“Hey Sainsbury’s, what kind of hell is this?” Cyclist slams supermarket’s “impossible” new cycle parking; Lime bikes ban backlash; Wiggins back on his bike for first time in 3 years; Council throws party for unfinished cycle lane + more on the live blog

So, Lime Bikes are back in the news, it seems.

Last week, we reported that Muhammed Butt, the leader of Brent Council, appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to complain that the green hire bikes, and the American company’s dockless parking system, were causing a “nuisance” in the London borough, and were “just being dumped on the streets, parks, rivers and canals, outside the high streets”.

> “Banning bikes won’t help anyone”: Lime Bikes responds to London council leader trying to get rid of “annoying” hire bikes causing a “nuisance” in his borough

“They’re just sort of being left there with no care and attention. Lime do need to take some responsibility because it’s their users who are causing that nuisance,” Butt told Today presenter Amol Rajan.

However, the Labour-controlled council leader’s comments about “inconsiderately parked” and “abandoned” Lime bikes – rather inevitably – invited a few of Brent’s residents to post videos on social media of the borough’s pavements being blocked and used as a dump by a lot more than green e-bikes:

The next video on my way to work this morning in Brent NW10. #Brent pic.twitter.com/EKTsqMZUkH

— DJ Johnny London (@DJJohnn85206525) September 12, 2024

Nevertheless, Butt has doubled down on his criticism of Lime’s hire scheme, issuing an ultimatum this week that all 750 of the US-based operator’s bikes in the borough will be removed by 31 October unless requests for improved safety measures are acted upon.

As part of their ultimatum, Brent Council is calling for the introduction of dedicated Lime Bike parking bays and ‘no parking zones’ (which the local authority says would align with Transport for London’s planned e-mobility contract for 2026 and are already applied in 10 other London boroughs), resources for the council to removed abandoned bikes, and for Lime to increase the £10 in-app fine for users who fail to park their bikes correctly, neatly to the side of the footpath or in a parking bay.

“Lime bikes left scattered across our streets are causing havoc for other road users, especially for pedestrians and disabled people,” Butt said in a very pun-heavy statement yesterday.

“Residents have gone sour on Lime, and the council is receiving repeated, regular complaints about the bikes left across paths and roads in a haphazard way.

“This is putting unsustainable pressure on council staff who are spending time cleaning up after Lime. Something needs to change as the current situation is unsustainable and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

“To date, Lime has not satisfied our proposals, which we consider vital to ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the scheme in Brent. Unless Lime changes the way it works with us, we are out of road for its activities in Brent.”

> Is a common contract for London e-bike and e-scooter share schemes on the way?

Butt’s Halloween deadline for Lime has appeared to have been welcomed by some Brent residents, with 86-year-old Pat telling the Guardian that she wants the ubiquitous green bikes “rounded up and crushed”.

Life’s bad enough when you’re getting older and you’re not very steady on your feet without these bikes in your way. Good riddance,” she said.

“People just dump them with no consideration. People don’t think of other people,” added florist Heidi.

Meanwhile, Lime user Jude was also ambivalent about the scheme’s overall impact on the local community, telling the newspaper: “It’s convenient having them on the pavement but it’s a health and safety thing. In the morning they’re pretty much everywhere.”

> Lime hire scheme under fire as residents claim e-bikes "deliberately" left in "dangerous places"

However, cycling campaigners in the capital have been scathingly critical of Butt’s attack on Lime Bikes – which they believe comes from a council that has done little to make cycling easier in the borough.

“Dockless cycle hire is opening up cycling to more and more diverse Londoners,” the London Cycling Campaign said in response to Butt’s statement.

“Councils that have done nothing on active travel for years shouldn’t ‘ban’ bikes, but work with operators who offer funding for appropriately-placed parking.”

“Dockless cycling is an integral part of moving away from an overly car reliant transport system in the suburbs,” added Tom Houston on Twitter.

“The short sightedness of this man’s position is ridiculous.”

“They’ve given me so much independence, especially seeing as TfL don’t have the money/will to expand the docked cycle hire scheme,” added Chris.

Meanwhile, Kate argued that, if Lime parking bays are to become mandatory in Brent, “we should make sure that this parking replaces car parking – not pedestrian and parklet space”.

