Newbie

[jeffreyv]

I got gang-stalked while bicycling from Florida to California.....

This made my day.

[RussSeaton]

I'll counter that with....In Iowa there are three packed strips.  One in the middle and one to each side.  Cars stay on their side of the gravel. Even the non-packed parts of the road is rideable (in Iowa).  Benefit of gravel is much fewer cars, you can hear them coming from a distance and they are speeding at 45mph (so much less speed than highway).

I ride in the middle and SE Iowa.  Gravel roads in those parts have two strips of packed road.  Ditch-3 feet loose gravel-packed strip-4 feet loose gravel down the middle of the road-packed strip-3 feet loose gravel-ditch.  The non packed, loose gravel on each side is where the snow plows pile the gravel when they plow the roads in the winter.  And the cars push it aside too as they speed up and down the roads.  The loose gravel in the middle is where no one drives.  45 mph is about right.  Odd that with people speeding 97 mph on the highways, 45 mph is thought of as slow and safe.  Trying to keep upright in 3 inches of loose gravel on the side of the road while a car slowly passes you at 45 mph inches away is considered safe.

[wishard]

Tim, after 40 years teaching high school I will be retiring in June.  I haven't done any real bike touring since I was in college back in the mid-70's.  I haven't even rode a bike a in too many years but started last year just for exercise.  Now that I am about to have some time I am doing pretty much like you mentioned and also have the same concerns.  I live on the Gulf Coast of Northwest Florida so biking is very good weather-wise but very bad with tourists.  Having lived around and taught many "redneck" with their big trucks (I also drive a pickup, have for 30 years) I have found that most of them will treat you with as much respect as you have for them.  I was on a very deserted back road during hunting season when a truck slowed down behind me.  The combination of high-horsepower trucks, big guns, and too much alcohol is likely to lead to problems.  They finally pulled slowly up next to me and the passenger reached out with a bottle of water for me, I said thanks and joked about wished it was a beer.  They pulled over up the road, reached into a cooler in the back, and held out a beer when I got there.  Of course I stopped and drank a cold one with them, talked for about 30 minutes, actually had a second one.  One of them gave me a cell phone number in case I needed anything.  There are a lot more people like that than bad stories.

Scariest thing I ever see behind me is giant motor-homes driven by people older than I am with no training at all.  Lots of those on the roads around here and they sometimes will blow you out of the bike lane.  Strangely enough the other problems I have had cycling around here is motorcycles; they love to hug the bike lanes and rev those loud things when they pass.  Most regular bikers are pretty good folks but we get a lot of "Rolex-riders" that are responsible citizens back home, then they trailer there hardly-used Harleys on vacation behind their pricey SUV's to be big bad bikers dudes on vacation here.  Real jerks!

Either way, they won't keep me off the road, maybe us "newbie's" will cross paths in our new life on the road

[timmori]

In order to be fair to "rednecks" I should clarify, that my experience with them has actually been the young suburban teens who drive their dad's big truck and like to show off how cool they are.  I don't think any of them I encountered are true good-ole-boys.     It is unfair to generalize all in big overgrown pickups just because those have been the ones who have been showing off and causing me danger on the bike!

[indyfabz]

Having lived around and taught many "redneck" with their big trucks (I also drive a pickup, have for 30 years) I have found that most of them will treat you with as much respect as you have for them.

My biggest fear when I first crossed PA west to east was the "Pennsyltuckian" and his pickup truck. Having now crossed the state west to east two times via two different routes, they are the least of my concerns as they were quite courteous. PA has a 4' passing law. Some of them gave me far more than that. The biggest dangers were the hurried drivers in and around mid-sized towns and in the suburban sprawl outside of my home town of Philadelphia. And people should remember that pickup trucks can be your friend. I was touring in MT and stopped a place where you can pan for sapphires. As I was leaving, I was talking with a worker there about whether getting over an unpaved pass would be difficult due to recent rain. She said if I to come back if I couldn't make it and she would give me a ride back to town in her truck.

And I agree that RV drivers can be much more of a threat. I nearly got tagged last June in Custer, SD by someone in a big motor home. I was .25 miles from camp. The road was straight and there was no oncoming traffic. After the incident I was so hoping the driver was going to turn into the campground where I was staying. He did. I rolled up to his rig and politely but sternly let him know what I thought of his actions. He was unapologetic.