Out of Pod Experience

Cost is a terrible justification. Perhaps its truly a problem for you, but its not for most cyclists where I live. Most of them have spent at least $4000 on their gear. On the other hand, I bought a brand new Sach Express 150 for $2200 including on roads, and another k for the gear, $800 less.

I'm a student, with a casual job. I don't even have a dependable income, and I can afford that much.

If you buy second hand, you can get a honda CT110 for less then $1000, and those things are the most reliable vehicle on the planet. Either of these bikes will set you back less then $10 a week in petrol, and at most $400 a year in maintenance unless you are an idiot. Provided your insurance slate is clean, you can insure the sach for $300 annually, and thats full comprehensive.

If those kinds of costs are too high for you, then you should consider bus tickets.

Pushbikes are not a defensible form of transport, there are better forms of transport all around you. If you want to ride a pushbike because its fun or because its good for you, fair enough. But don't pretend you are playing on the same level as the rest of traffic, you are a kid with a potato gun at a rifle range. Every single person on the road, from motorcycles to trucks, has a superior form of transport, and could kill you by accident. Respect that, don't do stupid things around serious machines, and for the love of god don't antagonize real shooters with your potato gun.

LOL "spankypants".
I'm stealing that.

Ladies and gentlemen, 3000+ years of survival of the fittest being made redundant, and we arrive here, at people who think its ok to ride a pushbike in front of a truck because of principal.

Looks like natures catching up, and some of these people are imminently going to go full darwin on their own arses. Can I get a hallelujah?

The britishness of this sentence cause a top hat to spontaneously appear on the top of my head.

People who can't drive and people who drive cars inappropriate for city driving are a problem, but my concern for cyclists doesn't stem from the fact that their vehicles are inappropriate for the roads. I can deal with that. It stems from the fact that their attitudes are inappropriate for the road.

If you acknowledge that your vehicle puts you at a disadvantage to everyone on the road, and ride in a manner appropriate to that fact, the problem would vanish.

But cyclists inexplicably ride as if they are kings of the road, when in reality, they are the most vulnerable and the least trained. Here in Australia, there is no required training for riding a bike on the road. Everyone else gets shown how to control their vehicle and what the road rules are, and is required to pass a fairly stringent (although not perfect) test to demonstrate they at least grasp the basics.

Its par for the course for cyclists to ignore road rules. Just the other day I saw a learner in the turn left lane at a red light with a left arrow (also red). He had two cyclists on his left side. The turn left arrow went green, and he and the cyclists started moving. He went to turn the corner, but they went straight ahead, flagrantly ignoring the red light and almost went under his wheels.

I can count on one hand the number of times in my whole life I have seen a cyclist indicate by sticking his hand out. Its law to indicate that way over here, because otherwise how can you tell what they are about to do?

But none of them do it.

And you want motor vehicle users to respect your right to the road? **** off.

Cyclists are, almost to a man, unpredictable, roaming driving hazards, as surely as if someone put knee high cement blocks on powered skate boards and set them loose.

Display some internal community solidarity against cyclists breaking road rules, create community oriented measures to educate poor cyclists, and maybe we'll start respecting you. Until then, we shall treat you how you act: As a bunch of arrogant, stupid and dangerous children who either don't realise or don't care how much trouble they put us adults through.

and this thread here is why I keep wishing a meteor comes crash into us, because A) lots of bike riders act like they own the road, and B) lots of car owners act like they own the road.

I am of the age when, as small brat, I did what was called The Cycling Profeciency Test.

It was a worthwhile initiative, UK wide, to get children to learn to cycle before they got onto the roads. The local coppers would help as would the local schools and it was generally accepted that no-one would cycle on the roads until they pased their test.

Then it was decided that this was all a waste of money and the cash could be better spent on councillor's mistresses and jinkets instead. And we have the mess which we have now.

I am in my fifties and cyle as to what I was taught back in my pre-teens as per the CPT and I see these cycle clubs out on the roads breaking every rule that there is. And I despise them for it because what they do affects me twice; once as a motorist there and then and secondly as a cyclist by others later on.

So if you want to run these lycra louts over then best hurry and get in before me. And then I will be gunning for the Git Drivers next. Like that geriatric git in Porthmadog this morning.

Cripes. Now as Sweeping Generalisations go, that is very sweeping.

Perhaps you should. Since you've never been trained, you have no idea about how to safely (not just safely for yourself but safely for others as well) navigate the road.

I would settle for his car on fire and thousands of hungry rats setting off for Jada Maroo and he has to run if he wants to live.

Yeah the post gave me a craving for some tea.
Otherwise I could not understand most of it. Can someone translate it here?