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Need to reconsider my choice of words of warning... A sentence mostly involving the words "Fuck" and "Prick" after being almost knocked sideways by an RLJing pedestrian resulted in being chased with threats of violence again. Only after a badly aimed kick at my back wheel. I'm never this vituperative (another word of the day) on foot.

Could be a positive thing in many ways. Could flop embarrassingly. Depends on how Boris & Co decide to launch it.

There was a company doing a similar thing, fugly hire bikes, from what I saw they seemed to be targeting UEL students. No idea how well it went, but I'm pretty sure that a particular bike I saw didn't move for about 6 months. So, probably badly.

Just to counter some of the negativity, if it does take off, and people who don't usually ride are on bikes, might spread some general love and understanding if more people see traffic from a cyclist's perspective. Or am I being naive? :P

Wait, sorry if I'm a tad slow on the uptake here, but if they're 'setting' the stones in the frame, does that not mean they're making lots of little holes in it? Which is... a bad thing?

Jesus, what would you do with it anyway? Take one expensive useful thing, turn it into an extremely expensive useless thing. I don't get it.

It's an odd one, I had it too today, the lass seemed to see me but stepped out anyway, she seemed surprised when we nearly collided.

I wonder if it's to do with us being faster riders than the norm? I mean typically, for a given stretch of road, my cruising speed seems to be about 50% faster than every other rider I come across, I imagine a lot here experience similar. Maybe the peds are just conditioned to most cyclists tootling round at a snail's pace?

Probably is partly true, but I often tend to toddle along at whatever pace gets me where I'm going with enough breath left to whistle a happy tune, and people still do this to me, so speed isn't always an excuse/explanation.

I'm very wary of pedestrians after some slightly unsettling encounters (including being chased for a short distance by a huuge muscle-mountain of a guy shouting "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING A FUCKING CUNT?!" at me after he stepped out causing me to do an inadvertent sideways skid in front of a bus). Learned the lesson that being small and fluffy is only limited protection against the craziness of the general populace, and now adopt a more cautious approach.

That said, I do take far too much pleasure in passing very close behind pedestrians who step out without looking and then using my Brian Blessed voice to boom "Look OOOUUT" at them.

Some friends of mine have a bike a bit like that.

Well, I say bike, it's a unicycle they ride around with a completely separate front end. Pointless: yes. Amusing: very.

A "Skyride" led ride

They irritate me, I've encountered a couple, obnoxious little herds of neon. One herd were stopped on the Greenway for a photo opportunity, leaving bikes scattered all over the path so that anyone who needed to pass them had to go through the rubble and broken glass. They were too busy congratulating themselves to notice this.

Yesterday morning outside Aldgate East, pedestrian steps out between two buses in front of oncoming super-lycra cyclist. Cyclist shouts and gestures with one hand. I doubt it, but a little evil part of me wants to believe that the gesture really was the awesome bitchslap that the combination of the angle I saw it from and my early morning imagination made it appear to be.

Don't particularly fancy the bags, but the idea of riding around with the word "VAG" in huge letters on my back does have a strange appeal.

"But why do they use electrolytes to make Brawndo?"

"Cause... Brawndo's got electrolytes."

The commentary on that made me bring up a little bit of sick in the back of my mouth.

That girl is pretty much my new hero though.

I love the delightful sense of satisfaction (smugness?) one gets from racing someone on a big shiny 34535643453 speed MTB up a hill and winning by miles.

EDIT: that leicester recycling place as an example: http://bikes4all.org.uk/component/option,com_newsfeeds/task,view/feedid,12/Itemid,39/

Those guys are good, got my frame from them, old Raleigh Record Ace, 531, for £35. Cosmetically it's seen better days, but personally I like that... They're worth checking out.

As far as I know it was a special Critical Mass for the whole G20 palaver. Were plenty folks about.

If you were there but aren't sure about contacting the solicitors, if you don't think you saw much or don't know if what you saw would be useful, just get in contact with vannen or me. Or fred? (Sorry, I don't know who you are!) Any info is potentially useful :).

So, er, no one saw nothing then?

Bought those cranks, having a little trouble, they don't fit very well on my BB. Too tight, they don't go far enough onto the taper. Took them to BLB and asked, had the same problem with fit on a new Shimano BB of the kind recommended by Eighth Inch on their website. The guys told me to try a Campy, but Eighth Inch say NOT (in capitals and everything!) Campy. Ooh err. Am a touch befuddled.

