Using bike to commute to a new place of work, it’s approx 9 miles and 7 are on shared access paths and forest trails. Obviously they’re a lot busier with the nation getting ‘fit’ and a lot hear or see you coming and I slow and we all pass no problem keeping some distance. But there’s an increasing amount walking and running listening to music, when they’re going the same way they can’t see or hear you approaching so what’s the etiquette, some are very good at weaving unpredictably too which adds to the fun. So how do you treat them ?

I actually have a loud bell, and when they can’t hear that I shout “Morning, can I come past” till they jump out their skin

Self preservation, and the knowledge that cyclists are always deemed in the wrong whatever happens….

Means I slow down shit loads and give them a wide berth

One of these – https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/bells-horns/samui-air-zound-3-rechargeable-horn/

It does seem a particular problem just now with the roads being relatively quiet. Mrs SOM and I were following (at over 2m distance of course) a runner the other day who was merrily jogging along in the middle of a quite narrow country lane. He was totally oblivious to ringing bells, bellowing, etc on account of the over the ear headphones he was wearing.

Today an old guy walked out right in front of me without looking. I shouted loudly (whilst braking hard of course) – nothing. I looked back to remonstrate and sure enough, earphones in.

As the generalist says slow down ‘cos we’ll be the ones at fault.

Spurcycle bell or the rockbros copy.
Loud enough to wake even the dopeiest of pedestrians.

Bell – and first use it when a fair distance away not when right behind them. Keep dinging it ( I much prefer a single ding bell) until you get a reaction from them
Then a ” thank you” when you go past. Practice polite cycling.
Also do not use ultrabright mtb lights – they dazzle really badly. If thats the only light you have pint it right at the ground in front of your wheel.

Be cheery and polite to everyone

Really loud horns give people a fright and they jump to the side. The problem with that is you can’t predict which side…

Really loud horns give people a fright and they jump to the side. The problem with that is you can’t predict which side…

Entertaining if its a towpath !!!

One of these – https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/bells-horns/samui-air-zound-3-rechargeable-horn/

Does that work? In a previous life I spent a couple of years working as a London despatch rider / motorcycle courier. At one point I had a massive air-horn mounted on my top-box. In theory it seemed a sane solution to being noticed, but it often had the semi-magical effect of simply freezing traffic in front of you, presumably because they assumed that an invisible artic was bearing down on them. You had to be quite careful how you used it.

I use a Timber Bell on mixed paths where it’s mostly brilliant. But if there’s no response, I look for the give-away ear inserts / wires and either carefully go round them where the trail is wide. Or shout at them. The answer would probably be either a Tazer or some sort of visual warning, though gawd knows how that would work.

@BadlyWiredDog I was thinking more …

On my commuter bike I have a bell and an old school honker. Bell is used normally, honker for getting the attention of people with headphones and cars, although it doesn’t work so well when it’s cold. It still won’t get all the headphone wearing folk, not much you can do apart from wide berth and a polite, slow pass

MTB has normal bell and timber bell. People wearing headphones still won’t hear!

BadlyWiredDog I was thinking more …

Yes, that’s pretty much how the horn on my motorbike worked. It was one of those things that felt like a genius idea in principle, but didn’t quite work as planned 🙁

With headphones on full blast its just a case of edging past them slowly and try not to breath whilst doing so.
Its one of the few disadvantages of having longer daylight hours. At least in winter a viable tactic was to whack the power up on the lights.

super slow passes its the only way.

anything else just makes you a dick which then brands us all as dicks.

Just go past closely and really fast with no warning to scare the bejesus out of them so they know to keep an eye out from then on.

Extra points if you hit them ‘accidentally’.

Does my head in folk with earphones on, they think they’re in their own little world and no one else is about.

The timber bell available from this very same august publication is quite useful for this – start jingling from the point that they are in view rather then when you’re close enough to pass – gives plenty of opportunity for you to be heard in a quite moment in their music. If you leave it until you’re close its a bit of a lottery that – on hearing you – people will will turn to look back and step straight into the space you’re trying to pass them on.

Useful with dogs too – being heard when you’re quite a distance away is better than them being surprised when you’re close.

The problem with that is you can’t predict which side…

Some councils spent £1000s putting loads of these up but people still dawdle about fixated by their phones & ignore the part about dogs.

Weird how walkers & runners can’t hear us when wearing headphones, yet cyclists on here swear blind that they can still hear everything going on around them when riding whilst wearing them.

Keep to the left – as the sign above says! I do find it amazing that so many folk do not ‘get’ this; we drive on the left, apart from the middle-lane hoggers on motorways, so we walk on the left.

In Fernie (Canada) the kids learn from their parents that they walk/ride on the right and as soon as they see you coming they all move to the right as a herd – there is no dithering or splitting to both sides or moving to one side and then changing their mind!

I always call out “is there room for a bike please?” and then wait for people to decide which side they would like to move to this time before passing.

Now, dog walkers calling out to their dogs to ‘move out of the way’ is another topic alltogether.

Weird how walkers & runners can’t hear us when wearing headphones, yet cyclists on here swear blind that they can still hear everything going on around them when riding whilst wearing them.

There’s this thing called volume control.

I had a “discussion” with someone who wasn’t happy that I was riding with earphones in. I let him have his say and then pointed out I could hear him and hold a conversation with him because the music was on very low. In fact, much above 15mph all I can hear is wind noise usually

Bell – and first use it when a fair distance away not when right behind them

noise cancelling earphones have made bells pretty redundant

the knowledge that cyclists are always deemed in the wrong whatever happens….

Ain’t that the truth…..🙄

I spent 30 years commuting by bike and foot on a towpath and I’ve trained my dog to run on my lefthand side but for some reason 80% of people can’t get their head around moving left when faced with oncoming traffic like they do on the roads. It’s worse at the moment because there are huge numbers of people using paths and trails who simply don’t appreciate it’s a shared space – walking or jogging down the middle of a 10 foot wide track with their headphones on and then getting all antsy when you have to shout for them to move.

Weird how walkers & runners can’t hear us when wearing headphones, yet cyclists on here swear blind that they can still hear everything going on around them when riding whilst wearing them.

Hmm…

the knowledge that cyclists are always deemed in the wrong whatever happens…

Ain’t that the truth…..🙄

Tru dat 😉