748 WBH Mercedes - Resolves me to add a rear-view cam

[BentMikey]

Perhaps gert_lush could have been rather a lot less aggressive and condemnatory in his/her post?

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Well, to be fair I could have said "Yes, I should have wobbled around the edge of the roundabout encouraging large vehicles to ignore my presence and other cars in the lane behind to pass and turn left across my path, then hugged the gutter until the cycle lane which is narrower than a flat handlebar, stopped at the kerb on the left in 50 yard and waited until a quarter past seven for traffic to abate before making my right turn (unless a kind motorist responded to my polite pleas to "could I please trouble you for a moment of your time that I your humble servant might cross over your carriageway if it's not too much trouble please Mr. Motorist sir")

But that isn't what I consider to be the correct option; although it does seem to be the opinion of those who honk and point at cycle lanes, overtake cyclists who are indicating right, and put the cyclists life in danger to "teach a lesson" should the cyclist not conform to the motorist's own made-up rules of the road. And those who basically say "you should ride in the gutter and get out of the way"

So I have no problems with my style of reply to anyone who suggests that I should put myself in a dangerous position for the convenience of someone else whose journey obviously must be more important than my safety

 

[downfader]

Can I say without meaning to offend. I understand the irritation in your reply to Gert lush but the guy is new on here and may be new to cycling. Your answers were spot on but did it need the sarcasm as well? It may be that he truly was trying to understand. On your point about the rear view camera. I don't use cameras myself but having seen vids If I go that route I will use 2 as they definitely give a more complete story

The trouble was Gert either failed to read or ignored the original post and even the thread title which was a major clue.

 

[gert_lush]

Wow! What a load of replies.

I was just sayin'

There was no intention to make the op feel foolish in the post I wrote, posts never come across well as there is no "personality" in it - but certainly, there was no intention to sound "aggressive" or derogatory. If it came across that way, then I apologise to the op unreservedly - I was just trying to be pointed, rather than faffy and fluffy and miss the point.

I analysed something based on how it looks from the OP's vid :- bike in middle of lane, moving slow across round-a-bout, with a queue of traffic behind - some of the traffic getting a bit upset....

You could in all reality have used the left side, without any foreseable danger in the vid, and let some traffic by without any issue and got your foot down (so to speak) - IMHO. It looks to me, like you kinda caused your own issue - I know that is not what you wanna hear, but that just what it appears to be from my POV. Not everyone will agree, agreed!

Admittedly, I rarely drive the car, so, I would probably not be a good judge of this from a car drivers perspective. But I understand their frustration when there is a big clear road and something moving slow in the middle of it as opposed to using the left side - I don't mean riding in the gutter.

For the record;

I have commuted by bike, road raced and mtb raced for about 26 years in total, I now, exclusively, compete in triathlon events - Living and commuting by bike in New Jersey, New York, Milan, London, Cambridge, Toronto and Los Angeles, finally settling somewhere in the Southwest UK (still have a house in NJ though!). I have used my bike daily for years: aside a stint in hospital to have a knee and back (fractured spine in skiing incident) rebuilt! I also have a sub 20 minute 10 mile TT time that put me in the top 5 ten mile TT racers in the country in my yoof (in fact I was number 1 at one point in my teens for about a month!!) - so, I have some experience......I have also completed 3 etape du tours and 2 etape caledonia's, on steel framed race bikes as well as numerous "classics sportives" in various countries. I have had numerous racing accidents, but only 1 commuting accident in 26 years and it was my own fault, wet road - round-a-bout - too fast - bang! My current commute is around 100 to 150 miles per week in total on a mixture of urban and suburban roads and a dual carraigeway. Although I have lived city central in most places.

I am now training to become UCI fixie world champion in September - although, at my age, I expect to get my ar$e kicked!

On a lighter note: This forum seems to be incredibly closed minded and unable to adapt or accept another point of view without being patronising or quite insulting. It would appear that some members that have replied to my questions/comments are incredibly socially inept or were not worth the comment. So, on that note - I will cancel my subscription as this is not for me - this forum appears to be for the "take myself far too seriously" brigade.....

 

[gert_lush]

Just because you dont see it doesnt mean it didnt happen.

The majority of your post is garbage.

Why video said incident then?

I was only asking and looking from another POV

 

[Origamist]

There may be trouble ahead
But while there's moonlight and music
And love and romance
Let's face the music and dance

 

[Ravenbait]

On a lighter note: This forum seems to be incredibly closed minded and unable to adapt or accept another point of view without being patronising or quite insulting. It would appear that some members that have replied to my questions/comments are incredibly socially inept or were not worth the comment. So, on that note - I will cancel my subscription as this is not for me - this forum appears to be for the "take myself far too seriously" brigade.....

