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!”

– “Your lights are too bright!”

It’s a scientific fact that there is no such thing as a Goldilocks light with just the right amount of illumination.
You’re either dazzling them and they’re far too bright or you can’t be seen at all.

Tbf the majority of bike lights with reasonable power have a really anti social beam shape.

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.

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 **** 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!

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.