Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?

you've been framed

>>>>>

Please send me a copy, promise not to share it.

Pics or it didn't happen.

The canals seem to be rife with anti social biking in my limited experience, using bells the same way wanker drivers use horns ie "I'm behind you and am entitled to go faster so you should get out of my way" or worse still shouting "BIKE" and expecting anybody else using the path to defer to your greater need.

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Sadly because of all those impatient cyclists, when peds on towpaths hear bells now they assume you're some dick trying to force your way through, even if you're just trying to say 'I'm here, and I don't want to scare you, I will ease past when it's safe and polite to do so'.

I've yet to work out how to sound my bell in order to get that longwinded message across, so I tend to just ring way way in advance and look meek.

Ach, poor coot :(

Not too many aggro cyclists [edit in Belfast], there are some every blue moon. Peds don't hear bells cos they're peds and wander in random paths similar to those made by a blue arsed fly in the kitchen, and there's loose dogs which mean you have to be very careful.

As you say, towpaths are for sharing, not for racing.

This is partly why the Canal & River Trust (used to be British Waterways) no longer promotes a message of ringing your bell. The best thing is not to use a bell at all but to wait politely while not putting them under pressure.

Vids or it didn't happen!

Pushing them in the canal while yelling "YIPPEEEEEE!" is not the done thing? Oh, all these years...

@Doctor_Cake and I have been following a policy of waiting and politely saying excuse me when riding the towpath. DC was riding it every working day to work.

This mostly bewilders towpath walkers. I expect it's the fact that we are actually not complete wankers.

I tend to go for use of the voice :

'Can I squeeze past please fam'

Is a favourite of mine.

Such vivid imagery

I was trying to channel @General_Lucifer, but I'm pretty weak sauce in comparison.

@Howard; it was quite sad, although I think that in the coot-related fatalities I've witnessed on the canal it barely moves the dial in comparison to the seagull snatching a baby coot I witnessed helplessly a few years ago. This was at least instant.

I agree that canal paths aren't good places to race - it's also a bit pointless as you get to progress quite quickly anyway, without the stopping and starting involved in lights and junctions.

I've not been able to corroborate your comment about monogamy, as the only breeding behaviour mentioned is that they regularly brutalise the smallest young until they stop begging for food and die.

What about calling "morning" in a cheery way? (Or afternoon, evening, middle-of-the-night etc.). Works for me when I'm occasionally lured onto the towpath by sunshine sparkling on the sewage.

Failing that, try "POLICE!" at full whack.

Pushing them in the canal while yelling "YIPPEEEEEE!" is not the done thing? Oh, all these years...

Not 'Yippee Ki Yay Motherfucker' then?

To the chap with pink rapha Jersey and rapha bag on the silver brakeless track bike with pink and yellow bar tape. You were 0.5 second on becoming the next cycle related road death in London by undertaking the hgv turning left on to priory lane from a205. Insert brain before you jump on your bike next time please

My experience with canal/river towpaths is that pedestrians get pissed off when you use the bell, and pissed off when you say excuse me, and pissed off when you just wait for a gap and go round them. My method is to ring early, ride past slowly and then say thanks. Don't know if it helps though!

My experience with canal/river towpaths is that pedestrians get pissed off when you use the bell, and pissed off when you say excuse me, and pissed off when you just wait for a gap and go round them. My method is to ring early, ride past slowly and then say thanks. Don't know if it helps though!

Exactly my method too. Only I have a beepy horn. I beeped before one of the bridges recently and heard a distant voice exclaim "It's a killer clown!"

Saying thanks almost always helps. I also tell peds 'I wasn't beeping at you!' if I find them under bridges.

It's true. I tend to go for the "excuse me" and reserve the bell for blind corners and tunnels, but sometimes people would give you a lot of lip "get a bell, why don't you use a bell" etc etc. My standard reply became "I'm a sucker for human interaction..."

The worst canal users in my experience in Camden were the joggers, they don't give way to anyone and one time actually shoved my friend aside so he could squeeze past.

How rude! Wash your mouth out with soap, at once!

Cyclists here in Marrakech are terrifying!

Shan't...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJurGrPAeJg

Why no braking?