What, if anything, most irritates you about other cyclists?

I quite often ride brakeless but I never ride on the pavement and I have lights. All my friends who ride brakeless use lights too. Practically all of us don't have the reflectors that are installed, by law, when you buy a new bike on the front/back/pedals/wheels. How many people leave those on? Surely you are as much of a twat for taking those off as we are for taking our front brakes off?

yeah, that's why you irritate me

Anyway no lights/brakes/ride on the pavement is supposed to be delete as applicable rather than the whole lot + lack of reflectors is only going to hurt you not anyone else - if your skills/legs aren't up to an emergency stop, not to mention all those wannabes riding around brakeless AND running a freewheel.

The brakeless bit was actually more about people riding around with really badly maintained brakes…

Can we add people who have shopping bags swinging from their handlebars?

People who ride without a helmet

those who ride in the wet without mudguards?

Competitive city boys riding on bikes with small wheels...

Paper boys riding mountain bikes in the lowest gear possible

People who ride with headphones on, in traffic.

Agree with TR on all of that, was out riding with the group the other day, had my crud race guards on...great, kept the guy behind me dry, the guy in front had no guards and I got plastered in mud...thanks!

No helmets, well...its giving the car driving majority an angle to shout at us so maybe we shouldnt give them that option but the jury is out on the effectiveness of them anyway...on the topic, why dont pedestrians and drivers wear them?

Dont stop at shopping bags hanging from the bars, I saw shopping bags on each bar end and a small girl, about 2 years old, balanced on the middle of the handlebars while the adult (perhaps dad?) crossed a busy junction in a gap between traffic. Mental.

People who ride the wrong size bike or with the saddle at the wrong height.

I'll finish there

+1

There's a guy I see quite often in the City Centre. He's bought into the whole 'fixie culture' thing - hipster handbag, daft hat and sardine-leg jeans. Rides a Wangster with NJS grips and handlebars from a kids scooter; spoke-card, no brakes. But he's running a freewheel!
The only means of slowing or stopping he's got is slamming the heel of his Converse on the pavement. But it rains a lot here, and its VERY hilly, so they just slide along the tarmac without having any slowing-down effect. He's risking life and limb (and not just his own) in order to look kewl.

@neil ... where's this .... we should get some folding
chairs ....

pet hate - young lads with the jeans hooked on the back
of the saddle "butt" the rest of it above the saddle
and on display. I keep wanting to ride along side and
wedgie the little pr*&^%£"! - ggrrrrrrr

Glasgow's Buchanan Street, which is pedestrianised and has a ski-slope gradient.
I think the guy works in the American Apparel shop which kinda explains the fashion-victim part.

Seriously, its only a matter of time before Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells fumes to the Daily Mail about the 'Fixie Craze menace on Britain's Streets'. It's not a case of 'if'; its 'when'. They'll have a field day...and for once in their history, there'll be an element of truth in what they say.
It'll put cycling's image right back into the gutter, right back to the days of the 'lycra-lout' fury.

Aren't skinny jeans just denim tights?

don't you mean jeggings?

*shudders*

Suppose so, if the tights are worn in a crack revealing, back-to-front stylee after first removing the elastic from the waistband (in an effort get the 'Tom of Finland's geeky wimp of a little brother' look)....

says the man who doesn't have any brakes on his bike?

you *really* think that? personally, if i was going to rank those two innovations in terms of their contribution to bike safety, i'd rather have no reflectors than no brakes.

and using other people's twattery to justify your own isn't really a solid basis for an argument

"LOOK OUT! NO REFLECTORS !!!"

Ahh, shomehow I don't think sho.....

oh and what really annoys *me* is red light jumping. not because it's dangerous or because it's illegal, but because it's a string to the bow of the daily-mail-reading cycling haters of this country. the same is true of anyone - any adult, at least - who cycles on the pavement. or rides without lights. and the same will be true, like neilwheel says, of people riding without brakes. only a matter of time. why do we give these people so many reasons to hate us?

people riding with a group but who can't survive without their ipod, and hence if you're unwise enough to try and start a conversation, you wind up repeating yourself till they take the 'phones out.

with tr all the way on reflectors - not had any of these on my bikes since i was about 13. with one exception - the boardman urban that i use for commuting which is even grudgingly adorned with a bell.

re brakes or lack thereof, i've got front and rear on my fixed gear bike - hills too steep round 'ere / rider not yet good enough to contemplate otherwise.

Barry, spot on....I cycle to the law...no red light jumping, no pavement riding..I even wear a helmet all the time but drivers see a few doing what you described and we are all tarred with that brush...its like banging your head against a brick wall (without a helmet)

with jezzer on the confidence/skills thing. I cant imagine when Id have the confidence to ride without brakes in and around Bristol.

Can I remind you that people who ride fixed gear bikes can brake with putting resistance to their back wheel so it isn't quite brakeless in the true sense, there are more people on the roads cycling bikes with gears and freewheels whose brakes simply don't work.

Plus Barry, I was adding suggestions to what could be put in the poll. I don't have reflectors on my bike and I don't wear a helmet (unless I am off road) and sometimes I go out on a bike with no brakes on it.

