Etiquette for Lycra Clad Nutters?

[Demon]

I've just a bit of a LOLWUT moment with a Lycra Clad nutter..

So I'm on the way to get some fuel after picking the kids up and it's obviously rather busy. The route to the petrol station requires me getting out of the suburbs and going through a country lane to get to the garage.

As I'm calmly queuing to get out on the main country road I notice a cyclist weaving in/out of the queuing traffic, as I normally leave a little room between me and the kerb I have no issues when he weaves behind and nips up the inside doing 10-15 mph, all nice and polite I think.

2 minutes later I've got to the junction and out on the country road (NSL) and approaching the cyclist at this point:

Spoiler: road

As you can see there is a fair amount of room and visibility to plan a safe overtake, there are other cars in front all negotiating safely around him, and I hang back to make sure when its my turn to get around him I have enough room and visibility to do it safely. We are just before the telegraph pole on the left when I go to overtake, the cyclist has slowed the traffic down to 20MPH, so I'm not approaching quickly, I check it's all clear and move well over the white line, leave around 1M or more and accelerate quickly around him as there is a bend approaching and want to get it done safely, easy peasy..

half a mile later we join the next sizeable traffic queue and are just rolling along at 1 - 2 mph in neutral covering the brake to keep my distance when I hear someone shouting, I look in the rear view mirror and there is Lycra man up my chuff with his phone out in one hand wobbling a few inches off my bumper shouting at me (and the kids).. I immediately stop (from a crawling pace) which causes him to suddenly grab his brakes and nearly fall off as he's holding phone in one hand so isn't really riding safely. He then shouts "I've got you mate on camera now, you raced by me"..
In no uncertain terms I just told him to bog off and do one.. and as a gap had opened up to the car in front just set off and left him. He obviously caught up but decided not to stop for a conversation but try to knock my wing mirror off by whizzing by as closely as he could.

At this point I just burst out laughing with the kids in a LOLWUT moment, I mean what the hell are you supposed to do with Lycra Clad warriors with cameras these days? what kind of double standards are they operating under?

I left loads of room to the kerb so he could safely get by in stationary traffic before the junction, I deliberately held back before overtaking to ensure it was clear, gave him a clear 1M+ to pass safely and all this whilst accelerating from 25 to around 40 MPH in an NSL..

I can guess why he was annoyed, the car is an old E46 M3 convertible and obviously accelerating from 20-40 in 2nd gear with a 3.2 Straight 6 NA engine might have slightly surprised him, but what can I do about that?, if I tried to baby it by him I'd have to wait for some time to get a long enough straight to be safe and that doesn't happen for another mile or so on this road.

I seriously think he is not doing cyclists any favours and will make me think twice before being as thoughtful as I normally am (Always move over to give them room, make sure I leave loads of room when overtaking etc, as I often cycle myself).

 

[Nasher]

Should have done an emergency stop and face planted him on the rear

Or fit a train horn, that will make them move lol

 

[Rroff]

Sadly a situation (having to negotiate cyclists) I encounter most days and like you with a heavy pickup truck and a V6 engine and often limited safe space for overtaking I need to make sure it gets going and keeps going and doing so makes quite a bit of noise which tends to upset some of them :|

To be fair 9 out of 10 I encounter do try to cooperate with other traffic but the odd ones don't and make a big fuss and while I can kind of see it from their perspective they are the ones putting themselves in that situation ultimately.

Personally I think the roads are getting too busy for the mixture of different classes of traffic - with an ever increase in numbers of both motor vehicles and cyclists it can get stupid at busier times at least around where I'm mostly driving with the result that cyclists are often in a vulnerable position.

 

[Spleen Sauce]

Doesn’t really surprise me. Living in the Vale within South Wales many of the country roads around here attract the cyclists. More and more it seems that this sort of behaviour is becoming the norm and it’s certainly not uncommon for a few of them to lose their marbles over absolutely nothing. A few times I’ve safely overtaken a group of lycraclads in the S4 only to get barked at further down the road for absolutely nothing.

