I’m giving serious consideration to backing up my bell with an air horn.
I did that. Made no difference at all. My horn had two settings. One was an alarm and they always thought it was a car or house - even though there were none nearby - so they ignored it because it was nothing to do with them.
The other setting was like a car horn and they ignored that because they believed that no car would ever run them down from behind.
I went back to a bell. They do seem to take more notice of that, although some are just plain brain dead. They do like to shout that bikes should have bells. It's a very smug feeling telling them that I've been ringing it and they should go and get their ears tested!!!
And don't get me started on joggers, especially the female ones who seem the worst, with earphones in blocking out all sounds.
Be careful where you park too, plenty of sticky yellow idiot tax envelopes on cars parked on a bend near the Yorkshire Bridge Inn, Ladybower yesterday. Nearly had a head-on in the car, because apparently you don't need to wait for oncoming traffic when the obstruction is on your side of the road.
I was only out strolling , and it's great people watching when the weather brings out the entitled. I'd like there to be a points system for parking and access if you've supported the local economy on days other than sunny and dry bank holidays.
There’s only one shocking revelation for me on this thread - people who live there still call it The Peaks.
Dogs are handy when it gets to afternoon and people get grumpy. Talk to the dog and it seems to disarm the owner from the anti bike rant they were about to make and often they become friendly.
I do stop a lot for dogs if they look like they're going to be all over the place or chase. I like greeting them and the dogs like a bit of fuss. Though yes it does slow the ride down. If I need a quick ride though it'll be at a time or a place where there is no one about.
Has anyone else ever licked a dog? Minging isn't it.
I am not so much of a horse fan 🙂
They cause a lot of damage to the bridleways (and sometime paths in places where the bridleway network is small) and they often chew up the whole width of the bridleway, or even widen it, as they avoid where it is mashed up already, even though it would not be an issue for the horse to straight line through the mess.
This then makes large percentages of the network impassable for walkers and other people that should be being encouraged to get out into the countryside and exercise.
It's a lot of damage for a privilileged few that can afford a horse, way out of proportion.
I haven't mentioned bikes but in my experience the bikes are actually somewhat of a saviour as, outside of the truly poor weather, their passage starts to repair the trails/bridleways as they start flattening them out. I've seen this through years of riding around the bridleways near Epsom and just yesterday on the main drag from the car park at newlands corner.
Have I got this right? You want to ban horses from bridle ways??????
I always seem to get on with horse riders. They appreciate having someone on a bike slowing and talking to them I guess. It is a mixed bag with the damage they do to trails though, because around Kent Downs a fair number of trails have recently been re-designated as bridleways. Without the horse riders in the area I’d just be riding cheeky, so having them around has added some legitimacy to what I ride, especially during the daylight hours when it will always be busier.
Have been out at 7am a couple of times over the last few days. It’s really quiet up until 8am, when the dog walkers all seem to appear at once. I saw no-one from 7 until 8, and then 3 in the space of 5 minutes
More a case of the rediculous RoW ruling that bikes are equivalent to horses and thus limited to bridleways, which are often unsuitable to riding due to horse use. Whereas the damage from bikes to footpaths is minimal by comparison and yes can flatten out churn caused by walkers.
Anyway, Blackheath / Farley Heath in Surrey Hills is another example. Nice area but a lot is a nightmare thanks to horses. Though to be fair, that's their playground and we have ours.
Sharing trails though I feel bikes and horses don't mix too well. Walkers and dogs are less of a problem. Don't hate horses, but you can't go anywhere near on a bike them without spooking unless stopped and even then may have to get off the bike and try to talk to them to calm them.
I'm not a horse rider at all. I know little about them.
But you are saying that it is PIA to be considerate to them while demanding that everyone else is considerate to you.
Twisted logic there.
Dogs are handy when it gets to afternoon and people get grumpy. Talk to the dog and it seems to disarm the owner from the anti bike rant they were about to make and often they become friendly.
Deffo this. The other morning I rode up behind a woman and her dog. “Morning!” I said about fifteen metres away. No reply. “Morning!” again about ten meters away. Nothing. Drew level and she span around like Clouseau when Cato is hiding in the airing cupboard and practically burst into tears. She looked like she was about to get all shouty, so I said hello to the dog and asked her what type it was. It was a Corgi, but a different type from the ones the queen has, apparently. Net result, there was no argument and I now know more about corgis than I used to. Fact of the matter is, she shouldn’t wander around like a tit in a trance then get all flustered when someone appears and shakes her out of it, but pointing that out wouldn’t have helped.
I also quite like the angle of greeting a ‘playful’ dog and giving it a fuss. I think some NIMBY dog walkers hate it when their dog likes you because you might be fun - something they probably have precious little of in their lives being led around by angry gammons.
I miss being a kid, if some gammon dog owner went mental at you for riding a bike you could just scream "nonce! help me!!!" at the top of your voice and they'd go away.
