They don't even pay road tax Joe. **Off topic thread**

Harrybelafonte

Kinet1c wrote: »

Which bag do you have? Still up in the air over the new position so in no rush, wouldn't mind getting to a bricks and mortar store to check out their range though.



It's going to be a work laptop (up to €2000 in value) so I'm looking for 100% waterproof and that's why I was looking at the Chrome/Crumpler bags. Needs to big enough to bring clothes for the day (sans footwear which will be in the office) and not a fan of messenger bags either.

Cycleways carry them

Jawgap

New bike hangar going in near Christchurch......

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.771020739638929.1073741828.268600796547595&type=1

Lusk_Doyle

^ Comes with a security man / potential flasher?

CramCycle

Every time I go into MacDonald's they mistake me for a courier with the same first name and bag. It is weird when someone calls you by your name, starts chatting to you and only a few minutes in when they ask you about work do you realise that they don't know you.

Nice guys and have helped me out of a jam once or twice

rollingscone

Any of the other Rat Miners on the forum notice a decidedly minimalist stock policy in the Lidl there?

Basically 2 types of veg and no herbal tea there last night.

RobFowl

rollingscone wrote: »

no herbal tea there last night.

Serious first world problems there

Pigeon Reaper

RobFowl wrote: »

Serious first world problems there

sounds like someone else is out of herbal tea!

Captain Havoc

Four Irish riders with teams in the TdF, hopefully it'll be a good summer.

bcmf

Get as much training in at the weekend as possible.....

From the weather oracle
'MONDAY could see a significant snowfall (that might start Sunday afternoon or evening) with any rain confined to most temperate parts of southwest. This is rather uncertain at present but there is potential for 5-10 cm snowfalls. Temperatures might be fairly close to zero C with that although 4-7 C in parts of the southwest.'

manafana

rollingscone wrote: »

Any of the other Rat Miners on the forum notice a decidedly minimalist stock policy in the Lidl there?

Basically 2 types of veg and no herbal tea there last night.

just cross the road for ALDI

Hmmzis

bcmf wrote: »

Get as much training in at the weekend as possible.....

From the weather oracle
'MONDAY could see a significant snowfall (that might start Sunday afternoon or evening) with any rain confined to most temperate parts of southwest. This is rather uncertain at present but there is potential for 5-10 cm snowfalls. Temperatures might be fairly close to zero C with that although 4-7 C in parts of the southwest.'

The Norwegians appear to be disagreeing with the snow part (at least for now).

http://www.yr.no/place/Ireland/Leinster/Dublin/long.html

Though the temperatures forecasted might be somewhat finger numbing.

Mercian Pro

Anyone see the new road-markings on Pearse Street today? Looks like two bus lanes side by side. Maybe it has to do with plans for the new BRT route but that shows a 2 metre bike lane next to the path with a bus/BRT lane outside it. Didn't think these plans were that advanced either.

Cookie_Monster

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/64942223/family-feud-question-about-cyclists-sparks-backlash-across-australia

Week night game show Family Feud has started a feud with cyclists across Australia
...
What is something annoying that a cyclist might do?" host Grant Denyer put to the game's two competing families

Pinch Flat

Mercian Pro wrote: »

Anyone see the new road-markings on Pearse Street today? Looks like two bus lanes side by side. Maybe it has to do with plans for the new BRT route but that shows a 2 metre bike lane next to the path with a bus/BRT lane outside it. Didn't think these plans were that advanced either.

Yeah pass that way daily coming home from merrion square direction - was quietly hoping it would be a new cycle lane like the one on the south of Stephens green. Ah well..,.

Mercian Pro

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Yeah pass that way daily coming home from merrion square direction - was quietly hoping it would be a new cycle lane like the one on the south of Stephens green. Ah well..,.

The knowlegable guys at Cycling in Dublin have said that it's for the bus diversions from the Luas Cross City works that are due to be ramped up soon. Just maybe DCC could do something about giving cyclists some protection on Tara Street while they are at it.

tomasrojo

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/64942223/family-feud-question-about-cyclists-sparks-backlash-across-australia

Despite the backlash, there were also responses that called for viewers to "lighten up" and appreciate what most likely had been intended to be a joke.