 

[paradigm]

i can guess why he was annoyed, the car is an old E46 M3 convertible and obviously accelerating from 20-40 in 2nd gear with a 3.2 Straight 6 NA engine might have slightly surprised him, but what can I do about that?, if I tried to baby it by him I'd have to wait for some time to get a long enough straight to be safe and that doesn't happen for another mile or so on this road.

I think half the issue is that lots of people equate exhaust noise to speed. I get it a bit in the TT, tootling along at 15-20mph or there abouts in the housing estate because children play nearby, etc, but because the car held onto 1st for slightly longer than is strictly necessary (1st generation DSG) when pulling out of a junction I get a passer by shouting expletives saying I should slow down because of the children... which I was doing anyway

Idiots will idiot, cyclist or otherwise unfortunately.

 

[ttaskmaster]

NVM

 

[Rroff]

Had a nasty one a few days back - video doesn't really do it justice as it doesn't really show just how many things I was having to take into account as well as reacting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMkQEVdluro

Amongst other things with vehicles coming up (very) fast behind me in both lanes who also hadn't seen the hazard - we were accelerating out of a change from 30 - NSL on quite a steep hill I had to think about my braking and changing lane. The vehicle ahead indicating out didn't clue me into there being a hazard there as there is an exit on the right coming up which my first thought was they were pulling out to take.

Additionally if he'd been wearing a hi-viz and had proper lighting it could have very well made the difference between life and death if I had been going a little bit faster - albeit I wouldn't have seen/reacted hugely faster but the dark clothings and poorly working red light on his head delayed me processing what I was seeing by a potentially crucial half second or so. (If it wasn't for the white socks TBH I'd have probably been another half second slower reacting as well - the red light on his head either went out or was angled away from me in the middle of processing what I was seeing which further delayed my reaction).

 

[Nasher]

I once had a near miss at night with one in all black, no lights or high viz. With someone jogging next to him also in all black :/

Some people seem to think you can automatically see them in the dark with headlights on, you can't. Especially with dipped beams.

 

[Wizzfizz]

Should be illegal for cyclists to use a mobile phone whilst riding.

 

[Demon]

Should be illegal for cyclists to use a mobile phone whilst riding.

Well it was only at a crawling pace, but I did chuckle when he was mid shouting and I just stopped (doing a whopping 2 or 3 MPH) causing him to nearly drop his phone and run in to the back of me. "What's that about driving safely you where saying"?

Sadly I doubt me wrecklessly racing by him on the other side of the road at 40MPH will make it to youtube, I think he only video'd me on his phone to let me know he had my reg etc when he caught up, but who knows!

 

[[TW]Fox]

He then shouts "I've got you mate on camera now, you raced by me"..
In no uncertain terms I just told him to bog off and do one.. and as a gap had opened up to the car in front just set off and left him. He obviously caught up but decided not to stop for a conversation but try to knock my wing mirror off by whizzing by as closely as he could.

At this point I just burst out laughing with the kids in a LOLWUT moment, I mean what the hell are you supposed to do with Lycra Clad warriors with cameras these days?

And people wonder why I don't like this ridiculous trend of videoing everything all the time..

 

[jpaul]

We are just before the telegraph pole on the left when I go to overtake, the cyclist has slowed the traffic down to 20MPH, so I'm not approaching quickly, I check it's all clear and move well over the white line, leave around 1M or more and accelerate quickly around him as there is a bend approaching and want to get it done safely, easy peasy..

half a mile later we join the next sizeable traffic queue and are just rolling along at 1 - 2 mph in neutral covering the brake to keep my distance when I hear someone shouting,

- cyclists advocate - so why did he choose to aggress you, what did you do different to other overtakers ?
1m or 2m, space, it matters ... if he could have reached out with an arm and touched your wing mirror as you overtook that's too close, and,
given the width of the road from the picture, you could not overtake if there was a motorist coming towards you as well, so were you completely straddling the white line,
which would be minimum space.

 

[Rroff]

And people wonder why I don't like this ridiculous trend of videoing everything all the time..

