Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?

I'd have a number plate if all inner city roads were 20 MPH and it was illegal to overtake. Sign me up

I'd have a number plate if all inner city roads were 20 MPH and it was illegal to overtake. Sign me up

+1

Maybe they do but I'd honestly never begrudge a walker the right to have a bit of a walk on a flashing amber. They'll be there for hours if they wait and if I see flashing amber I'm still prepared for pedageddon. Strolling out while on the phone without so much as a thought from between cars however is right out of order.

the issue is when you have a long run up to said lights with a little speed and someone strolls out without looking.

I don't think this really is bad cycling, might just be etiquette I don't understand. I took my Holdsworth out for a spin round Regents Park earlier this afternoon, and at one point a properly kitted out cyclist on a nice flashy carbon machine started riding right on my bike wheel, uncomfortably so. There was no traffic either way, so he could have overtaken, but I think he was just trying to use my not insignificant body as a windbreak. While he was doing this though, he kept pedalling half a turn backwards, making what sounded like very deliberate intimidating freewheel ticking noises.

The way it came across was like when you're driving (sorry) and someone comes too close and then starts flashing their lights. Am I reading far too much into this, was he being an arse or is this some kind of gesture I'm not au fait enough to recognise?

Much more clear was the dickhead with an afro and a Brompton on Thornhill Road the other day, giving shit to anyone overtaking him in a really sarcastic way. The kind of bellend who overtakes you at every red light and then gives you mock congratulations when you easily catch up with him again afterwards. WAC.

Was he wearing funny little moccasins?

...I think we have our man:

Much more clear was the dickhead with an afro and a Brompton on Thornhill Road the other day, giving shit to anyone overtaking him in a really sarcastic way. The kind of bellend who overtakes you at every red light and then gives you mock congratulations when you easily catch up with him again afterwards. WAC.

Hey! Easy on the afro comments!
Someone may think it was me :p
Although i'd probably never ride a brompton

Someone slammed into the back of me this morning as I was coming to a stop for red light at a pedestrian crossing. He came off much worse but his response intrigued me - in an aggressive manner he said "Didn't think you were stopping...."

Wander if riding fixed gives people the impression you are not stopping in instances like this or whether he was just being a bell and not paying attention

I think it is just an assumption people make- that if they would not stop in a given situation, then you would not stop either- so that you stopped not only causes them to have to manouver under duress, but also questions their decision making process.

Wander if riding fixed gives people the impression you are not stopping in instances like this
Probably (guilty of this assumption myself) but that in no way excuses HIS failure to stop!

I don't think it's exclusive to riding fixed, there's a general lack of awareness out there. If you get a rear-ender actually apologising you're half way there to them admitting they just were'nt looking. It's B'lend central out there some days!

I wasn't even the first person to stop - there was someone in front of me who stopped for the same lights. Think it can probably be put down to not paying attention. Just when I was thinking the nodders where heading indoors for hibernation!

I think the cyclist assumed that you were going to run the red, as most cyclists do anyway without slowing down.

red!

and what happens when we make assupmtions?

we make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'umptions'.

and what happens when we make assupmtions?

we make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'umptions'.

Or we make an 'ass' out of our spelling when attempting word-play. :)

shit off, specosaurus

;)

besides. if it's good enough for SLJ, it's good enough for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA-DMoHW1uo

shit off, specosaurus

;)

"Is it time to start calling out bad spellers?"

Grrr have to get this out now or I'll go and smash my kettle. Just not, cycling along Thornhill Road at a fair pace, I spot a middle-aged gent on a Dawes hybrid creeping out of a sideroad in front of me. Is he going to turn left into the road I'm on, and get right into my lane?
I move out even further away from the side of the road, so I'm right in the middle.
No, what's this, he's going to pull out right in front of me and try and cross the road.
I skid to a stop and end up about half a metre away from T-boning him.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" I shout
"Well I was wondering what you were doing!" He replies
"Trying to go straight on along the road, you just pulled out right in front of me"
"Well, I'm sorry" he said, in a way that suggested he still had no idea how he was in the wrong.

He could have been my dad, and I wouldn't like someone shouting at my dad, so I didn't patronise him by explaining the function of Give Way markings and hand signals.

That close to drawing my first turd on MS Paint.

City Link Courier RLJing across Vauxhall Bridge junction (North Side) at about 7:40 this morning. Bell end, no need.
And city boy on OTP Blue fixeh with sweet blue wheels RLJing at the second set of Oval lights (up to Brixton) then undertaking me. No, I will not let you in in front of me.

got undertaken just as i was about to swing left onto the southbound bike path on wandsworth bridge this evening by a twat on a racer, wish id knocked him off.

had you looked behind and indicated?

not saying you hadn't but a fair few people never look over their shoulder before turning off

of course the other cyclist should not be undertaking (spitting should always be done to the left as no one should be there)

(spitting should always be done to the left as no one should be there)

When people spit, regardless of which way they do it, I tend to receive a healthy amount of unwanted spray.
No spitting if people are behind you!

ride with a cycling club, snot rockets to the left

that is all

Some tit in white leggings riding a Kona southbound on Waterloo bridge. I was waiting at the lights and set off, well behind everyone else who jumped them. As I caught up with them the road was moving to 2 lanes so I look behind me before overtaking and this bellend on his own little TT come careering up my right side between me and a bus.

I signalled well in advance when I saw him coming but he just ignored me forcing me to pull in behind a barclays at the last second while he swings ungainly behind a bus and proceeds to try and draft it.

twat.

To SuperNodder, yes you in the red Altura jacket and hump riding your shitty hybrid, coming from Chiswick on Askew Road and turning left onto Uxbridge Road.

First off I would like to congratulate you for figuring out that forcing your way down the left hand side of large vehicles when they are preparing to turn is dangerous. However furiously mashing to get in front of said vehicle then swerving in front of it, and turning across it's path at the slightest hint of daylight between you is pretty much suicide. Just so you are aware of the chaos you left in your wake as you obliviously nodded on your merry way; the bus had to break so hard to avoid mowing you down that a passenger standing at the front actually hit their head on the windscreen the bus driver was visibly shaken and a woman on my side of the junction actually screamed as she thought she was going to see you turned into jam.

Get a clue before you kill yourself.