Jerk in a Merc (Reg T9 TSK) has a dispute with cyclist

[ClaphamGT3]

Blayney said:

Spot on with the strava guys - it's becoming an issue. My gf volunteers as a Marshal for the local park run. It happens at the same time every Saturday morning, they put out cones and signs to warn people and they have marshals along the course with high vis jackets on warning people that there are a large group of runners ahead. Yet every Saturday there's at least one guy in a team sky outfit that thinks he's Wiggins. Shouting at people for getting in his way and ruining his time. It's a public foot path...

Maybe they need track days for cyclists?

Seeing more and more of this in parks around London. It's only a matter of time before one of these Herbert's kills or seriously injures a pedestrian. The only silver lining in that cloud will be that, hopefully, the victim's life insurance co going after the Lycra clad Walter Mitty for £3m will finally bring to an end this rather infantile party

[powerstroke]

Johnnytheboy said:

Blayney said:

Maybe they need track days for cyclists?

Maybe tack days!!! didn't some new forrest locals do that when they were invaded by hordes of selfish tts?

[red_slr]

No reason to try and attempt that overtake, in fact no reason to attempt any of them IMHO.
Narrow road, traffic speeding up and slowing down, lots of oncoming traffic, lots of traffic ahead.
Stand to gain nothing.

Read the road very poorly and almost paid the price expecting the motorist to *move over* and give *him* space...

[scrubchub]

BrownBottle said:

You suggested that if it was a car overtaking under the same circumstances people in the thread would be reacting differently. I then commented that a car generally wouldn't be overtaking under those circumstances.

Pretty straight forward stuff to comprehend.

You're missing my point entirely. Just because you can't imagine a car overtaking in those exact circumstance doesn't mean that car drivers don't perform some ridiculous overtakes at times in completely inappropriate positions - it has certainly happened to me. And in those situations I have not made the situation worse by blocking the overtake and forcing someone to stay in the path of oncoming traffic. On PH, overtake blocking is generally ranked alongside middle lane hoggers as one of the worst driving habits. This video is a cast iron, indisputable example of an overtake block.


So yes, I do comprehend what you are saying, but I still feel it is entirely irrelevant to the discussion. Can't make the point any simpler really. As my mum would tell me - "Two wrongs don't make a right". Just let the guy complete the overtake, don't do anything dangerous and don't get some poor driver coming in the other direction potentially involved in an accident. That can be applied to any situation where there is a less than ideal overtake, no matter the vehicles involved.

Not defending the cyclist here, as he was riding like a knob, but the driver deliberately putting him in harms way was a disgrace.

Edited by scrubchub on Monday 15th February 08:58

[saaby93]

one reason bikes don't need to obey speed limits is they don't have a speedo
Would there have been any issue if the limit was 30?

[irocfan]

yellowjack said:

Que? It's Richmond-bloody-Park. If you can't hold 25mph on the flat around there, you're doing cycling wrong.

For the record, the 'Strava' KOM for the 6.7 mile "Tour de Richmond Park" lap is 13.57 seconds, or an average speed of 28.9mph. Oh, and it's a PHer who holds that record right now...
5,788 out of 27,194 Strava users who've ridden that segment have done so at an average speed of 20mph or greater. So somewhere in the region of 20% of cyclists manage to AVERAGE 20mph or more over the full 6.7 miles, including corners and gradients.
The full 1.1 mile Sawyers Hill (uphill) segment has been ridden at 27.0mph average. Our very own PHer, and pet cyclo-Stig, could only manage 26.0mph on the same section. That's U-P-H-I-L-L too. So quit being so incredulous when some of us are coasting around at a relatively relaxed 20mph on a straight, flat section
Tour de France regular? For the past 20 or so years, the average speed of the winning rider in the TdF has been up around the 41km/h mark. That's over 25mph in old money, and is the winner's race average for the whole race, including the climbing stages in the Alps, Pyrenees, etc. The TdF peloton, at full gas, could easily make 30mph to 35mph through Richmond Park if it so desired.

Some of you nuggets are proper hypocrites too. You'll all fawn over a video of some daft sliding a BMW onto the wrong side of the road into a bank of fog while leaving a Sunday Service, but the moment a bicycle is "ridden enthusiastically" you're all out for blood. Laughable double standards.

