Aggressive/Suicidal Bicyclists

That vid reminded me of another reason I dislike the jerk bicyclists. Doing that kind of stupidity in traffic greatly increases the chance of an accident. Notice how many close calls there were in intersections? So Mr Adrenaline Junkie miscalculates and nails a car. And then it's the big bad car driver vs. the poor innocent bicyclist. There's not a lawyer on the planet who can't spin it towards the bicyclist, no matter what the root cause of the crash. So now the big bad car driver has to go spend $ to defend themselves against allegations etc when all it would take to avoid the whole thing in the first place is a small amount of common sense on the part of the bike rider.

I have no problem with the adrenaline rush part of the whole experience (that's a huge part of why I raced motorcycles) but the shenanigans need to be kept away from the, for lack of a better term, 'innocent bystander'.

That's just crazy! No other word for it...none that'll pass the Ban Hammer, anyway.

PHeller wrote: I ride with Critical Mass in Erie, PA on the last Friday of every month. There is usually on 20-40 of us. We take a lane when there are two and try to ride single or double file in single lane areas.

Sounds like your local group is the exception to the rule...the Critical Mass rides I've seen here in Minneapolis have taken over an entire street, generally at rush hour, and they've ignored traffic lights and stop signs. Videos I've seen of events in other cities were similar.

When I was down in San Diego late one night ridding my motorcycle home I got caught in Critical Mass, I had fun riding with those guys.

The person who scares me most is the kamikaze going down the street at night with no lights on, if I run you over and you are critically injured I will be thoroughly interrogated. Also, who pays for the damage to my vehicle in the case of an accident, bicyclists aren't licensed or insured so I'd have to take it up with my policy. I'd have to sue the estate of the vegetable to recoup the money to fix my car.

the above post is a fine example of a typical roadie attitude towards pedestrians & traffic

oh my eyes... DO NOT CLICK ON THAT collapsed link...

on a side note... the short bit of reading I did before I saw it was a year old post i thought about this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0eWfIIhKeA&feature=player_embedded

Yeah, goatse attack....somebody must have annoyed a 4channer.

I suspect we know who did that...but not why it ended up here.

If you're going to take a shot, why bury it on the 8th page of an existing thread?

donalson wrote: oh my eyes... DO NOT CLICK ON THAT collapsed link... on a side note... the short bit of reading I did before I saw it was a year old post i thought about this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0eWfIIhKeA&feature=player_embedded

They were fine. just very shaken up. served them right for riding like that.

Not to shore up a zombie thread where the the roadies and rank and file car operators will never see eye to eye, but I have a timely observation.

(I'm a road cyclist, former racer, messenger and bike industry worker of many years).

I ride in Rock Creek Park in and near DC very often, sometimes as much as about 100 miles a week, but generally closer to 75. It's all 2 lane and 25mph speed limit. On the flat parts - which is most of it - I'm going about 20mph and riding on or as close to the white stripe at the shoulder as I can. I'm smooth and utterly predictable and ride in a straight line as us old guys often do.

Lately, cars have gotten so skeered around the bikes that they just won't pass until they can cross entirely into the oncoming lane. I mean putting all 4 wheels on the other side of the double yellow centerline. I'm wide for a fairly serious roadie, but still, I don't take up more than 2' of lane, tops. Sometimes if there's a concrete curb to the right of the white shoulder stripe I'll ride on that while making the "c'mon by, please" gesture. Nope. They sit behind me, even if I slow down. Priuses are generally the worst culprits. In fact, 2 avid cyclist friends watched a Prius pass them - fully into the oncoming lane, and sideswipe a guy on a Harley who managed to stay upright.

Imagine that if you will - a fat, middle aged man on an expensive bicycle slowing down on an empty road to force a car to pass him.

The other day I caught a woman driving a Civic hybrid. I was doing about 21.5, 22 mph, and I was stuck behind her doing 18 or 19. I finally shouted "On your right!" loud enough that she woke up and blasted away at a solid 24mph.

The typical "serious" cyclist would prefer that the cars give enough room and don't sit behind them unnecessarily.

I agree with you. I ride a mountain bike so I am wider (at the handlebars) than your typical roadie. I too have seen quite a few people refuse to pass me.. to the point were I had to stop and pull off onto the grass once.

I have noticed that those that will not pass.. are the same people who drive with their body (not the car) in the exact centre of the lane. Perhaps they really have no clue where the corners of their car really are?

Yeah, I have issues with two groups of bikers, the large groups of yuppie douches who drive out here and ride on the idyllic narrow roads around here in groups of 20 or so, all bunched up, riding like E36 M3, ignoring any and all signs and taking up the entire berkeleying lane and forcing me to have to cross the yellow just to go around.

berkeley you shiny happy people. You piss off everyone who lives here, and we're used to the Amish on the roads.

The other group is the moronic teens/preteens that roam around the town, but that has everything to do with them being retarded, and less to do with biking.

we get them both here in the summer when our populations near triples due to the tourist season.

In reply to motomoron:

That reminds me, I never got back to your email. My apologies for that. Would still like to ride with you soon, especially since I'll be starting a new job in Silver Spring soon. Email response added to lunch to-do list.

motomoron wrote: Lately, cars have gotten so skeered around the bikes that they just won't pass until they can cross entirely into the oncoming lane. I mean putting all 4 wheels on the other side of the double yellow centerline. I'm wide for a fairly serious roadie, but still, I don't take up more than 2' of lane, tops.

On 2 lane roads, I thought by giving as much space as possible, I was simply being courteous and respectful to bike riders. Sharing the road, if you will. I will sit behind the biker until I can see that there is no oncoming traffic in the other lane and sufficient space for me to make a pass. I have no interest in driving between oncoming traffic and a biker at the same time, particularly on a really narrow road.

I can't stand the road cyclists around here, especially up in the mountains. Speed limits on the roads are 45-55+ and they are going MAYBE 10mph uphill around blind corners darting in and out of the road.

Or the ones that ride in the middle of the road going downhill. PROTIP: it might feel like you're going 11ty thousand mph when you're on a bike going downhill, but you're still going way under the speedlimit for cars.

And then they have the gall to motion at me to slow down.

Jensenman wrote: I have no problem with the adrenaline rush part of the whole experience (that's a huge part of why I raced motorcycles) but the shenanigans need to be kept away from the, for lack of a better term, 'innocent bystander'.

I swear to God I'm going to pistol whip the next guy who says, " Shenanigans." --Captain O'Hagan

40-50mph downhill isn't uncommon if its an even mediumly steep downhill. No slower than grammy on the brakes.

Now, weaving back and forth.. Yeah thats one of those things that if you need it to get up that hill, do more work on a lower grade hill till you can ride a straight line up the harder one.

PROTIP: cyclists have a right to ride those mountain roads as well. If you know that someone may be around that corner on two less wheels, then it falls under the categorie of "driving in a manner to expect all possible obstacles"

bluej wrote: 40-50mph downhill isn't uncommon if its an even mediumly steep downhill. No slower than grammy on the brakes. Now, weaving back and forth.. Yeah thats one of those things that if you need it to get up that hill, do more work on a lower grade hill till you can ride a straight line up the harder one. PROTIP: cyclists have a right to ride those mountain roads as well. If you know that someone may be around that corner on two less wheels, then it falls under the categorie of "driving in a manner to expect all possible obstacles"

And I have the right to go 45mph in the left lane on the interstate, that doesn't mean it's safe and won't infuriate EVERYONE.

failboat wrote: On 2 lane roads, I thought by giving as much space as possible, I was simply being courteous and respectful to bike riders. Sharing the road, if you will. I will sit behind the biker until I can see that there is no oncoming traffic in the other lane and sufficient space for me to make a pass. I have no interest in driving between oncoming traffic and a biker at the same time, particularly on a really narrow road.

To be honest, I've spent most of my life riding on narrow 2-lane roads in Bucks County, PA. I don't really care how close you get to me, as long as you don't hit me. Even as narrow as the old "1000-year-old-Indian-trails-turned-into-roads" are around here, most are plenty wide enough for 2 cars and a bike on the shoulder.

I just did an 80 mile ride yesterday and experienced all sorts of drivers, but most were fine. Probably worst was a H-D rider coming in the other direction that obviously made a point of riding well into the opposing lane (my lane) just to be an ass (staring at me the whole time).

