc contributor Matt Page takes on Atlas Mountain Race
Best of luck to road.cc reviewer and long-time contributor Matt Page who’ll be enjoying some sunnier climes this week. I say ‘enjoying’, as enjoyable as flogging yourself at the Atlas Mountain Race can be.
“After months of prep I’m in the process of packing,” he explained in an Instagram post earlier this week. “Everything I’m taking is because I’ve tested it, and it works, with many components tested & featured on off.roadcc.
“After a few tough years with multiple problems at other events my aim is simply to finish. Even that won’t be easy.”
It’s going to take plenty of fuel.
Good luck, Matt.
"We can't wait for some horrible accident outside the school before we do anything": No funding for safety schemes at school where driver hit child on bike, as council vows to "deal with fallout" from scrapping of controversial LTN
Arnaud De Lie wins Étoile de Bessèges stage + a future star claims first pro win at Valenciana
After the drama and walkouts it was Arnaud De Lie who claimed victory at Étoile de Bessèges.
Those whose race programmes took them to the south of Spain and Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana had a much more pleasant day, the jerseys and shorts out for a lumpy stage to Alpuente. Iván Romeo is a name to look out for in the future, the 21-year-old (and current U23 time trial world champion) holding off the peloton with an impressive attack.
"Please be sound and don't block cycle lanes," council politely asks drivers... only to be met with barrage of "whataboutery" and anti-cycling comments
If the aim of the game yesterday at Dublin City Council was to incense as many Twitter followers as possible, then putting up a polite message about not blocking cycle lanes was a depressingly predictable way to do it. Accompanying the picture below (showing a delivery van blocking one of the Irish capital’s cycle routes), the council wrote: “Please be sound and do not block cycle lanes. Blocking cycle lanes forces older and more vulnerable cyclists out into moving traffic. Thank you.”
At the more useful end of the 100 frothing replies were the people asking genuine policy questions, raising the point that the council possibly needs to install more loading bays to enable delivery drivers more legal places to stop. Others were more sceptical about whether people would actually use the extra loading bays or just continue to prefer to stop wherever suits them.
Elsewhere in the replies it was a bumper edition of anti-cycling bingo, one commenter telling the council and cyclists to “stop whinging” and “if you can’t stop, check traffic and move past an obstacle then you are a danger on the road. People and businesses need stuff delivered including bikes and Lycra.”
I would argue replying with that is more whingy than a council politely asking its residents to not commit a dangerous behaviour, but then again I don’t want to be accused of whinging so will move swiftly on. Right, roll the anti-cycling bingo…
“Problems can also arise for people, including older and more vulnerable ones, when others ride bicycles on footpaths and in pedestrian areas.”
“Bicycle lanes shouldn’t be there if cyclists don’t adhere to the lights”
“Cycle lanes are not wanted.”
“What about cyclists blocking the road while the lane next to it is empty?”
“Another cycle lane not being used and blocking real people done (sic) business that keeps the country going. Reallocate the road space to cars and trucks for heaven’s sake.”
“How about stopping cyclists using the car lanes where cycle lanes are available or footpaths for that matter.”
Told you it was a fun one. We’ll finish by pointing out the council ended up getting it on two fronts, plenty of people who agree with their message questioning if the priority should instead be enforcement, traffic wardens and tickets… not just cheerful social media posts.
“Increase fines and start towing away cars parking illegally,” one person suggested, another asking the council: “Maybe enforce the law?” Tough day for whoever runs their social media accounts…
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While that day will surely come we both know such travails are what make a day 'epic'. If I were younger I'd suggest 'character building' but suspect my character has been built for quite a while.
Of all the things to morally police on the internet this is a bit ambitious.
@Blackthorne83 Come on. He's already on a fact-free transport diet...
@mdavidford Good spot - it was my zero - one - many thinking there. And were things to get imaginary we could have drivers rotating around the complex plane...
Jason Perry is a high functioning, dynamic achiever. And he is only 23. In addition to tackling such a high volume of active transport projects, he recently completed an Airfix B29 Superfortress kit - admittedly he did glue one of the wings on upside down with the engines facing backwards.
Nick, brake to a stop. Now take your foot off the brake. No, don't put it on the accelerator. Now what speed are you doing? If it's more than 20, drive to a garage.
@chrisonabike I think we probably do need a finer grained approach than power-of-ten speed limits, unless you're going to allow for fractional powers, which is going to put an excessive cognitive load on the poor old drivers...