Now I have to smile at them and be nice. I don't mind saying hello to the dogs though 🙂 as the other poster suggested it usually calms the buggers down.
They cause a lot of damage to the bridleways (and sometime paths in places where the bridleway network is small) and they often chew up the whole width of the bridleway, or even widen it, as they avoid where it is mashed up already, even though it would not be an issue for the horse to straight line through the mess.
The word in bold should help clarify the main purpose for which those rights of way are intended.
Perhaps you could try riding BOATS or RUPPS after a long wet period and see how you get on.
Anyway, went for a walk and picnic with my g/f around West Woods to look at the bluebells. There’s an open meadow with a table on the far side of the woods, but we sat on the grass in the shade. Hardly a soul about, just really peaceful. Couple come past following the bridleway with a couple of fairly large and lively dogs, off the lead. One comes bounding over, and before I even had a chance to grab them, the bloody animal had eaten my g/f’s sandwich that she had on the grass by her side! 😖
We were not at all amused, the owners, to their credit, put them on leads, and were very apologetic.
Good thing there were no livestock around.
The only dogs I have an issue with are those on very long telescopic leads - and that's more an owner than dog issue.
MrsTH was accosted the other day, by a chap with 3 dogs, all off their leads. She was trying to get past, but they were darting all over the place right infront of her.
"You shouldn't be riding your bike!"
"Why is that?"
"You can't do it here"
This was on a road. Used by cars. To get to a car park.
Ultimately it comes down to the fact that a significant minority of people are arseholes.
From the same ride as the Cato-Clouseau (about 200 yards down the same track in fact) there was an oldish woman who just glared at me when I said “morning”. A few yards later I stopped at a gate and looked round briefly. Her dog laid a dirty great cable and she just turned around and ****ed off. She looked a right Puritan type (albeit a hypocritical one).
Such people are best ignored.
For me it’s not the quantity of muggles, it’s the fact that half of them seem to be brain dead. It surely must take special effort to take up the entire width of a twelve-foot wide fire road.
The amount of space that a walker can take up is truly incredible. Walking right down the middle of a path. Walking "side by side" but with one person 2ft from the left verge and the other one 2ft from the right verge leaving a 4ft gap in the middle - all gaps too small to be able to just ride through.
Walking on one side but a dog on an extending lead over on the far side.
And the "rabbit in the headlights" syndrome. They'll go one way (invariably to the other side of the track to their dog). The dog then tries to go to the owner - right in front of the cyclist. Groups of walkers do it too, half go one way, the others go the other way then Half A decides that it should be with Half B and tries to cross the tracks just as Half B have decided exactly the same and they all move into the middle again and bump into each other aimlessly.
Dear Walkers. Stand to the nearest side of the track. Stop moving. The cyclist WILL slow down because, astonishing as this may seem, they actually don't want to hit you / your dog / your children. However, you could at least make life easier for everyone. Oh and also, wrapping your dog shit in a bag then hanging it from a tree does not constitute clearing up after it.
Yesterday evening, last gasp ride before the bank holiday finished. I'm coming down a trail and spy a women coming up, she's got a snap-back cap on and is staring at the ground, so the peak is obscuring her view of anything but her own feet. I'm thinking she's going to look up any minute now...any minute now...no? OK I'll stop then. When she did finally decide to see what was going on around her, the look on her face when she clocked me staring at her in slightly frustrated bemusement was a picture...
It's as if no-one else exists for these folk.
Had this the other day on the SDW, just about to cross the bridge over the A26 heading to Brighton when I spotted a chaos of walkers across the bridleway coming towards me, all chatting at each other or looking at their feet, so I slowed and said good morning. Most of them jumped out of their skin and one haughtily said “dringg, dringg”.
I struggled to come up with a witty response at the time but 15 minutes later uttered “answer that bloody phone”, curse my knackered brain!😁
Rode for 7hrs yesterday in the Peak(s). Sheffield/Ladybower/Hope/Sheff. Aside from around Yorkshire Bridge and then Hathersage to Fox House, barely saw anybody. Very few bikes and not many walkers (even managed a clear run down Stanage Plantation - total of 2 walkers who saw me coming well in advance and stepped well back). No conflict whatsoever, even in the places where I might not entirely have supposed to be. "Be nice, say hi" goes a long way.
Ace day, all in...
Groups of walkers do it too, half go one way, the others go the other way then Half A decides that it should be with Half B and tries to cross the tracks just as Half B have decided exactly the same and they all move into the middle again and bump into each other aimlessly.
aka the Rambler's Waltz. It nearly caught me out a couple of times when a relative novice. Now I just chill out, point, laugh and wait for the doh-si-dohing to stop, then go past. Why walk leaders don't just pick a side and at the beginning of the walk say "if we meet traffic, we'll all stand on the left" I have no idea...
Where are all these friendly dogs people speak of? I s**t you not I once had an owner put his own dog in a headlock as I rode past because as he put it "he's trained to attack people in black". I had a black Gore coat on. Put your dog on a lead.