Calm down. This is probably about the most open and friendly cycling forum there is. It might have been an idea to embark upon your CC career in one of the less contentious sub-forums. If one of your first posts is to criticise one of the members and suggest he should have behaved differently in a situation where he was and you weren't, you can hardly expect to have an overwhelmingly positive response.

Your racing experience is irrelevant, your speed in TTs is irrelevant, your commuting experience is more relevant but still: you weren't there. The OP was. You don't know the road, he does. If you are going to suggest an alternative viewpoint then it would be better to be a little less abrasive.

And before throwing your membership away in a fit of pique, take a look around and see what else is happening on the forum.

Sam

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Sorry for taking my safety so seriously......

 

[downfader]

There may be trouble ahead
But while there's moonlight and music
And love and romance
Let's face the music and dance

Apparently they've unsubscribed so they'll miss that

 

[Canrider]

Well, he's apparently gone, unfortunately, but:

too slow on the roundabout? S-T keeps up with the left turning minivan, then gets passed by the red Fabia and largely keeps up with it, too. Now the van shouldn't be doing more than 20 on the roundabout, and the Fabia shouldn't be doing more than 30 in town. How much faster is S-T supposed to have been cycling, here to be an acceptable member of the main stream of traffic? At the speed limit? Above it?

Bollocks, he was going plenty fast enough for the conditions. Many would have gone slower, and done so entirely legally.

 

[rowan 46]

It seems I have offended 2 people here My apologies to you mr Tiger I was not suggesting you did anything other than what you did I thought I said that your answer was entirely appropriate just that the opinion seemed a little sarcastic in tone. However in pointing this out I appear to have slandered Gert's riding skills, not my intention, oh well no good deed goes unpunished apologies to both if I have given offence none was intended

 

[downfader]

It seems I have offended 2 people here My apologies to you mr Tiger I was not suggesting you did anything other than what you did I thought I said that your answer was entirely appropriate just that the opinion seemed a little sarcastic in tone. However in pointing this out I appear to have slandered Gert's riding skills, not my intention, oh well no good deed goes unpunished apologies to both if I have given offence none was intended

I dont think you've said anything wrong. You were more diplomatic in your approach.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

I dont think you've said anything wrong. You were more diplomatic in your approach.

To quote Angelfishsolo
"+1"

I wasn't offended at all by you.

I did take offence at the long winded way of Gert's saying essentially "get in the side out of the way" especially considering that being in the left of a line of traffic approaching a right turn in 50 yards time is a silly place to be, and riding at 2mph slower than the car in front for 50 yards isn't holding anyone up anyway....

Mainly because I think that is extremely bad advice to give

Personally I think more than anything the video shows that taking a strong road position gave me the upper hand when being bullied; in that I was able to bring the traffic to a slow, non-lethal speed and then continue making my journey in safety, whereby moving either to the right or into the left would have involved close passing traffic at speed and me losing any control over my own safety, shortly afterwards folowed by a more dangerous negotiation to make my turn.

The intention is not to deliberately "hold up" anyone but rather to retain control and prevent danger, and only because of the rude and impatient antics of the following car was anyone actually held up at all.

 

[Hip Priest]

For the record;

I have commuted by bike, road raced and mtb raced for about 26 years in total, I now, exclusively, compete in triathlon events - Living and commuting by bike in New Jersey, New York, Milan, London, Cambridge, Toronto and Los Angeles, finally settling somewhere in the Southwest UK (still have a house in NJ though!). I have used my bike daily for years: aside a stint in hospital to have a knee and back (fractured spine in skiing incident) rebuilt! I also have a sub 20 minute 10 mile TT time that put me in the top 5 ten mile TT racers in the country in my yoof (in fact I was number 1 at one point in my teens for about a month!!) - so, I have some experience......I have also completed 3 etape du tours and 2 etape caledonia's, on steel framed race bikes as well as numerous "classics sportives" in various countries.

Yeah well, I bet you can't put a fruit pastille in your mouth without chewing.

 

[gert_lush]

The opinion of someone who considers that riding on the left of traffic in order to make a right turn is either correct or safe, is not one I hold in any regard at all, sorry.

But since the obvious needs pointing out to you

You rode in the middle to right side of the road/lane on a round-a-bout and went straight on - why?
I used the lane marked "left and straight ahead" to navigate the roundabout. Would you like to explain what you consider to be erroneous about that?