Were you always missing the first period?
@Rendel Harris indeed, but giving this a sympathetic reading it *is* a bit harder to see cyclists especially in low light conditions. I think this usually means "I was a bit startled when I noticed cyclists where not expecting them / so late that if I had needed to I wouldn't have had time for evasive action". That might be when unlit non-reflective cyclists appear from a side road - or where people are salmoning against traffic flow / on and off the footway. We all have tons of experience looking for motor vehicles and are familiar with where they'll be and how they will move. Cyclists are significantly smaller, have more complicated shapes and may not be exactly "where we expect the motor vehicles". They may be moving at unexpected velocities. Plus even if cars don't have their lights on they tend to reflect. I put this one in the "follow the opposite philosophy to 'shared space' for better safety" category. That is: safety between road users is enhanced when a) people can clearly see other road users b) and have as much time as possible to deal with them c) and know exactly where to expect them / what to expect from those other road users. Most humans perform very poorly when faced with the unfamiliar and worse when startled...
@ajuk.uk@gmail.com "There does seem to be evidence that 20 mph limits work on roads that already lend themselves to such low speeds, and I do think the lack of a 25 mph limit option is an issue for some roads." Again - not disagreeing that numbers alone are not the best way. But I ask: were people already doing 20mph or near that when those roads that "lend themselves" to that speed had a 30mph sign? I would expect in most cases the answer was "no, people saw thirty and that primed them for the 'expected' speed". Or perhaps "they hadn't noticed the signs at all but it seemed like e.g. a residential area and they recalled from all those years back 30mph probably made sense"? Since we've previously gone through the evidence * that merely changing a number on a sign *does* in fact change behaviour and lower average speeds, and AFAICS nobody has proposed a "a set amount" they hope it will constrain people to ... ... is it fair you're disputing the evidence because it doesn't fit with how you feel it *should* work / your local experience? Or do you believe that eventually everyone will revert back to the old speed or higher because 'freedom' or because nobody's actually getting nicked for ignoring the limit? (And if the latter - what's the point of proposing that the speed limits should help with policing, if there aren't the police?) While I can believe that the truly reckless and *some* less circumspect wrong'uns are more likely also to wildly speed, I think this assertion needs more scrutiny **. As for "forcing the police to target them" I think it's been amply illustrated on this site that many of the police don't feel forced into doing much if any enforcement on the roads (see wtjs etc.). Even where they are more active the level of enforcement isn't such to make many drivers worry about "what happens if I break the law *and* get caught?" I don't feel we need 25 or 32 or other intermediate speed limits. In practice where there's enforcement at all there *may* be the discretionary 10% + a few mph in play - so you might even be fine and not fined doing 35mph in a 30mph limit. But you're far more likely simply not to experience any enforcement. And even if you are detected it's still first chance, then maybe any number of 2nd, 3rd etc. with a reasonable lawyer / sympathetic magistrate. Although if you feel the most important thing is to identify indifferent drivers (and assuming we've got enough police / cameras / "spy in the car" black boxes from somewhere) then having lots of non-power-of-ten speed limit signs might be a way to spot who's paying attention or not. Or ... if we changed to km/h (imagine!) you get a finer-grained 10 / 20 / 30 etc. * The last time this topic came up, or the time before! ** I don't know if anyone has studied this, but I'm not sure of the relative amounts of harm caused by a) a small minority of reckless joyriders and "sod getting a licence" types (who *are* very likely to cause serious harm) and b) vastly more "average reasonable drivers" - who are human and thus cut corners and sometimes make unfathomable errors - who cause damage (up to killing people and destroying buildings) at a small but definitely non-zero rate overall. It wouldn't surprise me if the overall determinant of harm turned out to be simply proportional to the number of drivers times time driven for times some measure of speed. (Since speed reduces both time to do something about a situation and increases the harm, absent a lot of engineering to mitigate it - e.g. evidence shows motorways are statistically safe environments).
