Fozzy Bear / Kermit the Frog on a bike in Stretford

[Notsoblue]

Err, it's Manchester actually.

Oops. Sorry, I just skim read most of it after you explained how you were telling someone how to ride!

 

[andylaw79]

Oops. Sorry, I just skim read most of it after you explained how you were telling someone how to ride!

fight! fight! fight! (in a playground style).

At the end of the day those who RLJ do so at their own risk so let them. It is against the law though and does make car drivers think we are all the same.

 

[4F]

Yes - that's right, folks, I saw Fozzy Bear / Kermit the Frog / Animal / Gonzo on a bike in Stretford this morning. I am unsure exactly which muppet he was as he was blazing through a red light and nearly taking out a ped who was crossing at the time.

We exchanged some pleasant banter:

Me: "It's still on red, you muppet"
Him: (nothing at this point)

When I caught him at the next set of lights, he'd stopped... but only as there were cars on their green filter light turning across our path. The lights changed just as I arrived and I went past him saying "Oh, you do stop at some of them then?".

At the next set (another junction with a filter allowing cars to pass in front of us) he caught up and spoke, and got an appropriate response:

Him: "I treat them as give way, I don't need you to tell me what I should be doing"
Me: "No, the law does that, but clearly you can't read"

Cue lights changing and me leaving him again. At the next set (which are red) he catches me again...

Him: "I've also read the research that says that in Big Cities it's safer to treat them as give way and not always stop on red" (or some such drivel)
Lights start to change..
Me: "Oh, right. That old chestnut!!" ( and shaking of head as I leave him again)

When he finally caught me again about a mile later (at more lights on red) I waited for the 'other' lights (i.e. the ones controlling the traffic crossing our path on the crossroads) to go amber and started to clip in, thus moving forward slightly. 3 cars blatantly jumped the red as ours went green and I started off into the junction... he was just catching at this point and decided to try and point out that I was RLJing myself. Not sure quite how it's an RLJ, but as technically I did start before it changed to green (to get clipped in) I could let him partially have that one if it makes him feel better for his own shortcomings as a cyclist.

It's no wonder motorists see us as thinking we are a law unto ourselves!

Theo Steggers has moved to Manchester LOL

 

[Tharg2007]

Oops. Sorry, I just skim read most of it after you explained how you were telling someone how to ride!

He wasn't telling him how to ride, he was telling him to stop at red lights or in other words how to obey the law.

whether or not he should or should not try to chastise someone for it is another matter, certainly letting someone know they are breaking the law is entirely up to them and its a free country after all so advice can be given out, whether that advice is taken is entirely their choice.

 

[4F]

That's mad

I know, no brakes on any of those bikes

 

[John the Monkey]

Had a belter today myself, a guy on some sort of hybrid ignoring all the lights, in order to break the "ten mile an hour commute" world record. I passed him after a couple of sets and promptly forgot about him, until I saw him going past work, by which point he'd been passed by a girl on an elderly raleigh shopper that I'd passed (some time) prior to passing him...

 

[4F]

Sounds like you were commuter racing monkey boy. Raleigh shoppers do not count !

 

[Origamist]

Sounds like you were commuter racing monkey boy. Raleigh shoppers do not count !

What about this one:

 

[4F]

Thats one big chain ring

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Oops. Sorry, I just skim read most of it after you explained how you were telling someone how to ride!

No problem, clearly you have the same reading skills as him.

I do make a point of mentioning such things at the time very loudly as basically I'd like to try and get the nearby car drivers 'on side' and let them know that we (cyclists) are not all clueless imbeciles who do what they want, and hopefully quell any anger they may be feeling after just seeing such a tw@t blatantly put others at risk just because he feels like it.

 

[Jake]

I know, no brakes on any of those bikes

Perhaps they were cutting edge with their fixies! no cycle helemts though! And poor old Kermit is just thrown in the basket like Mosses, miss piggy is doing a Elle mcpherson

 

[Notsoblue]

No problem, clearly you have the same reading skills as him.

I do make a point of mentioning such things at the time very loudly as basically I'd like to try and get the nearby car drivers 'on side' and let them know that we (cyclists) are not all clueless imbeciles who do what they want, and hopefully quell any anger they may be feeling after just seeing such a tw@t blatantly put others at risk just because he feels like it.

Hey I know where you're coming from, I understand your position. But I know I'd be pretty pissed off if someone with your attitude accosted me on the street on my daily commute for going through a red. You have a right to be annoyed by other people's behaviour but its sanctimonious and just down right rude to speak to another adult in that way. Its not even like he jumped all the lights. I don't mean this to turn into another pointless pro/anti RLJ thread, but I just had to say how pious I thought your post was, sorry! You can go ahead and call me an idiot, or an imbecile, or a "tw@t" or whatever now for admitting I RLJ. Knock yourself out.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Hey I know where you're coming from, I understand your position. But I know I'd be pretty pissed off if someone with your attitude accosted me on the street on my daily commute for going through a red. You have a right to be annoyed by other people's behaviour but its sanctimonious and just down right rude to speak to another adult in that way. Its not even like he jumped all the lights. I don't mean this to turn into another pointless pro/anti RLJ thread, but I just had to say how pious I thought your post was, sorry! You can go ahead and call me an idiot, or an imbecile, or a "tw@t" or whatever now for admitting I RLJ. Knock yourself out.

My attitude? I was merely making a comment about his lawbreaking activities. If that offended his sensitivities than maybe he shouldn't do it.

Can't see what's rude about it. I can see what's dangerous about what he did, and I'm sure the ped he just missed wasn't too pleased either.

The only reason he didn't jump all the reds is because he chickened out due to the traffic crossing. If you RLJ then you're as bad as him in my eyes - tarring us all with the same brush. But hey, your antisocial RLJing is countered by my antisocial barracking it seems, so maybe that somehow slightly restores the natural karma.

 

[John the Monkey]

Another good 'un on the way home for me.

Went through a green (for me, and had been green a while) and nearly collided with a dozy c**t who'd decided to ignore the red to my left. Not really a case of treating it as a "Give Way" either, as 1) he didn't look for traffic to his right and 2) he didn't give way to it.

Fortunately I was able to avoid collidng with him. "Yours on green then was it?" I asked, a bit piqued, as I always am when someone endangers me, an unrepentant "No" was as much of the reply as I bothered to listen to. The "cyclist" in question was about 50 yrs old, respectable looking chap on a sit up and beg (quite a nice looking roadster type bike).

I find RLJ by cyclists irritating in a low level, ho hum sort of way normally, but this guy and I would have been in a nasty crash had I been paying the same level of attention to the road he was. This is the first time a fellow cyclist has endangered me, and it feels like something of a betrayal, in some odd way.

 

[John the Monkey]

Sounds like you were commuter racing monkey boy. Raleigh shoppers do not count !

Nah. I noticed the girl because she was pretty (and she had quite a smart Cafe Pop bag), and the RLJer because he was bloody annoying[1].

I did try to hold the wheel of a guy on a flat barred thingy on Monday though, but he was WAY too fast - doing about 25-26 by my estimation - I wondered whether it might have been fossy, although I suspect it was a bit early for him to be out and about.

[1] There's something about having to continually pass the idiots that gets me.