Off Topic » Mad bicycle riders

Tonight I nearly collided with a bicycle rider travelling east between 2 west bound lanes on a major Melbourne CBD street.
I was leaving my building via a small lane which crosses the main street. There is a Keep Clear zone on the main road
A taxi ignored the sign (very common) but left enough room for the RS.
I was looking right, being the only direction for traffic and I caught a glympse of the bicycle and slammed on the brakes from walking pace. No contact. No injury.
As it happened the bicycle was going the same way, so I had a chance to speak to him
He apologised profusely and thanked me for my reflexes.
I pointed out that he would have been hurt more than I, but i doubt his free form heavy traffic technique will change.

No rego
No licence
Highly maneuverable.
I would prefer to ride without killing or maiming idiots.

The problem with many bicycle riders who ride for recreation on the weekends is that they forget that they are riding on public streets that are occupied by fast moving and heavy steel (or in the case of my Saturn, plastic) vehicles. When they are zoned out they can make U-turns and lane changes without looking or signaling. You really have to be careful when riding around bicyclists, especially when they are in groups carrying on a conversation with each other. After a while they just forget where they are. When I am riding my Zero electric motorcycle around bicyclists or joggers, I really need to watch out for them, as well as myself, as they seem to depend more on their ears than on their eyes and my Zero is pretty quiet. It is a dangerous world out there, unfortunately.

Yes, on our streets we have bicycles, motorcycles, cars, powered skateboard dudes and now the electric scooter thing. Most have music on and are texting ( the bicyclists do this by riding no-hands) and believe that they are so special that everyone will get out of their way. (Hey, it's me!). Glad there was no accident and that the guy apologized. Here, you'd get the middle finger salute. Let's all be careful out there.

One of my favorite places to ride is about 25 miles of twisties and almost 6000 feet elevation change up Catalina Highway to Mt. Lemmon, north of Tucson. Coming down is just as enjoyable. Timing is everything because the road gets busy with sightseeing traffic, so very early morning rides are best. But shortly thereafter the bicyclists become thick as flies on a turd. That itself isn't too much of a problem. It's the cage drivers that will cross the center line to give the bicyclists a wide berth, oblivious to the dangers of being halfway in the lane of oncoming traffic. And then there are the bicyclists that insist on taking up the middle of the lane when going downhill, thinking they are going fast enough for everyone's benefit. Granted, my hat's off to them for taking curves on a ~1x3 cm contact patch.

Another mad bicycle rider....
This happened back in June, but I thought I'd post it after what would have been Nicky Hayden's 39th birthday.

"Retired racer Miguel Duhamel shot in the head by pellet gun while bicycling" (For you Canadians - son of Yvon Duhamel.)

Link here: Miguel Duhamel Shot in the Head

"Like many other professional motorcycle racers, bicycling was a major part of Duhamel's fitness training and it remains a passion for him. The incident is also a reminder that bicycling on U.S. roads is not only a dangerous activity due to driver carelessness, but sometimes also due to animosity."

https://www.fox5vegas.com/news/cyclist-s...258578e88f.html