[Closed] Miitant walkers, and ramblerists

Do they have priority at all times on cycle only (i.e. not shared use) paths or trail centres?

if it's a right of way zokes, yes.

If, however, its a permissive path dedicated for bike use by the landowner, then I dont think the pedestrian can rely on any rights of priority. To start with they may even be trespassing.

I use a bell all the time BUT the amount of times after ringing for ages and saying hello I get people saying "I wandered what that ringing noise was!" FFS

Good thread though. The OP has got a debate going without outlining what sort of path/track the supposed event might have taken place.

stop being contrary TJ.

Priority, yielding and blocking are all different.

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[url= http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php/leatest/3668-anglers-and-cyclists-fall-out ]Don't get mad, get even :-)[/url]

I have never had this happen but like Tonyd5000 I use a bell.

Seriously how many of you that experience this are not using bells?

Sorry TJ. You're quite right. It hasnt happened to you, [i]ergo[/i] it never happens. 🙄

Damn my over-active imagination.

Stoner - do you use a bell? I do and I believe it goes a huge way into smoothing the way.

However as usual no one can have a different opinion to you or a different experience can they?

How about being polite[i] and using a bell[/i]

Ask me in a bell thread. Coz this isnt a bell thread. HTH.

Stoner -= read my edit above.

You do show a huge amount of arrogance.

calm down boys

[i]You do show a huge amount of arrogance.[/i]

could be equally applied to lots of people, yourself included. 🙄

*Adopts Brian Glover stance*

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OI! You two!! Pack in the bickering! Or I'll come and bang your bloody heads together. You've been warned!!

TJ as mentioned I do use a bell and still encounter obstreperous ramblers on the malverns.

Ride at 'em full pelt screaming "AAAARGH! LOOK OUT! NO BRAKES!" That'll get the buggers out of the way...

Ta - still as big an issue?

I really believe that not using a bell really annoys ramblers - dunno why but thats the way it appears to be

We're talking about the ones that deliberately block you knowing full well you're there. It's [s]not[/s] a bell-end issue.

No bell, so gently tinkling in the style of a middleclass englishwoman isn't going to wok for me. However, I do find a large lungful of air
and
"FEKFEKFEK MY BRAKES HAVE FAILED GERROUTMYWAY" seems to work. As does
"HEY, YOU , CHUBBY, OUT THE WAY" which makes most of them pause and look round

EDIT - beaten to it by mintimperial - damn you tasty chocolate hazelenut spread and banana roll

However as usual no one can have a different opinion to you or a different experience can they?

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TJ not using a bell annoys them, using a bell annoys some of them as well. with *some people* you can't win sometimes. Most people are fine.

thats it really

emsz +1

Personally I think a bell is the type of sound that has no place in the countryside. Unlike my Hope Pro II hub 😉

I suspect the different attitudes to land access may have as much to do with the TJ/Stoner dichotomy as the use or lack of a bell.

Basically, a path is a path here in Scotland - if you can walk it, you can ride it, so there's not the same irritation amongst walkers if you pass them on a bike. I've had one or two grumpy ramblers on the Forth/Clyde canal towpath, but never had a problem when I've been a bit further afield, even in well used places like Mugdock Pk or Aberfoyle. I don't use a bell most of the time, but I do tend to slow down and ask politely if I can squeeze by - by and large it seems to be a mindset that most people absorb as part of the long heritage of more open land access here in Scotland.

beaten to it by mintimperial

Sorry...

Seriously though folks, don't shout at grumpy old ramblers: their blood pressure is invariably incredibly high due to a combination of eating too much Kendal mint cake, reading the Daily Mail, and getting all het up about other people using their beloved Great Outdoors for actually having fun in. Sudden shocks caused by hollering cyclists can cause them to drop dead on the spot. A sustained campaign of bellowing at old ramblers could send the entire species extinct in a matter of months, and then what would we have to whinge about, hm?

From the Ramblers website:

[i]11. Are pedal cyclists allowed on public paths?
[b]Pedal cyclists have a right to use bridleways, restricted byways and byways open to all traffic, [u]but on bridleways they must give way to walkers and riders[/u][/b]. Like horse riders, they have no right to use footpaths and if they do so they are committing a trespass against the owner of the land....[/i] etc etc.

Join the ramblers, infiltrate from within!
[url= http://www.ramblers.org.uk/ ]Join here:[/url]

their blood pressure is invariably incredibly high due to a combination of eating too much Kendal mint cake, reading the Daily Mail

[b]LOOKOUT SWARTHY SKINNED INDIVIDUAL WHO IS DOUBTLESS SOME FORM OF BENEFIT SCROUNGING GAY TERRORIST COMING THROUGH[/b]

..and another one bites
..and another one bites
another one bites the dust

I was walking along the canal in Chester a few weeks ago and heard a strange noise, the noise was repeated several times and I saw no reason to do anything, but I couldn't work out what the noise was. A rather unhappy cyclist shot past me and I thought about how far a nice polite 'excuse me' would have gone. Have people forgotten how to be polite? Or is the more demanding sharp blast on a car horn or ring of a bell the new polite?

