Shouts of "I love your bike"

[PaulM]

I got three of these today, the schools are back you see. Shame they can't count, it's got 3 wheels.

Maybe it looks better with the shorter single-piece flag, the two piece puts the flag above a car driver's line of sight anyway.

 

[Auntie Helen]

Ah, I have two longish flags, not for drivers' line of sight but to try to show above the hedges on the country lanes on which I cycle. I suppose with winter approaching I can reduce the flag height.

The flags are a big problem with horses so if I spot horses in the distance I have to stop immediately, take the flags down and hide them on my lap. The first time I met horses with riders they bolted across a field (not good, but fortunately a field and not a busy road).

I get lots of shouts of 'I love your bike' too although I also get lots of 'speed up, love' and other charming gentlemanly comments. I also get laughed at quite a lot.

 

[xpc316e]

Thanks for highlighting the important flag-horse problem. I shall be out on my trike for the first time this weekend and there are plenty of horses about in rural Suffolk, and I had not thought of how animals might react. In France recently my 'bent seemed to make horses in fields rather curious, with them staring fixedly as I cycled past - but it isn't a lowracer, and could resemble a conventional bike to a short-sighted horse.

We do have a difficulty in Newmarket with racehorses, because they are particularly highly strung. They are taken through the centre of town to the gallops, and many of them are not schooled with respect to traffic as ordinary horses usually are. I can well remember the pandemonium caused one day by a carrier bag stuck in a hedge; it caused mass panic among a whole string of racehorses crossing a busy road.

Given that a fair percentage of the public think that all trike users are disabled in some way, I wonder how many people feel ashamed of their laughs and catcalls when, and if, they later reflect on their actions.

 

[BentMikey]

I don't ride with a flag, as I don't think it'll add anything useful to my visibility. Back on the horses, interestingly around here in the country lanes I often have to be very careful, and/or stop and talk to the horses. The horses in Hyde Park, OTOH, are used to my bike now and hardly react at all.

 

[Riding in Circles]

We do have a difficulty in Newmarket with racehorses, because they are particularly highly strung. They are taken through the centre of town to the gallops, and many of them are not schooled with respect to traffic as ordinary horses usually are. I can well remember the pandemonium caused one day by a carrier bag stuck in a hedge; it caused mass panic among a whole string of racehorses crossing a busy road.

Horses are hard wired like most animals to view low fast moving things as predators so be careful around them, I make riders well aware of my approach and explain, then wait for them to get well over to the side while giving them a wide berth and passing very slowly.

 

[Arch]

Thanks for highlighting the important flag-horse problem. I shall be out on my trike for the first time this weekend and there are plenty of horses about in rural Suffolk, and I had not thought of how animals might react. In France recently my 'bent seemed to make horses in fields rather curious, with them staring fixedly as I cycled past - but it isn't a lowracer, and could resemble a conventional bike to a short-sighted horse.

Interesting. I find that over here most horses bolt to the other side of the field first, and then look. Whereas over in France this summer, several horses watched us, or even came closer to look - in one field, several of them galloped over to watch us go by....

I wonder if French horses are just more accustomed to bicycles of all sorts?

I wouldn't take any chances around horses, I think Catrike is right and a recumbent looks just like a predator to them.

 

[xpc316e]

I would have thought that French horses would have been more wary of humans than ours - after all, we don't have a cheval section in the meat aisle of Tesco.

 

[Auntie Helen]

When I met horses recently, a day after the horse-bolting episode, I stopped instantly (about 200 metres from them) and took down the flags, putting them flag-side-down in my lap.

As the riders passed me they were very grateful and one of the riders said, "when you came round the corner I thought, 'O God, those flags!'" so she appeared to think the flags were the problem, more than the actual bike, although I am also wary about the actual bike.

I'm a real dog lover and most dogs like me but some decide to lunge at me when I go past on the trike. Others stare at me fixedly (along with their owners). Cats run out of the way very quickly although because the trike is quite quiet I can get fairly near before they notice me.

 

[arallsopp]

The cats round my way have got a habit of watching me approach, darting out as I near, leaping towards my path causing me to brake sharply, jumping back, counting to two, waiting until just after the last possible microsecond, then leaping unexpectedly back under my wheels.

I'm not sure why they do it. But they all do. They were the same with my DF too, so at least they don't single the bent out.

Best call I've had from a kid was frozen at the side of the road, mouth gaping, and asking "Daddy. How is that?"

Seems a very good question. Daddy didn't know.

 

[Auntie Helen]

Yesterday I trailblazed a new route back from the supermarket (it's a 10 mile round trip but I try to vary it a lot) and the new route took my past a senior school at chucking out time. I had endless shouts of 'Look at that bike' and 'I want one of those' and also a couple of 'I'm going to nick that bike' (which I hear surprisingly frequently!). But one little girl walking along with her Mum asked, "Is it a car?" Funny kind of car if you ask me! Mum said "No, it's a bicycle," so at least she knew what I was riding!

 

[Arch]

Someone I know was riding a

space frame Moulton and a kid he passed remarked to it's dad "look, that bike's still got the scaffolding on!"

I was also once out on a

Pashley Micro - well, no actually, the model it was based on, which had a very short wheel base, and a kid shouted "daddy, look at that man's tiny bike!". I wouldn't have minded if he'd said "lady's"....

 

[TheDoctor]

On the horse thing - I always say 'hello' or something to horse riders. Purely for the horses benefit.

 

[Arch]

On the horse thing - I always say 'hello' or something to horse riders. Purely for the horses benefit.

Aye, once the horse hears you speak, it's got much more chance of realising you're just another person on a horse, albeit a very odd shaped one...

Mind you, I also say hello to cows, sheep, rabbits, magpies... I'm a regular chatterbox out in the countryside...

 

[palinurus]

Today I got "excuse me!"

then, when I looked around, "your bike is shoot!"

Group of kids. They were right tho', it is shoot.

 

[Arch]

I was packing up after a tryout show once and a kid came up as I was dealing with the Pashley Micro. He said "That's a rubbish bike". I looked at his £50 BSO and said "well, I don't think much of yours, but I wouldn't be so rude as to say so..." and folded the Pashley in half. Whereupon he said "oooh, it's one of them cool bikes!". So I said "so why did you say it was rubbish?"

Cue brain melting confusion in kid...