Friday, August 5th: Although I had meetings in town they were informal ones and the weather was nice enough that I set off in shorts and t-shirt. To be fair I did take my shorts that allowed “legs” to be zipped onto them. Although I didn’t actually bother putting them on in the meeting.
There are several factors at play in encouraging more people to cycle. I think that one of those factors is to show that it doesn’t take Lycra and high-viz clothing to make it possible to cycle. In fact I would go further if it is true that in order to cycle safely that we need protective gear such has high-viz clothing and straps and stickers to alert short-sighted motorists to our presence and cycle helmets when that still isn’t enough and we get run over then clearly what we are saying is that it is dangerous to cycle.
I came across this piece in the Daily Mail which answers the question “Should my son wear a cycle helmet?” in quite a balanced way. Although judging from some of the comments his reasonable take did not sit well with the daily Mail readership. Well the readership on the internet that feels motivated to comment anyway.
In life we all have different tolerances for the “danger thresholds” we find acceptable. Some of us seek out thrills whilst others are highly risk adverse. As a society there does also seem to be a trend towards wanting to blame others (and sue them as well). I think that this is a worrying trend, surely we need to encourage individuals to take responsibility for their own actions. Although there has been a recent tragic case where a “girl who had been paralysed after diving into a friend’s swimming pool lost a £6m claim for damages”. Where the judge indicated that as an adult the girl was responsible for her own actions. So perhaps the tide is turning somewhat. However I do believe that the State must play its part in supporting people who have suffered such terrible accidents.
When bringing up children I was always told that part of a parent’s (my) job was about transferring that responsibility. There is also a fine balance between being appropriately protective and over-protective. So in the midst of all this what should we be doing to understand risk and the responsibility for reducing that risk.
At its simplest are roads simply too dangerous for anyone other than cars, lorries and buses, or should all “vulnerable road users” use more protection or should the potentially dangerous road users take on more responsibility for reducing the potential harm they represent.
we say that more cyclists would make motorists more aware and so the roads would be safer places to cycle on. We build more cycle routes, although safety seems to be at the bottom of the pile of concerns – there is simply more of a desire to get the cyclists out of the way of the motorists. At the moment the most recent data indicates that the number of pedal cyclists increased by 7% from 104 in 2009 to 111 in 2010.
We cyclists are also “taught” to take the lane, however as most cyclists will no this does not endear you to other road users. It would also seem that the Police don’t always think this is what cyclists should be doing either as reported in a piece by the Guardian – “Is it a cyclist’s right to ‘take the lane’?“ I was pleased to see a quote from the Institute of Advanced Motoring “… Some motorists think it is a divine right to be moving at whatever speed they want and a cyclist is holding them up. I’m afraid it is tough if a cyclist holds them up… ”. Although he was the Cycling Manager at the IAM (Duncan Pickering).
To get more insight I had a look at this link on Cycling Accidents – Facts and Figures – February 2011 on ROSPA. It referred to a report which was free but I had to go through the rigmarole of “registering” which many inappropriate questions – but ho hum I did register in the end. Now I just have to read it. In 2009 there were 2,710 cyclists who were either killed or seriously injured, which averages out at just over 52 cyclists per week.
The document does also state that casualty severity was found to increase with posted speed limit. (Page 10) It does not really offer any explanation on what the issues might be. On the same page it does indicate that during 2005-07 83% of the KSI group (killed or seriously injured) were involved in a collision with another vehicle, usually a car or taxi (69%).
Here in the Cambridge area Cambridgeshire County Council have announced that they want to cut the speed limit on the A10 between Ely and Cambridge to 50mph. Why, well apparently there have been nearly 100 injury accidents in the last three years. Paradoxically a district and county councillor – Cllr Hunt has argued that dropping the limit to 50mph over the 12 mile stretch would increase the number of accidents, because “the road would become a racetrack with 80% observing the limit and 20% ignoring it”.
If he is right then we have a general issue of lawlessness on the roads that needs sorting and we need to reduce the speed limit, if he is wrong the we need to reduce the speed limit –simples.
Enough moaning about speeding traffic, it must be time to have a moan about bicycles. on the way back from my meeting I took a great circle route around the outskirts of Cambridge. As I was cycling round all the wiggly bits on Cherry Hinton High Street I must have been standing on the pedals and when I sat down on the saddle it wobbled. This has happened to me before, it happens when the bolts that tighten the seat to the seat post get a bit loose. So I thought I’d better stop and tighten them up. I did have another little wiggle to see how loose the saddle actually was.
That is when the seat post split and I realised I had a more serious problem on my hands. I also realised that if I tried to sit down my nether regions would also have had quite a problem. This is how it looked when I stopped. The seat post is a suspension post which means it bounces a little bit when I go over rough ground. My other bikes don’t have one, however it would be useful on the rear seat of my tandem as the person on the back gets little warning when you go over bumps and can’t take the shock through their legs.
Whilst standing there wondering what my plan should be I took some more pictures. The side road I had stopped on was Railway Street, next to the railway line that passes through Cherry Hinton. There is a footpath alongside it which heads off towards the Fulbourn Tesco – to the right of the corrugated iron shed. The shed looks like the sort of place that a Scout Group might have met – once upon a time.
Just in case I forgot the name of the street.
I decided to cycle home, it couldn’t be that hard to cycle standing up could it? after all you often see big lads on tiny BMX bikes. After a while I realised that the Great Circle route wasn’t such a good idea after all. After a short distance I stopped because I didn’t want the seat and post to just drop off. It didn’t take much to break the join and I tucked the saddle in my bag.
The absence of the saddle made it impossible to sit, but it also made the bike handling feel very different. Partly because I was standing on the pedals and partly because a chunk of weight was missing. I also had to resist any temptation to sit down – it wasn’t hard though – the seat post did not look inviting.
I only had a few miles to cycle, but strangely enough different leg muscles started complaining. As I was nearing home I passed a friend in her car, but I couldn’t wave, it did not feel safe enough to take even one hand off the handlebars.
I did make it home though, with a lot more respect for those lads cycling on their tiny BMX bikes. I took a few pictures with the saddle missing completely
The bike not only feels imbalanced it also looks imbalanced as well.
After getting home I popped the bike in the car and set off to Ben Hayward Cycles at Horningsea (much easier to park there). They didn’t have a suspension seat post in that shop but thought there might be one in the other shop. I was then asked how soon did I need it. After all I might have cycled direct to the shop! I hadn’t and so left the bike there and on my way home got a phone call (hands-free) to let me know there was one in the other shop and the bike would be ready first thing on Saturday. (Which it was and they adjusted the saddle to the right height before I left the shop – you can’t complain about good service.)
That evening I was watching television lying on a bean bag on the floor when I got cramp in my left thigh. I don’t often get cramp, but this time I was a muscle at the front and was pretty painful and took ages to ease away.
A friend mentioned that the Jockeys in Newmarket can sometimes been seen riding bikes without saddles to strengthen their legs for horse-racing – it is certainly harder than it looks.
Interesting Life – An xkcd take.
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