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  • Les started the topic whiteman park Main 1.2 ride group in the forum General Discussion 8 years ago

    I see that on Strava a couple of guys in the group took a few cheap shots at people, not at anyone in particular just a general cheap shot at people in the group.

    It is easy to take a cheap shot on strava but it is hard to proactively come up with ideas how to make the ride safer for everyone.

    Me personally l felt the biggest problem was the size of the group, the 3rd group seemed to catch up and then just join in.

    This made for mayhem on west swan road, dual abreast single file, cars doing 90kmph crossing the double white line to get around us with cars coming the other way.

    Everyone knows that i am angry and hostile and radical and extreme, i have been like this for some time and i feel i have good reason to be all of this. I want to be clear that none of any of those things has anything to do with SPR, i was all of that way before i started riding with SPR.

    My suggestion for safer riding given the same scenario as yesterday on west swan rd is, single file in much smaller numbers. i say this because west swan road seems to be a wide single lane road, if we ride single file cars can pass without incident, if we ride dual abreast it seems to infuriate drivers and they feel the need to do 90kmph, crossing the double white line to get around us before cars coming the other way arrive at the same place.

    West swan road is so wide even when riding dual abreast there is enough room for cars to squeeze through and of course they do.

    Riding single file seems to be the best way to make sure that everyone makes it home alive, in my opinion.

    While this may seem like victim blame it seems the only way to do it that doesn’t risk life and limb.

    In regards to Abernethy rd, i could only watch helplessly as one rider after another went down, with Iain Dow going down right in front of me, he slapped the road hard.

    In this situation because abernethy road is much narrower than west swan road i feel it is better to ride dual abreast because it stops people behind the wheel from squeezing through. I feel that the whole reason for the crash was because we went single file and allowed the prime mover to squeeze through which spooked a lot of riders.

    William st in beckenham is another catch 22 rd, all the roundabouts and narrow lane, in my opinion the safest thing for everyone on this road is for us to ride dual abreast which stops cars from passing, the lane is narrow and there are soooooooo many obstacles, riding single file allows cars to squeeze through, overtake in the roundabouts, essentially putting life and limb at risk.

    I’m wondering if some “not negotiables need to put in place for certain roads, purely and simply on the grounds of everyone making it home in one piece and over and above all ALIVE!!!!

    The rides are supposed to be social group rides.

    I’ll be the first one to put my hand up to say i like to work hard and go fast but at the same time the group is only as good as its weakest link.

    I love my bike, we are one, i would never ever do anything to hurt it.

    I don’t race and i have no interest in racing, my bicycle is my mode of transport, Monday to Friday i am in traffic mixing with people behind the wheel that are just full of resentment. I feel that i always do what i can to be respectful and courteous to other road users but at the same time when someone wants a piece, they get the lot. Hence why riding on my own is probably the best option for me.

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