Uk.rec.cycling

uk.rec.cycling (nntp://uk.rec.cycling, aka urc) is a Usenet group for British cyclists. Despite living in the rec hierarchy it contains much discussion of transportational cycling, and is probably the best and quickest place to get an accurate and well-informed answer to any UK specific cycling question.

This Old Bike was a song created in a urc thread, and not bad either. Urc has a good, British sense of humour and makes heavy use of irony (and even outright sarchasm) on occasion.

This page is mine, and mine alone. I'd like to be able to set up a FAQ some time. There was one for a while, it went 404; I set up urc-faq but it needs a lot more and broader input.

Love your bike and let me know any more inspirational cycling quotes you have come across.

(Re?)current themes

 * Smith v Finch, a potentially dangerous precedent.
 * , see also Seat belt legislation and the Isles report.

Things to be proud of

 * Cycling and your child, a leaflet worked up by Peter Clinch based on his own work and input from others in the group.
 * The Martlew Bill brought the group together to do what web communities do best: share information and hep each other to understand a complex issue.
 * Tom Crispin - the group can't take credit for what he does but we are proud and fortunate to have him there, someone who has really taken up the national standards for cycle training and run with them. He's getting quite a bit of recognition for this, and rightly so.
 * How I got started, a lovely collection of anecdotes from a thread started one day.

Charter
The group has no formal charter. Just about anything even tangentially related to cycling in the UK is fair game, with a couple of reservations:


 * Tasteless death reports are not especially welcome
 * Adverts are a no-no, unless you are an established regular
 * Cross-posting to uk.tosspot and the like may make you humungously unpopular, and several regulars kill x-posted threads on sight.
 * Please use the troll code - yes, several of us (especially me) will occasionally lose patience and feed the trolls. Chastisement by email, please, not in the group where it further feeds the trolls' egos.

Um.

 * Doug is a kook who came to urc from uk.tosspot. Fun to play with for a while but ultimately boring.
 * judith made some clueless assertions, was proved wrong, and has settled down to troll the group until we admit she is right even though she isn't. See the link that never changed and the page that never changed.  You're wasting your time even trying to have a reasonable conversation with this one.  What is it with these people called Smith?  Are they overcompensating for having a common surname, I wonder? In her case I think it's a pseudonym, actually an acronym for Strident Malicious Ignorant Trolling Harridan.
 * Nuxx Bar is Safe Speed's gift to urc, and we're still trying to take it back to the shop and exchange if for something more useful. Like a fishbike.
 * JNugent can be wilfully obtuse, opinion differs on whether he is a troll or not, he can sometimes make helpful comments but he can also fill the group with nonsense. I think he is more of a.
 * Crossposted threads with uk.tosspot descend into trolling almost immediately, you will find yourself ignoring most of them.
 * Nick L Plate appears to be a reincarnation of an earlier kook who takes issue with on the issue of bicycle wheels.  If you don't know how stupid that is, read the archives of rec.bicycles.tech.

FAQ
Q: Is there a FAQ?

A: No.

Less frequently asked questions

 * What's this about bibshorts and paving slabs?

The regulars
In July 2002 (really that long ago?) there was a thread on "how did it start for you" where regulars shared their experiences and what got them started cycling. I copied some of these to the website with the permission of the group, and you can find some of them at Category:urc stories.