Now that the weather is starting to improve, we’re all heading outside. Be careful out there!
On my ride today, I had one dog attack, in which the dog ran across my line less than 3 feet away twice, and chased me for about 100 yards, and two very near misses, one of which was the classic “knucklehead pulls in front of you then turns right”. Except this guy wasn’t all the way in front of me, and his dog was barking out the window at me. I wore a flat spot on my rear tire on that one. I could see other drivers expecting a wreck(I read one guys lips: “Oh…Shit!”). It was a Bullet Time moment. Of course there were numerous other special moments, but none of them were extraordinary enough to mention. Just the usual brushes with Death.
After months on the trainer, I had just about forgotten how dangerous it is out there, how badly paved the roads are, how stupid some people can be, and that there’s more to cycling than just spinning circles.
I know you were hoping for something good, like free Tilliums for everyone, and all you got was an overprotective nimrod, but it’s been a while, and I forgot that today was pretty much an average ride.
Be safe. Train well. I hope you all have a great season!
I love all y’all, but the rest of you ride outdoors year round.
you’er not kidding. rode early this moring with a very good group of guys in a national park area that sees heavy bike traffic. Three different encounters with assholes in trucks/pick-up.
it is always trucks and pick-up.
as there were 4 of us - we were close to going after the last one - but some how cooler heads prevailed.
man, i’ve gotten good with dealing with city traffic, it’s a nuisance, but good handeling skills and a cool head can get me through the thick of it.
Its the assholes (usually in trucks) out in the country that i have trouble with. All the handeling skills in the world and gonna help me when i get clipped by mirrors and hit with bottles.
i have been lucky so far. it seems that since it’s early days yet and not many of us out there that the drivers are being rather respectful ~ for now.
only close call was a lady backing out of her driveway today. when she rolled up beside me at the next light, she informed me that i scared her as she hadn’t seen me. i asked her to think about how i felt then seeing as she was in the car and i on my bike. hopefully she’ll pay more attention in future.
so far i’m safer on the road with 5 pretty good roller falls this winter
Already went over the handlebars in a “elderly, semi-clueless, but also mean as a snake person pulls (almost) in front of you and turns right.” You should have posted this three days ago. Actually, it wouldn’t have made any difference, nothing I could do. Fortunately I walked away, bike seems fine, and she got a ticket. Be careful out there.
To reduce buttheads taking me out with a quick right or sideswiping me I installed a mirror on the bike.Many times I see a car coming up with turn signal on then I edge out into the lane a little they slow behind me cause their not sure what I am going to do.Don’t ride to the extreme right .
Hah. Good call, just finished gluing a mirror on my helmet. Probably would have given me a chance to pull out a little, just as you say. Although this lady might have just run me down from behind instead. She told the police officer that she just moved to the area from New York, and didn’t know the laws here. I’m guessing that even in NY, it’s not legal to run over cyclists, unless you work for CNN. (Edited, had wrong news company the first time)
Yeah, I’m wondering if this might be the “year of the dog”. I started getting outside to ride consistently about mid-March, and I’ve already had at least four incidents that come to mind – the latest was today, with a stray out in the country. Just came at me from the side and scared me a bit, but I was able to drop him pretty easily.
For me, last year was definitely the “year of the a$$hole in the oversized, beat up pickup truck.” All other things equal, I’ll take the dogs.
The strays are one thing, because in general I like dogs and figure they don’t know any better than to try and chase after and maul the brightly dressed geek on two wheels. But what really pisses me off are the dog owners who walk their dog in the park where I run, either with no leash or with the leash so long that the dog can roam the width of the paved trail. And when I flash them (the owner, not the dog) a dirty look or ask if the dog shouldn’t be on the leash, they all say the same thing, “Oh, don’t worry about him, he wouldn’t hurt anyone!”
I have yet to encounter a dog riding this year(knock on my wooden head)but sometimes we forget the power we have on a group ride.What I mean is this: A while back my bike club decided to ride to Toronto.Most of us had never seen the roads we biked on before the ride.It was somewhere around London Ont. that we turned onto a 4 or 5 lane main road.The speed limit was 45 MPH.There was 8 of us in a paceline.At first we were intimidated.After a little bit it seemed like the drivers were giving us the lane so we started riding in the middle of the lane.NO ONE EVER HONK OR YELLED AT US!!!We got caught at every light.When we would stop the drivers around us would begin talking to us asking us what we were doing where we were going etc.Sometimes the same car would get stopped at the next 2-3 lights and continue our conversation.It was pure heaven.The moral of the story is this:Now when on a group ride and the traffic gets hairy instead of riding against the curb or on the edge of the shoulder we move to the center of the lane WHEN IT IS SAFE!!!Cars still honk and yell at us to get on the sidewalk or call us duckpluckers but we don’t have cars making right turns in front of us or drive 2 inches off our elbows.This feels much safer.If traffic starts to build behind (if it appears we are creating a traffic jam)then we move over close to the edge of the road until it clears.I DON’T do this when riding solo.Ride safe, be aware of what is going on around you and pray that when a driver reaches for a CD he hits the ditch or a tree and not you!!!
