It depends. Spendex is a privilege, not a right.
These guys are not allowed spandex:
SHE is allowed spandex whenever she wants:
Posted on 03/13/2014 9:08:14 PM PDT by Kevin in California
Sorry, have to vent as I cannot stand these moronic liberal bicyclists in their stupid monogram tights and stupid gay shoes who cannot stay within the lines of their bike lanes.
To the idiot tonight....keep drifting out of your bike lane and don't be surprised if one day you end up on the underside of my F350.
The stupidest people allowed on public roads.....
Speaking of “road hogs”, I just returned from California, where it apparently is standard practice for motorcycles to ride in between the rows of stopped cars on the freeway (why do you drive on parkways? Why to you park in driveways? Why are some freeways toll roads?).
Having spent two days trying to move around LA, I understand why they all want to do this. It apparently is so well-accepted that in a Lego movie they show at LEGOland, they actually show motorcycles driving between the cars in the lanes, just like in real life.
Of course, you are on a rural road. You could come around a corner, and there could be an animal sitting in the road. There could be a tree that just fell over. There could be a tractor driving 10mph. There could be some kid walking down the street.
There could be road repairs and a signal guy around the corner. There might be some car waiting to make a left turn, or someone who got a flat tire and could only barely pull off the road.
I hope that when you drive on a rural highway, regardless of the speed limit, that you take blind corners at a speed reflective of the fact that you have NO idea what is around the corner, and should be able to stop before running into anything.
No, it was the “usually with somewhere important to be” that was the key. People always think that they have somewhere important to be. That is why people trapped on a highway in an accident think it is OK to drive down the shoulder, because they “know” that THEY have somewhere “important” to be, and that they are much more important than all the other drivers who are patiently waiting on the actual highway.
If you have somewhere important to be, you should leave early enough that you will not be late if you get held up 30 seconds by a biker. Wanting to ban bikes from the road because you are too “important” to have to leave extra time for your trip is what is being referred to as “selfish”.
It would also be selfish for a bike to ride in the middle of a road in a way that kept you from passing. But most bikers won’t do that because then they will get run over.
That is a good example of a selfish driver. I used to ride a moped to work, and I’d be on the far edge of the rocky shoulder. I loved it when there was a school bus, because I could actually keep up with them and ride on the road.
“It would also be selfish for a bike to ride in the middle of a road in a way that kept you from passing. But most bikers won’t do that because then they will get run over.”
I wonder. Why do bikers always run stop signs if they are afraid of getting hit?
If we are at a red light, and I am on my bike, I can generally beat all the cars through the intersection when the light turns green, because most people don’t floor their cars, and you can accelerate from 0-20 really quick on a bicycle.
I will if possible move to the middle to make a left turn, with the traffic, and I will go when the light allows, and I will usually go as quickly as the cars through the intersection. I will certainly try my best to do so, because I do not want to inconvenience people who could run me over.
For the same reason most cars run stop signs — if you are a reasonable clear-headed person, you have the capability of looking both ways and determining whether there are any hazards before you reach the intersection, and therefore can go through a stop sign safely.
Although to be honest, that last part about being run over was more of a joke in keeping with the theme of this thread. I know that I ride in dread fear of being run over, but I imagine many bikers are clueless, at least they ride like they are.
I’ve been run off the road by a tractor-trailer, I was rear-ended at a stop light. I’ve had cars drive unto the shoulder at me. Most drivers though are very nice to bikers.
It’s not that we’re inconvenicenced, it’s that they present a realy danger...
I have to say that in my experience, for every person on a bicycle that presents any real danger to me, there are a couple of dozen drivers that do so. Jerks in a hurry speeding and running reds, people driving drunk and/or high, soccer moms on their cellphones, overconfident teens with brand-new licenses, half-blind old people who should have had their licenses yanked years ago, etc. etc. etc.
“For the same reason most cars run stop signs — if you are a reasonable clear-headed person, you have the capability of looking both ways and determining whether there are any hazards before you reach the intersection, and therefore can go through a stop sign safely.”
Most cars do not run stop signs. Some may do a rolling stop. OTOH, I see bikes ‘fly’ through stop signs often forcing cars to take braking action to avoid them.
