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Live blog: Team GB limited edition chain for £250 anyone? Bristol Council’s decision to force L-Dub Community Bike Project to stop operating could leave 40 children without bikes for Christmas, Evans vouchergate resolved, + more
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Wed, Nov 14, 2018 15:37
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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
Pub bike 2 hours ago
@chrisonabike Yes does it mean those without it are intrinsically less safe because they don't appear on the motorists' "radar" (in both senses of the word)? This is the problem with bike radars - they aren't addressing the root cause. The problem isn't cyclists being informed just before a motorist smacks into them for which the cyclists can do very little. The problem is motorists not taking evasive action before they (almost?) collide with the cyclist. Radar should be mandatory for cars.
darnac 2 hours ago
I watched it in thé Dauphiné but didn't get that feeling.
chrisonabike 4 hours ago
Incoming Betteridge's Law here ("No"). I don't know if this becomes a "thing" but let's say it did: Pro: see round corners etc. And and increasing number of bikes (not just ebikes) have batteries / wireless / other tech anyway... Con: could easily become yet another way to relocate responsibility for safety from drivers, without substantially or reliably improving safety for others. Why? Not guaranteed (both your system AND all the other road users' systems need to be exist / be working / be enabled). How well does the bike interface work anyway (vibration could be masked by road noise; does everyone have both hands on the handlebars at all times? If it becomes prevalent it's easy to see the police / lawyers reaching for "bicycle didn't have (the latest version of) this thus the cyclist was irresponsible / brought it on themselves". For those who are "chips-with-everything" / "Internet-of-everything"-skeptical (that boat has sailed...) this would be yet another driver for "you used to buy a bike now you buy another smartphone".
mikecassie 5 hours ago
100% agree, I have Assos and they work a lot better for me, yes they’re more expensive but a lot comfier and last a lot longer. So cost per ride Assos win hands down over Le Col.
mctrials23 5 hours ago
@mikecassie I bought a pair that lasted 2 rides before the stitching wore through. I complained about this and they basically said sorry, its your saddle, no one else has this issue. I've got various pairs of Assos bib shorts that have lasted me years with zero issues. They were just awfully designs. The stitching was loose and right over the location where your leg would interface with the saddle if there was going to be any friction. Looking at my assos bibs, all the seams are placed where your movement isn't going to cause problems and all of them are tight to the point of being recessed to make sure that any rubbing isn't on an exposed thread. Le Col offered me 20% off a new pair of their bibs which I politely declined as I didn't think 2 short rides was worth paying 80% of RRP for.
Rendel Harris 5 hours ago
@darnac I know cycling is a team sport to a considerable degree but I have always thought that taking the time on the fourth rider gives too much advantage to the richest teams, the ones who can afford to have three or more Galácticos backing up their leader. Having individual times for each rider seems to me closer to the spirit of the race, i.e. the man who goes round the whole parcours in the lowest time wins. With the old system you could end up with a somewhat absurd situation where rider A actually rode the Tour a minute quicker than their rivals but rider B takes the title because their fourth man in the TTT finished 1.01 ahead of rider A's fourth man. Besides, having watched this format in the Dauphiné, it definitely does make it more exciting and at a time when the standard moan is that with one rider, or two at most, dominant the racing has become too boring that's not really a bad thing.
Rendel Harris 5 hours ago
@nick_stokie Pretty impossible to hide that in the last km of the Tour with maybe 100 cameras on them not to mention everyone's phones.
nick_stokie 6 hours ago
The "same time in the last kilometre" rule feels exploitable if a team was cunning. Given the last section is uphill then full team effort to the 1km red kite before the most powerful rider does the last 1km solo. If the others were to sit up and coast in they would get a slower individual time. If they had a 'soft' crash into each other or a mechanical (who verifies this?) then then get the better finish time of the more powerful rider. Not very sporting but...
mdavidford 6 hours ago
Well you wouldn't want your tyres to be unstable, would you?
darnac 8 hours ago
I get thé feeling that thé over-riding motivation for changing thé format is to mâke it more 'exciting' on TV
11 thoughts on “Live blog: Team GB limited edition chain for £250 anyone? Bristol Council’s decision to force L-Dub Community Bike Project to stop operating could leave 40 children without bikes for Christmas, Evans vouchergate resolved, + more”
Re the Instacrash clip – look
Re the Instacrash clip – look at his forks, his right (our left) looks out of place. Apply braking, and…
The cable sticking out 8
The cable sticking out 8 inches to his left hurts my eyes even before he goes A over T
Yep, that fork does not look
Yep, that fork does not look right. The sticky out brake cable looks very wrong too. I think it’s a triathlon bike with the front brake caliper behind the fork crown. Nasty fall.
Looking at Hoarseman’s still,
Looking at Hoarseman’s still, looks like a triathlon arm rest tucked under the handlebars too.
I suspect this wasn’t his first crash of the day — attempting to ride home on a broken bike instead of sucking it up and making the call to the significant other to come pick you up.
Good reactions from the third
Good reactions from the third wheel though, narrowly avoided a bike wheel in the face
“Highways England will pump
“Highways England will pump £3 million in funding”
£3m is basically a rounding error in this context…
That’s a Giant Propel he’s
That’s a Giant Propel he’s riding, so has carbon forks which don’t really bend, they are either intact or broken, unlike metal. I think it is camera parellax that makes it look bent, as those forks have an outward curve from top to bottom.
I think he grabbed a handful of front brake at the same time as turning, which caused him to high-side. The Propel has a kind of linear pull,V brake type of affair, so maybe he was unfamiliar with the braking characteristics of it (as am I to be honest).
As said before, everyone else was riding on point, even if he wasn’t!
Away with you and your bike
Away with you and your bike identification/physics based explanation for the dodgy looking fork!
“Highways England now working
“Highways England now working with Sustrans to improve National Cycle Network”
Just how will an organisation whose only experience of cycling is to make it worse, improve the NCN. That’s HE I’m talking about, not Sustrans. Will they be putting in dog legs, barriers and interminable wait crossings? £3m; you’re having a laugh aren’t you. That’s one fairly minor road engineering project; loose change that HE found down the back of the sofa.
£3M hardly pays for
£3M hardly pays for consultation on a minor road engineering project.
That’s £3M of cones to block
That’s £3M of cones to block off a few routes to make it easier for the workers to park up their transits and drink tea.