A Conversation for The H2G2 Cycling Club

Membership

Post 61

Number Six

Welcome Recumbentman! Still looking forward to seeing 'The future is laidback' on the front page...


Membership

Post 62

Recumbentman

Lull in membership applications? To pass the time, here's a merry ode

Fellow Motorists:

When we've driven the last cyclist from his toe-hold on the street
Let us not become complacent, for the job is not complete
There's another class of person lining up for our attention
And he bends and breaks the law in every way that you could mention:
The pedestrian. His blind insouciance is past endurance
When it's WE who pay the taxes, pass the tests and buy insurance!
We are gentle, kind, forgiving, but he does his best to thwart us
As the heart-arresting jaywalker or traffic-jamming tortoise . . .
We INVENTED good behaviour, he's determined to destroy it!
And don't tell me to stop ranting, it's my right! And I enjoy it!


Membership

Post 63

Just zis Guy, you know? † Cyclist [A690572] :: At the 51st centile of ursine intelligence

LOL! And of course the dictionary definition of a pedestrian is "someone who's found a space to park the car" smiley - smiley


Membership

Post 64

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

Very funny! smiley - laugh

Actually, I sympathise greatly with law-abiding, sensible cyclists. It's just they are becoming a vanishing species.


Membership

Post 65

Recumbentman

There's two sides to that observation, Felonious!

The Stealth Vehicle theory gives one slant on "vanishing species".

My own entry on recumbent bikes A901036 propounds a theory on bike-blindness in a blockquote, and a relevant footnote . . .


Membership

Post 66

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

I almost killed a child the other week, who rode out in front of me just as I turned a blind 90 degree bend. And I was in second gear at the time. Also, in my area, there are huge numbers of people riding without lights at night. One rode OFF the pavement in front of me the other night. When I tooted my horn at him, he gave me two fingers. I *felt* like ramming him off his bike. I didn't, as it happens.


Membership

Post 67

Peter aka Krans

Probably a good thing you didn't give in to temptation, really...

I need to brush the cobwebs of my copy of Richard' Bicycle Book and take my bike out for a ride sometime... maybe at Easter. I tend to go by bus at the moment, because the traffic's pretty horrendous around where I live.


Membership

Post 68

Recumbentman

I think the time is coming that as motorists we will do more creeping about and less swishing along in built-up areas.

I also used to shout at unlit cyclists and mutter about suicidal behaviour. I see my duty somewhat differently now. On country roads you expect cars to come around corners faster than they can cover their entered ground by eye, and it is prudent to leap for a ditch if you have the misfortune to be walking out. But in urban areas, a driver should not go faster than stoppable speed for whatever may appear immediately in front of him/her, ever; and that is something we have got to learn.

Think about it. A car and a gun are equally capable of doing damage.

Injury inflicted with a gun is (at present) treated more seriously in court than injury inflicted with a car; presumably this has something to do with the fact that a gun hasn't any other use than to inflict injury, and a car has.

But apart from that, I don't really see much difference in the duty of careful handling.


Membership

Post 69

Just zis Guy, you know? † Cyclist [A690572] :: At the 51st centile of ursine intelligence

Amen to that.

I have a modest proposal online, which I'll bung in here when I get a minute:

http://www.chapmancentral.com/Web/public.nsf/Documents/Safer_Roads_Manifesto


Membership

Post 70

Zarquon's Singing Fish!

I'm a cyclist!
A very occasional one. I have a trailer for my bike that I haven't had the courage to get out with yet - I live in a very hilly area and the off-spring would not sit on the trailer the last time I tried it.

smiley - fishsmiley - musicalnote


Membership

Post 71

Number Six

Welcome, ZSF....

Incidentally, has anyone seen the article in Peer Review on Tricycles (A962831) - I think we might collectively be able to make a bit of a contribution.


New member....

Post 72

Ravenbait

I'm a cyclist!

National BUG co-ordinator for the Environment Agency, no less.

Ravenbait


New member....

Post 73

Number Six

Welcome! What does BUG mean, though?


New member....

Post 74

Ravenbait

Never heard of Bicycle User Groups? Dearie me. I can see another entry is required....


New member....

Post 75

Just zis Guy, you know? † Cyclist [A690572] :: At the 51st centile of ursine intelligence

Absolutely smiley - smiley

Welcome on and all, I've added ZSF and Ravenbait. If only we could arrange for more than one Researcher to be able to update an Entry, more might get done. I've been spending altogether too much tme arguing with the webmaster of www.safespeed.co.uk - he has the naive and touching belief that speeding isn't dangerous but speed cameras are. He is a troll on uk.rec.cycling, and we take great delight in slapping him down every tim he misquotes or misrepresents a statistic smiley - smiley


Membership

Post 76

Cyclead

I'm a cyclist! (Or at least, A Fat bloke that rides a bike!)

I would like to know how many people ride on the inside of the white lines on main roads.
I just got back from a trip with a friend that does that and I kept being harrassed by motorists that though tI should be inside the line. It is NOT a cycle lane and the more people that use it, the more people expect us to use it.


Helmet use?

Post 77

Cyclead

I am brain damaged! seriously, aquired brain injuries from a motorcycle smash in 1996.
I have more reason than most to wear a helmt as, if I hadn't worn one, I would have had no head left at all!
The problem is the compulsory use of helmets.
If I wear one, the pressures, even a hat does this, make my permanent headache a hell of a lot worse. If I am knocked off by a car then the insurance company are likely to try the "You should have been protecting yourself" line.
What do I do?

Steve


Membership

Post 78

Cyclead

I'm a cyclist!


Membership

Post 79

Just zis Guy, you know? † Cyclist [A690572] :: At the 51st centile of ursine intelligence

Welcome DogBad the Helmetless smiley - smiley


Trolls

Post 80

Ravenbait

There's an entire list of them at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport_debate

smiley - yikes


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