As for that clip? Why would the Mercedes driver not just drop back and open a safe gap for the bike? He's not going anywhere fast in that queue, what with traffic from the opposite direction being quite a regular occurrence. The bike, on the other hand, seemed capable of making decent progress with multiple overtakes. Had that been some form of 'performance' car, there'd have been rounds of applause for the overtakes, and unanimous condemnation of the blocking driver. Would I have overtaken there? I don't know. Cameras can compress the image, and the resultant footage often doesn't look like it did "on the ground", so I can't say. But I can assure you that, no matter how dangerous I thought the cyclist's overtake to be, as a driver I'd have made space ahead of me, rather than hang him out to dry like that. Two wrongs don't make a right, and the far greater wrong was the blocking of the overtake.

The really annoying one that I regularly have to deal with is the impatient overtaker who passes me seconds before anchoring up due to an obstruction on 'our' side of the road. Range Rovers and similar are the worst for it. FFS chaps! I had sufficient clear space alongside the parked car to pass safely, even with the oncoming traffic. But now, you're stopped there for an indeterminate amount of time, blocking me from making progress. If'n you'd just held off from your overtake for like 2 seconds, I'd be hundreds of yards further up the road by now. Oh, and the "can't wait to join the back of the queue" brigade? They can fk off and die too. Passing me (usually far too closely) as they are already braking for the back of the queue that has been visible ahead for at least a ¼ of a mile. Then what happens? Well, I pass the fecking lot of you, on the offside, naturally, using the narrow strip in the middle for my 'safe and legal' overtake, saving myself from waiting through about 7 phases of the traffic light, unlike all you suckers who are sat there, one to a car, blaming cyclists for causing delays when it's your own inept driving, and stubborn insistence on taking the car when it's not the best way of crossing town, that is actually causing the tailbacks.

I stopped counting how many slow moving cars I passed after I got to 60 the other day. This, after some stupid fat knobhead in a tipper truck got 'on the horn' to pass on his displeasure that I wasn't on the cyclepath. I gave him a cheery wave as I re-passed him, sat in a queue, hemmed in by traffic cones and "Keeping Hampshire Moving" signs while I slalomed around those traffic cones, just to rub it in

Sayonara, losers!

dude you need to chill a little

Merc driver appears to have been a tt TBH. That being said is it possible he saw cyclist approaching and decided to give a little room twixt his bumper and said cyclist and sped up just as cyclist started his overtake? As for the other Q, if a car had tried that maneuver he'd have been a total tt as there was really not enough room to get into safely

[Finlandia]

saaby93 said:

one reason bikes don't need to obey speed limits is they don't have a speedo

This is one thing I really don't get, there are plenty of vintage cars, bikes and other vehicles without a speedo, but the limits still apply to them. How can this be?

[996TT02]

mybrainhurts said:

DoubleD said:

996TT02 said:

Escort3500 said:

Probably Uphillgardener's shouty cousin. Same confrontational modus operandi and self-righteous attitude.

This, actually. (Uphillfreewheeler actually).

Speaking as a cyclist.

I think you should (carefully) Google "up hill gardener"

Googling uphill gardeners...That's what it's called these days, is it?

Oops that slipped by me... as the other camera wearing moron on a bike had the username Uphillfreewheeler.

[LankyLegoHead]

They are both cocks.

Cyclist goes for a risky overtake.

Car pulls a dangerous move.

[hornetrider]

red_slr said:

No reason to try and attempt that overtake, in fact no reason to attempt any of them IMHO.
Narrow road, traffic speeding up and slowing down, lots of oncoming traffic, lots of traffic ahead.
Stand to gain nothing.

Read the road very poorly and almost paid the price expecting the motorist to *move over* and give *him* space...

But that safe approach will show him up to look like a pussy on the strava stats all his fk buddies click on to see. By riding aggressively he can show them how fking cool he is on his bike, sticking it to the suckers in cages who have to stick to the 20 limit. The speed limit doesn't apply to him, see?

yellowjack said:

Que? It's Richmond-bloody-Park. If you can't hold 25mph on the flat around there, you're doing cycling wrong.

For the record, the 'Strava' KOM for the 6.7 mile "Tour de Richmond Park" lap is 13.57 seconds, or an average speed of 28.9mph. Oh, and it's a PHer who holds that record right now...
5,788 out of 27,194 Strava users who've ridden that segment have done so at an average speed of 20mph or greater. So somewhere in the region of 20% of cyclists manage to AVERAGE 20mph or more over the full 6.7 miles, including corners and gradients.
The full 1.1 mile Sawyers Hill (uphill) segment has been ridden at 27.0mph average. Our very own PHer, and pet cyclo-Stig, could only manage 26.0mph on the same section. That's U-P-H-I-L-L too. So quit being so incredulous when some of us are coasting around at a relatively relaxed 20mph on a straight, flat section

Case in point!!

