Assassination Attempts

Know Your Enemy 3: The Pinball Wizard

"Ever since I was a young boy I’ve played the silver ball From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all But I ain’t seen nothing like him In any amusement hall That deaf, dumb and blind kid Sure plays a mean pinball" I’ve nothing against the deaf, dumb, and blind (Some of my best friends etc…). But...
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Posted in Assassination Attempts, Bike Culture | No Comments »

Know Your Enemy 2: The Door Zone

Do you trust the occupants of a parked car to look before they fling a door open? And How wide does a car door open? But it’s not all one sided - sometimes I see riders doing things that are just plain asking for trouble. A good example of this is filtering through traffic -...
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Posted in Assassination Attempts, Self Preservation Society | 4 Comments »

Two Assassination Attempts - One Successful

Two Assassination Attempts - One Successful

Before you panic, not it wasn’t me who actually got killed by a car - it was a fluffy bunny-wunnie. So let’s get my near-miss out of the way first. I was riding north up the coast into the wind, early on today’s bank holiday. The roads were deserted at a time in the morning...
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Posted in Assassination Attempts, Cycle | 2 Comments »

Another Techno-Fix For The Symptoms

There’s this from yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald : The cyclist-friendly car STEPHEN OTTLEY May 18, 2010 - 4:18PM Subaru has developed a new system that can detect and avoid cyclists and pedestrians. Subaru has developed new safety technology that can detect and avoid pedestrians, cyclists and other cars on the road. Pedestrians...
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Posted in Assassination Attempts, Bike Culture | 1 Comment »

Impatient Drivers: Granny’s Revenge

We were talking earlier in the week about how impatience & being a slave to the clock is the biggest danger on the road . Well maybe there’s a cure for that sort of thing - this video’s been around for a while, and I’m pretty sure it’s a spoof . . . but...
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Posted in Assassination Attempts, Silly Stuff, Video | 2 Comments »

Most Dangerous Piece Of Equipment On The Road?

Most Dangerous Piece Of Equipment On The Road?

One of the guys in the office has a yacht. I’m not talking about a dinghy, but a proper, pucker yacht. The kind of thing that you could use for sailing across oceans in comfort and style. Anyway, he says that the most dangerous thing on a boat is the calendar . You...
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Posted in Assassination Attempts, Bike Culture, Photographs, Road Safety, Video | 6 Comments »

Civilised, Long-distance Commute

Civilised, Long-distance Commute

Thursday is a bike day. We won’t let the weather, the clients we have to see, or the errands we have to run put us off doing it all on two-wheels. And this week, I had all three - cold & drizzly first thing in the morning; a meeting with a client that required...
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Posted in Ashington, Assassination Attempts, Bike to Work, Competition, Cullercoats, Cycle, Macmillan Cancer Support, Newcastle, Photographs, Where I Shop, Whitley Bay | No Comments »

Do You Have A Sixth Sense When It Comes To Other Road Users?

Take a look at this film from Andyb0000 on YouTube - pause it and note down the time in the film at which you’d identified what was going to happen: Thankfully, Andy is on the mend, but his footage raises some interesting questions about the degree of vigilance that’s needed to ride on the roads...
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Posted in Assassination Attempts, Bike Culture, Bummer, Community, Road Safety, Serious Stuff, Video | 8 Comments »

Men Make For Thick-Skinned Cyclists

There’s a reason that fewer women than men seem to ride their bikes in the UK. As explained in Beauty & The Bike , it’s the infrastructure - we’re expected to just mix in with the traffic, and it often just doesn’t feel safe, whatever the official statistics say. Warning: sweeping generalisations ahead. The thing is,...
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Posted in 'A'-List Blogs, Assassination Attempts, Bike Culture, Cullercoats, Cycle Infrastructure, Family, IronMan?, North Tyneside, Road Safety | 12 Comments »

Jumping Red Lights: Safer Than Stopping?

Jumping Red Lights: Safer Than Stopping?

Big ride today - nearly 80 miles playing in the hills of County Durham, getting as far as Wolsingham & then coming home via Durham and the Angel. I had an incident at a set of lights that made me question the safety of my pedantic attitude to red lights. You see, when I...
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Posted in 'A'-List Blogs, Assassination Attempts, Bike Culture, Blogroll, Brick, Cycle, Industrial-Strength Sarcasm, IronMan?, Ranting, Road Safety | 4 Comments »