Dark cycle users.

[Drago]

There's an old dear near me who rides to the local shop on a hover board. She must be 80 at least. Its quite a sight, and it moves slower than walking pace so is probably no more hazardous to other footway users that if she were walking.

 

[Salty seadog]

[QUOTE 5186124, member: 9609"]seriously ? Wag n Drag and the trailer come adrift Forrest road or public?
I doubt it pulled far on the suzzies, presumably the failsafe come on when they snapped.


I know someone put the sussies on before hooking up and it nearly killed him.[/QUOTE]


Happened on a duel carriageway in front of me a couple of years ago, a lorry lost it's drag. I was a couple of hundred yards behind when it happened.

 

[Slick]

[QUOTE 5186124, member: 9609"]seriously ? Wag n Drag and the trailer come adrift Forrest road or public?
I doubt it pulled far on the suzzies, presumably the failsafe come on when they snapped.


I know someone put the sussies on before hooking up and it nearly killed him.[/QUOTE]
Very much public. It had just come off a roundabout then over a reasonably small patch of road works. Who knows what would have happened if it didn't snap within the already conned off area. I was always waiting for the inevitable HSE investigation and finger pointing but it didn't happen.

 

[Globalti]

We see plenty of ninjas on bikes when we drive to nearby Preston at night, they swerve across the road in front of traffic, dressed in black, no lights, with an air of insouciance as if they are almost daring a driver to hit them. I sometimes think they are hoping to be hit.

(Post edited to remove the word "cyclists")

 

[winjim]

We see plenty of ninjas on bikes when we drive to nearby Preston at night, they swerve across the road in front of traffic, dressed in black, no lights, with an air of insouciance as if they are almost daring a driver to hit them. I sometimes think they are hoping to be hit.

(Post edited to remove the word "cyclists")

Urban pigeons will not flinch when you aim a kick at them. They have evolved to be utterly unafraid of humans.

 

[theclaud]

as if they are almost daring a driver to hit them. I sometimes think they are hoping to be hit.

Can we stop this kind of victim-blaming nonsense, please?

 

[mjr]

I thought this thread was about choosing the right washing machine program for non colour fast cycling gear.

Don't put your cycling gears in the washing machine. Rattling sprockets around in a metal drum is likely to damage the washing machine as well as chip off any colour on the sprockets.

 

[Globalti]

Victim-blaming? Have you ever driven a car through a town and seen the way these kids dash across the road and swerve through the traffic? They are totally selfish and have no respect for the rules of the road or regard for anybody else. I don't even legitimise them with the term "cyclist" because I don't want any association with the feral scum. Happily the majority of drivers are aware that certain areas of the town are blighted by anti-social idiots and ready to swerve or brake hard, which is exactly what the kids are counting on. Occasionally though it goes wrong and then we are expected to feel sorry for them - "'E were a lovely lad, wouldn't harm a fly...." etcetera. Meanwhile the driver who did his or her conscientious best, goes through hell for months.

 

[mjr]

Have you ever driven a car through a town and seen the way these kids dash across the road and swerve through the traffic? They are totally selfish and have no respect for the rules of the road or regard for anybody else. I don't even legitimise them with the term "cyclist" because I don't want any association with the feral scum.

Because what cycling needs is more cyclist-on-cyclist road rage inciting motorist-on-cyclist attacks? Just be thankful that the nobber cyclists aren't nobber motorists yet and move on. If it gets to be a serious problem, support the traffic police tackling it, but also encourage them to stop any nobber motorists they spot in that area too.

 

[Globalti]

Because what cycling needs is more cyclist-on-cyclist road rage inciting motorist-on-cyclist attacks? Just be thankful that the nobber cyclists aren't nobber motorists yet and move on. If it gets to be a serious problem, support the traffic police tackling it, but also encourage them to stop any nobber motorists they spot in that area too.

Traffic Police? The motorway Police station at the Preston exit of the M6 always has about 20 Police cars parked in the car park. I don't know if that's because all the Police are off duty or inside eating burgers but you seldom see a Police car out on the motorways. Traffic Police don't patrol and stop cars on anything as old-fashioned as copper's instinct; they cruise around letting the ANPR do the work then they tweet about their successes to create an impression of a high hit rate. The majority of their tweets concern uninsured cars or unlicenced drivers, thanks to the ANPR. The likelihood of them being out on patrol and bothering about, then even being able to stop and catch one of these yobs on mountain bikes is as high as being hit by a meteorite. The yobs can continue to swerve across roads and through traffic with complete impunity, getting law-abiding cyclists tarred with the brush of "yob".

 

[mjr]

Traffic Police don't patrol and stop cars on anything as old-fashioned as copper's instinct; they cruise around letting the ANPR do the work [...] The likelihood of them being out on patrol and bothering about, then even being able to stop and catch one of these yobs on mountain bikes is as high as being hit by a meteorite. [...]

If that's true then you've got far bigger problems than a few nobber cyclists because it sounds like they won't be catching close-passers, pavement drivers, road ragers, left-hookers, right-crossers and all the other nobber motorists that discourage cycling far more.

 

[Wobblers]

I will confess I've had a couple of "Fark, that was close" moments with dark clothed pedestrians on my travels. My reponse has been to think on what I could do to reduce the probability of me hitting them (cycle away from the gutter and door zone and pay farking attention are typically the ideas that come to mind).

It's never occurred to me to blame them for wearing black. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[winjim]

[QUOTE 5186613, member: 9609"]not seeing where your heading at all[/QUOTE]
The reason I slowed down was not because I couldn't see the cars without their fog lights on. It was because at a certain distance I couldn't see anything. There could have been a shed load, a deer, a child playing dare, none of which would have been lit by fog lights. I was travelling at a speed at which I could stop in the distance I could see to be clear, ie the distance in which I could safely make out unlit objects. The fog lights were basically irrelevent, especially as I knew that so few drivers were using them.

I was also checking my mirrors so I knew what was behind me, and by travelling so slowly I was effectively controlling their speed as well.

 

[Alan O]

Bah.

I thought this thread was about choosing the right washing machine program for non colour fast cycling gear.

And I thought it was going to be about some clandestine dark web cycling forum.

 

[mjr]

[QUOTE 5186981, member: 9609"]
I completely agree that cyclist should be able to ride on whatever road they want in any weather and at any time of the day, they should not need hi-viz clothes or extra bright lights. But sadly there are a lot of uncaring morons out there that are driving too fast or playing with phones.[/QUOTE]
No clothes or lights will distract a motorist from their phone any sooner. I feel our best hope is to look obviously and traditionally human, not freakishly bright.