Letting go of riding 'incidents'

[Boris Bajic]

OP, it can be stressful and it can be annoying when thoughts of vengeance or retribution creep into one's head long after an incident. Nonetheless, I do not agree with some of the above posts about cameras.

I've been cycling for forty-something years and have never filmed any of my rides. I make a point of always not filming them and it's always what I haven't done.

I store all the footage I've never shot and I don't watch it on quiet evenings, edited so it just becomes a generic blur of blank tape.

Sometimes other road users are horrid or stupid. Sometimes I am. Sometimes both or all three.

I think most headcammers would have a more placid life if they just pretended they were filming, by making a noise like a camera and pannng their head round and whispering things like "Cut!" and "That's a wrap!".

Every year I have three or four incidents that really scare me. Some of those happen while I'm cycling.

Carry on...

 

[lejogger]

I worry that cycling with a video camera would make me a much worse rider.

I acknowledge the insurance it provides should anything happen, but we could end up spending our lives recording our car journeys, trolley battles at Tesco, evenings in the pub etc, just in case we needed to prove something happened the way we thought it did.

I think it would make me stubborn... "I could ride more sympathetically here, but I won't because then when you drive close or badly I can prove to you that you did - because I have it on camera".

After all, what's the point in being the cyclist who never has anything exciting to upload to YouTube?

That's not a criticism... I don't have anything against anyone who uploads rides/incidents to YouTube. I just know that if I had a camera, I'd want to have incidents to upload - so that's why it's best that I don't have a camera.

 

[Hip Priest]

I wouldn't want a camera. I just haven't got the personality to deal with one. If I put an incident online, it'd just prolong the misery by keeping it at the forefront of my mind. Plus, I'd fear negative comments, escalation, or even violent repercussions.

No, they're not for me.

 

[gaz]

I worry that cycling with a video camera would make me a much worse rider.

I acknowledge the insurance it provides should anything happen, but we could end up spending our lives recording our car journeys, trolley battles at Tesco, evenings in the pub etc, just in case we needed to prove something happened the way we thought it did.

I think it would make me stubborn... "I could ride more sympathetically here, but I won't because then when you drive close or badly I can prove to you that you did - because I have it on camera".

After all, what's the point in being the cyclist who never has anything exciting to upload to YouTube?

That's not a criticism... I don't have anything against anyone who uploads rides/incidents to YouTube. I just know that if I had a camera, I'd want to have incidents to upload - so that's why it's best that I don't have a camera.

If anything it makes you ride better. If you upload something where you act like a tosser then you will be pulled up on it and not by a handful but by all the cyclists that watch the video. It's a nice little community we have, sharing knowledge and advising others on how to avoid such things in the future.

Some have tried to ride aggressively for the sake of hitting it big and it really doesn't work. People are popular on youtube because others like you, not because they think you will upload lots of crazy stuff. Regular good quality content is what makes it.

How to deal with incidences? breath in, hold, and breath out. Then move on.

 

[veloevol]

It's a nice little community we have, sharing knowledge and advising others on how to avoid such things in the future.

Thanks to this cam community I've learned a lot about urban cycling. I get the most from youtube posters who have a cool head when dealing with negative situations.

It's definitely a place to learn from as much as these forums, it's just not the place you go for hugs.

 

[summerdays]

Most I can usually manage to largely put to the back of my mind to ponder over later and wonder if I could have changed anything that happened. However sometimes I get really wound up by the event and my mind focuses on it ... and that's when I realise I'm starting to have other minor mistakes because I'm not concentrating on the road. I need to let it go whilst on the road. There are a couple of places when I pass I remember an encounter but just as a memory.

 

[Nebulous]

I find it has a cumulative effect. I started cycling for leisure/fitness/weight loss and it was a big big step to let go of the car and start cycling to work. Somehow the fact I had to do it raised the stakes and made it much more of an issue, even though the distance was miniscule. I found myself losing it, chasing down motorists, shouting at people - all of which is very unlike me. I'm usually pretty laid back.

I've now learned to pretty much shake it off and carry on, but where it does get to me is several incidents on the same ride. The 2nd or 3rd one may get through my armour, even though it might be the least worrying one and something I'd usually let float by. There's a lot of things going on which all contribute; a feeling of your own vulnerability, hormones like adrenaline and testosterone, a sense of righteousness as a cyclist while the other guy is a tosser. It's a potent mix in one head.

 

[Black Country Ste]

I find it has a cumulative effect. I started cycling for leisure/fitness/weight loss and it was a big big step to let go of the car and start cycling to work. Somehow the fact I had to do it raised the stakes and made it much more of an issue, even though the distance was miniscule. I found myself losing it, chasing down motorists, shouting at people - all of which is very unlike me. I'm usually pretty laid back.

