Cycling UK Forum

Tangled Metal wrote: ↑30 Jan 2025, 2:12pm I certainly don't think we have a chancellor that could handle her end of this project.

Heathrow Airport Holdings (actually, predecessor BAA) was privatised in 1986. Why is the chancellor even involved? She should stick to her day job, as there isn't a shortage of things that need doing! This is surely a matter for the ministers of Transport and the Environment, possibly also Local Government if they want to change planning policy.

Pendodave wrote: ↑29 Jan 2025, 6:06pm Tiz it illegal to transmit the stream, receive it, or both?

If you mean over the internet, usually both.

If you mean over satellite, usually neither, as long as you're not holding public viewing sessions. The transmission of the stream outside the licensed service area (aka overspill) is for the licensor and broadcaster to agree upon. Americans like Warner Bros seem to act as if no English commentary is sufficient protection against UK viewing.

mattheus wrote: ↑29 Jan 2025, 10:22am

roubaixtuesday wrote: ↑28 Jan 2025, 8:06pm

pete75 wrote: ↑28 Jan 2025, 7:53pm Right of centre parties got 72% of the vote - 14% Reform, 24% Tory and 34% blue Labour.

Our pete is dedicated to his cause, isn't he?!?

And sadly, that cause seems to be lying about how strong Reform UK Ltd are, presumably to help bring about his desired future of rule by another public schoolboy whose politics never grew up. I wonder which school: Dulwich, Uppingham or Radley?

cycle tramp wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 6:59am Plants like hawthorn and climbing roses give a measure of security with recourse to visualise intrusive materials like barbed wire.

I'm already disappointed that any walker or rider would support planting a hazardous plant like hawthorn along an active travel route, but I'm shocked at someone suggesting it should be done with barbed wire visible in it!

TrevA wrote: ↑28 Jan 2025, 10:07am Time to start learning Dutch/Flemish!

Looks like MJR was right all along.

Not entirely. I thought they'd offer two packages priced about £20/month: one containing just the ASO races (Tour de France and some others), and another containing the rest. Then people who only watch the tour might buy it when they won't at £31, but people who want to watch the whole season would have to buy both or do lots of annoying admin switching subscriptions multiple times a year.

Learning Dutch and Flemish won't help much as their broadcasts are pretty restricted and sports broadcasts even more so. It's more difficult for the bigger country broadcasters to serve everyone and keep it locked down tight.

st599_uk wrote: ↑28 Jan 2025, 9:03am For those watching on Eurosport - WBD have just pulled the plug on UK and Ireland versions and moved cycling to TNT sport.

In effect, this increases the price of cycling on Discovery+ from £7 to £31 per month. Viewers on some TV systems might be able to get it as cheap as £18 per month. A satellite dish set to watch the free to air broadcasts aimed at the EU is maybe £120 but you do have to wire it up (and tolerate non-English commentary). Or if you don't care about terms of use, you can rent a VPN and try to appear in the correct country for a free stream.

Details in "Eurosport is closing down in the UK - cycling is about to get a lot more expensive to watch | Cycling Weekly" – https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/euro ... e-to-watch

Nearholmer wrote: ↑24 Jan 2025, 12:58pm I read that weird nazi salute thing as at least partly down to ASD.

Some people with ASD are objecting to the Nazi salute being blamed on ASDs, because they are not usually Nazis.

And no, I wouldn’t buy a Tesla.

I read that Musk is asking people to stop calling them Swasticars!

pete75 wrote: ↑27 Jan 2025, 12:34pm Don't know what you mean about voter reaction, the majority voted for a party that wants to cut tax - Conservative or Reform.

As with your earlier fascist-boosting, this is not true. Only 23% voted Conservative or Reform.

If there was real voter reaction to Britain's rising inequality Mr Corbyn would be PM.

Only if they'd agreed with his approach to it.

Carlton green wrote: ↑16 Jan 2025, 6:57pm In snowy or icy weather there was a time when I’d either walk to work (rather than cycle) or take a day’s leave; when you’re dependent on good health you literally can’t afford to risk it.

Indeed. Once you have a couple of chronic illnesses, if you are having a good health day, you've got to go into work, because you don't know how many more you will have. Life is too short not to cycle because of some frozen water. Studded tyres rock!

