I’ve commuted pretty much the same route at the same time for the last 4 years now and there’s a few people I see all the time in the same spots-some cyclists but others just people going about their lives.

For a while we largely ignored each other but as time has gone on there’s normally a nod or a smile or occasional hello. I kind of feel they are part of my life but I will never know them.

Anyone take time out their lives to chat to their regulars?

I kind of feel they are part of my life but I will never know them.

Say hello sometime.

I always say hello or thanks to everyone on my ride in, but I’m weird. Even, (especially 😈 ) the ones who I know won’t answer.

There was an old lady who walked her dogs regularly a few years ago, on the Chester greenway at Blacon Station. She disappeared one day and shortly after her daughter, (I assume) took over with the dogs. Number of dogs is getting fewer recently too. ☹️

Two of my best cycling buddies I met separately on Cycle Superhighway 7 over the last ten years by seeing them regularly, chatting and getting to know them.
We now go on weekends or week long trips together.

There’s one chap does the same commute as me and if we spot each other we will ride together. They are always quicker commutes as I don’t think it’s possible for two males riding to not get a little competitive. I’d say he’s a friend.

Aye, a fair few roadies that nod and smile.
But they’re ignorant **** when I Run the 8 miles in/home.

Bawbags. 🤣

I see a few of the same folk but no interaction as such.

There’s a woman on a Boardman hybrid I once ran into a ditch*. Ever since then I’ve set-off 20min later so we no longer pass.

*Grammatical error, should be a comma after hybrid as I went into the ditch avoiding her.

Aye, a fair few roadies that nod and smile.
But they’re ignorant **** when I Run the 8 miles in/home.

Bawbags. 🤣

I once got overtaken on a climb by a runner whilst commuting on the road bike. She was properly quick!

I say “Mornin'” to a slow old fella with a massive grey beard I pass most mornings. Not sure if he responds! Bloke in my office passes me in his car and we wave, then discuss the traffic I’ve avoided when we get to the office 🙂

lady jogger in my village
young lad coming the other way on the path by the lakes
grumpy bloke coming the other way on the road up to B&Q

We* say hello now & then but that’s it

Except for Grumpy – who I suppose may just be Bashful, Sleepy or possibly Dopey

I often see a lady walking her dog. We normally say ‘morning’ and have had a conversation about the dog. Not bad for a couple of southerners.

I tend to vary my routes but regularly see:

Senior lady riding slowly in the wrong gear but seemingly all year round from at least 5 miles away – I know this because I’ve encountered her at various points en route – bit windy today isn’t it?
Cheery loud dog walking pensioners – MORNING!!
Beardy Gravel bro – alright bud?
Bow legged Hi-viz allotment man (often laden with gardening accessories) – alreet mate?
Sturdy horse lady – hello!
Too-many-accessories-on-my-ebike-man – morn’n
fosters and a vape for breakfast guy – areet fella

I have two regular routes, boring road way and chilled canal way. See the same folk every day and always say hello. Would seem odd not to for me. Canal route also involves much stopping to play with dogs and swear at geese. The former means I also spend time chatting to the owners too.

There is one guy on my commute i see at least 3 times a week for the last 4 years

He rides a very cheap Halfords type bike and wears those hi viz trousers and big thick high viz coats (similar to dustbin men, security guards wear) all year round!!! it can be 70 degrees and he is wearing the trousers and jacket, never seen him not wearing them!!!!

Been passing him for 4 years now and every time i pass him he nods and i don’t respond (im a miserable ignorant bastard!) yet he has never given up and now i just refuse to nod back hoping one day he will give up then ill start nodding to him lol

Yeah there’s a few in the morning, mostly going the other way:

Morning runner (very rarely responds, usually actively looks away)

Old roady in cap and no helmet (nod and wave)

Slow younger lass on shopping bike who is usually pushing up Bunglers Hill as I ride down (no response, ever)

Beardy bloke with backpack (cheery hello and wave)

Quicker bloke in matchy matchy kit (cheery hello and wave)

Two retired fellas walking their dogs on the grassy shortcut (bit of a chat as I pass)

Only regulars on the way home are a different beardy bloke with 2 younger lads behind, riding at a “steady” pace with serious expressions, all wearning matching hi-viz and who have never even acknowledged my existence.

