Funny thing though, when some of the same trails were open to motorized use there wasn't a problem, the dirt bike and Jeep crowd was always polite. The standard mountain bike greeting to a hiker is usually "out of the way m f."
ht comments
Last weekend a couple passed me and a friend while we were passing a jogger. They were completely silent.
I caught up to them and said “I am on your left, I say that so you know I am here. You passed me while I was trying to safely passed that jogger, you unsafely passed me and put all 5 of us at risk”.
The woman responded “thanks for the advice” I couldn't really tell if she was being sarcastic or not.
In Portland OR, the cyclists know their rights. If you are making a right hand turn and a cyclist is trying to pass on the right, they will kill themselves rather than slow down and let you turn.
No comment on the so-called “cyclists”.
I ride my bike in shorts and a tee-shirt, They wear homo garb. ‘nuf said.
Not only are they rude, arrogant jerks, but they dress like rodeo-clowns from San Francisco. -Wb
And they tend have this liberal attitude that manages to condescend and look ridiculous all at once.
We own a ranch in Californias San Bernardino mountains. There is a trail around our ranch that the Forest Service put in for the bikers, but they prefer to go through our place. They throw snack wrappers and drink bottles on the ground, and mouth off if confronted. I am vertically challenged, and put “NO TRESPASSING” signs as high as I can, and they always manage to rip them down. They go over gates and fences and destroy it as much as possible. One of these days someone will get hurt. They may have problems with a bear or cougar or rattlesnake, or possibly even some of my livestock. These jerks would not hesitate to sue me if they hurt themselves in the process of violating my rights.
Just head a bit east from Coors in Golden. You’ll see over a dozen markers where they’ve been splattered.
Yet they still pedal along that winding and narrow road. 18-wheelers turning the corners, wildlife....
That would get them knocked right off their bike with me.
Somebody needs to post that image of the car plowing into the group of bikers a week or so ago...
Cyclists are all in your face about their “right to use the road” for their recreation and so smug that they are not polluting. They are at best passive-aggressive and at worst confrontational and militant. They will ride two abreast up a narrow mountain road and completely ignore the mayhem they create. I try to tell them there are truckers and delivery men who need those roads for their jobs. They have got families to feed and need to stick to a tight schedule. Imagine if your boss was pressing you to met a deadline and a bunch of guys barge in to play hockey. Trying to penetrate some people’s arrogance with comparative reasoning is like talking to plaster.
I used to help out with communication on charity bike tours, and in the pre-start briefings, they’d always emphasize to the participants that they had to obey the rules of the road—stay far right, ride single file, don’t obstruct traffic, etc. For the most part, they did.
But there were the ones—always identifiable because they were fully pimped out like they were Lance Armstrong’s homeboy—that didn’t think the rules applied to them. They’d ride three and four abreast blocking an entire lane, come screaming down mountain curves at 45+ mph, dive into opposite lanes on blind downhill curves to keep their speed up, etc. How we never had somebody get splattered by a logging truck, I’ll never know.
One time I was using my pickup truck as a “sag wagon” and picked up a guy who cramped up. He threw his bike over the side into the back of my truck, left the handlebars hanging over the side so the fittings on his brake cables scratched the hell out of the paint, and when I got him to the rest stop, he grabbed the bike and walked away without a word of thanks or apology.
Most of the folks were really nice. But the weekend warriors who thought they were one step away from the Tour de France...those guys were jerks. Interestingly, I also helped out with a couple of ultra-marathons (a 50-mile “Mountain Masochist Trail Run” through the Blue Ridge), and to a man and woman, the runners were great. Very polite, thankful we ham radio geeks were there for communications support, very fun to hang out with.
}:-)4
It’s true. However, it remains true when they are not on their bicycles. They are this way always and everywhere. Got to say, if somebody like that is reading this: enjoy it while it lasts.
I don’t really see why you have to announce yourself. You don’t announce yourself in a car when you pass somebody. I ride hard and don’t have a lot of spare air. If everybody is being smart and sticking to their lanes except when forced out you can pass and be passed safely with nobody having to announce themselves. Most of the people I encounter on the trail that complain when you don’t announce yourself are in the middle of the path making it so you can’t get around them without it being a tight squeeze. My favorite was another bike hogging the center line and the guy had one of those mirror thingies on his helmet, hey dude keep to your lane and use the mirror and you won’t get any surprises.
I ride dirt bikes in the mountains. On one ride some bike riders came through while we were resting and yelled, “Out of the way, a**holes!” We immediately caught up to them and continued to roost them with mud until they got pissed and stopped. I got off my bike and got the apology I deserved. That “tough yuppie” act is from nothing but a bunch of cowards who were chess team members in high school.
My favorite cyclist stunt is when they blow through stop signs without pause, expecting me to stop at my stop sign and wait while all 42 of them get through the intersection.
And democrats...
A nice long walking stick made out of good straight grained hardwood would stop that kind of $hit very quickly. Taking a header over the handlebars can realign their thinking.
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