The Dumb Cyclists and Pedestrians thread...

[Hergest]

Perhaps he shouted out Bell End! but the wind carried the last part away. Anger management problems maybe?

[g-boaf]

Casting a line near a shared path... Not very socially aware.
Glad his line got tangled as karma. Hope he didn't have a spare.

LOL, I've seen people flying kites across a shared path with the strings head/neck height to cyclists.

I'd sarcastically suggest dismounting from the bike and walk past, wishing them a nice day and maybe whistling some irritating tune.

I've actually seen the kite flying as well on a local shared path. When they saw me coming they moved to the other side of the path, most fortunately. But it would have only taken a wind change to get dive-bombed by an errant kite.

[find_bruce]

Not sure about dumb... This is probably the most appropriate thread.

Commuting this morning, I was following a carbon roadie at a reasonable pace, but didn't have a speedo. On the share path and had passed a few pedestrians. The local bell nazi coming the other way shouts out "bell" and rings his a couple of times. I'm not sure of the purpose of his call. We were both riding on the left after overtaking some peds with some oncoming peds and the bell nazi also on the correct side. Not sure if the other rider had a bell, I didn't - but will have tomorrow, 1st ride on this bike and didn't realise no bell. We hadn't come close enough to anyone that I would have rung anyway.

I have passed this guy before without ringing and he rings his bell several times at me, never a close shave or dangerous either, but its a new one for him warning oncoming traffic! Wonder how many others he's put off cycling.

Must have been his birthday & the bell was a present - he was just riding around proudly showing it off

[eldavo]

I seem to be on a roll with footage.

[beauyboy]

I always think when I see and hear behaviour like that, all I think is it wouldn't be SH*T if you didn't treat it like that.

[eldavo]

You can't take bikes on the buses here (even rail replacement buses for scheduled train outages
I first thought a stolen ride just being dumped recklessly if he was catching the bus, I didn't feel the more neutral "just waiting there for a lift with a flat tyre" from the dropkick attitude. I am guessing the next bunch of broken glass on a path that gives me a flat is probably from him =P

[InTheWoods]

Ok its Waterworks Road (a main road), busy dual lane each way type, at 6:20pm so still carrying a fair bit of traffic.

Its dark and the roads are very wet.

Cyclist in dark clothing, no reflectors I could see, and no lights (front or rear)... He was moving pretty well, but the sudden stop when somebody hooks or rear ends him is going to hurt. Only saw him at the last moment but I'm fairly sure he was in lycra and had a nice bike, so it wasn't just some numpty on a BSO.

[trailgumby]

...so it wasn't just some numpty on a BSO.

Probably taking The Rules to their logical conclusion.

I see it at the northern end of the Harbour Bridge all the time. These guys with really smick road bikes, but they don't want to pollute the nice clean lines of their aero road bike with anything so garish as an effective light.

As a concession to the road rules they might have one of those single LED lights the size of a takeaway sushi soy sauce fish, powered by a nearly-flat watch battery and held on by my teenage daughter's hair band, that you can only see when you're sucking their wheel.

Really silly.

[g-boaf]

As opposed to someone on a really nice bike, wearing Lycra and said bike is covered in mud and grime, but it has lights front and back... Bright ones too. That someone happens to be me.. Anyhow, away from stereotypes.

The dumb pedestrian - if you could call it that - was a RABBIT absolutely tearing along the footpath alongside the road I was on. I was going about 39km/h and that damn thing was starting to get away from me!! But then it decided to go across the road in front of me... Cue loud cursing and heavy braking.

Amazing how fast those little things are.

[eldavo]

Clip stack, I felt sorry for this bloke, he didn't watch the traffic he was running, saw them as they moved off slowly and he stopped in middle of left lane. He got up, dusted off OK and the blue Vitara soft top gave him space/time and didn't try to run him down.

[thomashouseman]

The dumb pedestrian - if you could call it that - was a RABBIT absolutely tearing along the footpath alongside the road I was on. I was going about 39km/h and that damn thing was starting to get away from me!! But then it decided to go across the road in front of me... Cue loud cursing and heavy braking.

Amazing how fast those little things are.

Yes, I've raced a few in SOP, although maybe it was a hare... do we have them in Australia? It was mighty big for a rabbit... fast too but not very clever... no idea which way they're going to dodge.. under your wheel or AWAY from the bike.... approx 50/50 chance I'd say so far.

[Slow6]

definite demerit karma points for posting some poor blighters clip stack on the internet!!

[Slow6]

do we have them in Australia?

we do.. and aren't they awesome animals when they're going full tilt.

[AndrewBurns]

Yep I've seen a hare in SOP. I too raced a rabbit last night except I was on the road and it was on the footpath to my left. It ran along side me for a bit then stopped and darted back in the opposite direction, there are tons of them around Macquarie park.

