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I was just ahead of that first one, I heard this almighty cracking sound like breaking glass and turned around to see someone hitting the deck right in the middle of the bunch. Not sure but guessing from the sound it might Have been someone's frame or stem snapping in half??? Anyone know what happened?

That might have been my mate Mark. We heard shouting as we came around the corner, saw riders by the side of the road and then I heard this mighty bang/snap and a thump, followed by a loud groan. Stopped, turned back and Mark was lying in the road with his bike half under him. I thought at first he'd just come off, then saw that the bike was completely snapped in half.
I hadn't realised there was a pothole at all, so at first though that the fork had snapped. Then he was asking what he'd hit and we saw the pothole.
After a few minutes getting himself together he was able to get up and off to the side of the road. A lady helped him out with some first aid. I gave him a survival blanket, then we gave it to the guy with the smashed arm and got some road cones out of a field to mark out the danger spot - that seemed to work as other riders slowed and moved well out of the danger zone.

Mark and the other fellow got lifts home and to hospital from our good Samaritans with cars and they've also stored the bikes.

My mate Mark was the guy whose frame snapped in half at the dreaded pothole. I took a GPS fix for the loaction and reported it to CTC. The details are here should anyone need the location:
http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/hazard/106152

He's fine, scraped, bruised, but other wise sore.
I rode on, got to Dunwich at 8am.
I seemed to have been behind the rain because I frequently rode on soaking roads, but with no sign of any storm, just clouds of steam in the headlight. I spent most of the ride feeling too hot.

Likewise, I just wanted to add my thanks to all. It was a great ride.
Also apologies for grabbing everything in sight in the supermarket, getting on the train, not offering to share any of it and promptly falling asleep! Not very sociable behaviour! I was just shattered...
Got home, had an hour's sleep and then went out for the entire day with the kids. At one point I realised that I'd had three hours' sleep over the previous 40 hours.

Hyde Park {Speakers Corner, 7pm} > Avebury

1. YAL
   
2. fussballclub (I think)
   
3. gretsch?
   
4. santino
   
5. five-alive radMich (single-speed)
   
6. Adders - 7.10 (Fixed)
   
7. AlexB (loads of gears)
   
   

Train > Countryside meet up > Avebury

1. Stonehenge
   
2. Dropout
   
3. Dublinkevin
   
4. fasih
   
5. balmain
   
   

subscribed but being coy:

1. smiff
   
2. fixedcheese
   
3. dicki
   
4. Mule
   
5. Skully Tor
   
6. Ultracrepidarian
   
7. mashton
   
8. KRZ
   10.
   
   

Spent some time fettling the bike last night. Good to go.

Where are you meeting up in Hyde Park?
It's a big place!

Any objections to me joining? I did this with you a couple of years ago and am an experienced night rider and long distance cyclist. I'd prefer to meet up in Hyde Park and ride from there.

I flew back from Bordeaux with EasyJet about 10 days ago.
I used one of the CTC plastic bike bags and a lot of tape.

It was no particular problem and obviously the bike handling is down to the airport, not to EasyJet. I had no problems or damage - BUT

EasyJet is typically tucked away at the arse end of the airport (it was in Bordeaux) and you can guarantee that they will not have the scanner required for your bike.

In Bordeaux I had to check in with EasyJet, acquire my luggage tages, sprint across to the large items desk and check the bike in, then sprint back to EasyJet's terminal to clear their security before boarding.

Good news is that with the bike you get maximum luggage allowance which means I could check all my kit with the bike in a separate bag and then just take a tiny bag of hand luggage onto the flight.

Note that you cannot put anything else into the bike bag - just the bike.
This means that a second bag for your luggage is pretty much essential.

Just to clarify, is this July 6th?

I think the RMT are going to slowly slide in to the pit of toothless decline after the tragic loss of Bob Crow. His interim replacement on the Today Show this morning got absolutely shafted.

It's not a hard argument to make, even. Closing ticket offices disproportionately effect those who require help the most, the elderly, disabled and new-in-town. Removing platform staff effects everyone's safety.

The people to blame, unfortunately, are the government. The budget shortfall that TFL are attempting to rectify comes as a direct response to the cut in Government and MOL funding.

TFL doesn't have a shortfall. It's sitting on huge cash reserves as a result of a failure to spend the money its been allocated year after year. This is why the hypocrisy of talking about saving £50m is so ridiculous. What it does have is a massive pension fund deficit. This is why they're so keen to see people out the door voluntarily, because it's much cheaper than keeping them on and paying their pensions 15-20 years down the road.

For Dynamo lighting - I've got the B&M and it's OK, but I'm not hugely impressed by the lighting output if I'm honest.
There's also this: http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/axa-luxx-70-plus-steady-auto-front-light/aid:642351
Which is similar, but cheaper and with the same functionality.

Nice frame though. I built myself a frame on the Dave Yates course a few years back and I'm now kicking myself that I didn't fit discs to it...

Try contacting them anyway. Delete this thread or make it private first.

So who was it getting into trouble with the Police at Victoria Tuesday lunchtime?
Green Brick Lane Bikes frame with risers.

It's the old "low sun blinded me" dodge being claimed as an excuse as well.
It's time some magistrate comprehensively threw the book at motorists using this tactic. If you can't see, you slow right down or (better yet), pull over, clean the damned windscreen and proceed with extreme caution.

Ride to Ipswich. Take the train. Easy, they're well organised and it cost £17 last year.

