How many lives do you need out on the bike these days??!

[rusty bodie]

an hour and a half out on the bike and that has to be one of the most dangerous rides of my life - what the hell is going on with the standard of driving out there???

largs main st heading out, an old granny pulls out from the left junction right into
MY PATH before realising she was on the wrong side of the road and nearly goes into me head on! :shock:

hunterston - a coal truck winds up his speed with a full load of coal, see me, must have though, "**** slowing down" when he saw the oncoming traffic, keeps the speed going and shaves me by about two feet to avoid colliding with oncoming traffic. i see my life passing before me in the shape of dirty great big bone crushing tyres. :shock:

same road - a dump truck shaves me by a couple of feet and i actually get that "shivers up my spine" effect! :?

west kilbride - a woman tries to overtake me on a blind bend, i turn around and start freaking at her failed move and she starts honking the horn at me!! the idiot who is behind her decides to take his chance and overtakes in tandem with this arse woman right into the path of oncoming traffic!!! :x

heelie brae road - an old guy goes the opposite extreme and swings so wide and was over there for so long that he nearly collided with oncoming traffic around the bend! :facepalm:

the only good bit of driving i saw was the next.co.uk lorry who bide his time without revving, arse burning or hissing his air brakes at me - i eventually pulled into a lay by to let him pass - thank god for one decent driver out there!

either i'm losing my nerve or things are getting really dreadful on the open roads! i think i'll stick to millport, bute and the brizzie glen - at least the only traffic i'm likely to get killed by will be the farm animals!

:roll:

 

[47p2]

The A78 isn't a great road for vehicles let alone cyclists.

Seems par for the course nowadays when you're cycling you're taking your life in your hands, motorists really don't give a toss and will make the most ridiculous manoeuvre just to get past you. My favourite are the gear crunchers, I never realised there were so modern cars without synchromesh in the gearboxes

Another favourite is the idiot who thinks he can beat me to the front of the traffic light queue, they squeeze past to get in front even if there is only a few feet of space, so I just let them pass and then when they are sitting at the lights I go along side and stop directly in front of them :shock:

The Glesca Polis are clamping down on cyclists jumping red lights at the moment, fixed penalties are being dished out left right and centre and I heard someone was hit for £100 for RLJ and cutting over the pavement

 

[Midlife]

On a different note.........is there still a nice chippy on the Pier at Largs

Shaun

 

[FINNEY1973]

Given the local authorities decision making in Nottingham currently means that after 20 years of sparse major works there are now 3 multi hundred million pound projects - complete roads have disappeared for the tram extensions, 9 miles of main arterial route from the M1 into Nottingham are a no go area as it gets two extra lanes (with no cycling provision in this wonderful masterplan might I add) and the main inner city ring road is subject to widening works along a 3 mile stretch. The outcome is all the normal traffic is condensed into contraflows and diversions which are truly dangerous for any cyclist. The Tesco lorry that clipped my elbow last week was a wild one and riding round here isn't to be taken lightly at the moment with all the above chaos.

So what do I do - go to the peak district a couple of weekends ago thinking it would be quiet. It was as the weather was a shocker. I was driven at in a premeditated and quite frankly disgusting way whilst doing 30mph+ down a hill into Marple. Parked cars on the opposite side, jeep waiting at the bottom of the hill approx 250m away behind parked cars - I have right of way. Said jeep set off at great haste and drove straight at me whilst I am 12 inches from my curb - he missed me by pure luck as he was expecting me to stop, jump on the curb, who knows - I was going too fast to do either but as I had right of way and was already descending I had nowhere to go - I must have been mm's from the curb when he went by - it is by the grace of god that he didn't hit me. My buddy was at the top of the descent and could not believe what he witnessed - neither of us got his registration which was a bit gutting as I'd of nailed this guy to the post had I got hold of him.

Cowardly for a starter, but what bothers me most is what is the mentality of these people - what's the objective of such moronic driving - bad driving is one thing but deliberate & planned attempts to see a cyclist hit the deck is something that doesn't sit easy with me at all.

