Road Safety?

Largely disagree. Tearing around as fast as your legs will carry you is what means you have to stay hyper vigilant, slow down and take a quieter route and you won't have to pretend that you're a fighter pilot. Yeah, you have to pay attention, but it's perfectly possible to pootle around aimlessly as long as you prioritise safety over speed.

Touring cyclist must be fucked then.

From experience, having been put in hospital, cycling 20 years in cities, and having lost count of my crashes, I have come to know exactly when I will crash, and that is when I don't follow the most important rule:

Complete and utter 100% absolute FOCUS, CONCENTRATION and AWARENESS

Even when some twat doesn't use their mirror, doesn't indicate, opens their door, cuts a cycle lane, whatever, I consider it my mistake if I crash because I didn't predict them. Every time I've ever crashed I've looked back and thought I could have predicted that, or the way I was cycling wasn't allowing for that to happen.

The only assumption I make is that people are not intentionally trying to kill me, without that assumption you can't even cross the road.

In order to have 100% focus:

a) Don't think about anything except how to make the next maneuver safely.

b) Have an objective, a place in your mind where you want to stop - NEVER EVER cycle in a city without a specific point in space you intend on arriving at.

c) If you find yourself lost, not knowing which way to turn, carry on with the flow, move with the traffic. Slow down, remain focused on moving with the traffic. Then only when you are nice and slow, pick a point to dismount. Then, once stationary, you can think about which way to go.

d) Ride as fast as you can while being aware of your stopping distance. Never ride casually, never enjoy the landmarks, get to your objective ASAP.

why make it up?
get some cycle training...
; )

dont rest on the road next to the pavement when you are tired

Complete and utter 100% absolute FOCUS, CONCENTRATION and AWARENESS

Sounds like you've developed a 'tactical' approach to cycling, similar to those who carry a flashlight and an aluminum pen in order to deal with the atrocities they may encounter on their way to the office.

I think if I tried to ride like campag I would soon give up, it seems so utterly joyless.

I have been crashed into a few times when stationary (drivers misreading traffic lights, not paying attention etc). If we all add anecdotal stories about when accidents have occurred I'd suggest that all cycling situations would have an element of risk that could be predicted. This would mean that campag will never be able to ride again. Given that campag components are for show ponies that are not ridden it would be appropriate.

I find myself agreeing with Jeez.

I feel sullied and unusual.

I feel sullied and unusual.

How you should feel after a big night out.

I am all for concentrating and not wearing headphones (for example) but FFS, cycling is not rocket science. So long as you are paying attention and not day-dreaming you can think or sing or glance around a bit (at appropriate times).

Yeah of course, I'm just speaking from experience. I've never crashed with total focus because even if other people make mistakes I predict them. Of course if I'm on a country ride it's different.

not tempted to make a manoevre at the last minute to make a turn that you nearly missed;

Well that was my point about keeping the flow ... last minute changes to your direction might mean a taxi crashes into you. The point is, that when people get lost, they often panic and try to turn around or something. You see this a lot with cars, you see twats in London every flipping day doing U turns and 3 point turns. It's not the end of the world if you get a few 100 meters further from your destination to find a small turning to make a proper turn.

"nothing wrong with riding fast, but please don't ride as fast as you can - it's that last 10% that is likely to get you into trouble."

Agreed, I didn't really mean push yourself, but keep up speed. It means cars are less likely to overtake, or if they do they give you more space. Also if you going close to the speed limit, you can just dominate the lane. I don't have cars cutting in front of me, cos I usually ride right in the middle between oncoming traffic, i.e. take a similar line to motorbikes and overtake everyone.

The amount of times I've seen cars cut up slow cyclists is 100x more than times I've seen cars cut up confident fast cyclists.

I'm so serious when i ride on vintage high valued bike :p

I like this idea..

1 Attachment

Lots of debate around this particular push on road safety, but worth adding a link to the consultation so that you can have your say:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/new-cycling-offences-causing-death-or-serious-injury-when-cycling

I've made a thread for this. https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/324360/