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So - there I was on Sunday monring, enjoying a cheeky local ride. Where I ride (in Harogate) the access is, at best, useless. There is the Beryl Burton Cycleway (a dedicated cyclepath) which, in order to get to the next bit of bridleway and the next dedicated cyclepath/dog toilet, means using a mile or so of footpath.
Normally I get absolutely no problems with walkers as I always slow down/stop and make sure I am very polite and friendly. On Sunday I was riding a quite narrow raised 'northshore' section and a couple were walking towards me. One person moved over and I slowed to almost a stop and we passed each other perfectly easily. As I approached the second person, he deliberately moved across at the last minute and pushed me off - with the inevitable 'excuse' that it is a footpath.
I shouted a really lame comeback but have been left feeling wound up about it since - I have tried (unsuccessfully) in the past to get the council/Woodland Trust to look at joining up this particular piece of access upgraded as it would be very simple to make a separate cycle path so we can all enjoy the area and I know I was in the wrong to be riding it, but it is almost impossble (without using more roads) to get a decent ride around my area without using the odd bit of footpath. I was just left feeling realy annoyed that someone could act like that - there really was no need, other than to satisfy himself that he taught a cyclist a 'lesson'.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of your alleged 'trespass', you were assaulted.
I'm afraid to say that in similar circumstances I'd have lamped the ignorant bastid.
Perhaps if you're not 6'2" and of suitably imposing stature then it quite possibly wouldn't have happened in the first place though. Bullies don't usually pick on bigger blokes.
Have you reported the assault to the police?
Aye, tricky to deal with this sort of thing if you are not into violence though.
There are two issues here, clearly.
Your reasons for riding the footpath are purely selfish, but it doesn't really seem to be relevant. He shouldn't have pushed you off regardless. 😐
Nail square on head there, SA.
Sadly...
What the sanity assassin said.
haha.... you got owned.
@sanity assassin.... you don't have to be big to get angry. throw your bike at them or kick him hard in the knees and ride off....
so you were on a narrow raised dedicated footpath and you tried to squeeze past 2 walkers, and one got arsey.
Why didn't you just hop off and walk past them and then hop back on again?
Yeah - on discussing in the pub later, my mates pointed out the 'assault' thing. At the end of the day, the rights and wrongs of my riding there don't give someone the permission to be a vigilante.
I really wouldn't bother wasting police time with it though - I wasn't injured in the slightest - I was just left feeling annoyed about the whole experience.
[i]so you were on a narrow raised dedicated footpath and you tried to squeeze past 2 walkers, and one got arsey.[/i]
As said in my post - it was wide enough for us to pass and that had already been proved by the person's friend who, by moving across, provided enough room for us to pass.
Maybe he recognise you from here and it a fellow STW out for revenge.
Hope he doesn't head up here.
alpin - Member
haha.... you got owned.@sanity assassin.... you don't have to be big to get angry. throw your bike at them or kick him hard in the knees and ride off....
My comment was suggesting that if the OP was built like a brick 5hithouse then the assault is less likely to have taken place. The cowardly bastid that pushed him would have merely walked past and wished he had the b0ll0cks to assault someone his own size.
don't ride on a footpath you nobber 🙄
If you're on a footpath, just get off and let them go past.
Basic courtesy isn't it?
The guy was obviously a knob, but two wrongs etc.
I cant comment without more info/pic of width of said trail, how hard the push was etc TBH.
No excuse for assaulting you.
If you're on a footpath, just get off and let them go past.
Basic courtesy isn't it?
As I said, I WAS being courteous - I slowed almost to a stop and moved right over. The space was there but he chose to move across at the last moment to deliberately knock me off.
Whether the same would have happened had I stopped entirely we will never kow.
Had a similar incident yesterday, only difference been I was on a road between trails. We were riding side by side on a single track road, my friend on the left and I was sort of in the middle of the road. Two walkers coming towards me, when the one closest to me deliberately moved into the centre of the road, full eye contact made. She let out a hell of a scream when she collected my right elbow somewhere aroungd her right t1t......
Did you stop to kiss it better?
