On Wobbling

[CJ]

Reading about primary position and wobbling, I am becoming concerned.
The assumption that the occasional idiot behind the wheel is looking at you or even cares can be dangerous.
In my limited experience, cars pass close when there is oncoming traffic as they see a soft target (as opposed to the very solid car coming towards them) and choose the cyclists life over the paint job on their car.
This might be an extreme view of drivers actions but I must stress these drivers are few and far between but do exist, I have found several on my travels.
I frequently see wing mirrors passing under my handle bars and have on a couple of occasions had mirrors hit me on the back of the right leg (painful and almost always results in me flying of into the ditch/hedge)
I don't think any degree of wobbling or discouragement from me would make any difference to these drivers and I would not dare to suggest to a driver what they should be doing.

As one who has ridden about 200 thousand miles since getting my first bike (in 1964), I'm pleased to report that my experience is very different. I've never been so much as brushed by any part of a passing vehicle, my only two collisions with cars involved one turning right across my path and a suddenly opened rear passenger door.

My current mileage of about 5 thousand per year is probably exceeded by many people posting on here, but is enough, I think, to suggest that my techniques work pretty well, especially when compared to those who experience incidents of the type reported by pahuk above, on a "frequent" basis!

Thank you whoever thought of the phrase "professional wobble". Sums it up perfectly. It's wobbling, but with skill. And you'd better believe that it works - but NOT if every other aspect of your dress and demeanor professes you to be a "professional" cyclist.

[recumbentpanda]

It's a bit difficult for me to 'wobble' -my bike is a long wheelbase recumbent and its a bit like asking the driver of an 18-wheel truck to 'wobble'! You are either in primary or secondary or on the way slowly from one to the other . . .

Recently I was cruising down a fast smooth hill towards traffic lights at a 'T' junction. Vehicles were queuing at the lights ahead, and I was going quite fast, but preparing to slow down. As you approach the lights there is a filter lane to the left which was on green, so I took primary in my own lane to leave room for any vehicles wanting to go that way assuming that, as the main lights were still at red, and I was going quite fast, any vehicle behind wouldn't feel obstructed, because we would both have to stop soon.

But there is always one . . . This guy decided to speed up, overtake me by pulling into the oncoming lane, despite the fact that he might meet vehicles coming round the blind right-hand corner of this t-junction, cut across in front of me just in the nick of time, and came to a halt in the left-hand filter lane, now at red. I came up alongside him and couldn't help having a look to see if there was any clue as to his mental state, -foam on the lips, that kind of thing. He wound down his window and yelled 'Pay yer road tax!'. I didn't have time to bring him up to speed with the 1937 legislation that abolished road tax . . .

Dread to think what he would have said if I'd wobbled!