CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I passed a cyclist this morning on Leith Walk who was struggling incredibly with the hill and rucksack. I couldn't work out a polite/non-condescending way to say "if you take it off the biggest ring at the front it will all be much easier!".
So I left a struggling cyclist with a cross-chained gear, grating and grinding up the hill when it was probably unnecessary. And I feel bad that this kind of experience can put people off.
Thoughts?
"Thoughts?"
There's a whole thread on this somewhere, including various considerations of gender.
Plus (if I remember correctly) some interesting/useful observations.
"This hill's always hard work isn't it?"
"Yeah"
"Are your gears OK? Looks like you could drop it down at the front. Maybe make it easier going up here?"
or something to that effect? Though on balance, I would probably say nothing too.
Maybe the cyclist was training for a special high gear climbing challenge? Or a bodybuilder trying to pump up their leg muscles?
Or just had a dodgy front mech. It happens.
and this is why I always leave people to their own devices...
I did once consider commenting to a chap that his rear light was so dim I thought it was reflector or a lady who's very stylish bag completely obscured hers but figured they'd got this far who am I tell them otherwise.
I regularly sail past people on Leith St by simply spinning away in gear 1.
Likewise people on lighter bikes using their gears correctly normally pass me but that's by the by and to be expected.
@Min Agreed! Maybe if we become regular co-commuters on that path I will strike up conversation.
I would distinguish between unsolicited advice and notifying someone of something they may not be aware of. So I'd not say anything about gears, but I might point out that their light was obscured or that something was dangling close to a wheel. A dim rear light is a borderline case - someone may be cycling home in a race against a dying battery, or they may not realise how quickly their back light had faded.
People tell me all the time that I've left my lights on (the standlight on my rear dynamo light doesn't switch off) and it never bothers me - I consider it to be a general index of kindness of strangers. Unsolicited advice about my dynamo light set up would get a fairly dusty response though.
I have an opposite thing going on where I am giving people unsolicited information as to why a guy with half a lung is sailing past them on a ten tonne bike. I say, don't worry this is an electric bike. They all appreciate this unsolicited info
Depends what it is. If they have a bad pedalling style I'll probably ignore it.
If they have the forks on backwards or some other dangerous thing I'll say so. Not everyone understands this even when you tell them.
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