Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

"The man who never misses has officially missed": Adrian Chiles claims expensive cargo bikes are a "new kind of class politics"; Foul-mouthed rant at cyclist not using cycle lane... but public sticks up for rider + more on the live blog

Only two sleeps until San Remo... unfortunately Pidcock missing out with a concussion wasn't a bad dream. Dan Alexander will have all the rest of your updates from the cycling world this Thursday...
16 March 2023, 15:59
Things that cost more than a cargo bike

Since Adrian Chiles' column about £3,999 cargo bikes is getting a lot of attention we thought we'd take a look at some other less practical purchases, just for comparison with the potentially lifelong, and in some cases car-replacing, investment that is a cargo bike...

  • You could buy seven and a half of the cargo bikes Chiles took issue with for the price of... his motor, the BMW 520d...
  • Or one 'mini' Dior bag
Dior bag cargo bike comparison
  • 2,000 copies of the Guardian featuring Chiles' column
  • A couple of steaks seasoned by a questionable social media influencer
Salt Bae bill cargo bike comparison
  • Half a day represented by Mr Loophole (according to the Express
  • Seven of the 360-degree cameras Jeremy Vine never leaves the house without
16 March 2023, 09:22
So how cheap is your car, Adrian? Ah... right... okay...

For reference, as per a Sunday Times 2018 interview, Chiles' current motor, since 2016, is a BMW 520d...

Adrian Chiles Sunday Times interview (Sunday Times)

Better still...

Adrian Chiles Sunday Times interview (Sunday Times)

 All under the four grand mark, I assume...

16 March 2023, 08:56
"The man who never misses has officially missed": Adrian Chiles claims expensive cargo bikes are a "new kind of class politics"

The run had to come to an end someday... a harsh Thursday morning reminder that all of life's joys are fleeting...

Adrian Chiles, for context, is the writer and broadcaster behind such Pulitzer-worthy Guardian opinion pieces as 'I have a urinal in my flat and it has changed my life' and 'Cheddar and stout?! Salted caramel?! This messing with hot cross buns has to stop'. As worthy musings as those are, I'm not sure today's column is going to go down quite as well. In fact, scrap the speculation, it hasn't...

 A local group of Spokes, the Lothian-based campaign for better conditions for every day cyclists was quick to point out to Chiles the £3,999 price tag he was turning his nose up at might not seem quite as steep if he were to pop down to his local dealership for a new motor. That's without mentioning "the growing number of community schemes lending out cargo bikes for free," they added.

West Midlands Walking & Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter called Chiles' take "strange". "When I bought my first cargo bike for £4,000 it was so useful it enabled me to get rid of my car, saving me around £6,000 a year in finance repayments and running costs," he explained. "A few years later, I upgraded to a bigger cargo bike and sold the old one for £2,800."

Stick to spoons, urinals and hot cross buns, Adrian... 

16 March 2023, 16:56
Matej Mohorič dusts off the dropper post ahead of Milan-San Remo

Just as we reported at Strade Bianche, Matej Mohorič has got the dropper post out again...

16 March 2023, 15:50
"That is going to be smelly": Stan Dewulf's soft landing at GP Denain

Juan Sebastián Molano got the win in the end, but this was our take-home story from the race...

Hugo Hofstetter's bars break during GP Denain (GCN)

> "That's not normal": Arkéa-Samsic pro breaks TWO sets of Bianchi handlebars during cobbled race 

16 March 2023, 12:11
Introducing your special guest...
16 March 2023, 14:36
Women's Tour launches crowdfunding campaign to cover sponsorship shortfall
16 March 2023, 13:59
Supersapiens: "This isn't about going faster. This is about health"
16 March 2023, 13:25
"I am extremely disappointed in the UCI's decision": Kristen Faulkner comments on Strade Bianche disqualification

On Tuesday we reported that Jayco-AlUla, the team of Kristen Faulkner, had accepted her disqualification from Strade Bianche for wearing a glucose monitor. Well, Faulkner herself has released a statement too, saying she supports a fair environment for all athletes, but has been left "extremely disappointed" by the UCI's decision.

"I have never used glucose data in competition," she said. "I was under the impression that I could race with my device if it did not record any data, because there was no performance advantage whatsoever. The UCI holds the position that wearing a non-connected patch itself — even if there is no transmission of data and no performance advantage — is enough to disqualify me.

"My intent was not to violate any rules or gain an unfair advantage. I am proud of how I raced Strade Bianche and I am extremely disappointed in the UCI's decision. I also hope that one day glucose monitors are allowed in racing. I believe they are a valuable tool for athletes — especially women — to take care of physical health, though that is a conversation for another time.

"I look forward to the rest of the season and I hope that Strade Bianche is one of many WorldTour podiums to come."

