There are two complaints, one leveled at bike riders and the other at car drivers passing bike riders.
It is funny the entire process of driving a car is so silly. You sit in the drivers seat and you do practically nothing but steer and push pedals, it should be called car riding. On the other hand, bicycle riding is the reverse, you steer and you are the engine that moves you forward, you might say that you drive yourself forward and you are a more active participant than in a car, you are driving the bike. Both terms are trying to make the principal feel the opposite of what they are. The car driver more in control and the bike rider more at leisure. Funny.
Anyways, there are bad bike drivers out there. They don't want to share the road and they drive in the middle of the road. Some stop at lights in the pedestrian walkway and not behind the stop line on the road. Similar behaviour can be leveled at scooter riders, they drive in the middle of the road but only travel at about thirty kilometers per hour. What these people, and I mean to say that they are a minority of the population of bike drivers, lack is empathy. They are also rude. When you do things to impede the flow of traffic and the movement of motor vehicles all that you are doing is building resentment towards all drivers of bicycles.
In some places you are allowed to make a right hand turn when stopped at a traffic light, if it is safe to do so. Bicycles that stop in the pedestrian crossing lane are preventing motorized vehicles from making these turns. This builds up resentment. The only reason why bicycle take this advanced position is to get a jump on the light and if you are paying attention to the light, you can usually get across the intersection before a car anyways because of the bikes faster reaction time.
So, because roads are made for cars and not bikes, be nice to car riders and stop aggravating them. Remember they are the people that pass the laws and write the laws, they could if they wanted to, ban bike travel on some roadways.
Car riders, you are not getting off here scot free. New laws in Ontario say that you have to give a bike driver a meter clearance when you pass them. Only a meter. You complain that you are afraid of the bike driver, so you give them a wide berth. You slow down and slow traffic, you give us a five meter clearance when you do pass; literally you pass into the next oncoming lane of traffic to pass us. Most roadways in North America are about 12 wide, most vehicles can be a maximum of 8 feet wide, many cars are more narrow than this. I am the exception of most cyclists and can usually drive my bike within ten centimeters or four inches of the edge of e road, all the rest drive within a foot of the edge, this gives the rider of a car the required three feet clearance without venturing into the opposing lane of traffic. Granted some roads are pretty crappy and the bike rider needs to encroach further from the edge of the road way to avoid debris or potholes, but this would mean at most a very little amount of passing in the opposing lane. You car riders make me not want to be on the road because you may kill someone to avoid me and you don't need to. This is why it is important for bike riders to hug the edge of the roadway and not hog the center.
I complain to car riders that they give too much room at stop lights. They sit far behind my rear tire and treat me like another car. I appreciate your respect. Thank you, now get up here and activate the light for me. Yes activate the light. I am turning and so are you, but the turning light won't turn on, because I don't weigh as much as a car, if you don't come up here, we could be waiting a very long time. There are lots of sensors in roadways that are only activated by the mass of a small car. Bicyclists and motorcyclists know what I am talking about. We don't want to break the law but we end up sitting there until we do or a car comes up and activates the sensor for us. Sometimes to make a left I have to make a right and then do a u-turn or to get across an intersection, a right, a u-turn and another right. Really do I need to do that and in busy traffic just to get where I need to go? No wonder motorcyclists travel in groups, three motorcycles will activate the lights and five or or six bicycles?
End of entry.
New subject.
Driving a bicycle with out my hands is something that I can do, really well. I can drive a bike up a long hill, up a short steep hill, down a shallow steep hill, along a straight stretch, around street corners through a weaving course, for short distances and for long distances. It is something I taught myself as a kid, where I also learned that I cannot ride a bike without the use of my hands going down a steep hill. I refined it when I tried again as a teenager, and learned how to drive up hills and along long stretches of road ways. It is actually easy, but you have to understand that when you steer a bicycle, the handlebars are only part of steering.
Every play with a wheel? The motion of a spinning wheel resists the pull of gravity and stays upright for a good while, add a second wheel and the bike will stay upright even longer. Little wobbles in the course get corrected out by opposite counter measures from the second wheel. The forward motion of the bike keeps the wheels spinning and the spinning wheels kep the bike upright. When the bike slows too much, gravity overcomes the bike and down it comes to the ground.putting a rider on the bike, the rider just has to stay well balanced and it stays upright, if they add forward motion, the bike stays upright longer. The act of pedaling provides a bit more stabilization as the side to side motion can counter natural side to side rythumns.
Turning on a bike is about shifting your mass as much as it is about steering with the handlebars. When you go around a curve with speed one learns to lean into the turn to provide a counter to the centrifugal forces of the turn. At slower speeds adjustments of weight can cause the wheel to turn subtly. Mastering these little movements allows a cyclist to never need to steer with their hands. Coasting down hills without pedaling allows the road to introduce vibrations into the steering column. These vibrations can cause the wheel to turn and slip out from under the rider, so on some hills it may be necessary to hold the handlebars.
Inexperienced bikers drivers and experienced car riders have difficulty with people driving with no hands. The mindset of the rider is that one NEEDS to use your hands to steer and all the evidence contrary will do nothing to convince them otherwise. For the comfort of car riders and other cyclists I touch the steering column while driving my bike.
End of entry
New beef.
Stairs are built for normal feet and small feet. Sometimes if I am not paying attention, I lose my balance on steps: my heel is left off the step and I put pressure on it an fall. Walking down, I put pressure on the ball and I slip off. Walking down with the balls of my feet I sometimes put pressure on the heel and my foot becomes a bridge from one step to the other, the long side of a right angle triangle.
I hate my long wide, big feet and not enough women seem to be interested in finding out if the rumours are true about big feet and cock size to compensate.
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