Author Topic: DOTD  (Read 210697 times)

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: DOTD
« Reply #875 on: 27 November, 2019, 07:22:02 am »
Lack of lights? About twenty years ago, working in Grimsby, I was leaving work one winters evening. Got to the end of our site road, which joined the industrial estate road on a poorly lit corner.

I must have just caught a glimpse of movement, but that certainly saved some ninja that night. No lights, black clothes, almost became a bonnet ornament.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: DOTD
« Reply #876 on: 27 November, 2019, 08:40:33 am »
The twat on the electric cargo bike with mega lights going way too fast on the canal.   I've seen him a lot on the canal, always speeding and it'd be a wonder to me if he's never caused an accident. Now with added darkness and his dazzling lights and the same stupid speed and lack of awareness, I nominate him for DOTD.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #877 on: 28 November, 2019, 08:20:13 am »
Lack of lights? About twenty years ago, working in Grimsby, I was leaving work one winters evening. Got to the end of our site road, which joined the industrial estate road on a poorly lit corner.

I must have just caught a glimpse of movement, but that certainly saved some ninja that night. No lights, black clothes, almost became a bonnet ornament.

In Hull Sunday I saw an entire peloton of the unlit all cycling on the pavement. About a dozen of them clad in black of course. Problem was when they were crossing the road at a roundabout. Once one of them went they all followed.

Car ownership in Hull is very low by UK standards.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: DOTD
« Reply #878 on: 28 November, 2019, 11:26:28 pm »
Also much more pavement riding in Hull.  It looks like there is space on the pavements for a cycle lane so many cyclists assume there is one.
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: DOTD
« Reply #879 on: 15 December, 2019, 04:08:55 pm »
The lady on the town bike, with big bright lights and a high vis vest who cycled up left hand turn lane to the junction, then cut across at a right angle into the straight ahead lane cutting off a vehicle in the progress - the driver thankfully slammed their brakes on thus saving her.

It doesn't matter how visible you are if you ride like an idiot.

Sent from my COL-L29 using Tapatalk


quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: DOTD
« Reply #880 on: 16 December, 2019, 12:54:21 pm »
London cyclists are similarly unbothered about lighting. And yet there isn't a spate of cyclists being knocked off every autumn when the clocks go back.

I find this an interesting counterpoint to the endless light up and reflective geegaws companies push on cyclists to "stay safe".

It's got a bit crazy round these parts. There's a lot of bikes out there with no lights at all, They seem to suddenly decloak right next to you requiring evasive manoeuvres or slamming of anchors. On my bike that's fine, but on the work cargo bike, they handle a bit like a super tanker, it's only a matter of time until I accidentally collect someone with it.

Usually the police do a crack down on it, you can pay a fine of x, or you can buy some lights from them there and then for €5.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #881 on: 16 December, 2019, 01:45:56 pm »
London cyclists are similarly unbothered about lighting. And yet there isn't a spate of cyclists being knocked off every autumn when the clocks go back.

I find this an interesting counterpoint to the endless light up and reflective geegaws companies push on cyclists to "stay safe".

It's got a bit crazy round these parts. There's a lot of bikes out there with no lights at all, They seem to suddenly decloak right next to you requiring evasive manoeuvres or slamming of anchors. On my bike that's fine, but on the work cargo bike, they handle a bit like a super tanker, it's only a matter of time until I accidentally collect someone with it.

Usually the police do a crack down on it, you can pay a fine of x, or you can buy some lights from them there and then for €5.

J
I've got a cunning business plan. I'm going to get a cheap ticket to Amsterdam, buy/hire/borrow/beg (I'll rule out stealing) a bike, ride it with no lights every night for a fortnight, collect all the €5 light sets I can, then come back and flog them for £10 each!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: DOTD
« Reply #882 on: 16 December, 2019, 01:55:32 pm »
I've got a cunning business plan. I'm going to get a cheap ticket to Amsterdam, buy/hire/borrow/beg (I'll rule out stealing) a bike, ride it with no lights every night for a fortnight, collect all the €5 light sets I can, then come back and flog them for £10 each!

But you can get the same lights for about €3 in HEMA...

I'm sure Wilko sell something for about the same price, and same quality.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #883 on: 16 December, 2019, 01:58:48 pm »
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: DOTD
« Reply #884 on: 16 December, 2019, 05:07:18 pm »
London cyclists are similarly unbothered about lighting. And yet there isn't a spate of cyclists being knocked off every autumn when the clocks go back.

I find this an interesting counterpoint to the endless light up and reflective geegaws companies push on cyclists to "stay safe".

It's got a bit crazy round these parts. There's a lot of bikes out there with no lights at all, They seem to suddenly decloak right next to you requiring evasive manoeuvres or slamming of anchors. On my bike that's fine, but on the work cargo bike, they handle a bit like a super tanker, it's only a matter of time until I accidentally collect someone with it.

Usually the police do a crack down on it, you can pay a fine of x, or you can buy some lights from them there and then for €5.

J
I've got a cunning business plan. I'm going to get a cheap ticket to Amsterdam, buy/hire/borrow/beg (I'll rule out stealing) a bike, ride it with no lights every night for a fortnight, collect all the €5 light sets I can, then come back and flog them for £10 each!

Or you could come to Birmingham, where the lovely PCs Hudson and Hodson are (or were a couple of years ago, I can't imagine they've run out) offering free lights as an alternative to a FPN, in the unlikely event of having nothing better to do than stop unlit cyclists.

