Cycling UK Forum

I guess what I am really driving at is that it is, or should be, a matter of judgement based on experience, when to take the lane and when not. My fear is that newcomers to two wheels are now being officially trained that it is the right thing to do, and with less experience than others, they can end up taking more risks than they should.

A lot of of what you say MikeL, I can agree with but I think your last paragraph is a kind of tacit admission that there is an element of confrontation in aspects of "assertive riding". Roads are no place for confrontations of any kind. The correct response to an aggressive road user of any kind is zen-like submission. Can't admit to getting it right every time myself, but I know it's the right thing to do.

I have seen plenty of effers and blinders on two unmotorised wheels! The kind of prat who imagines that cycling is a form of Higher Virtue and can't wait to assert moral superiority over every other form of transport with a stream of invective. Part of life's rich tapestry.

Terrific. Exactly the advice I was looking for. Many thanks to both of you.

You can't dismiss her charges so lightly.

We moan about motorcyclists speeding in bus lanes, and about cars doing all kinds of dangerous things, being squeezed into the kerb by buses, and mainly we blame the people, like the police, for not enforcing the rules. It's pretty obvious that if you don't enforce the rules, they will be ignored.

But this, precisely, is what cyclists do. No compulsory training, and no enforcement of the rules, meaning that observing the rules on the part of cyclists is entirely voluntary. And that means -- I dare you to deny it -- that a good half the cyclists on the same route as you will be breaking the rules. Sometimes it's flash-competitive-Harry surging away on his practice run for the TdF, sometimes it's a girl in a pink dress and high heels who drifts through the junction clearly thinking she is too cute to be killed. Time we were a little less hypocritical and called for proper enforcement of the traffic rules for everyone, including cyclists.

Why is it that whenever I stop at a zebra crossing, most of the time the pedestrian looks surprised?

After cycling in London for more than 35 years I am still convinced "taking the lane", or always riding outside the "door zone" or otherwise forcing vehicles to queue up behind you is unwise, rude and dangerous. The vehicles have absolutely no idea why you are riding in the middle of the road, and a lot of them will think you are just taking the micky, and become enraged. The ones that don't get angry will simply sigh and tell the story back home about the liberties that cyclist was taking. This is not good for the cycling community, just the same way that effing and blinding cyclists who break every traffic law also spoil it for all. In all that time cycling I have never, despite numerous tumbles, been upended by someone opening a door and if you are honest about it, you realise that you can't always "take the lane", or that all cyclists should. In plenty of streets, being outside the door zone is literally impossible.

I think many aspects of "assertive cycling" are highly questionable. I don't bow down before cars, but it is simply dumb to be assertive with your body, when others are doing it with two-ton metal boxes going at twice your speed or more. I'd rather be alive and wrong than correct and dead.

I think that not signalling left is dangerous, and the Highway Code probably trumps Cyclecraft in an argument.

For every driver who unsafely surges past you too close because they know you are turning left, there will be other impatient drivers on the point of overtaking who decide to wait until you have turned left because they saw you signalling.
You are almost certainly slowing down when turning left and if there is close-following going on, you could be caught.
Pedestrians who might be crossing the road you are turning into need to know you are coming (just because most of them won't notice, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it).

I think it is wise to do for the same reason I don't bust red lights. Every time you bust a light you have to assess what's front, what's behind, who's coming, how far away is that, will I get across in time? It is just simpler and easier on the brain, as well as legal and a courtesy to other road users, to do as the light says.

The one mystery I have not cracked. Is there online or here somewhere (I did try searching the forums with key words) a guide on how to replace broken spokes and successfully true the wheel afterwards? Being 6' 3" and at the wrong end of the BMI scale, I am frequently replacing them and it is expensive and tedious to have to take it in for repair every time this happens. Apologies if I have missed previously given info on this.
BF