Fu*king Cyclists

[smartyiak]

it’s Karen in her minivan/small suv/Prius who gives no fucks, that will not give proper spacing..

I don’t know that they don’t care...just they’re too busy on their phones to notice anything else...


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[Dantheman]

I think one HUDGE difference will depend on where you live.

Hah, yeah, just now noticed you're in Delaware. That would certainly change your mindset, especially if there's easy access to quiet country roads. Around here I look at all the people riding BCC on weekends as an unending line of cars go flying by and think, "Thank god they prefer that nonsense over dirt!"

[old goat]

I ride for exercise. I don't take a lot of pleasure in it but riding on the road beats the gym. My observation is that I can get more exercise in less time on a shit bike than a good one. Maybe if I spent more time on a better bike I'd enjoy it more. Hiking is my thing.

My other observation is that the average bike that goes by my house costs more than the average car did 10 years ago. And the average car costs more than my house did when I bought it.

[JongDoe]

I noticed the same thing about getting more exercise on my old hybrid than on my road bike in the same amount of time. Road bike is not expensive, but is smooth like a Mercedes compared to the tired old hybrid. I rode mu hybrid for the first time in a while today because i was able to get my wife out for a ride and noticed the difference immediately.

[rideit]

Just put panniers on your $10k road bike, and fill them with rocks.
Problem solved!

[altacoup]

Hah, yeah, just now noticed you're in Delaware. That would certainly change your mindset, especially if there's easy access to quiet country roads. Around here I look at all the people riding BCC on weekends as an unending line of cars go flying by and think, "Thank god they prefer that nonsense over dirt!"

It’s the only reason I give them a pass. But dirt roadies might be even worse the actual roadies!


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[Iowagriz]

I haven't ridden my road bike outside for over a year. I prefer single-track or Zwift to the multi-tasking crazies on the road.

However, I took it out last night for 90min. Paved path and bike lanes as I explored town. It is what I imagine it would be like to pull out the sports car. Smooth, fast acceleration, lots of easy miles. Maybe I'll have to find ways to get out on it more often.

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[Dantheman]

But dirt roadies might be even worse the actual roadies!

Way worse. Existing trails don't get sanitized and miles upon miles of IMBA dirt sidewalk don't get built because of actual roadies.

[Boissal]

Around here I look at all the people riding BCC on weekends as an unending line of cars go flying by and think, "Thank god they prefer that nonsense over dirt!"

I love the range you get and how fast you can move on a road bike compared to a mountain but the objective hazard is too high. You're obviously more likely to crater on the MTB riding tech stuff than on the road bike cruising on smooth pavement but once you factor in cars the risk assessment shifts in favor of riding dirt.

I used to love riding the canyons but had way too many incidents to justify doing it often. I almost rear-ended a moose in upper Millcreek, I almost got trampled by another moose in the same canyon (the driver who was on the other side of him got tired of waiting for the bull to move and started inching toward him, he ran at me full speed and I ended up standing in the creek shielding myself with the bike), I got knocked into the ditch riding up LCC by a bigass truck who buzzed me and hit me in the shoulder with his mirror, and I got squeezed onto the gravel shoulder riding down BCC at full speed by a guy who had to pass me but didn't have enough room to do it clean. That one ended with a 50' skid and a spectacular front flip but I somehow ended up on my feet.

These days I only ride pavement during shoulder season when trails are wet. I do each canyon once just to tick the box and I ride Big Mountain a lot until the road opens. If I get the itch to ride pavement mid-season I'll drive out West and ride around Rush Valley/Tooele or even Dugway. Miles of flat empty roads, no turns, perfect to log big miles without having to worry about anyone...

My other observation is that the average bike that goes by my house costs more than the average car did 10 years ago. And the average car costs more than my house did when I bought it.

I used to live at the mouth of Parley's right on the bike path that funnels 90% of the bike traffic that has to cross I-80. I'd sit on the deck with my morning coffee and by the time I was done with it $250k worth of bike would have gone by, 80% of it ridden by people who would have benefited from a serious diet much more than from riding the exact replica of a Tour de France bike...

[Buster Highmen]

I got knocked into the ditch riding up LCC by a bigass truck who buzzed me and hit me in the shoulder with his mirror, .

That kind of incident in the Snoqualmie Valley circa late 90s knocking me hard into a ditch ended my road riding. But the pelotons of yuppies intentionally blocking the roads there is obnoxious.

[smartyiak]

...You're obviously more likely to crater on the MTB riding tech stuff than on the road bike cruising on smooth pavement but once you factor in cars the risk assessment shifts in favor of riding dirt.

I routinely get hurt while out on the MTB, but only injured 1x. I only been hurt (road rash only) a few times on the road...but the few times I've been injured...well, I try not to think about them.

[Boissal]

I routinely get hurt while out on the MTB, but only injured 1x. I only been hurt (road rash only) a few times on the road...but the few times I've been injured...well, I try not to think about them.

Same here. I've fallen off the MTB probably 50x more often than off the road bike. It's usually unpleasant and at worst I've been sore for a few days or dealt with annoying cuts/scrapes for a few weeks. My worst fall on the road bike was a best case scenario slide with nothing to hit. It produced road rash extending from wrist to ankle with some really deep spots around the knee and hip bone. Some of the road rash got infected and took months to heal. I was spending a lot of time in salt water that summer and the deeper spots turned into legit craters that are still visible as depressions 20 years later. I also mashed the of my elbow into a pulp and it's still super sensitive. Can't imagine the carnage if I had slid into a guardrail or a car at 40 mph...

[Dantheman]

Can't imagine the carnage if I had slid into a guardrail or a car at 40 mph...

A guy I know blew a corner coming down LCC going 40+. No memory of the event, so we don't know if he just overcooked it or hit some gravel or something. He "fortunately" blew one of the left-handers and went into the bank instead of off the downhill side. Broken pelvis, broken femur, multiple vertebral fractures, horrific road rash, plus some other injuries I don't remember. He spent two months in the hospital and another six months in that inpatient rehab facility on 13th East & 80th South. It's amazing he's still alive and walking. I think he's in pretty good shape these days, actually.

On average, the severity of your injuries will be proportional to your speed at the moment you crash. 20 mph on a MTB is flying, 20 mph on the road feels like nothing.

[::: :::]

On average, the severity of your injuries will be proportional to your speed at the moment you crash. 20 mph on a MTB is flying, 20 mph on the road feels like nothing.

i don't think i've ever gone above 50mph & that scared me enough to think hard about letting the bike just run
speed wobbles scare me to no end -- no shame in being a heavy braker
#imtoooldforthatshit

limit to high 30s for me now
i can't afford the recovering

[altacoup]

A guy I know blew a corner coming down LCC going 40+. No memory of the event, so we don't know if he just overcooked it or hit some gravel or something. He "fortunately" blew one of the left-handers and went into the bank instead of off the downhill side. Broken pelvis, broken femur, multiple vertebral fractures, horrific road rash, plus some other injuries I don't remember. He spent two months in the hospital and another six months in that inpatient rehab facility on 13th East & 80th South. It's amazing he's still alive and walking. I think he's in pretty good shape these days, actually.

On average, the severity of your injuries will be proportional to your speed at the moment you crash. 20 mph on a MTB is flying, 20 mph on the road feels like nothing.

This is exactly why I was so blown away at the roadie drafting me the other day. Doesn’t take much to cause a wreck at those speeds. Hell a pot gut could kill you. During my decade of bike commuting I always did everything I could to avoid vehicles. Hence I don’t really get the idiots who seem to push it with vehicles

[Rideski]

Mother of three mowed down by dump truck, driver gets community service
https://www.9news.com/mobile/article...e-10fb8581cf5d

[old goat]

Riding in the bike lane at Donner Lake, guy in a van who has backed into a drive starts to pull into the bike lane too close for me to stop, with a car on my left. I yell "stop". He does, I squeeze by, and then he proceeds to lean on his horn for a full minute as I pedal away. What made it funny is the guy was a young white guy with long dreads. I doubt that Ja or Haile Selassie would approve.

[PB]

That's not funny. And this thread has jumped the kraken.

[old goat]

That's not funny. And this thread has jumped the kraken.

WTF triggered you?

[m2711c]

small world.

[PB]

WTF triggered you?

Yeah, more like geezer crank spasm ...... sorry about that. At the time I had a picture of your dread man backing out into the street only to get flattened by one of those huge and imaginative burning man floats. In hind sight, yours was funnier.

I also was whining about how this thread has gone 180 degrees from the beginning, when it was pissing and moaning about pretentious/clueless cyclists. I'll take a nap now.

[old goat]

Yeah, more like geezer crank spasm ...... sorry about that. At the time I had a picture of your dread man backing out into the street only to get flattened by one of those huge and imaginative burning man floats. In hind sight, yours was funnier.

I also was whining about how this thread has gone 180 degrees from the beginning, when it was pissing and moaning about pretentious/clueless cyclists. I'll take a nap now.

My post was about a pretentious clueless cyclist--me.
Upside of the pandemic--not having to look at Burning Man constructions in the Roundhouse (makerspace) parking lot all summer, or get stuck behind them on the freeway. On the negative side--cleaning playa dust off of cars, trucks, vans, bikes, coolers, tents, etc etc was a nice source of extra income for folks around here.

[Beaver]

I was riding my recumbent to work down the bike lane in Vernon a few weeks ago approaching Toro's liquor store. There was a Okanagan Springs beer delivery truck parked across nearly all of the bike lane so I was going pretty slow to get around it when a lady in a really nice BMW pops out from behind the truck. I didn't have enough enough time to stop and piled into her. Since I was on a recumbent I hit her front door with my chainring followed by my feet. We both stopped and she apologized profusely asked repeatedly if I was OK, offered to call an ambulance. I felt bad because I had just fucked up her doors bad. Her passenger side doors had chainring teeth marks that raked about 2' of the side of her car along with a substantial dent where one of my feet pounded the front door. It was a pretty ugly mess for her that I suspect was going to cost a hell of a lot to repair. I got to work, took off my chainring, bashed it with a hammer a few times and it was near enough to perfect in about 5 minutes.

[BmillsSkier]

^^^
Glad you’re ok and it worked out well but I get nervous driving a low profile sports car in a sea of bloated crossovers, brodozers and mall-crawling G-Wagens and Range Rovers. I don’t know how anyone has the stones to ride in something even lower like a recumbent around traffic.

[old goat]

I was riding my recumbent to work down the bike lane in Vernon a few weeks ago approaching Toro's liquor store. There was a Okanagan Springs beer delivery truck parked across nearly all of the bike lane so I was going pretty slow to get around it when a lady in a really nice BMW pops out from behind the truck. I didn't have enough enough time to stop and piled into her. Since I was on a recumbent I hit her front door with my chainring followed by my feet. We both stopped and she apologized profusely asked repeatedly if I was OK, offered to call an ambulance. I felt bad because I had just fucked up her doors bad. Her passenger side doors had chainring teeth marks that raked about 2' of the side of her car along with a substantial dent where one of my feet pounded the front door. It was a pretty ugly mess for her that I suspect was going to cost a hell of a lot to repair. I got to work, took off my chainring, bashed it with a hammer a few times and it was near enough to perfect in about 5 minutes.

Sounds like you have the skills to fix the car for her as well.