How I wish I was able to tell you that D & C Police had firm plans to implement West Mids Police’s brilliant (and sorely needed!) Close Pass Initiative. Sadly, the reality is quite different, despite what many other sources may have told you. Here’s how things currently stand: D & C Police have three … Read more
This is a story of a lottery. No, not that national lottery, but a post code lottery. Specifically, a post code lottery in which where you live determines whether or not, as a cyclist, you can expect to receive any justice from police. If you live in Devon or Cornwall you’re bang out of luck, … Read more
Sometimes I despair when I realise how far we still have to go to get safe cycling conditions. On the 11th of October, a man called Quentin Willson posted the following tweet on Twitter: Great new cycle lane but where are the cyclists? pic.twitter.com/a1vhAAXxt2 — Quentin Willson (@QuentinWillson) October 10, 2016 The picture is of … Read more
Now you have the Bee Gees singing Staying Alive in the back of your mind, let’s look at perhaps extending that philosophy to cycling. Broadly speaking, and with many exceptions, cyclists tend to be split between the Vehicular Cycling (VC) crowd, and the Segregation bunch, and a great many epic online battles of words were … Read more
There are three big rides I look forward to all year: Darkmoor, the Dartmoor Classic and the Exmouth Exodus. The wily amongst you will have noticed that two of those are through-the-night rides, and I suppose that says a great deal about me, though what exactly it says I have no idea. Darkmoor was different … Read more
The city of Plymouth is hemmed in by two rivers – to the west is the Tamar, which also forms the border with neighbouring Cornwall, while to the east is the Plym, which gave the city its name. Rivers are great, but they sure mess with transport links and the main bridges over the Plym … Read more
On Twitter, Inspector David George (@MPSHillingWest) tweeted the following message:“Goodness me!! Just driven into work and within 6 miles I counted 17 cyclists jumping reds. Targeted operation required !! Cyclist watch out” Now on the surface, that tweet seems perfectly fine. After all, this is a police officer, whose job it is to enforce the … Read more
I do roughly around 7 000 miles per year on my bike, with my main bike up to very recently having been a B’Twin Triban 500. My commute’s 15 miles each way, unless I have time and take the long way, which I do from time to time. Sometimes I take the shortest route, in … Read more
My first ever road bike was a B’Twin Triban 3, the red model, and I was very impressed by it. So much so, that little over a year later, when I got another bike, I ordered the Triban 500, again from Decathlon. Now you may ask yourself why, if the Triban 3 impressed me that … Read more
Police perform an extremely valuable and often dangerous job. I have long been of the opinion that without police, civilised society as know it would incredibly quickly descend into total chaos. That’s quite bit more responsibility than simply ensuring end users can send email, which just happens to be one of my many responsibilities at … Read more
On the eatern edge of Plymouth a new town is being built. It’s called Sherford, and eventually it will contain 7 000 new houses, a few schools, shops and more. Naturally this will generate a rather large volume of new traffic and various bits of road around the area are being upgraded or changed. This … Read more
As regular followers will know, I ride a B’Twin Triban 500 road bike. B’Twin is the house brand of French chain Decathlon and while it’s a cheap bike, overall I’m very happy with it. Besides, it seems to climb hills better than a few hideously expensive carbon-framed bikes I’ve encountered out on the road. Nudge, … Read more
I cycled the Dartmoor Classic for the second time this year, having entered it in 2014 with my friend Simon as the first ever sportive either of us had done. This year Simon didn’t enter due to a jealousy-inducing French cycling trip that almost overlaps the Classic and involves riding up bloody big mountains, so … Read more