"That saddle has stories to tell": Horrified bike shop would "really rather not find out" if battered "single speed... maybe with multiple cadence options" still works; Pogačar skinsuitgate + more on the live blog

Of their many, many incompetent decisions, I'll never forgive them for banning my nearly-new pursuit bike after Lugano.

lesterama wrote:

Of their many, many incompetent decisions, I'll never forgive them for banning my nearly-new pursuit bike after Lugano.

My peeve was when they made me tape over the SIDI logo on my brand new shoes because the classed it as "advertising" and would have declared me a professional if I didnt!

Perversely to what they were intending, this sounds like a call to revolution.
Sod the pitchforks folks, grab those chain locks, brake disks and flat pedals, we storm the barricades at dawn.

Apologies! They weren't barricades, just queues of vehicles stuck in traffic

ROOTminus1 wrote:

Perversely to what they were intending, this sounds like a call to revolution. Sod the pitchforks folks, grab those chain locks, brake disks and flat pedals, we storm the barricades at dawn. Apologies! They weren't barricades, just queues of vehicles stuck in traffic

I think queues of traffic might be very vulnerable to a cyclist swinging a U-lock at their windows! Bring on the revolution!

I look forward to Mr Loophole calling for registered tabards for pedestrians & the making of new laws to address "hostile gesticulation"

O. M. F. G. 

Indeed. I'm so glad Martin got himself banned because he'd be fucking insufferable at this news.

I'm furious at this, because from the videos we saw at the time, Grey's "aggressive gesticulation" was actually sweeping blow that almost definitely made contact with Ward and is what put her under the car. Even if it wasn’t, Ward’s attempt to evade it did. Either way, this result is disgusting.

Was going to comment that it's a shame the same level of compassion from the media can't be shared with the victim of this.

I still don't really understand what Matthew Briggs wants… Hung, drawn, and quartered, maybe?  Alliston got 18 months for something that wouldn't have even made the news if he'd been driving a car.  You can't say that "cyclists are outside the law", on that evidence.

Exactly.  

Any death on our transport network is a tragedy, it just boils my p!ss that pretty much any incident that involves someone on a bike being involved in the death of a pedestrian makes headline news and generates hours and hours of culture war ammunition... sorry I mean "debate".  Whereas anyone else killed by a car driver is just acceptable collateral damage and not newsworthy.  Who cares if dangerous driving is socially acceptable, under policed and sentencing scandalously weak?  If you are going to report it, just frame it as "who's to blame? (nudge nudge, the cyclist innit)" - that's quality journalism!

It's always tempting to see "enemy action" but perhaps just "man bites dog" though?

It's not just that it's very rare (so newsworthy) - it's a threatening upset to the usual order.  High salience.

So it's "who are these cyclists?  How many are there?  How long have they been killing pedestrians - and what are the police / the government doing about it?"  (Clearly the people asking immediately see there are themselves, their friends etc. and then dangerous cyclists, over there).

But the way the meeja goes about it is totally irresponsible and it has damaging consequences (he says having reported 3 egregious close passes and some verbal abuse from a single ride at the weekend).  

And another thing.  I got bitten by a dog last summer.  It's never happened to me before.  Why was I not booked to appear on Good Morning?  Tougher sentencing for four pawed, fur clad vermin I say! 

Then again, I am a cyclist so it was probably my fault.

Clem Fandango wrote:

 

And another thing.  I got bitten by a dog last summer.  It's never happened to me before.  Why was I not booked to appear on Good Morning?  Tougher sentencing for four pawed, fur clad vermin I say! 

You just need to bite it back (preferably with photos or video) and you'll be the star guest on Jacob Rees-Moggie's show (until he finds out you're a cyclist).

Clem Fandango wrote:

And another thing.  I got bitten by a dog last summer.  It's never happened to me before. [...]

Bloody immigrant canines, coming over here from (*checks history*) the continent in small boats* , expecting handouts and biting hard-working families...

* In the early Neolithic.  Or maybe on foot via Doggerland?

These days mate, if you say you're a motorist you get arrested and thrown in prison.

Now now!  Stiff upper lip, man.  Don't you know there's a war on? [1] - and an [accidental backhanded complement from Welsh Conservatives]

I know ... I have no idea.  Maybe in part "stuck in a moment he can't get out of"?  Or taking meaning and personal motivation out of a tragedy by devotion to "fixing the problem"?

Examples from "the other side of the fence" exist - I'm thinking of one of the proponents of the Dutch "Stop de Kindermoord" movement [1] [2].  (The minister of transport at the time had also lost a son in a road collision apparently.  Perhaps the notion of "let the mighty be afflicted also, that they may understand" applies?)

If I remember correctly, Mrs Briggs also stepped into the road without looking. If Alliston had been riding a legal bike, would there have been a case to answer?

Possibly - see Robert Hazeldean

That was a civil case, though and they are very much a lottery.

brooksby wrote:

I still don't really understand what Matthew Briggs wants… Hung, drawn, and quartered, maybe?  Alliston got 18 months for something that wouldn't have even made the news if he'd been driving a car.  You can't say that "cyclists are outside the law", on that evidence.

I suspect that he's being manipulated by malign forces that seek to discredit cyclists and LTNs etc. Probably some part of the Tory Death Cultists.

brooksby wrote:

Alliston got 18 months for something that wouldn't have even made the news if he'd been driving a car.

If Alliston had been driving a car at 2/3 of the speed limit when a ped stepped out in front of him, there's zero chance he would have spent a day in prison, faulty brakes or no. If anything, Matthew Briggs has only drawn attention to how disproportionatley harshly cyclists are often treated in court.

BalladOfStruth wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Alliston got 18 months for something that wouldn't have even made the news if he'd been driving a car.

If Alliston had been driving a car at 2/3 of the speed limit when a ped stepped out in front of him, there's zero chance he would have spent a day in prison, faulty brakes or no. If anything, Matthew Briggs has only drawn attention to how disproportionatley harshly cyclists are often treated in court.

only cyclists can see that. The media are still telling everyone else that Alliston got away due to lack of death by dangerous cycling laws.

When Covid lockdown kicked off, we were getting daily updates in the news about hospitalisations and deaths.

Would be good if the media could report on daily and cumulative injuries and deaths by motorists along with reports on court results about prosecutions...