Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

I'm bored... so I though I would post about some of the cyclists I've seen since last Friday.

1. Guy riding in the rain on a narrow, high traffic, 80k/h unlit road at dusk in dark clothing with just a rear reflector.
2. The guy riding at night with a dim front light that I could barely see from 40m away and NO rear light or reflector.
3. The roadie heading across the top of Clyde Mountain for the descent to the coast - in heavy cloud, light drizzle and visibility of maybe 20m.

So - anyone else seen "insane cyclists of 2010"?

This thread is for posts about observed incidents and discussions of those incidents. Going off-topic to discuss things such as the unfairness of red lights, bicycle helmets or "rights" should be carried out elsewhere.

Edit : Rules added.

saw a scandinavian guy carrying his bike over the Thorung La in Dec 09. if you've trekked in Nepal, you'd know that was pretty crazy.

well just the same insane group that insist on riding the wrong way down Merthyr Road so that they don't have to merge into and out of traffic within a short distance.

A map would be more helpful, but serfice to say my simpthy will be with the motorist and not with the cyclist when another one of them gets killed. (yes I do mean another one)

Donald

Cablog today posted a video of someone who clearly doesn't know how to choose good roads to ride on: http://www.cablog.com.au/2010/01/redesign.html

Back home in Warrnambool over christmas I saw a lady riding the wrong way along the 'mad mile' a high traffic 100kph road just near Tower Hill. People coming over the hill wouldnt see her till to late.

On a similar line of thought, I ran passed a guy out for a jog about a month ago. Nothing unusual about that, except he was wearing a red full length sleeved button up shirt, cotton trousers and some leather shoes with rubber soles. it was a pretty warm night and he was drenched with sweat

Hi

Cool thread. You reminded me that I meant to post on what I saw yesterday around 9:30 AM near Leederville (for those in WA).

It was a cyclist heading south on the Freeway (it is illegal to ride on the Freeway here), riding in the emergency lane with no helmet on (or in sight) and coming up to numerous multi-lane exits (bloody scary unless he was planning to exit at Leederville).

The funny thing was I saw him when I was riding on the Principal Shared Path (PSP) which runs right beside the Freeway and is car free

Andrew

philip wrote:Cablog today posted a video of someone who clearly doesn't know how to choose good roads to ride on: http://www.cablog.com.au/2010/01/redesign.html

Hi

That is okay, he is riding a bent and has two nice tall warning flags

Andrew

Footscray Rd path, 0740 this morning. I'm headed into work eastbound and nearly get taken out by two cretins riding two abreast at sub 25 out for a rolling chat. Time and place dipsticks
If anybody here remembers copping an earful from the bearded bloke in a grey/orange top on a red dropbar. Let me know, I'm real eager to abuse the mod helmet with some highly creative post edits. Not that I'd have to do much to make you look like tossers. Next time I'm pulling up early across the path, you can go dirt this time.

Shaun

philip wrote:Cablog today posted a video of someone who clearly doesn't know how to choose good roads to ride on: http://www.cablog.com.au/2010/01/redesign.html

Pretty ironic, a taxi driver having a moan about the behaviour of other road users

Shaun

nothing to report to date, but these make me cringe every time I see them.

Speaking about dumb things cyclists do on bikes.. ME.. this morning in Aspendale on the way to Frankston at about 8:15 i stopped at a red light and for some unknown reason I thought the lights had gone green (even though they were still red) and rode straight through them.. into traffic... a close but scary call ..

shiv wrote:On a similar line of thought, I ran passed a guy out for a jog about a month ago. Nothing unusual about that, except he was wearing a red full length sleeved button up shirt, cotton trousers and some leather shoes with rubber soles. it was a pretty warm night and he was drenched with sweat

Santa in training?

I have been seeing many, many more cyclists about my burb recently, few of them wearing helmets. Before New Years I saw one of these guys riding a far too small bmx with a carton of beer under one arm and a cigarette in the one hand on the handlebars. I hope he didn't get a phone call while riding or there would have been a disaster.

David

Gotta love these gooses that stick a helmet on, then leave the straps undone.

A few days ago I went out for a lunch-time walk and observed this guy riding a Bicycle-Shaped-Object down the footpath (bit of an decline and he had a bit of speed on), no helmet, dog attached to lead in his one hand on the bar, mobile phone up to ear in the other hand, ciggie hanging from bottom lip. He came to the bottom of the footpath and proceeded to turn to the right along the next footpath. There happened to be a street signpost on the corner, which he was on the right of, but his dog decided top go to the left of the post. Needless to say, dog leash got caught around the post, poor puppy came to abrupt halt, dude on BSO got whipped sideways, legs, arms, mobiles and ciggarettes went flying in all directions...

Am I a bad person for immediatley bursting out into laughter? No dogs were hurt in all the entertainment...

i saw a guy today giving out some advice to some walkers "please keep left on the PSP", thing is, he wasn't even wearing a helmet!! what does he know about safety?

I know that this thread is not targetting silly peds. but I observed a particularly zoned out 1 the other day while I was riding along a PSP in Perth. The guy was of course talking on his Mobile phone while standing on the white centre line of the PSP standing at 90 degrees to my line of travel gazing at nothing in particular whilst stepping back and forward into each side (lane) of the PSP. I'm sure he didn't even notice me squeeze cautiously past him.

philip wrote:Cablog today posted a video of someone who clearly doesn't know how to choose good roads to ride on: http://www.cablog.com.au/2010/01/redesign.html

I have a strong feeling that the recumbent rider in that clip is the numpty that pulled out into the intersection at Bondi Rd/Old South Head Rd when I was turning right (with the green arrow) onto Old South Head. Said numpty was on Syd Einfeld Dr heading the opposite direction and pulled out into the intersection as I was making the turn

Not cyclists, but cycling around Parramatta Park, two ladies were pushing prams.

In the opposite direction.

In the car lane.

Around blind corners.

Got passed by this tosser while cruising (35km/h) along an on-road cycle lane. Really heavy traffic and I keeping left as I knew there was a bus behind me when this guy brushes past. He was obviously hammering hard, you just had to look at the way he was mashing the pedals, but he was barely doing 40km/h so I was only 100m behind him when he got to the next set of red lights... where he ducked across onto the pedestrian crossing and rode through the red pedestrian lights.

Do you reckon anyone would be upset if I carried a hacksaw and calmly sawed peoples frames in half while explaining to them that it was better for everyone involved?

came round a bend on a shared cycle path and someone had laid their bike down across the path and was standing nearby, taking photos of the trees. i couldn't quite tell which planet they were from.

soc wrote:A few days ago I went out for a lunch-time walk and observed this guy riding a Bicycle-Shaped-Object down the footpath (bit of an decline and he had a bit of speed on), no helmet, dog attached to lead in his one hand on the bar, mobile phone up to ear in the other hand, ciggie hanging from bottom lip. He came to the bottom of the footpath and proceeded to turn to the right along the next footpath. There happened to be a street signpost on the corner, which he was on the right of, but his dog decided top go to the left of the post. Needless to say, dog leash got caught around the post, poor puppy came to abrupt halt, dude on BSO got whipped sideways, legs, arms, mobiles and ciggarettes went flying in all directions...

Am I a bad person for immediatley bursting out into laughter? No dogs were hurt in all the entertainment...

I was pi$$ing myself before I got to the end

Saw a guy riding a bike under what was Bakewell Bridge (those in Adelaide will know) - he had a helmet, but was in top gear, mobile phone to ear and just getting to the up slope but continuing to struggle to pedal up the hill.

Was heading the other way, so didn't see end result. Wally.

philip wrote:Cablog today posted a video of someone who clearly doesn't know how to choose good roads to ride on: http://www.cablog.com.au/2010/01/redesign.html

the first time i ever went on a motorbike (my cousin's ducatti supermonde something or other) we went along there.

i spent most of the time going and holding on with white knuckles for dear life.

would never cycle along there, that's crazy.

Just one of those days...

Riding through a heavily traffic area and get caught behind a guy on a MTB - not safe to overtake, so I just sit in behind. Get past the next set of lights, overtake the MTB, and then get caught at the next red light. Light goes green, take off and start getting up to speed and suddenly there's a guy on a flat bar passing me, calling out that there is a bus behind. No shite sherlock, there's one about every minute on this section of road... but, I'll be nice and thank him for the advice. He pulls in front and now he's holding me up... but there's a broken down bus ahead, and traffic behind so I'll wait. We pass the broken bus, and when he pulls in I accelerate past him and say 'Bye'... only to get caught 400m up the road by yet another red light. Light goes green, start accelerating... and suddenly Mr Flat Bar Roadie is next to me AGAIN with a semi coming up behind us. I just got on top of the gear and left him for dead.

<Removed by Mod - Family Forum - no swearing>

I'll add one..
Saturday morning on Beach Rd Melbourne - it had been raining along the return from Mordi to Sth Melbourne so nice and slippery (and my first ride in the rain on my bike )
Cruising along at ~30km/h when all of a sudden a cement truck passes (nothing unusual there)... with 2 guys slip streaming (... is that the right term?) right behind it...
Guessing the truck was going ~50-60km/h, they were behind it until the truck was out of site...

INSANE...

Had a lot of people on the side of the road pointing and shaking their heads..

Maybe I'm just jealous that I can't reach those speeds

O.K. - what kind of idiot pedestrian runs down a set of stairs and across a pedestrians crossing, causing a major heart attack for the cars on the road... and then proceeds to walk once past the crossing.