[i]She let out a hell of a scream when she collected my right elbow somewhere aroungd her right t1t...... [/i]
Excellent that'll help cyclist profiles.
Great PR there gingerbloke, keep up the good work 🙄
You were cycling on a footpath, on a Sunday morning (no one[b] ever [/b]goes walking on a Sunday morning, do they?).
Depends on your definition of courteous - I ride cheeky but choose my place and time, and stop and get off/push when I see someone coming.
You didn't have a right to be on that footpath. He did.
Because I had loads of time to get out of the way didn't I???
What I didn't say was she was probably only a couple of metres in front of me when she took a deliberate step to her right to try and force me over.....
genius, and people wonder why walkers give cyclists a hard time, muppet 🙄 mind you may'be it makes you feel big hitting women and I expect she was asking for it 😐
as for the walkers having to squeeze past, why should he? OK he shouldn't have pushed you, but you were on a FP FFS. Get off and walk if its narrow.
Gingerbloke, I sincerely hope the next time you try that one the person you ride into gives you a mountain bike enema.
yeah. blah blah blah.... but did you kiss it better?
It was a road FFS. I braked and tried to avoid but had no time!!!! Good job I wasn't a car. They are probably the same people who put logs and such across our favourite trails. I'm not trying to give us a bad name, if I was on an FP I would expect to be riding with a bit more caution and be ready to stop. I just wasn't ready for her movement. I didn't see it coming, Perhaps it will make me more aware in the future...
I'd be more prepared for dangers on a road than a bridleway or footpath.
And No I didn't kiss it better...You didn't see the size of her.
From experience people who frequent woodlands trust, are a bit odd, they think its there personal wood and hate bikes and kids, love signs telling you what to do etc, so that probably explains it, next time just take a picture of the offending chap, and report it to the police, pointless, but you may get a result, a chap in chester was knoccked off his bike by a militant walker, and had his arm broken on a sustrans path, the ambulance took 45 minutes to get to him as all the access points where locked.
Get off and walk and take up twice the space? Great idea.
Annoying ignorant bastards are out there and on here, and well...everywhere. Most of the time it's necessary to just suck it up. Sadly.
Get off and walk and take up twice the space? Great idea.
Annoying ignorant bastards are out there and on here, and well...everywhere. Most of the time it's necessary to just suck it up. Sadly.
God, Dave, life's just so UNFAIR isn't it?
Perhaps we could just move to the side of the (foot)path, smile and say hello?
About the annoying people, I know, but hopefully they'll grow up and learn that with freedom comes responsibility. 🙄
regardless of where you are its still assault.
getting off and pushing the bike would probably have taken up more room.
the guy was just being a nob.
i remember doing a downhill race over Rawtenstall way and some walkers were protesting at the track being closed off by walking their whole family up the track despite marshals and spectators telling them to move (some nicely some not so nice). they only stopped after mum got hit by a bike, if it had been on of their kids they would have been in hospital.
some people are just stupid
As others have said, you're not actually breaking a law by riding on a footpath, and even if you were it still wouldn't justify an assault.
Plus, the only reason he has a legal right to walk there is because loads of walkers trespassed to get the right...
If people look like being courteous, or there really isn't space to pass without both of us taking action then I'll pull right over and put an outside foot down. For the unsteady or large groups I'll make superhuman effort to get out of their way.
If however they give the stare that says 'you'll be getting off that bike to let us past', then i'll do just that. Making sure i'm on the outside and the angular parts of my bike are on the inside, and i'll be buggered if i'll give them any more space than they give me.
It's a two way street/path, some people have no interest in any form of compromise and see all other trail users as subservient to themselves.
**** em.
Regardless of any laws and rights, if someone deliberately pushes you off your bike, they automatically loose the moral high ground.
I'd have punched his lights out to enable him to regain his moral authority.
