Author Topic: DOTD  (Read 210625 times)

handcyclist

  • watch for my signal
Re: DOTD
« Reply #175 on: 09 November, 2014, 10:18:46 pm »
Me, yesterday.

Well, more Pillock of the Day really  ;D.

In a rush to get my rental van back before the office shut at midday. I gather up the workaday bike, or Old Faithful as it would rather be known, and throw a pair of winter gloves in the panniers as it's squally and the skies look threatening. In the back of the van she goes and I set off.

I made the depot in time, the handover was painless, and I reach into my panniers for some goretex loveliness as the rain is descending.

Imagine my joy as I found two right gloves ....... ::-).
Doubt is is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: DOTD
« Reply #176 on: 09 November, 2014, 11:59:19 pm »
Hope you were able to turn one inside out...

Re: DOTD
« Reply #177 on: 10 November, 2014, 12:05:02 am »
Today, I wasn't sure whether to be amused or annoyed by the oik who went straight over the light-controlled bridge over the Gaunless at Evenwood, against the red light, while texting on his phone. And overtaking a learner driver who was waiting for the lights to change.

I was riding over the bridge the other way - I'd have shouted a warning if there had been any traffic behind me. Honest.

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #178 on: 13 November, 2014, 01:00:08 am »
Well, it WAS Evenwood...
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

Re: DOTD
« Reply #179 on: 13 November, 2014, 12:10:58 pm »
It's not called the Gormless Valley for nowt!

Zipperhead

  • The cyclist formerly known as Big Helga
Re: DOTD
« Reply #180 on: 13 November, 2014, 12:14:13 pm »
So I'm carefully and slowly threading my way along the inside of some stationary traffic (there's a bridge blocking the outside) and ahead of me is another cyclist. She's slowing down because just in front of her is a large truck about to go into a left hand bend. Sensible.

Until some complete and utter fucking dickwad on a bicycle comes up from behind me, and obviously his journey is too important so he overtakes me and goes into the space between me and the bicycle in front. Which isn't long enough to accomodate a bicycle, so his back wheel knocks my front wheel sideways.

Does he apologise? Does he fuck, up the inside of the truck he goes. I carefully went around the outside (I wish to live) and carefully through the bends, but the idiot didn't bother to stop at the red traffic light.

No doubt he thought that as he was wearing a helmet and hi-viz then he was safe.
Won't somebody think of the hamsters!

Re: DOTD
« Reply #181 on: 13 November, 2014, 06:49:57 pm »
Road bike. No lights. No high viz. Didn't even notice pedal reflectors.
But that's OK because he was on the pavement.
Which is only wide enough for one person to walk on and feels a bit narrow even then.
And has a slope towards the road.
And has wet leaves on it at this time of year.
And he didn't look comfortable, wobbling all over the place.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

benborp

  • benbravoorpapa
Re: DOTD
« Reply #182 on: 17 November, 2014, 10:20:12 am »
For the love of Dave! If you rock up after twenty other cyclists have come to a stop at a set of lights after getting there before you and you position yourself in the right hand lane of two in order to get to the front, surely, surely, you must have an inkling that:

There may be the possibility that one/two/several cyclists on your inside will be faster away when the lights change?

That moving straight in towards the kerb is going to cause, at the least, some inconvenience?

That if you're going to do that, the briefest glimpse to your left might be of some benefit?

That fitting your pannier on the right instead might just buy the rest of us enough space to avoid having our front wheels taken out by your supreme numptiness. (it currently has a streak of brake crud from my front rim running down it)?

Just so you know, anticipating the lights by half a second doesn't improve the situation in anyway whatsoever.
A world of bedlam trapped inside a small cyclist.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: DOTD
« Reply #183 on: 18 November, 2014, 10:09:43 am »
I know it's not a busy road, Horseys, but I bet you'd whine like self-entitled bus transmissions if you came up behind a pair of two-abreast cyclists when in Daddy's Range-Rover :demon:
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: DOTD
« Reply #184 on: 18 November, 2014, 08:37:24 pm »
Riding on an unlit, national speed limit, narrow, unlit road. 
No front light.
A dim flashing white light on the back!
The only reason I saw you was the reflective bands on your 'council worker' issue trousers.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

benborp

  • benbravoorpapa
Re: DOTD
« Reply #185 on: 19 November, 2014, 09:38:07 am »
Having my left arm sticking out to the side while waiting at a set of lights serves two purposes. Well done, your dickishness negated both. Wouldn't it be worth a pause for thought if your intended manoeuvre requires stopping and pushing someone's signalling arm out of the way in order to continue?
A world of bedlam trapped inside a small cyclist.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: DOTD
« Reply #186 on: 19 November, 2014, 09:50:44 am »
Left arms can be unpredictable, like swing doors.

