Bike Riders

[standles]

I really hate cyclist who think they are the top of the food chain when it comes to using public roads/highways. Especially the ones that lobby the local gov to add a "bike lane" to the current roads so they can ride around in thier spandex and aerodynamic hats. Why should a "bike lane" bother me you ask.. well if ithey used it would be fine. At least I know where the cyclist are at. But nooooo...... they ride where ever they want including down the middle of the road at 15 20 mph when they could be in the bike lane.

Add to this rant the ones that think just because they are on a bike the rules and laws of the road such as sineage and signals don't apply to them. Twice this weekend I damn near hit one that just breezed through a light (red). The last one looked at me and flipped the bird mad because I was obeying the signals and he almost got pegged. Not a bright one at all. In this day and age a less stable person could have run him over.

Apologies to those cyclist that are opposite to those decribed above. However, the majority of what I see are the idiots. Mostly middle age lance armstrong wannabes. The kids do a much better job at obey road rules. Now with a gas shortage in my area it is only getting worse.

**** deep breath ****

**** cleansing breath ****

Pushes soap box back under the table.

Steven

[Ted Murphy]

Many of them seem to really enjoy blocking traffic- even with a bike lane.

Windshield washers give a small measure of satisfaction BTW.

Ted

[Matt Cheely]

Apologies to those cyclist that are opposite to those decribed above. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thank you for that

However, I certainly have seen my share of the riders you describe!!!

[Cameron]

I am not a cyclist, and I do share opinion on this, but pedistrians and cycles always have the right away, even if they are being inconsiderate and ignoring traffic signals.

[XRe]

Right of way to my undercarriage, maybe....

Being in Austin, we have perhaps a greater percentage of "Lance wanna-bes" on the road. In general, they're well behaved - though sometimes the choice of roads to ride on leaves a little bit to be desired (they pick some pretty dangerous roads...). I've seen a few things lately, though, that tweak me... Like, riding in a big group crossing all the lanes on a road w/ a 55 MPH speed limit... asshats....

[ima45dv8]

While most the bike riders I see around here act like they know what they're doing, I see a few that are hood ornaments looking for a place to happen.

[folsoml]

I've seen a few things lately, though, that tweak me... Like, riding in a big group crossing all the lanes on a road w/ a 55 MPH speed limit... asshats....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We frequently get calls from people complaining of a "traffic obstruction" in the form of 50 or 60 bikes on a curvy canopy road taking up the entire lane. Unfortunately for the complainers, the law is on their (the bicyclist's) side on this. But just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should. Who will come out on the short end of the stick if a car comes around one of those curves and hits about 20 of them?

[standles]

The law may be on thier side but science is on mine F=MA LOL

IN reality I have seen one life ended and another trashed becasue of a similar incident. Two LA wannabes were coming down a hill and had tucked everything in to reduce drag so they could "race to the light". Of course one tucked head to where he couldn't see and zipped though said light and under a suv. He dies, the driver is crucified in court and while beats the charges is scarred for life do to an idiot.

[Scooter]

Having been a cyclist for a long time, I would have to agree most people don't obey the laws. But there are also A-hole drivers out there that do provoke incidents to happen like cutting in front of a cyclist. I have ended up in people's driveways and almost the back of the bed of a truck because the dumbass has to beat me to the corner. So there are times where it's actually safer to be in the middle of the road if a bike lane isn' available. Then there are drivers who don't understand what a turnout is for. If a bunch of vehicles (cars or bikes) are held up behind you coming down a mountain road, let them pass. I can only ride the brakes for so long before I blow the tire off the bead.

Here in Sacramento, on Saturdays, there is a race ride call the River Ride. Basically it's flat out 35-40mph on a two lane road. Here in the central valley, we almost always have a crosswind. In a crosswind, we have to spread out across the road at a diagonal to maintain the draft. The thing that scared me sh!tless was the fact that everyone used the entire road, gutter to gutter. I did this ride once and only once. Going 35 mph on the wrong side of the road and seeing an oncoming car is pretty scary. My life wasn't worth doing that ride. It's plain stupid. It's surprising no one has gotten run over yet.

