snakey1

No i dont have a licence for my bicycle but then its hardly lethal in comparison to a car. having a licence doesn't mean a fat lot really does it though. it just means for an hour on a particular day you behaved well enough to convince the authorites to give you said licence, you may never obey the laws of the road again but hell you've got a licence now so that doesn't matter does it. hardly convincing really, its like an MOT its valid up until the moment you leave the garage after that well you could do anything to the car but you'd still have a valid MOT certificate in your hand to produce if needed. Sorry can't comment on cycling in london, i'm from birmingham and most of my cycling was done around birmingham and the black country. So you report anyone breaking the law in a car you must be really busy then reporting everyone doing over 70 on a motorway (or speeding on any other road infact)or using a mobile while driving or breaking any other of the many road traffic laws that drivers are so found of ignoring so busy infact i'm surprised you have time to read these forums. I mean everyday that i'm on the road either in a car on a bike or using public transport i see dozens if not hundreds of motoring offences being commited i'd have a phone bill the size of the national debt and probably be arrested for wasting police time if i tried to report them all. As for cyclists being restricted i'd think again if i were you. the politicians love them because they're green unlike cars and they(the politicians) can wave their cycles around saying how their doing their bit to combat global warming , i think your much more like to see cars being restricted further in the future so get used to seeing cyclists because i have a sneaking suspicion you maybe seeing a lot more of them. chesters1 i could bite at your comments but as they are a plainly stupid attempt to get a rise i won't bother. Anyway i'm off to wales now to go kayak fishing so have fun i will be.

Sorry kleinboat but you said and i quote "As long as the cyclists continue to ignore the "rules of the road" there will be vehicle/bicycle RTA's! " that sounds to me like your blaming ALL vehicle/bicycle RTA's on the the bicycle by saying if they obeyed the rules of the road there would be no vehicle/bicyle RTA's. that is completely wrong and as for saying that most RTA's involving cyclists and car, the cyclist is under 20 so its his fault, well where are the cyclists under 20 meant to ride, you can't ride on the pavement it illegal and you can be subject to on the spot fines(not if your under 16 however. please read the link i placed on the law and cycling in an earlier post),there are very few well maintened cycle routes in the country that are usable to get around, in & between the large cities,you could cycle along canal towpaths but i'm sure most of the anglers on here would love that,so really your only left with the public roads which the right for cyclists to use is enshrined in the law (with the exception of motorways). As to whether cyclists have to ride aggressively, you say rubbish, i'd like to know if you have ever cycled at rushhour through a busy city or up a major road if you had you'd know that if you don't ride with confidence(probably a better word to use than aggressively) you won't last very long before some nutter in a car carves you up. i'm not saying all cyclists are guiltless they are bad cyclists out there but the difference is out of the thousands of pedestrians killed in road accidents each year how many were killed by cyclists as opposed to cars? not many i would think so what are you going to do blame all pedestrian/car accidents on the pedestrian because he doesn't follow "the rules of the road" and he hasn't passed a test entitling him to cross the road in safety(i believe pedestrians have the right of way in general in this country).The reason you need a licence to drive a car is because it is a LETHAL WEAPON massively more deadly than a push bike. you also seem to think that everyone on the road who drives a car has a full driving licence and obeys the laws of the road completely this is also blatently wrong, how many drivers end up in court each year for driving without a licence because they either have never had one or they have been banned and carried on driving anyway, quite a few and they're only the ones who get caught there are thousands who don't get caught. As for "sorting out" those safe to ride on the road, well thats worked really well with the car licences considering last time i checked over 10,000 people died on the roads each year due to RTA's involving cars.