While I don't disagree with your opinion - the number of times I get people pull out of side roads and especially fuel stations without due consideration to other road users with the potential for causing an accident and the number of times I encounter cyclists in less than ideal situations has prompted me to get a dashcam to cover my back.

- cyclists advocate - so why did he choose to aggress you, what did you do different to other overtakers ?
1m or 2m, space, it matters ... if he could have reached out with an arm and touched your wing mirror as you overtook that's too close, and,
given the width of the road from the picture, you could not overtake if there was a motorist coming towards you as well, so were you completely straddling the white line,
which would be minimum space.

Reality is a lot of roads (I drive a fair amount of B roads and narrower A roads for instance) it is difficult to give cyclists as much space as you'd like* and you can't spend all day sitting at 10mph behind a cyclist. If the weather is remotely nice at busier times I can be doing this upto half a dozen times in 10 miles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q3UqU2ns6M (EDIT: I was actually really struggling in that video as being a steep hill at low speed in an automatic vehicle that has various on-road and off-road settings it was kind of falling down a gap between the various profiles with the result that it was either delivering too much or too little power and sticking it into lo-range would have been kind of silly).


* Though I am driving a bigger vehicle which makes that even more of an issue.

 

[Demon]

And people wonder why I don't like this ridiculous trend of videoing everything all the time..

I know, but I am OK when its used to apportion blame for insurance purposes etc.

- cyclists advocate - so why did he choose to aggress you, what did you do different to other overtakers ?
1m or 2m, space, it matters ... if he could have reached out with an arm and touched your wing mirror as you overtook that's too close, and,
given the width of the road from the picture, you could not overtake if there was a motorist coming towards you as well, so were you completely straddling the white line,
which would be minimum space.

Well I can say for a fact I gave him more room than the two cars in front of me (No oncoming cars) and I can say for a fact I was one of the only drivers to leave a reasonable gap to the kerb to allow him to get by me prior to overtaking when queuing for the junction..
I also saw the uneven road surface on the left and deliberately hung back so when I overtook he wouldn't have to worry about bucking his wheel. I was not quite fully on the opposite side, but more over the other side than the near side..

I've no issues you pointing these basic things out,many drivers are oblivious, however even my daughter (slightly in shock at some guy shouting at us) brought up the fact we'd pulled right out without me saying anything, the only logical explanation is the engine noise, that by far is a degree more than the cars in front..

 

[lordrobs]

It'll be the exhaust noise. I'd personally much rather someone gets an overtake over with than hang alongside me but I know some cyclists equate the noise with 'maniac'.

 

[Nasher]

Loud exhaust is a safety feature, to let them know you're there.

 

[grudas]

Never have any problems with cyclists. I'd love to see your safe overtake from his pov. Always two sides to the story and that.

 

[Jonny ///M]

Sounds like a roaster. Ignore and get on with your life.

I tend to floor it in 2nd gear in the full other side of the road which probabaly annoys some cyclists.

I did go to overtake 3 cars a few nights ago, couldn't see why the BMW at the front was being so inconsistent with speed. As I commited the BMW overtook a cyclist. I kept in it so was probabaly up at 80 by the end of the overtake.

I ride with the guy by the was invisible even with a rear light so maybe the BMW was a bit close to him.


As a cyclist I don't mind people getting past at speed with a bit of space. It's the go 40 everywhere people that pass within inches that **** me off.

 

[Rroff]

As a cyclist I don't mind people getting past at speed with a bit of space. It's the go 40 everywhere people that pass within inches that **** me off.

I've seen that so many times - get stuck behind one of those 40mph everywhere brigade in a queue of traffic and watch them either pretty much not react to cyclists and go by leaving them no room or just overtake as soon as they get to them with no modification of their driving as they are closing with the cyclist and no accounting for traffic that might be coming the other way.

 

[jpaul]

[ I assuming it was not neither a diesel jag nor mondeo with knackered injectors ... so the cyclist was buried in a black cloud.
I'll flash people in a car when they do that ... as a signal of environmental empathy ...
but have never had the opportunity to catch up with a motorist whilst on my bike ]