Recumbent safety

DIscuss anything relating to non-standard cycles and their equipment.
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Pinhead
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Joined: 11 May 2023, 4:12pm

Recumbent safety

Post by Pinhead »

Just a word of warning.

I used to live in Bere Alston Devon, down a country lane that was 100% JUST a car wide.

Anyone even considering a recumbent bike farmers can NOT see them on narrow winding roads and worst car drivers can't.

We had many VERY near misses with riders coming down our lane even though it was access only and locals wrongly using it as a rat run

NEVER would I use such a MISSABLE bike on a road with 40t lorries.
AUTISTIC and proud
yostumpy
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Joined: 29 Oct 2010, 6:56pm

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by yostumpy »

We had many VERY near misses with riders coming down our lane even though it was access only and locals wrongly using it as a rat run

Thanks for the advice, but how many of the many VERY near misses, were recumbents?

And, if the road was just a car wide, how did they get a 40t lorry down there?
Campag
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Joined: 2 Dec 2018, 8:04pm

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by Campag »

A few questions in relation to this:

- if it's a narrow country lane the drivers will be driving slowly and with care?

- if it's a narrow country lane there won't be any 40 tonne trucks?

- if it is being used as a rat run have you considered reporting this to the highways authority with a view to making an 'access only' restriction?

- if a driver can see the edge of the road and any junction markings (which obviously are at zero ground level) why would it be difficult to see something at car (recumbent) height?

- do you ride a bicycle of any sort?
UpWrong
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Joined: 31 May 2009, 12:16pm
Location: Portsmouth, Hampshire

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by UpWrong »

Any driver who drives such that they can't stop in the distance that they can see to be clear is an idiot. Full stop.

I can't see why a recumbent bike is different from any other bike when it comes to narrow lanes. Height is not an issue.
Tangled Metal
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Joined: 13 Feb 2015, 8:32pm

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by Tangled Metal »

Travelling at a speed that you can stop in the distance you can see? We have a few sections of country lanes where you would fall foul of that on a bike. Certainly almost all of us cyclists do on those sections.

What do you do on truly low visibility lanes? There comes a point you have to accept or not the risks.

As to the OP I suspect type of bike indeed motorbike too would not matter on such lanes.
Nearholmer
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Joined: 26 Mar 2022, 7:13am

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by Nearholmer »

There’s a lane locally that I now won’t ride, taking a detour instead, having realised when driving the car along it how near to zero the sighting-time for a cyclist ahead would be.

It’s one on a fairly steep hill that has very steep banks either side with hedges on top, and is twisty in a way that makes seeing more than twenty yards ahead impossible in places, yet some drivers come “flying” down it (30mph is “flying” in the context!), and what I think might be worse, “flying” up it; worse because that’s when the closing-speed, car upon bike is greatest.
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pjclinch
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Location: Dundee, Scotland
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Re: Recumbent safety

Post by pjclinch »

I looked up the place in Streetview and dropped in to a random lane. It looks like this...
https://goo.gl/maps/7fvAzHJnLpQMDDHf6

Yes, my 'bent would be well under the sightline of a typical driver around a bend here. But so would any of my upright bikes. You'd need to be on something like a penny-farthing to (perhaps) see over the hedge. Ever cycled by one of those Google Maps image capture cars? Saw where the cameras are? Noted how even the Google cameras that took this can't see over the hedge?

It's similar in traffic, "oh, that's too low to see, can't be safe!", cut to upright rider cycling around a few transit vans where they're much lower than the van... :roll:

And so on.

Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...
Psamathe
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Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by Psamathe »

Pinhead wrote: 4 Jun 2023, 8:34pm ...
NEVER would I use such a MISSABLE bike on a road with 40t lorries.
Near me there is a road I wont ride my bike on - one-and-a-half lanes wide (or 1 HGV + 0 cars) but used for access to HVG artic depot (planning madness). HGVs give bike no clearance as they treat the "derestricted" speed limit as a target. But I will ride it on the tadpole bent as they seem to give me plenty of clearance (and there are bends with poor visibility).

