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Police mic-drop reply to those (including Sajid Javid) claiming five-year-old cyclist shouldn't be on the road; Custom bicycle builder creates... 'the bike-plane'; Bernal nips to the shops (on his Dogma) + more on the live blog

It's the end of another week on the live blog, with Dan Alexander once again in charge of your updates this Friday...
11 November 2022, 10:00
Police mic-drop reply to those (including Sajid Javid) claiming five-year-old cyclist shouldn't be on the road

With the views on the video now up to 2.5 million, roughly equivalent to the number of people who live in Leeds and Northern Ireland combined, and replies nearing 9,000, Durham Roads and Armed Policing Unit's Twitter admin stepped forward to deliver a thread for Sajid Javid, Baroness Foster, Susan Hall and the many others who have a problem with a child riding a bicycle on a road...

> Sajid Javid blames father of five-year-old cyclist for letting child ride on road in viral video

Drop that mic...

Oh, and as a reminder of what 'just cycle on the footway' might have looked like...

11 November 2022, 12:53
Plenty of positivity for Durham Roads Policing Unit

Anyone heard from Sajid Javid today?

11 November 2022, 15:17
More education from the Surrey traffic cops
11 November 2022, 16:54
Get Remco on the plane

It's the last chance for Belgium's 'golden generation' in Qatar this World Cup...although I'm sure we've been saying that for at least two major tournaments...

Maybe they just need a rainbow generation led by world champ Remco?

Anyway, that's enough football chat for one live blog. We'll catch you on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone! 

11 November 2022, 14:28
It's those cycle lanes causing carnage again...
11 November 2022, 14:10
Le Col launches Victoria Pendleton collection
Victoria Pendleton Le Col collection

Le Col has teamed up with double Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton on a new collection. The kit design apparently mirrors the Le Col ambassador's tattoos, with a snakeskin-style pattern influenced by Pendleton's life on and off the bike.

The collection includes a long and short-sleeved version, available in black and navy and black respectively. Unsurprisingly the collection includes both women's and men's fits, and there are also additional accessories such as socks, caps and snoods.

11 November 2022, 14:01
London bike crime: 1% of thieves identified and thefts rise in a quarter of boroughs
Bike theft hotspot sign (Bikmo)

Lawtons Law Firm UK went over Metropolitan Police data and found that in the last year just one in every 100 London bike thefts resulted in a formal sanction. Their analysis also showed that a quarter of boroughs have seen a rise, and the South West is the worst affected part of the capital.

> Three quarters of Brits don't expect police to bother investigating bike thefts

Sutton is the borough with the greatest year-on-year increase at almost one-third (32%), followed by Hounslow (25%) and Bexley (13%).

11 November 2022, 12:31
7 tips to get the best disc brake performance on your bike

11 November 2022, 12:06
Your thoughts on the bike-plane
Bird-plane (screenshot JRat Customs/@_jrat)

EK Spinner asked an interesting question in the comments about that bike-plane...

"Why the aero TT position? He is inside a faring, is that really the best position for power delivery?"

I'd love to give you a serious explainer answer EK, but I don't have one... the question did prompt a few replies from a couple of you willing to give it some thought...

Personal favourite... hawkinspeter reckons it's quite simple... "It's an AEROplane, not an UPRIGHTplane." That's the level we aspire to here on the live blog!

Patrick9-32: "Power to weight would seem to be key for takeoff but it (to my completely without aeronautical training brain) seems for sustained flight the aerodynamics of the vehicle are going to be the biggest factor. As such, why not a recumbent position to reduce the frontal area of the greenhouse by like 50%?"

Rendel Harris: "Like you, I've no idea how much advantage that would confer aerodynamically but a recumbent position reduces the power output for the same effort by around 20%, so it would have to be quite a big one."

Patrick9-32: "Also, with the massive advancements of bicycle motors to the point where they can put out sustained power far above any human over the last few years it would be very cool to have one of these incredible planes flying for hours at a time with electric assistance with the pilot in relative comfort (i.e. not bleeding from the eyeballs with exertion.)"

