lectureral

I always thought speed limits do not apply to cyclists but 69 says they have to obey all road signs. Am I wrong?

I use tunnelbear and Windscribe. BBC is blocked where I am so I have to use it regularly just to catch the news. Tunnelbear is v flexible - you can pick your target country. Windscribe is a bit trickier but seems faster and provides up to 10 GB per month free. I don't do streaming - torrents for me.

At the very least it would seem he should not have been acquitted of the charges of driving without a licence and without insurance and since it was a modified (illegal) e-bike then he would be subject to the speed limit of 20 mph.

Wow - his barrister did well to get him off an all charges.

It's now been reported that the injured pedestrian ran into the road and that the light for the bicyclist was green.

Sounds like a nasty incident https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/woman-fighting-for-her-life-after-cyclist-hit-and-run-in-east-london-a3921976.html

Does sound like plantar fasciitis to me. I had the same experience in one foot. It's almost gone after taking care and regular exercises stretching the tendon.

Thanks for your advice, guys - I'll try and steer her in an appropriate direction.

I guess I could post this in the main forum but I am now more used to these sheltered waters. My sister (50s) fancies an electric bike. She lives in hilly N Devon and visits Bristol very regularly - she can afford a good budget. I am so long out of the e-bike scene I don't think I have the knowledge to advise her well. I know 50-cycles is in Bristol - any special deals at the moment? Which brands are doing best at the moment (I had a Kahlkoff and am a fan of power through the gears). Any advice welcome. Happy Christmas everyone - Christmas morning already here.

Interesting that the High Court made that decision - I think it is correct but it will have to go to the Supreme Court before we have clarity. Bit of a spanner, at least temporarily, in the 3 Brexiteers plans to charge ahead off the cliff.

What Brexiters don't get is that the EU will respond in a political manner rather than an economic one. Just as the Leavers are happy to write "good riddance" in the comments when some company announces that it may up sticks, so the EU will take the economic hit for the principle of the EU. It is greatly against the EU's interest to give the UK a good deal. That's been obvious from well before the referendum vote.

Sorry - try https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6GHjTkKq6S8OElXeUt3QzdLSkU

Quite a positive article about electric bikes in today's Times https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6GHjTkKq6S8OElXeUt3QzdLSkU

There's an article in today's Sunday Times about over-fast ebikes being used on the road illegally. Here's a few paragraphs. (I'll be happy to copy the whole article if allowed). Retailers are selling powerful electric bicycles with motors capable of breaking the regulations limiting their speed. Commuters have been filmed zipping along busy roads in London on battery-powered bikes that appear to be travelling faster than legal limits. So-called ebikes have an electric motor that is used to assist the rider’s pedal power. Traffic laws state the motor must cut out at 15.5mph and must have a maximum power of 250 watts. 50Cycles, a retailer with stores in London, Loughborough, Bristol and Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, sells a range of German Kalkhoff “speed ebikes” with 350-watt motors capable of speeds of up to 28mph. The company’s website makes clear these ebikes, which cost up to £3,595, are classified as mopeds and that they should be registered, taxed and insured before being used on public roads.

Thanks - it's just come on my torrenting site so I'll get to see it too.

Hope you don't mind - I've used this elsewhere - I'm always keen to see these sort of follow-ups of splashy popularist moments.

There's been a revision on that which you may not have seen http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-brexit-turnout-young-voters-youth-vote-double-a7129181.html

I just had the most fantastic drive from Nabouwalu to Savusavu - beautiful new road, almost no other traffic and no speed cameras or police. Best drive since about 1978 from the centre of Edinburgh to Glenborrodale in the early hours of a summer day in an old shape Alfa GTV. http://i.imgur.com/dUt8KcZ.jpg Although, despite the thin traffic they still manage to hit each other http://i.imgur.com/7EwqnXP.jpg Here's one of Savusavu harbour http://i.imgur.com/va3Z3J0.jpg

Further, this is pretty close to my thoughts if amy Breviter wants to understand the other side: https://medium.com/extra-extra/a-note-to-my-friends-who-voted-leave-85b8c169b0ce#.yyi70wspg

I too think it's a good idea. I think I was anti-EU until I studied EU law as part of my law degree. After that I married one of those immigrants they are complaining about - a french lecturer - we met at the job interview - luckily they gave us both jobs and offices close to each other. My children were born in Switzerland (wife working in Geneva by then) and I was surprised to find out that they could not be British citizens because I was born in the US while my Dad did a short stint of work there in the 50s - half their forebears are British for unknowable generations but they have only French passports (puts nationality in its place in my view). So all-in-all I guess the whole sovereignty argument falls flat with me.

The Art 50 triggering falls under the Royal Prerogative so the government has the power but I can't imagine Cameron will do it so it would fall in the lap of the next PM but I imagine Parliament will be consulted and if it refuses to pass the motion it could all get very sticky - the referendum vote isn't going to be the end of the process by a long shot.

Actually it does - partly because I still love my country and the people I know there and partly because I could not pass my British nationality to my children (because I was born abroad) who have French passports - I would be sad if they are unable to live and work in the land of half of their forebears.

I don't get it - Norway has free movement of people plus all the EU rules - all we gain from the exercise is the inability to influence the rules imposed on us. Is that any sort of gain? As the stock market loses £125 billion (which would have paid that £350 million per weekthat we don’t actually pay to the EU for 7 years) ; as the GBP loses 8% of its value (that’s quite a few more years of that imaginary weekly bill); as Farage admits that there won’t be a pot of gold for the NHS after all – that pledge (and poster and big letters on the side of the bus) was “a mistake”; as the decent PM resigns (to be replaced with whom – Boris, Farage, Gove?); as the prospect of Northern Ireland and beloved Scotland disappearing behind an EU border get closer; as the Brexiters start arguing about whether they want the UK to be Norway (and realise that means free movement of people (or immigration as they have been calling it) plus all those pesky EU regulations but without any say in creating them – try that for undemocratic) or Albania (who was it that wanted to be Albania again?); as the UK enters years of strife (General Election next year? Parliament unable to pass the necessary legislation because most MPs think it would be disastrous to leave? Years of business uncertainty, stagnation, recession and extra austerity? Another referendum in Scotland? One in Northern Ireland? Another on whether the UK should be Norway or Albania?) you have to say, it’s a sad day.

I have always felt that an out vote was unlikely and it seems to me to be increasingly clear that Remain will certainly win on Thursday. I do hope that will be the end of the sniping from the Europhobes.

I am pleasantly surprised by the nice debate here. I don't often now look at the the Electric Bike forum but I did yesterday and was astonished at how mean-spirited it was (I bought my dream bike - haha, it's going to break - did you lose a relative in the war??) I keep a close eye on exchange rates, and the GBP has crept up again in the last couple of weeks which suggests that the market anticipates an IN vote. Because of an accident of birth (like Boris) my children could not get British nationality (they were born abroad as well) and instead take French from their mother. It would be nice, though, if they could live and work in the UK at some point - so my vote is an IN. I also have a postal vote in the US Presidential election which must make me a member of a small group with votes in each - especially out here in the middle of the Pacific.