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I think an important thing to remember is that whilst WE all know that with our 4 pot brakes and tacky rubber tires, we can slow from 15mph to a stop in 2 metre – the majority of people we come across on the paths and trails do not.
From my experience, people are either deep in conversation or , if on their own, have headphones in so stopping distance doesn't come into it - in their opinion, we appear from nowhere.
My most recent telling off was a few weeks ago where I pinged my bell 3 or 4 times, slowed down a little way back and said good morning but still no reply. When the path widened out I passed as wide as I could, looked across and saw she had earpods in. She then shouted at me for "flying past her and giving her a fright", I stopped and mentioned the bell, calling out etc and perhaps she should not wear the earbuds if she is easily startled and to keep looking around as there may well be other people on a shared used path. She went straight into the usual rant about you bloody cyclists all think you own the road...
I think an important thing to remember is that whilst WE all know that with our 4 pot brakes and tacky rubber tires, we can slow from 15mph to a stop in 2 metre – the majority of people we come across on the paths and trails do not.<br />From my experience, people are either deep in conversation or , if on their own, have headphones in so stopping distance doesn’t come into it – in their opinion, we appear from nowhere.
Yeah, the lack of awareness is quite amazing sometimes. A lot of people devolve responsibility for themselves and their pets, kids or belongings once they get outside, seemingly assuming that you will look after them while they stare at the phone, feet, trees or whatever.
Quite a while ago I was riding along the cycle path along the seafront on a fairly busy day, so not exactly charging along. I caught up with a runner heading in the same direction as me, running along the middle of the cycle side of the path. I'm not precious about which side of the path people use as long as I can get past, but he had a loose dog with him which was very nervous and dodging from one side to the other. (The cycle path is used by lots of cyclists.) I made a comment that the dog might benefit from being under control, and he replied that I'd been riding too quickly. I asked how could he possibly know that when I was behind him, to which he replied, 'I'm partially sighted!'. I think I gave up, speechless, and rode away.
I ring a bell from a bit of a distance and say a cheery hello as I get close, and thank them for acknowledging me. Seems to work, but you will always have grumpy sods about.
I know I won't go to heaven, but I once approached an elderly -ish couple on the designated cycleway/towpath near Salterhebble in Halifax. I slowed right down, called out several times and on the third go the bloke looked over his shoulder, did a comedy dancing exaggerated jumping out of his skin hop to the side of the towpath and shouted something about bells and ****ing idiots.
I carried on past to the car park near the lock keepers cottage and put the bike on the bike rack. As I was leaving the car park the same couple simply stepped out in front of my car and as I had the window down I waited til they had crossed and bawled DING DONG !! as loudly as I could behind them. That guy should be on a talent show with his breakdancing😈
Not had problems with any walkers for a while but every so often I seem to meet a posho peacocking around the place on horseback that has to make a comment.
One time I remember I said something like "sorry mate but it's a bridleway so I can ride here, and i need to go that way".
He said:
"No you are not allowed here and you are not my mate"
I said:
"I don't think you're anyone's mate"
Didn't help at all but got a chuckle from the guys he was riding with. 🙂
(needless to say I had the last laugh etc etc)
Things I've learnt about walkers and using bells:
That a some of them hear you and turn around doesn't mean that all of them did. So keep ringing that bell as you approach and while passing. Trigger bell helps with this as you can keep your hands and brake fingers where you need them.
Don't assume that people coming towards you have seen you. Some people must walk not looking more than 5m ahead.
If your bell isn't loud enough there's always the Hornit DB140 or the Airzound.
What I really want though is a battery powered version of this tyre-driven bell
Ping bells are very annoying and insistent "get out of my way". What you need is a nice sonerous two tone "bing BONG" bell...possibly hand cast in Hebden Bridge, possibly Bristol, I'm not picky...
