Next time a driver hangs back and gives you room.....

snooks

Next time a driver hangs back and gives you room.....Try not to insult them, it's ends up making you look like a rude cyclist and gives all cyclists a bad name

OK, I haven't been on the bike for a while, pants weather, quite a serious accident at work resulting in an injured back and still can't get on any of my bikes...It all means that this morning I drove in, yes I know, it's bad, but I tried the tube yesterday and that hurt my back, so it's the car for the moment

Anyway, I managed to get myself called a w@nker this morning by a charming cyclist

North approach to London Bridge, Lights go green, and he's not very quick to get away, actually he's not very quick at all, so I pull wide and give him plenty of room, I'm turning left, so I hang back to avoid left hooking him just in case he's going straight, he hasn't signalled left, so I'm not 100% sure he's not going to try and nip in front of me...I'm indicating left, so I slow and let him take the lead...and he calls be a w@anker

I dunno, you try to help some people

Serves me right for thinking about his safety, I only have myself to blame :roll:

lost_in_thought

Yeah snooks you inconsiderate b@stard....

Oh no, hang on... :P

CiB

It is annoying tho to be followed by someone - usually an old biddy - who fails to overtake even when it's v safe to do so. I get it a lot and altho it gets on my wick having someone follow me for too long when it really isn't necessary you're right, don't abuse the motorist. Trouble is that you then get beeped at by the following drivers for holding up the traffic when it was the old biddy causing the delay.

Lose - lose situation. Smile calmly and move on.

deptfordmarmoset

Sorry to hear about your injury - hope it mends in time for the summer.

I had a similar moment last week but from a cycling point of view - a flat-bedded scrap metal nipped past me then suddenly slowed and indicated that he was turning left. Fearing the worst, I braked to a dead slow speed, only to discover that the driver had seen me and was waiting for me to go past. Though I managed to recover my cheery ''acknowledge considerate driving '' habit and give him a big wave of thanks, it was only a split second earlier that I was fearing for my safety. The cyclist you gave way to probably didn't have time to get out of anger and fear mode, aware that there was a car hovering on his tail.

Either that or he was a complete tôsser

DonDaddyD

Similar one happened to me.

Guy accelerated past me on my right and then started turning left. I went around him, looked annoyed and he shouted, "I was waiting for you".

I shouted back "why didn't you just wait behind me?"

Hope the back gets better snooks!

snooks

Ah that was the problem then, I must have followed him for too long....all the way across this junction



My mistake

Fireblade96

snooks wrote:

OK, I haven't been on the bike for a while, pants weather, quite a serious accident at work resulting in an injured back and still can't get on any of my bikes...It all means that this morning I drove in, yes I know, it's bad, but I tried the tube yesterday and that hurt my back, so it's the car for the moment

Hey Snooks, I saw the pictures of your accident on a certain sailing-related website - glad you're still around to be chastising rude cyclists !
Speedy recovery & get back on the bike soon...

snooks

Fireblade96 wrote:

Hey Snooks, I saw the pictures of your accident on a certain sailing-related website - glad you're still around to be chastising rude cyclists !
Speedy recovery & get back on the bike soon...

Thanks, it was quite a crash, but I managed to avoid being squished by 10 tonnes of motor boat travelling around 40 mph, and lived to tell the story. How? I'll never know.

Just wish I could get back on one of my bikes, I'm not even fussy which one!

Robstar24

think in London or any other large urban area the stress of always having to look out, deal with bad motorists puts cyclists on tenterhooks and makes them more aggressive, seeing all drivers as wankers. not that it excuses such behaviour.

on narrow country roads, if there is a car behind i usually try to help out by waving it through when it's safe to go, as I can see better being in front, just helping them get on their way and it gets the car off my back.

that said some motorists are beyond help; 2 sundays ago about 9am i was going up the a21 towards lockbottom, with a car behind, it was about to overtake but then decided not to as there was one of those small traffic islands, which would have made for a very tight gap. so they kindly decided to wait a couple of seconds, only for the van behind to hoot for having done so, and then get to an already red traffic light all of 2 or 3 seconds later. the van driver definitely deserved to be called a wanker, which i duly did

hate to say this, but in my experience it tends to be chavs in their awful done up vauxhall novas, van drivers et al (ie Sun readers) who have the most negative attitude toward cyclists.

secretsam

In general, insulting motorists is a little dodgy, once had a car come up behind me and toot, I turned around and gave the full "GAFY" with hand signals...to my uncle, who was just saying hello... :oops:

jonginge

SecretSam wrote:

In general, insulting motorists is a little dodgy, once had a car come up behind me and toot, I turned around and gave the full "GAFY" with hand signals...to my uncle, who was just saying hello... :oops:

+1
Also, sometimes motorists use their horn to warn of hazards. Surprising, I know, but it does happen. I turned off my auto-single-digit-gesture response after I got a beep which actually meant 'do carry on' not 'get out of my way'. Felt very sheep-ish and one gesture quickly turned into a conciliatory one :oops:

GraemeT

snooks wrote:

Fireblade96 wrote:

Hey Snooks, I saw the pictures of your accident on a certain sailing-related website - glad you're still around to be chastising rude cyclists !
Speedy recovery & get back on the bike soon...

