“If you build it, they will come… or maybe not,” says local news site after spotting cyclists not using new cycle lane; “Wow… just wow”: Bike shop mechanic discovers a whole new level of wear; Tour Down Under destruction + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"Wow... just wow": Bike shop horrified by rim so worn you can "pop the entire outer wall off with your thumbs and keep the tyre inflated"
When your customer just wants their wheel trued:
You ever seen a rim so worn you can pop the entire outer wall off with your thumbs and keep the tyre inflated?
byu/dermsUK inBikeMechanics
That’s a whole new level of getting every last mile out of your tech, even by the desperate and depraved standards of the mechanical horror show content that we’ve seen on this live blog over the years. It’s normally tyres worn down to the casing, shark’s tooth chainrings or ninja star jockey wheels, but we’ve never had a removable outer wall before.
It seems not many in the industry have seen such ‘impressive’ levels of wear either, the bike mechanics thread on Reddit in meltdown over this achievement.
“Wow. Generally I see one side pop before the other but never seen both go as clean as that,” one mechanic said.
The mechanic from the bike shop that dealt with this explained how they felt the rim tearing all the way round, wherever they pushed… “like opening a can of tuna”… apparently. Let’s hope that wasn’t the scent too. It had worn through completely in several places and popped off with little effort.
The pads were “metal on metal” too, unsurprisingly, the mechanic guessing it was “the outer wall keeping everything together” with the pads also “way too low”.
“That is some seriously impressive wear on that wheel,” one mechanic who didn’t know whether to be disgusted or excited commented.
“Wow… just wow,” a stunned colleague added.
“They paid for the whole rim, by god they’re going to use the whole rim,” just about sums up the whole situation.
So what to do next? Despite the jokers suggesting it’s “nothing a little super glue won’t put back together”… or worse, tub tape… this one’s done. But could it inspire innovation from bike brands?
“New bicycle industry innovation coming 2027: ‘No need to have two sets of rims! Keep a set of backup tyres inflated for on-the-go wheel changes’.”
Hmmmm…
Around the world bikepacker killed by suspected lightning strike in Andes
> Around the world bikepacker killed by suspected lightning strike in Andes
2026 starts how 2025 ended: UAE Team Emirates domination rips Tour Down Under apart, as Jay Vine and Jhonatan Narváez land 1-2 with devastating Corkscrew attack
We had plenty of this in 2025 and it seems we’ll have plenty more in 2026, UAE Team Emirates all but sealing overall victory (and probably a 1-2) at the Tour Down Under before the race’s halfway point. A double ascent of the now-famous Corkscrew climb was always going to bring the GC men to the fore, but when the final ascent arrived there may as well have just been three riders in the race.
Adam Yates’ monstrous leadout set up Jay Vine to launch over the top, Jhonatan Narváez heaving himself up to his Australian teammate’s wheel and the UAE duo seeing it through to the finish in Uraidla. Vine was given the nod for the stage win and now sits six seconds clear of Narváez on GC, the pair enjoying a cavernous gap back to Mauro Schmid in third.
“It’s been on my mind since the last time I wore the leader’s jersey here,” Vine said afterwards. “I really love this jersey, and it’s just so incredible to win on a really hard stage. We’re in such a strong position now with Jonny [Narváez] also up there on GC. The guys are riding really strong – it was just a really strong ride by the whole team today and I’m very thankful.”
So, feet up, job done for UAE this week? Erm, nope…
“We’ve also got Molano our sprinter here looking for wins so tomorrow we’ll be focusing on that.”
Something tells me we’ll be bringing you plenty more UAE Team Emirates victories on the live blog this season.
"We're proud to expand into such an important region and look forward to becoming part of the local community": Sigma Sports announces fourth store, with Wilmslow branch to open next month
Premium UK cycling retailer Sigma Sports is opening a fourth store, its latest retail space coming to Wilmslow in Cheshire next month. Sigma Sports says it will be open from late February, the exact date yet to be confirmed, and will be at 27 Water Lane.
It will stock the usual Sigma Sports fare of premium brands from across road, gravel and triathlon, including stuff from Trek, Pinarello, Cervélo, Argon18, Colnago, Specialized, Factor, Cannondale, Rapha, Castelli, Oakley, Pas Normal Studios and Universal Colours. The rest of Sigma Sports’ full product portfolio will available via click and collect also.
