Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

100% - disregard that nonsense above.

@fat bloke This article is quite astonishing for one reason.

The words "cycle" or "bicycle" are not mentioned at all. Like the option simply doesn't exist.

Public transport isn't mentioned for that matter either.

She also thinks kids in secondary school need a morning routine and need to be dropped off to the door? Her kids are at least 12 and apparantly they can't walk 5k, use a bike or bring all their sh*te to school without poor oul mammy reminding them.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2026/02/11/cyclist-convinced-he-would-die-after-being-driven-over-by-suv-making-illegal-turn/

What's that? A cyclist wearing hi-viz and yet somehow a driver did not see them?! And then she drove over him with both sets of wheels… zero awareness, any chance she can be banned from the roads for life?

I'm a broken record at this stage, but that (hi-viz and no lights) is a particular bug bear of mine. Was always going to happen though. With USB charging ability these days there's zero excuse for not having a decent set of charged lights. Some cyclists clearly see their flappy, half covered builders vests as invincibility shields.

I have USB lights but find you're often given too little warning that you're running out of juice. At least the old way you could have a spare pack of AAA's in the back

I hear ya (again another reason why a bit more regulation in the area would be helpful). A spare set of back up lights in the pocket, saddle bag, back pack or even just on the bike but switched off is the solution for me. Plus just making a habit of taking the lights off at the end of each commute and charging them for the return journey. They're as handy to carry as a pack of AAAs.

I'm the same lol. Well, the ones that were a carbon copy of the Leyzine Drive series anyway. Can't remember if it was Lidl or Aldi did them a few years back. Incredible. Better than the Leyzines in terms of durability and battery life for me anyway. Have about 3 unopened packs at home after they sold them off at a discount.

I have three front lights and two back ones on me at all times and charge them during the day so they never really get low.

2000 lumen, 700lumen (backup no.1) and a sh*tty backup battery based 100 lumen.

Have a good backlight (also functions as a brake light - believe its 800 lumens??) And a sh*tty battery based backup again.

That said they have pretty decent lives so I'll get three/four days out of them before I needed to charge them so no damage done if I did forget.

What are they so afraid of. It's not the feicin' judiciary anyway.

It's long been an issue for companies who build things so well they don't need to be replaced,leading to customers not needing to replace items.

I'm sure Brexit is an issue, but any time there's a recommendation for children's bikes here, it's always finding a second hand frog, you'll sell it for the same money when the child is finished with it. Even the post above talks about hand me down bikes. All of which is great for individuals who need such bikes, but not great for the company

That's sort of irrelevant, though. Your market base are those people who want bicycles. Unfortunately, they make bikes well enough that they last through multiple generations of kids learning to cycle, and then relatively quickly outgrow the bike, so it gets moved on. If 5 different kids learn to cycle on the same frog bike, that's 4 bikes they didn't sell. On top of that, there's very little innovation in kids bikes, compared to adult bikes, so little incentive to buy newer and "better" models, as the parents know the kid will quickly outgrow them.

Like is said, loads of examples of companies failing (at least partly) because of this. Record tools in England is a good example. They made really good quality tools (I've two no.4 bench vices that probably date from the late 60's or early 70's, and they'll both outlive me, I'd imagine). Higher costs to produce quality products, combined with a market that didn't need to buy again, and they went under. Irwin bought the name, they make shīt vices that break after a few years, and the built in obsolescence means customers with a requirement for replacement tools.