You can't win, but what's best practice?!

hopeful
hopeful Posts: 76
edited May 2009 in The bottom bracket
So, one day, I'm cycling along a designated pedestrian/ cycle lane and there are people ambling along in front of me, occupying the full width of the lane. I tinkle the bell, they nearly jump out of their skin, turn round and tell me there's no need to ring my bell at them. I smile politely and tear off. And today, I'm on my way home, with another couple walking right up the centre of the path, I try to gently thread my way around them and, just as I pass, the woman shouts 'you should ring your horn' (we'll leave aside for the moment the odd concept of ringing a horn). I suppose, legally, the bell needs to be rung at the risk of causing a heart attack?

Comments

  • cee
    cee Posts: 4,553
    damned if you do damned if you don't.

    forget it and enjoy your ride home!
    Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.

    H.G. Wells.
  • Infamous
    Infamous Posts: 1,130
    I prefer the more subtle "get out the fking way you massive cnt" approach.
  • chuckcork
    chuckcork Posts: 1,471
    Cycle on the road. I got fed up myself with the "3 abreast in the cycle lane, whats your problem with that"? a while ago.

    Oh, and the stupid girl who though it was SO hilarious to jump in front of me travelling at 20mph and then try again why I tried to avoid hitting them, and the skateboarders, the dogwalkers, the ignoramous striding forcefully up the middle of the path etc.
    'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze....
  • bobpzero
    bobpzero Posts: 1,431
    well for me i go without a bell / fog horn. so i just have to be patient. tho ive cyclists going the other way and it was cringe worthy - child and father on bikes, child doesnt move behind nor in front of father so i have to brake and the father just shouts at the child, this was on a flat straight bit of cycle path. met rider on horse twice, horse jumpd a bit while i was passing about 12mph, wonder if 6mph would be better. no walkers have said anything to me while i pass by. main worry is walkers with dogs off leash.
  • topcattim
    topcattim Posts: 766
    On my knackered old bike, the back brake squeals like heck. So I've developed the habit of gently braking at distance (as we know, the back brake doesn't slow the bike down much, so its easy enough to ride at a proper speed with the back brake on). My son has a bell on his bike, and I've noticed that people respond much more positively to a squealing brake than they do to a bell.
  • chuckcork
    chuckcork Posts: 1,471
    topcattim wrote:
    On my knackered old bike, the back brake squeals like heck. So I've developed the habit of gently braking at distance (as we know, the back brake doesn't slow the bike down much, so its easy enough to ride at a proper speed with the back brake on). My son has a bell on his bike, and I've noticed that people respond much more positively to a squealing brake than they do to a bell.

    One of my bikes used to have that too! Could use to great effect, much better than a bell. :lol:
    'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze....
  • freehub
    freehub Posts: 4,257
    I just madly change gears making a racket or go onto the grass.
  • markos1963
    markos1963 Posts: 3,724
    I fancy the accelerate and knock them over approach :D
    Norfolk, who nicked all the hills?

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/243 ... 8d.jpg?v=0
    http://img362.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 076tl5.jpg
    http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3407 ... e001af.jpg
  • redvee
    redvee Posts: 11,922
    Had issues like this in the past on the Bristol-Bath cycle path by what is now City Academy school. Kids spread right across the cyclepath totally oblivious to the cyclists behind and refusing to move for those approaching from the front like me. After 4 days of this I realised how effective a threat a water bottle in your hand can be :)
    I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.
  • mmitchell88
    mmitchell88 Posts: 340
    markos1963 wrote:
    I fancy the accelerate and knock them over approach :D

    I aim for the heel.
    Making a cup of coffee is like making love to a beautiful woman. It's got to be hot. You've got to take your time. You've got to stir... gently and firmly. You've got to grind your beans until they squeak.
    And then you put in the milk.
  • sicknote
    sicknote Posts: 901
    redvee wrote:
    Had issues like this in the past on the Bristol-Bath cycle path by what is now City Academy school. Kids spread right across the cyclepath totally oblivious to the cyclists behind and refusing to move for those approaching from the front like me. After 4 days of this I realised how effective a threat a water bottle in your hand can be :)

    I like that a lot :D
  • huggy
    huggy Posts: 242
    I see willhub is back...
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    How about, once you do pass them, cycle on, hide in a push further up, curl out a fat bum cigar and ambush them with projectile feaces.