I only commute on an occasional basis at the moment but wen I did I’d chat to pretty much everyone – I even ended up in a relationship with one who I met when we’d be heading the same way home – her on her training route me on an extended commute/training run home after work through Ironbridge and Bridgnorth.

There’s always the odd one who’d want to race you which was fun when you weren’t trying to do an active recovery ride 🙂

I miss a regular commute on the bike.

Yeah, same regular faces, same culprits always say ‘Hi’ and same few who are in their own little world.

Only one riding nemesis – If i spot him in the distance i can never catch him (well, maybe if i tried hard but it’s too early for that). Transpires we ride in the same club. Got chatting one Sunday club ride and then i clocked who he was. Explained his nemesis status, now good buddies. I’m even more confident I’ll never catch him, he’s lightning quick.

I normally have a chat to the regulars and follow them on Strava, it’s nice to have a bit of a community with the regulars, they’re the only people that really understand the shit you have to put up with.

Used to regularly chat to a guy between Clapham and the City, but he moved away. I’m always amazed that I don’t see the same people more often, but I guess if you’re a similar pace you only need to be 200m apart and you won’t actually see them.

When I was commuting out in the sticks I used to see a guy in jeans and a hoodie on a BSO ever day, turning his biggest gear at about 20rpm, he must have been doing 8ish miles each way (based on where I saw him), every single day. We always acknowledged each other.

Yep, loads of regular faces I pass – mostly either cyclists coming the other way, or people out walking dogs. some of them I know from other places and was then surprised to meet on my commute. Have occasionally met folks who I “know” virtually from online presences but hadn’t previously met personally, eg.e. once followed a tandem down the canal which turned out to be a chap from a local club out with his daughter – I knew his name and we had plenty of mutual friends (I even work with his brother) but we’d never actually met before

There’s a guy who lives down my road, literally 50m away, we used to commute the same way, we follow each other on Strava, have loads of mutual friends, but I’ve only actually spoken to him once, when we bumped into each other on a ride. I saw him last week riding down our road (I was driving), I nearly waved, but realised he’d have no idea who I was, and I only know what he rides from his Strava feed!

There’s a couple I see on my old commute, which is now my “long way in” commute along the Union Canal in Edinburgh. An old guy walking a border collie along the canal towpath who seems to ellicit a cheery “morning” from everyone, which he reciprocates, despite being apparently deaf to all bells and walking his dog off a lead on a national cycle route at rush hour.

Another is a Polish guy who yells at EVERYONE and carries at least 3 carrier bags on his handlebars. He yells in Polish so I don’t have any idea what he says, but he does get very cross about people cycling on the viaducts. A mate of mine started the same commute after I’d stopped doing it and I was baffled that he hadn’t seen him, but did get yelled at by a woman – til I rode it two weeks ago and it turns out angry Polish guy is, for the summer at least, angry Polish woman.

On my new commute I see a woman riding in a POC helmet who looks eerily like Jolanda Neff.

Nope – just targets.

I’ve seen the same chap at multiple points on my commute through Newcastle – from anywhere between Denton, up to South Gosforth. We do share a wave most times, it’s nice to be nice. 🙋‍♂️

I’m ‘friends’ on Strava now with a guy that I had a ‘trackstand-off’ with at a set of lights a couple of years back. I’m shit at trackstanding, so was surprised when I bumped into him in real life recently at the local polling station when he commented favourably on my trackstanding that time we first met. Interestingly, his company has now adopted the charity my wife runs as their ‘charity of the year’.

There’s the Sikh guy always sitting on a bench beside the cycle path, muttering prayers … Always a cheery “Morning” from me and a deep, slow, drawling “Gooood Mooornniiiing” back from him. Haven’t seen him for a few weeks; hope he’s ok. (There was a guy drinking a can of cider there this morning instead)

Couple of regular (and friendly) dog-walkers.

In recent weeks, a lady with a pushchair and a toddler with whom we do this “bike-on-the-left”-moves-to-the-left-then-clocks-what-I’ve-said-so-moves-to-the-right-just-as-I-have-diverted-right dance each time … Still haven’t managed to pass without slowing down to almost falling-off* pace … all good natured though

*see earlier about my trackstanding skills

I have similar to above, but what about cars?

