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There are very few useful cycle lanes where I live, mostly they are shared user paths running into housing estates, they are great, but not for me. Yesterday lunchtime I was enjoying a 30 miler and for a mile long stretch of road near the sea front (I live in a seaside town) I was able to use a proper cycle lane. Ahead the traffic stopped as a van was reversing into one of the local hotels, I slowed but continued to ride as I passed the stationary cars (to my right)... until, the driver of an old VW camper decided that not only did they need all the road, they needed all the cycle lane too, so crossing the solid white line between road and me they got all close and snuggly. I gave the side of the van a few hefty whacks with my fist and shouted to get out of the cycle lane, this slowed the progress slightly but still reduced my riding space to about a foot (I looked at the video) before the driver must have finally seen me and swerved sharp right... so much so that they crossed the centre white lines with the offside front wheel.
I always have a front camera on the go so all of this was captured in glorious colour and a four minute excerpt was this morning sent to Avon and Somerset Police... not that I am expecting much as last time I was close passed on a blind left hand corner by an overtaking Range Rover, I was informed that the driver had no other option as there was nowhere else to pass! Well true, other than the 200 yard long straight road I had just ridden down or the huge bridge over the motorway about a minutes ride ahead (both of which were shown in my 4 minute video).
I await with whatever the opposite of baited breath is... overwhelming indifference perhaps.
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I doubt the driver got out of the van in order to offer advice on riding, or a possible apology to the cyclist.
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Ahhh, there is cake, that's great news.... ride, sleep, eat cake, repeat.
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Had yet another super close pass yesterday afternoon and put yet another report into A&S. I'm sure they will send the driver a letter, but the sheer stupidity of overtaking on a narrowing country road into a blind left hand corner I just found staggering, especially given that we had just travelled along a dead straight road with enough width for even an idiot in a Freelander to overtake... or not, apparently the narrowing / left hand bend thing all looked a lot more attractive.
Still at least I got to fuss the dog with its head out of the rear window, rather I would have been able to had I known I was about to be overtaken... that's how close the car got to me.
Us county folk don't shout, there's no point, but I gave the driver a heck of a TUT!... That'll learn em.
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I'm Jon MacK's dad, he was telling me about you guys the other day, best of luck, I will pop in sometime soon... as long as you have cake. You do have cake... don't you?
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I was overtaken at a pinch point a while ago by a little Skoda, the driver managed to burst / deflate both offside tyres hitting the kerb in the pinch point, completed the overtake and continued off down the road. By the time I turned right into my road I think there were sparks coming from the front wheel.
I regret not following them to see what eventually happened, but it was the end of a long ride and I was knackered.
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Yes, it is always the same with drivers feeling they must barge past. I am not shy about taking primary, as a lifelong motorcyclist, cars and vans don't intimidate me, even so, drivers will do the most stupid things and I have lost count of the number of times I have then caught and overtaken the culprit. I have an SJCAM, I think the model is the SJ4000 (or something 4000 anyway), I've had it for a few years and recently put it into a new case that allows me to run and external battery pack. The combination of the two batteries gives me around 3 hours continuous videoing.
Riding in the countryside I get LOADS of close and stupid passes, or people not feeling the need to stop so driving straight at me down a single track / country lane, most I just shrug off, but yesterday was just dangerously pointless (aren't they all pointless?), so, Popo involved.
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Just completing a 30 mile leg stretch yesterday afternoon, and only about a mile from home I have to climb a short sharp hill onto a stretch of road about 75 yards long between a stone wall on one side of the road and a very solid old building on the other, this is all in a residential area. The road is just about wide enough to get two cars along, but only carefully and at a crawl, there are only inches of clearance when this happens.
I was about a third of the way along the narrow road when I heard a vehicle approaching, all revs and speed behind, I was nearing the centre line of the road as I was about to signal and turn right at the far end, and with that a white van came past me at speed. Looking at the video from my camera it was no more than a foot from my shoulder, probably a lot less and the footage shows I actually jinked left. The van then went straight on and down a hill where I was going to turn right at the brow, he had to brake hard as the road down the hill is even more narrow and I assume something was coming up I don't know for sure as I turned right and headed home.
A&S Police have an excellent web page where incidents like this can be reported and video can be uploaded, I have used it before and had feedback about any action taken. Needless to say I spent a half hour with iMovie yesterday evening and the whole thing has been reported.
By overtaking me, the van driver saved himself absolutely no time, if they had remained behind me they would have been there for a maximum of a couple of seconds as I was ten yards from the junction. The camera got a nice clear shot of the reg, plus the small painter and decorator signage that was also on the back door of the van. From past experience A&S will at the very least send the registered keeper a letter, but in this case as space as so tight and the manoeuvre so aggressive, I hope they take this further.
Such is a daily life of a leisure cyclist in Somerset.
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If you go over to RetroBike.co.uk and ask the same question in the 97 and post 98 forums you should get a few replies, all MTB's though, I've not seen mention over there of any road frames.
Amazing ride @skinny I could not tear myself away from the dot watching for the last 20k.