With her disqualification, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig has been bumped up to third.

16 March 2023, 11:26
One of the UK's best days in the saddle
 

Alright, Jake, you big show off... possibly the most beautiful three hours plus for most people? Get your favourite three-hour routes in the comments...

16 March 2023, 11:05
"I've got one chance left to win it": Peter Sagan's San Remo swansong

Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment. Would you capture it, or just let it slip?

Will the real Peter Sagan please stand up? (On the San Remo top step of the podium)... Eminem references out the way, it's Sagan's final Milan-San Remo on Saturday, the Monument he always seemed best suited to winning but never has...

Milan-San Remo 2012 Gerald Ciolek wins (picture Gian Mattia D'Alberto, LaPresse, RCS Sport

[Gian Mattia D'Alberto — LaPresse]

Two second places, one behind Gerald Ciolek's stunning underdog victory (above), another from an escape trio including eventual winner Michał Kwiatkowski and Julian Alaphilippe (below). Five fourth places, one sixth place and a tenth. Is Saturday finally the day? Stranger things have happened but the three-time World Champion will need to improve on his underwhelming start to his final WorldTour season.

Michal Kwiatkowski win Milan-San Remo 2017 - picture credit LaPresse - D'Alberto-Ferrari.jpg

[LaPresse — D'Alberto-Ferrari] 

Speaking to Cyclingnews, Sagan acknowledges "I've got one chance left to win it"...

"Milan-San Remo has always been a race that suits me but has always been a difficult race for me to win," he said. "I haven't managed to win Milan-San Remo for a lot of different reasons and because every year is a different race. Losing in 2017 hurt a lot, I admit it. I felt really strong that day, but they told me information from the team car that was wrong, so I made a bad tactical decision. But as I said, Milan-San Remo is decided even in a split second and you don’t get a second chance to win.

"Milan-San Remo is also special in that sense, there so much you can't control. If you're the absolute strongest at the Tour of Flanders, you can win quite easily. Milan-San Remo is more of a lottery and everything is decided in the last five kilometres, so there's no real time to correct any errors you make or to turn things around if you have a mechanical or a problem. Milan-San Remo is all or nothing."

16 March 2023, 10:26
Foul-mouthed rant at cyclist not using cycle lane... but public sticks up for ride

WARNING: Contains strong language...

To be honest, we weren't going to share this until we spotted a glimmer of hope in the replies...(granted, we chose to ignore asking what constitutes a 'serious cyclist'?)...

Yes, admittedly the other 95 per cent of replies were people with football clubs in their name or picture tagging Jeremy Vine... 

Anyone got any local knowledge on this one?

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

81 comments

Avatar
ktache | 1 year ago
4 likes

Finally managed to finish fitting mudguards to my Ultimate Commuter. SKS Bluemels 75, longs. Took me about a year and a half. Originally purchased to see if I can get on with real mudguards before I splash serious money on some custom wooden ones from the US. No-one really makes standard guards for 27.5+ tyres, alongside a hoped for option of switching to 29s at 2.5. the Bluemels are a little narrow, but my 3inch Surly Dirt Wizards come up narrow. My Maxxis Chrinicals 3inch come up true, but summer can be dryer and sometimes less muddy.

I first made an attempt at fitting Xmas 21, (I knew it wasn't going to be easy) no holes in the rear, and SKS in their wisdom give a strut for the front that would be to short for a 26 inch wheel for guards that are meant to fit 27.5 or 29. Others have complained of this in reviews.

So the proper strut was found, and a few other small parts I thought I might need (falsely) from SJS. And then left it until last Xmas. 

When I found I needed more small parts, different ones, not the ones I already got. Some not available in this country. And bolts, they give you spacers to fit the strut around the front, but not the bolts. Borrowed a drill and some bits, (always rented, no need to drill holes) bits were a bit blunt, nice drill though. Fitted the rear on Monday, nice, no muddy splatter on the back of the bag. Plucked up enough courage to cut the front strut this evening, lot of measuring and test fitting last night. (WFH today, train strike)

The front is tighter on the tyre than I would like, but the fork is not that accomodating and the guards look a bit to weak to make any major adjustments.

They do look good, it allows the frame to be more pure, the Cruds I have always used and do work OK, take away some of the purity.

And the rear is a lot more solid when installed than I thought it would be.

We will see how it goes.

Avatar
Sriracha replied to ktache | 1 year ago
6 likes

I know mudguards can be a fiddle to fit and it generally takes longer than expected ... but I think 18 months to fit a set could be a record. Congrats. Anyway, pictures please or they're not fitted.  3

Avatar
stonojnr replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
1 like

I've had some Specialized plug + play, which they're anything but, v1 mudguards for at least 5 years & still not got round to fitting them.

