When is 'too close for comfort' - ?

[Racing roadkill]

This is a good point, my genuine question would be - Should you be using primary all the time ? Most of my riding is on quite country roads, so I ride outside of the debris / gully zone, but certainly to the left of primary. Whilst the majority of drivers are sensible, it unfortunately does invite the occasional close pass - an idiot in a Ford Mustang speeding in a 30 zone was the latest. Should I be moving to primary to discourage ? I ask for pardon my ignorance in advance ...

Yes, you should be in primary whenever you can, even in primary, you are taking up far less room than a car, and don't worry about irritatating motorists, the vast majority are fine with it, in my experience. The ones who aren't would give you grief if you were in the gutter / primary or wherever, so it matters not a jot. Obviously it's good to be courteous wherever possible, and 'play the game' especially if it's on a quiet narrow road with a larger vehicle behind you, but if motorists can't get past safely, they need to have a think, not you.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I want 1.5 metre gap. When I got back into cycling a few years ago I got overtaken by a car so close my knee made a mark down the side of the car. Put me off cycling for a while again like it did when I was knocked off as a kid.

That's contact, and therefore too close. That's the thing about getting your position right, if you give the motorist even the slightest inclination that they 'can probably make that gap' they invariably will try. If you put it beyond doubt if any right minded / non impaired / normal motorist, that they can't 'just squeeze through' you'd be amazed how very few will try. Even the idiots that will, for whatever reason, have probably had to slow a bit / a lot, so any contact ( although a bad thing ) will normally be reduced by a fair margin, if you hold your position.

 

[classic33]

Hmm, i had this once. Oncoming car in narrow'ish two lane country road. Car coming from behind, we're all going to meet about the same point so i took what i thought was a good enough primary.
FARKIN ELL..../the b'stard squeezed though incredibly closely at speed, how in Gods name he never hit me or the oncoming car, i'll never know. Ironically, had i stayed in position, it would have been close, but nowhere near as bad.

Now of course, some will say you didnt assume primary correctly...yeah that's obviously true but there must have been millimetres between the car either side at maybe 50 mph, you just can't expect such fcukwittery sometimes. Worst incident in my entire cycling life.

I swear to god, if i'd have seen the guy later i'd have ripped his head off (figuratively speaking)

I don't see how anyone can give an answer, as we were not there. Nor do we know what you feel safe with, when being passed on any stretch of road.

That comes down to the individual in the end.

stretch corrected to stretch

 

[classic33]

That's contact, and therefore too close. That's the thing about getting your position right, if you give the motorist even the slightest inclination that they 'can probably make that gap' they invariably will try. If you put it beyond doubt if any right minded / non impaired / normal motorist, that they can't 'just squeeze through' you'd be amazed how very few will try. Even the idiots that will, for whatever reason, have probably had to slow a bit / a lot, so any contact ( although a bad thing ) will normally be reduced by a fair margin, if you hold your position.

On that basis are you going to be supplying the replacement bike you mentioned earlier?

 

[wormo]

That's contact, and therefore too close. That's the thing about getting your position right, if you give the motorist even the slightest inclination that they 'can probably make that gap' they invariably will try. If you put it beyond doubt if any right minded / non impaired / normal motorist, that they can't 'just squeeze through' you'd be amazed how very few will try. Even the idiots that will, for whatever reason, have probably had to slow a bit / a lot, so any contact ( although a bad thing ) will normally be reduced by a fair margin, if you hold your position.

That's why have I changed and am more aggressive in my positioning. When this happened I had only been cycling a few weeks.

 

[wormo]

FTFY....

That's what I meant. Mr Picky

 

[Accy cyclist]

View attachment 344917
Seems her infant son has more road awareness than the mother!

I notice the front left wheel trim's missing, Missing wheel trims usually mean they can't judge the kerb. If they can't judge the kerb what are they like at judging the distances of other road objects? Pretty crap i'd say.

 

[Racing roadkill]

On that basis are you going to be supplying the replacement bike you mentioned earlier?

Eh?

 

[NorthernDave]

Had a car push past me here last year - easily the closest pass I've had.

And yes, that is a deep drainage ditch at the nearside.
The real irony is that as soon as I went "Whoa!" he changed from being in a rush and having to get past, to having time to stop for a chat about his ignorance of the Highway Code.
He'd been behind me for (max) a couple of hundred yards and the road widens back out to two lanes at the bungalow, so you can see how impatient he was.

 

[classic33]

Eh?

See your earlier post regarding contact being made. First thing I'd be doing, afterwards, is getting the bike checked.

 

[slowmotion]

I've been passed so close in heavy traffic that I could have touched the front wing of the car with an outstretched little finger without taking my right hand from the brake hood. It annoyed me at the time but it didn't terrify me. Another time, on the same stretch of road, a huge coach started to pull in on me while overtaking. It was about 10 inches from my right shoulder before it's side eventually passed. I thought I was going to die and had a sufficiently big dose of adrenaline for me to race after it and have some extremely unpleasant words with the driver at the next set of lights. "Too close" is a flexible feast but you definitely know when it is. Your adrenal gland tells you.

 

[KnackeredBike]

To be fair the majority of my bad overtakes at the moment is when the driver leaves plenty of room but seems oblivious to the oncoming traffic. But that might be because around here the traffic is so bad you tend to catch up with everyone very quickly. I've found the "bravest" motorists are those that think they can get away because you're on a bike.

 

[slowmotion]

Instinctively jerking your right shoulder so that it lines up with your front wheel (matador-style) is usually a pretty good indicator of a close pass.