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.
@kaputnik
should those who find it difficult to clip in/out persist in using clipless pedals?
Yes, as how will you get better? I've been clipless on all my steeds, both SPD'd and SPD-SL'd for about 10 years now and I still occasionally have to do the one legged dance, usually when something (cut grass as an example) gets stuck in the cleat.
The only way to get good at something is to practice, even something as simple as putting a foot on a pedal. :-)
Fixies and clipless pedals aside, the key issue is that when presented with a red light you should stop before the white line, or within the ASL if there is one. If you can't, for whatever reason (clipless pedals, feet duck taped to cranks, ridiculous hipster bike, etc.), then you should have the decency to fall off as unobtrusively as possible and, crucially, while still remaining behind the white line.
Is stopping obligatory at a red light? Provided you're not creating an obstruction for other vehicles legitimately in the ASL and you don't cross the front red line surely it's acceptable to spend the duration of the red creeping very slowly forward towards the line.
I track stand (and am reasonable) but only because I started practicing it to take away some of the boredom and frustration of being stopped at 14 lights on my 2 mile commute which I had for 3 years.
I tend to try and if I get more than a foot further forward than where I started I put a foot down. The game is to try and hold it completely still while looking VERY relaxed. I've also managed to achieve sitting down track standing on my MTB which is fun. It's also very possible on a Boris Bike.
The best thing <ever> about having flat pedals and no clips is...
Being able to dismount while still moving and timing that dismount so that you smoothly and effortlessly transition from cycling to walking without stopping or hesitation.
YVMV.
I'm intrigued by the suggestion thought that there might be a story behind your choice to post this in the rubbish cycling thread.
Of course this particular move can also be done with clipless (or clipped) pedals it just means you need to remember to free your second foot at the point of transition or you'll end up lying down in your driveway.
"surely it's acceptable to spend the duration of the red creeping very slowly forward towards the line."
Possibly on a bike, but not in a car?
You would hopefully fail a driving test for doing that.
Different standards for cyclists and drivers?
Most annoying thing about clipless pedals is the name. What are you clipping in and out of if not a clip?
I know why they got their name, but can the bicycle world not come up with something better to call them?
The three-point roadie-pedals should be called 'clip-clops', for obvious reasons. Perhaps 'clamps' for the recessed MTB cleats?
Yes @ edd1_e! Very satisfying!
MTBer will full extremity outfit cutting the corner between the Links Gardens shared path and the path by the tennis courts, as in cutting about thirty metres off it at a speed and wobble-level not consistent with a: proper control, b: manners and c: sense.
@cb Toeclips (cages) were historically the name of the way to attach your shoe to the pedal (and still are, to an extent, on the track).
When Look adapted the spring loaded ski bindings to pedals in mid 1980s, naturally people called them clipless as the pedals no longer had toeclips.
"Being able to dismount while still moving and timing that dismount so that you smoothly and effortlessly transition from cycling to walking without stopping or hesitation."
Doddle to do with clipless as well - indeed if you try cyclocross it's basically a pre-requisite to master it for the hurdles and run ups. I remember Zdynek Stybar dismounting when he had a puncture, and it being referred to as a cyclocross dismount cos he swung a leg over and transferred to running in one motion and thinking, "Hah, I can do that" which appears to be one thing I can do better than a lot of the pro peloton...
Lucky lucky girl this evening top of Marchmont road.
She was past the lights and in the position where I would ordinarily turn left.
She stuck her right hand out, slewed across in front of a VW Golf with a (thankfully watchful) driver who had to stand on the brakes then turned RIGHT into Strathean road.
Briefly undertaken by previously very slow cyclist at one of the George St zebra crossing while semi-stationary, with parked cars coming up ahead. Had a car on my outside so there was no further space I could give. Dumb and rude IMO.
Now being seen most days - sitting at the lights in the right-hand lane on Roseburn St, about to turn right onto Roseburn Terrace. Cyclist pulls up in the left lane outside the Roseburn Bar, in front of left-indicating vehicles, putting a foot down on the pavement to steady themselves. Lights go green, and cyclist proceeds to turn right....
Have I missed the memo that says cyclists can use a left-turn lane to turn right and vice-versa? Once day someone's going to end up getting hurt.
@threefromleith, that is a bad junction for sure.
@3fromleith @gembo - with all the road markings gone I think people just have no idea what's happening - although the example you give is an extreme example and I've not seen that happen, I've seen similar confusion plenty of times!
