I'm pleased to report that two years after I started riding daily in central Edinburgh rush hour on a lowracer, I am still very much alive and kicking despite an absence of flag, hi-viz and foam cap. In fact, I stopped bothering to use my headcam (which previously used to capture one or two TV-worthy episodes every week).... I rode over 600 miles in March and can't think of anything noteworthy about it, from a safety point of view!
As you might expect (or not?) I've had no troubles relating to drivers failing to see me where they'd otherwise have seen me on one of my other bikes; and I have been placed in the strange position of having trouble because drivers are not aggressive enough (!) - sometimes they will just hang on for a hundreds yards when it's quite safe to pass, and in fact on the Pearson with identical road positioning they'd all be whizzing past like billy-o. I sometimes have to pull over to let the queue past, and that's a bit silly really.
I have had a few issues, as you might expect. Twice in central Edinburgh I've had somebody overtake me beautifully, right over in the oncoming traffic lane - but around a blind right hand bend! I'm not quite sure what thought process leads to deciding to leave a safe amount of space, and also to going round on the wrong side like this, but I don't like it...
It's the same on the open road. I've done 13 recumbent brevets at distances up to 600km (and in Scotland audax mainly means riding on main roads, because that's all there is). I never ride on the left of the gutter line, rather always on the left tyre track because I don't want to fall victim to "second vehicle" syndrome - yet I can't remember one single overtake that I was uncomfortable with on any audax ride. Nobody has ever overtaken me closely enough that I could touch their mirror with an outstretched arm - generally much more than that - isn't that remarkable?
The only real problem I have, and it *is* something which reduces my enjoyment of being out on the bike, is not with any problem with the way people drive, but with
people's opinions of the way they think other people drive. For instance, on the recent Mull-it-over, we joined the main road from Mallaig to Fort Bill and I enjoyed a series of textbook perfect overtakes from the limited traffic - without exception, every one of ~20 vehicles was over on the far side of the road well before they got anywhere near me. With a giant mirror to watch everything in and traffic as well-behaved as it is, it's hard to articulate just how relaxed I am about riding on the open road.
Yet for better or worse, one local driver actually stopped at the upcoming control in hysterics about how I was certain to die in the next few moments. (I wasn't able to work out which of the cars that came past completely in the opposite lane was driven by said driver, but as they all did, it must have been one of them). Naturally this caused a panic in the control staff who asked me whether I had a flag or luminous suit to prevent my imminent demise - notwithstanding that it was midafternoon on a glorious day and I was enjoying possibly the best traffic experience of the year to date.
I'd just about got over the indignity and confusion of having to explain that I'd survived thus far without any of the above, but of course had to be reminded of it several times by riders who'd passed through the control subsequently, which rather spoiled the taste of the whole ride for me.
I mean, I put my money where my mouth is and ride in the left tyre track, such that the first vehicle which fails to see me will certainly kill me (none of this riding in the gutter with your fingers crossed). I'm also quite happy to take my chances of being hit by a drunk / txt / sleeping driver as happens to fully-lit and hi-vizzed upright riders from time to time. It's my choice and, far from being uncertain about it I could hardly have imagined that it would be possible to cycle on a trunk road like the A72, A68, A7, (insert here) and actually find it relaxing compared with riding around the block on my ordinary bikes (which now feel bizarrely risky).
Today on the way back from work I was cruising on the Roseburn path (an ex-railway) when I met a pram at the same time as a trio of cyclists coming the other way. The lead rider had seen me all along and moved back to the left sharply, but Luminous Lance behind him thought this was a great opportunity to attack and open up that critical 16mph gap, and I actually had to ride between them, because he didn't bother to look around the wheel he was following before going for his manly break. (To be fair, actually I hadn't seen that there were three riders, I thought there were two)
To add insult to injury, the couple with the pram (who with their kid had been watching me approach with interest for the last 200m) said "I expect that happens to you all the time, riding that". WTF? Actually the only time I've ever had a
head-on on the bike path I was riding my mighty Pearson, and would have been much better off leading with a steel chainring than with my throat...
I don't expect anyone to have a solution for this. Just need to vent.
