Never, ever overtake on the left

I have a small number of rules that I generally stick to because they tend to be fairly handy at keeping me alive and in one piece. One of those rules is to never undertake another road user, except when there is a marked bike lane - and even then to do it with extreme caution and trepidation.

I broke that rule last week as I was crossing the Anzac Bridge. The bike/pedestrian path is quite wide - wide enough for four people to walk abreast without bashing elbows and things - and I am always able to comfortably pass other cyclists or pedestrians on the right.

Except for this turkey that I came up behind as he puffed his way up the hill. He was already on the centreline, and his head was drooping over to one side, and he was drifting to the right......so I dashed up inside him on the left, figuring that he was going to continue going right and slam into the concrete traffic barrier that separates us two wheelers from the traffic.

But the bastard didn't. Just as I drew level with him, his head snapped up straight and he leaned hard left and went hard left....straight into my side. Luckily, I outweighed him by a reasonable factor, and saw him coming, but it was a tough proposition to stop me being driven into the bridge uprights on my left. I ended up with some bruised ribs from where his handlebar went into me, and some pulled muscles here and there from the effort of trying to keep me and him upright.

It only took a few seconds, but I was able to lever him off me by a bit of a jab with the elbow, and then I was free of him and able to get the hell away from him.

Gumbies........ the world is full of gumbies.

I also normally yell at people as I am coming up behind them - usually "Passing on your right", which at least lets them know that I am there. However, more and more gumbies are buying iPods, which means they don't hear and damned thing until they jink right and send both of you crashing to the ground.

Whenever I ride past someone listening to an iPod, I feel like grabbing those little cables and yanking the doo-dads from their ears. And I hope it hurts.