Extremities on full-sus/downhill-MTB-looking things whooshing and weaving about between people on the NEPN several days this week.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish cycling
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Posted 5 years ago #
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Lot of poor cycling on my commute along Gilmore place and on to meadows. I was cut up twice and one of the cutter upper ers also turned right at kings theatre forcing the cyclist with right of way heading west to pause.
Instead of saying anything I just overtook them all on meadows. Advantage of recent Mallorcan training camp improving my fitness
Posted 5 years ago # -
Advantage if resent Mallorcan training camp
Nobody forced you to go ;)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Me, yesterday. I went for a pootle round the Borders, which was generally very pleasant as I dodged the rain and enjoyed the spring scenery. The rubbish bit was that I had allowed cycle.travel (or perhaps Garmin Connect) to plot the route and I hadn't inspected it very carefully.
I got a bit grumpy in Innerleithen when it routed me down some convoluted backstreets and rubbish infrastructure to get onto the road east, when the main road through town is perfectly good. However the piece de resistance of the routing was it sending me (on my slick-tyred road bike) down 2.5 miles of really rough cart track on the way to Duns.
Really must pay more attention to the details of the route on the computer before I set off...
Posted 5 years ago # -
2.5 miles of really rough cart track
Sounds wonderful.
Posted 5 years ago # -
It was really very pretty, and on the right bike (perhaps a purple one) would have been great. I didn't have the right bike (or, more accurately, the right tyres) to be able to enjoy it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@greenroofer, it's not purple, it's soylent green or signal red or something. Does have nice decals
Posted 5 years ago # -
Signal violet. Decals are in the Chiller typeface, which my typographer friend has allowed on the grounds that bicycles 'have their own visual vocabulary'.
Much curiosity on Saturday as to what 'SUNLIT Uplander' signifies.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Deliverooberant with earbuds ignoring their red light on Lothium Road and whooshing past my toes as I crossed at Morrison St.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Me, a bit, on the towpath eastbound just before the Boroughmuir plaza. I started overtaking a pedestrian I has tucked in behind but realized that the oncoming cyclist was going too fast for that to be safe, so braked rather sharply, causing the cyclist behind me to emit a muffled complaint. Poor judgement on my part, though I suppose given the slow speed I was going at in the first place, if my braking creates a problem, you might be too close.
Posted 5 years ago # -
if my braking creates a problem, you might be too close
If you run into somebody in front of you, that's your fault. Stopping distances apply to citizens on bicycles too, more so given the absence of brake lights on bikes.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@iwrats you've got a Brexit bike?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Making my way over the nice path up towards Craigmillar castle and there's a pack of folk wheeling bikes up. Gap on the left so I amble towards that.
Dude coming downhill tries for the same slot and only just manages to get his bike stopped tyre-to-tyre with mine. Doesn't respond to my 'you alright mate?', tries to take off into the vegetation. I point him to the other side of the path.
He was of course cycling for the first time this year. All wobbly, brakes on the cheap folder inadequate for the slope and his weight. I should have been more accommodating.
Posted 5 years ago # -
A sackful of genito-urinary epithets going east on the Broomhouse path this evening. I was dreading what I would find by the time I got to Roseburn Park but it wasn't too bad in the end.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Not very rubbish, but a bit entertaining. I was following a chap walking a bike across the Slateford aqueduct this morning. He was fashionably dressed in very baggy long shorts and was walking very nonchalantly with his free hand in his pocket. Part way across it became clear that the reason his hand was in his pocket was to prevent his shorts falling down, which became a bit problematic when he needed both hands to control his bike as we passed people coming the other way.
Another advantage of a bicycle: it keeps your trousers up when you're astride it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Was down the WoL path trying to fix the Korma fence with my pal Tom. Tom also wanted to fix my neighbour's fence. Four dog walkers, one with a big greyhound came up - a fifth dog, very ugly pug Labrador cross, causing some concern as had no owner or collar etc. Whilst we were all chatting a cyclocross dude cycled straight through us.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Another Innocent drafter. This time very quiet, I wasn't sure he was there until I checked (after a good .5km), so I slowed. He was obviously very fit, so I loudly muttered lazy ... at him as he went past.
I intensely dislike this behaviour, not so much for the free ride aspect, but because he is putting us both at risk.
Posted 5 years ago # -
The man cycling the wrong way along West Maitland St in the tram lane towards an approaching westbound tram wins this morning. Whooshing idiot on the bendy/pedestrian-heavy/dogpooey bit of the WoL between Junction bridge and the sandport second.
