Perhaps there should be shirts with "I welcome careful drafters" on the back.
And (in much smaller letters) "if you can read this, it's time to take a turn".
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Today's rubbish cycling
(4503 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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@chdot *like*
Posted 9 years ago # -
"If you can read this:
1: STOP LOOKING AT MY MUDGUARD and instead pay more attention to the path ahead - that's where my attention is focussed, so that's where I'll be watching for things for which I might have to suddenly stop or swerve. If you're trying to work out what the shiny red thing is it's a B&M Seculite Plus, running off a DH-3N72 via a Phillips Saferide or B&M Lumotec Lyt Senso Plus.
2: GET BACK. I slow down frequently on these paths, particularly when impatient toads are coming the other way without slowing down for pedestrians on the other side of the path, instead attempting to overtake them just as they draw level with me on this side of the path. Stupid, but lots of people seem to try it. I'd prefer you dropped back a bit to give a bit of space when I slow down, rather than hanging off the wheel as if you're seriously going to attempt to use me slowing down to avoid conflict with oncoming traffic as an opportunity to overtake.
3: GO AWAY. I've recently had rear wheels eating chains, rear spokes eating mechs and a front rim blowing out, all of which required me to suddenly stop."Posted 9 years ago # -
"I had curry for tea last night"
Posted 9 years ago # -
Drafting is fine if;
You both know and trust each other,
Work is shared,If neither criteria is met then I slow down, so Iam no longer providing any advantage to the drafter
Posted 9 years ago # -
A double-whammy on the canal towpath for me this morning:
firstly, the lady who decided to enter the bridge in the middle of Harrison Park from the West despite the fact that I was already cycling under the bridge behind another bicycle and ringing my bell loudly prior to exiting to the West - the bicycle ahead of me exited fine (also ringing a bell, although somewhat less effectively) but I had to abruptly slam on the brakes to avoid colliding head on with the lady, who hadn't bothered to ring a bell either for good measure. She did say "sorry", albeit not in a tone that sounded entirely sincere, while I merely signed heavily and held my tongue as she moved out of the way;
secondly, the man who pulled out in from of me from the top of the pedestrian steps at the North end of the concreate aquaduct at Slateford, which caused me to have to brake abruptly, again, while swerving - he then caught up with me half-way over the big aquaduct where I had pulled over to allow a pedestrian to pass me, shouting something along the lines of wanting to overtake me on the outside, to which I shouted "what?" as I pulled away. A cyclist was joining the aquaduct as I was exiting, so I slowed down to ease around the outside on the narrow exit lane, at which point the guy behind me went off on one about how I was unable to cycle and was inconsiderate to pedestrians along with other assorted insults, to which I replied "what is your problem?" as I let him pass me. He pulled away initially, although I caught him up again quickly, but credit is due in that he then proceeded to ring his bell before overtaking a slower cyclist ahead of us, although he overtook her so wide that his wheels were partly on the grass at the non-canal side of the path. He then proceeded to turn off up the dirt-slope to head up towards Colinton without bothering to indicate however, although frankly I was relieved he was going!
To end on a positive note, I did receive a smile from Lilac Helmet Lady which cheered me up considerably...
Posted 9 years ago # -
My bad anticipation this time : aproaching lights at the balgreen/gorgie road junction [url=https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.933255,-3.245926,3a,75y,30.77h,82.08t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sWquaVYtobrS5YmI1wtSfIQ!2e0][/url]
the lights changed from red to green just as i was approaching the front of the line for straight on so stopped braking and continued on and came FAR too close to another cyclist who had been waiting there and was now moving off. She had a bit of a squint move to push down and get going so i came blundering into her space. All caused by my failure to anticipate and I wouldn't have been pleased if the situation was reversed.
Thankfully going slow enough to say sorry as i passed but a lesson learnt for me..Posted 9 years ago # -
I received an extremely close pass from a guy on a racer this morning, no bell or any warning either.
Thankfully there was no need for me to swerve as any movement of more than a couple of inches would have resulted in a collision.
Hopefully he doesn't drive!
Posted 9 years ago # -
@kaputnik - just back from hols so catching up on the replies...almost as contentious as the helmet debate! :P Ok, I agree that crossing wheels is an absolute no-no so I see where you're coming from. In fairness when I do draft on my commute (which isn't often) it's usually behind quick riders who also appear to be experienced (roadies usually) and therefore more likely to accomodate the behaviour. I stand by my view though and providing it's not dangerous (obviously) and not causing inconvenience to the draftee then it's perfectly legitimate. acsimpson has it pretty spot on in his post. and chdot...loving the sound of that shirt!
