WDB
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Post by WDB on Sept 27, 2016 10:57:45 GMT
With autumn (small 'a', please, iOS) drawing in, I'm often finding myself driving home after dark. This was the case yesterday, and I'd left it (read 'got stuck at work') late enough for the roads to be mostly clear.
There's one long straight on the A-road home from the M4 that provides an opportunity to get past dawdlers and vehicles that won't maintain speed up the hill that follows. It can be fun too, not that I'm childish enough to enjoy it - oh no, not me.
Last night I was behind - quel horreur - a Zafira and planning the manoeuvre for the usual spot where the view opens out. When it did, though, there was too much else about, including lights on a parked car in the layby on the far side that wasn't, but might have been, about to move.
So I stayed put behind the Zafira, but as the view cleared after the parked lights, I was horrified to see a lightless bike coming the other way, its rider optimistically wearing a workman's dayglo vest. If I'd trusted the parked car not to move, and gone for the overtake, he'd have been right in my path with me moving at 70+ and with nowhere else to go. Presumably because the darkness wasn't profound, and he could see my car, he assumed I could also see him. Lucky escape for both of us, I think.
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Post by Alanović on Sept 27, 2016 11:24:38 GMT
Black Boys?
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Sept 27, 2016 14:26:00 GMT
Not a problem provided they've got lights on.
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sooty
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Post by sooty on Sept 27, 2016 14:43:42 GMT
Sounds about par for round here, minus the high vis jacket.
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Post by bromptonaut on Sept 27, 2016 15:54:00 GMT
Plenty around Northampton too. Symptom of time of year, still warm in evening etc. Numbers will decline sharply in another week or two.
Seems almost suicidal silly to me. Explanation I think is that a lot of them probably think as wheeled pedestrians rather than road users.
Seen plenty cars with no lights too, one of them on M1 in full darkness.
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sooty
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Post by sooty on Sept 27, 2016 18:11:34 GMT
Like to think so, but going on years of living around there's plenty that don't bother. Even on an unlight NSL country road in winter, cyclists wear black and ride around with poundland lights.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Sept 27, 2016 18:32:33 GMT
Saw what I think was the same bloke doing the same thing this evening. Got a better look at him this time, on a better lit stretch. Still an idiot unwise choice.
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bobby
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Post by bobby on Oct 5, 2016 22:17:51 GMT
My Facebook timehop thingy reminded me of my rant this time last year.
Cycling into work in the morning, i had all my hivis on, and front and back lights lit up like a xmas tree.
It was dark but then as I approached Glasgow a morning fog was coming down. I was then passed by another cyclist, head to toe in black, no lights and not even a token pedal reflector.
I caught up with him at the lights and said, in a light hearted way, "you're brave cycling without any lights" - he replied by telling me to go u-know-what myself!
One for the Darwins for sure.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Oct 6, 2016 6:01:47 GMT
...he replied by telling me to go u-know-what myself! Isn't that just Glaswegian for 'good morning'? 😉 |
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Post by hobbit on Oct 6, 2016 10:26:58 GMT
I know it looks funny, but I have an old M\Cycle headlamp and tail light on my pushbike, run from a small 12v wheelchair battery on the back carrier! - much better than regular cycle lamps tho' ;-)
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Post by Humph on Oct 6, 2016 16:44:16 GMT
There are some really great bike lamps available now, lightweight and powerful. Sometimes, when feeling especially masochistic, we do night rides in the forests with as many forward facing lights strapped to the bars as will fit, angled all slightly differently to provide close lighting under the wheel, peripheral lighting and range lighting. Still more than possible to lash it up though if bowling down a fast descent. 😥
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Oct 13, 2016 19:19:41 GMT
Was out to dinner (fondue!) last night in rules-obsessed Switzerland. Saw both extremes from the car on the way there: joggers under powerful head torches, like a procession of lycra miners; then a black-clad cyclist whizzing the wrong way along a dim one-way street.
Good dinner, though.
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Post by tyrednexited on Oct 13, 2016 19:38:43 GMT
Was out to dinner (fondue!) .... There is no way, in any language or civilisation, that the word "fondue" qualifies for a description as dinner........ |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 19:47:40 GMT
Absolutely. Fondue is what you eat while you're swapping pampas grass stories with your keys in a fishbowl.
[is it swapping or swopping? No Googling.]
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Post by tyrednexited on Oct 13, 2016 20:06:14 GMT
Absolutely. Fondue is what you eat while you're swapping pampas grass stories with your keys in a fishbowl. [is it swapping or swopping? No Googling.] The keys in the bowl were mentioned on the Ken Bruce show earlier this week (along with a passing reference to pampas grass which I missed, but SWMBO - elsewhere - picked up on. The education you can get from this forum, eh!). Anyway, it apparently elicited a text response from a listener who said he'd had a very successful time at such a party, he'd put his keys in the bowl, and then come away with a new Volvo. KB read this out, and then said, "I had to be careful there, I thought you'd written something rather different!" ...I nearly drove off the road....... |
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