MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
even if I have been up all night for a night shift?
It's only wrong if you're drinking before going to work apparently. That is one of the strongest telltale sign of a problem alcoholic.
Not of you've performed a risk assessment and consulted the latest peer reviewed papers.....
I work shifts and nothing beats a can of stella and a bacon butty in the morning before bed.
Graham
Brandy is fine, but coffee before bed is very silly.
Aren't you some sort of medical professional? I shouldn't have to tell you these things.
its fine but only if adequate head protection is worn.
When working nightshift it's adviseable to avoid caffiene for the last 6 hours of your shift. Brandy however......
make sure the coffee is freetrade...........
If you wear a helmet whilst drinking it, then all good to go!
Tootall beat me to it... 😀
🙂
The coffee is fair trade of course and I ain't going to bed for a good while - going for a short bike ride shortly - its puffer training 🙂
Perhaps a helmet when I go out on the bike would be sensible. I only wear the tinfoil helmet indoors
Alcohol and riding a bike?
You should know you can be prosecuted in the same way you can for alcohol + driving a car.
Alcohol reduces reaction times which can't be sound move surely if you're planning a XC ride.
Not sure why you'd want to consume alcohol and then go out on the public roads / bridleways etc.
Does alcohol help your performance on the bike? After a night shift, I'd have thought it'd make you drowsy and less alert.
Perhaps have it on your return instead?
Does alcohol help your performance on the bike?
Riding a bike while drunk is the nearest a human can get to flying.
Ti29r.
Thank you for your concern. actually being drunk in charge of a bike is a very different offence to doing so in charge of a car.
I'm only going to go for a short ride down a traffic free cyclepath. Brandy coffee after an night shift means reaction time of minutes - I ain't gonna mess with cars. Just need to test a couple of things on the bike.
I am being facetious really.
no, but use a fullface and armour on the drinking arm. 🙂
A £200 fine is set for furious cycling.
The Licensing Act 1872 makes it an offence to be drunk in charge of a bicycle (or any other vehicle or carriage) on a highway or in a public place.
You could lose your car license.
Not sure alcohol is a very sensible addition to riding a bike in public; your call, but ensure you wear the helmet and make a good risk assessment which I'll expect in triplicate on my desk before you leave.
In theory Ti29er, in practice (and I speak from personal experience here) they struggle to keep a straight face, suggest you get off and push it home... (ahem... 😳 )
You can't lose your licence for being drunk on a bike anymore than you can for being a drunk pedestrian.
This is common practice in Spain. Was sat in a railway station cafe in Toledo early one morning they were all necking brandy coffees. Sincerely hoped none of them was the driver !
You cannot lose your licence for riding a bike pished. Furious cycling is obsolete and no longer exists. You can be done for drunk on a bike tho - its just a straight fine and very very rare. They have to be able to prove you were unfit to ride - much harder than a breath test but a breath test only shows how much alcohol you have in your system not if you are unfit to ride.
However - I am back safely and now heading for bed. Bike is fully pufferised and tested
Many years ago my pal was done for being drunk in charge of his bike.
It effectively cost him his job and he left the Army.
Harsh but since I witnessed first hand the fallout and how things spiraled out of control from this little episode and knowing you work within the NHS I would still question the perceived wisdom of drink-riding & continue to ask why you'd want to consume any alcohol before a bike ride 7 then ask for the forum's opinions on (your) alcohol consumption followed by a ride in these conditions.
He's had one drink and been out on his push bike.
Get some perspective!
burn the witch!
[i]Riding a bike while drunk is the nearest a human can get to flying.[/i]
What, other than using a plane... 😉
[i]He's had one drink and been out on his push bike.
Get some perspective!
[/i]
Spot on there.
I took this post to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. I don't think TJ is actually asking permission to drink his coffee.
Lets not argue, pleeeaaaasse.
Solo
[url= http://www.****/news/article-1205967/Drunk-charge-carriage-Pensioner-convicted-Victorian-law-drink-driving-disability-scooter.html ]You might want to read this before telling us the law no longer is in force[/url].
Unless any part of 1872 Licensing Act has been superseded since August 2009, some of it remains in force.
The law still creates an offence of being drunk in public and of being drunk in charge of a carriage - since reinterpreted to include bicycles.
The crime has a maximum penalty of £200 or 51 weeks.
Personally, consuming alcohol (and who said just one drink?) and venturing out onto the public highways is just plain stupid. Who are we to say that, on the back of a 8-12hr night shift, he's not consumed 1/4 of a bottle in one measure. Perspective, please!
I'm fervently anti drink driving, so being asked if it's OK to have a drink before a bike ride, I'd be inclined to say "No".
Employees and the general public in general are very intolerant of alcohol and being in control of a moving vehicle. Period.
Hels - when we go to Spain there's nothing to beat La Mumbas. Brandy + hot chocolate - an excellent warmer for mind, body and soul. 🙂
Ti29er - a tot of brandy in a coffee is unlikely to affect him. You should be concentrating on the fact he went out when he was TIRED. That's far more likely to cause accidents.
EDIT - I'm assuming it was a tot - if it was a pint of brandy the analysis would chance :
And let's not forget, TJ works in the NHS.
You'd have thought that particular working environment would have alerted him to the likely pitfalls and errors of other people's misadventures especially where fatigue and alcohol and driving / riding were all added together.
Evidence from this post seems to suggests otherwise, plus his knowledge of the law seems sadly in error judging by that linked article.
Great logic Ti29er 😕
How many doctors drink, smoke, self medicate? Working in the NHS doesn't automatically mean you avoid anything that's bad for you, probably quite the opposite!
Get a grip man, seriously.
Am I the only one here that thought TJ's comments were tongue in cheek?