I see it fairly regularly. Usually it's someone sitting to the right of the left-turn lane, then cycling straight ahead before making a 90 degree turn. Sometimes people do follow a more curving path which I agree is more dangerous.
Far bigger issue though is drivers turning right from the left-hand lane, or trying to undertake a right-turning cyclist (seen that a few times as well). Oh, and it's rare that there aren't at least a couple of RLJ cars turning into Roseburn Street from Roseburn Terrace to add to the mix.
I always take strong primary, sit in the queue and don't filter when going through that junction. Too many muppets.
... was me. Came out of a junction just in front of another bike. No collision, thanks to the other guy's quick reactions. He was very polite about it, considering.
Memo to self: pay attention, look both ways, give way at a Give Way, etc.
Despite demonstrating the ability to dismount to walk across during a pedestrian phase, someone who looked a bit like an haircutted Never Knowingly Legal Man track-crept over the stop line at the end of Lauriston Street then rode across through some cars.
Of the 7-8 cyclists who passed me on the canal towpath in the dark just now (I was walking past the high school building site using my mobile phone as a torch), only a couple had functioning front and rear bike lights. One had neither. Good luck to him.
To the right turning Gilmore Place-bound rider, on the blue fixie, who steamed through the red light at the Kings Theatre junction at 18.34 this evening and was nearly collected by 35kg of right turning carbon fibre, you, Sir, are an idiot. You're also on video.
Sort of me.
Filtered to ASL at lights on London Road ahead of a bus (in the bus lane). I'm watching the lights. Red. Red. Red. Beep...
Of course. There's a straight ahead filter. Now because the bus was slightly ahead of the stop line I'm right at the front of the ASL so can't see the lights immediately to my left, the lights on the right three quarters don't show the filter, and there's a large van in the middle of the junction blocking the view of the other lights that show the filter.
So I should have remembered about the filter, and maybe shuffled in the ASL once in front to be able to see the one to the left. But equally the driving around me had put me in a position where the infrastructure didn't work (and if I was visiting, or new to the area, I wouldn't have necessarily known about the filter).
Me, yesterday, about half five. Tootling down Holyrood Road on the way to Dynamic Earth, wondering where I was going to park up and then spotted some free stands.
I had thought the way had gone quiet so for some reason I took a rather ostentatious swooping arc across the road without checking behind and only realised half way through that there had been a rather nippy lycra roadster who'd been gaining on me from the rear. Fortunately, he must have sussed my lack of focus and went on my inside.
Apologies to the collective.
@gdm - say three "Hail Sheldon"s and go and shoulder check more my son.
;-)
Robert
@Roibeard - Praise be to the merciful Sheldon. I promise to be more mindful of the Cycling Commandments.
Cyclist this morning heading eastbound on the canal towpath at Wester Hailes on a singlespeed road bike. wanted past me, so moved over as soon as I realised he was there. (No bell I believe).
Once he passed, he didn't go any faster than I was going and as he had no bell, had to slow down far more at the two bridges we passed under and then slowed to a crawl before turning off.
Lessons to learn. Always have a bell if you are going to cycle on shared paths. Make sure you are actually going to travel faster if you are going to overtake andis there really a point in overtaking if you are about to turn off anyway. A lot of that (apart from the bell) reminds me of issues with car drivers.
What difference would it have made had single speeder sounded a bell? Surely you should slow to a near walking pace approaching the bridges any way, pedestrians don't routinely carry bells. Unless your expecting them to jump out the way at your insistence?
Sorry bells on the towpath, especially the ting ting blast through brigade, get my back up however I'm travelling.
Might've been me... coming into Musselburgh this evening a touch too fast, approaching a cross roads where a car was just pulling out of the left hand arm of the junction. I slowed a little but unfortunately the car decided to dither once it was right across (athwart?) my path prompting an urgent internal 'WTF?' as I hadn't anticipated this. I ended up having to go round the rear of the car, duly skidded on a greasy manhole cover and almost ploughed into a nearby wall. Had the car reversed I'd have been in a tight spot.
Lessons? It would've cost me 10 seconds to have slowed a little more and taken in what was going on. Oh and never assume the driver will do what you expect.
Mea Culpa.
1) Woman on hybrid bike who passed me on the NEPN after I'd slowed in order to pass a group of runners at an appropriate speed. I have nothing against hybrid bikes, but if I am on my fast bike with look-faster wheels, I am capable of speed if I want too.
2) Me, making unnecessary efforts to sprint past in order to demonstrate the above...
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