You take a dominant position to stop people overtaking and
Discussion
they drive into you instead! Blind left bend, me in middle of my lane (and have been for last half mile as road too narrow for bike plus car plus car). Car comes speeding up behind me so I glance round as a car comes out of bend oncoming, guy behind is like 3" off my rear wheel and going out for the overtake despite another car coming so I shout "get back" at him and gesticulate a push to the verge manouvere, he then pulls out on the blind bend so he is halfway across broken line and absolutely boots it, drives into me, hitting me with his wing mirror and speeds off swerving about with me shouting that he had hit me. Got his number and whole thing on helmet camera and reported to the police immediately. Could have been so much worse than a bruised arm, if I had been hogging the verge I have no doubt he would have gone for the overtake, swerved for the oncoming car and hit me hard/knocked me into verge. Stay calm guys, we might delay you by a couple of seconds but is it worth even a talking to from the police, let alone points/fines/bans?
? The OP rides around with a helmet cam capturing bad motoring, how troll like can you get?zebedee said:
they drive into you instead! Blind left bend, me in middle of my lane (and have been for last half mile as road too narrow for bike plus car plus car). Car comes speeding up behind me so I glance round as a car comes out of bend oncoming, guy behind is like 3" off my rear wheel and going out for the overtake despite another car coming so I shout "get back" at him and gesticulate a push to the verge manouvere, he then pulls out on the blind bend so he is halfway across broken line and absolutely boots it, drives into me, hitting me with his wing mirror and speeds off swerving about with me shouting that he had hit me. Got his number and whole thing on helmet camera and reported to the police immediately. Could have been so much worse than a bruised arm, if I had been hogging the verge I have no doubt he would have gone for the overtake, swerved for the oncoming car and hit me hard/knocked me into verge. Stay calm guys, we might delay you by a couple of seconds but is it worth even a talking to from the police, let alone points/fines/bans?
I would say you are being a bit unreasonable there,can you imagine how frustrating it was for the car driver to have to dawdle along behind you,that it is why it is law for slow moving vehicles to pull over to let faster traffic by.A bit of courtesy and you could easily have avoided that confrontation.You contradict youself in your post as well as you say motorists will only be delayed for a couple of second then at the start you admit to riding in the middle of the road for half a mile.Edited by m8rky on Wednesday 31st August 19:13
MrTom said:
Why didn't you stop and let him pass? Your not one of these 'road warrior' types are you? I suspect you are, else why on earth do you have a helmet cam?
I'm not condoning s**t driving but the OP sounds like a road warrior.
I have a helmet cam due to the absymal driving I see as I ride approx 4000 miles a year. Bought for mountain biking, very quickly used on roads. Police aren't interested if there are no witnesses. That's why I have one. Not sure that makes me a road warrior, if you think so, fair enough.I'm not condoning s**t driving but the OP sounds like a road warrior.
Why didn't I stop to let him pass? Because I ride 20 miles a day, each way. I don't stop when a car comes behind me, but will always pull over and wave traffic past when there is no need to be in primary position (and by wave I mean 'thank you' wave). I have never seen another cyclist pull over, or horse, unless there is a layby or flat verye or something. Besides, the half mile before the corner was arrow straight so if no oncoming traffic (and there wasn't) anyone could pass safely. He came up behind very quickly as my speed fell as the road started to climb, there was nowhere to pull over as it is a country lane with a steep verge, he tried to overtake literally seconds after pulling up to within inches of my rear wheel, despite an oncoming car emerging from the blind bend, pulled back out and then booted it without moving to the right hand lane, hitting me as he came through. No contradiction, I delayed him by literally seconds, nothing more.
Hopefully that explanation is clearer. If what I did, as an experienced cyclict, is an excuse in you people's books for driving into fellow road users then 1) surrender your licenses immediately; 2) you are worse than trolls and certainly not human. (edited to add that the person I am responding to seems to accept that the driving was s**t, so not specifically at you).
Had I been way over to the verge, I honestly believe he would have tried to overtake despite the oncoming car and swerved to avoid it, straight into me and quite probably game over. Road not wide enough for bike + car + car, simple. I don't have a youtube account but do hope the police are interested by the video and don't fob me off, thought it is hard to pick up the impact (relatively light to back of tricep) on the recording, you can hear him rev the nuts off and see that he gave no room whatsoever and then swerved across the road as he sped off. He needs a talking to, that's all I can hope for.
m8rky said:
I would say you are being a bit unreasonable there,can you imagine how frustrating it was for the car driver to have to dawdle along behind you,that it is why it is law for slow moving vehicles to pull over to let faster traffic by.A bit of courtesy and you could easily have avoided that confrontation.You contradict youself in your post as well as you say motorists will only be delayed for a couple of second then at the start you admit to riding in the middle of the road for half a mile.
