What annoys you the most about road cycling?

gmacz

Skinny high pressure tyres.
Approaching a big pothole at speed with a car close on my right.
Drivers who stare at you as they crawl around circles and you wobble about slowly trying not to stop.
Mobile phone drivers.

CrackFox

Carrying stuff - Co2 inflator, phone, tools etc - 'just in case' of incidents that never occur unless I don't bring said stuff.

Washing my kit and forgetting to wash my kit.

Weight weeniness.

Mark1975

For me, as i live on the coast, I get angry when people walk in the cycle lane on the promanade especially when they walk there dog on one of those extending dog leads creating a bloody tightrope across it ,also as a newbie it gets me when Im going along all sweaty and hot going at what I think is a good pace when another rider flys past like Im standing still and it reminds me I have so far to go before I get real fit, which leads to me final bug bear......my knees hit my beer gut when Im on the drops !

crescent

CrackFox wrote:

Carrying stuff - Co2 inflator, phone, tools etc - 'just in case' of incidents that never occur unless I don't bring said stuff.
quote]

Yep, hate that. Like everything to be uncluttered but feel the need to carry tubes, pump, tools etc. Don't like anything on my bike when I ride but currently have a saddle pack and bottle/cage. Currently trying to come up with an ideal compromise/solution. :?

thiscocks

Wind, roads, rain, cars and hills.

RoadyForever

Crappy road resurfacing (see other thread).

Crappy cycle lanes designed by someone who hates cyclists (lots of blind corners).

Drivers who feel you shouldn't be on the road (or just dumb).

Days when the wind always seems to be against you.

Rain

ging004

head and side wind

sh1t that was strong today!!!!!!!!!!!

izzy Eviel

People who don't know how to park a car. Or pull out of a space. Living in London I see this all the time, I'll be riding along all and have to stop as I have no idea what the driver is doing. They use up all the road, go back and forth, hands flailing everywhere, lurching the car from left to right... *shakes head*

Dangerous driving, that's more of a every day hazard.

lemoncurd

Thebigbee wrote:

lemoncurd wrote:

Wind, rain and cold. So you'll get tired, wet or cold, it'll pass.

And most car, van and lorry drivers are OK, some of them even give you a bit of room when they overtake you.

It's the muppets in the tin boxes that annoy me.

I can deal with everything else.

Sorry - but what ARE the tin boxes?..

Cars, lorries, vans...

StillGoing

The ridiculous wind speeds we seem to get all the time. I can put up with rain, the odd crap surface on the roads and stupid drivers within reason, but a head wind that seems to be there whichever way I turn just ruins a ride for me.

I also hate carrying a saddle bag with all the kit we carry; spoils the aesthetics of the bike but it's bloody uncomfortable and bulky to load your rear pockets with it all. If I don't take it I can guarantee it will either rain or I will get a puncture.

ollyridesfirst

To be fair to car drivers.....i must get past by about 400 on the way to work and maybe 2 or 3 are complete nobs....quite a low percentage and when you see the idiotic stunts some cyclists get up to, you can tend to let he drivers off a bit. Although what does piss me off is coming up to red lights, driver takes over you and pulls in right next to the kerb immediately and stops....they always get a scrape down the car from me!

As for the worst past of road cycling....living by the sea, for me is has to be the wind! Any long ish ride always has me coming back towards the sea on the way home and it's always a strong wind coming off the sea that i battle with!

hounslow

whoever said traffic lights, agreed. SW london is littered with them.

seanoconn

philthy3 wrote:

The ridiculous wind speeds we seem to get all the time. I can put up with rain, the odd crap surface on the roads and stupid drivers within reason, but a head wind that seems to be there whichever way I turn just ruins a ride for me.

I also hate carrying a saddle bag with all the kit we carry; spoils the aesthetics of the bike but it's bloody uncomfortable and bulky to load your rear pockets with it all. If I don't take it I can guarantee it will either rain or I will get a puncture.

If you're worried about spoiling the look of your bike, stick all your tools/inner tube etc into one of your water bottles. Amazing the amount of stuff you can cram in. I normally carry some wipes or kitchen paper to clean grease and oil from my hands, they also stop the tools rattling in the bottle.

needsster

Surfaced dressed roads. Designed by the devil to chip paint, chip lacquer and create nice "puddles" of gravel on my favourite descent. All in the name of cost savings. The fact it only lasts 5 minutes before the road is buggered and they're back again is neither here nor there.

Close the road for a week, rip the old surface up, put a new one down. Repeat every 10 years. Simples.