Yes, a rib-tickling joke, one any beleaguered minority can appreciate. I also like the "most likely" and the later non-apology apology (not even the usual "if we caused offence", but "if the response to the question caused offence").

Darkglasses

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Four Irish riders with teams in the TdF, hopefully it'll be a good summer.

We can make it 5 now, Matt Brammeier has signed for MTN Qhubeka who have also been given a Wildcard entry.

tomasrojo

Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

Prof John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, said changes were needed to make exercise easier.

"We need substantial investment in cycling infrastructure to make our streets safer.

"If more people cycled or walked to work or school, it would make a big difference in raising levels of physical activity."

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30812439

Interesting to see someone from outside a cycling lobby group say this.

CramCycle

tomasrojo wrote: »

Interesting to see someone from outside a cycling lobby group say this.

I presume this is in some way related to the metabolically healthy obese, and the metabolically unhealthy obese. I remember attending a lecture on it years ago. They found that it related to the size of the fat cells which varied drastically between the two groups, so you could have 2 obese patients but with one in no worse a medical state than a reasonably healthy person of the same age and lifestyle, versus someone who was expected to have a dramatically shorter life due to poor health.

magicbastarder

there have been stories coming out over the last year or so regarding this sort of news - that sitting is actively bad for you rather than passively bad for you.
though we've come to a bad pass if walking for 20 minutes a day is now an aspirational activity for many people.

tomasrojo

Well, people seem dispropotionately impressed that I walk my two kids to Montessori, which is half an hour each way. A "Does Not Compute" expression crosses their face when I mention cycling to Ikea with a trailer to buy furniture.

Alek

A "Does Not Compute" expression crosses their face when I mention cycling to Ikea with a trailer to buy furniture.

I get this every time, especially in Ikea's parking ;-)

tomasrojo

tomasrojo wrote: »

Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30812439

Interesting to see someone from outside a cycling lobby group say this.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2015/01/14/ajcn.114.100065.full.pdf

For anyone who wants it straight from the horse's mouth.

(Skimming the abstract suggests to me that this reinforces how limited BMI is in its usefulness.)

seamus

magicbastarder wrote: »

though we've come to a bad pass if walking for 20 minutes a day is now an aspirational activity for many people.

The thing I dislike about the "walk for X minutes per day" line is that it's uselessly non-descript.

How many people are going to hear the "walk 20 minutes per day" thing and think, "Shure between the walk to the bus stop and the amount of times I get up to go to the vending machine, I easily do 20 minutes walking per day". And they're probably right - they probably do 20 minutes of walking per day. But not the walking that this study is talking about.

For some reason they have opted to make this a really soft target, revising it continually down from an hour 3 times a week, to 30 minutes 4 times a week, and now it's 20 minutes per day (which, yes I know is more than 30x4). In the same breath they lament people's lack of activity and then make a "target" level of activity so low as to give people an out.
From being a fat lazy person, I know that fat lazy people will use every tool at their disposal to convince themselves that they're not fat lazy people.

In reality they should be defining harder targets; "If you're not spending at least 3 hours a week, outside of your house, red faced and sweating, then you're not doing enough exercise and you're going to die early". There's no easy out in that one. Very hard to convince even yourself that time spent on the toilet squeezing out a tough one counts as your weekly exercise.

When I went for a VO2max test, I mentioned that there's a family history of diabetes on my Dad's side, and so the doctor guy asked really casually, "So, you're doing an hour of exercise every day to reduce your risk?". My answer was, "Uh, I guess so". On balance, I am, but I had never once had anyone say that you need to do an hour a day to avoid type 2 diabetes. If this is common knowledge in medical circles, why is it not public knowledge?

Alek

The thing I dislike about the "walk for X minutes per day" line is that it's uselessly non-descript.

They say "20 minutes of brisk walking a day" which is a more descriptive and actually makes sense - it suggests higher level of effort than a leisure walk without scaring fat lazy persons as "20 minutes of sweating and puffing" or even "10 minutes of running" would.

Lumen

tomasrojo wrote: »

Well, people seem dispropotionately impressed that I walk my two kids to Montessori, which is half an hour each way

CHILD ABUSE!

ROK ON

Lumen wrote: »

CHILD ABUSE!

