for the cylists among us

[rich.]

the french are building a cycle path along the banks of the river loire.
excuse me if ive posted this before..

[TriumphDriver]

So... if all the cyclists go to the Loire.... our local roads will be a lot safer on Sundays.



Now I'm going to hide for a long long time...

[rich.]

[JPB]

Hmm, methinks a fresh set of youtube happy slappings awaits. Is there a guard rail?

[Martin Evans]

I wouldn't think so; cycling is very much a national sport in France and doesn't seem to attract the scorn of yobbs, the way it does here and cyclists are not regarded as "Inferior,"as they often are here. I doubt very much whether the French would see so called "Happy slapping" as anything to be remotely happy about. I am a little surprised that a cycleway is even being built, as French roads are generally considered to be safer to cycle on than ours (Maybe it's something to do with British tourists or ex pats driving out there ).

[rich.]

from what i understand some of the route at the moment is on the road, but its due to be altered.. cycling is very popular here & i find the french cyclists to be very polite.
if anyone is interested ill try and find out some more details..

[JPB]

...I find the French cyclists to be very polite...

That's a good enough reason to shove my electric tricycle on the roof rack of the Dolly and head over there for a long weekend.
I've only used it once in this country, and was told by a bunch of banana crushing posers that I shouldn't be in "their" cycle lane.

[Martin Evans]

I can believe that. There are some terribly vain cyclists (I was once asked if we sold warm up balm with fake tan; if you think about it, fake tan would need to be put on your face and you wouldn't put warm up balm on your face ) and some of them seem to talk about "Lance" as if they know him (It's all part of an act). Like most things, it attracts good and bad; wearing cycling apparel doesn’t make you a poser. Cycling apparel is the way it is for a reason and I wear it the way I would wear overalls when I am doing a job of work or when I raced a car. However, I am not in the least interested in having the jersey of this team or that team and I generally go for black bottoms (Don’t show the dirt) and a yellow top, so I can be seen. When I was a member of a club, for racing purposes, I wore a club jersey when I was competing. Having said that our club kit (Green with a red band around the chest and arms) was plain by comparison with some of the club kit seen today.

Unless your electric trike is considered a road vehicle or a motorcycle, I'd say you had every right to use the cycle path. Many such machines are only electrically assisted; one of our customers has an electrically assisted bike. She has to use it because she has a chest complaint (She has had it all her life) and as she gets older, it is more debilitating and if she is to continue cycling, she needs a little help. There is no way her machine could be considered a motorbike.

[rich.]

http://www.cycling-loire.com/

im not sure if this is the official site, but enjoy!!

[mr rusty]

Cycling apparel is the way it is for a reason and I wear it the way I would wear overalls when I am doing a job of work or when I raced a car.

...indeed it is, I have a winter cycling jacket and no matter how cold it gets and it was pretty damned cold this winter I don't need anything other than a tee shirt underneath it. It's designed to keep grusomely cold drafts out without too much of a moisture build up inside and that's what it does- sadly it's also a rather garish bright yellow but given the general blindness of some drivers it's pretty much essential to be banana bright.

I don't know why we seem to have this conflict between cyclists and drivers all the time, many of us do both, and there are good and bad on both sides. I've seen shocking behaviour by cyclists, it seems to be a part of the 'fixie' culture to just rely on the reactions of drivers to avoid hitting them, a bit like the gobby teenagers who saunter across the road daring people to run them over. On the other hand on the bike I've had people overtake me as if I'm not there, inches away...terrifying sometimes.

My personal pet hate however when I'm on the bike are the timid overtakers, people who will pootle along behind you in their cars with a queue building up behind them but won't actually attempt to overtake until there's absolute miles of dead straight road ahead...and even then it takes them ages to go by, but do they get yelled at out of the window? No! It's the poor sod sweating on the bike who gets the blame!!