Avatar
quiff replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
1 like

I paid to have a LBS fit some Bluemels because I knew I wouldn't get round to it. 2 years later I still haven't rectified the dodgy unsightly curvature round the rear wheel, or the overlong stays which ejected the end caps on the first ride and scarred my calf

Avatar
brooksby replied to quiff | 1 year ago
1 like

quiff wrote:

I paid to have a LBS fit some Bluemels because I knew I wouldn't get round to it. 2 years later I still haven't rectified the dodgy unsightly curvature round the rear wheel, or the overlong stays which ejected the end caps on the first ride and scarred my calf

I think one change in attitude which made bike fettling far less stressful for me was when I changed from "It must be by-the-book perfect" to "That'll do" yes

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

brooksby wrote:

I think one change in attitude which made bike fettling far less stressful for me was when I changed from "It must be by-the-book perfect" to "That'll do" yes

One of my favourite sayings is "don't let perfect be the enemy of good".

Avatar
HoarseMann replied to ktache | 1 year ago
1 like

Hmm, after reading that, a wet arse and weil's disease seems like an easier option!

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to ktache | 1 year ago
4 likes

Is this one of these projects that is so awesome that it can't ever be finished?  Or if finished, it could never be taken out of the house?

Avatar
Owd Big 'Ead | 1 year ago
3 likes

Adrian Chiles showing he's as out of touch with reality as David Cameron was regarding the price of a pint of milk.

I've been riding cargo bikes for 15 years now, initially a human powered Bullitt, then an electic one, before buying the all singing, all dancing Urban Arrow XL which with a few neccessary options is considerably more than £3,999.

I wonder how much his swanky flat in London costs in relative terms to a 2 up, 2 down in Brum? I bet there's a huge difference.

I get the point of the article, that many poorly paid individuals are servicing the needs of the affluent, but at least they ply their trade using vehicles that emit little in the way of noxious gases, take up a quarter of the space of even the smallest of vans, while giving the rider a healthy dose of exercise that will benefit them far more than sitting on their arse in a four wheeled vehicle.

I'm not sure why he feels the need to sneer.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 1 year ago
1 like

Owd Big 'Ead wrote:

Adrian Chiles showing he's as out of touch with reality as David Cameron was regarding the price of a pint of milk.

I've been riding cargo bikes for 15 years now, initially a human powered Bullitt, then an electic one, before buying the all singing, all dancing Urban Arrow XL which with a few neccessary options is considerably more than £3,999.

I wonder how much his swanky flat in London costs in relative terms to a 2 up, 2 down in Brum? I bet there's a huge difference.

I get the point of the article, that many poorly paid individuals are servicing the needs of the affluent, but at least they ply their trade using vehicles that emit little in the way of noxious gases, take up a quarter of the space of even the smallest of vans, while giving the rider a healthy dose of exercise that will benefit them far more than sitting on their arse in a four wheeled vehicle.

I'm not sure why he feels the need to sneer.

There seems to be a theme of e-bikes/cargo-bikes being dismissed by mainstream media and Fox News even made up some rubbish about them (https://electrek.co/2023/03/13/why-fox-news-wants-you-to-be-afraid-of-electric-bikes/). I think it's a sign that motor companies see them as a threat to their business model and it would be especially galling for wealthy people to be sat in their metal box in a queue whilst people just zoom past them on various bikes. I think we're going to see more e-bike scare stories from the likes of the BBC etc.

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
3 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

There seems to be a theme of e-bikes/cargo-bikes being dismissed by mainstream media and Fox News even made up some rubbish about them (https://electrek.co/2023/03/13/why-fox-news-wants-you-to-be-afraid-of-electric-bikes/). I think it's a sign that motor companies see them as a threat to their business model and it would be especially galling for wealthy people to be sat in their metal box in a queue whilst people just zoom past them on various bikes. I think we're going to see more e-bike scare stories from the likes of the BBC etc.

Absolutely right, the ace in the hole for the pro-car/anti-cycling lobby has always been how are you going to carry that bag of cement/cello/weekly shop/kid on a pushbike, if they see something that challenges that narrative they will of course jump on it as quickly as possible. The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car is a great example of the way governments and automobile manufacturers have no shame in colluding to try to quash anything that threatens their profitable hegemony.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
3 likes

Rendel Harris wrote:

Absolutely right, the ace in the hole for the pro-car/anti-cycling lobby has always been how are you going to carry that bag of cement/cello/weekly shop/kid on a pushbike, if they see something that challenges that narrative they will of course jump on it as quickly as possible. The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car is a great example of the way governments and automobile manufacturers have no shame in colluding to try to quash anything that threatens their profitable hegemony.