Thanks to Rendel for sharing this Wiki page of something similar — the Gossamer Albatross — which successfully completed a crossing of the English Channel back in 1979... while sean1 shared this vid of a human-powered plane Southampton University built in the 60s...

11 November 2022, 11:08
Friday throwback

Those long July days seem well in the past now...

11 November 2022, 09:27
Bernal nips to the shops (on his Dogma)

Egg-cellent content...

Can't lie we were expecting the caption to be something a bit more jovial, maybe even a cracking egg pun to scramble our brains... instead, Google Translate offered this: "Buying lunch today at the neighbourhood store, Veci says that she is already thinking of selling her business because the prices have risen and she cannot support it 😑"

11 November 2022, 08:44
Custom bicycle builder creates... 'the bike-plane'... and it even gets off the runway

Is it a bird? No. Is it a plane? Kind of. Is it a Lycra-clad man smashing 400w in a greenhouse with wings? YES!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Jrat Carter (@_jrat)

We'd have liked to see how one 'lands' the bike-plane... I would suggest almost certainly somewhat abruptly once your legs turn to jelly and you can taste blood. We wonder if Ryanair will sit up and take notice?

 'What if we charge passengers to pedal themselves to Alicante? We could bill them extra for clipless pedals, a sweat towel and energy gels. Genius.'

The design is one of Jarrett Carter's, or JRat Customs as he's known online, and is just one of his eye-catching stable of bikes, bike-planes and e-bikes...

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

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67 comments

Avatar
Hirsute | 1 year ago
6 likes

This made me laugh out loud

"Happy to say that 453rd consecutive 'Drive to School Week' was a huge success. We hardly even needed to publicise it either. Great job everyone, see you all again next week! "
 
//pbs.twimg.com/media/FhS5DhIWYAAy5Ml?format=jpg&name=small)

 

Avatar
Hirsute | 1 year ago
1 like

Oh look Nigel is on social media  as stvwbr

https://mobile.twitter.com/MikeyCycling/status/1591091081642639361

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Steve K | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yay - my borough has the greatest increase in bike theft.  indecision

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adamrice | 1 year ago
0 likes

The Gossamer  Albatross is on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington DC. You can walk right up to it and see that it's held together with the same kind of tape that's probably sitting on your desk. I found it very affecting.

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
1 like

[pedant on] Excellent post from the police, but it's "wont" not "want" [pedand off]

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quiff replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
3 likes

eburtthebike wrote:

[pedant on] Excellent post from the police, but it's "wont" not "want" [pedand off]

Physician, heal thyself! 

Avatar
Bmblbzzz replied to quiff | 1 year ago
1 like

I kinda assumed burt was making a deliberate error, in order to avoid accusations of perfectionism. And just to take the piss.

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quiff replied to Bmblbzzz | 1 year ago
1 like

Yeah, I did wonder that after I posted (having first triple-checked my spelling of physician!)

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eburtthebike replied to Bmblbzzz | 1 year ago
0 likes

Bmblbzzz wrote:

I kinda assumed burt was making a deliberate error, in order to avoid accusations of perfectionism. And just to take the piss.

smiley  Oh lord, it's hard to be humble.

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imajez replied to Bmblbzzz | 1 year ago
2 likes

Lawrence's Law - The probability of making a spelling or grammatical mistake approaches 1, when correcting someone else on such an error.

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IanMSpencer replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
4 likes

I thought it, but didn't say it  3 You do know that by the Rules of Teh InterWeb, a minor spelling mistake means that however wise and sensible a post may sound, it has been proved to be entirely wrong by such an error?*

*See below  3

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Shake replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
1 like

It's amazing I still have a job with this Dyslexia invalidating everything I write and say

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hawkinspeter replied to Shake | 1 year ago
4 likes

Shake wrote:

It's amazing I still have a job with this Dyslexia invalidating everything I write and say

...and why is dyslexia so hard to spell?

