Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?

To all the idiots doing last minute manoeuvrings. Please think for one moment how it feels to try and stop 2tons of van rapido while you swerve around without obvious intent.

I'm going to end up squashing someone some day despite my efforts to predict idiocy.

You guys seem to have missed my point - shouting out plates and telling people off is a fairly dick move, but does that detract from the driver who's on their phone going dangerously near an unprotected person with 2 tons of metal?

We shouldn't overshadow that. I mean honestly who doesn't see at least one incident of illegal and/or dangerous driving pretty much every time you go out?

Completely understandable, even the plate shouting as a deterrent, it works. When it evolves into a tool for some people to use it as a basis to criticise everyone on the road, that becomes a problem. Also not sure about people knocking on windows and having a go at people for using phones. Yes, its wrong, but If everyone took it upon themselves to be a person of authority, carnage will ensue.

To all the idiots doing last minute manoeuvrings. Please think for one moment how it feels to try and stop 2tons of van rapido while you swerve around without obvious intent.

I'm going to end up squashing someone some day despite my efforts to predict idiocy.

Clearly that's a different situation and it would piss me off no end in a car if some fixie skiddrrr brakes r deth starts winding round me the way people do...

There's nobbers on both sides. I just think it can't be forgotten that nobbery in the van can kill and seriously injure whereas nobbery on a bike is much less likely to, especially to anyone except mr nobber himself.

Agreed, but like train drivers - the effects of killing someone in a situation you couldn't do anything about when someone throws them self in front of you are long lasting. I don't want those effects.

Generally the nobbers who ride bikes in this way are also nobbers in cars.

There are too many nobbers in the world

Nobbers

Aussie biker in herne hill just told me my front light should be flashy as drivers need all the help they can get as they are all trying to kill us. Get a fucking grip.

Swiss Cottage roundabout, always a sketchy manouvre to get through on a bike and the other morning I was on the bit that turns into the finchley rd and goes past the odeon. Thinking that the traffic has a sizeable gap I naughtily jump the light to filter into space while I can (you have to cross 4 lanes with traffic streaming from 3 different roads) but realise that there isnt and there is more coming so I stop just in front of the light in the safe area where theres no traffic.

Suddenly i hear 'aaaaah, you asshole' and a guy on his tribars on a full TT rig hammers past me swerving into the traffic obviously having just been glued to my wheel. He shouts ' why are you stopping asshole?' so I gently remind him that we are both in the wrong here as we both jumped the light and call him a horrid name.

'if you jump a light then you gotta commit totally man' he shouts back at me now riding very slowly having cut up 2 cars while only paying attention to me (who is stopped on the side on the road) and I call him a cunt whereupon he (still in his aerobars all the way through this episode) attempts to stop and completely and hilariously wipes out just as the lights go green.

Lesson: dont be a cunt

^^ Flashy lights are harder to judge distances with. I always have tow lights.l One flashy and one constant to draw attention. The brighter one being the one on constant.

Yeah, pretty much this, there is some bad driving but there are also cammers looking for confrontation. If someone pulls out on me I tut in my head, ease off and let them go. I'm afraid if I had a camera I would scream "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" and roll right up to the window bellowing "ARE YOU SOME KIND OF PENIS!!???"

No need for all that, just enjoy the ride and don't let idiots live in your head rent-free.

I found since getting a camera I don't bother confronting people when previously I would have felt I needed to, because I know I can report them with evidence should I need to.

I can sort of understand why some people get enraged by the slightly vigilante esque camera users, but I really don't get it why so, so many cyclists think that anyone who uses a camera is a cunt and they themselves would never ever even consider getting one because cameras are for cunts.

Fair enough. I don't think I would engineer conflict, I may try using a camera, some of the stuff I've seen after twenty years of London commuting would make your hair curl.

Swiss Cottage roundabout, always a sketchy manouvre to get through on a bike and the other morning I was on the bit that turns into the finchley rd and goes past the odeon.

I absolutely despise that section with a passion. Seriously, I want to wipe off the face of the planet. I have never felt safe there and is one of the few sections of London tarmac where I will not hesitate to blow through the lights at every opportunity I get. Going up towards Finchley Rd from Camden is fucking hideous. Everything coming from everywhere. I still don't understand the point of the lights around that bed (I've nearly been flattened so many times there, no idea what makes people think they can overtake) They go green, and so do the main ones next to them. All hell breaks loose. If you can't torpedo it off the lights instantly, you're swamped by Coaches going 40mph.

Hideous fucking section.

There were some hopes that that gyratory might be returned to two-way in the course of one of the Superhighways, but I don't know if that option is still being pursued. It has to be said that once you've mastered the right turn from Adelaide Road into Finchley Road that you won't have too many problems at other gyratories in London, but it's not necessarily a good way of acquiring that skill.

Do we have a thread for fucking pedestrians who are imbeciles? had a fat cunt of a suit call me a wanker because I stopped for the red lights at the ASL (King William Street), yep this dick walked across the ASL clipping my rear wheel in the process which led him to shout in my face ''You are in my way wanker'. I did try to remonstrate by explaining to him that I had a right to stop there especially as the lights were red, also tried to explain that the crossing is where he should have been heaving his copious behind.

But nope this shitsack refused to accept this whatsoever, I really had to dig deep to resist the urge to upper cut this fucker especially when I gave up and remounted only to have this (obvious) home counties prick give me two fingers and tell me to piss off. He was so brave he proceeded to wobble away with his mate as I asked whether he and his mate had the cojones to actually do something other than mouth off. I swear to god it is going to be overheated hell in London this week.