TandemJeremy - Member

However as usual no one can have a different opinion to you or a different experience can they?

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someone got it 🙂

Years ago out of the corner of my eye I saw a rambler bounding through the undergrowth on an intercept course towards me, having come from a footpath shouting at me that I was not allowed to cycle there. When he got to within about 10metres of me I saw him disappear up to his waist in a small bog!

After incurring more of his wrath for bursting out laughing and after helping him out, I walked with him back to my bike where he was able to see that I was in fact on my private tarmaced driveway cycling back to my house, not on a parallel footpath like he assumed!

someone got it

boom! in with the edinburgh defence. back o' the net....

TandemJeremy - Member
Seriously how many of you that experience this are not using bells?

On some bridleways close to me the sound of 'ting ting' is the signal for single file walkers to move to 2 abreast, reel out their extendable dog leads and generally become slow moving obstacles.

Any other time I would always give way/stop for groups of walkers but in these cases I just adopt the elbows out/head down approach - I'm the one wearing pads/helmet, they're the ones with brittle bones.

I have a bell but hardly ever use it. It just seems rude to me and shouting excuse me frightens the life out of folk.

Never had too many problems over the years though..

Occasionally, I mean very rarely, do I encounter stroppy walkers, most that I come across are there for the same reason as I am, enjoying myself/themselves.
If an encounter does exhist it's normally because they've been "buzzed" by some fat lad wobbling along after his father on some of the "family" trails that dot around a local wood (that I use to get through to another far better, but further, trail network)
Only once have I been stopped by someone, he wasn't a walker but a "landowner", that was an encounter where the Police got involved (the landownver took the law into his own hands and blocked the pathways)

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I normally shout 'on your left' at the top of my voice. That normally does the trick. Works particularly well with horse riders.

All the Horse Riders I come across are lovely, never had an issue, always pass the time of day, always ask if it's alright to pass them and stop on approach, no point in annoying the Ned now is there.

"waves at Racheal who Neds and Rides an MTB in the Downs"

Unlike my Hope Pro II hub

+1 for Hope hubs - can backpeddle to increase the frequency and penetration of the chatter which is very effective.

Calling out "on your left" or whatever seems like a good idea.

ringing a bell always seems intrusive and rude - maybe because I see it in London where cyclists appear to believe that they have clear passage to ride wherever they want after ringing their bell.

I was cycling home from london the other day on the a4 cycle path.

Several times I was over taking some other cyclists, so I called I called "on your right".

Que them immediately moving to the right.

Last winter, cycling along a dark old railway line a sustrans path, large group of teenagers sitting there chatting, as i approached, i asked could i get through, they all politely moved, one even said youre the first cyclist/walker to ask, all the others just rode through us, or tried treading on us.
The origianl incidents i posted about, one was in a park, and the other on a designated sustrans route,that was once a footpath along an old railway,now inhabited by old people with dogs who seem to be incontinent.

Last winter, cycling along a dark old railway line a sustrans path, large group of teenagers sitting there chatting, as i approached, i asked could i get through, they all politely moved, one even said youre the first cyclist/walker to ask, all the others just rode through us, or tried treading on us.

Same here, I used to commute along a canal towpath that ran past a large Tesco's. Underneath the road bridge next to the canal was the gathering point for all the local teenagers drinking their Tesco cider but they were actually really polite. They'd be messing about, swearing and play fighting amongst themselves but as soon as anyone came by they'd move to one side, say good evening. Quite funny really given that the Daily Mail would probably have branded them all a bunch of drunken hooligans.

,now inhabited by old people with dogs who seem to be incontinent.

the old people, or the dogs?

Please remember that some folk don't have hearing as sharp as you youngsters!

Quite funny really given that the Daily Mail would probably have branded them all a bunch of drunken hooligans.

Yup, unsurprisingly with the vast majority of people if you are normal and friendly with them they will reciprocate. We are so scared of young people in this country.

Last time I encountered a group of teenagers on the towpath they yelled "Nice forks!" after me as I rode off. I was quite surprised, they didn't try to mug me for my bike or anything.

I've had trouble a few times from people deliberately impeeding progress on legal trails but generally just try to ignore it and carry on.

The best time I had this was on the Stanage plantations path, where on several occasions I've been told off by folks for riding on the footpath and they've blocked the path to do so. My favourite occurance of this was when the national park rangers were doing some work clearing foliage from around the path and before I'd even opened my mouth he shouted over that it was a bridleway and I was quite entitled to be there. The look on the man's face as he huffed off was priceless.