Be Excellent To Each Other

No, what he's saying is don't deliberately ride three abreast so you can have a natter, knowing you're holding up a queue of cars. It's not that difficult to translate.

I don't, otherwise i wouldn't have been stuck for 20 minutes odd behind a cyclist, but as above _you're not going to he able to change other people_

and as noted by myp "Probably because cyclists are killed every day on Britain's roads" so should probably not introduce risks by pissing off the people who will end up killing them. Or you know, they could get themselves killed, their choice.

*waves*

I presume people are just trolling Dave at this point?

Hard to tell on this forum.


Great, I'm sure the twenty cars behind you will be fine with that.

Aside: years ago (like, 1990) my mate had some tyres for his mountain bike that were solid, so they couldn't get punctures. Why aren't they on all bikes now?

I did think that also. I just can't believe people actually think like this, so it's either all just for laffs or it's a case of the mentals.

I thought I was trolling you? Whose turn is it today? I didn't get the weekly memo.

You twat!!1 etc.

Anyway, bored now, have a good weekend all.

Potholes at speed can somewhat destroy a wheel.

Well, sure - but they were still a little squidgy, like an air-filled tyre. "Solid" was perhaps the wrong choice of word.

Well, it's a bit of a moot point as far as I'm concerned as the cycle lanes round here are not potholed. and even those that are surely have enough usable area to draw into to let people past anyway.

too heavy for road bikes...

No when Mr dave is saying, don't ride to get yourself killed, seems a bit extreme..

That actually seems like very good advice for everything in life, really!

One cyclist riding slowly uphill does not equate to that. You're better than this, Craster.

Lots of things hold up other cars on the road, but mostly other cars. Get annoyed with other car users, not cyclists.

Next you'll be saying people shouldn't jump off train bridges because it means you'll have to change at Birmingham instead of getting a direct train and will add 34 mins onto your commute.

Too right! Inconsiderate suicidal bastards.

Judging by the responses of some car drivers, it kinda sounds like the attitudes of some drivers need a radical change but, of course, they never will because, y'know, I drive a Brum Brum neeeeeeoooooooow, the roads are built just for cars, waaah, waaaah etc.

The Boris-bike things we've got in Glasgow at the moment have solid puncture-proof tyres and, if it's the same technology, the answer is probably that it makes for a pretty bumpy ride and would be unpleasant over long distances.

Don't be ridiculous. Roads are built for motorbikes.

Whereas the cyclists are brimming over with responses other than "I'll ride how I like".

OH NO WAIT

Well, you know, people shouldn't jump off train bridges.

Quite. Motorway bridges are normally higher.

Heh:



That's an example of what not to do, then?

Not really, more that we can't use cycle lanes as they are inadequate or fucked. Most cyclists ride to the highway code and safely for themselves

it is 1m at 30 mph and more faster that 30.

so a car door width, so looks about right

Or that it's hard to ride up a hill.

Rubbish. Like most other road users, they wouldn't know 90% of it if you fed it to them.

Oh, I thought you were meant to pretend they were as wide as a car. I give them way more room than I have to. Time to fix that!

Are you actually incapable of reading?!? Since when has, and I quote "if you're going to be cycling, don't increase the risks by then proceeding to piss off people that can potentially accidentally kill you" meant "don't ride". In what language? Given it starts of with "if you're going to be cycling" presupposing that you are riding, "don't ride" is somewhat incompatible with what I said.

Don't piss people off is what I said. In my experience, most bike riders are quite capable of doing this, it wasn't really a problem until 2012ish, when Bradley Wiggins and Co. inspired a whole new breed of dicks to get out on their bikes clad in lycra.

I'm quite familiar with the roads I drive on, and believe me when I say it's quite possible for a cyclist to cede to cars on them without any inconvenience (by, for instance using the perfectly functioning cycle path, for instance, which isn't potholed or the like, or skipping to the front of a queue of traffic in the knowledge that you'll be going at 12% of the speed of them once the level crossing raises, or drawing in at any of the numerous places that are available to do so. Or indeed, take the shallower slope with safer roads for bikes which leads to the same place, but isn't olympically blessed). If that wasn't the case I wouldn't be quite as scathing.

I agree with Mr Dave entirely, don't ride.

I'm backing mr. Dave, if I ever have traffic behind me, whether I be driving a car, riding a bike or herding buffaloes astride a sluggish unicorn, I will always pull in and let anything behind me pass as early as is physically possible. This makes me think that people who don't do this are arseholes. Why would you not?