kleinboat, firstly my point no.1 bicycles cause very little wear and tear to a road surface FACT. i worked in the road construction testing industry for over ten years and have seen various forms of road damage caused by vehicular traffic but none caused by bicycles not involved in accidents. Secondly I pointed out that if you hit a car your likely to come off worse on a bike than if you hit one in another car i could have said if a car hits you its simply the way i worded that statement but yes i agree you shouldn't hit a car BUT THEN A CAR SHOULDN'T HIT A BIKE,PEDESTRIAN,OTHER CAR ETC BUT THEY DO. accidents happen its not a perfect world live with that fact.The point i was making is cars are a lot more lethal to other road users than a push bike. No cyclist i know ignores cars to do so would be suicidal but they do ride aggressively this is because they have to, if you cycle on the roads and do not ride with some degree of confidence and take up a reasonable amount of the road cars will force you up the gutter onto the pavement by they're own aggressive driving style so what you see as ignoring car drivers probably isn't as that would be as sane as a car driver ignoring an oncoming articulated lorry, you might get away with it once but probably not twice. As for the road being a dangerous place yes it is but saying cyclists constantly ignore the laws of the road while motorists are saintly and all bicycle/car rta's are caused by the cyclist is ridiculous how many motorists every year get done for speeding, dangerous driving, driving without due care & attention etc, thousands so obviously car drivers aren't exactly the most law abiding of citizens either and the idiot drivers don't seem to be in the minority now. point no. 3 the police nowadays use off road motorbikes and mountain bikes as well so there isn't really anywhere a cyclist can "scarper" to that the police cannot follow, the police aren't powerless to act they just chose not to most of the time. As to whether i've seen the amount of damage a cyclist does to the road under the wheels of a car in an accident yes actually i have and its nowhere near the amount of damage done by an overly aggressive car driver when he drives like an idiot and ends up under an articulated lorry which i've seen as well.

i don't think invalid buggys require road tax (i've read somewhere they're exempt from VED)either nor do you need to be trained to drive one and the way they hurtle along the pavement with no concern for pedestrians makes most cyclists look sane & safe by comparison. as a interesting side note a mate of mind who's a traffic warden(i know hiss boo) says disabled drivers are some of the worst for parking illegally and then getting arsey about it when they're booked, hes had loads of trouble off them. even when there are legitimate parking spaces available near by hes had them parking in bus stops and other illegal places.

1: your talking about insurance here not road tax, road tax(actually Vehicle Excise Duty) is to help pay for the construction and maintenance of the public highways(and the amount of damage done to the highway by a bicycle is negligable you probably cause more wear and tear walking across the road), you can get insurance now if you want for your bike and a lot of people who ride expensive bikes (CTC members especially) or couriers will already have it. 2: all of the the bad cycling comments can also be made about bad drivers and there is one big difference if you hit a car with a cycle chances are only you will be hurt if you hit another car with a car chances are both parties will be hurt or killed, cars are lethal weapons in the wrong hands far more so than cycles.As for taking dangerous cyclists off the road how many times do drivers show up in court who are banned, have never held a licence or have no insurance tax or mot and then leave court and carry on driving regardless quite a few times i think so if banning a car driver doesnt work what makes you think banning a cyclist will. 3.being a registered road user makes no difference the police have the power to act upon dangerous cyclists now(and should do) however whether the police chose to deal with all but the most dangerous cases is up to them not the cyclists.

It doesn't help with the millions that are already in circulation however or those sold second hand or via carboot and markets.

I wasn't .

oh yes forgot the above 6ftlbs air pistols fell in with fullbore pistols when they were banned(my memorys getting worse must be an age thing or possibly an alcohol thing) cheers

i suggest you buy a humane feral cat trap, catch said cats then write something obscene (like c**t) on their fur with permanent hair die and release again, done often enough the owners may get the message.

thats what i thought but then it is a document of law so what did you expect plain english? , the bit you need to look at is ammendments to regulation 13 which is no.6 i believe and here is a link to the law that it is an ammendment tovehicle law it might make it all clearer

apart from airguns registered as firearms (above 12ftlb muzzle energy for rifles and above 6fllbs for air pistols) there is no registration for them as far as i know (please correct me if i'm wrong) so there is no database to check on.and there are millions of them in circulation so attempting to find them all to register them would be nigh on impossible.

It appears the law has changed on flashing lights see2005 vehicle law ammendment

Its still a good thing in my opinion then as helping get rid of some of the more moronic elements of society is a bonus i hadn't thought of .

