tompetty
Sporting a hammer...
I also have done thousands of miles over the past few years
As you, and everyone one on the road should be...............
Bicycle hate. I don't get it. Par Deaux.
- Thread starter el diablo
- Start date
As you, and everyone one on the road should be...............
Tig
Fucktangular
I've always used the standard Continental tubes, and lately the Giant labeled tubes without any problems. (from Bay Area Cycling on Hwy. 3 at Bay Area, tell them Doug sent you)
I've found that tire choice makes a far greater difference in tube durability. I ride 25c Continental Gatorskins now and will never go back to anything less. With 25's, they ride really nice, last a long time, weigh the same as similar tires, corner well, and are extremely flat resistant.
instantsteve
Glowing Cloud
I've biked thousands of miles in my life and to be honest, I vote for groups of cyclists but only single file. Safety in numbers, because things happen. I do not feel that "thickening" things by riding two (or more) abreast makes any sense when cars are present. Just driving in my car has taught me that you can't assume that other drivers know what they are doing, so blindly trusting (as it were) that a driver in a car can or will do the right thing when confronted with a mass of bike riders is silly.
Tig
Fucktangular
It all depends on the road infrastructure in my experience. We have mostly 4 lanes with a center turn lane plus a shoulder on each side (usually full of trash and obstacles). Saturday and Sunday mornings with very light traffic allow a group to run double pace lines safely in the right lane. It has become a really safe group, which isn't always the case out there. We don't tolerate crazies and dumbasses.
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sunvalleylaw
Yep.
So check this out. Vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists with separate signals, separate lanes, and low and behold, it all works out!!!
yes, it would take years to change infrastructure, come to a common set of rules of the road covering ALL users, and educate enough users about those rules to make it work. But it can be done. Transportation changed drastically a century ago when we shifted from the horse and buggy to the auto. We can do it again.
yes, it would take years to change infrastructure, come to a common set of rules of the road covering ALL users, and educate enough users about those rules to make it work. But it can be done. Transportation changed drastically a century ago when we shifted from the horse and buggy to the auto. We can do it again.
Tig
Fucktangular
Unlike most Euro nations, the US is auto-centric. We spend a large amount of our personal budgets on our cars and trucks and don't want them sitting in the garage while we ride bikes, buses, or trains to and from work. People who haven't experienced the rest of the world actually think it is perfectly normal for an individual to drive single occupancy right next to a mass transit system that goes to and from the same destinations.
Johnny N.
Kick Henry Jackassowski
I havent ridden in a few years now but rode a lot for about 10 years. Every time this discussion comes up I think about the bad groups I hear about over on US1 and the idiots from Rev's town. But honestly, I have not really witnessed much the behavior everyone talks about. I see a lot of single riders who generally do a good job of staying to the right. Groups I see all seem to behave pretty well.
As a cyclist, I honestly cant think of many times where a double pace line made any sense in the real world. I have ridden them on some roads where the traffic was almost non-existent and it was safe to do but it was more fun than necessary. I guess if it were a very lightly travelled road and a very large group is cuts the length in half but when there are bike lanes, I honestly think single file in the bike lane is the way to go. If it is a large group that needs to double up, they should really stay away from high traffic areas. I say that as a cyclist.
As a motorist, I still say I have not seen very much of the poor behavior on the cyclist part at all. I have seen far more poor behavior on the part of the motorists. That is basically why I quit riding. Too many people texting or otherwise distracted. Too many impatient people who cant seem to deal with 4 seconds of delay on their way to the fast food drive through. Too many drivers with attitudes toward cyclists that I did nothing to cause.
One road rage story. I was riding in a group of about 8 guys. This was a very experienced group of riders, all over 40 and all very safe and considerate on the road. We came to the end of this road and were preparing to make a left. There are normally no cars at all back there so we had wandered into the left turn lane and were not in a hurry (it was right after a sprint). Well, on this day, a car was coming from behind and making the same left. We were in the wrong in that we were lollygagging a bit but didn't hold this guy up by more than a couple of seconds. No more than if there had been a car in front of him. Well, apparently that was more than he could stand. He screamed something out the window and layed on his horn while he sped around the corner. Normally this group would have laughed it off but one of the guys flipped him off as he was speeding away. He sees it and slams on the brakes and gets out of the car. As he got back to us, I think he realized he may have made a bad decision. I was the smallest guy in the group at 6'0" and 225lbs. He yelled some obscenities and got back in his car and sped away. What was funny was, his wife and daughter were in the car. Well, about 30 minutes later in the ride, he was coming back from where he went and was headed toward us. He floors it and comes into our lane from the opposite direction and runs us all off the road. And this was a road with very little shoulder and a guard rail, then canal. He had to be going 70mph. That could have been really ugly.
I guess my point is, I know there are douche cyclist out there but I dont think the bad behavior mentioned is as prevalent as good and definitely not as prevalent as bad driver behavior. So I dont get the hate either.
As a cyclist, I honestly cant think of many times where a double pace line made any sense in the real world. I have ridden them on some roads where the traffic was almost non-existent and it was safe to do but it was more fun than necessary. I guess if it were a very lightly travelled road and a very large group is cuts the length in half but when there are bike lanes, I honestly think single file in the bike lane is the way to go. If it is a large group that needs to double up, they should really stay away from high traffic areas. I say that as a cyclist.