Pish, sorry to hear about that. Some people are just utter morons, not much can be done without getting all fascist in the gene pool.

But.

I had a great incident with a van the other week, and I feel I have to share it to lighten the load of abuse on van drivers. Clearly, some of them are alright. I was a bit cheeky, ran a red light (naughty naughty etc) and had a few moments of scary head-to-head-grr with the driver of a van coming from the opposite direction turning down the same road as I was. Somehow I kinda ballsed it out and they caved and let me go. They caught up with me, window went down, I'm expecting the telling off I rightly deserve for cycling like a fool, and what did they do? Gave me a cheer and said "Yeah! Go on, girl!" or something along those lines, and then happily waved me off as I overtook them at another set of lights. Perhaps they were too nice? We need some middle ground here :P.

It seems common sense that the least vulnerable party in any accident should initially be assumed to be responsible. Key word being initially.

Logically, and I concede that most people are pretty illogical, however, logically, you would assume that the most vulnerable party would be aware of their vulnerability and therefore be taking a lot more precautions. Those who are less vulnerable feel safer and so take more risks. As a rule of thumb, generally I think that's fair.

Driving a car is actually quite a big responsibility, in that you are in charge of a machine that can quite easily cause fatal injury. I think it's good to encourage people to think of it in that way.

I thought they looked like a right bunch o' cunts.

A guy passed me on Commercial St on my way home, cycling ridiculously close sort of next to/behind me. Overtook me with literally not more than an inch space between our handlebars, there was about a metre gap between me and another bike in front so I had to slow the fuck down pretty sharpish, and then I watched him do the exact same thing to the other guy in front. Almost in contact with this guy's back wheel. And when he'd overtaken both of us, he just slowed right down and then stopped in the gap so neither of us could get through the traffic to the lights.

If that was you, you're an arse.

Heard some awful rumour (at least I hope it was a rumour) of ASBO youth hanging around on canals trying to jump out and push cyclists in. Eck. Made me well paranoid.

I used to be riding around dodgy bits of Hackney at silly hours pretty regularly, still do quite frequently, never had any trouble. Doesn't mean bad things don't happen, but I'm very much of the opinion that it doesn't do to let yourself be more scared than is necessary, especially to the point of stopping you from going places/doing things you want to do. I get terrible visions of a dystopian future where everyone stays indoors watching the TV telling them how dreadful and dangerous the world outside is. Maybe my imagination is over-active ;).

The thing that's been really getting to me recently with cycle lanes is cars parked on them. In particular there's a cycle lane on the main road near me which is always completely useless because cars are parked all over it. Doesn't affect me really, I tend towards the middle of the road there anyway, but it's dangerous for riders who feel compelled to stick to the cycle lane, because they'd be constantly pulling in and out between parked cars, with drivers coming up fast behind them, reduced visibility, etc.

The other day I encountered a couple of police officers on that road giving a cyclist a written warning for cycling on the pavement (which, fair enough, he shouldn't have been doing), so I very politely asked them what they do about drivers who park on cycle lanes. Said that because this makes the main road more dangerous for less confident cyclists it might be a reason why people are cycling on the pavement. Was met with derision/suspicion and told that it wasn't their job, it was for parking wardens to deal with. I said sure, but as they were wandering around warning people, could they warn the driver who was in the process of parking on the cycle lane as we were speaking. He just gave me a blank look and repeated that it wasn't his job.

A couple of weeks ago the greenway was closed hackney side.
startford is dirty. It's packed with fundementalists of all persuasions. the people are (in general) rude, have massive attitude problems, have no respect for property or person. Even though it must be the most ethincally diverse bit of the worlds most ethnically diverse city, contrary to popular belief , nobody mixes with anybody from another culture.
But.....there are no cappuccino drinking , hoxton square arty hipster types for miles and for that it has to be worth it.

Oh bollocks, yes I think that section is currently closed. Though when I was last there it was only a little diversion, just round near a DLR station, and joining the A11 a little way down from where the Greenway would take you.

And yes, I live very close to Stratford and can confirm that it is an utter shitheap of a place. Good luck to her!

Am I being an idiot or has the comments section on that article gone?