Verging On The Odd

@quiff And not all EAPCs comply with the EAPC regulations: Viz; fitted with pedals, have max 250W motor, 15mph cut off, etc.. An EAPC that does not comply with the regulations, is treated as a motor vehicle, etc.. To paraphrase the DVSA & DoT guidance. :-)

@the infamous grouse I would imagine most women in sport's priorities are the same as men in sport, in no particular order: Sporting success (titles, medals etc), Personal satisfaction, Respect from fellow professionals, Respect from the media (much less important than that from fellow professionals), The feeling of belonging and contributing to a team, Fair renumeration and being able to make a living from the sport. I do think that women's sport (and men's to a lesser extent) is still sometimes patronised by parts of the media, where there is total ignorance of the talent, efforts and sacrifices required to get to the top. One example of this was the past heralding of Katy Price aiming to make the GB Olympic Equestrian squad. I'm not sure whether things like this calendar contributes to the patronisation.

@Mr Blackbird i find it all quite laughable, the person being targeted isn't pretending to be a sportsperson ... she's being eyecandy. surely the women in sport don't care about or aren't interested in male recognition?

@Rendel Harris I think it was jitensha_oni who when this was discussed previously, posted a Surrey by law that made pushing a bicycle on a public footpath was an offence.

@the infamous grouse I think a calendar with shots of women cyclists competing or training would be much better. I am still on tablets as a result of seeing the cycling video for Ariana Grande's "Side To Side" a few years ago. I later found out that the lyrics were even ruder than the video 😯

Losing the metal shims is a downgrade. These shims are one of the best features of the SPD-SL cleats, as they avoid the "imprinting" of the bolts into the plastic that makes other road cleats hard to fine-tune after some use (I'm looking at you, Time i-clic).

Honestly, the backlash to the Novig advert is not wide enough. For future reference: https://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/

Unduly lenient sentence. My guess is, his self-belief that he did nothing wrong is so ingrained that there is a strong possibility that he might be involved in something in the future. (Assuming he can afford any future insurance premium.) Then hopefully this incident can also be taken into account to have him banned for life.

@Rendel Harris the "relationship engineering" of a product and how that then evolves (because humans exist in societies) is a fascinating business. To a first approximation aren't products designed to be loveable? (Leaving aside the "marmite effect" or "learn to love it" of eg. hot chilli or beer) Doesn't a great deal of effort and indeed trial going into that, from making things "self-explanatory" through decent ergonomics to hooks like having "a satisfying click" and "making me walk tall"? It would be remarkable if people *didn't* love their cars. Because cars weren't set up as a simple blag (or have outlasted it) there's also the mitigating or getting us to overlook the unpleasant parts. As with other "addictive" things those become increasingly noticeable once the first thrill lapses. Luckily we aren't great at saying "could things be better? Let's step back and see whether they might be overall if I did things differently. Allowing that any change will be work and take time to get used to".

Got to take issue with "traditionally" there, Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Moser, Hinault, Fignon all rode it (all bar Anquetil and Fignon winning at least one) and further back GT winners like Garin, Lapize, Pelissier, Maes etc all won, one could go as far as to say that traditionally grand tour contenders frequently rode it and frequently won, it's only in the modern era that teams have decided that they shouldn't risk their golden geese.