Some bizarre news coming out of the Taiwanese municipality of Taichung, as the Taipei Times report that a five-year-old boy was reportedly breathalysed by police after crashing his bike into a parked car in an alley.
The owner of the white Tesla that the boy crashed into posted a photograph of the breathalysing, captioned: “The little boy was really brave and faced up to the problem. Luckily, the boy is OK.”
The boy's parents were reportedly called, before the owner then demanded they come to an agreement to pay for the repairs to his car. Some observers derided the police for breathalysing the boy, while others were baffled why the car owner called the police over the matter; he claims he did so in order to have a police report to send to his car insurers.
The Taiwanese National Police Agency responded to the images by claiming it's standard procedure, and that everyone involved in an RTA - including those on bikes regardless of age - have to be checked for booze; therefore, there was no misconduct on the part of the officer who attended the incident. It's reported that the boy's mother questioned why the breath test was necessary in this instance, and called for the cops to be more flexible.
The 'improvised bike trainers' using stabilisers and shoes were masterminded by the manager of Pedal Heaven in Ferndown so his boys can train through the lockdown. We'll see them at Le Tour 2040...
Brompton have launched a trial direct-to-home ‘Brompton To You’ service, which gives customers the chance to buy a bike direct from the Brompton factory, and have it delivered to their front door:
"In these uncertain times, where public transport services are reduced or to be avoided, and many people are restricted to essential journeys and limited exercise, a bike such as a Brompton will continue to play a key part in some people’s lives", so say Brompton.
"In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and having experienced increased customer demand for home delivery due to minimising personal interaction, Brompton will be trialling a new service, called ‘Brompton To You', in order to keep those essential journeys possible."
Brompton's Covent Garden store has remained open as an essential retailer, but says they appreciate many of their dealers are on reduced hours so home delivery is a decent option for many customers. Delivery with Brompton To You is free, you can still get 0% finance and bikes arrive almost ready to ride, with Brompton claiming set-up should take 10 minutes or less - more info over on Brompton's website.
"Have you ever dreamt of winning your own customised helmet?" ask Lazer on their design-your-own helmet competition launched this week to quell boredom during the lockdown... for us the answer is no, but if you ever have had this rather specific dream then Lazer say they can make it come true.
In the next few weeks, they're organising a series of competitions with the winners getting their own customised Lazer Bullet 2.0 helmet. It's a completely blank slate/helmet, and to enter you simply download the blank PDF file and get drawing; you then send it back to Lazer as a jpg or PDF for scrutiny. Lazer believe in these troubling times the comp is about way more than winning a fancy bike helmet, saying:
"In these difficult times we are currently living, some of you have been learning how to paint, others have been busy reading a lot of books, making puzzles… We believe that there are lots of ways to express yourself, the most important thing in life being to stay true to who you really are and not being afraid to show it to the world. Here is a brand new expression field!"
You can enter the contest and start playing around with your helmet on Lazer's website, and it closes on the 11th April. Keep it clean please...
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) April 7, 2020
For any Twitterers out there, cycling out of context is well worth a follow.
Two-time world Ironman triathlon champion Mirinda Carfrae was taking part in Ironman's VR1 Pro Challenge virtual race at the weekend; when towards the end her husband Tim O'Donnell - also a champion long course triathlete - tripped over the power cable of her Technogym trainer, thus ending her chance of a podium spot. She was second at the time of the mishap, and decided to carry on despite dropping off the leaderboard.
'Rinny' is now set to race in Zwift's SRAM Women's Tour at 11pm BST today, and will be keeping her clumsy husband well away...
Crystal Palace and Ivory Coast footballer Wilfred Zaha has been keeping fit on two wheels while the football season is on hiatus/cancelled (who knows?); but we don't care about that really, what we do care about is... what bike is he riding? One of the road.cc gang are confident they know what it is. If anyone can get the correct answer in the comments we'd usually send you some road.cc socks as a prize, but that wouldn't really count as essential at the moment so you'll just get a virtual pat on the back. You can't say fairer than that!
Precision power meters are now available pre-installed on a single side crank starting at $299.99, and $599.99 for double-sided. 4iii now also offer a three year warranty on all products - prices have indee dropped in Europe too, there's a Shimano 105 version on sale at Pro Bike Kit we've found for £269.99.
Yes the roads are quieter at the moment... but no, that doesn't mean it's cool to cycle on the motorway as this latest culprit found out, joining our now quite lengthy archive of cyclists who have attempted to seek a quicker route to their destination.
The Leicester Mercury report that a man was seen cycling along the southbound carriageway of the M69 motorway between Leicester and Hinckley on Sunday night, and was aprehended by officers from Leicestershire Police's road policing unit. He was given a lift home, reported for cycling on a motorway and reminded that it's illegal, and given an on-the-spot fixed penalty fine.
First job of the night shift was to remove someone cycling along the M69!
He was given a lift and reported for cycling along the motorway. #why#needsanengine— Leicestershire Roads Policing Unit (RPU) (@LeicsPoliceRPU) April 5, 2020
The traffic officers said they had also seen "more people than ever" taking their daily exercise, and had to engage a lot with groups out on bike rides to remind them to stay at home: "Another busy shift - lots of engagement and explaining with groups off out. Unfortunately, you shouldn't be going out for a ride on your bike.
"Just because the sun is out it isn't an essential journey.
"We saw more people than ever taking daily exercise and very few cars on the M69."
Last weekend, a cyclist caught near junction 3 the M60 was reminded by North West Motorway Police that the ride "does not constitute your daily exercise", but reportedly didn't understand what the problem was; he was issued with a fine for the misdemeanour.
Cyclists in Richmond Park today. Unbelievable. #covidiotspic.twitter.com/puuBCmhtqB
— AntoineStJustabit (@wellscoates1934) April 5, 2020
Believe it or not, a certain national newspaper was allegedly attempting to make it appear as if a peloton similar to this one was snaking up Box Hill at the weekend using a special camera technique...