“Can we do something about the problem of dockless car parking?” asked Chris, who wasn’t alone in questioning the discrepancy between attitudes towards car and cycle parking, illegal or otherwise.

“Southside shopping centre in Wandsworth, has car parking capacity for well over 2,000 cars. There are probably bike hoops for approximately 40 bikes. And there are complaints that bikes are left on the pavement,” said Matt.

Echoing the LCC’s stance, another user said: “The lack of infrastructure to make cycling safer is noticeable in Brent, along with generally very poor driving standards.”

> Lime contractor tracked seized e-bikes to council lock-up and took them back

Responding to Brent Council’s ultimatum, a Lime spokesperson said that the company wants to work with the local authority to address its concerns.

“We are proud to have worked with our partner councils over the last six years to build a safe and reliable shared e-bike service across London,” the spokesperson said. “Local residents in Brent and across the capital use our bikes for essential journeys every day, with 11.5 million commuting trips already taken this year.

“We recognise that a small proportion of e-bikes are obstructing pavements and busy junctions, creating difficulties for those with access needs, and we understand the importance of keeping our pavements safe for all,” Lime told The Independent.

Lime also said that, due to Brent Council currently having just 10 pilot e-bike parking locations across the borough, it is “not possible to enforce mandatory parking rules”.

> Cyclists to be banned from Oxford Street as part of Sadiq Khan’s pedestrianisation plans, but could be allowed to cycle at night

> AbsoluteBlack will only let you buy its “extraordinary” titanium oversized pulley cage if your bike is good enough

Think I’ll stick with my very ordinary, very normal sized pulley cage, thank you very much.

Have you ever been out riding your bike thought to yourself, ‘You know what would improve my commute or weekend spin? If it looked like I was about to take off down the side of a mountain’?

Well, you’re in luck. Because Hong Kong-based innovators Ram Air Fairing (so not that RAF, though it does look like something they would design) will soon be launching a crowdfunding campaign for its ‘Pioneering Bike Backpack’ – a backpack that isn’t, well, a backpack in the traditional sense (because it doesn’t hold anything), but is instead designed to “significantly reduce air drag” and help you “effortlessly slice through the wind”, while enhancing your safety with integrated airbag protection.

And making you look like the airbag has already gone off or you’re about to go paragliding, of course. Or that you’re just a bit of a wally who’ll buy any old thing for the apparent aero gains.

> An air-filled cycling backpack to “reduce drag and enhance safety” is about to hit Kickstarter

And judging by the comments already on social media, it’s fair to say a lot of cyclists have responded to RAF’s aero backpack by reaching for their calendars, just to make sure.

“No. Just no,” said road.cc reader Aidan.

Hawkinspeter was more optimistic, however, writing: “Finally a perfectly shaped backpack for when I go shopping for fine China and then want to visit the house of cards building championship. Maybe I’ll go visit the domino toppling exhibition as well. Do you think they’d make a custom painted one that might look a little bit like a squirrel tail?”

“Just come back from a ride in a mahoosive cross wind. That should work,” said Peter. Now that would an echelon I’d like to see.

“I’d be prepared to bet a whole five quid that I never, ever see this in use. And that actually makes me feel slightly sad,” added another Twitter user.

Me too, to be fair.

“Yep, expect to see Visma rolling these out next Tour – in yellow, to complement their pointy hats from last season. Most likely helium-filled for all those mountain stages,” said one person who’s obviously head of development on a WorldTour team.

Don’t give them any ideas though!

And finally, BBB has won the afternoon with this comedy club cracker: “All those product claims are just hot air.”

Wahey!

A teenage cyclist was attacked by two men wielding a machete and equipped with electric motorbikes in an attempted bikejacking in Liverpool, with the 16-year-old forced to rush into a Tesco to evade the muggers.

Read more: > Machete-wielding men on electric motorbikes attack teenage cyclist, chasing him into “busy” Tesco in attempted bikejacking

Lime Bikes really are the flavour of the week, aren’t they? Or maybe not so much…

While down in London, Brent Council – where the green e-bikes have been a fixture for five years – has issued an ultimatum to the American hire bike company, calling on it to address its pavement blocking problem otherwise the local authority will scrap the scheme by Halloween, Lime’s arrival in Oxford this month hasn’t gone down too well with local traders.

