To the sanctimonious rider this morning on Hanover St, Edinburgh…

…please do not infer that because you are older than me I am riding dangerously. Yes, I was riding fast down the hill, but I was perfectly in control and aware of the surrounding traffic. This included being aware of you barging in front of me at the top of middle meadow walk, slamming on the brakes for no reason on George IV Bridge and then attempting to undertake me on the left hand corner of the Mound.

If I wanted a lecture first thing in the morning I would go back to University.

commuting is war MTFU lady pants!

Y’know what? He might just not read STW.

That was me, you were riding so badly I had to tell you.
Not really, I always quite enjoy the dirty looks of other cyclists as they notice you riding badly, or ‘overtaking’ as I usually call it.

well that’s true Jamie but I feel much better now. 😀

There seems to be a lot of bad cycling these days. My pet hate at the moment is cyclists who turn left from a side street when i’m on the main road going straight on. Sometimes they look, see me and go anyway and proceed to cycle slower than i walk, sometimes they don’t even look and i have to swerve.

Mind you, wasn’t as bad as the car driver who nearly hit me on Arthur’s seat on Tuesday – i was already on the roundabout when he pulled out without looking. Good training effect as my HR went super high with anger as I chased him down the hill!

why didn’t you just keep your distance or cycle away from the knob instead of following him round half of Edinburgh?

If someone’s behaving like a knob it’s not worth the grief to be near them. I bet you’re going to have a crap day now with this incident at the back of your mind, it could have been easily avoided.

Maybe you should have said this to his face instead of on a forum that he most likely does not read?

Aye plenty knobs on bikes!

I would have told him all this if I’d had enough time. I managed to respond that I was confident I was cycling safely and then he came out with the “I’ve been cycling longer than you” line at which point I realised it was a lost cause and not really worth it.

Still feel better for posting it here though and no, I’m not going to let it ruin my day!

sanctimonious

Good word.

Any reason why you didn’t say all this at the time instead of in the interwebs?

If you were so much faster than him – and younger – how come he managed to keep up all the way from the Meadows to half way down Hanover Street? Needing some work on your light to light sprints mate…

Was it TJ?

Twist the knife Coogan, twist it!

Not TJ, coogan.

MussEd, you are right, I am too slow to hit the green lights, sorry!

Maybe it was the guy I saw later on cycling near the Gyle on an expensive looking dark grey “hybrid” (ie not a BSO) with the forks on backwards?

Always seems so spineless ranting on the net.Id say it already sploilt your day and made someone elses

Hi Euan, no worries, had a close encounter with a car this morning on my commute, nothing happened but the driver was only aware of me once I tapped on his windows a couple of times in the last moment…
Sven

I had a “close encounter” with some toss in a black BMW coupe SM10 ULU today. He was in the Bike box at the lights, I drew up beside him (not in front initially) and he not only rolled forward but also tried to cut in front while mouthing something in his tin box. As the lights were red I went in front of him (still legal). He then shouted out his window about “knocking me the **** off my bike”, obviously not getting any or spending too much time under sun beds.

He narrowly missed me going along Queen St and when I chased him he went through a red light, I started to catch him at the next lights and he turned off. Was very amusing as he turned onto Dundas just in front of me and I then overtook him. He shouted about how hard he was the whole way down the hill as he stayed beside me – complete cock who didnt seem to like someone talking back to him (and also swerved to try and knock my off the bike a few times. At the bottom I offered for him to turn the corner and get out his car, he sped up so blew him a loving kiss which seemed to cheer him up……..

If anyone knows him pass on my love, or email me his address as he almost knocked me off my bike a few times and deserves a good kicking.

can i buy MrNutt’s lady pants online?

dave – I’d have called the police if he’d tried to hit me. Don’t stand alone for that shite.

…please do not infer that because you are older than me I am riding dangerously

The word is imply. You inferred that from what he said. He implied it.

Evidently a return to university would do you some good..!

Today was a day for it. I was walking to work this morning and some arsey old codge was verbally abusing a father and son out for a quiet ride on Heriot Row. Poor lad had lost concentration and fallen, bumped his knee and was in tears. His dad was livid. Quite upsetting.

If i leave the house a minute late.. half way into my journey i get stuck behind two old buggers on tesco specials with flat light batteries. and they don’t get out of the frickin way… blah blah…. anger blah blah etc etc..

I joined the RAF this week 27 years ago on Hanover St. This week they killed it, especially in Scotland. The only times I’ve been back have been Rose St pub crawls on rugby saturdays. Not related at all to your incident apart from the location. That’s all I have to say for now, thanks for reading.

ourmaninthenorth, good point well made. I will dock myself a cup of tea this morning as punishment. 🙂

Coasting, if it bothers that much you why click on a thread that’s so obviously going to be a bit of a rant? As I said, I didn’t let it spoil my day and posting it here made me feel a bit better by getting it off my chest.

