Things I've seen when riding my bike

[Chippy_Tea]

Sorry, but I don't take ANY action on the basis of what ANY passenger says AFTER No.3 son said "Clear left ........"
".......... after the red car!"
Believing his first two words, I had moved forward about a yard before hitting the brakes to avoid a serious collision.

I am a CPC (certificate of professional competence) card holding truck driver who has at times due to poor visibility had to rely on my fellow CPC card holding passenger to tell me if it's safe to leave a badly designed junction due to blind spots its not something I expect them to do at every junction!

.

 

[terrym]

I don't take ANY action on the basis of what ANY passenger says

Me too
Nor do I tell other drivers what to do if I'm a passenger, I just move out the way so they can see and decide what's safe for them.

 

[brumbrew]

Hit by a lorry on Belgrave Island in Birmingham last week. Guy just pulled out in front of me and dragged me into the middle of the island. Picked myself up for the guy just to wind the window down and shout "sorry mate" before driving off.

Battered and bruised and quite shook up but otherwise survived what could have been a fatality. I have almost 1200 lumens of flashing lights on the front so no way he didn't see me. Just wasn't paying attention. No blind spot this time I was looking the driver in the face.

Next time out on my bike I noticed the wheel is slightly buckled and the day after that my chain snapped. Don't know if that's a coincidence but I never noticed it before almost being killed.

 

[MyQul]

Bloody hell BB!! Glad you're still with us! You should have called the police, as I believe leaving the scene of an accident is an offence? I'm really wary of both anything bigger than an SUV type vehicle and roundabouts (as well as junctions). I think you filled in my cyclist 'things to try to be cautious of ' bingo card!

 

[brumbrew]

Bloody hell BB!! Glad you're still with us! You should have called the police, as I believe leaving the scene of an accident is an offence? I'm really wary of both anything bigger than an SUV type vehicle and roundabouts (as well as junctions). I think you filled in my cyclist 'things to try to be cautious of ' bingo card!

I was a bit shook up and didn't get the reg plate. All I could tell them would be that it was white, 7.5t with flat bed rear and clips on the side that hurt when they all run down your arm.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I was a bit shook up and didn't get the reg plate.

One of the lads at work recently bought a camera that fixes on the front of his cycle helmet i think if i was cycling regularly i would wear one as in this instance you could have reported the driver leading to a prosecution for bad driving and you could have been compensated for the damage.

 

[brumbrew]

One of the lads at work recently bought a camera that fixes on the front of his cycle helmet i think if i was cycling regularly i would wear one as in this instance you could have reported the driver and he could have been prosecuted and you could have been compensated for the damage.

I cycle everyday. Thankfully this is the closest I've come.

I've thought about a camera but I'd be downloading and uploading footage to West Midlands police all night every night as I would capture illegal driving constantly.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I've thought about a camera but I'd be downloading and uploading footage to West Midlands police all night every night as I would capture illegal driving constantly.

I would be happy to do it and speaking as a of truck drivers he should know better "Sorry i didn't see you" is not an excuse these days with blind spot mirrors and on board cameras plus cyclists weraing better clothing (high vis etc)


All truck drivers have to sit a Certificate of Professional Competence course which is a 5 day course then a day course (7 hours) every year after or 35 hours in every 5 year period there after, you are not allowed to drive anything over 3.5 ton without a CPC card, any driver holding a CPC card is automatically given a stiffer fine or ban compared to a driver that doesn't have a card, if you had video of this incident and the driver worked for a company i would imagine his behaviour would have got him the sack.

 

[Dutto]

@brumbrew Another Post where putting a "Like" on it just wouldn't fit!

Glad you've survived intact. The bike and chain can be mended so although it was a genuinely scary experience, it had a great outcome; for which you should thank whatever Fairy Godmother was looking out for you.

 

[Cwrw666]

What are they? Horse balaclava's?

Can't remember the name for it but some horses are very sensitive to midgy bites and will rub themselves raw as a result. Especially round their heads, hence the headwear.

 

[MyQul]

Can't remember the name for it but some horses are very sensitive to midgy bites and will rub themselves raw as a result. Especially round their heads, hence the headwear.

Ah, right. Thanks :hat:

 

[terrym]

I am of course glad that @brumbrew got off relatively unscathed from his recent encounter.
However if it was me I would be hanging up my bike clips. Unlike cats we only get one life and cycling on extremely busy roads in many parts of the country is going to tempt fate that you might lose yours to some idiot behind the wheel on his/her phone or the many other distractions that put your life in danger not theirs. You can wear as many cameras or hi-viz items as you can like but you are still extremely vulnerable. Apart from the increase in road traffic that made me give up cycling on busy roads I was nearly hit by a speeding RAC van about that time. As I pointed out to the RAC when I wrote to them afterwards is my life worth less than a couple of minutes gained getting to someone with a broken down vehicle.

 

[Dutto]

Oh that we lived on the continent!

• Everywhere you go there are dedicated cycle tracks and/or clearly marked cycle lanes.
  
• In Holland some cycle tracks even have their own traffic lights.
• In Belgium they paint a red strip around the roundabouts specifically for cyclists; and woe betide any vehicle driver who drives a cyclist off the red trip or even fails to give way.
• In France they have "No Entry" signs in the towns that have "Except Cyclists" written underneath. I've seen cyclists stop to cut the ropes of boats where the owner has tied up with his ropes across the cycle path; even seen a cyclist scrape the side of a car with a screwdriver because it was parked in a cycle-lane!

On the continent, pedestrians come first with cyclists a close second. We could adopt similar strategies in the UK after the end of next month; but don't hold your breath!

 

[MyQul]

I can highly recommend this bike route book. Its loads of bike routes out in the countryside in counties surrounding London

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Lanes...ords=lost+lanes&qid=1553880727&s=books&sr=1-1

I jumped on a train to Kent today and did one of the routes. It was superb. The sun was shining, there was hardly anyone about, it was lovely. The route I chose had loads of pretty, chocolate box villages on it.I kept stopping at all these little villages and sitting on benches whiling the the time away or cycling really slow to gawp at the countryside. It took me 5 hours to cycle 22 miles
Oddly enough I met a young couple also from London doing exactly the same route from the same book. So I cycled with them for a while.
I'll definatley be doing some more of the routes

If you live in the west or near wales theres a couple of other books by the same author for those areas too

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Lanes...SMYKTHHPHWG&psc=1&refRID=5J3FMPYP7SMYKTHHPHWG

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Lanes...SMYKTHHPHWG&psc=1&refRID=5J3FMPYP7SMYKTHHPHWG

 

[Clint]

Sounds like you had a nice day M. Did you partake of refreshments?

 

[MyQul]

Sounds like you had a nice day M. Did you partake of refreshments?

Only lemon water. Didn't have time for a pint anywhere (although there were some gorgeous olde worlde looking pubs in some of the villages I passed through). Had to sneak on to the peak train home (I had an off peak ticket) cuz I took so long to get around the route

 

[dad_of_jon]

I have a few great cycle routes where I live in gowerton, some are on roads but no biggie really. carmarthen to gowerton I want to do , travel by train to carmarthen then cycle back to gowerton with the wind behind me all the way

 

[Clint]

Plenty of beans...

 

[Duxuk]

I rode my mountain bike to some of our oldest Lancashire antiquities. Pike stones is the oldest at around 5,500 years old. That's 1000 years before the pyramids of Egypt! I recorded it in my MTB blog.
https://wordpress.com/post/mountainbiker.home.blog/240

 

[MyQul]

I went cycling in the Chilterns yesterday (trust me to go on a bike ride on the hottest July day on record but I'd already bought the train tickets a couple of days before) It was like pedaling in an oven. The evening before, I happened to notice one of those 2L gym bottles that look like a tiny office water cooler bottles, in ASDA. So bought it. I'm SOOO glad I did. Over the course of the day I drank about 4L of water (plus a pint of beer before getting on the train home). Really enjoyed myself though, despite it being so hot