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Good Morning Britain asks should cyclists have to wear a "hi-vis uniform" to ride a bike? (+ Mr Loophole makes the case for mandatory helmets); Danny MacAskill doing Danny MacAskill things; But cyclists; One day 'til the Classics + more on the live blog

Happy Friday! The weekend is just around the corner, Dan Alexander will be bringing it home with your final live blog of the week
24 February 2023, 09:21
Stanley Johnson vs Cristo Foufas: Hi-vis debating

Am I agreeing with... St...Sta...Stanley Johnson?! What's the world coming to? He was doing pretty well until the final few second of this clip...yep, it's the sequel to the poll nobody asked for — Johnson vs Foufas...

24 February 2023, 16:47
One. More. Sleep.

Until next time, folks... have a great weekend whatever you're up to (as long as it's cycling-related)... 

24 February 2023, 15:47
Simon MacMichael: What can Thamesmead – once the 'Town of the Future' – teach us about 15-minute cities?

Whatever its opponents may claim, it categorically has nothing to do with some global conspiracy aimed at restricting movement, of forcing people to remain within a mile or so of their home.

No-one's saying you can't drive to the next town to do your weekly supermarket shop, or go into the centre for a night out.

But what it does do is give people the choice of whether or not to do that by having options available to them locally, while at the same time making the areas they call home more liveable, more attractive, and more human.

Is that really such a bad thing?

> What can Thamesmead – once the 'Town of the Future' – teach us about 15-minute cities? 

24 February 2023, 15:27
"Keep yer clean air! We don't want it!"

He's back...

> Tory MP attacks 15-minute city concept with known conspiracy theory 

24 February 2023, 15:03
How big?! Victor Campenaerts to use Classified rear hub with 62 TOOTH chainring at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

These god damn time trialists are at it again...

Race against the clock specialist turned Classics contender Victor Campenaerts is taking an innovative approach to the Opening Weekend, and is set to become the first pro to race one of Classified's rear hubs. Oh, what's more, he's reportedly pairing it with a 1x 62t front chainring...

 The tech from Classified does away with the need for a front mech, effectively allowing riders to run a 2x set-up while enjoying the benefits of 1x (one front chainring rather than two). In short, and hopefully without boring you, there are aero gains from running just a single chainring, plus efficiency gains to be had from a larger number of teeth up front.

> REVIEW: Classified Powershift Kit & Wheelset

But how does it work? Well, the hub has a two-speed gear system that gives you 100 per cent of whatever chainring you have fitted, and then a reduction gear of around 70 per cent of that chainring, essentially doing the job of your 'missing' smaller chainring. So it's like having your front derailleur hidden away in your rear hub. Still with me?

According to Wielerflits, Campenaerts could run a 62 or 63-tooth front custom-made chainring and was spotted using the eye-catching set-up during Lotto Dstny's recon of the route this week.

The only thing that remains to be seen is if his hoods are turned in so far they actually touch...

24 February 2023, 12:47
Cav gets closer but Groenewegen wins UAE Tour sprint

18th yesterday, eighth today. One more sprint tomorrow to crack that first Astana win? 

24 February 2023, 11:19
Spring Classics Eve: One day 'til the cobbles

It's almost time for proper racing. Keep your UAE Tour and early season stage races, this is what it's all about...

Women's and men's race both tomorrow, there's no excuse to leave the sofa all day, except maybe for snacks and to refill your glass. There are plenty of savage bergs to be conquered before the finishing double-header of Muur and Bosberg. Will anyone escape? Will there be a sprint? Van Vleuten, Bäckstedt, Kopecky, Vollering, Wiebes, Balsamo, Longho Borghini...

 Pidcock, Van Baarle, Asgreen, Wright,  Campenaerts, Stuyven, Mohoric, Kristoff, Sagan, De Lie, Wellens, Küng, Stewart, Pollit, Meeus, Van Avermaet, Naesen, Lampaert, Ballerini, Benoot, Laporte...

Who are your favourites?

24 February 2023, 11:06
Are we the baddies?
24 February 2023, 10:45
But cyclists

Make sure you've got your hi-vis on...

24 February 2023, 10:08
Mr Loophole makes the case for mandatory helmets

It's a live blog full house this morning. The radio and TV producers of the world have hit a brick wall, must be a slow news day because all the greatest hits are on repeat... (he loves us really)...