Sven! How’s it going? We should meet up for a ride sometime!

daveb – Member

I had a “close encounter” with some toss in a black BMW coupe SM10 ULU today. He was in the Bike box at the lights, I drew up beside him (not in front initially) and he not only rolled forward but also tried to cut in front while mouthing something in his tin box. As the lights were red I went in front of him (still legal). He then shouted out his window about “knocking me the **** off my bike”, obviously not getting any or spending too much time under sun beds.

He narrowly missed me going along Queen St and when I chased him he went through a red light, I started to catch him at the next lights and he turned off. Was very amusing as he turned onto Dundas just in front of me and I then overtook him. He shouted about how hard he was the whole way down the hill as he stayed beside me – complete cock who didnt seem to like someone talking back to him (and also swerved to try and knock my off the bike a few times. At the bottom I offered for him to turn the corner and get out his car, he sped up so blew him a loving kiss which seemed to cheer him up……..

If anyone knows him pass on my love, or email me his address as he almost knocked me off my bike a few times and deserves a good kicking. dave – you’ll get yourself killed by winding up ejits in 4x4s. Next time “he’s” in the bike box take it as a warning that he has either no idea why it is there or absolutely no respect for other road users – and giving him a wide berth. You’ll also arrive at work, not only still alive but a lot calmer and slightly smug that you didn’t get wound up. I often wonder why you all commute when it seems every day is a near death experience and a string of arguments with drivers.

Poly

You are right, I should have backed off but apart from when I chased him after he tried to hit me with his car (the first time)I kept pretty calm throughout. Afterwards I did think about it and I should have just let him go when I was going down Dundas but I am not very good at backing down when some toss is shouting out his car at me. He was wrong but that wouldnt have mattered much if I hadnt got out of his way each time he swerved towards me.

When I turned off I did have a laugh to myself as he looked so incensed after I blew him a kiss.

To the OP, I had a similar thing about a month ago, some bloke that was a bit older and got annoyed not when I went past him but when the female I was with went past him. He then caught up at a set of lights and then cut in front of her forcing her into the kerb, on that occasion I did get very angry, justice did prevail is all I am saying.

Cycling, calming, of course it is 😯

Commuting in Manchester is an absolute hoot, you’re lucky to make it to work in one piece most days. To be honest a lot of cyclists are more dangerous than cars/buses, they swerve all over the road, don’t look, run lights. Nothing surprises me with what I see on the roads anymore.

I was on the bus last year (being lazy) when a roadie was in front of the bus was swerving all over, overtaking parked cars without looking or indicating. I though to myself ‘this lad’s going to have an accident,’ and sure enough, a few hundred yards down the road he rode straight in to the side of the bus I was on. I feared the worst and thought he might have been dragged under the wheels but luckily he was ok, having just a cut leg and bruised ego. The thing that got me was that he had the cheek to get on the bus and start shouting at the driver (who had been driving well in my opinion), saying he was going to sue etc. This was a cyclist with all the gear and no idea. His Giant looked quite nice, for a road bike at least.

I actually spoke to the driver when I got off the bus and gave him my details in case he was investigated and needed a witness – I was eventually sent a request for a description of events, I can’t remember who by, and I even had to draw a picture! I didn’t have any crayons for the blood though. 😀

It seems road users in general are angry at life for some reason. You’ve just got to take as much care as you can, and never think that you are going to come out of a situation better off than two tons of metal, or a bus.

However, if you do feel the need to antagonise other road users, pulling down the shorts so that your bum is showing and riding really slowly in front of them is a good one. I also like the idea of opening the passenger door when riding past, but don’t think I’d ever try it. 8)

Sven, Euan if you’re the folks I think you are, perhaps you could persuade Tim too?

Lady Pants

That is GOLD 😆

Aye plenty knobs on bikes! ……

Well, you’ve come to the right place
😉

I had thought about wearing a helmet cam in case anything like that 4×4 incident happened to me commuting to work in Edinburgh. But then I hit a 4×4 and don’t commute by bike any more…

BMW, Audi, taxi drivers, biggest threats to life as an Edinburgh cyclist.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the country, I had a speed gun pointed at me on Clapham Common bike path yesterday. I was on a SS MTB FFS – What exactly *is* the speed limit!?

there’s a lot of cycle commuters in Britain. Some of them aren’t c**ts.

Yahda yahda.

Yahda yahda

Are some of them Jewish?

DaveB – probs best not to complain to the Police, cos the reg you quote is off of a Merc ‘B’ class…. So you either remember it wrong or he’s a real villain and has cloned the plates off some poor old blue rinsers pride and joy….

imagine if some of the money flushed down the toilet on the trams and EARL could have been spent on implementing some proper cycle lanes and traffic seperation in Edinburgh, sigh.

😳

Oops, yes – it was SL10 ULU not SM.

a Bmw 118i M Sport according to the search I just did.

No interest in going to the police as I have no witnesses so doubt they would do anything anyway.

Y’all need to CTFO on your commutes.

Dave – worth reporting all the same – they will probably have a word with him, there might be cctv footage and he will get an anpr marker

If there is cctv you can get a prosecution.