Several crimes have been committed

in your opinion. The police let him go so clearly no crime was committed, which we can only assume the policemans actions were wrong.

No he was protecting society by investigating someone who he had a reasonable belief might have committed an offence against that society

the offence to society being driving a black merc when he was infact in a black jag?

Seen a lot of these sort of videos on YouTube recently, for some reason – a lot of people seem to go out of their way to provoke cops with the intention of filming them being arseholes.

but when its your word against a police officer what else are you supposed to do? The policeman is allowed to film the interaction (providing his camera is actually on) so why can’t the person being questioned do the same. If I was stopped on the regs (i have the luxury of being a tall white middle class male) I would be filming the police so I can prove what happened.

Also, not at one single point did this bloke provoke the policeman.

I appreciate that my white, male, middle class life experience is different than many others.

This! Case in point I literally walk around my local sainos putting stuff in my tote bag because these days I don’t want to use a basket and no one says a thing. 100% bet if I wasn’t white and dressed in a tracksuit that wouldn’t be possible.

I’d have tasered him right off the bat.

Thank god you don’t work for the police.

The correct answer to the police when being stopped is always “yes sir” then the interactions go smoothly.

I have never called a policeman sir in my life. One once referred to me as “son” at which point I reminded him hes not my dad and im 32 yr old grown up. (well was at that point.) Treat people as you wish to be treated if you come at someone being aggressive don’t be surprised if they are aggressive back.

“sir”?
Are you a small child?

This. I aint calling no policeman sir.

Nope he says that after the entitled **** refuses to have a reasonable conversation. If you can’t see that, you’re obviously just biased against the police.

How do you have a reasonable conversation with someone that says “im gonna smash your window” its overly aggressive. The person in the car was calm and the policeman was being aggressive – he wanted to assert is power when he didn’t need to. Also at what point was the guy in the car acting entitled? The policeman didn’t like the fact he knew the rules of what the policeman could and couldn’t do.

Lastly, just to be clear do you think its acceptable for the policeman to stop someone and say “you’re gonna get a ticket for something” at that point the policeman is going to make up a charge just to give this guy a ticket. Its a reach but whos to say tomorrow the same policeman doesn’t plant drugs on someone next week to “give them a ticket for something”

How is this any different to whats been happening in America.

I actually cannot believe there are people here defending the policeman! At what point did the bloke in the car act in anyway that could be described as a danger to the policemans life. He said you “get a ticket for something” then proceeded to profile him based on how he looked saying he could have a knife, gun or drugs. Told the bloke he was gonna “floor it and run him over” despite the engine being off. How people can defend this policeman is beyond me.

Was the cop having a bad day and just go a bit ott?

No the police man is 100% in the wrong, I can 100% bet being a white male I would not have had that experience with that policeman.

Why didn’t the driver do as he was asked at the outset though

He did, but when someone says they are going to smash your window how else is he supposed to react.

Yeah – weird. I can imagine why the police officer wanted to throw the book at him because he was a right ****

Just how is the driver a ****? He did nothing wrong. In the first instance police man stops him for apparently driving a black merc when the blokes not even driving a merc in the first place.

Apart from any stop is perfectly legal and the law requires you to identify yourself. Also the video is incomplete. Driver a complete roaster and gets no sympathy from me.

I think they call this an unconscious bias…

1m 22s the cop says exactly what I thought. The prick in the car turned a simple traffic stop into a big issue

Or it was the police man who said “you’re gonna get a ticket for something”

The state of the world these days. There is a clear over reach of power and people side with the copper. behave.

when mudguards look cool https://www.instagram.com/p/CGZ3XQEl5aW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link. I really should get some for my bike but just cant be bothered right now.

I’m not sure if its due to the fact I don’t have / do long Gravel rides

A quick check on komoot and you would be surprised what you can find dude. I live in SE London and have a few short morning loops planned that take in a few woodland areas. Tip is to just point komoot at random destination and tell it you want to do a mountain bike ride.

Would taking the front wheel off and turning the bars not be easier?

Exactly what I do. Why mess with more bolts and ensure the bars are straight when you can just pull the wheel out.

Have a read, Joepud:

Was I aware of the historical context of the word moron no, did i read the article yes. Did i use it because its more widely recognised to mean stupid, which its what Greg Clarke is for his choice of words. Could I be “moron” in your eyes due to my choice of word maybe… most likely. But i feel like this is derailing the initial point of the topic.

Are you allowed to use the word “Moron” in the thread title?

If my use of the word moron has offended you im very sorry. But if you want to challenge the use of the word moron when using it to describe someone who has made racist, homophobic and sexist remarks thats cool you can pick that hill to die on.

