The European Parliament has included bicycles in its instrumental Right to Repair regulation, which aims to encourage consumers to repair products instead of buying new ones in the hopes of reducing waste.
If you didn't know, Right to Repair is a legal right which argues that owners of devices and equipment should be able to freely modify and repair products, without needing proprietary tools and support, including when the product is in its guarantee period.
First presented by the EU Commission in March 2023, the scope of the 'right to repair' proposal has also been extended to include bicycles, Bike Europe reports. It aims to ensure favourable conditions for an independent repair market and prevent manufacturers from hindering repairs.
According to the European Commission, the premature disposal of viable consumer goods generates 261 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions, uses 30 million tonnes of resources and results in 35 million tonnes of waste in the EU every year. At the same time, consumers opting for replacement instead of repair lose approximately €12 billion per year.
Bicycles are named in the proposal alongside household products such as washing machines and vacuum cleaners. Producers of these products would be obliged to repair products even if they fall outside of the scope of a legal guarantee. Sellers would also be required to offer free repair within the legal guarantee period, except when it is more expensive than replacement, it is factually impossible or it is inconvenient for the consumer.
On adoption of the proposal, lawmaker René Repasi said: "Today we established direct repair obligations for producers and introduce new incentives for consumers to choose repair. We strengthened the role of independent repairers and place them at the centre of improving repair in Europe.
"Through better access to relevant technical repair information and affordable spare parts for repairers, including promoting 3D printing for parts, more competition will drive down repair costs. We coupled this with an obligation on member states to establish financial incentives to kick-start the repair sector."
The news comes along at a time right when road.cc reported on the UK's alleged mechanic shortage, with retailer Go Outdoors deciding to offer a new apprenticeship programme apparently designed to address the "needs of the cycle trade" and the current "national bike mechanic shortage".
"Hard as nails", was the verdict from the former GreenEDGE racer and now commentator and pundit Adam Blythe.
"I don't ever want to be in that situation", would be the verdict from me, and I'm sure many other cyclists who've dealt with the pain of performing simple acts like you know, sleeping, with road rash on your back, would agree with me.
Luke Plapp, Tour Down Under stage three (by Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Lucas Plapp, Team Jayco-AlUla's young Australian rider, who's won the last three editions of the national road championships, saw his dreams of a winning on home soil come crashing down as he found himself in a massive pile-up towards the final 10 kilometres of the stage three of Tour Down Under.
As the riders descended to make their way towards the finish at Campbelltown, a number of Astana Qazaqstan riders crashed along with Bahrain Victorious' Cameron Scott, and the home hero Plapp. However, all the riders managed to get to the finish line except Rudy Mollard from FDJ Groupama, also a victim of the same crash (more on him later).
Team Astana take a big hit with less than 10km to go!@SantosLtd#TourDownUnder
📺 Stream the race now on 7plus: https://t.co/k2Exq3FDwlpic.twitter.com/LLdg8CBKSw
— Santos Tour Down Under 🚴🚴♀️ (@tourdownunder) January 18, 2024
It's not confirmed if Plapp is in a position to start the next stage tomorrow. A team statement read: "Plapp has been seen by the onsite medical team at the finish line. Many superficial wounds, swollen elbow and ankle. He won’t travel to hospital.
"We will monitor him overnight and make an assessment tomorrow before the stage."
Blood, sweat & tears. 😢
Cycling is not for the faint hearted.
🇦🇺 #TourDownUnderpic.twitter.com/8O3FB1JclS
— GreenEDGE Cycling (@GreenEDGEteam) January 18, 2024
Cycling, not for the faint hearted — that I agree with.
Plapp, meanwhile, joins our club of pros with nasty road rash, becoming the latest entrant since last year's intro of Gleb Syritsa who took a tumble at the 4 Jours de Dunkerque last year (still feels weird calling it last year doesn't it?). I can tell you one club I'm not keen on joining anytime soon!
> Astana pro shows off some of the worst road rash we've seen
Barely three weeks into the new year and we already have a strong contender for the strangest story of the year — a cycle lane in Suffolk blocked by a dumped pile of sugar beet estimated to weigh 700 tonnes.
The crop, which caused confusion and some amusement when it was spotted in the cycleway and bus route on the Old Norwich Road just outside Ipswich on Tuesday, has since been removed.
A farmer later apologised for the beet blockage believed to weigh up to 700 tonnes and said they "certainly didn't go out of our way to cause havoc" but "it's kicked off big time"...
For all the cyclists too afraid to go out in this weather (yes, I'm looking at myself), here's a snippet from Oulu, Finland, where it's -28 degrees Celsius, and almost 1,300 people have cycled on just one bike route alone!
As you all know, cycling is a fair weather activity. And we can prove it. Right now it's -28°C in Oulu, and we've had almost 1300 ppl cycle today on this path alone 👌🫡☃️🚲💨#Oulu#MeanwhileInOulupic.twitter.com/hiS6OHr7Hd
— Pekka Tahkola 🇺🇦 (@pekkatahkola) January 16, 2024
In the same crash which saw Luke Plapp's treacherous road rash and many other Astana riders go down in yesterday's stage three of the Tour Down Under, another rider was caught in the pile-up in the final 10 kilometres to the finish.
Groupama-FDJ's French rider Rudy Molard was the only one to didn't finish the stage, and has now shared this picture on Instagram, letting us know that he's okay. "Could have been worse," he wrote. "All good just need time."
Best wishes and a speedy recovery!
As someone who makes a lot of stuff up in his head, there are moments when even I'm forced to go, "Nope, you can't make this stuff up".
A cyclist and active travel campaigner, with the Twitter account "Leeds Cyclist" had shared a video captioned "Reason 617184 why cyclists don’t (can’t) use the cycle lane", with a lorry blocking the two-way bike route at New Briggate, Leeds, and people hauling down kegs of beer.
Reason 617184 why cyclists don’t (can’t) use the cycle lane… pic.twitter.com/oXhWR5oSYF
— TheLeedsCyclist (@TheLeedsCyclist) January 11, 2024
As absurd as it may sound, seems like a pretty routine occurrence here, doesn't it? And once again, as absurd it may sound, we all know that posting anything like this instantly brings forth the anti-cycling brigade, resorting to name-calling and accusations of "Oh, you can't deal with the slightest inconvenience, can you?!".
But the cyclist was probably not anticipating being called a "lawbreaker". With the lane being a protected (I didn't write segregated, cheers road.cc reader mattw) one, the cyclist couldn't, and frankly shouldn't, have gone on to the road. So instead he decided to take a detour through the fairly-empty pavement, and rejoin safely after passing the truck.
> My Guinness! Truck driver smashes down cycle lane wands, cuts across and parks on the pavement
But cue, people accusing him of breaking the law for cycling on the pavement! "But absolutely no reason why you should cycle on a pavement", "And yet you illegally went on a pavement", "But it’s ok for you to cycle on the pavement. Another mr entitled who thinks the world revolves around him"... so on and so forth.
And if you were asking, the cyclist also said that there two designated loading bays within approximately 100 metres from where lorry was illegally parked.
Two designated loading bays (red circles) within max 100m of the illegally parked lorry. pic.twitter.com/piekrsWFvL
— TheLeedsCyclist (@TheLeedsCyclist) January 11, 2024
What do you think, would you rather get off your bike, hop on the pavement, and get on it again? Or is TheLeedsCyclist in the right and did nothing wrong? Let us know in the comments!
I can't speak for you all, but that smells like breakfast to me!
Starving, can't wait for dinner... pic.twitter.com/qOcOkWsxld
— Alan Myles 🇵🇸 (@AlanMyles8) January 17, 2024