As a cyclist I am insured for riding my bike one roads or wherever it is legal to do so. I may be in the minority, but for a while I did use my bike for work so it was worthwhile for me to have cover.

The arguement about "Road Tax" is completely wrong, Vehicle Excise Duty does not pay for roads, and certain cars are also exempt, Toyota Prious for example. Should they be banned off the roads as they don't pay tax? If the VED did go towards he roads I also pay my fair share, I have the Freelander and an old VW camper van on the drive, both of which are taxed at the moment.

Riding in a big clump is far safer around country roads than in ones or twos. You overtake as you would a car. If they are in a long file on narrow roads how often do you get a chance to overtake the whole lot in one go before something comes towards you or you lose visibility due to bends? If you fail to get passed the whole lot you are then forcing your way into them with the potential to cause accidents.

Yes there are obnoxious idiots out there, but there are in all walks of life. You just see them when they are on bikes and may miss them when they are in their car. I would always thank people for giving me space when overtaking.

The same arguments about bikes can be levelled at horses, which I am sure we all give space to when driving.

Gav.

Three times in the last couple of weeks I've seen suicidal cyclists cycling against the traffic flow in a cycle lane (I HOPE this is against the law).....the problem is that where they choose to do it passes a junction on a dual-carriageway and most motorists won't look left before pulling out.....and on the opposite side the cycle lane comes off a roundabout meaning that when they go the wrong way they are in very close proximity to cars turning whilst exiting the roundabout. The white line there is pretty worn so a fair bit of traffic must cross it when exiting and with no cyclist there probably the buses which run that way as I can't see they'd fit through without doing so - it was a very close thing there on one of the instances I saw! 2011 SD4 HSE Auto
(Previously 2007 TD4 XS Manual)