Don't ride in groups or we will be stopped cycling completely.

[ColinJ]

I have say despite the stats the feeling is that I see more young females smoking these days

Yes, that's what I thought but perhaps it is just a case of the ones that tend to hang about in public.

2 women that I know who have been smoking for over 50 years have given up recently. (They say that they have given up completely but I'm fairly sure that they still have the odd cigarette when feeling stressed. They certainly are not smoking when I see them these days but they sometimes vape instead.)

 

[Drago]

I've just read the governments guidance. It doesn't say I can't paint myself in jam and walk up the road naked with an aubergine rammed betwixt my buttocks, so guess what I'll be doing tomorrow...then boasting about it on social media, and then deleting my account!

 

[HLaB]

Went out for a short ride at lunch today and I saw no group riders just a couple of solo riders. (Not a great sample as it wasn't a long ride). The 1 mile of park I have to cut through to avoid the Parkway (akin to a urban motorway) although quieter was still a bit busy for my liking. I may brave the Parkway on Sunday if I go out as I suspect the predicted good weather will bring out more people.

 

[slowmotion]

Went out for a short ride at lunch today and I saw no group riders just a couple of solo riders. (Not a great sample as it wasn't a long ride). The 1 mile of park I have to cut through to avoid the Parkway (akin to a urban motorway) although quieter was still a bit busy for my liking. I may brave the Parkway on Sunday if I go out as I suspect the predicted good weather will bring out more people.

I've got a regular ten mile route on the Thames Path and now know which parts of it are too narrow to maintain 2 metre separation from other users. I got fed up with runners coming too close while breathing hard. It's quite easy to nip into side streets to avoid the pinch points and a lot more fun. Going out fairly late in the evening helps a lot too.

 

[nickyboy]

When did you see those groups and were they identifiable as any club? BC still hasn't made group riding during lockdown a disciplinary offence.

All this careless talk that tighter lockdown must come is encouraging people to ride further than they would otherwise. Like I've three loops that stay within 2km and one that stays within 1 km but now I'm saving those for if you idiots do talk the government into distance restrictions. Instead, I'm riding to places that I'd be effectively cut off from because they'll be outside the mooted distance limits and not on any reasonable route to essential shops or health services. I know I'm riding further than I would otherwise, but I fear I'll get bored riding only the short loops for weeks on end, then my health will suffer, then I'll be more burden on the stretched NHS, so this is a logical reaction to an expectation of tighter lockdown.

No, it's encouraging you to ride further. I follow a heap of people on Strava and I use the flyby facility to look at everyone I see cycling on my rides. There is absolutely no evidence to support the assertion that they are riding further in advance of a further restriction in cycling. Quite the opposite in fact. It's abundantly clear that some are significantly curtailing riding distances following government advice that cycling should be for exercise and not recreation

Massively unhelpful for the discussion for you to refer to posters as idiots too. Says rather more about you than it does about them

 

[anothersam]

I’ve been riding with my shadow. Is that ok as I didn’t see much of my shadow over the winter?

Perhaps, like mine, it prefers to keep better company.

 

[Drago]

I've just read the governments guidance. It doesn't say I can't paint myself in jam and walk up the road naked with an aubergine rammed betwixt my buttocks, so guess what I'll be doing tomorrow...then boasting about it on social media, and then deleting my account!

That went well, very refreshing. I'll do it again tomorrow but with cactus. Well, the government hasn't specifically said I couldn't do it, so it must be alright.

 

[PaulSB]

No, it's encouraging you to ride further. I follow a heap of people on Strava and I use the flyby facility to look at everyone I see cycling on my rides. There is absolutely no evidence to support the assertion that they are riding further in advance of a further restriction in cycling. Quite the opposite in fact. It's abundantly clear that some are significantly curtailing riding distances following government advice that cycling should be for exercise and not recreation

Massively unhelpful for the discussion for you to refer to posters as idiots too. Says rather more about you than it does about them

Spot on. For most of us the only measure we have is Strava and I acknowledge it's simple to make rides private. All the people I follow, the majority from my club, are riding 20-30 miles if at all. For most this is a drop of at least 40- 50 miles per ride. I feel this is reasonable approach to the situation. To date the exceptions I've seen are a 100 mile ride and a 71.