MaxwellBygraves

ATM, the weather. It's just been pants. Now coming up to the weekend, we're looking at the remnants of a hurricane. Nice.

danowat

"What annoys me about road cycling?"

Mainly all the people who fecking moan about cycling!!!!

Monty Zoncolan

Inconsiderate idiots smashing glass on paths.

ollyridesfirst

needsster wrote:

Close the road for a week, rip the old surface up, put a new one down. Repeat every 10 years. Simples.

That man for transport secretary!

rubertoe

danowat wrote:

"What annoys me about road cycling?"

Mainly all the people who fecking moan about cycling!!!!

Cyclists do like to moan about everything,

Moaning about other road users, other cyclists, costs of kit, weather (to hot, to cold, to windy, to wet, cost of bikes. P*nctures, creaks, injuries, riding, not riding. the list is endless

Calder

Thebigbee wrote:

I also hate completely pointless "cycle lane markings" - have plenty of those near me that seem to appear out of thin air for 100 metres or so - then disappear just as quick. What is the point?

If you get 100 metres a time that makes you quite well off. There's several examples of them appearing randomly for 5 metres round here. Or on islands between lanes at the exits of roundabouts, for some reason... even though they haven't lowered the curb and you just cycle around it anyway!

Basically, councils have a target to meet. So they slap a few cycle lanes around their district, pretty much at random ("Oh, we're redoing the road there? Get them to paint a cycle lane while they paint the double yellows back in will you..."). Very useful.

thescouselander

The most annoying thing from my point of view is when councils make "road improvements" to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. What that really means is put some obstacles in the road to knock you off your bike or get run over - ie speed bumps and chicanes.

Silly Car

Car drivers who don't appreciate that even a 'fuller figure' bloke like me can muster 30mph on a downhill and pull out in front of me and look at me as though I am in the wrong.

Westerly winds as most of my westbound route is uphill.

Strange though, if I am diving, I prefer westerlies

neilo23

What annoys me most about road cycling? The roads! They keep going up!

I get annoyed about reading training books which assume you can ride for 8 hours everyday on closed roads. I KNOW what the best line to take on a descent is, but try doing it without worrying about what's coming up. Rode once on closed roads and it was a pleasure.

(P.S. I can (theoretically) ride most days for 8 hours but I'm still sh"t. That annoys me, too)

neilo23

And I hate being told that I am an idiot for chosing not to wear a helmet. Today you feel ostricised for not doing it. 20 years ago you would have been a weirdo for wearing one on a training ride, but who calls Hinault or Merckx or Armstrong (or most pros) a d1ck for not having worn one? Look at the stages of the Tour: when the pros of the time had the chance to remove their helmets when there was a mountain finish.
The sport gave me fredom. Freedom to get away from the town where I grew up where one should theoretically wear a helmet when one goes for a beer.
. Being told to wear one removes a good reason for cycling, in my opinion.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/b ... gal-status

That is what annoys me most

brh77

Presta valves, the fact that cycle lanes are roughr than normal roads, and the fact I am not very good at it.......

squired

Enemy number 1 has to be traffic lights. Standing around waiting for a green light when it is cold/wet/windy isn't my idea of fun. Even when the weather is nice, they are stil frustrating.

The state of the roads is definitely a negative. Having changed from a job in Surrey back to working in London the old issues I had with my right hand/wrist returned. That problem is related to being bounced all over the place on bad roads.

On the whole I think most car drivers are fine though and I generally view other cyclists on the road (at least when commuting) as a bigger risk.

Although I see myself more as a roadie, I've found the proportion of my cycling time spent mountain biking has increased dramatically. I'm not at all interested in technical offroading, but cruising down a bridlepath in peace is so much more relaxing/enjoyable than being on a busy road overloaded with cars and traffic lights every 50 metres.

Duffer65

hounslow wrote:

whoever said traffic lights, agreed. SW london is littered with them.

+1 on that!

Avezius

Cars driving in clearly marked cycle lanes on my commute & glass. Hate glass.

bompington

Cyclists who can't understand that the reason there is always a headwind is that you're moving

prb007

Bad drivers, I can deal with,
poor roads, I can put up with,
but if there's one thing about cycling
that p!sses me off, it's the bad attitude
of other cyclists wrt to being civil to each other.

Roadies will NOT acknowledge me if I am commuting
on my single speed Kaffenback, or if I am (rarely) on
the road on m MTB, but if I am on my shiny Ti, Carbon wheeled,
'best' bike, then it's all 'Hey, how you doing', ffs!

Be CONSISTENT, you w@nkers, and just say hi to EVERYONE
on two wheels - how hard can it be?

rant over, feel better, now!