Should I have just been a cunt and burned it through the lights instead of being conscientious and stopping for the pedi's?

Can you kidney punch pedestrians or is that reserved for cyclists only?

Do we have a thread for fucking pedestrians who are imbeciles? had a fat cunt of a suit call me a wanker because I stopped for the red lights at the ASL (King William Street), yep this dick walked across the ASL clipping my rear wheel in the process which led him to shout in my face ''You are in my way wanker'. I did try to remonstrate by explaining to him that I had a right to stop there especially as the lights were red, also tried to explain that the crossing is where he should have been heaving his copious behind.

But nope this shitsack refused to accept this whatsoever, I really had to dig deep to resist the urge to upper cut this fucker especially when I gave up and remounted only to have this (obvious) home counties prick give me two fingers and tell me to piss off. He was so brave he proceeded to wobble away with his mate as I asked whether he and his mate had the cojones to actually do something other than mouth off. I swear to god it is going to be overheated hell in London this week.

Should I have just been a cunt and burned it through the lights instead of being conscientious and stopping for the pedi's?

Do we have a thread for fucking pedestrians who are imbeciles?

That sounds like a pretty niche fetish. I'm sure there's a website somewhere...

http://www.lfgss.com/thread813.html or http://www.lfgss.com/thread50556.html

D-lock to face time?

I absolutely despise that section with a passion. Seriously, I want to wipe off the face of the planet. I have never felt safe there and is one of the few sections of London tarmac where I will not hesitate to blow through the lights at every opportunity I get. Going up towards Finchley Rd from Camden is fucking hideous. Everything coming from everywhere. I still don't understand the point of the lights around that bed (I've nearly been flattened so many times there, no idea what makes people think they can overtake) They go green, and so do the main ones next to them. All hell breaks loose. If you can't torpedo it off the lights instantly, you're swamped by Coaches going 40mph.

Hideous fucking section.

If you're coming from Camden, you can take an early right turn and go behind the swiss cottage sports centre, then use the cycling traffic lights, although it's a horrible bumpy road, and then a pedestrianized area before you get to the long crossing. Definitely takes longer, but slightly lower chance of death. Usually I find that by the time you get to finchley road station, the traffic has slowed the coaches/buses/lorries to a crawl, and you can go between.

I don't know where you're heading, but for camden to golders green I would always go up and over hampstead hill, probably for cricklewood and into west hampstead and onto west london too. I just hate the type of traffic you get on finchley road.

Should I have just been a cunt and burned it through the lights instead of being conscientious and stopping for the pedi's?

No. Always stop.

Imagine if you'd have missed this lovely exchange? How boring would your day have been?

Next time though, step off the bike and swing it into the face of the (what's a home county?) cunt.

Do we have a thread for fucking pedestrians who are imbeciles? had a fat cunt of a suit call me a wanker because I stopped for the red lights at the ASL (King William Street), yep this dick walked across the ASL clipping my rear wheel in the process which led him to shout in my face ''You are in my way wanker'. I did try to remonstrate by explaining to him that I had a right to stop there especially as the lights were red, also tried to explain that the crossing is where he should have been heaving his copious behind.

But nope this shitsack refused to accept this whatsoever, I really had to dig deep to resist the urge to upper cut this fucker especially when I gave up and remounted only to have this (obvious) home counties prick give me two fingers and tell me to piss off. He was so brave he proceeded to wobble away with his mate as I asked whether he and his mate had the cojones to actually do something other than mouth off. I swear to god it is going to be overheated hell in London this week.

Should I have just been a cunt and burned it through the lights instead of being conscientious and stopping for the pedi's?

Do what that bloke in the states did the other day to protest at something or other. The moment he starts something you strip naked then climb up on top of him. Whilst up there sat on his head take a moment to enjoy the view and wave at police etc then do a massive shit on him and rub it all around like a mini dirty protest.

That should make him think twice about sayign somethign again and I'm pretty sure to do this is perfectly legal.

A bit late to the helmet cam debate, but here are my two cents. I can't speak for the motivation of everyone who uses a helmet cam, but since a hit and run driver put me in A&E last year, I've used one simply as on-bike CCTV. When you are lying in the road injured it can be quite tricky to get the reg of the vehicle responsible and in my experience given the police need all the evidence on a plate before they will consider doing anything, I see it as helping yourself to help them. You can't rely on witnesses to note it down for you. It also allows you to be a better witness if something happens to someone else. I've seen several near misses where I could then say to the cyclist involved that I had footage if they wanted to take it up with police.
Having one front and rear is a sensible option for making sure you do get the reg. With just a front facing cam, if you were rear-ended you are unlikely to get the plate of the vehicle, and it records the behaviour of the driver in the run up to any incident if they are behind you. I haven't gone this far, but I do see the sense.
As for people calling out the number plate, that's just one way of making sure you have recorded it - in low light for example the camera may not actually get a clear view of it, but will pick up the sound of your voice.
Maybe some people do use a camera to increase the drama of their rides, but I know how much getting hit hurts and so my footage is utterly boring and not really watchable given the frequent shoulder checks and other scans of the road but I would be very glad of the evidence should anything happen.

^ This is what it should be used for, not paraded around the interwebz like the angry army do.

^^ This. Exactly why I bought mine and exactly how it helped when I got SMIDSY'ed.

I was stopped at a light the other day and a guy with two cameras nipped on my inside between me and someone else in the ASL and came to a stop a few feet in front of the stop line.

When I asked him if he uploaded his dick behaviour to YouTube or just other people's he used a very naughty word.

redtube?