As an alternative the club has put a lot of effort in to organising Zwift events. All our real world events are cancelled but on Zwift we now have weekly events including a chainy, hill climb, TT and club ride. All we need is a bit of imagination.

Far from encouraging people to ride more most are reducing their mileage. Out of all cyclists those who come off best are those who commute, use a bike as their means of transport or usually ride for 1-2 hours.

For all the whining about clubs, roadies etc. I see no acknowledgement of this nor of the fact many of us are reining in our mileages when others don't need to.

I'm pleased for those who continue to ride normally, can we stop criticising others who are making a responsible contribution.

 

[matticus]

No, it's encouraging you to ride further. I follow a heap of people on Strava and I use the flyby facility to look at everyone I see cycling on my rides. There is absolutely no evidence to support the assertion that they are riding further in advance of a further restriction in cycling. Quite the opposite in fact. It's abundantly clear that some are significantly curtailing riding distances following government advice that cycling should be for exercise and not recreation

Clearly there are 2 opposing forces here:
- folks wanting to do the "right thing", and thus reducing mileage
- some hearing the "hard lockdown" speculation, and making hay while the sun shines

You'd need to look at a heck of a lot of riders to prove anything about the TWO effects.
(and Strava does NOT make good data - folks can make rides private... )

 

[mjr]

All the people I follow, the majority from my club, are riding 20-30 miles if at all. For most this is a drop of at least 40- 50 miles per ride. I feel this is reasonable approach to the situation.

People may be riding less far than normal (which is itself a bad thing for public health) but that doesn't contradict my belief that a lot are riding further than they would be without the Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt over a tighter limit.

Also, as you know, Strava is skewed.

For all the whining about clubs, roadies etc. I see no acknowledgement of this nor of the fact many of us are reining in our mileages when others don't need to.

I'm pleased for those who continue to ride normally, can we stop criticising others who are making a responsible contribution.

As above, I'm not sure reining in is a good thing, but I agree that stuff like arranging online riding and supporting people riding alone and skipping the coffee stop are great things which should be praised more.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Who's good at laws of probability?

Is there any difference in risk to either the rider or the public if a single rider does 5x 10 miles rides over 5 days than a single rider doing 1x 50 mile ride within the same 5 day period.

 

[Dogtrousers]

(and Strava does NOT make good data - folks can make rides private... )

Also I've noticed that if I ride a simulated ride on my turbo, using a video or a GPX track, then it gets recorded as if it happened in the simulated location. I've not tried uploading any of these to Strava, so I don't know how they'd appear but they show the track in its location on RideWithGPS.

So if I had uploaded my recent spin around the marshes by Mont St Michel to Strava then I could have alarmed les Gendarmes.

 

[matticus]

Who's good at laws of probability?

Is there any difference in risk to either the rider or the public if a single rider does 5x 10 miles rides over 5 days than a single rider doing 1x 50 mile ride within the same 5 day period.

All things being equal? none at all. In reality, the rider will take a different route, etc etc...

And the risk from riding a bike is about a billionth of the risk from visiting the supermarket, so stop worrying about it!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

And the risk from riding a bike is about a billionth of the risk from visiting the supermarket, so stop worrying about it!

Oh I ain't worrying about it, well not the bike riding, but I do have concerns about having to visit the supermarket

 

[Venod]

Is there any difference in risk to either the rider or the public if a single rider does 5x 10 miles rides over 5 days than a single rider doing 1x 50 mile ride within the same 5 day period.

I would say that if a rider does 5 x 10 miles close to home and a populous area he would be at more risk than doing fifty out in the country with no population encounters, but the inverse also applies, so no I am no good at the laws of probability.