Some people are just dicks..usually I just ignore them but some just wind me up too much..
one time on a canal path (in Scotland) I remember slowing down and politely asking to get by, at which point the chap says ‘you should have a bell’ . I had a bell, so gave it a little ding and asked if that was any better. This royally wound him up and he started screaming obscenities at me
Perhaps not my finest moment but after a long day I just lost my rag with him. Suffice to say as soon as he realised his bully boy tactics had spectacularly backfired on him he quickly backed down and turned tail
my point is, whilst trying to ignore or placate these people is all well and good, it just encourages them. sometimes they need to just be told to ‘shut the xxxx up’ in no uncertain terms..
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A lot of people devolve responsibility for themselves and their pets, kids or belongings once they get outside
TBF on shared paths, It is very much the cyclist responsibility to make sure that they're looking out for walkers, based on hierarchy of vulnerability. If you're going to ride on towpaths or shared paths then TBH you owe it to the folks around to be paying attention to what's going on, and that includes folks who aren't really paying attention.
I'm happy to stand my ground when folks get in my face, but 99% of folks are OK.
always chuckle when one goes left and one goes right – they simultaneously realise the stupidity of going to seperate sides – and then both swap over to the opposite side at the same time!
Sheep are far more predictable and intelligent than a significant chunk of the rambling community.
A good one on walker behaviour 😄
I find a really loud freehub tends to do the job of letting people know you’re coming.
The Hope Pro4 is fairly noisy. Superstar V6 is loud and the Hunt 4Seasons one is very loud I find.
I tend to slow right down and assume someone is going to do something erratic when passing pedestrians / dogs and then thank people if they’ve moved out the way or grabbed their dogs. Smile and wave and generally it’s fine.
I was told by a random that I wasn't a proper cyclist because I didn't have a bell. I was able to point out he wasn't a proper dog owner because his dog was off the lead on a mixed use path.
I find a really loud freehub tends to do the job of letting people know you’re coming.
I’ve just (unwittingly) switched to some silent wheels… gonna miss this. Haven’t needed a bell since hope pro hubs were invented way back…
I Have thought about yelling death to pedestrians.
What defines 'screamed at' these days?
I've always been under the impression that screamed at is proper purple faced spittle lobbing one notch above shouting - the sort you can hear a mile away.
Can't help thinking this scenario is more raised voice, maybe borderline shouting. Maybe I'm wrong?
I always chuckle when one goes left and one goes right
and more often than not, the one on the left moves right and the one on the right moves left
then in a panic, call their dog that bounds out of nowhere and directly into your path.
i’ve ridden in a few countries and have found this to be the case in every location.
I have always remained calm in that type of situation....until a couple of weeks ago.
A foul mouthed woman told me (not asked me) not to ride down the bridleway that went down the side of her house.
She also tried to tell me that the route was no longer available to bikes?? At this point I pulled my phone out showing her the bridleway on the os map, no reasoning with her at all.
I eventually reached the point where I was getting nowhere and she continually swore at me, so I gave her the first option, why dont you just mind your own business and let me ride, it didnt work so I gave her option two, why dont you just **** right off and mind your own business, it did stop her talking for about 8 seconds, enough for me to move away from her!
Now anyone who knows me would know that I am one of the least aggressive people around, I'm against all forms of violence and I hardly ever swear around people. My nephew was with me (he is 25), even he was shocked at the time, but found the whole thing hilarious and he wished he had recorded it all on his phone! lol
In hind sight I should have just ignored her and just cycled on as it probably wasn't a good advertisement for mountain bikers!
Meh. Miserable buggers of all sorts. Had some MTBers swear at me the other day as I was walking down a path, that they were riding. No legitimate reason for them to be there.
Am I obliged to change sides when I hike a bike?
Sounds like you should be:
A. Contacting your local RoW Officer so this delightful lady can become better informed.
B. Broadcasting the location so she can enjoy hundreds more visitors.
I was shocked.........
On the Stiperstones yesterday, pretty bleak, high winds horizontal rain. Met a group of about 15 youngsters walking with a few leaders on a descent. we stopped descending as they hadn't noticed us. As they passed the one female leader came over to us and said.....
"Have you been blown off yet?"
You shouldn’t be riding here!
Umm…this is a bridleway…
Not at night it isn’t!
I thought everything was a bridleway after 6pm? 😉
then in a panic, call their dog that bounds out of nowhere and directly into your path.
