What do you SHOUT?

[Ian H]

On moving to California, I found local convention rather confusing due to the use of 'car up' for a vehicle coming towards you instead of 'car down'. A vehicle behind you is 'car back' instead of 'car up'. I still occasionally get it wrong... I refuse to use the silly habit of sticking your left arm up to signal right though!
In the UK I would generally use 'car up/down', although would use 'oil up/down' on local tandem club rides where that was the convention.

Yup, the Yanks have the opposite convention. Interesting on international events.

[bobb]

Apparently some people got confused about which way was up. When asked I always explained that it was either up your behind or down your throat, which tended to stick in most riders minds to the extent they didn't need/want to ask again

I've known the down your throat/up your arse thing for many years, but I still can't get it right! To me "Up" means up ahead and I'm always shouting "Car up!" (or oil up as that seems to be preferred on club runs) when I'm on the front, before realising I should have said "Car Down".

I'm aware that you're calling down the group if you're at the front or up it if you're at the back, but I still find it fucking irritating and confusing!

I usually just shout "Car!" now 

[Jurek]

......... I usually just shout "Car!" now 

Which would be my preferred choice
That at least puts some of the onus on the buggers cyclists riding with you to actually look, to see where the car is.

[Wascally Weasel]

I genuinely don’t understand why people don’t shout “Car ahead” or “Car behind”.  Perhaps it’s too easy to understand and breaks the mystique of the club run culture?

[mattc]

I genuinely don’t understand why people don’t shout “Car ahead” or “Car behind”.  Perhaps it’s too easy to understand and breaks the mystique of the club run culture?

UP
&
DOWN

are short, easily heard and distinguished (think about the emphasised 'h'es in your example).

Nothing to do with any mystique bollox.

[Polar Bear]

Most in my social group of riders do shout 'car ahead', 'car behind'.   Simple and clear to understand by almost everybody and without need for explanation. 

Clubs will use their own versions for consistency but 'car down' / 'car up' only makes sense if you understand the terminology which, as i said upthread, seems slightly counter-intuitive to me.   

[mattc]

Up/down is simple if you consider that it refers to the gradient of the road.  Since you're cycling, this is nearly always in the same direction, and when it's the wrong way you tend to be keeping up with traffic and have less need to shout about it.   

That's really useful 

(once I'd decoded the usual Kim obfuscation )

[Ian H]

It's just the persistence of old terminology in certain niche areas.

[jogler]

I do pretty much what Kim does; car up/down unless it's something that's going to behave differently eg truck/bus/tractor/bike.

+1

"up" 'cause it's coming upyourar$s 
"down" 'cause it's coming down your throat

IYSWIM

[T42]

It strikes me as bloody stupid to use up and down for things that may be ahead or behind you. When perfectly good unambiguous prepositions exist, why use anything else?

[arabella]

I think of it as
upstream of me, so behind me
downstream of me, so in front.
I, of course, am the stream

it's oil here (Suffolk CTC).  I probably use car almost as much, at least.

[T42]

I though oil up was something that happened to sea-birds.

[Moultonaught]

I've always through of it as car up for a car 'creeping' up behind me and car down for a car baring (sp?) down  in view in front of me

[Vince]

We tend to use a combination of 'Car up' regardless of where it is coming from ahead or behind and 'Tegen' which is the what the Dutch riders use on sportives. It means 'against'.

[EMnut]

The use of Up and Down is US English – not that there is anything wrong in that. The problem is that most UK users seem to get it wrong, and shout 'car up', when they mean down

I've taken to shouting 'car behind' or just 'car' (if you are at the back, there is no point in shouting as the riders infront will have seen an oncoming car anyway). Agree that is should not be shouted too much

[mike]

'car back' & 'car front' here in sunny hertfordshire.  Up & Down always takes me a split-second too long to remember.

[JJ]

Car up/down for me.  For the club as a whole, it's a mix of that and car back/front.  Both seem well understood, and TBH, the context usually makes it clear anyway.

Back in the 70s with Cheltenham and County, it was oil up/down, but riding with my french club, no one ever felt the need to say anything about cars. They could just wait behind and/or pull off the road to let us through.

 Hazards and sharp corners were indicated with a simple A droite/ A gauche, meaning move that way.  Corners were denoted by shouting it louder. 

[Rhys W]

When I rode with clubs in North Wales its "car i fyny" (up, i.e. coming up from behind) and "car i lawr" (coming down the road towards us). It's the wrong way round in South Wales and I still get confused after over 15 years! I lived in Edinburgh for a few years and it was always nose and tail - no ambiguity there.

And yes, it does get shouted out far too often. I don't need to be warned about every car that passes. Don't get me started on shouting "clear!" as the group approaches every roundabout or junction. I often hear it from behind when I haven't decided for myself that it's safe to enter the roundabout. Decide for yourself if it's clear, but shout a warning to those behind if there is a car - that's how it used to be!

[Cudzoziemiec]

It strikes me as bloody stupid to use up and down for things that may be ahead or behind you. When perfectly good unambiguous prepositions exist, why use anything else?

Especially when it's common to refer to something or place ahead as both "up the road" and "down the road".

Car up/down for me.  For the club as a whole, it's a mix of that and car back/front.  Both seem well understood, and TBH, the context usually makes it clear anyway.

Back in the 70s with Cheltenham and County, it was oil up/down, but riding with my french club, no one ever felt the need to say anything about cars. They could just wait behind and/or pull off the road to let us through.

 Hazards and sharp corners were indicated with a simple A droite/ A gauche, meaning move that way.  Corners were denoted by shouting it louder. 

Proper attitude!

[Kim]

I got to use a new one at the weekend, as the sound of muffled progress tones approached from the rear...

"PHONE UP!"

[Fab Foodie]

Voted for "Car up", as that's the only variant I've heard used (plus "down", ofc.)

but to be honest I just wish people wouldn't shout it so much. It really only needs yelling when the group needs to actually do something, IMO. On a sufficiently wide/clear road that the overtaking car can pass the group without needing riders to go single file or slow down, it's just noise pollution.

THIS ^^^^^ in spades.
I've got so pissed-off with the Pseudo-racer-SHOUTY-pseudopeleton-thing mentality creeping into our club that I give a small talk to groups that I lead to refrain from shouting regarding cars unless absolutely necessary.  We get Car-up, Car-passing, Car down ....  it's bloody boring when every car in the vicinity gets called. As said, it's noise pollution on a nice country bike ride.
Call-out the unexpected, not the mundane.
But then, the really important calls don't get made like when people are slowing or stopping (I like EASY for slowing as it can't be confused with Going).
As per Matt C, whenever 'Car-up' is called people automatically single out regardless ....

Maybe I should cycle on my own ....

[Rhys W]

I completely agree. Shouts should be kept for when there's a hazard. We don't need to know about every bloody car passing us on a straight, wide road.

There's also a dumbing down of shouts at roundabouts. A shout is to warn riders behind that although you're clear to enter the roundabout, those behind may need to watch out for a car coming from the right. It happens on every club run now, as I enter a roundabout and look to decide whether it's safe or not for me to proceed, some muppet shouts "CLEAR!" from way behind. 

[drossall]

When I was a young rider in Cheshire, with the South Lancashire Road Club, it was just "oil". Down here in North Herts, it's "car up" or "car down". I agree with those who say that up and down are confusing, not least because, in a road race, the terms are used the other way round.

So, assuming that the road was not closed, the break that was up could be passed by the car that was down just before the group that was down was overtaken by the car that was up.

You figure it out.