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| I live kind of in the sticks on a Maryland scale. Both roads that feed my subdivision are two lane farm roads with no shoulder. The edge line is painted then it’s a dirt drop off. I live in hilly country. So it’s curvy, hilly, no shoulder road. You round a corner to a line of cars behind one bicyclist going up a hill, a long one, at 6 mph. No safe way to pass.
Road riders suck out here. There is no way to “share” here and they can’t even keep the speed up because of the hills.
I ride bikes. I love bike riding. It’s not all about me though. You need to pick a spot where you aren’t a fucking cork. |
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Savor the limelight
| I was riding bikes on a MUP (multi-use path) in Ft DeSoto with my then 10 yo son and 8 yo daughter when I hear a a bell ringing. I’m thinking it’s my daughter when someone yells watch out and two of these wankspanglers go whizzing by us. The first one asks if didn’t hear his bell. A grown man dinging his bell like it’s supposed to mean something. The thing that really got me though is all the signs on the two roads in Ft. DeSoto that say bicyclists have the right of way and full use of the entire road. |
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| Not for nothing, bells are actually mandatory out here on multi use trails. Racing past children is dangerous but you should know what a bell means. They still sound like wankspanglers but using a bell on a trail is a real thing. |
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| A regular bicycle path rider here. Paths around here often require a bit of street riding to connect or add some variety. Even though I ride I do hate meeting cyclist out on the highways. Most seem to give little thought to self preservation. It’s standard practice and generally spelled out on signage every place I’ve ridden to announce your passing when you encounter the generally oblivious pedestrian. Kids are big concern. They love to dart across the path in front a bike. It’s like they see the bike and think that if they don’t dart across NOW they’ll never make it. Overall most folks handle it well and I do my part by avoiding congested areas when on a bike.
“That’s what.” - She
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| | | Posts: 422 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: June 06, 2021 | 
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Objectively Reasonable
| I've been averaging 4000-5000 miles a year since I got back into cycling in 2017. It's the principal reason I'm not 50 pounds overweight and taking heart, BP, and cholesterol meds (all of which were in the direction I was heading in 2016.)
It's really not that difficult to safely "share the road" with motor vehicles. It just requires some planning and common sense. Going 60-120 miles? Use tertiary roads, even if it adds a few miles to the trip. Got a 2-mile winding stretch where there's minimal shoulder? Aim for a low-traffic time, be VERY easy to see, or avoid it. Smile, wave, and thank the motorists you inconvenience (they'll think you're an idiot, but a charming and likeable idiot, and they might not intentionally run you over.) Ride in a consistent, predictable direction and speed, and don't unnecessarily gum up traffic even if you legally can.
Or, you can ride unsafely and inconsiderately, and cultivate the kind of "Cyclists are vermin and should be driven into the ocean and poked with sharp sticks!" mindset you see in this thread. Since the latter riders are messing up a good thing for me, yeah... I'm a little cranky when I encounter them. |
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Objectively Reasonable
| quote: Originally posted by jed7s9b:
It’s standard practice and generally spelled out on signage every place I’ve ridden to announce your passing when you encounter the generally oblivious pedestrian.
My personal version is "Good morning/afternoon/etc" from about 20 yards back. Half of the time they don't hear it because they're wearing earbuds, but at least I try (bonus point, if they're walking dogs, the DOG doesn't get startled.) |
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| As goofy as bells are, they tend to cut through ear buds much more effectively than call outs. |
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| I walk and jog for exercise. Spending 37 years sucking on cancer sticks have left me with lung capacity that can't support jogging for more than 1/4 mile. Yeah it stinks but I'm the idiot to made the decision to smoke all those years so I just keep plugging on doing the best I can do. BTW, the finest therapy for COPD is Aerobic Exercise and my "jogs" have kept me symptom free for 6 years now. Anyhow I put in a lot of miles on sidewalks in a City environment. Per State Law bicyclists over the age of 12 are not allowed to use sidewalks. Aint no if's, ands, or buts about that Law. Unfortunately it's also a Law that is NEVER enforced. As a result encounters with bicyclists are a daily occurrence and those that dwell in cities tend to be pretty damned inconsiderate. Had an asshole riding straight for me two days ago and the only thing that got him to change course we seeing me bracing to block him right into the road. BTW, I was on the right side of a pretty broad sidewalk and he had plenty of room to get by me, he just wanted to be an asshole. On a positive note 1/2 mile further down the road I had someone call out "on your left" and thanked him for the heads up.
I've stopped counting.
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| | | Posts: 5783 | Location: Michigan | Registered: November 07, 2008 |
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| quote: Originally posted by Plugugly:
Excellent rant, and the term "wankspangle" made me laugh.
The county to my south spent a fortune putting bike trails in everywhere, paved and dirt. Assholes come up here instead, to take up the entire lane of county highways with loads of blind curves. Only a matter of time before one of them gets turned into a greasy spot.
They ride in single file, until a car gets close, then spread out across the entire lane. I guess to prevent passing?
Sounds like a good recipe for an asphalt nap. |
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Frangas non Flectes
| quote: Excellent rant, and the term "wankspangle" made me laugh.
Agreed. Consider that one stolen. 
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“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.”
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| | | Posts: 17880 | Location: Sonoran Desert | Registered: February 10, 2011 |
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Striker in waiting
| quote: Originally posted by LS1 GTO: Wait till you come to other parts of the country where there are signs which read, "Cyclist May Use Full Lane" and ONE fricking bike does just that. 
I didn't know you lived around here!  Excellent rant, DennisM! -Rob
I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888
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| | | Posts: 16331 | Location: Maryland, AA Co. | Registered: March 16, 2006 |
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Recondite Raider
| quote: Originally posted by V-Tail: quote: Originally posted by bigwagon:
MUP
Multi Use Path... intended for pedestrian, equestrian, bicycles. |
| | | Posts: 3570 | Location: Boardman, Oregon | Registered: September 19, 2007 |
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As Extraordinary
as Everyone Else
| I can certainly commiserate with the comments here but I must say the bike riding issue is nothing compared to what you’ll see on any given warm afternoon in the Italian and Swiss Alps. Those idiots will ride the full width of the road (sort of like watching two tractor trailers passing each other going uphill) and 50 to 60 mph going downhill around hairpin turns. I couldn’t keep up with them in my Porsche!
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Eddie
Our Founding Fathers were men who understood that the right thing is not necessarily the written thing. -kkina
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| | | Posts: 6530 | Location: In transit | Registered: February 19, 2013 |
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| I rode the C&O towpath in Maryland last weekend and the exact same thing happened to me. i hate cyclist and i am a cyclist quote: Originally posted by DennisM:
A quick bit of Ride Intel for you, since it seems that your wankspangle “ride leader” forgot to include it in his pre-ride safety talk this morning: You’re not actually IN the Tour de France or the Race Across America. I am certain on this point because neither route traverses Pennsylvania or the Delaware and Lehigh Canal towpath. That being the case, there’s no reason for the eight of you to ride in a pseudo-Peloton-style line, trying to take advantage of the drafting effect that doesn’t exist when you are a) moving at around 10mph, riding b) your brand-new carbon road bikes with 25mm tires c) on packed gravel. Because you’re not racing. You’re on a fucking trail that’s used by cyclists, walkers, runners, and horses, in BOTH DIRECTIONS, and you’re managing to monopolize the entire width of the trail.
So, ordinarily, I wouldn’t give two shits about how you ride, where you ride, or how you look while riding, but I make an exception in this case because you forced me to choose between going into the drink or coming to a VERY sudden stop on the path to avoid taking you out. Trivia note: I outweigh you by a good fifty pounds and I’m riding steel that’s older than you are, and it would’ve been painful and inconvenient for you if I’d considered the THIRD option of just riding into you head-on.
Insult to injury was the vacant cow look Wankspangle Leader gave me—with a bleating “Whatdya mean?”—when I asked him if he’d made a deal with the state to rent the whole fucking path for the day. How did I know he was the “ride leader?” It was the silkscreened “RIDE LEADER” on the club jersey that solved that riddle, and gave me simultaneously a group AND an individual to hate.
It makes me want to pass you at the first opportunity and shove each of you into the actual Delaware River as I pass, and then throw things at you when you try to swim to shore. Also, it makes me want to find the person who sold you—probably in the past month—your $2000 race machines and $500 worth of Lycra (all of which advertise Italian companies whose products you likely can’t actually identify) and kick him square in the balls. Thanks for freakin’ nothing, morons. This is why motorists already hate you, and it makes it REALLY hard for me to blame them.
That is all.
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| | | Posts: 1017 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: September 26, 2009 |
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Savor the limelight
| quote: Originally posted by pedropcola:
Not for nothing, bells are actually mandatory out here on multi use trails. Racing past children is dangerous but you should know what a bell means. They still sound like wankspanglers but using a bell on a trail is a real thing.
I used to ride quite a bit in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the 80s and walked the path between LSD and the Lake from Oak Street Beach and Belmont Rd weather permitting the two years I lived in Chicago. I don't remember any bells. Call outs, yes, but no bells. Fast forward 20 years of non-riding and I have kids who are riding. Two of them started on seperate trips in Fort DeSoto where my experience happened and I had no clue bells are a thing. They maybe common knowledge for some, but they are a secret code for the rest of us. What is the proper etiquette for bell useage? In the 5 years since my incident happened, it hasn't come up again, but like you said, I should know and I mean that sincerely.  |
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Still finding my way
| quote: Originally posted by goose5:
That's why I abandoned riding on the local path after the first attempt. To much unpredictable traffic moving at different speeds. That's why I ride on the local roads and highways, but that seems to piss people of as well. It's been awhile since we've had one of these threads.
Is this satire or do you fail to see the irony in this? You're worried about people moving at different speeds on a path but are fine fucking up drivers trying to drive at the posted limit riding at your different speed? Childish toys do not belong on a road along side of cars. |
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