Seriously lacking confidence in ANY traffic

[HJ]

Surely countersteering has nothing to do with the truck driver who has to swing wide round a corner?

Countersteering a bike uses momentum to throw your body into a lean in the opposite direction. When a truck/bus driver swings wide, it's got nowt to do with momentum - it's just a standard manouevre to get a big thing round a corner without kerbing it. I know lots of car drivers swing wide at road junctions as well, but exactly why is beyond me. It's actually dangerous.

Yes it is dangerous and the reason car drivers do it is because they have approached the junction too fast. It is just bad driving due to a lack of forward planning.

Countersteering a bike is also unnecessary in normal cycling in traffic. The sort of cyclist ride like that on the road are same people who if you put them in a car drive like idiots. The boy racer types who don't understand the difference between a race track and everyday traffic. They fantasize about winning races, but if they were ever to be put into a real race they would loose because they don't have the ability to look ahead and think ahead.

Good cycling, like good driving, is not about having fast reactions, it is about the ability look ahead, see the hazards and plan what you are going to do before you get there...

 

[Origamist]

Reading the road/traffic and hazard perception are crucial to safe cycling. However, it's certainly worth practising emergency braking, fast and tight turns, jumping up kerbs etc as last-second collision avoidance skills (i.e. getting an idea of you and your bike's limits) are all part of cycling preparedness.

 

[Arch]

Surely countersteering has nothing to do with the truck driver who has to swing wide round a corner?

Countersteering a bike uses momentum to throw your body into a lean in the opposite direction. When a truck/bus driver swings wide, it's got nowt to do with momentum - it's just a standard manouevre to get a big thing round a corner without kerbing it. I know lots of car drivers swing wide at road junctions as well, but exactly why is beyond me. It's actually dangerous.

It was Savage who made the connection - I was thinking not that it was the exact same principle, more that it's similar in the fact that it's a trick you can learn that helps (in the case of cars, in order to line up better in a perpendicular parking space), but isn't always obvious to beginners....

I don't think I ever countersteer on a bike myself, not consciously...

 

[Davidc]

I read cyclecraft a few months back. Even after 50 years of cycling I found it useful.

I have found that using a bright back light (Smart Superflash) during the day helps keep motor vehicles at bay. It's just a case of helping drivers see the bike sooner.

I was taught to be assertive on the bike when I was about 15 (on a fairly advanced half day session organised from school) - it wasn't called assertive then - and ever since have had no real problems with most drivers. Combined with clear signals, assertiveness lets them know what you're doing and gives the driver confidence that you know what you're doing and are predictable.

If you are a driver think how you view a cyclist:

If they seem to know what they are doing and get on with it you can give them room and time and there's no problem.

If they're dithering, riding in the gutter, and don't tell you what they're doing you have to guess, and if you guess wrongly there's a problem.

If a cyclist is agressive you're likely to react badly with potentially bad results.

Be assertive, clear and polite and all but a tiny minority of drivers will behave well. You just have to spot that minority.

 

[GrasB]

Yes it is dangerous and the reason car drivers do it is because they have approached the junction too fast. It is just bad driving due to a lack of forward planning.

Most people going to fast actually cut the corner to smooth out their line as they can't turn the car fast enough to follow a proper path. Remember you're supposed to steer around an invisible cone in the middle of the junction.

Taking a wide line within your lane isn't dangerous & can be a very useful way of gaining up to 20m (or more?) extra visibility in certain circumstances. What often is dangerous is the car cutting the corner & encroaching in to the outside of the opposing lane. If you start going outside your lane then obviously you're causing problems but this applies to cutting through the corner as well as running to wide.

 

[jonny jeez]

It sound to me like your positioning is wrong.

.

Shame on you all...whilst you were all arguing the toss about the virtue of cyclecraft and counter bloody steering it took a total noobie to spot the real problem and offer some really useful advice...

well played PK99


tut tut...now all of you....go sit on the naughty step.

Weegie regardless of our squabbles it seems that at least you have gained some advice, read cyclecraft and seem to have fond some benefit from the limited help we have offered...

sorry that we all bicker, it seems that the "assertive cyclist" mentality, that we have mentioned can spill over into our off bike persona's as well.

stay safe, hope your confidence returns soon...I feel sure it will with time.

Jonny