So after being knocked off my bike this eve…..

By some ****t who turned right on to the road I was riding down only then to take the first left right in front of me.

Anyway I hit hit rear passenger door and landed I think on my arse. He apologised and swore he was indicating as he saw my lights ( I thought it a bit odd, he saw my lights rights but carried on with his maneuver) 😯

I managed to scrub off a bit of speed so the impact wasn’t as hard a it could of been. But could I have stoppedslowed down more? (he started his turn about 2m in front of me, I was probably going about 18/20mph and was already out of the saddle when I clocked him turning right ont to the road.

My question is, are all road calipers the same, I’ve got 105s on the bike, can you get more powerful brakes for road bikes. I thinking want to get some – for next time.

105’s are fine. Clean rims, new cables, new pads. Should have more than enough power to lock up the wheel. Sorry about your crash. Any damage?

No not really, anything more powerful would have just locked you up.

The problem is that doing 18/20 mph on a bicycle is going to throw a lot of motorists. He probably without thinking saw a cycle+lights = 10mph tops. It’s very common I’m afraid.
I always think riding a bike at that speed is like driving in a car at 60.
But back to brakes, ride a mix of 105, Ultegras and DA, and it’s more down to a good set up and clean rims. When was the last time you scrubbed your rims with hot soapy water?

eyerideit, not at you.

Using the brakes QR lever is not an acceptable method of adjusting ones brakes.

He apologised and swore he was indicating as he saw my lights

Bet your lights were flashing, weren’t they !…

When will idiot cyclists learn that flashing bike lights hinder and impede a car drivers ability to judge his distance from you.

I cycle and I drive and I utter detest idiot cyclists who ride at night on flashing lights only.

Ride on flashing lights ONLY, and you get what you deserve !.

When will idiot cyclists learn that flashing bike lights hinder and impede a car drivers ability to judge his distance from you

I think that has bugger all to do with the driver misjudgement here when he had just passed the cyclist.

When will idiot cyclists learn that flashing bike lights hinder and impede a car drivers ability to judge his distance from you.

Ride on flashing lights ONLY, and you get what you deserve !.

Rubbish, if a car driving is going to make a maneouver it is completely his responsibility to make sure he does not endanger the cyclist that he knows is there as he has a flashing rear light.Also flashing rear lights draw your attention much faster that a static red light on the bike.

Oh and eyerideit i hope you are ok after the crash.

Can’t F’kin believe this forum sometimes 😕

Hope you are ok.

From what you said there is little you could have done better, sounds like an incompetent/impatient driver. I know I thought through my collision loads after the event wondering if i could have stopped faster or turned harder. It’s only natural, afterall I’d do the same after any crash in the woods.

My suggestion as above would be that from 105 up there isn’t a massive difference. Cleaning rims help. You can buy enamel rubbers frmo DIY shops that will remove worn in grime. They are much cheaper alternatives to things like the MAvic rim rubber. Make sure your pads are also cleaned when you do the rims. Keep everything adjusted so it is working well.

If you have details I would follow up with the police and their insurance to claim any losses/damage back.

Not exactly helpful or considerate Solo. I think you should probably vent that sort of anger at red light jumpers and those who ride without a helmet or lights at all, those are the ones that can’t argue a case, not something you need to voice here though.

Riding flashing lights was not the cause of the accident if he was only 2m behind the car, it was down to the driver. The issue is driver’s not giving enough respect for cyclists on the road, we are seen as 2nd class road users (non-tax payers as they usually like to jibe) and drivers will therefore always pay less attention to us as a result. If it’s difficult to judge the distance to a flashing light then why turn at all, why not just wait 10 seconds and then carry out the turn, not exactly a burden!

Ride on flashing lights ONLY, and you get what you deserve !.

🙄

Aye, right, so using flashing lights because they increase your chance of being seen amongst other lights means you deservse to be knocked off.

As above, if a driver can’t judge the distance because the light is flashing, they shouldn’t be pulling out – they shouldn’t just assume it will be far away/travelling slowly.

Anyway, nothing in the OP suggests that he only had one flashing light on. I ride with one light ‘on’ and one flashing for this very reason though.

Well I wasn’t there but was there anything else that you could have done to prevent it.

Riding further towards the centre of the road when passing junctions. If he was forced to straddle the centre line to pass he is less likely to cut your nose off.

If the traffic was free flowing and he was passing you at 20-25mph instead of at 30-35 in a 30 zone approaching a junction then is he going to turn?

Riding further towards the centre also makes it easier to go round the back of cars that suddenly slow for a left turn.

Using a mirror lets you judge the intentions of following traffic sooner.

And as said flashing lights have bugger all to do with it. Once a driver knows you are there it is his responsibility to drive safely past you.

