Your rants here.

veronese68

roger merriman wrote:

Really sorry to hear Steve sounds like your having a shocking time.

Ta, hopefully things can only get better.

mtb-idle

elbowloh wrote:

MTB-Idle wrote:

elbowloh wrote:

Bloody cycling events being messed up. Keep signing up to things, train for them, get excited about them and then it all blows up.

Sorry to hear that but that is one of the many reasons I very rarely take part in organised events. <snip>

I don't do many, may be one a year. Got back a couple of weeks ago from London to Bruges and back (unsupported), but like the idea of doing a big event for the atmosphere now and again. When i did L'etape, doing a route of the TdF a couple of days before the pros including the iconic Tourmalet, with thousands cheering you on, was great.

Now that's more like it (L to . I did the same a couple of years ago.

This year in May me and my main cycling buddy rode to the Waterloo battlefield and back, a great trip.

Last year we rode a massive loop to the Hook of Holland via Dover and Dieppe and then the ferry back to Harwich and from there back to London. 550km in three days was brutal but a great ride.

I've posted various vids of these adventures in the past.

Two of my mates have just done Lejog in nine days. One did the whole charity thing, support, pro photographers en route, accommodation sorted, bags carried etc. The other did it solo. I know which one I prefer (solo or maybe with one other rider).

In the spirit of openness i should divulge that I did ride the RVV/Tour of Flanders sportive in March and absolutely loved it.

tonyf34

Tashman wrote:

TimothyW wrote:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/24/mike-hall-british-distance-cyclist-in-hunger-games-on-wheels-when-killed

Was wearing dark clothing with 'limited reflective qualities' and had a red rear light which was 'hard to see'.

How many steps do we need to take to not be victim blamed for our own murders?

Still, this does neatly encapsulate why I don't buy dark but reflective clothing. Because someone will say it was your fault you got killed... Never the drivers fault for not looking where he was going.

Whilst I get your point, if you're in an area with no lighting and inadequate lights yourself when riding in the dark, it's hard to see how you could be avoided.

Drive at a speed you can stop well within the distance you can see to be clear, it's the most important sentence in the Highway Code yet ignored by so many.
You should be driving in a manner that means you can stop within the distance you can see by your headlights, this is massively important because stuff like fallen trees, animals, broken down vehicles etc don't have lights or hi-vis nor for a vehicle side on would it have any reflective material. We still have the rules as it stands that a bicycle light is legal if it emits 4 candela, do you know how bright that is? Police have already victim blamed here because lights were apparently not bright enough despite being legal. It has only gotten worse with the light war yet not achieved anything except absolving motorists of blame! :twisted:
The onus for a collision absolutely has to be on those that actually do the harm, in this case the motorist, without the motorist there Mike Hall is still living his life. The pushing the responsibility to be seen/staying out of danger onto the vulnerable has never ever worked in terms of increasing safety, it has just allowed those that kill and maim to go about their business with barely any thought to others and get off scott free when an incident does occur, the system and police actively encourage this and are complicit in the deaths and serious injury of the vulnerable with their victim blaming bullsh@t.
This is why the then CTC opposed compulsory rear lights for bicyclists in the 20/30s.

chris_bass

CitizenLee wrote:

You can speculate, but it's really not always the drivers fault and from the reported facts it sounds like the cyclist should have made more of an effort to make himself visible for the conditions he was cycling in. I don't see the article as victim blaming at all. People with experience can behave and act irresponsible too.

Incidentally, since this is the rant thread - how much of a 2018 Twitter-Fauxrage term is "Victim Blaming? Everyone is a ******* victim these days... :roll:

If you aren't a victim you are privileged, as a straight white male, well educated and probably wouldn't be described as "working Class" (if that is even a thing anymore!) I should in theory be the most privileged of them all, just wish someone would let the universe know so I can reap the rewards!

overlord2

So to paraphrase
"We cant blame the 19 year old it might ruin his life and why should we, just blame the scumbag cyclist for, well, just being there, it was his fault for wearing black anyway - g'day"

timothyw

Sums it up. And calling it a hunger games on wheels - are they aware it isn't an actual fight to the death?

The idea is that everyone stays alive and can share stories from the road afterwards.

Just beggars belief that they'd even make that reference.

peat

Re: Mike
I too lean towards giving him the benefit of the doubt on account of being an extremely experienced cyclist (day or night) and the daily displays of incompetent driving I see.

However, we weren't there & there does need to be a discussion about visibility. I've been beeped before whilst out at night and thought nothing of it, only to arrive home and realise - to my horror - that my rear light had stopped working. I'm now paranoid and check my rear light every 10mins or so and always mount a backup. Also, having done a fair bit of long distance riding myself, I have shared the road with alot of bikepackers/randonneurs who have mounted rear lights on the back of their saddlepacks. The hooks are not solid and the lights wobble around directionless. You NEED a solidly mounted light.

Also, while ranting - What is this penchant for black/maroon/brown autumn/winter collections for premium bike clothing? You might aswell wear army fatigues. Don't give the a-holes the excuse of being 'invisible'.

elbowloh

Peat wrote:

Re: Mike
I too lean towards giving him the benefit of the doubt on account of being an extremely experienced cyclist (day or night) and the daily displays of incompetent driving I see.

However, we weren't there & there does need to be a discussion about visibility. I've been beeped before whilst out at night and thought nothing of it, only to arrive home and realise - to my horror - that my rear light had stopped working. I'm now paranoid and check my rear light every 10mins or so and always mount a backup. Also, having done a fair bit of long distance riding myself, I have shared the road with alot of bikepackers/randonneurs who have mounted rear lights on the back of their saddlepacks. The hooks are not solid and the lights wobble around directionless. You NEED a solidly mounted light.

Also, while ranting - What is this penchant for black/maroon/brown autumn/winter collections for premium bike clothing? You might aswell wear army fatigues. Don't give the a-holes the excuse of being 'invisible'.

Snap, I regularly check the rear is working and always have 2 sets of lights on the bike, even if the back ups are little single-led knogs.

slowbike

Re Mike
As he was someone used to riding through the night and doing more miles on his bike than many do in their cars - I'd be surprised if he wasn't lit appropriately. But, things do go wrong or not to plan and I think there needs to be greater explanation into the view that he was insufficiently lit.
However, the likening of the ride to "Hunger Games on Wheels" rather sets the prejudice of the counsel Ken Archer - surely these investigations should be approached with an open mind and no derogatory commentary on either party. I guess that's Australia for you...

To lighten the rants slightly ...
Perfect week for commuting by bike ... except a stiff neck has meant I've had to drive ... the worse bit is that it's not my stiff neck but my wifes - meaning I've had to do extra at home to ensure little slowbike gets to school on time.... oh well ... there's always next week - it'll probably be pissing it down though ..

DrLex

For a more reasoned view on the inquest in to Mike Hall’s tragic end, read this Australian cycling piece.

overlord2

On another note. This is why I would not ride a bike outside of Europe or drive a car tbh.

USA, Australia, and New Zealand accident rates are horrific.

elbowloh

Overlord2 wrote:

On another note. This is why I would not ride a bike outside of Europe or drive a car tbh.

USA, Australia, and New Zealand accident rates are horrific.

Really?

I've driven quite a bit in Australia and didn't notice much of a difference in driving standards. Not driven in the states (Canada yes) or New Zealand though.

peat

I've ridden all over NZ and a tiny bit in Sydney.

I found NZ to be similar to the UK, mostly 'alright' with a few terrifying moments here and there. Sydney I found to be downright hostile.

elbowloh

Peat wrote:

I've ridden all over NZ and a tiny bit in Sydney.

I found NZ to be similar to the UK, mostly 'alright' with a few terrifying moments here and there. Sydney I found to be downright hostile.

In Oz i drove Western Australia, around Perth, Margaret River and round the coast to Albany and then Esperance. It was fine and mostly pretty quiet, so not experienced Sydney.

vpnikolov

Overlord2 wrote:

On another note. This is why I would not ride a bike outside of Europe or drive a car tbh.

USA, Australia, and New Zealand accident rates are horrific.

You are saying this as accidents get highlighted to us, but try and put things into perspective.

Probably you'd think the same for Russia as their dashcam law is putting the spotlight on every single traffic accident out there and the rest of the world thinks it must be a nightmare to drive there while that is not necessarily the case.

tgotb

Overlord2 wrote:

On another note. This is why I would not ride a bike outside of Europe or drive a car tbh.

