Etiquette for Lycra Clad Nutters?

Soldato
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Go back and read it again...
I will usually (pretty much always) pass a cyclist by driving on the other side of the road.
ok ... didn't come over like that to me

I'm not sure if it's just cyclists, but people in general seem a lot more agressive on the roads than they used to be.
Not sure about leaving 1M to pass a cyclist, I tend to give them the same amount of room I would if they were in a car.

sounded like you might leave just <1m for both cars and bikes, I'd usually leave less space for a car than a bike, especially oncoming, since they are much less predictable, and vulnerable. .. but I didn't go back to your earlier posts in this thread.
 
Soldato
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I've never been keen on the phrasing "same amount of room as a car". In many situations when overtaking a car only a few feet is given between the two vehicles. When passing a cyclist there should ideally be at least 1.5m clearance.
 
Soldato
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What 'I' mean by the phrase is that I keep as far away from a cyclist as I can, I treat them as though they are the same size as a car, usually because some of them are totally oblivious to their surroundings, head down arse up and wobbling all over the place...
 
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What 'I' mean by the phrase is that I keep as far away from a cyclist as I can, I treat them as though they are the same size as a car, usually because some of them are totally oblivious to their surroundings, head down arse up and wobbling all over the place...

Same for me, if there isn't enough room to overtake as if they were a car (so their placement on the road is irrelevant) then I don't

The lycra ones though I have less time for in general, typically they are the more annoying cyclists, tending to think they are something special.
I like to clean my windscreen as I go past and leave them a nice cloud of screenwash vapour if they have been particularly determined to cause a blockage

I wonder if there should be some sensible advice issued in regardscomplying with the highway code though which states that if you are holding up traffic you should pull over to allow them to pass. Normally of course viewed for far traffic etc, but a cyclist is just as guilty, particularly the lycra ones who will often manage around 20mph which makes them more difficult to overtake without speeding in 30s etc
 
Soldato
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Same for me, if there isn't enough room to overtake as if they were a car (so their placement on the road is irrelevant) then I don't

The lycra ones though I have less time for in general, typically they are the more annoying cyclists, tending to think they are something special.
I like to clean my windscreen as I go past and leave them a nice cloud of screenwash vapour if they have been particularly determined to cause a blockage

I wonder if there should be some sensible advice issued in regardscomplying with the highway code though which states that if you are holding up traffic you should pull over to allow them to pass. Normally of course viewed for far traffic etc, but a cyclist is just as guilty, particularly the lycra ones who will often manage around 20mph which makes them more difficult to overtake without speeding in 30s etc

Try travelling at that speed as an average on a bike for a couple of hours then compare the feeling to being sat on your arse in a car having to wait a few extra seconds to overtake. I tend to side with the cyclists as they're making their decisions at an often vastly elevated heart rate and far less comfortable position.
 
Associate
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there must be enough annoyed drivers with dash cams to have named and shamed local clubs if thats true, if not, to submit the footage to the police ?

Unlikely to be able to provide evidence - because it's crap. I've lived in the area for virtually my entire life, drive or cycle around it daily, and have never seen a group of 10-20 riders pile on to a roundabout with traffic on without stopping. I'm not going to say it's never happened ever in the history of roads, but to suggest it's some kind of constant weekend occurrence is just a fabrication.
 
Soldato
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The lycra ones though I have less time for in general, typically they are the more annoying cyclists, tending to think they are something special.
I like to clean my windscreen as I go past and leave them a nice cloud of screenwash vapour if they have been particularly determined to cause a blockage

...particularly the lycra ones who will often manage around 20mph which makes them more difficult to overtake without speeding in 30s etc

Do you not think that perhaps you might be conflating being "difficult to overtake" and "determined to cause a blockage"?

I've never experienced cyclists "determined to cause a blockage", just for the sake of it. I've experienced cyclists who are harder to pass, because they might be moving faster, or they might be taking a safer road position, or they might be climbing a hill so not able to easily yield. I'd hate to think that you consider these people are deserving of childish retaliation based on their attire.
 
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Do you not think that perhaps you might be conflating being "difficult to overtake" and "determined to cause a blockage"?

I've never experienced cyclists "determined to cause a blockage", just for the sake of it. I've experienced cyclists who are harder to pass, because they might be moving faster, or they might be taking a safer road position, or they might be climbing a hill so not able to easily yield. I'd hate to think that you consider these people are deserving of childish retaliation based on their attire.

Yeah probably bad terminology to say determined to, I probably should have written don't care that they are causing one and take no action to alleviate the situation
Plenty of times they look behind and just carry on. The highway code is pretty clear in this regard for slower moving holding up others.

