Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 47 total)
  • Ever clattered a pedestrian or 2?
  • thered
    Full Member

    While riding on the pavement.

    Why do the drunken ones seem to want to veer towards you?!?!

    user-removed
    Free Member

    This must be a troll. Please God, let it be a troll.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Only properly, don’y want any comeback so I normally roll the bodies into the road so that the rozzers/feds/5-0/pigs think it’s a hit and run.

    Though I’ve head in some areas if you have bar ends on the guys do move over so you can give them a little tickle with it 😉

    tomaso
    Free Member

    On the road yes. It was quite nasty and not my fault. Lady crossing road with her fella had not seen me and I was avoiding them when she turned back as though she’d forgotten something and with her back to the oncoming traffic (me) I collided with her – she went down had on her front and I went flying up the road. She got a bloodied nose and I got grazes and bruises.

    It is worth noting I had bar ends fitted to my Bear Valley. They were Answer ones that were secured by expanding wedges inside the bar tube. The impact ripped one off and cracked my Syncros bar. I also ripped the edge of my Flyte saddle. I was gutted.

    I was treated like a criminal. On reflection I can only think it was because of the bar ends.

    kimbers
    Full Member

    i hit a guy in hyde park, he veered into the cycle path, i thought id avoided him but had recently fitted wider bars and misjudged it, clipped him, we both went down

    he made me call him an ambulance, called me lots of names, started putting it on for the paramedics, later tried to sue me, managed to get cover through my parents insurance and they told him to do one, but it was very stressful

    chambord
    Free Member

    A group of students crossed the road in front of me without looking on Oxford road, Manchester. I avoided them all except one. I went straight OTB, bent my bars and brake lever and ripped bar tape. She grazed her knee, had a hole in her jeans and started crying.

    I felt quite bad but it wasn’t my fault they didn’t look before crossing. Perhaps I could have reacted faster or braked harder.

    bigyinn
    Free Member

    Peds are a PITA. A couple just wandered across the road in front of me last night without looking, I was expecting it though.

    Its the same when driving, peds see you coming, they still cross and almost dare you to run them over by going slowly. I generally will jog a little if I see a car coming.

    M1llh0use
    Free Member

    not on the bike, only in the car.

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    Does a lollipop lady, walking in to the street without looking both ways count as “a pedestrian” ?

    My emergency stop went between her and the pavement, so technically didn’t clatter, but it was –><– that far away.

    She wanted my name so she could report me to the local plod. I said “no need to bother, I’m on my way home, and since he’s my neighbour, I can let him know” 😉

    eckinspain
    Free Member

    What winds me up is when they stop, look, see you coming and cross anyway.
    Also foreign tourists looking the wrong way before crossing.
    And peds walking along the very edge of the kerb on Westminster Bridge – they all do it – why?

    brakes
    Free Member

    Its the same when driving, peds see you coming, they still cross and almost dare you to run them over by going slowly. I generally will jog a little if I see a car coming.

    +1

    One weary morning a couple of years back riding into work, a guy did this and was more concerned about talking on his phone and drinking his soy latte than stopping before crossing the road. I “might” have not bothered braking too hard and “might” have knocked him over a little bit.
    Regrets? I’ve had a few.

    29erKeith
    Free Member

    Very nearly, a guy walking along the pavement stepped out in front of me without looking and I was inches front hitting him. So I asked him to look before he crossed the road in future and he just started mouthing off at me like it was my fault. He noted I didn’t have a bell and that that had caused it. I just about had enough time to break before hitting him, if I’d gone for a bell (had I had one) and not both brakes I’d have hit him. Still my fault. I called him and idiot and went on my way.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Also foreign tourists looking the wrong way before crossing.

    this is *far* more interesting when it’s a herd of about 40 students and their teacher looks the wrong way and gives the all clear so they all step out at once as you’re about five car lengths away doing 30 in a car. I think the teacher was more shaken up than I was, tbh.

    I generally will jog a little if I see a car coming

    the trick is to give the impression of jogging without actually increasing your speed across the road.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Used to get this loads on Southall high street when cycling to work. The 3 feet on either side of the road was just an extension of the pavement really and you’ve get people just stepping off the pavement into the road without so much as a glance.

    Took to riding much further out in the road, but then get tooted at loads from irate motorists for ‘taking up the whole road’.

