I'm on the MUP coming home from some hill reps this evening. Now our MUPs are pretty good. Most of the 8 miles of my route home separate into a bike only path with good visibility and 30 yards of nothing but grass on both sides. With half decent handling skills and a little common sense traveling at 20 mph is not unreasonable so as a rule I try not to exceed that. (Another of my rules is - when overtaking little kids always slow down, coast by and toss out a complement like " nice bike" or " wow you really make that bike go")

Anyway, I come to a 100 yard stretch and common sense says " slow down". The path narrows so there is just enough space for on-coming and out-going bikes to pass and there is a 5 ft fence that separates a road on one side and a stand of trees on the other. Also, there's a little 5 or 6 yr old kid following his dad up ahead. Dad happens to glance over his shoulder, sees me approaching and yells in a panic -"squeeze right son , squeeze right !". I answer , somewhat poetically, " no worry I'm in no hurry" and proceed to "draft" the wee tyke about 3-4 ft behind.

We're about half way through when a kit clad, mountain bike riding guy, with a buddy right on his wheel, blasts past at about 30 mph without so much as an " on yer left". When we get to the end of the section I start to coast by when the dad asks his son " how ya doing pal ?" Before the kid has time to answer I look down at my Garmin and say " He's doing great! 11 mph - fast kid". Dad laughs and thanks me for not blowing past.

It was at that point I decided there are exceptions to every rule so I "cranked it up to 400 w" and chased that pair down. I pulled up along side and just coasted while they were panting and hammering away. Then I gave the first guy my best Lance Armstrong stare and kept on coasting beside. He looks at me, looks down at my feet, looks back at me then down at my feet then shifts up and tries to get away. I take one strong rev and continue to coast beside them. He looks at me, looks at my feat and a look of disbelief comes across his face.

Finally he says " What ? ". So I sez, " as you can see I can go extremely fast on this MUP and so can you -but the difference between us is common sense. What would have happened if that weaving little kid veered into your path when you blew past? There's no room to maneuver - best case scenario is some broken bikes and nobody goes to the hospital"

He respondes by telling me where to go and how to get there ( with added helpful finger direction). Then it just came out of my mouth - "You're a MUP-putz ! "

So all of that just to propose a new word for the 41 vocabulary ( if it isn't already) :

MUP-putz: a Fred who rides at unreasonable speed and/or does dangerous stunts on a MUP.

Good on you for confronting him in the way you did. Even though it was obviously lost in his lactic build up stage in his brain it was the right thing to do. One day he will look back on it and think "wow I really was a MUP-putz wasn't I?"

Nbob. You should change your name to Noob...

Mods, please move all mup related threads to recreational and family, where they belong.

You gave him the "don't talk about me doping" stare? Why? Are you on something?

Oh, sorry, you chased down a couple of guys doing 30MPH which is coasting speed for you... you are on something.

That's as far as I needed to read.

Yes, that's me! Used to ride really fast on bicycle lanes. Not MUP, it is 100% bike dedicated, but still. I used to slow down only for kids. But other bike riders or pedestrians (who aren't supposed to walk on bike lanes), I'd just blast past. When they hear me, they often do something unexpected, it turned out the best strategy was to just blast quietly.

So far, in some 30 years of city riding, just two shoulder checks with pedestrians jumping in front of me (nobody hurt). 3 times hit buy a car, twice when riding fast on my green light (they just don't see you). Once while riding real slow (driver not looking at all AND giving it full throttle).

Yes, fast riding here is like 20-25 km/h. Most people ride about 10-15 km/h, or walk on bicycle lanes here.

That Freudian slip says it all. It was quite a feat! Now get on the road with the big boys & show us your Garmin Connect details.

MUP shenanigans! Always a fail no matter how you justify. :

I liked your story even if others think it was petty .

Ever think MUP's should ban cyclists that are wearing any form of "kit", ride bikes that exceed a total value of $200, and are unaccompanied by children under the age of 10?

Seriously its called a road bike because its meant to be ridden on the road. The MUP is a place for a leisurely Sunday afternoon ride with the family, not a race track or a training loop. If you want to ride on the MUP then get a MUP bike like this!

so they were doing 30 on their mtb's, and you dialed it to 400w to catch? You showed those freds thats for sure.

r600DuraAce is that you?

While many have no such rule or limit I am of the opinion that the speed limit for an MUP should be about 15 MPH (24KPH for everyone else). Any faster than that you not only risk YOUR life but the lives of others. MUPs are meant to be safe fun bike / hike / stroll lanes and as stated above if you're out to go fast then please take it on the road.

If you weren't convinced by him "having to take it easy to stay under 20 MPH," the claim that he was able to chase down a couple of guys on mountain bikes proves that he's a beast!

Here in Southern California, our MUPs run along the rivers and can be 50 miles long. They are a decent, if a little bit boring, ride for "serious" cyclists.

All the people that say "stay off MUPs" must only have really some really leisurely ones. Out here there are sections of the longer ones where you'll see people on their Sunday ride, and some of the shorter ones have lots of runners/walkers, but there are some that stretch pretty far out to where you'll only really see "cyclists".

I'd still consider it a silly place to do intervals or some other intense training, mostly like to incorporate them into longer rides. It can be relaxing to get off the road when you're on it for 5+ hours.

I tend to use MUPs at hours in the morning where I have it all to myself... "Wocka wocka!" says Fozzy the Fred!



Whenever I'm there during normal-use times, I tend to ride in "family friendly" mode, where every encounter is just one more interesting thing to experience. My favorite was a convoy of couples with baby strollers, of which there were 5, if I remember correctly. I too have learned not to "on your left!" to people, since they tend to take that as an instruction for THEM to move to the left half the time. Most of the time, they are really startled, so I'm afraid of causing a heart attack. So I just go glacially slow and pass them quietly at a speed where I can stop just by putting my foot down.

I cannot dial my speed up to 30 mph without working for it. That said - good on you for talking to this guy...even though he was a knucklehead. Perhaps he thinks about what you said later?

take a look around the mup; if you can't spot the putz, you're it.

Man I wish our MUP (only been in existence 2 years) had some lane markings like that. Can't stand walkers and bikers taking up almost the whole width going in one direction.

Although one time I was in a group of over 100 recreational riders and we all piled onto the MUP for one stretch (on at one cross street, off at the next, maybe 1/2 mile). The walkers and cyclists we encountered not in the group all seem genuinely amazed at the size of the group.

Pot meet kettle!

My wife and I are occasional (1/month) MUP users on the tandem. The paved path is narrow and goatheads await those who stray. We'll do 19-20 (we're slow) with nobody in sight, slow down in the vicinity of other cyclists, really slow way, way down in the vicinity of kids (we have young grandkids). Most cyclists are prudent on MUPs, but there are exceptions and they give all of us a bad name.

MUP haters are pretty funny. Where I ride out in the country as many road bikes as other types. Plenty of room to hammer.
Of course its foolhardy to blow by little kids...or even to pass in the other direction as they can turn in front of you in a moment's notice and bad things can happen. It always comes down to discretion anywhere you ride.
Good story OP. A buddy of mine and me had some fun with some full kit mtb'rs last weekend. They were good natured...and old cylists. They were also pretty fast and learned talking to them later they were ironman riders. They had no problem holding 20 mph. For kicks my buddy and I decided to drop them and upped the ante and droped the hammer. I believe one guy could have stuck a while...but the other two couldn't. A Cat 1 mtb'er is something to behold however and can ride seriously fast on fat tires with flat bar.

i'm surprised the mayor hasn't given you the key to the city for this feat. You're like John Wayne on two wheels

Yeah yeah I know, probably not the best route choice for the ride organizer. But still I was surprised at how good natured the bystanders were to us.

The other day I was riding the MUP and had another guy (stranger) close to my rear wheel. Some woman was walking her two fairly large dogs, and the dogs would NOT get off the left side of the path. She kept yanking on them and saying "you're being BAD today!!" to them or something, but still me and the other guy had to come to a complete STOP before we could finally pass them on the left.