Extended Cloak of Invisibility

It occurred to me this morning that the famed cyclists' cloak of
invisibility may not only shield the cyclist from view, but may extend
for some distance in front.

I'm fairly confident I would have been run off the road by a Biffa skip
lorry on my way to work this morning if I hadn't been extremely
assertive in my road positioning. We both joined the A420 at the same
time at nearby junctions, with the lorry behind me. Unusually for rush
hour, there was a clear gap of about 150 yards in front of me. So the
lorry driver seemed desperate to get past, driving close behind me and
revving his engine.

On this stretch of road there's no way that a car or lorry can safely
get past a cyclist unless the opposite lane is clear, which it wasn't.
However, there are times when it is clear that a motorist will try an
unsafe overtaking manoeuvre if I don't dominate the lane. This was one
of those times.

So where does the cloak of invisibility come into this? Well, the lorry
driver apparently failed to notice that I was travelling faster than the
cars in front and was therefore catching them up. So even if he had
been able to pass me, he would have been stuck in slower moving traffic
a few seconds later. The only reason I can think of that he wouldn't
have noticed this was that he couldn't see the cars in front of me, as
seems so common where motorists seem unable to see past a cyclist to the
cars in front.

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Danny Colyer wrote:
It occurred to me this morning that the famed cyclists' cloak of
invisibility may not only shield the cyclist from view, but may extend
for some distance in front.


Its known technically as lycra rage myopia

Tony

Its known technically as lycra rage myopia

or... retarded amoeba visual cortex absence.

Cheers, helen s

--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove dependency on fame & fortune
h*$el*$$e**nd***$o$ts***i*$*$m**m$$o*n**s@$*$a$$o* *l.c**$*$om$$

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers wrote:
Its known technically as lycra rage myopia

or... retarded amoeba visual cortex absence.


That's the trouble with amoeba - they only do stimulus (cyclist) response
(attack)

Tony

"Danny Colyer" wrote in message
...
It occurred to me this morning that the famed cyclists' cloak of
invisibility may not only shield the cyclist from view, but may
extend
for some distance in front.


Which reminds me; Scott Munn has put David Martin's well known, but
elusive, article "The Theory of BIG" on his web site,
www.bikereader.com. It's well worth reading

Jeremy Parker

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003, Danny Colyer wrote:

So where does the cloak of invisibility come into this? Well, the lorry
driver apparently failed to notice that I was travelling faster than the
cars in front and was therefore catching them up.

I had a mercedes overtake me once when I was braking due to being
coming up to teh stationary queue ahead. He got as far as getting
his front doors alongside before he had to stop. At this point, I was
about half-way between primary & secondary position, and he was neatly
straddling the white lines down the middle of the road, blocking
oncoming traffic.

Obviously, he did what any self-respectng mercedes driver would, and
as soon as the queue moved forward he did so with full left lock on
the steering, barging me out of the road. He then wound down his
windows and swore while threatening to assault me.

That was the most extreme case, but my daily commute features a
stop-go queue of cars and even cars that have been behind me in the
queue for some time will sometimes decide to overtake if there's as
much as 1.001 times a car-length of clear tarmac ahead. Often this
features revving of engines and screeching of tyres. I just wait
'till I have eye-contact in the mirrors (about 50% look guiltily in
teh rear-view mirror after their dare-devil manouver) and then shake
my head sorrowfully. Sometimes they wave back, indicating they've
only done it once or twice (at least, I assume that's what the gesture
means).

regards, Ian SMith
--
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On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 11:17:37 +0000 (UTC), Ian Smith
wrote:

Obviously, he did what any self-respectng mercedes driver would, and
as soon as the queue moved forward he did so with full left lock on
the steering, barging me out of the road. He then wound down his
windows and swore while threatening to assault me.

Trouble is, the Plod can never do anythign about these twunts. Funny,
though, how it's never their fault for engaging in a dangerous
manoeuvre with inadequate anticipation. Must be something to do with
that road tax we're always hearing about.

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://chapmancentral.demon.co.uk

Jeremy Parker wrote:
Which reminds me; Scott Munn has put David Martin's well known, but
elusive, article "The Theory of BIG" on his web site,
www.bikereader.com. It's well worth reading

I like it, thanks. This is the direct link:
http://www.bikereader.com/BikeReader.../misc/big.html

The BIG calculator classifies me as a Road Warrior, which is nice.

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine