Road trains and push bikes on out back roads.

Have a look at my rig pic. I am parked alongside a roadtrain at Cadney Park Roadhouse.

How would anyone like to be on a pushy while he's alongside you. Bad enough in a car or 4WD.

Many of us have encountered these monsters, and have a huge respect for them, and as long as all drivers do the right thing.....the feeling is mutual. You know.....COMMON SENSE!!!!!

Some members here are also former/current drivers of these vehicles, aren't we Dave, out there at Broken Hill?

Good post Boo Boo.

Cheers Fred.

Any cyclist who is travelling on outback roads will have a strategy for dealing with road trains.
Stop, get off the road and wait.
The ones who haven't learnt this are either in hospital or dead.............or soon will be!

Cyclists found on remote roads and tracks are usually very experienced and capable, well able to take care of themselves
Provided of course that the road trains, cars with caravans, and big mobile hotels give them a bit of room and respect as they go past.

It's a totally different story in the cities, where the lycra loonies think that they own the whole road, red lights don't apply to them and cars and pedestrians are fair game.

There I've had my bitch, feel better now.

Cheers
Disco.
(aka Tony)

I see quite a few on the Great Northern Hwy and the GRR on work trips. Funny how most of them are travelling west to east with a constant headwind hitting them. Haven't seen many get off the road, in fact I have come across a few on the GRR riding down the middle of the road. Not really smart this time of the season with the cattle & fuel road trains using it frequently since it opened up.

Fortunately cyclists out there travelling along roads with roadtrains have generally got flouro jackets and flags etc... so that they can be seen a fair way off.
That's my experience anyway.
Goodness knows what wind currents are generated by the various configurations of roadtrains, tankers, stock crates, pantechs etc, but I tried to get to the other lane to pass cyclists.
If there was another vehicle coming towards us I would give a short blast on the horn to let the cyclist know I was coming along, although I would imagine the cyclist would hear me coming.
Even now with just my CT on the back, I still change lanes if at all possible when passing a cyclist.
They might be very experienced cyclists, but the wind can push you anywhere.
Give them plenty of room.
As Fred has said, it is hard enough in a car when you have a roadtrain go past you, especially on a windy day.

cheers
Dave

I would have thought the swinging rear trailer was the problem more so than the woosh. Admittedly they are only doing 60km/hr inside Tamworth, but B doubles don't cause me any woosh problems when I'm on my trealdy (push bike)
Stock trucks aren't pleasant when it's been raining or the stock have been on lush feed !

My son is adventurous
He has on three occasions now done camping road trips on his push-bikes, heading West QLD.
He wears High Visibility Vest
They hear a road train from a far way off
They stop, get well off the road and wait for it to pass
Then they have a yarn to the road train driver on the UHF hand-held

All good fun, much better than playing playstation for a whole holiday, and not dangerous at all when the above common sense prevails

CJ

I’ll let you know how I go via my blog...

‘The Landy’ heads off for the Gulf this Friday, and I have the mountain bike packed and will be riding it at every opportunity, adding that I intend to ride on the more out of the way places, but might pull it out at anytime depending on conditions.

I’ll have a hand-held UHF – and my strategy for dealing with anything metal travelling my way is simple, get out of the way, self-preservation lends towards that as a strategy!

this sounds like a post for TriathlonOz.com !!

For those that don't know, we have created another website, based on ExplorOz, but for the multisport market. The cyclists would LOVE to read this post, so I urge you to go and have a discussion over there too.

(PS: I own both sites so I am allowed to self promote - LOL)

Michelle

dont need to be out bush to mix it with the big boys

I regulary ride along abernathy road and between the tonkin highway overpass and leach highway is nerve wracking with fully loaded b doubles passing you within inches, turbos screaming in your ear as they work the gears off from the lights

- I just stick to the edge and hope

although its more the small flatbeds i worry about - no where near as skilled truckies on very tight multi drop schedules