thehammerdog

please if you can articulate the many ways that you speak of.
🤠

rubiksoval

Read the thread.

Iride01 

I guess if you do something once and write about it in a thread, then you must do it every time the opportunity happens. And of course we must assume that the other cyclist was annoyed and traumatized by the experience. <grin><sarcasm>

johnd01

The American River Trail is a high volume trail. Anyone who does not want to play can slow down and not play. Anyone who competes is in it for the same reason. They are working on their speed. For years the only people I passed were women with small children.


There was a time that I was going flat out, and I hear this female voice say "on your right", She was in her teens riding a mountain bike with big knobby tires on the dirt shoulder. There was no way for me to go any faster than I was going.

Another time I met a young woman down in her drops flying. A hundred yards later, I went around a corner, and two college-age guys were coasting to a stop. They looked beat and could hardly talk between breaths. One says to the other "I hate it when that happens" and the other guy replied, "It could have been worse, she could have had a kid on the back".


When I jump on the back of a group of riders I back off and leat the lead rider drop into the last position when they switch out. If I can keep up for 5 miles I think I am doing good.

WhyFi

There is *so* much wrong in these few sentences. Yikes.

rubiksoval

So much no.

big john

Like the wounded wildebeest, the one outside the safety of the herd. For the last several years I have become the target of new riders who join our "A" rides. I don't drop out or quit but also don't always stay with the lead group. It seems new wannabe hot-shots see me as the first conquest when working their way up the hierarchy. I'm 66..

big john

If you encounter a group you have no idea of their skills and don't know if you can trust them. Likewise they don't know you. The bike paths can be very dangerous alone and worse if you mix in with strangers.
We've all seen riders who are very strong commit bonehead moves and cause others to be injured.

caloso

As a frequent user of the ARBT, all I can say is: NO NO NO NO NO

himespau 

Sounds like it'd be safer to just go out on the road than be a muppet on a mess like that with folks doing intervals AND kids running round.

Also, if you're going to draft in that situation (not a good idea) do your share and take a pull.

caloso

This is the reason I have been avoiding certain stretches of the ARBT.

johnd01

Actually, it is. I read an article that quoted statistics, and it is safer to ride in a marked bike lane on a busy street than to ride the ARBT. People will write something on the trail, and the ranges will come along and paint it out with black paint. There is one curve where they painted most of the way around it and while I was waiting for the ambulance to come another rider told of sliding out on this same corner in the rain. The injured rider thought his wife would be upset with him because this is the second time he had fallen and broken his leg. When she got there, she ask him "If you had a car accident, would you quit driving your car?" That section was slick for two years. Other places when chalk is used to write on the trail the paint does not stick to the chalk, so the words are outlined by the paint that is left long after the chalk is gone.

On the bike trail, you get a lot of "civilians" who do not think about the trail as a busy road. They walk with their backs to the bikes. I like to think I would rather see the bike before it hit me. They are just as likely to step out in front of an oncoming bike as not. That does not count horses, ratel snakes, turkeys, skunks, squirrels, rabbits, and dear. I have never seen a fox on the trail, but I have seen them off in the brush. Squirrels are the worst, they are squirrely, you cannot tell which way they will go. I have had a squeal run threw my font aerospok wheel, I have hit a skunk, I have been with two friends when hit a skunk. One of my friends hit a rabbet that was at least 2 feet off the ground. The worst one was when I was following a friend who was on a trike, and she saw a big snake all the way across her lain, she hit the breaks and jackknife her trike 90 degrees with her back wheel swinging in front of me. My brother was trying to take a picture from behind us. We ended up colliding off the right side of the trail.
It can be scary on a trike passing a horse who is afraid of trikes. You do not know until the horse spooks.
Twice I have been riding at night and come upon couples laying in the bike lane on the warm asphalt.
There are a lot of walkers and joggers that know what they are doing as well.
.

caloso

I've hit squirrels, rabbits, and a turkey. And I've had to bunnyhop snakes that were sunning themselves in the middle of the path.

Miele Man

I remember a few years ago; I rode from Toronto Canada to Cambridge Canada early one morning to take part in the Cambridge Tour de Grand recreational ride. I opted to do the 100 kilometres route because I didn't think I was up to riding another 160 kilometres that day. When I got back to the start area I was slowing down a fair bit and lightly spinning. Some dude zipped by me and yelled that I was pretty slow. I thought that I'd like to see him after a couple hundred kilometres.

I don't like strangers latching onto my wheel closeup and I'll slow down or 'shake and break' to throw them off my wheel. A stranger riding your wheel is a hazard to you.

Cheers