Am I rely so "MISSABLE"? (or is this just the widespread belief amongst those who don't ride bents?)

Ian
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pjclinch
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Re: Recumbent safety

Post by pjclinch »

Times I've had near misses through being unseen on my 'bent are typically not dissimilar to times I've been unseen on my upwrongs: when the other party (various modes) hasn't been looking, and I know they weren't looking because I saw them not looking.

Those folks that drive super-low Ferraris, Lamborghinis etc... They do that because they like to be anonymous and unnoticed, right?
Right?

Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...
Vorpal
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Re: Recumbent safety

Post by Vorpal »

Pinhead wrote: 4 Jun 2023, 8:34pm Just a word of warning.

I used to live in Bere Alston Devon, down a country lane that was 100% JUST a car wide.

Anyone even considering a recumbent bike farmers can NOT see them on narrow winding roads and worst car drivers can't.

We had many VERY near misses with riders coming down our lane even though it was access only and locals wrongly using it as a rat run

NEVER would I use such a MISSABLE bike on a road with 40t lorries.
I used to drive farm equipment quite a bit, and I assure you that farmers can see recumbents, if they are paying attention and not driving too fast for conditions.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Stradageek
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Joined: 17 Jan 2011, 1:07pm

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by Stradageek »

In 20yrs riding recumbents I can think of two occasions when a driver didn't see me until the very last minute and only one when a pensioner failed to see me, missed me, then drove off oblivious.

In my previous upright existence it happened a lot. Most famously when, on a rainy day, my mate and I were riding two abreast and he was trying out his new day-glo yellow waterproof top and trousers. We collided, gently fortunately, with a car that pulled out from a T-junction straight into us :roll:
Stradageek
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Joined: 17 Jan 2011, 1:07pm

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by Stradageek »

Vorpal wrote: 5 Jun 2023, 8:48am I used to drive farm equipment quite a bit, and I assure you that farmers can see recumbents, if they are paying attention and not driving too fast for conditions.
Question for you Vorpal; is it because driving a tractor up and down a field all day can get a bit lonely or is there another reason why so many of the tractor drivers that I see on the roads are chatting on their mobile phones? Van drivers aside, the only other group which seems to be more prone to this offense is parents leaving day care nurseries, they are all on their mobile phones :(
UpWrong
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Location: Portsmouth, Hampshire

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by UpWrong »

Tangled Metal wrote: 5 Jun 2023, 6:42am Travelling at a speed that you can stop in the distance you can see? We have a few sections of country lanes where you would fall foul of that on a bike. Certainly almost all of us cyclists do on those sections.

What do you do on truly low visibility lanes? There comes a point you have to accept or not the risks.

As to the OP I suspect type of bike indeed motorbike too would not matter on such lanes.
If you take those risks on a bike, you are risking your life. If you take those risks in a car, you are risking the lives of others.

EDIT: I recognise there's real problem at night with being dazzled now that car headlights have got too bright and badly adjusted. It worries me.
mattheus
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Re: Recumbent safety

Post by mattheus »

Stradageek wrote: 5 Jun 2023, 8:57am In 20yrs riding recumbents I can think of two occasions when a driver didn't see me until the very last minute and only one when a pensioner failed to see me, missed me, then drove off oblivious.

In my previous upright existence it happened a lot. Most famously when, on a rainy day, my mate and I were riding two abreast and he was trying out his new day-glo yellow waterproof top and trousers. We collided, gently fortunately, with a car that pulled out from a T-junction straight into us :roll:
Never ridden a 'bent, but I can confirm that this happens far more than once a decade to us regular upright users!
VinceLedge
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Joined: 12 Dec 2020, 9:51am

Re: Recumbent safety

Post by VinceLedge »

I would feel much safer riding a missable bike rather than the hittable one I have.....
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