Bonkers Buckaroo bikepacking set-up; Yves Lampaert spotted riding mountain bike with panniers home from national TT win; Jeremy Vine's 'Clown of the Day'; Could the Tour de France be returning to London?; Count the commuters + more on the live blog

I must admit to thinking that was a good advert for racks/panniers and butterfly bars. But I quickly told myself off!

Fair play to him - he's out there doing it, which is more than I can say. Plus there's quite a bit of dust on the bike, a hint that perhaps it's seen a fair bit of off-road riding.

Yes, clearly getting some off-roading in there - I think I'm just genuinely a little perplexed at how the majority of cycle-touring content on instagram/twitter is 'bikepacking' led - someone show me a fairlight with racks!  As a died in the wool tourist though, it's fabulous that more people are seeing the light, however the load is carried!    

Sorry to read of your untimely death.

hirsute wrote:

Sorry to read of your untimely death.

That wool can be pretty dangerous, I hear...

brooksby wrote:

.....

That wool can be pretty dangerous, I hear...

There's a real risk of being fleeced

I've settled on a Tubus front rack with a pannier on one side, and my tent and sleeping pad lashed to the other. I also have a front rando style bag. I'm considering a tail or frame bag and downsizing that huge left pannier. I like front heavy better than tail heavy, but this is a bit too front heavy.

I do have extra room to carry a 6 pack to camp.

it would make more sense and probably stand more chance, but then you cant blame Boris for upsetting the organisers of those yet...interesting also to note in the same interview Khan talks flying in parts of the Indian premier league cricket tournament to play in London and is already being in discussions for London to host a Formula 1 race,possibly as early as 2023.

not quite sure how any of that sits with a walking,cycling green recovery strategy maybe the teams will pay a congestion charge per lap or something, but it does earn more points in the Burson Cohn & Wolfe annual ranking of sporting cities survey, that London lost its top ranking to New York in, and which identifies as its key survey learnings that hosting major global sports events like F1 or the Olympics boosts your ranking.

apparently even just talking about hosting them boosts it too...

Awavey wrote:

. For all the boosting & flattering of egos hosting a Tour stage/Grand depart imparts, it's very short lived affair, does Yorkshire feel any of the warm glow of hosting Le Tour anymore ?

Hell yeah. Also we have (hopefully) the TdY as a legacy event and had the Worlds. Massive contributions to cycling take up and interest in competitive cycling across Yorkshire. I always love coming across the Belgians and Dutch who come over to watch and ride. 
 

Awavey wrote:

Boris had a point, for a minimum outlay of 1million quid, that money could be better spent on longer term cycling goals. For all the boosting & flattering of egos hosting a Tour stage/Grand depart imparts, it's very short lived affair, does Yorkshire feel any of the warm glow of hosting Le Tour anymore ? has London even forgotten it hosted a stage finish just 7 years ago?

Why not both?

Hosting a stage is more of a tourism thing whereas cycling infrastructure is more in line with "levelling up" the country in terms of improving mass transit and public health.

I don't even know why one is being compared to another - there's little discussion of professional motorsport events when roads are being planned/built/repaired.

Well sure you could spend on both but then its costing you twice as much to do something and it would be nice for politicians for once to consider its public money they spend.

As for the tourism angle, London is already one of the worlds top tourist destinations, it was (pre covid) literally like the 2nd most visited city in the world, more than half of overseas visitors trips to the UK,visit London. It really doesnt struggle to attract tourists by not hosting one off sporting events and its actually a gigantic gravity well for the rest of the UKs tourism industry because it's much harder to get those same tourists out of London to travel & visit the rest of UK as a result.

If the UK were to host TdF again it would be better to pick anywhere but London imo, but rest of UK doesnt get millions of pounds in promo budgets to spend so it wont happen.

Awavey wrote:

Well sure you could spend on both but then its costing you twice as much to do something and it would be nice for politicians for once to consider its public money they spend. As for the tourism angle, London is already one of the worlds top tourist destinations, it was (pre covid) literally like the 2nd most visited city in the world, more than half of overseas visitors trips to the UK,visit London. It really doesnt struggle to attract tourists by not hosting one off sporting events and its actually a gigantic gravity well for the rest of the UKs tourism industry because it's much harder to get those same tourists out of London to travel & visit the rest of UK as a result. If the UK were to host TdF again it would be better to pick anywhere but London imo, but rest of UK doesnt get millions of pounds in promo budgets to spend so it wont happen.

I'm pretty sure that some of the extra money we've saved from Brexit could be used to finance it.

hawkinspeter wrote:

I'm pretty sure that some of the extra money we've saved from Brexit could be used to finance it.

£350,000,000 per week should cover it?

ChrisB200SX wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

I'm pretty sure that some of the extra money we've saved from Brexit could be used to finance it.

£350,000,000 per week should cover it?

Nah, the NHS has earmarked that.... greedy bastards.

From a tourism angle, we could try not being deeply unpleasant and untrustworthy in our dealings with the European countries just across the Channel.

Pot.

Kettle.

Get over it!

Awavey wrote:

Boris had a point, for a minimum outlay of 1million quid, that money could be better spent on longer term cycling goals. For all the boosting & flattering of egos hosting a Tour stage/Grand depart imparts, it's very short lived affair, does Yorkshire feel any of the warm glow of hosting Le Tour anymore ? has London even forgotten it hosted a stage finish just 7 years ago?

It doesn't have to be either/or, it's also not  huge amount of money, probably a loss-leader overall.

peted76 wrote:

It's almost a shame that citizens aren't financially incentivised to catch eejits like that car driver, in particular on to catch people on their phones. If there was an incentive, those 360 degree cameras could earn someone a living. I'm thinking, easy nationwide reporting system, £200 fines per infringment, £10 in the pocket of the person reporting it. 

I like this idea. It would be a great idea for illegal parking too, and a great way for people to make some extra cash.

I could literaly shop my neighbour every week for illegally parking on the pavement and too close to a junction, that could fund my bike habit!

I think the Satsi operated a similar regime whereby people were incentivised to report on the failings of other citizens to the authorities.