I used to cycle into work (a round trip of approx 10 miles down some of the busiest routes in birmingham) but i don't anymore the amount of times i came close to being taken out by lunatics in cars paying no attention to the highway code or any other road user for that matter was unbelievable.I personnelly disagree with cycling on the pavement and never used to but i can understand why people do.the amount of nutters on the road in cars and vans who seem to have the spacial awareness of a housebrick and the intelligence of same said brick amazes me. As for taxing cycles you may as well tax the pedestrian for the amount of wear a cycle causes to the road. A better idea IMO would be to ban anyone under the age of 25 from driving a car and allow them access to motorbikes only, this would cut down on the congestion and make younger people more aware of both cyclists and bikers when they reached an age when they could drive a car (doesn't help with the dozy older drivers i admit). for an interesting read on cycling and the law seecycling and the law

I know its a bit late but for anyone still interested in buying a new digital camera for use on the yak i've just purchased one of these and it seems to be the doggies nuts olympus mju770sw waterproof to 10m,crushproof,shockproof,freezeproof. link takes you to olympus site it won't link directly to the mju770sw part of the site just look in digital camera section for the mju770sw.

I think a lot will depend on what conditions your going out in, are you launching and returning through a surf zone, are you fishing alone or with others who could come to your aid maybe your best bet is to attach a leash to the kayak and then decide whether to use it or not depending on the conditions your in, as has been said earlier i wouldn't use one in the surf (got tangled in a paddle leash once when i rolled in the surf and it wasn't fun) but out at sea if your on your own it may help save your life. i personnelly don't use one but then i don't fish alone at the moment i would think about it seriously if i did.

looks a nice bit of kit, you'll have no problem then whichever you choose.

i'm 6ft and weigh in at 217lbs and have no problem fitting in the elite and have found it to be an excellent choice, the one thing i would suggest if you buy one is don't bother with the eckla sit on top trolleys that fit into the scuppa holes as the fit on the scuppa holes under the seat is so tight that getting the kayak on and off is an absolute nightmare i scrapped mine recently and have wisely invested in a new c-tug which is a piece of cake to use by comparison.

I don't know whether eyeballs are counted in skin coverage and i have no idea whether they can be tattooed or not(i think even the most hardcore tattoo collecter would think twice about attempting that. it makes my skin crawl thinking about it and i have about 65 - 70% coverage). lucky diamond has the inside of his ears tattooed and also has tattoos inside his mouth as well and i don't see any reason why the complete private area can't be tattooed so i would have to agree eyes if they're counted if not who knows i'll have to ask next time i see one of them at a convention.

ghosts in the machine whooooo! just unplug the printer from the mains and if it carries on printing then i would worry.

Ah yes tom leppard, he used to appear at some tattoo shows in a cage but i haven't heard much of him in the last few years. incidently he now shares the title of the most tattooed man in the world with lucky diamond rich an australian juggler & side show performer both have 99.9% body coverage (i have no idea where the untattooed 0.1% is)

I've seen the tigerman on tv as well. it always seemed strange to me that for a man who says he's obsessed with becoming a tiger that his forearms are tattooed with green scales, personally i haven't seen many scaly tigers. may be he wanted to be the lizardman first but somebody got there before him and now he's had to change his plans. just seems like attention seeking gone to the extreme to me.

Used to shoot alot, mostly fullbore handguns but also shotguns and both full and smallbore rifles but haven't really done any for a while now although i did do a bit of air rifle hunting last year which was fun. always fancied having a go at bow hunting but unfortunately its illegal here so haven't had a chance to yet. Fishing and kayaking seems to be taking up a lot of my spare time now.

me and a couple of mates have just bought powerfilm rollable solar panels (10 watt)which we intend to use to trickle charge the fishfinders and also the VHF & mobile phones when camping,touring & fishing.haven't had chance to get it set up yet though so will let you know how i get on as & when i do get it rigged

thanks for that it has made things a bit clearer. snakey1