The 2500sq ft will be open seven days a week and will feature a workshop and bike-fitting studio.
Sigma Sports CEO James McEuen said: “Opening our fourth store, in Cheshire, is a significant milestone for the business. It reflects both the strength of the brand and our commitment to making expert-led, premium cycling retail more accessible across the UK. We are also very focused on the triathlon market and offer a complete solution for athletes. We’re proud to expand into such an important region and look forward to becoming part of the local community.”
While the business may be expanding, it was Sigma Sports’ losses that made headlines in 2025. In September we revealed that the cycling retailer halved its losses to £925,000 and had insisted the situation was “positive”, despite cost-of-living crisis, inflation and inventory woes battering bike industry.
"These projects have been years in the planning, so it is fantastic to finally be breaking ground and making a start on the changes which will benefit residents for years to come"
A multi-million-pound active travel project on the A4 in Slough is getting underway, a new 2.5m-wide two-way cycle lane to be installed between the junctions with the Huntercombe Lane crossroads and Uxbridge. The A355 Farnham Road from its junction with Cumberland Avenue to its junction with the A4 Bath Road will also get a two-way cycle route.
It is being funded by £19.7m of Department for Transport investment, the project also including new paving, lighting, signs, markings, drainage, as well as road and footpath resurfacing.
Councillor Paul Kelly said: “These projects have been years in the planning, so it is fantastic to finally be breaking ground and making a start on the changes which will benefit residents for years to come. There will naturally be some noise and disruption while the works take place, including minor delays, but we urge residents to please be patient and look to the wider benefits.”
On-the-fly tyre pressure adjustment innovator Gravaa declared bankrupt due to lack of sales – nine months after Paris-Roubaix triumph
London Cycling Campaign asks riders to show support for keeping Hammersmith Bridge car-free
The London Cycling Campaign says “there have been rumblings of a move to allow cars back on Hammersmith Bridge”, something the group calls “a terrible idea” (tell us how you really feel), so there’s an event this Saturday for people to show support for keeping it car-free.
The Richmond branch of the campaign notes that prior to its closure 25,000 motor vehicle movements per day were being recorded, the route a “horrible, traffic-choked hellhole”.
> Hammersmith Bridge to reopen to bike riders with two-way cycle lane – but only for 10 weeks
“Data from soon after closure to motor traffic showed that at least 9,000 of these journeys were no longer being made in the same way – 16,000 journeys were being made over other bridges, following the change,” the campaign group states, highlighting an overall reduction in car journeys as people have taken to active travel or public transport alternatives instead.
There’s a more in-depth look at the numbers here.
Responding to critics who want the bridge re-opened to traffic online, Simon Munk from the LCC said the “idea that traffic is an unstoppable, immutable force has long been disproven”.
“Look at the traffic counts for area. Disabled access is a real issue but doesn’t mean everyone should go back to driving over bridge…” he concluded.
Sam Bennett undergoes heart surgery after health scare: "I had palpitations, I didn't know what was going on"
Mother of God!
"Our safe streets are here to stay": Mayor's "dangerous" decision to axe low traffic neighbourhoods deemed unlawful, as campaigners hail "huge precedent for London"
"If you build it, they will come... or maybe not," says local news site after spotting cyclists not using new cycle lane
Here’s your top story on local Irish news site Killarney Today. Apparently there’s frustration in the community over this snap of a group ride not using a cycle lane in Fossa, the council having spent €4 million on road upgrades in the area.
The photo was reportedly snapped on Sunday afternoon and sent to the local news site, writer John O’Mahony suggesting: “If you build it, they will come… or maybe not”.
The piece accepted it’s up the riders whether they should use the path, noting “it is important to stress that cyclists are generally not legally required to use designated pedal lanes”. However, it also went on to suggest that “when the authorities spend millions on active travel measures, aimed at creating greater – and safer – facilities for those on bikes and others, it might be easier to understand the frustration experienced by motorists when they encounter experiences such as this that force them to slow down significantly more than is legally required.”
In fairness to the writer, they go on to cite the views of a local cycling club who, last year, responded to previous comments about cyclists not using cycle lanes by explaining the infrastructure wasn’t suitable for many sport cyclists and had been a “major disappointment from a cyclist’s perspective as it has more hazards and is less convenient than the layout it replaced”.
> Why don’t cyclists use cycle lanes?
