Pelotons

[Jacob]

I suffered mild inconvenience recently when I had to slow down to let two old people with sticks across the road. I bet they don't pay road tax and insurance the basthards!
I have to slow down for ducks every now and then (there's a river nearby).
Would it be a good idea to have a sub forum where we could report all incidents of road inconvenience of no conceivable interest to anybody?

 

[AJB Temple]

I like the idea of a duck forum. Our neighbour has ducks and they are a total hazard on the road. The leader is a brown one and all the white ones follow it around. Their pond is on a blind bend, near the entrance to our drive. I am thinking of starting a petition for a duck registration scheme and road safety accreditation. It might sound quackers but could be an eggcellent contribution to road safety and stop the ducks coming up before the beak.

 

[BearTricks]

I thought the cheaper insurance for women was a casualty of EU regulation(well, I only thought that since someome mentioend it on Woman's Hour this morning), but that could be apocryphal. As a teenager, I used to cycle and smoke frequently, but then I wasn't cycling as a fitness exercise, just as a practical means of transport. Back then we didn't have a mummy that'd drop us off in the Range Rover, we had to walk, cycle, or take the omnibus.

I actually read the opposite: that the EU actually made it illegal to offer different prices to men and women. From what I understand they adjusted the womens' insurance to be in line with mobile phone related accidents, then the EU came along and cemented it in place anyway.

To be completely honest, if phones didn't exist I'd feel sorry for the female drivers as they'd have their premiums artificially inflated in line with the men as a result of some kind of unfair application of gender equality. With the phones, however, it really didn't make much difference in the end.

As for cycling at the gym, I'd probably prefer it because there's less chance of getting knocked off. Most gyms I've been in do tend to have people cycling five or six abreast though.

Edit: I should probably add that I'm only learning to drive at the moment. I had a few run ins with cyclists on my lesson today as we started in the town centre then moved on to country roads. Nothing too serious. I did have some serious problems with van drivers, however. One nearly ran me off the road because he realised he was in the wrong lane coming in to a roundabout, another couldn't be bothered to wait as one of those vans that ferries elderly people around dropped a couple off, and decided to squeeze past them without slowing down. He clipped the wingmirrors of that van, and the BMW parked on the opposite side of the road. A cyclist would have zipped through no problem.

 

[Jacob]

... stop the ducks coming up before the beak.

The old bill first.

 

[Bm101]

Thought the male/female insurance cost thing was more to do with the insurance companies. On being told they couldn't be gender biased on pricing, rather than drop male rates to female equivalent they simply hiked the female costs to match the male ones.

 

[Finial]

To get this back on track, guess what I saw yesterday ?
Yup, a large peloton with 4 of them abreast, passing a point in the road with parked cars on both sides, effectively blocking the road both ways for a short section.

What was blocking the road, the bikes or the parked cars?

When I cycle between parked cars I have to keep clear of the ones on the left in case of doors being opened carelessly. Drivers come up behind and want to pass, but want to keep clear of the cars on the right for the same reason. I don't know about the road you are talking about, but on many that would put them dangerously close to me. Sometimes that deters them, sometimes not. So I keep right out in the middle until I come to a section where the road is not obstructed. I find that some oncoming drivers think they should have priority over bikes and will not give way. In situations like those, riding four abreast would be safer, but there are too few bike riders round my way.

If the traffic behind is heavy I may stay out in the lane even where there are gaps between the parked cars. That's because many drivers fail to see bike riders as legitimate road users (apparently they don't pay road tax so don't have rights). If I move out of the main flow to let them pass, I am likely to get cut up at the next blockage.

This country really does have the cyclists it deserves.

 

[NazNomad]

I suffered mild inconvenience recently when I had to slow down to let two old people with sticks across the road. I bet they don't pay road tax and insurance the basthards

To quote you earlier in this thread, ''there is no such thing as road tax'' ... You did say that, right?

 

[John Brown]

I suffered mild inconvenience recently when I had to slow down to let two old people with sticks across the road. I bet they don't pay road tax and insurance the basthards

To quote you earlier in this thread, ''there is no such thing as road tax'' ... You did say that, right?

I think Jacob may have been role-playing when he wrote that...(the "bet they don't pay road tax" bit)

 

[MIGNAL]

To get this back on track, guess what I saw yesterday ?
Yup, a large peloton with 4 of them abreast, passing a point in the road with parked cars on both sides. . . .

I bet that peloton had read the UKWorkshop general section and just came to the conclusion: f' em.

 

[Jacob]

To get this back on track, guess what I saw yesterday ?
Yup, a large peloton with 4 of them abreast, passing a point in the road with parked cars on both sides, effectively blocking the road both ways for a short section.

What was blocking the road, the bikes or the parked cars?

When I cycle between parked cars I have to keep clear of the ones on the left in case of doors being opened carelessly. Drivers come up behind and want to pass, but want to keep clear of the cars on the right for the same reason. I don't know about the road you are talking about, but on many that would put them dangerously close to me. Sometimes that deters them, sometimes not. So I keep right out in the middle until I come to a section where the road is not obstructed. I find that some oncoming drivers think they should have priority over bikes and will not give way. In situations like those, riding four abreast would be safer, but there are too few bike riders round my way.

If the traffic behind is heavy I may stay out in the lane even where there are gaps between the parked cars. That's because many drivers fail to see bike riders as legitimate road users (apparently they don't pay road tax so don't have rights). If I move out of the main flow to let them pass, I am likely to get cut up at the next blockage.

This country really does have the cyclists it deserves.

Agree.
What was blocking the road, the bikes or the parked cars? Very good point - I'll remember that one!

