Sometimes, as someone who works in the industry, I’m embarrassed by what passes for marketing.

Like many top athletes, Mark Cavandish listens to music before races in order to get into the right mindset. While plopping a set of his new branded headphones won’t make you one of the world’s fastest sprinters, they do look damn cool.

At one point did no-one think about taking the copywriter outside and shooting them 😯

Then again the whole concept of marketing one of our greatest cyclists with some ungrammatical expression of his surname is pretty crass too

And also wrong. If team weren’t escaping, steam trains wouldn’t need topping up with water…

And once more with feeling: pedantry worthy of STW 🙂

If he wants free fitting, point him towards his own pair of hands 🙂

Alternatively, you’ve missed a prime opportunity to sell him a track pump, spare tubes, patches and tyre levers – £30+ revenue? 🙂

The steam train will put out steam, which here in reality is white, and the diesel trains again, remember this is based on reality, put out black fumes.

This is a hugely amusing thread which has wasted hours of my time this morning. Haven’t read it all so this may have been pointed out before. The white stuff coming out of a steam train’s funnel is not steam. It is the product of the combustion of the coal which is heating the water to produce the steam. It is smoke; just as villainous as deisel fumes.. That is why, as I remember from my childhood, it is smelly and smutty.

In theory there shouldn’t be any steam coming from a steam engine as it is the steam, under pressure in a closed system, that is providing the motive power. If the steam were escaping the engine wouldn’t move.

OK, (sorry, ok,) as you were with the humour please..

Pedantry worthy of STW 🙂

It suggested I’m suited for netball and lawn bowls!

And apparently I’m not suited for long-distance athletics. Funny that, I was 5th Vet in my running club 5k championship last month 🙂

Join all the ‘highly observant’ Saudis on a Friday night when they come over to sample the Bahraini booze and prostitutes 🙂

I didn’t like panniers – made the bike harder to move around – which can be quite important for urban riding. If I have some volume to carry I use a 35l KIMM sack but most days I have a HAWG. Both are a very stable carry and good at absorbing my sweat

Depends if you mean the privileged British group to which STW-dwellers belong (by definition of having enough free time and money to play around on mountain bikes), or the rest of the UK, or the rest of the world…

There’s a few metrics to suggest UK, at least, is not good at all, despite lots of basic needs being met and very high levels of material wealth:
1. Falling living standards
2. No wage rises for the foreseeable
3. Record amounts of personal debt
4. Only the very wealthy can afford the security of buying a house
5. Increasing levels of mental illness
6. Increasing levels of over-weight and obesity
7. Increased competition for our skills from other countries and technology
8. Increased tendency to shut ourselves away from the outside world (driving, staring at your mobile when walking down the street or out with friends, social media (yes I know I’m on social media)
9. Ageing population, living for longer going to cost taxpayers a fortune
10. Poor role models for leadership whether politicians, media or at work…

On the other hand, if you’re Chinese, South Korean, Brazilian, African etc, your living standards are going up and up and up.

I think we’re seeing a historical re-balancing of wealth and political power away from the West and towards the South and East to a more equal position across the Globe.

To the West, used to being the most wealthy and powerful since the Industrial Revolution, this will feel negative and like a loss which may well lead to more conflict. I suspect this will take a generation to play out until the new world order settles down and everyone gets used to their new positions…

capitalism isnt making you work today. Your consumerism is.

I like that thinking 🙂 although I suspect a lot of people would find it a rather challenging statement

AFAIK none of the pros (road or MTB) ride s/s for training. Which suggests the answer to the OP’s question is no and no…

I think where wearables is going is very interesting (I found out recently that Dick Cheney has a wireless pacemaker which US Secret Service are worried could be hacked to assassinate him) but someone really has to think through the safety implications here. Pedestrians are already dithering into the street and drivers totally distracted by phones, sat nav etc…

I can’t see how having the screen right in your vision is in any way safe when you’re out and about. I’ve got visions of lots of people walking into doorways in their house and office too…

Using your phone whilst driving is already illegal but people are just ignoring the law so I can’t see how Glass (or any head-up display) can have mass usage across the population in a way which avoids a load of carnage. I can’t see what framework you can put in place to ensure it’s used safely and appropriately

Good technique for cycling in traffic is to make no assumptions whatsoever about what each and every driver will do next…
It can lead to aggravation from people behind if it means you wait a little longer till you pull out into a main road or a roundabout but sod em…

it would look even better if that guy with the MEAT socks was riding it 🙂

Dunno but I commute to work twice a week on singlespeed and on the hills it’s certainly harder work – which if nothing else gets me used to carrying on even when my legs say “please stop doing this to us”. I think it’s useful from a mental point of view in that respect

Can’t we stop putting folks in boxes, there are dicks in all types of life, why does it always come down to a ‘them and us’ mentality.

