Yet another old git tries to run me off the road

[Cab]

Are you just being provocative for the sake of it? Black/white, white/black ? This isn't the cyclists cycling without lights thread on which I seem to remember your posts were equally provocative IIRC .

What, where I said that if cyclists without lights are still visible, it ain't that big a deal to me? If thats provocative, you're just too easy to provoke.

There was nothing wrong with my road positioning.

Yes there was. You were doing 25mph on a narrow section of road where the speed limit was 30, where there was no room to overtake you safely, in a position more timid than secondary. Thats bad positioning, your location on the road invites a dangerous overtake, you should almost invariably in such circumstances take primary position.

I am a seasoned experienced road cyclist.

Yeah, so you say. Yet, did you not say recently that motorists seem to risk your life on a near daily basis?

The picture I'm getting of your cycling is one of physical competence (thats a good speed to be doing on the flat!) but perhaps poor thinking (there is no excuse for that speed in the gutter. Seasoned and experienced? Maybe, but yours are perhaps the most regularly negative experiences I encounter on these pages.

Tell me (I lost track of your post at this point I'm afraid, it stopped being a coherent point and became more of a strange stream of consciousness), why were you not in primary? Why does a requirement for good roadcraft apply to everyone but you?

 

[tdr1nka]

If riding in primary is really such tosh, how come it comes reccomended in Cyclecraft and by instructors as a way to deter close overtakes where there is little or no room?

I totally sympathise with the shock and anger you feel about this particular driver but FWIW, holding the road in front of a driver like this until you have space to let him past is an acceptable way to ride.
Weak secondary positions tend to make impatient following drivers go for even the tiniest gap possible.

In this situation, especially at the speed you mention it is often best either let them pass and avoid the agro or be assertive and simply 'shut the door' on them for your safety and everyone elses.

 

[Crankarm]

What, where I said that if cyclists without lights are still visible, it ain't that big a deal to me? If thats provocative, you're just too easy to provoke.



Yes there was. You were doing 25mph on a narrow section of road where the speed limit was 30, where there was no room to overtake you safely, in a position more timid than secondary. Thats bad positioning, your location on the road invites a dangerous overtake, you should almost invariably in such circumstances take primary position.



Yeah, so you say. Yet, did you not say recently that motorists seem to risk your life on a near daily basis?

The picture I'm getting of your cycling is one of physical competence (thats a good speed to be doing on the flat!) but perhaps poor thinking (there is no excuse for that speed in the gutter. Seasoned and experienced? Maybe, but yours are perhaps the most regularly negative experiences I encounter on these pages.

Tell me (I lost track of your post at this point I'm afraid, it stopped being a coherent point and became more of a strange stream of consciousness), why were you not in primary? Why does a requirement for good roadcraft apply to everyone but you?

If riding in primary is really such tosh, how come it comes reccomended in Cyclecraft and by instructors as a way to deter close overtakes where there is little or no room?

I totally sympathise with the shock and anger you feel about this particular driver but FWIW, holding the road in front of a driver like this until you have space to let him past is an acceptable way to ride.
Weak secondary positions tend to make impatient following drivers go for even the tiniest gap possible.

In this situation, especially at the speed you mention it is often best either let them pass and avoid the agro or be assertive and simply 'shut the door' on them for your safety and everyone elses.

Armchair cyclists who are probably petrol heads ...............

So I say to you,

&*^% off!

 

[Crankarm]

do we know anyone on here like that?

I think you could accuse every one on here of having an opinion MacB .

 

[tdr1nka]

Dear Cankers,

If you ride anything like you post I'm not surprised you get into these sorts of situations.

For your information I am a qualified cycling instructor with some 20 years London road experience and I have never held a driving licence or owned a car.

If you can't take honest advice please feel free to simply ignore it.

 

[Arch]

Dear Cankers,

If you ride anything like you post I'm not surprised you get into these sorts of situations.

For your information I am a qualified cycling instructor with some 20 years London road experience and I have never held a driving licence or owned a car.

If you can't take honest advice please feel free to simply ignore it.

Come on, you know Crankarm's style by now, don't bother wasting your pixels....

 

[Cab]

Dear Cankers,

If you ride anything like you post I'm not surprised you get into these sorts of situations.

For your information I am a qualified cycling instructor with some 20 years London road experience and I have never held a driving licence or owned a car.

If you can't take honest advice please feel free to simply ignore it.

I'll add to that I've been a regular (as in pretty near every day) cyclist on the roads for my entire adult life and much of the time I was a kid too, and I've also never held a driving license or owned a car. Never had a driving lesson. So I guess thats 30 years of riding on the roads, man and boy, ten of them in Cambridge (same city as you Crankarm). I get hassle on the roads too, but not approaching half of the grief he does.

Armchair cyclist indeed...

