Cycling

[Halcyon]

I bought a new bike over the weekend

Rides like a dream!

[nightcrawler13]

it's ever so pretty

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

It's got no brakes on the handle bars. Is it one of them bikes where you have to peddle backwards to stop? Got to be I suppose although I have heard my brother (who is in to bikes ) mention that some people ride without breaks. A case of anything to keep the weight down, although I find this hard to believe.

Anyway, have a look at these lunatics;

[nightcrawler13]

those are the guys that give the rest of us a bag rep

[Halcyon]

Anyway, have a look at these lunatics;

Edited April 24, 2012 by Halcyon

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Yeh, cyclists who ride like that out on the streets when you are driving are a real pain in the arse. They even have the gall to shout abuse at you if you make a move which is a perfectly normal manouvre but one which gets in their way. I did used to cycle a bit every weekend but stayed off the road. There's a canal path near me which goes 5 miles into town and was a lovely ride on a Saturday morning. I really must get back into it. I've got two bikes - an off road mountain bike which I won in a Sunday Times competition and a kind of half mountain bike / road bike thing which I managed to get cheap at a bankrupt stock outlet. Yes, I really must start using them again now that the summers coming.

Good luck with your new bike. Happy peddling.

[Halcyon]

Took a tumble on the bike this morning. 35miles into a 110mile ride, straight flat road with only a slight headwind. Had been holding a 23mph average for the last 4-5 miles, and 19mph for the previous 30 before that over hills - so I was going some. But like an idiot, I had my head down trying to eak that extra mph or two.

Ploughed right into the back of a car that was parked up at the side of the road. It'd already been in some sort of accident as the front drivers wheel was at 90 degrees to the rest of the car, so had no place in being there - but that's absolutley no excuse. I had my head down at that particular moment, and before I could do anything I was into the back of it. Bounced off to the side, flew across the road and then bounced a little. Shook myself off and dragged my self to the side of the road to call for a rescue. Somehow, the damage on his car (by me) was very minor, and the bike seems to be ok too. Not sure how that happened.

My left leg is screwed though. Fell on it hard, and my calf muscles are all inflamed up and tight as hell. Can't hardly walk or put weight on it. Been to the hospital and nothings broken, but unless it dies down over the next day or two, I could be out for up to 3 or 4 weeks. There goes my race season

But the lesson here kids is: no matter how many miles you ride, or how confident you are as a rider, or how fast you are and how fast you want to be... always keep your head up and look where you're fucking going!

I'm going to be cranky as hell over the next couple of weeks - apparently I'm utterly intolerable when I've not been out for a ride during the day.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Halcyon

[Halcyon]

Took a tumble on the bike this morning. 35miles into a 110mile ride, straight flat road with only a slight headwind. Had been holding a 23mph average for the last 4-5 miles, and 19mph for the previous 30 before that over hills - so I was going some. But like an idiot, I had my head down trying to eak that extra mph or two.

Ploughed right into the back of a car that was parked up at the side of the road. It'd already been in some sort of accident as the front drivers wheel was at 90 degrees to the rest of the car, so had no place in being there - but that's absolutley no excuse. I had my head down at that particular moment, and before I could do anything I was into the back of it. Bounced off to the side, flew across the road and then bounced a little. Shook myself off and dragged my self to the side of the road to call for a rescue. Somehow, the damage on his car (by me) was very minor, and the bike seems to be ok too. Not sure how that happened.

My left leg is screwed though. Fell on it hard, and my calf muscles are all inflamed up and tight as hell. Can't hardly walk or put weight on it. Been to the hospital and nothings broken, but unless it dies down over the next day or two, I could be out for up to 3 or 4 weeks. There goes my race season

But the lesson here kids is: no matter how many miles you ride, or how confident you are as a rider, or how fast you are and how fast you want to be... always keep your head up and look where you're fucking going!

I'm going to be cranky as hell over the next couple of weeks - apparently I'm utterly intolerable when I've not been out for a ride during the day.

[eFestivals]

Turns out I've ruptured my Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL), which is a ligament that sits behind the knee and keeps your leg in the right place. My tibia and upper shin now doesn't meet my kneecap at the right place or at the right angle. Going to be off the bike for at least another 6 weeks, and could be 3-4 months before I'm even remotely approaching the cycling form I had pre-crash. :-(

http://www.physioroom.com/injuries/knee/pcl_full.php

Ruptured, or torn? They're different things. From you saying 6 weeks, it sounds like torn to me. If so you're lucky!!

If you've ruptured your knee ligaments it's a permanent injury, which needs an operation to deal with (luckily it's fairly standard now, back in 1983 there'd only been a few ops done, and they had a high failure rate).

