My Whinge About Illegal Scalping

[BSRU]

I had two cyclists, on decent bikes, this morning whose only way of keeping up/scalping me was to take illegal short cuts.
The first one was passed easily on a nice flat bit of road only to be seen later coming from a direction where he must of ridden through a pedestrian only area or a road which is closed to everything apart from pedestrians.
The second one, and most annoying, on a slight drag went away easily. At the end of the road cyclists have no choice but to use the shared path and due to poor design it involves coming to a virtual stop to turn back the way you came then another 180 degree onto the shared path. The other cyclist decided this was not for him and just rode the wrong way up a 40mph slip road onto the shared path and sped along the path past a pedestrian as if he was in some sort of race, the pedestrian didn't look too pleased.
I can only assume the thought of being burned by someone on a heavy cheap hybrid, with panniers, top box, mudguards/flaps and big fat 38c tyres is too much for some people.
I am all for a bit of commuter racing, it stops me being a little lazy sometimes, just as soon as someone does something illegal it invalidates the race and I ease off.

 

[Jezston]

Ha, reminds me of this incident I had a while back:
https://www.cyclechat.net/

 

[fossyant]

No just keep passing them. Am I evil?

 

[BSRU]

Ha, reminds me of this incident I had a while back:
http://www.cyclechat..._1#entry1338687

That's the sort of thing, the type who forget the law/safety just to try and prove something to somebody.

Maybe when I join the "racer" brigade when racer arrives next month I might mysteriously transform into one of these "speed" merchants, although I prefer to arrive at work in one piece.

 

[BSRU]

No just keep passing them. Am I evil?

Perfectly acceptable evilness.

My problem is I always take the long way, always avoid the short cuts, legal and illegal, so people have good opportunities to meet me again.

I think the first one realised there was no point as when we met up again he stayed behind and I lost him again on a small little climb.

The second one, as soon as I saw him getting out of the saddle and sprinting on the shared path I just decided to just let him go, you never know what he will do next.

 

[rb58]

I don't often allow myself to get sucked into a 'race' on the commute these days. But it used to make me laugh how TdF wannabees would jump the red lights just to get past. That doesn't count as a scalp in my book either. Life's too short as it is!

One thing recently did surprise me though. Last weekend I did the BHF Cam to Coast bike ride (quite a good event, not too many cyclists and a nice route). There were a lot of high end carbon machines ridden by (mostly) blokes in replica pro-team gear. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not the youngest cyclist out there, and certainly not the lightest (i.e old and fat), but I have a decent fitness level and I was really surprised how many of these cyclists seemed to treat my overtaking them as some kind of challenge. And the strange thing is, they seemed to be able to keep up on the flat, but disappeared incredibly quickly whenever we got to a hill.

 

[colinr]

Dangerous / illegal manoeuvres are forbidden by the SCR rules, therefore these fools are wasting their time

 

[david1701]

I wish I had people to race

 

[ralary]

It is interesting to race,wanna do it again

 

[mcshroom]

I wish I had people to race

Same here most days.

You can race a few motorised vehicles like tractors as well though.
I overtook a telehandler on the way to work this morning

 

[BSRU]

I wish I had people to race

Most days I am quite happy to have no-one to race, they always seem to show up at a point when I liked to take it a bit easier.

 

[her_welshness]

I don't often allow myself to get sucked into a 'race' on the commute these days. But it used to make me laugh how TdF wannabees would jump the red lights just to get past. That doesn't count as a scalp in my book either. Life's too short as it is!

One thing recently did surprise me though. Last weekend I did the BHF Cam to Coast bike ride (quite a good event, not too many cyclists and a nice route). There were a lot of high end carbon machines ridden by (mostly) blokes in replica pro-team gear. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not the youngest cyclist out there, and certainly not the lightest (i.e old and fat), but I have a decent fitness level and I was really surprised how many of these cyclists seemed to treat my overtaking them as some kind of challenge. And the strange thing is, they seemed to be able to keep up on the flat, but disappeared incredibly quickly whenever we got to a hill.

I find this on my commute, there are several times when albeit a seemingly small incline they can't really keep it up. I blame all those hills I've climbed in Kent

 

[david1701]

Same here most days.

You can race a few motorised vehicles like tractors as well though.
I overtook a telehandler on the way to work this morning

ooooooooooh I like that plan, usually the tractors go past me though

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Just checked my starting SCR number is 8. Not that good I takwe it lol.

Dangerous / illegal manoeuvres are forbidden by the SCR rules, therefore these fools are wasting their time

 

[Dan B]

8 not good? 8 is great! The bigger the number, the more point-scoring opportunities

Remember it's about how fast you look, not how fast you actually are