Prepare for the morning battle

ellbiddy

Active Member
So after Tuesday's incident, I will now be equipping my wheels with those chariot spikes (circa 90 BC) so that any vehicles approaching me will suffer a painful death :getsome:

I picked up some lobster gloves and a new helmet from Halter's so I should ready to churn it up again. One thing I did notice was that I get beeped at A LOT when riding down jersey ave heading into NB, I was thinking that I should get an airhorn and start beeping back. I ride with a blinky in the back and a headlight up front, if I pedal fast enough I could almost be a motorcycle! Do you guys have any sort of communication with beeping drivers besides the "wtf do you want me to do hand in air" that I usually pull, I almost want to knock on the window and ask what they think I should be doing. It happens a lot on the intersection where the right lane is right turn only so I pop into the middle lane and ride the white lane divider for like 30 feet before I cross the intersection and pull to the right. After the 4-5th beep of my commute I become irate, and I start swearing to myself :rofl: There's no winning with cars unless there's a bike lane. Also what is there any sort of standard operating procedure with the guys who hover right behind you as if they're doing you a favor? They scare the crap out of me as I keep looking over my shoulder every 10 seconds.
 

antgold

Member
I'm not trusting cars and not trying to compete cars.
I go on the same way to work, so I spotted all the location which traffic my come close too much - when there are not road shoulder or sidewalk I'm waiting to the traffic to pass me .sometime I'm riding on the grass alongside the road –cyclecross style and starting to see a formation of a trail...
 

ArmyOfNone

Well-Known Member
I have ridden down jersey ave many many of days. Its not a good situation down there :puke:

My best advise which I learned very quickly since no remedy seems to be in place would be to choose and alternate route. There are a few roads which you can sneak your way up to 27 (such as heron blvd) which has a larger shoulder. Take 27 to veronica then to hamilton which has a large shoulder/bike lane. Not sure where in NB your trying to get from there but if its college ave campus you can hit franklin blvd which has a nice bike lane till landing ln.

No guarantees you wont find your A**Hole drivers but maybe you can avoid pavement surfing. I know how much that hurts! GL my man and keep up the good work!
 

ellbiddy

Active Member
I'll leave an hour early and experiment on finding a new route, jersey ave is like a free for all. I wish I had my GPS to log routes and compare maps but it's away at garmin land fixing a broken strap :(
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
unless you catch the person beeping at you, the hand gesture and yelling is all you have. Given your track record, the alternate route is probably your best option...
 

jbogner

NYCMTB: President
JORBA.ORG
Come commute with me in the city- you'll learn to ignore the beeping pretty quickly. Responding only makes things worse. Just tune it out, focus on the road ahead of you and where the cars are around you, and ride your own ride.

Of course, I may not be the person to ask about this, given my proclivity for riding between lanes of cars down 5th Ave every morning. ;)
 

liong71er

Well-Known Member
i rides on road alot on my mtb,..rarely get beeping! infact they hover around(don't forget to thank them by raise your hand) i just rides on sidewalk depending on the traffics pattern.

what you do is: if you saw sidewalk then its safer to ride on sidewalk,..unless there is no sidewalk you just keep going and raise your hand give them signal to let them passing you(or raise your hand signaling "peace") if that doesn't works and they keep beeping you then final option is raise your "middle finger" :D
 

ellbiddy

Active Member
Speaking of the peace hand sign, this morning a trucker kept his foot off the gas while I passed another car stopped in the shoulder. I gave him a wave and he waved back. I think I finally made a friend with more than two wheels on the road. :D

Edit: I can't finger anyone anymore as I wear my lobster gloves, I could give them the lobster claw though, the international sign for seafood!
 
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