All the time, I hear motorists complaining about how long they get stuck behind bikes. Yesterday on my way home from work, I encountered a group of 7 farm rigs puttering along at 20mph about 8 miles from home. I caught them from behind, passing all the cars that had been stacked up.

After that, it was smooth sailing all the way, and the normally busy lane I normally ride along was virtually empty because only about 1/2 dozen cars succeeded in getting by all the machinery due to the volume of oncoming traffic.

Those poor slobs were easily stuck for 20 min, probably even a bit more. By the time I reached town, the first piece of farm machinery was probably 1/2 mile behind me. I normally don't pedal so hard on a commute, but sometimes, it's fun to just rub it in...

Oh Rigs! I thought you wrote Pigs. I was confused for a bit. It would have been hilarious either way!

I bet nobody tries to road rage you off the road for taking the lane at 20mph when you're driving 20,000lb of combine harvester! ...pacelining with farm amchinery FTW!!!

Who said anything about pacelining? Actually, that was my original plan since these things move close to my normal commuting speed and there was a little wind.

However, once I got in the draft, it was boring slow. And one thing I always do when I see cars stuck for whatever reason is I put a bored look on my face, act like I'm barely breathing, and kick up the pace as high as I can maintain. In this particular case, I really did have to move once I got past the machinery to make sure it didn't catch me going up hills

1+ I skipped right over that and read PIGS.

as for the what 15-20 seconds or less that people spend waiting behind you on the road. pfffftt .

I do not understand the problem drivers have with this. I frequently catch right up with them at the next light/stop sign or turn after they have blasted past me and gotten all huffy about having to wait for me. goodness people take a breath.

still that line of farm pigs is funny.

In N.C. it is illegal to pass on the right. But I do it occasionally if it is to my advantage.

I did the same thing - I saw PIGS and went back and read it again, and it indeed is written "rigs"!

As for people who get huffy over having to slow for a cyclist - folks, don't take it personally. People like that get impatient with everyone. On Tuesday's commute home, I came up on three cars stacked up at a green light waiting for the guy in front to make a left turn. I had to stop behind the third car, and patiently waited. Meanwhile the guy in the 2nd car was just LAYING on his horn, blasting the poor guy in front of him, who was stuck waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear so he could make a left turn. Poor dude is just trying to drive home and the a-hole behind him is blasting away at him - like he did something wrong by living in a house that required a left turn to reach.

Every time I get honked at, cursed at, or almost run off the road, I remind myself that before that guy came along, at least 15 cars went by giving me plenty of space, without speeding or gunning their engines. I prefer to remember the nice people.

That's a funny report.

I've told people that bikers are like tractors. If it's not safe to pass you have to wait. It may piss you off and you may not like us but we have a right to the road.

Having the road to yourself (well, almost) sounds sweet. I'm dreading when the fall traffic picks up again.

sorry for being a newbie... so does that mean you passed vehicles on the right?

Well if he had passed them on the left, it should of been safe for the cars to do the passing of the farm RIGS instead. So, yeah it sounds like he passed on the right.

I passed the cars on the right. This is legal by Oregon law ORS 811.415 and is safer than passing a line of cars on a 2 lane highway where oncoming traffic typically moves around 65mph -- especially since I do need to worry about being sideswiped or mowed down by someone else wanting to pass from behind. The cars would have been crazy to expect me to do anything different since this amounts to me holding my line and them holding theirs.

However, combines are very wide so they took the entire shoulder to keep them out of the oncoming lane. That made it impossible to pass them on the right, so I overtook them on the left.

In some cases, I had to wait for oncoming traffic before passing. However, it only takes me a couple seconds to clear a combine if I'm hammering, and I don't need nearly as much space as a car. As a result, there were many passing opportunities that cars could not use that I could.

Banerjek, you have good stories.

That is great. I really like your perspective and will remember it the next time I get upset.

[QUOTE=banerjek;9440305]
However, combines are very wide so they took the entire shoulder to keep them out of the oncoming lane. That made it impossible to pass them on the right, so I overtook them on the left.
QUOTE]

For some reason I love passing on the left. I had a guy yell at me that it was not safe the other day. He was absolutely at a standstill so I am not sure what was so unsafe about it. Basically his argument looked to me like "the lane is wide enough to share as long as I am passing you but not the other way around". I just thanked him and went on my way.

I did. I know you didn't, I can read.

I just pictured this huge piece of farm machinery 'drafting' a cyclist and thought it was funny, that's all.

HAHA.

"So Long Suckers" is my middle name.

https://vimeo.com/5136068

Notice I passed no one on the right. And I stopped counting at 100 suckers.

Enjoy

For the sake of my own learning, what is so bad about passing on the right if there are no cross streets? A right hook isn't a concern in this case. Assuming a rural road, you won't be between cars and a door zone. I always pass on the left when I can, but sometimes if there is a very wide lane and traffic is slower than me, I feel safer passing on the right rather than cross the double-yellow and possibly not be able to merge back into traffic.

IMO...pass where you feel safest.