Junkyard - this kid was not that small - he realised his dads instruction was stupid and passed on my right / his left.
this is the point = the dads instruction to go right increases the kids danger not decreases it and wil continue to do so as most people will react as I did on that bit of canal
Clearly, TJ emerged from the womb replete with all of the cycling skills the rest of us had to learn when we were kids.
I am once again amazed buy the selfishness of parents. Teaching the kid bad habits, being unobservant then telling he kid to ride straight at me is the right thing to do so I have to get out of the kids way? the kid had a m of path and a m of grass before the canal - I was brushing hedge
Kids - let your kids ride in front of me I will give way 100%, regardless of how rubbish a parent you are, because its not the kids fault.
Dogs - let your dog run around in front of me uncontrolled and I will run it over rather than risk crashing.
Motorbikers - dont get me started
"Of course like all Parents you sudden get so selfish that everyone else has to get out of the way of yo and your kid as they are so precious."
I regularly take my kids (6 and 7) on the trans pennine trail, and am always, always mindful of them getting in the way of other trail users, and drawing their attention to this if and when it happens. However, they are just kids at the end of the day, and at times, are more intent on having fun than developing an awareness of cycle path etiquette.
While admiring your tenacity in attempting to make your point, when you make statements like the one quoted, you do yourself no favours.
Oooh lovely long thread, with some daft comments!! My favourite, so for my first visit...
Is there one single ballsack left intact on this forum?
I weep for humanity. Then I weep more
Having kids with the sense to not fall in the first bit of water they are within an inch of would make even more 'perfect logical safe sense'.
Natural selection my friend! Maybe your little fetishes just aren't meant to make it to sexual maturity for the good of us all
the dad gave the kid stupid instructions to ride at me
meh! too slow, it's been said
I gave the son 80% of the path, the sone would not have had to swerve at all.
- I was brushing hedge
Well why didn't you say this in the first place!! Now I have every sympathy! If you were brushing hedge, the father should have respected your privacy until you were done. In fact it wouldn't have been a nice sight for children anyway.
the sensible thing is to pass on the left - thats what 99% of people expect
Really? It would seem from this thread that far less than 99% of people would have expected of that child, in fact in this respect, you seem to be in the minority
most people will react as I did on that bit of canalwill they? You come on here and still think most people will react like you
to show i both mean it and i am joking
The point here is that whilst TJ did nothing wrong and the father was a nob, there is no right of way nor convention for cycling on a canal path.
However as a parent I would make sure my child rode furthest away from the canal for obvious reasons.
I tend to ride on the LHS most of the time, but the number of people coming towards you that cross to your left when you approach them (they they were already on your right, thus needing to do nothing to avoid you) on paths etc would seem to suggest that most people dont share this convention!
I understand the scenario TJ - but look at from his point of view:
Happily riding along by the canal with his young son in front. He sees a serious cyclist approaching ahead. Worried that his son, a novice cyclist, might wobble a bit close to the edge of the canal if he goes left, he tells him to go right.
His son doesn't seem to respond. Looking up from his son, he sees that the cyclist has moved into his left in a seemingly deliberate ploy to force his son to disobey him and wobble towards the canal.
Worse than that the cyclist looks peeved off and chastises him for trying to protect his child, rather than following an unwritten rule.
If you really didn't have time to move over and let the kid go to your left then fair enough, stopping was probably the right thing. But getting a bbe in your bonnet about it seems very odd and curtly advising the guy to keep to the left in future is exactly the kind of thing that pisses people off about cyclists.
I'm just going to pause and savour that mental image for a little bit.
No I went too far with that tbh. It's not good to go round threatening to burn people alive. But he just pissed me right off, just sort of shrugged as if to say 'so what?'. Really selfish inconsiderate attitude. There are a few canal boat dwellers who seem to think the towpath is their own private property, and anyone actually using it is a trespasser. Like the dick who had a saw horse with plank right across the path! And then seemed to think I was being unreasonable when I politely asked him to move it, so that I and others could actually get by. 
Huffed and puffed a bit about 'not being able to get any work done'. What a tosser. Lucky I din't just chuck the lot into the canal.
Good thing with people like that is that you can remind them that you know where they live*, if they do get all arsey...
*It would have to be something very extreme to actually motivate me to commit horrific murder. Like being a fixie rider maybe....
Most canal boat dwellers are fine. As are most travelling folk. 
On that bit of canal its a very heavily used path - lots of commuters and so on and the vast majority ride on teh left adn pass on the left - so doing the other will cause grief
What about pedestrians? Aren't they supposed to walk on the side facing the traffic?
so doing the other will cause grief
It certainly seems to have done so
Oh - and the kid was already on this left when I first saw him =- his dad tried to get him to cross the track to teh side I was on after i had alraedy taken action by slowing and moving right to teh left
Next, time you encounter a kid, go to the canal side early and allow him to pass on the safe side. I think you underestimate how wobbly a kid can get passing someone, even if there is plenty of room,
Next, time you encounter a kid, go to the canal side early and allow him to pass on the safe side
100% agree.. whether you're a parent or not surely it's human instinct to protect the squishy from the watery peril..?
Didn't see any kids on my route home tonight - but why do some cyclists think they need their lights on full power all the time? It's a **** smooth tarmac path, and not even fully dark! Hope my eyesight recovers before the morning!
whether you're a parent or not surely it's human instinct to protect the squishy from the watery peril..?
Was that tj or gollum?
Idle John yes that is it exactly and look at the bunfight it started
Pigface - I thought so. I had similar problems yesterday myself, riding back from Clyne.
It is very amusing reading the replies above and trying to apply them to the situation on the prom......
GrahamSHis son doesn't seem to respond. Looking up from his son, he sees that the cyclist has moved into his left in a seemingly deliberate ploy to force his son to disobey him and wobble towards the canal.
Nope - I was already there before he spoke to his son. I had already seen the kid, slowed and moved over before either the kid or the dad had seen me. when the dad first saw me I was right on the left hand edge of the path and so were they on their left. all the kid had to do was carry on in a straight line - I had already got out of the way before they had seen me
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