There are adverts on the internet?

Oh hell yeah, I’m getting this back when I get the geared MTB back out in the spring. It’s just being looked after for me.

At one point I had almost all of the punchy little off-road climbs out of Caversham. They’ve basically all been taken over by actual fast people, and I’m left with two nothing-much segments and two descents back into Reading.

If anyone ever manages this any faster (no technique required other than good cornering on concrete farm road, and gravel avoidance), I’ll shake them by the hand, possibly in hospital. I’ve given up even trying to beat it, it was too scary http://i45.tinypic.com/2ldy93a.png

I’m gutted. Was enjoying his work immensely.

@ormondroyd – I read “no basis for a claim” as “Chelsea made it up” or “Chelsea should never have referred this to the FA as there was no case to answer”

I think it has to be “we have no corroborating evidence but we have no evidence that it was a malicious claim either”. Otherwise people won’t come forward in future for fear that unproven claims are held against them as a lie.

There is a @driverhatred on twitter in response to @cyclehatred. They’re up to all of about 50 followers now, and it’s all a bit pathetic (don’t feed the troll by following, that’s my advice).

Their associated website is a crime against HTML, reminiscent of Geocities sites in 1998, and includes bold claims like the fact that 20mph zones encourage drivers to speed when if it was a regular 30mph zone they might actually do less than 20.

I’m the last person in the world to defend Ch*lsea FC normally. I’m not even capable of cycling past that particular location of the Fulham Road without doing a two-finger salute. But “no basis found for claim” is not the same as “the claim was a lie”, in a normal justice kind of situation.

A capable cyclist

Aah, got it. Spam foldered.

Bumping just in case

Me too, but you have no idea if those buses she’s talking about were moving on or not. As I say, it’s not really relevant to the wider point. If there have been 80 accidents before the trams have even started, then there’s something forseeably wrong with the layout, in my view, enough that the council’s duty of care is the main point, not the abilities or decisions of individual riders.

Irrelevant really, but do you wait behind every stationary vehicle that blocks your path, until it moves? You must have slow average times. There’d be skeletons on bikes if everyone did that

There’s no real excuse for a council to ignore valid and important safety guidance no matter how “obvious” the results might seem.

You wouldn’t build cycle lanes with barbed wire fences either side either and get all defensive on the basis that the wire was visible and therefore it was the rider’s own silly fault that they veered into it.

Not everyone’s a confident cyclist and if you put dangerous hazards in their environment, however obvious, there are a myriad of reasons (other than the ignorance/complacency implied by many on this thread) that people might find their way into them

Blimey, that lane is actually worse than the article led me to think it would be

It doesn’t help that much of that article seems to be a lawyer having a good mental tug over the thought of a big pile of cash, mind.

If you know the tracks are there, and they’re iffy to ride near, wouldn’t you avoid riding near them?

Again, the article seems to imply there hasn’t been much effort to avoid dangerous cyclelane/tram-track interactions.

Not everyone on a bike is a gnaarrrrr superb rider. Cycling on streets should be safe for everyone, even the inexperienced.

But the article goes on to say that there were specific safety recommendations that have not been acted on?

The libertarian in me says that you should be able to do whatever you want when it has an impact only on you

This simply isn’t the case with smoking. And I’m not just talking the obvious stuff like passive smoking. I watched a relative lose the best bit of 10 pretty healthy years, having to nurse her husband through a long lingering epmhacaema death

Have a poo before you ride

I had an argument with Slough Council on Twitter the other week.

Someone tweeted them and asked what the rule was on cyclists not using cycle lanes, and the Council Twitterer sounded all suprised that people would “tangle with the traffic when we’ve provided a nice cycle lane”

Here’s an example of some of Slough’s primary east-to-west cycle lanes.

Can you spot them? Yep, all they’ve done is legalised pavement cycling on a completely unsuitable bit of pavement, and called it cycle provision. The road, by the way, is an unimportant one called the A4

To the poster who mentioned Reading, I see your Wokingham Road and raise you this Oxford Road deathtrap

I’m hearing rumours that Benitez has been sacked by Chelsea

What sort of grass should I use? I’ve got a bag of the B&Q luxury lawn stuff. Would that work?

Craven Cottage!

(sorry)

Aren’t they basically just an old-school KM with all the bosses and studs and mounts? Rather than a new school KM which is just stripped down to a basic frame?

Surlys are great

I’m impressed your phone stayed alive for seven hours with gps running….!,

I use a little Navin GPS logger which lasts ages

I just ate a whole large papa johns “The Works” pizza 🙂

Only problem is I’m off to a neighbour’s party now. I’ll be asleep and dribbling by 9pm

Here’s the ride: http://app.strava.com/activities/28056159

Was noisy when I was hoiking out of the saddle, mostly. I took it out in some Chilterns mud to punish it and it soon got the message.

My KMC chain was noisy for a bit and settled down, after 40 miles or so if I recall correctly

We have biblical mud around here in a normal winter, and so far this isn’t even a normal one 😀

Roadie riding in the Chilterns is lovely too, though. Red kites everywhere, beautiful autumn scenes in the woods right now.

The trendy coffee should be bought at Workhouse on King Street, not at the Oracle. That way it’ll taste of the best coffee you’ve had in ages.

Blimey, Stoner, I remember you saying that at the time, I’d forgotten.

If you’re happy playing in the mud off road, or for future reference, then there’s good foresty singlestrack riding from the doorstep in Reading. Map link for starting points here: Streetmap linky

Lots of singletrack in the woodland sections between Mapledurham, Woodcote, Checkendon, some cheeky, some bridleway. The Thames Path from Whitchurch to Goring is a swoopy blast. For hillier off road stuff scroll a bit further North to the area around, and to the north of Nettlebed. Hours and hours and hours of fun.

Whenever I look at those maps I realise we’re fairly well provided for here. But yep, Swinley might be the best bet for you

Swinley would probably be the best off road option in these conditions, that’s true. The Chilterns will be muddy enough to sap your soul.

Oh, and quiet road rides, loads of it. Chilterns to the north, endless nice rolling hilly road riding. Out west beyond Goring is the Berkshire Downs, again very nice. South is flat. East is commuterland.

Are you happy with an OS Map? Head north or north west into the hills. Good stuff abounds but it takes a bit of exploring.

It’ll be very muddy though. VERY muddy.

I listen back to music like theirs and it feels pretty dated. I saw them at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge in 1993 and that feels like a good time to have seen them. I still like it, but I get tired of it quickly.

That said, I’m seeing Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield next month, so I’m contradicting myself.

I think TT riders are odd enough that I’d expect they all find each other odd.

These companies have each carved out a large segment of their bits of our economy. Fair play to them I guess, but they could at least play nicely.