Cyclists... mini rant :)

There are really many "militant" cyclists out there..... It looks like a skill you gain after riding it in cities...haven't seen so many s***rs in the countryside.

One should be almost scare to point out to cyclist in London that he might consider riding it on the side of the road and not in the middle while there are cars and motorbikes behind him. I tried about 3 times in last two months...either by short blow of the horn or short slight rev and I always received an angry shouting and wild hand movements... One of them was even a boy around 12 years old...he was riding behind his friend, bus came by, he looked back, saw me on the bike and decided to go to the middle of the lane next to his friend in front of me. So I slightly revved it to remind him that I'm there and he turned around with an angry face and shouting... I thought I was dreaming...since I was already going bit faster than him and he went a bit on the side I passed him but than I closed the throtlle for a while and going to stop and teach him a lesson....but than I thought it's only a 12 years old boy..feck it I won't beat a little boy on the street (although who knows what he's going to grew up in without getting a "lesson" from someone). I probably just wait for some adult...I think it's only a matter of time with their attitude that my nerves will finally break and I'll simply just stop the bike, put it on the side stand and go to ask him personally.

Originally Posted by mufman

There are really many "militant" cyclists out there..... It looks like a skill you gain after riding it in cities...haven't seen so many s***rs in the countryside.

One should be almost scare to point out to cyclist in London that he might consider riding it on the side of the road and not in the middle while there are cars and motorbikes behind him. I tried about 3 times in last two months...either by short blow of the horn or short slight rev and I always received an angry shouting and wild hand movements... One of them was even a boy around 12 years old...he was riding behind his friend, bus came by, he looked back, saw me on the bike and decided to go to the middle of the lane next to his friend in front of me. So I slightly revved it to remind him that I'm there and he turned around with an angry face and shouting... I thought I was dreaming...since I was already going bit faster than him and he went a bit on the side I passed him but than I closed the throtlle for a while and going to stop and teach him a lesson....but than I thought it's only a 12 years old boy..feck it I won't beat a little boy on the street (although who knows what he's going to grew up in without getting a "lesson" from someone). I probably just wait for some adult...I think it's only a matter of time with their attitude that my nerves will finally break and I'll simply just stop the bike, put it on the side stand and go to ask him personally.

Come up behind me on me bike and start blowing your horn you'll get a few gestures from me too, christ almighty have you any idea how vunerable you are on a pushbike ? even compared to a motorbike ?

i hate people in general now, doesnt matter if they are on a bike, car,walking or whatever! im 32 and im sure in "the past" we use to be polite and people would gladly move out of your way if required. Or you would wait as their was obviously a reason for somone not moving. Now you get people cutting you up everywhere 10 in cars, cyclists thing red lights dont count and 10 year old kids that take the ****.

Where did it all go wrong. Im sure it wasnt like this before tony blair got in

here in warrington they've widened quite a few footpaths and created a cycle lane as part of it, its a good idea but its usually unuseable cos of the amount of pedestrians using the cycle path part of it, so its back to the roads and having to watch everything around you constantly, theres no excuse for barging in to you at all, I always though pedestrians had priority over cyclists anyway

I find this kind of behaviour shocking. Making a poorly cat walk home from the vets just to save a fiver.

Originally Posted by stewie

Come up behind me on me bike and start blowing your horn you'll get a few gestures from me too, christ almighty have you any idea how vunerable you are on a pushbike ? even compared to a motorbike ?

I have an idea how vulnerable you are on a pushbike (tried it once in London and won't do any more), but if you ride in the middle of the lane for no reason with motorbikes and cars behind you than I'd say you don't.....

EDIT: And this your kind of a aggresive quick response nicely proves what I just wrote about !some! cyclists...

This is a complete de-rail but having read some of the comments I feel as a cyclist I have to put it.

Just as cars drivers may not understand motorcyclists' actions, people that do not cycle regularly may not understand cyclists' actions.

cycling in the middle of the road, sometimes is the safest place to be, and I'm sorry if that holds someone up for 2 minutes, but my safety is of greater concern to me than your journey. I don't think that's that selfish, I see my safety as important as yours.

At certain points on roads I cycle I will sit in the middle of the road for 'no reason' because I know about turnings coming up, bends etc - generally speaking these are roads with solid white lines that people ignore as I rarely travel less than 12mph on these roads I'm thinking of.

When a car overtakes a push bike and realises there is a car 20ft ahead that they couldn't spot because of a hill/bend/being blind the first reaction is to move back into their lane. This normally involves a crunching of a cyclist.

It is my perrogative as a road user to position myself where I deem it to be safe - and that is not necessarily where you deem it to be safe.

A bit of patience, a bit of understanding and everyone can just calm down a bit and not get so stressed about other road users.

Originally Posted by mufman

I have an idea how vulnerable you are on a pushbike (tried it once in London and won't do any more), but if you ride in the middle of the lane for no reason with motorbikes and cars behind you than I'd say you don't.....

EDIT: And this your kind of a aggresive quick response nicely proves what I just wrote about !some! cyclists...

I just cant beleive you'd go up behind people blowing your horn or revving your engine, im a wagon driver, if i sat two feet off your back end and blew my horn or revved my engine would you be happy ? btw ask anyone who knows me on here I'm the least aggressive bloke you'll meet

Originally Posted by EssexDave

This is a complete de-rail but having read some of the comments I feel as a cyclist I have to put it.

Just as cars drivers may not understand motorcyclists' actions, people that do not cycle regularly may not understand cyclists' actions.

cycling in the middle of the road, sometimes is the safest place to be, and I'm sorry if that holds someone up for 2 minutes, but my safety is of greater concern to me than your journey. I don't think that's that selfish, I see my safety as important as yours.

At certain points on roads I cycle I will sit in the middle of the road for 'no reason' because I know about turnings coming up, bends etc - generally speaking these are roads with solid white lines that people ignore as I rarely travel less than 12mph on these roads I'm thinking of.

When a car overtakes a push bike and realises there is a car 20ft ahead that they couldn't spot because of a hill/bend/being blind the first reaction is to move back into their lane. This normally involves a crunching of a cyclist.

It is my perrogative as a road user to position myself where I deem it to be safe - and that is not necessarily where you deem it to be safe.

A bit of patience, a bit of understanding and everyone can just calm down a bit and not get so stressed about other road users.

Fair enough, if it is for a safety purposes I have no problem with that. But simply can't see the safety reason there sometimes. Like that small boy I just wrote about. He turned his head, saw me behind him and went right in to my way, risking we'd crash into each other (I had to break) just to talk to his friend. All that done on the beginning of the bridge = no crossroads, no bends...

I used to cycle a lot when I was younger but mostly on MTB doing XC (because I don't feel safe at all on the road) so I am not someone who doesn't know what a push bike is, don't get me wrong.

Muffman that wasn't a personal dig at your or anyone else in the thread. These come up time and time again with one person stating some tit on a bike/car/whatever has done something, and people jump on the bandwagon and some of the opinions just seem a bit OTT.

I appreciate in that case the little boy was probably in the wrong and been a bit of an idiot too, but a lot of people don't understand the reasoning behind why other road users do something. As I said, it is your perrogative as a road user to stick yourself where you think it is safe (within the confines of the law)