USA, Australia, and New Zealand accident rates are horrific.

I've driven in all those countries, and they didn't seem much different to the UK. I find the experience of driving on Belgian motorways, or Italian roads in general, far more intimidating.

drhaggis

vpnikolov wrote:

Probably you'd think the same for Russia as their dashcam law is putting the spotlight on every single traffic accident out there and the rest of the world thinks it must be a nightmare to drive there while that is not necessarily the case.

The driving in Russia is actually terrible. There are ten times more fatalities per car than in the UK

awavey

elbowloh wrote:

Overlord2 wrote:

On another note. This is why I would not ride a bike outside of Europe or drive a car tbh.

USA, Australia, and New Zealand accident rates are horrific.

Really?

I've driven quite a bit in Australia and didn't notice much of a difference in driving standards. Not driven in the states (Canada yes) or New Zealand though.

well Im not sure kind of visible driving standards is the issue, I drove over 1000miles in Oz, and vowed never to do it again for various other reasons, not because I thought the driving standards were poor at all, maybe one or two people in the whole trip overtook me because I was sticking to the speed limit, but nothing I saw whilst using taxis/buses worried me that much. Sydney Id agree is abit fraught at times, though no worse than Id expect for most major cities.

but I was certainly warned not to ever risk driving at night, it was literally as soon as the sun started to get down get to where you needed to be and off the roads asap, as at night 1) you did have the wildlife to contend with, 2) there is a much bigger problem with drunk drivers and drunk driving causing accidents than in the UK for sure and 3) the road trains either due to lack of sleep,drivings losing concentration because the roads are just featureless dead straights for miles and miles of nothingness and they just dont encounter much traffic, they zone out and just drive straight through you barely even recognising you were there.

confused@BR

I have driven & ridden in Australia, mostly Sydney and the East Coast. The hostility to cyclists in central Sydney is horrible but fades quickly once you are in the suburbs and minor roads. Nonetheless there is very little respect for cyclists, the best you can hope for is condescension.
There seems to be a polarisation with cyclists, either pootlers (like me) or "B*lls of Steel" roadies carving through the heavy rush-hour traffic.

wolfsbane2k

#BeMoreMike.

https://cycle.org.au/index.php/articles ... ll-inquest

wolfsbane2k

Forgot to put the HRM on last night, left it in the office, meaning no HRM for yesterdays ride home, or todays ride in. I'm such a data tart, I really miss it.

And then after arrival at work and noticed that my backup rear had stopped working, took it off to charge. By the time I got to the desk, I'd lost it... cue 15 mins walking around the place wondering where It had disappeared to..
Gave up, Ordered 2 new £12.99 ones from aldi, when someone handed it to me, as they'd seen me drop it, but had to go into a meeting first. :oops:

dinyull

elbowloh wrote:

Overlord2 wrote:

On another note. This is why I would not ride a bike outside of Europe or drive a car tbh.

USA, Australia, and New Zealand accident rates are horrific.

Really?

I've driven quite a bit in Australia and didn't notice much of a difference in driving standards. Not driven in the states (Canada yes) or New Zealand though.

There is a massive hostility towards cyclists in much of 'stralia. To the point some pro's won't ride in certain cities (think Cadel said it's not worth riding in Sydney).

Wheelspinner

Never let facts interrupt a rant?
UK cyclist deaths 2016 = 102
Australia cyclist deaths 2016 = 29

UK population 2016 = 65.5 million
Australia population 2016 = 24 million

So, you had 2.73 times as many people as us, but 3.5 times as many deaths. And yes, statistics for number of total miles ridden/ driven is a factor for comparison, but a death is still a death whether the deceased rode once a year to the shop for a pack of fags and was unlucky or was Mike Hall.

But apparently Australia is unbelievably dangerous on the roads for cyclists?

wongataa

Wheelspinner wrote:

Never let facts interrupt a rant?
UK cyclist deaths 2016 = 102
Australia cyclist deaths 2016 = 29

UK population 2016 = 65.5 million
Australia population 2016 = 24 million

So, you had 2.73 times as many people as us, but 3.5 times as many deaths. And yes, statistics for number of total miles ridden/ driven is a factor for comparison, but a death is still a death whether the deceased rode once a year to the shop for a pack of fags and was unlucky or was Mike Hall.

