Cycling lesson please

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
beardy
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Joined: 23 Feb 2010, 4:10pm

Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by beardy »

If I was cycling that bit of road I would take the lane and not let them pass and not be intimidated off the road by beeping.

However that is not how I want to spend my life and if at all possible I would find somewhere else to cycle. I have some stretches that I dont like but I sometimes have to travel on. I dont really have a reluctance while doing it but I do find myself increasingly taking a very long diversion, or the car, rather than set off that way on the bike to begin with.

I do find that you get quite used to anything and less affected by it if doing it regularly.
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Si
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Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by Si »

Tigerbiten wrote:The trick to do when somebody beeps at you from behind is wobble.
You may want to look back at the same time but the important thing is the wobble.
If car drivers think you are a novice then they give you more room because they don't want you to fall off in front of them and damage their car.

The daft thing is it works ...... :roll:


Yep, wobbling's good. I led an advanced ride leading class a while back. Several of the participants were getting close passes on a narrow fast bit of road. One then asked me why I was wobbling so I asked her to watch how close the cars got to me compared to the other riders......they soon caught on :lol:

But I would also strongly go for the looking behind...a proper eye-balling, not a roadie glance.... as you hear a car approaching. This too can work wonders.

And in the fist pic in the OP, the middle of the lane is the place to be. Better someone honking their appreciation of your intelligent road positioning than squishing you into the side of a bus.

oh, forgot to say what I was going to say: thread moved to On The Road at the request of the OP.
MikeF
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Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by MikeF »

Any chance of taking up the issue with Boris or TfL?
I don't know the area at all, but is it possible for a bike lane on that wide area of pavement or better still a pull-in for them so they don't block a lane? Why do the buses wait there?
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
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Vorpal
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Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by Vorpal »

The way I see it, there are several choices.

-choose an alternate route & not deal with this road at all, even if it means a longer route
-eat the time and take the cycle path & not deal with it
-use the left lane and just wait for the buses letting off passengers (if they are parking up here, that could be a problem, but as someone else posted, a call to the bus company might be in order)
-use the road as a vehicle and sod the numpties who don't like it

Only you can weigh where the right balance is between time and travel comfort. It looks on google like it is poorly designed, and I might well contact a local campaign group, or the highway authority about it, but I know that not everyone is as inclined as me to do so.

If you definitely prefer to ride in the road, and go around the buses, I guess a certain amount of grief from drivers is probably to be epected (a sad state of affairs), but there are various things that *may* help. A little wobble might. A smile back & a little thanks wave might help (though some numpty could also think it's rude gesture, so that may have disadvantages as well).

One thing to note, though... however stupidly people may behave, they are extremely unlikely to intentionally do you harm. If nothing else, it's bad for their insurance rates. They may be trying to intimidate you, and sometimes it obviously works. It's not easy, and I've had the **** scared out me a few times by people following too closely, honking , and revving the engine, etc. In general, though, I try to think that if people are honking at me, it must be because they know me, so I give them a cheerful wave.
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Phil Fouracre
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Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by Phil Fouracre »

Tigerbiten is completely right, perfect the wobble, been doing it when riding with the missus for a while now. If I'm riding behind and a car is approaching, even not sounding horn I will wander slightly and look over shoulder. Sure it's working, as she started to say 'we never seem to have problems with cars, don't know why people get so upset!' Then I explained what I had been doing hopefully was having a result.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
DevonDamo
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Joined: 24 May 2011, 1:42am

Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by DevonDamo »

If the bus/bike lane was genuinely impassable, I'd use the bike path on the right to get past this section, then use the dedicated bike crossing a few hundred yards further up the road to get back on to the left side.
fluffybunnyuk
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Joined: 1 Sep 2013, 10:58pm

Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by fluffybunnyuk »

ummm...im sure i mentioned the cycle path route above... I did!

As for the cycle path...well yes there is one on the other side of the road...to reach it i have to stop before the roundabout...get off my bike cross at the lights..walk 3 mins cross again at lights...walk back 3 mins...cycle down cycle path filled with pedestrians for 3mins...get off bike at toucan....cross road ...walk 3 mins...get on bike... instead of just a quick 60 second cycle though the section...


Its a prime example of a cycle path that is pretty useless. It doesnt even run to the roundabout(about 200 metres long and 100metres short). I live at the roundabout end and where im going is the other end...so there isnt an alternate route...unless you count leaving the bike at home and walking (5mins bike vs 30 mins walk)

Im happy wobbling on some routes but not where cars want to tank it at 50 and if ur in the way blare horn till u move or they run u over.
To be fair 80% of the time motorists are happyish to wait ,its just the odd idiot who thinks my cars missing 2 wheels and wants to beep his horn to point it out...
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[XAP]Bob
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Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by [XAP]Bob »

fluffybunnyuk wrote:ummm...im sure i mentioned the cycle path route above... I did!

As for the cycle path...well yes there is one on the other side of the road...to reach it i have to stop before the roundabout...get off my bike cross at the lights..walk 3 mins cross again at lights...walk back 3 mins...cycle down cycle path filled with pedestrians for 3mins...get off bike at toucan....cross road ...walk 3 mins...get on bike... instead of just a quick 60 second cycle though the section...


Its a prime example of a cycle path that is pretty useless. It doesnt even run to the roundabout(about 200 metres long and 100metres short). I live at the roundabout end and where im going is the other end...so there isnt an alternate route...unless you count leaving the bike at home and walking (5mins bike vs 30 mins walk)

Im happy wobbling on some routes but not where cars want to tank it at 50 and if ur in the way blare horn till u move or they run u over.
To be fair 80% of the time motorists are happyish to wait ,its just the odd idiot who thinks my cars missing 2 wheels and wants to beep his horn to point it out...


That's when I stop and ask what's wrong, occasionally I'll ask if they need help to fix their horn.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
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fluffybunnyuk
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Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by fluffybunnyuk »

i'm just scared if i did that i'd end up as roadkill....
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Takes an extreme psychopath for that to happen. Running into the back of a cyclist in plain view is actually rare - doing so after announcing to the world that you had already seen them...
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
fluffybunnyuk
Posts: 450
Joined: 1 Sep 2013, 10:58pm

Re: Cycling lesson please

Post by fluffybunnyuk »

Thanks bob when ive got my current bike service done i'll give it another try.
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