Ludicrous Daily Mail rant

There's another ludicrous anti-cyclist rant under the heading 'There's no stopping 'lycra lout' cyclists as prosecutions for running red lights plummets' in the Daily Mail today. Well, at least it's not in a newspaper.

Others will tear apart this nonsense better than me - no doubt Freewheeler's windows are steaming up as much as mine right now - but even by Mail standards this is dire stuff. Unrelated figures are linked (prosecutions for pavement cycling and number of journeys, for example): see the dimwit Lord Lipsey's claim about only 'two cyclists in a million' being caught and prosecuted.

It's the sort of rubbish that pompous middle-aged men write in green ink to local newspapers. Unchallenged assumptions are made, anecdote is paraded as evidence, and the Mail subs still don't know how to use 'fewer than / less than' properly.

I couldn't be arsed to register in order to post a comment, which they wouldn't publish anyway; I think they have house rules against publishing facts.

Man rides bike shock

The Daily Mail ran an item yesterday about Top Gear presenter James May being spotted on a bike in London.

'It's not exactly a Harley!', the headline helpfully informed us - though it seems no-one at the Mail could identify a Brompton, one of the most distinctive bike brands in the world. All they could say about it was that it is 'green', but as we know the Mail has excellent colour vision.

"The green bike even came complete with a bell, so he'd be able to warn anyone who got in his way", marvelled the newspaper. "And the presenter also appeared to be carrying a small parcel, which he had attached to the back of the bike."

Whatever next? Web-savvy, Twittering guru Stephen Fry seen posting a letter? ("The letter appeared to have a stamp attached to it...")

I'm a bit puzzled as to why this is news. Getting around on a bike is a perfectly sensible way of getting round London, regardless of your relationship to the motor media, so I'm not in the least bit surprised that the presenter of an amiably daft programme about cars should cycle here and there. It's simply not worthy of comment. Except that I've just scuppered my argument by commenting on that very item here.

Anyway, I commend Mr May on his excellent choice of bike. He looks to me like a Real Cyclist, too, given that he's happily trundling along helmetless and in his civvies.