LOL - By leaving really early. 52 miles is round-trip and I do it three days a week, (Mon, Wed & Fri). 26 miles is about 1 hour and 45 minutes. It takes me an hour to drive to work and when traffic gets crazy, which is at least a twice a month, my drive can be 2 hours.

The bike was likely stolen and the guy who had the bike wasn't quite firing on all brain cells. I have no issue with people who want to do the work themselves but they are generally up front about it or will mention it at some point in the conversation and if they are able to work on their bike generally it isn't such horrible shape.

If the bike is unsafe, it is unsafe and if we cannot do the work to make it safe, we aren't going to do the work. What could and most likely will happen is someone will ride and something bad will happen and then they will come and blame us. It is a major liability to send someone on down the road with an unsafe bike especially with the lawsuit crazy culture we have built up.

I am curious, what made the bike unsafe? bad headset? bad bottom bracket? needing brake work? or was the frame compromised?

The problem in NYC is cars get in the bike lane on one lane road turn it into a turning lane also cars going straight stay in the traffic lane. This turns a one lane road into a turn lane road with little room for cyclists except squished between two rows of cars on a street designed to accommodate one lane of cars. In New York you're legally supposed to turn from the traffic lane unless the road is designed to have both the turn lane and bike lane in one.

When on foot along the side of a road you should always walk facing traffic. When you cycle you ride with traffic. That's always how I was taught.

I do not run or walk with a rear view mirror, and if it's along a road with no sidewalk, I sure as heck want to be able to readily see cars approaching me. I can see them moving out away to give me space, or I can make a quick jump over to the grass if I think it's necessary. Walking on the left side (where cars drive on the right) is absolutely the correct thing to do.

Seriously though, I'm not sure if motorists aren't aware that cyclists have every bit as much right to be on the road, or if they just don't care, but that would be my main pet peeve.

I drive for a living, and have a class one licence, so it's not an "us vs them" scenario. If everyone could just show a little more respect on the road, heck, if motorists would just slow down to the MAXIMUM speed limit as they buzz by me, that would be great.

My pet peeve is bad traffic design;
weather it's for cars or bikes.

I don't remember everything but basically chain and cassette were worn, wheels were out of true, brake pads were needing replacement plus brakes were out of alignment and really loose, and some other stuff, plus of course the broken pedal. It was a kids BMX style bike but it was ridden by, what some might call, an adult.

Impressive! 156 miles a week of commuting is roughly double my average

I used to have that happen pretty frequently on my old commute that took me through more residential streets. Always bugged me and I always wondered what the hell they were thinking. My new commute is mostly through industrial areas, or passes through residential areas early in the morning, mostly on the weekend, so there just isn't much opportunity for someone to do this to me anymore. Thanks for pointing out another positive of my new commute!

That's one of my pet peeves too. I've got a nice mirror, I can see cars approaching from behind, and as I'm approaching an intersection with multiple lanes, if they put on their turn signal I can pick the lane that isn't in their way. So often they choose to not signal, I assume they think because I'm on a bike I can't see them so they don't bother, but it's their loss, because they get stuck behind me when they needn't be. It irks my desire for efficiency though.

Once when I was a courier, a few of us were sitting on a bench in front of a building and a lawyer came outside while on his cel phone and decided the rack on my bike (I often handled cargo) was a dandy place for him to open up his briefcase and have a conference. Not quite the same as having someone stick trash in my water bottle cage, but you story reminded me of it. The people I was with thought I was going to either chew the guy out or worse, but I was so flabbergasted I just stared at him. People can be so incredibly selfish and self absorbed sometimes.

JAMs who won't pass safely

JAMs who don't know/care how to use a four way stop

People who ask "Where's your helmet?" Gee, I dunno. Must have left it next to your manners.

Peds are supposed to salmon... at least here in NY. I'll agree that it does make it interesting if a bike, car, and ped are meeting at the same point in a roadway, but it would no matter which way they were walking.

S 1156. Pedestrians on roadways. (a) Where sidewalks are provided and
they may be used with safety it shall be unlawful for any pedestrian to
walk along and upon an adjacent roadway.
(b) Where sidewalks are not provided any pedestrian walking along and
upon a highway shall when practicable walk only on the left side of the
roadway or its shoulder facing traffic which may approach from the
opposite direction. Upon the approach of any vehicle from the opposite
direction, such pedestrian shall move as far to the left as is
practicable.

Edit: oops, didn't see Patrick already addressed this... but yeah, those peds are correct.

This irks me to no end. Just the other day I was riding to lunch near my office and as I was approaching a 4-way stop, a car behind me started to try to pass me, which would have put him beside me at the stop. I saw it coming and stuck my left hand out as a motion for them to stay back, which he did, until we got farther down the road to a wider point where he could safely pass.

My biggest pet peeve is when people don't stay to the right on multi-use paths and fire roads. I encounter people everyday who are out walking or jogging in groups of two or more, and they fan out across the path without consideration for people who need to pass. I think all bike paths should have a yellow line down the middle with signs telling people to stay to the right. This is what works for motorists on roads and the same principle applies to cyclists and pedestrians sharing a path. I also think their should be citations for people who don't stay to the right and the money from these citations can be used to maintain the path. There are a number of paths in my area that have so many cracks that the cyclists choose to use the nearby road without a bike lane over the path.

A related issue is that cyclists in bike lanes should always ride single file when there are cars around. I live near a popular route for club rides and I sometimes see people riding along side each other so that cars all have to move into another lane to get by. I think this breeds animosity toward cyclists.

As a female, I also find it frustrating when male drivers go way out of their way to accommodate me in a manner that I don't expect. Mostly this happens if I want to turn left. It is usually an older male driver that will suddenly and randomly stop in an unexpected place and motion for me to turn. Then, people behind him will honk and I will feel hesitant to turn left for fear that the angry people honking behind him will pass him and hit me as I turn left. I generally prefer to turn left when I decide it is safe for me to turn left, rather than when motorists around me feel it might be safe for me to turn. I realize that these guys probably mean well by stopping, but it winds up being a frustration.

Didn't make clear that I'm referring to MUPs, which is 90% of my commute. No need to walk or run on the left, when everyone else is on the right. Makes for confusion and unpredictability. Around here, the MUPs are narrow and nearly everyone gets it -- stay right, and as far right as practicable. The occasional contrarian thinks he or she belongs on the left. Peds on the road where there is no sidewalk, I can understand walking on the left side to face oncoming traffic, but on a narrow MUP, no way.

In fairness, a good number of cyclists are hard to predict. It's very hard to know if a cyclist sees your turn signal.

I have taught cycling in traffic, and I teach a technique of doing two head-turns in a row. It is not to see behind you. It is to signal to drivers that you see them as well as to draw their attention to your presence. I try to remember to do this when I have a mirror, but I sometimes forget. I find I am treated very courteously when I do lots and lots of head turns. Try it!

This situation isn't just frustrating, it's incredibly dangerous.

Depends on the MUP. Around here, the MUP specifically says "Walkers and Runners Stay Left" (or words to that effect). The MUP by my Mother's house gives the opposite direction - took me quite a while to break my habit of walking on the left side when I went walking with her during the holidays.

I hate when drivers don't use stop signs properly.

Both when they run a stop sign when I have a right of way, and when they wait for me even if they have the right of way.

Just do what the sign says so there's no confusion. No I don't want to risk putting all 200lbs of me and my vehicle in the path of you and your 2 ton vehicle when the law and the impatient drivers around you say you should go.

My pet peeve is longboarders and people on scooty-puff jr's going the wrong way in the bike lane. I wouldn't even mind sharing with them, if they'd just go the right way.

Gotcha.

This! I have a section on my commute, about 1.5 miles, on a high traffic road with no shoulder. Typically I take the lane and get some interval training in, but on rainy days like today I make eye contact with nearly every driver behind me with a lot of head turns.

As I’m about to turn 58 years of age, I find the need to be honest and admit facetiously that, you guys with your lists of pet peeves sound like a bunch of 3-year-old “whiner-pants-McPoopy-butts” who don’t constantly get their own way. It makes me wonder how you manage to enjoy yourselves when bicycling with all those complaints?

As for me, I actually enjoy encountering all of the diversities of road riding, as you never know precisely what and when to expect things and it keeps things interesting. If you ride with an appropriate level of awareness, you can avoid most troublesome encounters with little effort and actually learn to appreciate those deviations in human imperfection. In the utter absence of such imperfections, rides would get boring in no time!

And so, I actually enjoy encountering the night-Ninjas, the jaywalkers, the side-walkers, the Salmoners, the right-hookers, the horn honkers, the drivers that tell me to “ride on the sidewalk” or “buy a car, hippie” or “this road doesn’t have a bicycle lane”, or the drivers that ride in the head-on traffic lane just to tell me “You were riding in my lane” (even though I was descending at the speed limit or faster), and so on. It all makes for an interesting, sometimes dangerously exciting, and even humorous riding adventure that we get to share with others afterwards. I wouldn’t have it any other way.