I'm often a better judge of their dog's behaviour than they are, having experienced loads of different types of dogs on paths. Calling their dog often makes it worse when I can see it's happy investigating something and taking no notice.
Labs are lovely. Guaranteed they'll lazily wonder in front of you without a care. I just smile, say hi to the dog and find a way round. Owner either looks frustrated or just laughs.
Most dogs I'm fine with. Odd few clearly have issues with bikes and should be on a lead (dog and owner 😄).
Maybe there should be a range of T shirts so we can hate on each other without making eye contact, slogans be like:
- "Wheres your bell?"
- "SMIDSY"
- " Control your dog"
- "Pick up your litter"
- "Don't run with your headphones in!"
- "Put down that cake!"
- "No cycling here!"
- "Cyclist should pay road tax!"
- "Where's your helmet!"
- "Big flash cars are an overcompensation for a lack of length".
Etc
I'll buy the
"Put down that cake!"
for me 🙂
I like that. Now I want a jersey with all the cycling related ones on it:
PICK ONE:
– “Wheres your bell?”
– “Don't you ring your bell at me!”
– “SMIDSY”
– “No cycling here!”
– “Cyclist should pay road tax!”
– “Where’s your helmet!”
– “Where’s your hi-vis!”
– “Where’s your lights!”
– “Your lights are too bright!”
– “Get off the road!”
– “Get off the pavement!”
– “Get in the cycle lane!”
– “You all go through red lights!”
– “Not allowed to ride 2 abreast!”
– “You're going too slow!”
– “You're going too fast!”
Riding at 20mph down a tight shared use bridleway expecting folk to get out of your way so you don’t have to break your rhythm, and you pretty much deserve any shit you get.<br /><br />
although if you do 20mph you’ll only be in ear shot for about 2 seconds!
although if you do 20mph you’ll only be in ear shot for about 2 seconds!
Whats the minimum required time to qualify as a dick then?
Buy lights that comply with German regs, or point your lights at the ground ahead of you. Why do some cyclists think that pointing their lights straight on is a good idea? You wouldn't do that in the car unless you needed full beam.
https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/stvzo-bike-lights/
Buy lights that comply with German regs, or point your lights at the ground ahead of you. Why do some cyclists think that pointing their lights straight on is a good idea? You wouldn’t do that in the car unless you needed full beam.
I tend to aim my lights where I want to see on the trail. That's not on the ground directly in front of me, it's probably around 5-10 metres ahead.
Have a mate who points his down at his front wheel, which I can never work out - he says he does if for riding to work on the road/oncoming cars, which is fair enough, but he never seems to adjust it for the trail
When I'm riding to the trails I have a small but bright LED for use on large roads with traffic. For lanes I'll use the offroad light on lowest setting, which is still really bright, and it uses a garmin mount so is difficult ro adjust the angle on the fly. however I can point it to the side, having to decide to blind the very infrequent pedestrian, rather than the slight more frequent, but not that frequent, car driver. Not blinding everyone is a choice.
back to riding incidents.
generally I've not had many interruptions or challenges. Most of them were when I lived in Malvern, and the weekend imported rich brummies took particular objection to riding on the paths, not helped by the 'no wheeled vehicles' signage at the time. We would also manage to stumble across god botherers too, who woud insist on stopping us to enlighten us on the similarities between riding bits of trail and 'finding your own path to god'. poetic, yes, but smile and move on, once they move out of the way..
Scotland is a bit different. no one really minds that much, though I did have an encounter during lockdown with a woman. I was riding a little bit of singletrack that ran a little bit away, but parallel to the main path. She first stated that we (me) were the problem. so I asked her to elaborate.
Turns out that cyclists were ruining the paths for everyone. Of course, the path she was walking on was once a deer path, or at least a slight trace of a deer path, but was used as an alternative route, partly as it was a bit more interesting, but mostly as to avoid the main path and walkers and horses. I'd argue that if it wasn't for the bikes using the path over the last 20 odd years, there would be no path for her to enjoy and instead she'd be scrambling across the hillside.
After explaining this and having what I thought was a reasonable conversation with her, she seemed keen to listen, her parting words were a repeat that we were still ruining it for evryone.
