advertisement


Cycling log - random events in the day of a cyclist II

Woodface said:
When I am riding I use my ears to gauge whether traffic is approaching behind & always move into middle of road when approaching a junction. Flashing rear light is useful in winter, less so in Summer. Just assume that all car drivers are idiots, I am rarely proven wrong.
Click to expand...

I am super observant and make huge efforts to keep out of the way. That said, I am very annoyed with myself wrt the tossers on crossers incident. I could hear their unsilenced din for about 20 or 30 seconds before they passed me. The first one twatted me on the back of the head (40 to 15 MPH speed differential) and his bars missed me by inches. Thankfully the 2nd one just laughed and rode past. There was a pavement on the other side of the road, and no traffic, and I still don't know why I didn't just hop onto the pavement well before they got to me. I guess I just hoped that they would not bother me - won't make that mistake again. Or perhaps I was in the roadie mindset of not wanting to lose time?

For the other incident with the truck, I have no idea how it could have been avoided:
Pedaling along on quiet B road, two cars were coming towards me as a nutter in a truck tried to overtake me. There was absolutely no way he could get past and he did the hissing air brakes & cab bouncing up and down thing just over my right shoulder. He must have been within 2 feet of my back wheel.
About 20 yards ahead there was a footpath, which I hopped onto at the first opportunity in an attempt to let the twats past and to avoid a confrontation. The truck then pulled alongside and the passenger wound down the window and shouted "get off the f--kin' road".

What is concerning about this is that these guys were looking for a chance to bully somebody, anybody, and I was in a vulnerable position. It's the volnerability I don't like!
 
S-Man said:
I am super observant and make huge efforts to keep out of the way. That said, I am very annoyed with myself wrt the tossers on crossers incident. I could hear their unsilenced din for about 20 or 30 seconds before they passed me. The first one twatted me on the back of the head (40 to 15 MPH speed differential) and his bars missed me by inches. Thankfully the 2nd one just laughed and rode past. There was a pavement on the other side of the road, and no traffic, and I still don't know why I didn't just hop onto the pavement well before they got to me. I guess I just hoped that they would not bother me - won't make that mistake again. Or perhaps I was in the roadie mindset of not wanting to lose time?

For the other incident with the truck, I have no idea how it could have been avoided:
Pedaling along on quiet B road, two cars were coming towards me as a nutter in a truck tried to overtake me. There was absolutely no way he could get past and he did the hissing air brakes & cab bouncing up and down thing just over my right shoulder. He must have been within 2 feet of my back wheel.
About 20 yards ahead there was a footpath, which I hopped onto at the first opportunity in an attempt to let the twats past and to avoid a confrontation. The truck then pulled alongside and the passenger wound down the window and shouted "get off the f--kin' road".

What is conerning about this is that these guys were looking for a chance to bully somebody, anybody, and I was in a vulnerable position. It's the volnerability I don't like!
Click to expand...
I get close passes with such regularity that I can almost tell when it’s about to happen by the engine note behind.

IME trucks are usually ok with vans & small cars being the worst. The number of times cars have pulled alongside me only to suddenly notice a traffic bollard ahead. There is a massive sense of entitlement within the average motorist.
 
NeilR said:
I am so glad i left the UK. You simply don’t get this type of nonsense where I am, Cyclists are respected over here.
Click to expand...

Well, I’ve not experienced it where I live. Suffolk is ‘different’ to most parts of the U.K. Stay away from the A12 and A14, and life is easy.
 
Glad you're OK S-man. It's incredibly rare to encounter road rage in my part of Massachusetts. I think the UK is worse in part due to heavier traffic, and greater density of people, but I think that the UK, for whatever reason, also has a higher number of antisocial A-holes per capita - I don't know why, because it's a much gentler place to live than the US. Don't get me wrong - there are bad, scary folk in the US, but there seems to be a lower level of general antisocial behavior here.
 
NeilR said:
I am so glad i left the UK. You simply don’t get this type of nonsense where I am, Cyclists are respected over here.
Click to expand...

You are so lucky!!

To be honest I don't think it's neccesarily about cyclists. I think there are a lot of people suffering from anger problems and with a misplaced entitlement expectation, maybe made worse by the covid situation.
Cyclists are a soft target.