('Tis all very interesting this. I [i]hardly ever[/i] have any problems at all with "ignorant bastards", whether walking, riding, driving, on the train etc etc. My conclusion from personal observation is that they are [i]not[/i] everywhere at all, they are very rare indeed. As other people's experience is that they are everywhere it seems at least possible that there are some people who are less fortunate than me, and who are actually followed around by ignorant bastards all the time. It may of course be that these people are simply unlucky, and that it is inevitable that a random distribution of ignorant bastards in the world will result in some people (like me) hardly ever meeting one while other people can hardly move without encountering an ignorant bastard. The other possibility which we ought to examine is that there is some explanation for the distribution of ignorant bastards, such that ignorant bastards congregate around particular sorts of people, or are attracted by particular activities or attitudes. Research is urgently needed to establish what behaviour or mindsets attract ignorant bastards. Of course, some radical theorists suggest that that ignorant bastards are not a fixed phenomenon, but are governed by some variant of the laws of relativity. One day perhaps science will solve these mysteries.) 😉
[i]smile and say hello?[/i]
As said on the OP, I am always very polite and 99.9% of the people I meet are very friendly - in the 100+ times I have ridden in the area, I have only had something similar twice before - ironically each time when I was actualy on the cyclepaths bits.
Ohh, and the bridlepath that exists disapears into the river and through a house. It really is a mess where I live which is the annoying thing. Still, they are about to upgrade some more of the old train line to cyclepath so we can have about 10 miles of uninterupted flat straight cinder path covered in dog sh*t. Which is what cyclists want, right?
Why are you bringing the cycle/cinder path thing up? Not relevant at all.
I'm simply talking about common courtesy.
mastiles, I'm not trying to be deliberately provocative and I know that this idiot offended your sensibilities by pushing you, but:
You did say it was a narrow part of a raised boardwalk.
Would it really hurt that much to let them have their small, pointless 'victory' by just getting off and letting them past?
Might help to change the idiots perception of cyclists instead of reinforcing his negative stereotypes.
Does it really matter who's in the right/wrong?
Personally, I'd like to see the same access laws as Scotland used UK & GB wide, but judging from some of the comments on STW, I'm not sure we English are responsible enough.
Rusty - I know I was in the wrong for riding it and I thought I was doing the right (well as right as I could be when riding where I shouldn't) thing by slowing down and making it easy for them to pass. As it was a raised section, I couldn't move any further over and getting off wouldn't actually have made it any easier for them to pass. The other walker passed without problem (it wasn't that narrow - easliy wide enough for us to pass without touching). I was just annoyed that someone would take the 'law' into their own hands and act like that.
And I bring up the cyclepath subject purely because I am trying to make the point that the council provides cyclists with dedicated places to cycle, yet they abruptly end (on one occasion, it is an old train line - one one side of a road it is a cycleway, on the other a footpath - same trainline, just different side of the road) leaving us with nowhere to ride legally.
Go and tell the police as it was assault.
If you don't do anything and thus allow him to get away with it you will feel angry about it for years to come.
You can't go around pushing people off bikes.
mastiles, no worries, thanks for clarifying the situation.
I'm with you on the crap cyclelanes BTW.
Miketually's point about the walkers trespass is really interesting:
At the time of the Kinder Trespass, social mobility was increasing for the working classes and the majority of the public empathised with the aims of the trespassers. Everyone can see how walking in the country can be enjoyable, even if not for them personally.
I don't think a mass cycling trespass today would achieve the same thing - can you just imagine the anti cycling Tabloid headlines?
Cycling is still very much a minority activity and until this changes then the only real meaningful way that we can influence non-cyclists perceptions of us is by our behaviour out on the trails & roads.
A couple of really good posts Rusty Spanner, couldn't agree more.
[edit- and on the OP, nothing justifies violence in this situation either by the walker or in response]
Mastiles, I know exactly where you are talking about for obvious reasons.
The Ford has been complained about - its impassible even at the best of times and a bridge (although there is no duty to create one) would make a huge difference to the local network of trails. The council is failing in its duty to keep the trail safe for passage by its normal traffic (partly due to the fact its on the border between the district council and the NYCC, so neither side wants to take responsibility for it.
As far as I'm concerned, using that stretch of trail is not trespass, as there's a clear tradition within ROW law of being allowed to detour round to the nearest point when a trail is impassable.
At the same time - you should have battered **** out of the ignorant tosser, and I'm sure that we could round up a posse to help you.