[Wakatuki]

Yup hares here to in Palmwoods QLD. Usually spotted on night rides when coming back into the housing estate.
Best wildlife challenger was a Wallaby (could have been a lrg Pademelon) stayed two hop's ahead of me on the Razorback RD climb. It eventually got bored or scared of my increased panting and decided to disappear at great speed, compared to me, up the hill.
Dumb cyclist me, for thinking I could catch him...!

[Lukeyboy]

Every once and a while you'll come across one going along next to the golf course on the kedron brook bikeway.

[bychosis]

I had a swamp hen run along in front of me a while back, when it tried to dart of in a different direction it skidded out and went down The same ride I chased a rabbit along some single track til he turned off , startled a little dog coming the other way and he froze in the middle of the track as I came over a tiny crest (with plenty of space to go around) and then a group of joggers came along, I slowed, they called "bike" and one of the joggers went down on as she moved to the side of the track (but was OK). Rarely see anyone out of that section and the GoPro was at home awaiting a handlebar mount

[westab]

This morning in the fog in Western Sydney parklands I saw three deer running along the side of the shared path. It was good to see.

[Cowcorner]

do we have them in Australia?

we do.. and aren't they awesome animals when they're going full tilt.

Well, not going full tilt - but related to these ones maybe???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-QShfNMuXA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Funnily enough my closest call wasn't with a rabbit - it was a possum in the Melb CBD (North bank of the Yarra).

[K2]

I had a swamp hen run along in front of me a while back, when it tried to dart of in a different direction it skidded out and went down .....

I regularly cycle round a water bird habitat and see them do this quite a bit. Of all the less timid birds that hang around the road, the swamp hens are the most skittish. Sometimes it's almost like they're daring each other to dart across the road just before you pass....and then decide the grass really was greener on the other side the next lap.

The ducks and plovers and scavenger type birds are all a lot more predictable and if you let out a mildly deep "Meh Meh" [somewhere between a duck's quack and a goose's honk] as you approach them, they'll usually just wander casually out of the way without getting spooked. Swamp hens are in another dimension....possibly the same one hares [and many pedestrians] hail from.

[jasonc]

Had an interesting one on the way home last night. Going down the ramp from herschel st to the bicentennial bikeway, there was 1 bike in front of me and 1 behind me. It's a narrow ramp. So I see a bike coming up the ramp. I call out "bike up". Shortly after there is another one, so I call it again. Down the bottom of the ramp, I call clear. The guy in front of me then has a go at me asking why I need to call all that crap then points to a pedestrian on the path and says "bag"

I wasn't going to argue with him as I don't have enough experience at "stupid" and would have lost

[casual_cyclist]

Yesterday arvo after work... dumb pedestrians walking their very small dog through the 'burbs without a lead. Stupid little dog which was not much bigger than my foot came running out onto the road barking and growling at me on my 22kg mountain bike thinking it could take me on. I locked it up and managed to avoid the wretched thing. Those kids need to put their dog on a lead because I would have felt bad to flatten their dog right in front of them. I would have felt bad if I had hurt the thing.

[trailgumby]

I would have felt bad if I had hurt the thing.

You'd have felt worse if avoiding it had tipped you off your bike.

[Ross]

I was on the shared path commuting home and I come up behind a guy on a hybrid (I'm on roadie) going a bit slower than I want to go and there was also just up ahead another guy pulled off but not completely off the path and we were coming up to a corner that was a bit difficult to see around so I just hung back chillaxing until things were clear. All of a sudden duchebag on his MTB comes ripping past us from behind and around the blind corner on the wrong side of the path after nearly collecting the hybrid commuter guy in front of me. Not a major incident, no one collided, but a little consideration (and safety) goes a long way. As soon as the path straightened up I overtook the hybrid guy and soon caught up to MTB douche who must of thought he was awesome for smokin' a roadie before. He was only going a km/h or 2 faster than the hybrid guy so I don't know why he bothered to overtake in the first place.

[casual_cyclist]

I would have felt bad if I had hurt the thing.

You'd have felt worse if avoiding it had tipped you off your bike.

Not much chance of that on a nice, flat suburban road riding a heavy steel mountain bike with full off-road tyres. Although, I almost tipped that thing doing a sudden right-hand turn through an intersection as a result of split second decision to turn right instead of going straight through. My momentum was forward and I turned way too sharp without leaning into the turn resulting in a sudden and dramatic change in my bikes centre of gravity. I felt it start to tip by managed to power out at the last second and stay upright. That would have been more embarrassing as the intersection is one of the busiest in the CBD and this was a peak hour. I guess that "pick a line and stick to it" thing kinda works when you're cycling.