Posted 9 years ago # -
"To end on a positive note, I did receive a smile from Lilac Helmet Lady which cheered me up considerably..."
Me too. It's incredible how grim some of the regulars are. Smile or a nod costs nothing and gets everyone's day started on the right foot.
Posted 9 years ago # -
New way of accessing the Roseburn Path from Russell Road observed this morning.
The northbound cyclist in question passed by the (not very) dropped kerb before the bridge but then started to pull into the middle of the road.
Fair enough I thought, he's going to access via the dropped kerb at the bend in the road, but he kept crossing and cycled the last 20m or so by hugging the kerb on the wrong side of the road. One car coming the other way passed him as he did this.
I suppose no matter what you do there you're never going to be completely safe depending on traffic levels. That's the fault of the infrastructure so perhaps not such rubbish cycling after all.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yesterday, while travelling downhill on Regent Road going quite fast I passed a cyclist freewheeling in the gutter very apologetically - I thought nothing much of it at the time except that I don't like seeing that apologetic road position. The lights at the junction with Abbey Mount were red as I arrived with a coach and bus in the queue - not indicating but very close to the kerb. I pulled up behind the last bus as I was turning left down Easter Road, visible in the mirror. As the lights changed the gutter cyclist shot down my inside narrowly missing me and went up the inside of the bus which was (predictably) moving closer to the kerb as it pulled away. I shouted at the cyclist not to go down the inside of the bus in this situation, but it fell on deaf ears. It's really scary to see people do that...
Posted 9 years ago # -
Had a fellow yesterday floating through red lights. I may have been to blame as I took the green cycle light at top of Gardiner's crescent which is closed to traffic as a way of avoiding the red light at Lochrin basin which is very slow to change.
He then cycled through every available red light until Lothian road causing a motorist in car following to shake her head in disbelief.
I was going to point out the traffic lights and say that he was traffic but I could not catch him as I wanted to stay alive.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Following on from the drafting debate above, I had my first experience of it this evening. After leaving Roseburn Park I became aware of someone sitting on my back wheel as I went along Baird Grove/Drive. I'm not sure what he was hoping to achieve as I was barely going above pootling pace.
When I got to the lights at Balgreen he left me then immediately hopped on the wheel of another chap who was heading along to Carrick Knowe, again at a fairly relaxed pace.
Very strange.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Stickman: Maybe he just likes the company ;-)
Posted 9 years ago # -
The numerous city bound cyclists on the tow path between Lochrin and Harrison Park this morning who did not understand the difference between giving way to pedestrians and pinging their bells and aiming at high speeed straight for me and my wee boy.
There seems to be the same expectation that pedestrians cower at the edges and get out of the way of faster things that we as cyclists so object to on the roads.
Posted 9 years ago # -
NEPN wheelsucker: male, black top with blue central rear panel, black shorts with white central rear panel, dark pannier with red strip on his left, beard, glasses and helm. Just ahead of me when I reached the WoL at the Sandport, my superior yielding-to-peds abilities meant he was again just ahead of me turning up the Chancelot path. Keeping very deliberately to my normal pace, I passed him at the no-longer-a-bridge. He then quite clearly sped up - a slightly squeaky drivetrain cranking noticeably faster. As is proper, I pulled up at Five Ways until it was clear. He'd pulled up at my shoulder to my right. There were lots of other oncoming/slower path users along the next stretch, so he was still right up my arse, so should have been able to hear my "Don't go that close, just go past or hang back" if I could still hear his squeaks. Despite having seen me slow down for at least six other pedestrians he then failed to anticipate the maybe seventh and almost slammed into my back. I again advised him to either just get past or stay back and set back off. He eventually pulled level, whined something about having admitted it was his error (I was aware of this) but that "there are signs you can make" (presumably with your ears, when your hands are on your bars in order to brake and retain control if something shunts you from behind) before pushing ahead, squeezing through a very small gap between a ped and cyclist as he went. After a few more stupid overtakes (camera still not working) I was still hanging back twenty metres astern (at his pace, rather than going through the whole thing again) when we were overtaken. Immediately, his head dropped and started heaving as he tried to acquire the wheel of the overtaker, to no avail. He turned off down the slope on the south side of the Coates bridge at Roseburn.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yesterday in London, walking up Gray's Inn Road to Condor Cycles, I watched a guy on a very battered MTB ride through a red light and take a right turn (through slow-moving but oncoming traffic!) while making a call on a mobile and looking in the opposite direction.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Epic bad cycling. Impressive though.
Posted 9 years ago # -
If you are going to be rubbish you may as well be rubbish at international standards.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I wouldn't be so sure to assign stupidity to the individual cyclists.