I'm not even going to get into the race rides in the Los Angeles area. You can't count the number of lights and stop signs we run on one race ride. It's ridiculous. Most of the rides are led by elitist A-HOLES. Even if you try to get everyone to stop at the red light, they'll just go right around you, it's happened to me before. I started slowing for a red light, next thing I know, I'm at the back of the pack.

Moral of the story, most roadies are A-HOLES. The higher up in USCF classification you go, the bigger the A-HOLE you become. This is one of the reasons why I really didn't like racing USCF races. The better you get, the more a-holes you have to deal with. Shooting is so much nicer, not many a-hole GM shooters out there.

Nowadays, I stick with safer things to do like shooting or riding off road. I'm one of the few cyclist out there that actually obey most of the laws like stop signs and slower traffic keeping right. But the speed limit is just a guideline.

[smokshwn]

Cyclists, pedestrians, little cars, motorcycles, etc. etc. can harp all they want about cage drivers, however when the wreck happens the "Lug Nut Rule" will always prevail.

He with the most lugnuts wins!

Craig

[Turtle]

I'm a mountainbiker but hate on dude. An idiot is an idiot no matter what their profession or hobby is. I just hit one of those morons that you're talking about today! The light was green and I was making a left (there was a construction wall on my left blocking my vision) this guy blows through the light right in front of me. If I didn't slam on the brakes he would have been D.R.T.! As it turned out I hit him just hard enough to knock him over. Before I could ask if he was ok, he got back on his bike and rode away. What an idiot!

[Nik Habicht]

If I didn't slam on the brakes he would have been D.R.T.!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

D.R.T. ---- almost as funny as "circling the drain"......

[dajarrel]

I haven't noticed cyclist to be that much problem for motor vehicle operators here in Mobile. Of course I have to walk in the grass because they keep the sidewalks pretty much tied up!!!!

FWIW

dj

[Jeeper]

As someone who raced USCF and NORBA for a long time I can say that it has gotten a lot worse in the last 5 years. When I started riding and racing about 17 years ago more cyclists obeyed the laws. Now it seems to be trendy to not obey them. The general attitude of cyclists have also changed from friendly to less friendly.

[jnshapiro]

I'm a cyclist too.

It would help if the traffic cops would start to nail cyclists for running stop signs, red lights, not signaling, etc. If word got out, most cyclists would remember that they have to obey the rules of the road the same as those operating motor vehicles.

[Scooter]

That won't stop them. Try doing any of the race rides in the Los Angeles area. The Saturday morning Montrose ride which goes from La Canada all the way to Covina and end up back in Sierra Madre, the rule of thumb is slow for the green and run the red. Covina PD usually has a guy following and giving out tickets. The finish in Sierra Madre usually has PD hiding on cross streets because there's a stop sign right before the final sprint.

Most people do stop if there's a cop, but there are those who think they are god and run the stop sign right in front of cops. Most cyclist don't carry any ID especially their driver's license. If you get caught, just take the ticket and deal with it. But I like Sierra Madre PD's attitude. Saw one guy make a big fuss over it. He was pissed the cop stopped him and threw a fit. Since he didn't have any ID, cop impounded his bike. Funniest thing I've ever saw. Oh, the guy wasn't even in the leading group who all stopped. He was about 3-4 minutes behind us.

Over in Pasadena, we convince the city to remove the stop signs, move the center line ,and add a pedestrian lane at the Rose Bowl. They knew we had race rides there every Tuesday and Thursday and pedestrians were getting hit. The race ride goes faster than the flow of traffic there. So basically you had 200 bikes trying to pass old golfers driving slowly in the Caddys, now add in the stupid people that insist on walking in the middle of the road. We had an ambulence follow us for a while. After the road was changed, the city told us, that they change the road for us, now they will enforce the law. So we had a motorcycle cop ride in the pack and citing people for crossing the centerline. I though that was great. In races, if you cross the centerline, you get DQ. What a better way to enforce that rule.