Lets be clear,
I don’t recommend riding this way in traffic. It’s dangerous and could lead to serious injury or death.
He’s just some dude on a bike. He doesn’t represent the cycling community at large.
I accept his choice to selfishly endanger himself on a bicycle. In the grand scheme of stupid, selfish things that people do, I don’t find what he’s doing to be a problem at all.
To all those motorists and the general public he ABSOLUTELY represents the cycling community at large. What other frame of reference do they have when they see this stuff? They don’t think of all the other responsible riders because they draw little or no attention. The attention grabbers, like this guy, are what sticks as the norm and that is unfortunate because guys like this are way in the minority
Yes, but this argument can easily be taken to an extreme. Does Ken Block represent every guy in a car? Are those guys doing motorcycle stunts on youtube now elected official representatives of motorcyclists everywhere? What about on Nitrocircus when they jumped a school bus?
Everyone needs to pull their head out of their ass. If a person (and i’m reluctant to say motorist cause i don’t want this to be a us vs them) … if a person sees this guy and says “all cyclists are like that”, then they’re a moron. Plain and simple.
If I hit and killed a person I’d be fucked up no matter why it happened. But he’d be the dead one. I might be more angry if it was “his fault” but I’d still be fucked up and he’d still be dead.
Ken Block isn’t drifting around the rotary… and if he was you can guarantee people would be pissed. Nitrocircus aren’t jumping schoolbuses on city streets and endangering people.
If someone wants to do something stupid out of the way where it’s not going to put anyone else in danger- I say go for it! Let Darwin sort them out…
And yes, it’s shit like this guy that gets the conservative old f*cks like McCluskey riled up about cyclists… do you think this kind of stuff is going to make her and others on HRM council inclined to fund anything bike related? Not a chance. To be honest, I see people do some pretty stupid stuff on their bikes in traffic and it makes me cringe… me, you couldn’t pay to ride on anything but trails… car drivers are dangerous!
Obviously people are going to do what they want… but I don’t have to agree with it or like it.
*Edit… hey, I just earned ‘First Quote’… cool!
What is your point? So what if you think he is a moron? What does that prove or say or have to do with the fact that he is risking his own life and lives of drivers and pedestrians.
And does your second point mean that it is OK to be dead or OK to be the one who killed him?
@bignose I hear ya but my incredibly wrong attitude just don’t give a **** anymore.
I am going to side with muddy and gtrguy on this one. we are talking about public roads here folks, not a closed course for ken block or a venue for the circus. if you blatantly ignore common sense, the rules of the road and put yourself and others at risk of death or injury you are an ass joined to a circle. I could go on but this is one of those topics that is going to quickly put folks in one side or the other with little chance of truly change anyone’s option.
I slept on this one before replying. Didn’t want to turn things all crazy. Darkmyth is right, its unlikely anyone is going to change their mind.
To address my second point first : No I don’t think its okay to be dead or okay to be the one who killed him. I’m saying that if you are dead, or if you did hit someone it doesn’t matter one way or the other why it happened. Its a horrible thing either way. They’re dead either way, and you’d feel rotten for a very long time either way.
Now about buddy’s behaviour on the bike, on youtube and in his article… I’m saying there is room in this world for a few assholes. They spice up the planet and we don’t all have to be perfect citizens. He only represents you if you want to let him represent you. If there were 10 times as many of him we’d have a real issue. But he’s one guy riding like a rebel. I’m just saying on the scale of bike problems in the province, he does’t deserve nearly as much attention as he’s getting.
This site has never been about arguing so I don’t know why we should start now.
Difference of opinion…
I love all you guys…
Kirk, I’m sorry to say I had forgotten about your brother. I didn’t know him, but did go to a couple of the memorial rides back in the heyday of the original ECMTB.
It is a sobering reminder that when riding a bike on the road, several thousand pounds of metal don’t care if you are right or wrong, if you have a good attitude or bad.
Stay safe out there people.
The cyclist in the video and the author of The Coast article are not the same person.
I believe that a random misbehaving cyclist stands out more to motorists than any other road user, and this affects their perception of cyclists as a group. The same thinking applies to taxi drivers and bus drivers, so I don’t consider it much of a stretch.
Same thinking applies to just about any group. Gun owners, dog walkers, crazy parents at your kids day care. We have to have the intelligence to realize that bad apples are not representatives.
Unfortunately, the masses aren’t intelligent enough to recognize this when creating public policy.
btw that quote feature is awesome. this new forum software makes for the best argu… discussions.
Yeah. Mark me down as a moron, but anytime I ride up Magazine Hill from Akerley it always seems to be a bus driver who gives me no room. So I do paint bus drivers with the same brush.
Are you the guy I often see riding that way on a gold Kona hardtail?
Pfff, I’m on your side. Ride anywhere you want to 
Nah, I ride a road bike with a left pannier. But I live in Windsor so I drive as far as Mt Uniacke. And I honestly only do it before fall because of the cold and dark 
I only do it about once every couple weeks on average, when I was training for racing in the spring I did it more frequently.
I say ride they way ya want just as long you ain’t a total dink like the guy in the video . Side walks are for pussY’s and biking on the wrong side of the road just freaking stupidity I hope he becomes a hood ornament.