The worst one yet? Sign warns cyclists "you are my targets"; Where are Winstanleys? Retailer not answering customers; No French sport until September; Cyclist told "go home" by pickup driver; 3T 3D-printing valves for dive masks + more on the live blog

brooksby wrote:

I keep wondering about all these "Stay away if you ain't local!" signs.  Does the vigilante know - by sight - every single local in their village? 

..Of course, they're all related...

He did apparently. Whole thing on facebook with a local club member filling in the details, including local plod saying 50 mile rides are fine for club riders

There are two little places called Felindre in Powys. One is south of Newtown on the B-road to Knighton. I'd guess this is the one that is referred to. Looking on Strava, the riders who've been that way recently are all local.

The other Felindre is a tiny hamlet on a quiet back lane near Berriew. You'd only usually go through there if you were doing the Tregynon loop from/to Newtown.

Proper masks are for those in constant contact or threat. DIY masks are to stop you spreading the virus.
I'd certainly expect a lot risk compensation by the public if we are to wear them.

There are various pros and cons to the wearing of masks.

I hope to finally start work in a couple of weeks, bit of covid work, and I will have to use the train as part of the commute, I fully expect to be 'asked' to wear a mask.  I have a fresh filter for my Respro, and am prepared to make a few out of t-shirts too.  Just for the train and station bit.

One of the cons, good masks with valves (like the Respro) could actually produce more aerosols than without.  They accumulate a great deal of condensation, which almost sprays out of the valve.

And the moisture build up in a fabric home made mask could also do something similar.  As I say pros and cons.

I think the confusion with masks is that they never say whether they are talking in terms of protecting the wearer, or protecting everyone else. And from what. So the arguments swirl back and forth at complete cross purposes.

My simple take in the present situation is that I should wear a mask to stop stuff coming out of my mouth when I talk, drops of spit potentially containing virus. So it does not have to be a type-approved medical grade job. Just the sort of thing worn by food workers for the same reason.

If there is already an aerosol of virus in the air I breathe in it won't stop that. But if everybody else wore one then there would be no such aerosol to begin with.

I take your point about the Respro valves blowing out an aerosol (do they do that?). I assume such a mask is designed to protect the wearer, not the others, but unless it can filter out aerosols coming in then can it even protect you?

Sriracha wrote:

I think the confusion with masks is that they never say whether they are talking in terms of protecting the wearer, or protecting everyone else. And from what. So the arguments swirl back and forth at complete cross purposes. My simple take in the present situation is that I should wear a mask to stop stuff coming out of my mouth when I talk, drops of spit potentially containing virus. So it does not have to be a type-approved medical grade job. Just the sort of thing worn by food workers for the same reason. If there is already an aerosol of virus in the air I breathe in it won't stop that. But if everybody else wore one then there would be no such aerosol to begin with. I take your point about the Respro valves blowing out an aerosol (do they do that?). I assume such a mask is designed to protect the wearer, not the others, but unless it can filter out aerosols coming in then can it even protect you?

You are on the right tracks, but the 'non medical grade' masks don't stop all the stuff comming out of your mouth, just reduce it.
So it only reduces the chance of spreading the virus, not eliminate it completely.

I can confirm that the Primal masks are not clinical masks, although they are guaranteed to stop at least 80% of all droplets going into the air. The masks include a slot for an additional filter, should you wish greater protection.

Its an interesting one hey, but I'd argue if they were clinical grade masks it would be better to provide the NHS with supplies. However they are not.

As mentioned, the idea of wearing facemasks is to reduce the risk of you contaminating other environments, not to stop environments contaminating you. If we all made efforts to not contaminate, then there would be nothing out there to contaminate you with. Or something like that. 

Stuk wrote:

Winstanleys has been notorious for years. They’re one of those outfits that advertise everything as in stock at too good to be true prices. It seems hit or miss as to wether they actually order the product after taking money and refunds have to be chased. I’m guessing the problem is exacerbated by not being able to source the out of stock stuff from distributors at the mo.

Well Winstanleys were ok when I ordered a bike from them some years ago. It came as ordered and was a really good deal, as it'd been hanging up in a window as a display item (it was a previous year's model and therefore cut price).

I guess you were alright then. I became aware of the mass of negative feedback some years ago when an “in stock” tyre I ordered never arrived. Lots of posts similar to those mentioned in the article involving much more expensive item than I ordered (and yes I wish i’d checked them out first). I did get a refund eventually.

Same with Tweeks. I've had a nightmare with them recently. They cancelled an 'in stock' order without explanation (after a week) then a few weeks later retook the payment (£100) without authorisation. Finally got an email after I posted a negative review but they didn't have an explanation for the unauthorised payment. I'm avoiding them and advising others to avoid them for the foreseeable.

The space they've blocked off is usually on street parking and a bus stop so if anything this makes the road a bit safer. I cycle down it a bit, but to be honest in West Ealing the bigger problem is mostly predestrians wandering out into the road without any awareness of what is going on. The junction with Northfields Avenue about quarter of mile from there is lethal though and if anything's it's now worse because the traffic is so much faster. 

With all due respect I think you're mistaken - it can't be a bus stop and parking in that space, and if it's parking, why is there a yellow line down it? In fact I just looked it up on Streetview, because I am that sad, and there's a clear "No Parking 8AM-6.30PM" sign on the lampost right outside Lidl, by the phone boxes. Think you must be thinking of another stretch, or maybe you only ride it early morning/later evening? That bit looks proper dangerous to me, as you can see from the right-hand picture that it clearly leaves just enough room for two cars to pass in opposite directions. At a minimum it needs a "Narrow lanes, do not overtake cyclists" sign, I'd say.

At the risk of the most pointless argument ever....

The red bit of road the photo is taken from is a bus stop. The space they've blocked off is usually reserved for loading only- so you are right that there is no parking, but loading isn't parking.

 It's also a super busy bus route so you usually have to negotiate busses, cars, delivery vans and pedestrians.

i live half a mile from this shop- it's good to see Ealing council do something to try and reduce risk in a crowded bit of town. It irritates me to see people automtically look to criticise a sensible decision without knowing the facts. 

At the risk of further annoying someone clearly determined to take offence, so when you said it's on-street parking, it isn't. It just seems odd to me for a cycling site to be showing pictures of a scheme which, whatever its merits, quite clearly cuts down the space for cyclists and pushes them further out into the centre of the road. It's captioned "more temporary cycle lanes popping up" when it's clearly nothing of a sort, not a cycle lane at all. Why can't Lidl customers queue next to the storefronts, most of which are presumably closed, and passing pedestrians walk kerbside, it looks like there's plenty of room there to maintain a 2m gap. However, if you want to get irritated, do be my guest.

There's a joke in there somewhere...