The life I lead means I have never met a black person, I would like to but I just don’t come into contact with anyone who is not white like me

I can totally see how this happens (but it still blows my mind) I moved to Wales when I was 12 from Hounslow and was absolutely amazed how everyone was white. I always remember my first day in school and asking one of the teachers why everyone was white they just laughed and said you are not in London any more.

Has it occurred to you that they’re not?

Its pretty common knowledge racism and social mobility are a real thing and one causes the other and its very much a real thing.

Struggling to work out how this has turned into such a massive story, he used an inappropriate term, but was genuinely apologetic and gave a valid enough reason for it

Some people (myself included) may argue that there is no valid reason to use such language.

Stick. I have had mine about a year now and I have used it for pretty much everything its such a good bike! Races, 70 odd mile rides from my door (i live in london), Surrey weekends, trips home to wales it basically does everything. And when you finally reach the end of what you think its capable of you can take it bike packing as its got all the bosses in the world.

Go take a look at how people photograph food it will blow your mind.

Priti Patel is a nasty, sneering, spiteful little thug.

Yep pretty much.

I went out for a road ride yesterday and was absolutely amazed how busy it was – the country park local to my house was so busy cars were dumped on verge on the road outside, and a saw multiple large groups of walkers/Roadies and MTBers.

Thing is where else do people have to go? Shops, pubs, coffee shops, restaurants, all shut. Can’t have friends over your house how so unless you just sit inside all you can do is go for a walk. I went for a gravel ride on the weekend and it was the same stretches that would normally be empty were full of people.

There seems to be a lot more of this going in from what I’ve seen locally.
None of it particularly bothers me, but to see so much, from a variety of ages, so soon into the lockdown is worrying.

I think basically people don’t have the energy to care any more. Staying at a constant level of stress and anxiety takes its toll.

Real first world problems but it drives me mad when people spell my name JO I am a male so its JOE. I also hate being called Joseph its so formal.

You need to force it to take tracks you specifically want to use, make sure you select what type of activity you are planning

This is key. I use it to plot gravel rides and just pick random destination points and tell it im riding a mountain bike and it always seems to work out keeping me on bridal way and b road. As said if you want to go down specific tails you need to find them and add them to the route yourself.

good shout on the wire! Hopefully I could wire loop the wire through the helmet straps then just to make double sure. cheers both!

If you can stretch to £700 then id go for a Brother Mehteh

+1 on this. I have a Kepler and it can take up to a 700x45c or 2.1 650b. Gets a lot of gravel use while in lockdown and copes perfectly fine. Used to be my super commuter but now just gravel spins.

If they made it that precise, there would be LOADS more people (rightly) complaining that they were excluded because of this, that or the other.

The rules on exercise outdoors are intentionally broad, to allow for some interpretation and so they don’t have to be six pages long.

The options to me are pretty clear be precise like say italy or wales X times a day Y miles from your house. Or vague like we have and leave it up for people to make their own mind rightly or wrongly how they should behave. The former stops any questions like this thread.

So the rules say I can cycle round the park with hundreds of people but not in the countryside by myself?

The rules definitely don’t say that.

I assume they mean that their local park is busy so more likely to come into contact with people. I cycled through my local part yesterday at around 8am and I 100% passed more people than I would do if I went out to Surrey to ride my bike.

They are pretty clear to me. If you can get a decent amount of exercise riding somewhere closer than a 30 mile drive away, I’d suggest that 30 mile drive was not an essential journey. And I wouldn’t be too upset if – by sheer bad luck and timing – a police officer pulled me over and wanted to discuss that with me.

Thats your interpretation though and might not be mine, the problem comes when people start to enforce their interpretation on others. Essential is open to interpretation so will cause issues like this. The rules are a mess if they want people to not look for these “loopholes” they need to make it black and white. No driving for exercise only exercise from your door and stay X distance from your house, but they haven’t done that. Clear rules mean the tories have to take some accountability which they will never do.

1) looking for loopholes so you can continue as you want with as little inconvenience as possible

If the rules were clear this wouldn’t be an issue, but they are not. People are not “looking for loopholes” they are looking for clarity.

In my personal situation I live about 30 miles away from trails which I think is an acceptable distance to drive this weekend simply because if I was to ride my bike from my house (gravel bike) I would be doing a 40+ mile loop anyway to feel like I have had a decent level of exercise. For most 40+ miles on a bike is mad but for the majority of people that ride on a regular basis its normal.

Personally I’d ban them altogether along with sparklers.

Thats absolute blasphemy in my house my partner is from Lewes.  Bonfire night is by far one of the best nights of the year.

winter bib tights 100% for the winter if you still want to wear shorts. I often do a morning gravel ride so its winter bibs and baggies. However for mountain bike rides its not just normal bibs, base layer and some trousers and I stay plenty warm enough.

Not a bad thing?