 

[Cab]

Come on, you know Crankarm's style by now, don't bother wasting your pixels....

Well, theres a lesson here for everyone else too. Ride like you want the guy behind to overtake dangerously, odds are you'll encounter people doing so alarmingly often. Doesn't mean its okay for them to do so, of course, but out here in the real world we've got to look after ourselves.

 

[thomas]

Armchair cyclists who are probably petrol heads ...............

What difference would being a petrol head make?

Promoting riding in primary = Petrol Head

 

[Arch]

Well, theres a lesson here for everyone else too. Ride like you want the guy behind to overtake dangerously, odds are you'll encounter people doing so alarmingly often. Doesn't mean its okay for them to do so, of course, but out here in the real world we've got to look after ourselves.

True. Some years back I was hooted at by an old chap in a Fiesta, on a little residential road with cars parked down one side, so I was avoiding the door zone. I wasn't as assertive back then so I left the door open for him to squeeze past, which he did, hooting and gesticulating at me. These days, I'd block him - there was room for him to pass safely just a few yards on. I did catch him at the end of the road and had a word and he told me I should be in the gutter (cycling underneath the parked cars presumably). His wife at least had the decency to look embarrassed and try to calm him down.

Despite this, I don't feel the need to refer to 'old gits' and 'coffin dodgers' as often as Crankarm does. I also vary rarely have significant problems with drivers - whereas he does seem to attract them.

If anyone really wants room, I recommend a fluoro orange recumbent trike - all but three of the cars that passed me yesterday were entirely on the other side of the road, and the other three only had their nearside wheels just to the left of the centre line...

 

[chillyuk]

Sorry I have to say this to you as it was pretty scary and not the first time I have been seriously intimidated by elderly peoples' driving. It has happened about 5 times in the last 3 months, so as I was saying,

Oh...... *$&$ off!

If you are intimidated that easily perhaps you ought to give up cycling and catch a bus.

 

[Cab]

If you are intimidated that easily perhaps you ought to give up cycling and catch a bus.

Naah, he lives in Cambs. The buses suck

 

[Redvers]

Crankarm it’s definitely time to get yourself a little Muvi video camera.

I’m running 2 now, 1 on a small backpack shoulder strap and 1 on the back of the pack. They run whenever I am on the road.

On the two recent occasions when I have had some sort of ‘run-in’ with local impatient petrol heads (and they come old and young and wherever you position yourself on the road)
I’ve simply pointed out that the whole incident is being recorded on video, together with their registration number, that it will all be uploaded on to Youtube later today and that a copy will be sent to the police.

At this point these arrogant ****s usually turn ashen white and disappear as fast as their pretentious gas guzzlers will carry their fat, flabby carcases.

I get the distinct impression that they will think twice next time.

 

[Cab]

Actually (sorry to ramble on here), I've regularly ridden in several different towns and cities in England, and it is my opinion that the thing that makes Cambridge most different to other cities to ride in is the cyclists. Not the number, but the cycling culture that is prevalent here; its a culture of timidity, of gutter hugging, in a way that I used to find quite shocking. When you're surrounded not only by more cyclists than anywhere else you've ridden, but they're all acting way more timidly even you're used to, you end up being sucked in to this overly passive way of using the roads.

And before long you get massive numbers of aggressive, close overtakes, and you get all stressed and bothered like Crankarm here.

The obvious response is to be way more assertive than the average Cambridge cyclist, and then of course you stick out like a sore thumb. A small minority (enough, though) motorists here then see you as a troublemaker; you see them getting out of their cars at junctions to berate you, they pass having been held up for a nanosecond and brake hard to try to make you fall off. Its MUCH rarer than the accidental/thoughtless close overtakes you get if you're too passive, but it does happen here, and its more common than anywhere else I've cycled.

This is why I always say that Cambridge is both the best and the worst place in the UK to ride. It goes without saying that the CTC is correct in its 'strength in numbers' stance, and we do benefit from that here (I'm reminded of a taxi being surrounded by a dozen irate cyclists for nudging someone riding slowly up by Sidney Sussex!), but when so many cyclists have so little idea how to ride assertively, it reinforces the impression in motorists eyes that this is how we should ride. And that is a cause of conflict.

The solution? Simple enough, ride assertively and don't rise to the bait. I don't always get it right, but its rare that I have any real concerns on the roads here. Except, usually, in the run up to Christmas where all hell breaks loose...

 

[tdr1nka]

I'll never cease to be amazed by cyclists who ride on roads in a passive manner only to suddenly find their voices and exacerbate situations once they've encountered potential dangers that may have been avoidable in the first place.

There are bad and impatient drivers out there, I've had my fair share of really frightening experiences. I am still intact and positive about cycling on the roads.
I use every situation to assess my riding and attitude to see if there was something I could have done better to have avoided it.