 

[raleighrider21]

riding my scooter more now as its quicker to get around but today saw a lad on a new Raleigh road bike riding along, must of been averaging 25mph in a 30mph zone. constantly getting overtaken, honked at, swore at and I believe at one point he may of had something thrown at him.
being the nice guy I am I be a absolute dick to all the other road users and sit in the middle of the lane behind him so no one else could do it to him. may of been dangerous but possibly stopped someone from hitting him.
have nothing wrong with safe overtakes etc but most people out on the roads now are absolute prats !

 

[47p2]

A couple of weeks ago I was cycling down the A77 from Newton Mearns to Eastwood Toll, my speed was 31mph in a 30 zone (downhill with the wind at my back). The road was at one time a dual carriageway but with the opening of the M77 it is now a single lane each side of the divider with designated cycle lanes. Sadly the cycle lane is not maintained and therefore unrideable so I never use it. So there was me rattling down at the speed limit and aware there is a vehicle behind me, I'm positioned just to the right of the cycle lane which allows vehicles more than enough room to pass should they feel the need. After what must have been around 1 minute the said vehicle decided to pass and I'm still doing 30mph so they are now exceeding the speed limit. Just as the vehicle passed it indicates left and starts turning into a driveway right in front of me...Well I almost s*** myself, the smell of rubber as the wheels locked was not pleasant and I was still moving forward as the vehicle stopped in the middle of the road. My language turned the air blue as I passed the now stopped vehicle. The woman driver decided to chase me down the road with her window open trying to explain that I should not be going down that road at that speed and how she was kind enough to have stopped to allow me to pass safely, she then done a U=turn and disappeared back from where she came.

I don't think drivers have a clue as to how fast bikes can be, they see you and yet still pull out right in front of you and seem surprised that you're almost on top of them when they make their move. The number of times I've almost went into the side of vehicles pulling out of the side of the road is unbelievable

 

[Bats]

I've been forced to live in warrington. At the end of every road, there's a three lane roundabout with traffic lights splitting it up! Every single road, I think other ways of joining roads up have been banned or something.

Nowhere has any speed limit signs, but that's okay. If you're in a car you can just do fifty, and you have to do it one foot away from the bumper of the car in front. Remember you don't need to brake unless the car in front (and it has to be a car, crossing pedestrians don't count) is stopped at a red light crossing. In such a situation, you must wait until you're about to hit it, then immediately slam on.

Indicators are banned. You don't need them because people can tell you're turning, when you try and ram them off the road.

Roadworks are eternal, but never to actually resurface them. Warrington council requires every road to be a minimum of 50% cracks by 2015, so the boys are out full force putting them in.

Bicycle lanes are nothing more than lines and pictures of bikes, painted at random on the pavement. Sometimes they'll paint a picture of a bike and an arrow on the road, encouraging you to bunny hop over a pothole, a grid, or a one foot kerb.

There's more car dealerships than supermarkets and record shops combined. Some of the car dealerships have arse-above-head TDF wannabe carbon specialized on racks on the roof. The point of a bike is to go places, so the car it comes with seems a bit pointless. Maybe they ran out of the free blindfolds every bugger driving a car here seems to use?

On the plus side I've somehow managed to not die yet, no matter how many times that one, specific BMW 5 series tries to cut me up. The NHS ambulance-minibus that dragged me along the street for 300m with its wing mirror is another matter.

 

[FINNEY1973]

Superb Bats

 

[M-Power]

After getting back into cycling after a 15year break its come as a shock reminder to the system how a significant minority hate cyclists. Trying not to let it get to me, thinking of the positive health effects etc and generally how good it makes me feel again

Roll on the day when we can all cycle virtually everywhere in towns and between them protected from cars. Probably not I'm my lifetime though.

 

[Bats]

Oh, I don't know about that. Around here, traffic clogs up to a standstill in the afternoons. You can get a lot of filtering done.