surgeonstone

I can't help myself.

Herbie53

Would it be more or less arrogant if I waved more often and did not really mean it?

caloso

Wave, not waive.

Vicegrip

I ride sections of the W&OD almost every day year round. I am not a racing dork that does not care I am a commuter doing 18 to 20 not 25. I have a flashy red white black crabon bike with crabon wheels and I wear riding kit which is the proper attire for a 15 mile one way ride 2X a day.
flappy shirts and un-padded shorts make for unhappy body parts.
Some sections of the W&OD are dead straight and wide some sections are tighter and the sight lines are limited. I am not super fast but not slow ether. I don't see all the racer types you seem to see. Yes from time to time I see a roadie making an uncalled pass or splitting joggers. I also see moms 3 wide with strollers and dogs with 15 foot leashes wandering all over. I see joggers that simply stop in the path or far worse do a 180 right in front of you. What I don't see is teams or singles doing 25 in bad places. 3 guys riding in a row on the W&OD is not a timed racing or training event, it is 3 guys going for a ride.

I tend to tailor my passing calls to the person being passed. I use a mix of verbal calls, a loud bell and (gasp) no call at all. Moms with kids, people on a slow walk, long leash dog? = Verbal while I have a finger on each brake lever. Why? I get folks that jump left and turn around when I ding the bell or couples that split one left one right and get ticked at the simple fact that I was beamed in behind them while they were on their walk.
Bell at a distance when cooking along and I think I can trust the person being overtaken. The jogger with headset on? = distant ding, go way wide and ding again when almost alongside. Why? Too many joggers with headphones simply do nutty stuff without looking. Some react to a bell in unpredictable ways too. I do a long distance loud ding to test then a close ding to drive past the headphones. No passing call for walkers yakking on phones. They tend not to do anything other than 1/2 turn and glare at you for interrupting their call. If so I drop a strong full DING! on them just as I pass.

No posted speed limit and there is no speed limit. it is a 40+ miles long railroad bed trail. At the Arlington end is is suburbia and covered in strollers, kiddies and turons. Night falls and the light-less ninjas take over. Out on the other end it is more open and not congested. I ride the trails and roads around Wash DC year round and the W&OD is only congested on the warm clear weekends and late afternoons when the trail rule knowledgeable commuters blend in with the unknowing casual users. Sept to May is not congested and mid summer it thins out a bit too. I find that bad form and action is spread evenly across all types that use the trail. there are very few 25 mph on the flats type riders and even the few are almost non existent when it is commonly congested. We are hitting the local quiet streets working the hills.
They behave badly only from lack of understanding.

NoviceJohn

I'm not sure why people get so bend out of shape when people don't wave back. I personally don't wave at everyone I approach. If I wave and they don't wave back, oh freaking well. I'm also guilty of not waving back sometimes because I'm tired and kinda in a zone. However that's not the main topic at hand. It's the fact these cyclists ride double wide and would not move over when vehicles approach from behind. I think that's an a-hole move by them.
Here Florida, I don't know if there are local groups that do that. Groups I've seen who ride in country roads follow most traffic laws and ride on the side if there are no bike lanes.

Dudelsack 

I wave but I don't mean it and I don't really care.


Aw crap, I didn't read Herbies comment. Maybe because he's an elitist.

If you really are better than everyone else, are you still an elitist or does it mean that you have a reasonable and accurate assessment of yourself?

Never mind. You guys are too stupid to know one way or the other.

Herbie53

I hereby bestow a wave upon you, you should feel blessed.

milkbaby

If you think cyclists are arrogant, just wait until you meet some drivers, then you'll really understand what arrogant is!

f1seb

Quite the extrapolation there from such little amount of the emboldened text. I am impressed. You're playing 2 games that you shouldn't be, and I decided to help you with pictures to get through this:



And:

big chainring 

On Last Sundays ride I greeted the blind minister at the corner with a "morning preacher", gave a good morning to several people walking their dogs, waved at every cyclist heading the opposite direction, and tipped the French woman at the coffee shop a dollar at the end of my ride. That was a good ride.

Give a total stranger a compliment every day. It may change their life, and yours.

RIRview

Sounds like the makings of a good modern country song.

f1seb

If you have read the OP's post then you would see that this thread has gone off the deep end quite early. By the 1st reply actually. The OP has encountered a specific group of riders, that behaved in a matter he deemed to be a-holish. The majority of the posters here have decided that the thread is about the OP getting upset for the said group of not waving back to him. You included, by saying "getting bent out of shape for not waving."

Also I see a lot of people throwing nothing but speculations about what the other people are perhaps doing: Training, in the zone, focused on the ride, nothing matters but the ride, etc. Apparently it hasn't occurred to a few posters here that perhaps there are a-hole cyclists out there, doing a-hole things. Like riding abreast cluttering up the streets so cars can't get passed them (see original post), a group of 6+ riders training at a much much faster speed than the "n00bs lolz" on the bike paths (my personal experience on Wantagh Bike Path, Long Island).

People here are quick to chastise the OP for only "1", let's write that out "one" thing out of many that he mentioned. And that is waving. Quite hilarious in my opinion. Posters here need to understand that people take up cycling everyday, people use the internet everyday, this is the most popular forum by member count about any form of cycling. New people or even not so new people will post their encounters with other riders, these same posts will keep coming up as it's a new experience for them. Again this is not directed towards you NoviceJohn, since I've gone off on a rant here, but the people who say they are sick and tired of seeing these threads, are probably not as sick and tired of them as they think they are, since they bump them up sharing their equally "fresh" wisdom.

halfspeed

1) Asking a question is the opposite of jumping to a conclusion.
2) Quoting the entire context is the opposite of quoting out of context.

coasting 

The MUP that makes up the beginning and end to my rides is the best way to get out of town to the country so roadies are often on this and the worst aholes are the ones who treat it as part of their ride and are going fast or even in a paceline.

TexMac

I do wave or nod at other cyclist but sometimes when i'm doing hard intervals, it's hard to wave or nod.

Rowan

Oddly, there have been Harley riders go past with the motorbike wave while we've been riding in the opposite direction on bicycles.

Rowan

This, this and this.

Rowan

Yeah, those on hybrid-riders who've traded up to a road bike, and can't handle their new-found speed on the MUP.

daihard 

I wasn't going to reply to this thread anymore, but your comment above has changed my mind. Assuming you're not kidding, I must disagree. I see quite a few riders in team jerseys, riding two abreast above 20 MPH, on a relatively narrow MUP near where I live. I somehow can't imagine all of them being enthusiastic newbies behaving badly or having just traded up to road bikes and can't handle them.

To me, whether one is a good cyclist or a bad one depends much more on his/her character than the type of bike he/she rides.

If you are in fact kidding, my apology for not having a sense of humour.

CB HI

When they run out of gas, they need bicycle riders to go pick a can up for them.

3alarmer 

.
...what about giving people the finger ? Where does everyone come down on that ?
I have to admit that I probably do this more often than i wave.

I do wiggle my fingers at cute girls who smile at me, though.

Does that make me passive -aggressive ?

Niloc

huh? if you have zero interest why are you wearing bibs?

raqball

Plenty of people do it.. Is it really that hard to understand??

1) Bibs offer padding for long ride that regular shorts don't
2) I have no interest in trying to look like I just left the Tour de France...

CB HI

It really would be interesting to do a count of how many threads there are about rants against road cyclist not waving or using the full lane

vs

road cyclist complaining about other cyclists waving or riding extreme FRAP.

Then we could add in the rants about cycle specific clothing.

JimF22003

It occurred to me as well. Just because something is analogous doesn't make it equivalent.