I suffer quite badly from it on my commute as a fair chunk is down roads the cyclists like to venture onto when going into mamil mode, a nice ride in the country through the villages etc
(its mainly the villages that are the issue, the NSL roads are far easier since the speed differential is far more and generally far less obstructions and oddly wider roads)
 
Soldato
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... yes those people with flavoured screen wash ...do they vape too

Inspired by the thread, driver buzzed me in citroen suv this morning (near-pass record of several weeks, no oncoming traffic), on nsl, and with the school jams I caught up later, overtaking and re-iterating my protest,
she drew up alongside late on (don't think there was a child), nearside window down, first words were not I'm sorry, so that regrettably was a slanging match too, where neither really heard the others case ... I should have cooled down, would be interesting to monitor hr.

As a driver, cyclists who show no signs of awareness of drivers behind approaching annoys me, but I've not see cyclist intentionally create a blockage,
drivers may think that because they do not know the road surface in intimate detail, I might be further out because I know whats coming up,
commuting drivers I see who must go through the same potholes everyday surprise me, maybe they have no mechanical sympathy, but road knowledge is the
mark of a mangood driver.
 
Soldato
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Yeah probably bad terminology to say determined to, I probably should have written don't care that they are causing one and take no action to alleviate the situation
Plenty of times they look behind and just carry on. The highway code is pretty clear in this regard for slower moving holding up others.

It's not necessarily that they don't care. If they didn't care they wouldn't be looking behind. Often it's not safe to just stop at the side of the road to let cars pass, and if it's just one or two cars I'll often carry on if I know there's a suitable place to pull to one side coming up/ if the road widens or straightens up where I know they'll be able to overtake easily/if I'm turning off soon anyway, but that might end up with cars not being able to overtake for a little bit (exactly like farm traffic)

Note that there's a definite "us vs. them" mentality on the roads with some drivers/cyclists and spraying your windscreen washer at cyclists isn't exactly going to defuse that. You're probably just enforcing that mentality in the cyclist you just passed and sprayed. In that case do you think they're going to go out of their way to be nice to other drivers in future? Cyclists have to put up with a lot of crap from drivers on the road as it is, whether it be close passes, being driven at on the wrong side of the road when cars are overtaking parked cars and not giving way, being cut up by left turning cars, etc.
 
Soldato
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Not sure what all the hate is about people wearing Lycra when on a bike. It’s way more comfortable than wearing anything else if your doing any kind of distance or moving at a decent pace.

Does anyone take exception to people wearing Lycra when out on a run or down the gym?
 

Jez

Jez

Caporegime
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Not sure what all the hate is about people wearing Lycra when on a bike. It’s way more comfortable than wearing anything else if your doing any kind of distance or moving at a decent pace.

Does anyone take exception to people wearing Lycra when out on a run or down the gym?
It’s just a turn of phrase to indicate that he (we all do don’t we?) hates cyclists. The material isn’t the issue :p
 
Soldato
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Not sure what all the hate is about people wearing Lycra when on a bike. It’s way more comfortable than wearing anything else if your doing any kind of distance or moving at a decent pace.

Does anyone take exception to people wearing Lycra when out on a run or down the gym?

It's probably because most people who take issue with cyclists are too fat to fit in lycra in the first place! :p

But seriously, always fun reading threads like this. I seriously hope I don't encounter some of you lot on my rides.

At the end of the day, how long have you really been held up for? 10 seconds, maybe a minute at most? What world saving activities would you have done in that 'wasted' time? Not much I bet.
 
Soldato
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It's probably because most people who take issue with cyclists are too fat to fit in lycra in the first place!
or it's the reverse - envy - a reminder of their revoked new year resolution ?

black lyrca .. yes I have an issue with that, it's incospicuous , although bright tights are less available.
 
Soldato
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At the end of the day, how long have you really been held up for? 10 seconds, maybe a minute at most? What world saving activities would you have done in that 'wasted' time? Not much I bet.

sadly not all roads are flush with lengths suitable to overtake even something as slow as a cyclist/tractor/horse safely. get a few of those on a road like that and it'll be well more than a minute you spend stuck behind something.

however for the most part it's not too much of an issue, i tend to think of a block of cyclists the same as getting stuck behind a tractor but with the added benefit of generally being able to easily see the road ahead is clear for an overtake.

i do tend to take exception to blatantly ignoring the highway code by some, such as the previously mentioned roundabouts or the stereotypical traffic light situation, in which case the question is just as easily flipped to ask why saving a few seconds-a minute per roundabout/traffic light worth risking your life for?
 
Soldato
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It's probably because most people who take issue with cyclists are too fat to fit in lycra in the first place! :p

To be fair I fall firmly into that category but to be frank I’d rather get off my bike and my crotch not be chaffed raw than worry about other people’s retinas. If I rode my bike more instead of driving it might be less of a problem!

My wife was complaining about two cyclists riding side by side the other day over a long arched bridge with a blind crest. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that they do it to stop people overtaking them into oncoming traffic on a narrow road and it doesn’t make a difference to over take one to two if you actually have a gap on the other side of the road.
 
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It's not necessarily that they don't care. If they didn't care they wouldn't be looking behind. Often it's not safe to just stop at the side of the road to let cars pass, and if it's just one or two cars I'll often carry on if I know there's a suitable place to pull to one side coming up/ if the road widens or straightens up where I know they'll be able to overtake easily/if I'm turning off soon anyway, but that might end up with cars not being able to overtake for a little bit (exactly like farm traffic)

Note that there's a definite "us vs. them" mentality on the roads with some drivers/cyclists and spraying your windscreen washer at cyclists isn't exactly going to defuse that. You're probably just enforcing that mentality in the cyclist you just passed and sprayed. In that case do you think they're going to go out of their way to be nice to other drivers in future? Cyclists have to put up with a lot of crap from drivers on the road as it is, whether it be close passes, being driven at on the wrong side of the road when cars are overtaking parked cars and not giving way, being cut up by left turning cars, etc.

It probably is reinforcing it. It could be I just have had a bad run with them recently.
Like about 4 months ago, I am driving towards a set of roadworks after having been in the queue, I am pulling right as the temporary traffic lights are in the road, I need to jink right then left back onto my side of the road. As I am going right I suddenly realise I am being overtaken by the lycra clad cyclist who I had overtaken along with loads of others about a minute before. He was too impatient to have to do the same of the rest of us and queue, he had ridden down the middle of the road on the line and assumed he would just jump the queue I suppose. Had the traffic lights not been in the road I guess he would sort of managed to get past although he would always potentially have been in the outside going slower than the cars on the inside.
I just managed to stop and he went scooting across in front of me. Then and this is what got me, he moved to the middle of the road and proceeded to cycle far slower than he had been whilst I could not overtake.

I don't know if its a local thing but numerous ones last year moved to the middle of the road going through the villages. The roads are pretty narrow, most of the time the cars when passing each other will slow, some even stop in one direction, so a cyclist in the middle is more of a hazard. Like I say they seem to do it deliberately recently. Maybe something happened I dont know, up until last year I never noticed it, but seems to be a really concious thing from them.
 
Soldato
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The state of our roads in this country doesn't help. I'm often riding in the middle of the lane (not the road) in many places, as the normal position is simply unrideable.

If you're thinking 'christ this road is bad' in your car, sitting in a squidgy seat with nice suspension.....imagine sitting on a bit of carbon fibre, no suspension and 110psi in your tyres!

(I realise it's my choice to ride a bike.....I'm just saying.....)
 
Soldato
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I don't know if its a local thing but numerous ones last year moved to the middle of the road going through the villages. The roads are pretty narrow, most of the time the cars when passing each other will slow, some even stop in one direction, so a cyclist in the middle is more of a hazard. Like I say they seem to do it deliberately recently. Maybe something happened I dont know, up until last year I never noticed it, but seems to be a really concious thing from them.

The side of the road near the verge is generally really poor on village and country roads. Also riding away from the verge on a narrow road stops people trying to overtake the cyclist into oncoming traffic and makes you more visible going round tight corners. It’s a must on narrow sections.

People see a tiny gap and they try and take it regardless if it’s actually there or not. It often it ends up with a cyclist in a pile on the floor and the car driving off into the distance without even noticing what they did. Hence people don’t cycle on the edge of the road.
 
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The side of the road near the verge is generally really poor on village and country roads. Also riding away from the verge on a narrow road stops people trying to overtake the cyclist into oncoming traffic and makes you more visible going round tight corners. It’s a must on narrow sections.

People see a tiny gap and they try and take it regardless if it’s actually there or not. It often it ends up with a cyclist in a pile on the floor and the car driving off into the distance without even noticing what they did. Hence people don’t cycle on the edge of the road.

I know that and thats not what I said. I didn't say middle of the lane I said middle of the road.
As I said its just them being douches, they move over well enough when something comes the other direction, but in regards the cars from behind they do the opposite.
I bet they wouldn't do it if it was a police car coming up behind
 
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