Quote:
Originally Posted by weisan
This is an advice that I only give out to people who are seriously interested in making their rides safer. It's field-tested and it really works. If you want to come and criticize this idea, I prefer that you just shut your mouth and don't say anything, just F.O. especially if you haven't try it yourself, you have no right to criticize. We are talking about personal safety and peace of mind so it's worth the extra trouble and suffering a bit on the "style" points or aerodynamics.
Oh, and that behavior that I see some of my riding buddies do...in "asserting your rights" by riding further out the road and thereby making it unsafe for cars to pass....that's the absolute worst thing you can do to anger and irritate drivers. They don't respond to that well. It's counter-productive. It doesn't work. It's dumb.
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I rarely comment on the back-and-forth stuff that goes on here, but since I just responded to a PM from you and commented that I appreciated your contributions here I feel compelled to make sure you didn't think I read this before saying that.
So -- who peed in your Cherios this morning? Telling others here to "f.o." doesn't sound like you, and I don't think it helpful to dialog.
I (and I bet almost everyone here) am serious about ride safety. Glad putting your hand out works for you. I'm not going to confuse drivers by something that could look like signalling intent to do something and then just "being there." Oh, wait. I was told not to comment...
Now, back to contributing positively to the content:
Last year I started riding with mirrors. Yup, plural. A while back I tried glasses/helmet mount. Couldn't make them work. Now using the Italian Road Mirror on both left and right bar ends. First, aesthetically it just looks better on both sides -- and we're all about the "look."
But I find on double pacelines or in those situations where I'm on the left side of a lane (such as turning left) it's great to see behind me on both sides.
Rear flasher -- all the time now.
I am a fan of riding assertively -- not aggressively, but taking the lane as appropriate, signalling clearly to drivers with hand signals like pointing to a lane I'm taking as @bigbill has written.
And I'm a big fan of eye contact and showing appreciation by waving, smiling, etc.
We do share the road. Figure out how to do that is an ongoing responsibility I take seriously.