I've had an old lady cross her walking poles, plant them firmly in the ground and defiantly shout NO at me! It was like ****ing Gandalf.
"Just because you're ringing your bell ,it doesn't mean that I'm going to get out of the way."
I’m with you. A ringing bell does feel like an old skool equivalent of “stravaaaaa-get out of my way plebs”.
I agree to some extent but its what walkers expect, it gives you the moral high ground and IME it works far more often than not and it smooths interactions. the key is to ring it a long way back like 50+ m
There's definitely a good and a bad way to use a bell, if you ring a bell and storm past without slowing down then it's a "get out of my way" warning but if you use it and slow down whilst passing and say thanks then it comes across as courteous.
Yup - I must have thank 30 folk I passed using my bell on the shared use walkway today. Every one I thanked, I got half a dozen thanks back and no nasty interactions
My Timber bell makes a happy ring and moves people in a friendly way. A must.
The schrodinger…
Someone should invent this. You ring it, and it randomly gives a merry tinkle that makes walkers smile and laugh in appreciation, or a massive airhorn sound.
The non-angry walkers in groups seem to show enormous faith in my abilities if we meet. There seems to be an unwritten rule that the group splits in two and line up 1 metre apart and then seem to wonder why I'm not charging through through their guard of honour, over the jagged rocks, deftly not-killing the dog that is attached to a person on one side and being called by a person on the other side.
Someone should invent this.
anyone know any bell manufacturers?
I once came round a corner on my local, clearly marked MTB trail, and encountered 4 very portly, older genltlemen driving their radiocontrolled 4X4's up the very sandy hill that I was trying to descend. I stopped, politely asked them to move about 5 meters over to the next identical hill, because I knew that there were quite a lot of the local speed fiends behind me. They informed me, in no uncertian terms, that I did not own the land, and they would be driving their rather expensive Tamiyas enywhere they would bloody well like to.
When I came back to the car park, I saw two of the portly gentlemen trying to figure out which of the 2 million small bits of Tamiya plastic that were salvageable.
Talked to one of the guys behind me later, turns out the car guys had stayed put, their cars got run over, then they tried to start a fight.
Rule number 1: Don't be a dick.
“Do you know this is a one-way street?”
Its ok, I'm only going one way
Rule number 1: Don’t be a dick.
Absolutely this. If I see walkers ahead when I'm on my bike I'll always call out from thirty yards away to let them know that I'd like to come through and that there's no hurry and give them a huge smile.
99.9% of the time this works like a charm.
“Do you know this is a one-way street?”
I had this from a dopey drinker crossing the road outside The Bridge End, Crickhowel.
I was going the right way, yet somehow he was sure I was doing something wrong because he nearly spilled his pint.
Feel pretty grateful I've never had a poor interaction with a walker out in the wild. Idiots on marked bike park trails is a very different kettle of fish though, but they're a special kind of stupid.
Hiya,
Whilst riding in Windsor park a few years ago. Accosted by a man and his wife shouting at us for riding on a permitted section. Mate turned around said to the chap "Can you read that sign there?" The sign had "Keep Dogs on lead". Still makes me laugh, thinking about it...
Best Regards
JeZ
A dog walker once refused to call her yappy dog back when it was (actually) trying to bite my ankles. I'd already said 'good morning' as I passed and was ignored. When I enquired why she thought it was OK to let the dog go at me, she told me that the dog knew I was on the footpath 'illegally' and that it wouldn't have been biting me had we met on a bridleway.
She was awarded bonus stupidity points because not 50m before our interaction, she had passed and evidently ignored a sign mandating dogs be kept on a lead (to do with the time of year & ground nesting birds).
Some people are just miserable / looking for arguments. I'm sure if they weren't doing it whilst out walking, they'd be finding something else to moan about. But the overwhelming majority of my interactions with walkers are jovial.
A dog walker once refused to call her yappy dog back when it was (actually) trying to bite my ankles.
In a (futile) attempt to get fitter I have started doing the Couch 2 5k (NHS jobby) - whilst out a couple of mornings ago, a guy and his brood of small dogs (3 of which are charging at me yapping and looking bitey) says "...don't worry if they bite you just kick 'em.." to which I replied (rather too out of breath for any decent effect) "If they bite me I'll kick you"... the air at 6am that day turned somewhat blue behind me.
Walker: does this look like a bridleway?
Mate: does this look like a horse?
Walker: does this look like a bridleway?
Mate: does this look like a horse?
You actually met the rare (yet still somehow unoriginal) ‘panto douche!
‘Walker’ is the setup guy and wears the front bit of their costume (although there is an arse at each end) and ‘Mate’ follows through. If was about to throw in a portmanteau back there, then I’d have typed ‘their accostume’. But that would have been awful 😎
^ oh ye gods I just realised it was your mate in the story, not the walker’s mate? In which case you didn’t meet any panto anything, just a silly walker! 🤭
#wecool?
#yowhatscrackalackin?