Edited by hornetrider on Monday 15th February 09:31

[anonymous-user]

yellowjack said:

As for the sarky "red lights, etc, etc..." comment? ALL of the red-light offences I've witnessed lately have been perpetrated by motor vehicle drivers. Including one blatant twunt who drove through a red light while a pensioner was half way across it. What made it worse was that he'd already been stopped (in a queue) before the light even turned red, and his ignoring the red only bought him thirty yards or so, before the queue ground to a halt again.

Reading this sort of utter nonsense is what makes me unable to view the rest of your post in a credible light. While I agree that a proportion of motorists do indeed run red lights a couple of hours at any major intersection in London is enough to convince anyone that for a lot of cyclists red lights are not seen as applicable. It's a way of life to them and just last month when I had the misfortune to be working down there I was waiting for a bus that was pulling into the stop and had to slam on (causing passengers waiting to get off to be nearly floored) to avoid three cyclists emerging from a red light to the bus' left and who then gave the driver the finger when she sounded the horn at them! The bus driver went on to say it was an hourly occurrence and just part of the job these days! If you really believe that it doesn't happen you need psychiatric help although I suspect you know full well it happens all the time, but as you are firmly ensconced in the land of lycra you won't hear a bad word said against your fellow cyclists!

yellowjack said:

And for the rest of you dumb fks, ...... Blah blah blah.... Sayonara, losers!

Now are these really the words of a well balanced level headed individual? No, they're not are they? You are part of the problem basically!

One day someone is going to literally shove one of these helmet cams down its owner's throat and the only sad thing is it will likely not be someone that deserves it even though there are plenty that do. In the interests of balance there are numerous motorised vehicle drivers that need the same treatment, put simply the UK has a large number of bell ends on the roads in all types of vehicle and given the lack of road policing it isn't likely to get any better any time soon!

[DonkeyApple]

A normal, undamaged human in a car would have moved over a bit and lifted off a shade to help the cyclist get passed. Especially if you're crawling behind other cars in a situation such as this. When you ask the question 'what possible upside is there for a car driver to behave like this?' And realise that the answer is 'no sane reason whatsoever' then that tells you all you need to know about the small minded, cretinous creature in the car.

A normal, undamaged human on a bike would not have been putting themselves in a situation where they are 100% at the mercy of a third party. Wouldn't have continued on the overtake once he'd realised the door was being shut and he was stranded out in the road.

All day, every day, in Richmind Park, thousands of normal drivers mix with normal cyclists, retarded cyclists mix with normal drivers and retarded drivers mix with normal cyclists. Events like this one just occur when a 'Bike Supremacist' meets a self important, feeble driver.

[Johnnytheboy]

DonkeyApple said:

A normal, undamaged human in a car would have moved over a bit and lifted off a shade to help the cyclist get passed. Especially if you're crawling behind other cars in a situation such as this. When you ask the question 'what possible upside is there for a car driver to behave like this?' And realise that the answer is 'no sane reason whatsoever' then that tells you all you need to know about the small minded, cretinous creature in the car.

I could swap the car and cyclist words in this and apply it to the straggly bunch of recreational cyclists I occasionally encounter on my morning commute down country lanes, who seem to take great pleasure in holding drivers up, but it'd be a cheap shot.

[Rich_W]

james7 said:

I think you have highlighted one of the problems and that is the aspect of racing. Its not a good idea on public roads and imo Strava et al should be banned from being used for timing on roads and or in public places. I have seen lots of cyclists racing and/or trying to beat their strava times and silly risks are being taken to better their time in some cases.

To be fair. I'm sure no car driver ever speeds around making silly risks. Have you heard of YouTube?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAXXMEi2NYA
Pistonheads Sunday Service Goodwood.

This just highlights what I said and what YellowJack said. If you replace "bike rider" with "McLaren P1 driver" Doing the exact same thing. People would be vilifying the Merc driver for having small willy syndrome and being anti Hypercar owner/Driving Enthusiast/People who can afford nice cars. They'd almost certainly be a quote about "This is whats wrong with the UK. People see a nice car and get jealous so block lawful progress" (or some such)


FWIW

Both parties were being silly. There's no need for him to overtake really. And there was no need for the Merc to DELIBERATLY block the overtake.

powerstroke said:

Johnnytheboy said:

Blayney said:

Maybe they need track days for cyclists?

Maybe tack days!!! didn't some new forrest locals do that when they were invaded by hordes of selfish tts?

Selfish because they wanted to use the roads? How would you feel if the next PH Sunday Service the locals threw down BOXES of wood screws on all the roads to the event. Simply because they didn't want "their" area "invaded" by hundreds of performance cars making loads of noise and increasing traffic on a sunday morning? Not sure that would be as applauded.

