Bicycles and automobiles- can’t we all just get along? @Kah writes about this universal (do aliens have this issue also?) problem of us co-existing with humans in cars. We all drive cars too and have cursed the occasional cyclists for some good reason. Cars are our greatest threat. We can crawl away from our own bicycle crashes, thanks very much. We always lose when a car is involved. Thanks for contributing @Kah.
Yours in Cycling, Gianni
High-visibility jackets offend me. I’m not in the position to judge fashion really, and generally don’t care what other people wear, but something that tarnishes an entire mode of transport as unsafe and dorky is not okay. These garments misinform the general public that cycling is an unsafe activity (look, that cyclist looks like a lit up flare and a Christmas tree had a baby!), they make all other cyclists look like dorks.
Now, I’m not picking on genuinely introverted people, but people who are just less comfortable interacting with other vehicles on the road. As someone truly in love with spinning pedals on the road, I don’t see why there is this reticence to spend time on the road. The footpath is by far the worse option: congested with pedestrians, littered with signs, and unpredictable in its ebb and wanes.
There’s a spectrum of how happy you are with sharing the road: going from very uncomfortable to exuding quiet confidence before becoming attention-seeking and finally there is a thin line to obnoxiousness.
Uncomfortable, more introverted cyclists tend to hug the kerb, trying to stay out of everyone’s way. Every potential interaction is exaggerated; every passing car becomes a danger. Confident cyclists who are experienced know when to draw attention to their intentions, when to back off while negotiating between quickly moving cars, and how to tell the difference between a passing maneuvere that is actually dangerous and one that is not even worth commenting on. This comfort around other road users is something you can cultivate, but not one you can fake.
Attention-seeking cyclists and obnoxious cyclists tend to feel more self-entitled. “I’m a vehicle/road user too!” is the common mantra of these cyclists who don’t feel inclined to offer the same courtesy they demand to the other road users. To be fair these rolling douchenozzles tend to be the same regardless of vehicle.
My problem is, the introverts are trying to make up for their meekness with the artificial posturing afforded by the YJA. Their mistaken assumption of course is that this magical garment bestows visibility, and thus invincibility in traffic, leading some to jump to the illogical conclusion that they have automatic right of way in every circumstance by virtue of the highly visible jacket.
Magic jackets are not the answer to safer cyclists. Learning to share the road on a bicycle is the answer. Anticipation, not hindsight.
Fucking cyclists.
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@E
Not sure about your analogy here..?
By far the greatest proportion by area of a flak jacket is not designed to stop a high velocity round (which incidentally in war zone is far more likely to be 7.62mm or 5.56mm) but in fact is a Kevlar weave designed to prevent the round exiting and taking half your gizzards with it. The only parts designed to stop a round are the front and back chest plate that cover the heart.
i don't believe the YJA can help at all here. It does however make you highly visible and therefore a sitting duck for any snipers in the vicinity!
I could almost understand that Shrug thing if it came down a little further at the front.
But as it sits above the breasts it means that in cold and rain I suspect they will need to be reaching for the nipple lube.
@Deakus
Unless I'm shooting at you in which case you're probably pretty safe
@brett
Seconded. That thing is ridiculous. Wear arm warmers or a jacket like the rest of us.
@ChrisO
Hee-hee.
@frank
Oh, it runs into the jacket price range. We only brought a few in to see if the women would like them. They are popular. That said, my pre-order deliveries are slow, so I don't have any jackets or arm warmers in yet.
@strathlubnaig
Ugly beyond belief. Either wear an appropriate jacket or do what we ddid back in the day - stick a plastic bag up he front of your jersey.
Dan is just trying to make a living I guess. Whatever sells ! That's capitalism.
Aesthetics and the misguided faith in visibility the YJA instils in the wearer aside, it's the smug sense of Authority the magic cloak bestows that gets me. I've had YJAs scold me for wearing black kit, for riding in the rain without fenders (or not having sufficiently long mud flaps when I was riding with fenders) and for passing them without shouting a warning. It's almost as if the garment comes with a list of anti-V rules they are required to enforce.
@Dan_R
@strathlubnaig
That's what the drug dealers say too. Before you know it this shit will be selling in the schools. You ever seen what something like that can do to a kid?
@Dan_R surely you are pulling some sort of elaborate prank?
The good thing about a "shawl" (is that what they are seriously called?) is that i can only guess it might be rather difficult to put on in the middle of a ride. Hopefully the misguided souls who buy these will self-select themselves out of the gene pool when they try to put one of these on mid-ride.
That being said, they could be big in the tri market!