lycra clad toss monkey thread

PutneyJoe
PutneyJoe Posts: 242
edited July 2007 in Commuting chat
Where is it? Anyway.... to carry on from the thread on the old forum...
what is it about cyclists in yellow jackets? :D Altura often.
I call them 'Evan'es' as I suspect they get a lot of stuff from Evans. Agression without finesse.

Comments

  • BentMikey
    BentMikey Posts: 4,895
    Hiviz is like the cyclists' version of a rabbit's foot against motorist bad driving.
  • PutneyJoe
    PutneyJoe Posts: 242
    But 'lycra clad toss monkey' is great even if it does owe a lot to the Simpson's 'cheese eating surrender monkeys'.
  • dondare
    dondare Posts: 2,113
    Mmmmmm..... Cheese...
    This post contains traces of nuts.
  • Nilscp
    Nilscp Posts: 36
    it's a bit random monkeys
    _________________
    Baron Munchausen?
  • alexi_drago
    alexi_drago Posts: 6
    "Hiviz is like the cyclists' version of a rabbit's foot against motorist bad driving."

    Whilst it doesn't help against stupid or inconsiderate driving, since wearing some hiviz gear the instances of thinking 'that driver looked right at me but i don't think they've seen me' have fallen dramatically.

    Just my personal experience however and yours may differ.
  • dondare
    dondare Posts: 2,113
    If you drive, then you know that hi-viz stuff shows up. So if you cycle, it make sense to wear it.
    This post contains traces of nuts.
  • BentMikey
    BentMikey Posts: 4,895
    OTOH the number of close calls I've had have gone down dramatically since I stopped wearing hiviz. Yes, the plural of anecdote is not data.
  • Greenbank
    Greenbank Posts: 731
    One argument against hi-viz is that "the average driver" associates hi-viz with static road furniture such as signposts and bollards. Therefore they are more likely to pass these much closer, and faster, than they would something they identify as a cyclist.

    Of course there's no conclusive proof either way. Like Mikey, I choose not to wear it based on my personal experiences.
    --
    If I had a baby elephant signature, I\'d use that.
  • alexi_drago
    alexi_drago Posts: 6
    I'm not really convinced about average drivers associating hiviz only with static road furniture, associating it with someone working on the roads is perhaps more likely.
  • ratchet
    ratchet Posts: 534
    I wear it because it makes it harder for the swine who kills me on my bike to stand up in court and say he didn't see a bloke, who's 6ft plus, and was wearing reflective and hi-viz kit.

    I know it's a Pyrric victory but I'm hoping one day someone will hear the words and not really believe them - and then do something about it
  • electricdave
    electricdave Posts: 37
    It shouldn't matter what they associate it with - in order to associate it with anything, they first have to see it. Once they've seen it, instinct should then make them realise it's something they don't want to drive into.
  • BentMikey
    BentMikey Posts: 4,895
    To go back to the original topic of this thread, I saw two girls go wobbling up the side of a large HGV on the southbound approach to Vauxhall Bridge on the way home last night. Stupid stupid girls!!! The bloody truck's wheels were half way into the cycle lane, it's not as though the truck driver had any choice about where he was in his lane.
  • Totalnewbie
    Totalnewbie Posts: 932
    Argh, Vauxhall bridge southbound is 'orrible. I think I pee off other cyclists by refusing to scoot along the side of large vehicles sticking into that cycle lane and thus blocking them from doing it also...but there is just so little space, it's not worth it.

    For what it's worth I have a very bright pink hiviz vest with reflective stripe, which does look different to all the yellow out there. I sought it out after noticing another girl in it and how she stood out (have not seen another one since).

    I think a WVM noticed it last night on Hyde Park Corner when he started pulling into my lane and I had nowhere to go (traffic on either side), he suddenly did a 'sh*t what's that in my mirror?!' manouver and stopped coming over. It was grey and raining so I think it helped, I may not have registered in his mirror check otherwise? Who knows...although of course it would have done me little good if he had not checked his mirror at all.
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/ ... 400572.jpg
  • BentMikey
    BentMikey Posts: 4,895
    Oh I don't mind it any more. I just don't use the cycle lane because it's so dangerously narrow, though that does wick the occasional driver off.
  • Totalnewbie
    Totalnewbie Posts: 932
    I have never had the courage to take the lane there I have to admit, and have never seen another cyclist do so either come to think of it. The drivers like to go over it so fast I can imagine their rage at having me toodling along at about 7mph in front of them.

    It's not good though, when the wind is blowing over that bridge and you can barely stay in the cycle lane...I must have looked seriously unsteady yesterday trying to stay riding in a straight line with the crosswinds, because one car hung back from passing me in his lane even though the lights were green, must have been scared I would end up under his wheels.
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/ ... 400572.jpg
  • markpbeaumont
    markpbeaumont Posts: 99
    lycra tossmonkey.

    i'm amazed that you didn't laugh at her.

    for my tuppence, i've given up lecturing cyclists on road safety now - only time i did it recently was when some mountain bike wrong cadence tossmonkey went straight through a ped crossing when it was obvious a mother with buggy were both going to be hit (they stopped luckily). Caught up with him and the snotty-nosed tossmonkey had some kind of deficiency so i left him. No doubt he has since successfully applied for his own special darwin award.

Categories