Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?

You punched another rider in the kidneys while in traffic and threatened them further?

Bad form dude.

You want some too do ya!?

Did you get any scuffs or marks on your Rapha kit?

Can you imagine the violence if I had.

I tend to shout 'red!', call out those who perform dick moves that put me or others in danger, I'll even helpfully point out when people's lights aren't working.

To be honest very rarely do they say thank you to me for worrying about the risk they've put themselves in or the danger they present to others.

I'm toying with saying fuck all and letting some type of Noel Edmonds cosmic sorting resolve these issues. I say this because the other night cycling home I had a bit of a dick who would undertake me every now and then when I did stupid stuff like slow down because I was looking down the road and I could see trafic about to stop/ car slams on etc.

I'm not sure why I didn't say anything. Perhaps it was because he was on a Boardman and I'm prone to stereotyping people. Anyway he did it again I said nothing and I'm quite proud of myself when I didn't say anything to him other than 'Are you OK ?' as I helped him off the ground after he undertook a left turning motorbike.

Luckily no one was hurt as the motorcyclist reacted well and stopped reducing the impact considerably.

I felt really smug for the rest of the journey.

I am now going to try and keep my mouth shut and see if Noel is actually right.

and should of let him through.

Have.

Get it right or I'll send BrixJ round to punch you in the kidney.

You want it too eh.. I fuck you up proper.

I... Lost the plot this morning.. Happy go lucky ride as ever up the OKR.. Bus on left. Right shoulder look, gentle overtake..

From my left a nodder yells at me to pull out to let him through. I hold my line, overtake the bus and then calmly tell him if he's that fast he should overtake me rather than try undertake.

He unleashes a torrent of abuse and tells me I was cutting him up and should of let him through. I tell him, again, overtake not undertake..

He calls me a cunt.

Red mist drops.

I punch him in the kidney.. He wobbles.. I tell him to stop, get off the bike and call me a cunt and I'll kick his fucking teeth in..

He cycles off quickly round bricklayers roundabout..

Don't feel good about it really.. Only human though..

#head to I confess thread.

Now we are talking. Ha

Should have punched him in the liver though. A liver punch would have been the end of it.

Moving kidney punch? True bike ninja.

On that note, this happens far too often. I'm cycling in the bus lane, up ahead there's a bus stopped, maybe 50 metres ahead. About 25 metres before I look back, looks clear, move out to second lane to overtake. As I get to about 5 metres from the back of the bus, someone who is still in the bus lane suddenly realises (as though a fucking huge bus stopped with its left indicator on and brake lights blazing wasn't obvious from more than 5 metres behind) that they need to pull out to overtake and just moves into my lane. It's not totally blocking my path but kind of inserting themselves into the gap between bus and me. It's my right of way isn't it? Why is there so many people who can't understand this? It's easy to predict and move out further when you see it about to happen but sometimes a car decides to overtake me thus restricting my ability to move out further and this making me part of an uncomfortable 2 meat sandwich between car and bus buns. I much prefer a single meat sandwich with plenty of mayo space either side.

lfgss group photo

@ NH - This also happens way too often on my commute, but I now allow for that and will either drop back and let them crawl ahead or speed up to overtake safely, or leave a wider left-hand gap to allow for two lane cycling til I've cleared the bus then safely move back into the left-hand lane.

On that note, this happens far too often. I'm cycling in the bus lane, up ahead there's a bus stopped, maybe 50 metres ahead. About 25 metres before I look back, looks clear, move out to second lane to overtake. As I get to about 5 metres from the back of the bus, someone who is still in the bus lane suddenly realises (as though a fucking huge bus stopped with its left indicator on and brake lights blazing wasn't obvious from more than 5 metres behind) that they need to pull out to overtake and just moves into my lane. It's not totally blocking my path but kind of inserting themselves into the gap between bus and me. It's my right of way isn't it? Why is there so many people who can't understand this? It's easy to predict and move out further when you see it about to happen but sometimes a car decides to overtake me thus restricting my ability to move out further and this making me part of an uncomfortable 2 meat sandwich between car and bus buns. I much prefer a single meat sandwich with plenty of mayo space either side.