You could have just stayed in the left side all the way.
That would have made no difference to the progess of law abiding drivers who would not overtake within a lane on a roundabout. So there was no need to and using the lane correctly isn't a problem

You rode in the middle of the 2 into 1 filter - why?
You answer your own question - the lanes merge.

You could have stayed left and allowed faster traffic to pass.
Why not just stay left and let people get past - from the look of the road, there would have been loads of space.
So you actually believe that right turning traffic should position itself to the left of traffic going straight ahead? An interesting, if a little dangerous, approach to road positioning.

Or you could try cycling faster.
Or you could try watching the clip. Cycling faster -prior to having to slow down for safety and to bring a conflict down to a low-speed, safely managable one - would have seen me rear-ending the red Fabia, since I was roughly matching its speed just prior to the first horn blast.

The video shows nothing that you have accused the Merc of doing
That's about the only part of your post that makes any sense, but again, if you had been paying attention, you would have noted that part of my post suggested that I might be better off with a rear-facing camera in addition to a forward facing one

Now, any more silly questions? No? Good.

Hi After the spat from before, I have watched your video 4 times now;

I think you are making allot out of something that you have brought on yourself.

Up to round-a-bout behind VW van - fine, although personally, I would have gone between the VW van and taxi as the taxi was clearly moving off indicating a clear round-a-bout - i.e. get the jump on the traffic.

Had I not taken the jump on the traffic:
Across round-a-bout - middle to right of the left lane indicating you are going left or straight on in this case - I would have been inclined to stay left side of the lane, allow a few cars to pass, more than likely the "bully" would have passed by now.

Or I would have pinned it between the Taxi and the VW and hammered it ahead - make a clear break from the traffic, after all the round-a-bout will hold a few people up. It would depend on my mood and how many bananas I'd eaten that day....more than likely I would have taken the jump and pre-emted my right turn.

Again, I would have shoulder checked, indicated and moved very quickly - but not made my move to primary until after the filter, otherwise you are just hogging the whole road and that would annoy anyone - as seen.

Had I taken the jump (more likely), I would have gone left lane (right side of on the round-a-bout). I would have stayed in the right lane coming onto the filter, almost in the middle of the road in anticipation of my right turn and left a massive gap for people to undertake on the left.

Ultimately, I would not have invited the idiot to be upset about anything - defensive/attentative riding perhaps?

I am not 100% sure where you turn right - it is not clear as there appears to be 2 right turns ahead, or a right turn and an entrance to something.

Some of your replies above you have deliberately mis-understood and made more of a meal of it than is really necessary.

More cameras won't make you safer or less prone to idiot drivers, but thats up to you and whatever placebo effect you get - more attentative and pre-emptive riding will make you safer. I think this is a key problem with cycling today; people are looking for anyone else to blame for their own shortcomings. I.e. mounting a load of cameras up rather than learning basic road-craft and basic road sense.

On the kids cycling courses, that I voluntarily help out on, with my kids school, we teach good road craft and anticipation - kids are not strong or fast enough to be able to beat traffic like an adult. So, we teach them to ride to 100 yards ahead, be confident and decisive - same as if you do a motorbike test (as I did 20 odd years ago!) - pre-empt, look for road space and adapt.

I am not against cameras, up to the individual - it's their time and money.

"The video shows nothing that you have accused the Merc of doing
That's about the only part of your post that makes any sense, but again, if you had been paying attention, you would have noted that part of my post suggested that I might be better off with a rear-facing camera in addition to a forward facing one"

So why put the reg no on the post, unless you are wanting some vindication?

"Now, any more silly questions? No? Good."

This is just a childish comment and not necessary. All the above is of course, hindsight.....

Although I have no way of proving my cycling acheivements as noted, I hope that you take it on faith that I do have a fair bit of experience.....Or I could be a full of cr*p binman from Pontefract that has never ridden a bike - always a possibility.....now for another pint of carling and a roll-up :-)

As for adding more cameras; if it makes you happy......personally, I would go for some fairy lights and a big flag, you will never have an incident again.

@downfader, wow - you really are very abrasive and from the posts of yours that I have read, quite humourless - I think you take yourself far too seriously, I suspect you are an all the gear no idea type dude.

Ultimately, the driver is a dick, agreed. But I think you could have avoided that problem very easily with some anticipation, in all reality it was not a big incident - but you were in the way for a considerable period, what did you think was gonna happen? Red carpet rolled out for you?

And on that note:- I leave you well alone. Enjoy your cycling and don't get knocked off

BTW; I drive a silver Mercedes, worse yet, mine is a 4 x 4.