we have alot of rail to trails in the northeast. i just put my wifes and my mountian bikes into the bed of the truck and drive to a safe place with NO cars.....that doesn't seem so hard.....most don't care. we have the velodrone in the lehigh valley and the local back roads can get quite full. it also drives me nuts when the ride side by side. then almost to dangerous to pass. i love it when i am on my vmax and i will get real close to them and pull in the clutch and scare the crap out of them....only the ones who think they own the roads.....so alot of us feel for ya.

 

This is why I have air horns!

 

It's the fact that when there is traffic, I have to stop to let the oncoming traffic by because the clown WON'T MOVE OVER! I don't like using my horn just because I don't like scaring people, so instead I wait and go around and get pissed off and get to work and jump on the computer and vent to you guys!

 

what is it with women and being afraid to use the horn dam..


in my next truck i plan on getting this mod

 

I want one of those too!!!!

I'm not afraid to use the horn, but when someone's ears are unprotected (like they would be in a car) I don't want to scare the bageezis out of the guy. Just my sensitive side showing I guess.

 

then you need to learn the fine art of lightly tapping the horn.

 

you think you have it bad??
this happens every year in my city screws up traffic for a weekhttp://www.tourdetoona.com/home/main/index.htm
the whole city revolves around a bicycle race makes me want to go buy tons of roofing nails!

 

Clothesline a couple and the rest will learn. One guy at my college would ride right towards people on the sidewalks, forcing the people walking to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit. After he got clotheslined twice, never rode on the sidewalk again.

 

My brother was involved in an accident just 2 days ago because he was doing what the law around here says to do and give bicyclist 3 feet room when passing them.

He was in his dump truck on a 2 lane road. There is only inches from the white line and then the shoulder drops off, so the bicyclist had to ride the white line. My brother moves over toward the middle to go around him but a car and a LWB Chevy van happened to try and pass him at the same time. Well the car makes it around but the Van's left rear tire went off the pavement and spun him around several times then rolled over and then flipped end over end before finally landing. luckily the van driver had his seatbelt on or he would have died.

My brother luckily did not actually get hit in all this. It is roads like this that bicyclists should not be allowed to ride on. You have to watch them, oncoming traffic, plus traffic behind to make sure they are not going to pass.

 

In Ohio, a bicycle is actually a vehicle, too, and we are allowed 3 feet. I would like to ride on the whitle line, but, as said, earlier, that part of the road is usually f#@ked up, and it is dangerous. When the weather is nice, I ride my bike to school. It saves on gas and helps my health, as well.

Other than interstates, and limited access highways, bikes in Ohio are legally allowed to travel on the rest.

AS they say in Northern Ohio, "Share the Road..."

BTW, we also have, in this area, something called "Pedal to the Point", in which thousands of cyclists pedal from Cleveland to Cedar Point (Sandusky) AND BACK (around 150 miles) to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. Think about what it would be like for you to be on the roads, then!

Tim C.

 

As i read this post....i cant believe what some of you say/want to do.

First, from the cyclist thoughts. I ride my bike on the roads around my town. I could be considered dressed out in full cycling/racing gear. Why? Because i am on a team and you wear your team uniforms while training. Also, the clothes help significantly when you are riding. They help cut down air resistance and cool you off. When i ride, i normally stay right on the white line if possible...give or take an inch or two on each side. Why? Because first off, many of the streets i ride on give you an angled piece of paving that is about 5 inches wide till the curb. Its hard to keep your bike steady and not swerving if you are riding on an incline. Plus, there are drain covers there with slots where a tire can go down into throwing the rider over the front of the bike. Trash is there too, and if our tire pops cause we hit glass, we could fall and get injured. When a car goes to pass me, i try to stay as steady as possible. I have had cars go by me without giving me any room to sway a little. plus, most of our roads are four lines wide. Last, ride a bike on a windy day and try to keep your bike steady....aint gonna happen.

As far as you all talking about how you treat them, my thoughts about you begin to sway some. There is no reason for you to have to "swerve" over. Give us a foot...and go by. No need to run up on us and then frantically turn the wheel. As for those of you who ride as close as possible to be mean, realize that if something was to go wrong and you tap us....chances are that we are gonna fall and you will run over us. Can you live with knowing that you killed someone cause of your stupidity? Dont forget, you will be sitting in jail for a bit also probably. We can also lose control if you throw something at us. Force us into the curb, and we might break our neck on the fall. How would you like knowing that you paralyzed someone just because they were legally riding on the street? Oh no, you might have to slow down to wait until you can go by us...but what will you lose, a minute tops of your time.
As far as sidewalks go, try riding a road bike down a sidewalk at 20-30mph having to dodge people and the grooves in the concrete.

If any of you ever hit a cyclist cause of your stupid actions, i hope you get sued for all that you have and spend some time in jail. Now, if it was the cyclist fault then i hope no harm comes to ya.

 

During the summer, I ride about 100 miles per week. I ride too fast for the "bike paths") I guess people around the Cleveland area might not like cyclists, but at least they are used to them and can co-exist. I would suggest that those of you who are rather nasty about it should try riding 25-50 miles sometime (alright, maybe 5-10 miles for some of you.) See how it is, and perhaps you would change your mind.

We (the people that I ride with) are legal, and I know that we obey the traffic rules--stopping when you are supposed to stop, etc. Runnerboy has some valid points about curbs, glass, and such.

If the thing that pisses you off the most are a few people on bikes, I guess you have a pretty charmed life.

Tim C.

 

As a fairly avid biker I'll throw my two cents as well. First, the clothing, I'll admit it looks a bit silly, but many of us ride 20-50 miles a day. What exactly am I supposed to wear? Sweat pants and a wife beater? Jeans, flip flops and a git'r'dun fishing cap? All of those items serve a useful purpose, to prevent blisters and cut down on wind drag when you're going 25mph with a 15mph head wind.

Second, everything you've bitched about here in this thread I see car/truck drivers do a dozen times every day that I drive to work. But of course you would also need to include the red light running, the tail gating, food eating, cell phone chatting, make up application, beating of kids, reading the paper, road raging, speeding, stop sign running, not using blinkers and on and on. So please save the safety lectures and "venting" about bicyclists until all car drivers are perfect too.

And whether you like it or not, bikers have every right to be on the road just like you. Since I spend most of my time commuting I'm always trying to make as little impact as possible on car drivers, but sometimes it's just not possible. Where I ride there is NO shoulder. My bike tires are about 1/2 inch wide and inflated to 100psi, and my feet are clipped into my pedals. So it's not like I can just pull off into the grass to let you by. If I could, I would.

And I've already had one altercation with and individual who tried to scare me off the road. Unfortunately for him about a mile up the road they were doing construction and he was forced to stop. I caught up to him shortly thereafter. We had a nice "discussion" and he probably won't ever do that to a bicyclist again.

 

Just get a bigger bumper.

 

Why do you think I got a grille guard? Tour de France, heh, not in my neighborhood!