I have the same cars overtake me at the same place most days. I like to think they give me more space now, but may be imagining it.

I sometimes like to leave 5-10 mins early, so they overtake me further down the road and think they’re are late for work

I let on to everyone that I see on the canal bit of my commute but I don’t bother shouting at buses etc on the road portion.

There is one miserable sod that I see at the same point every time. When I get him to say “Mornin’” back my work here will be done.

Used to see friend of STW Greg May quite regularly but haven’t for a while. Has he buggered off?

There’s a guy from the next village I sometimes bump into commuting into Nottingham – sometimes he slows down enough for me to have a gasping conversation with him as he tows me to a series of new PBs.

It’s usually people going the other way that I greet day in, day out.

Oh aye, for the best part of a year, there was a young woman with a new baby in a pram I’d say hello to, (the mum, not the baby I assume it was asleep). Always the pram, and always a cat following along behind to!

I guess maternity leave finishing means I don’t see her any more.

There are a couple of folk I know from racing on the velodrome, or being clubmates of those folk, I’ll have a good natter with them, and/or take turns into a headwind (always a relief to meet one of them on a windy day!)

There are plenty of people I don’t talk to, too. And a couple of people I know who I pass and usually don’t recognise haha.

I meet a woman most mornings on my way to work. She has one of those 45 km/h ebikes that has just become legal in Denmark.

I think she has mental issues, She screams and shouts at everyone and everything that gets in her way, you can hear her from miles away. She is positively frothing at the mouth with rage. every time I end up next to her at the lights, I always wish her a very good day… It annoys the crap out of her that I’m not scared of her.

I hope she never buys a car.

Currently, only really an old couple who walk their dog in the morning, between the fields, along one of the closest approximations to singletrack in my area is. They stand aside, and I roll past steady, say thanks or cheers and wave. A few weeks ago The man commented on the grass being cut and then I was disappointed to find the cut bit stopped short.

There’s a bloke in his mid/late 40s I’d see every evening when the weather was worse and I stayed on the roads. He always had a miserable stoney expression on his face. I smiled at him a couple of times and attempted a knowing nod with regard to being out in the nasty weather, but nothing. Even waved once. I gave up after that. Then he got an e-bike and I felt mildly disappointed. Sometimes I pull him subtly wierd faces at him (so subtle I’m merely just thinking about it). Haven’t seem him for a while actually.

I have a similar thing, see a few lads in a morning and always nod and say ow do but get no response. I jus assume they aren’t morning people. One older chap has started to reciprocate. Other than that, I’m pretty much ignored most days haha.

There’s a bloke I almost always pass going the opposite way (odd because I commute into Newcastle city centre) – later middle-aged, nice old steel touring bike with very narrow bars, pannier. Always wears the same thing – shorts (thigh-length), denim waistcoast – in all seasons and all weathers. He’s not really dressed for any sort of work, or for cycling I often wonder where he’s going.

There’s a bloke who has taken to saying hello to me when he’s riding as I walk the kids to school but it’s usually a yell for him … he also gets riled too easily at motorists so I’ve not made the effort! although if we are both riding at the same time and he chats I will say hello back.

the problem with my route is that it’s mega busy all the time so the opportunity to chat is lost because it takes full concentration to not get slammed by a car or van

Made a lovely new commuter “friend” the other morning.
I was aware of him sat in his big car alongside me while leaning over his wife sat in the passenger seat, waving his arm furiously and shouting something towards my direction. Being a 20 in a built up area I ended up riding along side him for a while but not being a fluent lip reader I eventually had to signal to him to put his fully closed window down so I could hear him. When he finally did I asked him what he was saying?
“Where’s your helmet mate?” was his worried reply.
With a big smile “where’s yours? Ya prick” was mine. “prick” being a local term of enderement around here I think we’re now friends for life. Although from the look on the face of my new friend’s wife I’m not so sure he’ll be allowed out to play with me for a while.

No not really but there’s a happy dreadlocked fella that I see intermittently, going in the opposite direction.We always wave and smile.

I see quite a few folk regularly while running to and from the office, quite a few exchange pleasantries with. When I was a regular rider there were a few familiar faces on the bike, several of whom I stalk on Strava and have occasional banter with 🙂

All of the lollipop men and women on the way to nursery get cheery hellos