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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...

SUMMARY

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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 is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.

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67 comments

Avatar
armb replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
1 like
Rendel Harris wrote:

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.

Gossamer Albatross had an upright rider in a pod that was deeper below the wing than necessary just to hold the rider, so there must be other considerations like stability, or bracing angle of cables to wing.
(And if your pilot/cyclist is used to training on an upright bike, the power lost in an unfamiliar position could be more than the gain.)

MIT Daedalus was more recumbent though.

(A plane won't get the same 20% benefit a bike does, because the drag from the wings will be the same even if the cockpit drag is zero.

Avatar
Wingguy replied to Patrick9-32 | 1 year ago
2 likes

Patrick9-32 wrote:

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%?

Looking at it I'd say it's pretty obvious that they have simply designed the craft around the bike that their chosen rider happens to own  3

Avatar
Patrick9-32 replied to EK Spinner | 1 year ago
0 likes

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 exersion.) 

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to Patrick9-32 | 1 year ago
0 likes

Patrick9-32 wrote:

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 exersion.) 

I think you are right. Taking one of the Fazua motor systems that add ~5-10% weight to the entire system now I would think its a no brainer.  Plenty of places to lop weight off the bike too.

Avatar
Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
6 likes

Wasn't there something very similar to that bike plane that nearly made it over the Channel about forty years ago? Sure I can remember it on Blue Peter!

ETA to answer my own question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacCready_Gossamer_Albatross

Avatar
sean1 replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
4 likes

Southampton University built a human powered plane back in 1962.

https://youtu.be/FQq72OvEGcw

 

 

Avatar
TheBillder replied to sean1 | 1 year ago
2 likes

Superb, but quite difficult to distinguish from parody.

I see that cotter pins didn't stop them!

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