I had to give up cycling after rupturing my postier and anterior knee ligaments nearly 30 years ago now (in a motorbike accident). So I was told at the time I shouldn't be able to walk now: good job the Doc's don't know what they're talking about. The only time it's really troublesome is if I've had a lack of sleep, which then causes the muscles to not pick up the strain, instead it gets taken by the flesh causing a stretched skin pain behind my knee.

Cycling is about the worst exercise you can do on a knee with ruptured ligaments, because the cycling motion isn't what a knee is designed for, and causes the joint to wear in a way it shouldn't.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Just in case you didn't see the photos yesterday of a couple of Olympic cyclists thighs. Thankefully I'm not into mens thighs, but can say those are gross;

[nightcrawler13]

i got told off by the police last night for riding too fast in a "heavy traffic" area...

I was riding down Portland Street, down the empty bus lane, past the cars that were beginning to set off at a green light, after turning the corner I had a cop flash me over

"Sorry, was I doing anything wrong there?"

-"You were riding too fast"

" "

-"It was a heavy traffic area, someone could have run through the cars and you would have hit them"

"A bus could have hit them, I was in a bus lane"

-"There were no buses though, and you were going very fast for a bike"

"Oh, kayyyyy, well I'll try and ride slower from now on then?"

-"We'll leave it as a caution, I think you've got the idea"

Last week I got a fine for going through a red light with no pedestrians crossing, this week I get told off for cycling too fast, I think Manchester needs another riot to give the police something to do

[Ed209]

Damn right you should have got a fine for going through a red light. Pedestrians or no pedestrians. If you want to use the road then you should be under the same rules as a car. A car gets a fine for going through a red light, then so do you.

Pisses me off something rotten how cyclists think their immune to the highway code.

[nightcrawler13]

Damn right you should have got a fine for going through a red light. Pedestrians or no pedestrians. If you want to use the road then you should be under the same rules as a car. A car gets a fine for going through a red light, then so do you.

Pisses me off something rotten how cyclists think their immune to the highway code.

[Ed209]

because i've spent a lot of time living in London, as a pedestrian, and its a daily circumstance seeing cyclists going through red lights, and often at risk to pedestrians. There has to be a line drawn somewhere, and its safest for everybody if that line is drawn at: if its Red you can't go.

I presume you think cars should stop at pedestrian crossings even if there's no one there any more, then why not cyclists? Why do you think you should be able to get away with it?

it makes me happy you got fined.

[nightcrawler13]

That is an idiotic statement

A car is 5+ feet wide, weighs over a tonne, travels at 30+ miles per hour, the person driving it is distracting themselves with music, conversation, mobile conversations, eating, make up and picking their nose. I've been riding to work now for 5 years through the city and see people doing this every day, these people break the highway code every day whilst in control of a fucking death machine

I've had 8 friends killed by cars and buses, not whilst going through red lights, but by idiots who don't pay attention whilst driving a car.

Bikes are agile, thin, and the rider is not in a little bubble that seals them up from the rest of the world. They hear and see everything going on around them, because if they crash they don't have airbags, they die. Cyclists do not want to die

So I ask "why?" because I don't understand why the people who "get so pissed off" do so, these people aren't affecting you in any way, they don't knock over pedestrians and they don't run right in front of your car, if there are no pedestrians and the cars are all stopped then why should they not go through? Because you can't? Boo hoo, you're driving something that can and does kill people all the time, they aren't, get over it

the anti-cyclist, anti-nightcrawler attitudes on this forum are at levels that I shall just bow out now before the oldgit brigade comes in calling me obscene names and telling me i'm an idiot

i do find it funny however that all these people who think of themselves as alternative thinking or anti-authority have so much respect for arbitrary rules of the road

[Ed209]

nothing anti-nightcrawler, nothing anti-cyclist, its anti-cyclists who think they don't have to obey the same rules of the road as everybody else.

Pedestrians *do* get seriously injured and killed by cyclists going through red lights. Its the attitude of "i can't really hurt anyone on this" that stinks.

and i have respect for these arbitrary rules of the road because surprise surprise they're here to protect people's safety. Especially care when its little kids in risk of getting hurt

Edited August 30, 2012 by Ed209

[Halcyon]

I'm with the others here NC.

It's just as important for cyclists to adhere to the highway code, if not more important. The popularity of cycling is exploding in this country at the moment, and is coming under more and more scrutiny. The motoring fraternity already have a dim view on cyclists and more often than not we're seen as a nuisence by car drivers. So all we have to fall back on, should anything happen, is the rules of the road.

We have a right to filter at traffic lights. We have a right to not ride in the gutter. We have the right to claim our space on the road. We have the right to ride at a speed comfortable for us (within the speed limit) without getting imitaded by drivers that might be caught be hind us.

But the only way we can claim these rights to the road is by adhereing to ALL the other rules of the road. The only way we can defend ourselves and ensure that we are in the right, is by standing by the highway code.

How can you defend yourself to this police cop who's accusing you of speeding (I assume you were doing less than 30mph in a 30mph zone), if in the same post you addmit to breaking the rules of the road by jumping a red light?

Just because you've seen other cyclists do things, doesn't mean you have to do it as well. What are you... 5 years old? Don't be that guy... don't be that bad cyclist that gives the rest of us cycslists a bad name.

Follow the rules of the road, ultimately they're there to protect you.... both to keep you safe and to keep you legal.

[Halcyon]

Anyway.... lots happening in cycling at the moment.

Half way through the Vuelta, and Froome-dog still clinging on to third place. I would have thought he'd have been stronger, and would really be pushing for the red jersey, but I guess he's tired. His time trial was, lets face it, poor... and he lost time yesturday. 51seconds down to Rodriguez (who looks incredibly strong) and still 38 down on Contador. I like to think he's got something planned and is just biding his time, but I'm not convinced.

Paralympic cycling kicked off yesterday, already picked up a couple of medals. Sarah Storey smashed the world record to successfully defend her individual pursuit Gold, and got a silver in the mens 1km TT. Got a bunch more hopefuls today, so fingers crossed. I'm up at the velodrome all day Sunday to watch the action... can't wait.

Lance has been a naughty boy. Wiggins and Cavendish will ride the Tour Of Britain which starts end of next week. Cavendish may be leaving Sky in order to reclaim his green jersey at the centenary Tour in 2013, but might not be able to defend his rainbow jersey at the world champs.

It's all happening.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I don't have an anti cyclist or anti nightcrawler attitude but you are so wrong to believe that there's one rule for you and a different one for car drivers. Even though you have safely cycled for years, with that attitude you are putting yourself at greater risk. You are also putting others at risk and you don't have that right to do so.

[nightcrawler13]

if there is no one crossing, and i go through the light, then i'm not putting anyone at risk, I'm just breaking a rule

same as if someone takes a drug, same as downloading a film, same as drinking a beer on the street

There are laws that most of us break, because they exist to stop idiots who don't think about the consequences of their actions from hurting others. If you're aware enough to only go through red lights when there is no danger of hurting anyone, then you aren't putting anyone at risk.

I don't cycle through crowds of people, I don't cut off cars, I don't put anyone at risk, I'm just breaking a rule.

I'm actually shocked that so many of you are so rigid in your attitude about it

Edited September 1, 2012 by nightcrawler13

[Halcyon]

^ Yes... 99 times out of 100 it'll perfectly safe. It's the one time, that one time when your mind wanders a little bit, when your thinking about something else, and you just don't see the pedestrian crossing, or the car isn't indicating but is actually about to turn in front of you, or when the woman with the push chair suddenly changes her mind and decides that in fact she would like to cross the road.

It only take on time and BAM... you're that douchebag cyclist who ran over a baby, or mowed down an old lady, or put a dent in the wing of a BMW because you sailed through the red lights.

Not to mention, as I stated above, it sets a precidence. You break that Highway rule... how are other drivers to know you don't break all the other rules. "Oh he's just one of them cyclists who breaks the rules of the road... I don't have to give him space as I hoon past him at 60mph".

I tried to move the conversation on a bit and change the subject because there really is no resolution to this argument. It's one that will rage (and has been raging) for years and years and years.

[nightcrawler13]

my mind does not wander whilst riding through city centre traffic, you must ride like a jedi my friend

well, on another note, I finally got EasyJet to pay up for a new bike after smashing mine up on the way back from Portugal!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

well, on another note, I finally got EasyJet to pay up for a new bike after smashing mine up on the way back from Portugal!

[Ed209]

if there is no one crossing, and i go through the light, then i'm not putting anyone at risk, I'm just breaking a rule

same as if someone takes a drug, same as downloading a film, same as drinking a beer on the street

There are laws that most of us break, because they exist to stop idiots who don't think about the consequences of their actions from hurting others. If you're aware enough to only go through red lights when there is no danger of hurting anyone, then you aren't putting anyone at risk.

I don't cycle through crowds of people, I don't cut off cars, I don't put anyone at risk, I'm just breaking a rule.

I'm actually shocked that so many of you are so rigid in your attitude about it

[Halcyon]

well, on another note, I finally got EasyJet to pay up for a new bike after smashing mine up on the way back from Portugal!