Road rage from the rider of a pony and trap!

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kapelmuur

Veteran
Location
Timperley
"Races are usually contested at speeds averaging 25 miles per hour. When leaving the starting gate, speeds of up to 30 miles per hour are achieved by top horses."

The OP claims to have been riding at close to 30mph for 2 miles, maybe he's a pro...
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Speed limits in Ireland are in Kilometres per hour, as are the primary distances on many signs.

I, along with many others, still use miles per hour when cycling there. Cycle computer is set to imperial measurments.
 
Speed limits in Ireland are in Kilometres per hour, as are the primary distances on many signs.

I, along with many others, still use miles per hour when cycling there. Cycle computer is set to imperial measurments.
Yip I lived there when they changed them. I use mph in the UK but when all the sign changed over there I changed to metric for a while rather than mix things up :okay:
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Not all the signs were replaced, just a simple change of the unit used at midnight. The distance signs use miles as the secondary unit. Reason for this is nearly a 100 years old.

Whichever unit we use, it shouldn't detract from how a person was made to feel by another road user. If it had been a car, would we be questioning the OP over what his speed was?
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
I had a very unusual incident today on the last few miles back into town of a longer ride.

I was riding along on one of my old steel roadbikes at a steady 20 or 21 MPH, minding my own business, traffic conditions unusually light when just as I passed a side road on my left, a pony and trap driven a portly middle-aged man joined my road immediately behind me going pretty fast (I don't know the stopping distances of a an equine-pulled carriage but I have a suspicious feeling he had no intentions of stopping at the junction or no chance of actually stopping at the stop line).

I ignored it and carried on doing my own thing, riding in a strong secondary position at just in excess of 20MPH. As we were nearing town there were now with housing estates on both sides, pavements, a 60Km/hr speed limit at first and then a 50, and pedestrian refuge island in the centre of the road. I could still hear the hooves behind me.

The rider then started shouting at me "telling me to get out of his ****ing way" and that "all cyclists are gay weirdos" and that he would "break every bone in my body if he got me if I didn't get out of his ****ing way."

I was actually genuinely scared and didn't look back or respond but kept going, head down, in the drops pedalling for all I was worth in top gear with my speed now nudging 30MPH. I had no idea I had that sort of speed in me but I was hoping to drop him but couldn't. As I say I didn't look back but I know from the echo of the hooves he was pretty close. This carried on for almost two miles with him shouting all sorts of rude and insulting things and horrible threats at me before I turned off to go to my home.

On hindsight I probably should have got off the road and on to the pavement and let him go but I don't want to be bullied off the road when I feel I was riding in a safe an appropriate manner and doing nothing wrong. I've ridden the road hundreds if not thousands of times in a similar manner without any kind of incident or any other road user getting annoyed. You can't exactly take down the registration number of a horse and report it so I can't go down that road.

Are you supposed to yield to a horse joining from the side? I would have thought they had to obey the same traffic laws as every other vehicle?

Was it Red Rum?
 

pawl

Legendary Member
Good job your not in Appleby at the moment.Annual horse fair
 
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