13th March 2015 Another Friday 13th speeding rant?

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Friday 13th 36F, 2C, breezy and dimpled overcast. Another Friday 13th?  Will the sky really fall? A cold easterly wind with only brief glimpses of sunshine on my walk. Yet again I was grateful for the [yellow lens] sunglasses helping to reduce my eyes watering. Ice was still clinging to the wet tracks and puddles in the woods again.

I was just reading on the DR Danish National TV News website that there is a majority in favour of raising road speed limits. I bet! The intention is to raise the present national speed limit on country roads from 80kph to 90kph. Or rising from 50mph to 56mph in old money. Research on selected roads with experimental 90kph limits suggests that the effect is to make drivers all travel at much the same speed. The pressure to overtake is [presumably] considerably reduced because impatience is reduced. While slower drivers generally increase their speed to match that of other drivers.

As a cyclist I don't mind how fast they travel provided I have a nice white line to hide behind on my suitably wide, designated cycle lane. I don't even demand segregated cycle paths. These are usually just an excuse to ignore a valid means of daily Danish transport [cycling] with regards to maintenance and cleaning. Far too many Danish cycle paths are badly corrugated, roughly gravelled and/or potholed. Many were probably laid before the 1950s and this priceless inheritance never touched again. Many stretches of cycle path are more like linear compost heaps following decades of annual leaf and twig fall being completely ignored. Just making drain covers level with the tarmac would greatly improve matters.

Danish drivers are to be offered this free election carrot to travel faster. [Political corruption takes many forms.] This might be an excellent opportunity to make the stick much heavier for speeding in villages and towns. Not to mention simultaneous mobile phone use! Danish driver's adherence to speed limits is a national joke. Let's make it a much more expensive joke for the majority. Those who completely ignore the basic human rights of others to walk and cycle to school and the shops in safety!

Surely it is a national sickness when the value of their own children's lives is placed right down in the [filthy] gutter of  basic right to life? The convenience of  driving, at any speed of the driver's choosing, is obviously the only priority in Denmark. To see a police car or "speed camera" is a sign to be on the look-out for rocking horse droppings. Even when a speed camera is set-up drivers must be publicly warned in advance that they might not enjoy their usual license to drive illegally fast!

After a fiddle with the cable adjuster I made the rear gears worse than before. There is a glitch in the middle of the cassette. I ought to consider a Campag rear changer but they are [very] silly money for 11 speeds. Not to mention they have stomped on their small but loyal band of followers with a non-compatible change of pull per click for 2015. So nothing is backwards compatible and I'm running a Shimano cassette anyway.  If you order a rear Campag changer now you won't have a clue which one you'll get! Pre-2014 or the 2015? You think I'm joking?

Not to mention that they [Campag] are still living in the 1950s in offering a low gear of 29T in 11 speed. A [50]/34 compact x 29T = 33" bottom gear? Who but a race fit pro can climb anything steeper than a short 1 in 15 with such a high gear! Full marks for Campag's Luddite attitude to high cadence mountain climbing causing bad knees! Haven't they heard of those Sky riders who trashed the "Continental" climbing stars by spinning?

Since it was Friday the 13th I thought I'd better do 13 miles as a sign of respect to the gods. With temperatures in the low 40s F and a bitterly cold wind I wasn't in the mood for going any further. I had all my winter clothing back on! A few MTBers were out training. One young tyke overtook me like a track sprinter only to turn off into his drive as soon as he had passed me! I bet he'd only just left the school a few hundred yards back!

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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