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Share the road?

You know I was kidding.


A world of twisties and elevation abounds starting at the edge of my driveway. It is very common to encounter singles, pairs, or entire postal teams of riders in my area, particularly on weekends. As a result, I've taken to strapping a Chuckie doll to my back, facing rearward, holding a video camera. I turn on my 4 way flashers and trail or move alongside the peloton. I hope, in some small way to contribute to the aire de Tour.
 
There are vehicle drivers that blow stop signs, stop lights, weave all over while texting and do other dangerous driving antics. There also bicyclists who disobey rules. It is hard to understand all the rage on this forum against bicyclists. Most of the ones in my area obey the rules. There are a few young racing types that don't.

It is great to see people out on bicycles that want to lead a healthy life style and not pollute the environment. Don't judge an entire group of people because of a few bad characters whether it is motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians or people of other faiths and races.
 
The rage I have is because the road I live on the local bike club use it for theirs group rides. This is with no regards with the other traffic. They ride in a large pack and will not let other traffic get a round. I have talked to them and they don't give a sh t. Even calling the police about this has not helped. There are soo many blind curves that if you did not know they are on the road you could hit one. Around here they act like one percentrs when it is mor like 99%.

I am also a bicycle rider was in a club many years ago. Our group rides were small packs most of the time single file.

Don
 
I guess eastern NC where I live is different.

In town there are few bicycles. Traffic is constant and moves prety quickly and the place has the highest accident rates in the state due to poor road planning, visual clutter and tons of kids and tourists. Bicyclists in genernal don't seem to get much kick out of riding in it and it would be insanely dangerous in many places- though there are a few bike lanes..

Outside of town, we've got lots of twisties in the country but few stop signs, lots of spots to easily pass, etc so despite the fact that one sometimes sees group rides of bicyclists and motorcyclists passing each other, tensions are pretty rare.

When I see them out in the country, I usually have sympathy for those nuts enough to want to pedal in our hot, humid summer weather and knowing that a passing spot is coming up, can leave plenty of room for everyone.

We're not totally free of those irrational urban tensions here but a lot less than some other more uptight places.
 
There are vehicle drivers that blow stop signs, stop lights, weave all over while texting and do other dangerous driving antics. There also bicyclists who disobey rules. It is hard to understand all the rage on this forum against bicyclists. Most of the ones in my area obey the rules. There are a few young racing types that don't.

It is great to see people out on bicycles that want to lead a healthy life style and not pollute the environment. Don't judge an entire group of people because of a few bad characters whether it is motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians or people of other faiths and races.

While that seems like a reasonable summation of the situation with bicycle riders, my experience is that they, by and large, as a group, ignore many traffic rules. Colorado has a large number of healthy, fit riders who run red lights with regularity. Just sit at an intersection in the south part of the Denver Metro area and observe.

In NW Michigan last summer, there were hundreds of them on some type of multi day, group ride (in the hundreds) and they pretty much did what they wanted w/o any regard to rules of the road or the other traffic.

I have to admire their extra large testes. No protective gear (well there is a "helmet" that certainly wouldn't pass as a DOT approved helmet) spandex instead of armored jacket and pants insuring that a get off would be sure road rash or worse.

I will give you that the squid who does wheelies on I 70 in traffic in St. Louis gives motorcyclist a bad name. But they are the exception in my part of the country. We don't even lane split here.
 
Half way through the group, the leader sticks out his left hand signaling a left turn.

You are damn lucky he/she even signaled.

I almost cut a bicyclist in half on a quiet narrow country road. There was no driveway or road for him to turn into, therefore no warning that he might even turn. The inbred just decided to do a snap U turn without looking.

Lucky for him I didn't have ABS or I would have cut him in half...there was no spare foot or split second. After stopping, I turned around and gave him a lecture you could have heard in the next county. I could see the faint solid and long black line my front tire left towards the shoulder as I drove behind him to avoid him...talk about braking at the limit. The back wheel was up about a foot before easing off the brake to steer.

At home, I rubbed off the mark his back tire left on my left engine protection bar. Yes, that is how close it was.
 
As a bicycle rider myself, I get this. I listened to my cousin rant a few years back about how, during his frequent CO mountain trips he often encountered cyclists in the center of the lane on a blind curve, which was true & crazy dangerous for both parties.
 
Having been an avid mountian and road bicyclist for 30 years, a car driver, and a motorcycle rider, I don't think it has as much to do with the vehicle in use, as it does the prevailing self-absorbed attitude growing in our society. Everyone is the center of the universe, and when those universes intersect, problems arise.

I have had bicyclists do stupid and irritating things to me when I was driving my car. I have had cars very nearly take my life, only actually T-boned once so far, when I was on my bicycle and obeying the rules/driving very defensively. And I have had some very bad encounters with motorcycles when on my bicycle.

Several years ago, my wife an I were riding a backcountry single track. This was during a big yearly dirt bike event in the area. Most of the local backcountry motorcyclists and bicyclists area very polite. We are all fighting to keep the federal government from closing all the public access - we are allies. Anyway, we were on a long striaght pice of trail. Very visible, but on a steep side hill with no place to get off for about another 100 feet. We always stop and step off the trail as soon as possible. We heard a dirt bike coming up behind us, but knew at we were clearly visible him. This idiot, presumable from out of town, litterally shoulders my wife off her bike and down the hill. I had just reached a place to step off, as he came by me. That's when I looked back and saw what he had done. Had he not already passed me, or if I could have caught him, and I tried, I would absolutely have assaulted him.

Another year, same yearly dirt bike week, we were riding to a trailhead down a full size dirt road. We were riding two abreast, which we don't do much. A group of dirt bikers came blasting by flipping us off and cussing at us. They had plenty of room to go by, but we could have been taking up less room. We were riding into the wind, and neither of us heard them coming- and those bikes were NOT quiet. I was shocked at how much our hearing was impaired by the wind. I would have thought we could hear them several hundred yards away. They were jerks, but it was a good lesson for us on how much wind noise effected our hearing.

You might be surprised what some of these people that have gotten in your way couldn't hear. I think that as a motorcyclist, i will start tapping my horn when i am approaching bicycles. Not laying ln it, because that can startle a bike right out into the road. I won't even discuss runners and bicyclists that ride with ear buds. That is just so stupid as to put them way down on the evolutionary chain in my mind. Certainly natural selection will eliminate most of those over time.

My point is that there are jerks in every group, and if you put them on a different machine they will still be jerks. All the planets revolve around them and whatever they are doing at the moment. I say, just be a good, courteous, extremely aware and defensive rider/driver/boater/skier/snowboarder (well, maybe that stretches the limit of possibility)/whatever, and try to smile a lot.
 
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