BBC Three Counties Radio joined the party, getting Mr Loophole on to talk about helmets...

"Cyclists are so vulnerable," he told Jonathan Vernon-Smith. "They are exposed to massive dangers on the road from motorists, from the road surface itself and it just seems to be common sense to say you need to wear these items to protect yourself.

"I've been talking about this for a long time. What's astonishing to me is why anyone's astonished that anyone would suggest this because we get into a car which is a mass of metal, you're protected and you have to wear a seatbelt because it makes you safe... how can you possibly get onto a bicycle with that degree of vulnerability and say 'I don't really want to protect my head and I'm not that bothered about being seen'.

"What sort of mindset enables you to have got that thought process? If you have that thought process, is it right that society, the NHS or whoever should pick the bill up?

"This isn't just about cyclists. Motorists have to play a roll as well but while we are talking about cyclists it just seems to make common sense to do what you can to protect yourself and if you're not going to I'm sorry but we're not going to give you a choice.

"It's going to be a mandatory requirement because as Dan Walker very happily said, it saved his life. Irrespective of blame. We all make mistakes when we're cycling, we all make mistakes when we're driving, but if those mistakes could be fatal and that could be avoided by simply wearing something then surely as a society we have no choice, we have to adopt that."

24 February 2023, 10:01
Danny MacAskill doing Danny MacAskill things

Oh look a bicycle... just gone 10 and that's the first one of those the live blog has seen this morning...

24 February 2023, 09:52
Deal.
24 February 2023, 09:32
But what should GMB be debating if they really care about road safety?

Plenty of replies to point GMB's producers in the direction of future discussions that might be a more useful use of everyone's time...

24 February 2023, 08:51
Good Morning Britain asks should cyclists have to wear a "hi-vis uniform" to ride a bike?

It has been one of those weeks — helmet talk, claims cyclists should be made to use cycle lanes and now another old favourite... mandatory hi-vis...

Courtesy of the (self-dubbed, might I add) UK's most talked about breakfast television show, but maybe that's the point; stir the pot with 'debates' and hot topic discussion points, get the people going and watch the calls and social media coverage roll in?

Anyway, we'll be on the look out for if the topic appears on GMB this morning to watch it so you don't have to. And while someone will probably tell us just to ignore it, like Chris Boardman said: "Don't give it air time. Don't answer stupid questions" when these silly comments about cycling pop up, but this isn't just your usual anonymous Twitter troll spouting off... it's one of our biggest broadcaster's headline breakfast show. 

Then again when you've got national police forces making headlines such as this...

> Police ask pedestrians to wear hi-vis following spate of road deaths in Scotland

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised...

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.

Add new comment

90 comments

Avatar
brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes

http://citizenrider.blogspot.com/2023/02/bike-zoos.html

cafiend (BTL) wrote:

Through all of this, we have to keep riding, or the rest of society will happily conclude that no one wanted to be out there anyway, so let's save the money and make a nice multilane arterial to the park where the last bike riders on earth can circle happily for hours in an attractively landscaped course around acres of parking lots.

Avatar
ktache replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Thank you.

I always enjoyed reading the musings of citizenrider, but it's one of those blog names I forget.

And he still writes, many of the blogs I really liked stopped.

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Hirsute | 1 year ago
2 likes

Shocking footage

https://twitter.com/CyclistsCar/status/1629204840906719233

"This was Jarrow, Tyne & Wear In March of last year. I’m mostly recovered now."

Careless driving because no one was killed.

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 1 year ago
7 likes

I was happily cycling yesterday with my helmet on, lights on (in daylight) hi viz jacket and a van pulled out from a side road so I had to apply the brakes sharpish. Driver was looking at his mobile phone and didn't even look up to acknowledge me. Just kept going. 
 

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Kapelmuur | 1 year ago
7 likes

An estimeed poster has  mentioned dangers for blind pedestrian, surely their biggest problem is cars parked on footpaths.

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marmotte27 replied to Kapelmuur | 1 year ago
10 likes

Yes, alwas try setting marginalised groups one on another. In my town they took away bike racks to make space for a handicapped parking bay. Instead of taking away one of the fifty  other parking bays at that place.

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Cycloid | 1 year ago
9 likes

I wish we could put Hi-Viz (and helmets) away for ever.
The problem is that, it's a no brainer for people without brains. 

Mr Loophole (the voice of reason) says :-
"Cyclists are so vulnerable. They are exposed to massive dangers on the road from motorists, from the road surface itself and it just seems to be common sense to say you need to wear these items to protect yourself"

You cannot argue with that, and there may even be a tiny bit of truth in his statement. It is of course addressing the symptom and not the cause of the problem whilst going down the route of Cyclist Responsibility > Victim Blame > Excusing Drivers.

Parliament is full of such clear thinking people and I believe it is only a matter of time before Hi-Vis becomes a legal requirement, AND it will pull in votes from the motoring lobby at the same time. It's a no brainer (I think I've already said that once).

Cycling UK has issued a fact sheet on Hi-Viz which tells us what I think most cyclists aready know. Hi-Viz makes cyclists more visible but does not significantly reduce the collision rate.

While we are talking Hi-Viz - What do we mean by the term? There is no legal definition, I could market a camo jacket as Hi-Viz, (and it would be if you were standing in field of daffodils). If it was made a legal requirement i suspect parliament would go for BS 471, which is basically road workers safety jackets. It's a very tight spec which would mean the end of  all cycling wear as we know it. (there is a lesser spec, BS 17353 which is not very good) My club colours are Red, White, and Black and would not be described as Hi-Viz, but it is the same colour combination as used for Give Way and most other warning signs signs, so there's absolutely no excuse for not seeing me.

Avatar
Sriracha replied to Cycloid | 1 year ago
2 likes

Regarding the daffodils, etc, the logic driving the hi-viz brigade will be used in such circumstances to exonerate motorists who fail to see the hi-viz:
"Oh well, you see, due to the particulars of the background and lighting, the hi-viz didn't work, so the motorists was not at fault."

Avatar
Cycloid replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
2 likes

Agreed
As a cyclist you are always competing against your background to be seen.
You can choose what you wear, but you cannot choose your background.
Generally speaking Hi-Vis will be a good option, but not always and in the event of a SMIDSY collision you can always claim that you took the most responsible option when you left home.
Being seen is a lottery - Don't ride alongside a Dyno Rod van wearing orange!

Avatar
cmedred | 1 year ago
10 likes

It's more than a little ironic that the actual data - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5168492/ - makes a better case for putting helmets on motorists and their passengers than on cyclists given the second leading cause of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) is among people in cars that are involved in crashes.  The first leading cause, of course, is among old people falling down. Maybe there needs to be a discussion of at what age it should become mandatory to wear a helmet at all times when out of bed.

 

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jaymack | 1 year ago
5 likes

Do I need medication now that I find myself in agreement with Stanley Johnson?

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JustTryingToGet... replied to jaymack | 1 year ago
5 likes
jaymack wrote:

Do I need medication now that I find myself in agreement with Stanley Johnson?

You'll be OK. A broken clock is right twice a day, he was always going to stumble on something eventually.

Avatar
jaymack replied to JustTryingToGetFromAtoB | 1 year ago
3 likes

Thank you for being so reassuring, my mind is now at ease

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eburtthebike replied to JustTryingToGetFromAtoB | 1 year ago
9 likes

JustTryingToGetFromAtoB wrote:
jaymack wrote:

Do I need medication now that I find myself in agreement with Stanley Johnson?

You'll be OK. A broken clock is right twice a day, .

In this case, a broken cuckoo clock.

Avatar
BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP replied to jaymack | 1 year ago
3 likes

Isn't this  this the chap who applied for EU / French citizenship after his son decided to follow the swivel eyed loon path? Have to agree with him on that too. 

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TriTaxMan | 1 year ago
6 likes

We have some high quality journalists in the UK.

Durham Roads Policing Tweeted a picture of a damaged police car with the caption "Cyclists!!  Please wear more hi-viz clothing!  As you can see, that prevents all collisions".  The tweet has since been deleted.

And that has been transformed into "Drama as police car hit by a cyclist on County Durham road - causing extensive damage"

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrLBwn5xPhjv68KRUIM34lQ;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1677276537/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fuk.news.yahoo.com%2fdrama-police-car-hit-cyclist-110930043.html/RK=2/RS=fqyr06q_nyp1iNIprV2ZbaDMwa8-

Avatar
Mungecrundle replied to TriTaxMan | 1 year ago
3 likes

The damage to that car was caused in a collision with a person riding a bicycle?

Was the cyclist fired from an artillery piece? Or perhaps someone was testing a depleted uranium tipped cycle helmet?

Avatar
Steve K replied to Mungecrundle | 1 year ago
5 likes

(Not sure if you realise this already and I'm being whooshed).  No, the damage was not caused by the bike.  Durham police were making a humorous point about the ineffectiveness of hi viz, and the journalist misunderstood.

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hutchdaddy | 1 year ago
12 likes

Nevermind the discussion about high Vis and helmets. It's the patronising attitude from so many non-cyclists that really makes me wanna puke.

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Hirsute | 1 year ago
5 likes

Wtjs is going to love this. Took my ebike in for a firmware update and they rang up to say there is a risk it will brick it ! So I am not doing it !

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TheUnready replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
2 likes

It's not just ebikes!

I upgraded the firmware on my SRAM Red eTap AXS components on my SystemSix and the left controller (shifter) bricked.

Support calls with SRAM couldn't fix it, and as it's out of its 2 year warranty, SRAM have washed their hands of it.

The bike is currently in the shop awaiting identification and fitting of the correct new component - something that is likely to cost me north of a grand!

Strangely enough, the next bike I buy will have a Shimano groupset!

Avatar
Rik Mayals unde... replied to TheUnready | 1 year ago
4 likes

And it is stories such as this which reinforce my thoughts that I will be a luddite, and stick with mechanical groupsets on all my bikes. Utter madness. Just see how many problems the pro teams are having with electronic gears.

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hawkinspeter replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 1 year ago
0 likes
Biker Phil wrote:

And it is stories such as this which reinforce my thoughts that I will be a luddite, and stick with mechanical groupsets on all my bikes. Utter madness. Just see how many problems the pro teams are having with electronic gears.

I like my Di2 gears, but then I enjoy playing with tech. I periodically check for any firmware updates and apply them whenever they're available as usually updates make things better. There's often a small risk of bricking devices, but most of the time the problem is with interrupting the update. Most well designed devices will have a way to recover, but there's always the ones that need you to open up and muck around with some reflashing interface.

Avatar
Oldfatgit | 1 year ago
11 likes

Were all these cyclist haters denied bikes when they were kids?
Is that the simplistic truth of it .... these people had to watch from the sidelines in jealousy, while their bike owning friends went out and enjoyed themselves?

Avatar
ThatBloodyCyclist | 1 year ago
15 likes

Cristo has decided to block me on Twitter, even though we have never communicated with each other, mentioned or commented on each other's tweets. Has this ShockJock ever ridden a bicycle, scooter or any other non-motoristed device with wheels?

Don't comment on something that you have no experience in using. Oh and make sure you wear a helmet next time you get in a car, or board a bus, train or aeroplane. They are much faster and heavier, and will exert a much greater force on your head when colliding with another object.

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Hirsute replied to ThatBloodyCyclist | 1 year ago
6 likes

He must have suspected you are eburt in another guise.

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dreamlx10 | 1 year ago
11 likes

Imagine taking advice from that fat toe-rag

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skeuomorph | 1 year ago
11 likes

Dark cars are 47% more likely to be involved in accidents (at dawn and dusk) There's actual proper stats and studies and stuff, even the Telegraph agrees. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7845366/Black-cars-more-likely....

So... cyclist should have to wear hi-viz as soon as all cars are only available in hi-viz.

Get your highlighters ready!

Avatar
Steve K replied to skeuomorph | 1 year ago
7 likes

skeuomorph wrote:

Dark cars are 47% more likely to be involved in accidents (at dawn and dusk) There's actual proper stats and studies and stuff, even the Telegraph agrees. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7845366/Black-cars-more-likely....

So... cyclist should have to wear hi-viz as soon as all cars are only available in hi-viz.

Get your highlighters ready!

Pointless anecdote.  We had a great family friend (now long dead) who was a senior civil servant in the Department of Transport.  When I got my first car (a dark brown mini) in 1990, he told me that some years before they had done a study of which colour car was safest.  It had been pretty inconclusive as it depended on conditions (so for example dark cars were bad as night, but white cars were bad in fog, I think).  The only strong conclusion was that brown cars were the worst overall.

He may, of course, have just been winding me up.  I'll never know now.

 

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
2 likes

There's some TomTom data showing their traffic index for various cities in 2022: https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/ranking/

London is firmly in first (last?) place for journey times etc. and it's getting worse as it's up (down?) 1m 50s since 2021.

36 minutes 20 seconds to travel 10km.

You couldn't make it up.

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