We’ve been here many times before here in the UK too of course, this sort of photo regularly appearing on social media and causing the usual pile-in about ‘selfish’ riding, usually with a few obligatory ‘road tax’ inaccuracies chucked in for good measure. A couple of weeks ago, a motorist in Southend posted their picture on a local social media group but, in a refreshing turn of events, got told to have some “patience and self control” rather than “coming on Facebook to cry about it”.
While the rules of the road in Ireland are different to the UK, in that case many pointed out that cyclists are not legally required to use cycle lanes (just as they aren’t in Ireland either) and are instead advised to use them where they make a journey safer or easier.
One thing that was the same in both cases was that the riders involved were cycling for sport and are almost certainly travelling at a speed faster than what cycling infrastructure built for accessible and safe journeys about town is designed with in mind. But that doesn’t make a good Facebook post, granted.
22 January 2026, 08:15
22 January 2026, 08:15
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Latest Comments
@ROOTminus1 The BBC video doesn't show the moment the pedestrians started crossing, but at the start of the video (below) it's on red when they are halfway across, and a car has just passed through. Not conclusive, but seems likely they crossed on red. Obviously doesn't absolve the scrote on the scoot, who absconded.
@HoarseMann RE: the pedestrian, a still image isn't conclusive in this circumstance as pedestrians don't get a yellow indication. It is perfectly reasonable that they began crossing on a green man, and the incident occurred in the period when a red light is displayed at all points, to ensure no road traffic begins moving and peds in motion can complete their transit, and new peds should not begin to cross. Similarly, the peds are equally plausible to have moved into the junction on a red, just as much as the convicted e-scooter rider. Though if both parties had equally disobeyed the signalling, the rider is still more at fault for being present on an illegal vehicle.
@quiff I did once have a conversation with an officer who had driven and parked on the footpath when the road was quite wide enough to park in without using the footpath. To say he couldn't have cared less would be an excellent example of the English understatement.
@eburtthebike I edited it, but it got posted twice. Please bring back editing.
@Pub bike 7. Reading UK media. 8. Believing UK media.
“the eight most dangerous cycling mistakes” according to an A&E doctor.' Motonormativity, observation bias, and just not thinking. The problem with A&E doctors is that they only see the patients in A&E, not the wards stuffed with obese people suffering from too little exercise. The benefits of cycling vastly outweigh the disbenefits, but if you're looking down the wrong end of a telescope, you ain't gonna see them. The article is paywalled, so I haven't seen it, but I assume it's helmets, hi-viz and giving way to our mechanical overlords.
99% sure it won't happen but it's worth remembering that Træen was only nine minutes off the lead in ninth place in last year's Vuelta, has had top ten finishes in multiple world tour races, and is a climbing specialist. If UAE and/or Visma suffer a Giro-style crash wiping out a number of lieutentants then nearly 8 minutes might start to look like a pretty generous giveaway.
@Wales56 Thanks for that. The helmet bit starts at 12:40, but the intro says 'We ask what the evidence really is on cycle helmets and safety.' but they don't. No data, no stats, no evidence examined. Two studies are quoted, Dr Ian Walker's helmet study and the TRL report, and they did at least acknowledge that the TRL report's conclusions were based on unfounded assumptions, but they didn't challenge Dr Walker's position on Risk Compensation. They interviewed the most vociferous helmet proponent in the UK, Angie Lee of BHIT (Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust) but no helmet sceptics, and then go on to say 'There are passionate advocates on both sides.....' But they didn't interview anyone from the other side. It was staggeringly biased, but complaints fell on stoney ground. If they had any integrity, they'd revisit the subject, but this time use actual data and interview people from both sides of the argument.
I think Pog would actually use such a basket to transport his pet dog while he and his UAE teammates solve mysteries in the hols between the TDF and Vuelta. "The Mystery Of The Missing Isotonic Gels", "The Mystery Of The Invisible Domestique".
@IanGlasgow it's crying out for a front rack, to hold a basket for those bottles of local plonk that don't fit the bottle cages. Plus that's a great place for the spare baguettes, roast chickens (or rabbit...) etc.
16 thoughts on ““If you build it, they will come… or maybe not,” says local news site after spotting cyclists not using new cycle lane; “Wow… just wow”: Bike shop mechanic discovers a whole new level of wear; Tour Down Under destruction + more on the live blog”
The wear dots are only just
The wear dots are only just faintly visible on my front wheel rim. This article has prompted me to replace the wheel this weekend. It wouldn’t be good if the rim failed on a fast descent!
Mr Blackbird wrote:
“Wouldn’t be good” is correct, if a bit understated.
I’ll go one step further and
I’ll go one step further and say that rim failure on a descent would present a suboptimal positive cycling experience.
Wimp. Where’s your sense of
Wimp. Where’s your sense of adventure?
I’m all for safety first but
I’m all for safety first but if you can still see the wear indicators, even if only faintly, the rim should still be good. The manufacturers do build in a margin of error so even after the wear indicators disappear a wheel can still be safe. If the wheel is a good one out of which you want to get the maximum possible life, could be worth measuring, or getting a mechanic to measure, the rim wall thickness with calipers; if you’ve got 1.5 mm or more of thickness left and no concavity in the brake track you should be fine. The manufacturer should be able to inform you of the minimum safe rim wall thickness if you want to make extra sure.
Good info. As it happens,
Good info. As it happens, they are cheap Shimano wheels and don’t owe me anything. They don’t run absolutely true and it is quite likely that the wear is uneven. I’ve been examining the dots regularly over the past couple of months and they really are close to disappearing.
I’ve also had to replace a couple of snapped spokes in the last year – probably a result of sweat drip from the turbo trainer!
But I do have a better set of wheels that I use in the summer, which are quite worn and a set of calipers will be a worthwhile investment for those.
I’ve also had to replace a
I’ve also had to replace a couple of snapped spokes in the last year
It’s at least 25 years since I’ve experienced one- on the cheap wheels that came with the Vitus the no-eyelet rims cracked by the spoke holes but the spokes remained to the end
https://www.standard.co.uk
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/low-traffic-neighbourhoods-tower-hamlets-ltn-court-of-appeal-lutfur-rahman-b1267630.html
Big court victory for safer streets campaigners.
Encouraging read, thanks.
Encouraging read, thanks.
Yet another woman cyclist
Yet another woman cyclist killed by yet another lorry driver on the streets of London. RIP.
Couldn’t they have found
Couldn’t they have found someone looking a bit more cheerful on that WWII cycling poster?
hawkinspeter wrote:
Not the most cheerful time, to be fair.
The photo shows an anonymous
The photo shows an anonymous cyclist that took part in “Operation Rinse Veet”. It was a daring plan by SusTrans to get a cycle lane approved in a town occupied by Reform UK. Plans for a decoy cycle lane were put into the cyclists briefcase. He rode into the town and abandoned his bike, stamped on the wheels and left his briefcase at the scene, so that anti cycling protestors and the Reform councillors would assume that he had been hit by a close passing SUV and limped to hospital.
The briefcase and decoy plans were passed to the local press, causing outrage amongst local motorists and councillors. Mass protests were held at the location of the decoy proposed cycle lane. Nigel Farage (who had rushed to the scene after abandoning a course in the use of Excel for nincompoops) and Richard Jenrick (his first public appearance since his defection 15 months previously) attended the protests.
In the meantime the plans for the cycle lane in the correct location were submitted and approved.
The cycle lane was built and was a great success, increasing the number of cycle journeys by 65%.
The unknown cyclist was awarded the SusTrans toothed chainwheel medal. ?
Did the pocket litter include
Did the pocket litter include a SIS electrolyte gel?
“… the frustration
“… the frustration experienced by motorists when they encounter experiences such as this that force them to slow down significantly more than is legally required.”
Firstly, “slow down significantly more than is legally required”??
The speed limit is a limit, not a target.
They are legally required to drive at a speed that is safe for the conditions.
If the speed limit on a road is 30 mph, they can’t expect to do that in a queue of stationary traffic during rush hour which is crawling at 1mph.
Secondly…
What about all the people sitting in their cars, driving, when they could be walking on the empty pavements, waiting at the empty bus stops, on the empty train platforms… all infrastructure provided by taxpayers costing millions?
Wait.
Are they saying that those forms of transport infrastructure aren’t suiteable for their journies…?
So its ok for them… “but cyclists…”
Thirdly, that single picture shows how inefficient the use of space is when having single drivers in single cars (presumably) versus a small group of cyclists.
It’s not really a cycle lane.
It’s not really a cycle lane.
It’s a pavement painted red.