It's all about riding "assertively" and not creeping along the edges apologetically as though you shouldn't be there, which is dangerous.

 

[NazNomad]

I remember when bikes sounded like proper bikes and smelled of Castrol R. :-D

 

[Fatboy]

I've been cycling all my life and I've never seen anyone cycling four abreast (except in the tour de france etc). Just somebody having a moan about cyclists as usual. If you don't like sharing the road with cyclists then you should use public transport and/or motorways only.

Lol, answered like a true cyclist

Really Jacob, really?? have you not done much road cycling? 4 or more cyclists abreast is quite common once you get outside of the cities. Just put 'UK cyclist abreast images' into google images to see what it looks like from another road users view.

Like most motorists I have no problem sharing the road with cyclists, but races or 'time trials' as they like to call them to get around the law should be restricted to tracks. I used to race a high performance car and I'm sure cyclists would be just as fed up with me if I decided to use the Queens highway as a race track and put their safety at risk by using the road like I owned it

 

[Bm101]

:roll:

 

[Jacob]

:roll:

Are they coppers or something? On an empty road?

 

[Bm101]

I think it was for the Olympic Torch Jacob. Just pulling your leg a wee bit.

 

[Jacob]

I've been cycling all my life and I've never seen anyone cycling four abreast (except in the tour de france etc). Just somebody having a moan about cyclists as usual. If you don't like sharing the road with cyclists then you should use public transport and/or motorways only.

Lol, answered like a true cyclist

Really Jacob, really?? have you not done much road cycling? 4 or more cyclists abreast is quite common once you get outside of the cities. Just put 'UK cyclist abreast images' into google images to see what it looks like from another road users view.

Like most motorists I have no problem sharing the road with cyclists, but races or 'time trials' as they like to call them to get around the law should be restricted to tracks. I used to race a high performance car and I'm sure cyclists would be just as fed up with me if I decided to use the Queens highway as a race track and put their safety at risk by using the road like I owned it

Fer gawds sake it really isn't an issue (except to J Clarkson fans). I googled as you suggest and it just shows dozens of cyclists harmlessly pedalling about - occasionally bunched up but this is always temporary. There's even a diagram explaining that it may be easier to overtake a bunch rather than a line one by one.
Comparing bike racing to car racing is ridiculous. Very few cyclists can get up even to 30mph for long except downhill with the wind behind.
Have to say my fastest ever was 50mph, down Mont Ventoux in fact, wide empty road, long steep hill! But 25mph on a flat road is about the limit for most. The target for a 25 mile time trial is one hour
Time trials ban bunching up - not for the sake of road users but to make the time trial fairer - nobody wants to be tailed as it gives an unfair advantage.

Get a life! Or get a bike you might enjoy it.

Mont Ventoux:

 

[Logger]

Takes a steady hand to photo the lady in front at 50mph

 

[Stiggy]

Cyclists are the bane of my life where I live - there have been many cycle paths created to get them off the roads to stop accidents and lower the build up of traffic - do they use them? Do they eck!

I give cyclists a full 3' when I pass so they don't hit my vehicle when I overtake (as quite a few round here have done) and I got a mouth full of the latest ***** as I didn't go completely into the opposite lane... hasten to add I had to stop my vehicle in front of him to educate the poor fool on road use - he now uses the cycle path.

The fact that if there is an accident the vehicle owner has the blame is BS, in my opinion any vehicle that is allowed on the roads should have an annual check to ensure it is road safe and insurance in case of accidents. They should also go through training so all signals given are standardised and other road users don't have to guess what different arm flapping is meant to mean - I am more than happy to let cyclists off road tax due to the amount of wear they produce on the road surface - I think that's common sense.

I must admit though, should I ever get stuck behind a the cyclist in Jacob's photo, I may not want to overtake at all!

 

[Jacob]

......- there have been many cycle paths created to get them off the roads to stop accidents and lower the build up of traffic - do they use them? Do they eck!....

There's a good reason for that - many of them are absolutely hopeless and even potential death traps. They appear to have been designed by clowns, or as a deliberate ploy to put people off cycling.

Take a look through some of these. Click the arrows at top of page.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/w ... the-month/

There are quite a few of these in our neighbourhood and nobody takes any notice of them, quite rightly.

OTOH you do encounter some good ones and they get well used.

 

[Finial]

Cyclists are the bane of my life where I live - there have been many cycle paths created to get them off the roads to stop accidents and lower the build up of traffic - do they use them? Do they eck!

I give cyclists a full 3' when I pass so they don't hit my vehicle when I overtake (as quite a few round here have done) and I got a mouth full of the latest ***** as I didn't go completely into the opposite lane... hasten to add I had to stop my vehicle in front of him to educate the poor fool on road use - he now uses the cycle path.

The fact that if there is an accident the vehicle owner has the blame is BS, in my opinion any vehicle that is allowed on the roads should have an annual check to ensure it is road safe and insurance in case of accidents. They should also go through training so all signals given are standardised and other road users don't have to guess what different arm flapping is meant to mean..

If those tracks go where people want to go, if they are direct routes, if they are designed and built and maintained for cycling on and if they aren't blocked by parked cars or full of pedestrians, then they are very unusual. If they meet those criteria, and with drivers like you behind, why would people not use them?

It seems odd that you think vehicle owners should not be blamed for collisions. Never? The victim's fault every time? Also odd that quite a few bikes have hit your vehicle while you are overtaking. Why do you think that might be? Could it have something to do with your inability to share the road with other traffic? It's also strange that cyclists are the bane of your life. In town or country, I've never been inconvenienced by someone on a bike. I've never been held up by one. Never felt I needed to educate one. Never been hit by one, either. Incompetent drivers though.....