    One occasion, I ended up doing an unintentional rolling stoppie up to some old guy who just walked off the kerb without looking over his shoulder. Ended up with my front wheel parked between his legs and my handlebars inches from him. He just muttered and carried on…..
    Should really have bought a bell….

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Also foreign tourists looking the wrong way before crossing.

    or pedestrians who see a line of stationary cars so don’t bother to look for cyclists/motorcyclists.

    Hit a guy on a shared use path when he heard me say hello and ran 4′ sideways right into my, until then, empty path, we both went down. He apologised profusely (as did I) but I felt v.guilty, still do tbh.

    He noted I didn’t have a bell and that that had caused it.

    on way home the other day, nice wide gravel track, dog walker heading my way, long straight trail, he’s clocked me coming from miles away, both dogs and him are LH side of the trail so I go right and slow down a bit. Sure enough just as I get to them both dogs cross over to myside of the trail, slam on and as I ride around the dogs not quite under my breath mutter ” ‘kineelll” bloke makes some comment about a bell. “Why? it’s there to attract your attention if you’ve seen me it’s a bit superfluous no?” is not what I say, I just ride off, ring my bell dingding “**** off”

    As an ambassador for our sport, I kinda suck.

    njee20
    Free Member

    I’ve clipped several in London town who have been crossing on a green light, but obviously not when riding on the pavement, because I’m not a bell end.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    29erKeith – Member
    Very nearly, a guy walking along the pavement stepped out in front of me without looking and I was inches front hitting him. So I asked him to look before he crossed the road in future and he just started mouthing off at me like it was my fault.

    Seems to be the case more and more that people will never admit they are at fault. Whether it’s on a bike, in a car, whatever. The default reaction is to hurl abuse at you, even if you’ve been the one to take avoiding action, to avoid a collision.

    Even at the Wiggle Dragon ride a few weeks ago, a bloke was taking quite a sharp corner and ended up going wide. ‘Racing blokie’ behind him decided to choose that exact moment to do a stupid overtake and hadn’t taken into account that the bloke might not hold the same line through the corner. Cue torrents of abuse at ‘the idiot who was weaving all over the road’, rather than refelecting that perhaps he had overtaken in a foolish place and had made no attempt to make his presence known to the other rider.

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    While riding on the pavement.

    Why do the drunken ones seem to want to veer towards you?!?!

    Definate Trollage, good and brief though, not an obvious diatribe, wind ’em up and let ’em go…

    Unfortunately I don’t think many are rising to it today, the weather is too nice probably…

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Couple of times on the road or on cycle paths, it happens. Last time (I think) the person was mostly upset that she’d fallen over but I hadn’t (I kind of leaned into the collision and broke her tackle). Lots of “bloody cyclists” etc.

    So I suggested if she thought cyclists were a problem, I’d nip home and get my car, she could step in front of that without looking and see if the problem’s cyclists, or ****ing stupid pedestrians. She did not take me up on the offer which was a shame, I could do with a new bumper.

    Hob-Nob
    Free Member

    I’ve had a few close calls, from the ones who venture into the cycle lanes on the way to work, and do t have much of a sense of self preservation…

    The closest I came was with another cyclist!

    29erKeith
    Free Member

    stumpy01, you’ve hit the nail on the head there, so true.

    Especially on the roads, somebody does something wrong\dangerous, you take avoiding action, and you! end up getting a ear full of abuse 🙄

    I had an incident with a motorist who was using their mobile phone. I asked them to put it down and they denied they were even using it (it was still on, in their hand, sat behind the wheel of the car now in traffic), loads of abuse, so said I’d report to the police (which I might or might not have) “yeah you **** do that blah blah blah”. 200m down the road a policeman on a motorbike doing another driver for mobile phone use, so I stopped and said what had happened and he stopped them too 😈

    They argued with him for 20 mins, completely denied it, I was making it all up. They even tried to drive off while the policeman was doing the paperwork until he stood in front of the car and called for back up.

    Bloody mental, you shouldn’t be doing it, you know it! you’ve been caught, pay the fine and learn your lesson! but no argue lie argue lie

    drives me mad 👿

    legend
    Free Member

    A girl once ran out from between two cars in front of me. she didn’t know what hit her – it was a Raleigh Activator!

    brooess
    Free Member

    Riding in London you have to learn to anticipate pedestrians doing really, really stupid things – basically walking straight out into traffic without looking.

