PTW

But did the ambulance have his timing chip attached? No chip no time.

Worse still, did the all important chip just roll off down the road attached to the remains of his front wheel? That's a £45 fine to add insult to injury.

That looks nasty!!
One thing I'd like to put up for debate, and this is just my view, I think that there should be some kind of rule, that all taking part sign up to - and that is not to ride more than 2 abreast in the road - this goes for our group rides on the week end and during the week too.
Many people know me as a cyclist and post the Dragon ride, I was approached by memebrs of family, and work colleagues describing tales of Lunacy and woe describing cyclists in very large groups, taking up all the road, sometimes 4 - 5 abreast, riding with no consideration of on coming or following traffic. This makes for a dangerous situation. The motorist gets irate and impatient then start taking risks to pass the cyclist. I have recieved similar comments referring to our group that returns from the cafe on the weekend. I'm not about to tar everyone with the same brush here, but this is something we can, and in my view should adopt for our own club rides. As the weather gets better, more and more of us are venturing out on a saturday and sunday to a point where the group going back from the cafe can sometimes be 30 - 40 strong. The way we pass in and out of queuing cars at Eweny roundabout is crazy. Most of the cars have just passed us and now they have to try and get past again. No wonder there are accidents. Senior members of the club should be setting the standard here. It seems that gone are the days where the novice cyclist is taken out with a senior group and "taught" the rules of the road and how to ride competantly in a group. I think this is something that could be talked about in the next committee meeting. As a club, we should be setting the standard and addressing this issue.

Well at least you're not talking about riding single file, which seems to be what the car driving majority seem to expect of us (and sadly some kowtow-ing cyclist turncoats I have had the misfortune to have been briefly acquainted with). Truth is that a long line of cyclists in 'single file' (actually more of a zig-zag) is far harder to overtake than a compact group, and even official advice from the DfT is that it is safer to force cars to overtake safely by riding 3 foot away from the kerb, rather than keeping right in and encouraging them to sneak past.

It would be good if the club had a page on the website with official policy on it, and explanations of that policy. By and large the car driving public simply have no conception of what constitutes good practice or what constraints are in force when riding safely within a large group of cyclists. How could they when the last time they rode a bike was when they were still in short trousers?

Whilst riding in a group I'm not sure it makes that much difference to traffic whether we are 2 or 3 abreast. In my experience 2 abreast is only 50% wider than single file (because of the zig zag), and 3 abreast only 50% wider again (because of half-wheeling). All of this is moot if the road has standard 11 foot wide lanes and cars have to wait for a proper gap before overtaking, not sneaking past.

4 and 5 abreast is doubtless very intimidating for surrounding traffic. It shouldn't be, but then drivers have a tendency to exaggerate the risks of cycling (which is of course why they don't do it). Conceptually it makes no difference so long as the group stays within the white lines, but I can see that the perception could be very different. In such situations you'll never find me with 3 riders between myself and the kerb, but can I condemn those that do? I don't know. I'm sure such situations are brief anyway.

As regards holding the traffic up, there's only one measure I use and that's whether cars are stuck behind us for a significant amount of time. We know where the passing places are, and a bit of consideration shown at these all-important points could result in a bit of consideration being shown the other way. The operative word there is 'could'. It probably won't, but it's always possible.

I certainly don't think groups of 3 or fewer should ride two abreast on busy roads. I've been in groups that have done that, and it feels pretty odd.

The other thing is when on tour and we head uphill. Just the chance the cars behind have been waiting for, and it's also the moment when the speed of the group plummets and it suddenly becomes 4 and 5 abreast. Now that will cause annoyance.

Good points Andy and Bill, I have similar comments directed at me, especailly after the Dragon ride.

All I can advocate is riding sensibly and as appropriate for the conditions. i.e. if it is narrow and busy, single file. If not, then 2 or even three abreast may be ok. The Dragon ride is exceptional and a once a year event. Perhaps it needs better advertising to warn motorists of the dangers of driving that day, and to time journeys accordingly. FFS the London marathon closes down the entire capital and people have to put up with it.

Although new to the club, I have been back cycling for about 3-4 years now, firstly MTB but then back on the road to up my fitness for mtbing, then realising why I used to cycle so much as a kid, i love it. I gave it up cause I got knocked off a few times in Portsmouth where I lived, arguably a couple were my fault, I used to be a motorists night mare as a cyclist and a cyclists nightmare as a driver.
ANyway to my point, i don't ride in groups very often as I am constantly amazed how drivers treat groups, but also I'm also amazed at the way some groups will ride all over the place on a single carrige way with much oncomming traffic holding up the cars. these days theres seems to be no give and take either way. So now I'll tend to go out either on my own or with 1 or 2 friends, easy to avoid cars that way. I really enjoy the dragon ride because it's the one time I feel you can ride as a group, I know we get in the way, but once a year, you can be a bit of an obsticle.
I don't think there is a problem with riding two or 3 abreast, providing that we are considerate to others road users, then perhaps drivers will repay the complement.

What I'm saying is we should just do the basics well, and try and keep the can on top of the potential explosive situations we hear all too much about these days when motorists and cyclists meet. There are too many idiots behind the wheel these days and its all to easy to get caught up or dragged in to a situation.
what we do at ewenny round about on a saturday morning just pi**es everybody off.

Follow this link to the highway code rules for cyclists.
It clearly states in rule 66 that cyclists should not ride more than 2 abreast.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069837

99.9% of the cyclists, who rode the dragon ride, wearing club kit, behaved impeccably. The people who were causing most of the problems ,seemed to be, would be roadies on mountain bikes and young racing snakes with no road sense what so ever, BRING BACK the cycling proficiency test in schools, says I!. I do think the organiser could spend a little more of his profit and advertise the fact, that they are not closed roads and that all entrants MUST ride to the rules of the road. Are unicycles road legal?.There were a lot of triathletes on the dragon ride, who are not known for their riding in a group skills. There were a few youngsters who passed me on the Rhigos and has soon as their body had cleared my front wheel, they decided to pull in, well! you know me,couldn,t let that go without a word. There was the incident on Cimla hill, when one cyclist was straining to turn a gear, decided to change on probably the steepest part of the hill and the only thing he managed to do, was to slip his chain and fall off, taking Dai Fixie and Tony with him.There was another guy who passed, with a chink, chink, chink sound coming from his back wheel, where did he end up?, at the bottom of Cimla hill with his bike against a wall and his rear mech on the floor.Oh! and there was the lady who, stopped in the middle of the road, on a climb, just after the start, to answer her phone and the endless number of w5246rs weaving up every climb in the wrong gear. To coin a phrase, there was a lot of Tossers out that day.

Well, if like myself everyone tries to ride at 30mph whilst out riding in a group or as singles, 2 major benefits would be achived, firstly at 30mph u could be at a speed to allow u be in the flow of the traffic where this problem mainly occurs !! (lol), and secondly the welsh cycling team would have an abundance of talent to take the rest of the world on to win every medal there is to be won out there, if we could ride at a pace of 30mph day in and day out !!!..... pmsl

Davey C wrote

Good points Andy and Bill, I have similar comments directed at me, especailly after the Dragon ride.

All I can advocate is riding sensibly and as appropriate for the conditions. i.e. if it is narrow and busy, single file. If not, then 2 or even three abreast may be ok. The Dragon ride is exceptional and a once a year event. Perhaps it needs better advertising to warn motorists of the dangers of driving that day, and to time journeys accordingly. FFS the London marathon closes down the entire capital and people have to put up with it.

i didnt have any idea how big this event was till after it was all over, now imaging all the average joes in cars etc who stumbled across this ride un aware of the magnitude of it, deffo think better public awarness is needed

Quote

I used to be a motorists night mare as a cyclist and a cyclists nightmare as a driver.

I found myself doing that the other day. As a cyclist I get fed up with cars following me around and refusing to go past. I'm not a china vase, I think to myself. I just want to share the road, I don't want all of it.

Unfortunately whilst driving down through Hafod the other day this line of thought led me into what rapidly turned into a really dodgy overtaking manoeuvre on a cyclist. One of those ones where half way through you're thinking oh boy, I really shouldn't have started this one as the oncoming traffic hurtles towards you much faster than you expected. Arrgggh!

To cap it all, the cyclist was a policeman. I can remember thinking he's a cop, an experienced cyclist, he'll cope fine and in fact he'll be happy that at least one motorist isn't completely paralysed with fear at the combination of cyclist and law enforcer. How wrong I was. I haven't had a summons yet, so I think I got away with it