So yesterday I began my final mile of my commute home and tried to close the gap on a very fast 'bent rider about 200 yards up. I worked my tail off but failed and caught him as he stopped for the 4-way stop sign a mile later. He moved over and took the lane, which was fine by me. I, however, filter and see nothing wrong with it. As I rolled slowly by him I said "hello". I was so suprised when instead of politely returning (or even acknowledging) my greeting he began to yell at me as loudly as he could. "REAL MACHO!!!!!" he yelled. I was in my team kit so maybe he thought I thought I was the SHIZ. Then I slowed for the stop sign and turned right (perfectly legal in Idaho). "NICE STOP!!!!!" He yelled, "YOUR BIKE IS NOT JSLGJLGJSDLFJLJDLJF"!!!!! I could not hear the rest because he was trailing off in the distance. All of the drivers were just looking at us in disbelief.

What an A$$! Clearly, he had not even looked at Idaho Bicycling Code and yet there he was loudly and embarrassingly attempting to correct my behavior (making both of us look like jacka$$es in the process).

What a Jack-o**! This goes beyond safety concerns, this is just plain being an uptight freak. I was doing nothing unsafe or illegal; merely cycling in a manner other than his chosen way. It makes me wonder why so many people seem to think that they need to control the behaviors of those around them. All I want to do is ride my bike. Why can't we just let each other be?

Filtering means passing all the stopped cars on the right, yes? That's legal?

I just re-checked the code to make sure before answering. The code states (as do most) that a cyclist has to ride as far to the right of the lane as is reasonable and safe except to turn left, avoid obstacles, or.....to overtake vehicles progressing in the same direction. But it does not state that the only way I can overtake a vehicle is to move to its left. Nor does it state that I cannot pass a vehicle on its right. Some gray area, I believe. So what I did was not illegal, but not expressly legal either. Such questions enable my attorney friends to make a good living.

So I think this really comes down to a question not only of what is legal but what is reasonable. Clearly, the code has no problem with a bicycle and a car sharing a lane side by side if there is room. And perhaps you are right, maybe the intent of the code is to require cyclists me to pass slow moving or stopped vehicles not on their right, but on their left. If that is the case, and I actually tried to do that (pass a line of vehicles on the left hand side of the lane and then move over to the right to go through the light), I would definitely have more people uptight and angry than a single guy on a 'bent. Yes, one could simply wait in cue, and I have done that in special circumstances. But I don't feel required by law to do so.

Running a stop sign and transforming it to a yield sign is perfectly legal. I think not.

That's not the problem. The problem is he spent more on his bent than you spend on your bike and he can barely keep ahead of you. He's jealous of your speed. He's expecting a speed advantage except on the uphills.

Splitting lanes is probably legal, but be careful. Drivers notice splitters much much less than they notice cyclists.

[QUOTE=HiYoSilver]Running a stop sign and transforming it to a yield sign is perfectly legal. I think not.

QUOTE]

In Idaho it is. See the attached piece of code

49-720. STOPPING -- TURN AND STOP SIGNALS.

A person operating a bicycle or human-powered vehicle approaching a stop sign shall slow down and, if required for safety, stop before entering the intersection. After slowing to a reasonable speed or stopping, the person shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle in the intersection or approaching on another highway so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard during the time the person is moving across or within the intersection or junction of highways, except that a person after slowing to a reasonable speed and yielding the right-of-way if required, may cautiously make a turn or proceed through the intersection without stopping.
A person operating a bicycle or human-powered vehicle approaching a steady red traffic-control signal shall stop before entering the intersection, except that a person after slowing to a reasonable speed and yielding the right-of-way if required, may cautiously make a right-hand turn without stopping or may cautiously make a left-hand turn onto a one-way highway without stopping.

I agree with you regarding the need to be careful when splitting, however.

Geez, and I ride to burn off stress. That guy sounds like core meltdown waiting to happen. He really, really needs to take a deep breath.

I think in Idaho stop signs are yield signs for cyclists. No seriously, I have heard that before. As for uptight bent riders, maybe he was an Arrogant Roadie who had to switch due to back problems? Or perhaps he may have just been the old crotchety type (and yes I know not all old people are crochety, I hope to be one of these when the time comes) who just likes to tell everyone what they think. I have met a lot of those on organized rides, they are usually the ones driving the SAG truck have a huge gut and dispense all sorts of advice unsolicited. I'll shutup now before I offend everyone and go ride my bent and get offended when DFrs catch up to me (Hey you! You aren't supposed to be as fast as me! Slow down! I'm riding a recumbent dang it, can't you SEE that?).

He really was pretty fast, but certainly crotchety . I only caught him within the mile because of the stop sign. By the way Paul, I just graduated from ASU. Do you ever get out to ride South Mountain on the MTB? Great Stuff!!!