I regularly go hiking with my kids (one aged 10 and two aged six).
Usually rough terrain/off road with climbs. They b1tch and moan in the car, but as soon as we get into it they are quite competitive. The smallest of them is the best climber in terms of balance. Interestingly the boy is less competitive than the two girls. Whether they like it or not it's good for them.

We live 1km from the school and my missus refuses to walk them to school.

ThisRegard

Mercian Pro wrote: »

Anyone see the new road-markings on Pearse Street today? Looks like two bus lanes side by side. Maybe it has to do with plans for the new BRT route but that shows a 2 metre bike lane next to the path with a bus/BRT lane outside it. Didn't think these plans were that advanced either.

Every evening taxi drivers use the left normal lane as a bus lane anyway to cut in and go by the Garda station. They don't care that they cause traffic queues further down because of this.

CramCycle

ThisRegard wrote: »

Every evening taxi drivers use the left normal lane as a bus lane anyway to cut in and go by the Garda station. They don't care that they cause traffic queues further down because of this.

Forgive my stupidity but is it not a bus lane on the left the whole way down. The entrance to the Garda station says bus, taxi, motorbike and bicycles only.

ThisRegard

Yeah, perhaps I should have been clearer, they make the leftmost regular driving lane adjacent to the existing bus lane a second bus lane. So you essentially have two lanes queuing and causing a bottle neck to become 1 at the Garda station. So if you're driving and in the lane as if you want to turn left onto the quays they cause you an unnecessary delay.

Luxman

ROK ON wrote: »

I regularly go hiking with my kids (one aged 10 and two aged six).
Usually rough terrain/off road with climbs. They b1tch and moan in the car, but as soon as we get into it they are quite competitive. The smallest of them is the best climber in terms of balance. Interestingly the boy is less competitive than the two girls. Whether they like it or not it's good for them.

We live 1km from the school and my missus refuses to walk them to school.

I was one of those fat lazy persons for far too long, my other half considers herself to be fat and lazy now. Somewhere in the 3 years of cycling something 'clicked' in my head which wasn't a mid life crisis moment, it was a common sense, want to see my kids grow up and old, feel better, have more energy, enjoy life kind of moment. If our club spins winds down after 60k I am miffed and go off on my own, I started to run (something I thought I would never ever do) badly but I can run in the storms! And if I don't get my exercise in (now 5 or 6 days a week) my mood comes on and my wife tells me to go out. I am 'Operation Transformation', send RTE round !

padjo5

Spoiler alert....Mate of mine administers the BTW scheme in a large company, divulged to me today that on 1st April he plans to send everyone that availed of it an email stating the revenue need a photo of each individual actually cycling their bicycle to work, or the tax deduction will be reversed.....thought it a pretty class idea!! So if you work there you have the heads up now!

Qualitymark

ThisRegard wrote: »

Yeah, perhaps I should have been clearer, they make the leftmost regular driving lane adjacent to the existing bus lane a second bus lane. So you essentially have two lanes queuing and causing a bottle neck to become 1 at the Garda station. So if you're driving and in the lane as if you want to turn left onto the quays they cause you an unnecessary delay.

If the Department of Justice would build the Gardaí a high-rise car park that street would be completely navigable, without its multiple rows of cars outside the garda station.

Alek

Kinet1c

padjo5 wrote: »

Spoiler alert....Mate of mine administers the BTW scheme in a large company, divulged to me today that on 1st April he plans to send everyone that availed of it an email stating the revenue need a photo of each individual actually cycling their bicycle to work, or the tax deduction will be reversed.....thought it a pretty class idea!! So if you work there you have the heads up now!

At first I was like, that's a hugely inefficient process... then I realised, it wasn't the wallet inspector after all

tomasrojo

Speaking of kids walking, this is a recent bizarre development in Maryland. Parents allow their two kids, ten and six years old, to walk a mile home. Someone is concerned at seeing kids walking alone and tells the police. Parents explain themselves, seem to have given it a lot of thought, but make the mistake of not saying they'll never do it again.

