Rules of the road

Jamie©

As an HGV driver as well as a cyclist, trust me there are just as many bellend cyclists as there are bellend motorists...

StillGoing

Jamie© wrote:

As an HGV driver as well as a cyclist, trust me there are just as many bellend cyclists as there are bellend motorists...

100% Some cyclists are dreamers if they think the internal combustion engine is going to give way to pedal power for industry.

svetty

I thought this was a cycling forum not a tree-hugger hang-out?

964cup

I thought it was BikeRadar not Pistonheads. But I could be wrong.

StillGoing

964Cup wrote:

I thought it was BikeRadar not Pistonheads. But I could be wrong.

Not all cyclists are tree huggers and quite a few do like mechanically propelled vehicles, be it motorcycles, cars, 4x4s, trucks, vans etc. We don't have to subscribe to any particular opinion on the environment just because we like to ride a bike as a hobby.

964cup

philthy3 wrote:

964Cup wrote:

I thought it was BikeRadar not Pistonheads. But I could be wrong.

Not all cyclists are tree huggers and quite a few do like mechanically propelled vehicles, be it motorcycles, cars, 4x4s, trucks, vans etc. We don't have to subscribe to any particular opinion on the environment just because we like to ride a bike as a hobby.

Sure, but I assume anyone who cycles has some sense of how inappropriate private cars are as city transport. I used to be a massive petrolhead (see nickname, for instance), but living in London burned it out of me. If I lived in the sticks somewhere, I imagine I might still drive for fun occasionally, but anywhere inside the M25 it's marginally less enjoyable than being eviscerated with a blunt spoon, and anyone who has to breathe the air on the Marylebone Road will quickly realise that it's also poisoning us all.

By all means let's continue to have V8s, but perhaps not for a 2 mile school run at 8mph, eh?

StillGoing

Not being London based I can't comment, but do see your point re using a supercar for leisure when you can only crawl in it at fractionally over walking pace. Maybe the Arabs in their uninsured Lambo's and Veyrons just like flaunting their wealth in the hope that it impresses some easily impressed bystander?

veronese68

964Cup wrote:

I used to be a massive petrolhead (see nickname, for instance), but living in London burned it out of me...
...By all means let's continue to have V8s, but perhaps not for a 2 mile school run at 8mph, eh?

Very much this. I have been in the motor trade all my working life, most of it with classic cars. But I cycle to work because I don't like sitting in traffic and it keeps me fit. Yet I still get customers telling me I just get in the way and hold up traffic. When I point out I'm traveling faster than the cars in traffic they start banging on about cyclists jumping red lights or something. This is just in the suburbs. Why anyone would want to drive into central London that didn't have to is beyond me.

964cup

It's a vicious circle, isn't it? People feel safe in their cars, and unsafe on bicycles because of all the traffic. Although in fact the air they breathe is worse than outdoors, they think their aircon filters it, while on a bike you can taste the air.

We went to an event at our kids' school recently. It's about 1-3 miles from where most of the parents live, and it's inside the North Circular. So naturally everybody drove - wall-to-wall Range Rovers, AMG Mercs, a DB11, a McLaren... it is, as Philthy said, about display. It's a long time since I cared how rich anyone else thinks I am - my mother-in-law always says "don't count other people's money" - but it still seems to be an obsession for many people. I find it hilarious in London - *if* you could pull up outside the club/bar/restaurant in your supercar, then you might make an impression (although mostly of course on other men), but in fact you have to park 3 streets away, or in an underground carpark, and then walk the rest of the way. You might as well go by tube and keep your housekeys on a Ferrari keyring.

(fun fact: I keep the key to the locks on our trailer-hitch bike rack on a Ferrari keyring. Last vestiges of my old lifestyle...)

kingstonian

Veronese68 wrote:

964Cup wrote:

I used to be a massive petrolhead (see nickname, for instance), but living in London burned it out of me...
...By all means let's continue to have V8s, but perhaps not for a 2 mile school run at 8mph, eh?

Very much this. I have been in the motor trade all my working life, most of it with classic cars. But I cycle to work because I don't like sitting in traffic and it keeps me fit. Yet I still get customers telling me I just get in the way and hold up traffic. When I point out I'm traveling faster than the cars in traffic they start banging on about cyclists jumping red lights or something. This is just in the suburbs. Why anyone would want to drive into central London that didn't have to is beyond me.

I just don't get it either. The last time I drove into central London was when I had to take my youngest to a central London hospital for an operation - that was 7.5 years ago. As a family, we just have zero need to drive there, it is far quicker and easier to take the train/tube.