Geezus wept.... this is what I have to contend with round here. Johnny Cash would of been screwed.
The word in bold should help clarify the main purpose for which those rights of way are intended.
so what you are saying is that bridleways should be restricted to those properous enough to ride a horse on it ?
Times move on, favouring the upper classes/moneyed horse riding elite over the needs of everyone else seems a bit of a strange concept in this day and age...
the upper classes/moneyed horse riding elite
Hells bells. You really don't know much about horse riders, do you? I let your first class-angst comment go but now you're just embarrassing yourself.
so what you are saying is that bridleways should be restricted to those properous enough to ride a horse on it ?
Times move on, favouring the upper classes/moneyed horse riding elite over the needs of everyone else seems a bit of a strange concept in this day and age…
And banning one section of society because they don't fit your pinko leftie Corbyn oriented prejudices is a fair and reasoned approach? There are plenty of roads for you to ride on. Why don't you try them. You could then rant at the moneyed elite swanning around in their over priced, over sized, over engineered metal boxes. Except you own one of those boxes so they have rights that must be protected.
I've never heard so much sanctimonious, biased twaddle as that post.
I’m giving serious consideration to backing up my bell with an air horn.
I did that. Made no difference at all. My horn had two settings
Are you saying you would ride up behind a group of walkers and give a blast with an air horn?
Would you do that to a horse rider?
Where are all these friendly dogs people speak of? I s**t you not I once had an owner put his own dog in a headlock as I rode past because as he put it “he’s trained to attack people in black”. I had a black Gore coat on. Put your dog on a lead.
It amazes me that people can put up with badly-trained dogs and have the hassle of running round after it shouting "Fenton!, Fenton!" or having to grab it every time another dog, a biker, a horse etc comes into view. Must make for an exhausting walk.
But that's based on my experiences with my sister's two dogs which will do anything you want on a whistle or gesture or word. Really well trained and behaved and because of that, they're fantastic to walk.
I regularly meet a chap with 4-6 standard poodles, they're amazing. Almost always all of them are off the lead, but totally under control all the time. Just a quiet word, and they'll all sat at his feet. Then round the corner it's some mad half trained cockerpoo, or snorgi with some idiot running after it "snoodles snoodles, come here"...etc etc
But you are saying that it is PIA to be considerate to them while demanding that everyone else is considerate to you.
Not sure if that was in response to me, but if so that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm very patient and considerate to horses, walkers and dogs and they have priority as far as I'm concerned. My issue is with the Rights of Way system that lumps bikes in with horses and that it would be far better not to mix bikes & horses in the first place, but allow bikes greater access to better suited paths or provide more infrastructure aimed at bikes or shared use paths that are designed for less conflict. Or open access roaming where we can all make our own way. See a horse or walker, pick another track.
Bloody horse riders got out for 20 mins this morning managed a bigger jump than usual decided to just have a mess around in the woods and I get a phone call d1ck head horse has dropped her shoulder on a jump and wife has slid over and off her, ride cut short
Walk in centre later
If it's any consultation, you get it running as well as being on a bike. I did a lot of trail running this weekend and so many walkers had no idea what was going on around them. Even a polite "hi, can a sneak past please?" gets a look of disgust back. Saying that, as it was warm I spent much of this weekend running in a pair of short shorts and no top, running past one group of walkers an older lady did comment "what a lovely sight to see", made my day that did!
Did 15-20km down a towpath with my 8 yearold yesterday. Biggest pains in the bollocks were other cyclists who seem to think riding fast at an 8 year old on a narrow track with water on one side is a good idea. One bloke on his gnarpoon almost went in the canal!
The problem is never really walkers or runners or horse riders or cyclists or drivers or whatever.
The problem is tossers.
They are everywhere. Like the masons, less organised, but more numerous.
It amazes me that people can put up with badly-trained dogs and have the hassle of running round after it shouting “Fenton!, Fenton!”
Fenton?
2011?
Sunday teatime / evening dudes. Have the place** to yourself.
** Footpaths at National Park honeypots included. You can even go racing.
I rode bank holiday Sunday, ending on cavedaĺe at about 11. Without fail, everyome was friendly and encouraging. My timber bell helps, but #BeNiceSayHiì has gone a long way, as well as the work of groups like PDMTB, to reduce trail conflict.
Seek and ye shall find trail conflict. Don't go looking for it, and ye won't.
Fenton?
The original 'idiot with badly controlled dog' meme.
Came round a corner today and the trail was full of Alpacas.
We’ve all been there my friend.
Don’t go looking for it, and ye won’t.
If only this were true!
Seek and ye shall find trail conflict. Don’t go looking for it, and ye won’t.
+1 - smile, say hello and accept that folk out for a gentle stroll are more likely to be absorbed in their surroundings or conversation than keeping an eagle eye out for approaching cyclists.
Or go and ride on the road and ponder what it means to be a slower-moving, more vulnerable party.