You must never do such a terrible thing :demon:
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Clare

  • Is in NZ
Re: DOTD
« Reply #187 on: 19 November, 2014, 09:57:45 am »
Oooh, I once smacked a PORHoS* in the face whilst signalling left as I approached a roundabout. It was his own fault for attempting an undertake.




*Pillock On a Rusty Heap o' Shit

benborp

  • benbravoorpapa
Re: DOTD
« Reply #188 on: 19 November, 2014, 10:15:18 am »
Last week, while slowly filtering down The Cut I did have the opportunity to whisper in another rider's ear "What would happen if I signalled left NOW?" I don't think he understood, even when I did gain space, signalled left and pulled up.
A world of bedlam trapped inside a small cyclist.

ian

Re: DOTD
« Reply #189 on: 19 November, 2014, 11:46:10 am »
Let's have a shout out for the SPD wobblers who cut to the front. They're lean, mean cycling machines. They've got to have pole position for that green light.

Cue 30 seconds of random slow wobbling across the junction as they try and clip back in.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #190 on: 19 November, 2014, 12:11:49 pm »
Let's have a shout out for the SPD wobblers who cut to the front. They're lean, mean cycling machines. They've got to have pole position for that green light.

Cue 30 seconds of random slow wobbling across the junction as they try and clip back in.
That irritates me on club rides.  We all want to get  across the junction so fiddle around turning your pedal over once you are across.

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Re: DOTD
« Reply #191 on: 19 November, 2014, 01:11:06 pm »
Surely using clipless pedals means that you can pedal with one leg?

Stopping in the right gear means you can get going again easily. Is it just me that gets up to speed before farting around trying to get my cleats to engage?

Somebody pass me the SHUVEL . . .
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Re: DOTD
« Reply #192 on: 19 November, 2014, 01:17:49 pm »
Cue 30 seconds of random slow wobbling across the junction as they try and clip back in.

Were you watching Ruthie and myself on the tandem at the weekend?  ;D

I thought we had got away with that one relatively unobserved... I think wobble was an understatement as I tried to clip in with my stoker powering away behind  :o

We sort of sussed it eventually

Re: DOTD
« Reply #193 on: 19 November, 2014, 03:47:05 pm »
Is it just me that gets up to speed before farting around trying to get my cleats to engage?


Not so easy if you ride a fixed wheel with a low gear.
Fixed wheeling has taught me to clip in while I accelerate, if not as soon as my foot hits the pedal.

Guy

  • Retired
Re: DOTD
« Reply #194 on: 19 November, 2014, 03:53:37 pm »
You don't get this problem with toe-clips. Which is why these new-fangled clipless things will never catch on.
"The Opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject"  Marcus Aurelius

Re: DOTD
« Reply #195 on: 20 November, 2014, 01:23:12 pm »
You don't get this problem with toe-clips. Which is why these new-fangled clipless things will never catch on.
Hate to disagree but I remember from my tandem exploits of some 40 years ago having a stoker who would delight in trying to change the cadence as I leaned down to tighten the straps on the toeclips - this was a trick he usually pulled after a long (rather too long) session in the pub. Drunken, belligerent stokers were one thing that put me off tandems for many years (that, and having our 23 foot sea kayak trailer overtake us on the hair pin going down Wrynose Pass).

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: DOTD
« Reply #196 on: 20 November, 2014, 05:37:40 pm »
Is it just me that gets up to speed before farting around trying to get my cleats to engage?


Not so easy if you ride a fixed wheel with a low gear.
Fixed wheeling has taught me to clip in while I accelerate, if not as soon as my foot hits the pedal.
When have you ever ridden what could reasonably regarded as a low gear fixed? ;D
Getting there...

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #197 on: 20 November, 2014, 05:46:15 pm »
Ooh, I've heard tell that some of TG's fixed gears were only in double figures!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

IanN

  • Voon
Re: DOTD
« Reply #198 on: 26 November, 2014, 12:02:22 pm »
To the young woman on the the shiny new cycle path alongside the river (and adjacent road) in Bristol
Precisely what gives you the right to jump the red light and force your way through a mass of pedestrians crossing the road?

Particularly as , (because said cycle path has been partly closed as it's now falling into the river) your path after the lights was blocked.

Gast suitably flabbered and lazy stereotypes about all the real morons on bikes being men adjusted accordingly

(although yesterday's unlit BSO Captain on the Portishead road takes the prize on that front)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: DOTD
« Reply #199 on: 26 November, 2014, 12:03:54 pm »
Is that Clarence Road with the shiny new bus stop island gizmo? If so, what's it like - apart from falling into the river already?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.