@London Cyclists

https://www.strava.com/activities/343309157

I did this today, the central London traffic was bat shit crazy, but as usual, I didn't get wiped out, and although it would scare the living crap out of anyone unaccustomed to it, it kind of works. I lost count of the number of people on (mostly Boris) bikes, and (mostly) women, who thought it was a great idea to overtake trucks and buses, on the blind side. I'm beginning to see how these fatalities are happening. Some of the riding was absolutely shocking.

I've cycled in London for about ten years-ish.
I've had a few accidents, the one that sticks out in my mind the most was sort of my own fault, in a way.
I was slipstreaming about three feet (stupid) behind a car doing about 30 mph down a side road. Clearly the driver of this car took some sort of exception to this and slammed on his brakes.
I remember a sense of slow motion, like, jump now! or go splat into their back window. So I jumped and badly grazed my shoulder, arm and elbow as I slid and rolled along the road but on the whole was better off than having all my bones go crunch.

I usually wait at lights except for when it's really, really obvious that there is nothing dangerous coming the other way. Occasionally someone shouts "red light dickhead!" at me but traffic is generally so thick I don’t worry they will catch up with me and engage with me in an incident of road rage.

Generally speaking, in my experience, cycling in rush hour through London is ok. Cars are too slow to pose a real danger most of the time but you still need to keep your wits about you and be courteous. If you are going slowly weaving in and out of almost stationary traffic anyway you may as well let people out of side roads. It does cyclists in general a favour. Sometimes the people in their cars and black 4x4s smile and wave at you when you do this.

Accelerate like you are escaping the fires of somewhere really hot and firey every time you approach a junction where the lights are on green.

My worst memory though was coming off the 'Greenway' near Stratford and seeing a pair of cyclists riding down the pavement, one of whom was repeatedly ringing their bell at a lady pushing her kids along on a pushchair.

Moral. Cities make some people behave like twats.

I find while drivers in London are clearly not nicer people than those of anywhere else, they are more accustomed to having bikes on the road. I've experienced a few 'get off the road' shouts while cycling outside of London.

I think the time of the day makes massive difference in how people drive too, people are always in a rush before and after work.

I had my first ride within the M25 on Tuesday night. I was amazed by how safe it felt after reading some of the tales and seeing the Youtube clips. Certainly different to my native Yorkshire. no near high speed passes, no sitting on my back wheel revving their engine. The only exception was the one black cab throwing a U-turn in my path.

Are cyclists just ignored (...or invisible) in London? Rather than seemingly as a game, 'Let's see how close I can get to this one...'.

However I was also disappointed by the attitude of other 'people on bikes'. The 2 I took issue with, and voiced my opinion to, certainly weren't cyclists in my eyes but probably were in the eyes of any motorist.

Hope you get the all clear from the Doctor and the bike looks worse than it is.