Safe and courteous method to announce your presence on the end of a bunch?

[Jon George]

At the end of this morning's twenty mile thrash, I caught up with the tail-end Charlie of three guys out for a spin. Just as I did so, I remembered that the last I'd done this, I'd scared the bejesus out of a rider merely by saying hi and, for once, I was stumped as to what to do or say. After taking a thirty-second breather, I accelerated past, said 'good' morning' and got the 'I'm-not-acknowledging-you-and-I'm-gonna-keep-staring ahead.'

So, what's a good protocol to adopt, folks?

 

[Peter Armstrong]

"OOOOOOOOOOOAHHHHHHHHHHHHH" "COMING THROUGH" "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

 

[uclown2002]

"You guys doing a recovery ride?"

 

[ayceejay]

You don't have a bell on your bike?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

A bronx cheer

 

[Melonfish]

Start singing neil youngs "old man" that'll both make them aware that you are there and make them self conscious about their cycling to boot.

 

[rbreid]

+1 for a bell

 

[Brandane]

Never caught anyone, so can't help.

 

[welsh dragon]

+1for bell as well

 

[Doc333]

Besides the bit of banter so far, it does seem to be a good question without much of an answer. I'm new to cycling and old to my body, which means I'm only averaing 12 mph at the moment, and I get passed quite a lot and it can scare the shyte of me as its silent and then someone's on your shoulder and ssssshhhhhhhhh as they zip past you.

A couple of weeks ago I was planning on getting into the crown of the road to turn right, and because I could hear no traffic I almost just pulled out, but luckily I checked over my shoulder only to see that I had almost collided with a silent cyclist who was in the process of passing me. I was almost off and up the kerb whilst he just said 'good morning' and blew past.

So there must be some sort of thing to do otherwise I would imagine there would be countless collisions between cyclists and I don't think there is.

 

[Koga]

Give plenty of space, wait until they can see you and say hello (good morning or afternoon as appropriate will do), never had any problems with that approach

 

[Hacienda71]

Personally if it is a group I would say to your right or passing on your right as. If it is a lone cyclist you are passing then this is not as important, although I normally give plenty of space and say hello as I pass, as it seems like good manners to me. I also tend to point out any holes etc. after passing as for albeit a short period your presence in front of them will block their view of hazards on the road.

 

[totallyfixed]

Can't see a problem here, anyone out on a bike ought to be checking over there shoulder periodically and if they are not then they need the wake up call from another cyclist overtaking. We have been in sight of another cyclist in front of us many times and it is often the case that they are completely unaware anyone is behind them, so it is quite fun to shock them out of their tunnel vision type riding with a loud hello. The converse is true though, if a cyclist looks back and sees us they tend to look back every 10 seconds .

 

[PpPete]

Hope hub.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

"On your wheel" and then watch them try to drop you.