Right on. The only other time I almost got hit, I was walking my bike (with a flat tire) across a street while on a bike trail. I had on a yellow and red jersey and had an orange helmet clipped to my backpack. Some guy making a right turn almost got me.
Many drivers are clueless of their surroundings.
In defense of the cyclists, you don't wear baggy pants because the cuffs will get caught in the pedal sprocket. As for the tight shorts, they're padded in the butt to protect your ass from the hard, carbon fiber seat........
Everything they wear is functional and with a purpose........
Now carry on with your rant........
You’d be driving at 20 mph if you are of the philosophy that you should be able to come to a dead stop instantly if there’s an obstruction in the middle of the road around the next blind curve...
You just have to be prepared for swerving into the shoulder, hitting the object or pray you come to a screeching halt in time.
Like landslides and rockfalls in the West, you could have the mountain send a bunch of rocks into your car, or you could hit a deer.
Ed
Agreed...the road is filled with idiots.
Ed
In defense of the cyclists, you don't wear baggy pants because the cuffs will get caught in the pedal sprocket. As for the tight shorts, they're padded in the butt to protect your ass from the hard, carbon fiber seat........
Everything they wear is functional and with a purpose........
Now carry on with your rant........
In most situations, with respect to a fistfight, a typical well-conditioned bicyclist will be able to easily handle a typical pick-up truck driver who might have a beer belly sagging over his belt buckle and who hasn't run a mile since the Carter Administration - spandex notwithstanding.
Of course, there are plenty of pompous jerks to go around on both sides of this issue.
I drive a car about 30,000 miles a year and I don't remember the last time I had a run-in with a bicyclist. I just move to the middle of the road when I pass them or I slow down in heavy traffic until I have an opening to get to the middle and pass them by. That's pretty much all you ever have to do as a motorist encountering a bicyclist. They just aren't going to "swerve" in front of you because they understand that they do not have a chance against several tons of metal. If you are having these close calls, then you, the motorist, are probably driving too far to the right. Just give them their space and you will never be bothered.
These bike idiots are one turn in the road from being flattened. Highway 1 in northern California is full of these dopes competing with semis, sportscars, F-350s on narrow coastal roads. The weekends are packed with vehicles and bicyclists. Obama just turned a large part of the coast into national seashore that will in turn create even more traffic. The weekend idiots smoking weed can’t drive worth a damn anyway and you have spandex kings and queens riding their bikes like no one can touch them. Things are out of control.
It depends. Spendex is a privilege, not a right.
These guys are not allowed spandex:
SHE is allowed spandex whenever she wants:
For your reading pleasure: http://www.bikeforums.net/general-cycling-discussion/43841-so-do-you-keep-your-big-gun-your-shorts.html
For those of you who have trouble reading: it’s about cyclists exercising their 2A rights.
Now have a nice day, and by the way: if someone threatened me with their goddam pick-up, well....
Oh, by the way, many cyclists mount camcorders on their bikes. It’s makes great evidence for both criminal and civil lawsuits.
This is true, there are extraordinary things that happen.
But very few curves are truly blind. So you don’t generally have to slow down too much.
And yes, you would slow down to 20 when you round a curve if that is what it takes to stop at before you reach the end of your visible sight line.
If you ever round a corner and run into a car waiting to make a left turn, you will be at fault.
If you ever round a corner and run over some 10-year-old riding his bike, you will likely regret that day for the rest of your life. It’s easy to say “hey, it wasn’t MY fault”, but if you just killed some innocent kid because you didn’t want to slow down to 20mph around a curve, most everybody with a soul will have regrets.
I do realize that there are people who drive like the speed limit is the minimum speed they should go. It is these people that cause municipalities to set the speed limit way below a reasonable speed — because if there is a single curve on the road that can’t be taken at 55, there is always some idiot who will drive 55 and kill someone.
Do you even pay attention to all those signs taxpayers paid for that tell you the safe speed for a curve, and those signs that tell you that your sight line is limited? They don’t do those signs so you can claim it’s not your fault, they put them up for those who make poor life choices.
Still the colors on some of those suits are hilarious.
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