The more things change...

It might be a new year, but it's clear there are some things that aren't going to change. Just a few days in and I'm already lining up another "flat tyre challenge" after having my first en route to work earlier this week. This is particularly surprising, as the tourist season generally coincides with a reduction in the moron quotient in these parts, and consequently less debris on the roads. Not to mention the rain that really should have cleaned it off by now -- maybe it takes more to clean up after a six year drought, but that's another post. Evidently my search for a reliable pump continues, because the Zefal HPX pump that I bought at Epic Cycles has failed the first time I tried to use it. I'm now back to using the cheap one I bought in Oban, Scotland back in July until I find a suitable alternative.

Another familiar storyis being played out in the tabloid press, too (like that comes as a surprise). Yet another 'journalist' (who'd look better attached to a rope and a tree) has decided to have another rant about cyclists in order to boost the circulation figures on a slow news day. I'm not even going to dignify the original article with a link. I've always held that anyone who gets upset over something as inconsequential as a bicycle on the road needs to get a real job so they can afford to buy a sense of perspective.

The worst part about it is the number of so-called "advocates" who buy into this crap by bombarding it with replies, hence giving it the attention that it really doesn't deserve, giving the tabloid the boost in circulation that it was looking for, and hence encouraging them to just re-run the "story" next time they need to fill some space. Trolls are like any other pest -- you don't eradicate them by feeding them. This should be fairly obvious by now, given the number of times this scenario has been played out, but when people will realise it, I can't predict.