I think the meltdown started yesterday. I seriously thought maybe he was just ******** and yelling for the heck of it until I heard what he was saying. Maybe he has Turrets (no offense meant to anyone).

I ride Desert Classic (follows base of east/south side of SM) end to end on my cyclocross bike, but don't hit the mountain itself as its too steep for my gearing.

I wonder as to the original situation if he didn't like being passed on right. Was it 100% certain he was going straight and not also potentially turning right. But more likely he was uptight and ignorant of local 'bikes don't need to stop' rule.

Al

I have ridden the towers on a road bike (lost my frame pump on the way down due to crappy roads, almost need a MTB to ride the pavement up there). I have also ridden halfway down the Desert Classic trail over lunch one summer. I need to get back and do more. My problem is my mountain bike predates the days of suspension so a lot of those trails are hard on the old hands. My favorites right now are the Hawes trail area over by the Salt River, and the Jacobs Crosscut trail in Lost Dutchman State Park. Still pretty new to the MTB scene in the valley having mostly roadbiked the last 4 years (I grew up in Flagstaff and have canvassed everywhere within a 15 mile radius of there on my MTB in the 90s).

You are the MAN for handling that rough stuff on your cross bike. It beat the crap out of me regularly and convinced me to go full suspension on my mtb.

I am not sure he was not going to turn right but I am pretty dang sure he was ignorant of the local law. I don't have a problem with someone politely talking to me about my behavior, but the yelling was over the top.

I am highjacking my own thread, but what the heck.
Never got up to Flag but did a lot of riding in Sedona. Great country. If you like to climb, try the SM Guadalupe entrance to East Loop to Javelena to Mormon to National to Telegraph to DC. That is my favorite AZ ride! You will probably be missing that suspension, however. And telegraph is for psycho's. We walked a lot of it. Falling straight down on top of hikers is not cool.

Will have to head out there when the weather cools down a bit (maybe take an afternoon off work or something, I work in Chandler so SM is not too far away). I have ridden a lot of junk that more serious mountain bikers would probably not do without suspension so I might have to try this. Not that I don't like full suspension, got to borrow my boss's boss's old Specialized skunk works(?) or something like that It weighed around 20 pds and had full suspension. Man that was a sweet ride. Unfortunately my wife buys the "I ride it to work so it is worth the money" Argument more for road bikes/Recumbents than for a fully suspended mud eating machine.

I hear you, although today I left the road bike home in favor of a fully suspended, tire-humming ride to work. Suprisingly, there was only a time difference of a couple of minutes.

If you have any trails on the way the MTB would have greater stress relief benefits I think.

Unfortunately, West Boise is just sprawl with no land to spare. It is convereted farmland, just like tempe/chandler/mesa. The roads are straight and square, with no real differentiation between the miles. I just put my head down and go.

I am going offline for the day. Good luck and have fun out there.

You guys know about PM, right??

Have you ever seen that 'bent rider before? Sounds like he's used to chewing-out other cyclists.

you should have waved and smiled, maybe you coulda made his head explode with rage???

I think the "real macho" comment was a sign that his issues run deeper than whatever concern he may have had with your handling of the intersection. He sounds like a pretty insecure person. (Today is amateur psychology day.)

Paul, you need to check out the road to the towers now. The city recently repaved all of south mountain roads. Very smooth now. They just completed the repaving a few months ago

Sorry Oboegy.
No, I have never seen him before, but I worked late and was off my regular schedule.

Besides being able to treat stop signs as yeilds, we can also treat red lights as stop signs. But despite our generous code, many cyclists do not do such things as they believe it prevents us from being seen by motorists as vehicles. I guess I see their point. I personally do not stop and go though very many red lights because drivers do not know about the code and I need the drivers on my commute to share a mutual respect with me. Also, my team does not proceed through the lights for fear of giving a bad name to our sponsors.

Maybe the guy was just a serious VC advocate but he wasn't riding in the lane when I was trying to catch him.

Maybe he did understand the law, but he choose to stop and did not like the bicycle coming from behind him while he was already stopped, not stopping, but instead 'blowing' by him. The point I am seeing is that even if the law says you don't need to, you still should if bicycle ahead of you did choose to, to give the rider who did the right of way.

Now I'm not defending the guy, he sure seems uptight by the description, but just trying to see if from his perspective.

Al

I can see that to an extent. I think, however, the fact that we had different agendas at the interstection should be taken into account. It looked to me like he was going to go straight or turn left. I don't ride a bent, but is it possible that it is more difficult to do the left head swivel to check traffic before moving into traffic. In that case, his taking the lane makes sense as he would not want to have to do it later during acceleration of both himself and the traffic. I, on the other hand, was making a simple right. It never dawned on me that he would be offended because he was the one who chose to take the lane.

What would you have done Noisebeam?

Probably take a slow tight right to his right side. But I haven't seen this place nor the exact circumstance.

Al