OP as above, 105s should stop you well, no one has mentioned brake pads, IME kool stop are good and shimano OK but wear fast, I’ve not tried everything.

as

Solo – Member
When will idiot cyclists learn that flashing bike lights hinder and impede a car drivers ability to judge his distance from you.

When will idiot forum members engage their brains and realise that even if there is a grain of truth in this statement it does not apply to all situations.

It is a shame but it seems that as a cyclist these days one has to treat every other road user as a possible threat, from dog walkers to horse riders to idiots who think assaulting cyclists from the safety of their vehicles is funny , assertive riding is all very well but the mass of a cyclist is **** all versus 44 tonne of Scania’s finest. Unfortunately inconsiderate driving is not only perpetrated against cyclists, courtesy and patience seem to be missing from the skillset of most ‘modern’ road users, rant over, sorry about your incident eyerideit hope you are not too shook up to return to the fray, and 105 brakes are fine , you dont want an OTB every time you brake ! Best wishes JC
Just to add to the above , there is NO excuse for knocking some one over on the highway, my mate had a SMIDSY and was totalled in broad daylight by an impatient driver.

Solo – Member
When will idiot cyclists learn that flashing bike lights hinder and impede a car drivers ability to judge his distance from you

Well then by that admission the driver should not do any thing until he is able to see properly to judge said distance and speed

I’ve got 105 brakes on the commuter and they’re ok in the dry and pretty scary in the wet, clean rims/new pads/cables help, but they’re not stunning. The Dura Ace (7800) brakes on the Madone are far far far better, in all conditions. Even when utterly filthy they’re better than the 105s.

So no, not all calipers are equal.

This reminds me of a Youtube video where a cyclist (I think it was an American bloke and his wife) got into an argument with a motorist who had turned left in front of them – The motorist swore that as he had put his indicator on the cyclist should have slowed and let him turn! Even though he had only just overtaken the bike! (I think they called it a “Left Hook” in the video, but I may be thinking of a different one).

Unfortunately, that’s the mentality of some drivers.

Ps. I bet Solo watches Top Gear religiously.

Sounds like dura ace pads are worth buying then!

DezB – Member
This reminds me of a Youtube video where a cyclist (I think it was an American bloke and his wife) got into an argument with a motorist who had turned left in front of them – The motorist swore that as he had put his indicator on the cyclist should have slowed and let him turn!

I think a number of drivers think you should look out for them as they turn left…my guess is they wouldn’t want us all taking their lane at 15mph though.

I agree that flashing lights are a bad thing. Speaking as a motorist, it takes a lot longer to process and track a moving flashing light than a steady one. And most people are only having a quick subconscious scan of the road, you really don’t want your light to be off when their eye flits in your direction.

However you don’t deserve to be knocked off – that’s just silly.

Thanks for all the advice.

I’m fine just a bruised arse cheek, more importantly the bike is intact as well.

Solo:

My lights were flashing, but the point is he saw me he didn’t say my lights hurt his eyes/confused him. My presence on the road was noted but he chose to ignore it and carry on.

He didn’t do an overtake he did this.

molgrips – Member

And most people are only having a quick subconscious scan of the road, you really don’t want your light to be off when their eye flits in your direction.

However you don’t deserve to be knocked off – that’s just silly

Wow, if that is true then it’s not safe out there and a lot of motorists need to go on DCPC courses like HGV drivers are having to do.

Wow, if that is true then it’s not safe out there

Newsflash!

My lights were flashing, but the point is he saw me he didn’t say my lights hurt his eyes/confused him

He didn’t say that.. but why did he continue to turn? I’m sure he didn’t really want to knock you off. More likely he was not concentrating, relying on his subconscious, and that didn’t alert him fully to the presence of another road user. I think our brains are trained very well to look for cars on a fundamental level, but not so much for bikes. I remember learning to drive, and having to deal with other cars, but I’m not sure I can remember having to deal with a cyclist on more than a couple of occasions when being taught, and even then those were just passing on an open road. I think that because they are far less common people aren’t expecting bikes, so the subconscious just thinks ‘oh there’s a thing there, but it’s not a car’ as you make you manoeuvre.

Not excusing anything mind – just perhaps explaining why stuff like this might happen.

Loving the piccie, Eyerideit, especially the aaaarrrrggggh…

🙂

Anyway I didn’t want this to be a thread about cycle safety.

All I really want to know is if I can get some ‘better brakes’

Currently I’ve got 105 front and back with Dura-ace pads in the front and Halt gooeys in the rear.

They’re pretty good in the dry (last night aside) but rubbish in the wet. as njee20 said Dura ace are better but could this be difference in pads and rims as well?