(This policy was entirely to defuse the "But what are you doing about the BloodyCyclists?" argument when they launched the Close Pass project.)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #885 on: 16 December, 2019, 09:15:18 pm »
Well, I could do that – but then I'd be in Birmingham...  ;)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #886 on: 19 December, 2019, 03:57:31 am »
Well, I could do that – but then I'd be in Birmingham...  ;)

But you'd have a bike, so you could leave.

Moreover, you'd have lights, so you could leave under cover of darkness.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #887 on: 19 December, 2019, 09:55:20 am »
Well, I could do that – but then I'd be in Birmingham...  ;)

But you'd have a bike, so you could leave.

Moreover, you'd have lights, so you could leave under cover of darkness.
Two very good points. I'll have to take my son's MTB with the jammed-up fork, cos ICBA taking the (dynamo) lights off the other bikes. This means it'll be summertime by the time I get there.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: DOTD
« Reply #888 on: 19 December, 2019, 11:49:43 am »
Well, I could do that – but then I'd be in Birmingham...  ;)

But you'd have a bike, so you could leave.

One does not simply ride out of Mordor...

Re: DOTD
« Reply #889 on: 19 December, 2019, 05:15:41 pm »
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: DOTD
« Reply #890 on: 20 December, 2019, 09:38:26 am »
The twat on the electric cargo bike with mega lights going way too fast on the canal. 
Well played!  I would worry about:
* cycling too fast by the canal
* cargo bike by the canal
* those two together
And I would have to go out of my way to angle a bike light on the cargo to dazzle oncoming vehicles.

So good effort by that rider.
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: DOTD
« Reply #891 on: 25 December, 2019, 07:48:36 am »
6 a.m Christmas Day on an unlit rural main road ---- the rider with no lights or reflective of any kind.  I only saw a dim shape across the road when I turned to look because I heard tyres on the damp road.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #892 on: 10 January, 2020, 05:09:30 pm »
Yesterday evening, heading home from 4 days on site in Leicester. Coming westbound through Tollbar End, been through the A45/A46 roundabout and now approaching the second roundabout with a left-turn only lane which feeds onto the A46.

There was a chap riding a bike- the sort of cheap nasty "mountainbike" type- positioned in the left gutter of the left-turn only lane, 2/3 way up the ramp. From the position the chap was in there were only 2 options:

(1) At the top of the ramp somehow get across the constant stream of vehicles in the left-turn only lane and get onto around the roundabout (good luck with that, typically traffic comes up the left turn only lane starting from 50mph at the bottom and accelerating as they come through the curve)

OR

(2) Continue to bear left onto the A46 Kenilworth bypass.

Neither option was good but I hope to goodness he didn't take option (2). The slip leads onto what is a 3-lane section of very busy A-road, basically a motorway without a hard shoulder and full of HGVs. It was also raining, dark and all he had was a little blinky red rear light, not very bright. It's also the East Midlands where the driving style makes London look quite civilised and the roads are full of east European HGVs to/from the ferries and JLR products of varying type. (OK, so technically cycles are allowed on there but IMO you'd be way safer cycling on a typical M-way hard shoulder than cycling down the inside lane of A46 Kenilworth bypass, especially on a dark wet evening). 

Scary stuff.

'Cat

 

Re: DOTD
« Reply #893 on: 13 January, 2020, 09:24:39 am »
That would be me.  :-[

First commute by bike in ages today  :thumbsup: but I really should have checked over the fleet yesterday. I went to take the bike from the garage at 05:30 and picked by the one with the better tyre pressure.  :facepalm:

Loaded the luggage and set off, stopped 100m later to put some more air into them to get to the station and finished the job on the train.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #894 on: 15 January, 2020, 06:21:19 pm »
Riding in this morning, a little earlier than usual so still basically dark. Another bike in front of me with a very dim back light.
So I thought to myself, if I pass him at a sensible place, I'll let him know he probably ought to check the battery.
Then I realised he was riding a little erratically, freewheeling at places and for durations that didn't quite make sense.
When I did overtake him (at a point where slowing to talk would have been folly) I heard him talking, presumably on a phone. Not clever, particularly on that road at that time of day.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Re: DOTD
« Reply #895 on: 05 February, 2020, 11:25:25 am »
ME!
On the way in today there was traffic waiting for a bin lorry to get past, narrow road with cars on either side, no way to get through.  Like a proper jerk I cycle on the empty pavement, slaloming between wheelie bins and then rejoined the road past the obstruction.
BWAH HA HA HA HA!
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: DOTD
« Reply #896 on: 05 February, 2020, 11:42:21 am »
I trust you'll turn yourself in after work.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

Re: DOTD
« Reply #897 on: 05 February, 2020, 12:16:46 pm »
The chap as I turned out into Borough High Street who, for reasons I'm unclear on, decided to try and overtake me on the outside and then cut across in front of me as I prepared to turn into Southwark Road. He was grinding away something frantic on a chunkmeister bike and I was merely coasting. Eventually, I put on the brakes (I wasn't to be honest sure what he was up to) and he cut across me and then two lanes back into Borough High Street and shouted at me to 'watch where I'm going.'

I'm really not sure on his peculiar road placement or why he didn't merely slow down and go behind me.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #898 on: 05 February, 2020, 02:01:53 pm »
So, ian, does that make *you* the DOTD? 
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

ian

Re: DOTD
« Reply #899 on: 05 February, 2020, 04:53:32 pm »
No, him, I was in the correct lane, he wasn't.

I think in retrospect he'd come around the Addison Lee on the outside as the lights changed and thus was caught out. Though why he frantically tried to out-accelerate us and go around the front, I'm not sure.