Thanks, it was quite a crash, but I managed to avoid being squished by 10 tonnes of motor boat travelling around 40 mph, and lived to tell the story. How? I'll never know.

Just wish I could get back on one of my bikes, I'm not even fussy which one!

That sounds a touch nasty :shock: What happened?

Hope you're back on the bike soon

snooks

GraemeT wrote:

That sounds a touch nasty :shock: What happened?

Almost killed in the line of work.

I was photographing one boat from another...Someone else on the fly bridge was organising the shoot, and asked the motor boat to do a full speed run at our boat and turn away...they did a full speed run at our boat and didn't turn away (for a reason I don't know, and don't want to speculate on)



The boat being photographed (above) mounted the boat I was on, and went over the top of me, after was knocked to the deck. I don't know exactly what happened, I was too busy thinking I was dead when I was floating in water in the dark.

Everyone survived, I was the only one injured, the boat I was on started to sink, we go to a marina just before the engines died. I was then taken to Marseille hospital, X rayed and MRI scanned and discharged

Very very lucky to (only) come out of it with a lower back/pelvis problem...All means no bike action for a while though

Full story of what I remember here

Clever Pun

heal up snooks, glad you got away from that

I'll always give a wave of thanks when a car has done what they're supposed to and generally been a bit nice (probably just want to check out my arse and pistons of power )

A car overtaking and waiting to turn left like that does make me nervous

thiscocks

CiB wrote:

It is annoying tho to be followed by someone - usually an old biddy - who fails to overtake even when it's v safe to do so. I get it a lot and altho it gets on my wick having someone follow me for too long when it really isn't necessary you're right, don't abuse the motorist. Trouble is that you then get beeped at by the following drivers for holding up the traffic when it was the old biddy causing the delay.

Lose - lose situation. Smile calmly and move on.

I agree- the amount of cars which hang back when there is enough room for a bus to get past is annoying. I get annoyed because I imagine they are getting impatient in there cars when they could just drive past! Still I guess it's better than being driven into.

Eau Rouge

thiscocks wrote:

I get annoyed because I imagine they are getting impatient in there cars

I used imagine that, now I imagine they are in the team car/commissaire car. Much more enjoyable that way, until I wave them past when I can see the road is clear.

Bassjunkieuk

Clever Pun wrote:

heal up snooks, glad you got away from that

I'll always give a wave of thanks when a car has done what they're supposed to and generally been a bit nice (probably just want to check out my ars* and pistons of power )

A car overtaking and waiting to turn left like that does make me nervous

+1 I always think mutual respect is the way forward. Even if I don't get it from 100% of the drivers when I'm out riding I'll always try to ensure I'll give a thumbs up/wave/nod when another road user has made me life a little easier :-)

Also have to agree with DDD on the overtake then wait thing, seems a bit pointless really.....

GraemeT

:shock: and there we all are thinking how cool your job is :shock:
Heal up soon and be back on the bike when the weather improves.

snooks

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

+1 I always think mutual respect is the way forward. Even if I don't get it from 100% of the drivers when I'm out riding I'll always try to ensure I'll give a thumbs up/wave/nod when another road user has made me life a little easier :-)

Also have to agree with DDD on the overtake then wait thing, seems a bit pointless really.....

I know when I was on my bike I would say "Thank you" give a wave, a thumbs up, or just a nod of appreciation at the smallest bit of gratitude show to me by another road user, be that bus driver, lorry driver, cyclist or pedestrian.

Just showing we are human and have manners lets us be seen in a positive light, rather than the negative stereotype inner city cyclists seem to have, and the guy on the bike was unfortunately reinforcing.

thiscocks

Eau Rouge wrote:

thiscocks wrote:

I get annoyed because I imagine they are getting impatient in there cars

I used imagine that, now I imagine they are in the team car/commissaire car. Much more enjoyable that way, until I wave them past when I can see the road is clear.

lol- Ill try to imagine that instead!

Fireblade96

snooks wrote:

Full story of what I remember here

Feck ! That's even scarier than what I had originally read - that counts as one of your 9 lives !

Mind, if you will play with stinkboats ;-)