see my other post m8rky, more explanation there. I had been doing 33mph only 10 seconds before he came right up to my rear wheel, he hovered there for about 2 seconds then booted it straight into me. I think the motorist who drives into a cyclist is probably the unreasonable one to be fair. You don't pull over on blind bends on roads too narrow to fit 2 cars and a bike, that is basically an invitation to be run over - try it, you'll see what I mean.Edited by m8rky on Wednesday 31st August 19:13
zebedee said:
I don't have a youtube account
http://www.videobam.com/no need to sign up. 3 clicks and it's on the web.
monkey gland said:
If it was good footage that showed the impact, I might. As it doesn't, and obviously doesn't capture him coming up behind or trying the initial overtake dangerously I can't be fagged with people saying "he didn't hit you" or "it wasn't a blind bend", will see what the police think about it. Also, whilst you are probably right about the police investigation thing, don't want to compromise anything, aren't there silly laws about recording in public places, displaying people's reg numbers and that sort of thing? Hopefully also proves I'm not a road warrior wanting to show off examples of bad driving, I use the camera for incidents like this because if there are no witnesses, the police can just take a record to see if anyone else reports it and can't do anything else, whereas with proper footage, they can take things further. Suspect the driver wanted to 'prove a point' rather than deliberately clip me (like Stefan Mucke at Silverstone! @46 seconds on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94AmBfkcEzE) but totally unacceptable nonetheless. I'm not saying he should go to prison or lose his licence but I can't let it lie and have him thinking that sort of behaviour is acceptable.Edited by zebedee on Wednesday 31st August 23:02
Edited by zebedee on Wednesday 31st August 23:03
Edited by zebedee on Wednesday 31st August 23:04
NDA said:
'Dominant position' 'primary position?' 'Stop people overtaking'?
Do you contol the road on your bicycle?
Just get out of the way fer feks sake without trying to give everyone else a driving lesson.
Why didn't he just pass me without hitting me then? Because he had to wait. Why did he have to wait? Because it wasn't safe to pass me. Would it have been safe to pass me if I was "out of the way" by which I take it you mean over to the left. Still no, as THE ROAD ISN'T WIDE ENOUGH FOR TWO CARS AND A BIKE and THERE WAS A STEEP VERGE TO MY LEFT and it was on a BLIND BEND. Christ, if you can't understand those aspects by now then there is no hope for you. You don't own the road, I don't own the road, don't tell me how to ride my bike, I'm not telling how to drive your car, other than not to crash into other road users through piss poor driving, but if you need to be told that then there really is no hope for you. I drive cars reasonably well, you clearly don't ride a bike.Do you contol the road on your bicycle?
Just get out of the way fer feks sake without trying to give everyone else a driving lesson.
paulrockliffe said:
What are the road markings on that bend? Solid White line and you doing more than 10mph and the overtake iscan offence, regardless of whether you were hit. Good luck!
Not solid, I have no idea why not and have had so many near misses on that road that I have queried it with the council, who seemed to agree it is dangerous but have no money to solid white line it apparently. All those near misses is why I adopt a defensive position, to really make people think about if they are going to pass me, they are more than welcome to when it is safe, I find that riding out there makes people appreciate when it isn't safe rather better. Even then you still get oncoming cars having to slam their brakes on and get on the horn as the overtaking car is straddling the white line, my point is even if I was as close to the verge as I could get, they would still have to straddle the white line but then (non-cyclists please take note) what happens is that the overtaking car swerves left. If I am still there - curtains. No thanks. Bit of patience please, then as I say, you can come past when it is safe, have no issues with that whatsoever and will even give you a friendly wave to acknowledge I have held you up. Bit like horse riders do, and people would drive into and clip a horse would they, so why is it apparently acceptable to do it to a bike. Ridiculous. If no-one is being educated in any way by this then I bow out and hope that if you people who think it is acceptable or my fault do something similar then I hope the police will explain it rather better than I have.Don't just take my word for it: http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/technique...
Edited by zebedee on Thursday 1st September 00:05
and more recently (and wider target audience related: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/20...
Edited by zebedee on Thursday 1st September 00:09
MrTom said:
Why didn't you stop and let him pass? Your not one of these 'road warrior' types are you?
NDA said:
Just get out of the way fer feks sake without trying to give everyone else a driving lesson.
m8rky said:
A bit of courtesy and you could easily have avoided that confrontation.
I am frankly ashamed to be on a forum with people posting the above type of pathetic anti-cycling crap.Perhaps you should book yourselves in for some driving lessons.
Primary position is one of the most important safety lessons of any cycling training.
It is particularly aimed at
s like you who don't know how to drive.Please f
k off.walm said:
MrTom said:
Why didn't you stop and let him pass? Your not one of these 'road warrior' types are you?
NDA said:
Just get out of the way fer feks sake without trying to give everyone else a driving lesson.
m8rky said:
A bit of courtesy and you could easily have avoided that confrontation.
Out of interest do the above regularly ride on the road? as although I'm fairly knew to this anything other then as the op has described seems to be just asking for trouble IMO. as for pulling over to let them pass, for me momentum going into an incline is worth far more to me then 10seconds of a driver who has no more right of way any-day.Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff