Your right not worth talking about

damn

no biscuits in reach

chair pulled up though

have you considered that the car was parked that way???

or maybee he couldnt give a toss about being rescued.y just dont know the lad do you.

and he's wearing a hi-vis life vest too…

What a load of old cock.

Any fool can see thats standing water. At that depth, he wouldn't stand a chance of getting as far as he has if it was running.

Move along now. Nothing to see here. 🙄

I seem to recall he's in the RNLI or somesuch anyway and can probably look after himself….

I've been thinking the same about some of the downhilling photos too. Someone could easily get hurt! Ed…

Any fool can see thats standing water.

is it?

Anyone who knows that bit of road and how the lake floods will know that's standing water. Whether they're fools or not.

and that cars move easily in water as they float for quite a while

Mountainbiking? In water? When it's raining? 🙄

Your right not worth talking about

Explain please?

the original post was edited action dan

the original post was edited action dan

What was the original post? As I think I look quite the pin-up in the picture lol!

GMan was wondering if there would be a spate of mountain biker drownings if the picture was used due to 'copy cat' riders.

Fire Brigades actively request that people don't walk/drive through flood water (even standing water). They've been trying to get journalists to stop doing it when they report floods. There are some nice pics from the 2007 floods of a huge canyon in the road that was scoured out by flood water, but it's depth was hidden by the water on top of it. Either Glos FRS or Hereford FRS would have lost a tender in it if they hadn't had a guy walking in front feeling the bottom with a pointy stick.

What was the original post?

Just some H&S rant about it being dangerous to ride through water on a bike.

Hey, if you can't stand the heat then get out the kitchen! What nonesense surely people will ride to the level they can, if not they'll fall off, hurt themselves etc. But you have to be responsible for your own risk and actions, most adrenalin sports are filled with some sort of calculated risk, that's where the fun is!

Having not quite taken the OP seriously, on Sunday the tarmac on the Duddon side immediately leading to Walna Scar had some trenches two feet deep carved in them. Probably unpleasant to take a dive into.

so what tyres do you use for hidden culverts then?

From the look of the picture, I reckon its standing water with a few waves on it, not a torrent of moving water?

Should I convert to singlespeed for riding through flood water?

wwaswas, I'd presume chuffing big floaty ones?

like this;

Did your Sealskinz socks work?

Fire Brigades actively request that people don't walk/drive through flood water (even standing water)

Well bully for them. They also protest against chip pans and warn you can die for 2 breaths of smoke in a house fire.

wwaswas – lol! classic picture there exactly the type of tyres we used, though not to good on tarmac.

Did your Sealskinz socks work?

No they are C*@p as I've got 2 small holes in each big toe.

Just for the record all you H&S guru's, it was standing water obviously!
Both polarisandy and myself have enough outdoor/instructor/medical/rescue qualifications to open a mounteering/mountainbike/rescue centre, let alone assess a lake that has spilled slightly onto the road. 😉

The reasons for not wading/riding/swimming through floodwater are many.

The manhole/drain/services covers can easily be shifted by the flood water leaving deep holes you'd be unaware of till you step/rode into.

Objects moving unseen in the waters flow could entangle/trip/trap feet.

The waste water system will be mixed in with the water you're riding in/walking in (albeit diluted) giving an increased risk of infection from waterborne diseases. leptosporosis (sp) is one.

Why would you place yourself at risk when the emergency services are already hard pressed to do their job? potentially taking them away from helping elsewhere. And this is not a 'i know the risks etc' moment as if you did you wouldn't go wading around in the water unless you absolutely had to.

I'm not chastising the pictured rider or st for posting the picture i just find it surprising that people are so blase about the risk they've put themselves in.

Right swiftwater rescue trained FF hat off

Someone died in the Glos floods we had 2 years back – walking through flood water over an open manhole cover 🙁

But I rode through a lot of it then, at least on a bike I could actually get places.

Not big or clever – STW towers should pull the pic as in my opinion its going to either A) encourage les autres B) be seen by the press and used as a chance to make bikers look foolish / stupid which I think in this case would be justified.

Having known a really good kayaker die a few years ago – messing around on a flooded road / field its not really on…

dont care you are qualified or not – its not a good advert for biking in general.

TSK TSK

paul

oh balls, its a laugh for gawdsake, damn tupperware obsessed antibacterial desk jockeys! 😀

What about the oil being washed off the chain and killing all the little Nemos? 😀

There was a story on the news last time there was flooding about a girl who got swept into a storm drain with her dog. Luckily she cam out the other end and someone pulled her from a river 90m away. The dog was never seen again.

Ignoring unseen dangers like drains and holes when the rivers flood they also flood the sewage system and bring all the shit (literally) out of the sewers and into the water so there's a health hazard. I speak as someone who kayaks and has had more than my fair share of dodgy water poisoning after paddling spate and flooded rivers.

oh balls, its a laugh for gawdsake, damn tupperware obsessed antibacterial desk jockeys!

You wanna be careful laughing, a big fly might get into your throat and cut off your air supply or something like that

FFS, i knew there was going to be a thread like this when i saw this on the front page. it saddens me.

As already said, without explanation that pic could be running water and could hide all manner of potentially life threatening dangers.

Ok action dan (v. appropriate) explained its not and it doesn't but at first appearance it appears reckless. We do all sorts of 'reckless' things in the name of mountainbiking, but I can't see any reason to make 'riding through a flood' one of them. For that reason not a good idea to stick it up there on the home page.

do they float? are they an adequate method of aqua tested life preservation or should they just be used in conjunction with ballpoint pens?

I can't see any reason to make 'riding through a flood' one of them

Don't do it then, just because you seen the image on a MTB website doesn't mean you have to go out and do it. I see myself as being able to make my own decisions and not have to copy what I see. Would I ride through flood water? Well I already have and most of it as a kid, I assessed the risks at the time and took my chance. Still here.

Not big or clever – STW towers should pull the pic as in my opinion its going to either A) encourage les autres B) be seen by the press and used as a chance to make bikers look foolish / stupid which I think in this case would be justified.

Hmmm…
I guess that makes me stupid for going to the Lakes last weekend knowing full well that it was half under water specifically to go riding! I did about 50 miles, nice mix of on and off road on the CX including similar sections through 12-18" of floodwater.

Couple of (really crap mobile phone) pics:

Had a nice chat midway round my loop with some of the Mountain Rescue guys who were out and about, not one of them suggested that I was insane to be out, on the contrary they wished me a pleasant day.