I love that pic too! Got knocked off my motorbike last week in very similar circumstances, so guess what I’m about to spend 10mins doing…

Ride on flashing lights ONLY, and you get what you deserve !.

prick

I love that pic too! Got knocked off my motorbike last week in very similar circumstances, so guess what I’m about to spend 10mins doing…

Yours could have the addition of ‘vroooom’ noises also…

Anyway I didn’t want this to be a thread about cycle safety.

Hehe.. it’s our thread now!

Seriously though – I ride 105 brakes and I hate them. I’ve asked this before and many people have said that Dura Ace or Ultegra are much better. Will be trying that as soon as I have the cash.

I turn right on a similar junction where the OP’s subsequent “left” is almost a straight on (i.e. a staggered crossroads) There’s often a queue of traffic waiting for the first RH and it’s easy to filter inside that to the front, and turn right on the inside of a driver doing so.

It would be easy to be missed by a driver then taken out as he “turns left” (where I go straight on) and I wonder what the legality would be if I got taken out, given the driver is half crossing the road rather than driving along it to turn left ❓ Few drivers indicate right then left (would they be supposed to?).

I tend to slow right down (it’s uphillish anyway) to let them go left without any danger to myself.

Trouble is , the best stopping pads are also the quickest to wear out so it’s always a compromise , ooh I was just going to type ‘long life v value for money’ , Doh, no contest -we all want a long life , ha ha !

Solo, again. What a cock!

eyerideit – my inlaws live on Brownlow Road and we lived with them for a while. Whilst you’re getting some new brakes, I’d think about armour-plating and weaponry too 😉

I have 5600 105 on one bike (koolstop salmon pads), roval alu wheels and 7900 dura-ace (OEM pads) and Ksyrium alu rims on another and the braking is pretty much identical in terms of power and modulation.
Some rims like exalith coated ones might provide a bit more stopping power but it would be marginal, same with say going to a 25 or 28mm tyre (bigger contact patch on ground so more grip when braking) again it’s marginal.

Not that this is really the thread but flashing lights are not that great as a car driver especially in low light levels they can easily be lost amoungst the other traffic.

I see many cyclists who do themselvs no favours, at the end of the day as a cyclist you HAVE to take resposibility for everything that happens on the road, you cannot rely on others to help you out, if you do you will winde up dead under some ****ts wheels.

Sorry to hear about the crash, sounds like the driver was an idiot to me and totally misjudged your speed. Remember it happens we are all human, apart for 1 or 2 of this forum!!!

If he pulled out 2 metres in fornt of you no brake will have been good enough to stop a collision.

Most road brakes are powerful enough to lock up the wheel- and that’s the biggest problem AFAIK. The contact patch is very small so difficult to get enough traction to stop quickly.

Stopping distance for a car going 20mph is 12 metres (apparently, not sure if this is with ABS or not)but thinking distance alone will be 3 metres or so.

You need to brake with the front pieface.

Misread the OP, however I don’t believe better brakes will have helped in this situation. Assuming the speed difference was 10mph you’d still need about 9 metres to stop (in a car)…. so in 2 metres the speed differential would need to be???

Regarding flashing lights.
When i got knocked off recently it was become some daft bint ‘thought’ (for some reason best only known to herself) that I was turning left, into the road that she was pulling out of.
Now, it was dark, and the only front light I had on was my ayup which is bright, and non-flashing. I don’t know this for sure, but the thought has occurred to me that she assumed I was a motorbike, and therefore the only reason I would only be going 15mph on a NSL road is because I was turning left (even though I wasn’t indicating).
The point being that although you shouldn’t have to, a flashing light marks you out as ‘obviously a cyclist’.
I wouldn’t have a light as bright as the ayup on flashing, but in the future, on the front, I plan to have the ayup on constant and a secondary, backup light (e.g. a smart) on flashing.

Last time I got hit by a “daft bint” she was driving towards me on the wrong side of the road – I had Hope Vision 2 on full and a flashing light.
“How didn’t you see me?”
“I’m thorry buth I dithn’t”
So lights/no lights/flashing lights/dim lights/bright lights… makes no difference if they ain’t alooking where they are going!

[edit]which I guess means the OP is right to think of how evasive he can be – ie. by braking quicker!

I runs two EL-130s on the front of my bike in flash mode so they are alternate flashing most of the time (annoyingly they come back into sync every no and again)

It is noticeable that if I only have one on as flashing or constant, cars (mostly Addison Lee taxis…) will pull out in front of me at junctions, but it never happens if both are on flash.

Multiple flashers on the rear also seem to work best for visibility, especially if spread vertically. Pretty obvious it is a bike then.

gozarch – Member
eyerideit – my inlaws live on Brownlow Road and we lived with them for a while. Whilst you’re getting some new brakes, I’d think about armour-plating and weaponry too

sounds like you’ve got no love for the hood.