This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Bit of a leap there

And the lock, you don't get them for nothing...

Yeah, more likely they lost the key and recovered what they could.

Actually more likely it had a wheel nicked, owner didn’t have a spare so left it there, more got nicked, owner not coming back for half a bike, the rest nicked.

Someone took one cable end from the bike. Then another took a valve cap...

This morning's commute. Very heavy traffic made all the more difficult as I was transporting a wheelset on my backpack.. Also made slightly more difficult by another cyclist. Left the house in high spirits, so when he overtook me on my left saying "You need a front brake" to which I agree that I need one in order for my bike to be Road legal, I replied "thank you".

But what I don't understand was the need to flag down a police car and telling him I was riding sans brakes. The officer couldn't understand how I managed to stop when he flagged me down. After a 5 minute conversation explaining etc, he said verbatim "I don't really care (assuming he's talking about the situation and not cyclists/cycling), if you crash, its on you" which I agreed with. Is cyclists flagging down other brakeless riders a thing now?

Wow WAC!

(But you should have a brake)

"but officer there is no liability law in this country even for cyclists with brakes so its always on you"

I mean I understand where he was coming from. All the more if I was riding like a dick (I believe I wasn't!) but I think that it was all a bit unnecessary.

I'm going to change the forks on my parallax, chuck on a bigger gear (47/15 rather than 47/17), mudguards and lastly a front brake tonight.

I'm just going to ride my road bike for a while.

I hope that this isn't foresight into what could be coming.

get used to this sort of noise. smash a brake on just to keep plod / busy body arseholes off your case. sucks but it's less faff than having to put up with that sort of shit on a regular basis.

And its there if you ever need it in an emergency, win. There's really no reason not to have one.
I'd never tell anyone to fit one in the street though, let alone snitch to the coppers. You're entitled to make your own choices.

The police should spend more time on things like broken indicators, speeding, roadworthness, dropping cigarette butts all over the place, and generally being a nob - because stopping these things would actually make London nicer to live in.

Why should another cyclist ignore you riding in an illegal manner. Because they ride a bike too they should be complicit and accepting? You're quite naive if you think riding brakeless is regarded as socially acceptable at the moment.

'Roadworthness'?

i.e. no braklsz?

Socially acceptable in some circles.
Also I never stated that he should just mind his own business, just that it was unnecessary for him to be riding like a dick, and then to flag a police car. He literally went out of his way.

To remedy this I'm just not going to ride my track bikes for a while, and when I do I'll just have a front brake.

If the Alliston incident didn't happen, would this even be as big of a discussion?

Yeah I've had a rider tell me I shoulds be on the track, not the road. I assume he hadn't noticed the v brake I've got on the front.

Do you not think there's more productive ways to tell someone than whilst you're undertaking, on your way over to the old bill to dob them in though?

Don't worry, I'm sure once the officer had finished with you he started on the 1.2 million unroadworthy motor vehicles.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-3275472/Some-1-2-million-admit-driving-cars-unroadworthy-condition.html

you're not wrong, but errant fixie lordz are now firmly in plod's sights. i wouldn't put it past them to start confiscating bikes they deem unlawful. brakes are cheap. just do it and seethe quietly. it's the english way.

Socially acceptable in some circles and a legal requirement, why not go out of your way if you see something illegal and that you disagree with?

@ PhillDAS, well obviously not as Ekudduke replied that post this intervention he's going to use a front brake so it's arguable that the other riders actions were quite productive from their PoV anyway.

I'd be tempted to snitch on a driver using their phone, if I spotted a copper shortly after spotting the offending driver. I suppose it's not all that different to snitch on a cyclist who is going brakeless, as it's also illegal and potentially dangerous.

Socially acceptable in some circles and a legal requirement

Bro, do u evn BMX?

Ekudduke replied that post this intervention he's going to use a front brake

I'm just going to ride my road bike for a while.

But isn't actually going to

Yep fair point

It's as if you can be in the right, yet still an utter douche.