I hadn't heard of that documentary - found a full version available here: https://archive.org/details/vimeo-210171457

I still think that electric cars aren't made to save the planet, but to save the car industry.

(Those cars must have been hella heavy with those lead-acid batteries)

Edit: Lighter than I thought - 1400kg for their lead-acid model and 1,319kg for the NiMH model (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1)

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
0 likes

Pah!  Those folks were really late to the party.  My local works were cranking them out in 1898.  (Full disclosure - bust by 1900...)

I can't find the weight or endurance though.

Avatar
Tom_77 | 1 year ago
1 like

If you've got some time to kill, pop on Autotrader and see what kind of car £4K gets you. Almost all of them are over 10 years old, and / or with astronomical mileage.

Avatar
Awavey | 1 year ago
6 likes

Mr Chiles could buy 200 of these Leeds based band t-shirts (or the less family audience friendly version that's also from Yorkshire, you can find on google) for 4k to share with his family and friends, theyve even got a song, the vinyl is also £20

Avatar
brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

Why is a glucose monitor illegal under UCI rules?

Avatar
Patrick9-32 replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
7 likes

It could make the racing less exciting. Basically if all the riders just ride at their maximum exersion so they don't run out of glucose you don't have the attacks and cat and mouse of someone pushing too hard and dramatically getting caught at the end, you just have the fittest riders slowly riding away from everyone else. 

The same arguments could, and should, be made for power meters and team radios in my opinion. The riders finding their effort harder to gauge and harder to meter out consistently makes for better racing, more surprises and more upsets. 

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

OK, thanks

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

Almost like one could go on a lone breakaway and pace themselves nearly perfectly to the end...

Complaining you didnt remove it because it cost alot of money to replace, late call up so unplanned ok fine get your team to pay it, but I think supersapiens & Kristen doth protest too much.

As I said yesterday had she sought permission theyd probably not have stopped her having it, but she didnt, neither did the team that's their drop off it's not about health or menstrual cycles, these devices are banned in mens races too.

Avatar
Oldfatgit | 1 year ago
7 likes

If retailers could stop fecking around with hot cross buns, that'll be great.

As for the rest ... well, couldn't be bothered to read it. Some bloke spouting off his personal opinion like it *matters*

Avatar
ShutTheFrontDawes replied to Oldfatgit | 1 year ago
0 likes

If you don't want variants in your hot cross bun, the answer is simple: don't buy them. I like em.

Avatar
brooksby replied to ShutTheFrontDawes | 1 year ago
10 likes

ShutTheFrontDawes wrote:

If you don't want variants in your hot cross bun, the answer is simple: don't buy them. I like em.

BURN THE HERETIC!!!

 

Avatar
belugabob replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like
brooksby wrote:

ShutTheFrontDawes wrote:

If you don't want variants in your hot cross bun, the answer is simple: don't buy them. I like em.

BURN THE HERETIC!!!

 

On a hot cross...

Avatar
ktache replied to ShutTheFrontDawes | 1 year ago
7 likes

I make my own.

Paul Hollywood's recipe.

Strong bread flour, and proper hearty for it.

We tend to get a half privilege day at work, Maundy Thursday, so I take the morning as holiday and spend the day making them. You can't eat too many because of the aforementioned heartiness, so they last the whole weekend.

Why is it that hot cross buns can be had for seemingly the whole year, but chocolate eggs are only available between Xmas and just after Easter?

I'd like a Surly Big Fat Dummy, but more as my zombie apocalypse bike.

But then the first survivor I encounter would kill me for it...

Avatar
ShutTheFrontDawes replied to ktache | 1 year ago
2 likes

Good for you. I'm a keen baker too. Though I don't buy into fancy flours. I just use Shipton Mill No4 for everything. Everything turns out awesome.

Avatar
Awavey replied to Oldfatgit | 1 year ago
3 likes

I cant believe this article he wrote only on Wednesday hasnt come up today...it would only take 4 days to have enough for a cargo bike https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/15/i-have-a-naked-loo...

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
3 likes

Eugh, there's a picture the mind's eye will have to be scrubbed with bleach to remove...

Avatar
ShutTheFrontDawes replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
3 likes
Rendel Harris wrote:

Eugh, there's a picture the mind's eye will have to be scrubbed with bleach to remove...

I agree. That's one hell of a tough w*nk.

Avatar
mattw | 1 year ago
6 likes

On the numbers, buying and running a cargo bike does not seem to cost any more than running an average dog.

Avatar
hutchdaddy replied to mattw | 1 year ago
12 likes

That's why I have a second hand car, a second hand road bike and cats.

Pages

Latest Comments