Police>  “Hello Sir, I appreciate you are enjoying a walk with your friends but please understand theirs a lockdown in place so can I kindly ask you to disperse separately observing social distancing and return to your homes?”

Army> “Get indoors mate.  Now”

Yeh it’s an extremely bad thing. It would never end well when people are already extremely stressed and being told what to do by someone in the army. Ever heard the saying you catch more flies with honey.

I find current designs far more efficient feeling

Agree with this. I went from a large MK1 Bird Aeris 140mm travel which was ok to a XL 160mm LongShot Cotic Rocket which feels a million times better on the climbs despite being steel and more travel. As already said steeper SA are key (well for me any way) keeps you more central in the bike making it easier on techy climbs.

In terms of Fore and Aft I think the thing to remember is the majority of us are not elite athletes so just stick the thing flat and in the middle and go from there. Extreme changes in the seat position will never end well incremental over time is whats required unless you got a jig.

Go and ride a Charge Blender about a bit then report back.

So agree with this. By far one of the most fun but most useless bikes I have ever owned. Being over 6ft riding that thing even for 5miles was a struggle.

I quite honestly can’t remember the last time I saw a uniformed police officer not in a car.

Our police station for the small 100,000 borough is all but closed (just traffic now) and being moved 16 miles away which google says is 23mins without flashing lights.

So rather than redistribute said police who are trained, equipped and skilled at dealing with the public your answer is… The army.

Then who does?

The police simple.

Our armed forces are constantly involved in civilian support work across the world, it really isn’t a big stretch to ask them to do it here.

There is a difference between support work ie running supplies around the country and enforcing law by “politely asking Covid sceptic Brexit fans to break up their gatherings.” (nice way to categorise people – because surly no middle class leftie would have a party…) Just imagine the scene of a few army official breaking up a party in what world would that end well.

It’s popular with me. Having the armed forces involved would help with compliance with the rules… many people who won’t listen to the police, or the council, will listen to “friendly advice” from “one of our brave boys”.

Im of the opinion that this is an absolutely awful idea. The army should never be used enforce rules on the public. Im all for them offering logistic services around distribution of drugs and potentially if we need a helicopter to move someone between hospitals. But as an additional enforcement arm of the police no thanks.

If Trump does win who the hell will take polls seriously ever again?

I think part of the recent jonathan pie thing was interesting when he said why would anyone come out at a Trump supporter when they know they would just get nailed on twitter, by some friends or family and the general more left leaning public. They say nothing and just vote in private.

I use one of these for commuting 20L evoc bag and it would carry everything. Full change of clothes, shoes, wash stuff, (had showers at work) laptop, generic bike tools like a pump, tube and all that can take a 3L bladder too i think. I found it a little much for trail rides but it would do the job.

https://www.evocsports.com/FR-TRAIL-20/100102516-S

The pessimist in me really does see Trump winning this as much as I hate it, I just don’t see another outcome

Trump is now set up to be “the real President” and a right royal pain in the arse of any future administration

This is so true. He didn’t get the popular vote last time but obvs didnt care but if he gets the popular vote this year but loses hes gonna go kicking and screaming out of the white house. He has a platform now and press will stick a mic in his face because hes gonna say stupid stuff like lets drink bleach to cure covid.

Compulsory vaccination on the way…

https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/9253/pdf/

This is such a complex issue. Its basically everyone HAS to get the vaccine no choice, there is a choice and we hope that enough people choose to get it to make it effective. My partner works for the NHS and will likely get it first which we are both a bit iffy on taking something thats been pushed though so quick, but there will be a lot of social pressure within the NHS for all the staff to have it. And the danger is whee does this mandate on state required vaccines end?

You’re spoilt for choice these days.. don’t rule out 29″

This. As someone with a Solaris Max I have no clue given how good parts of these days why anyone wouldn’t get a 29er. The days of them not being “playful” are well and truly over. I currently have a Rocket and feel like next year I may swap it for a RocketMax

I don’t think that this “lockdown” is going to be very locked.

BMC say that we can still travel to climbing and walking, C+RT say that we can still paddle. I guess we can travel to biking then.

yeh, this I don’t get. I thought I sorta understood the rules. now its like lockdown, only essential travel but you can still drive somewhere to exercise. But to be fair transmission in the outside seems really low. Im just clueless to how the rules do and do not work.

Liverpool to pilot city-wide Covid-19 testing

Interesting one – will the false positives outweigh the benefit of identifying more people?

I feel like this is huge news. We are not at the level of China (testing 9m people in one go) but its a step forwards, lets just hope track and trace can cope with the amount of calls. I remember a stat saying something like 40% of people in Vo Italy were asymptomatic! Partner is convinced im one of those asymptomatic people and gave it to her way back in March. I feel like not enough is done to explaine to people how many of us could be asymptomatic.