Brakeless BMX boy fined for dangerous cycling after knocking woman unconscious

In the article it states that the lad was crying and trying to get away. I for one would probably be trying to do the same if I was surrounded by a group of scousers!

I often see idiots with brakes that cannot work. Initially, I thought it was the result of DIY repairs, but it's a really stupid fashion.

The boy's an idiot.

As for the bridleway, it's open to the Public and that's it. IIRC, if one were driving a 4x4 on it without a valid car-tax disk, licence, MoT and insurance you could be done for all those as well, plus the offence of driving on a bridleway.

Stupid boy.

Unfortunately this will indicate to Daily Mail readers that all cyclists are evil, steal from charity tins and blow raspberries at war heroes. Or sumfink.

I ride a BMX and the brakes are not crap STATO - the one on my GT works pretty well. The sidepulls on my old Mongoose were hopeless but I've fitted a proper v-brake on the GT. Anyone racing a BMX has to have a brake as it's in the rules. But a lot of people do ride skatepark BMXs without brakes, another stupid fashion just like the people who have fixies with no brakes. This lad has learned a lesson, unfortunately the woman suffered an injury in the process. Setting up a brake properly so it doesn't drag and slow you down might be beyond the skills of some of the skatepark bashers I've seen over the years - one kid used a brick and a bit of old wood as a drift to batter in a new headstock bearing at the skatepark once.

The cyclist is an idiot, frankly.

We all see more of them every day. Which, in a way, is a good thing, since one can infer that idiots are a fairly stable percentage of the biking population, and therefore if we see more idiots, there are more people cycling overall.

That's my version of a positive spin, anyway!

(For more negativity, I've taken up occasional blogging, instead: http://peoplesfrontofrichmond.wordpress.com/)

Recently noticed loads of kids riding their BMX's brakeless - running their foot acroos the back tyre to stop. Definitely one of the odder fashions to have cropped up. One of the BMX forums has this gem though:

"screw brakes all they do is slow u down if u need to stop bad enough just use ur feet or wutever large abject happens to be front of u at the time lol"

Sadly one of the more literate comments on there...

This should be a lesson to everyone, ride within your limits, be they tyres, brakes, or in this case Vision! If you can't see round a corner should you really be flying round it?
(this applies to cars too! Not that they realise it does)

Let's face it, kids BMX brakes are crap and slick tyres are rubbish on bridle ways so I doubt having working brakes would have prevented him ploughing into the walkers.
You could also argue that the walkers shouldn't be taking up the whole of a shared use path when approaching a blind bend, as other users may appear around it without warning, but I don't think that would neccisarilly have prevented the incident as we arn't required to stick to the left on bridle way :0)

Not that I condone the youth's behaviour, but I question whether he has actually committed any offence, and I question the relevance of the two statutes you refer to.

The RTA states that "A person who rides a cycle on a road dangerously is guilty of an offence".

Note the word, "road". The word is not very helpfully defined in the interpretation sections of the act but you can get its meaning from the provisions for "use of motor vehicles away from roads" (sections 33&34) which refer to use of footpaths and bridleways.

Wasn't this incident on a bridleway, according to your report?

The construction & use regs also relate to standards for use on roads indeed they are more specific, and relate to use on a public highway. To get a successful conviction, the prosector woudl have to show that this bike was actually used for road use.

A bridle path is not a highway, public or private.

Quite right too! Irresponsible behaviour should be discouraged.