The stupidest rider you saw

[mattc]

Nominations please for most dumb/dangerous/selfish act you saw on this (otherwise) beautiful event.

I'm gonna go in with quite a high card:
Level crossing going into Dreux. I waited at the red lights (with Tomsk, iirc); 3 riders blasted straight thru.
Do they KNOW how fast French trains move?!?

[Paul D]

I saw a rider with his Deliveroo backpack on...

[grams]

There are no level crossings on high speed lines. Trains on some rural lines may safely be considered a hallucination.

We were riding in a straggley group of maybe 10 just  after dawn and some riders at the front were riding close to the centre line as some riders seem to like to do. A guy comes up behind and starts yelling angrily about it.

He then decided to punish (?) the group by riding aggressively through the middle of everyone like a snooker break while yelling at everyone.

[Ian H]

I saw one rider who shouted 'IAN!' in a shocked voice when he saw me at the side of the road.

[Von Broad]

Bloke came past me fairly earlier on, yelling all kinds of stuff in my direction. Things like saying Hello and using my name.
Bloke wasn't wearing a lid either. Go figure.

[pots and kettles ]

Other than that.....loads of 'red lights are invisible mate...it would seem.

Rear flashers get me.....red rag to a bull I'm afraid [to be fair......there weren't that many.
One or two knew I didn't approve [as they rode past me at a fair old lick...lol].

[Pepe]

Me, in the mirror, thinking I could finish under 80 hours 

[Bikeabilityman]

I saw a rider with his Deliveroo backpack on...

Teethgrinder, taking it to France and back before getting some bank hol work in Brighton.

[vorsprung]

Rear flashers get me.....red rag to a bull I'm afraid [to be fair......there weren't that many.
One or two knew I didn't approve [as they rode past me at a fair old lick...lol].

https://www.paris-brest-paris.org/en/rules

Article 8: Rules for bikes
.....
Bikes must possess a lighting system powerful enough to be seen at a distance of 100 m from the front and 150 m from the rear. It must be securely and permanently fixed on the bike, even during daytime, and in working order at any time. Flashing LEDs at the rear are forbidden.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

One fellow’s flashing eye-burner annoyed me enough that I told him that flashing lights were banned. When he shrugged, I loudly told my stoker to remember <frame number>. Strangely enough, he then swapped it to steady. If he hadn’t, he would have qualified for this thread.

[onemoresolo]

I saw some stressed looking Welsh bloke throw his brevet card at a Frenchman.

[mattc]

I saw a rider with his Deliveroo backpack on...

Legend 

(When we were sat together at Dreux, Owen suggested ordering some decent food and getting TG to fetch it.)

[frillipippi]

One fellow’s flashing eye-burner annoyed me enough that I told him that flashing lights were banned. When he shrugged, I loudly told my stoker to remember <frame number>. Strangely enough, he then swapped it to steady. If he hadn’t, he would have qualified for this thread.

I met several compatriots with flashing rear lights, each time I tried to be as polite and friendly as I could (given the circumstances, i.e. mainly tiredness) when addressing them in our mothertongue language about the rules, and let's be ambassadors of our country, etc., but one of them answered in a very annoying way and went on with his flashing light.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

You are nicer than me. I let several folk with flashing taillights continue on without comment but this light was violently bright. It was painful to be behind him but he seemed happy to draft other more considerate PBPers.

[grams]

There’s a particular light that does two warning flashing and then one crazy bright lightning flash (Garmin maybe?) and is annoying even when the rider has disappeared a mile up the road. People who enter events like PBP with those should have their bikes (all of them) summarily confiscated.

[frillipippi]

There’s a particular light that does two warning flashing and then one crazy bright lightning flash (Garmin maybe?) and is annoying even when the rider has disappeared a mile up the road. People who enter events like PBP with those should have their bikes (all of them) summarily confiscated.

AFAIK, the problem is these lights offer multiple possibilities, including steadily non-flashing on, so they can easily pass any check.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I was surprised by the number of folk who had working taillights that were completely obscured by drooping bikepacking bags. We had some changes of direction during high-speed nighttime curving descents when our headlight finally hit their reflective vests.

[Peter]

There’s a particular light that does two warning flashing and then one crazy bright lightning flash (Garmin maybe?) and is annoying even when the rider has disappeared a mile up the road. People who enter events like PBP with those should have their bikes (all of them) summarily confiscated.

AFAIK, the problem is these lights offer multiple possibilities, including steadily non-flashing on, so they can easily pass any check.

Not if the checker flips through the "cycle".  I wonder how easy it is to get a light that doesn't have a flash mode, these days?  They are incredibly annoying on flash.  I was mortified years ago when someone said my light was too bright and I found I'd accidentally had it on flash at the time.  The angle is important, too.

[Kim]

I wonder how easy it is to get a light that doesn't have a flash mode, these days?

Easy if you want a StVZO-approved dynamo light, and the molishers thereof usually have a couple of equivalent battery-powered options.

But if you're not setting out to buy a light that's designed to fit to a rear rack or mudguard, your chances of stumbling across something StVZO-approved diminish rapidly.  If you want something at the FRIKKIN LAZER end of the spectrum (and I'm a strong proponent of having both - something sensible for normal group, and something obnoxious for shit weather in daytime), flashing is pretty much unavoidable.

[Auntie Helen]

We have an extra Z appearing in the StVO rules here - Germany is liberal with its Zeds but not here.

The official blurb is as follows:

https://www.stvo.de/strassenverkehrsordnung/101-17-beleuchtung

[grams]

Some of the bikepacking bags have a place to mount the light on top which points the light directly upwards into the eyes of wheelsuckers.

(See also: short race blades, which focus road spray in the same way)

[mattc]

We have an extra Z appearing in the StVO rules here - Germany is liberal with its Zeds but not here.

Forgive this dumb Brit, but I have no idea what this means!

[mattc]

One fellow’s flashing eye-burner annoyed me enough that I told him that flashing lights were banned. When he shrugged, I loudly told my stoker to remember <frame number>. Strangely enough, he then swapped it to steady. If he hadn’t, he would have qualified for this thread.

well played Sir!

I think I'm going to rank flashers as a HiGh Stupidity score, because:
- they're quite clearly banned, and its there in The Rules AND french traffic law. And:
- you cannot argue about it if caught. You're easily spotted by the Motos!

[Auntie Helen]

We have an extra Z appearing in the StVO rules here - Germany is liberal with its Zeds but not here.

Forgive this dumb Brit, but I have no idea what this means!

Kim called it StVZO twice, it’s StVO (no Z)

[Redlight]

Bloke wasn't wearing a lid either.

Was the last-minute helmet rule enforced, in the end?

[Flâneur]

We have an extra Z appearing in the StVO rules here - Germany is liberal with its Zeds but not here.

The official blurb is as follows:

https://www.stvo.de/strassenverkehrsordnung/101-17-beleuchtung

To be fair, plenty of sources (manufacturers included) appear to abbreviate it as StVZO:

https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/led-stvzo

I'd've put good money on the Deutsch contraction of Straßenverkehrs-Zulassungs-Ordnung being StVZO...