    Actually, maybe not...

    I've always been tempted to curl one out on a bonnet of a car at the lights though. Never got round to it.

    Not sure I ever will... :roll:
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • mmitchell88
    mmitchell88 Posts: 340
    teagar wrote:
    I've always been tempted to curl one out on a bonnet of a car at the lights though. Never got round to it.

    Not sure I ever will... :roll:

    Thought experiment....

    Shorts down. Evacuate. Shorts up.

    Good so far.

    Clip in. Still good.

    Lights green. Going according to plan.

    Push on left. Hmm.

    Right. Ah, no.

    Left again. Bad.

    Right, left, right, left, right, left, right (repeat). Why didn't I do this closer to home?
    Making a cup of coffee is like making love to a beautiful woman. It's got to be hot. You've got to take your time. You've got to stir... gently and firmly. You've got to grind your beans until they squeak.
    And then you put in the milk.
  • mmitchell88
    mmitchell88 Posts: 340
    For some bizarre reason, I woke up with a major hankering for a round of these little devils for breakfast.

    DS5758.JPG

    Anyway, back to the thread...
    Making a cup of coffee is like making love to a beautiful woman. It's got to be hot. You've got to take your time. You've got to stir... gently and firmly. You've got to grind your beans until they squeak.
    And then you put in the milk.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    Dogs on flexileads can be fun. Once managed the most spectacular front wheelie stopping for one (Fife cycle path near Tayport), naturally the owner gave me dog's abuse for nearly killing myself and not his dog.
  • Stewie Griffin
    Stewie Griffin Posts: 4,330
    Mmitchell88, toasted? Surely not :lol: . What are you 8 years old? I cant have my Nutella sarnies toasted. Skateboarder who had just ollied into the road in front of me told me that Im supposed to toot. Toot what? "Watch out d1ckhead" not enough for you then? Shall I be a bit more specific?
  • Bhima
    Bhima Posts: 2,145
    If i'm ever in a similar situation, I just coast so that my wheels tick in the 50m leading up. Once you get close enough, they realize you're there and you can just say "excuse me" or something. (no need to shout or anything).
  • geoff_ss
    geoff_ss Posts: 1,201
    Trikes are great with dogs. Eventually they realise there's a spinning wheel between their jaws and the riders leg. I once ended up chasing the dog that had chased me much to its owners annoyance :) Especially as I pointed that the dog should have been on a lead on the cycle track.

    Geoff
    Old cyclists never die; they just fit smaller chainrings ... and pedal faster
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    mmitchell88 wrote:
    teagar wrote:
    I've always been tempted to curl one out on a bonnet of a car at the lights though. Never got round to it.

    Not sure I ever will... :roll:

    Thought experiment....

    Shorts down. Evacuate. Shorts up.

    Good so far.

    Clip in. Still good.

    Lights green. Going according to plan.

    Push on left. Hmm.

    Right. Ah, no.

    Left again. Bad.

    Right, left, right, left, right, left, right (repeat). Why didn't I do this closer to home?

    It's much more difficult with bibs...

    Trust me.... :x
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • pottssteve
    pottssteve Posts: 4,069
    You people don't know you're born!

    I thought Brighton seafront was bad until I moved here.

    When I have to use the cycle path I will typically encounter up to 7 million pedestrians (Hong Kong has the 3rd highest population density of any country). Most of them seem to think the painted bicycle on the path (often painted using paint 2 inches thick) means, "walk or jog here". Since they NEVER, EVER look behind them I'm starting a campaign for Hong Kongers to be fitted with wing-mirrors at birth.

    On top of that there are the dogs off the lead, people in wheelchairs, pram-pushers and, peculiar to SE Asia, I believe, very elderly women bent horizontal with the effort of pushing carts piled up to 2 metres high with cardboard on the way to the recycling centre. :roll:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/41703426@N00/2054604232

    Just to slow me down even more the council uses the cycle lanes as a convenient location for placing road signs, dustbins and thousands of grids, along with placing bollards at EVERY junction.

    I ride everywhere I can on the road at 6 in the morning :lol:
    Head Hands Heart Lungs Legs

Categories