Inconsiderate cyclists.

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Tiberius Baltar

Active Member
Location
Liverpool
Hi guys.

Seeing as it was a nice afternoon I decided I would go out for a little relaxing ride and have my tea down by the river.
If any of you know Liverpool at all then you will know that along the River Mersey there is the coastal path which is also part of the National Cycling Network.
This is a popular place for walkers, runners, cyclists and families out for the park and fresh air. I had my tea and decided to ride along the path for a bit before heading home and was actually quite disgusted at what I saw.
A group of six men on road bikes came hurtling towards me all dressed up in their bright jerseys and sporting fetching aerodynamic hats and reflective glasses.
Theses guys must have been doing the best part of 30 mph along this path and they were spread out across it taking up the entire width. Before they got to me I saw a lady have to drag her dog out of their way (no apology or thank you was offered) and also a young couple who were there with their son who was on his little bike learning to ride virtually got flattened by them. I shouted that they need to slow down and be careful to which I got the reply "its a farking cycle route pal".

These guys were just rude inconsiderate plonkers doing some sort of road race on a dual use path! Surely they should have been on the roads if they wanted to ride that quickly? As Im not really a road bike enthusiast I was wondering if some of you could tell me if I was wrong to say what I did or were they just well out of order? Especially if you consider the damage one would cause if they hit the little guy or the dog.
 

Pauluk

Senior Member
Location
Leicester
They were well out of order if it is a shared path/facility. Complete ignorant g*ts. Pity they weren't spotted by the police, but then again they probably wouldn't have done anything about it.
 
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Tiberius Baltar

Tiberius Baltar

Active Member
Location
Liverpool
They were well out of order if it is a shared path/facility. Complete ignorant g*ts. Pity they weren't spotted by the police, but then again they probably wouldn't have done anything about it.

It just pisses me off because I know that they are out in their club and not doing anything seriously wrong but that five mile stretch must have had everyone hating cyclists. Its a lovely area to ride and you see lots of kiddies learning to ride there (in fact it is where my dad first let go of my seat and pretended he still held me up ha ha).

Oh well hopefully one of them will realise and tell his mates they may be better off on the roads at that speed.
 

Maylian

Veteran
Location
Bristol
You're right to be disgusted by it, like many will say you have to manage your speed even when on the roads to the conditions but on a shared use path that kind of speed is reckless. I would have been tempted to just bar one side of the path to prove a point but then I can be quite confrontational.

The problem as you say is that it gives a bad impression on all cyclists not just those 6 and we all have to deal with the backlash. Considering one of those could decide to pass a cyclist closely on the road to teach them a lesson...
 

Pauluk

Senior Member
Location
Leicester
Tiberius Baltar said:
Oh well hopefully one of them will realise and tell his mates they may be better off on the roads at that speed.
I wouldn't hold your breath on that one, some cyclists like some motorists are not interested in other people's rights. I see it all the time on shared use paths where cyclists don't understand that they should give peds priority and keep their speed down.
 
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Tiberius Baltar

Tiberius Baltar

Active Member
Location
Liverpool
Could you see what club they were from? Might be worth a letter to the club sec,

Its not my sort of thing to follow up to try and get them pulled up I just hope that I wasn't the only one to shout and they start to realise that they are being a bit loutish.
It was just unfortunate because the weather was lovely everyone seemed to be out enjoying the fresh summer air and it was so unnecessary to act and ride the way they did.
 
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Tiberius Baltar

Tiberius Baltar

Active Member
Location
Liverpool
I agree with you mate, I was nearly taken out on that very path one day by a group of cyclists. I think when they got close enough to see how big I am, they decided it wasn't worth wrecking their bikes just to try and prove their invalid point.

Im a big lad myself but there was no way I could have caught one of them ha ha I was on a hybrid with panniers after just eating my tea. It would have been funny to watch me try and keep up though. :boxing:
 

MrJamie

Oaf on a Bike
You never know, your comments or others may have made at least one of the group think about what they were doing or lodged in their mind.

It seems quite common on shared use paths though, here they do have some rules but youd have to go online and look them up so noone knows them let alone follows them. Ive even been shouted at a couple of times myself for going too quickly past dog owners, despite having slowed down adequately and covering my brakes, it did make me think about it though.
 
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Tiberius Baltar

Tiberius Baltar

Active Member
Location
Liverpool
You never know, your comments or others may have made at least one of the group think about what they were doing or lodged in their mind.

It seems quite common on shared use paths though, here they do have some rules but youd have to go online and look them up so noone knows them let alone follows them. Ive even been shouted at a couple of times myself for going too quickly past dog owners, despite having slowed down adequately and covering my brakes, it did make me think about it though.

It can be quite startling when a cyclist passes you even when they are going relatively slow as Ive found in the past when wandering down a path. I understand that some people will moan whatever you do so its best just to ignore them and let them phone their local radio moan in the next day. It just seems that until a little bit of common sense and decency filters down into both sets of groups and people stop acting like their right of way takes priority over all others and just chill out a little then cyclists are always going to be singled out as a problem when in fact 99.99999% of us are just pedestrians who decided to roll along instead of stroll along.

One day we will all smile and say hello to each other! :eek:
 

MrJamie

Oaf on a Bike
It can be quite startling when a cyclist passes you even when they are going relatively slow as Ive found in the past when wandering down a path.
Both times were rather similar, older person coming towards me so no suprise with a dog off lead, I slow a lot, cover brakes, watch the dog intently as per usual but on these two occasions it runs in front of me. No problem stopping since im being cautious, but owner swears and shouts at me as if im some kind of maniac :crazy: A few years ago I got told off by a bloke for rolling at 2mph in a crowd of people, he was right in making me realise it was silly :smile:

People being selfish or like you say lack of common sense seems to make shared use paths far more dangerous than they should be.
 
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Tiberius Baltar

Tiberius Baltar

Active Member
Location
Liverpool
Its an age old problem that due to increasing number of road users and people in general will probably never get better. I think its most important to handle aggression with a smile and a wink then move on and don't let it spoil your day.
 

Sara_H

Guru
Same thing happened to us about a year ago on the Monsal Trail, two men hurtling frightened my son out of his skin and caused him a wobble that nearly had him off!

Hooligans!
 
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