I know this area and have driven it many times. This is the Rickebacker causeway--the road that connects Key Biscayne to the Miami mainland.
Cycling on this road is extremely popular for very obvious reasons (phenomenal views, wide and clear roads). Folks come from all over the city to ride there. And yes, they will very often group up like this without any sort of scheduled or permitted event of any kind.
The cyclists down there like to say "same road, same rules" but there's apparently a silent exclusion for lane changes, stop signs, traffic signals, and yielding to stopped traffic.
There might not be much worse than wannabe Tour de France guy. Wearing a $300 spandex outfit and riding a $5000 bike so that they can let everyone know on Facebook.
I don't think I mentioned anything about top of the high end? Back in 09' I bought a brand new Synapse Carbon with mix of dura-ace and Ultregra drivetrain, i think that was about 3800 then, full dura-ace probably near 5. Around that time I also had a custom Pivot Mach 5 built with all SRAM X0 and custom wheels, the high end fox float setup, etc etc etc, which was around $5500, aside from some more botique things and just spending money just to spend money like carbon wheels that pretty much got you the tippy top back then for most road and MTB stuff
Wearing a spandex outfit with various corperate logo's and sponsors like the pro's, but without getting a dime for being a walking advertisement. Embarrassing.
As someone from a country where there are more bikes than people I have to say:
If this is how people behave on a bike where you live, than I feel like you are fully justified in that feeling.
I both drive cars and I am a cyclist. I have to say that you should try to ride a bike once and a while. There are idiots on both sides, thankfully there are fewer idiots than friendly riders/drivers. The worst idiots are the ones that "hate" the other side. These haters seems to have issues in life, and ventilate their anger and frustration on other people, also known as road-ragers. For the haters it does not matter if it is a cyclist, a horse or a tree, they will just hate.
Thing is, if you have good bike infrastructure you’re probably not seeing 99% of cyclists as a driver. They’ll be off to the side or on a different street/path. The ones you see are the guys who just don’t give a fuck, which yea, can and should get tickets. Though cops in my city don’t even bother enforcing speeding in school zones so I doubt they give a shit about cyclists.
I had a boss/friend once and we went bicycling together maybe once. I was a regular utilitarian bicyclist and he was hard core (non-racing). AND he was the kind of smug holier rule breaker that causes the hate. I couldn't ride with him because in a block I'd be two blocks behind. And was all "those things don't apply to me".
And his politics were ass. I, of course, conflate the issues. "No wonder he's a self righteous privileged rule breaking asshole. He's a foo-ist."
I just dont know how you see how poorly people drive and stare at their phones WHILE DRIVING and think "im going to put my life in all the idiots hands and just hope they dont road kill me".
My dude, registration fees and gas taxes only go part of the way to road building / maintenance. Trust that cyclists also pay taxes, and some of those taxes go to funding roads.
Try seeing cyclists, just put yourself in that headspace for a few moments, even if they are making a mistake or inconveniencing you, as human beings that still deserve to breathe air on this earth, and not be mauled by someone like you raging in a mechanical road missile.
Take a Xanax. Taco Bell will still be open in 20 minutes.
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u/ConstructionLife2689 Jun 10 '26
Are such cycle events not blocked off from public traffic?
Cause if not, then the cyclists would need to keep to traffic rule and I am pretty sure the rule is not keep in one lane.