Really it's the buses fault, punch the bus.

@ NH - This also happens way too often on my commute, but I now allow for that and will either drop back and let them crawl ahead or speed up to overtake safely, or leave a wider left-hand gap to allow for two lane cycling til I've cleared the bus then safely move back into the left-hand lane.

It's what I do also, but sometimes the wider left hand gap isn't possible due to impatient overtaking car.

I'm just having a pointless moan about people who decide that overtaking the bus is their god-given right regardless of the volume or proximity of traffic in next lane.

Really it's the buses fault, punch the bus.

I tried that. It hurt.

It's what I do also, but sometimes the wider left hand gap isn't possible due to impatient overtaking car.

I'm just having a pointless moan about people who decide that overtaking the bus is their god-given right regardless of the volume or proximity of traffic in next lane.

It's a valid moan. I do that (far too frequently) myself.

Punch the bus in the kidney.

You punched another rider in the kidneys while in traffic and threatened them further?

Bad form dude.

Reasonable force and self defence.

On another note, left work ontime of the first time in ages and can't believe my eyes in terms of how many cyclist are running red lights these days and riding on pavement and nearly running over pedestrians.

Worst one was today was crossing the junction of Spitialfields market on Commercial street and this lady completely ignores the traffic light and nearly ran into me, i told her: 'you know it's a red light and it means stop', she responded 'oh just get lost...' which i did.

I like how they keep saying the person who took the pic was definitely the front seat passenger, but doesn't want to be named. Angle does look like it could be taken from the drivers position.

#conspiracy

Yeah I agree with that.

Is it time to start calling out rusty chains? And people who only have about 20psi in their mtb tiers?.

I look at them and say "oil is your friend" or "you know air is free" generally the bewilderment on their faces is priceless.

@ NH - This also happens way too often on my commute, but I now allow for that and will either drop back and let them crawl ahead or speed up to overtake safely, or leave a wider left-hand gap to allow for two lane cycling til I've cleared the bus then safely move back into the left-hand lane.

Alternative solution: Ride faster. Then nobody ever undertaking you again. And if dey do, you give falcon-kidney-punch, bike ninja style. Make dem regret it. Because riding bike is like a finger, pointing to da moon... DON'T LOOK AT DA FINGER!! Or you will miss all dat heavenly glory.

Worst one was today was crossing the junction of Spitialfields market on Commercial street and this lady completely ignores the traffic light and nearly ran into me, i told her: 'you know it's a red light and it means stop', she responded 'oh just get lost...' which i did.

He unleashes a torrent of abuse and tells me I was cutting him up and should of let him through.

Have.

Get it right or I'll send BrixJ round to punch you in the kidney.

Really it's the buses fault, punch the bus.

Oh, Matt .. get it right or I'll send Brave round to punch you in the middle of nowhere. :)

It was probably reported speech and Brave's use of the wrong word reflects on the other guy.

If he wanted to reflect the other guy's poor word choice he "should of" used direct speech.

Now I'm sending a bus round to punch you. I won't tell you which one it is tho, just to keep you on your toes.

When Brave feels bad about it himself, it is with reason. It is unfortunately becoming increasingly entrenched in the public's mind that this is (one of) the new stereotypes about cyclists. Where it used to be eccentrics, poor people, or Old Tories in the main who rode bikes, now it's the lycra louts and the angry brigade, people whose integration in society is so tenuous that any time anyone tries to talk to them they lash out and never think anything is their fault ...

Brave was obviously provoked, and as he says didn't do it intentionally, the anger overcame him, but we do have to avoid this sort of reaction (as no doubt he would agree). On the other side, we get riders reporting on here quite regularly that drivers assaulted them. Never mind that the guy used provocative language, it's absolutely not worth getting into a confrontation about.

Seriously though. If Brave had just ignored the guy in the first place then none on the above would have happened.