Tandem hearse blues as funeral home struggles to fulfil late cyclist’s wish for “final ride” to burial spot with friends; Shocking video shows Aussie cyclist run over by lorry driver cutting across bike lane; London bike theft map + more on the live blog

A funeral company in Birmingham is appealing for a tandem hearse, a special bicycle with a coffin rack, so that a late man’s wish to go on a “final four-mile ride” with his four friends to the spot where he’ll be buried can be fulfilled.

A Natural Undertaking, a Birmingham-based company that offers bespoke funerals, said that it has looked across the length and breath of the country in search of the special bike.

The BBC reports that Kerri Deeley, an undertaker at the company, had found a company that could supply a tandem hearse in October, when she first met the man to discuss his funeral. However, after he died, the tandem hearse has unfortunately gone out of service needing repairs.

“I’ve literally tried the length and breadth of Britain to try and locate another one,” she told BBC Radio WM, adding that they were hoping that the public can help them with any leads.

The company often works with people who are terminally ill and want to plan a unique funeral. Ms Deeley said they had organised fancy dress and biker-themed memorials - and even one event where the deceased person asked to be dressed as a clown.

“It’s a nice memory to have for the family. They’ve done what they can to make their loved one's final journey how they want it to be,” she said. “It’s such a fulfilling job. When we get into the cars afterwards, we look at ourselves and think: 'We did that, we made that wish come true’.”

Live blog readers, if you know anyone with a tandem hearse who’s gracious enough to lend it to the funeral house and help a cyclist ride one last time with his mates, get in touch with A Natural Undertaking.

Fractures to rib, right shoulder blade and his right hand… that doesn’t sound very good.

Read the full story: > Remco Evenepoel taken to hospital after 'colliding with swinging door of postal truck' while training

> Dangerous bus driver banned from driving for a year after hitting 13-year-old cyclist "into the road" before fleeing the scene

Australia — The land which brought all of us Mad Max, does seem to have quite a bit of fury on its roads…

A shocking dashcam footage from a driver shared on Reddit shows an “insane close call”where the rider was “lucky to escape death”, at an intersection which cyclists have described as the “worst in Melbourne” where “lines don’t mean anything”.

In the video, the cyclist can be seen cycling slowly onto the bike lane, but then a lorry driver decides to cut him off and the rider is forced to move aside to give way. But even as the cyclist hugs the pavement, the driver apparently completely misjudges the corner, and proceeds to trample the rider’s bike and injure him as well, even mounting the pavement.

From DashCamOwnersAustralia... always assume the worst around trucks
byu/ruinawish inmelbournecycling

The footage was captioned: “This was at corner of Docklands Hwy and Lorimer St, Melbourne VIC on 26/11/2024. The trailer truck drove over bicycle and lucky the cyclist wasn’t injured. I horned the truck at the next intersection and he looked at me and drove off when the light turned green. I drove back to the scene and police took a statement and this video.”

Australian news Network 10 reported that “the 58-year-old cyclist was taken to hospital with minor injuries”.

> Aussie police sergeant warns cyclists to “stay off” busy roads and “don’t put yourself in harm’s way”, as Sky News asks “Are cyclists annoying us?” – a month after two riders seriously injured in deliberate hit-and-runs

The post, initially made on r/melbournecyclists and then cross-posted to r/melbourne (by a brave soul, might I add), has garnered loads of reactions from people. If you’ve got any idea of how popular cycling discourse is shaped in Australia, I assume you’d probably know the inclination of the comments on the latter subreddit, but most cyclists were empathetic towards the rider in the video, some even dispirited with the drivers.

“Hope he loses his license and gets charged. I am sick of these f***heads on the road. That poor guy would have been so frightened. I was almost killed by a truck and immediately went out and bought a dashcam. It shouldn’t be a death defying fiasco to get around this city. Good on you for trying and for caring.”

“Dashed white line, truck driver must give way to vehicles already in the lane, plus must give way to a bike in a bike lane. The bike is already there, so fail to give way not to mention leaving the scene of an accident.”

“F*** poor bugger, minding his own business and then that happens. Hoping for a speedy recovery and no lasting damage.”

“That’s a hit and run. That driver needs to be charged as such. That could’ve easily ended that cyclists or pedestrians life. It could’ve ended my life.”

> “The truck driver actually tried to kill me”: Lachlan Morton forced to “bail off the side of the road” as lorry driver “kept going directly at me” and “didn’t move his truck one inch” during monster ‘Lap of Australia’ effort

Another person shared an account of similar incident that happened to them, writing: “This happened to me but I got cut off by the cab of the truck and I fell and wend under. Landed on my back and saw the trucks rear wheel coming and I rolled out from underneath just in time. The bike got taken down the street with the truck. Only then did he stop when he felt the bike go under. So lucky.”

Meanwhile, this intersection has already come under scrutiny from the Victorian Transport Association, who in 2017 called on authorities to rethink the plan to create an on-road bicycle path on Lorimer Street in Port Melbourne.

VTA CEO Peter Anderson said: “While we fully support infrastructure that encourages commuters onto bikes and away from cars, the last place we should be putting a shared path is on the only gazetted freight route servicing the south side of the Port of Melbourne.

“It’s an irresponsible recipe for disaster to encourage cycling on a road so intensively used by heavy vehicles, and is the precise opposite of what we recommended in early consultations.

“For planners to have included an on-road cycling path on Lorimer Street in the draft framework defies logic.”

> “What kind of disturbed, inhumane individuals do that?”: Double hit-and-run suspects were “laughing” after mowing down Melbourne cyclist

This news comes just a couple weeks after Sky News Australia’s notorious segment about cyclists, in which a panel of ill-informed presenters called for “all bikes to be banned from all roads forever” — after a “crazy near miss” on Main South Road in Adelaide, involving two car drivers, a lorry driver, and a cyclist on a recumbent tricycle.

Co-host Caroline Marcus, exhibiting his accurate knowledge and research about recumbent bikes, said: “What the hell was that person thinking riding… it looks like a kid’s toy, these trikes.”

Meanwhile, Kel Richards claimed: “Not some, ban all bikes from all roads, forever – simple solution. It’s the only intelligent solution… You can never have bicycles mixing with steel traffic, it can never be safe. But they think they’re so morally good, because they’re saving the planet remember, and they’re safe because they’re in Lycra.”

Not to be a dark cloud of pessimism on a Tuesday morning, but with media spouting non-sense like this, it doesn’t fill me with much hope for cycling in Australia…

This one’s for the very niche intersection of cartophiles and cyclists… or just cyclists trying to figure out how to keep their bikes safe.

The interactive map, put together by The London Spy, can be filtered by total bike theft volumes or as rate compared to cycling in census, with the latter serving as a good indicator of the risk of having your bike stolen in the area. Perhaps, a bit too topical after last evening’s news…

> "Theft has become legal": Police close stolen bike case a day after it was taken from outside Scotland Yard HQ, despite CCTV cameras and tracker showing location

You can check out the map by clicking here.