I agree with this entirely. However, given the treatment I hear about and experience when cycling on the road, which I don’t receive when I’m driving, or walking or on public transport, I’m increasingly coming to the conclusion that there is something about being in a car (especially today’s very powerful, very big, very comfortable and very isolated-from-the-outside-world cars) that seems to turn usually nice, sensible, thoughtful people into aggressive, impatient, angry people. Same person, different behaviour in a different context.

I’d be really interested for Stanley Milgram and the people who did the Stanford Prison Experiment to do some work on this, and see what they conclude. The sheer irrationality of the worst types of driver behaviour around cyclists suggests some kind of mental breakdown going on.

Whilst we may look down on fashionistas, we’ll be wearing what next year they’re wearing this year 🙂

Any vehicle turning left should indicate their intentions, but it is also incumbent upon the cyclist to behave responsibly and consider that the vehicle may not be so thoughtful as to indicate.

By your use of the word ‘responsibly’ you’re saying it would be irresponsible to use a cycle lane in case a driver turns left without signalling … they’re almost always on the inside of traffic. In particular, the solid white line across the entry to a lot of ASLs means the only legal way to enter it is up the inside of traffic…

Once again, the solution is already known – enforcement of existing law on signalling before you turn left…

You’re right that if filtering on the left it’s very well worth looking out for a car to turn without signalling – but it’s very far from irresponsible to filter on the left..

A lot of non cyclists are under the impression cyclists should be insured, and to a certain point it would be a good idea,

I’m insured (3rd party through BC) but it doesn’t appear to be bringing me any better treatment than other cyclists!

All we need is all drivers to behave like almost all the drivers on our club ride today. First time in ages, we didn’t get a single horn, shout or overly close pass. If one driver can do it, so can they all…

There’s a lot of growing up needed to be done by the Great British Public at the moment…

the thought just occurred you wouldn’t (generalizing) try to get a car up the inside of another car so why do it on a bike , just because you can

Filtering as a term does not apply only to cycling up the inside of
traffic… it refers to all of cyclists, scooter riders and motorcyclists, and skipping through congested traffic out of the queue – whether on the left or right, or between the lanes of static traffic.

So the only alternative to ‘not filtering’ is to sit in the traffic.

Education/training is def the best way for new cyclists to be able to judge the risk of left-hand-side filtering and to ride accordingly. You have to remember that this means telling them to ignore almost all cycle lanes in urban environments…

So you’d rather sit in the traffic jam along with all the cars then? Sucking up all the carbon monoxide and adding to the length of the queue… not sure how that helps anyone.

You’d also have to paint over/remove pretty much every cycle lane in the UK at great expense.

I’ve never understood this reaction that because something’s not best practice, it should be banned – prohibition hasn’t worked for alcohol, drugs or speeding… so unlikely to work for filtering.

Filtering in and of itself is not dangerous. Just like driving, it’s when it’s done with poor skill that it becomes dangerous. The challenge you have is to get everyone who does it to do it at high skill – and the normal distribution curve tells you that’s unlikely.

I mainly filter on the right on the basis I’m more visible to drivers in both directions, and am less likely to get left hooked. If I judge that too risky I will just wait in the queue of traffic. I will filter on the left if it’s the only space there is and there’s virtually no chance of the traffic moving or turning into me. Even then I’ll watch like a hawk.

More training for cyclists and drivers would be a more effective solution than prohibition IMO. Left turning tipper trucks are over-represented in the figures for cyclist deaths in London and the Parliamentary Committee report released last week didn’t go anywhere near considering banning filtering. It did, however, talk about driver training, cyclist training and more, fully segregated cycling facilities

Don’t let people on here see that. They know that all drivers are homicidal maniacs out to get them.

The chances of being killed or badly injured while cycling are very small. At some point I will die. The chance of tbe two being connected are fairly remote. I will just continue to ride as prudently as circumstances allow.

A couple of weeks ago MCTD you called me hysterical for pushing the ‘drivers are the biggest danger and some are deliberately attacking cyclists’ line. I stand by that and if you follow the link to page 11 you’ll find this quote:

14. The Road Danger Reduction Forum stated that the main danger to cyclists was the behaviour of drivers, whether they were behind the wheel of a lorry, car or bus. For this reason, the most effective way of increasing cyclist safety was viewed as changing driver behaviour. The not-for-profit research company, Road Safety Analysis, endorsed this view, concluding from an analysis of DfT statistics that most crashes resulted from human error.