There has a been a recent discussion among my D.C. friends about problems with their local "big" road ride which apparently gathers some 100+ riders split up into 3 groups. I would agree here that this is simply too large of a ride to do on 2-lane roads during evening rush-hour traffic. Due to complaints from local residents, area police have begun ticketing cyclists for minor infractions - like rolling stop signs.

In my experience. it seems a lot of road riders have trouble understanding "Sharing the Road" is a 2-way street and in general you'll get what you give. For example, when I'm riding local roads, I almost always obey stop lights - especially if there are cars waiting at the light as well. Me treating the light like a stop sign will onyl serve to piss off drivers. The only time I'll run lights is when there are no other cars around and my weight won't trigger the sensor to change the light.

As far as speed is concerned, there are situations where I will travel faster than a car. I ran into two situations yesterday. The first was coming down a twisty road with a semi-blind corner under a rail-road bridge. I can hit 40 mph coming down this hill on a bike. Having driven on this road for many years, it's tough to go faster than 30 in a car - it's just a weird section of road. As soon as I go under the bridge, I get to the shoulder since the road flattens out and cars can go faster. The second was crossing rail-road tracks that cross the road during a descent. I don't slow down for these - I simply bunny-hop over them at speed. Damn near passed a Jaguar in mid-air yesterday as he slowed to a crawl while crossing them.

Ian F wrote: Due to complaints from local residents, area police have begun ticketing cyclists for minor infractions - like rolling stop signs.

I keep waiting for this to happen in my city. A lot of the cyclist already apex the corner at the end of my street making for many near head-on collisions with cars. When the big rides come through (I call it the Tour De Clarkston) they all blow through the stop signs on the street while running at a pretty good clip. I am all about sharing the road, that should include sharing the rules too.

In reply to slefain:

seriously, this needs to happen everywhere. i've nearly clobbered several bikers that either didn't bother to even slow down for stop signs, or simply switched to riding on the sidewalk when their light turned red, and they started across the crosswalk against a don't walk.

e_pie wrote:

bluej wrote: 40-50mph downhill isn't uncommon if its an even mediumly steep downhill. No slower than grammy on the brakes. Now, weaving back and forth.. Yeah thats one of those things that if you need it to get up that hill, do more work on a lower grade hill till you can ride a straight line up the harder one. PROTIP: cyclists have a right to ride those mountain roads as well. If you know that someone may be around that corner on two less wheels, then it falls under the categorie of "driving in a manner to expect all possible obstacles"

And I have the right to go 45mph in the left lane on the interstate, that doesn't mean it's safe and won't infuriate EVERYONE.

yep. I did mention that he shouldn't be weaving all over the road. just like you should be over as far right as possible if you can only manage 45 on the interstate. You may not like the bike rider any more than that guy doing 45 in the right lane, but it sure doesn't mean they shouldn't be there.

Grizz wrote: Yeah, I have issues with two groups of bikers, the large groups of yuppie douches who drive out here and ride on the idyllic narrow roads around here in groups of 20 or so, all bunched up, riding like E36 M3, ignoring any and all signs and taking up the entire berkeleying lane and forcing me to have to cross the yellow just to go around. berkeley you shiny happy people. You piss off everyone who lives here, and we're used to the Amish on the roads. The other group is the moronic teens/preteens that roam around the town, but that has everything to do with them being retarded, and less to do with biking.

I couldn't love GRM the magazine or the website more, and believe me, I don't like to be the P.C police or anything or the guy who has a problem with everything thing, but I do have a problem with this...

I find it a bit offensive that you use terms like "Yuppies", "preteens" etc etc... for your little descriptions or whatever in the avatars. I myself am not a yuppie, nor am I a teen/preteen or counselor, but being moronic I feel sensitivity for people with special needs as I was once a young douche, and my Girlfriend is Amish.

These terms although I'm pretty sure are not even real words, are obviously meant to resemble the words used to describe people with professional jobs or who smell like vinagar, and it appears that they are used on these boards in a joking sense which, as I view it, makes light of people who are afflicted with mental disabilities.

It just dosen't seem right to me, thats all. I know that it's not my message board, and that noone forces me to post here, but all the same, some things are wrong when they really don't need to be.

Wally wrote: It just dosen't seem right to me, thats all. I know that it's not my message board, and that noone forces me to post here, but all the same, some things are wrong when they really don't need to be.

History suggests you're right: