How many lives do you need out on the bike these days??!

I've discovered the best time to ride a bike in warrington is midnight-4am. No cars!

Used the "cycle path" running along the A57 on the return journey instead of the road. Biiig mistake. Did you know they've invented a way of making bumpy stuff look smooth? Seems to work great on the ground. Still it was exciting to hit invisible bumps so severe the rear mech shifted gears.

As a relatively recent convert to cycling but a long term driver I am surprised at a lot of the decision making I see while out on my bikes. I think that the majority of people do make an effort not squeeze (or just mow down) cyclists. Some are more positive than others, I get nervous when someone sits just behind my rear wheel revving away waiting for their chance to get by but at least they havn't just gone past regardless of the space available, a few do. A key component of sensible driving is observation and many drivers do not match their speed and distance; a cyclist suddenly appears in front of them and they cannot process the information quickly enough. They could slow down, they could stop but some just keep going, if something is coming the other way they just squeeze the cyclist. I can't see it changing. Perhaps if there were proper punishments for injuring/killing cyclists it might change peoples mentality, but then again perhaps not.

Midlife":315gn5hf said:

On a different note.........is there still a nice chippy on the Pier at Largs

Shaun

Click to expand...

there is indeed, shaun and we caught a clown in big merc mounting the pavement right outside it, just to cut up the inside of the traffic to get through the pedestrian crossing before it went to red!! this is the same stretch where two old folk were killed the other week by idiotic driving. the merc driver got around 6 cars ahead of us and that was it!! i just don't understand it . .

:x

Rusty, thats pretty much my regular route. I tend now to cut up the back roads when I can but from WK to Largs there aren't many options. The worst bit has to be from Largs to Skelmorlie, I try to avoid at all costs but sometimes need to get back and its the fastest route, very hairy though. I've also found on a Friday after 13:00hrs it is a mental free for all.

FINNEY1973":1hfq90fl said:

him.

Cowardly for a starter, but what bothers me most is what is the mentality of these people - what's the objective of such moronic driving - bad driving is one thing but deliberate & planned attempts to see a cyclist hit the deck is something that doesn't sit easy with me at all.

Click to expand...

i think that the homicidal driver in his tin go kart thinks he wants to see a cyclist hit the deck a la disney cartoons/ x box etc!! the reality is a lot of broken bones, a lot of mush, one dead cyclist and one wannabe racing driver/ judge dredd dreamer who has just killed an innocent member of the public and who is about to lose his licence and go to jail.

how about this reply on a car forum i use to a similar post you have just read about my morning on the bike - here's how that furious, idiotic driver in the tin death trap thinks about us lot:

i wrote this part:
i was thinking about buying a new crash hat as the one i have has a crack in it - realistically, with those kind of antics from complete arsehole drivers, it's going to take a lot more than a polystyrene shell around my bonce to save me!!!


...and the reply?

When all you cyclists meet these conditions

1. Licence and compulsory training to prove that you're fit to be out on the public highway
2. Minimum third party insurance
3. Road tax to contribute like the rest of us who actually pay for the roads
4. Stop riding in and out of traffic like a bunch of suicidal tits
5. Clearly signal changes in direction
6. Have your bikes fitted with Functional side and brake lights
7. Registration plate for your bikes, and an annual safety check

At which point, maybe you might deserve some sympathy and consideration......

:x

kaiser":3i434ks6 said:

Rusty, thats pretty much my regular route. I tend now to cut up the back roads when I can but from WK to Largs there aren't many options. The worst bit has to be from Largs to Skelmorlie, I try to avoid at all costs but sometimes need to get back and its the fastest route, very hairy though. I've also found on a Friday after 13:00hrs it is a mental free for all.

Click to expand...

oh i know that road well!! i ride up to wemyss bay for the rothesay ferry quite a lot and that short stretch of the road between largs and wemyss bay is notorious for accidents. we get folk going into the barriers, into the ditch and into the sea on a regular basis!! the trouble is that it twists and turns and there are precious few overtaking opportunities for motorists. god knows it's hairy enough trying to do an emergency drive there - people will often stop dead in their tracks when they hear the sirens behind them and inevitably right on a blind bend!

as far as cycling that road goes, it's head down, keep to the white line on the left and hope for the best!!!! i believe the last time i rode down from the ferry, it was a cloudburst and i was "transformed into alan peiper in the kelloggs tour of britain" - well, in my head at least!!

(37.09mins onwards > >)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91xckp4IQs

This is daily life for cyclist today. It's getting bad out there in so much as everyone is scrapping for their bit of road. Not a day goes past on my daily commute when I dont suffer at the dangerous actions of some dimwit at a roundabout (the things we give away to on the right...), some clown at a junction pulling out or some plain blind fool not realising Im there... (must be my Harry Potter Invisiblity cloak or something). I've been doing it for nearly 40 years so I dont scare easily, but there are times when my nerve wavers....

rusty bodie":22ml5ssg said:

i wrote this part:
i was thinking about buying a new crash hat as the one i have has a crack in it - realistically, with those kind of antics from complete arsehole drivers, it's going to take a lot more than a polystyrene shell around my bonce to save me!!!


...and the reply?

When all you cyclists meet these conditions

1. Licence and compulsory training to prove that you're fit to be out on the public highway
2. Minimum third party insurance
3. Road tax to contribute like the rest of us who actually pay for the roads
4. Stop riding in and out of traffic like a bunch of suicidal tits
5. Clearly signal changes in direction
6. Have your bikes fitted with Functional side and brake lights
7. Registration plate for your bikes, and an annual safety check

At which point, maybe you might deserve some sympathy and consideration......

:x

Click to expand...

Point 3 on that list immediately marks its author down as skilled in the talking of utter cobblers. :roll:

And let's face it, not all motorists offer a textbook example in how to go about No.5....

David

I ride on country lanes and that's all, I know there are dangers on these road but not as many as main roads.

I had a near miss with a lorry mirror a couple of days ago - damn close to decapitating me :evil:

Stay safe everyone :!: :!: :!: :!:

David B":2a9drspq said:

rusty bodie":2a9drspq said:

i wrote this part:
i was thinking about buying a new crash hat as the one i have has a crack in it - realistically, with those kind of antics from complete arsehole drivers, it's going to take a lot more than a polystyrene shell around my bonce to save me!!!


...and the reply?

When all you cyclists meet these conditions

1. Licence and compulsory training to prove that you're fit to be out on the public highway
2. Minimum third party insurance
3. Road tax to contribute like the rest of us who actually pay for the roads
4. Stop riding in and out of traffic like a bunch of suicidal tits
5. Clearly signal changes in direction
6. Have your bikes fitted with Functional side and brake lights
7. Registration plate for your bikes, and an annual safety check

At which point, maybe you might deserve some sympathy and consideration......

:x

Click to expand...

Point 3 on that list immediately marks its author down as skilled in the talking of utter cobblers. :roll:

And let's face it, not all motorists offer a textbook example in how to go about No.5....

David

Click to expand...

#6 is incoherent as well - do they really mean brake lights as in lights that illuminate when operating the brakes? Impractical and irrelevant on a bike...

#7 was tried very briefly in Belgium and (unsurprisingly) ended up in the dustbin of stupid ideas along with the Sinclair C5 and the Big Society.

To be fair #5 is problematic: a cyclist's judgement of what is a reasonable amount of time to signal is completely different from a motorist's, given the different position on the road, speed, stopping distance, visibility etc. But then motorists ought to be more obliged to be aware of such things.