Humans are odd. I try to appreciate that everyone has been on a journey to this point, their behaviours are constructed complex management of all experiences through their life, and that the outbursts and seemingly odd behaviour is a result of that. And I am no different. so actually, humand seem odd, but each human is unique.
I tend to aim my lights where I want to see on the trail. That’s not on the ground directly in front of me, it’s probably around 5-10 metres ahead.
What like your car does? Hence my car lights reference. I do the same.
I didn't mean to literally light the ground under your front tyre, just don't have your lights set to light straight ahead, shining directly into people's eyes. I turn my front light down or shield them with my hand whenever I meet someone coming the other way when night riding. No one needs a blinding light in their eyes.
Happy night riding all 🤟
Yeah +1 for putting my hand over the light as I approach people. I even ride with mates who keep their lights on full blast when going on road sections and come up towards cars. I get annoyed for the car drivers in this instance.
Definitely night riding is the best way to enjoy the trails though....recently during the day, I seem to continually encounter dog walkers with ear buds walking the same direction as me, who are oblivious to my volume increasing calls to get past them....so I just make them jump!
I might add though that Ive been riding the Surrey hills for nearly 20 years and can't recall any major issues. Maybe because I've always run and dog walked the same routes and am careful to ride carefully around people.
Chalk a new one up on today's ride ...
Cycling along a path towards a car park, and I see a large Labrador laying it's eggs on the path while it's owner stands next to it on his phone.
Dog finishes, and owner (fully aware that bombs have been dropped) starts to amble off
I politely say "excuse me, are you going to pick up your dog's poo?"
He answers "nah, think I'll leave it."
I point out it's disgusting, and that he needs to pick it up.
Cue him going properly mental at me...
"**** you you ****ing cyclist. You lot are always acting so ****ing high and mighty. I'd ****ing shoot the lot of you...." Etc, etc.
I just cycled off. There's no arguing with crazy!
edit
@ajantom, that reminds me of a similar incident on a scorching hot day a few years back. Same prelude, but with the owner going ‘Nah, I’ll pick it up later, if I can be bothered’ and going back to his fishing. I said nothing further, wandered back to where his lab had laid its eggs, scooped them up in a poo bag I had in my pocket, and continued on through the car park. As I strolled past his estate car, boot open with said lab now chilling inside on its bed, I wordlessly and vigorously slung the poo bag deep into the boot, noting it slide well under a pile of tat up against the driver’s seat, beautifully out of sight.
That story warms my cockles to this day.
Cue him going properly mental at me…
“* you you * cyclist. You lot are always acting so * high and mighty. I’d * shoot the lot of you….” Etc, etc.
I just cycled off. There’s no arguing with crazy!
Maybe no arguing, but depending on location, failing to puck up after your dog may come with a fine, and threatening behaviour is often frowned upon.
Went out on the MTB this morning due to the ice on the roads. Can ride on trails from my front door so very little risk.
Out of Hayfield is a flat smooth path by the river leading to the campsite (which is closed for winter) so I turned onto that and said a cheery "good morning" to the couple on the path ahead of me.
Her: You really shouldn't be on here you know, this is a footpath but THE BIKERS keep taking down the signs.
Me (all innocent): oh I didn't know that, I often ride along here
Him: Well you wouldn't know would you because THE BIKERS keep taking down the signs!
Anyway they agreed that as it was dry and I wasn't churning up the surface they would, on this occasion, let me past. I wished them a cheery "have a lovely day!" and they said "You too!" and we parted, if not as friends then at least with no actual animosity.
I think they were a bit taken aback by me being polite and acting all innocent, I'm fairly sure they were probably expecting an expletive laden rant. I apologise on behalf of all MTBers for disappointing them... 😉
Good work 👍 ^^^
Her: You really shouldn’t be on here you know, this is a footpath
Last year on Gower I was told the same, by an old bloke with a spaniel. I replied that we were on a bridleway, but being well surfaced and not liable to churn up, I'd probably ride it even if it wasn't legal. We had a genuinely nice conversation after that, and it turned out that he'd grown up around 50m from where I now live.