    I’ve a nice line in shouting loudly at them at the moment they step off the kerb – nothing nasty, just “EASY!” usually gets people to pay attention. I’ve never had abuse for it – a few apologies, a lot of very startled looks (did you not realise you’re in the middle of a road?) and a few who looked like they wanted to abuse me but realised they weren’t really in any position to do so…

    Re mobile phones – I did have a word with a guy on his phone whilst driving. He tried to tell me I’d damaged his car when knocking on the passenger window with my gloved hand… 😀 tbh everyone knows using your phone is dangerous and illegal so you’re unlikely to get an apology and a promise never to do it again… people are only abusive because they know they’ve been caught

    craigxxl
    Free Member

    My sister in law was clipped by a cyclist when we were returning from a meal in Leeds. I think the cyclist was trying to make a point but she is a big lass so it ended up with him clattering into the railings only to then be clipped himself numerous times by my pissed off brother.

    aracer
    Free Member

    What you need are some of these:

    http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lirpa.html#bayonetz

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    When I see the iPod zombies wandering around without ever looking, I must admit I’ve been very tempted but so far, I’ve made do with a very loud shout when I’m really close.

    Rockplough
    Free Member

    I’m at 3 now. Sometimes I think I should paint them on my bike, Red Baron style.

    1. Battering down the road, see guy peeking out from behind a van looking to cross. He sees me. I think ‘Oh don’t be daft’ but slow down anyway anticipating him moving. For some reason he doesn’t, until I’m right on top of him. I hit the brakes and put my shoulder into him. He goes flying, along with the handful of key blanks he was carrying which fell – glinting in the sunshine – all over the road. Was quite pretty really. We were both fine.

    2. Battering down the road through a crossroads. I had the green. A string quartet lase for recital decided to chance the red man. They ran out like a classical music Abbey Road. I hit the cellist. I was momentarily knocked out. Came round to find drunk from adjacent pub berating me. ‘Ye shouldnae have been therrre!’ whatever that means. She was shaken, bit banged up but apologetic. Somebody called an ambulance and we all trooped off to hospital. My eye went bloody for a few weeks.

    3. Battering down the road. BMXer jumped off a planter on the pavement, did a trick, and landed in the road in front of me. I didn’t anticipate this and t-boned him. My front wheel terminally buckled, few scrapes. His face was burst. His mates reassured him that he’d landed it though.

    torsoinalake
    Free Member

    Closest was when I was a courier in London. Took a cheeky shortcut the wrong way up a one-way street, and a lady stepped straight out between two cars – she was looking in the direction she expected the traffic to be coming from.

    I hit the anchors so hard I started going OTB (quite impressive given the horrific cantis the bike had), my feet popped out the clips and I managed to catch myself before I hit her. There was still contact, but nothing serious.

    She was pretty relaxed about it. We both agreed it was my fault for cycling the wrong way and we moved on.

    Cured me of ignoring road signs.

    PiknMix
    Free Member

    My second most embarrassing incident on a bike was when I was a kid, I had just fitted some awesome X lite ski bar ends and whilst bezzing around the pavements of Cheshire I attempted to pass a rather portly gentleman in a shirt, tie and braces. Well I don’t know exactly how it happened but one of my bar ends got caught in the big fellas braces and we both went down pretty hard.

    Being Cheshire not a single swear word was muttered but I did get a stern talking to.

    gonzy
    Free Member

    A group of students crossed the road in front of me without looking on Oxford road, Manchester. I avoided them all except one. I went straight OTB, bent my bars and brake lever and ripped bar tape. She grazed her knee, had a hole in her jeans and started crying.

    I felt quite bad but it wasn’t my fault they didn’t look before crossing. Perhaps I should could have reacted pedalled faster or braked less harder.

    i use the same stretch of road and can understand your pain Chambord…they’re a feckless bunch these students…BTW FTFY 😀

    my first OTB on the road was when i was still at school…another student decided to step out onto the road in front of me without looking. i slammed on the brakes and went flying leaving me with bad cuts to my hands and knees and a seriously buckled front wheel. initially his parents accepted fault but then changed tack and decided that it was my fault that their son stepped onto a public road without looking first…

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    All the time, usually go for pregnant women or the elderly. Nothing quite like the satisfying crump of osteoperosis riddled femur…apart from the squish of troll underfoot.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Battering down the road, see guy peeking out from behind a van looking to cross. He sees me. I think ‘Oh don’t be daft’ but slow down anyway anticipating him moving. For some reason he doesn’t

    People don’t seem to think cyclists count as real traffic. Countless times a driver or ped will see me and stop, then realise it’s a cyclist and carry on – wtf? Sometimes they even seem to think about it for a few seconds.. like they’ve made a reasoned decision that they can pull out in front of me 🙄

    My only major near miss was in Helsinki – most pavements are wide and dual use, with the cyclist on the outside. There was a bus stop I’d ride past regularly with a lump in the tarmac, going downhill I could get some nice air from it. Well one time there was an old lady standing some way out from the bus stop (but still in the ped area) looking the other way so I thought I could go between her and the bus stop and still get my kicks. Well a few yards out I decided this was too reckless and braked, but I locked up slightly and moved towards the outside but she heard the noise, thought I was coming up the inside (as I had been planning to do) and leapt about 3ft towards the road, straight into my path. I swerved rapidly and *just* missed her. It would have been pretty bad for both of us, I’m sure I’d have seriously hurt her and got myself in some big trouble, it was entirely my fault for even considering being reckless in the first place.

    Lesson learned, I still get cold sweats about it.

    On a lighter note though, there are a lot of wide quiet roads in certain areas near me, so young people often cross using just their ears which of course don’t detect cyclists. So they saunter across the road in worlds of their own as I approach unheard unseen. So to make a point, I sometimes hold my course, and when I pass a foot or so behind them I say something like ‘heads up’ which generally scares the living shit out of them. Hopefully they’ll learn and remember next time!

    ichabod
    Free Member

    I can reccomend nice loud Hope hubs for city cycling.. peds have stepped out in front of me without looking loads of times but a quick backpedal and they leap out of the way. Usually.

    spacemonkey
    Full Member

    Yes. Inevitably they come off worst.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Countless times a driver or ped will see me and stop, then realise it’s a cyclist and carry on – wtf? Sometimes they even seem to think about it for a few seconds.. like they’ve made a reasoned decision that they can pull out in front of me

    yeah I do wonder what’s going on in their noggin. Do they think, “cyclist he’ll be going slow lets go”, or “cyclist he doesn’t matter”, or are they just appallingly bad at judging the speed of 2 wheelers?

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    it’s the Schroedinger effect.
    anyone can see you, even get eye to eye contact, but the moment they look the other way, if you’re not in their field of view, you cease to exist again.

    brooess
    Free Member

    I’ve concluded that people only respond to something they see as a threat to them. Whether driving or walking, most people recognise that a cyclist is likely to come off worst from any collison, so at a very basic, animal level, they simply don’t give one…

    + we’re very conditioned these days to the most common threat on the road being a tonne+ of metal driven at unsafe speeds – and relatively speaking a person on a bike represents no threat at all…

    I don’t know if human beings are becoming more stupid, or are just animals with animal instincts. Either way, there’s a lot of daft behaviour about 😯

    thered
    Full Member

    Not a troll dudes, I have to use a particularly dangerous 50 mph A road to get home so at night i use the pavement. On my way back last night there were 3 youths obviously on their way back from the pub who I greeted with a cheery hello while trying to avoid them, sadly I didn’t do too good a job. I hit one at some speed, careened off him into another and came to a stop, still upright gratefully.

    They were obviously hammered cos they just walked off despite the fact that the first one I hit must have been in some pain.

    I genuinely thought I’d got far enough away from them to avoid hitting them so I can only guess that he leaned towards me as I went passed, kinda backfired on him.

    muddydwarf
    Free Member

    ipeds – they are the ones i find the most dangerous. Had one yesterday, turning off a roundabout nr the station so lots of commuters and studenty types. First idiot steps off the pavement without looking & the second clown, so engrossed in his iphone that he blindly obeys some sort of herd instinct, follows him. First idiot at least has the common sense to run across the road, number two is blithely dithering about as i hit my (disc) brakes and slide towards him yelling something unpleasant. He had the grudging decency to mutter ‘sorry’ as he jumped backwards.
    My aim is to yell loudly enough i make them jump and drop their blasted iphone and smash it to pieces – not achieved it yet though.

    legend
    Free Member

    My aim is to yell loudly enough i make them jump and drop their blasted iphone and smash it to pieces – not achieved it yet though.

    you need this in your life http://www.airzound.co.uk/

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