Antisocial cyclists

[Pebble]

I haven't seen another cyclist in the last 150 mile, locdown must have ended and the roads are back to normal - it was nice getting a cheery wave or hello once or twice on a ride

[eileithyia]

Bike hire at Wadebridge; 'Miles of smiles on the Camel Trail' er no........ what a miserable grumpy load of cyclists, never met so many antisocial miserable cyclists.....

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

Bike hire at Wadebridge; 'Miles of smiles on the Camel Trail' er no........ what a miserable grumpy load of cyclists, never met so many antisocial miserable cyclists.....

Wadebridge, the cycle hire place reckons he can hire out 250 bikes in one day

[rareposter]

Bike hire at Wadebridge; 'Miles of smiles on the Camel Trail' er no........ what a miserable grumpy load of cyclists, never met so many antisocial miserable cyclists.....

Oh never bother waving in busy areas! You'll spend the entire ride with your right hand off the bars!

Someone on another forum posted about some waving at other riders hypothesis he had and went to Richmond Park to try it which is the worst place ever to try and be social. You see thousands of riders, twice per lap usually, and waving is the last thing that any of them are interested in. There are simply too many people.

Same if you're riding along and there's a Sportive coming the other way along the road. No, I will not be waving at all 700 of you!

I still can't work out why it's a big issue. Ride your bike, concentrate on what you're doing. My ride is not validated by some randomer waving or not waving at me.

[Phil Fouracre]

There certainly are some weird threads doing the rounds!

[MikeF]

Bike hire at Wadebridge; 'Miles of smiles on the Camel Trail' er no........ what a miserable grumpy load of cyclists, never met so many antisocial miserable cyclists.....

Antisocial?? What were they doing? Or was that remark tongue in cheek??

[eileithyia]

Hi,

Bike hire at Wadebridge; 'Miles of smiles on the Camel Trail' er no........ what a miserable grumpy load of cyclists, never met so many antisocial miserable cyclists.....

Wadebridge, the cycle hire place reckons he can hire out 250 bikes in one day

Am not surprised, never seen such a concentration of bike hire for one very small place and that includes having seen all the bike hire in Mallorca.

Sorry for late replies, moved on from cornwall and had some awful wifi connections...

I have to say the following day we did the Cornwall 'C2C' and found a totally different class of rider and walker on the trail..... far more cheery bunch.

[Tiberius]

I'm a keen walker. I live on the north east coast near to a cliff top trail known as 'The Cleveland Way' which I have walked many times. When you are up on the trail, miles from anywhere, approaching walkers nearly always say 'hello' and pass the time of day, it would be just weird to pass each other and not say anything.

I was walking a twenty miles chunk last Thursday and it was clear that things have changed. Approximately 50% of people would not speak and most people (really) would not even make eye contact. Miles from anywhere and people were shuffling along, head down, not speaking. This is a distinct change from just six months ago.

Is this part of what is being called 'The new normal' ??

[mattsccm]

Have I said this before? Not reading 17 pages to check.
Why say hello? Do you do that to every person you pass in the street? What is the difference?

[Jdsk]

When you are up on the trail, miles from anywhere, approaching walkers nearly always say 'hello' and pass the time of day, it would be just weird to pass each other and not say anything.

Why say hello? Do you do that to every person you pass in the street? What is the difference?

It's widely observed that when encounters become less common we tend to greet each other more. I don't know the reasons... impractical to do it on every street... in remote areas we might need help from each other... bonding with someone who likes doing the same as you... just friendliness in isolation...

Excellent habit.

Jonathan

[Cyril Haearn]

Have I said this before? Not reading 17 pages to check.
Why say hello? Do you do that to every person you pass in the street? What is the difference?

Yes I do try to greet people in the street where I live

[mattsccm]

People you know maybe but every person you pass in a walk along the busy street? I doubt it. People who you don't know and have nothinh known in common? I don't see riding a bike as anything so special. Pulling up in remote car park to meet someone with an identical rariety, say a Flying Gate, yes but all those other thousands, no. You'll have me saying hello to unknowns with sunglasses next or surgical masks.

[DaveGos]

I generally acknowledge other cyclists, but do not get wound up if they dont acknowledge me. I think always epeting to be acknowledges is passive aggressive. Many are new to cycling , they may come from London where you are trained not to make eye contact or acknowledge anybody , they just might be extreme introverts , why get bothered about it

[cycle tramp]

A couple of weeks ago, i was running late, so elected to ride a short piece a dual carriageway on my bike. I was heading to the local dump with all the plastic food trays which had built up over lock down - I had a them all in one large plastic sack bungee-ed to the rack and the bike looked like it had come from India...
..so along the dual carriageway I cycle... it's a short bit of road which ends in a roundabout.. all the other motor traffic passes me without a problem, but getting close to the roundabout a blue car pulls up behind and starts fussing about behind me - it's clear he wants to get on, but it's also clear they don't want to be caught out in the wrong lane on the approach, so he makes a stupid decision and gets increasingly closer behind me. Across the other side of the duel carriage way I spot two full on touring cyclists, clean bikes, nice kit, all the gear. There's not much we have in common, and I don't know them. Nevertheless I raise my arm in a proper salute to them, almost nazi style 'cept my fingers were spread open. I think one, out of shear surprise half raises his hand then drops it again - this is across a dual carriage way too. What I hope would happen did happen, the exchange was spotted by the driver of the blue car behind me and it backs off. The wave isn't about whether we know each other, it's an indication to other road users of 'yeah, we're watching out for one another' and 'yeah, this is us saluting each other and our right to ride on this damn road, at this time at this place'.

[TrevA]

https://www.facebook.com/1113763766/pos ... 076192339/