Yesterday on my way home, I had two incidents of other cyclists riding
into my back wheel. I check behind regularly, but these guys must have
been either pulling out of side streets or working really hard to catch
up. Neither of them said g'day, and with the big headwind, I couldn't
hear any bike noise.
First incident - coming out from UQ, on the bike path, it joins the road
near a footy oval, next to the boat club. A car is pulling out and I've
heard him rev it and spin the wheels as he takes off, so I pause and
hang onto the rails at the edge of the bike path, and wait until he's
gone. Sure, he's meant to give way... but I'm not taking chances. I've
rolled up to this pole at about 15km/h and clearly indicated that I'm
stopping, yet this guy rode into the back of me.
Second incident - Coro Dr bikepath, there's construction so a small ped
bridge has been built. Originally had "cyclists must dismount" signs
but when cyclists continued to ride across at walking speed, thereby
having good control and taking up less space than walking, they replaced
it with "cyclists must reduce speed". As it goes out over the water, it
has about 45% bends on the on/off ramps. I saw cyclists approaching as I
reached the far side, (I was following a pedestrian across) so I pulled
up and grabbed the rail before the ramp, giving the two riders plenty of
room to get up. Some guy rode into my back wheel. I was going about
5km/h, stopping, with my hand out grabbing at the rails, and this guy
(who must have overtaken the other ped that was behind me) didn't
notice.
I was amazed. What are these people doing? Would you blindly wheelsuck
if the person in front gave no signals? I always make my presence known
so they can give me hand signals, or sit back far enough to react on my
own judgement to bumps/obstacles/peds etc.
Of course, the rest of the ride home was headwinds and hills. What a
beautiful afternoon. Oooh, forgot the humidity and heat.
Tam