Oh right. Redefine club runs as sporty and then it looks like sporty cycling is doing alright, ignoring that many of those new clubs are totally not sporty, and that the total of all "leisure" cycling is about as static as the utility cycling numbers.

Crack on, nothing needs to change, keep scaring people away with hard hats(!)

Nearholmer wrote: ↑25 Jan 2025, 5:01pm Yes, and although it’s probably bad manners, I’ll repeat myself.

Personally, I think that dragging any form of sporty cycling into a debate about whether helmet compulsion/advice deters people from cycling is a complete and utter red-herring, because it clearly doesn’t: sporty cycling is very popular, with no shortage of new participants.

That's non right. Cycle sport is a tiny niche sport with a governing body that's not really growing, participation is now falling back towards pre-London-Olympics levels, the biggest commercial event organiser in the UK (Sweetspot) went bust a year or two ago, and TV coverage is reducing again.

pete75 wrote: ↑24 Jan 2025, 11:13am IME people without much money tend to service their cars themselves and do most repairs themselves often with scrapyard sourced parts, especially on something as basic as a Ford which probably still use points and coil ingnition and carburettors, except on the sporty models. Kept vehicles running for years like that when I was skintish.

My dad was a mechanic for a time so he did, but I think maintaining one's own car is now done only by a very small minority and many without much money can't afford the necessary tools, let alone risk breaking the expensive car if they mess up. Even 30 years ago, the engine control computers were starting to need special bits which weren't cheap and that's only got more necessary for more car models. You even need to talk to the computer to reset the service interval and associated warning light.

[XAP]Bob wrote: ↑23 Jan 2025, 12:01pm

pete75 wrote: ↑22 Jan 2025, 8:24pm From what I've heard about the current UK benefits system it isn't generous enough to finance a car.

Depends what car you're trying to pay for, and whether you already own it.
If you're just buying third party insurance, and VED, on a monthly basis - then there is the annual hit of an MOT (and the fear of any repair costs), but it's just fuel.
And that combination is often cheaper than public transport (which should be to the utter shame of government).

The above is not true where I live.

Insurance £20/month (third party on a 10 year old Ford Mondeo in an ex-council estate postcode near me), VED £19/month (band F, paid monthly), MOT £54.85/year so a bit under £5/month, servicing £250 with frequency depending on use so put £20/month by to try to cover this plus repairs which are probably a few hundred each hit, at random but more frequent as the vehicle ages.

So about £65/month plus fuel. And then there's any parking fees, depreciation, and much more.

An all-lines Lynx Bus adult pass is £83/month which would probably be cheaper, but in practice you'd probably buy a season ticket for your most-used line and occasionally area day passes as needed, which would be cheaper.

The problem with public transport is usually coverage and journey time, not cost. Too many lines start late, finish early and don't serve key destinations well. The bus operators know they're pricing against cars and are pretty sharp at competing on cost. A simple return to town is £1 more than the cheapest central parking, that will get blown away if you get sat in a jam burning fuel, and many would pay £1 for an extra 20 minutes each way not working on driving.

In a place with better transport such as Cambridge, passes cost more, but you'd also pay more for insurance, mechanics, fuel and parking. I expect London and Manchester and some others have big cost benefits to public transport if it serves your usual journeys.

mattheus wrote: ↑24 Jan 2025, 9:15am But on everyday threads there are millions of anti-Musk posts. In that sense it's still free speech - you can very easily tell people not to buy a Tesla! An odd situation.

You can try to tell people, but the perverted algorithm will limit how many see it, while it boosts the far right spew.

pjclinch wrote: ↑23 Jan 2025, 4:05pm

Philip Benstead wrote: ↑23 Jan 2025, 3:17pm This is National Standard Cycle Training section read by Cycle Instructors hopefully, if you are not a Cyclie Instructor you will not have done RLP so you cant comment.

If people are interested in what NS training is or covers I don't see not having the Magic Bit Of Paper would prevent them from asking/contributing, and indeed mjr's reply did tell me what I'd asked...

RPL is a term used in other training fields, too, plus some of us who aren't cycle instructors do know cycle instructors who we can send links to, if we think they might know, but to assess that, we need to have some idea what the message is about!

It also helps to expand acronyms on first use if you are prone to typing the letters in the wrong order. Unless RLP is something else you meant to ask about.