I’m glad for you that your experience doesn’t follow this, but I think you’re in a minority at the moment on this front…

From the the House of Commons Transport Committee on Cycling Safety report just published – this is all very relevant to this thread:

Basically, 20mph is reckoned to be pointless without police support (for which there isn’t the money) because the Great British Public are just a bunch of criminals with no regard for the law when they get in their cars…

StumpyJon’s point about learning from trailbuilding is very valid IMO. I’m also part of a trailbuilding team and in our experience we can get people to ride where we want them to by the way we design the trail and sightlines.

Speed bumps and naked roads are all trying to achieve this I guess – but as yet we’ve clearly not found an effective solution which will work in all circumstances.

OP – the answer to your complaint about a blanket default of 20mph lies here too – because drivers can’t be trusted to drive carefully where the community needs them to, and the council/police can’t afford to put in infrastructure/enforce it – a blanket 20mph is the only (cost) effective solution

20mph zones
Several witnesses called for a reduction in speed limits in local roads, noting that a cyclist involved in a collision with a car travelling at 20mph had a 2.5% chance of a fatal injury, compared to a 20% chance if the car was travelling at 30mph.
There was also, we heard, less chance of collisions when cars travelled at lower speeds, as they had more time to react to cyclists and take action to avoid collisions: Sustrans told us that there had been a
60% reduction in injury collisions in 250 existing 20 mph zones.24 Sustrans noted, however,that the “profound effects on road safety” that could be achieved with lower speed limits required the police to enforce these limits.
This was highlighted by several witnesses as unlikely, due to limited resources. Councillor David Hodge, Leader of Surrey County
Council told us:
The problem is that it is all very well putting in a 20 mph limit, but unless somebody is going to enforce it you have wasted a whole load of money. My view is that I have no intention of wasting public money putting in 20 mph zones. When I drove here today I went through Kingston and saw the extent of a 20 mph zone. Nobody was doing 20 mph, but 20 mph was painted on roads almost half a mile from the schools. It went on and on, and nobody was doing it. That is the problem. If you have a 20 mph limit and people obey it,that is fine, but I do not have the resources—I do not think the police in Surrey have the resources—to man nearly 600 different sites with a 20 mph limit, never mind looking at towns and everything else.
In Chichester, where West Sussex County Council introduced 20mph limits for all residential streets in 2012, the local cycling campaign group, ChiCycle, told us that the police had been “very reluctant” to enforce the 20mph limit, due to limits on their resources. The costs of introducing 20 mph zones were also highlighted by witnesses.
Councillor Ian Davey, Deputy Leader of Brighton and Hove Council, told there was a case for default 20 mph zones, due to the cost of introducing lower speed limits on certain roads:
At the moment we have to mark all the 20 mph roads as an exception. It just means that, as it is, there is a lot more work—a lot more infrastructure, paint on the ground, signs and expense—so changing that default would make it cheaper, easier and safer.
Councillor Davey added that, in his view, reducing speed limits, and making the roads safer would not have “anything other than a positive impact on the viability of local economies”.

IMO the compilation albums don’t really get under the skin of Pixies – the albums work best as they were originally put together… just get all the studio albums up to and including Trompe Le Monde – it won’t cost you a huge amount.

They were one of the first indie bands I properly got into in late 80’s and they’re still sounding ace – try and see if you can find their Glasto slot from this year too – they rocked

From personal experience I do not recommend “Oh, so you bought the cheap one without indicators then”

That conversation degenerated very rapidly…..

That’s the dilemma – it’s hardly an antagonistic comment you made, but there are some real psychos out there who are essentially looking for justification to harm you – but you can’t identify them until pretty late on in proceedings… 🙁

Some drivers just make mistakes and if you have a word, they’ll get the point, or at least they won’t try and punch you for it. Others are angry people who can’t cope with criticism who’ll come and punch you for letting them know you nearly got hurt. Some (a minority I give you, but a very very dangerous minority) will essentially set the situation up to get a reaction from you as an excuse to then run you off the road or come and batter you…

What you can’t tell is where on this spectrum the person who nearly put you in hospital sits…

From a lot of these kind of driving stories, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that people have some kind of mental breakdown when they get into their cars – it’s almost as if they lose touch with reality
and no longer understand that the people outside the car (pedestrians and cyclists) aren’t real people who are really there who will actually die if you hit them…

