in the middle of an epic ride today (105 miles), there was a group of older guys and gals blocking the path. they completely saw me coming as one lady bellowed (yes, bellowed) "did we leave enough room?" seriously? so you know you're blocking the path and instead of moving you joke about your ignorance. my response, "almost!!" i was not happy. she thought that was funny and chuckled her bowl full of jelly.

yes, some roadies can me silent runners and not acknowledge your presence. but i'll take that over purposely creating a dangerous situation.

Maybe it's because I'm hard of hearing, but every bell I've looked at seems more ornamental than functional. Especially if going faster than, say, 10 mph.

That brake squeal is an amazing idea though.

I just call out 'excuse me! coming through!' when people are squirrely or it's a large enough group walking abreast that they obstruct the lane. I pass kids at a walking pace, they're so unpredictable.


I also make daytime rides my recovery rides on the MUP/Greenway. If I want a workout, I'll do swim/run/lift before/after my commute, or do intervals in more appropriate places.

At night though...I'm surprised if I see 10 people on my 10 miles along the MUP/Greenway trail*. I'll bomb through at whatever speed I feel like. I have a decent light though.

*Actually on the trail. People on the riverbank, fishing aren't at all unusual. They all carry bright lights(usually headband mounted) to lure the fish near the surface though, so they're plenty visible.

The people that piss me off are the ones that park their bikes on the path while they're sitting on the benches. COME ON.

I don't mind sharing the path, and I don't ride at ridiculous or unsafe speeds on the path.

HOWEVER ... it's a MUP ... Multiple Use Path ... and so, chubby mom pulling her kid in a wagon walking towards me on the incorrect side of the path, that means move your fat ass over to the right side of the path and don't give me a dirty look when I scowl at you. I have as much a right to be on the path as your do to waddle along it. It also means, teenager on a bike, if you're going to stop to send or receive a text message, move your freaking bike OFF the path so you're not a chicane. Thursday's ride home was full of this stuff, and yes, part of it was because the fireworks were going to be shot off downtown, but seriously, something as rudimentary as walking on the correct side of a MUP shouldn't be difficult.

[QUOTE=ill.clyde;16915409]I don't mind sharing the path, and I don't ride at ridiculous or unsafe speeds on the path.

HOWEVER ... it's a MUP ... Multiple Use Path ... and so, chubby mom pulling her kid in a wagon walking towards me on the incorrect side of the path, that means move your fat ass over to the right side of the path and don't give me a dirty look when I scowl at you. I have as much a right to be on the path as your do to waddle along it. It also means, teenager on a bike, if you're going to stop to send or receive a text message, move your freaking bike OFF the path so you're not a chicane. Thursday's ride home was full of this stuff, and yes, part of it was because the fireworks were going to be shot off downtown, but seriously, something as rudimentary as walking on the correct side of a MUP shouldn't be difficult.[/QUOTE]

This is my big thing too. Plus in town people riding on the sidewalk with no helmet. Please stop including me in your illegal unsafe activity by riding near me on sidewalk. A few of them are pretty shaky & barely able to ride yet no helmet. I guess they feel being a vegetable in a bed is something which to aspire.

- Andy

I gave her 5' of clearence. Much more than I get from cars with a larger speed differential. Also, wide open path no trees, and my only other option is freeway which is 'idiotic', or go 5 miles out of the way. Idiotic? nah..Maybe ill advised, but point taken.

I feel like a MUP/Greenway/Whatever trail there's an expectation to not go vehicle speeds. If people wanted to deal with vehicles, they'd be on the street. So I limit myself to ~15mph, which is totally a reasonable speed for a quick runner doing speed work.

That's just me personally though.

Could be you. My Dad's hearing is messed up;he had no idea he had a leaking seal on his air compressor until I asked him what that whistling was. He can't hear anything high-pitched.

Standard issue Incredibell is pretty loud. Zefal Piing bell is almost obnoxious.

Aren't there speed limits on your MUPs? Ours is like 10-15mph max.

I highly recommend this:

Airzound Horn

On the MUP I call out or hit the bell a good distance from any group. I like "bicycle coming though" - said slowly and clearly. I often get a "thank you." Out on the road I really appreciate it when passers say something friendly like "hi, how's it going?" So I usually say something before passing. I've been startled by people passing too close, and it does make me bristle momentarily.

I haven't seen many rabbits, but I stopped for a family of geese the other day. Out here the squirrels are crazy, literally, they panic at the site of a bike and zip back and forth several times before picking a direction. Well and the screaming cyclist probably doesn't help. We also get big groups of wild turkeys, and I'll stop for them. No telling what they'll do, and they're huge!

Speaking of turkeys. I was on a narrow, winding, no shoulder road and needed to pass a guy who was tooling along at a slow pace. This was not a road for riding two across. I announced that I needed to pass and proceeded to do so. I guess he took this as a social opening, and started up a chat - and sped up! He also started drifting into the road towards me. (I’m female, which was probably my first mistake. It was the "do you ride here often?" line. Yep.) So there I am stuck in the middle of the road with this idiot going on and on... Unreal. I finally told him sternly that I needed to finish passing. Fortunately we were headed into a climb and I dropped him. :-)

Not this one. Its primarily a bike trail and runs along a freeway nowhere near any homes or businesses. I tend to be one of the slower cyclists on this trail.