#closecall
#looktheresconcord
It was like ****ing Gandalf
Normally I just say thanks to them, but you’re obviously a bit more hands on 😉
When we were forbidden by law to travel for exercise, forbidden to mix with other households, etc. I saw a car park in front of me, five people of similar (middle) age get out and start pulling on walking boots. As I cycled past I heard someone say "I'm sure he's not allowed to cycle here". So definitely one, probably two laws broken, so ten offences committed as a group, but I can't ride on NCN Route 46 outside my own house!
It was like ****ing Gandalf
Ah, the old wizards sleeve.
Ive happened upon a few walkers whilst riding the red at Whinlatter. Pointing out they are in fact on a bike route and that it is quite dangerous for both walker and biker.
The last pair just said "Oh yes, we know"....
Its utter buffoons like this that need culling.
the best interaction was a few years ago in the Alps. We had descended to Samoens and were climbing a road back up towards Morzine (can't remember the name of the climb). Anyway after about 30 minutes of puffing and grinding oooer....we saw a vision of delight in front of us.
Two stark naked walkers heading down the same route. Mind you , it was a bit warm.. Both about 70yrs of age. After a cheerful "Afternoon" One of them just said "Oh, theres a cattle trough up ahead, its nice and cold...."
Needless to say, we continued on. Still parched.
During lock down I was riding along a single track road near home, and there was a women banging a home made sign into the ground next to a path I'd not noticed before which said something along the lines of "This is a footpath" I stopped and tried to explain that she was pretty much putting up a sign that was an open invitation for people to ride down it - I even pointed out that I'd not even realised there was a footpath there, as the entrance wasn't really that visible and would've been none the wiser, and she tried to have a go at me about people riding it.
The sign didn't last long.
Ive happened upon a few walkers whilst riding the red at Whinlatter. Pointing out they are in fact on a bike route and that it is quite dangerous for both walker and biker.
Came across a old couple walking up the last section of Y Wal. Stopped and tried to say to them that they're going to meet bikers coming down at speed and not expecting to meet walkers, and the old woman was very much in the spirit of "I've lived here all my life I can walk where I want" I genuinely hope no one got hurt. Same thing at Brecfha with a chap and his son. They at least realised and turned around
i was taking a short cut through the local graveyard
'Oi!! get off that f*cking bike you big thundering arsehole'
me: 'Morning, vicar'
^ yeah, right ...
When will there be thread about cyclists behaving like arses ??
^ yeah, right …
was a joke princess
On the Penine Way ( footpath) yesterday where it crosses Snake Pass. Farmer to me:
" Aah awesome work, good man"
Was quite a refreshing change. I had just dismounted and negotiated a huge Peat bog of doom in order to open the big gate for him to drive through on his quad bike, to save his feet getting wet.
He then told me his hands were freezing and I did consider donating my spare gloves, but concluded that would be too expensive a way of improving biker/farmer relations.
Farmers aren't al bad. The one who lives on the Rumney Ridgeway outside Cardiff looks like a grumpy GOML but is actually a decent bloke always up for a chat with bikers on the popular BW that crosses his land. Him and his mates were outside the cowshed chatting and stopped to watch me attempt the steep slippery bit with shouts of encouragement. I failed!
More bell-endery:
I was cycling along a fairly wide canal towpath, approaching a pair walking in the same direction. I gave a few pings of my bell, to which one of the chaps clutched his ears in a manner the local am-dram society would be proud of and shouted "The bells, the bells!" Looking back it was a fairly amusing response, but I'm afraid I just called him a tw*t.
Not from a walker....
I was hurtling down the hill leading from Dunstable Downs on my mtb. I was peddling like mad. Got to the bottom of the hill and turned right at the roundabout. A car then pulls beside me with the window wound down.
"Do you know how fast you were going? You were doing 35mph."
He then sped off and I had no idea if he was telling me off for breaking the speed limit or was just concerned!
You're never going to sell much at that speed.
Ive happened upon a few walkers whilst riding the red at Whinlatter. Pointing out they are in fact on a bike route and that it is quite dangerous for both walker and biker.
Had this when I was marshalling a CX race. Taped off areas and some dog walker going right down the middle of the track.
"Would you mind walking outside the tapes please, there's a bike race going on".
Cue a tirade about how he walks his dog there every morning and nothing will stop him doing this and if a cyclist hits him, he'll sue and...and...and...
Did he jump out of the way when the riders came through or did he get flattened?
You’re never going to sell much at that speed.
🤣
I love the response "I'll sue" if a bad and quite predictable thing should come pass. Sue for what?
You’re never going to sell much at that speed.
Morcambe and Wise
Morcambe and Wise
Tell people how old you are without telling them how old you are
Cue a tirade about how he walks his dog there every morning and nothing will stop him doing this and if a cyclist hits him, he’ll sue and…and…and…
good lord. I hope that if I ever get to the leavel of old and boring that I do the same dog walking loop every day of my life, I'd like to think that I would still enjoy the fact that there was something new and interesting to stop and look at on occasion.
Cue a tirade about how he walks his dog there every morning and nothing will stop him doing this and if a cyclist hits him, he’ll sue and…and…and…
Imagine marshalling a club hill climb. On the towns main shopping street. On Boxing Day. 🤯