Irony is that if I lived in the New Forest and wanted to do a large ride. I'd NOT go on a cycle Sportive, simply because the wky locals breaking the law by putting down tacks to ruin other peoples fun. Which is pretty stty when you consider there are children on these rides! Plus the risk of injury of a tyre deflating whilst riding.

All the locals actions do, is take the group of riders, which is relatively easily controlled by those events marshalls. And spread them out over the same area but without any marshals to keep an eye on things. Which is far worse for disruption to the community

red_slr said:

...Read the road very poorly and almost paid the price expecting the motorist to *move over* and give *him* space...

As above, just let them in. WE are not in some kind of pissing contest in our cars. Being overtaken is NOT an affront to your ability at life If anything, makes you the BETTER driver. Others (Car or Bike or Horse) WILL fk up in the roads around you. Just allow that and make SENSIBLE decisions.


Also seems to be what the highway code would like

http://www.highwaycode.info/rule/168

DonkeyApple said:

A normal, undamaged human in a car would have moved over a bit and lifted off a shade to help the cyclist get passed. Especially if you're crawling behind other cars in a situation such as this. When you ask the question 'what possible upside is there for a car driver to behave like this?' And realise that the answer is 'no sane reason whatsoever' then that tells you all you need to know about the small minded, cretinous creature in the car.

A normal, undamaged human on a bike would not have been putting themselves in a situation where they are 100% at the mercy of a third party. Wouldn't have continued on the overtake once he'd realised the door was being shut and he was stranded out in the road.

All day, every day, in Richmind Park, thousands of normal drivers mix with normal cyclists, retarded cyclists mix with normal drivers and retarded drivers mix with normal cyclists. Events like this one just occur when a 'Bike Supremacist' meets a self important, feeble driver.

This. End of Thread to me

Though I do HATE that these threads tend to attract militant types on both sides. I KNOW this is a CAR forum, I get that some cyclists are dheads. But I don't associate myself with this bike rider. I don't have a helmet cam. (Though sometimes I wish I did when some in a st car DELIBERATELY buzzes past me 3 foot away at over 50mph) But similarly I don't associate myself with those people doing 80 through a high street either. Or revving the st out their Lambo outside Harrods.

The vast majority of car and bike riders are fine. But as ever, show one breaking the rules and the other side pounce with all their petty venom and self righteousness. Is there a need for PH to fall into that trap?

Edited by Rich_W on Monday 15th February 10:48

[daniel1920]

Is there a youtube link for this?
OP is blocked by work, must be full of tits

[james7]

Rich_W said:

james7 said:

I think you have highlighted one of the problems and that is the aspect of racing. Its not a good idea on public roads and imo Strava et al should be banned from being used for timing on roads and or in public places. I have seen lots of cyclists racing and/or trying to beat their strava times and silly risks are being taken to better their time in some cases.

To be fair. I'm sure no car driver ever speeds around making silly risks. Have you heard of YouTube?

I dont recall saying that no driver in the world has ever sped around, please show me where I have said it. A bit silly making stuff up, rather than talking about the actual subject or is that because you ......(insert whatever insult or stupid comment you like).

And yes I have heard of youtube. I suspect most people who use the internet on a regular basis have at one time or another heard of it.

How about sharing your views and opinions on racing on public roads...................

[Crush]

Finlandia said:

saaby93 said:

one reason bikes don't need to obey speed limits is they don't have a speedo

This is one thing I really don't get, there are plenty of vintage cars, bikes and other vehicles without a speedo, but the limits still apply to them. How can this be?

Plus it is easy to fit a speedo to a bicycle.

Surprised the speed limit doesn't apply to cyclists seeing as "speed kills"

[scrubchub]

Rich_W said:

This. End of Thread to me

Though I do HATE that these threads tend to attract militant types on both sides. I KNOW this is a CAR forum, I get that some cyclists are dheads. But I don't associate myself with this bike rider. I don't have a helmet cam. (Though sometimes I wish I did when some in a st car DELIBERATELY buzzes past me 3 foot away at over 50mph) But similarly I don't associate myself with those people doing 80 through a high street either. Or revving the st out their Lambo outside Harrods.

The vast majority of car and bike riders are fine. But as ever, show one breaking the rules and the other side pounce with all their petty venom and self righteousness. Is there a need for PH to fall into that trap?

Edited by Rich_W on Monday 15th February 10:48

Very well put.

[essIII]

Just a case of two knob ends meeting each other in the wild.

[Steve vRS]

+1