As a motorist, I still say I have not seen very much of the poor behavior on the cyclist part at all. I have seen far more poor behavior on the part of the motorists. That is basically why I quit riding. Too many people texting or otherwise distracted. Too many impatient people who cant seem to deal with 4 seconds of delay on their way to the fast food drive through. Too many drivers with attitudes toward cyclists that I did nothing to cause.
One road rage story. I was riding in a group of about 8 guys. This was a very experienced group of riders, all over 40 and all very safe and considerate on the road. We came to the end of this road and were preparing to make a left. There are normally no cars at all back there so we had wandered into the left turn lane and were not in a hurry (it was right after a sprint). Well, on this day, a car was coming from behind and making the same left. We were in the wrong in that we were lollygagging a bit but didn't hold this guy up by more than a couple of seconds. No more than if there had been a car in front of him. Well, apparently that was more than he could stand. He screamed something out the window and layed on his horn while he sped around the corner. Normally this group would have laughed it off but one of the guys flipped him off as he was speeding away. He sees it and slams on the brakes and gets out of the car. As he got back to us, I think he realized he may have made a bad decision. I was the smallest guy in the group at 6'0" and 225lbs. He yelled some obscenities and got back in his car and sped away. What was funny was, his wife and daughter were in the car. Well, about 30 minutes later in the ride, he was coming back from where he went and was headed toward us. He floors it and comes into our lane from the opposite direction and runs us all off the road. And this was a road with very little shoulder and a guard rail, then canal. He had to be going 70mph. That could have been really ugly.
I guess my point is, I know there are douche cyclist out there but I dont think the bad behavior mentioned is as prevalent as good and definitely not as prevalent as bad driver behavior. So I dont get the hate either.
sunvalleylaw
Yep.
Well, agreed. And we have been trained this way since the auto existed, and infrastructure and car culture was built up post war to support it. Witness the building of the freeway system, and also the rise of auto accessed businesses such as drive-ins that have since failed, partly due to the freeway system, when those roadside businesses were better suited to the state highways.
So change will be hard here. But change is coming (kinda like how we buy or consume music, transportation is changing), so we might as well try to do a good job of it.
tompetty
Sporting a hammer...
Wow...That's quite the story....
The thing about cycling is that some people simply believe that you don't belong on the road..
I also have many cycling stories that I could tell..
I always enjoy the people that come up beside you and yell out the passenger window and scare the shit out of you..I had a bunch of lanky male teens do that to me one time and then they had to come to a stop at a red light.....I caught up to them and tried to have a conversation with them...They had put their window up and looked straight ahead not willing to even converse.....I could smell the fear....
nuke_diver
Riding Solo
As for poor behaviour on a bike I think most of us are on better behaviour because of the risk...a very bad day if you get hit by a car. That said there will always be exceptions and I saw one yesterday on my way home. I was just going through an intersection and there was another cyclist ahead of me. A car passed both of us and then signaled to go to the right..everything is good and by the book. A guy on a MTB comes out of a driveway to my right going at a good clip and see us and jumps into the bike lane in front of us. He never slows or notices the car until he looks up and it's slowing/stopping in front of him. No way the guy in the car could have realistically seen the MTB as he came from his blind side and there was no reason for the car to think a vehicle would be there. The MTB barely got around the car but clipped his arm on a mail box and it was bleeding. His reaction was that he was going back to punch the living shit out of the guy. I chose not to say anything since I've seen that kind of irrational behaviour before and saying something just makes you one of the enemy. The other cyclist said something to the driver initially like nice one asshole but really it wasn't the car's fault.
The jerks on both sides will always think the other side is the one at fault whether they are or aren't. I am as safe as I can be and keep my head on a swivel so I am aware of the situation and don't find myself in a place like the MTB was. You can still have close calls because you can't control what the inattentive do but you can try to mitigate them by being aware. That means no headphones, stopping for lights, slowing for intersections etc
Tig
Fucktangular
Even when I'm riding on a wide shoulder of a 4 lane (plus middle turn lane) roadway, I have people swerve into the shoulder as if to say I don't belong there. I'm considering buying a helmet mounted video camera in case something ever happens. I've been road riding since 1987 and have never faced so much instant, unprovoked animosity as I have the last year. When solo, I rarely have to venture into the traffic lanes.
Here's the deal. If I do something stupid, I get hurt. If drivers do something stupid, I get hurt. I constantly do everything I can to make it safer. And you wonder why we get defensive in a world of stupid, careless idiots?
Here's the deal. If I do something stupid, I get hurt. If drivers do something stupid, I get hurt. I constantly do everything I can to make it safer. And you wonder why we get defensive in a world of stupid, careless idiots?
sunvalleylaw
Yep.
A little food for thought: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html?pagewanted=all
and more recently, touching on the death of an attorney and mother killed while doing everything right: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/opinion/timothy-egan-death-on-a-bike.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
and more recently, touching on the death of an attorney and mother killed while doing everything right: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/opinion/timothy-egan-death-on-a-bike.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
Tig
Fucktangular
:( I weep for how inhumanity has become the norm. Maybe the next round of evolving life forms will get it right.
Dexter Inferno
Serious error
I don't hate bicycles. A lot of the people using them though. Some are fucking dangerous in traffic, I'll leave it at that.