Understandable mistake given that Sri Lanka's first motorway only opened in 2011 so these cyclists might never have seen one before. And if English is not their language, they might not understand "NO pedal-cycles" on the slip road as this is often just text without a pictorial.
They might have been let down by their chef d'equipe not giving them this info, but at least they were not putting anyone else except themselves in danger.Posted 9 years ago # -
Me, doing a pretty good impression of Cavendish, Froome and Contador this morning.
Like them, I was pushing things to the limit to gain valuable seconds. Unlike them, I took a tumble after trying to be smart by going onto the verge to overtake a 4 year old on a bike on the cycle path. My pootling bike evidently isn't up to the off-road challenge of a very slightly lumpy bit of grass.
No harm done to me other than huge embarrassment.
Hopefully I helped her dad in developing her cycling skills: "Don't ever do what that idiot just did".
Posted 9 years ago # -
Rubbish cycling or rubbish driving or both/neither? You be the judge.
I was heading home after work along Salamander St towards Porty. Traffic was moving slowly (10mph) and backed up. I was filtering past cars on their left. Came up behind a huge HGV, and paused to think about my next move. I saw the other side of the road was clear, but the road is straight with no left turns coming up, so I kept filtering on the left. Only took a few seconds to pass the HGV. However, half way along the driver blasts his horn and indicates left (even though no turns ahead).Posted 9 years ago # -
I would go up the right because the chances of the truck arbitrarily swerving right are lower than swerving left (if the driver is using their mobile or reading dispatch notes while driving along, as is extremely common, they're more likely to pay attention to not drifting into oncoming traffic IMO).
In reality it probably doesn't matter that much. While there's a good argument for not being on the left of a truck (even on a straight road with no junctions), if the truck driver was passing you in slow traffic, they would happily come alongside creating the exact same situation.
Who knows - giving the driver a reminder that people are going to be on bikes on their nearside might save someone else from being crushed?
Posted 9 years ago # -
So a flurry of collisions for IWRATS;
1) Headed home at Meggetland last night a guy insists on riding on the right hand side of the towpath as he approaches me. To avoid confusion I stick with the conventional left hand side. We are heading for a slo-mo head-on, but at the last minute he opts to ride into a spiny bush and we end up level. 'Maybe best to ride on the left' I suggest. 'Ah yes, sorry...' He replies. '...is this the way to Wester Hailes?' I confirm that it is the way to Wester Hailes and we go our seperate ways.
2) On the aqueduct this morning, coming the other way is the cyclist known as Martin Clunes. He is still tanned and limping as he pushes his bike over. I draw in to the railings to let him by, but as he passes his pannier hits my foot hard enough to disengage the SPD cleat. He appears not to notice, or not to think it of any significance.
3) Further on, at bridge eight, I overtake a pootler. Ding-dong well in advance and I move to sweep by on the right, possibly at a velocity slightly higher than might be expected. As I draw level with the pootler he decides to pull to the right to let me past on the left. We end up leaning on each other briefly, and I am obliged to go off-track for a bit. He apologises for his odd swerve. I apologise for my keen rate of travel.
When I get to work I have forgotten my pass and gaining access to the bike racks and showers proves byzantine. Hopefully the return journey will be collision free.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Anyway, I really came on here to blow a raspberry to the rider who called out my front light on NEPN this morning.
First, it's high summer (just a bit of low cloud by the Pentlands first thing).
Second, it's a highly pimp German horizontal cut-off beam light which complies with the world's most strict anti-dazzling regulations.
So nyaaa. If the Landespolizei are happy for this to be shone into their eyes on a narrow cycle path at night, I'll use it with impunity in the UK during the day, thanks very much.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I had a lady call out about my light the other day on NEPN, but she seemed more concerned I had left it on during the day by mistake. I'm not sure if she' held me call back "It's OK, it's a dynamo" before she was out of earshot.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Dave, Iam sure your light is a fine piece of german engineering and fully approved etc. It can still dazzle, did you check?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Nearly got taken out by a white-helmeted guy on a road bike on the NEPN near Granton Road this morning, who was more interested in looking down at his bike than he was at him suddenly veering directly for me. He looked up just in time to avert disaster, but it left me somewhat shaken up for a minute or so afterwards.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The grungy blonde dreadlocked lady this morning who turned right onto West Port after salmoning down Lauriston Street and wobbled her bike to the front of the stationary traffic in a primary position but so far in front of the white stop line she wasn't able to see the lights turning green.
I went to overtake her, thinking it best to pass to her right so it was less of a surprise but as I approached she moved so far to her right that I thought that she might be planning to turn right and salmon up Lady Lawson Street back towards Lauriston Place.
Gave her quite a fright as I said "excuse me" just before passing.
Posted 9 years ago #
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