Stopped by police cycling with child in childseat

^ +1

My dad used to take me everywhere on a seat like that when I were a nipper.

My mum used to ride around Cambridge, and then Winchester, with me sat on a seat exactly like this, I'd hold onto the middle of the handlebars.

The picture above has little hoops for feet- my mums version just had a cross bar that I put my feet on.

^ +1

My dad used to take me everywhere on a seat like that when I were a nipper.

and you two turned out just fine*

*for a given value of fine that is of possibly questionable merit

Ha! you do have point there...

I was on Goldhawk Road, near Ravenscourt Park.

I'd visit the local cop shop and make a complaint, or at least go in to find out what this guy was talking about.

If he stops you again ask explicitly why you're being stopped. Just being stopped because of something he reckons is not enough. If there is a law you're breaking, ask what law, how and why.

Personally it feels like an instance of that bigotry that people have against cyclists. You're cycling in exactly the same way as millions of Dutch and Danish people who would laugh at being stopped by a cop like that.

this

The rude officer probably referring to the law ( or highway code) stated that you should not have another person on your bike, unless it's design to carry another person.

Reckon he didn't notice the last part.

Assuming that you have a proper child seat of approved design, properly fitted, then you were entirely legal and the policeman had no business to stop you. the Telegraph case is not a good precedent because you can't tell whether the seat used was an approved design or not - maybe it was but it lacked the footrests and covering it with duct tape wodl have disguised the product to the point that it may have looked like a cobble-up - indeed perhaps that is precisely what it was, otherwise why did the dad accept the conviction?

To give the copper the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he was just concerned following the accident in Goldhawk Rd only yesterday (reported in the Standard) where a motor-scooter rider was apparently badly hurt and airlifted to hospital. Meddlesome perhaps, but not necessarily malicious.

Probably best to make any complaint low-key.

sounds like he needs a kick in the spuds.

WAC.

I do hope they have a bag of equal weight and aerodynamics on the other side of the handlebar.

Write to the Borough Commander and say exactly where you were when it happened etc .
Ask for why they stopped you and why. Perhaps use some judicious CCs. Who is your MP btw ?
Be polite etc and if you don't get a reply send it again and cc it to the next one up, Commander level in the met I think.

A charming pic, but it is a shame her tyres are flat.

That happend to me once as well about 10 years ago in Letchworth, some officious git said almost the exact same thing 'putting your kids life at risk' etc. GTFO and catch some bike thieves Mr Officer.

Contact the CTC legal department, that is preposterous to be stopped for that

Definitely. The officer was using excessive cuntishness.

This sort of thing boils my piss, Johnny Law making up stuff on the hoof. I'd say contact the local press but then you'd have to have your photo taken standing next to your bike with a sad face.

This sort of thing boils my piss, Johnny Law making up stuff on the hoof. I'd say contact the local press but then you'd have to have your photo taken standing next to your bike with a sad face.

^ agreed.

PC Jackanory should arrest the squirrel that gnawed through my TV ariel so that he can report to Chief Inspector Gorring Madd that he has done a worthwhile job and deserves the promotion he has so brown-nosingly worked for.

WAC of the shake-hand-gang highest order!

FFS - this country...

I've never understood those top tube mounted child seats, they wear through frames, have the weight of the child at a really awkward balance point and don't offer the same kind of support that a rear mounted childseat has.

I've never understood those top tube mounted child seats, they wear through frames, have the weight of the child at a really awkward balance point and don't offer the same kind of support that a rear mounted childseat has.

Makes a good wind-break ...
Seriously, weight in the center of the bike, as opposed to right over the back weel, the kid can see things, you can talk to them ...

Edit: oh and WAC etc. for the copper

I was once 'demanded' to empty my 'obviously overloaded' car by the side of the road by a road cop under training in a totally unmarked car.

When I point out that the load within my car maybe weighed a total of 40kg and it was just bulky (a few boxes and a duvet FFS!) and secure, and well well within what my car was registered for carrying (detailed on the plate riveted to the car by the mftr), he came out with the golden line* "it doesn't matter what the mftr reccomends, I'm standing here now, and I'm making the decision that your vehicle is overweight and unsafely loaded"*, at which point I laughed in his face uncontrollably.

His colleague/mentor in the car stepped out at this point, and then got the little twat to stand down, within a minute they were back in their car and gone.
I never managed to take badge numbers, but I did get the reg number, reported them for being ass holes and never heard anything again.

Had another pair, again unmarked car but plain cloths charge into our car park (private land) and arrest me on the spot on suspicion of twoc + handling stolen goods, as I was swapping out the wiring loom on my fiat coupe for a new loom (that would solve x number of electrical issues).
Apparently been 'spotted' by some new neighbour me 'twoccing' my own car (which I'd owned for years) from one side of the building, moving it to the other, and then over the course of 3 days stripping the entire interior out of it, changing the loom and then, mysteriously fitting the same interior back into it. Apparently thats very suspicious behaviour and I should be arrested, slammed to the ground and verbally assaulted for 20minutes for the pleasure. Hence I have borderline zero respect for popo, especially of the traffic variety.

Good point.

big point

but then you'd have to have your photo taken standing next to your bike with a sad face.