OV9

Looking for some opinions...

Putting aside the usual things about why on earth people would want to ride these jittery, glass-eyed dinosaurs on the road and who should tidy up their , my wife has been looking at high-vis wear for riders.

The usual issue is that some motorists approach/overtake too fast and close. High vis obviously also helps you spot them from a distance away or particularly in certain conditions, but she’s wondering what sort of writing on the back of high-vis would be seen as most helpful/least likely to offend.

The usual sort of things are “please pass slow and wide”... “please pass slow” with a 15mph sign on it..

I mean, dicks are going to be dicks no matter what, but do you think there’s anything helpful they could use?

Ascender wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:11 pm Looking for some opinions...

Putting aside the usual things about why on earth people would want to ride these jittery, glass-eyed dinosaurs on the road and who should tidy up their , my wife has been looking at high-vis wear for riders.

The usual issue is that some motorists approach/overtake too fast and close. High vis obviously also helps you spot them from a distance away or particularly in certain conditions, but she’s wondering what sort of writing on the back of high-vis would be seen as most helpful/least likely to offend.

The usual sort of things are “please pass slow and wide”... “please pass slow” with a 15mph sign on it..

I mean, dicks are going to be dicks no matter what, but do you think there’s anything helpful they could use?

Because I know how I used to drive, I've told my wife to only ride on well sighted roads - no overly twisty sections where fast drivers can't brake in time. Whether she listens or not I have no idea . She just wears a standard high-vis with no writing on it.

Ascender wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:11 pm Looking for some opinions...

The usual sort of things are “please pass slow and wide”...

In my opinion your wife won't like you calling her 'slow and wide'.

PaulJ wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:10 pm

Ascender wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:11 pm Looking for some opinions...

The usual sort of things are “please pass slow and wide”...

In my opinion your wife won't like you calling her 'slow and wide'.

We’ve had that chat already, apparently its a very common comment from partners...

Holley wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:51 pm

Ascender wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:11 pm Looking for some opinions...

Putting aside the usual things about why on earth people would want to ride these jittery, glass-eyed dinosaurs on the road and who should tidy up their , my wife has been looking at high-vis wear for riders.

The usual issue is that some motorists approach/overtake too fast and close. High vis obviously also helps you spot them from a distance away or particularly in certain conditions, but she’s wondering what sort of writing on the back of high-vis would be seen as most helpful/least likely to offend.

The usual sort of things are “please pass slow and wide”... “please pass slow” with a 15mph sign on it..

I mean, dicks are going to be dicks no matter what, but do you think there’s anything helpful they could use?

Because I know how I used to drive, I've told my wife to only ride on well sighted roads - no overly twisty sections where fast drivers can't brake in time. Whether she listens or not I have no idea . She just wears a standard high-vis with no writing on it.

Yeah that’s the thing isn’t it, almost no one drives at a speed which would allow you to brake within your visibility otherwise you’d have to slow down to below 30 for most B roads with more than a slight curve.

Mito Man wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:26 pm

Holley wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:51 pm

Ascender wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:11 pm Looking for some opinions...

Putting aside the usual things about why on earth people would want to ride these jittery, glass-eyed dinosaurs on the road and who should tidy up their , my wife has been looking at high-vis wear for riders.

The usual issue is that some motorists approach/overtake too fast and close. High vis obviously also helps you spot them from a distance away or particularly in certain conditions, but she’s wondering what sort of writing on the back of high-vis would be seen as most helpful/least likely to offend.

The usual sort of things are “please pass slow and wide”... “please pass slow” with a 15mph sign on it..

I mean, dicks are going to be dicks no matter what, but do you think there’s anything helpful they could use?

Because I know how I used to drive, I've told my wife to only ride on well sighted roads - no overly twisty sections where fast drivers can't brake in time. Whether she listens or not I have no idea . She just wears a standard high-vis with no writing on it.

Yeah that’s the thing isn’t it, almost no one drives at a speed which would allow you to brake within your visibility otherwise you’d have to slow down to below 30 for most B roads with more than a slight curve.

Well, that’s most drivers out on the roads these days.

Speaking from experience writing doesn’t do anything. Firstly, those who do slow down are too busy driving the car to sit and read what at best is a slightly scrumpled up bit of writing on a high vis, secondly those who don’t car will fly past anyway.

The best deterrent is being out in numbers and limiting the amount of time spent on busy roads and have a camera for when it does go wrong (yes, you can get the equivalent of a dash cam for horses). More and more people think horses are toys for the elitist groups that have no place on our roads so it’s currently a weird transition phase from a few people being dicks because it’s a horse to quite a few people being dicks because they think they can ‘get one up on the establishment’.

Orange Cola wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:34 pm Speaking from experience writing doesn’t do anything. Firstly, those who do slow down are too busy driving the car to sit and read what at best is a slightly scrumpled up bit of writing on a high vis, secondly those who don’t car will fly past anyway.

The best deterrent is being out in numbers and limiting the amount of time spent on busy roads and have a camera for when it does go wrong (yes, you can get the equivalent of a dash cam for horses). More and more people think horses are toys for the elitist groups that have no place on our roads so it’s currently a weird transition phase from a few people being dicks because it’s a horse to quite a few people being dicks because they think they can ‘get one up on the establishment’.

