Is the way you're treated by other road users dependant on what bike you're riding?

[Notafettler]

It makes no difference what I ride. I get very few close passes🇩🇰

Yeah but your head ons outweigh are near misses.

 

[Juliansou]

I don’t tend to get many closes passes as a general rule. However, when on my elephant bike with the dog up front I get a generously absurd amount of room. The dog has a tendency to put her paws on the front of the basket to catch the breeze - this makes her very visible from behind! She a mini dachshund so I tend to get kids in cars waving at her - pretty cool really and they always get a thumbs up back from me!

 

[a.twiddler]

I used to think that what you wore had more effect on how other road users treated you than anything else. Certainly on my tourer, wearing clothes that suggested that you were just a person-on-a-bike led to the vast majority of road users giving me what I considered a satisfactory distance when passing. Similarly on my folder I don't recall any really alarming incidents. Mind you, none of my cycling is done in That London or in urban areas.

Since coming to the Dark Side and riding a LWB recumbent however it's as if I had suddenly become radioactive as I have had to completely revise my concepts of passing distance. Cars not only pass in the opposite lane (as specified by the Highway Code) but even look in danger of climbing the opposite hedge bank in their eagerness to give me space when passing. If they pass at the same sort of distance that I've been used to on my upright bikes it now feels like a close pass! This seems to be a common experience related by recumbent bike riders.

Judging by the replies so far, to maximise the space given by other road users, you need to ride an unusual bike or trike with a trailer and put a cute dog in it.

 

[fossyant]

It makes no difference what I ride. I get very few close passes🇩🇰

OK rub it in.... Have you got a spare room, I'm moving in...

 

[fossyant]

All expected responses- I got close passes as a fully lycra'ed roadie - didn't bother me until I got a bit busted up (bit more than that TBH). I'm from Manchester - so WAS urban riding.....

Drivers don't quite compute modern MTB's though - they are big bits of kit, so I've not had any close passes on bits of road I use other than pull outs - yep this big brute can still move, but 4 pots stop it - drivers do pass wide to big trail MTB's -why - it's flipping huge compared to my road bike, but I keep clear of any long stretches of road.

I'm starting to ride the road bike again in North Wales (well was until the new rules), as the roads are quiet and drivers not commuter nutters. Love it, driver's OK, but I'm more aware of 'close' passes - It's been good so far TBH.

 

[slowmotion]

I don't get many close passes here in London. Nearly all the local drivers learned how to share the roads with cyclists long ago. I use a road bike but I don't tend to ride in overtly "cyclist" kit, and gave up my h*lmet a while ago.

 

[cougie uk]

At the beginning of the year, I bought a lightweight Brompton to use on train excursions. (It arrived a week before Lockdown - oh, the irony!) I have noticed however, that even though I still maintain my riding in Primary/Secondary approach to road use when on it, I've been cut up more, and beeped at far more for not 'being where I should be', than when on my road bikes.
This only really occurred to me as a possible issue today when I took a donated BSO with wide tyres out for a test ride and was afforded a seemingly excessive number of close passes.
I know research has been done on this (in particular regard to what clothing/protection a cyclist is wearing), but has anyone else been aware of anything similar? Or should I just reach for the anti-paranoid tablets?

No. Drivers don't know the difference between bikes.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Dressed as a "proper" cyclist in all lycra, you are a silly twat playing on the roads , dressed in a business suit on anything then you are a middle class knob who deserves pushing into the gutter .
However dressed in Civvies, in particular a hoodie, looking like a builder on a ancient BSO, or a youngster pulling wheelies at them then they will leave well alone.

I think drivers considering a risky overtake often subconciously assess the likelihood of the rider cutting up rough and having a big row with the motorist, especially in the sort of traffic where a vehicle stuck at a traffic light might get caught up by an irate rider they had just buzzed. My theory is if the cyclist doesn't look too threatening, i.e. female, or a "suit", or a skinny-built roadie, then more drivers will try it on. If it's a big solid lump of a bloke in workwear with safety boots, a rucksack on their back and a 3ft spirit level sticking out of it then they'll think twice before taking liberties.
The type of bike also seems to play some part, I find I get more room on the old Raleigh 3 speed than anything else. Drop bar bikes seem the worst, maybe the fact that the bike is narrower and from the rear the cyclist may appear to be of smaller stature as their arms aren't so far apart and their shoulders are more tucked in?

 

[Mo1959]

No. Drivers don't know the difference between bikes.

I agree. I think for whatever reason some drivers seem less considerate to what I loosely call more serious cyclists in full tight fitting lycra putting in a serious effort. Can't work out why. I always feel days when I'm on the hybrid with a more casual jacket and sitting up admiring the views drivers seem much more tolerant. Bizarre. My pet theory is that many of them are actually jealous sitting on their lardy arses in their tin boxes

 

[HarryTheDog]

@SkipdiverJohn I think you have probably put it better than me, like in normal life people will take less liberties with you if it looks like you might just give them a good beating if they pee you off.

 

[Drago]

I think it has more to do with the size of the rider. Im very tall and built like a brick privvy and rarely suffer poor treatment from other road users. Who is going to risk the ire of Bigfoot?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I am a fairly large gentleman and it's thankfully rare (but not unheard of) to get grief while out shoving my farm gate about the highways. I've had at least a couple of taxi drivers try to engage me in a one-sided frank exchange of views, but they seem to quell a little when they see me up close. Maybe my height confuses their sense of perspective?

The only time I get shown total respect on the bike is when I'm on the school run. Granted I'm shoving a 29er with handlebars as wide as a washing line, and looking like a bear on a mobile climbing frame, but I'd like to think motorists give some quarter when they see I'm cycling with my daughter. The ride back from the school is a very different matter though.

I also seem to be given more trumping space up the rear since fitting a cheap GoPro clone to my seatpost.

Nice to see a comment from you on here @Jon George I do se you around town but tend not to toot my horn, partly because it only comes in one flavour and sounds the same when happy as when sad.

 

[DCBassman]

I've managed to avoid much of this hassle by not riding where there's traffic...but otherwise, doesn't seem to me to make a difference what I'm riding.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I've managed to avoid much of this hassle by not riding where there's traffic.

I've tried the same, in Denmark, Holland and Belgium and it was a delight! I don't do it regularly though, it would more than double the length of my commute.

 

[Mike Ayling]

I agree. I think for whatever reason some drivers seem less considerate to what I loosely call more serious cyclists in full tight fitting lycra putting in a serious effort. Can't work out why. I always feel days when I'm on the hybrid with a more casual jacket and sitting up admiring the views drivers seem much more tolerant. Bizarre. :

That is my experience as well. .