In other news, I'm now going to a restaurant to eat spensive food and drink spensive wine all funded by an über rich (and German) count who will quiz me about why I haven't drawn out full, colour coded wiring diagrams for a car with 4 ECMs that someone else built. Also, I think I might be underdressed. And its 26 degrees out. And fuck off! Its too hot for this shit.

I would, but I would say I was an above average cyclist. There are plenty of cyclists who are not as confident who might not want to risk it. Also (and this is all I am really saying) there is no obligation for them to do so. There are loads of selfish (or even just self centred) people in the world. loads of them of drivers, some of them are cyclists, some of them are pedestrians.

There are plenty of people driving cars, that could let someout of a side road, but don't. That could let someone merge but don't, or will drive down the righthand lane with no traffic in, only to merge back into the left lane ahead of about 20 cars. All of these things are just as bad (if not worse as they are often done at speeds far greater than a cyclist can manage)

The fact of the matter is the average cyclist is more exposed, less well protected, less well equiped, less powerful, and is usually outnumbered. A cyclist who slows down is going to take longer to recover their speed than a car that slows down. A cyclists tyres are much thiner (and has fewer of them) than a car. They are harder to see, they have less powerful lights, they are easier to damage.

An analogy I have just come up with (so probably worse then most analogies) is that of Mr Creosote complaining about some kid eating the last of the bread sticks.

Malc

Inexperienced cyclists don't tend to make themselves hard to pass. (For a start, they'd not be fit enough to even climb the aforementioned hill, among other tendencies) That's not what I'm talking about.

And you know "Group a has some arseholes" still doesn't excuse the people from group B from being arseholes.

I have found a nearby sweet shop that sells salmiakki, so stocked up on a few varieties.

he also had a really milk salmiakki, which usually I would not like as I prefer the really astringent tasting ones that almost give you a thirst, but this one also has raspberry. It's strange, but almost like dessert.

Anyway, I just wish that all road users, whether they be on foot, on a bicycle or in a car/lorry/any other vehicle would just be more aware of those around them and use that as the basis of their consideration for others. That really goes for people in high streets and supermarkets, too. I often wonder if I am invisible the number of people who don't see me and knock me around

The man at the hospital said I have allergic rhinitis and avoidance is the best remedy.

Yeah, I expect great success in avoiding GRASS, for fuck's sake.

Actually, they don't have grass in Japan and I felt awesome there.

It's why they are all so uptight.

I get allergic rhinitis from some red wine.

I have had that all my life. It is a bitch.

Yeah me too. And some types of beer

At least the remedy for that is some /more/ red wine.

Ok, so questions, based on situations I've seen over the last week...

1) You're on a bike. On a major A road with a 50 limit. There's a cycle lane which is usable, or indeed over the other side of the road an entire dedicated cycle path... Do you cycle on the main road?
2) You've just gone round a corner and the road splits into two lanes and then into three. You want to take the left lane and turn left. When going round the corner, do you block both lanes?
3) You're going down a road, with a long line of traffic behind you. The road widens such that cars can overtake you. Do you allow that or move over to block them?
4) You're a pedestrian, you're going up a hill with no pavement. Therefore on the road. When a car comes do you walk in the center of the road, as is your right, or get out of the way?

You know very well what the reasonable answers are to all those questions. I could give you at least twice as many examples of down right dangerous driving I've seen this week. But even if a pedestrian or cyclist is acting inconsiderate or putting themselves in danger the motorist should at all times be the bigger man and take all reasonable action to avoid an accident. It's just sensible.

And the person who was at the beginning of this conversation. Did they actually cause an accident or just vent?

Because, you know, you're allowed to vent about arseholes being arseholes. I generally don't, until the point at which they start wasting a significant chunk of my day deliberately.

A decade ago I was staggered by how far everyday driving standards had fallen even in the few years since I passed my test a decade before.

A decade later and I wish driving standards were only as horrifying as they were a decade ago.

Which makes the kinds of.suicidal antics cyclists get up to* all the more Darwin Awardsian.

There's no finger to point at any one group here, just a Python foot to.crush us all.

It's depressing, it really is.

* while ignoring the cycle paths around Trafford park which are actually.the best option of the three.

You started this? For shame. Vent all you like, of course, but people may also have, and are entitled to, an alternative perspective.

Anyway, go get the DLC for Dark Souls 2. It's the tits!

No. I sympathised with the person who vented on twitter and proceeded to get harangued for it and people try to get her fired.

I missed all that - I thought it was just a general grumble. Sorry, about your friend though. What was the complaint "brining the company into disrepute" or something; like people suddenly aren't entitled to their own opinions outside work in this new era of social media.

I just hate all cyclists without exception. Simpler that way. I used to have a bicycle myself, but I hated myself the whole time I was on it.