The Meitivs say that on Dec. 20, a CPS [Child Protective Services] worker required Alexander to sign a safety plan pledging he would not leave his children unsupervised until the following Monday, when CPS would follow up. At first he refused, saying he needed to talk to a lawyer, his wife said, but changed his mind when he was told his children would be removed if he did not comply.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/maryland-couple-want-free-range-kids-but-not-all-do/2015/01/14/d406c0be-9c0f-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html

seamus

"The Meitivs say they believe in “free-range” parenting,"

Yeah....anyone who practices a specific ideology when it comes to raising kids, rings alarm bells in my book. I don't disagree with the insanity of picking the kids up (I was cycling 1 mile to school on my own at 8), but I get the sense that these parents aren't run-of-the-mill ones either.

tomasrojo

I get the impression they rubbed the police and the CPS up the wrong way. Still, very strange, as they didn't technically do anything wrong.

Harrybelafonte

Witnessed karma today. Guy who cycles past son and I on pavement on our way to school (adult, clipped in, road bike, helmet... All the things you need to cycle on the road) fell off on the corner today cos of ice... There was none on the road. Bike clearly damaged and his elbow hurt. Petty on my part maybe but I don't really care.

Alek

So, except for breaking the law, what did he really do? Did he go 30kmh?

Do you wish someone dead for jumping red lights?

Harrybelafonte

Alek wrote: »

So, except for breaking the law, what did he really do? Did he go 30kmh?

Do you wish someone dead for jumping red lights?

Yes, and I also want to be there when it happens. With a video camera. But only if it's really exciting. They'd have to be thrown in the air a bit. Y'know. Much more dramatic.

There, that should feed your next logical leap.

CramCycle

Alek wrote: »

So, except for breaking the law, what did he really do? Did he go 30kmh?

Do you wish someone dead for jumping red lights?

Ice on the pavement and he came close to my son, I'd be happy that he fell and hurt himself (minor enough by the sounds of it). Wouldn't wish death on someone but a little knock that does no real harm, I could smile at it too.

Harrybelafonte

CramCycle wrote: »

Ice on the pavement and he came close to my son, I'd be happy that he fell and hurt himself (minor enough by the sounds of it). Wouldn't wish death on someone but a little knock that does no real harm, I could smile at it too.

He does it every morning. He's fully kitted out to be on the road. There's a cycle path there too. No reason to be on the pavement at all.

RainyDay

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

He does it every morning. He's fully kitted out to be on the road. There's a cycle path there too. No reason to be on the pavement at all.

In icy weather, there is one more very good reason NOT to be cycling on the pavement - it is far more likely to be icy than the road, where friction from car tyres will clear away most of the ice.

Harrybelafonte

RainyDay wrote: »

In icy weather, there is one more very good reason NOT to be cycling on the pavement - it is far more likely to be icy than the road, where friction from car tyres will clear away most of the ice.

That was my point.

Zyzz

Nearly cleared out by a taxi when I had right of way going through town earlier, it caught me by such surprise that I mistakenly gave him a thumbs up while calling him a 'F*cking a*sehole* instead of the usual middle finger..

Mixed signals.

wanderer 22

Zyzz wrote: »

Nearly cleared out by a taxi when I had right of way going through town earlier, it caught me by such surprise that I mistakenly gave him a thumbs up while calling him a 'F*cking a*sehole* instead of the usual middle finger..

Mixed signals.

A thumbs up is the passive aggressive cyclists middle finger. I often give thumbs up ..

CramCycle

colm18 wrote: »

A thumbs up is the passive aggressive cyclists middle finger. I often give thumbs up ..

Go for the overly happy Dave Grohl smile and thumbs up.

eeeee

Yep the thus up or peace sign is where it's at now. Haven't managed to eradicate the cursing, but I do it with a big smilie head on me :eek:

Mercian Pro

Speaking of cursing, was cycling on the bottom part of Grafton Street yesterday near the Provost's House when a well dressed guy started to cross the street. He saw me coming and stopped. I went to go behind him but he headed back that way. I went to go outside him and he changed his mind and went to cross. This could have gone on for ever but an approaching bus entered the dance floor. I decided to pass outside him and gave him a wide berth.
After I passed him I was assailed by a very loud "Fu*k You". I looked back and gave him my widest smile. Didn't manage any peace signs or thumbs up. This was greeted with "Stop" at full volume to be repeated a few more times until I turned into Nassau Street.
I am still curious as to what exactly he wanted to say to me and I guess I will never know (unless he is reading this).