It’s be interesting to get a neuroscience experiment done where you put people in identical risk scenarios, one in a real car and one in a simulator to test if they respond in any way which suggests they know there’s a difference…

Last 3 months I’ve nearly been hit from behind 3 times when I stopped at amber lights. The last time I got berated by the driver for stopping – ignoring the fact that if I hadn’t taken avoiding action and got off the road before he ran over me, that I wouldn’t have been alive to berate…

I’m quite happy to have a sense of humour failure over Top Gear’s stance for as long as they continue to perpetuate the myth that only people on bikes break the law… especially given that I pay for the BBC out of my post-tax income…

There’s waay too much of this kind of close-to-serious-injury-and-death driving going on at the moment and without some kind of reaction from somebody it’s not going to get any better is it?

However, IME when someone drives like that, they don’t have the confidence and maturity to cope with an adult discussion about the fact they were driving dangerously, so you’re best letting them go…

I can’t imagine it would have been a reasonable discussion if you’d tried that approach anyway…

According to John Franklin (recommended reading for Bikeability) this guy was following best practice – ride primary position for safety, and cycle paths are usually so badly designed they put you at greater risk

Cyclecraft

Where’s that photo of the teddy bear taking over the bedroom from the thread the other week? that was the REAL cost of cohabiting 🙂

🙁

Drink lots of water
Healthy snacks from the supermarket – oatcakes and honey, nuts and raisins, malt loaf etc
fruit

I have a real sweet tooth + exercise a lot so I’m eating all the time – but having a drawer full of healthy stuff really helps keep away the cravings for bad food.

Sometimes though, I really need sugar – a cup of milk or chocolate milk can work wonders here

Does it mean people will start looking where they’re going again?

The views in London are wonderful

What’s clear from this depressingly-long thread from all the anecdotes is that we have a real problem with driver behaviour in the UK which is having all kinds of knock-on effects on quality of life for everyone.

We’ve managed to make significant inroads into crime, drugs, smoking, drink-driving following massive government effort and intervention.

I remember when I was at Uni in the early 90’s and would come home after a night out with all my clothes stinking of smoke and you always felt that was a problem that seriously needed solving but wasn’t showing any signs of being sorted.

I hope we can say the same about excessive driving and law-breaking and dangerous driving at some point in the future. It’s causing untold amounts of damage… at the moment it seems to only be cyclists and parents of young kids who have enough perspective to see this…

Yes and what if there’s an injured Robin on the road too ! Will someone please think of our wildlife being decimated on our roads.

When you cycle you see a lot of dead/totally flattened/dying animals on the roads. It’s quite sad that no-one seems too concerned about it. It’s actually pretty horrible to ride past a half-dead squirrel writhing in agony 😯

A guy was in my barber’s a couple of weeks ago boasting that if you put a false address on the V5C it means no-one can issue a parking ticket or other fines as they don’t know how to reach you. The other customers seemed to think he was being clever, rather than a crook 😯

Sounds like something similar on the buyers part…

I have Campagnolo Neutron Ultra and they make the road come alive 🙂 They replaced a pair of Sciroccos which were excellent too.
Never had a problem in 5 years of riding Campag wheelsets, always been very happy with them

Being told you’re wrong to leave the toilet seat up… (as opposed to having a different kind of genital which requires the seat to be out the way when you use the toilet) 😀

Also consider joining your local running club who do coached track sessions – the competition with other runners helps you push yourself harder and you’ll learn an unbelievable amount about best practice training in general. It’s also much more social and therefore you tend to do more of it

encouraging drivers to swerve into your lane at the last minute whilst you approach.

This tells you how getting into a car seems to fundamentally screw with people’s essential psychology and empathy…

<sees speed bump in residential street>
Option 1: slow down – which is the legal requirement? no…
Option 2: slow down because that’s why the speed bump’s there? no…
Option 3: keep ragging it but swerve into oncoming traffic just to save myself a moment’s inconvenience – yay, best option!! 😯

On the one hand, it tells you the infrastructure is ill-designed for the purpose – good speed-control infrastructure should be impossible to drive fast through. On the other, it’s gob-smackingly ignorant on behalf of the driver to drive like that…

I keep making the point on these threads that you never get the levels of bad behaviour on the Tube that you do on the road, despite conditions being unquestionably less comfortable – there really is something about being in a car which seems to lead to somekind of breakdown in empathy and connection with the impact of your behaviour on other people…