I've now learned to pretty much shake it off and carry on, but where it does get to me is several incidents on the same ride. The 2nd or 3rd one may get through my armour, even though it might be the least worrying one and something I'd usually let float by. There's a lot of things going on which all contribute; a feeling of your own vulnerability, hormones like adrenaline and testosterone, a sense of righteousness as a cyclist while the other guy is a tosser. It's a potent mix in one head.

This pretty much nails it.

The adrenaline surges that sometimes accompany cycling in a city cause me to react in a way I don't like. Somebody watching a helmet cam video might see what appears to be a shouty cyclist having a go at a driver for something they perhaps consider minor. What the camera doesn't show is the culmination of 'minor' incidents that chip away at the rider's sense of vulnerability, causing a snap. That would happen whether or not I ran with a camera. Constructive criticism has been offered and is always welcome but nobody whose opinion I actually value has yet to pull me up and tell me to stop being a t*at.

Watching helmet cams furthered my education as a driver and inspired me to get back on a bike after 14 years, spending a good deal of that time resenting cyclists. After mother duck and her brood stepped out in front of me forcing an emergency stop, and a left hook by WVM on his f***ing mobile I decided getting a camera as well would be a good idea. I like to share some of the things I see and experience and more often than not get positive feedback unless a motoring forum gets wind of a video.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@lejogger yours was a scary experience.
You are already over it, that's great.
Like @summerdays said, I find lingering on such incidents is detrimental on one's concentration on the road.
Web cam? No way! For me, it would mean adding aggravation to aggravation.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Somewhat against the general trend, when endangered by really bad driving, I will sometimes just let the anger out. Better out than in. Sometimes you simply have to fight your corner, though I think I may have spoiled the effect when I ran two oaths together and called someone a cwat a while back.

 

[boydj]

You had a scary moment and survived. No doubt you'll get flashbacks for a while, but hopefully it won't affect your cycling other than making you just a little more aware. Sounds like the driver gave himself a bit of a fright as well, so that will calm him down for a while.

 

[slowmotion]

I've got a bit better about letting the bad stuff go compared to a few years ago. I still shout a few very rude words at the time if I am "adrenalised", but a few hundred yards later it's gone. Festering about stuff is a complete waste of time and I have learned that it certainly doesn't make me happy.
Other people react differently and I'm not implying any criticism BTW.

 

[jarlrmai]

For me it's the lack of any sense of closure at all, you think they're a twat they think you're a twat, no-one else really gives a flying fark as nothing has actually "happened." It's a true feeling of vulnerability almost loneliness and along with the self righteous anger and hormone response is a potent mix that can be hard to shift emotionally. You gradually get "used" to the close passes I know I am getting there.

I think we are trying to overcome some of the strongest ingrained human responses to danger and tribalism (bikers versus drivers) it's difficult, you are programmed to react this way you have to train it out. It shows the strength of how addictive cycling is that we keep going in the face of the odds (and the wind).

I think the saddest video I saw recently was one where the bike copper almost get's taken out by the left hook Volvo, he is the one person on a bike who has the power to actually make a difference and what was his best response? Exactly what I could and probably would have done swears at the driver and keeps going. If a policeman doesn't even attempt anything when they are directly at risk why would anyone care about the rest of us?

 

[Cycling Dan]

If anything it makes you ride better. If you upload something where you act like a tosser then you will be pulled up on it and not by a handful but by all the cyclists that watch the video. It's a nice little community we have, sharing knowledge and advising others on how to avoid such things in the future.

Some have tried to ride aggressively for the sake of hitting it big and it really doesn't work. People are popular on youtube because others like you, not because they think you will upload lots of crazy stuff. Regular good quality content is what makes it.

How to deal with incidences? breath in, hold, and breath out. Then move on.

Just look at that Rickey kid. He got slammed by everyone cammer or not. Also the cyclist in the video I posted in a thread.

 

[Cycling Dan]

I found that im less tolerant with my cameras then what I used to be when I didn't have my camera. However then I was much yonger and I dont think it really bothered me at the time as I didn't have a sense of venerability which I have developed as I have cycled more. Also mixed in with now I know I don't need to take the shoot from people I took before. I don't know about anyone else but for me the camera is also a confidence boost as I know if something where to go wrong the cameras will show what happened so im covered. I think I am a ok cyclist. I can do what I need to do and what to do but I do know when I make a mistake. - The camera is there to show me and I can play it over to see what I did wrong and what to do next time so next time I bloody wont do it.