I still don't get it. Why does the LCC explain that only a small amount of accidents are caused by cyclists RLJing? Surely that is irrelevant and they should be encouraging cyclists to adhere to the rules of the road?

They could dress it up with any caveat that they liked... "Whilst virtually no injuries to cyclists are caused by jumping red lights we encourage cyclists to obey the rules of the road but also ask the police and mayor to focus their resources on issues that cause real danger to road users".

Isn't that sort of statement more likely to win ground?

I started to watch the hour long unedited version. The fun thing is that every time the lights go red, at least one vehicle either jumps the lights, or stops across the ASL first line. I only watched it for a few minutes, but if that pattern continues, then it may well be that 100% of the vehicles observed "jump" the light.

None at all on my route in today and the drivers were every bit as chaotic as usual.

8 PCSO's at the junction where Albert Bridge meets the Embankment completely ignored an HGV which jumped the lights under their noses.

Useless. Utterly useless.

I didn't see any on my route in from Sarf West London until I got to these clowns.

There were more at Exhibition Road who had a word with the cyclist in front of me for not wearing a helmet or hi viz.

just got mt first ever fixed penalty notice for mounting the pavement to avoid a blocked road (no cycle lanes at all in it) but it was near an junction on cs7
my bad for being cheeky, but the copper told me that police on motorbikes are going to be patrolling the CS cycle lanes looking for any traffic infractions from cars and bikes, ASL creep/RLJing etc, and doing on the spot FPNs
apparently this teaches everyone a lesson about rules
is this what boarding school is like?

Are they going to do anything about the plodmobile routinely parked on the red route outside the Kebab shop on CS7 in Balham?

Had you contacted Velocipede salon?
http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/forum.php

The American "constructeurs" are doing some amazing things now.

Hi all, my youngest kid wants a gaming headset for his XBox.
I'd like it to be wireless if possible, or at least with a long lead, but don't want to spend a fortune.

Do you have any recommendations for less than £50?

Took albert bridge today on the way to work. Not impressed.

It's too narrow and has those width restrictors at both ends which means long queues of cars in the narrow road leading up to it. Which also means cyclists risking it by overtaking against opposite flowing traffic. There is parking on the left which makes it even worse because there is literally no space to cycle on the left and risk of getting doored.

You can avoid the parked cars by using the shared footway between the bridge and the entrance to Battersea Park. It's signposted, but not well indicated. I use it in both directions and it sidesteps the problem of the lane restrictor. I agree we could do with a byepass at the Northern end of the bridge as well, but once you know you can use the pavement, it takes a lot of the stress off the use of the bridge. The northern exit of Chelsea bridge can trap you between two lanes of traffic and of course it's used by a lot of HGVs and buses. There are no vehicles larger than vans on Albert Bridge. Try it for a few days to get used to it and you'll see what I mean. It does require a readjustment mentally, this is not a bridge to charge across flat out - you don't need to - plus it's very short, so even if you cross it more slowly, it's still a quick crossing.

+1 for lambeth, although turning into bridge from here is a bit tricky but I'd rate it to be the safest (smallest) bridge to cross on bike.

No. I think that prize goes to Albert Bridge, my bridge of choice for many years - worth the diversion in my opinion.

Had a bit of a run in with the driver of a well known London bus firm.

Pretty satisfied with the response:

Dear Croft

I am writing in response to the complaint you made about one of our drivers.

I was concerned to learn of the incident you described as drivers should take extra care when near cyclists. In view of your comments the driver involved has been interviewed by his garage manager and the matter has been discussed with him. As a result appropriate action has been taken with regard to this occasion and to ensure that our expectations are met in future.** I regret that I cannot be specific about the action taken against the individual in this case as this would be a breach of our agreements on staff confidentiality. **A range of sanctions is, however, available depending on the driver’s previous record.

We have recently set up a training course in conjunction with Cycle Training UK that concentrates on cycle safety and involves drivers spending half a day on a bike to gain first hand experience of London's roads. I would add that all our drivers are regularly monitored covertly by our own training staff, TfL’s Mystery Shoppers and staff from AA Drivetech and their reports are kept on the driver’s personal record, as are complaints such as yours. Naturally any adverse reports are acted upon swiftly.

Please accept our apologies for any upset caused.

Yours sincerely

Mr Manager

The bit I've highlighted in bold is bollocks. I'd write back and ask what their range of sanctions are and which sanction was used in this case. Since they haven't shared the drivers details with you, there's no breach of confidentiality.

The ticking noise is odd. Mine is pretty much silent, to the point that every other noise on the bike drives me mad!
I did think at first that it might be the disc that was making the noise, but it seems silent when you freewheel, so that rules the disc out.
Is the chainline good? No chance that the chain is riding up the edge of the chainring or the rear sprocket is there?

By the way, if you are using an original Alfine chainset, the chainring is made of cheese. When it wears out, buy a new 9/10 speed Stronglight one, it fits and works fine. If you shop around the sprockets are as little as £4 each, so I change mine quite frequently.
Great hubs though, mine's three years old now and no problems with it at all. I took it apart to check the seals and all the grease was still white and perfect.

Free to a good home: one pair of Ozzo arm warmers, medium size, good fit for a skinny person with long arms (i.e. me).
They're a tiny bit fuzzy, but otherwise OK. Will be freshly washed!

I have no reason to replace them, but they don't have any reflective tape on them and I bought a new pair of arm warmers with reflectives on them, so these are now spare.

Pick up from South Kensington please.