Posted 5 years ago # -
After crossing S Groathill Ave at the Toucan coming from Craigleith Shopping Centre yesterday afternoon pushing the pram, we stopped short of going through the gates to the Roseburn Path as a large cyclist was bombing towards the chicane and the pedestrians who had just crossed.
I initially assumed that he was trying to beat the lights but instead of zig-zagging through the chicane he appeared to be aiming for the impossibly small gap between the wall and the gate. Both rider and bike somersaulted over the the second chicane gate in the most spectacular fashion, momentarily landing on his head as he did so.
He was quickly on his feet in a shower of expletives but was far more concerned that he had snapped the bank card which he had been carrying in his hand, and whether he would still be able to use it. On picking up his bike, I noted that it was quite a newish looking Btwin Mountainbike (Grey Rockrider 340? - possibly stolen?) with v-brakes, and that the front brake had been intentionally disconnected.
When the rider confirmed that he knew that the front brake wasn't working any remaining sympathy was gone. Fortunately, he had also Pringled his back wheel so won't be on the road for a while. Karma.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Please don't try to overtake other cyclists, at speed, as you approach a junction on the paths.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Also, please don't tell me you are _going_ to pass me when you can clearly see that I've already pulled out to go around the pedestrian in front of us. You can wait 2 seconds.
Posted 5 years ago # -
oops post.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Not so much rubbish cycling but I may have offended a father/daughter who were cycling through the Astley Ainsley towards James Gillespie's this morning
I (almost literally) bumped into them at the blind corner at the North gate. There are lots of children now using the grounds to cycle to School, which is great to see, so I was half expecting to meet someone at the corner so was very slow and as far on the left as is possible and stopped instantly and braced for impact when the daughter came around the corner, Fortunately, they also had speedy reactions so no contact was made.
In the moment, I instinctively said something in a neutral tone of voice which in the video sounded like "slow down for the corner". I apologise to the father if this caused offence. They may recall, that thier daughter almost ran into me at the same location a few days earlier but as I saw her coming and not looking, it wasn't so much of a surprise and I simply stopped and let you pass.
As a father of a similar aged daughter, who also cycles, I am well aware of the problems and would be the last person to want to discourage this choice.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Me on two counts. Pulling away from Tarvit Street across the King's Theatre Junction, my foot slipped on the left pedal as I tried to insert it into the open toe clip. I managed to keep going before inserting my foot carefully upon reaching the relative 'safety' of Gilmore Place. I stopped at Slateford Aqueduct to remove my thin jacket, stowing it under the clip on top of my pannier. Shortly after passing under the Kingsknowe Rail Bridge, I found my bike coming to an unexpected and fairly abrupt halt. After dismounting, I found that one arm of my jacket was caught in the rear wheel and brakes. Reversing the bike and pulling the jacket extracted it without difficulty, but the arm of the jacket was oily and partly shredded, and the brakes took a bit of coaxing to return to normal functionality. I am mostly glad that this didn't happen on the aqueduct or under Kingsknowe Rail Bridge since I suspect that I could have easily ended up in the canal.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@jdanielp
I once had a whole pannier (floppy Karimor from antique days) do that on a steep downhill. I can confirm that you were lucky.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@IWRATS good to know. I will need to replace my gradually eroding pannier rack before something similar happens.
Posted 5 years ago # -
My bike once shed its chain off the chainring coming down Johnston Terrace, thought I would stop at the bottom to fix, however when I braked the chain inserted itself firmly between the road and the rear wheel. Managed to perform some sort of tail-waggling speedway style stop on the front brake alone without taking a tumble. A nasty moment however...
Posted 5 years ago # -
I currently like stuffing my rucksack in a grocery pannier. Didn't tuck the straps away properly coming past commie down old dalkeith road one day... fortunately the disc brake rotor cut straight through it before it could get properly tangled (unintended safety feature?).
Posted 5 years ago # -
A bungee once unhooked itself from my rear basket and managed to perfectly hook itself onto my spokes and then wrap around. I was on my e-bike and was travelling under power at the time. Luckily there was nothing close on my tail as I came to a sudden, grinding halt. Bike surprisingly fine, bungee shredded, me a little wild-eyed.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@jdanielp: Reversing the bike and pulling the jacket extracted it without difficulty, but the arm of the jacket was oily and partly shredded,
Similar thing happened to me once, half way in from Dalwhinnie to the bothy under Ben Alder (Culra Lodge?) The most annoying aspect of it was that the garment in question was an almost brand new softshell jacket, back in the days when such things were new-fangled and therefore not inexpensive. (The missus darned the damage with cheerful multi-coloured yarn and I wore it for several years for cragging and climbing wall outings. Nowadays it's been largely relegated to gardening.)
Posted 5 years ago #
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