Riding in primary or not?

[Deleted member 1258]

Secondary all the way along there, I would have only considered primary aproaching the two side road towards the end of the second video, to protect myself from left hooks. Early in the second video I got a glimpse of an entrance to something, couldn't tell what from your video, might have needed primary passing that for the same reason as before. The pothole was nothing to write home about, some of Coventrys roads are worse than riding across ploughed fields, if you use the road often you should know where the potholes are, and if its a road you don't know you should be looking for them, and you should be planning ahead to deal with them

 

[Matthames]

Btw the resized photo of the pothole kind of distorted its dimensions a bit. It juts out 3ft from the kerb. Every time I ride past it I am hoping that the council have got onto it as it is a fairly busy main road, especially around school kicking out time and rush hour. If it is like that for much longer though, I will be reporting it through the fill that hole site.

If you are doing traffic speed your natural position is in the primary, if cars want to go faster, they just have to overtake in the other lane. Most drivers will either hang back or will overtake in the other lane giving you loads of room. In secondary they will be more tempted to try and share the lane with you and thus overtake a lot closer.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Btw the resized photo of the pothole kind of distorted its dimensions a bit. It juts out 3ft from the kerb. Every time I ride past it I am hoping that the council have got onto it as it is a fairly busy main road, especially around school kicking out time and rush hour. If it is like that for much longer though, I will be reporting it through the fill that hole site.

If you are doing traffic speed your natural position is in the primary, if cars want to go faster, they just have to overtake in the other lane. Most drivers will either hang back or will overtake in the other lane giving you loads of room. In secondary they will be more tempted to try and share the lane with you and thus overtake a lot closer.

I still wouldn't use primary through there, except at the side roads

 

[4F]

Secondary all the way along there, I would have only considered primary aproaching the two side road towards the end of the second video, to protect myself from left hooks. Early in the second video I got a glimpse of an entrance to something, couldn't tell what from your video, might have needed primary passing that for the same reason as before. The pothole was nothing to write home about, some of Coventrys roads are worse than riding across ploughed fields, if you use the road often you should know where the potholes are, and if its a road you don't know you should be looking for them, and you should be planning ahead to deal with them

I think Dave sums it up here, I think Mat you are trying to justify using primary to control other road users speed limit and this is plainly wrong.

 

[Coco]

Can't see anything wrong with staying in secondary and pulling out in primary when you need to. You know where that hole is so you'll have plenty of time to signal and get in the right position to pass it.

 

[Alien8]

The road is too narrow for a motor vehicle to safely overtake you without encroaching on to the other side of the road. If someone wants to overtake, and they half-a-brain, they will do so by moving fully over. Of course, riding a long way out might annoy another cyclist trying to get past you, but I would expect them to give you some verbals if they want you out the way. You should also keep a check on what's going on behind.

Ride where you like - its no big deal either-way.

 

[Matthames]

I think Dave sums it up here, I think Mat you are trying to justify using primary to control other road users speed limit and this is plainly wrong.

That assumption is well off the mark. The way I see it is that I am traffic and if I am going at traffic speeds then I might as well take up a dominant position and not just be an after thought. The critical word here is safety, in primary a motorist has to make a proper attempt at overtaking and thus give me more space. If you are doing 30 in primary most drivers wouldn't bother overtaking you and your hardly impeding their progress. If however you did 30 in secondary, motorists might be tempted to try and pass you if they feel they can remain in their lane. This kind of overtake can be dangerous as you would have nowhere to go if things went wrong.

I use position as a safety tool to control the space around me. I don't use it to control other road users speed limit like you may think. Other road users are part of the traffic after all and if I do feel that I am impeding their progress I will move over and let them past if it will not infringe my safety bubble.

On that stretch of road in the video I didn't have any traffic behind me anyway.

 

[GFamily]

Btw the resized photo of the pothole kind of distorted its dimensions a bit. It juts out 3ft from the kerb. Every time I ride past it I am hoping that the council have got onto it as it is a fairly busy main road, especially around school kicking out time and rush hour. If it is like that for much longer though, I will be reporting it through the fill that hole site.
r.

Boggle! You haven't even reported it?

 

[BentMikey]

If there's no traffic behind, then primary is the correct default position according to cyclecraft. You can always drop back to secondary when a faster vehicle approaches and it's safe to do so, which would be for most of those two video clips, again best practice. Do you have mirrors? If not, I'd question why you're not looking back much more often.

 

[AnotherEye]

If there's no traffic behind, then primary is the correct default position according to cyclecraft.... Do you have mirrors? If not, I'd question why you're not looking back much more often.

Bent, that's my instinct as well (see my post above). I also wondered about looking back when I watched the video's; I'm not sure but I think I look back more when I'm going faster. Definitely more when I'm in the primary position.

 

[hambones]

He has already said there was no traffic behind him so constantly looking behind is just not necessary. I am presuming he has ears and can hear of course...

 

[BentMikey]

He has already said there was no traffic behind him so constantly looking behind is just not necessary. I am presuming he has ears and can hear of course...

Relying on hearing instead of looking properly as you should be is p1ss poor riding, unfortunately.

 

[hambones]

I disagree - but hey ho

 

[BentMikey]

That sort of riding is well stupid because you can't always hear bicycles and electric vehicles, and it annoys the heck out of many drivers. Look back and know what's there, don't guess with your hearing, which isn't even very directional. Become human to drivers behind you by looking at them. They'll likely give you more space and they'll treat you much more fairly.

 

[BentMikey]

I'm with Mike - if I was riding that road and there was nothing behind I'd ride down the middle of the lane. It gives more room to manoeuvre around potholes, manhole covers etc. If something comes up behind, wants to pass and it's safe to I'll move over.

There are two additional benefits - being out in the middle of the lane will cause drivers to think twice as they come up on you, and they likely will pass wider and slower than if you stay in secondary the whole time, even once you've dropped to secondary for them. The second benefit is that when drivers see you move over nicely for them, they will be happy that you're alert and looked back for them, and that you made an effort to make their overtake a little easier. Some will flash hazards in a thank you for this.