Thoughts on Cycling Mikey

[Lightning CycleQueen]

I've seen a few videos on the internet of YouTubers calling him the most hated man in Britain and other videos saying he rides like a BMW driver.

To be fair I do think he does put himself in some dangerous positions, probably to get a reaction/ content. I think he could position himself so some of these incidents won't happen.

But I don't think his a bad guy.

What do other people think of him?

 

[Bonefish Blues]

It's been discussed an awful lot on here TBF.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I safely ignore who he is in between his name been mentioned on here every so often.

 

[wakemalcolm]

I've seen a few videos on the internet of YouTubers calling him the most hated man in Britain and other videos saying he rides like a BMW driver.

To be fair I do think he does put himself in some dangerous positions, probably to get a reaction/ content. I think he could position himself so some of these incidents won't happen.

But I don't think his a bad guy.

What do other people think of him?

Hi Mikey!

 

[Punkawallah]

Who does he think he is - Ronnie Pickering?

 

[ianrauk]

He was very active on this forum a good few years back.
We were also near neighbours so I bumped into him on a very regular basis, rode with him a good few times and found him to a very friendly, nice guy.
Mikey does what he does and he has his own personal reasons. As far as I am concerned he's doing us all a favour. Bad driving and mobile phone use whilst driving is at epidemic proportions. So more power to him and his ilk bringing people to account.

 

[StuAff]

He was very active on this forum a good few years back.
We were also near neighbours so I bumped into him on a very regular basis, rode with him a good few times and found him to a very friendly, nice guy.
Mikey does what he does and he has his own personal reasons. As far as I am concerned he's doing us all a favour. Bad driving and mobile phone use whilst driving is at epidemic proportions. So more power to him and his ilk bringing people to account.

Met him briefly, he's a good guy. The abuse he gets is entirely unwarranted.

 

[steveindenmark]

I think if you want to pretend to be a full time law enforcer. You should sign up to be a police officer. I am suprised he has not been in hospital more time than he has. He tries to get everyone prosecuted. Even police officers give out warnings and education.

 

[Alex321]

I have no issue with him taking videos and reporting to the police. I think that is very good.

But I don't like the way he confronts people and blocks them off. That is turning into vigilanteism.

 

[fossyant]

Met him briefly, he's a good guy. The abuse he gets is entirely unwarranted.

It's unfortunately the way of the on-line world. Cowards giving abuse.

 

[ianrauk]

I am suprised he has not been in hospital more time than he has.

Many people who haven't met him say this. Mikey can handle himself ok.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Many people who haven't met him say this. Mikey can handle himself ok.

So could the guy who squared up to Kenneth Noye. Plenty of nutters out there who wouldn't hesitate to use a weapon.

 

[Binky]

I think his intentions were good, certainly in the early days.

Now though he is a content creator and basically a bit of bellend from a lot of the clips I've seen and don't forget we only see the ones he releases so it's a decent bet there are some he doesn't which possibly show him in a worse light.

If he happened to film drivers breaking law through phone use or close passes whilst on a regular ride then fine but it appears that is his sole purpose of cycling now. He then often confronts/abuses drivers in a condecending and sometimes aggressive manner. His habit of a lingering look into cars driven by women is a bit suspect as well, something many have commented on in his videos.

It's notable the majority of clips he now posts up have a message at the end saying no action was taken by the police so either they have given up prosecuting drivers or maybe they've got fed up as well.

I'll add I film my rides and I've reported dozens of close passes of which 99% have been actioned by the police and I think all cyclist should do this as my hope is in time motorists will get the message that endangering vunerable road users has consequences.
However, that's it. I film, report and let the police decide.

 

[matticus]

I think if you want to pretend to be a full time law enforcer. You should sign up to be a police officer. I am suprised he has not been in hospital more time than he has.

It would be a shame if the only people brave enough to stand upto sh1tbags were paid police officers.

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

I think Cycling Mikey has highlighted how endemic the problem of mobile phone use is. I think the Met in general have progressively raised the threshold at which they will act on video evidence. The road safety partnership in Wales has just followed suit. And I understand other forces are doing so too. They don't have the resource to deal with all of the evidence of poor driving that is being submitted.

I also think, that media outlets are keen to manufacture more greenlash/bikelash, and unfortunately Cycling Mikey is misconstrued to help support that false narrative.

Mikey is not doing anything illegal, in catching and confronting bad drivers. I suspect he has served as more of a deterrent, to phone driving at least, then the Police themselves.

If road safety was taken more seriously and properly funded, MIkey quite frankly wouldn't have the opportunity to catch so many bad drivers. That's the real crime here.

Ashley Neal, in his video analysing Cycling Mikey's cycling that likens him to a BMW driver, seems to forget Mikey is not driving a BMW. Ashley Neal is right in some regards. Some cyclists are too provocative. Otherwise, he has a bad case of car brain.

Ashley seems to think cyclists should slow down every time a driver ignores their priority and crosses their path. Being fair, it is not a bad strategy. Avoiding confrontation, is a good thing. However, Ashley does not understand how this adds friction, which when you ride day in/day out takes it's toll and increases fatigue. Cyclists should not have to constantly compensate for poor standards of driving. Ashley is, in effect, victim blaming.

He also recently did a video on the proposed change to the law, in respect of cyclists that kill pedestrians. He went off on one about Cycling UK's response, which in my view was fair and proportionate. Paraphrasing here, but Cycling UK primarily concerned about law change deterring people from cycling. Ashley conveniently forgets that more people cycling means safer cycling.

Ashley tries to style himself as a cycling advocate, but appears to be quite ignorant.