'Car up', 'Car back' & 'Car down'?

[Markymark]

I ride in London. I find shouting "fecking cars everywhere" at the beginning of each ride covers it.

 

[outlash]

On my local CC's club runs it's 'car back' for behind and 'car up' if it's in front.

IMO, riding in a group of more than 5 requires communication up and down the line and if the only thing you can see in front for the best part of 3 hours is someone else's backside, hand signals and calls are pretty essential.

 

[HLaB]

The OP forgot 'Nose' and 'Tail'

 

[Sharky]

Oil

 

[Dogtrousers]

Cries of "wolf" are often counter-productive.

Is that wolf up or wolf down?

Arooooooo

 

[RichardB]

Is that wolf up or wolf down?

Arooooooo

Or ooooooarrr, depending.

 

[mjr]

Isn't British Cycling the sports governing body? If so, shouldn't we follow their guidelines?

No. Riding on the road isn't a sport. The helmet forcing fondlers at BC can get bent.

CTC use the more logical "car up" = "car moving up the group" but the BC disagreement means our CN group rides tend to use "car back" to avoid the confusion when we've both CTC and BC guests.

 

[mjr]

Incidentally. in my youth in Suffolk, we used to call "oil up" etc.

Yeah, but Suffolk's full of perverts

More seriously, isn't "oil" for motorbikes?

 

[Milkfloat]

I ride with a couple of groups, one that uses car up for behind, one that uses it for oncoming. It gets a bit confusing so I usually default to up=behind. To be honest just knowing which direction the calls are coming from gives it away.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

Ride with two cycling clubs. One uses 'car up' for car ahead and 'car back' for one behind; the other says 'car down' for a car approaching from ahead and 'car up' for anything behind. Very confusing!

 

[Dirk]

What I can't understand is why the patently obvious - 'Car ahead' or 'Car behind' (or something similarly unambiguous) wasn't adopted by all in the first place.

 

[PK99]

What I can't understand is why the patently obvious - 'Car ahead' or 'Car behind' (or something similarly unambiguous) wasn't adopted by all in the first place.

Car ahead is ambiguous.

Car ahead on this side of the road, move out to pass
or
Car ahead, coming this way.

Surely Up/down are unambiguous:

Up from the tail or up your arse
Down from the head or down you throat.

 

[Dirk]

Car ahead is ambiguous.

Car ahead on this side of the road, move out to pass
or
Car ahead, coming this way.

Surely Up/down are unambiguous:

Up from the tail or up your arse
Down from the head or down you throat.

I always think of things being 'up ahead'; not 'down ahead'.
Things are only unambiguous if they are logical and easily understood.
This is patently not the case as two, totally opposite, schools of thought have developed.

 

[Red17]

The times I've been out with a group its always been car front and car back - seems the clearest to me.

 

[G-Zero]

Car ahead is ambiguous.

Car ahead on this side of the road, move out to pass
or
Car ahead, coming this way.

Surely Up/down are unambiguous:
.....

About as unambiguous as car up on this side of the road, move out to pass
Or
Car up, coming this way