Alcohol lowers body temperature thus increasing the risk of hypothermia when you slip on the ice and concuss youself / disbale your self through rotational injuries / split your head open
You can be done for being drunk in charge of a carriage for riding a bike while drunk (or for riding a mobility scooter when drunk).
Not sure you can be done for it for riding a bike after drinking one brandy coffee though...
The question:
"Is (consuming alcohol) even if I have been up all night for a night shift?"
The answer is a resounding NO.
You might think it's OK.
I can tell you it's not.
The law can tell it's not.
Public opinion would not be favourable and his employer nor would the courts were anything untoward happen.
So, in principle I'd still tell him No, it's not acceptable nor wise to drink alcohol especially if he has been up all night for a night shift.
One thing I have always wondered when adding spirits to hot drinks is that as alcohol boils at 78.5C, does this mean that some or all of the alcohol will boil away before you drink it?
One thing I have always wondered when adding spirits to hot drinks is that as alcohol boils at 78.5C, does this mean that some or all of the alcohol will boil away before you drink it?
Yes, that's exactly what happens.
Ti29er, can you let us know exactly when the law does permit the consumption of alcohol? I've clearly been operating under the deluded impression that there was no such law so I'd appreciate being set straight on the matter.
I'm just impressed that TJ can keep an arguement going even when he's asleep/ lying in a drunken stupor 🙂
The law appears to tell you being DRUNK in charge of a carriage is an offence. Extrapolating that to mean you should never drink is a bit extreme isn't it?
The law appears to tell you being DRUNK in charge of a carriage is an offence. Extrapolating that to mean you should never drink is a bit extreme isn't it?
I believe that 'drunk' means you could well be above the legal drink-drive limit without being done.
[i]Riding a bike while drunk is the nearest a human can get to flying. [/i]
Mike, you are a genius. 🙂
And I completely fail to understand the problem with Jeremy's suggestion.
Mike, you are a genius
I am, but I think I nicked that from someone else.
Google tells me it was Alexie Sayle last year ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jul/26/cycling-alan-bennett-boris-johnson), but I must have heard it here.
hip flasks filled all ready for the night ride anyone?
Thank you for your inquiry Ti29er
I am afraid that you could be prosecuted for cycling whilst drunk as it is a criminal offense to cycle under the influence of drink or drugs to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the cycle and s30 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. It is also an offense to be drunk and in charge of a carriage (including a bicycle) under the Licensing Act 1872.
In short - not a smart move TJ all things considered.
Is that the reply you got to something you sent to a policeperson?
You're really not getting to grips with the basic problem, which is that "being drunk" and "having a coffee with a brandy in it" are as different as buying Nuts Magazine and having sex. 🙂
FFS Ti29r
Have you lost both your ability to read as well as your sense of humour?
I did not say that you cannot be done for drunk in charge of a bike - you clearly can but contrary to what you say you cannot lose your licence and its a totally different bit of legislation to being drunk in charge of a car. Its furious cycling that is obsolete. Its now reckless / careless / dangerous cycling - certainly in Scotland - I have discussed this with senior traffic policeman.
Cycling while drunk - it has to be proven you are unfit to ride - a simple breath test does not do this and its a much higher threshold that the 35 mg per ml or whatever it is. No way could could that one small tot of brandy have taken me into that area.
One small tot of brandy and a gentle wobble along a traffic free route is hardly the crime of the century? Do you never have a pint at lunchtime when you are out on your bike?
Of course the whole point of the post was to have a laugh.
I [i]think[/i] he's winding you up, but I'm not sure. 🙂
Does this mean that the fuzz might set up a road block at [url= http://ssec10.blogspot.com/ ]SSEC10[/url] and try and nick all the pissed up singlespeeders.
I do hope so. 😀
The event will be much easier to run if everyone gets arrested first. 😉
Personally, consuming alcohol (and who said just one drink?) and venturing out onto the public highways is just plain stupid.
The highway includes the pavements. How is one meant to get home from the pub without venturing out onto the public highways.
Note: I had a pint before riding home last night. And not in coffee, though I did have a cup of tea an hour or so earlier.
Oops. I fell guilty for having a hair of the dog before cycling round Gisburn 😳
I have done a lot of drunk riding miles over the years on a bicycle. It was forced on me by poverty, a lack of alternative public transport options, a need to keep my driving licence, and a need to keep socialising when my life was the pits. Mostly this passed off without any incident although I did once wake up in a field sleeping between the plough furrows with the bike still between my legs. I'd obviously veered off through an open gate, hit the furrows and keeled over. I'm very thankful to gortex clothing for that one....it was really quite a cosy experience when logic says it shouldn't have been. I awoke refreshed and finished the journey with no problem at all.
That was when I was in my late 30's and very fit. Now I'm 50...ish, I must admit I find it too much of an effort, and if I am going to do it I limit myself to about six pints. On that basis, for the past five years or so, I have never had any problems nor have I inconvenienced anybody else that I know of.
I mention this only to raise Ti29r's blood pressure. He'll probably have to have a drink after reading this one!
I was actually stopped by the police for riding hammered. They noticed something was wrong when I struggled unlocking my bike from outside the pub. The police were betting between themselves as to how far I would get before I fell off, upon crashing into a bush they stopped me, gave me a wee lecture and thanked me for the entertainment and told me to go steady on the way home.
I made it home in one piece and all was ok, I now do this most Friday nights and see said officers from time to time, they wave, I wave(carefully as difficult when smashed) and carry on home. Never have they bothered to stop me again, a case of comon sense I think
We regularly used to have the police follow us when we left the pub after our midweek night ride.
They used to wait just up the road and follow us to the county border. They'd just drive behind us making sure we all got at least halfway home without any greif.
Ti29er - do you work in H&S or are you just a gifted amateur dullard?