> Are hire bikes – and a lack of docking stations – causing a “nuisance” in cities? Cyclists call for “better regulation” as Lime Bikes branded a “menace clogging up pavements”

When contractors for Lime rocked up to Frideswide Square in the city at the start of September, to paint lines for a new parking bay for the bikes on the pavement, a group of business owners staged a makeshift protest to prevent them from carrying out their job (damned if you arrange parking spaces, damned if you don’t eh?).

“People from Lime came along and started to paint white lines outside Lula’s restaurant but we stood in front of them with our arms folded until they went away,” Amanda Suliman-Bell, who runs Rainbow and Spoon boutique, told the Oxford Mail, while claiming that the shop owners in Frideswide Square were not consulted about the new parking pays.

Lime did, however, succeed in setting up a bay for its bikes outside the nearby West Oxford Community Centre on Botley Road.

But the Oxford Mail has reported that Lime may have decided to begin installing their parking bays without being given the go-ahead by Oxfordshire County Council.

“At the moment, local authorities have limited control over operators installing rental e-bikes,” a council spokesperson said.

“Oxfordshire County Council is currently in discussion with Lime with a view to establishing an agreed code of conduct for their operations in Oxford.”

The Oxford Mail also reported that one Lime Bike has already been found abandoned and on its side outside St Frideswide Church. Probably could do with installing more handy parking bays then, eh?

In one of the more surprising developments of the cycling season so far, Ineos Grenadiers’ long-standing road captain Luke Rowe is reportedly ready to step into the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale for 2025.

Rowe – a cornerstone of some of Ineos and Sky’s biggest victories over the years, including five Tour de France wins – is set to retire at the end of the year, despite having a contract with the British team until the end of 2025, after a shocking run of injuries and ill-fortune.

> “Pogačar and Vingegaard are going to be hard to topple”: Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe say Ineos Grenadiers need some “honest conversations in the mirror” and just get back to winning some bike races

The 34-year-old hasn’t raced since a race-ending crash at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic in March, where he suffered a concussion that ruled him out of the spring classics and this year’s grand tours, while a projected farewell ride at the Tour of Britain was also called off, meaning Rowe is unlikely to race as a pro again.

With his tactical nous as one of the peloton’s most acclaimed and respected domestiques, Rowe has long been touted as a future sports director, and was widely tipped to stay on in a management capacity at Ineos, where he has spent the entirety of his 13-year pro career.

(Zac Williams/SWPix.com)

However, in a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan, it has been reported by Daniel Benson that Rowe is instead set to join Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale as a sports director, a move that is yet unconfirmed but could be announced in the next few weeks.

Though the rumoured appointment may come as something of a surprise, especially considering Rowe’s position as Mr Ineos over the past decade, it will nevertheless act as another statement of intent for the ambitious French outfit.

Since the arrival of Decathlon as title sponsor at the start of this year, the team have enjoyed a fruitful 2024 so far, winning 30 races, including two stages at the Giro d’Italia, and a stage, second-place overall, and a long spell in the red leader’s jersey at the Vuelta a España courtesy of Ben O’Connor.

 (A.S.O./Pauline Ballet)

Rowe’s departure would also prove a blow for an Ineos management structure which has been in flux since Dave Brailsford stepped aside to focus on another sporting giant in transition, with recent years marked by Rod Ellingworth’s exit amid reported internal tensions, DS Steve Cumming’s ongoing absence at races since June, and Dan Bigham’s recent defection to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

> “It’s not prettier than it is, and the podium is just very far away”: Luke Rowe joins chorus of discontent as Ineos Grenadiers struggle in Spain at the Vuelta

And earlier this month, Rowe himself admitted that the British team is currently “far away from the podium” when it comes to cycling’s biggest races.

“You can’t justify it. It’s a team with a huge budget. Riders are paid to win big races. That’s just not happening now. We’re not performing. Not that one person is failing, but it hasn’t been going well for a long time,” he told Eurosport during the Vuelta.

“Staying at the top was difficult, we were chased. Now, we have to chase the rest. Several teams have passed us. I know the people at the top of the team, and they will start thinking and not give up. But it’s not solved in one or two years. I give them a few years, then Ineos will return to the top.”