But apparently Australia is unbelievably dangerous on the roads for cyclists?

You have to factor in distance ridden. Say for instance not many miles are ridden in Australia compared to the UK it makes it a lot more dangerous and vice versa.

pangolin

wongataa wrote:

Wheelspinner wrote:

Never let facts interrupt a rant?
UK cyclist deaths 2016 = 102
Australia cyclist deaths 2016 = 29

UK population 2016 = 65.5 million
Australia population 2016 = 24 million

So, you had 2.73 times as many people as us, but 3.5 times as many deaths. And yes, statistics for number of total miles ridden/ driven is a factor for comparison, but a death is still a death whether the deceased rode once a year to the shop for a pack of fags and was unlucky or was Mike Hall.

But apparently Australia is unbelievably dangerous on the roads for cyclists?

You have to factor in distance ridden. Say for instance not many miles are ridden in Australia compared to the UK it makes it a lot more dangerous and vice versa.

And number of cyclists surely? If the hypothesis that Australia 'hates cycling' is true, and only a tiny % actually do cycle, then that affects how you interpret the number of cyclist deaths.

veronese68

Veronese68 wrote:

I’ve had a truly sh!t couple of weeks, my dad died, my wife broke her ankle and I’ve picked up a stinking cold. Not looking for sympathy, just a bit of context.
Our neighbours are doing a loft extension and I have been chasing to have some things the builders have done put right since July, but have either been ignored or fobbed off. On Thursday I got a message asking if I could talk to them and the builder asap about what needed to be done as the people the other side of them are moving at the end of this month. I replied that I couldn’t see them until next week as I had a few things on, didn’t go into detail but it was family stuff and the funeral was yesterday.
Yesterday I get another message asking if we can meet them in the afternoon as it needs to be done quickly. Considering I started asking about this work so long ago I thought it a bit rich and as I was otherwise engaged I ignored them. My wife sent them a message explaining why we couldn’t see them then.
I just bumped into the other couple they said had a moving date. They don’t have a moving date and haven’t chased for the scaffolding to be taken down, it’s just our neighbours pushing to get things done quickly now it suits them and using the others as an excuse.
They have behaved appallingly throughout this whole process and this latest episode has left me absolutely furious. I don’t think I’m going to be able to be very civil when I talk to them.

So having been chasing me to get this done urgently they've gone quiet this week. I was chatting to a friend of mine that's a roofer as he noticed some other issues with their work that need rectifying. As we were talking he looked again and said their roof is too high. You can't see it properly because of the scaffold and sheeting enclosing the whole thing so he got his ladders and climbed up from our side for a look. Their flat roof is about a foot higher than it should be. Instead of being below the centre line of the building it's above it.
I really could do without the grief of sorting this, but it's a situation entirely of their own making. If they or the builder had been reasonable in the first place and put things right when they were first asked I wouldn't have been looking at things so closely. Mind you when the scaffolding comes down it will become immediately apparent to all and sundry.

wolfsbane2k

Shifted up to the big ring and the chain kept going and came off the chainring, following by an odd scraping sound at a certain point as I tried to shift it back on again.

Turns out the cage of the FD had snapped off, and was rubbing against the crank as I was trying to shift it back on.

And a spare FD is the one spare I don't have in stock on the shelf; back to the MTB for a few days until I replace it.

Gallywomack

Could just ride it as a 1x till you get a replacement?

wolfsbane2k

Gallywomack wrote:

Could just ride it as a 1x till you get a replacement?

I'll be riding it home 1x, and will see how it goes, but the big, steep, hill in the middle means I really like the lower range for climbing and then the big ring for keeping up with traffic..

tgotb

Wolfsbane2k wrote:

Gallywomack wrote:

Could just ride it as a 1x till you get a replacement?

I'll be riding it home 1x, and will see how it goes, but the big, steep, hill in the middle means I really like the lower range for climbing and then the big ring for keeping up with traffic..

Embrace your inner spinner. Assuming you have a compact, 34x11 is about 84", which any self-respecting trackie would be happy to wind up to 35mph+. Couple of days of that in your legs can't be a bad thing...