Avatar
Steve K replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
4 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

Shake wrote:

It's amazing I still have a job with this Dyslexia invalidating everything I write and say

...and why is dyslexia so hard to spell?

And why does monosyllabic have so many syllables?

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to Shake | 1 year ago
0 likes

Shake wrote:

It's amazing I still have a job with this Dyslexia invalidating everything I write and say

How did you get a job with "This Dyslexia" and exactly what do they do?

Avatar
Zazz53 | 1 year ago
10 likes

Logic suggests that if it is too dangerous for anyone under a certain age to cycle it must be impossible for them to cross a road on foot since that makes them an even more vulnerable road user.  They should all just stay at home so the rest of us can get on with our (obviously) more important journeys by car.

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northstar | 1 year ago
2 likes

"dpps" - firstly it has nothing to do with them.

Secondly....no "dpps", no "motorists" have *any* rights to any public highway space.

That was a failed and illegal political statenent put out by tory liars and failures.

Anyone who votes tory is glutton for punishment and diesn't have a brain. road.cc should kniw better than to publish lies too...how much....?

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Hirsute replied to northstar | 1 year ago
0 likes

Have you amended your username or just not been active for a long time ?

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brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

Thoughts on the bike/plane:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj6-LG5VpGk

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espressodan | 1 year ago
15 likes

Daily Mail readers yesterday... "Brave police officers on the frontline against crime"

Daily Mail readers today... "OUTRAGEOUS. Soft doughnut eating coppers back dozy cyclist".

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wtjs replied to espressodan | 1 year ago
6 likes

Daily Mail readers yesterday... "Brave police officers on the frontline against crime"

Daily Mail readers today... "OUTRAGEOUS. Soft doughnut eating coppers back dozy cyclist".

I'm happy to take your word for this, as I will not demean myself by consulting the epitome of hyper-junk press. The DM was famous for taking diametrically opposed simultaneous positions on the HPV ('cervical cancer') vaccine for young girls in its UK and Irish editions

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BalladOfStruth | 1 year ago
7 likes

Oh good. The "five-year-old-on-a-bike" story is still in the news. I can't wait for this thread to turn into a 100+ comment troll-fest like the others...

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qwerty360 | 1 year ago
2 likes

Hmm; New Job - Create a thread (similar to https://twitter.com/ormondroyd/status/910244326567006211) with just expert responses to that video explaining that the driver, not the child or father, was fully in the wrong...

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wtjs | 1 year ago
5 likes

Crikey! Well done, Durham Police- I write as an authentic native of Consett, Co. Durham (as opposed to the sad gits on here claiming false identities).

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northstar replied to wtjs | 1 year ago
1 like

🤦🏻‍♀️

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brooksby replied to wtjs | 1 year ago
4 likes

wtjs wrote:

Crikey! Well done, Durham Police- I write as an authentic native of Consett, Co. Durham (as opposed to the sad gits on here claiming false identities).

Is your real name Phileas Fogg?  Of Meadomsley Road, Consett?  3

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wtjs replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

No, Ravenside Terrace, and there's no PF in WTJS

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chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

What I thought!  Delicious!

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TheBillder | 1 year ago
1 like
Dan Alexander wrote:

We'd have liked to see how one 'lands' the bike-plane... I would suggest almost certainly somewhat abruptly once your legs turn to jelly and you can taste blood.

Don't ever go in a glider then.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider will be of interest if you ever fly in an airliner.

Avatar
The Accountant | 1 year ago
2 likes

How can you take seriously a police force duffer, sat behind a screen munching doughnuts, posting pithy comments on Twitter all day?

This is someone who can't even spell the word "hierarchy" correctly, let alone work out that there was a safe passing distance between the car and the child. These people aren't legal experts, top lawyers, or different to any layperson commenting on the story.

Oi, Durham police, try solving some crimes instead of "policing attitudes", you woke wastes of space! Do your job, or resign and let someone competent take over.

That is all.

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