Reckless Cycling
I’m in no way trying to promote reckless cycling in any way, but I wanted to get a feel for how all of you label your riding. Are you conservative, reckless, adventurous, scared? What kind of adjective would you use for yourself?
I sat down for a minute to think of what word first comes to mind when I think about me and my cycling. For some reason, that word RECKLESS pops up first.
Thinking some more about it, I am not too far off in my personal description. I ride fast, I make sudden decisions, and I take a whole bunch of chances. Don’t get the wrong idea….it’s more like calculated risk and a smart type of recklessness.
It really comes down to the fact that I will not back down to any vehicle and will never let them intimidate me and my riding. I know a lot of drivers either don’t notice us out there, or they feel they have the right of way no matter what. Well, I don’t go for that. I have a right to be out there, and it’s my right to take up my portion of the road.
This attitude often puts me in what others might call reckless situations, but I feel like I’m just standing my ground. Call me reckless, but when I stand up for myself….I’m standing up for all cyclists who deserve to be out there and need to gain the respect of drivers.
So what adjective best describes your way of riding?
While I still ride pretty aggressively I have been hit by cars twice now, and the second one hurt me badly enough that I have damage that will never heal. I refuse to ride scared, however, I do take far less chances than I have in the past. Ironically, both incidents were caused by drivers making terrible choices, nothing to do with how recklessly or conservatively I was riding.
I ride ‘assertively’ and do not hug the kerb but never ride down the inside (left here) of HGV’s (Trucks to you) or buses. We also have ‘bendy buses’, these were purposely designed to kill cyclists so are to be avoided.
On the whole British drivers are pretty good, the odd w@nker lets us down but given how narrow our roads are they are fairly good at giving us some room. The Dutch, French, Belgians and Italians are the best at driving around bikes in terms of where I have ridden. The Bermudians are by far the worst!!
And the Germans! Sorry my German brothers!
I try to cycle in a conservative or adventurous fashion, but when a motorist ignores my rights I become an aggressive rider. The worst are the truckers when they drive right up to the junction stop line, blocking the cycle path; I let them know I’m there and cross in front of the vehicle letting them wait for me!
I’ve been there many times, Raymond. Thanks for your input.
Hmmmm…Well, on the road I’d say my riding style assertive. I pay taxes and own a car so the road is mine on the bike just like in the car. Sure, I stay over to the right and am courteous, but I take the lane when I need to and ride with the attitude that I have as much right to be there as any powered vehicle.
For MTB, I’d go with “adventurous”. I love mountain biking and get a kick out of technical descents and hard climbs.
Sounds good, Paul. Yeah, I’m also very different when I’m on a mountain bike as well.
That you refuse to back down to vehicular oppression, that’s not reckless, that’s assertive. Reckless is more like the crazy red light running and speedy traffic threading of fictional cycle messenger characters and bmx bandits. If you hold your line for your right of way and take the primary position in a lane when there’s no bike lane, that’s pure Forester, which I rate 100x better than Colville-Anderson hiding behind parked cars. Non-assertive riding forms are doing us more harm than good in the long run. We are _not_ wheeled pedestrians!
Thanks Crunchy…..I appreciate your comments. Yeah, maybe Reckless is not the best word. I’ll go with majorly assertive.