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Car up

wexford

Maximum Pace
Jul 3, 2012
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Was out last Saturday for my first ever bunch ride in Japan with Half-Fast. First bunch ride in about 23 years I guess. Was great to hug a wheel again but one thing that kept getting the better of me was 'car up'. In Ireland we say 'car up' when a car is coming up the bunch from behind and it was quite hard to unlearn years of repetition to come up with 'car back'. I think Ira was ready to throw his bike at me at times. In Ireland we say 'car up' and 'car down' . I'll keep trying!!!

Anyone else arrive with different lingo?
 
on the nose ( car approaching the bunch from the front) on the tail ( car coming up from the back ) all over- (potholes every where on the road!) (learned that one pretty fast)
 
The shouting of any of that stuff unless absolutely necessary gets old extremely quickly.
 
paisleybud Looking at your profile, it seems you are posting from Scotland at around 10.30pm GMT. One assumes therefore that you are absolutely steaming drunk, what with it being Thursday night and all. I will put your comment down to the beer talking. Cool?
 
Was out last Saturday for my first ever bunch ride in Japan with Half-Fast. First bunch ride in about 23 years I guess. Was great to hug a wheel again but one thing that kept getting the better of me was 'car up'. In Ireland we say 'car up' when a car is coming up the bunch from behind and it was quite hard to unlearn years of repetition to come up with 'car back'. I think Ira was ready to throw his bike at me at times. In Ireland we say 'car up' and 'car down' . I'll keep trying!!!

Anyone else arrive with different lingo?
I've found that in the general riders I encounter in Japan that 99% of them either use different expressions for "car-up", or their hand signals are very odd.

I just take care of myself and use the stuff I learned in Canada, car-up means car-back (usually cars don't approach in any other noteworthy direction)
 
For when you see some slippery road (or some other distraction) up ahead:

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In Ireland we say 'car up' when a car is coming up the bunch from behind and it was quite hard to unlearn years of repetition to come up with 'car back'.
Ira(scible) can get like that. Don't worry about it.

"X up!" means we are approaching something that might present a hazard. "Gate up!" "Bike up!" "Car up!" "Ped up!" "Shut up!" (For Owen)

"Y back!" warns other riders that something is approaching us from the rear and likely to overtake, or is already overtaking. For Y substitute car, truck, bus, bike, cnut (BMW, Porsche, Volvo, Merc etc.) as appropriate.

This is done backwards in Ireland, you say? There's a surprise and no mistake.

Purely for one's own amusement: If you shout it right, "Bike up!" can innocently sound like "Baka!", leading to some perplexed faces from approaching cyclists.
 
We'd just say 'car' and dispense with the up or back, side, whatever. It must be spoken with a sense of utter disdain, though, as much as an insult as a warning. All the hand signing and waving here drives me crazy, too. A simple head nod, elbow flick or finger off the bar is plenty.
 
All the hand signing and waving here drives me crazy, too. A simple head nod, elbow flick or finger off the bar is plenty.
I'd agree that's fine IF you are riding with the same people each time, as a team, and you agree on or get to know a set of signals. With a disparate group of semi-conscious learners it's a different story - telegraphing saves skin.
 
I'd prefer they do nothing, rather than take their hands off the bars which inevitably results in a line displacement or 'target fixation'. The fact is - a bike will go over a small pothole with no issues whatsoever, whilst swerving into a vehicle or running up on someone's wheel almost always results in a case of road rash. The only time a hand should come off the bar is to get a bottle, comb your hair, flip off a car (or pedestrian) , or signal the car (or pedestrian) to STAY.

If I see one more rider doing the silly circle 'wiggle' to point out a small pebble or ass scratching to show they are slowing down, I swear I'll chuck my bottle at them.

I'd agree that's fine IF you are riding with the same people each time, as a team, and you agree on or get to know a set of signals. With a disparate group of semi-conscious learners it's a different story - telegraphing saves skin.
 
I'd prefer they do nothing, rather than take their hands off the bars which inevitably results in a line displacement or 'target fixation'. The fact is - a bike will go over a small pothole with no issues whatsoever, whilst swerving into a vehicle or running up on someone's wheel almost always results in a case of road rash. The only time a hand should come off the bar is to get a bottle, comb your hair, flip off a car (or pedestrian) , or signal the car (or pedestrian) to STAY.

If I see one more rider doing the silly circle 'wiggle' to point out a small pebble or ass scratching to show they are slowing down, I swear I'll chuck my bottle at them.

I fully endorse the "signaling" to cars and pedestrians, I find that pointing directly at Japanese drivers or the like stops them dead in their tracks, yet the time honored signal of dissatisfaction seems to be lost on the majority of Japanese. Disappointing really, I don't do that often and when I do I really let the expletives fly.
 
I'm looking forward to riding with the rest of ye at some stage. I'm hoping the weather clears up as promised tomorrow. No bonking!
 
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