Car drivers look at me funny

Beachslapper

I went out to day for a bit of a sprint only 25 miles

But when i was pushing it ( well pushing it for me) doing 35ish passing cars in the cycle 8)

The car drivers were giving me some funny looks :shock:

Is this normal?:P

marcthehammer

Yeah its normal, It happens to me too but only if im doing a weelie at 35mph!!!

e999sam

If you passed me doing 35 I'd be giving you funny looks!

cougie

If it was on the flat i would want you tested for dope.

Beachslapper

belive me i can only reach it for a few seconds then i feel like my legs are goin to explode

x8swift9x

Beachslapper wrote:

The car drivers were giving me some funny looks :shock:

Is this normal?:P

I get it all the time too. I recieve the best looks when I go into a shop etc to get a paper at the end of a sunday morning ride. People look at me as if I'm from mars (maybe it's the lyrcra )

JWSurrey

Try going in to the local DIY store wearing a Foska Crash Test Dummy top, and going down the aisle with the chainsaws - now I got some fully looks that day
I must have looked like an escapee from Brainiac!

STEFANOS4784

No this is most definately not normal, i suggest you give up riding :roll:

spen666

Beachslapper wrote:

I went out to day for a bit of a sprint only 25 miles

But when i was pushing it ( well pushing it for me) doing 35ish passing cars in the cycle 8)
The car drivers were giving me some funny looks :shock:

Is this normal?:P

If you mean you were doing 35mph and passing vwehicles whilst you were in the cycle lane ( assuming you mean the 2"wide lane on left side of road and not a bus & cycle lane), then I am not suprised.

Is it appropriate to be doing that speed in the gutter and effectively "undertaking" other cars ?

fuzzynavel

From my experience not many cars will sit at 30mph unless they are in a traffic queue or in a 20mph or 30mph zone...therefore you may have been breaking the speed limit and I think you can get points on your driving license if caught.
Not to mention the damage you could do to yourself or a pedestrian if you stack it. Be careful...you don't want to be a statistic

Stewie Griffin

fuzzynavel wrote:

From my experience not many cars will sit at 30mph unless they are in a traffic queue or in a 20mph or 30mph zone...therefore you may have been breaking the speed limit and I think you can get points on your driving license if caught.
Not to mention the damage you could do to yourself or a pedestrian if you stack it. Be careful...you don't want to be a statistic

Points on your Drivers Licence for breaking the speed limit on a bike? I dont think so.

ride_whenever

cycling without due care and attention perhaps...

or FURIOUS CYCLING, which is far cooler

STEFANOS4784

ride_whenever wrote:

cycling without due care and attention perhaps...

or FURIOUS CYCLING, which is far cooler

+1, i don't have a driving license so good luck puting points on it :P




edit: meant to quote Stewie, obviously i'm not wiley enough :oops:

Nick6891

haha ye dont think you will get points, i have a hill i always go down on my commute where the speed limit is 30 and since its busy at rush hour cars are only ever doing 30-35, i get funny looks when they have overtaken me at the top but i am way ahead at the bottom, but you do have to be extra careful as cars and people never see bikes as going fast, so they might look and think oh bike, must be going slow so lets pull out, then you have to slam on brakes exchange a couple of not nice words and hand signals to the driver then get going again

Onan

spen666 wrote:

Beachslapper wrote:

I went out to day for a bit of a sprint only 25 miles

But when i was pushing it ( well pushing it for me) doing 35ish passing cars in the cycle 8)
The car drivers were giving me some funny looks :shock:

Is this normal?:P

If you mean you were doing 35mph and passing vwehicles whilst you were in the cycle lane ( assuming you mean the 2"wide lane on left side of road and not a bus & cycle lane), then I am not suprised.

Is it appropriate to be doing that speed in the gutter and effectively "undertaking" other cars ?

What speed are we supposed to be doing when we're in the gutter, undertaking cars?

Logic dictates that if we obey the rules of the road, and ride in cycle lanes when they are provided, that we may find ourselves going faster than the traffic is moving, and we will have to undertake.

Are we supposed to ride slower than traffic now as well? Or maybe we should cut accross the lane to ride on the right hand side. That's easy to do isn't it? It's not as if that would annoy drivers at all.

:roll:

Riding at 35 miles an hour in a cycling lane is perfectly appropriate as far as I'm concerned. It's where you're supposed to be, and as long as you're not breaking the speed limit, you're doing nothing wrong.

STEFANOS4784

Onan wrote:

spen666 wrote:

Beachslapper wrote:

I went out to day for a bit of a sprint only 25 miles

But when i was pushing it ( well pushing it for me) doing 35ish passing cars in the cycle 8)
The car drivers were giving me some funny looks :shock:

Is this normal?:P

If you mean you were doing 35mph and passing vwehicles whilst you were in the cycle lane ( assuming you mean the 2"wide lane on left side of road and not a bus & cycle lane), then I am not suprised.

Is it appropriate to be doing that speed in the gutter and effectively "undertaking" other cars ?

What speed are we supposed to be doing when we're in the gutter, undertaking cars?

.

Get off and carry your bike, damn cyclists, get a car/ pay road tax/ take this empty can of coke in your face/ get sprayed with the wiper fluid stuff, herherherherher :roll: 8)

Stewie Griffin

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

ride_whenever wrote:

cycling without due care and attention perhaps...

or FURIOUS CYCLING, which is far cooler

+1, i don't have a driving license so good luck puting points on it :P




edit: menat to quote Stewie, obviously i'm not wiley enough :oops:

NA NA NA NA NA!

Not even sure if you can be done for "furious cycling", which is a shame
http://www.bikeforall.net/content/cycli ... he_law.php

Onan

This is interesting:

"According to this advice issued by the Department of Transport, cyclists likely to be riding 18mph or faster should use roads not cycle-paths."

How is that supposed to work? I often cycle faster than 18mph, and have little choice but to use the cycle lanes. Cycling on the right hand side of the lane would clearly be more dangerous, as I'm still going slower than cars (except when they intermitently stop in traffic), and I can't cycle in the middle of the lane, so I'm forced to ride in the cycle lane.

You can't draw lines all over the country for cyclists to ride behind, then tell them they shouldn't ride behind them if they're going at certain speeds. that just makes it even more ridiculously difficult for cyclists.

dal105

I think you need to draw a distinction between "cycle-paths" and "cycle lanes".

Cycle paths are the off-road cycleways, often shared with pedestrians, where travelling over 18mph is certainly not advised. I tend to avoid these anyway as they are often badly maintained and dangerous IME.

Cycle lanes are the sections of road with a solid white line to separate cycles from traffic. I don't think there is any max speed advice for these - although you should obviously be cautious when filtering down the inside of stationary or slow moving traffic - you never know when someone will turn left or open their passenger door!

On the subject of speed limits, I'm sure that I read somewhere that the Road Traffic Act only explicitly sets out speed limits for motor vehicles, but you can still get done for dangerous cycling if a police officer thinks you're going too fast. Anyone else read this?

Onan

dal105 wrote:

I think you need to draw a distinction between "cycle-paths" and "cycle lanes".

Cycle paths are the off-road cycleways, often shared with pedestrians, where travelling over 18mph is certainly not advised. I tend to avoid these anyway as they are often badly maintained and dangerous IME.

Cycle lanes are the sections of road with a solid white line to separate cycles from traffic. I don't think there is any max speed advice for these - although you should obviously be cautious when filtering down the inside of stationary or slow moving traffic - you never know when someone will turn left or open their passenger door!

On the subject of speed limits, I'm sure that I read somewhere that the Road Traffic Act only explicitly sets out speed limits for motor vehicles, but you can still get done for dangerous cycling if a police officer thinks you're going too fast. Anyone else read this?

Oh, I see. I didn't realise there was a distinction. I don't use the cycle paths either, if I can avoid it. I want to ride on the road, not on the bits of the pavement somebody has drawn little pictures of bicycles all over. It annoys me when cycle lanes in the road suddenly take you up onto the pavement.

alfablue

:arrow: This is quite interesting.

redvee

Used to get some strange looks and a few odd comments when I used to ride in a pair of red/black Troll climbing tights.