Seriously? How do you not see the human on top of the very large animal and think: best be decent and slow down/stop, turn my lights off and wait? Even if you care not one jot for rider and horse, that's some serious damage to your car (if you're that shallow a human). I sincerely hope you're exaggerating for the sake of humanity.

Edit: obviously don't mean OC.

I always drive B-roads under the assumption that there might be a large stationary object round the next blind bend. Am I DIW?

DeskJockey wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:52 pm

Orange Cola wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:34 pm Speaking from experience writing doesn’t do anything. Firstly, those who do slow down are too busy driving the car to sit and read what at best is a slightly scrumpled up bit of writing on a high vis, secondly those who don’t car will fly past anyway.

The best deterrent is being out in numbers and limiting the amount of time spent on busy roads and have a camera for when it does go wrong (yes, you can get the equivalent of a dash cam for horses). More and more people think horses are toys for the elitist groups that have no place on our roads so it’s currently a weird transition phase from a few people being dicks because it’s a horse to quite a few people being dicks because they think they can ‘get one up on the establishment’.

Seriously? How do you not see the human on top of the very large animal and think: best be decent and slow down/stop, turn my lights off and wait? Even if you care not one jot for rider and horse, that's some serious damage to your car (if you're that shallow a human). I sincerely hope you're exaggerating for the sake of humanity.

Edit: obviously don't mean OC.

People do see the horse and riders regardless of whether they have a high vis on with some nice words on them or not so I personally think words are pointless. But to be clear the rest of the high vis stuff is fine. They react negatively based on the presence of the horse and rider, not because the words on the high vis are not nice. I’d spend the money on a decent camera instead.

I also have the pleasure of reading the local Facebook group of a place where I spend a fair amount of my life (riding horses being one of those activities) there is a large horse community presence and the amount of people who spout hate towards horses on there has grown a lot over the years. The community used to like horses and that’s clearly changed over the past decade or so. The amusing posts are about the horse droppings, there’s the occasional ones about seeing horses out and about in a nice way. Worryingly when a post starts on their presence on the roads it seems to gain a lot of support, people questioning why they should slow down and pass wide; to them if the horse is dangerous it shouldn’t be there on the roads at all and the riders are just asking for it and there are a growing number who think they don’t deserve right of way on a road. Lots of comments about horse riders getting away without paying tax or insurance and how that’s ‘clearly’ one rule for them and another for us who can’t afford such affluent toys etc. Claims they know of people in power in the local area who ride horses on the roads so they’ll never be arrested for not paying tax/insurance/violating road traffic rules etc. It’s staggering really.

Beyond that there’s plenty of videos being posted of riders with cameras where people don’t slow down or they deliberately try and antagonise the horse and rider. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a horse and car crash but it’s pretty grim, it seems a lot of the aggressive drivers don’t realise that until it’s too late. Fortunately if you capture an aggressor on camera the police do seem to be well up for going round to their house and having a word with them or even taking it further.

However in saying that I don’t think I’ve ever been out riding and a motorist has come round a bend or something, been caught off guard not expecting to see a horse, who hasn’t then slowed with a wave.

TL;DR: save your money and buy a decent camera instead.

I don’t know anybody who would choose to ride their horse on a road - its more an inevitability of having to link-up off-road tracks.

TBH, it all comes back to driving standards, selfishness, impatience etc which is an issue for anybody not in a car it seems. As witnessed by my experiences on the bike again this last week.

Just wear any hi viz.

The biggest issue with horse riders is those whose horse isn’t ready for the road. Whenever a rider is framing round to see a driver (I pass extra slow in the Landy as it’s noisy) then they crane round and the butt of the horse always follows.

Be considerate, words will just annoy and holier than thou, I pay car tax types anyway. Everyone else will just treat it as a large petulant child with a human on top and give a wide berth.

Dave!

Unfortunately, I have to agree with whoever said it won't make any differenc, to the twats who do floor it past.

Just better off trying to spend as little time as possible on the road.

Meh I just stop and give them a wide berth. I don’t mind them nor did I realise such a large proportion of people actively disliked them. Weird animals though, the farmers one is always smacking its cock against itself and rolling in its own shit

Mito Man wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 4:59 pm Meh I just stop and give them a wide berth. I don’t mind them nor did I realise such a large proportion of people actively disliked them. Weird animals though, the farmers one is always smacking its cock against itself and rolling in its own shit

Sounds like you might be projecting a bit there Mito

Orange Cola wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 3:22 pm
They react negatively based on the presence of the horse and rider, not because the words on the high vis are not nice.

I don't know, whenever I see one with 'Polite' on their vest I immediately see 'Cunt'.

Marv wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 4:56 pm



Unfortunately, I have to agree with whoever said it won't make any differenc, to the twats who do floor it past.

Just better off trying to spend as little time as possible on the road.

We used to call that key banging back in the day, it was the only way we could get our shit boxes to backfire...

dan wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:19 pm

Orange Cola wrote: ↑Wed Jul 01, 2020 3:22 pm
They react negatively based on the presence of the horse and rider, not because the words on the high vis are not nice.

I don't know, whenever I see one with 'Polite' on their vest I immediately see 'Cunt'.

Polite is a nice word, just used in a cunty way