31 thoughts on ““Please be sound and don’t block cycle lanes,” council politely asks drivers… only to be met with barrage of “whataboutery” and anti-cycling comments; London thief vs angle grinder-proof lock = bike stripped of everything + more on the live blog”
Quote:
It forces all the other cyclists out into moving traffic, too!
brooksby wrote:
Not if you’ve been practising bunny hops
hawkinspeter wrote:
Bloody cyclists on pavements, etc etc
I’ve been seeing a fair few
I’ve been seeing a fair few rabbits run out in front of me this last week, so I’ve been hopping actual bunnies.
bensynnock wrote:
That’s pretty cool.
brooksby wrote:
Funny how whenever I’m met by an obstruction such as this I always find myself in primary position riding extremely slowly.
Pub bike wrote:
That would be a really dumb
That would be a really dumb bike thief if that is what happened. To get all of the components the easiest thing would have been one quick cut through the frame (or bike rack!) and remove parts at your leisure in the privacy of your home/ lockup.
Maybe I missed my calling, and I should have been a criminal mastermind?
That bike thief must have
That bike thief must have been thorough – they nicked the paintwork as well!
How many thieves come
How many thieves come equipped with a crank removal tool?
And the thief decided to either a) steal just one or b) replace one of the bottle cage bolts??
#FakeNews
Well they had tools to whack
Well they had tools to whack out headset cups, so I guess a crank removal tool is just one tool among others in the bag. Or more likely – your hashtag.
So they won t be frazed when
So they won t be fazed when they find scratches on the side of their vehicle because a bike had to squeeze past? 😏
The clean cut to the plastic
The clean cut to the plastic trim suggests it was attacked with bolt cutters only not an angle grinder.
.
So they won t be fazed when
So they won t be fazed when they find a scratch mark on their vehicle because a bike had to squeeze past? 😏
Whenever I see these pictures
Whenever I see these pictures of cars parked in cycle lanes, I think its a good filming opportunity for another Danny Macaskill Road Bike Party.
With reference to the Paris
With reference to the Paris Roubaix chicanery, I agree with the report that four 90° turns in the space of a few hundred metres is more likely to cause chaos than solve it. I still can’t see why they can’t impose a speed limit from say a kilometre before the Ardberg, all lead cars, TV motorbikes, commissaire cars etc to slow to 25 km/h or whatever speed they deem appropriate, creating a rolling roadblock up to the entrance, any rider overtaking to be subjected to a one minute stop/go penalty at the exit of the sector. Alternatively, in many races riders carry transponders on their bikes allowing us to see their speeds, so it shouldn’t be beyond the bounds of possibility for the organisers to identify any speeders on the approach in real time and to apply in-race sanctions.
Matron! Another one’s escaped
Matron! Another one’s escaped !
I’m going to give the benefit
I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt and assume that what he said is not what he really meant.
I suspect I still wouldn’t like what he really meant.
(No subject)
Suspicion confirmed. To be
Suspicion confirmed. To be clear though, the bit I was focusing on is “cars should have the same rights as people”. Because that really can’t be what he meant. Can it?!
https://bsky.app/profile
‘Please be sound…’
‘Please be sound…’
Curious locution. Is this currently fashionable among Irish anglophones?
Regarding the stripped frame
Regarding the stripped frame photo. Whoever left a TERN GSD locked up outside is nuts. That’ll get nicked for sure.
Last clip especially for wtjs
Last clip especially for wtjs !!
Last clip especially for wtjs
Last clip especially for wtjs !!
Sadly, probably not Lancashire. I would love to have filmed such an event, and would have expended much effort either getting the plate, or providing accurate time and location so the Filth couldn’t deny knowing the identity of the driver. OpSnap Lancs would have simply declined to reply to me, and there’s no supervision of the police here. The PCC just says ‘it’s an operational decision of the police – so what?’
Does this also apply to
Does this also apply to cyclists who block roads and impede on traffic?
Or do these self entitled cyclists think they own the road and everyone has to move out of their way while they can impede on traffic?
Doesn’t look like there is anywhere else for the truck in the picture to park and is the perfect spot for them to park.
Do these selfish cyclists realise they can ride around obstacles just like motorists have to.
I have never “impeded on”
I have never “impeded on” traffic because I ride my bicycle in accordance with the rules of grammar.
Well most cyclists I see are
Well most cyclists I see are riding around without verbs, cycling on the margins, and sailing straight through full stops.
Judging by Strava, not many
Judging by Strava, not many of them have had a descent education.
Are they least acceptable
Are they least acceptable when unlicenced or unlicensed though?
The real difference there,
The real difference there, “Justin81”, is that parking illegally is – er – illegal whereas riding a bicycle on the road is not.