I don't know why we have such a thug culture here in the UK :(:(:(:(:(
 
S-Man said:
don't know why we have such a thug culture here in the UK :(:(:(:(:(
Click to expand...

yes you have hit the nail on the head. A thug culture.

It is so noticeable now that i have left and can see it from a distance. I will never return to live there.
 
Had a rear blow out today, if it had happened 10 minutes earlier when I was descending at 40mph it would have been rather serious - gulp.

Anyway, enjoyed the spring like weather today & still managed 30 miles before the incident.
 
First cycle of the year today. Not far and only to fetch grocery from the Co op. Fortunately the Carlton was well cleaned and lubricated when I put her away last Autumn. Pumped up the tyres and away to go.

Nice! Still got some strength for the banks left. It was either walk or cycle, and the drizzle hardly seemed to matter. Might go for a proper ramble tomorrow.

Best wishes from George
 
Woodface said:
Had a rear blow out today, if it had happened 10 minutes earlier when I was descending at 40mph it would have been rather serious - gulp.

Anyway, enjoyed the spring like weather today & still managed 30 miles before the incident.
Click to expand...
I’m known to be a fast descender even in my sunset riding years (closer to 60 than 50 and the body reminding me of the wear and tear and various injuries and repairs) but I really don’t push it any more, it’s just weight and gravity lots of laughs. You’ve reminded me of just starting down Crocknorth Road here in the Surrey Hills a couple of years ago and getting a front tyre blow out at about 20mph, thank God I wasn’t going faster, you don’t have to pedal to break the speed limit if you just stay off the brakes. My first thoughts were whether I would be able to slow down given you have to brake just to keep your speed down, thankfully I stopped without the bike going from under me.

I was on the gravel bike this morning and even with its 32mph tyres I have some inner tubes with coreless valves and sealant sitting here now to fit. I figure it’s worth taking the same puncture resistance approach that I take with the hardtail. I’m not doing it for descending but Hopefully I’ll never have to find out on a descent whether it helps!
 
Paul L said:
I’m known to be a fast descender even in my sunset riding years (closer to 60 than 50 and the body reminding me of the wear and tear and various injuries and repairs) but I really don’t push it any more, it’s just weight and gravity lots of laughs. You’ve reminded me of just starting down Crocknorth Road here in the Surrey Hills a couple of years ago and getting a front tyre blow out at about 20mph, thank God I wasn’t going faster, you don’t have to pedal to break the speed limit if you just stay off the brakes. My first thoughts were whether I would be able to slow down given you have to brake just to keep your speed down, thankfully I stopped without the bike going from under me.

I was on the gravel bike this morning and even with its 32mph tyres I have some inner tubes with coreless valves and sealant sitting here now to fit. I figure it’s worth taking the same puncture resistance approach that I take with the hardtail. I’m not doing it for descending but Hopefully I’ll never have to find out on a descent whether it helps!
Click to expand...
I think it was a tyre wall failure, sealant wouldn’t have helped.
 
No, I wasn’t clear enough that it was before I bought the gravel bike. It was a puncture on one of my 25mm shod road bikes, scary for a few seconds and of course I don’t put sealant in those at their 95+psi.
 
I've not had a blowout on any correctly maintained tyre. One old tyre with tired sidewalls started to deform when I foolishly inflated it to its maximum, that got dumped. A couple of slashed sidewalls on mountain bikes, both times I got away with the old toothpaste tube repair.
 
Might venture out when the weather picks up a bit more, bit of fettling to do on the Gazelle beforehand but nothing serious.
 
Me neither, but I have paused Zwift to take a natural break (rather the pee from the saddle old-school Belgian style) only to find when resuming riding that the pedal resistance has changed massively. Annoying to be honest, never happens on my old school turbo trainer I still use as well.
 
Paul L said:
Me neither, but I have paused Zwift to take a natural break (rather the pee from the saddle old-school Belgian style) only to find when resuming riding that the pedal resistance has changed massively. Annoying to be honest, never happens on my old school turbo trainer I still use as well.
Click to expand...

I find that as well but it usually returns to normal after getting back up to speed, just takes more effort than you would expect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top