"LOOK OUT! NO REFLECTORS !!!"

couldn't this the call of the motorist who hasn't seen you? SMDSY

I am told that riding without a front brake is illegal but so too is riding without any reflectors.

if i take my brake off i can put resistance on the back wheel too, in ted the shred stylee

doesn't mean it's advisable or sensible for me to do so.

riding brakeless is *all* about fashion and the look of the bike. please, let's not pretend it's a considered safety choice. forget other riders, whose decisions you don't control - *you* haven't made your bike more safe by taking the brakes off, have you?

No, it's the blood-curdling squeal of a brakeless hipster hurtling towards speeding crosstown traffic who thinks he ended up in that situation as a result of removing his reflectors, not his brakes...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tilsfGBx7sU

There are people who drive cars with bald tyres and no brakes too, equally daft if you ask me. It'd be interesting to measure how quickly a fixie rider can decelerate using back pressure on the pedals and compare that with a bike with brakes. My guess based on my experience of riding fixies on the track is that it'd be twice the distance. Brakeless fixies are great to ride on the track but I've seen even experienced riders crack up in that controlled environment. As to riding them on the road, Darwin's law applies.

Whatever it is, it's not long enough for some of those riders in the vid neilwheel linked to

here it is as an embed

I agree with you cactuscat entirely. I am not condoning taking your brakes off at all. I am merely trying to dissipate the hatred that some people have towards these people and that other *not very sensible* things are more commonly practised.

Why is there so much venom for the very tiny group of people who ride without brakes? More people get killed on normal road bikes in rural locations because drivers didn't see them.

Did any of you own a bmx?

i had a grifter, the poor man's bmx

that had brakes. although i don't remember them being any good, as the rear bumper of a vauxhall viva parked down our road will attest.

Grifter = bmx shaped object

That slipping 2nd gear was possibly the most dangerous thing I had ever experienced on a bicycle.

I never used to care about any of this until I had kids - then suddenly a red mist descended whenever someone shot a red light or used the pavement. We wait five effing minutes for the green man and then start our doddery way across the road once he finally appears only for some lawless plank to come steaming through the red light because the law doesn't apply to him, oh no, and scare the bejaysus out of me and my nippers. I yell at people like that now, like a proper middle-aged grumpy bloke.

PS - 'the ones that don't wave' indeed!

Probably the same second gear that slipped on the Chopper… Grifter didn't have a gear knob though did it

Grifter had a 3 speed grip shift, with colours that indicated which gear you were in. I think blue was second gear.

Chopper had a 3 speed Sturmey Archer

Having seen two brakeless riders go into the side of a car when I was able to stop tells me a front brake is handy when going downhill.

Having been rear ended by a brakeless rider who wasn't paying attention, I won't listen to the "its safer because you have to pay attention" argument.

I want to put wobblers and weavers on the list, too.

WHY are there so many of them right now? They carry on riding like that there won't be for too long.

You know the ones I mean, they're slow but insist on carrying on regardless, weaving in and out because they think that's what you have to do on a bike but don't ever look for cars or other cyclists.

Yes, I couldn't believe it the other day when I saw someone riding a "fashion fixie" (shop fresh, very narrow riser bars, white, deep section aero rims) through Cambridge with no brakes and a freewheel! Thinking about it, I should have ridden alongside and, with a hand on the small of his back, accelerated him to a decent speed.

So true. + those morons who insist on riding through pedestrian crossings when the light is red. Happened to me the other day while crossing. WTF? Yes, there truly appear to be the same % of inconsiderate cyclists on the road as there are inconsiderate motorists. Of course you are more likely to be killed/injured by the idiot motorist, but that's no excuse.

@cat1 .... oh you are evil

Geez I didn't realise I was so chilled but none of these things *greatly* bother me. Unless someones endangering innocent people, such as riding stupidly on the pavement I'm no more bothered than if I see a driver without a seatbelt on.

I think we all just need a holiday... not together though... definitely not together...

Love it thehatter! why do we get so wound up by other people? unless they are risking injury to others let it be. if they want to ride freewheel without brakes im sure it wont take long to figure out its downside!
i ride with no mudguards, no helmet, ipod sometimes, sometimes on pavements and through red lights when the green mans flashing ... always checking around though to see if its safe to do so (ie no pedestrians crossing). Its not about specific laws and regulations but awareness of whats around you and how your riding affects others.

Definately NO LIGHTs - for all our berating of drivers, there is a section of unlit 60mph road near me, its bad enough cycling it with lights but I've also driven down this road and come across cyclists in the dark! if they get knocked off thats unfortunate but they would also be causing a great deal of stress to a poor driver who genuinely didn't see them! anf now that individual has to live with the consequences of hitting someone their entire life, the guilt, the flashbacks etc....now thats not fair. Get some lights!

i'm with TheHatter (not romantically). people on here really need to chill out. if i see someone riding on an empty pavement it doesn't bother me. if the pavement is busier and they're slowing right down and being considerate then that's fair enough too. if someone jumps a red light when there are no cars in sight then why should i care? if someone wants to kill themselves with no brakes then what is it to me?

i care when i see someone endangering others [i.e. me, usually]. for instance, i live and cycle in Japan, and it's pretty common practise over here for cyclists to cycle THE WRONG WAY down the road, so you can be trundling along hugging the left-hand curb, minding your own business, when all of a sudden there's a cyclist coming down the road towards you. the actual ROAD, not the pavement! it is mental!

mind you, with the aggressive attitude of road users in The UK (and i include cyclists in that, going by this thread at least) i'm happier and safer here in Japan.